Christmas Lights

The other night we went to see the Christmas lights in the cactus garden at Ethel M Chocolate Factory. Parker with cousin, Victoria.

Merry Christmas??

This is the view across the street from my house...3 days before Christmas. Seems like season confusion!

I must say that Parker is loving the leaves regardless and shouts "leaves!" everytime we drive down the street.

Tyler is 3 Months Old!

We have a 3 month old! So hard to believe that Tyler is so big already. We've been having a lot of fun with him. Tyler loves to laugh and coo. He smiles when we talk to him and laughs when we tickle his feet.
Tyler is still waking up once or twice during the night to eat. I'm looking forward to when he consistently sleeps until morning! He's getting chubbier all the time. I've been putting away his 0-3 month clothes the past couple days and putting the 3-6 month clothes to use.
We love our little boy!

This picture makes me think he is saying, "mom, once I was this big!"

Love those wide eyes! Funny!

Check out my chubby face!

Tyler's Blessing

Tyler was blessed in church about a week and a half ago. He wore the same white outfit that Parker wore when he was blessed. It was a special day!

Playing with Tyler

Side by Side

Parker

Tyler

Here are pictures of both Parker and Tyler at about 2 months in the same outfit. I think it is interesting to compare the two...

Just another day in the life...

This is what happens when I pour my own cheerios...

More please!

Might as well drive cars through the mess.

A typical breakfast mess

2 Months!

Tyler is 2 Months Old!

Tyler is 2 months old (and a couple weeks). He has grown so big in the past month! At his 2 month check up he was 12 lbs, 12 oz (75th-90th percentile for his age). He is nearly 2 lbs bigger than Parker was at this age! He is a chubby little boy, but so cute. Just like Parker, he loves to talk. He smiles, laughs, and coos when you talk to him. He is very alert and focuses a lot more on faces recently.
He is getting much much better at holding his head up, but is still a little bit wobbly. Tyler is getting better at sleeping at night. He has slept through the night a handful of times, but generally wakes up once during the night to be fed and thankfully goes right back to sleep. We're trying to develop a routine, but have no nap schedule at all...he just sleeps whenever he feels like it.
Tyler likes his pacifier most of the time, but recently he has been sucking on his hand. It seems as if he is trying to put his whole fist in his mouth. Most of his newborn hair has fallen out and his peach fuzz hair is coming in. We thought for a while there that his hair might be red, but the new hair coming in seems to be more brown so we'll see when it gets a little bit longer.
I took pictures of Tyler with the teddy bear for this post, but I'm very disheartened about how lousy the pictures turned out so we'll have to go without for now. Apparently we need to take him to a professional because my pictures are terrible!

Elmo's World

Parker dressed up as Elmo for Halloween. He got to go trick or treating at the ward Trunk or Treat as well as at the District on Halloween night. Getting him into the costume was a struggle with major aligator tears, but eventually he warmed up to the idea.

He held out his bucket to collect candy and requested a "snack in the bucket".

Suckers are definitely his favorite

Tyler slept through most of the trick or treating fun...I'm sure he'll enjoy it a lot more in a year or two. (Excuse his blurry hands - they wave wildly when he gets excited)

Parker is 2!!

On Saturday Parker turned 2! Where did all the time go? We had a little family get together to celebrate. It was all things Cars - Parker's favorite.

We had pizza for dinner. The hand from the Mr. Potato Head

that Wendie gave Parker is helping Parker to eat his dinner.

(Apparently we needed to tell the person at the grocery store who decorates the cakes that 2nd is written with an 'nd' after the 2 and not a "th". Parker wasn't have a 2th birthday) :)

The cake was a big hit and Parker was excited to eat cake, until...he realized Lighting McQueen and Mater cars were sitting on the cake. Who cares about cake at that point?

And who knew that of all the gifts, his favorite still seems to be the toys from the top of the cake?

Parker wasn't quite sure how to open the presents, but when he realized that the things inside him were for him, he quickly set the present aside to grab the next package. He was extremely quick to set all the clothes from Nanny aside in hopes for something more fun. Classic!

Parker has gotten so big! It seems like he has matured so much in the past couple of months. He if so full of personality. Here are a few things (ok, more than a few things, but I wanted to remember him at this age) about Parker at two...

-He is working on his numbers and is getting pretty good. The other day when he was playing I heard him count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12!

-We are also working on the alphabet. He seems to really be beginning to understand that there are letters everywhere in our world and to recognize what they are. He knows 'D', 'R', and 'O' very well. We went to Red Robin tonight to celebrate Chad's birthday and Parker pointed out the letters he knew on his menu as well as on the "Red Robin" sign outside of the restaurant.

-As I mentioned before, he loves all things Cars. He would watch that movie everyday if we let him. He comes to me multiple times a day, sometime it seems like 100 and says "watch moo-ie, I want to watch moo-ie". He loves his "Queen" and "Mater" toys.

-He also loves trucks, cars, buses, trains, airplanes, motorcycles, bikes, and anything else with wheels. He plays with his car toys most of the day everyday, driving them around, lining them up, and back and forth. It's amazing how long they can keep his attention! He makes sure he brings cars in the bath with him and to his bed every night. We must also take a couple in the car and with us when we run errands.

-He is working on his colors too...for a while whenever I asked him what color this or that is, he always responded "green". Now he seems to correctly identify green, yellow, and red.

-Parker loves to color. He asks to color whenever there is a dull moment. He always wants us to draw a truck or a car for him. Too bad his mom is such a poor artist!

-Parker loves applesauce. He goes and gets it out of the pantry and asks for apples daily...many times daily.

-He has picked up the phrase "Oh man!" from us and so now he crashes his cars together and says "Oh man! Cars crash!"

-He has flip flops that I bought him over the summer. At first he hated having something between his toes and asked for me to take them off. Now he asked for "flip flops" everyday when we get dressed.

-Parker has quite a temper and throws tantrums if he doesn't get what he wants when he wants it. We're working on it, but for now, I guess he's your average 2 year old.

-Maybe we're getting closer to potty traning time. He tells us "Diaper stinks. Change pants." when it is time.

-Parker also loves books! He isn't too discerning about the books that he picks and he could have us read each of them twenty or more times a day. He does have a favorite - it is all about trucks. Imagine that!

-Parker loves bathtime...he now lays on his belly for some of the bath and dips his head under the water as if he is swimming. He always asks for bubbles.

I'm sure I'll think of a million more things when I lay down to go to sleep, but that's it for now. We love Parker. He keeps us on our toes, but he also keeps us laughing. He's lots of fun! It is amazing to watch him learn and grow everyday and just absorb everything around him. It's hard to imagine how much he'll change by the time he turns 3.

The aftermath of the after bath...

For Tyler's first couple weeks, he hated taking a bath. He cried the whole time, everytime. But now he has grown to like it quite a bit better. Tyler had a particularly fussy day today but as soon as the water turned on, he was quiet. He has always been great and totally calm for about a half an hour or so after the bath. I get him dressed in his PJs and lay him on the floor or the couch and he just looks around totally content. Tonight he was so relaxed after his bath that he fell asleep. No rocking, pacifier, feeding or any other tricks, just so relaxed he fell asleep. Maybe we need more bathtime over here...?

Silly boy!

Parker loves having fun, acting silly, and laughing!

1 Month...Already!

Tyler is 1 month old already...which means it is time for our teddy bear pictures again, this time to watch Tyler grow. He is still a squishy newborn so getting him to sit up next to the teddy bear is a bit of a challenge. And you'll have to excuse my mediocre photography - we lost our photographer to a much higher paying job in Denver :)

Here Tyler is doing the teddy bear fall.

Parker didn't want to be left out of our little photo shoot. He's looking a bit like a ragamuffin, but happy nonetheless. It's amazing how much Parker grew when we brought home a new baby! It seems as if we should be sending him off to high school soon with how big he has gotten!

Like I said, Tyler is still a squishy newborn. It's quite a fun stage. The first month is definitely rough in the sleep department, but it's getting better.

Tyler loves to be held. He is always happiest when someone is holding him, talking to him, and changing up the scenery from time to time. He's not too fond of bath time so far or changing his clothes or diaper.

His hair color is still undetermined. It seemed pretty dark when he was born and is getting lighter but has hints of red in it so we'll see. One thing is for sure....he has one odd hairline. We'll see what becomes of that - Chad says we're going to have to keep his hair short :)

Tyler had his 1 month visit at the pediatrician on Friday. He was 22" long and weighed in at 9lbs 9 oz. 9 continues to be his lucky number!

Gratitude & Memories

Over the past couple weeks I have spent many quiet nighttime hours awake feeding Tyler and coaxing him back to sleep. This has given me a lot of time to think. Quite a few of these hours my thoughts turn to my dad. I often think that losing my dad just plain stinks! It isn't fair. Why did I have to lose my dad? Accidents like his happen to other people, they don't happen to us. I still need him. I may be 30, but it doesn't make my reliance on his opinions and advice any less. He was way too young to go. We had plans for the future...and now everything, really everything is different.

Then yesterday I attended the general relief society broadcast. Being able to hear the words of the general authorities is a tremendous blessing. It is when I am in an environment such as this that I can feel the spirit and feel closer to my Heavenly Father than in most other places. The speakers weren't talking about this specifically, but I got the impression that I shouldn't dwell on what I have lost, but rather the blessing and opportunity that I have had to know such a man as my dad and have him as my dad for all these years. I have years and years of wonderful memories. I got to have a dad that loved me more than just about anything and still does. How blessed I am to have all of this and although he is not here with us now, his influence will continue throughout my life.

Dad - thank you for everything! I miss you!

Proud Big Brother

Parker is a proud big brother. He loves to give Tyler kisses....he just has a hard time understanding that we shouldn't smother the baby. We are still working on the meaning of "gentle" and "soft". When Tyler gets a little bit bigger, I'm sure they will have so much fun and get in plenty of trouble together. For now, Parker is a little jealous of all of the attention Tyler gets, especially when it comes to feeding time. We'll keep working on it!

Peaceful Slumber

Wendie was in town for business for a few days so we got to have her take some pictures of Tyler for us. Here he is... 5 days old.