Tyler

Tyler loves stuffed animals!  When I say love I mean he REALLY LOVES them!!  He is always saying, "ooooohhhh!"  in a high pitched sweet voice.  Then he hugs them and rubs his cheek on their cheek.  On this particular day he slept with the stuffed animal pictured below at his nap time.  When he woke up like usual he pointed him out, said "ooooooh", gave him a hug, had me give him a hug, then we went down stairs.  It wasn't long before I noticed where he put him.  I thought it was sooo cute!

Tyler always puts his feet up when he eats.  It is so cute!

Finishing the Soccer Season

Thankfully it finished raining early this morning before the soccer game.  It was very wet and muddy.  Riley loved it.  He kept telling me that he loves to play soccer when it's like that.  He was filthy by the end of the game, but he had so much fun!

Oh and here's the trophy that he got!  He was so excited about that.

Pumpkins

Tyler loves to read.  I thought it was so cute when I looked over at him and saw him sitting on the edge of the chair, with his feet hanging, reading a book that is almost as big as he is.  

Jeremy was thinking...

Story 1-

Last week, after dinner, Jeremy put his plate, Lane's plate, and my plate to the sink.  Then he says to us, 

"Guess what?  Look what I did?"

me:  Oh Jeremy that was so nice of you!  Thank you!

Lane:  Jeremy that was so helpful!

Jeremy:  I was thinking about service.  I was thinking of you're lesson on service.  (Three days before that we had a family home evening on service and we did a small service project.)

Is always nice when you get those little pay offs that let you know things are sinking in!

Story 2-

The boys and I were in Borders and we had been in the toy area. When it was time to go I noticed that the boys had made a little bit of a mess.  So I told them that we needed to clean it up before we went.  They told me they didn't make it.  I reminded them how clean it was when we got there.  Then Jeremy says,

"I was just thinking we were at home."

And somehow that's suppose to make it better.  : )

We don't want to leave anyone out

Riley made Halloween costumes for his two favorite stuffed animals.  They both happen to be monkeys.  The small monkey on the top is a bat.  Do you see his wings?  The brown monkey on the bottom, goes by the name of Jelly Bean Rabbit,  well I"m not quite sure who he's suppose to be.  At any rate it is very cute.  He made them out of construction paper and tape.  Then he took the pictures by himself too.

Walk at the Nature Park

The Pumpkin Patch

So far this is the best pumpkin patch we have been to.  It was so much fun and the kids just loved it.

We took a train out to the patch.

They had tons of wheel barrows which was so handy.  

Riley spent a LOT of time looking for "the perfectest pumpkin!"  It had to be round on all sides with no spots.

The boys loved the hay maze!  They went through it 3 times.

This is Jeremy when he got through the first time.  He was so proud!
They even had pony rides.  I will say that the pony rides were way over priced.  Fortunately Riley was the only one who wanted to do it.

Then we rolled our wheel barrow onto a boat that took us back.  The lake had 2 dragons that came out of the water when we went by.  Then when we were almost there a shark popped out of the water and blew water on us.  The boys liked that part the best.  Well with the exception of Tyler.  He didn't like getting splashed.

Riley had his face painted with a spider.  Jeremy and Tyler opted not to do it.

Then came the ooooh so fun caterpillar ride.  All the boys just loved it.  I think Jeremy and Tyler liked it the most.



To top it all off they had pigs, a bunny, a pony, a cat, and some goats.  

We had so much fun!  We will definitely be going back next year!  Oh and in case you were wondering, it's called LakeView Farms.

Celebrating Our 8th Anniversary

For starters Lane gets huge brownie points.  He made the babysitting arrangements, completely unsolicited, and it was an over nighter too!

I dropped the kids off at my Dad's house friday afternoon at 12:30.  Then I went back home and waited for Lane to get there.  He brought me these!!!!

Then we went to the Japanese Garden.  It was our first time.  It was absolutely beautiful.  It is such a peaceful place to be too.  I can't wait to go again in the spring.

Then we went to an old favorite, The Rheinlander German Restaurant.  Ever since the Gustav's was opened in Tigard we haven't been back.  Let me tell you, it is worth the trip out to Portland to go there instead.
We were there for the early dinner menu.  It's nice because it's a little less yet is more inclusive.  They brought us the ohhh so delicious swiss cheese fondue, followed by yummy lentil soup, then dinner rolls with the most amazing plum jam I have ever had.  Then for dinner Lane had the Jagerschnitzel and I had Schnitzel Cordon Belu.  What makes this whole experience so great is the atmosphere.  The inside is so unique and they have an accordian player that walks around and plays the whole time.  After we finished eating, the accordian player and several other staff members came up and asked what anniversary we were celebrating.  Then they sang a song about that.  Then told us we had to hold hands and look into each others eyes during the next song.  While they sang some german love song.  It was a little embarrassing but so much fun!!  Then they brought us out a complimentary Apple Strudel.  Everything was fabulous and really it couldn't have been more perfect!
Then we went to a movie called Bright Star which we liked a lot.  The one really crazy thing was that this man sat right next to me.  Lane whispers, just so you know the guy next to you isn't wearing any shoes.  Soon he has one foot up on his seat and is spreading out his toes.  What made it even more weird, when we left we noticed he was wearing high top basket ball shoes AND SOCKS!  Which was so shocking to me because it's not like he just slipped sandals off or even uncomfortable shoes, this guy made himself at home by even taking off his socks.  

It gave us a good laugh that's for sure.
Then we went home and went to bed and got to sleep in until 10:00.  Yep, you read that right.  It was so great!!!  

At 2 Riley and Jeremy talked a lot!  Tyler talks a lot but mostly in his own language and when he does use words he usually drops almost every consonant.  He comes up and and says a bunch of vowel sounds

Riley- iey

Jeremy- erey

peanut butter(he's obsessed with eating it so he says it A LOT)- Bu-er, sometimes P bu-er

sorry- o-ey

But one of my favorite thins he says is 

"anks mom!"

today while he ate his soup, for about half the meal, he kept saying it over and over again.  So I got the camera and then of coarse has to preform by acting silly but he eventually says it.

Perception Is Reality

In order to get the full effect you must first know that Jeremy had two accidents just this afternoon, for which Lane cleaned him up.  One of them occurred right before dinner.  We all were at the dinner table eating and then Jeremy stood up at which point we noticed that Jeremy didn't have underwear or pants on.  

Lane:  Jeremy go upstairs and get a some underwear!

Jeremy:  I want water

Lane:  Go upstairs and get some underwear!

(seeing Jeremy not going to budge and choosing my battle)

Me:  Jeremy I will get you water while you go get underwear.

Jeremy:  I"m too scared.

Me:  Riley will you go upstairs with Jeremy to get underwear?

(Riley agrees and starts heading up but since Jeremy didn't go he came back)

Lane:  Jeremy GO GET YOU'RE UNDERWEAR!  I will get you water.

Jeremy:  WHY DO I ALWAYS HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING!

What would you say Riley built?

Riley and Jeremy had been making a habit of making a fort everyday using everything possible and making a HUGE mess!  Now if we had a toy room, or even just a little more space, I would not care that we had a fort up all the time.  However for anyone who has seen our home, they can understand how a fort can take it over.  So we tried restricting the forts to certain areas for a while and not using everything.  They did not abide so then we said, "NO forts for a while!"

The very next day Riley builds this.  I asked him why he did it and reminded him that they can't build forts for a while.  (Even if it was just a couple of days that we were fort free, I would be happy)  He so mater of fact says,

"It's not a fort!  It's a birthday party for my monkey!!!"  Let me say that the stuffed monkey is about 6 inches tall.  I just smiled and gave up the fight on forts because really I think a kid should get to build forts.  It's great imaginative play.  I just can't wait until we have a bigger house some day so it's not so consuming!  :)  

It's all about the milk

The other day Jeremy asked me if he could have some milk.  I told him he could and he proceeded to get it out of the fridge.

"It's too heavy!  That's because it's the bought one.  When it's new it's always heavy because it has so much milk... And the cows give it!"

He drank his milk and then he said,

"A really long time ago, I had a dream, and it was a REALLY GOOD one!  Someone was milking a cow!"

hmmmm, can you just imagine what a great dream that would be?!

So after I published this post Lane was showing it to the boys.  Then Jeremy informed us that it wasn't a big person milking the cow.  So I asked if it was a girl or boy.  He said it was a boy.  Then Riley says, "I don't dream like that.  I dream in color."

Jeremy:  Me too.  It was in color and the boy was wearing a green shirt and red pants and his face looked like a wheel."   

I'm guessing here, maybe the wheel is because a head is round?!

On Tyler's birthday Jeremy just doted over Tyler.  It was precious.  At the end of the day we were telling him how proud we were of him.

Jeremy:  I played with Tyler so kindly!....I just love myself of doing that!

Happy Birthday Tyler!

I can't believe my little baby is now 2.  Look at him when he was brand new!  Tyler is such a sweet little boy.  He is so happy and so endearing.  He is such a blessing in our life!

Tyler was about 9 months  here.

Here he as at 1 1/2

About 3 weeks ago Tyler became Mr. Mischief.  Every chance he gets he's into something.  I must have been taking a nap when this happened.  Lane was on duty, he had run upstairs quickly to get something and when he came down this is what he saw.  And just look at how much he enjoys it.  He loves getting into mischief and teasing.

Tyler was so excited about his presents.  The thing was how much he seemed to love the card Jeremy made him.  Jeremy was so excited about Tyler's birthday.  As soon as he went down for a nap he wanted to wrap his present and make him a card.  I wrote what he told me to right and he decorated it.  The card read, 

"Happy Birthday Tyler!  I love you and I want to play with you!  Love, Jeremy"

When I read the card to Tyler, while his head is cocked and he has the sweetest expression he says,  "oooohhhhhh!"

The other cute part was that when it was time to go home, he didn't realize that he got to keep the toys.  He kept putting them down and saying Goodbye to them.  Once we got him in his car seat and gave him his fire truck his face just lit up!

Happy Birthday Tyler!!

We love you so much!!