Tyson 15 Months!

Our little buddy, Tyson is 15 months old! He is the perfect guy for our family. He's almost always happy and such a sweetheart. He's always moving and hates holding still for any length of time. Church is becoming quite the struggle in that sense. He'll hang out in the hall and get the drinking fountain stool and climb up and play in the drinking fountain water. He loves climbing on anything he can reach. He definitely keeps me on my toes more than Kayla did. 

 

Tyson is still a great eater! He will eat almost everything in front of him and can eat a lot!! I hadn't given him any utensil to use and one day handed him one. He used it like a pro and has been ever since. I was impressed! He still gets pretty messy when its something that he really loves!

 

Tyson loves books! Before his love consisted of pulling them off the shelves and destroying them but now he will sit and look at them and point out the things he knows. 

Tyson is beginning to talk more and more. Anytime he says a word, Kayla exclaims, "Mom! He's talking now!" He can say Mommy, Daddy, Kayla (Kaka), Waffle, banana (nana), ball, balloon, puppy, kitty, grandma, binky, cracker, baby, more, and poopoo, to name a few. He will repeat any sounds or words we say pretty well. He loves to make animals sounds too. He calls shoes Go Gos.  

 

Tyson and Kayla are starting to play together really well. They wake up in the morning and start playing together will all the toys we have. I can take a shower and they'll play pretty well together the whole time. Its nice because Kayla is old enough to lead and facilitate the play and Tyson follows her lead. I hope their relationship continues to grow. They definitely have their moments when they fight. Kayla shows some tough love and he hates when she tries to hold him down and stop him from doing something. One of my main goals as a mother is to help them be friends above all else. 

 

Tyson loves daddy! When Brett comes home from work, Tyson squeals with joy and runs across the room and into his arms! He loves playing rough with daddy and always seems to have a lot of fun if dad is around. He is still a momma's boy though. When Brett puts him down at night, I can't be around, otherwise Tyson will cry for me. 

 

He loves his binky! Ive been working on only letting him have it for naps but sometimes he's so fussy I want to just let him have it. He's a pretty mellow child as far as personality goes. He's always moving, but generally pretty content. 

 

He loves snuggling, for moments at a time. He'll give me big kisses and hugs and lay his head on my shoulder or sit on my lap, but it only lasts a minute or so before he's ready to get down and run again! 

 

He loves playing outside and seems to enjoy the snow. 

 

About three mornings a week, I go walking around the indoor track at BYU-I with the kids in the stroller. They kind of have to entertain themselves during that time because I hate the idea of them watching shows on my phone or a tablet or anything else. Tyson really loves it when Kayla gets down and runs next to him. 

He's a silly boy and loves doing goofy things that make me laugh. He'll make himself laugh too. He loves being tickled and his laugh is one of my favorite sounds. 

 

He's quite a little dancer too! We have music playing almost all the time and the kids will chase each other around the kitchen island to the music of polar express. He will bounce back and forth on his little feet and twirl around with his right arm sticking out. Its pretty cute. 

We also had a lot of fun with Tyson for the holidays this year. He's at such a fun age where he can have a lot of fun and get really excited. 

 

Tyson is pretty adventurous. Where Kayla seemed a lot more hesitant to try new things, he has no fear, except the idea of strangers holding him. 

For the most part, he's a pretty easy kid. Nights can be rough sometimes though. Lots of nights, he wakes up screaming and totally hysterical. I leave him and let him cry for about 20 minutes hoping he'll go back down, but I can't go much more than that without feeling guilty, not to mention the neighbors in our townhouses and not wanting to wake Kayla up either. I rock him and he calms down but when I put him back down but he'll cry again for another few minutes. I don't know what to do with the kid! Hopefully its a phase that he'll grow out of. 

We sure love this sweet, growing, funny boy! I love seeing him grow and show new interests. He's really gotten into balls and trucks, lately. He runs everywhere he goes, and has a joy for life!!

Temples and Ice Castles!

Last weekend after church, we headed down to Utah! We spent Sunday evening at my Aunt Pam's house (where no pics were taken sadly). It was a lot of fun to catch up and eat delicious food that was from my Grandma Summers' recipe! 

We stayed the night in the condo and then headed to Provo in the morning to go to the temple Open House. Kayla has been so excited that she actually got to go in the temple this time! She was a little nervous that Jesus might be there, since its his house, but we reassured her she probably wouldn't see Him. :)

We picked up Brett's good friend Michael and took him with us to the Open House. I was impressed that even down in the parking garage, you could see the temple and it was beautiful. It was a quick tour, but Kayla really did seem impressed and I loved the murals in the instruction rooms. 

Today while chatting with Kayla, she was talking about our temple trip. She then got a concerned look on her face and said, "Mommy, Jesus had yucky stuff on his face." I asked her what she meant and she rubbed her chin and said, "Yeah, just like Jon." Haha! I let her know that its actually called a beard. Haha!! She makes me laugh so hard.

I'm so grateful to live close to so many opportunities like this for our kids. We're looking forward to going through the Star Valley and Idaho Falls temples when they hold open houses. Especially Idaho Falls so that we can show Kayla where mommy and daddy got married. 

While driving around town, the steering wheel was shaking really bad. I had noticed it a few days earlier, but it was getting really bad really quickly. Brett suggested we get it fixed when we get home, but I felt strongly that we should get it checked that day. We headed to Les Schwabb after the Open House and turns out our front tires were separating because they were so bald. Because we were going up into the canyon, we both agreed we should get it taken care of then, so we got new tires and all is well again!

We had lunch and explored BYU campus listening to Brett reminiscing. We then headed up the canyon to Midway to go to the Ice Castles. It was amazing! 

We waited in line for pictures with Anna, Elsa, and Christoff. Kayla is a big Frozen fan but the idea of being near the actual people was terrifying. She cried for awhile and we told her she didn't have to be in the picture. She stood far away while we got the picture and darted into the castle to be away from the characters! Disney Land is far off for us. 

They had a cool slide that started up at the top and I took this shot from up above. 

Tyson loved going down the big slides. Brett and I didn't have snow pants on and our bums were soaked by the end!

There was a kiddie slide that Kayla went down a few times. We accidentally forgot her gloves, so she wore mine and they were huge on her. 

So, I love Stephanie Nielson. While we were there, we saw her and her family! I was excited with my Mormon celebrity sighting! I snapped this photo of her just as she looked over. She totally caught me and just smiled. Brett said I looked like a crazy person and I should have just gone up and said hi. I didn't want to bother her, but instead looked like a stalker. 

The kids really had so much fun! There were tunnels to climb through and lots of slides. It was a perfect little winter wonderland! Tyson's smile in this photo is perfect!

By this point, Kayla started asking to see Anna and Elsa. Unfortunately, we were too far in to get another photo of her. 

 

I sure love these two guys! It was such a cool experience (no pun intended!). We'll definitely be going back in the future. 

 

On the way home from Utah, we had a bit of an adventure! It was really foggy the entire drive. So foggy in fact, that we missed the exit off the freeway that heads towards Pocatello. I was sitting in the back with the kids and started to notice that I didn't recognize any of the signs once we could even see them. Then we saw the sign that said Burley, Boise, and knew we were on the wrong road! We checked google maps and it told us to take the next exit to Snowville and it would let us cut across and get back on I-15. We soon found ourselves on a road that wasn't plowed and the fog was still awful! We drove slowly for about an hour and reached a state highway. We turned the way Google Maps told us to go again, and the road got worse! We realized that the state highway was only the other direction. We turned around and luckily after that, it was more plowed. That road took us to Malad. Once we got past Malad pass on the freeway the fog cleared up. It was a little crazy and gave us almost 2 extra hours on our trip. Good thing we had enough gas! It sure makes for a more memorable trip. 

Kayla's Birthday Party

We celebrated Kayla's birthday a couple days early so family could come celebrate with us. As far as she knows, that day was her birthday. :) On Friday night before, Brett and I spent 4 hours putting together this kitchen. It came in a million parts! But it turned out great and we were excited to give it to her. Both Kayla and Tyson have spent a lot of time playing with it since so it was well worth it. I also finished decorating her cake that night. It was a long night. We blew up balloons so when she came down, she'd find it all set up. The kitchen was a combined gift from us, Grandma Betsy, and Grandma Jean and Grandpa Tom. We also got her a dish set. 

 

Kayla was so excited about the kitchen! She got to choose breakfast and waffles were her choice, with cream of course. :)

My whole family came up to Rexburg and we all went bowling together. RaeJean and Tom couldn't make it, unfortunately and they were missed. 

 

At first, Kayla was scared to bowl. She's always hesitant to try new things. Tyson on the other hand tried running down the lanes several times! He had no problem dropping the balls down the ramp and after watching Tyson, Kayla decided she could do it too. 

 

 

Everyone sacrificed their turns for Kayla once she was ready to bowl so she got lots of practice in. I loved the little bowling shoes they gave her to wear too. 

 

After bowling, we picked up pizzas and headed home for lunch, presents, and cake. 

 

 

I even made everyone wear these party hats that were made for kids' heads, haha!

I had asked Kayla what she wanted for her birthday lunch and her answer was Peanut Butter.....so she had a peanut butter sandwich while the rest of us enjoyed the pizza - she doesn't like pizza, crazy girl!

 

She loved opening her presents! She got this Cinderella doll from Grandpa Kelly and Grandma Sheryl. She got an adorable apron from Grandma Jean and a beautiful church dress from Grandma Betsy. Haley and Jon got her a giant coloring book with stickers. Needless to say, she was one happy girl! 

I made the cake and it was definitely amateur, but I had fun doing it. She picked the pan, and the colors of the cake. Just as we were lighting the candles and starting to sing the Happy Birthday song, we hear a big crash! I looked over and saw that Tyson had gotten into the cupboard and dropped a pyrex bowl and glass was everywhere! Needless to say, we blew out the candles, cleaned up the glass, and started over again!

 

Tyson enjoyed it more than anyone!

Kayla wore her apron pretty much all day!

 

When she tried on her new church dress, she said she wanted to dance and twirl, so we had an impromptu dance party! She loved it! 

 

Kayla LOVES her kitchen! She makes food for us every meal. Here's Brett eating his snack before bedtime she prepared that night. I love seeing her imagination grow. Since then, every morning, the kids wake up and spend time playing together in the kitchen before we even go downstairs. It makes my mom heart almost burst!