Fall and Halloween Festivities!!

We have been enjoying every minute of fall since we've been in Idaho! Luckily, we've had some great Fall weather since we got here. Just two days after arriving in Rexburg, we headed to the Hibbard pumpkin patch to get our pumpkins. It was the first time going to a real pumpkin patch with Kayla and she loved it! They had fun fairy tale character cutouts, a giant corn box, a wagon ride, pumpkin launching, and delicious food. It was a great time!

 

   

 

The townhouse we're renting has a great lawn area in front of it and we've been enjoying it! Its perfect because its not on the road. There are also lots of trees losing their leaves and Kayla is quite fascinated by it all! I can't get over how wonderful the grass is here! I just want to sit in it all day long!

 

We even got an idea from Daniel Tiger and made leaf pictures with leaves we gathered. Kayla loved it!

We've enjoyed a few great park days and some good walks too! Everyone seemed to be really loving being outside and I love how everyone plays in their yards. 

We made this fun craft to get Kayla excited about Halloween.

We went to Grandma Betsy's house for the weekend and Kayla got to help rake leaves, which she's never had the chance to do before. She loved it! 

For Halloween we dressed up as Goldilocks and the Three Bears! The day before, we went to the library for the Halloween activity. 

After Brett got done at work, we headed up there to Trick or Treat through his building. He works in the old dorms and there are a lot of offices, hence LOTS of candy! Kayla keeps asking to go back and visit Daddy at work. I'm afraid she'll be disappointed. :)

She also loved handing out candy once we went back to Brett's office after working our way through the whole building. 

On Halloween, my mom came up to spend the weekend. Brett and I got to go to the temple that morning while she watched the kids and it was wonderful. We came home and got dressed up again and headed to our friend Jen's house for dinner and trick or treating. It was a great time and Kayla loved chasing Jen's little boy around from house to house. 

 

The week after Halloween, we loaded up our pumpkins and headed to Weston with Brett's mom in tow. We went to experience the last pumpkin blow performed by the Nash Family. Its pretty legendary and something you can't experience anywhere else! 

My old roommate Emily's family literally loads a LOT of dynamite up to a LOT of pumpkins and then once everyone is up on a hill, they shoot it and let it blow to smitherines! It was awesome (for the adults) and terrifying (for Tyson and Kayla)!

We're so happy to be here for this wonderful fall season! Now we're onto Thanksgiving and waiting anxiously for snow! :)

Tyson 12 Months!!

Tyson day 1

Tyson 12 Months

Oh my heck! I can't believe this precious baby of mine is a year old already!! I wonder if this is typical, but thinking about his birthday makes me relive his birth, which was pretty darn awful there at the end! Haha! Good thing he's so cute and sweet and happy! It makes it all worth it. Here's a link to that blog post.  

 

Tyson is one happy kid! He's walking everywhere, falling down and getting right back up, He's even tried going down the stairs a few times! He can say a few words - mama, go go go, uh-oh, and nana (banana). He loves to wave hello and goodbye and recently started blowing kisses. He has 7 teeth, four on top and three on bottom. 

 

He is a mama's boy and for the longest time, we would only go to sleep if I put him down. He's taking two naps a day, about two hours each, and sleeps for 11-12 hours at night. We had a rough patch with his sleep habits due to teething and our crazy roadtrip/sleeping arrangements, but we seem to be back on track now. He loves cuddling with mom right before he goes to sleep but otherwise would always rather be down exploring and causing trouble!

 

Tyson LOVES to eat!! He will eat anything that we put in front of him, but is getting pickier about baby food. He doesn't like to be fed and prefers to just be able to feed himself. His favorite foods are probably bananas. His favorite veggie is carrots. Like I said, their isn't much of anything he won't eat. And he will eat as long as we feed him. Sometimes, he'll throw up a little after a meal if he eats too much. I have a hard time guageing how much to feed him. He's still nursing three-four times a day and I'm thinking about weaning him, but he really loves nursing and I'm in no hurry.

Tyson is much more adventurous and daring than Kayla ever was. He leaps off of stairs and throws himself onto things. Just the other day at the pumpkin patch, I set him on the pumpkin cart and he dove off, scraping his nose up quite a bit. I felt awful. He loves the playground and would swing all day if I let him. Kayla wouldn't even try the swings for the first two years of her life! 

I love how content he is to play most of the time. Kayla, being the two year old that she is, often needs my attention and Tyson will just happily play on the floor with whatever toys are available. Since he's walking now, he loves toddling around, picking up what he can and makes laps around the kitchen. It also makes me feel bad that he doesn't get the attention that Kayla did as a baby, but I guess that's the curse with a second child. He never cares what's on TV, whereas Kayla always seemed interested and would watch the screen if it was on.

 

Kayla and Tyson usually nap at the same time every afternoon, but on the days they don't, I love spening one on one time with my little guy. And I can tell he loves it too. He loves playing with any toys that we have but doesn't love being read to as much as Kayla did. He's too on-the-go to hold still long enough to read a book. 

Every time I put him down, I hum the song from Mary Poppins "Stay Awake" and its like his cue now to go to sleep. 

 

Tyson loves Kayla and the other day he walked up to her and gave her a big hug. She thought he was attacking her and pushed him away after a second, but for a brief moment, it warmed my heart. :) He also loves blowing kisses and giving big open mouth kisses on the cheek!

He loves being outside and I'm so glad we can just hang out in our yard anytime we want to right now! The weather is amazing and the grass is so soft. He's so happy to be outside or at the park. He also loves going on walks. He now sits in the front of the double stroller and bounces up and down as we walk! 

 

Lately when Tyson is walking around, he will chuckle to himself. He's just so content most of the time! I love hearing him laugh more because for the first 9 months of his life, he didn't laugh hardly at all. He's also becoming a bit of a tease. He likes to bug Kayla and get a reaction out of her! That's not going to be fun to deal with. 

 

We sure love having this little boy in our family! He's taught us all a lot and brought more love into our home. I'm excited to see him grow and develop his personality more and more. Happy Birthday Tyson!