sledding festivities

2 weekends ago Kami and Erik came up and my parents wanted to do something fun together. So it was decided that we would go sledding up the GREAT TRENTON HILL! WAHOO :)

Please ignore my double chin :)

We all had a great time. The snow was SUPER HARD and crusty. Cortney brought a "friend" Julie to meet us and they decided to take the first run. Honestly, the rest of us were probably a little bit scared because it looked so steep and there was a jump at the end. So by the time Cort and Julie got to the end where the jump was they totally biffed. It looked really funny, but Julie got all cut up from the snow, so not as funny after that. So after that we decided to move over a little bit where there wasn't as much of a jump. Glad they were the guinea pigs. Kami and Heidi also crashed (2 separate incidents) and got their faces scratched up too! The picture is so light you can't really see their cut marks, but they were there I PROMISE!

We decided that we would just bring the 4-wheelers up with us and they could help with the trek back up the hill. Ty and Kace LOVED it. I think dad spent more time on the 4-wheeler than he did going down. It was a workout to get back up though.

It was fun that my kids got to go do something fun that I liked to do when I was a kid. Although when I was little I don't remember when it started being hard to climb back up the hill.

We finished the day off playing apples to apples and a nice clam chowder meal. It was a great family day! I hope we didn't scare Julie off, we can be pretty interesting sometimes :)

Our little (big) Ty "the guy"

I can't believe our Ty the GUY is almost two (tomorrow). We were SO EXCITED to find out we were going to have another baby, especially after we waited so long to get him :) After I found out I would almost try to convince myself that it wasn't real so that I wouldn't be up for a let down. But he is for SURE "really real" (that is for Heidi and Ed Smart)

I had an easy pregnancy (now that it is two years later anyway!) and I knew we were going to get started on January 12, but NO, the doctor was sick, so we rescheduled to that Monday January 15. He was born just before 8:00 PM so it was a long day of watching EVERY back to the future movie ever made.

Before he was born we were thinking that he would be big, at least bigger than Kace (who was 8 1/2 lbs), because I was bigger this time, but then I didn't know if I was just bigger because it was my second. We asked the doc what she thought and she thought he would be in the 8 lb range. I knew I could do that so I wasn't too worried. However, after he was born Dr Craig, "Okay, who wants to put their guess in on how big this baby is?" I said, "Why? Is he big?" She said, "Oh, YES, I am guessing about 10 lbs" Sure enough he was 9 lbs 15 oz. And the recovery was WAY easier than with Kace. Thank goodness :)

Ty looked like the baby I thought I would have when I had Kace. He was fair skinned and had a little bit of hair which fell out and came back in super blonde. He had a round, chubby face and BIG, BIG hands and feet.

Ty was a really good baby. He always ate really good, which was so nice for me! He slept well, hardly ever spit-up, hardly ever cried, etc. Then at about 2 months we noticed he was swallowing his spit-up. He would cry because it stung on the way down, but after many trips to the doctor he finally started to do better on some medicines. At about one year he was off all the medication and is doing great. So besides the reflux, he has had stitches on his nose, and the wart thing. It could be MUCH WORSE :)

He still likes to eat, just not always the foods that are the best for you. I think his favorite word, (besides no), is TREAT!

He loves to tease, throw the ball, tickle, read and do whatever his brother is doing. I am constantly reminding Kace that Tydon is always watching him and what he does.

Ty loves to help me make cookies and 'dump' all the ingredients, he loves to go places in the car and ADORES his blanket. It is definitely his security, along with his sippy. He LOVES milk (he supports his grandpa big TIME) and probably drinks 1 gallon every 4 days.

He likes to race, LOVES his trucks, tractors and trains. He LOVES LOVES LOVES 4-wheelers, big tractors and snowmobiles. He has this awesome excited dance he does (he wiggles side to side really fast) when you turn on the 'big boy toy.'

He loves to go outside, make animal sounds and watch cartoons (although his attention span still isn't very long), his favorite is Thomas or "choo choo".

Tydon is getting very good at throwing his little temper tantrums. Nate says he got this from me, but I do NOT think so :) He screams this really ugly fake scream and jumps up and down, waving his arms up and down. You have to try hard not to laugh.

We are so glad to have Tydon in our family and home. He makes life fun and exciting :) He always has a big smile for everyone. We love him so much!

Back to Christmas.........

I have been a bad bad bad blogger (heidi keeps reminding me). Christmas was so much fun. We had lots of parties and the boys (mostly Kace) was so excited. On Christmas Eve the Andrew family (all of my family) came over for a nice dinner and we exchanged gifts with Kami and Erik because we wouldn't see them the next day. Kace didn't understand why they got all the gifts and he only got one. That night Kace decided to type up a letter to Santa and tape it to a balloon and send it off up into the sky. He typed it all himself and did a pretty good job.

When Nate and I got married we decided that we would take a couple of traditions from each of our families and then create some of our own. We still do gifts to Christ with the Andrew family and read the scripture story (which we did on Christmas Eve). Nate really liked putting his presents into piles so we always do that right before we go to bed and we hide the pickle (his family always did this). The pickle is a pickle shaped ornament that we hide and whoever finds it gets the pickle present.

So that night after we (actually it was more Kace) put our presents in our piles, we told Kace that he had to stay in his room or Santa wouldn't come. If he needed us he would have to call us from his room (which he did a couple of times). So we all got to bed at a decent time :)

Nate and I waited and waited for the boys to wake up on Christmas morning. They woke up at about 7:45. We had a family prayer (I always remember we did this when I was a kid and my dad said the LONGEST prayer EVER) and then ran downstairs. It was so much fun! Kace got a basketball pop shot game, church clothes, battleship, etc and Ty got a train table and train set. They loved it :) kids sure make Christmas more fun. Nate surprised me with a new computer. I was shocked. I hadn't even mentioned it, so he did great all on his own.

We then were going to go up to Nate's parents for the big surprise of Mel and Jon coming (Nate's sis from PA), but it was snowing so bad and we were worried that we wouldn't even make it out of our driveway. We plowed through and made it.........Mel and Jon had to wait for us, but we made it. We had a great time up there and then headed to my parents. By then it was AWFUL, the snow that is. We ended up staying the night and went home the next morning.
We had a great Christmas!

PS Nate was SO excited (sarcasm) to sit on Santa's lap! hehe :)