Happy Halloween!

 Tyler has been asking me to make him a super suit for months now. He has greater confidence in my sewing abilities than I do. A good deal online seemed more like my style. He's probably worn his Halloween costume half a dozen times already since it arrived at the beginning of October and last night probably won't be the last either. Tyler says he can run faster with it on. And Bryce was just about the cutest tiger I've ever seen complete with growls and roars.

 Andy wore his Cat and the Hat hat and at the last minute I decided to be Kate from the T.V. show Lost, complete with staple gray shirt, jeans, hiking boots and curly hair.

And yes! Bryce finally started walking this week! He just flipped the switch and walks everywhere now and pretty fast too. True to his personality Bryce takes his time reaching milestones and does things on his own time table. He can now get into trouble twice as fast.

Harvest Time

 Bryce helping us pick tomatoes. We ended up with such a great garden this year. Tons of squash, zucchini, tomatoes, and green peppers. About 12 butternut squash and around 15 pumpkins. We decided to pick all the orange pumpkins today to put on the front porch. Too bad none of them are big enough to carve but I was pretty proud of myself for growing them all!

 Tyler was a great help in the garden this year. He was always careful to only pick red tomatoes and big green peppers. I read that gardening teaches kids patience. I hope so.

 A rare shot where both kids are looking and happy.

 As Andy says - Bryce has a little bit of 'tude (attitude). He says his feistiness (sp?) comes from me. He was upset with me here for not letting him play in the mud.

At least he gets over it fast.

Sharing is also still tough for Bryce, especially with his brother.

Swimming Lessons

For the past month Tyler and Bryce have been taking swimming lessons at the Provo Rec Center. Tyler is in his own preschool class and Bryce and I are in the Tot class. At the beginning of the summer we took the boys to a pool and Bryce cried the whole time and Tyler wouldn't let go of us in the water. I knew they just needed more time in the water. Although neither one of them likes putting their head under the water yet, they're both so much more comfortable in the water and have loved swimming lessons. I'll add some videos once I figure out why blogger won't load them right now.

Visiting Home (Warning: Mega Post)

As many of you know I grew up outside of Chicago. My parents moved to Maryland after my freshmen year in college and sadly I have not returned to my hometown in almost 9 and a half years! Each year I say - We have to go back to Chicago this year. But it just gets more expensive and harder with more children. This year seemed like a good year and I talked my parents into meeting out there. We had a 6:55 am flight Friday morning which meant we had to wake up at 4:00 am. With all the excitement of leaving the next day I only slept 2 1/2 hours the night before. It made for a very sleepy ride to Chicago with a baby who didn't cooperate with my napping plans.

When we arrived in Aurora and pulled into our old neighborhood - a bunch of our old neighbors were standing out in front of my old house waiting for us! It was so good to see everyone that I knew growing up. We had such great neighbors where we lived. The first thing I noticed were how big the trees had gotten. Everything else pretty much looked the same.

The house I grew up in from the time I was 3 years old til I left for college.

Friday night I met some of my high school friends at Carraba's for dinner. Two hours just didn't seem long enough to catch up on nine years. I wished I could have spent more time with them.

On Saturday we went into the city and showed Andy and the boys some of the sites. They have a great new park called Millenial (?) Park with great sculptures like this giant reflective bean thing. Tyler really liked it.

We walked up and down Michigan Ave. I was bummed that some of the stores weren't as cool as I remembered and the big toy store FAO Swartz wasn't even there anymore. The kids were worn out and fell asleep.

Andy and I on the Chicago River near the Wrigley Building

Another cool art exhibit at the park. There's two of these towers that reflect different faces and have water streaming down them.

Tyler really liked these lions at the Art Museum. After all that walking we went to my favorite restaurant in Chicago - Chicago Pizza and Ovengrinder. They've been around for 40 years and have these great Pizza pot pies. I also love their Great American salad with sweet and sour poppy seed dressing and Mediterranean Bread. I wished I'd taken a picture.

That night the boys swam in the hotel pool with my dad and Andy while my mom and I went to the Relief Society broadcast at our old Stake Center and saw more friends from church. On Sunday we drove around my hometown more and saw my old highschool, elementary school etc. We went to our old ward. It was great to see so many families I knew growing up that are still there. We visited some family friends in Prestbury after church. Tyler and Bryce loved sitting on their bench. We took the kids to Prestbury pond after dinner. I'd forgotten how many ponds and lakes there are in Illinois.

I like this shot of Andy and Tyler at Prestbury Pond.

Monday we went to the Museum of Science and Industry before we went headed to the airport. The kids really liked this Museum since there's so much hands on stuff. We were there 5 hours and still didn't see everything.

The kids really liked this Farm exhibit. Tyler got to drive a simulated Tractor.

I loved Bryce's enthusiasm over this exhibit.

On the Main level was a great exhibit for the kids called the Idea Factory. They had fun science like toys for kids of all ages. Even this little climbing gym for Bryce.

It gave me some ideas for Christmas....

Tyler steering the ship. Overall it seemed like a whirlwind trip but we're really glad we did it. Now I just wish I lived close enough to go back more often. There were so many more things Andy and I wanted to do in Chicago. We'll just have to plan another trip I guess! The boys are at a great traveling age too. They were always so good. They even both slept through the night every night at the hotel! I can't remember the last time we took a vacation where I actually got sleep too! That was the icing on the cake for me.

Glee!

I've become a fan of the t.v. show Glee this past month. Although the kids don't watch it with me they like listening to the music during the day. They're some of Tyler's favorite songs now and they love dancing to them. Here's a video of Bryce dancing to "Don't Stop Believin'" . Notice the dramatic fit at the end too. He's becoming good at these lately. The other day after nursery I asked Tyler if he sang during singing time this week. He said "No, they didn't sing any of my favorite songs." I said "Whats your favorite song?" "Don't Stop Believin." Yeah I'm guessing thats not a regular among the 18 months-3 year olds in nursery.

From the Mouth of Tyler

My conversation with Tyler at breakfast yesterday:
Tyler: I want a dog, but not a little dog - a big dog like Brady is (My parents dog Brady is a Westie). I like Brady.
Me: I don't think we're going to get a dog anytime soon. We need to wait til we don't have anymore babies.
Tyler: But Bryce isn't a baby anymore he's big.
Me: But what if we had another brother or sister like Bryce. (No this isn't an announcement). Would you rather have another brother/ sister or a dog?
Tyler: a dog.
Me: Well we're still not going to get a dog right now.
Tyler: If we give Bryce back to the hospital can we get a dog? (Ouch, that was a fast sell out).



Why I need to remember to minimize talking during discplining -

Me: Okay, time out is over. Look at me - you don't ever draw draw on your bed with a pen ok?
Tyler: huh? uh huh.
Me: Tyler? Do you understand?
Tyler: uh uh
Me: Say: "I understand. I'm ready to go to the park now."
Tyler: I understand that I'm ready to go to the park now.

In Banana Republic with Andy on Saturday:
Tyler: Come on Dad. Lets just steal them all.


Tyler's favorite way to start a sentence "What might happen if . . . ?"

Signs our boys are growing up

My little "peanut" finally reached 20 lbs, graduated from his infant seat into a toddler seat and gets to face forward. The expression of pure joy in his face when I first put him in Tyler's old carseat was priceless. What a big boy.

Potty training finally "clicked" for Tyler these past few weeks and he's doing awesome at staying dry and even stopping playing to use the potty. This has made my life so much easier. We some how ended up with two training potties so the smaller one has become Bryce's. Whenever I tell Tyler "Its time to go potty." Bryce immediately books it down the hall to go sit on his own little potty. What a smart kid.

Bryce has also reached the age of exploring new "heights" of trouble. He's learned to get into the trash and even adjust the fire on the gas stove (yikes!) Hence the new childproof knobs on our stove. He looks a little disappointed huh?

I decided last spring to wait another year to enroll Tyler in preschool. Last week he heard about a few of his cousins starting school and preschool. He woke up one morning last week, got dressed, put on his new "school shoes," his backpack and his lunchbox and announced that he wanted me to drop him off at school. He kept begging me and telling me he was big enough to go. It broke my heart. We have set up some social playgroups, story time, and even swimming lessons to have some "big guy" social experiences this year.