Easter 2011

We had a great Easter celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus!  Our Easter kind of started the weekend before, as we went over to Erik's parent's house for dinner to celebrate his dad's birthday.  While we were there, Erik's mom had set up an egg hunt in their basement for Kyler.  He had to go around and find 40+ plastic eggs.  There were also some mini Cadbury eggs too, that Kyler had to find and he kept calling those "rocks". :)  Kyler wasn't quite sure what to do at first, he wanted to just find an egg, shake it and then see what was inside.  But after a few minutes he got the hang of it and wanted to "find eggs". :)  

On Good Friday we all went to the student-led Good Friday Service at Naz.  Kyler did really well and sat through the whole service.  I think it helped that a couple of Erik's custodians were talking and so he knew who they were.  The pew hymnal also turned into a drum towards the end of the service too... :)  Erik and I came home and put Kyler and Norah to bed, my parents came over, and then Erik and I went back to the 9:00 service to see a couple more of Erik's custodians speak.  We joked that we couldn't remember the last time we were out past 10:00 pm as we drove home after the service. :)

On Saturday morning Kyler went over to my parent's house and dyed eggs with them.  With all of Kyler's birthday celebrations the two previous weekends, I had forgotten about egg dying...luckily my parents came to the rescue and helped Kyler dye some eggs!    

My mom had found some sort of machine to do the egg dying for you?  She said next year she would just go back to the cups with the dye in them. :)

Saturday evening we came back over to my parent's house and had an Easter egg hunt over there.  Erik had to be at church again, so it was a nice break in the evening to have some fun over there!

On Easter morning we got up and got ready and went to church at 11:00 with my parents.  I really wanted a couple of pictures of Kyler and Norah in their Easter outfits...yeah, you know how well that works to try and get a 2 month old and a 2 year old to sit still together and look at the camera..... :)  Here's the best we got! :)

An Easter kiss from her big brother!

Sweet Norah all dressed up!

Best shot of both of them together :)  (Notice Kyler has Norah's headband...)

After church we headed up to my Uncle's farm for Easter dinner with my (Ashley's) side of the family.  My Aunt and Uncle live on a farm about 45 min Northeast of here, just past Sumner.  We don't make it up there too often, but I knew Kyler would love to see all of the tractors!

Best family photo :)

My parents, brother, and our family (this was the best attempt here too...) :)

My Aunt and Uncle have this gator that they call the "Ladybug".  My two Uncles took turns giving the great-grand kids (Kyler & Norah's generation) rides around the farm.

More riding :)

Norah taking in all the action!

It is becoming more fun as Kyler is getting older to teach him about Jesus.  We kept telling him on Sunday that "Jesus is alive!" and he would then say "Jesus alive!" for quite a while after Easter.  It is so fun to watch our kids get older and start to understand the meaning of holidays and have different traditions that go with them.  We are also so thankful for our families and how we are able to celebrate with them too.  We hope you had a blessed Easter as well!

Birthday Parties!

We had three birthday celebrations for Kyler's 2nd birthday.  We started celebrating the weekend before his actual birthday on Saturday evening.  We had a "family" party, where we invited both of our families over to celebrate.  Everyone came over about 5:00 and we started with a dinner of pulled pork sandwiches, fruit, cheesy potatoes, and chips.  Kyler didn't eat a whole lot as his 2nd cousins were here to play and there was so much going on!  I think we had about 25 people here total! :)  After dinner the kids played for a bit outside and then we opened presents.  Kyler was more interested in opening presents at his birthday than he was at Christmas.  He's starting to get the hang of it now and realizing that there is something fun inside! :)  After presents we had cake and ice cream and sang "Happy Birthday".  Kyler needed a little help blowing out his candle as we haven't been practicing much, oh well. :)  Here are some pictures from the first party: 

Kyler's Basketball Cake!  His birthday theme this year was sports balls. :)

The Birthday Boy before his party!

Great-Grandma & Grandpa T eating dinner with Geneva and Henry (Geneva is the lady who babysat me when I was little!)

Kyler eating dinner with his Grandpa and Great Aunt and Uncle!

Playing outside

Opening presents!

Asking Great Uncle Roger and Aunt Cheryl for help getting the toys out of the package!

Singing "Happy Birthday!"

A picture with "Kyler 2" the special airplane Henry made for Kyler.

Kyler's real birthday was April 12th, which happened to fall on a Tuesday this year, which is also Erik's day off, so it was fun to have Erik home to celebrate Kyler's birthday with us all day!  We didn't do anything too out of the ordinary.  Erik and Kyler went to Fareway in the morning, then we had lunch, Kyler napped and we played outside for a while because it was a really nice day out.  We had one of Kyler's favorite dinners-skillet casserole-and then had some basketball cupcakes for dessert!  After dinner we went on a walk up to UNI and looked at the panther statue outside the Union (something else Kyler likes to do) and then came home and opened presents from Mom and Dad!  Here are some pictures from Kyler's real birthday:

Opening presents...

An Aquadoodle! Kyler LOVES pens/drawing/pencils so we thought this would be a great non-messy toy for him! :)

A baseball bat and tee!

We had one last birthday celebration for Kyler the weekend after his birthday-a friend party!  We didn't do a friend party last year, but thought he would enjoy it this year since he is really starting to know who people are.  So we invited a few of his friends over with their families to help him celebrate.  We kind of followed the same type of set-up as with his family party; we ate dinner, played, opened presents and had cake and ice cream.  It was a fun time with all the little kids running around!  Here are some pictures from his friend party:

Basketball cake!

All the kids ready to eat dinner!

Mason, Denver, & Jillian helping open presents.

Singing happy birthday!

It's hard to believe our little man is 2 years old!  They have been a great two years and we love the little guy Kyler is becoming!  Thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate, we are very blessed!

Kyler is TWO!!

Kyler turned two years old on April 12th!!  It's hard to believe that we now have a two-year-old at our house!  At two years old, Kyler is our energetic little man.  He loves to run around our house, going from one room to another constantly.  Kyler loves balls of all kinds, footballs, basketballs, soccer balls, baseballs, it doesn't matter what kind of ball it is, he loves to play with it.  He also enjoys any types of sticks with balls.  Whether it's a wooden spoon, his golf club, or a stick from outside, it usually turns into a tool to hit a ball around the house or outside.  

Pounding is another one of Kyler's favorite past times.  I know I've written about it before on here, but Kyler loves to drum and pound.  Last night he had gotten a drink of water from a Peppers cup, and when he was done with it, the cup was turned upside down next to his drum so he could pound on it.  I then came out later to find a hole in the bottom of the cup from his pounding. :)  While we sat at the Good Friday services, Kyler got out all the hymnals and Bible from the pew, piled them up and then started to drum on them with his hands.  

Kyler loves to talk too.  There isn't really anything he doesn't say.  It's funny because he actually makes you aware of what YOU say because he picks up on phrases or words that you say and will repeat them.  The other day Norah was in the swing and had some bubbles coming out of her mouth, so Kyler grabbed the burp rag and wiped off her face and then says "good job", because that's what we say to him when he helps out. :)

One new thing Kyler has done this past month is count.  He has counted from 1 to 13 all by himself.  We have done some counting with him, but think he has figured out some on his own from watching Sesame Street. :)  I don't think he understands the true numerical value yet, but the fact that he will count and get it right is pretty good!  He usually likes to count when he's in the bath and will sometimes start at seven and go up or some number in the middle. :)

Kyler has taken a liking to climbing on things.  He isn't quite tall enough to climb on to the couch yet, so he has discovered that he can put his drum next to the couch and use it as a step to get up there.  He has also been caught climbing into the pantry cupboard, and up onto this built-in step thing we have in the kitchen.  He can also reach quite far across the dining room table.  Kyler has also discovered how to climb onto the chair that is at the computer desk in the kitchen.  As Erik said the other day, "nothing is safe any more!" :)

Kyler eats just about anything, there really isn't something he doesn't like.  However, if we eat something for a meal, and he enjoys it, and then we have the same thing for leftovers a couple days later for lunch or something, he might not touch it.  I would say his favorite foods right now are mac n' cheese, pizza, ice cream and m&ms.

Sleeping has its ups and downs with Kyler.  He has never slept great and it continues to be a struggle.  He takes one nap a day, usually for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.  At night he is usually up once, sometimes twice.  He had done great sleeping the whole night about a month ago, but has since regressed....we continue to work on that. :)

It has been a fun and crazy two years and we love our little guy so much, we are so blessed to have him as part of our family!  Here are some pictures from the past month:

  

Two Years Old!

All dressed and ready to go outside! :)

Trying to help Norah

Eating a snack in the wall before it came down!

1st ride in the double stroller!

Going down the slide with dad at the park

Riding his John Deere tractor!

And The Wall Came A Tumbling Down

We decided to embark on yet another house project last month.  It all started when we decided to get a new TV.  We had always thought about doing this little project but we didn't know it was going to happen so soon! :)  Anyways, we had been saving some money, and had been wanting to get a new HD TV, and Erik found a really good deal for one online that was the right size and had all the right numbers on what he was looking for etc., so we decided to go for it.  Well the problem with this TV was that it didn't fit in our current TV stand (pictured below on the left side of the picture), so that meant we had to get rid of it.  Then since we were getting rid of the TV stand (which was a concern that we would be able to sell it), we decided that we should then take down the wall separating our living room from the dining room.  We knew it wasn't a support wall because you could tell that it had been added later and it wasn't there when the house was built.  See, the upstairs in our house wasn't part of the original house, it was added later and we think this wall was added when they did that.  You could also see that the moulding by the ceiling went through the wall and the woodwork didn't match the rest of the house either.  The last thing you could see is that the hardwood flooring when right under the wall and didn't stop at the wall.  I was a little nervous about this at first, because I kind of like the idea of defined spaces and I thought taking down the wall would mean we wouldn't have a dining room, but we were going to do it.  So the last weekend of spring break, Erik started taking down the sheet rock off the wall.  The slight problem with us doing this project is that it would require some re-wiring of light switches.  The dining room light switch was on the right side of the wall and the living room light switch was on the left side of the wall.  This is where we called my wonderful Uncle Nick once again to come and help us! :)  So, Erik and Uncle Nick spent the following Saturday re-wiring the two light switches.  It took a little work, as they had to go up in the attic and put a couple holes in the wall, but it was worth it!  The other stipulation with this project was that it had to be done by Kyler's family birthday party (which was on April 9th) and....we made it!  Everything was painted and put back together by that day-and it was great to have everything so open for the party because we had 25 people over! :)  More to come on Kyler's bday in the next post! :)  We also were able to get rid of the entertainment center because my Aunt bought it from us-that worked out great too!  Here are some pictures from the project!    

The "Before" (just ignore all of the toys scattered throughout the house) :)

The sheet rock off of the left side...

Kyler helping out :)

A view from the dining room

Norah helping out :)

Sheet rock all gone, and some studs gone too!

All the studs and sheet rock gone!  Erik and Nick working on re-wiring the switches!

All finished!!  With a new ceiling fan too! :)  And, I do really like the finished product, it makes our living room/dining room area seem SO much bigger!

Two Months Old!

4/5-Our little Norah turned two months old!  She is such a joy to have in our family.  She is pretty laid back and has tolerated her brother's "noseies", high fives, and wanting to hold her very well.  This month she started to smile!  I haven't caught any of her smiles on camera yet, but hopefully that will happen soon.  She loves to give you a big grin especially when you talk to her and she is sitting in your lap or getting her diaper changed.  She has also started cooing this past month.  She will coo or "talk" when she is in her bouncy seat waiving her arms and legs around while she bounces.  Norah can hold her head up really well and hardly needs any help holding it up any more.  The other thing Norah likes to do is try to sit up.  I will come in to the living room where she has been sitting in her swing, and will find her leaning to the side because she has tried to sit up in her swing, it's kind of funny.  We had Norah's two month appointment today and she weighs 11 lbs 11 oz and is 23 inches long-she's a growing girl!  She is in the 50th percentile for height, weight, and head circumference.  Norah eats about every 3 hours during the day and has longer stretches at night-which is great!  Here are some pictures from her last month!

2 Months Old!

Kyler thought she would like to play ball... :)

Getting some love from Kyler :)

Bath time!

The "little sister" hanging out

Meeting Geneva & Henry! (Geneva babysat me when my mom went back to work after I was born)

Our sweet little girl!

First Haircut!

So, I decided a few months ago that Kyler needed a haircut.  He had never had one, and it was starting to look pretty scraggly.  The hair around his ears was getting pretty long and the hair on the back of his neck would catch on the collar of his fleece.  I knew this would be somewhat of a struggle as Kyler doesn't like people doing things to him that he is unfamiliar with.  I also knew that if we took him somewhere to get his haircut he wouldn't like that either because it would be someone he didn't know in a place he'd never been, etc.  So, I thought that I would attempt to cut his hair.  I had cut my brother's hair a few times, Erik's hair a few times, and David's hair a few times.  I decided we would set Kyler on Erik's lap, Erik would hold him and I would just snip his hair with the scissors.  Well, we tried this and I might have gotten one snip in and he was mad-twisting and turning his head everywhere and crying.  So, we ended that haircutting session.  Then I tried to do it one night while he was sitting in the bath-that didn't work either.  I even tried to do it while he was looking out the window one day-that also didn't work.  Erik also tried various times to cut his hair while he was in the bath and he would get a snip or two every night, but he really needed ALL of it cut. :)  So finally Erik thought that if Kyler watched him cut his hair and see that it didn't hurt, he would be okay with that-so that's what we did.  That didn't really help either.  Erik also tried running the clippers through Kyler's hair with them off and letting him play with the clippers for a while and then asking if we could cut his hair....this didn't work either. 

So, finally, we decided we were just going to sit him in his booster seat with some M&Ms and some cookies and cut his hair! :)  And that's just what we did on March 24th! :)  He was not very happy and cried some, but after he realized that it didn't hurt, he started to calm down, he didn't completely stop crying until we were all done, but he did calm down.  And we have told him that we will have to cut his hair again...which we will probably do the exact same way! :)

The "before" picture the day before we cut his hair.

Erik starting to cut...

Not a happy camper!

Still not very happy...

Doing better...

All done!  Looking like a big boy!

A Visit From Great-G'ma & G'pa T

Over Spring Break (yes, I'm a bit behind on my blogging, but with tearing down a wall and a couple birthday celebrations I haven't had time! More on those two things in later posts) :) Erik's grandparents that live in Dows (his mom's parents) came to meet Norah.  They came on Wednesday since the weather was fairly nice and with Spring Break there wasn't a lot going on here.  Erik's mom brought lunch over and Leah came too to hang out for a while. :)  We had a good time and it was good to see them since we hadn't seen them since Christmas.  Here are a couple pictures from the afternoon.

Norah meeting Great-Grandma T.

Four Generations! (Kyler was NOT happy about having his picture taken) :)