Let it snow!

Wednesday morning I woke up to a very sweet, very excited boy whispering in my ear, "Mommy, it's SNOWING!"

I almost didn't believe him because that doesn't happen very often around here, but sure enough- it was snowing and there was already a bit of accumulation. We bundled up and were outside throwing snowballs and making a snow angels by 7:40 in the morning. Good thing I bought Tyler his new coat only a few days prior to this. In fact, in some of the pictures you can still see the tags.

Tyler had a great time and came in completely freezing, but so very happy. John and I joke that sometimes Tyler is the real life version of Buddy the Elf from the movie, The Elf. He gets so excited about things and he is so sweet and innocent. Some of my favorite "Buddy the Elf" phrases he said on this particular day were:

"Oh boy, we're going to need a lot of hot chocolate today!"

"Mom, can I get in your bed and cuddle while we watch the snow?"

"Let's make snow angels, and snow balls, and snow men!"

"Now we're lucky like Utah and Colorado because we have snow too!"

(Picture him saying each of these thing with the biggest grin and with such sincere and pure excitement...it's one of my favorite things about Tyler)

It was a fun snow day. We enjoyed it immensely, but I have to admit that as I looked at the pile of wet boots, coats, gloves and hats that sat on the floor by my door for the rest of the day, I was glad that it isn't an everyday occurrence.

Celebrating the holidays...Texas style

The day after Thanksgiving, we headed down to Stockyards Station in downtown Fort Worth for the daily cattle drive. It's one of those touristy things that we typically do with family when they come to town, so we thought we might as well stick with tradition (minus the long, boring tour).

Twice a day, every day, they close down traffic and do a cattle drive right down the street in the middle of the city. It's pretty cool to see those longhorns up close and they typically have a few activities for the kids as well.

You can even get your picture taken with "Old Jake."

And can you tell how thrilled Robby was about this whole idea?

Not to worry...big brother took good care of him and he cheered up just fine.

Tyler liked watching the "real cowboys," and did a great job impersonating them.

Beautiful weather and good fun...what could be better?

I loved watching both Tyler and Robby's reaction to the cattle drive. Robby loved the horses (although, I'm still thinking that he thought the cattle were horses as well). You can see his little mouth making the trotting noise as he watched the whole thing.

Giving Thanks

We had a lovely Thanksgiving this year. It was the first time since moving to Texas that we didn't have family come celebrate with us. I was afraid we would be a little lonely, but it ended up being just right. Last year Robby was just a few weeks old at Thanksgiving and I felt like the whole thing was just a big blur. I was too busy and too tired to stop and enjoy simple moments with my family so this was a nice way for us to soak it all in- together- just us.

After a slow morning of cuddling and watching the parade on TV, we set to work preparing dinner. Tyler was a great help and loved peeling potatoes and rolling out dough.

Then while the turkey was in the oven, we decorated the tree. Tyler thought it was fun to either put all the ornaments on one branch or hide them in tricky places. I should mention here that Robby still has not touched the tree or a single ornament on it...I'm wondering what is wrong with him.

After all the work, it was time for a toast. Tyler lifted his glass and said "To the open road!" We laughed and then tried to figure out where he had heard that...it was on Goofy Movie.

The best part: After dinner was over, we cleaned up a bit and then EVERYONE went down for a nap. Heavenly. After we were all rested we went for a nice stroll through the neighborhood.

The worst part: The day we went to the grocery store to pick up the turkey, Tyler decided to name the frozen bird "Fred." I didn't think naming our main dish was a good idea, but he seemed to think it was hilarious, so I didn't think too much of it. On turkey day as we prepared the turkey, Tyler joked several times about cooking Fred. Ew, but oh well. When it was time to eat, Tyler walked into the room and saw the carved turkey carcass and started crying and said, "I miss Fred." John and I gave each other the look that says, "Oh bother. What are we supposed to do with this???" Luckily he got over it pretty quickly- whew!

One last picture of Tyler wearing the Indian vest he made for his preschool Thanksgiving feast. I know you can't see the vest very well, but you sure can see that grin.

And finally, what Thanksgiving would be complete without left-overs? The boys hit the pumpkin pie and redi-whip "Carson style." Whenever Robby now sees the redi-whip can, he squeals and then starts making gurgling throat noises, imitating the sound it makes when you spray it.

We had a great day.

Music Man

Never a dull moment around this house.

Up

We've recently been blessed with a few conversations with Tyler that have indicated his understanding and feelings about adoption. It has been touching, to say the least.

One of these conversations occurred while we were watching the movie Up. Overall, I thought the movie was all right, but not my favorite Pixar movie. However, the beginning scenes of the movie where Ellie and Carl's story begins is so tender and with such raw emotions, it's hard not to fall in love with these characters.

When we got to the scene where they are shown at the doctor's office and Ellie is sobbing with Carl tenderly comforting her. Tyler looked at me and asked,
"Why is she crying, mom?"

I choked back the tears and explained that the doctor was probably explaining to Ellie that her tummy was broken and she couldn't have babies in her tummy. This concept is obviously not a new one for Tyler.

Then Tyler, with as much compassion and sympathy as any four year old can have, replied,

"They should have a birth mom help them."

I was so touched by his response. To him the solution to their problem was so simple and clear. He was confident that families can be formed in many different ways- that some babies come to their families through a birth mom. It has been interesting to see Tyler's understanding of adoption develop and grow. I'm so pleased that he feels so positively about it and I pray that he always will.

Soccer

This Saturday Tyler will have his last soccer game of the season. It's definitely been an interesting experience. At the beginning of the season, John and I were both very excited for Tyler to have his first experience with organized sports. There's just something so satisfying about seeing your kid dressed in a uniform- so cute! I feel so happy each time we reach one of these parenthood milestones. It's hard to describe, but it's stuff like this that just reaffirms the fact that we are parents- that I'm a mother. I love it. I felt the same way when we bought our van. I know, most of you hate mini vans because of what they stand for, but that's the very reason why I love mine! I'm a mom, how great is that?!?

Anyway, the season started out slow. Tyler wasn't all that into it, and we're discovering that Tyler only likes something if he is successful at it. Soccer was no different. He didn't like that he wasn't getting any goals, so to him, it wasn't very fun. He wasn't very motivated on the field and didn't seem to engage at all with what was going on. About half way through the season, Tyler made a few big kicks and a few goals, and then magic happened when he discovered how good he was at defending the goal. It's like the light flipped on for him. He made several good defensive plays as goalie where he kicked the ball all the way back down the field. You should have seen his face light up! He had been successful, and that was all he needed. He became aggressive (in a good way) and accurate, and really had a great time. I'm really proud of him, and it's been fun to see him progress and be successful at something that was difficult at first.

And now, I'm trying to decide if sitting on a field watching some type of ball game every Saturday for the next 15 years is something I'm really up for....I think maybe we'll take next season off.

Figuring Stuff Out

This is one of my favorite baby stages- the "figuring stuff out" stage, which comes just before the "destroy everything in sight" stage. I love watching Robby make attempts to mimic what he sees us doing. He works so hard to try to figure out the world around him and how it works. Here he is trying to get the sunglasses on his face. I also love watching him play in my Tupperware cupboard. He'll sit for a good 10-15 minutes trying to get the lids on different containers (I have a video, but I just can't get it to upload). But my all time favorite is watching him try to get his socks on his feet. He'll see them sitting on the floor so he'll go over and pick them up and place them on top of his feet. Much to his dismay, they don't stay! So he'll do it over and over. Is it mean that I just sit by and chuckle instead of help him out? It's just too cute!

National Adoption Month

November is National Adoption Month. I hope to dedicate a few extra posts this month to this special topic that is so near and dear to my heart.

The church at which Tyler attends preschool invited the students to participate in a teddy bear drive to collect bears to be given to children in the area who will be adopted on National Adoption Day. It was a nice way for us to celebrate adoption with them and it provided one more way to have an open discussion with Tyler about the different and special ways in which families are formed. We talked about how blessed he was that his birth mom helped him find his family while he was a tiny baby- even before he was born, in fact. We than discussed how some children don't find their families until they are a little bit older, and that we were going to help celebrate by providing a bear for a special child on their special day. I was grateful for yet another positive experience that helps my Tyler understand what a miracle adoption is and what a miracle he is in our lives.

Robby Turns One!

Yep, yesterday was the big day.

Here is a summary of the celebrations from the perspective of the birthday boy himself:

First, dad came home with lots of balloons to decorate the kitchen. I liked pointing and grunting at each one. Then, we had dinner. Mom made my favorite, macaroni and cheese and hot dogs. I ate them with both of my fists as fast as I could- left, right, left, right- I'm really coordinated when it comes to getting the good stuff in my mouth.

After dinner, they brought me a cupcake that was on FIRE! I really, really wanted to grab it and tried with all my might to reach it, but mom held it just out of my grasp until that silly song was over. And since I only wanted to grab the fire, mom blew out the flame for me (I'll have to work on my flame blowing skills for next year). And do you want to know what she did with that cupcake after she put out the fire? She gave it to me! But I didn't have the faintest idea what to do with it since she usually cuts up all my food into little pieces for me, so I went ahead and did some finger painting with the white stuff on top.

Silly me. Once mom showed me that that white stuff is sugar based and it goes in my mouth, I was good to go! First I pulled off all of the sprinkles and ate them and then I went to work on some of the cake. Yum!

Next, it was time to open presents. Big brother showed me the ropes until I got the hang of it. Sometimes I got more distracted by the paper and had a good old time ripping lots of little pieces. When I got to open my animal choo-choo train, I went crazy! I was sooooo excited. I squealed and grunted my approval.

And then they brought out this amazing truck. I loved it! I can ride it, push it, fill it up and dump it out, AND it makes noises just like me!

I was pretty busy the rest of the night.Man, what a great day! I can tell my family sure loves me- dad always wrestles with me, mom kisses my cheeks all the time, and Tyler lets me play with all his cool toys. What would they ever do without me?!? I am one lucky boy!

On Halloween day we...

gutted a pumpkin

carved a pumpkin,

got dressed up,

went trick-or-treating with our friends,

rode the hayride through the neighborhood,

invited the driver of the hayride to slow his speed-(even though the background whizzing by and your cape flapping in the wind makes for cool pictures, it doesn't make for a very safe ride).

We took inventory,

played with friends,

and ate pumpkin pie dessert.

Does it get any better than that?

I think not!

Happy Halloween!!!

*On a side note, the evening actually would have been a little better if my social committee member who volunteered to supervise the hayride wasn't in the hospital, leaving me in charge for the night with no help and if driver of the hayride hadn't shown up late informing me that the hay bales were infested with fire ants...yeah, that would have made the evening a little better.

Pumpkin Patch

On Friday we went to the pumpkin patch. We've had so much rain recently that the place was like one giant mud puddle. I'm still glad we went because the boys seemed to have a good time.

Robby liked the little tractor

Tyler liked jumping off the hay bales

And I liked watching their faces as they enjoyed the whole experience.


...And then Robby let us know it was time to go home!

Applesauce, airplanes, and black eyes

I'm in a rush so I'm lumping the events of the past week into one blog post- how efficient, huh?

On Monday we made applesauce. No apple picking involved (does that exist in Texas???), but that would have been fun. Oh well, instead I let Tyler select ANY and ALL types of apples from the many overflowing bins in the Wal-mart produce section and called that apple picking. He ran around placing red ones, green ones, yellow ones, and pink ones in plastic bags- done. He had a blast peeling all of the apples and then sat down and ate who knows how many feet of peels for lunch. I had no objections to that.

Last weekend, we attended an air show that featured the Blue Angels. If you've never seen the Blue Angels perform, you're really missing out. Funny thing is, the airport that they use for the air show is a smaller airport that is only about 10 miles from our home, so we get more than just the show. We know the minute they arrive in town(because they are so loud), and we get to watch as they practice and warm up the day before the show. Plus, they do shows on Saturday and Sunday so after church we got to watch an encore presentation from our backyard. It is pretty spectacular watching an F-18 fly only a few hundred feet above your house---SO LOUD!!! Needless to say, we still braved the traffic and crowds so that we could watch the show on Saturday and see some of the planes up close. Tyler and John even toured the inside of many fighter jets and other various planes. It was fun, but I think from now on, we'll just watch from one of the hillsides just outside of the airport. The crowds are horrendous.

Then that brings us to the black eye episode. On Tuesday I got a call from Tyler's preschool letting me know that he had tripped and hit his cheek on the corner of the carpet stage in the gym. They told me he was okay, but just wanted me to know. The pictures don't show how swollen that bump was and, as you can imagine, by the next morning it was quite the shiner. When he'd smile or laugh his swollen little eye would almost shut. I guess we'll have to hold off on taking our Christmas pictures until that little injury has healed up.

Well, that sums up our week. Thank heavens.

Robby Report

One week...my baby turns one in one week!!! Time sure does fly. Didn't I just have this kid? Oh well. We sure do like who he is becoming and it sure is fun to have more glimpses as to who that really is as he gets older. It is the most fun thing watching him discover and learn new things.

Robby is pretty much Tyler's sidekick. He adores his big brother and enjoys following him around and attempting to do the things that Tyler does. Robby by far knows more sound effects than words at this point. It cracks me up when the boys are up in the toy room and I can hear Tyler playing and Robby trying to mimic the sounds Tyler makes. Tyler often plays transformers and I can hear Robby trying to make the same Transformers sounds that Tyler does. Other sound effects he has mastered and will perform on command, but not in front of a camera or strangers are: a horse noise, a dinosaur growl, and a truck sound.

He has developed a deep interest in trucks. I'm constantly amazed at how boys just come hard- wired to love boy stuff. Strange. Just the other day at church, I was pacing the halls with Robby in my arms. As we walked down the hall, Robby got very excited about something. He started squealing and flapping his arms and making his truck sound. I looked down and saw a push-along/ride on truck parked outside the nursery room. He pretty much jumped out of my arms to play with the truck. He spent the rest of the third hour pushing the truck up and down the halls. It was very cute!

His love for trucks has kind of spilled over and includes all things with a motor. He also LOVES the lawn mower (Tyler did too at this age). When he sees it in the garage, he squeals, growls, and makes his motor noise. He could stand at the window all day watching John mow the lawn. He squeals with delight every time John goes past the window.

(Here he is with another one of his favorite items that has a motor)

We also recently attended an air show so of course, Robby has added pointing in the sky and making plane noises to his repertoire of cute things. And I have to admit, I think that "plane" might be one of his first words- sadly, "mommy" hasn't made the list yet. Oh well, it sure is cute when he's pointing at the sky and he repeats, "pway, pway, pway" over and over again.

Also topping the list of first words is "Ty Ty." Frequently he'll get excited when he hears Tyler in the other room and he'll start repeating "Ty Ty! Ty Ty!" He also says "Daddy," which sounds a lot like "Ty Ty", but none of them sound even remotely close to "Mommy." Oh well.

(Here is Robby playing with one of his few favorite toys that doesn't have a motor...busy, busy, busy)

(And this is my favorite new view in the backseat now that Robby is old enough and big enough to be forward facing. I love looking in my rear view mirror and seeing both of their cute little faces.)

And the boy is a climber. Oh is he a climber. And sometimes when he climbs in places he shouldn't be, he gets stuck (what this picture doesn't capture is the panic on his face as he realizes he can't get out.)

I am so grateful for this sweet boy. He is such a joy and has brought our family so much happiness. I can't wait to celebrate his first year next week. Happy day!