Bye bye October - it was fun!

I've been such a horrible blogger lately and even tossed around the idea of stopping altogether but then the guilt set in and got the best of me. I don't keep a journal, nor did I keep baby books for either child so this place really has all of their memories all wrapped up in an online journal of sorts I guess. So here I am. I am back and making a commitment to blogging more regularly. They are growing up so fast and if I don't continue to document their lives here, than all of those memories will be lost. I mean let's face it, I can't even recall what I just had for dinner never mind remembering all of Tyler's new words!

October was a fun month for us. There were birthday and Halloween parties, my birthday, pumpkin farms, Carson turning 3 and a half and more. Oh and Tyler turned 15 months old. HOW did that happen?! I stare at him in awe of how grown up he is and he's so darn smart! He says a ton of words. He basically understands everything you tell him to do and takes direction really well - unlike a 3 year old I know! He pretty much now knows all of his body parts (the typical ones that is), he tries to repeat everything we say, he LOVES books. I mean just loves to sit down on your lap or anyone that has a book and just point to the pages and listen. He is recognizing different animals and so far does the sounds of ducks, lions, and pigs. Dan says he does an elephant too but I've yet to hear that one! He is also learning colors at school and so far knows blue.

Here are some recent pics of the past month of fun.....

A visit to the pumpkin farm.


Me and the boys.


At Carson's BFF's Halloween party. Tyler got the first swing at the pinata! We took his costume off since it was so hot outside and he was sweating.


Carson got a few tries too.


Halloween parade at school.


Tyler loved it too. You may recognize that costume from here.


Taking a break to read to his little bro. I told you that Tyler loves to sit on laps. : )


And some kisses too. Tyler loves to give out kisses and hugs. My little lovebug.


And Halloween. Daddy and the boys.


My attempt at a pic of the two of them together. Tyler wasn't having it.


I also took Carson to see Toy Story on Ice but my pics are all from my phone and bad quality. He LOVED it. We had a nice one on one date which rarely happens these days.

So on to November.....be back soon.

Body parts.

Sounds like an odd title but you will see what I mean in the video! It's a few weeks old but I am finally getting a chance to upload and share it here. He's been obsessed with body parts. He is constantly pointing to our heads, noses, ears, you name it. It's like a game to him! He especially loves doing it to Carson since it makes Carson laugh!

He knows his head, ears, nose, mouth, eyes, toes, and belly and points to all of them - not always on demand as you can see! He also loves to blow kisses and give open mouth ones too. You will also see his sign language skills which I cannot take credit for since I had to look up his signs on the internet to figure out what he was doing, lol! His teacher at daycare has taught him more, yes, please, all done, and a few more.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Tyler's 1st year montage (a tad late).

Bad mama again for forgetting to post this here. I always forget what I post on Facebook vs. here. Ugh. So here you go, a one year montage from my little man's first year.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Just another Saturday morning.

Tyler loves to lie down and drink his milk on weekend mornings and of course Carson like to copy him. Oh and is my 3 year old the only one who insists on still wearing footed jammies? He LOVES them!!!

If you notice they also have the same cup. Carson has to use a sippy when walking around the house with it and Tyler will only drink from the same kind as Carson. Life is fun, I tell ya!



Than shortly after breakfast, it's motorcycle time!

When mommy's away....

I had a hair appointment last night and went straight from work so Dan had to take care of the boys. I am so glad I wasn't here to clean up this mess!

Tyler - 13 months

Ok so he turned 13 months about 2 weeks ago but who is counting?! I am so busy that I just forget to do things lately and I really need to get better at writing things down. Mommy brain is in full force!

So before I forget I wanted to jot down his new "words" since he really is adding to his vocabulary these days. I believe that if he goes to the same object saying the word, hands you the object saying the word, points to something saying it over and over, or even takes something from one of us saying the word, then he knows what it is and it's a word. Right?!

- has been saying dada and mama for a while but he doesn't say mama TO me (insert tear!) but he does squeal for dada. He hears the garage door opening and he runs for the back door yelling dada dada dada. But I think he calls Carson dada too. Dan thinks maybe he thinks all males are dadas to him!
- as I posted before he says thank you or dadu
- his favorite toys are balls so of course this had to be one of his first ones. He says bah for ball.
- he points to our noses and says nuh nuh nuh
- he says ni ni when it's time to go to bed
- he plays with a lion in his room and has been forever now and I always tell him it's a lion. Well now he points to it and says blabla

Hopefully I get better at updating.

Rough day.

If they only knew what it was really like to have a rough day.....

Baseball AND Football...in one weekend.

Carson had a busy weekend in the sports department. Dan took him to his first minor league Ironbirds game Friday night and I wasn't there to witness it but he had a blast. Whoever took this pic of them caught him mid bite in his popcorn!


Than on Saturday we all went to see the Ravens practice since they were at M&T Stadium. We had so much fun and Carson couldn't believe he was so close to all the players and got to see Joe Flacco in real life.






He insisted on wearing his jersey and it was so hot outside and we were in the sun!








Tyler and I ran around on the concession area. He wasn't very interested in the practice!

No fear.

Tyler is our little daredevil. I swear this kid has no fear at all and he's so intuitive so he figures out that something might hurt him or be dangerous and he stops himself.

This little episode happened this afternoon and instead of getting him down and redirecting, what do I? I grab my phone and start snapping away. Yeah, mother of the year award goes to me!

Sports Fanatic.

Nope not talking about Dan, I am talking about Tyler. At the ripe old age of 1 he is obsessed with footballs, baseballs, tennis balls, and most of all golf clubs. This makes daddy very happy I might add since the apple does not fall far from the tree.

I have a ton of pics of Tyler with all sorts of balls since the kid carries them around the house at every waking moment. I have to document this to prove to ESPN or NBC Sports some day when he makes it to the Masters that he really did start golfing at 1!

Oh but he really has a thing for the orange putter. It's the first thing he goes to upon waking and upon coming home from daycare or any outing.


Every pic is blurry or like this since he's on the move with golf club in hand at all times. If you dare take it away, watch out!

Tyler says "thank you!"

Love him.

Happy Birthday to my sweet baby Tyler.

Dear Tyler,

One year ago I questioned my ability to love another child and now one year later, I can’t even describe in words the way you make us feel. You made us a perfect family of four.

Just to give you a recap of July 14^th, 2009, your birth was so much different than your brother’s since your due date was planned, and you had some difficulty breathing on your own. Daddy and I were very scared when the doctors didn’t immediately bring you over to meet us but we knew you were in great hands. We were sent to recovery and waited patiently to meet you. Finally you arrived all wrapped up like a burrito. We breathed a sigh of relief that you were ok. The moment our eyes met for the first time and I saw your sweet little face, it was magical. My heart opened up so wide and any previous thoughts of my inability to love two children quickly disappeared. You came out with chubby cheeks and looked exactly like your big brother. You were perfect and we were in love.

It is so surreal that it’s already been a year. We have enjoyed watching you grow and cheering you on as you accomplished all of your “firsts” from smiling, rolling, laughing, crawling, waving, clapping, and even walking. You are an angel, you love to cuddle, you are loud, curious, smart and intuitive, full of life, hilarious, charming, and boy do you love your big brother!

This last year has been amazing and I can’t wait to see what your second year brings. You and Carson mean the world to us; you are our purpose in life – our everything. Thank you for making our family complete, for making our lives even more exciting and rewarding.

Happy Birthday baby T. We love you forever.

Mommy and Daddy

And because I can't post without pics....here is a pic from his newborn session that still makes my heart melt.

And how much he has grown.

And another from his 1 year photo shoot. I love them!! (photos by Anni from www.anniohphotos.com)

Some things never change.

I always loved this pic of Carson sleeping at about 6 weeks old. He looked so sweet and peaceful - a far cry from his crazy personality now - but we always laughed since I sleep the exact same way!



Well last week he was napping in our bed since he refuses to nap in his own these days (that's for another post!) and I walked in to him passed out watching Toy Story and had to take this pic. It reminded me SO much of the one from above. Three years later and he still sleeps the same way...and so do I!


On a side note, check out the bruises on his legs. The kid plays HARD.

Tyler is 'almost' walking!

He's been taking steps here and there for about 2 weeks but just last week he started walking more and more. He is walking across the room now!

Click the arrow to start the video...

A few more Carson funnies.....

Setting - in the car ride home from Target as we drive past lots of farms since well, we live in farm country USA!

Carson: "mommy I wish we were farmers so we can ride on tractors alllll day."
Me: "oh honey, farmers have really rough lives. It's not really that glamorous."

Then I think why did I even open up a can of worms here, he is so inquisitive that I end up going way deeper than I planned about why they have rough lives but then I think that maybe he's so darn smart because I talk to him like an adult and not a 3 year old so I continue, LOL!!

So I changed the subject by telling him that Tyler and Daddy will be having birthdays soon and asking if we should throw parties....

Carson: "mommy, how old is daddy going to be?"
Me: 40!!!
Carson: "wow that is really tall!

I just love the fact that he relates age to height, too cute. And we continue on....

Me: "carson, you need to stop growing. You boys are just getting sooo big and mommy wants you to slow down."
Carson: "you mean tyler is getting big not me mommy, I'm already big."

Tyler's 1st haircut.

Everytime I tell someone that Tyler got his first haircut last weekend I get crazy looks or comments like "what hair did you cut?" and believe it or not, he did have a lot of hair. It was just concentrated in one place! I always regret not cutting Carson's before his first birthday since many of his pics from that age have his comb-over bang in his eyes and it just looks like a straggly mess.

So here are a few before pics so you can see his mohawk.



He was not a fan of the actual process at all!

But he was so happy once it was over. Look how cute!!!

One big MAY update.

I was going through pics and realized I slacked off in May and have some catching up to do so I thought I would just do one long May update post. I think the main reason I slacked off was because Tyler is my crazy one and all over the house!

So, we have been incredibly busy keeping up with him. He is so fast and it takes all 3 of us to track him down and keep him out of the plantation shutters, bathrooms, and anything else he can get his hands on.







Carson just adores him but we are having some territory issues already since Tyler wants NOTHING to do with baby toys, I mean nothing at all. I am going to either give them all to my friends with babies or donate them since he has already advanced to trucks and cars and plays with all of Carson's toys - or rather the ones that Carson allows him to play with while he is playing with something else!



We had a triathlon go through our community and the last biker was trailed by police cars. Carson wouldn't leave the back doors until they were all of of sight. This kids loves "emergencies" as he calls them which in his world means that anytime we see an emergency vehicle it has to be an emergency, right?


Dan and I celebrated 5 years together. He got me this cute little chocolate cake in addition to flowers and we went out to dinner to celebrate. I had just gotten some Mother's Day $$$ the week prior so no gifts were exchanged this time.



Oh and here is a pic of our first kiss as a married couple!!
Tyler started taking rides in the red buggy - which was Carson's first bday gift from me! He loves it and Carson loves to push him around too.




We hit the playground and Tyler had his first swing experience. I am actually surprised we hadn't taken him before. Carson refused to get his picture taken.


And we went to the beach the weekend before Memorial Day with our dear friends. Tyler disliked the sand so he hung out in the stroller the whole time.




There is a lot more but this is getting long and I am tired of trying to get the pics arranged in the right order so I will just highlight some other things that happened in May:

- Tyler started to walk with his walker all over the house and he loves for us to hold his hands and walk with him.
- He also waves hi, claps, and does a full arm point to things. He does things on command as well and knows objects by name too. Oh and he is 11 months old TODAY!!!!
- Carson helped daddy hang flags for Memorial Day and decorate all around the house too. They also built a bird feeder and hung it from a tree outside the window.
- Carson participated in his school pre-k graduation and performed in front of lots of people as Pup in a Cup from a Dr. Seuss book.
- Tyler had his first ER visit after 4 hours of non-stop crying and it was a double ear infection. Earlier in the same week he had croup and pink eye. Now he has eczema and something else called keratosis - all harmless but so annoying that he has had so many issues!

So that's it for now......