Skidamarinky dinky doo

Here is a cute video I had wanted to put on the post a few days back about Tyler, but I couldn't find it. This was a song he learned in preschool a few months back, he loves singing it all the time (the first song he starts singing is from his favorite Liken musical, Esther)...

Enjoy his lovely singing skills ;)

Extend. Cultivate. Smile. Develop. Create.

I saw this this morning and felt an overwhelming feeling to share it with my friends and family who read our blog. I grew up around a mother and a father who are both amazingly creative and who inspired and encouraged all of their children to be the same way. We are each talented and creative in our own unique ways, thanks to our parents. I only pray that I can inspire my children to do the same.

"We each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before...Creation is your oppurtunity in this, and in the life to come. Start small. Creativity does not require a brush, a pen, or the keys of a piano. Don't let the voice of critics paralyze you. Extend, Cultivate, Smile, Develop, Create. " -Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf, An Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ
Enjoy this quick video-

Earth Day

For Earth Day this year Jack's company, Raytheon, gave their employees an oppurtunity to get a free tree to plant, so we said sure, why not! We chose to get a Colorado Blue Spruce. That night when Jack got home from work we went and got some things so we could plant it. Tyler thought it was pretty cool to have his own tree to plant (even though he keeps calling it his flower). Here are some pictures! Maybe one day, years from now, I'll have a different post showing how big it is after being planted in our backyard...if it survives our non-green-thumbs and a 3 year old being guardian over it.

The suppliesGiving it some T-L-C

House Update!

It's official, our closing date is May 28, which also happens to be our 5-year Wedding Anniversary! The countdown is 1 month and 3 days! We are so excited, things are moving so fast at the house, it'll be ours before we know it. When we first moved here we were living in Jimmy and Bekah's basement until we found our apartment. I remember us talking about how we thought it'd be smart to live in the apartment for about a year and then buy a house, because we would save a lot of money doing it this way. When we first talked about this option I thought "No way, I can't be in an apartment that long, we'll be in a house way before a year" Well, here we are, well past a year in the apartment, and it wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with living in an apartment, but it was just a hard adjustment from our 4 bedroom house in Tucson, to a 2 bedroom apartment here. It hasn't been easy, but we've managed. We'll just be happy to spread out our furniture and finally unpack all of our things. I know we are so blessed to be in the position to be able to buy a new home and for that I am greatful.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the building progress!

April 2, 2009

April 16, 2009

April 25, 2009

The picture on the left is the family room, the hallway leads to the den (which will be the playroom) and to the garage door. This other picture is the kitchen, the random wall in the middle will be the back of the island.

Easter 2009

We had a wonderful Easter weekend this year. On Saturday we had an Easter dinner with Jack's brothers family (Jimmy, Bekah, Evan and Allison) and also had a fun Easter egg hunt for the kids. They seemed to have a lot of fun, and enjoyed counting all their eggs afterwards. It was a perfect day too! (Last year we had to have the egg hunt inside their house, so we were happy we didn't have to do that again)

This was their idea of posing for me before we let them loose for the Easter Egg Hunt

The easter bunny came once we were all asleep and left this great basket full of fun things like a Transformer kite, a ball that makes music, a card game for mommy and daddy, books, and of course a little candy. We had a great Easter day, we had Stake Conference at church, and it was a broadcast, so we were able to hear from our beloved Prophet President Monson (2 weeks in a row since General Conference was last week!) as well as one of the apostles Elder Oaks. We got together with a couple other familes we are good friends with and had a nice dinner, fun easter egg hunt for the boys, and had fun just hanging out with them.

The Easter Loot: These are Tyler's friends who he had a little Easter Egg hunt with on Sunday- Liam, Collin, and Jackson.

And finally, here is a picture I had Bekah take of our little family (Thanks!)

(More fun pictures from our Saturday Mo Family easter egg hunt HERE)

High Flyin' Fun

The Easter Bunny brought Tyler a new Transformers kite and he has been so excited to have it! It is windy just about every other day here, so it'll get good use. Here's some fun video showing his excitement (and you can see Jack was having as much fun as Tyler) He loves to chase after it...which isn't so great when he's the one with the kite, just doesn't work too well.

Tyler Update

Oh where do I start when it comes to an update on Tyler? He is one funny kid. One funny kid who has an attitude all too often now, and thinks he rules the house. We'll start with the funny part though.

He says the funniest things lately:

-Last sunday we were sitting next to another family with many kids. Tyler was having fun drawing "pictures" (by picture I mean one little mark on the paper) and giving them to the teenager girl. She would smile, laugh a little and say Thank you Tyler each time. Well, one time he was walking away as she smiled at him and whispered to me "Mommy, why does her have a necklace on her teeth?" At first I had to think about it...then i remembered she has braces. I guess that would look like a necklace to a year old huh?

-He was pretending to put me to bed the other day and told me this story : "Once upon a time there was a chicken, who's name was Chicken Licken (this is a name from a story he has). Chicken Licken was afraid and went to tell the farmer. But he ran into a monster. The dinosaur went roooaaar! and ate Chicken licken. But then he choked. and didn't eat Chicken Licken. And the chicken said "Heavenly Father, thank you, I am A Child of God." The end.

He has a pretty amazing imagination lately too (as you can see from the story above) But here is a picture that shows his lovely imagination......before I explain it, can you figure out what this is?

Now boarding Mo Airlines...fly at your own risk. This is Tyler's airplane. Complete with 4 wings, a phone, a "speed dial", a microphone, stearing system, and tail lights. His mind is always moving, thinking up new things, taking every toy, blanket and pillow he owns and putting them together to make something (but to my non-imaginative adult eye just looks like a big messy pile that I will end up cleaning later). I'm pretty sure this is how Jack was as a kid, Tyler must be on the engineer track too even though he often reminds us he's going to be a "trash guy" when he grows up.

It's not all fun and games all the time though. He is definitely growing some sort of attitude, throwing tantrums when he doesn't get his way, complete with flinging arms and legs around and screaming at me. hmm...Surely I never did things like that when I was a kid. But once he calms down, he always melts my heart with his apologies, "Sorry mommy, I try to do better". He's also the typical preschooler who likes to get into things. The other day I was doing my hair and thought "Oh, he's being so good and quiet for me" Then the thought came into my head, it's not always what it seems....so I peeked my head around the corner, sure enough...I accidently left the lotion out after changing Jacob and Tyler was putting lotion all over his hair. Once he saw me I said "Um, excuse me, what are you doing???" "I'm doing my hair spikey like daddy!!!" Oy.

He still loves singing so much, which makes me so happy! We borrowed a DVD a while ago from some friends from a company called Liken the Scriptures. The movie is about Queen Esther and is in the form of a musical. Tyler L-O-V-E-S it! When I first turned it on it was so cheesy and funny I wasn't sure if he'd like it. Actually, the first time I had it on Jack walked out and said "Are you kidding me? What is this?" and won't be in the same room while its on haha. Well, Tyler fell in love with it and is constantly singing the songs from it still...a month and a half later (this is a link to some of the songs he's been singing- particularly the middle two.) We've watched it almost daily. I actually hear the music so much now I can't get it out of my head. (Sorry we haven't returned it yet Garretts...we will soon, I promise!) This is a picture of him dressed up as the king from the musical.

He is growing up so fast. He keeps us laughing, but also does a great job at developing our patience.