Christmas

We had a very busy Christmas this year. Four xmases in all- Xmas eve with Johnny's family, our own Xmas morning and Xmas day at my Mom's, the day after with Johnny's parents, and a weekend in Palm Springs with my Dad. Tyler loved it all but he was very overwhelmed and on a sugar high for most of it. Needless to say, we did not get the best behavior out of him.

We did have such a great holiday. Santa surprised Tyler with so many goodies- a quad and a basketball hoop. Such a lucky guy. We are so lucky too be able to spend the holidays with everyone we love.

THANKSGIVING

Thanksgiving was interesting, to say the least, but still enjoyable. We woke up and ate pumpkin spice, chocolate chip pancakes and watched the Macy's parade. Tyler loved the singing and dancing and, of course, the Sesame Street float. He stared at the tv and danced to all of the music. He also loved the turkey float!
This was the first Thanksgiving I have ever hosted. I cleaned all week and started coking Wednesday after work. I brined and cooked my very first whole turkey to perfection, made delicious sausage stuffing, potatoes au gratin, cranberry relish (from scratch), green bean casserole, and spinach salad. The rest of the family brought other dishes too.
My Mom and Steve arrived around 2ish and my Mom walked in and plopped on the couch. I asked her what was wrong and she said "I'm so nauseous". A few hours later, my Dad and Lynda arrived and when my Dad walked in the door he too stated that he didn't feel too well. (All three of us had the stomach flu last week so it was okay for them to be around us.)
It turns out that my Mom had the stomach flu and my Dad was having late chemo side effects. (I don't think that I have ever posted about my Dad's cancer but, he has stage 4 colon cancer and this is his third recurrence.) So, needless to say, I will be eating thanksgiving dinner for the rest of the week. Good thing it was all delicious!

Time for an Update

Finally posting again!. Our computer was in the shop for a while and it took forever to rehabilitate it. Posted some old stuff that I was working on while we waited to be allowed to upload photos.

Halloween

Happy Halloween! Tyler was a puppy dog this year. I decided this was a good fit because he can say doggie and he barks whenever he sees one. He did not bark once while wearing his costume. Typical.
Grammie and Pop came over and we ate dinner and waited for the festivities to come knocking on our door. They never did. We ended up leaving a bowl of candy on the front porch which was pretty much untouched.
Tyler loved trick-or-treating. By the last few houses he was getting the idea of going to the door and ringing the doorbell. He would take a piece of candy and then give it back. There was a kid in a 'scream' mask that scared the crap out of him but otherwise he had fun.
Next year I am not buying candy as I have a huge bowl on top of my fridge that could possibly last until next Halloween.

A Trip To the Pumpkin Patch

Ah, California. The day that we went to Peltzer Farms was quite hot; 90-something degrees, I believe. We were sweating but, pressed through and had some fun. Tyler, dripping sweat down his back, didn't know where to start. He ran in circles looking at all of the pumpkins on the ground, trying to decide which one he could pick up, and chose a gourd. he ran around the pumpkin patch with a little green gourd and screamed when we took it away. (I took it away so that we could go into the petting zoo.)

Tyler in the petting zoo was hilarious. He smacked at the goats and screamed when a turkey gobbled at him. He tried to get out of the caged area but, a large, overstuffed goat was sleeping in the exit, blocking his escape. This did not stop our little man who climbed over the goat and ran off.

Other highlights include getting lost in a corn maze (thanks Mom), watching a political pig race (Biden won), and going home without a pumpkin because they were too expensive. Hopefully, next October won't be so hot!

Tyler's 1st Birthday

Wow! I can't believe that our little man is already one. This year has gone by so fast. We had such a blast celebrating Tyler's birthday and, typical for our family, we had a whole weekend of birthday fun.

The celebrating started on Friday morning, his actual birthday, with a special Elmo pancake breakfast with Mommy and Daddy. We sang happy birthday to him and he clapped and danced for the first few bars, then looked at us as if to say, "When are you going to stop. You're hurting my ears." That afternoon, we went to have pictures done and had lunch at Red Robin.

That evening, we had an Elmo themed party. Mommy and Daddy and all the grandparents were there to celebrate. Tyler loved digging into the cake but wasn't into opening gifts. He did, however, love riding in his new Radio Flyer.

Saturday, we had a huge party for our "little prince". All of our friends and family were there. Tyler loved seeing everyone. He jumped in the bouncer with Mommy and Mimi and clapped for the skydiver who landed in the field in front of our house.

All in all, it was a fabulous celebration. Thanks to all who joined us. What are we going to do for the next birthday?

Sea World

We took Tyler to Sea World last weekend and he had a blast! I mean come on, it's where Elmo lives. Of course he loved it. You wouldn't know it was Sea World by the pictures because we hung out in the Bay of Play most of the time. There is a 4D show for kids with the Sesame Street characters in it and Tyler loves S.S. so we took him too it. He found it very frightening when the seat in front of him spit water and air in his face. Apparently not for children after all. Enjoy the pictures of our cutie.

House Before

Ahh, our work in progress. Her are some before photos of our humble abode. Afters to come shortly.

Our dining room or Tyler's first playroom. It has

since moved upstairs

Our living room and all the stuff we decided we

didn't want to keep after storing it for a year.

The front of the house and all the weeds. You should see the back yard.

The ugly orange wall in the master bedroom. Also, one of two painted walls in the house. The other, in the office, also ugly orange.

Family Beach Day

We went to Oceanside yesterday for Tyler's first beach day. For a 10 month old, beach day means beach hour or two. Tyler loved the sand until he rubbed it in his eye and ate a fistful of it and even then he collected himself for a minute and kept on playing in it. He also enjoyed the fine cuisine of seaweed. The ocean itself was a different story. Perhaps I should have eased him into it instead of plopping him down on the sand for an incoming wave. He was terrified, cling onto us for dear life. Johnny did some bodyboarding but, the waves were not so good. 2 hours after we arrived, someone got super tired and that was the end of our beach adventure. Alas, I am still finding sand in Tyler's crack. Another day, another time, we will try again.

3 Year Anniversary

Well, it is hard to believe but, it has been 3 years since our fairytale wedding. It was the most wonderful day of our lives and, although trying, the best 3 years as well.
We went out for sushi at Shogun last night and we exchanged silly cards. My step-dad asked what gift you give each other the third year (1st is paper, 2nd is cotton?), I relpied flat screen TV. We decided not to exchange gifts but buy something new for the house.
Anyways, it was a fun night for just the 2 of us (Grammie babysat) and here's to 50 more!
Just little memory for you all:

Finally settling in

We moved into our new house on July 13th and it has been more of a project than we thought it would be. We knew that buying a bank owned home would mean a lot of work but, this particular house didn't seem to need as much as others we had seen. Silly us, being the first time homeowners that we are, assumed the house was move in ready. 1 week, 9 gallons of paint, 3 bottles of cleanser, a good carpet shampooing, and about 50 outlet covers later we were ready to move in.
The move itself went relatively smoothly and it has only taken us 2 weeks to get ourselves unpacked. I am now less embarrassed to show off our work in progress and happy to say that only 3 half unpacked boxes remain inside of the house. (The garage is a different story but we will get to that someday.)
So happy to be able to show off our new house to all of you and to (finally) keep you posted on all that is happening with us 3.