Tyler's Birthday Party

Ok... now to Tyler's PENGUIN OLYMPIC PARTY!!!

Originally we were going to do a fireman party. He wanted that so badly. But because of H1N1 the firemen/paramedics were not allowing visits to the firehouse because they didn't want to spread illness to those they help. Alas. I talked Tyler into doing an Olympic party since his birthday was during the Olympics.

Tyler was actually born during the Olympics. In fact, a funny story, while I was in labor our doctor, Dr. Peterson, was hanging out and watching the Olympics with us. I finally dilated to a 10. So, my doctor said it was time. At that time we were watching the bobsled events. I asked my doctor if he wanted to finish watching the bobsled races. He said "that would be great if you don't mind". I said "no problem. I have an epidural". We laughed and finished watching the bobsled races. At 10:44pm Tyler was born!

When I talked to Tyler about changing to the Olympic party he said he wanted to do a Penguin Olympics. I said "Ok. That sounds great. Lets do it". He was very excited.

Here is Tyler's invitation:


After I finished the invitation I showed Tyler it on the computer. I asked him what he thought of it and he said "It's ok". I said "It's ok?" He said "Yea, it needs another picture of me". I laughed. I said three isn't enough?" What a cute kid.

At his birthday party, we had several Olympic events the kids participated in. All the kids lined up as Tyler carried the Olympic Torch!




Following the Opening Ceremony the kids participated in the Biathlon where they "skied" around the kitchen floor and then "shot" bean bags into circles. They each received a Gold Medal for their accomplishments! Go Olympians!





Following the Biathlon the Olympians, who trained very hard, then participated in the 2-Man Bobsled! (sliding down the stairs in a sleeping bag). Many runs were taken by each Olympian! Another Gold Medal was awarded for their great efforts and teamwork!





For the final event the kids participated in the Ski Jump! They jumped onto one large beanbag and then we flipped them in the air onto a second beanbag. We did have one sports injury as Kayden accidentally kicked himself in the head. But he was a tough competitor and returned to the events after a few tears. They all worked hard and received a THIRD Gold Medal!





Following the events the kids made igloos and penguins out of marshmallows and tooth picks.




Then came the Birthday Cake! This was my first time working with fondant. I definitely did some things wrong and will do better next time, hopefully. I am glad I tried it. I didn't have to make it smooth since it didn't need to be, so that helped a lot. It was hard to find penguins for the cake (I didn't want to attempt them in fondant since I had never done fondant work before) so we ended up having to buy a game called Penguin Pile Up.







There was a final Medal Ceremony to honor our Olympians! Congratulations!



Finally, the birthday presents. Tyler loved all of his presents and being with his friends. He still hums the Olympic theme song to this day!



HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TYLER!!!

Thank You, Pirates, and Birthdays

For Christmas, some of Santa's Elves surprised us with gifts for Christmas. One of the things the Elves gave to us was a gift card to Pirate Island. We decided to take Tyler for his birthday. I wish you could have seen his face as we were approaching the building and went inside. It was hilarious! As we got close we told him to look for the pirate flag that is on the building. We had a Pirate Island brochure and he saw the flag on the brochure and the flag on the building. He said "They match! I found it!" (He loves when things "match"). He was feeling so grown up when he found it. He told us we had to drive and couldn't go on a boat since there wasn't any water. True enough!

When we went inside and were going to order the food the waitress asked what we wanted to drink. Tyler said "I want pirate juice!" We laughed. Perfect. What else could you want as a pirate, right?

Below are photographs from his birthday night at Pirate Island. (There is one of Lincoln walking up the slide... amazing he could do this at 15 months of age! I was impressed)

















We had an awesome time! Thank you Elves!!!!!! We could have never done this financially without this blessing. Thank you!

I love having my four year old! Tyler is a wonderful boy. I tell him all the time how lucky I am to get to be him mom. I truly am grateful for him. He has helped heal my heart after Parker died. I will always remember the day he was born and holding him in my arms.



Happy Birthday, Tyler!

(P.S. I just read this to Tyler before I posted it. After I read the last paragraph he cried. He loves Parker so much. I just held Tyler and told him he is a good brother and I love him with all of my heart). I love you, Tyler!

Funny Things

When there are funny things I put a little note in my cell phone and go back later to add it in a blog. Some of these things happened before the date but I never wrote them down so it is approximate. I decided since Lincoln is asleep and Tyler is at his friend Anthony's house that I have a moment to actually do something for myself. Here are the funny things I have jotted down:

December 18 - Tyler is a funny boy on his Tyler-lingo. When he is describing about something he will be doing tomorrow morning he uses the lingo "Tomorring". Very creative! I think it should be in the dictionary, hahah.

December 22 - Tyler came up to me and put his arm around my shoulder and said "You are the greatest mom I ever saw for"! How cool is that? I love how he phrases it too. I laughed and gave him a hug and said, "Thank you so much Tyler! You are the greatest son I ever saw for too!" He tells me I am the greatest at least once a week. What a cool kid!

January 1 - More Tyler-lingo - "Oh dane!" (for "Oh Dang"). I love when he says this. It cracks me up! He is very intense with it.

January 8 - I told Tyler he needed to get ready for bed and to get his pajamas on. He came out all dressed and said "I have my pajammies on, momma". Pajammies... that too should be in the dictionary!

January 11 - Pronunciation by Tyler - I can't find my glubs (aka gloves)"

January 15 - A little emotional time for me when on this day when Lincoln was playing with some blankets and got a blanket wrapped around his leg. He wriggled and squiggled to get out and he said "Stuck". This is what Parker said when he had his arms tied to keep him from pulling cords, etc before his same day surgery on July 8, 2005. Stuck, stuck. I had no idea Lincoln even knew this word. Sigh.

February 18 - Tyler's birthday. Lincoln is a hilarious boy. For Christmas Tyler and Lincoln each received one of those stick horses. One day when I had my twin sisters kids to take care of Enoch, my nephew, was riding one horse and was saying "giddy-up". Lincoln got the other horse and tried to copy Enoch. Eventually Lincoln learned and said "git, git, git". It was soooooooooo cute. Now Lincoln rides everything! I will hear him in his room saying "git, git, git" and I look to see what he will be riding as he comes out of the room. He has ridden a horse, baseball bat, tupperware lid, stinky diaper in a sack as he rode it to the trash can, space shuttle toy, legos, phones, remote controls, etc etc etc. I LOVE IT! (I thought I took a photograph of him riding things, but I think it was just video. I will have to take one and add it to this blog entry)

February 28 - I was on my way to our EFHE (Extended Family Home Evening) on the last Sunday of each month, where all of my family who live around here get together to have dinner and play and lessons. There was a billboard with an astronaut on it. Tyler said "There is an astronaut! I love astronauts. I want to go in a spaceship one day." I asked him questions about where he would go, etc. He said "I will go to another planet and live there for a while." I said "Oh really. That would be cool". He said "But don't worry mom. I will come back and visit you". I laughed and said "I am soooooooo glad because I would miss you so much!" What a cutie pot.... even when he is up in space he would want to visit his mom!

Another thing at the EFHE: I taught the lesson to the adults on going to the temple and the importance of it. I told how we need to prepare our children in understanding what the temple is and how we get there (in preparation), though I told a quick story about how Tyler would see the temple and say "Momma, I see the temple! How do we get there?" I would say "we drive". After the adult lesson, my sister Sharolyn taught the kids their lesson. She also did it on the temple. She asked the kids "how do we get to the temple?" Immediately Tyler raised his hand and said "you drive!" We all laughed. I guess my son is listening and learning, hahahh! Now I just need to teach him what we need to do to prepare to be worthy to enter the temple, right?

Tyler's Birthday

Tyler's birthday was February 18th. I am finally getting to the blog. I will backtrack after trying to be updated at the same time... is that possible?

First of all, Tyler's birthday this year was on a Thursday, but we had his birthday party on Saturday. So I had his party on my mind the whole time and not the actual birthday for having to accomplish anything. So at about midnight on the 17th I looked at my cell phone to see what was "on my plate" for the next day. I saw the words "preschool" on the phone. I froze! Ugh! Tyler has preschool AND it is his birthday! I needed to make something for him to take to his preschool class to celebrate his birthday! What was I going to do!?!?!?! Rodger had gone to bed early as he had to wake up very early to go to work. I thought, I could make something lame for his first birthday at school or I could wait and have him take something on Tuesday. I decided to wake Rodger and see what he wanted me to do. He said he wanted to have Tyler take something. He didn't want it to be lame either. So he said he would get some sugar cookies early in the morning and some frosting before he left for work then I could wake up earlier and decorate them. He called me at about 3:30am and said the bakery didn't have any sugar cookies or the buttercream frosting. Of course. Great. Now what? So, Rodger saw some M&M cookies that would work and I told him to go to the frosting isle and grab some white frosting there. So he did.

So I awoke early, quickly colored the frosting, and decorated the cookies. The problem was the M&M cookies were not what I expected. They were the ones with big M&Ms so they were all bumpy to decorate and the frosting wasn't buttercream so it doesn't "set" very well and was hard to transport without the frosting smearing. But it worked out and Tyler was SO happy to take his cookies to his class friends.



HAPPY BIRTHDAY TYLER!!!!