Happy Birthday, Tyler!

As I am slowly getting caught up I wanted to tell Tyler Happy Birthday! I can't believe you are 4 years old now! I will put a blog in time about the events of his birthday and how grateful I am to be his mom and have him as a son. I am VERY lucky! Happy Birthday, Son!

Lincoln's Birthday Party Back In November

Hey Everyone... slowly I am getting caught up from the months of delay with all I had on my plate. So, now we are at Lincoln's year mark! (November 8th).

First lets show the comparison of my three boys growth at 1 year.

12 MONTHS:
PARKER:
19 lbs 3 oz (7th percentile)
29.25 inches long (40th percentile)
47 cm (60th percentile)

TYLER:
17 lbs 9 oz (-10th? (who knows) percentile)
29 inches long (25th percentile)
45 cm (15th percentile)

LINCOLN:
18 lbs 12 oz (5th percentile)
29.5 inches long (45th percentile)
46 cm (40th percentile)

It is fun to see the comparison of my skinny kids :D.

Now onto his birthday party!

Here is his birthday invitation for Lincoln's "Block" Party!:


Here is his cake.

I learned a lot from this cake.
1. Give yourself more time.
2. Frosting a cut cake is not easy. I definitely didn't do a great job on that. About 2 weeks later we had a Relief Society activity and part of it was cake decorating. I learned you need to do a crumb layer first before putting on the real layer. Ok, nice... would have been nice to know that two weeks before, LOL.
3. Decorating a cake with a one year old wanting to be held doesn't make it easy.
4. Make sure you have enough frosting to frost your cake or it is a lot harder.
5. Make sure your board is big enough or you have to be more creative on how to position the cakes, LOL.

Here are photographs from his party:

Because the theme was shapes the kids all decorated their treat bags with shapes.


The kids then decorated the sidewalk, using shapes.


Next we had two teams race to build the biggest tower they could with shapes.


The goal of the "square" beanbag toss was to get as many in as they could and win a prize.


Now it was time to open presents.



Lincoln was getting tired... partied out! Gotta have your favorite "B" and your daddy to cuddle.

Cake time! I think being tired and having the cake be as big as his head made for a not so eventful cake eating for Lincoln. He didn't eat much of it that was for sure.





Lincoln loves ballons! We love how long the high float lasts! Joy for weeks!



Happy Birthday, Linkers! We love you soooooooooooo much!!!

Way Far Behind: Catching Up - Halloween

I am so far behind... it has been a hectic few months. Hopefully I can get caught up. I will start back where I ended off and work my way through the months to tell you what has been going on in our family. I guess the next update is Halloween, hahaha. Here I go:

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Parker only had one Halloween. He was in the NICU at PCMC on his first Halloween when he was 3 days old. When he was 3 days shy of turning 1 he had his first and only Halloween. Toran and Erin let us use a scarecrow costume for Parker. Because of the events that followed in Parker's death Toran and Erin graciously gave us the scarecrow costume. We have had Tyler and now Lincoln be the scarecrow on their first Halloween. Here is a three "generation" scarecrow as well as other photographs from Halloween 2009 (click on image to enlarge).


Parker just turned 1. Tyler was about 8 1/2 months old. Lincoln is about 2 weeks shy of being 1.

Since Lincoln was a scarecrow Tyler was a Tin Man. Also my twin sister, Lori, had her kids Ami as Dorothy and Enoch as the Lion. It was fun to have the Wizard of Oz crew. Here are some other pics of the Halloween parties and Halloween Day. Enjoy!

These photographs are from my Dad's work Halloween Party:

Here is a play-by-play of Lincoln at the bean bag toss game at my dads work halloween party. I thought it was hilarious and cute. Click on the image to enlarge it if you want.



Here is Tyler and his cousin Ammon doing the candy walk. I wish I counted how many times Tyler did this! Around and around and around he went...


Look I am in a photograph! My kids have a mom! This is evidence, hahaha. I am usually the one taking photographs so it is cool to be in some sometimes.




Here is Tyler with his cousins witch hat on.


Here is Lincoln with his cousin Emma.




Our neighbors invited us to go on a train ride that is in their parents neighborhood. It was hard to get photographs... but here is me with my boys:


Here are photographs from our Ward Halloween Party:






Here are photographs from Halloween Day.
We lost Tyler's hat... we found it weeks later. He was sad to not have it when he went Trick or Treating... alas:

Tyler is ready to knock in advance... cocked and ready!



Here is out Wizard of Oz Crew: Enoch: Lion; Ami: Dorothy; Lincoln: Scarecrow; Tyler: Tin Man.



We hope you had a Happy Halloween!

Catching Up - Parker's Birthday

The day was not smooth so we didn't have time to do all that we wanted to do in memory of our little boy, Parker. We would have a 6 year old in the house! It is crazy to think how different our lives would be.

1. We would have three kids crammed into our little condo.
2. We would have three kids in our mini van along with Lori's two kids (who we take care of on Tues and Thurs)... our van would be completely full! To have that empty spot in the mini van reminds me of how much I wish I could have him sitting there and yet I hold him close in my heart.
3. I would be taking him to kindergarten every morning and helping him with homework.
4. ... so many things.

I miss you Parker!!!!

So, back to the day... my parents had something come up and had to go somewhere so I had Lori's children from about 10am - 2pm. That was fine and I was glad to help but it did make it VERY difficult to get Parker's cake done (which we had to rush to a certain degree) and also we didn't get to the cemetary, which made us sad. But we had a good time thinking of him and we hope Parker loves his cake! We wish we had more time to do a better job (as I am a perfectionist in many ways) but alas... we did the best we could.

Happy Birthday Parker!!!!!!!!!

We made a race car cake for Parker with the #6 on it. Rodger taught Tyler to say "Start your engines. Lets go racing boys". It is awesome. We were going to attempt fondant but ran out of time to try something new.

Mom, Dad, Tyler, and Lincoln with Parker's cake. Thanks for coming on short notice Mom and Dad. We love you!

The family! We miss you Parker!!!

Catching Up - My Birthday

The day of my birthday was not a great day. Rodger took a double shift and we planned on celebrating my birthday the following week when he would have a few days off in a row. Everything went wrong on my birthday and in the end I cried as I was so worn out from the kids being pills. I even asked Tyler why he was misbehaving so much and especially on my birthday. He broke down crying and said "I don't know" and I cried and we both just cried. It was a long and horrible day. Looking back I laugh at it all. I think we do that a lot. But man... what a LONG day that was. I then pretended Monday or Wednesday would be my birthday depending on which day turned out the best. Monday was awesome so I took that day as my birthday :D.

Rodger made me a cake and I love him for making it for me, especially when he had the kids to balance while doing it. I have had to do that and it is definitely not as relaxing to make a cake in those circumstances. I love you Rodger!

Happy Birthday to me (oh and my twin, Lori; my brother in law, Leonard; sister in law, Cindy; and nephew, Sean). We have a lot of people with October 17th as their birthday!!!!

A Few More Funny Things

A few more things I have written down of things Tyler says or does:

1. When Tyler would try to do something that required several steps to complete the task at hand he would say "I got!" instead of "I forgot". I loved it when he did this. He was so enthusiastic as he proclaimed he forgot something. He would concentrate and do it again until he got it right. "I got"... I miss him saying that.

2. Tyler has a hard time with saying the word Elephant. We went to the Hogle Zoo to see the baby elephant (the baby elephant is soooooooooooooo cute by the way). Anyways, he would call it an Efanant instead of Elephant. There is another word he has as hard time saying too and I can't remember what it is. When I remember I will put it on here.. because it is sooooo cool how he says it.

3. Here is a story about Tyler... I LOVE it and cracks me up is. Here is the story: About two months ago Tyler I was going to carry something. Tyler wanted to help so I let him. As he struggled to carry it he said "I have strong elbows huh mommy?" I laughed and said "Yes, Tyler you have very strong elbows." He then flexed his muscles. Periodically as he carries things that are "heavy" he will proclaim that he has "strong elbows". I love it! What a cool kid! Who knew it was our elbows that needed to be strong enough!

4. We have a playground outside our condo. Tyler loves to play outside with his friends. Whenever he sees anyone out there he wants to go out and play with them. One day his friends were all gone to the stores or taking naps so he was all alone. I went outside with him and he played. He decided to build a temple out of wood chips. So he started making his pile higher and higher. As it got bigger he said "I need my trophy". I said, "you need a trophy?" He said "Yes, for me temple". I said "Ohhhhhhhhhhh you need a statue for the Angel Moroni?" He said "Yes". I laughed and helped him find a pine cone which he then put on his temple. He made several temples throughout the playground. He did get a little emotional later when some of the kids were playing and ruined his temples... but I told him he could just build more.

One time his next door neighbors were helping him build a temple and they even pulled all the weeds that were growing in the wood chips and used them as trees that went around the temple. I love the imagination of kids!


An update on Lincoln... He is a walking fool now. He walks basically all the time now. He started walking fairly well right at 10 months of age, but he couldn't stand up in the middle of the room. Over the past several days he is perfecting that now. He even likes to try and turn around in circles in the middle of the room trying to make himself dizzy! It is fun to see him growing up. I love you Linkers!

Happy Birthday, Rodger

Ok, I am a few days late, but Rodger's birthday was on Sunday. He has to work on Sunday's now, so we made his birthday cake last night.

Here are photographs of all sides of his cake:

My friend Rickelle helped too. She is the best and helped me a lot. She is wanting to learn how to make cakes just like I do. Thanks Rickelle!

Me and Tyler waiting for Rodger to come home from work so we can give him his cake!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!!!

Happy Birthday, Rodger! We love you!

Photographs from Preschool

Ok...so it took me a bit to get the photographs up. Here they are:

This is Tyler and Ami before we went to preschool.

This is Tyler and Ami before heading into their preschool. Ummmm... Ami is a little bigger then Tyler. Who would know Tyler is three months older. Ami's big hair doesn't help either, LOL.

This is Tyler and Ami showing us their backpacks.

This is Tyler and Ami working on their first project. They made name mosaics.

This is Tyler and Ami very focused on their project.

Just a quick little story:
Today Tyler got to be the Super Citizen (Ami said he was the Super Cinnamon, LOL) because Tyler did a good job at cleaning up and sharing. He got to wear a crown and hold the flag during the Pledge of Allegiance. Good job Tyler!