A little bit of Tyson

Mom and Tysha get to spend quite a bit of time with Tyson. So while its very very hard for us to be so far away, we are extremely grateful for our family taking such an active part in his life. He loves it of coarse. I'm sure Grandma and Aunt Tysha are on his top ten favorite people of all time list.

We love getting pictures of him. I thought I lost these ones in the transfer from phone to computer. They were taken before Halloween, during Harvest week.

After Tyson's soccer game...



Logan has the most awesome pumpkin walk. They all had a blast despite the cold weather.





Awww, how we miss his humor and genuine sweetness. TYSON, WE LOVE YOU.
And to Mom and Tysha, thanks for spoiling and loving our boy so much and for sharing all your pictures and adventures with us.

Waterpaint

Painting with water. We did this about 2 yrs ago at a friend's house and they ask to do it all the time now. No clean-up for me. Major bonus. Infact, we have tons of kid brushes and the other day we had 5 or 6 neighbor kids over painting our sidewalk with water. And you know it does look a little cleaner ;)

The Magic House

A few weeks ago we took the girls to the Magic House in St Louis. I'd been there previously with Tyson. Love that place, so did the girls.

Playing ring around the rosies with some statue kids. Not a whole lot of movement there. They thought that was funny.

Pretty weather

Yesterday was warm and beautiful. We went out and enjoyed the last of fall.

Elli as the Big Bad Wolf

Tonight we played colored eggs with the girls. They were funny and loved acting out the big bad wolf. When it was Elli's turn to be the wolf, she was so hilarious that we had to video her the next time around, but it could not be reenacted. Sorry you missed out. However, the second time around was pretty cute too.

little projects.

I hope its obvious I love my kids. But these last 2 weeks, they've been driving me batty with some excessive whininess and fit throwing, two traits I have no patience for. After talking to a friend about my frustrations and my increasing inability to cope, she triggered a thought. She simply asked if anything in our schedule had changed.
Of coarse I thought of a few things I need to work on. I'll share one today.
Simple projects or activities I'd supervise or do with them. Really they don't require much time, money or preparation. And there are no shortage of ideas out there when my creative juices aren't flowing. So I figure once a day I can come up with something different, simple, very low or no cost (this week - no cost), and productive for them to do.


Yesterday the girls used tweezers to categorize little pompom balls, all stuff I had on hand. I just handed each of them a small bowl of different sized pompoms they could transfer to 4 little bathroom cups, you know the ones used to gurgle water and such. First by size, then by color.






They loved it for 20 min and then lost interest. But after followed 2 full whine or fit-free hours. I'm not banking on that plus each time but it was heavenly. I was actually surprised when they asked to do it again today. Of coarse tweezers have the pull of one of those forbidden kid items in our house.

4 Years Old

On Friday Saydee turned 4. We try to make their day special as soon as they open their eyes, but since this little big girl still wakes up at night we decorated our kitchen. We set out her gift and two little coloring books to keep them happy and busy during those early morning hours when we're still trying to wake up. Heath had the day off so he made her special heart pancakes.

We spent a few hours at her favorite place Monkey Joes, a gym of bouncy house equipment. Then we spent the rest of the day relaxing and celebrating at home. In the evening our wonderful friends, Kacy and Dave surprised Saydee with her own cake and gifts for both girls. The girls absolutely love them both. And they were so sweet to stay and play with them. Kacy looks a bit like and has that same loving and fun personality as Grandma Nese so Saydee called her Grandma forever. So nice to have wonderful friends especially when we are so far from our family we love. She had a great birthday.

Saydee is so sweet, smart and beautiful. She is growing up faster than I like and I so miss her baby rolls and squishiness. But she is so fun to have around and we love this stage of her life.


Check out her sweet baby chubbiness, you want to squeeze her don't you. I've been remeniscing...

We love you Saydee.

Halloween

We had another great Halloween.
. Our sweetie pies and their little southern bell friend at our Church's Trunk or Treat.


Then the girls hit a few houses with their friends. They loved that this year.

The lute...

Side note: Apparently on Sunday Saydee announced to everyone in Primary that She would be marrying her little shark friend tomorrow in the temple. So they asked him if he loves Saydee and he said Yes.
A few weeks ago she told us she wanted to marry her Daddy at the ball. I said I already married Daddy in the temple, but one day when she grows big like me she can marry a prince in the temple.
I didn't realize she'd be engaged before her 4th birthday. I think I waited until I was at least 7 or 8. They are too cute together, no romance just the best of friends :) It'll be interesting when the cootie stage hits.