Halloween!

Today, has been a fun day watching Tyler's excitement for the holiday. This morning he was excited to get to pick out two pieces of candy as he left his Sunday School classroom. And they made crowns and glued gems on (he calls them crystals) as they were pretending to all be saints for All Saints Day. He just loved that he had his very own crown with crystals. :) And wanted to make sure I put the candy in his treat bag at home. ;)

We then headed home and he helped daddy make a warm, vanilla coffee milk. Usually, daddy just makes these but Tyler requested to learn how. And he had a great time helping gets lot of foam on the top of his! After some coffee milk, some lunch, and some quiet time, Tyler helped me pick up the house. He was very helpful as he knew that this evening we would be dressing up and going out trick or treating for the first time around our neighborhood. And after Friday at daddy's work, he was very excited about it.

Tyler had decided a LONG time ago that this Halloween he wanted to be Buzz Lightyear and so I figured that Kevin would be Woody. And they both ended up receiving pajamas from grandma that would make for perfect costumes. So with Tyler's insistence I kept my eye out for good accessories and picked up some Buzz wings, Buzz gloves, and a cowboy hat.

Little did I know that three weeks ago he would change his mind and want to be a monkey...and then pick out a Tiger costume for Kevin. He wore those to the costume party at the gym and then to daddy's work. And we were planning on doing this again tonight. But about ten minutes before heading out, daddy asked Tyler if he was sure that he didn't want to be Buzz. They briefly discussed it, and then daddy asked him if having wings would help make up his mind as Tyler was saying that he wasn't sure because he needed Buzz wings to really be Buzz Lightyear. So I went and got the Buzz accessories we have been hiding (since he changed his mind we had decided to just keep them for his birthday) and daddy quickly opened them up while Tyler's closed his eyes. At one point, daddy accidentally hit a button on the wings and it started talking, and Tyler just started grinning like crazy and opened his eyes. He quickly shut his eyes again though as he loves surprises and still wanted the big "surprise" yell from daddy. ;)

And once he opened his eyes and tried on his wings and gloves, he was definitely going to be Buzz Lightyear tonight! He was just so thrilled! So we got him all dressed up, and then got Kevin all dressed up in his Woody outfit. I can't even begin to tell you how excited Tyler was. So excited, that we had to go outside so daddy could finish up some work because he wings and running around were just too much. Thankfully, neighbors and people walking by were nice enough to chat with him. :)

Anyways...here are our pictures from tonight. :) Starting, with a very excited little boy once he saw his surprises!

We had to wake Kevin up from his long nap. He is just really off on his sleeping and waking up so early. This morning he got up at five, slept through church, and then took a late nap. So we woke him, got him dressed, and gave him a quick supper. I wonder if he noticed that he wasn't a tiger. :)

I don't think he minded though once we got outside to run around a bit while daddy finished up work. He enjoyed having a hat, and even discovered the bucket of treats we left out for trick or treaters who stopped by while we were gone. He grabbed a sucker and insisted he eat it. And since it was a holiday and I felt bad about waking him up, I gave in. And so daddy had more time to finish up, and then got to run around the yard with Buzz a little bit before heading out.

Finally, it was late enough to head out. We stopped by two neighbors houses and Tyler enjoyed showing off his costume's buttons (as the wings talked, one of the gloves has a laser, and the other one makes swishing noises). When we got to the third house (where the little kids were meeting up on our street to go together) Tyler went crazy. He was so excited to see eight other kids dressed up too! And that was it for him! He loved running with them, singing with them, and laughing with his friends. We ended up being out a lot longer than we planned because he was having so much fun (I really thought that for his first time out he might get scared). But I was oh so wrong.

Kevin enjoyed going to the first house and picked out a treat and got a book. He was very excited until we got to the second house where one of our neighbors was dressed up like a witch. Tyler just loved seeing her all dressed up, but that was enough for Kevin. He spent up until the last half block in Adam's arms snuggling. The kids all took turns bringing Kevin treats they had picked up for him, and were very excited to do that...though I don't think we need anymore candy in this house! Yikes!

Finally, Kevin was ready to trick or treat again, and went to two houses. And we watched as he ran after the big group of little kids. Unfortunately, he fell and given the time and temperature he was done for the night. So Adam took him home so they could pass out candy, and Tyler and I finished up our route. And once we came home, the boys went to work going through their candy and seeing what all they got! It was so cute to watch! And sort of weird for Adam and me to be on the adult side of checking out the candy. We just remember too well doing it ourselves. :)

And once they went through their candy, they took up costume watching at our door. Lots of older kids were out still, so Tyler enjoyed letting us know when they were coming up to get candy. And both boys loved seeing the different costumes everyone had on!

So, we all had a great Halloween celebration, and I think that both boys did amazingly well for their first trick-or-treating!

Leaves!

Kevin and I took a nap this morning, and when I woke up I found Tyler outside with daddy working on leaves. I got ready to go outside to help too...but also grabbed my camera since you know I would need some pictures. :)

Tyler was very excited to be helping daddy, and did a great job balancing playing in the leaves and helping. He even got to climb into the big leaf container and help daddy stomp down leaves, and was so excited to be in there helping. But nothing topped playing in the leaves today. ;)





Daddy just made a HUGE pile for him to jump in and he was listening to daddy say "one for the money, two for the show, three to make ready, and four to go!".





And then he had a BIG jump!



He had fun doing that, so he asked to again, but this time he wanted to count. His version was "one for the money, two for the store, three to go!". ;)

Trick or Treating at Daddy's Office

We started the Halloween holiday off on Friday by going down to daddy's work in the afternoon. Their office was hosting a trick-or-treat party for little kids. We weren't sure if we were going to go because daddy is very busy and we didn't interrupt. But when he called in the afternoon to tell us to head down, the boys were so excited. Tyler started running around looking for all of his costume, socks, and shoes and was dressed in no time. Even Kevin was very cooperative and we were all ready way before I thought we could be. And given the excitement, we went ahead and drove downtown. We stopped for ice cream because we had some time to wait before daddy was done with a phone call. We got our normal "cake batter" ice cream and Tyler was very excited when he was offered another ice cream for being dressed up. So he chose cotton candy, since it was a candy day and ice cream candy sounded perfect. ;)

When we finished up we headed towards daddy's office (a long walk) and the boys had fun waiving at people as they passed by. And Tyler got a lot of high fives from people as everyone seemed to enjoy seeing two little kids dressed up and walking through the skyway. We stopped at the Wells Fargo Museum and talked to some horses, rode in a carriage, and then went to see an even bigger carriage. While we were there, two different bankers came over to give the boys some candy, stickers, and toys for their baskets. We then went and waited by the elevators for daddy to call us. Tyler enjoyed telling everyone "Happy Halloween" and "Have a good day" as people got off, and Kevin enjoyed running from me at every moment.

Soon, daddy called and we excitedly headed upstairs. While we were waiting we saw lots of dressed up kids head up, so both boys were very excited to get up there. ;) Once we got up there, all I can say, is that we had way too much fun. Everyone had candy at their desks or outside of their offices, and Tyler went nuts picking out candy for him, and soon Kevin was brave enough to grab his own candy too.

As you might guess, Tyler chatted to everyone and enjoyed having so many people to talk to. He showed off his banana on his costume, wished everyone a Happy Halloween, and was excited to see some familiar faces...giving one female attorney he spent a lot of time with this summer at a summer party a huge hug. Kevin wasn't nearly as talkative, but did enjoy getting some candy. But before we had walked the entire floor he was done and preferred to cuddle in daddy's arms.

We managed to walk two entire floors before we were exhausted. We were pretty sure that we could have left Tyler and he never would have noticed. Between looking for candy baskets to pick from and talking to strangers, he was having way too much fun. And his excitement at seeing the libraries on each floor was really too cute too. He just loved all of the books. Finally, we convinced him that we were going to go home and daddy was going to come with us. He said goodbye to the spider friend he had made when we first arrived, played with the elephant toy in daddy's office one last time (both boys love this push toy), and then had their first piece of candy before we headed out.

It ended up being a LONG walk as I didn't bring a stroller and Kevin was exhausted...but thankfully daddy was able to carry Kevin for me. And Tyler was so excited, he practically ran to the parking garage. It was a great trick or treat afternoon, and as Tyler says "the best trick or treating ever". ;)

Turkeys

I have had so much fun lately doing crafts and baking with both boys. It is fun now that Kevin is big enough to do these things with Tyler and me. And when I was telling Adam how relaxing it is for me too to do these projects with the kids, I realized that I should start actively searching for more things to do with them. So while Adam worked at home last night, I sat at the computer and searched for other craft ideas we could do with both boys and that required supplies we already have.


Even though Halloween hasn't passed yet, I found myself collecting and saving all kinds of cute Thanksgiving projects to do with the kids. ;) So today, as daddy was leaving for work, Tyler helped me gather up the necessary materials to make two turkeys. I thought that they would make great mantel decorations once I get around to removing our Halloween ones. And it required that the boys not only color and paste, but they also got to finger paint. :)


So we started with the finger painting. Tyler learned that yellow and red make orange and he had fun telling me whether he needed more red or more yellow as he worked hard to cover his paper plate. And Kevin learned that finger paints do not taste very good. ;)

After they got their paper plates all decorated, Tyler helped me dry them with the blow dryer while Kevin played cars in the living room. Then while Tyler played for a bit, I cut out feathers for them to decorate and then called them back to the table. Both boys had lots of fun decorating their feathers.

Tyler liked to tell me what he was drawing. Orange feathers needed the letter "t", the yellow one needed both yellow and black on it, and then on one of the red and green feathers he drew a lot of horses.

Kevin liked to just shout out random color requests. And when he got a marker, he would scribble once or twice and then hand me back the marker with another demand for a certain color.

And once their feathers were decorated, both boys glued their feathers down (with Kevin getting some placement help from me) and then we glued another paper plate to the back. Finally, we made the actually turkey head. We took a paper towel roll and cut it up. Tyler got the bigger one because he is bigger he reasoned, and Kevin the smaller. Then the boys told me what colors they wanted for hats, eyes, and noses/mouths; and I tried to figure out how to cut them out. The last step involved us tracing their hands (which they both loved) and then gluing those to the paper towel roll for feet.

Both boys were very excited to have made their turkeys. Here is Tyler checking out his finished turkey.

And then we put them up on the mantle. I just couldn't resist and moved all of the Halloween stuff to the side to get a picture. They just look so cute sitting up there.

Here's Kevin's turkey.

Here's Tyler's turkey.

I'm excited too that they work on the mantle because I lack Thanksgiving decorations....so these will be perfect. And Tyler had the big idea that once we move the Halloween stuff away, we can put the pumpkin and his tree up there too. Guess we now have an impromptu craft display shelf. ;) And since I know that we won't keep these projects forever, I just can't resist taking pictures and blogging. This way I can keep them without actually having to figure out how to box them up and save them. :)

Gluestick

Tyler really enjoys crafts, and has gotten quite good at using his glue stick all by himself. So we have been doing more things in the afternoons with it....some days we just glue pieces of paper together (because that seems just as much fun as a project) and sometimes I manage to think of an actual project to do.

Today, Tyler finally agreed to put the carved pumpkins outside so others could see them. And that reminded me a of a craft I saw in a magazine. So he waited patiently while I cut up strips of paper and then worked very hard for an alligator (what he is pretending to be today) to glue and bend everything together.

I did help him at parts, but he didn't seem to care. He was just so excited to be making something and loved when we finished because he had his own pumpkin. And when we moved the carved ones outside, he requested taking his paper pumpkin out too. :)

Building

While I was cooking dinner for the boys, they played so nicely with this building kit that I had to snap some pictures. It was Kevin's first time to play with this toy, and he had a blast!

An Interview with Tyler

After the ultrasound this morning, Tyler has been talking nonstop about the baby and having another boy in the house. He informed me that now there will be more boys than girls (since Ellie and Carlie are counted in the total). And he is working hard on coming up for a name for us...but his only reoccurring suggestion is Tyler because he thinks it would be fun to have two Tyler's in the house.



This morning must have been a lot of excitement for Kevin too because he went down for a nap a little early and is still napping strong. So while Kevin is napping, Tyler and I have been playing with his microphone and brainstorming about names. While we were talking I realized that I haven't interviewed Tyler in a long time and asked him if he would do it. He told me no, but when I asked him if he wanted to make a video for the baby, he jumped into a chair. I was sad to discover I only had a few minutes of tape left (and no other tapes in the house right now) because once he started I think he could have kept going.



Anyways....here's the brief interview with Tyler that he made for the baby. My favorite is hearing about his likes and listening to him spell the word Iowa. I think we have forever ruined that one. ;)

Ultrasound!

We had an ultrasound today for the baby. It was a lot of fun getting to watch the squirming, kicking, and movement while the tech measured everything. The baby was being a little bit of a stinker and wouldn't give a few shots we needed, but after a lot of trying and patience the tech finally got them.

Tyler was very excited the entire time. He alternated between talking to the baby (and having the baby talk back), discussing what animals he could see in the shadows in the movie (it sounded like he was cloud watching), and talking with daddy about what part of the baby was on the screen.

Kevin didn't really seem to know what was going on, and just sat very patiently and quietly in his stroller. The ultrasound was about forty-five minutes, so we were very impressed with his patience.

The baby looked great and was moving around a lot! It was really fun to watch, and I could have easily spent the day there just watching. :) And, for some of you who may be eager to know the baby's gender, we found that out too today! We are having a third boy! Can you believe it?!?!

We are very excited about getting to raise three brothers and now have to start thinking about names. Tyler was very excited to finally learn the baby's gender too. He has never expressed a preference, just a desire to know. And when he found out he was pretty thrilled, and once in the car announced that he had named the baby....Tyler. Yep, he wants two Tyler's living in the house and has been repeating this nonstop since we have gotten back home. :)

And now for some pictures. There were some great shots of the baby with his leg and arm above his head...but she didn't print it. It was crazy to see him like that. And there were some great feet shots...which we did get a picture of. I never saw the profile shots she printed...so that was a fun surprise for me when I finally looked at the pictures. :)



Feet!!!

Toy Book and Kevin

First, a quick video from last night. The Toys R Us holiday toy book arrived at the house, and Tyler was VERY excited to find it. He spent a good hour looking through it, and when I told daddy this he told me I should give him a marker so he could mark things up. Little did we know how much fun he would have doing this, or how many things he would circle! When daddy finally walked in the door last night, Tyler was very excited to show daddy the book and the things he circled. Daddy was very patient and looked at every single thing Tyler had found. I decided to get a quick video of their conversation because it was just so cute watching Tyler sit there with his marker and magnifying glass, and showing daddy everything. :)

The highlights of watching him were (1) almost everything he picked out was $60 or more (sigh), (2) he got very excited over a telescope so he could see things in space and then spent the entire dinner talking to daddy about what he could and could not see with one, and (3) refused to look at the girl pages and was relieved to find boys toys again (something you see in this clip, which we found funny).

Then, a quick video of Kevin from this morning. He woke up around 4am this morning, woke the rest of us up, and then finally went back to bed around 6:30 (I managed to take a quick nap then, but unfortunately Tyler hasn't and is feeling the exhaustion). Kevin managed to sleep until 11 and woke up so happy! I thought that it would be fun to get some quick video of him, and so it is. He just loves looking at himself in the view screen, and loves even more watching himself in the videos over and over. He just sits there and waves and waves at himself. :)

Microphone

Last year, we got this laugh and clap microphone for Tyler. It is awesome, but the first day the microphone part broke. We got a replacement sent to us, but within another day it broke too! Ugh. So up on a shelf it went and we didn't think about it until last week. Tyler saw it sitting up there and asked if we could play with it. I explained it was broken and that we couldn't.

I then sat down to see about a replacement microphone. The company was still selling it (they bring it into their catalogue for holiday season) and gave them a call when my Internet search proved fruitless. The person I spoke to at customer service was very apologetic when she heard about our efforts to play with this and insisted on sending us a new microphone to give it another shot. I was incredibly shocked by her suggestion as really I just wanted to order one, but she insisted that their company has higher standards than this. So Tyler and I eagerly awaited for the arrival of the new microphone.

And wouldn't you know it, but it arrived today. So after the boys played by themselves for a few minutes and I worked in the kitchen try to get it cleaned up from our day of arts and crafts. About five minutes later, Tyler came in and asked me if he could help me clean. And both boys ended up helping me with everything (it was awesome). And when we finished, Tyler saw the box and asked if it was his microphone. So, we broke it out and I video taped a little bit of them playing with it. :)

Kevin tried it....finger painting!

Kevin woke up right as we finished the tree, so Tyler and I thought that we should have him try it. Tyler went and got our painting apron, and Kevin was very excited to sit at the table when he saw all of the "colors" on the plates. He patiently put on the apron, and I am so glad that we put one on because a few times he just put his hands on his apron rather than the paper.

We then sat him in his booster seat and put everything in front of him. He had no idea what to do and just kept saying "colors" excitedly. So I put my finger in some green and then on the paper...and that was all he needed. He had a blast! He carefully colored one page with a single finger and couldn't decide which color to use. He kept yelling "yellow" or "blue" or "purple" (what he called green) and wanted all of the plates right in front of him, and couldn't figure out how to make room for his paper then too. ;)








Eventually, he realized he could just spread the paint around on the plates, and had fun decorating those and getting really messy. And even though his hands, apron, and booster had paint on them, he didn't once try to taste the paint (something I really thought he would try). And the paint washed up so much easier than I ever would have guessed. So easy in fact, we might do this again soon. :)





Tyler came over to try and make a helicopter out of two paper scraps and a pipe cleaner...and Kevin was not thrilled to see Tyler at the table. I think that he thought Tyler was going to take his paint. He refused to paint until Tyler got back down to fly his helicopter (as we figured out how to make one together).




And here are the first two pages ever of Kevin finger painting. This first one he did all on his own (with the exception of me showing him once with my finger). And the second one, I showed him how to take his whole hand and make finger prints. After we did it a couple of times, he did a lot more hand prints just saying "open" whenever he would slam his hand down on the paper (I had kept saying open your hand over and over as he just wanted to keep a fist at first...but it didn't take long for him to figure it out and take off with it).

Finger painting Tyler Part Two

Having had so much fun fingerpainting with Tyler, while he was having quiet time I looked for ideas online of cute, managable projects to make with him. I narrowed it down to two, and he picked this one...a tree with falling leaves. So, rather than wait, we decided to go ahead and try to get it done. He throught that red, yellow, and green leaves were best (and added some green grass in the upper center of the tree since it is a jungle, play tree). And since the color blue was left (and not feeling like making new colors) we used blue for the branches.

Then came time to drop some apples from the tree and draw some grass at the bottom. When we finished that, he thought that the tree needed a ladder since it is, after all, a jungle play tree. So we went digging through my craft stuff downstairs and found "the perfect thing" (i.e. pipe cleaners). Tyler chose a yellow and orange ladder and we worked hard to figure it out (gluing it down was frustrating but finally, with patience and him using his glue stick, we got it). And then we had to draw in his duck...since his duck needed some food and apples are best.

(I have to note that Tyler is on a HUGE duck kick right now, and makes us play the egg hatching game a LOT. Basically, he is a lost egg strolling around and when we see him we are supposed to say something to the effect of "look at that egg...what a cute egg....I will give it a good home and keep it warm". Then he comes over and snuggles in while we hug him. Then after a minute he starts shaking and hatches...and starts saying "mama" in his duckling voice (even to daddy if daddy is the first one he sees) over and over. And that is the game...that once finished he wants to start promptly again).

Anyways..here is the picture Tyler came up with. And I must add that originally he wanted to make something for daddy's work, but as the tree started to come together, he changed his mind and now wants it in his room. ;) Regardless, he still can't wait to surprise daddy with his picture. :) And, finally, Tyler did sign his name at the bottom. I knew that he could write his "T", "L", and "E" but was surprised to see that he will now attempt his "Y" and "R". I did have to remind him to turn his P into an R...but just a few weeks ago he refused to attempt either...so you can imagine my surprise when he told me he didn't want my help! :)