Tyler is 3...like 5 months ago!

Bad bad mommy! So I realized that I devoted a whole entire post to Eric turning 5 and then totally missed posting about Tyler turning 3. So it is now a couple of weeks before his 3 1/2 year birthday so it is time to rectify that situation. :)

Tyler is a sweetheart. He is a cuddle bug and loves to give me hugs and kisses! He walks up to me and says "hugs mommy" and precedes to throw his arms around me. Doesn't get any better than that! That is not to say that he isn't all boy though. He is one rough and tumble kid and loves to do anything "boy"! He loves to play boy eating dragon with his daddy, loves cars, any sport is the best fun to him and he can turn any toy into a pretend gun. He also loves his brother and wants to do anything that Eric does. It is a lot of fun watching his personality develop. I can't wait to see how the next few months go when he starts preschool. I can't talk to much about that because I will get emotional that both my kids will be in school of some form. My little baby is no longer a little baby!

I love seeing how God had created Tyler and Eric to be so different and I love seeing how He will shape them both into the men that He wants them to be. Where Eric is cautious and studious, Tyler throws caution to the wind and prefers to learn hands on rather than from books. Eric is very talkative and outgoing while Tyler is quieter and a little more reserved socially. They are both charmers! :) They are both fiercely loyal to each other yet fight like cats and dogs. Eric is extremely strong willed while Tyler tends to be more compliant but can be stubborn when he wants to.

So once again I'm a bad mommy, as Tyler loves to joke with me, for not writing this blog sooner but I will hopefully do better next year when my babies turn 6 & 4! Ugh...not even going to think about that right now! :)

Time keeps moving on...

Where does the time go? I swear it cannot be 6 months since my last post. A lot has gone on in 6 months but for the life of me I can't remember it all. I will do my best to recap though. :)

We officially have a 5 year old and 3 year old in the house. Eric just graduated VPK last week! We are so proud of our little man. He got up in front of everyone and read his book. While most of it he had memorized from so much practice we could tell he forgot some of the words and actually sounded them out in his head and read them. While reading hasn't completely clicked for the most part he is well on his way. It will definitely open up a whole new world for him and us really. Will be harder to keep things from him that is for sure! Haha! He has grown so much socially this past year. He is so excited for kindergarten next school year he can hardly stand it. He is actually getting slightly more adventuresome in his eating as well which is a huge relief for me. He likes carrots, cheese quesadillas and cheeseburgers now. I think I about passed out when he asked if he could have carrots the other day. His interests at the moment include anything animal, science, math, religion, outdoors, star wars and craft related. He is very diversified in his likes. :) He has a best friend in preschool which he says he is going to marry when he gets older (for the record she says she is going to marry him to). They are so stinking cute together. For two kids that are so much alike they get along so well. They won't be in the same school next year though and I think they are both upset about that. I fore see many playdates in our future. Eric is becoming quite a handsome little man too. How is it possible that I have an elementary school aged child!

Tyler is becoming quite the little man lately. He has a quirky cute personality. He loves to give hugs and kisses and anything to do with being outside or anything dragon related. His favorite game to play with Brian is boy eating dragon. Both the boys love the beach and pool. He will be starting the 3 year old preK next school year. Very bittersweet for me! Tyler is our crazy adventure loving kid. I wouldn't put it past him to be a fire fighter when he gets older. We have a number of wild fires close to our area and the other day it was really smoky here. I mentioned about it hurting my head and Tyler told me he liked smoky things and that it smelled good. He is always saying something off the wall funny. While Eric seems to be the chatty intellect, Tyler is more a quiet charmer. It is so fascinating to see them becoming the little guys that God designed them to become. They are so different from each other yet love each other so much even with all the fighting they do. :)

The rest of the month is going to be packed with 2 VBS programs to attend and I'll be away one week on a mission trip so the boys will be going to friends' houses if Brian has to work. For July we will probably have many a pool and beach day and try to fit in a baseball game down in Daytona as well. I think we will also have to plan a trip to the zoo and it's splash park. In September Eric gets to go on a Disney cruise with his Omi for a few day which he is very excited about. Whatever this summer brings I can guarantee it won't be boring!! :)

All About Eric

I cannot believe that tomorrow morning my oldest son will wake up as a 5 year old! How did this happen?! This just cannot be possible. He was just a little baby not that long ago and now he is old enough to go to kindergarten!

So what is there to know about Eric on his 5th birthday? He loves dragons and the movie How To Train Your Dragon. He also loves riding his new scooter and bike. Any chance he gets he wants to be outside riding them. He absolutely adores movie nights and getting to make the house into a movie theater and having popcorn and the very rare soda. He is learning to read and doing a pretty good job so far. He still loves to learn and hungers for more knowledge. He has a best friend whom he adores. Her family and ours have a standing joke about getting the pre-nup drawn up now. Haha! :) He loves to be tickled and likes to wrestle with his daddy. He loves to play any kind of game but his favorites seem to be Connect 4 and Blockus. He loves to quote scripture and sing Bible songs he has learned at school (I will so miss this when he goes to regular school). He probably knows more scripture than I do to tell the truth. I need his teacher's secret on how she gets them to learn all of that. He also came home and started counting by 2's today out of nowhere. He enjoys counting to 300 in the car which while impressive drives me sort of crazy listening to constant counting. Haha! The funny thing is when I ask what he did at school he tells me he played in the sand or with the water table. Silly kid! He also loves football...playing it or watching it. His favorite team is the Gators in college football. For pro football it is whoever is winning the game...he isn't picky. Haha! :) He is also playing basketball now which is just so much fun to watch. He has a blast playing even if he is the smallest kid on his team.

As far as birthday celebrations we had a party at the park again this year per his request. He got to choose who he invited which was a first and he had a great turnout for the party. He had a wonderful time even though it was frigid outside. Tomorrow on his actual birthday we are going to go bike riding with friends (weather permitting) and then to the local smoothie cafe for dinner. He gets to open some family gifts as well. He is very excited about being the birthday boy.

He is very excited about going to California in March and seeing his Aunt Risa get married. He is also very excited to go to Kindergarten at the big school (no final decisions yet but in his mind it is already done) where his friend Koty and Nicholas go. So look out year 5 it is going to be a crazy fun year!!!

On to a new year...

Oh boy...it has been a LONG time since I posted hasn't it! I'm not even going to attempt to make the resolution to keep up with our blog better because that is just asking to be broken! As I'm sitting here with 2 hours left of 2010 I can't believe all the things that have happened this year in our family. The boys are getting to big for me to even process at this time. In less than a month I'm going to have a 5 year old. That just cannot be possible! I'm to hormonal at the moment to even delve into that right now. So let's recap 2010 as best as possible in our family. Let me also say I usually only talk about the boys in this blog but to recap this year is going to require talking about myself more than I usually like to.

First off we rang in the New Year and 5 days later I turned 30. I think I handled it pretty well if I do say so myself. After all 30 is only old when you are in your teens and early 20s. After that 30 doesn't seem so bad and anything after that is not so old anymore either. I will confess I'm having a hard time now that I'm staring down 31 in a few days. Go figure. Then on January 25th Eric turned 4 years old. His birthday went smoothly and all was normal. In February we started preparing for Tyler's 2nd birthday and that is when things got interesting. Just a few days before his his party I woke up with some serious pain in my neck. No it wasn't the kids fighting...I'm talking real pain. So just prior to his birthday I underwent a thyroid biopsy. I felt much better thankfully by his party and his party went well. We officially had a 2 year old in the house. March brought the news that I had thyroid cancer. Wow...that was a shock to us and it began the roller coaster ride. Thankfully my thyroid was removed after 2 surgeries in April, I underwent radioactive iodine therapy the beginning of May and was pronounced cancer free by the end of May! During that time we experienced huge blessings from friends and family.

After Eric was out of preschool he went to California with his Omi (Brian's mom) for a week. He got to visit all his family out there and do tons of fun things. We got to enjoy a whole week with just Tyler. Tyler seemed to like it at first but after a day or two he was definitely missing his brother. Throughout the summer we did tons of fun things like Sea World and the beach. In August Eric started VPK and is loving every minute of it. He has a best friend in his class and they are inseparable. He is one smart cookie too...sometimes he is to smart for his own good. I know he is going to be a true handful in a few years when he really thinks he is smarter than us. :) Tyler has had a huge language explosion in the past few months. He has quite the personality. Where Eric is very boisterous and outgoing, Tyler is very soft spoken and more reserved. They are both a ton of fun to have around. Eric says some of the funniest things that just crack me up and Tyler gets these silly looks on his face and then takes off to pounce on you which is too cute.

One of the highlights of the past few months was Eric asking Jesus to live in his heart. This kid has the biggest love of God for a child his age. Eric struggles constantly with the need to control things and to see God working in his young heart is really amazing. He is asking tons of questions about heaven and right & wrong. It kind of breaks my heart that my baby is growing up and asking such smart questions but it is also rewarding to see that he is growing into a young boy of God as well.

This past November I took on the challenge of doing a relay race across the state with some people from our church. The boys took this to heart and prayed for me almost daily that I would win the race. They didn't quite get the concept that this was a team thing nor that we would definitely not win...we did it to raise money for Love146 ministries. Nonetheless when they came out to see me run they brought signs saying "You Rock Mommy", "Go Mom", and "Super Mom". What sweet kids I have...and a sweet husband I have that put them up to it! :)

Also of note is that we signed Eric up for Upwards Basketball league this winter. Let me tell you...it isn't his strong sport by any means but he has fun and it is fun to watch all the little kids practice! They start games this January. He is on the youngest team and almost all of his teammates are friends from his preschool. His coach is one of his friend's dad and this man must have the patience of Job to coach this team! :) We will probably look into soccer and T-ball soon for the next sports since he really seems to enjoy being active. I think we will continually enroll him in basketball though (until he asks not to) because it is an organization that not only teaches basketball and team work but also puts God first. He has a Bible verse to learn every week. Not many sports leagues you can sign your kids up for that does that.

This December brought a crazy amount of energy to our house. We had a cookie decorating party here at the house which was crazy but tons of fun, lots of different events to go to and of course Christmas Day. Dad, Shelby and some of their friends came up to spend the day with us. We had a great time and of course the boys were spoiled rotten. This year it was by us though. I think I went a little overboard with the presents but I got such good deals it was hard to pass them up. :)

So that is the kind of not so short and simple version of our year. Even as long as this post is it still can't say all that has gone on in our family but you get the gist. :) So I have to say all in all it has been a wonderful year. Even with the brief health issues our family is truly blessed! I am now 7 months cancer free and look forward to being able to celebrate many more cancer free years with my wonderful family. Happy New Year from our family to yours!

Summer Adventures

This has been one jam packed summer for us so far and it is only half way over! We've done so much it is hard to remember it all...thank goodness for pictures! Between the beach, short trip down to Avon Park, Daytona Cubs baseball game, July 4th celebrations, chocolate factory tour, the library summer programs, birthday parties, trip to California and Vacation Bible School it has all started to blur together!

Eric had a great time on his trip to California. He got to go camping in Omi & Oti's RV, play in the pirate tree house Omi built for him, go to San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park with Grandpa Dale and Leah, the beach and visit with Oma & Ota. He had so much fun that I don't think he even missed us! Tyler sure missed him though. He was not himself the entire time his brother was gone. Eric was definitely a trooper on the trip out there with a cancelled flight and much later arrival than anticipated. At the layover in Texas he sang "God Bless America" for everyone. When they started clapping during a pause he said "no no I'm not done yet!" and continued on. He also LOVED vacation bible school! He keeps asking me when he can go back again. Eric continues to amaze me with his ability to pick up on things so quickly. He remembered all the Bible verses from VBS easily and over the summer has started learning some sight words along with counting up to 160 on his own. He also wants to learn addition and subtraction so I picked up some workbooks for him which he was thrilled with. He is definitely going to be our smarty pants kid. He loves to learn which is such a blessing. I just hope he continues to love it as he gets older. Along with his intelligence comes a very strong will which will serve him well in the future but is slightly frustrating for us at the moment. While frustrating as he can be behaviorally, he is such a sweetheart as well. When his brother hurts himself he immediately goes over and gives him kisses and promptly scolds whatever hurt him such as the wall or table. :) His smile, laughter and love of life is very contagious!

Tyler is growing by leaps and bounds this summer. His vocabulary is expanding so much recently. He also has a personality all his own. Unlike his brother he is not strong willed but is definitely in the 2 year old phase. He is constantly pushing boundaries but once he learns where they are he pretty much stays within them. He is our fun loving make the most of life child. He loves to have fun and laugh. He absolutely loves to pretend to be a dinosaur. He is into anything that Eric likes and I think it is his mission in life to do whatever Eric does. Tyler is also our daredevil. While Eric is cautious, Tyler is the complete opposite. In the pool Tyler just jumps in and tries to swim without abandon while Eric prefers the safety of the swim vest and has to warm up to jumping in. Tyler is the one that is giving me gray hair and will continue to do as he gets older I'm afraid. Thank goodness for hair dye! We are now in the process of potty training Tyler. Today is day 2 and things are going pretty well. He tells us when he has to go which is great. We also have cut out nap time altogether which makes for an interesting afternoon. The upside is they actually go to bed on time and don't stay up until 9 or 10pm playing anymore. Tyler is also starting to pick up on some shapes and letters and can count to 10 now. This fall when Eric starts VPK I'm going to start working with Tyler to help him pick up more basics. He learns so different than Eric that it has been an adjustment for me. Tyler is all about play while Eric would sit still and just read with you for hours. Amazing how 2 kids from the same parents can be so different. I wouldn't have them any other way though. They are each special in their own way and I love them both so much! I tell both of them they are my gifts from God and that Eric is my favorite Eric and Tyler is my favorite Tyler. :)

Geez Louise I have gotten so far behind once again. Now I do have an excuse as most of you know this time but still 2 months is a little extreme to go without posting! :) So what has been going on with the boys you wonder. Tons of stuff as usual. LOL! These past 2 months have been filled with lots of fun things for the boys but also lots of disruptions to their normal lives. With my surgery and recovery from thyroid cancer we've had a ton of people helping us out which has been wonderful and I have to say the kids have adjusted so well! Now that I am getting back up to speed I can't wait to start getting active in their lives again.

They are both growing up so fast. The school year is almost done for Eric. He has had a wonderful time. I cannot believe he will be in VPK next year! After that is kindergarten! Craziness I tell you. Right now we have him and Tyler enrolled in swim lessons. So far they have only had one lesson. Eric liked it but Tyler was not especially thrilled. The day after school ends Eric gets to go to California without mommy, daddy or Tyler. Before you freak out we haven't lost our minds and are letting him fly alone. LOL! Brian's mom is coming out and taking him back with her for a week. I am excited and anxious all at the same time. I have never been away from Eric for this long or this far away from him either. I know he is going to have a wonderful time though. Once he gets back we have him registered for vacation bible school at a local church. Some of his friends from school are going to be there so I know he will enjoy it. We are also thinking about signing him up for Tball. He talks about playing baseball all the time. He will probably be really good at it if he can learn not to talk incessantly and learn to listen. Haha! One of the academic things he is learning is sounding out words. He has some sight words already which is great. We will definitely keep working with him over the summer.

Tyler is just taking off by leaps and bounds when it comes to vocabulary and personality. I swear this little guy is going to be a charmer if there ever was one. He is starting to pick up some academic things a little more now that we have learned that he learns things differently than his brother. They couldn't be more different but both of them are so precious to us. They really get on each other's nerves and fight alot but then they can't stand to be away from each other for any length of time either. Too funny! I just have to tell you something Tyler said about a month ago. Sometimes I have to tell Eric that I wasn't talking to him when I am correcting Tyler because Eric thinks he is Tyler's boss. Well in the car I told Tyler "I love you" and he says clear as a bell "I wasn't talking to you mommy"! I was crying I was laughing so hard. I know I shouldn't have laughed but I just couldn't help it. He hasn't done it since thankfully but he does say some other funny things. The words goldfish and oranges both sound like "oh s**t" when he says them. The first time he said it Brian and I looked at each other stunned because he certainly doesn't hear that from us. Then he said it again and pointed to the goldfish and we figured out that was just the way he says those 2 words. I don't know which is worse...that or when Eric used to call milk "dope"! LOL!

Can't wait to see what fun the summer has to bring for us! I'll make sure to keep updating...hopefully a little better than I have done lately. :)

Birthdays!

As usual the start of a New Year is filled with birthdays for us which means lots of parties, presents, and cake. :)

Okay, so I started off the birthdays by turning 30 on January 6th. I have to say I was pretty okay with turning 30 believe it or not. I do believe I am one blessed 30 year old and it can't get much better than that! :)

Eric turned 4 about 3 weeks later on January 25th. I cannot believe that my baby (well one of them) is 4 years old! I say this every year but where has the time gone? Eric is such a little man and can be so serious and then be so darn silly. It is sometimes hard to remember that he is only 4 because he acts so much older at times. He is a smart little guy. He loves, loves, loves school. We love his school as well. Besides all the normal things he is learning they have a strong Christian base. He has come home and told me more about the real meaning of Easter and why Jesus died on the cross than I ever thought possible for a child his age. It just warms my heart to know we have him somewhere that is teaching him not only what he needs to know academically but they are also teaching him the same views that we teach him at home. He has made numerous friends as school with a few of them definitely being his close friends. It is really cute to hear him talk about his friends. His imagination is just extraordinary. He loves to save me from the coyotes and polar bears that lurk in our house. :) Some of his other favorites are Cars, Thomas the Train, anything to do with sports, anything Daddy is interested in, reading and anything to do with the computer. Right now he is super excited that he gets to go to California in June with Omi without mommy or daddy. I can't quite say how mommy is dealing with this though. Haha! :) He is also super excited to see Grandpa Dale and Aunt Risa in a couple of weeks. They are coming to visit for about a week during Easter.

Following Eric's birthday by a month is my little guy Tyler. Tyler turned 2 on February 21st. He is such a joyful kid. He is a lot different than his brother in personality. Where Eric is very scheduled and regimented, Tyler is very laid back and just goes with the flow. Eric is very deliberate and Tyler is very free spirited. Eric loved to just sit and learn at Tyler's age (and still does for that matter) and Tyler just loves to run and be active and enjoy life to the fullest. It just amazes me that two totally different kids can have the same parents. They are both wonderfully made by God! Tyler just adores anything to do with animals...especially dinosaurs. He loves to pretend that he is a dinosaur and he stomps and roars through the house. He also loves to dance! It is has got to be the cutest thing ever. I can't wait to get it on video. Tyler has also just jumped on the talking bandwagon. He has always jabbered but he is now talking full sentences and definitely states his opinion on things. He leaves no doubt where he stands on things important to him. :)

So far this year we have managed to squeeze in 2 trips to Sea World and a few trips to the Jacksonville Zoo. The boys just love it every time we go. Now that the weather is getting nicer we are looking forward to going biking with the boys and also to the beach. As you can tell we also got the boys a new bed which they love. It is like a bunk bed but not quite as high off the ground. As always we are just so blessed to have the kids we do. They are both great kids and they have managed to teach us quite a few things even at their young age.