BUSY SUMMER DAYS!

Grandma Freese found this awesome car at a garage sale for $5!!! What a steal! I had seen one last week at a garage sale that they were asking $40 for. Was definately not going to spend that for one of these cars, so I'm glad that my mom found this one. He loves this car and has been in it non-stop since it's been at our house.
Such a happy boy in his car!
Tyler, Darcey, Jessica, and Dylan

We took a trip to St. Charles this past weekend to stay with our friends Luke and Jessica. It was a short trip and a trip that we performed with very little sleep, but we still had a great time seeing everyone. Lee's parents and brother were also in St. Charles for a wedding, so we got to see them for a bit also. We will be seeing them again in a few weeks when they come here to visit.
The two little boys: Tyler and Dylan

Tyler, Lee, and Dylan

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, LEE! I surprised Lee with a message from the baby, which many of you know, but some of you may not, that we are pretty sure his name is going to be Brady Joseph. We've been calling him Brady since about the week after we found out it was a boy. It's stuck with us and I believe that we are both happy with the decision. Lee spent some of his father's day in St. Charles, IL, then in the car for 4 hours, and then he received Tyler's gifts when we got home on Sunday evening. I think that he enjoyed his day! He is a very proud daddy!

Tyler woke up at 6:00 Sunday morning at Luke and Jessica's house. Baby Dylan, along with Luke and Jessica, were of course asleep, so we spent some time outside on the back deck. It just so happened that a neighborhood cat was out on the deck also that Tyler enjoyed following around and playing with.

Tyler and Bailey hanging out at Grandma Freese's. We stayed in Iowa City on Friday night so that we would have an hour less to drive Saturday morning for our trip to St. Charles. Tyler is still in the process of getting used to his bed at home, so for us to travel and want him to sleep in someone elses bed, has been hard. Last weekend we went and stayed at my Grandma's and had a crazy night of sleep with me sleeping in the bed with Tyler, he got sleep, but I didn't. This past weekend at my mom's we got very little sleep. Tyler slept in his own toddler bed that he has at her house. He went to sleep just fine, but after a few hours, he kept on rolling off. Well, after those few hours, he never ended up going back to sleep, so he and I were up and wide awake at 1:30 and stayed up. We actually got out of bed and went downstairs at 4:30 to play--All of us Tyler, me, Lee, and my mom. How terrible! I'm so thankful that we have no more sleepovers for awhile! We ended up leaving my mom's at a decent time that morning and Tyler was asleep in his carseat within 4 minutes of pulling out of the driveway. Too bad Lee had to drive and I have problems sleeping in the car. Thankfully we were able to have Tyler sleep in a pack 'n play on Saturday night at Luke and Jessica's and he ended up sleeping the night through!

I am officially working back at KinderCare this summer. I started last week and it has not taken long to remember how crazy that job is and how exhausted I am when I leave those kids and that building. Our daycare provider for Tyler is in Florida this week with her family, so my mom has moved in for the week to watch and play with Tyler while we are at work. He is of course loving all the attention!

It has been and will continue to be >100 degrees heat index this week. It's absolutely miserable and disgusting. I am hoping to spend some time out on the back deck in the swimming pool tomorrow at some point. It's too hot outside to much of anything else.

Summertime and Weddings

We took Tyler to the H.S. field for a photoshoot to get some pics for his new bedroom.

Since Tyler is in his new bedroom and big boy bed, we are in the process of decorating his new room. It may take a while, but I've got thoughts and projects in mind, I've just got to get all the materials and get them put together. It will look great when it's complete. He's doing great in his new bed. However, he recently went from absolutely loving his bath to hating it. So wierd!
My three boys all cuddled up.

Tyler has already started the jealousy role. If Lee lays down to pet Bailey, Tyler will nudge his way in and want to be cuddled as well. Lee then has to pet them both.

Tyler giving baby brother a big kiss!

Tyler will give baby a kiss and enjoy doing it, but when he's seen my belly enough he will pull my shirt back down and say "all done."

Tyler's new girlfriend that he met at my cousin's wedding. They even matched with orange shirts! She was a man eater!

The two love birds watching the first dance.

It was so cute to watch these two together at the wedding. However she wanted way more to do with Tyler than what he wanted of her. She was 1 month older than Tyler and she was a doll!

Family pic at the wedding.

Heather (bride), Grandma, and Me doing the chicken dance. Tyler obviosly wanted up at this moment.

I successfully read my readings as the lector during the ceremony. I was very glad when my part was finished and we could get on with the rest of the wedding! We had a great time dancing at the wedding, but were ready to head home early at 9:00. We drove our 2 hour drive home and went straight to bed.

Tyler getting ready to go to bed in his new big boy bed.
Playing with the big kids next door.

Eating his favorite snack--grapes.

Bailey and Tyler showing some love to one another. So cute!

Playing ball with the boys next door. He loves their entertainment and loves that they give him some attention.

BEST GOLFER IN TOWN!

Here's a video of Tyler playing golf inside. Pretty funny!

POOL TIME!

Our little surfer Dude!
Family Pic in the pool.
He wasn't too sure about the water at first. He stayed on his Dad's lap for awhile and played catch.
Mom and Tyler
Grandma and Tyler. He loves these water guns!

BIG MILESTONES!

First I want to start with saying that I finally got a teaching job which starts this fall!!! Yeah, me! I will be teaching Kindergarten! Yes, school starts when I am about 37 weeks pregnant, so hopefully I can at least get the first week in with the kids.

However, I have been trying to find work for me this summer, since I am not bringing in any money to help out the fam. Well, this is not going so well. I'm still trying, but it's really not looking to promising. :( This equals, a pretty lame summer since we will be short on money.

Since I have been home this week, and very well could be the rest of the summer, we decided it was a great time to introduce Tyler to his new "big boy" bed. We set up his bed in his new room last week. We've been spending time in there playing and hanging out before bath so that he would get familiar with the room bit. Monday night I thought would be a great night to start the real transition. Lee had a softball game, so after Tyler's bath he had to leave asap! So, it was me who got the real joy of listening to Tyler's sad cries and yells.

So, Monday night, night #1
I put him in bed after his milk and he screamed, making it to the doorway after I was already downstairs. We've got him gated into his room because he can open all doors now. I listened to him scream, cry, and yell MOM at the top of his lungs for 15 minutes and then went back up. Cuddled him for a bit and put him back to bed. Again...he made it to the doorway, screamed, cried, yelled for mom, and I listened for another 15 minutes. I went up again and he clinged to me and wouldn't let me go. I let him lay on me to fall asleep, moved him to the side and made it out safely with him sleeping peacefully. This process = 1 total hour. He slept solid until 4:40 am, which Lee went in to calm him down because Lee was getting ready to leave for work anyhow. I took over when Lee left and ended up sleeping with Tyler in bed until he woke up at 7:45! I thought night #1 went pretty good!

Tuesday afternoon nap--day #2
Put Tyler in bed and went downstairs. He of course got out of bed screaming and made it to the doorway. 15 minutes later, I went up and laid with him in bed. He fell asleep and I again safely left the room. Progress from night #1!!! He ended up taking a 2 1/2 hour nap! Yippee!!! I also needed that nap--it was great!

Tuesday night--night #2
After he drank his milk I cuddled with him and then put him in bed. Patted his back for a bit and he fell asleep!!! Wonderful! However, also very jealous that Lee never had to listen to the screaming, crying, and yelling of MOM. He slept all night and woke up this morning at 6:45! Such a big boy! It was so funny, because when he woke up he went straight to the door, opened it and stood at the gate. These actions were all done silently! I knew he was awake because I kept hearing the door swing back and hit the wall. When I got to his room, he said, "all done." This is great!

I just laid him down for his Wednesday afternoon nap and he went down so good. I hope he keeps this up!

I will add more stories and pictures later. I guess I'll try to go get something done while he's napping!