1 MONTH OLD AND ANOTHER GUN SHOW

Brady on his 1 month B-Day
Brady bundled up for the campfire.

Tyler showing his guns.

Dad and Tyler cuddling up around the fire.

This is dinner at our house. Usually there are fits being thrown, but on this night it was only gun show after gun show.

Brady is 1 month old already! Wow, has that gone fast! One more week at home that I get to enjoy with him, then it's back to the real world. It was homecoming week in Newton this past week. We went down to the parade on Thursday night. Tyler loves to see the band and the police cars. We ended up getting rained on at the end, so our evening ended pretty quickly. Lee took Tyler to the homecoming football game on Friday night. It was Tyler's first football game and his favorite part was watching the band before the game and at halftime. They ended up leaving right after half. Saturday, Lee had to work, of course. Saturday night we tried out our fire pit and had a fire. We sat around and enjoyed the warmth and made smores. Tyler was having a great time! We had a pretty good weekend with lovely fall weather!

OFFICIAL SOCCER MOM!

This is our new ride. Tyler loves it--Mom too! This was pulling into the driveway for the first time with both boys comfortably in the back! It's got a DVD player, so Tyler got to enjoy Sesame Street on the way home.

Bears game day. This is Tyler showing Brady his guns.

Our two little boys in their football gear.

Brady=so peaceful. Tyler=not so much anymore.

Trying to check himself out in the mirror.

Things here are going great. Very little sleep going on, and only one more week off 'til I go back to work. We continue to have company stop by to meet Brady. He is growing so much, I am excited to see what he weighs next time we take him in. He has just started to really focus on my eyes, which has been really fun. He also continues to melt my heart when he smiles and shows me those dimples. When Brady is straight faced, all I see is Tyler, but when he smiles, I see only Brady. He has got the cutest smile--from his eyes to his cheeks to his dimples to his wide opened mouth. We are very lucky to have two boys with such great smiles!

We took Monday this week to go look at minivans. We drove all over and ended up really liking the last one we looked at. We walked away on Monday because they wouldn't come down to our price and we had to go pick up Tyler from Daycare. Good timing! They, of course, called us on Tuesday and agreed to come down to the price that worked for us. We ended up with a 2004 Pontiac Montana. It's got so much room and it really works for us and the kids! I hope it continues to be a great vehicle!

Lee is still working 12 hr. nights. He's still on 3rd shift, but soon enough will be back onto 1st. He still would rather be on 3rd, due to the fact that the office employees are absent and there are just fewer people to bother him. I, however, cannot wait until he is home with us at night. I feel as if I haven't gotten to sit down and have quality time with my husband in a few weeks. When he gets back onto 1st, we can have that time after Tyler goes to bed to sit, relax, and talk.

I go back to work in less than 2 weeks and still haven't gotten things done that I wanted to complete before Brady was even born! Now that I have a vehicle again, I can take Tyler to daycare first thing in the morning and get more things accomplished in my day! Not so sure that everything's going to get done, but I've got to squeeze in a nap every now and then!

THIS IS HOW WE ROLL

This is Tyler with his friend, Carter. Carter is my friends' little boy. He is 4 months older than Tyler. They came over for a play date this week. The boys had a great time!
Such a chunk! This is Tyler hanging out on the couch, with his fingers in his mouth. The past week those fingers haven't been OUT of his mouth. Pretty sure that those back molars are trying to make there way.
Grandma Freese bought Tyler a T-Ball set. We didn't have to teach him or show him how to use it. He picked up the bat, put his hands exactly how they should be on the bat, had great stance, and swung--RIGHT handed! He hits the ball great, every now and then hitting the T also, but he's awesome!

THIS IS HOW WE ROLL! Taking the boys on walks or out on the town is a bit challenging at the moment. This picture shows how I take them on walks these days. I push Brady in the stroller and pull Tyler in the wagon. They both seem to be happy, but it's not the easiest thing to do. Until we are able to purchase a double stroller, (which, when that day comes, I will be extremely happy) this is how we leave the house to travel. The weather has been so nice since Brady's been born and should continue to be nice for the awhile. We can't sit inside all day...I love walks, Tyler loves walks and Brady loves walks, so this is how we walk.

Video #1 shows Tyler showing off his "guns". What he does is squeeze his fists and the rest of his body really tight. BIG GUNS!

Video #2 is Tyler hitting the ball on his new T-ball set.

THE FIRST NIGHT

Well, I'm still here, but very tired. The first night without Lee went a little like this...
Brady had an awesome night! He went every 3 1/2 hours for feedings, which is a welcomed improvement from every 3 hrs. I was up with Brady at his 5:00 AM feeding, and had him all wrapped up and ready to give him just a little more milk before I put him down and I hear Tyler open his door and yell for Dad at 5:30. Shoot! I put Brady in his crib and head over to Tyler's room. I got Tyler back in bed and blankies on, told him 'night, night' and left the room. To me it sounded like he would stay in bed and go back to sleep, so I went back over to Brady's room. I fed Brady a little more milk, got rid of his hiccups, and then laid him down to sleep. Just as I walked back into our bedroom, Tyler swings his door open again and yells for Mom. Now, I'm not happy with him. I lay him back down and start walking away and he starts the screaming, crying, fit! I leave the room and sit in the hallway on the other side of his door, because I know that he will walk over to the door and try to open it. When he tries to open the door, I pull it tight so he can't open it. He screams and I hear him run back and forth from his bed to the door, each time trying to open the door. Finally, I hear him lay down. I go back to my bed at about 6:15. I'm thinking that I have about 15 minutes where I can rest and possibly fall asleep. Wrong! 6:20 Tyler opens his door again. This time, I stay in bed and let him scream and cry at his gate until 6:30. It's a good thing Brady is so young and can sleep through anything! I go to Tyler's room at 6:30 and make him lay down in bed with me for 15 minutes until I allow him to get up for the day. With Brady still asleep in his crib and not needing another feeding until 8-ish, Tyler and I go downstairs for breakfast and watch Disney and play. Now with Tyler being up since 5:30 this morning, Lee just got home from work at 9:45 and drove Tyler straight out to daycare. Now it's time for me to catch up on some rest while Tyler's gone and Brady's sleeping!

UPDATE AND LOTS OF NEW PICS!

First, I want to say...if you haven't checked out the post below, you should. As of right now, Brady has the cutest dimples!!! I hope they stay! We remember Tyler having one dimple when he was a baby, and he does not anymore. We do think that they look so much alike, but we still see so many different facial expressions on Brady that we never see or saw on Tyler.

Things are still going great! Tyler is still loving his baby brother! All he wants to do is share his snacks and juice with him and give him hugs and kisses. He is being a great big brother! We are very proud of him.

Lee goes back to work tonight, which I am not too excited about. It has been wonderful having him home this past week and a half. He has been getting up with Tyler every morning at 6:30 and getting him dressed and off to daycare or on the weekends, downstairs for breakfast. It's not that we wake Tyler up at 6:30, this is just the time he rises! Being able to have Lee take care of Tyler in the mornings has been such a huge deal for me. It's allowed me to stay in bed until Brady's next feeding and get a little extra sleep. Now for tomorrow morning...I'm not looking forward to it! Lee has taken over with Tyler since Brady's been here and I am so thankful for everything that he's done.

All summer Tyler has thrown a fit if we needed to take off his shirt or shorts for a period of time or just to change clothes. Now that the summer is coming to an end, all Tyler wants to do is take his clothes OFF! He can get his shorts off, no problem. He starts to take his shirt off, but then will need help getting it over that huge head of his. He then just loves to run around in his diaper, inside or outside, no matter what time of day! In this picture Tyler is wanting to share his car with Brady and also wanting to put the pacifier in Brady's mouth.
This was the first time that we had experienced the clothes off stage. It was also at 7:00 in the evening and it was pretty chilly outside. All Tyler wanted to do was play outside with the big boys next door. Notice all the boys on the trampoline facing the same direction. Lee is over to the left side of the picture throwing the football, as they were playing 500.

Brady dressed for the UNI vs. Iowa season opener. Iowa got a lucky win on Saturday. We were very disappointed in this house!

Tyler dressed for the game. Notice this shirt looks pretty '80-ish. This was one of my brother's and my shirts that we wore when we were little.

Again, no clothes. Early Saturday morning. I was actually still enjoying my coffee and he wanted his clothes off already. He loves to help me water my flowers!

Sunday we took a trip to Red Rock Lake. We enjoyed a picnic lunch and then played at the beach. Lee and Tyler actually got to play. I had to stay back and feed Brady on the blanket.

Brady just chillin' on the blanket.

Brady and I.

My two wonderful boys!

Brady's first REAL bath. Tyler loved watching and by the middle of it was taking all of his bath toys and throwing them into Brady's bathtub. And of course, Brady absolutely hated his bath!

This is Josh and HIS new truck! We sold our (Lee's) truck to my brother today. He needed a new vehicle and we needed to sell the truck in order for us to buy a new bigger/family vehicle. So, this worked well. We will miss the truck, but are excited to get something new. I go back to work in 4 weeks, so we'll have something before then!

ANY RESEMBLANCE???

Thought I'd send this out really quick before heading off to bed. I was just looking through pictures and wanted to compare Tyler to Brady. Here's what I found. Can you even tell them apart???

I'll add another post to update on the past week or so later. As for now, I'm tired and need sleep!

Brady Reynolds 8/30/09

Tyler Reynolds 11/26/07