AVA'S DANCE

Little Ava had a dance recital a couple weekends ago. She had invited myself and Tyler to come watch. Even though she doesn't show it or say it to Tyler, she really loves the little guy and was ecstatic that he was coming to watch her dance. Ava was in one dance and did a fabulous job! Tyler did as Tyler always does when we are out and attending something new, and that is to just sit back, watch, and soak it all in. The auditorium was extremely hot and the poor kid was sweating and watching a bunch of girls do dances that he didn't even know, but he still wouldn't leave the auditorium. I had asked him a couple times if he wanted to leave and he replied back with 'no' each time. After the recital, Tyler gave Ava a movie for a job well done and then we all headed to my Aunt and Uncles for dessert. It was a great Sunday afternoon spent watching a future dance star! Tyler actually really did enjoy the performance and loves Ava to pieces! This picture is of Tyler, my cousin Heather, and Val's little girl, Ava.
Tyler and Brady both love to 'tap dance' on the kitchen floor when they have their shoes on. Uh-oh! We might have some dancers in our home. I guess they did learn from watching Lee and I during our dance parties, so they are bound to be great dancers!

RANDOM PHOTOS

Here's some random pictures that were taken over the week while Lee was out in Oregon for work.

Depending on the day Tyler can pose for a picture quite well!

This is my favorite pose of his!

Here's Brady showing his great 'cheese' of a smile. Such a cutie!

We have special picnics in the living room every so often. This was a morning that we were able to have a breakfast picnic before leaving for daycare/work. That doesn't happen very often!

Brady could go down the slide all day long!!!

I wanted to get a picture of Tyler, Brady, and I so that I could send it to Lee while he was away. Brady absolutely did not want to take a picture with us! Here he is pouting under the slide after we tried to get him in a picture with us.

This is the best picture we got of the three of us. As you can see, Brady really didn't want to stop playing to get his picture taken!

Tyler is also a big fan of the slide.

Another thing that Brady could do all day long is swing! We are loving nice weather!!!

HOWDY!

Here's the little cowboy! He only enjoys dressing up as a cowboy because of Woody from Toy Story. He doesn't last long in the boots, as he thinks that they are pretty uncomfortable.

DADDY'S BOYS

This picture was taken before Lee left for out-of-state for a week. I'm sure that they all enjoyed this special moment, I know that I enjoyed seeing it.

A NEW 'FIRST' FOR TYLER

Tyler was invited to his first birthday party!

We have friends in town that we spend time with and they have a boy, Caden, who just turned 3 yesterday. For his birthday he wanted for only Tyler to come over to his house, watch movies, and have a pajama party! It was planned that I would also come over with Brady and would hang out with Mandy while the boys played, but with Brady being sick, the plans had changed.

When I picked Tyler up from daycare, I had to ask him if it was okay that he stayed at the party by himself while I had to be home with Brady. He said he was fine with that and that he was so excited for the party. We came home and Tyler was running around the house with excitement for the party. I was sure that he would be fine at their house without me, but was still a little worried since this was his first time being at a 'friends' house, besides daycare, without me. I was also a little saddened that I couldn't have watched the two of them play!

So, we headed over to the party and I dropped Tyler off at his first birthday party, with gifts in hand. I walked him in, gave him a kiss, and he was ready to play! Of course, the wish of watching movies, didn't actually happen. After they had their pizza, the two boys played and played, with Caden's new gifts. Mandy, Caden's mom, dropped Tyler back off at home, since Brady was already in bed. He came in with a party favor bag and was just so excited about the whole night!

I am always so happy to see the happiness on Tyler and Brady's faces. Last night, the happiness on Tyler's face was wonderful to watch! He had such a great night with his buddy!

WOW! He's really growing up!

HARD WEEK!

This past week was an extremely hard one! Lee was gone in Oregon the whole week for work. He left Sunday after our Incredible Pizza adventure and was supposed to be home last night, but is actually still in the Chicago airport and will be home this morning.

I went to work on Monday feeling terrible. Whenever I coughed, it felt as if a million knives were stabbing me in the chest. So, I scheduled an appt. for myself right after work on Monday. It turned out that I had bronchitis along with allergies. I decided to stay home on Tuesday to let the medicine do it's job and get some rest (with the boys at daycare.)

Nights have been hard with Tyler. He is throwing the biggest fits (over nothing) that I have ever seen him throw when we are getting ready for bath/bed. Screaming, hitting, kicking, etc. They happened 3 out of the 6 nights that Lee was gone. They are really not fun to deal with!

Friday morning, I woke up at 5:30, which is my usual wake-up time anyhow, but I could hear Brady making noises. I went in to his room to find that he was laying in bed, but was extremely hot and had a fever, AGAIN! We just got done with him having a fever! It was just last Monday and Tuesday that Lee and I stayed home with him. So, the only thing that I could do, was I had to take BOTH boys to school with me to get lesson plans ready for the sub. I then dropped Tyler off at daycare and took Brady to the Dr. Only to find out that, again, it's just a virus! He was up alot last night. Right on cue, right when his medicine was wearing off and he needed more.

I am hoping that Lee gets home in time this morning in order for me to make it to a baby shower that I am wanting to attend and I am hoping for a MUCH better week all around next week!

INCREDIBLE

We had another great weekend! We spent Saturday evening at a friends house to watch the final four games and to have the kids play with the other little ones. It's always so nice when Tyler and Brady can be entertained with "new" toys and other kids to play with. It's a nice little break! The BIG event was on Sunday. We met my mom and Josh and Liz at INCREDIBLE Pizza. We all had a great time! It's a place for little and big kids! We ate a good lunch and then played many games. We will definitely be going back to this place. The kids had a blast!

We played games throughout the entire place, but their was a special toddler area that we started out in. The games were made specifically for toddlers. It was awesome! Here's Tyler shooting some hoops. Lee and Uncle Josh helping the boys out with their games.

Brady on the carousel with Grandma by his side.

Tyler was supposed to jump really hard for this game. They didn't really know what was going on, so Tyler just kept jumping. He was fine with that, though!

I'm helping Tyler.

Josh and Liz helping Brady.

Lee and Tyler shooting some guns. Me in the background, shooting some hoops!

This started out with all of us on it, and then ended up with just me on it. I had a great time stomping and dancing to the Conga song!

GO CARTS! Tyler has told us that this was his favorite part of the day. "Riding go carts with Uncle Josh."

Lee even gave Brady a ride in a go cart.

And then we had to spend our tickets on something from here. They each ended up getting a bubble wand, a whistle, and an eraser.

This place was great!

Thanks Josh, Liz, and Grandma for coming along and enjoying the fun!