HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY, TYLER!

I cannot believe that it's already been 5 years since our little, preemie, Tyler was born 8 weeks early.  What a tough beginning it was, but every second, day, and week that he had to stay in the NICU was worth it.  He came out strong and kept growing, and growing, and growing.  I'm sure anybody that meets him today would have no idea that he was a preemie by the looks of him!  And not only by the looks, but by his health and his extreme smartness that he shows at every instance. 

Tyler turning 5 has been a huge hit for me.  I teach 5 year olds every day!  And now, that means that my little boy is that grown up that he's going to be at school, with me, next fall, learning how to read and write, and follow important directions, and making new friends, and getting into trouble...., and growing up every day to be a big kid--not a little boy.  Wow!  He's 5!

Tyler had a very wonderful 5th Birthday!

Not only did he have a birthday with his friends the Friday before and a birthday with his grandparents and Uncle the Saturday before, but he got to celebrate and take treats for his birthday at school the day before, and then had a fabulous day with his mom, dad, and brother on the actual day of his 5th Birthday!

{On Monday night, Tyler said, "I have two birthdays left!"}

This is what Tyler looked like Tuesday afternoon.  He got a Birthday crown, sticker, and got a birthday pencil from school.  We took dirt cups (chocolate pudding, oreos, and gummy worms), bananas, and juice boxes for his birthday snacks at school on Tuesday.

Here's a picture of him showing me how old he is!

Wednesday morning, November 14th, we let Tyler open up one present before we left for work/daycare.  We took Birthday cookies for his treats at daycare on his birthday.

The presents that Tyler got from us were a Red Power Ranger, a Gold Clawzord, Bot Shots Transformers, and Glow in the Dark Stars for his bedroom.  The first three things were exactly what he asked for!

Tyler had a great day at daycare on his b-day.  I picked the boys up right after work and brought them home to play.  We waited for Lee to get home and then went to Tyler's favorite, Pizza Ranch, for dinner.  After his b-day dinner out, our special outing for the evening was to go swimming at the Y. 

Tyler and Brady playing with the Bot Shots.

Tyler playing with the Bot Shots.  It's Bumblebee vs. Megatron.  Tyler went as Bumblebee for Halloween and Uncle Josh told Tyler that he was going as Megatron for Halloween, so we thought this Bot Shot set was perfect.  And Tyler loves it!

And while Tyler opened his gifts, Brady was busy playing his own game on the couch.

They had an absolute blast going to the pool for Tyler's birthday! 

And as if I hadn't made enough birthday treats already, I also made some b-day cupcakes for his birthday night.  This little boy is that special that he got 5 different birthday desserts on 4 different days!  When we got home from swimming, we had cupcakes and sang Happy Birthday to the birthday boy!

He was so happy with his day and turning 5!

And Brady enjoyed his cupcake!  :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TYLER!  WE LOVE YOU!

MOM, DAD, AND BRADY

TYLER'S SOCCER BIRTHDAY PARTIES!

  I cannot believe that it's time to celebrate Tyler's 5th Birthday!  These past 5 years have been absolutely amazing, exhausting, funny, and best of all, full of love.

Tyler's birthday is this coming Wednesday, so we had two birthday parties already this weekend.  Friday night he had a party with two of his best friends, Caden and Micah.  Tyler woke up Friday morning so excited for his party that night.  He would say, "this is going to be the best birthday party ever!"  He wanted a soccer birthday this year, so that's what we did.  It was a fun evening and the boys had a great time!

Saturday's birthday party was spent with family and we were able to enjoy a lot of time outside, since the weather was so nice and warm.  Again, Tyler was excited as could be once he woke up that morning and had a very happy, fun day, enjoying all the extra attention on just him!

Tyler gets to take birthday treats to school on Tuesday this week and celebrate his birthday with all his friends at school.

Wednesday, which is his actual birthday, we will celebrate again with a dinner out with just the four of us!  Perfect!

Happy Birthday, Tyler!  We love you and your smile, stories, comments, hugs, and kisses very much! 

Friday

Friday evening with the boys.  They were able to play soccer outside for a good 30 minutes until it turned dark.

After playing outside, we headed to the garage to play "pin the ball in the goal."

They also took some time with a Silly String can and sprayed each other pretty good.

Dinner Time!  Pizza, veggies, and dip.

He got some great presents.  Spiderman and Avengers movies from Micah and a Bears jersey, helmet, and pant set from Caden.

For Birthday dessert on Friday night I made dirt cups.  The boys loved them!

Brady was at the party as well, but chose to not partake in the activities with Tyler and his friends.  Instead he sat on the couch and played games.  But he did join the party for dinner and dessert!  :)

We concluded the night with wrestle time with Lee and then calmed them down by playing Candyland before they left.    A very successful bithday party #1!

Saturday

Grandma Mary's first present for Tyler Saturday morning was his attire for the day.  She got him a USA soccer jersey and some new soccer socks.  He was very happy with his new jersey and socks!

Here's the soccer ball birthday cake that I made.  I spent Friday night, after Tyler's friends left, baking the Strawberry Jello Cake and then woke up early Saturday morning to put it all together and decorate it.  We were all very happy with the result, especially Tyler!  And...it tasted amazing!

Each one of the boys had a little melt down Saturday morning during the party.  Tyler had his melt down first and then Brady later.  So, we were all outside playing with Brady, while Tyler was inside "calming down," and then by the time Tyler was ready to come outside and play, it seemed like Brady's melt down began and he went inside.  There was a short time that they were both outside together playing with everyone.

So, here's Brady playing soccer with Grandpa Freese.

And then Tyler came out to play.

Tyler's awesome "drop kick" that he's so proud of!  

Grandma played goalie, while Josh, Grandpa, and Tyler kicked the ball around.

My (almost) 5 year old.

It was such a perfect day!

Thank you, Grandpa, for the blue power rangers play set--I love it!  Love, Tyler

Thank you, Grandma for the Transformers helmet--It's awesome!  Love, Tyler

Thank you, Uncle Josh and Aunt Liz, for the bot shots transformers-- they are so cool!  Love, Tyler

Josh and the boys playing with the bot shots.

Ready to sing Happy Birthday, blow out his #5 candle, and eat some cake and ice cream!

Blue Power Ranger playing with his bow (water gun) outside.

Grandpa and Brady playing games on the couch.

Josh and Tyler wrestling around on the floor.

Grandma and Tyler playing with his new puzzles that she gave him.  Brady also got some new puzzles from Grandma Mary.

These two boys are played with and taken care of from sun up to sun down when Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Josh are here.  Lee and I take a seat and watch the joy in their eyes and see their faces light up from the continuous attention they receive.  It's a joy to watch and these boys really soak it all in!

HALLOWEEN FUN!

Wow!  I must say that I am excited that it is now Halloween Night and I can sit and love that all of these past few crazy days are now over.  As it was very fun and exciting, it seems as though Halloween has gotten to be almost as bad as Christmas and is drawn out in multiple events!  With our Halloween festivities starting last Friday, it's been a very busy past 6 days full of sugar and fun!  We had a great time and the kids enjoyed every single second of it!

TRUNK OR TREAT

Friday, October 26th

 We started off our Halloween festivities with Trunk or Treat at our church on Friday night.  It was just the boys and I, as Lee was still at work.  The boys looked great in their costumes and were filled with excitement for the evening.  Tyler's costume is Bumblebee the Transformer and Brady is IronMan.

 On the way to our first Trick-or-Treat event.

 Trunk-or-Treat at church.

 Inside church they have games and crafts.  We met some of our close friends at the church and enjoyed the evening!  Tyler got some Vampire teeth as a prize after playing a game.

 The tradition is to dump out all the candy on the living room floor to check out all of the goods.  While they each got to choose one thing to eat, I snapped a couple of good pictures!

 NIGHT EYES

Saturday, October 27th

 We took the kids to Night Eyes at Blank Park Zoo on Saturday night to do another round of Trick-or-Treating.  This was our first time going to the Zoo for Halloween.  The boys had a great time seeing the animals as they were also getting candy!

 First person they see when we walk into the zoo is Spiderman!  (and Batman)  They were so excited!

 They also had a great time playing at the park in the zoo.

 The Camel Ride.  This was Brady's first time riding a camel, but Tyler has done it a couple times before.  The guy leading the camel said that 'by the time that Mom was out of eye sight, Brady started to cry.'  So, pretty much, Brady cried the whole ride.  Tyler on the other hand had a great time!

 Brady was a little bummed after the camel ride, so we cheered him up by playing peek-a-boo with this seal.  It was very cute!  The seal would go under water and pop back up to see Brady!

 Our Family at Night Eyes 2012

PUMPKIN CARVING

Sunday, October 28th

 Lee did some great, traditional, pumpkin carving to create our Jack-o-lanterns for our front porch.

My mom came in to town for Saturday night and Sunday.  I peeled her away from the boys on Sunday to go into Des Moines with me to do some shopping for Tyler's birthday and even got some Christmas presents.  It was a wonderful shopping day with Mom!

 TRICK-OR-TREAT NIGHT

Tuesday, October 30

 The morning of "Trick-or-Treat Night."  Before heading out in the morning, the boys were very excited for the day!  Thank you, Grandma Mary, for finding these awesome shirts at Von Maur!

 Before leaving the house for work/daycare Tuesday morning, I packed drinks, snacks, Halloween costumes, and buckets, so that I could pick the kids up from Daycare and head to The Square downtown to do our first trick-or-treating for the night.  Tyler had his Halloween Party at school on Tuesday as well, so he was pretty much in his costume the entire day.  I picked the boys up by 4:00, got them changed into their costumes at daycare, and the boys and I headed to the square to do some trick-or-treating. 

 After trick-or-treating on the square, we headed home for dinner, waited for Lee to get home from work,  and then headed out again to trick-or-treat in our neighborhood.  We got to take Cali with us this time!

 I had the three of them stop for a quick photo.

Throughout this night, there were tears, tears, and more tears!  They were so tired it seemed that every little thing caused tears and a dramatic situation.  I think that we were all glad when we made it through the neighborhood and back home to go to bed!

 These were our bowls of candy before we added in the candy from the actual trick-or-treat night!  Pretty sure Lee will be taking a good percentage of that candy to work.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Wednesday, October 31st

 Wickedly Handsome Boys!

Again, very excited for the day!

With all of the trick-or-treating done, we have to think of other ways to make the actual day special.

They started off the day with a ghost shaped breakfast and monster mouth apples.  They took Monster Mouth Apples for snack to Daycare.  They got Mummy Dogs for dinner and they both were wickedly handsome all day long!

And we can't forget about our little princess, Cali.  She also wore her cute little outfit for Halloween Trick-or-Treating.

 Have I said lately how much I love my job and love the people I work with?!  Well, I do.  And I love that every year, we come up with a theme for all of us to dress up for Halloween.  This year, since our theme at school for the year is 'A Sea of Success', we went with the Gilligan's Island Cast for Halloween.  I went as The Movie Star; we had the Millionaire and His Wife, Skipper, The Professor, Mary Ann, and Gilligan.  It was so much fun!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!