Disneyland!

The first week in December Mike's parents took us to Disneyland for Christmas. I love the holiday decorations - it's my favorite way to visit! We went with Mike's sisters as well, so we had 5 kids 12 and under, 3 under 3 and we knew there was going to be some challenges.

I was nervous to take Grace and Max on the plane, I didn't want to be "that mother" of "that baby" who wouldn't stop crying. They both did beautifuly on the way to California, not so much on the way home, but 50/50 isn't bad right?


We had so much fun in Disneyland, I love getting to make memories with my kids, they are probably to young to remember too much, but we'll always have pictures!


The first day we went to the character breakfast at our hotel, staring Lilo and Stich. I got assaulted by Stitch. Most of you know my personal space bubble, and it was shattered. He had me in a head lock and kept giving me hugs because Max was so scared of him. I didn't count him being scared either, he usually is just an easy going boy, but he did not like any of the characters.

This is the first day in the park, I told Max I wanted one cute picture of him smiling at the camera, he looked at me and smiled cute! What a good boy!

I didn't get a picture of Lighting McQueen on my camera, hopefully someone else did! They were really cute!

This is the huge Christmas tree right as you walk into Disneyland. It is huge! They bring in semi's each year to set it up. I love all the decorations and the Christmas music.

There are so many pictures on the carousel, Grace and Max both loved it. We made the mistake of taking Grace on Snow White first and she was scared to death! She wouldn't ride anything in the dark again. So we just kept taking her on the carousel. This is Grace and Grandma Ruth.

They had Santa's sleigh and all his reindeer back by this excellent BBQ place we ate lunch at. The food was so good, and it's a good thing it was all you can eat because Grace had a hungry week and ate 4 chicken legs + beans + cornbread.

Aunt Caitlin and Max

The 2nd day we took the kids into Toontown, Grace had been so scared to ride anything the first day. I told her I would ride everything with her and not let anything happen. She was just barely tall enough to ride the Toontown roller coaster, but I didn't think she really would do it. The whole time we were in line she just kept watching it asking why it went around like that. I showed her how all the people were smiling when they were done and bribed her with a sucker if she would ride it.

Look at this proud girl after she got off her 1st roller coaster! Way to go Grace! (Mike said her face was terrified the whole time, but she didn't cry at all!) We went and got suckers afterwards!

Grace is usually a pill when it comes to the camera....

Grace and Mike in jail. Right were they belong! :)

If there is water around, Max will find it. But look how happy he is!

The jungle safari ended up being one of Grace's favorite things, she loved the zebras*, the hippos and the rhinos. Max loved it too!

(*for those of you who have been to Disneyland, do you remember that the zebra is getting eaten by the lion? do you think I should be concerned that's her favorite?)

Max has become quite the mama's boy, he is cautious about so many things that I never thought he would be. This is him on the jungle cruise as he's watching the animals. I look terrible, but I loved the picture of him!

Grace went through Chip and Dale's tree house and was mad they were not home. She was excited to see them later that day. I also didn't get a picture of her with Donald Duck, who is her favorite. She told me the day before we left that Donald is her favorite because he doesn't wear pants. Well, when we finally found Donald he was signing another girls book. He did something I can't remember what and I said, "Oh he's an angry Donald." Well, he looked at me, blew a raspberry, threw the girls book and kicked the post. Grace laughed and laughed, she says that was her favorite thing too. He really played Donald so well!

Grace and her cousin Tylor -

One of the attempts to get the 5 grandchildren in the same picture....

Max rode everything, he never cried he just loved being with us, outside and watching people.

The carousel at California Adventures is so stinking cute! Plus they don't make you get off so they just rode and rode.

Our hotel was decorated for Christmas too! They had a Santa, but my children wouldn't go near him. We had to wait until he left to get a picture by the tree. It was darling!

We really did have such a fun time. We were worried about all the walking with Mike's back, but he held up really well. The last day I told Grace we were going home and she said "Grandpa will bring me back next week." I wish too sweetheart!

Thanks Todd and Ruth!

Thanksgiving

We had Thanksgiving with Mike's dad's family this year - wow, Thanksgiving seems like so long ago, but really only 3 weeks, can that be right?

I love Thanksgiving, a chance to gorge - catch up with family and prepare to burn off those calories with some early Black Friday shopping!

After dinner Mike and I drove up to spend the night at my sisters in Hyrum. I honestly got maybe an hour worth of sleep that night and then we were off to the races, we hit Old Navy, Wal-mart, Smiths Marketplace and Kohls, and then I was still to work by 9am, in Ogden! It made for a long day, but it was a good day!

We have so much to be thankful for, and sometimes I need a reminder like Thanksgiving to see how blessed I am. I'm so thankful for my family, our home, our jobs and the wonderful community we live in.

The naughtiness of the Tyler 2

Sometimes it seems like my children set out to see how naughty they can be. We recently had a "naughty marathon" at our house.

The night we carved pumpkins Grace was covered in the orange goo- I started her a tubby and then went back to the kitchen to clean up. Seconds later I walked back in the bathroom and Max decided he wanted a tubby too - but he wasn't going to waste anytime getting undressed!

I laughed at first and made a mental note to not let him back in the bathroom, the part that was a bit frustrating was the shoes, his feet grow so fast he only has two pairs. One brown, one black. The black pair had just been washed and were drying that day... Oh my sweet boy! It's so hard to tell, but he knew he was naughty by the look on his face. I asked Grace why she didn't say "Mom! Max is getting in the tub!" and she said "Mom, Max is naughty!" and giggled.



Two days later I had a "gentle reminder" of why I try and shower before Mike leaves for work in the morning. Let me set the stage for you - Max and Grace woke up arguing. They fought over everything! And the whinniness was top rate that day. I was trying to clean and every room I picked up the kids destroyed. It truly was just one of those days. Around noon I put a video on and jumped in the shower. Not two minutes later Grace runs in and says she needs to potty. This is not unusual, but a minute later she is screaming that she can't undo her pants and she's had an accident. Lovely!

Well, I get out of the shower and I don't know how but she peed more than any 2 year old should ever pee. There was no way of getting out of the shower without stepping in it. Special, I know you wanted to know that. So I'm cleaning that mess up, re-cleaning me up, and I peek around the corner and Max isn't watching the video. Well, I have to get dressed because I don't want to give the neighbors a nice peep show and start coming down the hall. In my hall I noticed some white footprints. It didn't hit me quite yet, then I came into my kitchen and about died. (Don't worry I grabbed my camera first, my friend Kori says the secret to good parenting is learning to grab the camera before reacting.)

These pictures don't really do the mess justice, this is just what was contained to the pantry. I have no doubt Max started it, but Grace is never one to be left out of naughtiness. The spoons and measuring cups were defiantly her idea. I had flour from my pantry, through my kitchen, down the hall, in the living room and the kids room.

Just to make this day even better - we were suppose to leave for the doctor in like 30 minutes for Max's 18 month check up. I threw them both back in the bath. I know it wasn't the funnest time they've ever had getting their hair washed. We made it out of the house (after a small breakdown on my part) and I dropped Grace of at her grandmas.

On the way to the doctor Grandma Ruth called me and said Grace told her she had been naughty and made a mess with mom's sugar. She also wanted to know if Grace had eaten lunch. No, she most certainly had not eaten lunch. :) (I can smile about it now.)

Well, I made it through Max's checkup and shots. And got the mess cleaned up. Just out of curiosity, if you were wondering how much fun it is to clean up flour out tile, it's not very fun.


Max also tipped over my garbage that week in the kitchen, and then my wedding ring ended up missing. I searched for that for days. Including crawling my whole house with a flashlight, going through all the drawers in the dresser I set it on, cleaning out all the kids toy box's and bins. Went through two really gross bags of trash. Grace found my ring 3 days later hid behind some Tupperware containers in my pantry. I searched the floor because that's where Max likes to play, but not behind things on the shelf. There was also two bracelets and a shiny hair thing. I'm raising a jewelry thief. Mikes mom says she's also missing her watch.... I'm just so thankful it's been found!

A couple days after the flour incident I found a whole sheet of stickers plastered on my nightstand. I didn't tell my husband about that one.

Last night at my moms Max took the grate off the electric fireplace, while it was on. I'm not sure how he doesn't have burns. He's also flooded my moms kitchen with the refrigerator water, soaking himself in the process!

I swear I watch my children, most of the time. It's amazing how fast they can get into trouble, and make messes, and go from loving children to crazies!

Fall Family Pictures

We had some family pictures taken in October. My sisters friend Deb did them, and we love them! It was a challenging day, trying to get two kids 2 and under both looking at the camera at the same time, smiling. Just fun memories right? These are some of my favorites -

Pre-Halloween

I was going to wait to post pictures of my kid's costumes until after Halloween, but we've had so much fun the last couple weeks and I needed a reason to post :)

This is our neighborhood Halloween party. A family in our ward has it at their home and had games, food and prizes for the kids. This was our first year going and I can't believe how much effort they put into it! Several people were there to help and the kids had such a good time!

The kids costumes weren't quite finished... But Grace is a witch and Max is a vampire.


For family night we carved our first pumpkin. I'll be honest - I'm not a pumpkin carving queen. It took me forever to just get the guts cleaned out, but lucky for us Mike and the kids loved carving it! We carved a Jack Skelington face. Max and Grace kept eating the raw pumpkin seeds. We had homemade beef stew for dinner and then put Grace in the tub because she was covered in orange. I was cleaning up and walked in the bathroom and Max had climbed in the tub with Grace. Shoes and all - I asked Grace why she didn't tell me Max was being naughty or getting in the tub and she just giggled and said Max got in the bath with his shoes! (not to mention how much fun it is to peel away Levi's and a really soggy diaper... :)

During the pumpkin carving I asked Grace if she was having fun. She said yes and I asked her if Jesus would want us to be a happy family and have fun. She said no he wants us to be naughty. I said no, he wants us to be nice and be happy. She just rolled her eyes at me.

Mikes family has a big Halloween party every year. All the grand kids get to dress up, they do a couple pinatas and dinner. Witch's are in this year, I think there were at least 10 of them running around!

Caitlin brings new meaning to the phrase "stealing candy from a baby".... and Mike's aunt Liz looked awesome with her piercings and tattoos.

Here's to hoping for a warm 31st, or at least not a bitter cold snowy one!

Year #4

A year ago Mike and I decided to go to Las Vegas for our anniversary. I don't think either of us actually thought we would go, but I found a really good deal on airfare and a really good deal on a hotel room.

4 1/2 years ago I stayed in St. George, but spent a day in Vegas with some friends, 4 years ago Mike and I went for our honeymoon and stayed off the strip in a very nice hotel. 3 years ago we stayed at the Stratosphere for a night passing through to California. Well, I don't ever remember going to Vegas and feeling so dark and dirty. This time we couldn't get away from the cigarette smoke. Everywhere we went, walking, sitting - waiting for the shuttle. I don't remember being unable to get away from it before.

Don't get me wrong, I loved being with my husband, and just getting away was exactly what we needed. We stayed at the Sahara - and it was dark. The casino was dark, the halls were dark, our room was dark. I love light and windows and seeing my food clearly when I eat... we went through several other hotels, and shops and non of them them seemed to be as dark. We were in the cave! We aren't big gamblers at the Tyler home, something about me not being able to stand losing or something like that so we walked quite a bit. We splurged on chocolates at the Godiva store - I didn't know it was possible to buy 2 pieces of chocolate for $7, but it was so good! We ate at California Pizza Kitchen and at Margaritaville. And we spent time together.

We are together a lot - but sometimes it doesn't seem like we're together. We are chasing kids, watching TV, playing on the computer, paying bills, planning to do's, and so many other things. It was just really nice to not worry about cleaning the house and just be together. We held hands everywhere we went, we haven't done that since Max was born - at least not with each other!

Mike says we've become "those parents". Everywhere we went we started looking for Grace and Max prizes. "How cute would that be?" "Oh Grace would love that!" And we'd start laughing. 2 days was plenty to be away, by day 3 I was more than ready to come home to my kiddos.

I also forgot my camera - so no pictures from our trip to the smokey cave.... We did decide that we probably won't go back to Vegas again. Park City is closer, cheaper and cleaner!

It's funny how much can change in 4 years - different jobs, 2 kids, moved twice... wonder what the next four years will bring?

Fall Fun Days

I love the fall. I love the colors, I love the cooler weather, I like sweatshirts and breezy days. Some how this year seemed to go from summer to bitter cold winter over night. Luckily it "warmed" back up a bit.... In effort to not waste any available "outside" time before it gets "too" cold again we have had some fun adventures the past week.

Mike and I took the kids to Cherry Hill for a round of miniature golf. We invited Aunt Caya to come along. They had transformed it into Scary Hill and nearly every hole was redone for Halloween. They put a lot of work into the course and the kids had so much fun. They gave each kid a little club and ball and for the first few holes they were pretty good about playing. Then Grace threw her 1st ball into the water, and Max wanted to pick up everyone eles's ball, but what else would you expect taking a 1 & 2 year old golfing?

It's so nice to see the kids outside having fun. They loved the Frankensteins mouth, and there were big black cats up in one of the trees. Grace also decided to keep score and sat at each hole making marks on the card. Max just loved being out of the stroller and walking around. We were glad Caitlin came with us - cause G&M are a lot of work!

We had to have Halloween jammies....

On Wednesday we went with some friends to Black Island Farms for a Pumpkin Patch hayride. It was fun, and cold! They had a courtyard with piglet races and slides and a corn maze, but it just was too cold for the little ones to do very much. They loved the Haystack slides and Grace could have spent all day watching the animals.

We went on the hayride through a gigantic pumpkin patch and watched the last part of the sunset. The driver of the tractor may have had something to drink to keep him warm.... We stopped and picked two gigantic pumpkins in the dark. (Side story.... Mike got hurt at work 3 weeks ago, his back is still really sore and he walks quite a bit slower. He's getting better - but imagine us now trying to get two children and two huge pumpkins off the hay wagon... Our friends Brooke and Ben had their own two little ones and three huge pumpkins of their own... It was a sight I'm sure!) We learned two things - next year we are going to go earlier in the day and children under two are free so my kids can't get any older.