Summer Fun

Here are some fun pictures from the summer so far.  I am having a blast with this little toddler!

 At the park in St George while spending the weekend with the Wyson's.

 

 Wet N Wild - look at those teeth!

First time to the Splash Pad.  She loved it way more than I was expecting.

Lazy blogging

I have multiple pictures to put up, but don't really feel like writing a whole blog post, so this is going to be brief.  Plus, most of these pictures are not related to each other.  I know if I wait until I feel like blogging, I will be way behind and might skip a whole bunch of stuff, so here goes the laziest blog post ever:

 View from the top of Exploration Peak where we had a twilight picnic with a couple friends.  Little girl fell and got a fat lip and cut open her top gums.  Turns out this was a good thing because she finally got her first tooth through those top gums.  (First tooth at 12 months...takes after daddy).

 Graduation gift from Lindsey.  Notice the adorable graduation caps on top of the sodas?  If you know anything about Devan, you know this was the PERFECT gift for him.

 My sweet little girl who loves to walk around with her "pretties" (bracelets).  This picture was taken at that wonderful time of night right before bedtime when she is so sweet and loveable.  We only let her have her blanket at bedtime, and she always holds it right up to her nose, just like I did when I was little.  Weird how that kind of stuff gets passed on...

 A fun Sunday afternoon at the park.  Devan was so patient with her, just walking back and forth across that bridge a dozen times because she thought it was so fun.  She is still not sure about the slide, and definitely not sure about the water, but she loves all the open space to walk around.  Plus she gets to wear shoes, which she also loves.

 This adorable angel sitting in her rocking chair that Great Grandma G gave her.  She loves to climb up into it and rock herself back and forth.  She often insists that some friends sit with her too.

A couple of the guys from Devan's mini graduation celebration LAN party.  Turns out the LAN party was not so great as far as winning games goes, but the boys always have a blast when they get together...and the wives get to go shopping :)  Also notice Devan's new desk...HAPPY GRADUATION!!!

Oh you know...

While looking through the family pictures that we just had taken, Devan and I started reflecting on our lives as they are currently.  In doing so we recognized how very blessed  we are.  So, we just want to throw in a little "Life is Wonderful" post to put a story and time frame with these particular pictures for posterity sake.

In case you didn't know, I am a planner.  My life always has a general plan for about 5 years out.  Turns out Devan is a planner too, so this has worked out nicely.  The details of our plans usually don't pan out like we expect them to, but the ultimate goals, big milestones, and main themes always seem to work out for us.  That in itself is a huge blessing that we are very grateful for.

First of all, Devan just graduated from college.  SO PROUD OF HIM.  When we met, this was something that he thought would never happen.  Assuming his background check clears, which we are pretty sure it will :), Devan will be a CFP in a matter of weeks.  Also a HUGE accomplishment.

 In relation to all of this, Devan is loving his job, is having a lot of success, and is really starting to be able to work on some other business ventures that are part of our "plan".  My job is also fantastic.  I work just enough to enjoy it, make enough money for it to be worth it, and get to spend lots of days home with my baby.  Our baby girl is wonderful, healthy, and happy.  She alone is enough to make anybody feel blessed beyond belief.   Our family enjoys the AMAZING blessings of the gospel and temple.  Our families are so supportive and loving, something that I have recognized more of recently; and not just from my family, but Devan's as well.  We have friends that others would be so lucky to have.  We enjoy so many temporal luxuries that we often take for granted, but that many in this world can only dream of. 

Our lives right now are turning out just like we planned and we are truly grateful.  That isn't to say we haven't had rough patches along the way or that our lives are perfect and without trials.  Some days at work are stressful, we experience "those kind of days" with our little one, and there are occasional disagreements and arguments that happen between family and friends, but all things considered, life is truly fantastic and we have our wonderful family, friends, and most importantly our Heavenly Father and Savior to thank.

1 Year Old!!!

I cannot believe my baby is 1!  I guess now she is actually a toddler...and she does toddle all right.  Tylee is officially a walker.  Very rarely does she crawl anywhere anymore.  She's still pretty shaky and walks a little bit like she's drunk, but she is determined and gets right back up after every fall.  Watching her wobble around with her arms stretched out to the side to help her balance is my favorite.  Here are some other 1YEAR OLD tidbits:

Tylee loves to "sing" and "dance".  She is always humming or jibbering in her little sing song voice to herself.  It is Devan's favorite thing.  When she hears music she bounces up and down or starts stomping her feet.  She's adorable.

Tylee spit out food for pretty much the first time today.  She still eats just about anything, but as I discovered today, if she doesn't like it she will just open her mouth and let it fall out, no funny faces or anything.  The culprit today was butternut squash.  (To be fair, it wasn't the freshest, so we will probably try it again).  She is also weaning off the bottles.  She only gets one in the morning and at night and it is half formula and half milk until we run out of formula...then no more bottles for her!  She drinks plain milk pretty well out of a sippy cup throughout the rest of the day so I am hoping it will be a smooth transition.  (It's nice to save ~$100 a month too!)

Tylee loves balls.  She is already quite the little soccer star.  She just walks around the downstairs kicking her Minnie Mouse ball and then chasing it down.  Weston and Chelsea gave her a little tennis size ball that lights up when you shake it for her birthday and it is her favorite.  After pulling that out of the bag, she wanted nothing to do with any of her other presents.  If there are multiple balls around she will just gather them all in one spot and sit with them around her, not quite sure what to do with all of them next.   She is hilarious.

Poor little things is currently experiencing seasonal allergies.  She has her dad to thank for that.  We had a rough couple nights and then discovered the magic of children's Claritin (which Devan went to buy at 3 am).  She gets a half dose every night and it does wonders.  She is still kinda phlegmy (is that a word?  did I even get close with spelling?) and has the occasional coughing fit to clear it up, but that is much better than a constant, and I mean CONSTANT runny nose.  And just like any kid, she hates getting her nose wiped.

Tylee has pretty much mastered going up and down the stairs.  And with that came the realization that to get off the bed or couch you have to slide off backwards, not fall off face first.  Now her new favorite thing is climbing up and then getting down from the fireplace hearth.  Sometimes she just perches herself up there and sits facing out towards the room with a big smile like she is queen of the world looking out over everything.  And then if you give her any recognition she starts screaming/giggling with excitement.  She loves to be the center of attention.

Tylee is very cuddly.  She gives that best loves.  She gives hugs and kisses and will lay her head on your shoulder and make an "awwww" sound when she is feeling extra affectionate.  These are often done completely on her own with no prodding from mom and dad.  Most adorable thing ever.  Best part of my day....multiple times a day.

This is my favorite stage so far, although I think every stage is my favorite while she is  in it.  She is so interactive and has such a BIG and unique personality.  Sometimes I laugh just thinking about her because she is such a goofball.  Just her smiling at me makes me melt.   But, this stage is definitely the hardest.  She is all over the place and is starting to get sassy when she can't have/do what she wants.  Keeping the house clean is impossible.  She just follows behind me, pulling everything out that I have just put away.  But, we love her.  At the end of the day we just have to remember that we love her and that she really still is an angel child comparatively.  We are so blessed to have her wonderful spirit in our home and look forward to many more years.

Birthday Bash

Our sweet little girl had her first birthday, so we decided we should at least give that some kind of recognition right?  Devan and I were both pretty opposed to a big shin dig because, let's be real, Tylee has no idea what is going on and will not remember this outside of this blog post and the pictures!  We decided to just do a low key get together at the park with the usual crowd of family and friends.  We did have some cupcakes and Tylee got to do the traditional cake smashing, mostly just because I wanted the pictures.  Michelle was wonderful enough to make Tylee her own little banana smash cake.  However, Tylee didn't love the whole idea (which was how I figured things would go).  She really doesn't like to get her hands messy, especially sticky.  The yumminess of the cake just didn't quite outweigh the irritating sticky frosting that she couldn't get off of her fingers, so the "fun" only lasted a few minutes.  It was cute to watch though (and I did get some cute pictures).  Other than that, Tylee enjoyed playing with cousins and grandparents at the park and opened a couple gifts.  Ok, mom opened them.  She was not really interested at all after she opened the first toy (a puzzle) and started playing with it. 

 The rest of her presents were opened the next day (her actual birthday) at Grandpa and Grandma Milne's.  When all was said and done she made out like a bandit.  She is one spoiled loved little girl.  She has a whole new wardrobe for the summer, some fun new beach/pool toys, and a couple new books to add to her growing collection.  Thank you so much to everyone who celebrated with us!  Tylee is so lucky to have such wonderful people in her life that love and care about her.  And we are too.  Happy birthday to our favorite one year old!!!

 

Easter Weekend in SG

We had a jam packed Easter this year in St George.  I'll just briefly highlight the activities:

Wednesday:  Drive up, Cafe Rio, shopping, and visiting with Gundersens (Natalie and Lowell's families).

Thursday: Sand dunes (a childhood favorite), swimming, Tylee's first fat lip, meet up with Devan and head to the Wyson's.

Friday: Tylee stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Wyson while Devan and I went to Brianhead for tubing with the Milne's, movie with the Wyson's.

Saturday: Milne Easter Egg hunt, Wyson Easter Egg hunt andd coloring, Pizza Factory with the Milne's, Devan sleeping all afternoon due to a bad cold, another movie at the Wyson's.

Sunday: Traditional pictures and farewells at the Milne's, church, Easter dinner, and visiting with the Wyson's, then drive home.

Juggling two families is tricky and we tried to spend the majority of our time, especially on Easter Sunday with the Wyson's since the majority of our time last year was spent with the Milne's.  Overall it was a busy few days, but we also did have some enjoyable relaxation time.

Of course the whole reason we celebrate Easter is to remember and rejoice in the fact that the Savior atoned and was resurrected for us so we can overcome death, both spiritual and temporal.  Devan's dad gave two great lessons on the meaning of Easter and its importance; one at home to the family, and a different one at church in Gospel Principles.  It is so important to remember that God did and does everything because he loves us, but he is God and has to follow the rules.  We can not live with him if we are dirty from sin, but that does not mean he doesn't want us to.  I am so grateful and so humbled that Christ will be our Mercy and take the punishment for us.  There is no way we can do it by ourselves.  Without Christ we would be as the devil and his angels.  Especially when put that way.....so so so grateful for Christ and the eternal possibilities that are now available to me and my family because of his atonement and resurrection.  I know He lives again, and I know he will return again to the Earth.  I am continuing a life long journey to know him now and will hopefully be able to continue to get to know and be with him throughout the eternities.  A very late, but sincere Happy Easter to everyone.

Some Quality Time

(Warning: Showing our true nerdy selves here!)  Devan and I just got a new video game to play together and we are having a blast!  Playing video games on our Wii together is kind of our go-to thing to get in that daily dose of quality time without making a whole big "date" out of it...you know the weeknight stuff.  Sure sometimes we do other things like go on walks, make/eat dinner together, lay on the floor in Tylee's room and talk while she plays, watch New Girl or Community and laugh ridiculously hard together, or good old fashioned pillow talk, but I think playing Wii is one of our favorites.


We recently beat the new Mario for WiiU.  It was SO FUN!  Afterwards, we had a really hard time finding a new game to play that was two player and entertained both of us.  I am a super video game snob and really can only stand playing a specific type of game, which is pretty much just Mario.  We tried a Mickey Mouse game which ended up being pretty boring.  We tried picking up Donkey Kong where we had previously left off, but that game is impossible and just made us frustrated.  Eventually we decided to give the Lego series a try, starting with Lord of the Rings...AWESOME!  It is so fun to follow the story since it is a story we both enjoy.  Today we just unlocked all the main characters so we are pretty excited about being able to play as our favorites.  Devan plans to be Gimley, and of course I chose Legolas.  We have only made it through what is covered in the first movie so far, but as Devan quotes frequently, "You don't just walk into Mordor!"  Let the adventure continue...

March Madness

I feel like March is moving unusually slow.  Maybe it is my lack of a job (I start back at St. Rose in April!), maybe I am just really ready for it to be summer, maybe I just need to find some new things to be excited about and occupy my time.  But, no matter; good things coming up and it is always kind of nice to slow things down a bit.  I have been enjoying all the time with Tylee and have been able to get some things done around the house.

First off, Tylee's room is finally done...now that she is almost a year old. (To be fair, we were in St. George for 8 months).  I do still want to get some molding to frame out her name since that wall is kind of plain, but other than that I am happy with it.  I feel like it has the simplistic sophistication I was going for.  I really like calm soothing nurseries, but plan to go much more bright and colorful for her toddler room when a new little one takes over the nursery some day.

I have also done some random other changes around the house.  We replaced the purple downstairs with blue and beige to brighten things up since our couches are dark and I love it.  Pictures and art have finally made it onto the walls after the move.  I painted some outdoor furniture in the hopes that it will inspire us to get some things done in our backyard so we can spend a lot of the gorgeous upcoming summer nights out there.  I still have some major furniture refinishing/painting to do to get things looking put together downstairs, but so far so good.

We have also taken time to hang out with family and friends.  Ok, we always make time for that, but yesterday we actually had made plans in advance and had lots of friends and family get together at the park for a picnic and some ultimate frisbee.  It was our first ever St. Patty's Day Potluck Picnic.  I think it was a success.  The weather was beautiful.  The company was great.  The food was yummy.  We probably won't wait a whole year to do this again.  Tylee loved being outside and was not hesitant to leave the picnic blanket and crawl all over the grass chasing balls, cousins, and pigeons.  I didn't take a whole lot of pictures, but did get some of our little cutie.  How could I not?

Upcoming plans for the month include an Easter potluck with our wards playgroup, skiing/snowboarding in Brianhead, and Easter in St. George.  Hopefully I will get some good pictures!

I Got a New Way To Walk! (Walk, Walk)

Drum roll please....Tylee took her first steps!  Kinda.  If a shuffling fall forward counts.  But there have been a couple of these shuffles that are a good 3 or 4 steps so we are going with it.  She is still very hesitant and you kind of have to trick her into letting go of your hands, but practice makes perfect right?  I don't know that walking is going to happen any day soon, but we are getting there...and I am so ready.  I am really over the dirty, dog hair covered hands, knees, and socks.  I can only vacuum so many times in one day!  I understand kids get dirty, and trust me, I am no clean freak, but the dog hair is just gross.  Reese is lucky that we (mostly Devan, and now Tylee) like her so much :)  I have already informed Devan that our next dog will be a breed that does not shed, even if it costs $1000...totally worth it.

While we are on the subject, kinda, here are some other fun facts about Tylee at 10 months old (already!)
*Favorite food: Eggs, but she will really eat ANYTHING.  Hopefully that lasts through the next few years.  It would also be helpful if she would get some teeth, but she is holding out.
*Favorite toys: cupboards and drawers.  We have offically installed our first child proof cabinet door locks.
*Favorite book: Baby's first colors.  This is usually the only book she will let me get all the way through before she tries to slam it shut.  She seems mesmerized by the bright colors.
*Favorite "words": da-da, na-na (in a squeaky sing-song voice), and "ook" while pointing at different things around the room.  When she gets really excited she snorts.  She is such a little lady :)
*Favorite person: This varies from day to day, but she ALWAYS loves her daddy and aunt Marisa.  She gets really happy when she sees either of these two people. She also can't get enough of Reese, but Reese usually tries to avoid her as much as she can help it.  Tylee hasn't learned the meaning of "be soft" and "be nice" yet.

Tylee is still a really good girl, but she definitely has her grumpy moments and is no longer afraid to let you know.  She still naps pretty consistently and is still sleeping wonderfully at night.  She is very independent and usually has no problem entertaining herself or being handed over to whoever wants to hold her.  But, over the last few weeks she has been much more cuddly (not clingy), which I don't mind.  She will even occasionally even let me rock her to sleep which is my favorite. On the down side, the little stinker finds it absolutely hilarious when we tell her not to touch something.  She laughs and then touches whatever it is again while smiling and looking at us.  And don't try to move her away from it or pull her hand away...then it just becomes a game.  Disciplining this child is going to be interesting.

I can't believe she is going to be a year old in just a couple months.  I already feel like she isn't my little baby anymore, but we are loving all the cute funny things she does and how much she is growing and learning every day.  I know I say it all the time, but being parents is awesome.

LOVE

So Valentines Day and our anniversary fall a week apart (as I mention every year) and we typically keep things pretty casual.  I think that I have decided that as we have more kids and they get older, we will probably put more emphasis on our kids and doing something as a family on Valentine's Day and then save the one on one date and mushy stuff for our anniversary...not really pertinent for you to know, but just thinking out loud.

Anyways, it was Tylee's first Valentine's Day and since she is still too little to know what is going on we didn't make a big deal of it, but we did get her the book "I Love You Stinky Face" for her valentine.  That day while Devan was at work Tylee did her finger painting as mentioned in the previous post and made daddy a valentine.  I taped off LOVE on the paper and then let her go to town over it with the paint.  I think it turned out really cute and she had a blast doing it.  That night we just went out for some Chinese take out, bought some ice cream to make milkshakes, and then got caught up on some of our favorite shows.  Even though it was nothing fancy, it is always nice to just set aside a whole night and spend time together...no laundry, no cleaning, no pinterest/facebook, no computer games, no homework... just us doing things together.  Loved every minute of it.

Our anniversary was similar, but we left Tylee with grandma and grandpa while we went to dinner and stepped up the restaurant a little.  We went to PF Changs.  The appetizer (lettuce wraps!) and dessert was amazing...we have made better selections as far as entrees go though.  And of course the time together was wonderful.  After dinner we came home and once again just spent the night together watching our shows and hanging out.  We didn't go too overboard because technically our Florida trip was our gift to each other for our anniversary this year.  Devan also bought me a necklace. Ok, I picked it out and bought it online, but he did pay for it...out of our combined bank account :)  I wanted something really specific and knew it was NOT REALISTIC to expect him to read my mind and get it.  *Side note to my kids:  have realistic expectations for your spouse...your husband is not a mind reader and your wife probably would enjoy the occasional romantic gesture, even if you think it is cheesy*  I'm still waiting for my necklace to get here, but this is what it looks like, except the "peas" are silver too, not pearl.  "Two peas in a pod" is kind of our thing...

The last 5 years have been wonderful.  We are still so in love and I don't know many any couples who are happier than us  (no offense to everyone...).  We have a beautiful daughter, a wonderful life, the blessings of the temple and gospel, and as pretty perfect as a relationship as you can realistically get in our opinion.  We are still so looking forward to eternity together, and I don't think that is going to change...ever.

New Ways to Play

So Tylee and I have been coming up with new ways to play lately to break up the monotony of playing with the same toys everyday.  I have gotten a lot of ideas off of Pinterest and have more to try, but here is what we have done so far:

Moon Sand:  This was just a simple mixture of 8 parts flour to 1 part oil.  It imitates the texture of damp sand, but never dries out.  Tylee loved squishing it in her fingers and smashing down any "sand castles" that I molded up.  I also gave her some cookie cutters that she loved using to push around the sand.  We will definitely do this again, but outside next time...she made quite the mess when she saw how fun it was to push the sand off her high chair tray.



Rice:  This was kind of an accident, but I had seen different sensory boxes on Pinterest with dry rice in them, so I would have eventually gotten to it.  So Tylee has discovered how to open cabinets...and I USED TO keep my rice on the bottom shelf.  Ya, rice all over the kitchen floor.  She loved how the rice "jumped" when I dropped handfuls of it onto the hard wood floors.  Pushing it around with both her hands and feet was also really fun.  And bonus...this was really easy clean up with the vacuum!

Bubbles:  The weather has been so nice lately that we have gone outside a couple of days and played with bubbles.  Tylee does like them, but loses interest pretty quickly since she isn't quite mobile enough to chase them down and pop them.  Maybe they will be more fun when she is walking.  Reese on the other hand loves them and Tylee is quite entertained watching Reese chase the bubbles all over the yard.

Finger Paint:  Since Tylee puts everything in her mouth, I had to find paint that was "edible".  Pinterest came through again with a simple flour, jell-o, and water recipe.  We took this activity to the bathtub because I knew it would get messy.  Tylee was hesitant with the paint at first, but once she tested it out, she was red from head to toe...and smelled like strawberries!

 And just for good measure...here is a picture of the usual everyday toys.  I love that she can just stand up and get all her own toys out of the drawer.  Of course, just like any kid, one toy is never enough and if I start playing with something, that's the one she wants no matter what else she has.  Love this little monkey!