March 29th

We had a fun afternoon today. The neighborhood that we live in had a community picnic. It was very nice--they had a petting zoo, pony rides, jumping castles, and face painting. I really didn't think that Tyler would ride the pony because last summer we tried to get him to do it when Marie took us to the stables on base and he freaked out! This time he was very excited and even got to ride more than once. We let Emma sit up there with him for the cute picture!:)

Both of the kids LOVED the petting zoo. Their hands will probably be cracked and bleeding tomorrow from all the antibacterial gel I put on them after they touched the animals.

Marie is done with her conference in Scottsdale so she is going to stay with us until Monday. She is also coming back in two weeks to watch the kids while Marshall and I go to a wedding. We are so excited to have a night away and she seems to be enjoying all of her "Aunt Marie" time.

My mom sent Emma this outfit for Easter---could it be any cuter?!? She is up to about four steps before she falls down and starts to crawl.

March 27th

We had a wonderful Easter. Tyler was so very excited to get an Easter basket and continues to ask every day for more Easter candy. Thankfully it is almost all gone! Emma got new books and has enjoyed both "reading" and eating them. After we had Easter morning here we loaded up and headed down to Tucson. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time. There were lots of kids for Tyler to play with and plenty of adults to carry Emma all over the place.

The end of this month and the first few weeks of next month are just crazy busy so we went ahead and celebrated Emma's birthday while we were at the park.

You have to remember that Tyler was my first child and I was oh so very careful about everything that he ate. Emma on the other hand eats whatever Tyler is having. So, for Tyler's first birthday his cake was really the first piece of cake he had had----he also was not impressed with it. Emma is already a pro with desserts so she REALLY enjoyed her cake!

I can't believe she is going to be a year old. She is just growing up way too fast. Not that I want another baby but it is sad knowing that this is my last first word, first step, first b-day etc. Speaking of which she does say a few words.....she says "hi" and waves at you, she points at Winnie and says "dah"---we assume this is dog, and she is saying both mama and dada. And the biggest news is that she took a few steps today!!! She was going back and forth between Marie and I. She takes about two steps and then she leans forward for you to catch her. It won't be long and she is going to be running right behind Tyler.

She ate spaghetti last night for dinner. The bib is clean because she actually ate without clothes on but I figured we should cover part of the mess for one of the pictures! After giving them their bath I actually had a red ring in the tub!
Tyler has had a few funny moments this week. We are hoping that his new favorite thing to do is not an indication of any future habits----because if it is our boy is a cross dresser!:) He loves to go in my closet and take out my shoes and then wears them around the house. He is getting pretty good at walking in heels!

He also has turned in to George Costanza (all of you Seinfeld fans will get the one). He can't go to the bathroom with his shirt on. Thankfully he has only had to do his business at home and this has not yet been an issue in public.

We have had many talks about where it is okay to color. He will tell you that you only color on paper. He colored on one of his chairs and every time he sees it he says, "Mommy is is not nice to color on the chair--we only color on paper." So today when I was getting ready and putting on some lipstick he asked me for some chap stick. I told him I didn't have any that I only had the colored kind. He looked at my with a very serious expression and said, "Mommy it is not nice to color on your face you should only color on paper!"

Our neighbors gave us some tickets to an Angel's and Rockies game today. Marie is in town for a conference so she skipped out early today and we took the kids to the game. The seats were awesome. We were three rows up right next to the Rockies dugout. The highlight of the day was that Tyler got TWO baseballs! We got there a few minutes early so I took him and stood next to where people were getting stuff signed. Tyler saw a player coming in from warming up and yelled, "Mommy he has a baseball!" The player walked right up to him and gave him the ball!

He kept asking me if he could go sit in the dugout but I told him that only baseball players got to sit there. He was quick to inform me that he was a baseball player so I walked him over there to see it. He was leaning in looking and yelled, "There are baseball guys!" One of the players got up off the bench and brought him another ball. We only made it three innings but it was a very memorable game for him.

March 22nd

We went to another Spring Training game yesterday. This time we bought lawn seats. We figured we would bring a blanket and just chill out with the kids and enjoy a beautiful afternoon. We got there right before the game and it was another near sell out. We found a great spot on the grass but we were too far away for Tyler to really get into the game--he did however enjoy his hot dog and ice cream. My neighbor gave me tickets to an Angel's game this Thursday which are right behind the dugout! He said that the players usually give the kids baseballs----that could cause stroke induced excitement in Tyler:) Emma really enjoyed being outside and was perfect the whole time we were there.

Our wonderful babysitter, Thedra, works at an indoor play place where they had an Easter Egg Hunt this morning. Here is a picture of she and Tyler---he wanted to go eat his candy so he wasn't thrilled I wanted to take a picture.

He found lots of eggs and was on a sugar high for the rest of the day. Here are a few pictures from there---thanks to Nana for the Lightning McQueen basket!

Ok People....I'm ready to go!


Waiting patiently for the hunt to begin.

After we left there we stopped at the grocery store where the Easter Bunny was outside handing out candy. Tyler was thrilled that the bunny gave him not only candy but also a high five! The rest of the day he kept saying..."Mommy, the Easter Bunny is sooooooo big!"

We went to church this evening so that we can head down to Tucson early tomorrow. The Valenzuelas always have an all day picnic at a park and we are going to spend the day with them.

Emma isn't thrilled with wearing a dress right now because it gets in the way of her crawling. I figure if I keep putting them on her she will go ahead and walk. I have all these cute little dresses for her to wear and I want to make sure she wears all of them while she is still too young to argue about what I am putting on her!

We are going to celebrate Emma's birthday (can you believe that she is already a year old!?) tomorrow while we are at the park. I got her the cutest little hat that looks like a cake. I have been putting it on her here at the house but we will see how she does with it tomorrow. It is going to be 87 degrees and since we will be at the park I guess I will have to put her in some shorts instead of a party dress---oh well, I guess I will let her have her way since we are celebrating her birthday!:)

The Brown's Visit

Marshall's mom, dad, and three nieces came to visit us this week. They got here on Sunday afternoon while the kids were napping so when Tyler got up he was a bit overwhelmed by the five people in our living room. He hasn't seen any of them for about a year and a half but we had been talking about his cousins and Grandma and Grandpa all week so he warmed up pretty fast. It was so funny he called them "my cousins" the whole time----"Mommy, where did my cousins go? I want my cousins to come play with me. Can I show my cousins my new big boy underwear?" He really enjoyed playing with the girls. They were all great with him. They probably played more basketball, golf, ring around the rosey, and chase then they had in years! Of course they all fell in love with sweet little Emma as soon as they saw her. She got a lot of kisses over the last few days.

On Monday morning Bessie, the girls, Tyler, and I went to go see Horton Hears a Who. It was a cute little movie. Tyler did fabulous. He sat through the whole thing without any complaint. He got a little antsy toward the end but even then he just stood in front of me. He did discover a love of skittles while we were there---Ashlee can't have popcorn because of braces so she got candy-----Tyler probably ate about half of the bag throughout the day!

Tuesday we had plans to go to a spring training game. We were just going to get lawn seats but I guess since it is spring break week everyone else in the Phoenix area had the same idea. The game was sold out. Tyler REALLY wanted to see a game so we walked over to one of the other fields and watched some of the nonstarters for the Angels and the A's having a practice. We were sitting on the bleachers with some of the Angels so when Tyler did as he normally does which is scream..."Mommy, Daddy he hit the ball!!!!! when an A's player hit a home run we all wanted to crawl in a hole!:) Everyone got a kick out of his excitement though. Marshall took him over to one of the empty fields and let him run off some energy.

On the way home I stopped and the got the girls and Tyler an ice cream----it was Tyler's first cone. Probably not the smartest thing to do in the car but it sure was funny! He ate all the ice cream on top but just kept pressing it in to his face trying to get the rest out of the cone---he would not eat the cone. We all just laughed at him and poor Ariel was sitting next to him so she was in charge of keeping the mess under control.

Here are some more pictures from the park---they tried to teach him to do a cartwheel--that didn't work too well though.

Do you remember rolling down grassy hills? Nothing better on a warm sunny day!

We were sad to see them go this morning. Tyler has asked all day, "When are my cousins coming back?" Sure makes me sad we don't live closer to family.

March 14th

We had our first test of being truly potty trained. We drove over to see Marie this week and Tyler did not have a single accident!:) At one point we did pull over and have to let him pee in the desert but at least it wasn't in his pants!
We had a nice time visiting with everyone in CA. Marie's new house is great. She has an extra room now so Marshall and I actually got our own room----let me rephrase that---we got our own room until Tyler got up in the middle of the night and climbed in the full size bed with us and the wiener dog! Thankfully Emma can't get out of her pack-n-play yet---it will be interesting when all of us are squeezed in there together.
Wednesday night we went over to my cousin Corinne and her husband, Dave's house. They have a beautiful seventeen month old named Mason. We decided since Marie was having a dinner party that night that we would bath the kids there so that when we got home we would just have to put them in bed. I think it was the cutest thing in the whole world seeing all three of the kids in the tub together. It went great until Emma drank a cup of bath water and was choking half to death but other than that it went perfectly.
The trip was wonderful but the same trip that used to take 5 or 6 hours now takes about 7 hours. Looking back the kids really did pretty well but when you are in the middle of it all you can think of is getting to your destination and having a large cocktail!
I think Emma said dog this week. She was pointing at Winnie and said what sounded like "daa". At least it is a start. She also has decided that she no longer wants baby food. She only wants what Tyler is eating. She is not picky and pretty much eats whatever you put in front of her.
Tonight Tyler cracked me up. He asked me for a piece of candy and when I said no he said, "Pleeeeeeeease." I repeated no and then he said, "Oh, come on! Where did that one come from?!:)
Marshall's mom and dad and his three nieces are coming this weekend. I am sure the girls will keep Tyler quite busy. I will send some pictures again soon.

He did it!!!!!

I think we have finally gotten Tyler potty trained! (Thanks to some great advice from my friend Keli!) It all started when we ordered the Baby Bjorn potty seat--the best one ever!!! It came in the mail last week along with a few more "potty" books. Tyler was very excited to open his present---so much so that he went right then and there. We have really been talking a lot about how he needs to wear big boy underwear before he can go to school, so this along with the cool new potty chair and some fabulous books seem to have been the push that he needed. Without going in to too many details, that unless you are the mom of a toddler that you could probably care less about, we just decided to put him in underwear and ask every 45 minutes if he had to go. He has been accident free for the last two days and even wore underwear to the gym today! This morning he was so proud of himself he wanted to call people and tell them that he was wearing "big boy" underwear. I asked him who he wanted to call and he said, Uncle Matt. Matthew was a great uncle and acted very excited and proud of him---that is true testiment of what a good guy he is since it was 8am, he was at work, and he probably doesn't care to hear about Tyler's bathroom issues!:) Tonight we celebrated with a "potty party". I took him to the store and was going to get cupcakes but he saw a bunny cookie and that was what he wanted. So after his favorite dinner of bean burritos he had his cookie and some ice-cream.