The Birthday Boy... er, Man

Today is Tyler's Birthday.  Where do I start?
As I contemplated this post and what I was going to write about this sweet Husband of mine, the words                  "It wouldn't work without him" kept coming back to me.  
and that's the truth, our life simply wouldn't work without him!

   He's such a blessing to me and I'm so lucky to call him mine!

I love you Babe!  I'm sure as much as you love me, which we all know is a lot!

Here are some priceless pictures showing just how great a Husband and Dad he is.
I think we'll keep him around for awhile!

 He loves spending time with the kids.

He takes me on fun new adventures!

 He drives us everywhere, whether I like it or not.

 He puts up with my incessant picture taking.

 He's extremely helpful with the children, a very involved father!

 He's super cute!

See, super cute!

 He puts the babies to sleep, and even catches a few Z's when he gets the chance.

 He loves to play and love on the kiddos.

 He's VERY handy to have around the house!

He does the dishes, Every night!

He never complains about anything!

He's just a super guy all around!  Some of the other things he does for me on a weekly if not daily basis: Cleans the floors, does laundry, takes out the trash, cleans up the dinner mess, changes diapers, helps with bathing the kids, dresses the kids for Church on Sunday, mows the lawn, calls to arrange babysitters, helps with putting the kids to bed every night, feeds Max early in the morning before leaving for work and then puts him back to sleep, trims nails, cleans out the cars, picks up toys and basically does anything he sees that needs to be done.  

He is a super help to me on a daily basis and I promise I help a little bit too! Wink, Wink!
He's the best and again I'm so happy and grateful to call him mine!
Happy Birthday Babe!  I know it's kind off a lame Birthday for you, having to work late and all, but I'll try and make up for it tomorrow night.  I love you!

Profile Pictures

A big event happened yesterday.  Tyler finally joined in the facebook parade.  Crazy, right?

anyway, he's so silly.  We had to get a profile picture and found that there wasn't a single picture of himself  on our computer.  Enter: the camera.

Here are a few of the rejected options.  {it was too funny of a moment not to post about for all of us to remember for years to come}

P.S.  He's gonna kill me, but I'm over it.

14 Days of Love

I thought I would try and do something fun around the theme of Valentine's day.  Seeing as how today is the 1st day of February, I find this as the perfect opportunity to start a little Lovin.

14 Reasons WHY I'm in Love with my man:

1. I'm a better person because of him
2. He attends each and every church meeting, he sings the hymns, he accepts every call and shows his love and faith towards the Lord through his service.  He helps keep me going by the example he sets.
3. He works so hard for our little family.  Continually striving to do his best for himself and his employer.  He is dependable and never lets you down.
4. He works at improving himself every day {something I lack at times}.  He tries new things and pushes himself to achieve goals he has set for himself.
5. He loves me without fail.  No matter how rude I may be towards him at times or how lazy I get with the housework/cooking/kids, he would NEVER speak an ill word towards me or comment on my faults.
6. He is an AWESOME father!  He does more then any other "dad" I know.  He comes right in and helps out with whatever needs to be done.  Bathing, feeding, playing, changing, dressing, helping, whatever the situation calls for, he steps up to help out.  {and for the most part, he loves doing it.}
7. Somehow, he gives me everything I want {with a few exceptions}.  With decorating ideas, date night decisions, travel plans or Tax return purchases, whatever it may be, he's very thoughtful in making me happy when the decisions are being made.
8. He cleans the house!  Every night he does the dishes after dinner, he takes the trash out each morning before we wake up and he changes the Laundry most every night.  He even folds and puts it away a lot of the time.  He refills the water in the fridge so there is always a cold water bottle for me when I need one, he sets my alarm clock for me to make sure I get up to get Tommy ready for his carpool.  He comes home on Sundays in between meetings to get each of the children dressed and ready for church, then takes Tommy back with him before church to get him out of my hair.  He cleans the hall bathroom, does all the yard work and even mops the floors.  He's a rockstar!
9. He keeps me Honest {except when it comes to photo radar tickets, we have an agreement about those}.
10. He's very good with our finances, keeping us in line and mostly out of debt.
11. He's very clean and likes things organized {this is something we are both obsessive about, which is a good thing.  It keeps us both on our toes in keeping an organized home}.
12. He is great with our newborns, getting up each and every morning for the early feeding, and sometimes even in the middle of the night.  He lets me sleep in and feeds Max every morning before getting ready for work, then puts him back to sleep, so as not to disturb me.  AWESOME!
13. He is always a great example of how to act and react towards family members.  When either of our siblings/parents/friends do something we don't necessarily agree with, he is really good at not saying anything about it and letting them make their own decisions {cause clearly it's none of our business} Where I have issue's with this, if it's my family, a lot of times I call them out on it, or say something that I'll usually regret saying later.  I may even judge them and think I would handle a situation better, but Tyler helps bring me back down to the normal level at which I actually stand.  Hey, I'm working on it, clearly I have a long way to go.  He makes me strive to be better in this area.
14. Oh yeah, and he's pretty cute.  That's gotta be somewhere on here, right?

Car Castle's

Tommy has rediscovered his "Cars" in a big way this summer.  He loves playing with them.  He drives them over every surface in the house.  Making little homes for them along the way.

So the other day while we were all crazy bored at home, I decided to build him a little castle for his cars.  I made all sorts of places for the cars to hide and park, sleep or even fill up with gas.  Whatever his imagination wanted.

Problem: as soon as we would complete one wing, Lola would somehow find a way to destroy it.  We learned to work fast and rebuild often.  I made her one that was destroyed before it was even played with.  Ahh, the life of a toddler.  Destruct everything and clap when your done. {of course, this makes Toms very irritated and doesn't help the whole "try to play with your sister" suggestion} But Thomas was surprisingly good to let Lola play and didn't seem to mind when she came for his castle to conquer and then destroy it!



{Lola going in for the kill}

Later that day after lunch I got a little crazy and made their handprints for Tyler's Birthday present from them.  Cause you know Tyler really cares about this kind off stuff {wink, wink}.

As far as Husbands go...

...Tyler is totally boss!

he's the cheese to my macaroni
the extra strength Tylenol to my headache's
the light bulb to my lamp
the battery to my car
the glasses to my eye's
the toy in my happy meal and
the breath to my life
{silly, but funny, cause that's how I roll!}

I am 100% in love with this man.
He makes my world a wonderful place to be.

He's a very hands on Father which our children adore.

He makes my life comfortable and complete.

He is my life, my love, my eternity, my all.

Happy Birthday, Babe!  

Hope you enjoy the gift of me, cause I'm all yours and always will be!

Fake Spend The Night

During the summertime it's inevitable that all of the cousin's will be spending a lot of night's over at each other's homes.  These cousins are all very close and love hanging out, ALL the time!  Anyway, like any other Sunday evening the little girls were begging their mom's to be able to spend the night at someone's house.  After asking ten times and being ignored finally Tyler chimed in and said "Spend the Night at our house on Tuesday night!" knowing very well that they all had school starting the next morning, therefore could not spend the night anywhere but in their own beds.  Every one laughed and went along their ways, of course the little girlies kept asking "can we? Can WE?".  Anyway, ha, ha funny Tyler.  End of story.

Well, here we were. 

Tuesday night. 

8:00 p.m. 

12 kids knocking on the door.  

jammies on. 

pillows in hand.  

Funny!

so we had our 1st annual 

"fake spend the night back to school doughnut party"

The funniest part was that I had been prepped that everyone was coming, so I was working tirelessly trying to get the kids bathed, dishes done, house picked up and bottles ready before 8.  When the kids showed up Tyler had just gone into the bathroom in the back bedroom.  They all came running in screaming "spend the night!" but he heard nothing.  So I went to go and find him to tell him he needed to come out into the family room to see something.  He, a little annoyed, said "well, I'll be just a minute",  not knowing of anything that had been going on inside the house.  

So I gathered all the kids in one room and had them all pretend like they were sleeping.  Pillows and blankets were everywhere with kids scattered underneath them.  They were all keeping really quite {even lola} waiting patiently for Tyler to come out.  Finally, I got Tyler out and said you have to go and see what our kids are doing in the family room.  He thought nothing of it and went walking in to a big surprise.  He was shocked at how all of a sudden his house was full of rug rats, it was one for the books {or blogs}.

Thanks to all the sisters for making such fun memories and teasing Tyler so much.  

Lots of fun times with this crazy family!

ASU Game

A few weeks ago we had the opportunity to go to the ASU game with Tyler and all the tickets holders.  He and his family get season tickets every year, and the Porters weren't using theirs so I decided to go with the kids.  Toms has never been before, so we knew he's love it.

We started the day off by going to Ted's for lunch.  Sometimes they tailgate but today worked out to just pick some good old hot dogs up at Ted's.  It was crazy busy and the line took forever, but the dog's and onion rings were pretty good.  Well worth the wait.

Tommy wouldn't cooperate.  Surprise.

Lola getting in the spirit.

Here we are!  Go Devils!

Toms kept wanting to sit next to me, then next to Tyler.  I think the people next to us were a little annoyed, but Tommy was happy.

Looking through Papa's binoculars.  While Lola slept on Granny's lap.

Lola loved all the attention she got from her cousins.  and Kate loved having someone small to play with and keep her occupied during the game.

Thanks Amy for letting us use your tickets to enjoy one game game this season.  The kids had a blast and I had fun too.  Even though we didn't win, it was still a good game.  As we were leaving it started to pour rain on all of us and we all got soaked as we ran to our cars.  That always makes for an exciting adventure.

Go DEVILS!  Hopefully they will do better next season.

Go Devils!

Most Saturdays in the fall are game days for us around here. The kiddos get dressed in their finest Maroon and Gold, the flag flies high and Daddy leaves us around 4:00 to start tailgating. I'm working on finding joy in the fact that Tyler enjoys his college football games so much. I think I'm getting better, it's a process. Anyhow, today is one of those "Game Days", and the kids are looking pretty darn cute, so I had to take some pics and make a quick shout out for the team.

{here they are from the FIRST game of the season}

{and here is a shot from today}

{they are pretty excited for the game to start too. Can you tell?}

Good Luck ASU, Go DEVILS!

Has it been that long?

Wow, time flies. I mean to post update's, but then the time gets away from me.

Toms is having a great summer so far. Really every season is summer when you're a two year old. But we have enjoyed doing a lot more with all the cousins. Going swimming at the public pools, having play dates at different houses, seeing the summer kid movies at the theatre, playing in the splash pad's all over town.

{Tempe Beach Park with Kiki and the Kids}

You know, fun summer stuff. Yesterday we went and saw "Kung Fu Panda" with Kiki, Jimmy and ALL the kids. It was crazy but fun. The theatre was filled with other kids and a few old couple's {Random} so if the babies started to get fussy it didn't really matter. That was nice. Plus when it's only $1 to go to the movies, that's a fabulous way to kill two hours of our day. Then everyone came over to our house to hang for a bit. It was nice to catch up with my siblings, even if we were surrounded by screaming children. We had some lunch and Kiki and I tried to figure out my sewing machine while the babies slept {We never could get it to work though, bummer}. Then they left, we took a little nap and then we had Taco Night at our house. My In-Laws host "Wednesday Night Taco Night's", and it's usually at their house but last night it was at our place. So we had another house full. It's always very entertaining and fun to have all Tyler's family over. Needless to say it was a very busy day.

We have also been trying to do a new rewards system with Toms. I made this cute board to help keep track of Tommy's tokens. {Thanks for the idea Sherrie!}

Once he gets all the Tokens we are thinking maybe we'll take him to Sea World? We'll see. I personally don't think he'll ever get that far. He either loses them too fast or uses them for little prizes. He doesn't quite get the concept of collecting all of them for one BIG thing. He'd rather cash them in as we go for a bunch of little things. This is a picture of all the little things:

Lots of fun from the dollar store. Anyway, the most he's gotten at once is 12. He needs like 40. We'll keep you posted on his progress. Of course, if Tyler doesn't get a bonus this summer like he did the last three summer's then I'll make it so Toms never gets to 40 simply because we won't be able to afford it. So it can go either way. Until we know it gives Toms a little bit of incentive to help out around the house and get rewarded for good behavior.

Father's day was great. I got Tyler a Massage from this lovely lady as his gift from me and the kids. Toms made this for him:

He had so much fun painting it. This was his first time using paints. I figured I could break out the messy stuff once in awhile. It of course, didn't last very long. I thought it would keep him occupied for a lot longer. But it was still a good time for him. Then he got to play in the water for a bit. I mean, he was already naked. That always a good time.

Tyler did great on his triathlon. He was able to recruit a friend at the last minute and they both finished at just about the same time.

{Richard & Tyler right before the race}

He finished in 1:44 minutes. Not bad for a first timer. Way to go Babe, we were so proud of you {and glad it's over}!

{Get your tickets to the gun show ladies!}

In Lola news:

She is doing great. Always happy! Getting SO fat! and not quite sleeping through the night. She had a couple of really great nights where she slept for like 5 hours straight, but those have become a thing of the past {insert sad face}. But it's still ok because even though I get up three times in the night she sleeps in until 9 or even sometimes 10. So I can handle it. She is close to 12 pounds and a little over three months old. She has started talking up a storm, it's so cute and loves to smile and get attention. She's getting a little spoiled with being held all the time, so I need to try and curve that a bit. I don't want to end up with another Tommy. He's still too much of a handful, I don't want to end up with two spoiled kids. I'm getting close to putting her in her crib soon. She's getting old enough to know her surroundings and I don't want her getting used to being in our room {another mistake I made with the first one}.

Anyway, I've been working on a few fun projects around the house. I've got before and after pics to show once I finish. I'm also trying to get my Binky Clips up on a website to get some more sales with them. I've made some really cute ones lately and need to try and sell some more of them to help pay for some odds and ends around here. I need to get my Photoshop back up and running before I can get that blog gong though. Hopefully that will happen next week sometime. I hate not having my Creative Suite. I'm so lost without it!

So I just saw that Farrah Faucet & Michael Jackson died today. Neither of which makes any difference in my life. Crazy, really makes you think. Or not. I'm sure we'll hear about this in the news for weeks now.

Alright, well I'm gonna try and get some exercising in tonight. I still have about 7 pounds to lose before Monday when "The biggest loser" ends. Probably NOT going to happen, but I'll still semi try. Have a great night and try to stay cool in these HOT summer days!

Later!

My poor MAC!

So I have been computer less for almost a week now. I hate this! My poor iMAC crashed the other day and it's getting repaired. So in the meantime I'm needing to use Tyler's PC to check my e-mails and such. I really hate using a different computer. You get so used to your own. Anyway, I'm hoping that I didn't loose everything that was on it. It hasn't all been backed up. So keep your fingers crossed for me! Today Toms and I took a long nap while my wonderful SIL, Hope kept Lola. It was bliss! Thank you once again Ya, Ya! Earlier we went to the Tempe Beach Park with my sister and her kids. It was way fun, a little crowded, but still a good time. Toms didn't want to leave. & what was with the weather? so beautiful! The breeze was blowing, it was perfect for being outside. Love it! Last night we lost our power for about a half hour. It was so windy but only for about 3 or 4 minutes. Weird! But that was enough to blow the power out. It was so quiet around the house. I didn't like it! So I couldn't fall asleep until the fan came back on. Tyler is getting all geared up for his triathlon this weekend. I still can't believe he is doing this. He has recruited a friend to join him. Good luck guys! I also started a new "Rewards" system for Toms. We'll see how it goes. I think he gets it, but maybe not completely. I've got pictures once I get my computer back. Alright, Hope just brought Lola home, so I'm gonna go play with the kiddos. Later!

Sweet Sleep & Other News

So for the past TWO nights Lola has been going to sleep around 10 or 10:30 and she hasn't woken up until 6! Wow, only 2.5 months old and she's already sleeping through the night. Lucky me! I just hope she keeps it up. If she ends up going back to waking up around 2 or 3 it will be so hard now because she's gotten my hope's all up. So we'll see. I must say I really do have the BEST babies! I can't lie. They are so happy and calm and easy to handle, I love it! Now, once they turn 2, well that's a different story. Toms tests my patience EVERYDAY! Multiple times! But I guess that's the way most two year old act so I can't really complain.

{This is what I get to see everyday, such a little sweetheart!}

Anyway, the little lady is getting so big I can't believe it! She smiles like crazy and loves all the attention. Toms is loving her also. He is always wanting to help and hold her. The other day he did however fall on top of her. She screamed out so loud, I felt so bad for leaving her on the floor. But she soon calmed down and all was well.

{Wearing my shoes, what a crack up. He could actually walk in them. Not a good sign!}

We had a fun weekend, just stayed here in town. Friday we went to a BBQ with all our friends and had a blast for the short time we were there. We had to leave early to go and meet my family at the movies. We saw "Angels and Demons". Very good! Then Saturday night we went to Spinato's, YUM! It was just a fun chill weekend. It's always so nice for Tyler to have a long weekend.

I'm still working on getting back to the whole Blogging, Crafting, Scrapbooking thing. It's taking a little more time then I thought to take care of two kids. I love it, but it's very time consuming.

{Toms feeding Lola before bedtime, such a good helper}

I have Bunko at my place this Friday so I'm trying to get some things done and ready for that. It should be a blast. I love hanging out with the girls. Still trying to figure out what we will be eating? Nothing like waiting til the last minute.

Tyler is still training for his Triathlon coming up in a few weeks. Unfortunately his biking/running/swimming buddy fell and broke his arm last week so he's now training on his own. My brother is still considering doing it with him, so that will be nice to have someone else to commiserate with. But get well soon Tim! & sorry about the broken arm, Tyler misses you!

Well, there we go with a few of the updates. I'll have more pics sooner or later. I have so much to update still. Eventually I'll get to it all, maybe.

Later!