Happy Birthday Daddy!

Bryce and I spent the bulk of our day getting ready for daddy's birthday dinner! We made three big posters, a yummy carrot cake, that Bryce LOVED frosting. 29 candles to install. (Ty is only 28, but Bryce insisted on one more. Choose your battles, right?) Presents to wrap, streamers to hang. With a nearly two-year-old, this really did take all day!I am the luckiest girl, to have found and married a guy like Ty. A blog isn't my place of choice to get all sappy, but in short, I am so slap-happy this man was born, and that he's mine. Happy Birthday Ty. Bryce and I love you so very much!

Grandma and Grandpa!

If only we could have Grandma and Grandpa around every rainy day. Ty's parent's planned a trip and unfortunately came up in the middle of a five day rain storm.

We had big plans, but that was just it, we never got past the planning.

The rain never stopped... but lucky for us, and especially Bryce,

Grandma and Grandpa Carlson still know how to keep life fun and exciting!

So here it is, their trip in a nutshell, housebound and happy!

Big Ball Fun!

Early Birthday presents

Cereal hats

The chasing game

The "how many bears can Bryce hold"-game

The big outing to Westfield Shopping Center (The Mall)

Making a sweatshirt with Grandma, and getting messy with Grandpa!

This is Bryce's "cheese" face. Nice huh?!

Being couped up wasn't so bad, since Grandma and Grandpa were here.

In fact, it was pretty darn awesome!

Sunny Arizona

Bryce and I took a trip to Arizona earlier this month. It was hot and sunny the whole trip, and we loved it! We didn't love the plane rides... though the airport themselves are pretty great! We walked on the nice conveyor belt for about 45 minutes, then found another conveyor belt and enjoyed that for a little while longer... Then hear our names being called on the speaker and raced to the plane, found a snug seat in between to large, but ever-so-kind gentlemen, and made our way to see Uncle Jared and Aunt Haylie. We made lots of friends at the airport, ran into some old friends. The only person Bryce didn't like was the Scottish man sitting to our left on the plane. He (Scottish guy) was helping me by holding the portable DVD while the flight attendant stood there giving me the evil eye until I put it away, meanwhile Bryce is flipping-out, hitting Scottish man b/c he thinks he's stealing the DVD, and I am breaking a sweat while I wrestle my nearly-two-year-old, putting away all our stuff, apologizing for my screaming child, and cursing the attendant under my breath for not being a tiny bit more understanding. It was quite memorable, and I feel the need to record it, so there you go!This was before the flight, of course.

Is this little girl the cutest?! Anyone who meets her, is convinced she was put here on the earth to make life happy. She will stare you down until she finally locks your eyes on hers, then just smiles. Truly a happy, adorable child! Haylie has become a coupon girl. She sent Jare and I out one night to pick up some stuff, and we were all so giddy from our savings, we had to take a picture. I'd jump on the band wagon if my dumb local paper would provide more coupons in their paper... My recent monthly battle. But really, our supermarket total was $205 before coupons, $38 after. I was inspired. So I have spent the last month trying to get organized, like my sister-in-law taught me, but you can't organize something that's not available. Frustrating. But for that night, I was truly excited!

And the never-ending playtime! Below, sharing a stick horse.

Though that only lasted as long as it took me to take the picture.

Dollar-store treasures!

Spring training game!

My hot kid! Really, he was hot! He had sunblock on, just not use to the heat. A concession girl was walking by, took pitty on the kid and offered him some ice.

baby Josie!

Jare, having an adult moment at Haylie's expense...

Though she doesn't seem bothered ;o)

So hot, Uncle Jared got a $7 bowl of ice cream to share with all the kids. The Hero!

Bath time 1 of 5

What do you get with four kids in a tub? Lots and lots of splashing! I had to hide the camera during those parts, it's going to die on us soon, just trying to prolong the inevitable.

Popsicles!

Baking with Colty.

Bath time with popsicles. Colty wasn't too thrilled to share his bath toys with Bryce. Being the only boy, there aren't many people who want to play with his trucks and cars.

We never like leaving Ty home all alone, but Bryce and I had a really nice trip... we just wish we could have brought the sun back with us to share with Daddy!

"Try Me"

Sometimes it's hard to stay inside all day when it's rainy. Bryce had been getting over the flu, so puddles weren't really a good idea, I thought.

So we decided to head on over to Target, one of my favorite places.

Right next to the cards, on the end of an isle, we found the rainy-day-jackpot!

The sign said "Try Me", so we did. Seven (or so) different animals danced and played a different song. So, we stood in the isle dancin' about! I'll try to post a video. Great fun. I highly recommend it!

We later found a giant Woody Pillow that joined us for the remainder of our Target outing.

And some wrapping paper Bryce insisted on carrying for a bit.

If you hate the color orange, you may want to shield your eyes

Before

Taping always takes forever.

During

I know it looks awful. I was really upset myself.

After

Taking the tape off definitely improved things. I can't understand why I chose such dark colors. I was so excited about it. The worst part is that I've been encouraging my mother-in-law to add some color to her walls... When she comes to visit us next week, she'll see this room and, well, she probably won't want me to help her paint anymore.

We've decided we'll re-paint when we re-do this bathroom, or when we move. Whichever comes first. For now, I'll pretend Bryce chose the colors and be happy about it. I guess when I get up to run in the mornings, all I need to do is step in this bathroom to wake myself up!

Fun, but definitely crazy!

Alphabet Puzzles!

Bryce loves puzzles, and he loves his little alphabet books. So, today we went to target and found him an alphabet puzzle! Fantastic!

Popcorn!

Bryce loves to dance and sing. We sing a lot. Well, I sing, and he has fun watching me do silly actions. Oh, but on Sunday, he sang the entire opening hymn in church with me! I had a hard time not laughing through it. Let me remind you, Bryce's vocabulary consists of the words: hot, dog, eye, dad, and several caveman grunts. So him singing, is pretty much the best thing ever!

Anyway, I try to sing lots of different songs, but he's become quite opinionated, and certainly has his favorites. For instance, around Thanksgiving, he really started gettin' into "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" (both then and now, he still only touches his head, toes, and eyes, though he knows where everything else is)... Then at Christmas, "Snowman" was a hit! Most recently I started singing "Popcorn Popping" and now he won't let me sing anything else. The entire song he has his hands ready as binoculars...for "looking out the window", and when the song is over, he claps, then puts his hands back up as binoculars, and grunts until I start singing it again. I still try to sing a different song, but I can't get a smile from him until I begin singing the Popcorn song. Driving around, running errands, there are literally days when I sing this song 30x! It's a great song, but I can't handle this being the favorite much longer. My man of few and little words, is getting so very good at helping me know what he wants. Both a curse and a blessing ;o)