4th of July

I didn't get many pictures this year of our 4th of July fun but here a a few! Tyson loves the poppers and the ground flowers!!!

Can't believe she is 1!!!

Karissa is officially 1 year old! I can hardly believe it and what a year it has been! I can't say this past year has been the easiest, in fact it has been a bit of a struggle with her for most of the year, but we are blessed to have this sweet baby in our family and SOOOOOOO... happy that she has been happy these past few days. (Why does teething have to hurt so bad!?)

To celebrate Karissa's special day we had a simple party filled with family, fun, cake and ice cream! We celebrated a little early, but we wanted to be sure to have Auntie Emy, Uncle Mike and cousin David here! Emy was so sweet to help me make the cupcakes for the party. We made the chocolate butterflies the night before to be sure they had plenty of time to set up. Everything else was done the day of and I have to say I think the cupcakes turned out pretty cute!

Karissa was a little unsure of what was going on, but once she had that first bite of chocolate I don't think she cared about all the cameras flashing and family watching. It was her very first taste of chocolate and I think she liked it. She didn't eat much of the rest of the cupcake, but was having fun playing in the frosting!

It's funny, time didn't seem to fly by quite as fast with Tyson as it seems to have with Karissa. I vividly remember her birth and it really does seem like it was yesterday! She is a petite little thing and we just love her so much!!!! I took her in for her 1 year check up and she is a whopping 13.8 lbs. No sumo babies in this family;) The important thing is that she is healthy! She will gain more weight in time, but for now it's kind of nice having a lighter baby to carry around!

Things about Karissa:

Crawls everywhere
Can pull her self up and walk along the furniture
Points at everything
LOVES to play with her brother!
LOVES her bathes
Loves to be held by mom
Officially has four teeth, with two more almost broken through
She's enjoying more and more foods, especially green smoothies
Still wakes up an average of twice a night to eat
Enjoys knocking over towers built by mom or her brother
Not a big snuggler
Likes to be outside
Drinks from a sippy cup by herself
She has the cutest little cheeks and pretty little hands with long dainty fingers.
Loves to play peek-a-boo when getting her diaper changed

Karissa, I want you to know how much I love you! You have been a challenge, but more importantly a blessing in my life! I love to watch you learn, grow and explore! As the years go on I hope and pray that you will always look to your Father in Heaven for guidance in this life as well as to your dad, brother and I. Tyson loves you so much and I know that he will be a tremendous example to you. I pray that our relationship my be strong as you get older, and I pray that I can be the mother that you need and deserve. I love you more than words can express and I have received no greater gifts in this life than those of you, Tyson and your dad! Please be patient with me as I have so many weaknesses that I'm constantly striving to change. I know that you can be, will be and are a strength to me in so many ways as I progress in this life. We love you so much! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

ROCKETS!!!

Ben has been building rockets with the young men these past few weeks and Tyson had so much fun watching them launch them that he and Ben built one of their own. We had to put off the launch several times due to the wind, but we finally had a calm enough day to send it flying. Unfortunately the hobby shop only had the motors for the smaller rockets in stock so Tyson's didn't go very high. He was a little disappointed but Ben plans on launching again when he can get the bigger motors.





While the boys were setting up I was taking some random pictures of Karissa. She would NOT get on the grass. She wanted to crawl to me so bad, but she couldn't handle the grass.

Fun with science!

I found a book of kitchen science projects at the library and Tyson and I have been having fun experimenting. The first one was using milk, a little dish soap and food coloring. You take a dish of milk, add a single drop of food coloring, then you take a toothpick dipped in dish soap and you touch the food coloring with the tip of the toothpick. This causes the food coloring to spread. We called it "milk art", and it was pretty fun.






Tyson's favorite experiment was the volcano. We probably used at least a half gallon of vinegar on this one.

Hiking

We went on our first family hike for the year a few weeks ago. We got up early and headed up Little Cottonwood Canyon where we found a random trail. It lead up to a beautiful waterfall. Karissa loved riding on my back and Tyson had fun climbing around. We had a good time and the weather was perfect!

Scary pictures of me...UH!





Is it just me or does Ben look like he is about 12 in this picture?




Ben helping Tyson down the rocks.

Bath time!

Karissa loves, loves, loves her baths! She likes to lay on her tummy and scoot through the tub. Sometimes when she is really being cranky we will take a couple of baths during the day. It's my saving grace when she is giving me a hard time!

Looking at these pictures you can't help but love her...so cute!

4 Years Old...I can't believe it!

Tyson is officially four years old...once again, where has the time gone? I was looking at pictures and video clips the other day when he was just a baby. At that time I remember wishing he was a little older so that we could play together. Well, that time is here and now I find myself missing my baby. It has been a wonderful four years and I love him more than words could ever express! He is full of so much energy and yet he still has that tender side that just makes my heart melt! He tells me all the time that he loves me and showers me in hugs and kisses, I LOVE IT!!!

I really try hard not to cry in front of him, but I will admit that there have been times for various reasons that I just couldn't control the tears. He so lovingly will stroke my back, arm or leg and tells me that "it's okay, Mom, it's alright..." and then he will give me a great big hug. He sits right with me and the look of love and concern in his eyes for me is simply Christlike. There is nothing better than to know that my son deeply and unconditionally loves and cares for me as I do for him!!! Tyson is such a blessing in my life. Whenever I am having a hard day I can always count on Tyson to make me smile!

Now that he is the big "4" he loves to help with everything. Anything from pulling weeds, unloading the dishwasher, folding the laundry, vacuuming, to helping with whatever Karissa needs. I'm sure he would even attempt changing her diaper if I let him.

He is also great at reminding me to do things...
"Mom, do you have your wallet?", before we leave for the store.
"We need to read the scriptures and say a prayer!", before bed.
"I need a bath tonight, Mom!"

Everything he does is, "Let ME do it!" It's good for him to be more independent, but sometimes it is just so much easier for me to just "get'r done"! I have to really restrain myself and just step back and let him do it. He finds such joy and a great sense of accomplishment when he has completed something. It's good for his self esteem!

Tyson was SOOOO excited for his birthday this year! I decorated the living room the night before so he would be surprised when he woke up. He LOVED it! He got to choose what he wanted mom to make him for his special day and he wanted "pancake balls", or ableskievers (not sure of the spelling). Of course half the fun of having ableskievers for breakfast is licking the powdered sugar off your plate, so he did a lot of that.





Later that morning we went with grandma and grandpa to the mall where Tyson and I rode the little train. He had been waiting for months to go for a ride on the train. We told him that he could on his birthday. It was so fun to see his excitement the entire ride! After that grandpa took him to ride the carousel (mom and dad can't handle spinning rides), then for another ride on the train and finally over to the play area to play with the kids while grandma and mom did a little birthday shopping for her. He had so much fun! Thanks grandpa (Doug) for making his day extra special!




Ben was supposed to cook me dinner for my birthday that night but he ended up coming home late so he brought take-out instead...Italian food, YUMMY! We barely got finished eating before family started to arrive for Tyson's little party. One of his gifts was a Nerf dart gun and I have never seen him get so excited over a toy before! That was definitely his favorite!


Tyson's very own slot car track. Daddy's is a little too big to set up in the house very often but this one is the perfect size.


Can you tell that he loves books?

The generic transformer cake, but Tyson loved it!


About a week and a half later Ben and I threw him a "friend" birthday party. He insisted on a Transformer theme so that is what we did. I made him a Optimus Prime cake, that actually turned out pretty well for my first time attempting a buttercream transfer. I put together a Transformer bingo game that we gave out for party favors (found the idea on-line), decorated, yet again, and invited five friends. There are quite a few kids Tyson's age in our ward but there is NO WAY we could have accommodated more than five other kids in our living quarters!


THE CAKE!!! It was kind of fun mixing all the colors, although I couldn't bring myself to eat the frosting. Black frosting just isn't appetizing!

Tyson had SOOOO...much fun! Ben made a pinata for the kids but ended up making it somewhat "kid proof". All the boys loved to take their turn in attempting to spill the enclosed treasures. Ben ended up cutting it open when the kids were starting to lose interest. I was amazed at how quiet it got once they had the candy. (You can see part of Ben's pinata in the picture).

Overall Tyson had a great day. He kept getting confused though when someone would ask how old he was. After all, you do turn one year older with every birthday and since he had two this year he figured he was five years old.