Christmas Joy

We went to visit Santa at Scott's work. They always give the kids a nice toy and have cookies and crafts to do as well. Tyson loved talking with Santa and I alway laugh when Santa gives a big "humph" when trying to pick Tyson up on his lap. Camille didn't cry but leaned as far away from him as possible and would not make eye contact. I don't why this picture turned out fuzzy but you can kind of get the idea. Tyson had a preschool Christmas program which I was so excited to watch. He had been practicing his songs at home and knew all the words and actions. I have a video that I'm having trouble uploading...hopefully soon! Here he is with a cute friend of his that used to be in our ward and they are good buddies or a possible blossoming romance!
I love their Christmas Sunday attire and was thrilled I actually got a couple pictures of them both smiling together! Merry Christmas!

Tis the Season...

I'll have to do December in a couple different posts. I always forget how busy this month can be! We started off the month by decorating our Christmas tree. As you can tell by Camille's face, she was enthralled with it as it went up. She's been pretty good about keeping the ornaments on, only taking a few off every once in a while. (I don't know why she was carrying around a toothbrush)

I love this pic of her finger carefully touching the light.
And I'm loving Tyson's hair in this one.
She's so good at smiling at the camera and I love her sparkly shoes! This month I put Tyson in a 4 week "Iron Chef" class at the community center. I knew it would be right up his alley and when he got to wear a chef hat he was in heaven! He's getting ready to make pizza!

Forget the spoon, my hands work just as good!

Camille is waiting for the final project!

Ta-da!

The last week, they got to make Christmas cookies!

Just a couple of our many activites! More to come!

Tyson loves preschool! When I asked him what his favorite thing to do at preschool was, he said, "eating snacks." Each parent takes a turn bringing snacks in. This morning when I told Tyson it was preschool day, he jumps up and down and says, "Yay! Who's bringing the snacks today?" Oh, the important things. I believe/hope he is learning other things as well. :) He comes home with lots of fun art and pictures to share. He's a cute boy and definitely at an age that keeps us laughing. He talks non-stop about anything and everything and I need to do better at writing the funny things down. He's loves to imagine and pretend, loves to play with his animal toys and loves learning. He's got a quick mind that soaks things up and an amazing memory. I'm sure thankful for him and love him a lot!

Tyson's preschool picture-age 3

Such a Tease!

Camille loves to tease Tyson. Sometimes while my very orderly son is playing with something, she will sneak up, grab one of his toys, and run away as fast as she can with a sly smile on her face. It cracks me up everytime although Tyson doesn't think its quite so funny. Here in this video, they were playing something cute together and so I tried to video it but then she randomly decideds body slam him and continues to put her feet on his face. I'm glad Tyson tolerates it and will play along with her on the majority of occasions. She is 15 months old and is getting quite the fun personality. She is my shadow most of the day which can drive me a tad crazy someyimes, but she's often smiling and happy so its a good balance. (sidenote: the high-pitched squeal is Tyson as well as the constant "cheeeeese")

Halloween

We had our Ward Trunk-or-Treat party last weekend on Friday night...which was a big hit with Tyson. He was dressed up as a "builder" as he would tell you, and spent most of the week "fixing" things around our house. I made him the little tool belt and Grandma Turner found the vest for him. Camille was a cute little witch and I was amazed at how well she kept her headband/hat on. While some kids kept making multiple rounds around the trunks, Tyson made one lap and then was content to sit in the car and dig through his bucket of candy.

The local community center had some Halloween festivities that we headed off to on Saturday. We took the kiddos around our neighborhood and Camille would laugh everytime Tyson would go up to a door and come running back.

Camille loved exploring the candy bowl but I don't think she quite understands how good all those treats can be! But she did know that she wanted them in her basket!


This weekend was sure busy and I'm glad its all over!

A couple of weeks ago, some good friends of mine graciously let me horn my way into their photo shoot and took some of our family. I love how they turned out and we definitely found some keepers! These are my favorites (the ones where everyone happened to not be blinking and all looking in the same direction with a decent smile on their face)!

Hitting the Trail!

Tyson's preschool had a western day to go along with the big rodeo that was in town. They were asked to dress up like a cowboy and make a stick horse for to bring to class. Luckily I had most of the stuff from his Halloween costume with the exception of his "cowboy boots." This kid cracks me up. He insisted on wearing his snow boots. They are cowboy boots in his eye and who was I to tell him otherwise. At least they match his outfit!They then went on a "trail" ride around the school. I just thought this picture was funny with his ghetto hat and his snow boots....he was on a mission. His hat kept falling down and he just kept walking.

His class picture....They told him to say "Yee-haw" for the camera and that's exactly what he did! No one else seems quite as enthusiastic. Oh I sure love this cowboy!

We got tickets to go to the rodeo from Scott's work and Tyson loved it! It was really well put on and he thought the bucking horses were really cool. They also had a place where they showed farm animals and this pig was huge! She had also just given birth to 10 little piggies (they were there too) 6 days prior, so I'll give her a break. :)

Orchard picking

Last week we headed off to another orchard to pick raspberries and some apples. Tyson enjoyed picking them and only had to be reminded a couple times, not to eat them until they were payed for! It reminded me of picking raspberries from my Grandma Turner's bushes in her backyard! Here's our raspberry loot which I made raspberry jam out of and it is so tasty! I almost like it better than my strawberry one!Camille enjoyed a few herself...Tyson quickly came over and said, "Mom don't take a picture of Camille without me!" So here they both are! Picking apples...he wanted them all!

Full of Hot Air...

My friend came across this event that took place at an Apple Orchard in Council Bluffs where they have a hot air balloon launch and lighting. The weather was perfect and Tyson enjoyed playing with friends. Especially running around inside a balloon that they were blowing air into. (he's in green in the middle) It was a fun little atmosphere as they had music playing while the balloons were filling up. More and more kept blowing up and taking off and you could get so close to them.

At the end, they came back and lit up in different patterns and speeds. It was quite a cool show and a fun activity for a Friday night!

(of course my camera battery died at the very beginning, so thanks Shannon for taking these for me!)

I love Preschool!

I mean...Tyson loves preschool! He started his first day last week and he just looked so cute and grown-up and of course we had to get a picture of the first day of school (he actually let me comb his hair a little). He was so excited and walked right in to find his name/animal on the carpet and he was there waiting for me to pick him up. Its two days a week for 2 and 15 minutes and I'm excited for him to have this time all on his own! It's fun to listen to him tell me all the things he did that day. Today he was the snack helper. We had to bring the snacks in and he got to help pass them out. I love him seeing him enjoy it and I think he'll thrive in this environment!

ONE

Last week, Camille turned 1 (hence the large quantity of pictures coming up)! We sure love our cute girl and had fun celebrating with her throughout the day. In the morning, we cruised around the zoo. Then we had her favorite meal...baked ziti and opened presents. It is fair to say that Tyson rather enjoyed this part and was a big "help" to Camille opening them up. This one is from Grandma Turner.
Next came, cake time!! We had some neighbors come and enjoy it with us.

I put this one in there because Tyson snuck in at the last moment and blew out the candle.

I made a "watermelon" cake for her and thought it turned out cute. Waiting for cake....

Getting her first taste...

Tyson hopped in and I think you can tell by his face that he was enjoying the cake too.

Good stuff!

Now, Tyson latched on to one of Camille's presents. We gave her a picnic basket that sings and has plates and food and such. He carried that thing around all night in the crook of his arm. I kid you not. It did not leave his sight. He chased around his friends, holding that thing. This is exactly how I found him that night sleeping in his bed with it!
We had to take it in the car with us (which he also fell asleep with).
We all took our turn having picnics with him. Dad got to join him outside!

I'm happy to say its been a week and Tyson has finally relinquished control of the basket and Camille had had the chance to play with her own present.

Camille 1 year stats are:
Height- 33 1/4 inches (99% +)
Weight 25 lbs (95%)

She is such a fun girl to have around. I love when she flashes her smile and she does it quite frequently. She recieves a lot of love from her brother and tolerates it fairly well. She's in the clingy phase and likes to always be near me, but yet does well when I leave her with others. Her personality is definitely starting to develop and she's becoming quite the tease to her brother. When he's working on something (remember my son likes the order), she'll purposely come up take something from him and crawl away super fast in the other direction. He'll get a little irritated, chase her and get it back while she just laughs and laughs! I find it quite entertaining now, but can see it becoming more of an issue in the future! She's almost walking, she'll go from a sit to a stand without any help of furniture and take up to 5 steps before falling and she's quite the busy girl, moving from one thing to the next. I think she'll be my easy-going, free spirit child.

(getting into Tyson's leftover yogurt and spreading all over her face)

We sure love this Camilley girl and are so glad she's in our home. What a fun year it has been! Happy Birthday Camille!!