We're Still Here

I can't believe it has been so long since I posted anything. Here are a few of the things we've been up to.

My dad finished the boys' new dresser and we love it. It fits perfectly and Kyle loves having all of his stuff in the big boy room now. The boys seem to enjoy sharing a room and Kyle is getting the hang of helping clean up in there and seems to know where everything goes.

While Evan has been learning to ride a bike Kyle has been keeping a close eye on things. As soon we put the training wheels on this one again and Kyle hopped right on. He liked to be pushed around on it and kept saying "Ride Evan's big bike." Today he learned to pedal his tricycle so I'm thinking he may be ready to actually ride this one now. He thinks he is pretty cool being like his big brother.

The nursery is coming along. Brandon finished painting the drawer pulls today and the furniture is all painted. As soon as he gets them installed I'll put up some pictures. Now we just need to decorate the walls. Somewhere between 7 and 9 weeks from now we will have 3 kids...and that is starting to freak me out a bit.

New Bike Rider

Evan learned to ride a two-wheeler last week. We started out on a little bike, but we've moved up to the big bike now. This is not his bike, this is the bike all three kids in my family used and re-painted. It looks antique now. The only problem now is getting him to come back inside and quit riding.

Kyle's B-day

First a quick look at Baby Kyle year by year.....

I think he may have been a day old in this one. So sweet.Turning oneOur big 2 year old.

For Kyle's actual birthday we decided to venture out to Northwest Trek. Kyle loves animals so we were hoping it would go over well. This was them on the way out, still smiling and excited, so I think we succeeded.

We saw so many animals and Kyle loved it, but he was a bit exhausted and dozed off for about 30 minutes during the tram ride.

There were a lot of favorite animals, but the cougar was right up there for the boys. Evan is obsessed with BYU so seeing a real cougar was fabulous. They also loved the lynx, bears, bison (and baby bison), wolves, wolverines....the list goes on and on. Kyle still likes to talk about seeing a bear, and wanting to see a "moot". Maybe we'll have better luck with the moose next time.We had wedding reception to go to that night, a 40th b-day party for a friend, and Evan had a b-day party for another friend. The boys held up like troopers so to top off the day we went to DQ for ice cream. Kyle was taking his sweet time so he ended up finishing his in the car. All in all a very fun birthday. Even he said he had fun which if you know Kyle is really saying something.

Official Stats: 36.25 inches tall (90th%), 32 lbs (90th%), and 51 cm head circumference (97th%...that's right folks, we are on the charts finally).
Interests: Animals, cars, superheros, destruction, and anything Evan likes

He has a lot to say and is even putting together sentences now, but only for a select few people. To most he probably still seems mute. He is a pretty happy kid when he wants to be, but try to get him to smile for someone he doesn't see very often and you could be there all day. He keeps us busy but he is a fun little guy and we wouldn't trade him for anything.

Potty Training???

I'm sure it was just a fluke, but I'm hoping it wasn't. Kyle announced this afternoon that he wanted to use the potty. He's done that a few times and we always take him in. Today he had actual success, and we made a big deal about it in hopes of encouraging this. He even called a few people to say "poop in the potty." He asked to go again later today, but he was a little late on that one.

Presents

Okay, these are backwards. After presents the boys went for a ride on the tractor with Gumpa to help him mow the lawn.

Gumpa made him a firetruck to ride on. He even used a lathe to spin the wheels, and Kyle has already enjoyed riding it lots of places.

We should have waited to open the t-ball set because he played with this the whole time after he opened it and Evan finished opening his presents. You can see his new "baby" that Grandma is holding. We're hoping it will work like the little one we got Evan and he'll be a little more prepared come August.

The courtesy photo in the hat. He liked other people wearing them, but wasn't such a fan himself. As soon as we finished taking pictures of him we never saw the hat on again.

Pin the Nose on Elmo

I don't know how we had never played this game before. It was a hit. I felt silly buying Pin the Nose on Elmo when I knew Evan and Kyle would be the only kids there, but it is very fun with adults too. This was Kyle's first attempt.

He put it down really low, and when he took off the blindfold and saw where he put it, he pulled the sticker off and readjusted it. We didn't call it cheating since it was his party. He tried again with two more stickers later and got better every time.

Aunt Katie of course had to try....here I think she is a little off in her direction. The spinning must have worked.

Evan was there to help anyone who needed it. He tried really hard to help everyone get it in the right spot, but nobody did. Gramps did have good form trying from the knees.

Evan and Kyle tried helping Papa. Kyle also made (he really did go around and say who was next) Grandma, Grandma Jean, Grammie, Gumpa, and Evan play. I have pictures of them all if anyone would like to see.

Elmo Party

Due to the fact that today was pretty much the only day that worked for everyone to get together around Kyle's birthday, we had his family party today. He is a lucky boy to get to have all four grandparents and three great-grandparents able to attend his parties. We also had Aunt Katie and us, so it was quite a bash. Last on the party schedule was cake, and since we were having an Elmo party, Brandon created this masterpiece.I am thoroughly impressed since I just made two round cakes, and he found a picture and created Elmo. He even had to make the frosting colors and the frosting.

Kyle was so excited to see his cake. When he first got to see it he whispered in shock "Melmo," and just sat and stared at it. He was pretty pumped to have everyone sing to him too.

Amazingly he was doing a decent job blowing towards the candles, but he felt the heat and got scared so Papa and Evan stepped in to help out.