Tyler Turns 5!

Tyler is such a big boy now! He was so excited to turn 5! He has been counting down the days for a couple of months I think! And he was always quick to point out how big he is getting! His most common phrase was, (while holding his hand out to you) "Look at my skin, it's getting bigger!"

Tyler is a complete joy to have in our lives! He fits into our family perfectly and brings us all so much happiness!

He is a perfect little brother in every aspect! He loves to torment his big sisters lol! My favorite incident goes like this: Ashlie is laying on the floor watching tv. Tyler very casually walks down the stairs and sits down on the couch behind Ashlie. Very nonchalantly he says, "Hi Ash, do you wonder where your make up is???" Instantly Ashlie is on her feet and yelling at Tyler, "Where is it??? What did you do with my make up? MOM, TYLER DID SOMETHING WITH MY MAKEUP!" Tyler just sits on the couch smiling, seemingly not phased at all by Ashlie's yelling! He opens his palm up and there lays a little tube of lip gloss. Ashlie rips it out of his hand and goes marching up the stairs. Tyler just sits on the couch very pleased with himself.

Tyler still loves his trains, but is slowly moving into Lego's! I was a little sad this year on his birthday, it was the first year in many that he didn't receive a single train! He got tons of Lego's though and him and Craig have been spending countless hours building and rebuilding!

Tyler has been saying for months that he wanted an "X" birthday party. I wasn't sure what that exactly was, I finally was able to figure out that he just wanted X's all over the house. So I went with my mom and we cut out tons of X's and then we just taped them ALL OVER the downstairs. You can see one on the picture of the cake on the wall behind it. We also had a treasure hunt that took them all over the back yard and out to the front where X marks the spot. That was fun! And he wanted a dragon cake breathing fire!



About a month ago Tyler started in that he wanted a puppy! We already have a dog (Ginger), and didn't really want another one. But Ginger was already full grown when Tyler came along and really had very little patience for a little boy who wanted to rough house with her. So Craig and I finally decided we would get him a puppy. We were sneaky and found a cute little Queensland. He is a sweetheart of a puppy, about 3 months old. On the day of his party Tyler went shopping with grandma, so I went and got the puppy, took him to be groomed and snuck him home and into hiding before Tyler got back. It was cute because we wanted Tyler to name him so at the groomers he is known as Puppy Dixon since he didn't have a name yet! We ate dinner, had a treasure hunt and opened all of the other presents, which were tons of puppy things, before we showed him the puppy. This is the first time he ever saw his puppy!


It took him about an hour to decide on a name. He came up with Max. I think it is very fitting, and it has an X lol! We took this picture later in the evening after things had settled down a bit and Tyler could play with Max a little.



We are so happy Tyler is part of our family. Happy Birthday Sweet Boy!!!

Tyler goes to the Eye Dr.

Craig, Sari, and I all wear glasses so just for good general health practices I make Ashlie and Tyler appointments to get their yearly eye exams also! Ashlie is hoping that one of these years she will have to get glasses but so far, they have all said she has practically perfect vision, just about as good as it can get! So no luck for her lol!

This year Tyler's eye exam landed on the same day he was the Happy Helper at school (refer to previous post). So not only did he get to go wearing his same shirt, we also took Corduroy along with us!

Our eye doctor is a very friendly guy - which is good! I had already been in to see him that morning for my appointment, so when I went in the afternoon with Tyler we just picked up on our previous conversation. We were talking about friends when he walked into the room. Tyler's very first comment to the doctor was, "I have more friends than you!" Dr. Baumann just chuckles and says, "You do??? How many friends do you have?" Tyler says, "18, and that's more than you!" And the appointment just went from there! I never realized how competitive Tyler is lol! Dr. Baumann was a great sport and just went right along with all of Tyler's comments - we couldn't have a better eye doctor!

And it looks like Tyler will be seeing more of him in the future Tyler is getting glasses! They should be in some time this week - I'll post pictures when we get them!

Other conversations between Tyler and Dr. Baumann:

T "I'm smarter than you"
Dr. B "Well, how do you know that? What grade are you in?"
T, "Kindergarten so I'm smarter than you, are you in kindergarten?"
Dr. B "No, it has been a long time since I was in kindergarten"
T "Well, you should go back, it's lots of fun!"




Dr. B asked Tyler if he could put some tickle drops in his eyes (dilate them), Tyler says, "No, I don't want you to do that." So Dr. B says okay I won't if you don't want me to. Then he lays the very cool disposable sunglasses on the counter and says, "I guess we don't need these." Tyler says, "What are those?" Dr. B, "Very cool sunglasses but you only get them if you let me put tickle drops in your eyes, and you don't want me to do that so we don't need the glasses, WAIT!!! Do you want me to put the tickle drops in so you can wear the glasses???" Tyler, "YEAH!!!" About 15 seconds later the tickle drops were in Tyler's eyes and the sunglasses were on lol!

Tyler the Happy Helper

In Tyler's class each day a different child gets picked to be the Happy Helper. They get to help Mrs. Koop do things around the classroom, they are first to line up, and most importantly they get to bring home the classroom mascot, Corduroy! He is a little teddy bear that has his own backpack with his blanket and a book to read to him! Corduroy gets to spend the night and then you take him and all of his belongings back to school the next day for the next happy helper!

Just a couple of mornings after school started Tyler was quite excited because he was wearing his red striped shirt and he thinks he looks pretty handsome in it! He even had me take his picture that morning. When he came out from school that day he was ecstatic!!! HE was the Happy Helper! He had Corduroy in his backpack and a folder full of surprises to show me! Not only did he get to help Mrs. Koop as the Happy Helper but he got to stand in front of the whole class and they drew pictures of him - WEARING HIS RED STRIPED SHIRT - lol!!! He was so excited! So we have a book full of sketches of Tyler wearing his favorite shirt!

Here is a picture of Tyler and Corduroy!

Back To School

Another summer has completely flown by!!! And now it is time to send the kiddies back to school! This year is especially fun because Tyler is a big boy in kindergarten now! The week before school started him and I were able to go to the school to meet his teacher and she gave him a tour of the classroom and we spent a few minutes there visiting with her. He was so bashful, it was funny!

On the first day of school he was excited to go, just nervous once he got there. He just stood beside me out on the playground and didn't want to play on any toys or anything. And then once we went inside and he sat at his table, he didn't hardly even move, he certainly never made a sound lol! And for anyone who knows Tyler that is extremely out of character for him! I gave him a hug and a kiss and told him I would be back and that was that. When I picked him up from school that day he was all excited and had soooo much fun! But then the next morning back to Mr. Bashful! He's been in school about 10 days now and he is starting to come out of the morning nervousness a little, although he is a little more clingy when I leave now. So funny, I never thought he would be clingy! He absolutely loves kindergarten though and his teacher is AmAzInG!!!



And the girls were so excited to start back too! Ashlie is in 5th grade and is so excited because she has the same teacher that Sari had for 5th grade (Mr. Price)!!! She is in heaven and Mr. Price loves to read so she is excited about all of the reading this year!




Sari is a big 8th grader this year! The biggest change for Sari this year is that she decided to ride her bike to and from school this year. It originally started because we thought she was going to have a pre-1st class and she would have to be at school at 7:20. That is right in the middle of when I am trying to get everyone else ready so she decided to ride her bike. We rode it a few times during the summer and she was very comfortable with where to go and what to do and actually very excited to ride her bike. About 2 days before school we realized she did not get the pre-1st, but she still wanted to ride her bike. So we said go for it! It is working great now that we have established the importance of being home by a set time.