Buppy Sitting

I love my brownies. I would do ANYTHING for them. Even babysit a puppy for two weeks for them. Ok, we actually loved the puppy so I don't know if you could really call it a sacrifice. This is how it came to be...
This time of year has been especially hard for them. My heart breaks every time I think about the absolute injustice of the whole situation. Cindy knew that Christmas day was going to be especially challenging, considering it was the exact four month anniversary of their dad's death. They have been through so much these past months and she wanted to do something special. Something BIG. Say, like, get them a puppy. They all wanted one so much that she wanted to do it, but knew it had to be a surprise. She had a particular dog in mind, a Shorkie, which is a Shitzu and a Yorkie mix. I wanted to help her so I hunted online and called almost every pet store in the state. Our selection was very limited, but we finally found one at a pet store 45 minutes away. She stole away to see if this was the puppy they wanted.
We both fell in love with it! She was/is soooo cute! We had to have her, only Christmas was two weeks away. The pet store was going to charge a ridiculous amount of money if they kept her, so I volunteered for the puppy sitting job.
Madi and Tyli were in heaven!! They loved her! They played and played and played with her. Every morning Ty would wake up and ask for the "Buppy". She didn't even mind being the puppy's chew toy. She would tell the puppy "NO!" then keep on doing exactly what she was doing. I really am lucky that they both survived each other.
Madi thought the puppy was her baby. I even found her pushing the puppy around in her doll stroller. She loved showing her off. She even took her for show and tell. I agreed to this only because she may never in her life time have another chance to take a puppy for show and tell.
Yes, the dog was a big hit. Tyli is crying less and less about the missing puppy, but she still asks for her every day. Luckily, Bella (her new name) has come to visit which has helped.
Madi was able to keep the puppy a secret even though we spent an entire day with the Browns before Christmas. I did threaten her with her life and many other things if she spilled the beans. Whatever I had to do. :)
Christmas day came... We planned an adorable way to surprise them and it worked! We left Bella hanging in a stocking on the porch, rang the doorbell and ran. The kids found her there. We could here them all screaming from our car. We gave them a few minutes then joined them for the fun. They were going crazy! All six kids were there, mom, grandparents and us. We were all so excited! They were so happy. I would have done anything to give them that moment! It was worth all of the biting and accidents for sure! Merry Christmas my Brownies! I love you!

Ornament Swap

This year we participated in the Crafty Crow Kids Ornament Swap. Madi made several ornaments that we got to send to different kids all over the state, then they sent one of their homemade ornaments to us. We sent some to Washington, Georgia, Florida, Washington, DC, Michigan, Arizona, and New York. It was so much fun sharing the holidays with others. This is a little of what we gave and what we received.

Every year we love to grow our own crystal snowflakes and turn them into ornaments, so we didn't have to think long before we knew what we were going to make for our new friends. This year it turned into quite the science experiment as we found we were growing different sizes of crystals. We had to try many different things like the amount of borax to use, the temperature of water, if the pipe cleaner was agitated, etc. Our conclusion was the type of pipe cleaner determines the size of the crystal. Puffier pipe cleaner grows smaller crystals. It took over our kitchen for several days. We had a great time. I think Jon and I may have had more fun than Madi.

Mixing our crystal potion.

Madi is excited for our project.

Now we had to let our "potion" sit for a couple of days while the crystals were growing.

Our finished product.

We thought it would be fun to send a bag for our friends to keep their ornaments in, just a little extra keepsake. Madi and I liked different material for the bags. We ended up compromising and made a few of each. Can you guess which one she chose out?

These are some of the ornaments we received. We LOVED them all. What a fun thing to do! Thank you so much to all of our new friends who shared with us.

Birthday Festivities

It was actually fun celebrating Ty's birthday this year. I was worried with December being such a busy month, but luckily it's far enough away from Christmas that it wasn't too bad. It was just another fun thing! Madi took the day off from school and joined us for story time. Then we had lunch with the Chamberlains at Arctic Circle. Tyli loves playing on the playground there. It is just her size.
That night we went to dinner at the Mayan with some of my family. I thought Tyli would love it with the pools and diving and fun animals. She didn't! The loud music and the dressed up divers with their drums were not the hit I though they would be. Luckily everyone else had fun and I think Ty liked it in the end. :)
We had a family dinner on Sunday. Jon, Madi and I made Tyli's cake. We had so much fun working together. Madi picked out the Curious George theme because that is Tyli's favorite show. She loves her Curious George stuffed animal and makes a monkey sound whenever she sees him. Jon helped mix the frosting and drew George on the cake, Madi picked out the colors (hence pink frosting), thought of the bananas, and helped do some of the details. She also was very excited to do Tyli's name...because she knew how to spell it. It was perfect for us because we all worked together. We were quite pleased with ourselves considering it was the first cake we ever designed. Next year will be even better.
We had a good time with cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. Ty got a robotic kitty, a tea set, a ball popper, a tent, aqua doodle, the book "Miss Moo Goes to the Zoo" and some clothes. She is a very spoiled and happy two year old.

Whenever we ask Tyli how old she is, she raises up her whole hand. We decided to write a 2 on it, then people would know she was 2, not 5. We thought we were so funny!

Ty spending the day with her favorite people.

Tyli didn't really enjoy the diving show. Ooops! Sorry Ty. Maybe we can try again when you are three.

Our first home made cake!

Ty LOVES her cake!

Yipee! Presents!

Party girl!

Ty playing with/in some of her favorite gifts.

Two Year Old Tyli (Sniff! Sniff!)

Tyli looks two, she acts two, mathematically her life span equals two years, but I still can’t believe it! It has all passed so quickly blurring together with a few shining memories standing out above the rest.

Of course I recall with perfect clarity the night she was born. Her due date was December 24th, but with her sister being three weeks early I was certain Tyli would be as well. So her birthday would be December 3. I waited impatiently for the day to arrive. It did…and then it left again with no baby. And so did the 4, 5, 6, 7 8, 9 and then the 10th came. I thought the 10th would be the perfect date. I can’t explain why, it was just a good number. Unfortunately Ty missed it by a measly hour. So the 11th it was.

The moment of her birth was sick and terrifying. She came out with a really low heart rate. She was all floppy with no muscle tone and not a sound to be made. It’s a scary thing when the doctor and nurses start giving those serious looks to each other. I just kept asking if she was ok and nobody would really say anything. For the first time I really understand how one minute can feel like an hour. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t longer than a few minutes but it really did feel like an eternity. Finally, FINALLY, a little squawk was heard, then more and more. The relief was overwhelming! After a while all of her levels got to a good point I finally got to see her. She was beautiful! I instantly fell in love! She had to be monitored closely for the next twenty-four hours, but she never had to go to the intensive care which I was grateful for. She grew stronger and stronger. And today, on her second birthday, she is an adorable, healthy, smart baby…OK I guess I will have to start calling her a little girl. (Only in public though!! At home, baby it is. )

Ty definitely has me (who am I kidding? the entire family!) wrapped around her little finger. We cater to her every need and whim. From the way we get her breakfast bowl in the morning, to hunting high and low for a binky, to giving in to every cry. Yep. She’s a little spoiled. I wouldn’t have it any other way! I guess I could do without her yelling no at me every time I ask her a question, or I’d love it if she potty trained in a day, or if she could communicate exactly what she wanted to avoid meltdowns. Other than that she is PERFECT! I swear!

These are the things we love most about Tyli:
Mom- She has the cutest laugh. She is so ticklish I can hear it whenever I want. I love how she makes up her own sign language to tell me what she wants. She wakes up with a smile every single day. On days I have to wake her up, she’ll even smile at me with her eyes closed.. She is the boogie queen and loves to dance! She makes everyone in our family happy.
Dad- She says “poopoo” and points to her bum every time she does any business at all in her diaper, including fluffs.
Sissy- She plays with her.

Things Tyli loves:
Movie- “AHHH” (aka, The Letter Factory)
Book- “Arggg”-Zoo book
Food- grapes, yogurt, and everything else that is unhealthy
Unique things about Tyli:
She loves salad, she scoots down the stairs on her bum, she has incredible fine motor skills (like putting beads on a string by herself), she loves to color and color and color, she loves to point our every bus when we are driving (“busthhhh!”), she takes a while to warm up to new people and new situations, she slept through every important event the first year of her life, she is a best friend to two thirty-two year olds and a four year old.

Happy Birthday Ty Ty! We love you!!

Dancing Elves

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

I thought this was hilarious!

What the December?!!!

We spent yesterday afternoon picking up the rest of the leaves. That's right! December 6th! Insane! It was so warm outside we just wore sweaters. It really was a beautiful day. Madi always loves playing in the leaves so the girls had a great time. Our old house had so many leaves and trees that as we were cleaning up this pile of leaves it seemed like hardly any. It was just enough to make a big pile for cute pictures and a fun pile to jump in. When we were done, our yard looked ready for summer. It is seriously that warm. Come on snow! Bring it on!
(OK, I wrote this paragraph like I actually helped clean up the leaves, when Jon really did all of the work. I took fun photos though. :))

As I was taking a picture of Tyli on her cell phone, I remembered taking a similar picture of Madi in the leaves reading a book. Pretty typical of their personalities I'd say. I just wonder if it's any indicator of what I'll be dealing with when they are teenagers. Yikes!