18 months

Photo by Tami

We just passed a huge milestone in this family...our boy is old enough for nursery! It's true, he's now 18 months. And cuter than ever. Some of his recent past-times include mastering the actions to the itsy-bitsy-spider and other such songs, climbing on EVERYTHING, and dancing to his heart's content. Here are a couple fun things that he's done lately to crack us up!

He has taken to making any small object into a gun as he runs behind you yelling "piew, piew" or "boom boom" to shoot.

Yesterday he figured out how to turn on a tricky lamp, and as he did each time would shout "Ta-dah!"

He loves trying to throw and catch with a mit. He has to hold it with two hands...

We didn't show him any TV or movies until a few weeks ago. He saw himself on Grandma's ipad, and now he constantly wants to watch himself. So if he asks you for a "moo-me" (movie), it's possible that he is referring to a DVD but more likely that he wants to watch one of himself on your phone.

He has learned a new trick at bathtime--soaking the parents. He's still working on the form and skill of it, but he uses his toys to try and dump water on us. Every time he tried to get me, he covered Daddy. He thinks it's hilarious. So if you ever babysit and have to give him a bath--watch out.

He finally caught onto pillow fights and LOVES it. His little giggle the whole time makes me laugh.

His favorite time of day is when "Dada" is home. Just hearing the truck pull up, he runs to the door smiling, which makes me happy too.

 

 Thanks to his cousin, he was Woody for Halloween. Pretty stinkin cute little sherriff.

 

Of course I had to teach him how to properly organize his candy for trading purposes. He doesn't have anyone to trade with, but he'll be ready when siblings come along.

 

He can often be found with his "Be-be" lately. He's become pretty attached.

 

Happy 18 months!

Chillaxin'

So we have had some time lately to catch up on life a little bit. We got to take a few days of vacation at the Rowley's cabin, which was really fun. I got some massive bruises on my arm from archery. I thought it was because I had bad form, but Brent and Kaden also had that problem, and I was hitting the target fine (before I got so scared of it getting me that I couldn't hold my arm still long enough, ha). So now I just think that's not my favorite sport. We tried out the zipline again, as you can see on the left. I jumped off a little early and made my knee into hamburger, but it was still fun. We also rode the 4-wheeler back and forth a lot, which is Ty's new favorite thing. He got spoiled for those few days, and now that we are home, I have to take him on rides around the orchards now and then or he is completely crestfallen. He is learning though. Once you put him on the seat he reaches to move the keys, and then puts his hand on the ignition button. And then he gets the biggest grin and just looks up at you like the world couldn't be happier.

He has also taken lately to talking on the "phone". The phone can be a remote, a play phone, a block, or even the power block for the computer. He will sit and have great conversations, but when you give him a real phone with a real relative on the other end, he freezes. Like a deer in the headlights. We're working on it.

The little guy and I also enjoy our popsicle dates. He runs to the freezer and says "popo" and we sit together on the kitchen floor to eat it. It seems he must be sitting in my lap before he can take a bite, so that's what we do--every day after watering the garden or playing outside.

This last week we went into town to the county fair. I love the fair. The rodeo is my favorite, but the food--though completely unhealthy and overpriced--is delicious. And you would never eat it otherwise. We got a good ol' funnel cake for good measure. Landon's little brother came with us. He wasn't too excited about most of the rides, but we talked him into the Spider with Landon. But he wouldn't let them spin much, ha. Our little guy went on the ferris wheel (which is probably the scariest ride in my opinion), and Goliath's slide. And he was pretty interested in seeing all the animals.

 I got a hole-in-one to enter a golf sweepstakes, just sayin'. And we hit up the buckin' broncos at the rodeo. We were there when one of the rodeo girls fell off her horse and got dragged around the ring because her foot was stuck. It was pretty crazy. Luckily she was ok. Whitney even watched Ty so we could go on the ride that drops you out of the sky. Wooh! I have a video but haven't changed the format, so I can't post it yet. Sorry. Let's just say I might have screamed.

 We finally finished our garage. It's all painted and organized and we can even fit the car and truck! I really was skeptical that huge truck would make it in. We have to really squeeze it in, you know, butter the sides even, but we can fit them both :) And, I painted the front door. Unbeknownst to me, it's really hard to get normal paint to stick on doors. So you may not fully appreciate this task unless you've tried it, but I was pretty proud of myself after putting 4 coats on to get it to look good.

And Ty got to go swimming for the first time. He clung to me pretty tight at first, but once we gave him a ball to chase around, he actually tried to paddle and loved it. Good times. I love summer when we actually have time to take advantage. Now we just have to roast some more mallows and watch a meteor shower and my summer is complete :)

I know these are blurry but it's all we have.  Landon says he was shaking because he was cold ;)

Though I must say. This is the first year where school has started and my life hasn't changed a bit. We have no one in school anymore. WEIRD, but AWESOME!

Sunday duds, as Anita calls them :) He likes to look just like Daddy

Aunt Angie came to visit. It was fun to see her and show her the new house! Thanks for making the drive!!

His new way of looking at the world lately. Not sure why, but he does it all the time.

Someone asked me to make their son's brithday cake a few weeks ago. I was really rushed for time the day I did it because Tyson was really not cooperating, so I'm not sure it was quite what I planned. But I made a big angry birds cake, and then these cupcakes, with the blue bird cupcakes as well. Had to pipe feathers on all of them! I think it turned out looking good, but I am definitely learning a lot. It was my first experience making marshmallow fondant, and it turned out pretty great! And they had a delicious raspberry cream cheese filling.

Our little wrangler says "hope your summer has been fun too!"

Green Thumb

I just wanted to post about our garden because I'm pretty proud of myself :) Our yard may be a wasteland of dirt and new poplars popping up everywhere, but the garden represents some major sweat and hard work, ha. For real though, I even sprained my thumb weeding this week and now I can't really grasp anything with my right hand. 

We moved in a little late for the usual planting season, so we didn't have high expectations. The night we actually had time to do it, we ran into town to get seeds. There was a slight miscommunication with the peppers and we somehow ended up with several full rows of hot habenero or jalapeno peppers. Let me know if you are a salsa maker. Then we came back with a little bit of light left and a storm approaching. Landon and I hoed like crazy and spread some miracle grow in that soil as fast as we could. We were sticking plants in like lightening to avoid any lightening striking Landon, who was holding the shovel. Luckily, we got everything in--partly in the dark--about 20 minutes before the rain started.

When we started the endeavor of this year's garden, I told Landon to keep it small-scale. There are only two of us, and with cherry season, I knew I would have to take care of it by myself. And yet, he is always the one who chooses how much we plant, ha. With our little guy around, I could only weed about a third of it a day, so it took 3 days to finally weed it, and then a few days later I had to start all over again. Kinda disheartening. And then I discovered Preen. It's awesome--weed preventer. I put it in between the rows and this week I weeded the whole garden in like 15 minutes. 

I've also had to watch some youtube videos on how to harvest our crops, since neither Landon nor I know much about any of them. We had no idea when they were ready, or how to harvest them, or how to water. It's been mostly guess and check, but I thought I would consult the experts when figuring out some things. Despite the poplar trees trying to grow in the middle, and the gopher taking half of our lettuce, we are pretty happy with how it's turning out.

This is actually from Grandma and Grandpa Rowley's garden, but I laughed and thought you might like it too. He loves his veggies.

Summer Lovin'

I love summer. Only when it's HOT outside do you just want to jump into freezing water and not think twice. I love it. Tyson and I have been to a few play groups or parks and he is beginning to love the water activities. I use him as an excuse to play in them myself :) 

He has some hand-me-down water clothes. The shirt is borderline too small and the shorts are pretty long, so he's just a thug. I love it. 

A couple of weeks ago we got to go with Nana and Papa Draney to feed the ducks/geese. Chris and Lisa were in town. It's hilarious to see Tyson with Hannah. He is so excited to see someone his size that he has to give her hugs or pats. 

With the huge geese, at first he was a little nervous.  They are bigger than he is.

But then he decided he was going to chase them. It was awesome, but I had to make sure he didn't get pecked at. He was a little too daring.

Just thought I'd show a pic of him trying on my shoes. He comes all day long saying "Shzz" and trying to have me put them on so we can go outside.

We also got to take a few days and go to our first DRANEY FAMILY REUNION. It was awesome. So fun to see some of my cousins that have moved so far away! Tyson loved the sand, but not so much the water.

It was the Washington coast so Landon and I thought we might try wetsuits for some warmth. It turned out the water was pretty warm anyway, so we had lots of fun trying to boogie board and ride the waves. I think the beach is my favorite place to be of anywhere. I love the waves, playing sports on the beach, the sand castles--or this time it was a huge hole to China--the laid back beach atmosphere, the small-town shops, the kite-flying, it's all great.  We even got to light some fun fireworks. A few of them would shoot off a parachute, so we had races to see who could catch it. It was great. Landon was pretty proud that he won--although he cheated. He is kinda known in my family for cheating, ha. But he's so funny about it they don't get mad.

We also stayed in a house that had air hockey, ping pong and pool, and a hot tub, so we made sure to get in our share. It was a great and relaxing trip before the cherry harvest!

The little man at 14 months

I haven't really been on the ball lately with our move, but I thought that I would give an update for family who are far away. I also don't have my camera, so I only have a few pics from my phone. As lame as that is, I might not have time to blog for a while again, so I thought something is better than nothing, right?

So that you all can get to know our little guy better--here is his life, in a nutshell, at 14 months. 

He is definitely the child of a fruit farmer. He loves all fruit, but especially watermelon. He would make his aunt Whitney proud.

Aside from running all day long, he can often be found climbing into things.He doesn't just "get into the cupboards" (which we have finally got child-locks for), but he has to get IN the cupboard, or the bowl, or the drawers... which is usually followed by a yell of  "AH! AH!" to tell me he doesn't know how to get out.

He also really likes to see the lights go on and off. It keeps him distracted so that he'll eat more at mealtimes if Mommy turns the lights on and off. He also is a fan of carrying long stick, curtain rods, and the like. Probably not safe for anyone in a close radius, but he loves it.

He is pretty proficient at stairs these days--both up and down. If there is just one stair it's even better. He feels like it's a chair just for him and he'll go up and down on it for 20 minutes at a time.

He's all about putting things on other people, like sunglasses. Not so much on himself, just on others. Except shoes, because that means he can go outside. So he is always putting on Mommy or Daddy's shoes, or his own. 

He is learning lots of words, like "shoes" or "da" which means dog. He knows they say "woof woof", but doesn't seem to remember any other animals. They often like to woof too. "Ba" can mean bird, or book, or bubbles, or ball, depending on the context. "This one" for when he's showing you something. He seems to copy more words every day.

The kid is a singing and dancing machine. Put on some music and he will be bouncing or doing hotfeet or running in a circle and often singing along. He's got great moves--I tell him it's from his mommy ;)

When he gets excited he YELLS some babbling while standing up on his tippy toes and pushing his chest out. Cracks me up every time!  Also, while in big groups, he assumes any laughing is because of him, so he will go to the middle of the group and bend his knees to bounce while people laugh. I'm not sure why, but it's hilarious.

He is now a fan of fireworks. He did the above stance while trying to yell "So Cool" like everyone else. He also got to see them at our beach family reunion and loved them. 

He was also in his first parade and rode the motorcycle with Daddy. So cool.  

He has learned to maneuver his arms so that he can't be picked up. He has found it very useful when he's in trouble. 

And he's famous!! At least to the people who get this coupon magazine in Richland, ha. They used our kids for the cover of the ad magazine along with the Fresh Picks coupons. I thought it was pretty cute.

Growing up

This is a little delayed, but for those who haven't had the pleasure of seeing the drunken sailor walk, here is a video of our little guy walking. He's all over the place now, usually babbling or clapping as he goes.

 

 

The bedroom we are staying in at the Rowley's has a small drumset in it. Grandpa was so proud when we visited. Tyson was excited to show off his new skills. Here's our little drummer boy.

Poor little guy had his shots this week. He slept for days, and was fussier than ever before he broke out with this rash all over his torso and face. They say it's from the measles shot--basically a mild form of it as a reaction is what they told us. The little guy is so miserable it just makes me sad for him. But after 5 days, he is starting to make progress. They say it could be 8 more days. 

I dun gradiated!

It's true! Landon has finished, Yay. Though we have had a fun time through all of our BYU experience, we are ready to move on, and excited for the next exciting adventure on the farm.

 

 I just thought I would take a minute to say how proud I am of Landon and his ability to keep balance during school. I never had to juggle a family with college life, since I graduated before then. Though it does come with the perks of someone to make dinner after a long day, or a built-in editor of your papers, I know it also came with challenges. He had to deal with the sleepless nights of a newborn while preparing for exams and taking classes.  He had to work so that we had enough money for essentials, rather than take time off when school was busy. It took extra effort and planning to still be a part of the BYU experience with football games, concerts, student programs, or intramurals, and still have time to come home and play with the baby before he had to be in bed. I just wanted to say that I'm glad that family is a priority for Landon, because Tyson and I always felt a part of the process instead of a hindrance.

Here are a few pictures from our graduation weekend. Thanks to the Rowley family for helping us move!!!

So cool!

We saw some of our good friends, the Youngs. Amanda and I had fun
with mother's group, and Adam had some classes with Landon as well.
They are a fun family.  We will miss the great friends we've made in Provo.

Just makes me think of a little leprechaun. :)

 

We played some family tennis that weekend to break things up from the moving and ceremonies. We aren't exactly amazing, but we aren't bad. It made for some funny games.

 

 

 

Tyson was pretty excited Daddy waved to him.