Whew...it has been a while!

I can't believe my last post was Tye's birthday party. There has been much water under the bridge since then...many wonderful Christmas parties, teas, and exchanges. It has been a wonderful Christmas season, and I have hardly had time to even think about decorating for Christmas. I will say that we did get Christmas lights up and our stockings hung, but time with family and friends has taken priority over decorating this year, and I am happier for it. Here are a few photos from the past few weeks.

Here are the cookies that Heidi (our friend that lives in Guatemala, but stayed with us last week with her husband, Matt and little Isaac) and I made. We actually won the presentation award. Thanks Paula Deen for the decorating ideas.



I then helped put on a Christmas Tea at our church. It was a wonderful time to get to know some of the women better and able to celebrate the birth of our Saviour, as well. It was fun transforming a school cafeteria into a Christmas Tea, and it worked.



The extent of our Christmas decorations this year...please excuse the toys below the beautifully decorated mantle. :)



Here is a picture of Tye noticing our nativity this morning. It was so cute...he has loved all the nativities at my parents house, mostly because they contain animals, which he is quite interested in these days. So, he got up on his tippiest of toes and as soon as he eyed the nativity, he made the "baa" noise for the sheep and the "ho" noise for the donkey. We found it quite adorable.



Just for fun...he loves the fridge farm, can you tell?!



You remember making tents when you were little...so we decided to give it a try with Tye last night...he found it quite entertaining, especially having Dad inside.



Love to you all and Merry Christmas!
Bethany

I am ONE!

I can't believe my baby is one today! Reminiscing about where we all were last year and how far we have all come is a bit overwhelming, yet puts an incredibly big smile on my face. We had Tye's birthday party last Saturday and all of Tye's buddies came over to celebrate...yes, all 7 of them under the age of 1 1/2, except Caleb's big sis, Ellie...she is 2 1/2. They had a great time of eating, playing and more playing. The kids are still at that great age when someone takes their toy, no problem...they just get another one. It makes for quite cooperative play. We have been so blessed with such wonderful friends and family. We are thankful for all of you. Here are a few pics from that special day.

Trust me...all 9 of them are actually in the picture. You have to look closely, because Travis (2nd one from the left fell behind Caleb on the end, but you can see his legs, and Josiah is being held by Kathy on the far right), but they are all there. So here they are from left to right...Caleb, Travis, Asher, Walt, Tye, Luke, Charley, Ellie, Josiah.



Yummy CAKE! So I thought...he actually was not too interested in it, so much for the cool, cake all over the place photo...we had to actually do it ourselves.



Here is our group photo...

A morning at the park.

We went to the park this morning for a few minutes before his nap, and I had to capture a few precious moments. He is coming up on a year next week and he has developed this amazing curiosity. The simplest things are so fascinating to him and he wants to just examine every part of it...as you will see for example in a few of the following photos...a piece of MULCH. Enjoy!

A week of good friends!!

Our friends, Ryan and Laura, their daughter, Selah, were in town the past week for a wedding. It was so fun to visit with them and Tye and Selah enjoyed playing with each other again. They are only 2 weeks apart, and it is really fun to see them doing the same things even though they live on the other side of the world right now. We will miss them.

We also had a chance to catch up with old friends at Josh Smith's wedding, and that was icing on the cake...some of them have never met Tye and he did put on his charm. It was beautiful with some fantastic music...we would not expect anything less from that wedding (Josh did the music for our wedding and he is incredibly talented with very talented friends).

We all had a play date at the Children's Museum with the kids, and wow...was that an adventure. They had a blast and we were exhausted. If you have not had a chance to check it out, they have a toddler room that does not end...so many toys, so much fun. We actually never made it to the rest of the museum, but for $2.50 (with a coupon), it was well worth the time.

We tried so hard to get a picture of the kids together in one spot...well, you see what happened!





Here is photo of us with Ben and Donna Stuart. Donna introduced Russ to me, so they will always have a special place in our hearts.



My friend Laura and her little girl, Selah. (Great friend that is prayed for and missed).



Tye has also learned how to kick the ball...while walking! What a talented squirt :) Too cute to pass up!

Buttons...buttons...and more buttons.

Tye officially has an infatuation with buttons (I think it is pretty common among his buddies as well). He has been on a quest to find and master every button in our house. Let's see, he has found our printer power button, all of our remotes, loves the keyboard, alarm clocks, cell phones, thermometer, baby monitor, microwave, tv, and our camera. That does not include the answering machine, fax machine and copier at his grandparents house. It is amazing the curious minds they have.

He is also starting to make sounds for objects...for instance, when he sees the horse next door at his grandparents house, he makes the "ha" sound and the "ca" when he sees a car or if we walk out to the car. Sooo fun! Anyway, he is coming up on a year in a few weeks and we have been so blessed by him this year. Of course...here are a few photos and a video.

Our little button pusher in action.



A little better walking demonstration.



"My Boys" rooting for "The Boys" (Cowboys).



My son...hammin' it up as usual (especially in front of the camera)

We have a WALKER!!

Tye has started walking! I mean he is not about to enter a race, but he will walk about 10 feet or so by himself. He really likes to just cruise along the couch and then take off towards his toys. The funniest part is that it looks like he is marching...lots of steps with not really much ground covered, and of course he walks with his arms up in the air or out in front of him for protection. It is really cute and he enjoys his new way of travel.



He has also been busy trying new things...feeding the horses next door at his grandparents house, eating juicy, yummy apples all by himself, and going to the children's museum with Uncle Dave, and of course playtime with friends.









I also just discovered while taking a brief break from this post to change a diaper that he just cut his top two teeth!! I found out by the sound of GRINDING (like fingernails to a chalkboard)!! I think Tye is pretty surprised by this as well. The fun never stops!

Tye's pumpkin patch photos.