An 18 month Kyle

Kyle turned 18 months in April.

Oh how I am remembering that 18 months is not my favorite age! He is wanting to do everything by himself, or at least do everything that his brothers do by himself. If he doesn't get his way a very painful screaming and crying and flailing and floppiness thing occurs. It is like nothing I remember my other children doing to the degree he does it. Maybe I have just blocked it out, which is something that I hopefully will be doing again very soon. Oh and I love going to the doctor at 18 months because they ask if he is throwing tantrums and tell you to make sure you are ignoring them/him . Right.... like ignoring the 2 foot screaming machine following me around the house or pounding the door I shut to "ignore him" is really working. Or ignoring the 22 pound flailing siren attached to my leg because I won't give him his 3rd bag of fruit snacks before 10am is really working. By 10am I am willing to open every bag of fruit snacks in the state of Texas if he will stop that screaming siren of a cry, are you kidding me! Alright, so some days are better than others, but around here if a little peace and quiet during my day means giving in to a tantrum then thank the heavens for fruit snacks!

Okay...Okay... so this is probably the worst thing about 18 months and besides this it really isn't that bad. 18 months is actually very exciting because he is turning into a little boy. He loves everything with wheels. He loves hats.He loves loves balls and throwing anything he can. This is fun because he will totally play fetch with you. He loves being outside and getting dirty. He loves following his brothers around. He loves his blankie. He loves climbing up, on, or around anything. He loves music and dancing. He loves ice cream and he loves drinking anything but water from a straw. Oh, which reminds me that he loves Starbucks, or at least my Vivano smoothies, which is really only because it has a straw! He does not love everyone and is not that friendly of a baby, which leads right in to him loving his Mommy most, which isn't helping with going to nursery, but we are working on it. He still cries for a few minutes when I drop him off at the gym, even after months of going. He just isn't big into strangers. Which means that he gives them the furrowed brow look which make me laugh and love him even more!

A Very Happy 30th!

My Birthday was on the 14th.

It was a Wednesday and that is playgroup day. We we took the kids to a little farm just outside of Austin. They do a cow milking demo, a tractor ride and then a lot of other animals to see and touch. We had a really fun time, and Dylan is still asking when we get to go back. Dylan helped me make my cake. This is a recipe I have wanted to try for a long time and I was impressed with myself and how well it turned out. It is a chocolate chip cake with peanut butter cream icing. We made it into the shape of a planter box with sugar cookie flowers.

The kids sang to me many different renditions of Happy Birthday.

Tulips are my favorite.

On Friday, my fabulous husband threw me a SURPRISE BOWLING PARTY! I had no idea and was actually rather annoyed and not very nice to him on our way out that night because I thought we were late for the movies, and I HATE being late for the movies. I felt like a complete SPAZ after I figured out something was up and he had to drag me into the bowling alley to face all of my wonderful friends who came out to surprise me!

It was a really great day and so far thirty hasn't been all that bad!

The house next door.

Have you ever seen this commercial?

Well the house next door to ours is well on its way to becoming this house. I feel like any day now I will be waking up to the sound of a goat!

If I were to put Kyle in the thick of it, he would easily be lost.

The only good thing is that now we know the weed control service we pay for is working!

*So to be fare, no one lives in this house. So, no, we do not have weird neighbors that don't mow. It has been empty for almost 2 years now. It is bank owned and they should be sending someone out to take care of the yard. If they don't then the HOA that I pay should be doing it and sending the bill to the bank. I guess it is time to write a letter?*

***UPDATE! Someone came and mowed! Or at least whacked everything down! Only in the front it seems, but hey, now at least I won't loose one of my children over there! I don't think it will last long, especially with the rain we have gotten lately, but it works for now!***

Easter

We had a great Easter weekend. On Saturday morning we went to Old Settlers Park for the the annual egg/candy hunt. Jeff and I got to go in and help Dylan and Kyle during there turn. Once Kyle got a few things he was ready to chow down. Dylan is getting older so the concept of get as much as you can as fast as you can really sunk in this year. They had a blast in the 3 minutes it took to clear the field.

Because Tyler is 5 he had to go into his hunt with the big kids all by himself. Of course that makes me nervous (I think he was a little nervous to), but he did a great! He was very proud of his stash.

We colored eggs. Sadly, many little hands want to touch, move, try to bounce, the eggs before we colored them, so by the time we got to coloring we only had a few left.

And then of course the Easter bunny came and left them their baskets, treats and eggs hidden all over the house!

That afternoon we had the Chambers and Cameron and Jana Scott over for dinner and to watch conference. We had a great time and are glad we have such good friends here. I of course forgot to take any pictures, sorry!

Zoo

I took the kids to the zoo up in Waco on Good Friday.

After we had our picnic lunch we headed on in.

Very shortly after we started looking around it began to rain.

For a few minutes we hid in this tp over by the Bison.

When the kids got restless waiting for the down poor to stop we just went for it and got nice and wet. Everyone else was all huddled under overhangs or hiding in the reptile exhibit so it was great for us to have the zoo to ourselves.

Kyle loved growling at the tigers. Well, really he growled at everything. I wonder where he gets that from?

This is a cool slide they have that goes down through the otter tank.

It is a really great zoo and recommend it to everyone. If you have children 3 and under they are free, so for the four of us it was only 15 bucks to play in the rain and see the animals! We will definitely be going back.

A Cool Park

It had these giant swings that all three of them could fit on.

Dylan went down this slide many many times.

So if you look really close at Kyle, you will see that this is when he had hives. Like the great mother that I am, I didn't realize he had hives until after I took him to the park on an 80 degree day which made them flare up, which then made me call the doctor. What were they from? We have no idea, this is the first time he has ever had them. We will be keeping an eye out for them again in the future. Good Times!

A cool digger that was there that Dylan played with non stop for like 20 minutes.

A sit and spinning thing that made them all laugh and laugh.

Another spinning thing that used your weight to push around. Tyler really got the hang of it and spent a lot of time on this.

March Madness

So really there wasn't anything mad about March, I just like saying that. It did fly by quickly though, which is what I am using as my excuse for not blogging. So, let see... What happened in March?

St. Patricks Day!

Dylan made us green pancakes for breakfast. They were delicious!

Hockey Game!

We went to a hockey game during spring break. We have a new minor league team here in Austin. The Texas Stars! (these pictures where taken with Jeff's phone, my camera died when we got there)

Soccer Started!

Tyler started soccer again for the spring. We are on a little team of kids from church. They are the Cougars and they wear purple and he is number 6. We are still working on being more aggressive, but he has definitely improved from last season. He is motivated to score a goal every game with the bribery of a McD's Happy meal. So far he has had one every game!

The Weather!

March was the month of weather changing here in central Texas. We have been spending lots of time outside. It also means motorcycle weather. The kids love going for rides with Dad!

Sewing!

Baby car seat covers. I have been busy making these for friends and family. If you haven't got one I am working on it! Feel free to leave me a comment bugging me, maybe it will help me get it to you sooner!