What's yours is mine

So I should be doing the dishes right now, but I just got back from a wonderful night out with the ladies and don't want to ruin it by doing something as horrid as dishes. So I thought I'd post some pictures of my kiddos instead!

I hadn't taken very many pictures in the last little while, so one day when the 2 of them were "playing"-Tyler was playing and Kylee was taking everything that he was using-I snapped a couple.

I was making Tyler a sticker chart and whenever I do I let him sit right next to me and color with the markers on his own sheet of paper. So of course Kylee wanted to know what all the fun was about!


Whatchya got there Kylee?


Markers!


eying his paper...


...and bam! Stole it!


Hmmm...what else ya got over here?


I'll take that red marker thank you! This is a real common occurrence as of late. Whatever Tyler has, Kylee wants. He's usually pretty patient with her and will just look at me like,"are you going to do something about that?!" or he'll grab her another toy and "trade" with her. But I can tell sometimes he's just had enough!


I tried to move her away and give her some of the other markers Tyler wasn't using.


Doesn't matter. She wants his! Which...doesn't make Tyler so happy.


Poor Kylee, I had to take it away and give it back to Tyler. So sad!


I think they're watching Diego here, but I took this picture because I love that Tyler is wearing his flip-flops with just his tee-shirt and underwear! He's recently learned how to put on his shoes by himself, and he LOVES to have shoes on, so the first thing he does in the morning is put on his flip-flops.

Bits and pieces of everything...

So we had a really GREAT weekend! It started off on Fri when we got to spend the day outdoors in this wonderful weather we're having right now. I took the kids to the zoo with a bunch of my friends from my ward (and all 5 of us have baby girls 1 and under-so much fun) and then since Tyler desperately wanted to play at the park (I haven't taken him in weeks because whenever he plays outside-usually-he as potty accidents) we went over to the playground and let him play awhile. He stayed dry the whole time and went potty twice in the restroom while we were out! I was having so much fun with the girls that I kinda lost track of time and we didn't end up leaving until almost 3:00 which is way after the kids nap time. As soon as they were buckled in the car they fell asleep and I knew there was no way I was going to be able to get 2 sleeping kids upstairs so I figured I'd drive around awhile and let them get a little bit of a nap in. I hadn't had lunch yet so I stopped at Wendy's, got me some lunch, and explored apart of Logan I hadn't been around before. I couldn't believe that Tyler was still dry by the time we got home and as soon as we walked in the house, he took off his underpants and went straight for the toilet. He had gone poop in the toilet the night before and I had promised him an ice-cream cone from McDonalds, so after we picked Bobby up from work we headed over to McD's and had some ice-cream!

Sat. started off with cleaning the church at 8:30 am. Bobby had the day off work (yea!) and it was our ward's turn to clean the church this mo. so we thought we'd better help out. W e actually had a really good turn out so it only took about an hour-which is really good considering our building is ginormous! Afterwards the Bishop and his wife treated us to breakfast-french toast, sausage and fruit! A bunch of people were talking about heading off to the farmers market and we decided that would be fun since I've never been to one. So after a quick trip home to let Tyler go to the bathroom and to grab a bottle for Kylee we were off to check it out. It was neat to see all the stands with their homegrown fruits and vegetables and we bought the most amazing salsa I've ever tasted in my life. Seriously we finished off the 16 oz. container just about an hour ago. Delish! It was getting close to the kids nap time so we headed home, ate lunch, and everybody laid down for a good 2 hour nap-my first one in months! When we woke up we decided to head down to the new Walmart in providence to see if they had a bike Bobby had been looking at online. They were out of stock, but we picked up a few other groceries and decided to try a new Hawaiian place called Pounders, that a friend that used to be in our ward works at, for dinner. It was SO good-although Tyler wouldn't eat an ounce-then we headed home, put the kids to bed and fell asleep at 9:30 just talking on the bed!

Today was your pretty typical sunday, but Tyler wore underwear to church-with no training pants-for the first time and stayed dry the whole time! I took him out once during nursery to go to the bathroom and he happily obliged! I am so relieved that there is actually a light at the end of this potty training tunnel! He went poop again in the potty tonight-without too much persuasion-so he's doing so good!

In all the craziness I didn't realize I hadn't posted these 'potty' pictures from forever ago.

The "throne" chair he chose as his "big boy potty"-as he calls it-which comes with royal tunes of praise of course!


His first time going pee-pee in the potty! (8/24/09)


Now this next part I have to give FULL credit to my amazingly, creative friend Callie (who I was neighbors with in Orem). She P.T. her twin boys that are Tyler's same age months ago and this is what she did. I thought it was so cute that I had to do it and it really is what did the trick for Tyler, so I am forever in your debt Callie!

They did Elmo's magic potty powder and she had this cute little Elmo bucket that held the powder, but I just did Tyler's Magic Potty Powder. The "magic" potty powder is baking soda and whenever he went pee-pee in the toilet I would pour vinegar in it and he would get to wear his potty wizard hat (which he actually hated), pour in a scoop of potty powder, and then stir it with his magic wand that had been dipped in food coloring so that as he stirred it, it would bubble whatever color he had chosen that particular time. (by the end I was really good at mixing colors to get some pretty awesome colors! ha ha!)


A little red...


A little orange bubbly...


He LOVED doing this. The first day, it's the only reason he would go pee in the potty-so that he could get his magic potty powder! Seriously, he would stop his pee, run do the whole powder routine, and then as soon as I had washed it out, sit right back on and pee again. Over and over and over.


The excitement lasted through 2 bottles of vinegar and 2 boxes of baking soda, or a little over a week. Then for the next week or so (and still every so often now) he was really into the sticker charts. I did a couple days of every 5 times you go pee you get a sucker and after filling up his whole chart (15 stickers) he got to pull a present out of the grab bag (a bag full of goodies from the dollar store). To date he's filled up 10 potty charts and we don't always remember to put a sticker on every time he goes so...he's done really well. I think we've decided now that he's starting to poop in the potty too, he'll get an ice-cream cone every time he does that. At this rate it's only every 3 days or so. If it becomes more often than that we'll have to think of something else.

He hasn't had an accident in almost a week now and we were out of the house almost non-stop all weekend long so I am SO proud of him! Since he's doing so good I've started to do "dry bum checks" during the day (I think I got this from my friend Joy) and if he's dry when I check him than he gets 2 m&m's (I usually do this mostly when we're out, not so much at home). I have to say all-in-all potty training has actually been pretty fun. Sure there's been a few frustrating days here and there, but for the most part it has been really fun to watch Tyler get so excited and be so proud of himself for accomplishing something new. Thanks again for all your advice and ideas, you mom's are awesome!

Here's my super potty wizard!
Saving Elmo from the danger which is his bedroom


Saving minnie from same threatened danger


Saying, "Word Up!" (from word girl)


This day he was just running back and forth mumbling things I couldn't understand, but if I tried to stop him and ask him what he was saying he would get angry at me for interrupting his flight.






What can I say? He's my potty king!

What a stud

Conversation between Tyler and a pretty little blond girl (PLBG) at a park on Fri.

Background info:
Several moms in our ward went to the zoo on fri and then spent some time over at the park right outside. I was sitting aways away from where this conversation went down but luckily my friend Ashlie was sitting close enough to hear and filled me in.

Tyler had been running up and down the stairs to the BIG slide (not actually going down the slide, just going up and down the stairs), playing on the jungle gym, watching the other kids play, purusing for chicks, etc. After about 20min. of scouting the playground for the prettiest girl at the park (not to mention she was at least 2-3 years older than him) he smoothly makes his way across the playground to where she is sitting at a table with her friend and casually parks himself a good 2 feet away from her at the end of the bench. Far enough away that she didn't yell "stranger danger" but close enough that she knew he was interested. He placed his left foot firmly on the ground and crossed his right ankle over his left foot. He then carefully laid his right hand down on the bench to support his weight and cooly threw his left hand in his awesome kahki cargo shorts pocket. (I mean he was wearing dry big boy underwear after all, he's playing in the big leagues now folks) He watched her gracefully eat her tasty Wendy chicken nuggets for a good 2 min. hoping she would make the first move. My friends thought he was trying to mooch some food from her, but I knew he was about to lay it down. After nothing but the cold shoulder from the PLBG he knew he had to man up and pulled his right hand off the bench and very gentelmenly asked, "So, do you want to go down the slide with me?" gesturing toward the small slide. No response. "No?" he says quickly, shrugging his shoulders, his nerves getting the better of him. But my little boy doesn't give up. No way he's going to let this PLBG get away without so much as an acknowledgement so he continues to stand there, in his cool, nonchalant pose waiting for her to at least glance over at him. He stands there for another good minute before the girl looks over at him and decides he's worth her time to strike up a conversation. He asks her again, but she side steps the question and just talks to him. After about a minute or so of them talking he just casually walks away and comes and sits next to me. I said, "Was that little girl nice?" "yea" was the only response I got and then he hopped down before I could pry any further and runs off to play.

You're a stud buddy!

Some tyler funnies

Due to the sarcastic and somewhat negative tone of the last post (sorry it was an extra hard day) I thought I better write down some of the funny things Tyler has said over the last little bit to remind myself that I shouldn't put him up for sale-cause today I seriously would have. Seriously.

*One day when I had taken the kids swimming the pool was closing so I said, "okay the people said it's time to get out of the water so let's go."
"Yea" said Tyler very excitedly, "let's go back to Jerusalem!"

*One night Bobby had told Tyler that he could do something or have something (i can't remember exactly what it was) that I had already said no to but Bobby didn't know so Tyler came up to me and said, "daddy said yes mommy so I can now." "Okay Tyler," I said, "but you better give your daddy a BIG thank you!" Tyler sat processing this for a minute and I could tell he was trying to wrap his brain around what I had instructed him to do and then he says in a very deep, deep voice, "THANK YOU."

*We were sitting in the pool and I had Kylee in my lap and Tyler was splashing around next to us when he just walks over to me, puts his arm around my neck, bends over and gives me the sweetest little kiss on the check and says, "mom, I just love you!"

*For FHE one week we were having a lesson on following the prophet. I had made these finger puppets of different prophets and on the back of each one it said, "I will follow the prophet." Bobby was giving the lesson that night so after each quick story he had Tyler repeat the words, "I will follow the prophet." We were on the last prophet puppet so instead of having Tyler repeat the words, he figured by now Tyler had picked up on the repetition and was instead going to let Tyler complete the statment. Bobby started it for him, "I will..." and Tyler finishes it-without hesitation-"smack you." Excuse me?!

*After he peed for the first time in public (well not in public, but a grocery store restroom) he said so happily, "Well that was fun!"

Okay that really did work. Now I'm laughing about my goofy little 2 year old. I really do love him!

Still here!

Sorry it's been so long since we've posted but things are unbelievably crazy right now. We have never felt so overworked and stressed out in our lives. No work, at any job we've ever had, even comes close to how hard we're working right now. We are eager to one day :) look back on this time in our lives and be thankful for all the lessons we learned and the blessings we received, but right now we're just trying to keep our heads above water! ha ha! No, I really don't mean to complain. We truly do have SO much to be grateful for, and that list far exceeds the list to whine about, but sometimes it can be theraputic to vent! Anyway, here are some things going on with us:

*We turned down a different apartment opportunity, to stay here in the glory of Aggie Village. *Sigh* Someday it will be our turn to move, just not for about another year. I don't really want to talk about it.

*Tyler is on his second week of potty training and it's actually going really well. He rarely has accidents anymore and will go to the bathroom in any potty no matter where we are, so we're actually able to leave the house now! He went poop in the potty for the first time on Sun. and so I'm hoping that now he's over whatever fear it was that kept him from doing it in the first place. Seeing him running around in underwear is so cute! I love the little boy he's turning out to be!

*Bobby started school in Aug. and is gone ALL the time. Which is only bad because I pretty much only see him on sun during sunday school or if I wake up in the middle of the night (okay it's not really that bad, but it's not very often) It's good though because he's devoting his every waking minute to school (or work) and his hard work is paying off with awesome grades and a paycheck that allows me to stay home and do what I love most in the whole world. He's gone from the time the rest of us are waking up in the morning until about 9:30 at night and if he's home earlier than that it's because one (or both of us) have a meeting or other church responsibility to attend to. And on days that he works he's up until 1 or 2 am doing homework. I miss him.

*Kylee is just as cute as can be, which is a dang good thing because she is SO high maintenance. I've said it since the day she was born and it is still 100% true. Life must revolve around her or the princess is NOT happy. And since sleep is not her favorite thing, (at night she's fine, but she only takes 2-1 hour naps at most during the day) it's pretty much impossible to do anything I need to get done until after both kids are in bed for the night. Which is a lot harder to do by yourself (putting kids to bed)-I have an entirely new respect and admiration for single mothers. Goodness knows I love that girl, but sometimes...

*Also, she still has no teeth and isn't crawling. She's so close, but right when I think she's about to take one move forward she falls onto her belly and kicks her feet in anger because what she wants is too far for her to reach. She then proceeds to scream until you pick her back up or hand her whatever it is that she wants.

*I've taken the kids to the Logan aquatic center to swim several times by-myself, and no one has drowned, which is something I'm really proud of.

I think I've taken some pictures since the last time I posted but I'm not sure where our camera is and I'm comfy in bed so I'm not going to go look for it, but I'll post them soon. Promise.

Is it possible for a human to run off batteries? I'll look into that in my spare time.

Videos Galore!

So if you're in the mood for a Bricker movie marathon you will enjoy this post. If not...this is not the post for you. They're all less than a minute and some are just a couple seconds, but I love the stage that my kids are in right now and kind of can't stop taking videos of them! And with that warning we shall proceed oldest to most recent.

The 2 best parts of this video: Her awesome sour face at the beginning and her adorable yoga move at the end.

Kylee's first time waving on camera-which she did for the first time a little over 2 weeks ago. At first I was just trying to catch this little game she plays with us on camera-she yells, "UH!" and then wants us to copy her-but she wouldn't do it so I settled for the wave. (she's usually a lot more excited about waving but she was really tired)


My girlfriend loves to clap-which she also started doing 2 weeks ago! I love how she gets so excited the only thing she can do is start frantically rocking back and forth. She's such a happy baby!


Daddy making Kylee laugh


So now I'm trying to get her to clap or wave and the only thing she wants to do is play "the game"! My favorite part of this one is the last couple of seconds where she makes a cute silly face like she has something horribly sour in her mouth. She's been doing this a lot recently and I love it!


It's hard for me to get a video of her waving and clapping since I'm holding the camera, so here Tyler was helping me out.


And just in case you haven't got your fill of my dear, sweet Kylee here are some pictures to satisfy you! :)

This is what she does when she's tired...poor girl.


She's a pro at picking up food...


...and eating it.


Either out of daddy's hand...


...or off her foot.


This looks like the beginning pose of a crawler??? Come on Kylee, you can do it!


Thank you for this headband Auntie Alisa!


I love that the flower is the size of my HEAD! :)


I guess Kylee wanted in on the P.T. action. Is 8 mo. too soon? (And she would like to thank her Auntie Rebekah for this adorable outfit!!)

St. George temple

My sister Amanda went through the St. George temple on Wed. Aug. 12 to receive her temple ordinances in preparation for her mission. I was able to go through the temple with my sister Alisa before she got married and really wanted to be there for Amanda as well, being that it is such an important and special time. It happened to work out that it was the day after Bobby's parents were leaving so I dropped them off in Salt Lake and just continued on to St. George returning home on Thur. It was a really quick trip but I took Tyler with me for company in the car (and because my family said I couldn't come unless I brought one-or both- of the kids :)). Bobby stayed home Tues, wed and Thur. with Kylee which was a huge help because I'm not sure I would have made it with 2 kids all by myself. Tyler was GREAT in the car, slept some, watched some movies, read books, colored and chatted with me the whole way there. He didn't cry or whine even once (there or back) and kept me awake when I started to get sleepy. It was so nice to have a couple days where it was just me and my bud again! (Let's just not talk about the speeding ticket I got on my way home-which woke Tyler up from his nap, ugh!) I was a little nervous to leave Kylee with Bobby for that long, just because I know it's hard when she's waking up in the night and stuff, but of course for the first time ever she slept from 8pm to 8am every day! (she usually sleeps through the night, but doesn't go to bed till about 8:30 and is up around 7:00)

Anyway we had a great time and I am so in love with my family it's kind of ridiculous! Every time I go back down there I realize how much more I want to be there all the time!

Wed. morning we spent over at Alisa's house so the cousins could play and then we went to the splashpad!








Tyler loved Nate's "little park" (if it has a slide-it's a park.)


Then we went to the splashpad, which Tyler may have liked a little more had it not been overcast and cool...


Although Nate didn't seem to mind...






That evening my mom, dad, alisa, amanda and myself went to the temple and had an awesome time! (Obviously, do you ever not have an awesome time when you're at the temple?!) But it was even more special since amanda was going through for the first time. I loved being in the celestial room with my family...there's just something so perfect about being there together. I can't wait till Ty and Alena can go through so we can all be there and experience that joy together.




I have such a special family!


Then we went home and took pictures because...I don't know, we like too?




Yep ladies, that's a six-pack...


LOVE these girls!!!!!!!


Then Tyler started to feel left out






LOVE this boy!!!!!!


After I put Tyler to bed, we sat on the couch and talked for a couple hours (waiting for Ty to get home from his friends) and then Alisa, Amanda, Ty and I went to Denny's at midnight for dessert(it's our sibling tradition-it used to just be me and alisa, and then when amanda was old enough she started to come, and now that ty has graduated from HS he's coming too. Soon Alena...soon.).




To me, Ty will always be 8 years old. That's how old he was when I left for college and since I didn't get to see him grow up, in my mind, he never has. I've actually never sat down with Ty and had a "real" conversation with him because whenever I'm home he's usually off doing his own thing or I'm busy with my kids, so I can't even tell you how much I enjoyed "getting to know" my little brother. At Denny's. At midnight. We're all growing up and I love that our relationships are getting stronger and we're able to laugh, and talk and really enjoy our time together. He is a special kid (like cool, not "special") and I love him to death! Good luck at Snow College bud, you'll do great! (my parents dropped him off last fri.)








So congratulations to Amanda and Ty for taking the next big steps in their lives! We love you both!