The three new ones to our "extended" family up here in the Northern Tundra. Deacon and Halle are only two days apart and David is 2.5 months younger than Deke and Halle. I know it doesn't look like it, but Deacon is the oldest. He may be tiny, but he is mighty and he doesn't stop moving. It's so funny to watch him flail those arms and legs. David and Halle are just so cute.

Tyler had a christmas program two weeks ago. It was so cute to watch all the kids singing Christmas carols. I took video, but I'm having trouble uploading it. Very frustrating because it really is too cute and I would love to share it.

Tyler

Tyler does some of the cutest things now a days. Here are just a few stories for the grandparents...

The other day Joel dropped Tyler off at daycare and as soon as they walked in, Ethan (one of Ty's friends at the daycare) got all excited and said:

"There's my buddy, there's my buddy!"

Lydia (another one of Ty's friends) chimed in with;

"No, he's my buddy!"

This started a buddy war with all the kids claiming that Ty is their buddy. I think it has more to do with two year olds enjoying being contrary than Tyler's popularity.

Yesterday morning, I was trying to take a mid-morning nap. I had had a rough night the night before. I couldn't really sleep, but I could hear Tyler reading books to himself. I could tell which books they were based on what he was saying. He spent about 30 minutes in his room totally by himself reading. It started out with "Beauty and the Beast" and went something like this:

"Here, take this mirror so you can see me."

"Oh, no, it's the hideous beast!'" (Yes, he really did say hideous!)

"Oh, you turned into a human, yeah!"

Then he moved on to "There's a monster at the end of this book by Grover"

"You turned another page! You do not know what you are doing!" (This is being read very dramatically, I might add)

Than it was "Too much T.V. with the Bernstein Bears"

"I'm going to watch T.V all day tommorrow says Brother Bear"

"Me, too says Sister Bear"

"Me, too says Papa Bear"

"But mama disagreed and wouldn't let them watch any T.V."

He's not always this adorable, he can be so frustrating sometimes! When I'm having a bad day, he'll tell me "you're frustrated". I am amazed at his language skills and some of the big words he can say. When he tells me this, it really makes me stop and evaluate my actions too. It also makes me laugh which kinda breaks up any stress that I might be feeling.

Christmas photos

These photos are awesome. A thousand thanks to Kelly for his expert photo taking skills. These are the first photos we have had as a family of four and I love them.

Sledding

This is one of the many reasons I love Minnesota. We get to go SLEDDING!!!!
Joel and I took Tyler and met up with John and Jakob at St. Mary's. They have some great hills for sledding and we had so much fun. I also had some of the teens from the Youth Group join us. Zack, Derek, and Matt came as well. They were much bigger daredevils that I am. I'm a big chicken when it comes to going down. There was one hill where I was looking up and I thought that doesn't seem like such a big hill, but when I got to the top, it looked a lot scarier and I wasn't sure if I was going to be brave enough to go down, but I did. Tyler loved it and didn't want to go home. Neither did Jakob for that matter. Those two even got to go down a little hill all by themselves. They are getting to be such big boys. Maybe next year, their baby brothers can join them. The pastor's wife, Gigi, watched Deke for us so we could all go sledding.

I think I'm going to try to take Tyler skiing when we go in January. He loves the snow and will always walk through the deepest parts he can find.

Big Brother Tyler

Tyler's teacher told me that yesterday, Tyler was upstairs and he heard a baby crying. He told his teacher (Jesse) that it was Deacon. Jesse asked him if he wanted to go see and he said yes. They went into the infant room and sure enough it was Deke. Tyler went up to him told him "it's okay, Tyler's here." Deacon gave Ty a big smile and stopped fussing. They said he was good the rest of the time. What an awesome big brother Tyler is. He's always so willing to help out with Deke and he can be a big help when Deke is fussy. I see them interacting more and more and I love it.
Tyler is getting to be such a little man. At dinner now, he always ask Joel and I how our day was. He then listens to what we say (wait a minute, that's not what a man does, maybe I'm secretly raising a girl :0)
He then always asks us to ask him how his day was. It is so much fun to listen to him describe what he did during the day and who he played with. They have a little clique (Ethan, Lydia, and Lilliana) It's funny to watch those four interact. They'll only share with each other.

More Grandparent's pics

They bought Tyler and Deke some really cute clothes. My favorite for Tyler was the really cute Thomas the tank engine pj's. They are just like real men's pjs and they are totally adorable on him. I loved Deke's little Santa outfit that they bought him as well. It was a great visit.

Grandparent's Visit

The boys had fun with the Grandparents. Tyler really loved his Uncle George.