Ty's 10 months!

It's hard to post when you have a baby "hollering" for you and a pup "ruffing" at you. (Libby's language.) I've thankfully been able to catch up lately, and today marks a complete catch-up with all my pictures. After this post, I will have nothing new! Horray!

I don't know if I ever posted about our anniversary trip becuase I didn't take any pictures. I may have forgotten my camera, or maybe I just left it in the car. Anyways, I thouroughly enjoyed out little trip. We did an overnight without the kids in Pigeon Forge. Went to the Apple Winery for a wine tasting and then to Ripply's Aquarium. Had a nice dinner and then stayed for free (thank you, Marriott points!) at Springhill Suites with a free upgrade to a jacuzzi in the room!

We actually went by the outlets the next day since we were kid-free and did a little shopping.

It was such a fun weekend and so nice to get away for a little bit with my Hubby.

Ty turned 10 months yesterday. He's growing so fast! He's such an easy baby, but very different than Libby (though she was easy too). He's more difficult around eating time than she was. He eats everything, but pitches a fit if his tray gets empty. And I can't figure out how to train him out of it. I discipline him and he cries even more. That goes on till he gets more to eat. Maybe he'll grow out of it. :)

He's as adorable as ever! I can't believe what cute kids I have!

I did a little practice with my 50 mil lens on a sunny windy day a couple days ago.  Here are the results, Ty's 10 month pics.

Ty loves Nala. He loves dogs in general, except when she jumps all over him and tries to lick his face.

She's getting big fast as well. I think she's putting on a pound a day!

He also loves leaves and dirt. He was holding this leaf he found the whole time I was taking pics. Funny thing is, he doesn't put everything in his mouth like Libby does. And he's even teething! I think the pacy helps with that. He has 0 teeth so far!! Libby had a mouthful at this point. I think he has 8 coming through at once right now. And he's still the happiest baby ever! He does wake up a night, but I just rub some baby anbesol on his gums and he goes back to sleep. I think he may get all his vampire teeth in before his front 4. If that happens, I'll get lots of pics of my little vampire. It's a race now to see which ones come through first. He's drooling like crazy, chewing on his fingers and his gums are all swollen. Poor guy!

Do they come any cuter than this?! I think every picture I get of him, he's smiling. He's quite a ham, too. At the grocery store, he was making the guy behind us in line crack up. He kept waving to him and smiling, then throwing his head back in laughter. It was pretty cute. Love him!

Some of his favorite things to play with right now are mostly boy things! I'm so glad, with all the girly stuff laying around. He loves balls and chasing after them. He loves cars and acutally puts them on the ground pushing them back and forth. Funny things that are ingrained in boys. I have to say, he loves Libby's bead necklaces and her kitchen. But I think he may just end up being a great chef. That's not girly! He could always make some delicious dinners for his wife if he knows his way around the kitchen. On that note, the kitchen is kind of a hit with all the boys that visit our house. Hmmm, wonder why.

He also loves the new train table we got for them for Christmas. He stands at it and plays great with Libby. He's finally getting to the point where he doesn't mind her being around and actually gets excited to see her in the morning. He doesn't complain as much when she pushes him over or loves on him excessively.

He's actually turned out much blonder than I thought he would. I'm sure he'll warm up eventually, but his hair is pretty light now.

Outside in the sunlight of an abnormally warm February day. It was very windy.

He still loves to wave at everybody. He's just learning all different types of waves now. He holds his fist up for a fist bumb from Uncle Dave when he sees him. That's pretty cute.

At his 9 months appointment, we had some good news, he's now in the 10% for his height! That's up from below the 5%. His weight, on the other hand, was still below the 3%. He eats so much, I don't know where he's putting it all. I don't have the actual height and weight measurements at this time, they're in his room where he is hopefully sleeping. He has settled into a curve, though and is not dropping anymore, so that's good. He started out 75% in everything!

Libby has never gotten jealous of him. In fact, she often says to me, "Our baby is so cute." Meaning Ty. I guess he's not My baby after all. She claims him as her own and has never shown a hint of jealousy. If she sees me loving on him, she just joins right in. She may just be happy she's not the one getting all the smothering now, although she still gets her fair share.

If you ask her what the song is I sing to her, she'll probably answer, "Crazy Girl, Don't you know that I love you?" It's a country song by the Eli Young Band that is very fitting for her, so I've dubbed it her song. If Ty had a song right now, I think it would be "Where are you Going?" by Dave Matthews. When Libby was a baby, she loved the "Single Ladies" song. I recently found out that Ty preffers country music to hip hop. Matt isn't too happy about that, but it's what makes him stop crying in the car.

It is a little more soothing than most of what's on the other radio stations right now. I know, I must be a bad Mom -I don't listen to kids worship in the car all the time. :)  Maybe I just need to get some new material, we've worn out the Seeds of Courage CD.

Ty is all over the place at this time. He's a really fast crawler and it's so cute to hear him coming down the hall at his "running crawl". All you hear is the pop-pop-pop of his hands hitting the hardwoods. Although he can pull up on everything, he's learned his boundaries for the most part and leaves most of the sutff alone that he's not supposed to be into. Except for my coupons and the napkins, which are his and the puppy's favorite things to get into. I've recently moved them up a shelf. He plays by himself much better now so it's nice to be able to sit him down in the living room to play while I work on dinner, or kitchen clean-up or the like. As long as he has a full belly, he's such a happy guy. Until he needs a nap. Then I just lay him down with his pacy and blanket and he goes right to sleep. He goes down great, just like Libby always did and I'm very thankful for that.

He can say "Mama", "Dada", and "Nana" (which means "more" or "I want to eat", but can also mean banana or Mama.) He does an adorable little coo when he sees food of any kind. I'm trying to catch it on camera, and then I'll try to post it here. He gets so excited he sometimes starts shaking while saying "MMMmmmm". I'm so used to it, I don't even notice it. People thought it was hilarious when I was feeding him in public recently and recommended I get it on camera. So glad they did that, cause I would never have thought about it! And then I would have missed it when it is gone.

Well, I've got a to-do list a mile long now and the kiddos are down for a nap so I better stop wasting time and start cranking it out. :)

I think that's all for now. I should do a post about what Libby's up to lately. Maybe I'll do a little photo shoot with her and update about her being 3 now.

Valentine's Day

I hate to lose work I've already done!! And I lost the original Valentine's post I did. So this one will probably not be as detailed. Oh well, so goes life.

My Mom always made Valentine's Day so sweet for us by decorating the house and making special place settings for us at the table. She always made heart-shaped pancakes for us, with little treats by our plates.

So I attempted to make Valentine's day special for the kids this year, since Libby is able to truly appreciate it now. It's fun doing little things to surprise Libby, especially holiday-related. She loves the holidays so much that 1 day really isn't enough to cover them. She's still waking up and telling me "Happy Valentine's Day, Mom." :)

So while Libby was watching her show, I ran around setting up a surprise in the dining room. Libby doesn't make it easy for me to get up early and get things done becuase she's up as soon as she hears me stirring. I don't know what it is. As soon as I turn on the shower in the morning, she pops her head in the door with scraggly hair and says, "Good Morning, Mommy." Yet the pup can be wailing Ty crying in the next room and she sleeps right through it.

Anyways, I didn't have to get much for decorations as I've accumulated my red, white, pink and heart-shaped stuff over the years of being married.

So hear is the dining room, all decked out for V-day:

Libby's spot.

Ty's seat:

My little man, excited about Valentine's Day. Crazy bed head.

 I love this little guy!

Heart-shaped blueberry pancakes made from frozen blueberries we picked this summer.

Libby, so surprised to see the dining room transformed.

"Is that present for me, Mom?"

On a side note, Libby recognizes her name whenever she sees it. I thinks it's because of the L, which she recognizes and can actually write!

Enjoying some powdered-sugar covered pancakes. I actually forgot I had some Rasberry syrup that would have been delicious on them. They turned out great!

Ty enjoying his first taste of pancakes. He's been eating so much lately, I thought I'd let him enjoy this sweet treat! He eats mostly chopped up food now. He still has no teeth so I have to mince everything up into tiny pieces. he enjoys it all, never-the-less.

 Yummm!

Matt was so sweet to think of getting stuff for the kids. He left it on the counter and Libby found it before I even left the bedroom. She was so excited to read the card and enjoy the chocolate treats Daddy had left her. Ty loved his little blue-eyed Beanie-Baby pup that Matt left for him.

I got some wonderful, beautiful, bountiful flowers from him later in the day. He was great to think of these things, especially since we'd already celebrated Valentine's day the Friday before thanks to Nicole for babysitting! We went to FLEMMINGS! And then got to go see a late movie. What a treat! I had such a good time. I cna't wait till we're set up with consistent date nights!

Libby helped me make a card for Daddy. We decided a kissy-face appropriate, which we then attached to a homemade heart-card.

Here is her Valentine's kissy face:

 Love this one!

Ty is 10 months old today. I'm so sad he's growing up so fast! I hate to see him move out of the infant stage, which I consider to be till he's a year. At least he's staying my little baby for now. I'll try to do a post with his updates today.

Meet Nala

We got a new puppy 3 weeks ago and finally decided on the name "Nala". Although I have to admit, I'm still not 100% settled on it. :)  She's a standard-type American Bulldog, not to be confused in any way with a Pitbull. She should get to be a good size and her paws are huge! The bigger, the better for me, being used to a Great Dane. :) What can I say, I love big dogs!

She's been doing great with housebreaking, although she's still a the stage where I have to watch her 100% when she's not in her crate. Needless to say, she's in her crate a lot.  She's coming along fast, though, and I hope that continues. I knew the work involved in a new puppy, but it's so worth it in the long run! And she is doing better than I thought. And I think I've already adjusted to the added work load.

She's as cute as can be. In the face, she looks a lot like the one from Return to Me. They are also in the new Cheaper by the Dozen and Homeword Bound. The new little rascals also has an American Bulldog, although Pete the Pup was originally a pitbull. Guess they got a bad rap between then and now.

 She is very smart and is picking up on the training fast.

 I had to at least get 1 human pic in here, even it it's not the best. By the way, in case you were wondering, I was playing with my 50 mil lens in these pics. Trying to figure out how to get great pics from it. That's why I have a ton of pup pics.

Like Ty, she LOVES to eat! But, unlike Ty, I limit how much she eats to the recommendations on the bag. Ty gets to eat as much as he can hold, and he does! Yet still, when we got her at 9 weeks and he was 9 months, she still outweighed him and was bigger than he was sitting down. I wish I'd gotten a pic of the two of them together, but that's vitrually impossible!

As you can tell, she's very alert and waiting for a command (or a treat :).

We love her already, but I have to say, I'm looking forward to her being a well behaved, grown dog and somewhat settled. That will probably not be for another year, so I guess I'd better just enjoy the puppy stage.

Libby's Birthday Party

I already posted about Libby's actual birthday, so now on to her birthday party (In early February this year, I'm getting better! Last year it was early April :)

Anyway, there's not a whole lot to do in the winter months, especially with kids, so my choices are limited and many are pricey! Since Build-A-Bear was closed on her birthday, I thought just for the heck of it I'd check their prices for b-day parties. Turns out it's pretty affordable!

So Libby and a few of her girl friends got to build-a-bear for her birthday. It was a blast! Libby's first time there and she loved it!

She picked out a cute little dog. (Actually, she first picked out a bear, but we only have about a hundred of those laying around so I helped guide her choices to something new. :)

Not sure why it's so flat, some of the kids were not impressed.

Look at this diva, posing for the camera. :)

Ty was not impressed. Maybe when you're older, buddy. On a side note: I was surprised at the selection they actually had in boy's clothes for the bears.

Thankfully some of Ty's buddies tagged along as well. Here are the boys. Actually, none of them look too impressed with the place. Come on boys, it's all brightly colored and lit with a million things to stimulate your senses! Look alive!

They walked the whole crew through the process and did a great job keeping their attention.

"Put your bears on your head and march through the store."

 Annie, the youngest of the crew, actually followed along well.

"Everybody get in a circle and do the Hokie Pokie"

Libby's first time doing the Hokie-Pokie, she actually participated and did it. What a lame Mom I am, never having done it with her before.

Giving life to their bear's hearts. Squeeze it tight to give it a hug. Put it on your eye so it can see. Put it on your heart so it knows you love it, etc. They were actually pretty creative with this.

Stuffed and ready to be loved.

And loved it will be!

Cleaning them up.

Some of the bigger girls giving their bears a squeeze.

Group shot. Missing 1.

Loving on her cousin, Annie. I don't think any of her friends, cousins or her sibling appreciate Libby's aggressive affection. Hopefully she'll find a husband one day that will. :)

Group shot, Take 1. A little squabble going on with Libby, trying to be the boss.

 Take 2. Love how the 3 on the left are all posed and ready in every picture. Love Annie's face in this one.

After making birth certificates and picking out some cute clothes, we were off to the house for cake and pizza. I asked Libby several times what kind of cake she wanted. I made her a strawberry cake last year so I guess that's why she wanted it again this year. So here is her strawberry cake, with strawberry filling, strawberry icing and strawberries on top! I'll probably change something of it up next year, but it wasn't all that bad. So pink!!

 Thankfully, Libby doesn't care that the quality of my cake decorating has gone downhill. :)

So those last 2 links are re-caps of her last 2 birthday parties that I enjoyed reminiscing over. She's growing up too fast! I already miss my little munchkin! The cakes are in the blogs, I apparently was doing catch up in both of them so there's lots of stuff in them. After looking at them, I am very sad that we haven't had even 1 good snow this year to sled in or build a snowman. :) I was hoping for a March blizzard, but I don't think it'll happen. What's up with global warming? :)

She did a great job blowing the candles out this year! Only took 2 puffs.