Doesn't get any cuter than this...

Musing on chocolate...

I can eat at least 10 Oreos in a sitting. For breakfast. 3 candy bars at once? No problem. So, the kids have had ample exposure to the greatest food ever invented. Tyler has a sweet tooth that will match mine one day. As he was eating some chocolate chips this morning (around 9 a.m.) :), he said, "Chocolate makes me feel better." He put into words what I've known my whole life.

We can finally go outside!

Yay! It's spring in Wisconsin! We've finally officially put away the snow pants, and are happily playing outside. Here's a few shots of the kids from the past week. We went to the park, and the kids had a blast.

Life with Tyler

We thought we had this parenting thing all figured out. Our first, Noah, was the kid that knew the rules before someone told them to him. Our second, Tyler, well, he's a little more normal than that. As my dad said when he was on the way, "You're going to have to throw out the book you used for Noah because each kid is different." Yeah, right, Dad. Oh wait, he IS right. :) Here's two stories from the past week that give you a little picture into life with our sweet, crazy, funny boy Tyler.

1.) Tyler and Rachel (2 1/2 and 9 months) are in the living room together. I'm in the kitchen. I hear laughter from both of them. As I'm in the middle of washing dishes, I decide to finish them up and then go see what all the fun is about. So, 2 minutes later, as they're still laughing, I go in the living room to find Rachel covered in Puffs. (For those of you w/out kids, Puffs are nasty little bite sized cereal-looking things that REEK of the zinc that they are fortified with. As my brother says, "If you can smell the vitamins, you shouldn't be eating it.") Anyway, Tyler has taken a whole bottle of them and poured them over her head. He is taking handfuls of them and throwing them at her, chuckling his delightful little belly laugh as he does it. Rachel, who by the way is the BIGGEST of all three kids, (I'm so proud), is LOVING every minute of it. Not only is she getting undivided attention, but she has snacks all around her. Tyler got a time out, but I had to hide my smile and laughter from him.

2.) Now, you'd think that I'd learn that a 2 1/2 year old laughing loudly would be a clue that something's going on that shouldn't be happening. Well, my brain is slowly expanding back to it's pre-pregnancy size, so there are still a few connections that have yet to meet again. So, Tyler and Rachel are alone again in the living room and I hear laughter. Again. I decide to wait only one minute this time. Tyler is the first one I see. He has a marker in his hand. Rachel, who I had stripped down to her birthday suit a few minutes prior because of a diaper blow out, is sitting naked in the middle of the floor, with some decorative marker strokes on her face, cheek, arms, and belly. My favorite is the one near her eye, which, in the medium shade of pink, makes her look like she's about to join an 80's punk band. Again, she is laughing, because 'hey, the other person is laughing, and again, I'm getting attention!' :) Thankfully it wasn't a Sharpie. Thankfully it wasn't a black marker.

Ahhhh, life with a two year old. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

I apologize that there aren't pictures to accompany these stories. I didn't get the camera out quick enough, and I didn't want to have too many repeat episodes if I took the camera out. :)

Always carry your camera in your car....

Because you never know when you're going to pass by a digger that says your kid's name on it! :)

Prayer before dinner

Noah's prayer at dinner last night:
Dear Jesus,

Thank you for this day. Thank you for the food, for our beds, and toys, and our house.

Please help people not to shoot or smoke.

Dear Jesus, Amen.

Leftovers

I bought the Family Life's Resurrection Eggs to use this year. As we were opening them, we came across the cup from Passover. Noah took it out of the egg and said, "This is from when Jesus and the disciples had leftovers."

Vacation!

We went to Captiva Island, Florida for vacation this past week. Scott earned a trip through his job, and we took the kids for their first "real" vacation. Had a great time. The boys loved the sand and could have dug to China had they stuck with the same hole all week. (We stopped at a Wal-Mart on the way in to the resort and I bought a bunch of sand toys. Best 10 bucks spent on plastic thus far in my motherhood! :) ) Here's some pics...

All three kids with hats! The weather was beautiful - in the 70's and mostly sunny. It was so nice NOT to see snow for a few days.

Sweet girl on the beach. She wasn't thrilled with the sand, but at the end of the week, gave it a taste by licking one finger at a time.

Tyler really got into the sand - we definitely found it in every possible place on his body...

Cute boys at the pool. Noah had a blast swimming with his arm floaties. Another 2 bucks well spent on plastic. :)

Dig, dig, dig. We built sandcastles, moats, tunnels, towers... it was also a great shelling beach. Noah was more interested in the quantity of shells than the quality at first. I seriously thought we were going to have to buy another suitcase to bring home all the shells he found!

We took a boat ride - actually, a "Dolphin Cruise." 98% of the cruises see dolphins that swim up to the boat, play in the wake, etc. We were on the 2% that didn't. Bummer. The boat ride lost it's novelty for the boys within 15 minutes. Rachel was mad because it was windy and she was tired.

Finally, the boys gave up and took a nap. It was a pretty expensive nap. :)

"Hey," you say, "there's a dolphin!" We had an AWESOME room at the resort - maybe they felt bad for us because we had the most kids 4 years old and under, but whatever the reason, we were very thankful. It was right on the corner by the entrance to the marina. So, besides all the boats going in and out, which the boys loved, we saw dolphins and manatees right outside our balcony!

The sunrise out our window the day we left.

All ready for the pool! Check out her fangs on top. She loves to wrinkle up her nose - when she does, we get a great view of our little Dracula.

There was a trolley that ran around the resort (it was HUGE.) Tyler will tell you that the "trahwee" was his favorite part of vacation. Usually, he wanted his own bench to ride on. But, for some reason, he allowed Noah to come and sit with him. I love Noah's arm around Tyler, and I promise, I didn't tell him to put it there! :)

Strike a pose....

This is Rachel's favorite way to lounge. Looks like she's posing for a photo shoot. She's at a full fledged crawl now, and even though it's the third time around, it still amazes me that less than 8 months ago she was a helpless little blob that couldn't do anything for herself. Sweet girl.

Noah, the theologian

Noah is 4 1/2 and is at such a fun age for questions and answers. I love seeing his mind and heart grab hold of concepts that I hope stick with him for the rest of his life. We were talking yesterday about Jesus, and how He protects us, and loves us. I asked Noah what else he knew about Jesus. He said, "He loves us so much and he will never do mean things to our hearts. He washes all our germs away." One for the baby book. :)