november randomness.

I thought that I would blog more now that volleyball is over but I seem to be just as busy with parent-teacher conferences, family, and holidays. Ty had a family birthday party and then last week he invited a few of his friends (Ben, Riley and Addison) over for a little birthday celebration...it was pretty much like a play date with cupcakes with red frosting.

Tatum and Ben

Riley and Ty

Addison loving that cupcake!




Last Wednesday my kindergarten class had a Thanksgiving Feast where they dressed up like pilgrims. Pat had an early release day so he brought the kids over to mommy's classroom to join us. Of course, Tatum loved all of the food.

Tatum immediately befriended this little girl in my class because she kept feeding her!

Ty enjoying some pumpkin pie.

The kids love playing "ghosts."

This was Tatum right before she ran into the wall...I forgot to stop her because I was too busy taking pictures.

Seriously, can these two be any cuter together? They love each other so much.

This melts my heart!

Dear Ty,

Dear Ty,
Happy 3rd Birthday! We love you so much! We can't believe what a big boy you are now. You amaze us at what you know and how quickly you will learn something. It took two weeks for you to learn all of your sounds (thanks to the Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD and not to your parents who are teachers, ha!) and can sound out some basic words. You still are a skinny little guy (about 32 lbs) and a very picky eater. I am hoping that one day you will outgrow having a hotdog for lunch and dinner everyday. We are still working on "poo training" you but I am pretty sure that it will be very soon! We love how you LOVE everything. You appreciate anything that we give you, even if it is just a dollar store toy. "That's awesome" is what you say when you like something right now and what you like the most is anything with Lightning McQueen. Your daddy and I love watching you play and take care of your sister. The other day in the car you said to her, "Tatum you are my favorite girl and I love your hair," that melted your mommy's heart. I love how you love her. I hope you two are best friends growing up. We love you Ty, YOU are our favorite little boy!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

being away from the family

I left yesterday to coach my team at the NWAACC volleyball championships in Oregon. I called Pat last night to see how the kids were and this is what he says.

Do you really think we should have a third kid? I said, maybe but why do you say that? Well...Pat had parent-teacher conferences last night so Pat was trying to get the kids fed before his dad got to our house to watch the kids. Ty ended up have an accident in his unders while eating dinner. So Pat took off his unders not knowing that he had pooped too. Pat told Ty to stay right there. Acting like a little boy he listened to his daddy, not really! He ran into our room and onto our bed and sat and rolled around on our bed getting poop all over. So Pat was trying to wipe him up and realized he had poop in his hair and on his feet. So Pat through him in the bath and of course since Ty was in the bath, Tatum had to get a bath too. Pat was trying to hurry because he needed to go to conferences but it really was a mess! I was laughing so hard when Pat was telling me this story, I just wish there was a video of it so I could have seen Pat's reaction!

I miss you babe, thanks for doing everything while I am coaching!!! You are the best husband! No I am not trying to suck up and feel bad for always being gone, really I am not!

Ty's 3rd Birthday Party

We celebrated Ty's 3rd birthday party today with family and a few friends. Ty woke up from his nap and saw his Cars decorations and said, "Wow mom, this is awesome!" Ty got lots of Cars, a new bike, scooter, backpack, Cars wall stickers, giant pillow, tray (all of which are Lightning McQueen), playdough, paracuthe man, and Cars race track. We served hot dogs and gogurt for the kids and the adults had Pat's wonderful homemade chili and pulled pork sandwiches and salads. After everyone left, Ty did about 100 laps around the kitchen on his new bike and he went to bed laying on his new pillow the sleeping with The King car.

Ty's Lightning McQueen Birthday Cake

Ty loves the movie Cars. After we went to his buddy Xavier's birthday party and he had a Lightning McQueen cake, Ty insisted on having a Lightning McQueen cake too! My intention was to make a double-layer cake and then carve it to the shape of Lightning McQueen. Well... when I tried to get the cakes out of the pan the middles stuck to the pan so I improvised. I ended up putting the sheet cakes side by side and making them a checkered flag and using the Lightning McQueen cake pan that I got from Lianna and put that on top of the flag. I made a marhsmallow cream fondant that was very sticky but very easy to make to make all of the cakes. It took a lot of time and there are a lot of imperfections to the cake but it was worth it. Ty was amazed at his cake and that's what matters the most.

Ty is "reading" me directions on how to bake the cake.

I made a huge mess, used every bowl we owned when making the fondants, I think Pat thought our kitchen was never going to be the same. If you don't know Pat, he can be a little anal and when he saw the mess, he tried not to start convulsing, hehe.

I layered the cakes with whipped frosting first and then I cut out squares from the black and white fondants to make the checkered flag.

There it is, not perfect but Ty loved it!

sittin' with daddy

Tatum does not sit still so when I saw her actually sitting with her daddy I had to capture the moment.

taking care of her baby

Tatum loves her babies or her "dollies." She likes to give them bottles, carry them, and feed them.

Love that crooked smile!