Oh "Two"dles - Tynan's 2nd Bday Party

Saturday April 20th we celebrated Tynan's 2nd birthday party with a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse fashion party. All had a great time and Tynan definitely slept well that night.

Balloons

Mickey Clock

Decorations

   

 Toodles with Tynan's favorite tools - Milk, School bus, Coloring, and M&M's

Greeting at the door.

You have to have your Mouseketools!

Pinterest idea - tortilla Mickey Mouse pizza, all the kids got to make one of these .

Tynan gearing up for his party with a Super Mickey shirt on.

Getting in some flying time with Daddy.

All the kids had to solve the Birthday mystery, using Toddles when they needed a tool.

Solving the first mystery a little science experiment - Milk was the tool needed, they then added a drop of each food coloring into the milk. Last they added some soap to a q-tip and placed the q-tip in the middle of the milk and watched what happened.

The second challenge the kids had to call on toodles for the school bus "kleenex" for this challenge they each got a box of kleenex and had 1 minute to pull all of the tissues out of the box using only one hand.

Tynan caught on right away and did a great job, even finishing in one minute with only one hand.

The 3rd challenge kids had to call on toodles for "colored" cotton balls. In this challenge kids had to put vasoline on their nose then using only there noses transport a cotton ball from one bowl to the other.

This was a very funny activity to watch. Here is cousin Tim with the cotton ball stuck to his nose.

Again I was surprise with how Tynan was catching on to the activities, even though he ended up cheating and carried the cotton ball to the other bowl.

Cousin Peyton's mad skills.

Cousin Tim making a clean transfer.

Cousin Gavin adding some style to his cotton ball transfer.

The arrival of Toodles for the final challenge, Tynan was very excited.

For the final challenge the kids had to call toodles for the mystery mouseketool, which was M&M's. In this challenge the kids had to transfer the M&M's from one plate to another using a straw and had to make a smiley face. Here is Gavin with some good M&M transfers.

Peyton making a great face.

Tynan watching cousin Tim, trying to figure out how he is going to do this.

After solving all of the challenges the kids got rock candy and a mickey bouncey ball.

Opening presents

With some cousin help.

It was a mickey mouse party, but Tynan also loves Choo Choo trains so we had to add in a little bit of trains too, the train does not have a trade mark issue either, like mickey mouse does.

Tynan blowing out his candles

Two more pinterest ideas - on the left scooping out ice cream ahead of time and putting them in muffin liners, this really was a fabulous idea saved time and way cleaner. On the right cookie bowls for the ice cream, these were made on an upside down muffin pan. 

Maya joining Tynan on the couch for Mater tale time. 

 

Tynan's 2nd Birthday!

I can't believe that my little boy is already 2, where oh where did the last year go. I love seeing the child excitement in him over any and everything. Some of his favorites this year include the following.

Movies: Chipwrecked, Finding Nemo, and Alpha and Omega

Food: Chicken Nuggets and Ice cream

Drink: Milk, Milk, and more Milk!

Activities: Playing with cars, choo choos, balls, reading/looking at books, arts and crafts projects, playing outside, anything messy or dirty, playgrounds (especially slides).

Other Important Info: Tynan is in love with buses, especially school buses. Every morning Jeff has to make sure that they see the kids getting on the school bus before they can go into daycare, this proved very challenging during winter/spring break. Tynan became a big brother this year and is doing a really good job at it. He is very helpful, he will always pick up an item if you ask him, gives great hugs and kisses, and learning many new words this year.

I am very fortunate that I was able to celebrate Tynan's birthday with him again this year, below you will find out how we spent the day.

I love birthdays, I am always trying to find new ways to make them unique and special. This is what I did to Tynan's door before I went to bed.

Tynan loved the balloon surprise, but wasn't too sure of the crepe paper.

Finally he decided to break through.

After breaking free, he thought it was really fun to play with the balloons and run back and forth through his door.

 Jeff was still home so Tynan was able to open his presents this morning. He had a pile of presents and moved all of the small ones to go right for the big present on the bottom of the pile, yep that's my boy!

Couldn't get a 2 year picture without a school bus in it.

After presents and saying goodbye to daddy for work. Easton and I took Tynan to the Children's museum to celebrate and have some fun. 

Of course in a shopping cart with all that food Tynan would find an apple, he loves apples.

Look how serious he is riding on the fake city bus, but a bus is a bus.

Now this is Tynan's heaven, driving the bus, he was so excited and was such a good boy waiting for his turn. He even left the bus and returned many times since the line was so long at times.

Water / bug play

Easton just hanging out letting brother have a good day.

Tynan was eating a chocolate chip muffin and got mad that I broke it in pieces so during a little fit he had he ended up rubbing it all over his face.

Another favorite activity feeding the piggy bank (too bad it wasn't his)

Ahoy!

Such concentration. I was very impressed that he let us get through the entire birthday song before trying to blow out the candles. Then as soon as the song was over he started to blow them out without being told. I was impressed since we really haven't seen a lot of birthday parties.

Love this picture, he got the first one out very easily, this candle needed a really big breath.

But he did end up getting it.

I love you dude, and can't wait to see how you surprise, amaze, and entertain me on a daily basis. 

Happy Birthday Tynan!

Our new life with boys!

On April 16, 2011 Jeff and my life changed when we welcomed our first son Tynan into this world. March 23, 2013 marked the beginning of our life with boys, when Easton graced us with his arrival.

Tynan checking out his new brother Easton right before we brought them both home for the first time.

Ah man do I really have to look like a monkey?

This picture just melts my heart, I love the way Easton is just checking Tynan out and Tynan is being the great big brother showing Easton how it all works. Tynan has been doing a great job being an older brother, he tries to entertain but will not touch Easton.

Of course Tynan needs to check out all of the baby toys and items again.

Easton is a great sleeper, he sleeps through the night in his crib with usually only one feeding from 9pm-9am. I am very spoiled with this little one, he really has been a great and easy baby so far.

Jeff and I have really been trying to give Tynan some personal attention everyday too so that he feels loved and included. 

Tynan did a great job helping make cookies. He arranged them perfectly on the tray and only ate minimal amount of cookie dough. He was very proud of this cooking skills.

Me and my milk drinking boys, man we are going to need to take stock out in milk with these two.

Another great moment captured of Tynan being a great big brother. Here he is taking all of his toys and showing them to Easton, naming what they are and then placing them all around Easton.

Great Daddy time at the Twin Cities Railway museum. Tynan was in love with all of the Choo Choo's.

Easter Morning - right away Tynan got into trying to find all of the Easter Eggs and he didn't even need much help.

Both of my boys were born the Saturday the week before Easter. I find that very ironic. Here is Easton on Easter morning in his cute bunny outfit from Grandma M.

Yep I was just hatched!

Happy Easter!

This is my cheese face! I love this chair that my cousins Tim and Maya gave me.

Easton meeting Great Grandma on Easter, just like Tynan did.

Easton's first bath at home. Tynan was a bit jealous that Easton was in the bath to the point that he tried to climb in the tub fully clothed, so I undressed him and let him join. Both boys had a great time in the tub together.

There are times that Easton looks so much like Tynan, especially in pictures like this one. Most times I think that Easton looks very much like Jeff and I always thought Tynan looked a lot like me, only time will tell to see if the boys will look like each other.

Easton demonstrating his great grip, by grabbing and hanging on to his toys.

Having fun taking some pictures of Easton today, I think this picture looks like he is doing some awesome karate jump.

I am very blessed to have all of my boys in my life. Tynan is full of energy and keeps amazing me with all his new skills and abilities. Easton is such happy go lucky baby, when he is alert he loves to look around and is very content. And of course my great husband Jeff, who always seems to amaze me with how generous and thoughtful he is.

Baby Boy #2

Barrett Baby Boy #2 Face Profile Ultrasound 32 weeks

Some of his facial parts labeled to help you see him better!

 We are so excited to be welcoming our new son in March! My due date is March 21st, but hopefully this little guy or should I say big guy will greet us a little early like his brother did.

Today I had another ultrasound of my new little guy, because I have been measuring big with him. Right now he is expected to be about 8lbs 5oz if he comes about a week early. I can't imagine how big he might be on or after his actual due date.

Jeff and I have been trying to figure out a name for this little guy, but it is proving to be a bit difficult when you name your first son Tynan. I really like unique names (probably because I'm a teacher). We currently have about 5 names on the list that I think we would be happy with any one of them.

I'm not sure if Tynan really understands what is going on. Tonight I pulled out one of his baby photo albums to show him as a baby and when he was in mommy's belly. Well he enjoyed looking at them, but he still is too young to understand that we will have a baby in the house in 2 months!