Santa 2012

Tyler really understands Christmas this year, he knows that Santa brings all the good boys and girls toys for Christmas.  Just after Thanksgiving his backhoe toy broke and he has been saying that he will ask Santa for a new backhoe for Christmas. We explained to him that when he sits on Santa's lap that is when he can ask him for what he wants.  We have been practicing so he knew what Santa was going to say, you know, what's your name, have you been a good boy this year and what do you want for Christmas?  When we were getting ready to leave the house to go he started to get scared, he has previously not really enjoyed seeing Santa.  He said he didn't want to go and told us that he didn't want any toys if it meant he had to see Santa.  Here is how we got the picture.

Christmas Trains

As if trains weren't already great, make one out of candy!  Grandma Peppmeier arranged a full on train making assembly line for Tyler and 4 of his cousins this week.  All the kids made their own train.  Tyler needed a little help but not too much, he is at such a fun age, being able to be more on his own and do fun projects like this one!  His best skill came with the sprinkles, he is more of a "pourer" than a "shaker" :) 

Soccer Tot

If I were to look back and change something, I wish I started playing soccer before I was a 5th grader.  So, it's official Tyler is in soccer.  We put him in a Soccer Tot class at the Tualatin Indoor Soccer Center where I play and he loves it!  This is the first class of any kind that he has been in without any parent involvement.  He goes out on the field with his coach, Tim, and the only other boy in the class Max.  It's great, I get to sit in the bleachers and watch, finally.  Tim told me after his first day that he has a natural "ball striking ability" and I told Tim that he, of course, gets that from his Mom :) 

 They throw out the cones and then go around tipping them back up with their feet.  On the first day Tyler organized the cones by color - not really a "soccer skill" but a good organizational one :)

After the cones are tipped up they then dribble the ball around trying not to knock over any of the cones.

A Date With Jacque

Last weekend, Jason took Tyler to McMinnville and went to the Evergreen Air and Space museum.  Not only was this a great boys trip - airplanes, helicopters and space shuttles... they also had a date!  We have missed Jacque being such a big part of our lives and she now lives in McMinnville so it was a perfect opportunity for them to get together.  Tyler talked about it for days, and Jacque bought him a toy helicopter that he didn't let go of for 24 hours.  We love and miss you Jacque!

The 2012 Tree's

This year we went to a new tree farm in Estacada to find our Christmas tree.  We missed the rain by a couple hours, as any Oregonian knows - a miracle this time of year, and were able to get both trees up while they were dry. Tyler wanted his own little tree for his play room and it ended up being the only quality photo for the day :) We got two trees, one for our living room and this one is Tyler's pick.  

Cute.com

I know that when you are a pet owner you always think yours are the cutest... and I definitely do.  Our animals drive us absolutely crazy at times, but when we all settle in for an evening and relax they do some of the sweetest things and are so adorable.  This is just a couple moments when I thought to grab the camera recently :)  We love you Spencer, Penny and Marcus!

We Think This is Funny

When we potty trained Tyler we would look through magazines while we "waited".  Recently he has been sometimes asking for some privacy and on this day he not only wanted privacy but to look through a new magazine that had shown up with Christmas toys in it.