Happy 6th Marcus

Easter 2013

Easter Sunday was the hottest day of the year so far and we enjoyed the day with both families! Great food, great company, egg hunts and sunshine - doesn't get much better.

Puddle Stompers 2013

Tyler and I did puddle stompers again this year with my Mom. Differences: no puddles (a complete shock) and it was more of an informative nature stroll. Tyler quickly decided the pace was far too slow and was saying, "follow me everybody" out ahead of the group. He wanted to run and see the river and the group was walking and looking for bugs under stumps. Still a fun morning.

Tyler in a bigger basket

Tyler has always liked to get inside of baskets. But this morning he couldn't fit in his basket that he usually fits in so now we have a bigger basket.

Tubing

Jason and Tyler made a trip to the mountain with his family recently and as you can see the weather was perfect! They went tubing and Jason put Tyler on a pair of skis for the first time too! He hasn't stopped talking about tubing and always asks us if we"remember doing that"... He also sees Mt. Hood and tells me "that's where Dad and I went tubing - mountain Hood".

Christmas 2012

You gotta hand it to the old elf... that Santa really does know what kids want.  Tyler woke up Christmas morning to a 3' long Mack truck with a BACKHOE on it!  Santa also made him a work bench, custom built in the Sherwood "workshop".  (thanks Dad)  We had to convince Tyler to open the rest of his gifts because he was so excited about the backhoe.  By the end of the presents he had an entire fleet of new construction toys and he was busy all day with them.

The Backhoe

 Marcus and Penny getting their stockings

If you notice the hair clippers on Tyler's stocking - he takes mine and Grandma Peppmeiers all the time and pretends he is a crane. 

Marcus, Caleb, Tyler, Jason, Matt, Penny, Steve, Jen, Mom, Kameryn, Dad and Justyn

Gary with the Grand kids 

 Kami looking very excited about having cocoa with her Mom

Happy Birthday Tyler

Happy 3rd Birthday Tyler!  I had a construction site themed party this year.  I made him a cement truck cake, made dump truck - cement truck and bulldozer garland, coned off our front yard and put caution tape all over our house.  He had a great day, we had a lot of family and friends over to share some food and cake for Tyler's big day.  Thanks everyone for the gifts!

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.

Halloween 2012

Tyler made his own decision this year about what to be for Halloween.  He loves to watch a show called The Dinosaur Train at breakfast every morning.  He told me he wanted to be Buddy the T-Rex from the show.  Luckily I found a pattern on line and Grandma Peppmeier made it for him.  It was SO cute and he loved it!  Last year it took me a month to get him into his Halloween costume, he was scared of it, but this year was a different story.  He couldn't wait to wear it all day long! 

It's amazing what a difference this year was from last... this year we stood on the sidewalk as Tyler went up to the houses all by himself, often adopted by another trick-or-treating group, and got his candy.  Jason taught him about the "porch light rule".  He was saying,"This one's got lights on, this one has candy," and, "this one's got lights on, this is a pretty good house."

 I took him to see 75% of his grandparents (sorry Gary) but it's all we could squeeze into the morning.  We saw Grandma Hunt at her work and trick-or-treated around the office and then we visited Grandma and Grandpa Peppmeier.