birthday party!

the family before the party

guests enjoying themselves

greeting at the front entry. my mothers neighbor made these precious little trains out of marsh mellows for all the guest to take when they left. so cute!

kelli's "tablescape"

tyler's birthday cake made by a dear friend karol. just adorable!

chad socializing with guests...

chad socializing some more with guests...

my friend courtney, her husband dustin and their precious new little boy august. i think that new mommy deserves a sangria :) is that chad NOT socializing in the background...ha!

my friend amber with her son asher

my friend kristen and her daughter audrey

uncle monkey man helping chad out with some yard work---picking up dog poo :) love that he has a beer in his other hand.

tyler received this precious cowboy had from aunt holly. it's just adorable on him...of course

tyler clapping when we put the cupcake down on his tray. seems he was excited about what was about to take place.

going in for the chocolate!

all done...i think!

the family in front of our house with the railroad crossing sign grandad made just for the party. very sweet of him!

this was how we found tyler within minutes of putting him down to sleep that night. someone was worn out!!!

what a perfect 1st birthday party for tyler! so many friends and family came from all over to celebrate tyler turning 1 year old. we felt so special and loved on by everyone. tyler is definitely well loved :)

considering he was experiencing real bad allergies that day (from the picnic at the lake the day before of course) and didn't get an afternoon nap, tyler seemed to have such a fun time and was SO happy the entire day. what a blessing!!! he just loved all of the attention he received.

he got to have his 2nd birthday cupcake and his first peanut butter & jelly sandwich.

everyone was so generous and thoughtful with their gifts for tyler. he received so many neat presents that he LOVES to play with...and that look precious on his cute little body :) thank you so much to all of you that came. it was a wonderful day for tyler and for his parents...a day to remember forever!!!!

may 13th 2010

birthday picnic lunch at the lake

the family in front of the uptown trolley we rode to dinner and to pick up cupcakes

daddy and sb in their matching train hats

picking out what kind of cupcake we want for our 1st!!! so many options

we decided on chocolate!

yummy!

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY TYLER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

wow! we can't believe how fast this year has gone by and what an amazing journey it has been. tyler is such a wonderful and special little boy to his parents as well as so many others around him who love and adore him. i know everyone says this and i will too...but what did i do before tyler!!! i can't imagine not spending a day without him now. i am so honored and blessed to spend every day at home with him, just "hanging out!" like i told cw the other day, i feel like i'm having too much fun or it should be "illegal" for me to enjoy every day at home with sb so much. tyler is doing so much now:

• crawling everywhere
• "cruising" (standing up and walking sideways) around all of our furniture constantly
• loves to say mama, dada, duck, bird, ball, dog and his favorite of all time....bye bye!!!!!
• drinks whole milk and LOVES peanut butter
• still is so loving and cuddles with me all of the time
• has 9 teeth
• down to 1 2 1/2 hour to 3 hour nap a day
• enjoys pool time with daddy and his little play friends
• does not want items to be on top of or in anything. example---all of our tables with in reach must be cleared off, he takes every single toy out of his toy box and loves taking all the legos out of his new lego truck. very interesting to watch i must say :)

we can't wait to see how he develops in the next year!!! we just love us some sweet baby!!!!!!

the pictures above are of tyler's actual birthday which was a thursday this year. cw took the day off work to play. we went to the lake for a picnic lunch which was so much fun. then we decided we wanted to ride the uptown trolley, take some pictures with the conductor and have some margaritas and cupcakes! so mommy and daddy had the margaritas and sb had his first chocolate cupcake. it was such a fun and special day for our little family.

just some cute images

wearing train overalls daddy wore when he was a baby

tyler and his girlfriend kai

i can't believe what a little boy tyler is becoming.

here are some images of my little "mini chadwick!"

dedication

tyler with mommy & grandpmothers on mother's day

tyler was dedicated at our church on mother's day. it was such a special day with all of the grandparents here to celebrate. tyler did so well in front of the church as neil was praying for him...after neil told tyler he had "such an interesting smile!" then the whole family came back to our house for mother's day fried chicken. how fun!

too cute!!!

he loves to sit with his feet crossed like this. esp. when he eats in his highchair.

giving mommy love at dinner time. this just melts my heart. he puts his hands on my face and makes this little cooing sound and opens up his mouth really wide so as to "kiss" me.

tyler is going to be 1 year old in less than 6 days. i just can't believe how fast time has flown by---but at the same time how much tyler (as well as mommy & daddy) have grown and developed in what seems like such a short amount of time. our sweet baby is crawling and really thinking about wanting to move those legs to walk. he's just a little angel and is so loving to anyone he comes in contact with. he is definitely a "people person" in that he just seems to love attention. he also has this way of making everyone feel special. i can't wait to see how this very distinct character trait develops in the next several years. i thought my sweet baby looked so cute the other day and so i decided to go in the front yard to take some pictures to remember the moment. enjoy!!!!

captivating

me and bliss with our new friends

my good friend bliss and i met in colorado for a women's retreat based on a book by john & staci eldredge called captivating. what an amazing experience we both had. i think my favorite part of the weekend was reconnecting with bliss (and the barley baked cookie dough pie concoction with chocolate syrup and ice cream...but i digress...). i think we chatted non-stop for 5 straight days. it was wonderful to have some time away for a girls weekend but also to spend some awesome time with god! and...it snowed the entire time we were there! SO cool!!!

picnic at the park

tyler is SO aware of his surroundings...i think a plane was going by
yippee...i'm free at last!!!!

zuzie and the sweet baby

love to be thrown in the air by daddy

we went on a peo picnic with poppy and suzie last week. i judged a dessert contest---and chad and tyler got to roll and crawl around on the grass. it was the first time tyler had so much free space to roam with his new crawling ability. i think he enjoyed it :)