New Smile

Big changes are going on inside Tyler's mouth. In less than two weeks, he's lost two more of his baby teeth. His top front tooth came out just days into the holiday break and then one of his bottom incisors came out last night.

And you know what that means.....he had some fresh money from the tooth fairy burning a hole in his pocket. So I took him over to Walgreens to buy a Chia Pet. He had asked for one for Christmas, but since he didn't it, he was prepared to buy one with his own money. He ended up getting a turtle, which we'll get started after it soaks for awhile. Hopefully it grows.....our house is kind of dark in the winter. I guess we'll see what happens.

Merry Christmas!

Tyler had big plans to wake up bright and early at 6:45 this morning, but slept in despite his best intentions. So at 7:30 or so, we started the party.....just a bit delayed.

There were lots of presents under the tree for the boys from Santa and the rest of the family.

Kyle got several wooden toys, some board books, baby bunting, and a ball popper.

I got some new makeup...Laura Geller eyeshadow, Smashbox eyeshadow and a Bare Essentials kit. I also got a new food processor and a juicer.

Kyle also got Mortimer the Moose, one of those cute Lamaze toys from Aunt Susan. He loves it!

Tyler got his Perplexus Rookie maze ball that he wanted so bad, and also a Newton's Cradle. Santa brought him a Nintendo 3DS and some games. That ought to keep him busy for awhile.

Rick got some new jeans, a few sweaters, new cologne, and a sausage/cheese box.

Now I'm about ready to serve up some pot roast for dinner. Mmmm, what a tasty way to end the day!

Christmas In The City

Today was the last day of Tyler's Lego City Advent Calendar, so here's a look at the goodies he got this week.

A vault with gold pieces inside.

Two snowmobiles and a hitch wagon filled with presents.

Behind the final door was a chimney and Santa, who even had a pack on his back with more presents. And as you can see, he's already started his deliveries....bringing a brand new bone for the police dog.

Cookies For Santa

Of all the things I bake, cookies are not my strong point....and thanks to Tyler, we all know how my last batch of Mint Chocolate Chip cookies ended up in the garbage. But with Christmas right around the corner, we needed to come up with something to give to Santa. I think there are some Dulce de Leche Girl Scout Cookies hanging out in the pantry and maybe a few Oreos, but we needed something better than that.

And so.....drumroll, please.....we made gingerbread men.

A small batch of 18, which is just enough for our family plus a few extra for Santa. I used a Taste of Home recipe for the cookies and used a recipe from Sandra Lee for the royal icing.

We even used her trick of putting the icing inside of a sandwich baggie to use as a homemade pastry bag. It worked alright for me....not the best for Tyler.

In the end they came out looking pretty nice. I think Santa will be pleased!

Anniversary Dinner

Rick and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary yesterday. Tyler doesn't quite understand the concept of that yet, so when Rick or I spoke of 'our' anniversary, Tyler assumed that he was included. I heard him several times say, "boy, I can't believe it's our anniversary already!".

Anyway, we went out to dinner last night, downtown at The 2nd Street Grill. It wasn't too crowded at all, which was perfect for us since we had the kiddos with us.

We started out with the Asian appetizer sampler and then for the main course I had the Chicken Alfredo and Rick had pasta with a sausage marinara sauce. The food was okay...not as good as the Creekside West, but at least we didn't have to wait over an hour for our food, so that was a major plus.

Tyler had cheeseburger sliders and fries off the kids menu, which he enjoyed, but he was unusually tired last night....probably still recovering from the strange 24 hour flu that hit him earlier in the week.

Overall, it was a great night, but now it's back to reality and the countdown to Christmas. I've got to run the boys out to the mall and look for some last minute gifts. Hopefully it's not a nightmare out there!

Back In The City: Part 2

A week has passed in Lego Advent Calendar Land and here's what's new.

The police station/jail that was previously under construction is now complete. Tyler noted that the criminals can escape by simply walking through the front door, going out the back or through any of the 3 windows. And while that might be true, I'm sure the policeman and his stern eye will keep those bad guys in place.

Oh yeah, and the policeman has a partner now, so one can keep watch in the jail while the other patrols the town. And to help them catch more criminals, they have a nifty new crime lab with an extra large magnifying glass....just what they need to spot fingerprints and other clues.

Then after a 3 day build, with what started out looking like a golf cart, they have a brand new police cruiser.
 

There's another criminal in the jail.

And in other parts of the city, not having to do with cops and robbers, there is an ice fisherman out at the frozen lake.

With a nice campfire to keep him warm.

The Replacement

Our first and only ornamental tragedy of the season so far:

My personalized snowman ornament jumped off the tree to its demise a few weeks ago. Some of our ornaments don't mean all that much and are easy to replace, but this guy is a good 10 years old, dating back to my college days and my first Christmas together with Rick. I bought them as a pair at the Chico State bookstore....one for Rick and one for me.

But now that I'd lost mine, I thought I'd have to go out and look for a new set with our names on them, but Tyler solved the problem for us.

He made a replacement ornament for me at school. He could have decorated it any way he chose, but he decided to make a new snowman ornament personalized with my name. Can I just say, I ♥ that boy! And now Rick's snowman has a companion again. ♥ ♥ ♥

And as if that wasn't enough, he brought home this one too. Yay! I love the new ornaments! Soooo cute!

Must See to Believe

Remember last year when Tyler was completely fixated with the idea of changing his name to Boomie? That's all he could talk about. That's what he named his Wii avatar, and what he wrote on his schoolwork, and he even had his best friend calling him that. He even went on to suggest it as a baby name for Kyle.

Well all that kind of faded a bit over the summer and now that he's in a new school, he's dropped Boomie from his homework and has been using his own name.

So last night Tyler and I were watching Jeopardy.....actually it was on in the background and we were working on puzzle books. Then we heard Alex say something like, "Make your selection, Boomie." Tyler looks up from his book and says, "Boomie?". I heard it too, but was sure I'd misheard him and was waiting to see what the name actually was.

And then we saw it.

His name was Boomie! Honest to God! Tyler and I died laughing. I didn't even realize that was a real name. I just thought it was some crazy thing Tyler made up (which it was), but still....I never imagined.

And as it turned out, Boomie is one smart cookie.

He was the only one to get final Jeopardy right and he won the game.

Ha! I guess Tyler and I will have to tune in again tonight to see how he does as the returning champion.

True Story

Tyler has a holiday journal that he's been working on as an assignment for school. We filled up several pages writing about our Thanksgiving, but haven't done much for Christmas. So yesterday I told Tyler that he needed to pick something to write about, and this is what he wrote:

He could have written about the new ornaments we got from Hallmark this year, or how Daddy put up Christmas lights on the house, or how we decorated the tree, or how we got brand new personalized stockings, but no....he had to write about how I burnt some cookies?!

So much for forgetting about that!

Free Meals

As a reward for reaching 400 minutes of reading each month, which is the goal of the 20/20 reading program at Tyler's school, he receives a coupon (sometimes two) for a free meal at a local restaurant.

These are the two he got for his October reading calendar....

One is for a free personal pizza at Pizza Hut and the other is for a free kids meal at Creekside West. We already cashed in the pizza coupon, but still have the other one to use. We've never been to the Creekside restaurant so I'm not sure if it's a baby friendly place.

Then today Tyler brought home his November reading calendar with two more coupons. This time he got another one for Pizza Hut and a pass for a free meal at Old Country Buffet.

With all these food coupons piling up, I think maybe we should go out to eat this weekend. Yep, sounds like a plan!

Back in the City

Here's what's been going on in Tyler's Lego City Advent Calendar.

If you remember, Day 1 brought us that scroungy looking criminal.

But the police caught up to him and he's behind bars now.

Handcuffs and everything. Never mind the lack of walls at the jail...it's a work in progress.

The criminal must have been deemed a non-violent offender or was cited for good behavior because today he was awarded his own cushy bed.

In other parts of the city, the Christmas tree is up, decorated and even has some presents underneath.

And the snowball catapult is standing by just in case....you know, if any more bad guys come around.

Gingerbread Night

Last night was the big holiday event for the 1st graders at Tyler's school. Instead of a musical program, they had Gingerbread Night and the families were invited to come and make gingerbread houses.

So we went and sat at a table with some others kids from his class and got to work on our creation. There was a one house per family limit so once I attached the graham cracker pieces to the mini milk carton and slathered them up with frosting, it was Tyler's turn to work his decorating magic.

Gumdrops, pretzels sticks, marshmallows, M&M's....

...and ta-da! His house is complete with a Werther's Original staircase, a pretzel stick walkway, a snowman out front and a fire pit made out of tootsie rolls, wheat chex and a yellow gumdrop in the middle for a flame. Looks good enough to eat - and believe me, Tyler's already yanked a few pieces off for himself.

Ahh, but then it was time to go get a picture with Santa. Tyler's never sat on Santa's lap before so this was a first for him. His teacher told him, "Tyler, tell Santa what you want for Christmas". So he turned to Santa and said, "What do you want for Christmas?"

And Santa said, "Oh well, I'd like a new motorcycle and.....". And that's when I quit listening because I was dying of laughter! I don't even know if Santa asked Tyler what he wanted.

But at least he smiled nicely for a picture.

The First Day of Christmas

For about a week now, ever since we showed Tyler the Lego advent calendar that Grandma sent in the mail, he's been anxious to open the first box. So now that it's December 1st, he finally had at it.

This year the calendar has a Lego City theme, which I guess means 'cops and robbers' because behind door #1 was a....

....robber (as Tyler put it). I didn't believe it at first, but then Rick pointed out the gold tooth and the striped shirt with a serial number on the chest. Hmm, it's kind of hard to argue with that logic.

Tyler wondered what was with that white thing...but we've since determined it's supposed to be a snowball, which probably indicates an impending snowball fight with the police.