Tyler's First Christmas Present

Tory's grandparents were in town for Thanksgiving. They live in Florida and won't be up for Christmas, so they gave some of the kids Christmas present early. Tyler got an awesome present. Just ask him. ;)

Ooh this is a BIG one!

Buttons? Buttons! We like buttons!!

 

Yep, those are definitely buttons! He's gonna like this present. 

 

 Don't bother putting the thing together- I'm happy with the buttons!

 

Ok, maybe I DO want this thing built. This is fun!

 

 Tyler and his great-grandma.

 

Thanksgiving in pictures

Me and my cute kiddo

Candid of the familia

Grandpa is pretty funny

 

Looking at Christmas lights with Grandma

 

They did this a lot...

 

 ...upside down baby!!

 

More playing with Grandpa. Tyler was laughing hysterically!

 

The family again

 

Visiting Some of My Favorite People!

One of my favoritest people in the whole universe is in town!! My cousin, Brandi, and her husband Joseph and their daughter Carly are at her mom's for the week. Brandi and I grew up together. One thing we used to dream about was being moms together. Now we are! (Too bad they live in San Antonio!) Brandi and Carly were visiting when Tyler was born, but when they came to the hospital Tyler was in the nursery so they didn't really get to see him. Needless to say, we were both SO excited about our kids meeting each other!

My mom, Abby, Tyler, and I drove out to the middle of nowhere to visit them yesterday. ;)  I don't have a lot to say, except that it was amazing to see them, Carly is a total sweetheart, and I wish they would hurry up and move home! I'll let the pictures do the talking for the most part. :)

Me, Brandi, Tyler, and Carly ♥

Princess Carly

Tyler was just sharing his Cheerio!

Me and the sweetest little girl EVER!

Brandi trying to get Tyler to sit still. He wasn't having it.

We went for a walk down Sherri's driveway. What a beautiful place! The kids enjoyed splashing in puddles. (I have no picture of that, so this'll have to do.)

Watching the creek.

Tyler is one year and 9 days younger than Carly. He is also bigger.

Me, Brandi, Carly, Tyler. I LOVE this one!

Just chillin' outside. And Tyler was still not a fan of sitting still! lol

Christmas Card Attempt #2

Tory and I took the kiddo and the pup to the park today to make another (lousy) attempt at getting our Christmas card picture. We failed, but got a couple cute "other" pics in the process:

Playing in (under?) the jungle gym.

Pretty puppy being all alert looking at another dog.

Swingin' with his daddy! ♥

"Come to Mommy!" ;)

Walking the handsome puppy.

Bruce Springsteen!!!!!

I'd been trying to find a ticket to Springsteen's concert in Baltimore for about a week. Friday (Nov 20, the day of the concert) came and I had no ticket. I decided to head out to Baltimore anyway, and try to find one at the venue. I called my dad on my way to see if he wanted to join me, since he is responsible for my Bruce obsession. He had a prior engagement. Bummer!

Less than 10 minutes after I called him, my sister, Kels, texted me asking if I was really going to Baltimore with no ticket?? I called her back and said "heck yes, wanna come?" She immediately agreed. She texted me back a few minutes later saying our other sister, Abby, had gotten off work early and can she come too? Of course! So what began as me looking for one ticket, turned into us looking for THREE tickets. Our odds just got worse...

I got to their house to pick them up, borrowed a computer to post on a Bruce fan ticket exchange site that we needed three tickets to tonight's concert, anywhere in the house. Gave my phone number, and we headed out hoping for a call or a ticket drop or some nice scalpers. ;)

On our way!!!

We sat in traffic on 495 (which, by the way, is the most hellish road there ever was!) for I don't know how long. A long time. About half way through our sitting, I got a phone call! A couple and their kids had decided to go to Disney World instead of the concert, and needed to get rid of their four general admission tickets!! Um YES. We'll take them! We agree to buy all four, met in Laurel Maryland to pick them up, and continued on our way. (We sold the fourth to someone outside the arena)

We sat in even more traffic on 95. We arrived in Baltimore way early, which turned out to be an amazing thing, considering we got lost in Baltimore for TWO HOURS. It was... miserable. I hate cities, I hate driving, and so of course, I hate driving in cities! Let me just say that I think one way streets are a terrible idea. Terrible.

We finally made it to the 1st Mariner Arena, whose garage was full, go figure. We kept going and found another garage nearby. We shivered out way to the ticket-takers, got our wrist bands, and we were IN! (Have I mentioned that all three of us were stoked?? I don't use that word, stoked. So that should tell you how excited we were.)

My sisters, being themselves, had to pee after that long drive. Do you know how many women had to pee at the same moment? All of them, that's how many. The line was... long. But we had time. Bruce never comes on before 8:15 (start time says 7:30) so we waited. And waited. And waited. And made fun of how strange women are. And finally got to the bathroom, did our thing, and headed out to the floor! Aaaaaahhhhh!!!!!!!!

True to form, The Boss came on at 8:20pm. Lights went out and the place went wild. The whole night is kinda a blur, but I can tell you it was AMAZING! It was my eighth show, and by far my favorite. He played so many of my favorites (including For You and Rosalita! AAHHH!!!). One thing he always does is take requests. People bring signs requesting songs, he gathers them at some point, and then chooses a few to play.

On our long drive there, Kels, Abby, and I had discussed how cool it'd be if he played Santa Claus is Coming to Town. Somebody else thought to request it, and HE PLAYED IT!! Oooohhh we laughed so hard. It was so hilarious and so great!

I could go on and on and on about the show, but I think I'm the only person I know who loves Bruce like I do, and this has gone on long enough. So I'll just say that he played 31 songs (a few more than normal) and played for 3 hours and 20 minutes! (Quite a bit longer than normal!)
Here's a picture from our show... no, we were not that close unfortunately!

I'm so glad that everything worked out perfectly for us to get in! We had no plans to go until the last minute, Tory was off so he could stay home with Tyler (He's not a fan. Crazy guy.), Abby randomly got off work early, we left in time to make it through the traffic and be lost for hours and still get there in time, the family who decided not to go... I think it was just meant to be. ;)

Keeping Him Occupied...

I discovered a new way to keep the kiddo in my sight, out of trouble, safe, and happy while I'm busy in the kitchen! This is very exciting for me. lol

 

 

Dexter thought this was a good idea too...

Tyler was happy to share.

 

"Cookie"

How to get and eat a cookie, by Tyler.

First, do the ASL sign for "cookie". You can do it sloppily, and your mom will still think it's precious and give you one. Strawberry Milkshake Creme Oreos are what we're working with today.

{This is the after part of the sign. He holds his left hand flat and puts his right fist on the left palm. It's similar to the correct sign, and it gets his point across!}

Pry the Oreo apart, even though nobody taught you how to do that. You're just a genius like that.

It helps if you furrow your brow a bit.

If you're lucky, the strawberry creme will come off all in one piece! Eat the creme.

 

Double check the chocolate cookies for any creme remnants.

If there are none, eat the cookie.

 

Repeat.

I Love My Dog

64 degrees and sunny on November 16th- you won't catch me complaining! Dexter either... I let him out this morning and he has yet to ask to come in! It's been 4 hours and counting...

I put the kiddo down for his nap and went out to check on my puppy. He was just laying on the porch enjoying the sun. And being gorgeous!

I love this picture. It shows that my 3 year old Great Dane still has some puppy left in him- he was watching a fly. ♥ He could have done better in choosing the background though!

Soccer Game

On Sunday, Tyler and I took his aunt Abs to her soccer game. It was the championship game in the end-of-season  tournament!

Somebody was in a rather poopy mood on the drive to Sterling. He makes me laugh!!

While spending a couple hours outside in the B-E-A-Yootiful weather, I, of course, took some pictures of my handsome lil' guy. ♥

He played on the bleachers for a while. There were two sets of bleachers, one jam packed full of people, the other completely empty. We took the empty on to run around on, and got glares from all those silly take-it-too-seriously-screaming-parents. lol  I think we were supposed to be paying attention to the game... ;)

Coming...

...and going.

Here he is on one of his many attempted escapades to the field! (I received more glares as I snapped a picture before going after him. Hey, he wasn't ON the field, and the girls weren't on that end anyway!)

He got tired quickly, which is what skipping a nap will do to a toddler! So I put him in his stroller with a bottle of water. He wasn't having it. Instead we played peekaboo through the clear screen thingie on his stroller. He laughs hysterically even when I just put my hand up against it. When I look at him through it is even funnier!

Water ran out and the kid wasn't thrilled. So out came the bribery! Lollipops are my favorite thing EVER. Really.

After the game (which they WON, by the way. 3-0.) we went to my Mom's house for dinner. Spaghetti and garlic bread. I don't think I've ever mentioned Tyler love for garlic bread. It's cute.

G was wearing her 'Skins jersey too! Had to get a picture of the two of them!! ♥