Tyler Turn's Eight

Today is a very special day. Tyler got baptized this morning. He was nervous but very excited. We met as a Stake and had a little program. Then they called us back by ward to the font. When it was Tyler's turn he yelled, "the water is warm!" Eric did great and then we met back in the chapel for a little program. It was just Tyler and the bishop's kid named Ryan. I gave a short talk about the holy ghost and Ryan had a little talk from his uncle. Eric was probably the most nervous for the confirmation but he did great. Eric doesn't get very emotional or show feelings very often but he did get teary eyed. Eric said it was very neat to baptize his own child since he didn't get that opportunity and he said he could feel the spirit strong. We are excited that he chose to become a member of the church.
We gave Tyler scriptures for his birthday





For Tyler's actual birthday yesterday we went out to his favorite place, "Ruby Tuesday's." It was basically a nightmare and it reminded why we don't take kids there. My favorite tradition that we do for birthday's is watch their birth video. I love to be reminded of that day and how tiny he used to be! Tyler got a purple light saber and a Simpson's video game. Grandma Pat and Aunt Niki each got his four books that he got to choose. Grandma and Grandpa Swanson gave Tyler money, which he loved! It makes me sad that he is eight and so big! It just seems like time flies. It just reminds me to enjoy each day with them because it goes by so fast.

Star War's Birthday Party

Today we had a birthday party for Tyler's 8Th b-day. We had NINE boys over from the neighborhood. They each made their own light saber from a pool noodle, then we played "keep the meteor up." They had to see how long they could keep a balloon up and the winner got a prize. We then played "pin the light saber on Yoda." Eric free handed a picture of Yoda and the kids took turns putting their drawn light saber on it. Next was "destroy the death star." We had appr 25 balloons and each had a piece of paper in it. The kids popped them and the one with a star on it won a light saber. We did presents, cake, and had Yoda soda. It was fun for the kids but a lot of work and exhausting. The kids each got a goodie bag with a glow stick, milky way, starbursts, pencil, and glow in the dark stars plus they got to take their light saber's home. Eric hung black plastic all along a wall in our basement, had one hanging in the doorway to the basement, put stars and moons, and had black lights for galaxies. It made a cool effect and the kids enjoyed it.


This is Tyler's "light saber" cake.




I feel relieved that it's over with but now we have the baptism next week. Tyler is very excited for it and is looking forward especially to having Grandma Pat come up from Colorado!

Easy Bake Oven

My mom and dad got Kylie a Easy Bake Oven for Christmas with a bunch of mixes and a cute apron. We FINALLY got it out and baked a few things! Kylie made a sugar cookie and cake mix with frosting for her dad for Valentine's Day. It didn't look very edible but Eric said it tasted ok.
Eric and I didn't do anything big for Valentine's but he did get me some chocolate's, asphalt pie from Winger's, and a short nap (the best gift :) I made him a coupon for a back rub (his favorite:)



I tried a new do on Kenadie for Valentine's. It didn't turn out exactly the way I wanted it too but not so bad for a first try.



I also became an Aunt for the 10th time yesterday. Ryan and Kirsten had a baby girl and her name is Veronica.

Valentine's Day

Ever since we got back from vacation it seems like we have been going at super speed. My list of things to do is getting so long I just don't know how to accomplish it all. Tyler is turning eight at the end of this month so I've been planning his birthday party and making invitations for that. He also is getting baptized so we've been trying to plan for that. I am making Tyler a baptism book and I haven't even started on it! The kids did valentines for school so we put together over 70 of them! Ahhh! I am so happy that our kids are close in age but now I can see why people spread them out! Tyler started scouts so that is one more thing that he does each week. He is so excited to get started but I am having a hard time keeping track of all of this. Let alone working and getting all of the stuff that I need to for that. So why am I blogging? I just had to post these cute photo's of Kenadie's Valentine party yesterday at Preschool. The parents came and we decorated cookie's, made a craft, and then the kids sang and gave us a heart key chain. So cute! I love this age and I just love her preschool. They always do such cute things.

Valentine

Florida/Disneyworld

I finally feel like I have a free minute to blog! We had a wonderful vacation to Florida and we enjoyed almost every minute of it. The weather was around 75-80 degrees the first 4-5 days then we had some rain. We were gone a total of 11 days so we were ready to come home back to normal life. We spent 7 days at the Disneyworld parks. Some days we did the parks all day, some we got up early and left by 3, and some days we slept in, swam, then stayed till the park closed. The kids did amazingly well but we did have some tantrums, whining, etc. For the most part it went well. We loved our townhouse that we stayed at! It was only 12 miles from all of the parks, we had a washer/dryer, kitchen, and 3 bedrooms, and the resort had a water slide, multiple pools, and a lazy canal. I highly recommend it if you need to save money and just need a little more space than a normal hotel room. We LOVED magic kingdom and animal kingdom. Epcot was fine for one day but we pretty much all hated MGM Studios. My favorite was animal kingdom. It was just so beautiful, had a wonderful safari ride, everest ride was awesome, cool shows, etc. We also did a character breakfast there and had a all you can eat buffet while character's danced and visited all of the tables. It was spendy at $100 but worth it. I would recommend it if you haven't ever done it. Tyler loved epcot, star tours, and splash mountain. Kylie was generally the most happy the whole time, loved to hug all of the characters (I know, you're surprised), meeting the princesses, buzz ride, and collecting autographs. Kenadie was very daring and took me on the everest ride, space mountain, splash mountain, etc. She loved the petting zoo at the animal kingdom and the aladdin ride. She wanted to meet the characters but would end up hiding behind me. She is just so shy. Easton had his moments of not wanting to walk, whinning, etc. He didn't nap any of the days so I'm sure that had something to do with it. He loved all of the rides and would just sit and watch. I think we really saved a lot of money by eating breakfast at home, packing a small cooler full of snacks, drinks, and sometimes sandwiches, and then we just ate out once a day. The kids had been saving allowance and birthday money for six months so they used that to buy whatever they wanted. It was nice since we didn't have to fight over what to get. Most of the kids had close to $80 so they were able to buy a few things. After we left Disneyworld we headed appr an hour away to Titusville where Eric's dad lives. We enjoyed a couple of days with them watching the superbowl, going to the beach, and just hanging out. The kids loved Grandpa and Grandma Janine and especially Uncle Hunter who would tease them. They even took the two kids overnight so we could have a little quiet time. Eric and I also went on a date to a nice Mexican restaurant while they took the kids to Mcdonalds. It was time to come home and let me say it was a trial. I can't believe how rude people are! I heard several comments about kids and a guy sitting in front of Kenadie on the plane was just rude. Anyways, it was wonderful and we are so thankful to be able to go. We even came home with $500! Now that is amazing considering it was Disney. Now I just need to plan the next vacation....:)