Tyler's One Month

Here's our little man at one month! He LOVES the swing-- I'll even admit that a couple of nights when sleep was at a minimum, I let him sleep in it because I SO DESPERATELY wanted some sleep! So far, he seems to be ok on the whole extreme fussiness front -- and for that we are very thankful!

This pic doesn't really show the battle wound -- but we had quite the adventure last week. At about 3:30 am, we heard this SCREAM from Joshua's room. We ran in, only to discover he had fallen out of bed, and there was blood on his sheets from a bloody nose (we thought). When we turned on the lights, we discovered that he had actually split his lip -- not just gotten a bloody nose, and determined that we needed to get him into the ER. So, since Tyler was going to need to nurse soon, Bryan took Joshua in at 4am.

Joshua was a HUGE trooper and didn't cry even once. (He was very confused, though, why they went in a different entrance than when Tyler was born and they came to visit me in the hospital -- funny!) Thankfully, the dr. was able to "super glue" it and no stitches were required. He has been great about not picking at the "glue" and it is looking better and better. They got home at 5:30am and Kayla was up a little after 6 ready to start the morning. Wow. Check out Bryan's blog for more in-depth reporting!

The day following Joshua's "incident" he had his AWANA Cubbies Award night. It brought back SOO many memories of when we were in AWANA a few, ok, more than a few years ago! They sang a few songs -- and as you can see, Joshua was quite "animated" in his singing!

Joshua with two of his Cubbies leaders -- he had a great experience this year!

Our first corn on the cob! I made the mistake of telling Joshua at noon we were going to need to shuck the corn for the evening meal . . . holy cow . . . I think he asked me about it every 15 minutes! He was VERY excited to show Kayla the detailed method for shucking corn.

Kayla's first try at eating corn on the cob!

And, last but not least, a little family bonding time playing musical chairs.
Yes -- count the chairs -- three chairs, three people. It just works better than way with little ones!

This & That

Kayla and her bike! I'm just wondering how she sees anything behind her hair and helmet!


Tyler's first bottle . . . he took it like a champ! Can I hear a "hallelujah?" Bryan immediately said, "So . . . when can we go on a date???"


Last Sunday AM, a friend and I were nursing at the same time -- we couldn't help but laugh at the sizes of our babies! Tyler was born 10 days before she was -- they're almost the same size, right?

Last Sunday, J's SS Class had a "program" with some songs and verses -- very fun to see them! This is the SS class that I help out with every other week (well, before Tyler, anyway!). If you can't locate Joshua, he's the one about 10 inches taller than everyone else!


Great Grandma and Grandpa ended up making a trip north this past week, so we got to see them for an hour or so! I think Kayla only lasted about 2 minutes with Grandpa reading the book!

Great Grandma and Tyler
It was so good to see them -- being around family is just the best!

Ok -- so the other day, I was sitting on the floor here taking this picture with the kids and Joshua says, "Hey -- we have three kids now!" Apparently, it was a "light bulb" moment!

Working on a little "tummy time" -- such work, isn't it????

This past week

I'm sure that I'll think of a great caption as soon as I post this, but thought this was a funny pic . . .

Tyler's first bath -- didn't like the first one AT ALL, but has LOVED them every since!

Our little man! 2 1/2 weeks old!

We had a friend from college that had emailed several months ago to see if he and his wife could stay with us on their way to CO -- and we said sure, as long as they didn't expect any Martha Stewart entertaining . . . clean sheets and cereal for breakfast! It was good to catch up with Kent and meet his wife, Jenny!

Kayla undoubtedly thought it would be more challenging to dump together 4 different puzzles instead of limiting it to one!

Just thought I would mention . . .Tyler turns three weeks on Tuesday -- and three weeks is the mark where Kayla started demonstrating her severe "sensitivity" to something -- she got very, very fussy (5-6 hours of crying at a time), had severe acne that the dr's couldn't diagnose, and eventually we put her on a special formula at 2 months that cleared everything up. Consequently, I'm really, really nervous about this next week -- so if you think about it, could you pray for us? We're praying that if Tyler has the same sensitivity (there are times I think I "see" the same tendencies) that it would be very definitive and we can get him on the same formula. Thanks!

Great Grandma and Grandpa's 70th Anniversary

Last weekend, the kiddos and I did something a little crazy . . . we went to St. Louis to celebrate grandma and grandpa's 70th anniversary with other extended family members. A little crazy, I know. At first I wasn't even going to consider going -- Tyler was a whoppin' 11 days old. But then, the more I thought about it, I realized that not many have a chance to celebrate something like this, and since Tyler and I were doing ok, figured we should take advantage of it. So, the whole fam went to St. Louis. My mom and dad drove with me and the kiddos -- no way would I have tried it by myself! SO, this is my Grandma and Grandpa -- 70 years is a long time, eh?


My cousin Christy was a HUGE help with J & K -- and Kayla seemed to quite enamored with her!
-Joshua spending quality time with family -- hey, anyone who will help him build legos is a good friend!

This is some of the great grandkids -- there were 11 greats there.

-Joshua was especially thrilled to play with one of my cousin's kids -- like Joshua, he is "all boy!" They kept things lively!

Kayla finding some eggs. (yes, we had an egg hunt in the church sanctuary . . . why????)

This was the Varner family represented. Bryan (my hubby) wasn't there -- it's a little hard to miss Easter Sunday when you're a Worship Arts pastor! Also, my brother Steve and his family weren't there -- he's an accountant and April 12 was just a few days shy of April 15th! We missed them, but completely understood!

This is G/G and all of their children. It was good to see my uncle from AZ.

Great Grandma and Grandpa on Easter Sunday -- they were married between the Sunrise service regular Easter Service 70 years ago at the church parsonage . . .and then Grandma played the organ for the service!

Joshua and Grandma -- had lots of bonding time, eh??

Great Grandma and Tyler -- I was so glad that he was content for a few minutes so that Grandma could hold him!

It was a great weekend -- exhausting, but so worth it. Happy Anniversary G & G!

Easter

OK, I am so behind and there are SOO many things I need to get pics up of . . . so, we'll start with Easter! DISCLAIMER: all of the pics have a bit of "modern art" in the background (um . . . they're a mess!). Goes with the territory of having a new baby around! Above is Kayla opening one of the Resurrection Eggs -- always a hit! We meant to open one per day leading up to Easter . . .however, we kept forgetting, so we opened almost all of them just before Easter!

Getting ready to color eggs!

Joshua's artwork

Very serious business

Last night we zipped up to M/D's and had an Easter egg hunt -- like the snazzy baskets???? (Just kidding, grandma!)

Required quite the acrobatic feat to get some of the eggs.

Sortin' through the loot.

Very much enjoying the soft, gooey chocolate!

Joshua & Tyler

Just for giggles today I went back and found pics of Joshua when he was a newborn -- especially since I remembered pictures of Joshua wearing the same sleeper Tyler had on today.

This is Tyler . . .

. . . and this is Joshua when he was a newborn. Holy Cow.

Welcome Tyler Sean!

I'll write a more detailed entry later, but wanted to get these pics up! This is Tyler right after he was born -- it's such a cruel dose of reality!


This is what I am still amazed at . . . how in the world did I carry and deliver a 10 lb., 11 oz baby? Wow. (BTW -- height was 22.5 inches long)

The J & K's first visit to the hospital!

Kayla is quite the "little mother!"

Opening the gifts from "baby Tyler."

The best part for Joshua . . . running the controls on Mommy's bed!

Daddy and Tyler

Grandma, Kayla, Tyler.

Grandma kept the kids for several days while I was in the hospital.

Grandpa and Tyler

Aunt Bem -- she was the FIRST visitor in the hospital!

Brian, Carly and Tyler

Promise I'll write more later -- computer time is pretty limited right now! We're hanging in there -- as always, the nights are long right now. However, he really seems to be a pretty content baby, though. We love you, Tyler!