Yet another visit to Santa!

We went and saw Santa at Short Pump Towne Center this morning. We have gone to see Santa at Short Pump every year since Tyler was born. He, once again, did very well and told Santa that he wanted a computer and a Backyardigans game. Santa gave him a sucker, and a big hug. So hard to believe that Christmas is almost here!

We also got

our tree this weekend and Tyler had a blast decorating it. Now it's time to wrap the presents and get them under the tree to make it complete!

We also took Tyler to another Home Depot workshop this weekend, where he made a Christmas wagon. But before we went, we made a stop at Starbucks and got Tyler his first kids' hot chocolate from the famous chain. He loved it! I think he felt like quite the big boy with his "coffee", as he called it.

Tyler & I are heading to Lynchburg next weekend, while Travis hunts with his dad. It's been a few months since we've made the trip to Grandpa's and we're excited to go. But we will miss Travis!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It's hard to believe that it has already come and gone. This year has flown by. Anyway, we spent the afternoon with Gramme & Granddad Snead, Aunt Jenn, Uncle Brian, & Cousin Landon, and Great-Grandma Smith. We had a great time visiting with everyone, and Tyler especially enjoyed playing with his little cousin. Landon is just over 5 months old now, and it so much fun. It's going to be a blast having the two boys grow up together.

Today, Tyler &I met up with some good friends of mine from Lynchburg - Larry, Davina, and their daughter Cady. They were up here to visit the Bass Pro Shops so we went to hang out with them. Tyler showed Cady the fish at the store,

and then it was time to visit Santa. Travis & I have been pretty sure that Tyler wasn't going to have much to do with Santa this year. But all of a sudden, he proved us wrong. He took off for Santa's chair, anxious to tell him that he wanted a computer and a Backyardigans game for Christmas. He sat patiently while his picture was taken, then made sure that Santa was paying attention while he detailed exactly what it was that he wanted. We'll have to make another Santa trip when Travis can be there (he was hunting today) and I don't think that Tyler will mind one bit.

We also set up our Elf on the Shelf today. I've been looking for one for months, and Trav's mom found us one at a discount. For those of you not familiar with the Elf on the Shelf, the Elf sits somewhere in your house and watches you all day to see whether you are bad or good. Every night, he leaves his perch and returns to the North Pole to report to Santa about your "goodness". He comes back before you wake up (in a new spot, so you have to find him) and starts his watching all over again. On Christmas Eve, he leaves to report to Santa, and then won't return until next holiday season. You get to name your elf, and Tyler has named his "Buck Deer". (Hey, this is an improvement from "Stinky Butt" which was the first choice.) We've decided that we'll just call the elf "Buck". So far, Buck's presence isn't doing much for us. Tyler peed on the floor for the first time tonight as a way to show that he was annoyed with us and our "rules". What is he??? A puppy????? Ugh. Oh well, he has about 28 days to redeem himself for the Jolly Guy.

Officer Tyler

Holy cow, it’s November. How did that happen?? This year has flown by, and most certainly shows no signs of slowing down for the final two months. We hope that everyone had a Happy Halloween! We definitely did. Tyler decided that he wanted to be a policeman this year, and we found the greatest costume for him, complete with (ear shattering) whistle. As the holiday neared, we worked with him on Trick-or-Treating etiquette. We asked him if was going to say “Trick-or-Treat” to the houses that he visited, and he proudly announced that no, he would not.

He was going to say, “Come back here! The police!” He was going to take his role in law enforcement seriously. But in the end, he did say a very sweet “Trick-or-Treat”, followed by a very sincere “thank you”.

We only hit a few houses in our neighborhood, mainly the houses on our street. We ventured over one street to visit an old college buddy of mine, and that was about it. Tyler had a blast, and asked where we were going next after each house. He then asked, “You think they have candy, Mommy?” Yeah, he understood Halloween big time this year. We then came home and he helped hand out candy to the very few amount of ToTers that we had this year. We had less than 10. Yes, you read that right. Ten.

You know, it’s really sad that ToTing numbers have dwindled as much as they have in the past years. I know that there are still a few good neighborhoods out there that really have a great ToTing turnout, but it’s just not the norm anymore. People are ToTing at churches and malls, and to me, that’s not ToT. No offense to those that participate in those activities, but I really loved ToTing in my neighborhood when I was growing up. I realize that we don’t live in the same world that we did in the 80s, but I hate thinking that my kid may never have a real ToTing experience like Travis & I did. We’ve even heard mutterings of people wanting to move Halloween to the last Saturday of October. That’s not Halloween, people! Anyway, there’s my two cents for what it’s worth, and now I’ll step off of my soapbox.

Tyler had a great time, and he loved wearing his costume, and he loved going door-to-door to show it off. He loved carving pumpkins and watching “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”. (Many thanks to his Great-Nana Scoggin for introducing him to that while we visited with her last weekend.) He had such a great Halloween that he announced yesterday that he wants to be a dinosaur for Christmas. I guess we have a little more educating to do before Christmas gets here, huh? But I'm sure that he'll "get" Christmas as quickly as he "got" Halloween. I have no doubts that he'll be a pro.

Punkin pickin'

This weekend, we headed to Ashland Berry Farm to get our pumpkins. Or "punkins" as Tyler calls them. The weather was iffy at best, but thankfully the rain stayed away. We had a great time, and Tyler loved the tractor ride to and from the pumpkin patch. He loved looking for the prefect pumpkin for him. He loved riding on the cart from the farm to the car. He had a blast. And we did too. Now, every time we come in the front door, he reminds us that we have pumpkins on the front porch (6 of them) and that we got them at the "punkin patch". Halloween will be here before we know it, and our policeman will rule the streets! Enjoy pics from our day at the Berry Farm! (Oh and the kitchen is FINALLY DONE! Enjoy!)

Festivals & floors

Fall is definitely here, as we can tell from the changing leaves, the cooling weather, and all of the outdoor festivals! We were supposed to head to Lynchburg last weekend to visit, but stayed home instead because it seems that the plague has started running rampant in Lynchburg! Grandpa called on Thursday to say that he hadn’t been feeling well, Eddie hadn’t been feeling well either, and Emily ended up with the flu by the end of the weekend. So while we missed seeing everyone, it’s a good thing that we stayed put! Tyler, Travis, & I all have had flu vaccinations, but I didn’t want to chance getting any kind of sickness. So hopefully we’ll be able to make the trip down there sooner rather than later.

So we were left on our own at home to find things to get us out of the house, as we were having the new kitchen floors installed over the weekend finally (and they look great!). There is this annual kids’ fall festival at the park up the road from us, and we decided to check it out. It’s a free event, and the weather was great, and if possible, it was even a little too warm. They had all sorts of blow up bouncy houses and activities for kids, fire trucks, ambulances, and police cars, tractor rides and tons more. We had a blast and even ran into a little friend of Tyler’s from school.

Tyler was a little hesitant about some of the inflatable houses and such, but once he got in one, we were waiting in line for every single one of them that they had. He loved jumping around and running through the mazes. They also had a petting zoo, which he loved. They had a miniature horse (that reminded him of the horses at Nana Scoggin’s house), a llama (which reminded him of the book “Llama Llama Mad at Mama”), goats, sheep, and a donkey (which he kept asking, “What’s that?”). He got to ride on the tractor that was dressed up to look like a fire truck, complete with siren and bell. And he even got to talk to a real policeman. He was excited to let the policeman know that he was dressing up like him for Halloween this year. When asked if Tyler would say “trick or treat” at Halloween, he replied, “No. I say – Come back here! The police!” We’ll keep working on that one.

We’re still working on potty training here, and hope that we’re nearing the end of our diaper buying days. Travis & I have found our “carrot” to dangle in front of Tyler as the perfect bribe for being trained – a preschooler’s digital camera! Tyler loves pretending to take pictures with our camera, and has been using up the film in an old disposable camera that I found last weekend. We found a kids’ camera over the weekend, and Tyler really likes the idea of it. He knows that he can’t have it until he uses the potty all the time, and is out of diapers and in big boy underwear. Bribery is not only an acceptable form of parenting, it’s the preferred method in this house. And it seems to be working. On Sunday, he wore underwear throughout the whole afternoon and only had two accidents. The first time was his “learning experience”, as he found out what it was like to really be wet. The second time was all about timing. He told us he needed to go, and we were in the bathroom trying to get him situated and we were just a few seconds too late. But we’re working through it and hopefully he’ll just keep getting better and better. His newest form of reward grosses me out a bit, but reassures Travis that he is indeed Tyler’s father – Brach’s Mellowcreme Pumpkins. I hate the things, but Travis treats them as their own food group, he loves them so much. Turns out that Tyler loves them too, so he gets a pumpkin for each successful pee in the potty. Blech. I want to go back to M&Ms or stickers. But whatever works, right???

Let's go Hokies!

Uncle Eddie & Emily came and stayed with us last night on their way to visit a friend in Maryland. We had a great time with them, and can't wait for their next visit! They did bring Tyler a gift - a new VA Tech Hokies football jersey! Eddie gave Tyler his first VT jersey last year, and he's about to outgrow it. So Eddie & Emily bought him a new one that we hope will fit him for another year or so! He wore it today in honor of Tech's first home game against Marshall. The Hokies won!

Tomorrow starts the true NFL season, so Tyler will

probably be wearing his #9 Tony Romo jersey, compliments of his Dallas Cowboy-loving grandparents (and father). It's fall, and football's in the air!!!

A day of birthdays

This week in September is a popular birthday week for people in our lives. Today is Gramme Snead's birthday, as well as Tyler's friend Gracie. Our god-daughter, Emma, turns 4 tomorrow followed by my friend Jen on the 9th & Emma's baby brother Mason on the 10th. Happy birthday to everyone! But today, we had a double dose of birthday events. We went to Gracie's 2nd birthday party this afternoon, and had a birthday dinner with Gramme, Granddad, Aunt Jenn, Uncle Brian, & Baby Landon this evening. We had a great time at both events, and Tyler had a blast playing with the other kids at Gracie's party and playing with his cousin Landon at the other.

Other than the parties, we haven't had much on the schedule for the long holiday weekend. I'v

e been working on some final painting in the kitchen in preparation for the delivery of our new floors later this week. We hope to get them installed ASAP and soon we'll have this whole disaster behind us! We can't wait to have our home back to a more normal state, and can't wait to enjoy our "new" ktichen! Our pool closes tomorrow, and we're hoping to make it up there but so far the weather doesn't look like it will cooperate. If we don't make it up there, I'm sure we'll be spending some time at the playground, where Tyler can fire up his own imaginary concession stand. See this video. It's great. He's even got an imaginary kitchen that he yells the orders to. Enjoy!

It had been a good, long run....

It's been well over a year since Tyler was really sick - as in fever, lethargy, need for a sick visit to the pediatrician. He's had a cold here and there, but nothing that wasn't manageable, and certainly nothing that kept him out of school. We were noting this fact last week sometime (I know, we shouldn't have tempted fate), and were commenting that the words that so many people spoke when Tyler started daycare were true: Send 'em to daycare, and their immune systems will be like fortresses. After a long first year, it seems that Tyler's immune system was finally built up. But something finally broke though. Strep throat.

Poor little guy woke up on Thursday feeling warm, and looking just pathetic. I took his temperature, got a reading of 98.3, shrugged my shoulders, and sent him off to school. I had a feeling that he wasn't going to be there long, but when the phone rang at 8:37 I was shocked at just how short his day was. His temperature had spiked to 101.3, so I left to go get him and got him an appointment at the doctor's shortly thereafter. Normally, for a fever, I wouldn't call the pediatrician, but rather let it run its course unless accompanied by other symptoms. But Tyler's room at school has had a case of flu and a case of strep in the past 2 weeks. And another little girl was sent home the other day with a fever. So I thought it was best to have him examined. And after a flu test & a strep test, the strep test came back positive. Honestly, I'd rather have strep than flu any day of the week, so while I was sad that Tyler's throat hurt, I was glad that he wasn't going to be puking around every corner of the house. He got his standard amoxicillan and we went about our business (and gave him lots of Slurpees and ice cream for that sore throat).

Two days later, and he's feeling much better though we're having to get creative with how we administer the amoxicillan. He's not a fan of the taste or the color, so we've tried lots of things - drinking it straight (no go), mixed with grape juice (not enough grape juice in the world to mask the flavor), and finally mixing with yogurt smoothies. So far, this is the winner, especially when we put it in a ceramic mug that he normally isn't allowed to use. 7 more days of this, and we're back to normal. Hopefully, we'll have a nice & long ILLNESS FREE fall & winter. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Sorry for the lack of updates (and pictures of Tyler) but as you can imagine, we've been busy with our kitchen. With the help of my wonderful mother-in-law, we got the cabinets painted white, and the walls painted a pale yellow. Jenn's father-in-law, Mitch, fixed our walls and will also install our new floors - which we just picked out tonight!!! We're headed back to buy them tomorrow, and we are so excited. Here's hoping that we'll have our total house back within the next few weeks! We're all tired of living in a construction zone. So in the meantime, enjoy some pics from the past few weeks, including pics of the kitchen progress and our trip to Lynchburg for the fishing club social.

I had hoped they'd teach him to hang drywall....

After a few months' hiatus, we took Tyler back to The Home Depot yesterday for a Kids' Workshop. He had a great time, helping Daddy make a message board that has a cork board on one side, and a little dry erase board on the other. He loved hammering and got to use a screwdriver for the first time. He was (and still is) very proud of his project and we have plans to hang it in his bedroom. I was a little disappointed though. With all of the work that we need to have done in our breakfast nook and kitchen because of the mold (that insurance won't pay for), I had hoped they would teach him a skill like hanging drywall, or laying laminate flooring. Oh well. A message board is just as great!

We also had a Snead family reunion yesterday. I was a little concerned, since the lunch was planned an hour away from our house and during Tyler's nap time. But Tyler did really well while we were there, and had a good time playing on the playground, and chasing baseballs from the game that was going on in the adjoining field. We got to see Aunt Jenn, Uncle Brian, and Baby Landon, who is growing like a weed. We also saw Gramme and Granddad, Trav's Grandma and Uncle Wallace & Aunt Brenda, his cousins John, Norman, & Jill, and Jaimie, Kaylen, & Jordan. There were lots of other Sneads that we met while we were there too, which was really nice. We had a good time with good food, but the second that we got in the car, we had a VERY fussy toddler on our hands. He fussed and whined and cried for several minutes before he 100% passed out in the backseat. He slept all the way home, and then for another hour once we got him home and in his bed.

Today, Travis took Tyler to the pool and to the Children's Museum, while I started priming the trim in the kitchen as we prepare for our unexpected renovation. Since we'll have to replace the floors in the breakfast nook and the kitchen, we have decided to take this opportunity to paint all of our trim and cabinets white, as opposed to the knotty pine that we have now. There's still a ton of work to be done, but you can already see a huge difference in the room. I'm looking forward to seeing this project change the way our house looks and feels!

We are heading to Lynchburg next weekend for a visit, and for the annual Fishing Club Social. We had a blast last year, and can't wait to get back to hang out with family and friends. We'll also be picking up my mom's old aquarium that we used for our hermit crabs when Eddie & I were kids. Bob Pants definitely needs a new (read: bigger) home. Should be fun!

Beach bums!

We just returned from our annual beach trip to Emerald Isle, NC yesterday. What a great week! We shared an oceanfront house with Dad & Cindy, Eddie & Emily, Mark & Dina Hamric, and their daughter Erin & her friend Caroline. We were the first to arrive last Saturday, and since we didn't have a key to the house, we took Tyler out on the beach. We weren't sure how he would take it this year. He didn't hate the beach last year, but he wasn't as excited as we thought he would be. This year? He LOVED the beach. He LOVED the water. He LOVED everything about it. He had a blast picking up shells, digging in the sand, wading in the water, jumping waves with Mommy & Daddy, all of it. As soon as we got there, he took off down the beach and before we knew it, he was soaking wet from head to toe in his clothes - and he didn't care at all. We knew right then and there that we had a beach bum on our hands for the week.

Our friends Chris & Carol Bowler (from Jacksonville, FL) were also at EI for the week with their family. They stayed a mere 1.8 miles from us, and we were able to hang out with them a few nights, as well as eat lunch with them and go to the NC Aquarium with them. It was wonderful to get together with them, as we don't see them often. Their daughter, Emma will be 4 in September and Mason will be 1 that same month. We are planning a week long trip to Florida in September to spend some time with them, and after this time with them, we are so excited to get down there for some more quality time. ther visitors included Maw Maw Ange & Paw Paw Jim, as well as Bridges, Jay, Wagner & Waylon. Tyler had a blast playing with "the boys" and we all loved spending more time with the Radicks & Spivas.

We spent the majority of our time on the beach, as it was a beautiful week (with the exception of Monday which was about a 90% washout). We saw porpoises one day, and even found a beautiful starfish one day too. But we did visit the Aquarium with the Bowlers and Erin & Caroline on Wednesday. We were able to see the newest exhibit, CRUNCH. Crunch is a 165-pound, 150 year old allligator snapping turtle. As a turtle lover myself, I was thrilled to see him. The kids were more interested in the sharks and stingrays. But we all had a great time, as always. The otters were very active as we walked by, and Emma & Tyler even got to hold a small crab on the outdoor decks. The snakes were disliked by, well, everyone. But we were fortunate to have the aquarium practically all to ourselves, as most everyone went on Monday when it rained.

We also went out one day and bought Tyler a new pet - a hermit crab. We picked a little one that was affectionately named "Frog" (his name has since moved to a more fitting "Crab"). I had decided that maybe we should get another crab to keep this one company, so on Friday Eddie & Emily returned with a much larger crab in a SpongeBob Square Pants shell. Tyler immediately focused in on him and his name is "Bob Pants". So Bob Pants and Crab are living harmoniously (for the most part) in their cage and we've had a lot of fun with them so far. Travis & Tyler have a project together later this summer to build a much larger cage for them using some old wood we have around the house, as well as some chicken wire. They'll have a great time together on that!

Overall, we had a wonderful week, and we're very sad that we're back to "normal life" tomorrow. We loved being able to spend quality time with everyone. And we were thrilled to see how much Tyler loved the beach. We can't wait for next year's trip. But as sad as we were to leave, it's always nice to get back into your own bed and back to your old routine. That is, unless you come home to a leaking pipe and mold in your breakfast nook, which is exactly what happened to us. Long story VERY short, we had the leak repaired today and have ServPro cleaning the mold and wetness. The leak appears to have been happening secretly & quietly for 10+ years, and it just all compounded while we were gone. We hope to get some answers soon as to what will happen in our kitchen and breakfast nook, but it looks like this will be a rest-of-the-summer process. What a way to come back home, huh?

The rest of our summer includes many trips to the pool, a Snead family reunion in early August, as well as one more trip back to Lynchburg so that we can attend the annual fishing club social. We went last year and we all had a blast so we can't wait to do it again. The Spivas and Radicks will be there, as well as Dad & Cindy and Em & Eddie. Other than that, we don't have much on the travel calendar as we lead up to the Florida trip in late September. But we'll find ways to pass the time!