Natabug and Thayners

fun things to do on an air mattress

2011-12-02T19:38:00.000-08:00

Have a show party.
Do a somersault.
Help your sister do a somersault

updates

2011-11-28T19:17:00.000-08:00

Tyson and Lexi can be so cute with each other but they also fight. A lot.
Tyson's favorite game to play for FHE. It is so messy.

Tyson wrote his name in this card.

Veteran's Day 2011

2011-11-26T19:31:00.000-08:00

The day after Veteran's Day I took the kids to Lowe's to build a science kit and then there was a small parade at the park next to our house. There were only 2 other kids at the parade so Tyson and Lexi were given most of the candy. Tyson still had his goggles and apron on from Lowes.

Thayne had originally asked for Veteran's Day off so that we could go to the temple. However, the temple was closed so he switched and asked for the next weekend off. However, that morning when we were about to leave the house we realized our recommends were expired. Bummer! He had already taken the day off work so we headed to a new waterpark. This doesn't have anything to do with Veteran's Day but our kids love ice cream! They can pound these things!

First dental visit

2011-11-26T19:28:00.000-08:00

The kids had their first dental visit in October. The kids didn't do great but Thayne said he's seen worse. Is that supposed to be positive? I was glad Thayne was with me. It would have been a lot harder without him there.

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-26T18:09:00.000-08:00

I love Thanksgiving. We hosted this year and we had 28 people in our house. I was afraid it was going to be super crowded but it was fine and we had a lot of fun.

Of course the boys had to play football before we ate. View of most of the peeps. You can't see the kid tables from this view.I love pies. Doesn't this spread look amazing? The cheesecake on the left is homemade. Prettiest homemade pie I've ever seen.

Halloween 2011

2011-11-26T17:54:00.001-08:00

This year for Halloween we went with the Dr. Seuss theme. Tyson was Cat in the Hat. Lexi was Cindy Lou Who and Thayne and I were going to be Thing 1 and Thing 2 but Thayne had to work/was on call a lot on Halloween week so we decided to not build our costumes so it's just Tyson and Lexi. Lexi is the cutest little Cindy Lou Who!

apple picking and riding a bike

2011-09-23T10:54:00.000-07:00

Tyson learned to ride a two wheel bike with training wheels. Lexi and I had fun making funny faces while Tyson practiced.

We went apple picking with our friends, the Leighs, a couple months ago. I LOVE apple picking in the fall. I love the weather, the food, the fun outdoors, and the family/friend time. Tyson got in trouble at one point and had to put his nose against the fence.

can we pretend to go to the church?

2011-09-23T10:11:00.000-07:00

Tyson is taking dance classes with some other kids from church. He's the only boy in the class but I figure it's a good way for him to learn to listen to another adult and to get rid of some of his energy. Don't worry he doesn't wear a leotard. The first week of class one of the kids pulled the fire alarm and the fire truck showed up. This was soooo exciting to Tyson. It was loud and exciting. We frequently act out everything that happened that day.

Sunday evening walk

2011-09-23T09:52:00.001-07:00

Look at that sky

2011-09-21T09:45:00.000-07:00

We love watching daddy's soccer games. Well, we usually just chase the geese and run up and down the hills but it's so fun to be outside. McDonald's was giving out $.25 smoothies so we got one and then watched the sky. These pictures don't do it justice.

These kids are so funny! I love Tyson at three. He cracks me up all day long. Such a funny perspective of life. He says the funniest things and is so much fun to talk to. Like yesterday, we drove by the Bison's baseball stadium and Tyson was sure it was BYU. He has a train that he used to call the ghost train. He now calls it the Holy Ghost train. He's all about being big and fast. He loves games. His favorite right now is red light, green light and playing pretend. His favorite color is green and he loves the number 3. Such a funny boy and good boy. I wish I could pause time and keep him like this forever.

Lexi is almost 18 months old. She says ball, uh-oh, mama, dada, tyson, dog, teeth, and shoes. She LOVES books, necklaces, and shoes. She has lots of opinions and will scream at you if she doesn't get her way. She is soooo cute and gets compliments and stares everywhere we go. She loves ring around the rosie, the snowman song, duck, duck, goose, and bigger kids. She is definitely a momma's girl and freaks out if she can't see me. I'm hoping this stage will go away soon because she needs to go to nursery at church.

I love these two kids so much and love being their mommy. They bring me so much joy every day.

Erie County Fair

2011-09-21T09:22:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I've been to the fair. We got free tickets and decided to go. It was so crowded but fun to walk around and see everything going on. You know Tyson had a good time when he says, "We should go there again sometime." The fair was huge. I want to say somebody said it's in the top 7 biggest fairs in the nation. Here's a few pics from our day at the fair.

Camping 2011

2011-08-29T13:06:00.000-07:00

We had our annual camping trip in July. I love camping especially with friends or family. Some of the kids caught a frog. Tyson wanted nothing to do with it but Lexi would hold it.

4th of July

2011-08-29T12:42:00.000-07:00

I love the 4th of July and I was so excited to take Tyson to a parade. Luckily he hasn't been to very many parades because the Cheektowaga Parade was lame! There were no floats, a ton of fire engines, a bunch of old/new cars, and a lot of old guys walking because they belonged to some group. Tyson loved the parade especially when they threw candy. We also let the kids stay up to watch the fireworks. We used to put them to bed and watch them on our lawn without the kiddos but since we moved we no longer have that option. We went to a golf field to watch the fireworks. The kids had fun gathering up all the golf balls they could find. This last picture cracks me up. Lexi is bawling in the front and Thayne looks like he is skipping in the background.

Our first baseball game

2011-08-29T12:35:00.000-07:00

We took the kids to their first baseball game back in July. They were much more interested in the dollar popcorn and ice cream then they were in the game.

How we entertain ourselves

2011-08-29T12:26:00.000-07:00

Vacation - Utah

2011-06-29T19:25:00.000-07:00

Beware of a picture overload. I've put off this post for a month now because of the 500 pictures Thayne took in Utah. There is no order to these pictures.
My parents watched the kids for a day so we could go to Lagoon with my brother and his wife. I felt like I was in high school again. So fun! Lexi at the Hogle Zoo. So cute. The funniest story from the zoo is that Thayne walked under the tigers and he got a little wet. He thought the tiger had peed but the tiger had just climbed out of the water and shook some of it off. He was freaking out.

Tyson found this baby doll pack n'play. He would climb in it and pretend to sleep.

We stayed with my sister for a little bit in Cedar City. It was so fun! We played minute to win it, went swimming, and hung out. My sister and I fought a lot when we were little but I have so much fun with her now. Our husbands get a long really well and our kids do sometimes. Tyson and Jett played well for a week and then became frienemies. They would occasionally both be in timeout with their noses up against the wall. Don't you love Jett's mohawk? I was going to give one to Tyson too but he was hysterical when I was cutting his hair I didn't want to go back and have to fix it later so he got the buzz instead.

We took my dad to a demolition derby for father's day. I LOVED it! I just can't believe this actually happens. My dad's face doesn't look like he was that happy to be there but he was loving it.

love the mohawk!Cafe Rio. . . Oh, how I miss you

Thayne loved to go rock climbing with my dad and his friend.

We've hiked the Y the last couple summers. Tyson hiked a lot of it by himself this year. I don't know how to turn the pictures so you can turn your head. :) My sister carried her little baby up the mountain. I was sweating without carrying a child and her little girl is a chunk.

We visited a lot of friends and family. We didn't get pictures of all the people we visited. When we go to Utah it always feels like there's a million friends to visit so it's go, go, go. We took the kids downtown Salt Lake to ride the trax and play at the Gateway Mall. The kids had lots of fun.

The sprinklers came on one Sunday after church and the kids loved running through them. They don't have very many sprinklers here in Buffalo. It reminded me of childhood.

My sister and I made these bows.

Trampoline hair.

Cute Lexi at Aunt Joy's house

View from my parent's back yard

Van Tassell tradition of Leatherby's ice cream. Yumm!

I love my sista's stroller. I want one now.

Grandma playing with the boys

Bath time is so much fun with cousins! I have the whitest children.

vacation - the cruise

2011-06-28T19:04:00.000-07:00

Thayne and I had a great time on our kidless cruise. I love my time with the kids and I love my time without the kids. The food was great. The snorkeling was gorgeous. Weather was perfect. We went rock climbing on the ship every evening. We had fun joining the dodge ball tournament. Thayne's team took gold and my team took silver. Side note- there were only 2 teams. We liked Royal Caribbean's private island (Coco Cay) much better than the bustling capitol of the bahamas(Nassau). We decided to take public transportation to the pier because it was WAY cheaper than a taxi. We tried to hurry back to the airport to make an earlier flight that had seats available only to not have it work out and we were stuck at the airport for about 12 hours. Long day. At least we didn't have kids with us.

Vacation- Maryland

2011-06-27T19:16:00.000-07:00

We had so much fun in Maryland. Lexi learned that she loves stairs and syrup. I had not given her any syrup but grandma loves her and taught her the finer things in life. Lexi would be so funny. She would get up in the morning, go to the kitchen, and wait by her high chair. She knew grandma would make her pancakes or french toast or something else yummy. She's started to eat a ton even though she's still so little. Tyson loved all the attention he received. When we got back from the cruise he didn't want to do anything by himself. He was used to having a hanful of people that loved to help him or carry him or get him whatever he wanted. We're still trying to break that habit. We all loved the Baltimore Aquarium and the inner harbor area. He still talks about the big sharks or the nemo fish he saw. Granpa and Grandma Gardner took us to a really nice brazilian restaurant for Thayne's graduation. The Gardners were all in heaven! We also went to the Train Musseum in Ellicott City, ate ice cream, went to some super cool parks, and played with aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Graduation

2011-06-27T18:50:00.000-07:00

Thayne is finally done with Dental School and is a doctor! Yay for him and all the hard work he has put in over the last 23 years of school. The school had a nice banquet for the seniors and Thayne received 2 awards. He received a Pedo award and he also received what we refer to as "the nice guy award". The teacher who gave out the award said it was the best award of the night and is voted on by both faculty and students. During graduation week we also packed up our house and moved across town. Thankfully we had some really good help from Thayne's parents and brother and also a lot of good help from friends. It's so sad to move from a house that you've grown to love. I love the memories we have of 224 George Urban Boulevard. I wish I had the pictures our realtor took when he listed the house. This was our first house we purchased - we were so nervous at that time. This house was so good to us. We didn't have to put any extra money into it and it kept the bills down during dental school. We brought our babies home from the hospital to this house, I SLOWLY decorated each room on little to no budget, painting each room whatever color I wanted to. I loved our show parties with Tyson, friends coming over for dinner, and when our babies learned to walk in this house. We miss our little house but Tyson is already enjoying the room to run around in at the new place.

yearbook page

2011-04-21T17:43:00.000-07:00

Dr. Gardner's 2011 yearbook page
Until I can figure out how to upload a pdf to blogger, this will have to do.

3 and 1 year old pix

2011-04-14T06:16:00.000-07:00

My friend Kandis took these pictures for me. I LOVE them. She did so great! Lexi loved the attention and was really cooperative. It took Tyson a few minutes to get into it but he also loved the attention. I put Tyson in his outfit for pictures and about 2 minutes later he peed in his underwear. Good thing I had a spare outfit. Thanks again Kandis!! Love the pictures!

All girl

2011-04-14T05:51:00.001-07:00

Lexi also had a birthday. She got a baby doll, baby clothes, baby stroller, a book and then some handmade gifts from mommy. I made her a tutu and some necklaces. She LOVES accessories. Such a girl! It's so funny. We fed the missionaries on Lexi's birthday and they were very entertained watching Lexi dig into her cake. She didn't waste any time eating her piece of cake and then asking more more. She already knows what's good in life. We love our little princess. Here's her 1 year stats: Height: 29 in (50th percentile) Weight: 18 lbs 7 oz (10th percentile) Head Circumfrence: 17 3/4 (50th percentile) She's got 6 teeth and 4 more SLOWLY coming in. She likes jewelry and babies and trains. She shares a room with her brother and adores him. She gives open mouth kisses if you ask her to. If her brother is watching a movie she likes to push buttons and mess up his movie. She's a daredevil compared to her brother at this age. She doesn't fear anything and it makes me nervous but it's also really fun. Sometimes she prefers daddy and sometimes she wants mommy. She's not near as social as Tyson was. She won't just go to anybody else but she is getting better. She's had a few nights at babysitting swap that she's been sad. I really want her to get over that. She loves being outdoors and fights taking two naps but sometimes she still needs two. We call her Lexi Loo a lot of the time. Her favorite foods are grapes and anything sweet. She will eat most things unless she can see something she wants instead. She won't drink from a hard sippy cup yet. She just dumps the liquids out all over herself. She has a lot of thick reddish hair. I love that she has so much. She's a happy little girl and loves her family. We love our little lady.

I'm a big boy now!

2011-04-14T05:12:00.000-07:00

Tyson is now 3. In his mind he is officially a big boy. To me that means he can now dress himself and take himself potty. I think he wants to go back to being a little boy when I use his age to get him to do things. We had a fun birthday. Daddy was at the school for 10 hours even though it was a Saturday. He was taking his licensing exam which cost us $3000 so we were more than willing to spread the birthday fun over a couple of days and let daddy go to school. It was also General Conference so I'm lucky that Tyson is 3 and doesn't mind sharing his birthday with other things. In the morning we played at the play place at the mall and then found out the Easter Bunny was going to be in a parade. We thought the kids would like being in the parade. We were right the kids did like the parade but it sure wore us out. My friend and I had 5 kids ages 3 and under, no strollers, plus diaper bag and all. We were both sweating and worn out when we were done. When daddy got home, we opened presents and ate dinner. Tyson opened one box and said, "A box! Yay! My very own box." and then went on to the next box. The next box was much bigger and he said, "A bigger box! My very own bigger box!" We were cracking up. I included a video at the end of Tyson opening his bigger box. Tyson's favorite present was his GeoTrax train. He didn't play with anything else for days. I found him sleeping on his train one day after quiet time. Tyson didn't get a cake the night of his birthday. He kept requesting cinnamon rolls so we made cinnamon rolls. Tyson LOVES cinnamon rolls! He especially loves to play in the flour when we make cinnamon rolls. I made the dragon cake for his friend party a week later. I think it turned out really cute. In the picture it is missing it's fruit roll up wings. Here's silly Lexi on her brother's birthday. She is turning into quite the ham. Tyson's 3 year old stats: He is 30 lbs and 37 1/2 inches so he hasn't grown in 6 months.

Spring Break 2011

2011-03-28T17:22:00.000-07:00

Last week was spring break - our last spring break of Thayne's education. :( Thayne had some school work to do but when he was home we made sure we made the most of our time. Our favorite activity of the week was going to Splash Lagoon in Erie, Pa. We all LOVED it. Tyson was big enough to go down most slides and he went over and over again. He was so brave. It was so fun to climb the stairs and talk to him. He's getting so big and he's our little buddy. Lexi's favorite activity was to cuddle with daddy and go round and round the lazy river. We also took Thayne to the Children's Explore and More Museum. It's one of Tyson's favorite places to go. I'm pretty sure we get a tantrum EVERY time we leave the museum. A lot of our friends had husbands that were out of town for the break so we got to do some fun things with the moms and kids. It's birthday time of the year. Thayne's birthday was last Wednesday. Tyson's is on Saturday and Lexi's is next Tuesday.

The rest of the pictures are just cute shots of the kids!

Love the mohawk!

unmotivated

2011-03-06T17:17:00.000-08:00

There's so much that has been going on but I've been quite unmotivated to blog. I blame the weather. It snowed most days in January and February and the last couple of weeks it gets warm enough to melt the snow but then we get dumped on the next day. I get my hopes up that we're done with the snow but it just keeps coming. Yuck! We put our house on the Market the second week of February and got an offer within 24 hours. As long as things go well we'll be moving to another part of town. (Contracts are signed and the inspection passed) I'm excited but sometimes I start to get anxiety and I start to question why we're moving. Our house has been great for the last few years. We didn't start to feel crowded until little Lexi came along. We'll be eating dinner and we don't have room for Lexi in the kitchen or I'm watching more kids at the house or trying to help Tyson on the potty and it gets crowded quickly. We're moving across the street from the zoo and a great park. I think it'll be a good change for our growing family.

Valentine's day was fun. We knew we'd have the kids with us so we went to McDonald's for dinner. I know most of you are probably thinking LAME but hey, I don't have to cook and the kids are totally entertained at the playground. We brought a table cloth and a fake candle to fancy the mood a little. It was fun. I'd do it again.

We also hit up dollar day at the botanical garden last week. Sooo nice to go somewhere that had color. Buffalo really is dreary. Lexi makes some really cute/funny faces recently. I try to capture them on camera but she doesn't cooperate. I can't believe she'll be a year next month. This little girl is growing so fast.Tyson did this all on his own. I left the room for a minute when I came back I was informed that Thomas needs to eat too.

Just cause they're cute

2011-02-02T16:17:00.000-08:00

Tyson loves his choo choo hat. We found him sleeping with it the other night. If you ask him his name he will tell you it is Train. Tonight I was saying, "Tyson! Tyson! Tyson!" He didn't turn around so I said, "Train" and he did. Silly boy.

These two look like they're dressed for Christmas.

2011-02-02T15:43:00.001-08:00

I haven't blogged in a few weeks. I felt like our life was on hold while we were waiting to find out if Thayne got into the pedo program he applied to. Initially we thought our chances were good but for some reason this year was extremely competitive. For example, we got a letter from one of the programs that they had over 200 applications for 3 spots. No wonder we didn't get an interview to that program. Thayne only ended up with 3 interviews and we heard back from 2 of the programs that they didn't choose him. The only other program was here in Buffalo. We felt like our chances were still good here in Buffalo but as the date approached we both started to get nervous. The good news is that he got in and so we will be in Buffalo for the next two years. The program here is good and Thayne has spent a lot of time volunteering there so he knows most of the assistants and doctors. Also, he gets a salary (yay!) and he'll still be able to be around and be a dad/husband most of the time. However, I honestly get a little depressed when I think about 2 more winters here. It's soooo cold right now and I have blisters on my hands from all the shoveling I did today. We're trying to decide whether to sell our house or not. We've outgrown it but it's so cheap that it's hard to move. I don't know where Lexi will sit when she needs her own chair. Right now she sits on the kitchen table in a bumbo chair when we eat. I'd love a dishwasher but there's no space in our kitchen. The market is slow this year so we're thinking we'll put the house on the market and just see what happens.

I'm so happy that Thayne gets to do what he wants to. I think he'll be a great pediatric dentist. I'm happy we don't have to spend all the money, time, energy, and emotions to reapply next year. In two years we'll be done with school forever. I hope. It's been a long road. It's been an emotional roller coaster at times. We're very, very blessed. I'm happy that the dental school portion is coming to a close. I'm also happy that we enjoy the social atmosphere here in Buffalo and we get to continue enjoying that. We really appreciate the confidence that friends and family have shown Thayne during this time.

Thayne took me out to a nice japanese restaurant the night he found out he got in. Definitely a step up from the night we got engaged and we went to taco bell on coupons. I mentioned that to a few girls at Bunco last night and got some strange looks. I love my man! Congrats again babe! Love ya!

Lexi's 9 month stats

2011-02-02T15:16:00.000-08:00

Height: 27 1/2" (50%)

Weight: 16 lb 9 oz (10%)

Head Circumference: 17 1/2"

Thayne was convinced that Lexi was average now but she's still little. She loves to eat this little blue ball. She crawls around with it in her mouth. She's been a super easy baby until the last couple of weeks. We just found her 5th tooth and she didn't have any 6 weeks ago. I'm hoping she goes back to being a content little girl when her mouth stops hurting. We sure love her.

NYC!!!

2011-01-05T19:32:00.000-08:00

Thayne and I spent a couple of days in NYC over the break. I was a little nervous to leave the kids (It was the longest I've left them) but I'm so glad I did. We had lots of fun and enjoyed the "us" time. I thought I had planned too much for us to do but I was surprised that we finished early both days. Walking everywhere was really, really cold but much easier than I anticipated.

Riding the subway - Tyson would have loved this.
Enjoying Central Park while on the phone
Our delicious korean lunch - pumpkin soup just wasn't as good as I remembered it.

Empire State Building

Time Square - We both loved the craziness

Rockefeller Center

Killing time waiting for our play to start - we shared this

Phantom of the Opera - NYC's longest running broadway - It was fabulous. The theater wasn't sold out so we tried to move down to better seats. Thayne got caught and we were sent back to our seats. They let us move for the second half and somebody beat us to the box seats but we still found fabulous seats.

Can you find us on the jumbo tron? Look for my coat.

Statue of Liberty - windy, brrrr. . .

Madison Square Garden

Wall Street and Financial district

We were also able to go to the temple, Penn St, the biggest Macy's EVER, and chinatown. All of this in a little over 24 hours. I also got to say that I love Starbucks. We're not coffee drinkers but they have the most delicious coffee cake. We loved NYC and had a blast hanging out but we are SOOOO glad we don't live in NYC.

Christmas 2010

2011-01-05T19:08:00.000-08:00

We spent Christmas in Maryland with Thayne's family this year. We all enjoyed the time with them. Tyson loved all the old school toys that grandma has. We all loved the attention and fun. Tyson loved helping everybody open their presents. This may be the last year that Thayne gets a lot of time for Christmas. Sad day. Ever since Thayne started dental school, we have traveled to be with family. The only Christmas at home was spent in the hospital with Thayne getting his appendix removed. I think I'm ready to start figuring out our own family traditions at home.Tyson and Lexi sporting their new Christmas PJs. Isn't she cute?!

Breakfast with Santa

2011-01-05T18:04:00.000-08:00

Tyson loved Santa this year. We didn't tell him that santa brings presents until a few days before Christmas and he still loved the jolly old man. He loves the children's movies about Christmas especially Rudolph and Frosty. If you tell him a random line from one of his favorite Christmas movies, he'll tell you what movie it's from. Thayne took him on a man date to have breakfast with Santa at the local YMCA. I also took him to the mall for the yearly breakfast with Santa. Tyson allowed them to paint his hand as long as it was Frosty and then didn't wash his hand until he could show dad.

Tyson and Lexi like to play together. Tyson likes to randomly hug Lexi which is more like a tackle. We're working on being gentle with little sister. She doesn't help. She will also randomly attack him. One of their favorite games is to sit on a chair together and pretend like they are driving a train, car, bus, airplane, or dinosaur. Lexi adores her big brother. Thayne took Tyson on a man date last week and Lexi was not happy that her big brother was not around. She would crawl around looking for him and crying. She is no longer content to sit in one place now that she can crawl.

Jo becomes George

2010-12-10T12:39:00.000-08:00

Tyson is convinced he's 4. He's also convinced his full name is Tyson Jo Gardner. He knows Lexi's full name is Lexi Jo Gardner so he wants to be Tyson Jo Gardner. If you ask him daddy's name he will tell you Daddy George Gardner and mommy is Mommy George Gardner. I don't know why the kids are Jo and parents are George.

2010-12-09T17:47:00.000-08:00

Thayne went to Arizona for an interview for a couple of days earlier in the week. 4 hours after he'd been gone I was calling the police. Tyson locked him and Lexi in the car. The policeman was very nice and helpful. A couple hours later I couldn't find Tyson at church. He had taken himself to nursery but it wasn't the nursery he normally goes to. Tyson also decided to poo in his underwear for the first time ever that night. Things seem to run so much smoother when Thayne is here and I'm so happy he's home.

Lexi does this funny plank thing with her legs. She makes them straight and crosses them. She does this all the time. I find her under the Christmas tree a lot.

We had a fun Thanksgiving with friends from our babysitting swap. The food was delicious. There are some wonderful cooks around here. We went to Bounce Magic one night with friends and all of us had a blast. We also did our yearly overnight trip to Palmyra. Tyson and Lexi both slept so well in the hotel this year. It was wonderful. We got our Christmas tree up and Thayne and Tyson decorated it. I love the way Tyson decorates our tree. He puts the ornaments on the string of lights and says, "wook, I made a train."

Let it snow!

2010-12-08T17:49:00.000-08:00

We didn't get our first snowfall until December 1st. Buffalo sure knows how to snow with style. We made the national news with the first snowfall! Our house didn't get much but a few miles south of us got TONS! I was so excited to build a snowman with Tyson. He loves being out in the snow. Wherever we go he avoids the dry pavement and wants to walk through the snow. Sometimes it drives me crazy. The snow wasn't packing very well so we made a small snowman and then angels in the snow. Tyson also liked the hot chocolate that he got after. I was also really excited to go sledding. Too bad the hill that I like to sled down didn't have very much snow. It's interesting how one area of buffalo got around 3 ft of snow and other areas had very little.

odds and ends

2010-11-10T12:54:00.000-08:00

I've decided I need to take more pictures of Lexi. It's so much easier to remember to take pictures of the singing, dancing, crazy kid than it is the well behaved baby that stays in one place. I'm sure that will change in the near future. October flew by this year. I can't believe the holidays are almost here. I love this time of year. 4th year has been awesome. Thayne and I have lots of time to sit around and dream and wonder where we'll be next year. Thayne went to Massachusetts last week for an interview but didn't like the program so most likely we won't be there. We're hoping he'll get into a pediatric residency but he didn't get as many interviews as he wanted. We'll see what happens. All in all, we feel really blessed and grateful for our family and our health. One of the dental students lost his wife to Leukemia this week. It breaks my heart to think about her husband and baby daughter and other family members left behind. I can't imagine where her husband goes from here. I really thought they were getting a miracle. There were so many of us fasting and praying for her. I have a testimony of the afterlife but what about the pain that loved ones experience until then. Thayne doesn't like it if I watch a movie and the spouse or child dies. It's one of my worst fears. We participated in a charity walk to earn money for this sweet girl that passed away. We pledged to walk 5 miles and then forgot to bring a stroller for Tyson. We didn't make it as far as we wanted to. I've decided that I'd like to do more of these things even if I don't know the people involved. The last few pictures are just odds and ends that I need to record. The first is a picture from the mall during story time. There are so many kids. Tyson finally sits mostly still during story time. He knows all of his capitol letters and the sounds they make. He is starting to put letters together and learn his little letters. Sometimes I get so excited cause he can read simple words but other times he pretends like he doesn't know anything. We were looking for shoes for Thayne and Tyson was having soooo much fun trying on shoes himself.

Tyson is definitely not 100% potty trained. He does great some days/weeks but other times he does horrible. This next picture was a day at church. Tyson had already peed through his church pants and the change of clothes I brought for him so this is how he went home from church. I regretted the saggy underwear that were packed for him this day. Any suggestions are welcome!

Halloween Fun

2010-11-10T10:28:00.000-08:00

We were all crayons this year for Halloween. When I put Tyson's costume on him for the first time, he looked at me and exclaimed, "Look mommy! I'm Jesus!" I guess I did a poor job making our costumes (plus our costumes started to fall apart half way through our church party. I guess that's what happens when you decide to use iron on stuff instead of sewing). Cousin Ady and family came to visit us on Halloween week. It was fun to have them here and drag them along to everything. Tyson was defintely entertained the whole week.

My friend made this cute cabbage patch box. Lexi wouldn't keep the wig on so she doesn't look authentic. I wish I was more crafty and creative so I would come up with these ideas.

Pumpkin Farm 2010

2010-11-10T07:18:00.000-08:00

I love going to the pumpkin farm every year. This was Thayne's first year. It was a really nice day so it was really busy. Our favorite part was the hay ride. We ended the day at Red Robin for my free birthday dinner.

Daddy is a lumberjack

2010-10-10T18:32:00.000-07:00

Tyson loves it when mommy and daddy draw pictures for him. He tells us what he wants and we do our best. (I've discovered Thayne is quite talented in this department. I think he could have been a cartoonist.) Lately he has been asking us to draw a "dennis" aka dentist. We then proceed to draw a person in a dental chair or a dentist with all his gear. Tyson then tells us that what we are drawing is not a dentist. We asked him what a dentist was and he told us it is somebody that chops wood. Hilarious! I don't know where he got this idea in his head but he is convinced that daddy chops wood at school.

check-ups

2010-10-08T12:01:00.000-07:00

Tyson and Lexi both had their mid-year checkup this morning. I love that my Dr. makes me feel so good about my kids and my parenting. It also helps that they were behaving so well today.

Tyson at 2 1/2

Height: 37 1/4 (50th)

Weight: 30 lbs (50th)

Head Circumference: 19 1/2 (50th)

Tyson can count to 10. He recognizes the letters W, X, A, B, M, N, and H. Some of his favorite things are trains, cars, friends, going to the library or park, painting, Buzz and Woody, and his sister. He love to talk but recently if he doesn't know you he'll pretend like he doesn't even see you. He demands a lot of attention compared to his sister. He's pretty good at going potty. He doesn't take a nap but will stay in his room for 2 hours every day for quiet time. He loves breakfast but rarely eats a good lunch. He talks in full sentences but is hard to understand a lot of the time. He will do anything for a small piece of candy like an m&m. He still hates getting his hair cut and having his nails cut. He also doesn't like to brush his teeth. Thayne gets really frustrated when he brushes Tyson's teeth. He usually says something like, "Tyson, brushing your teeth is very important to daddy. We want to keep our teeth clean so they can be strong and healthy." Tyson of course doesn't care and continutes to scream and cry which makes Thayne upset. (It's actually kind of funny to watch.) Lately we made Tyson a deal. If he could open his mouth for 10 seconds and be happy while we brushed his teeth he could earn a sticker and when he got 7 stickers he earned a train named Diesel. It took him almost 2 weeks to earn Diesel but his teeth brushing has gotten much better. He keeps our house entertaining but is also the drama around here.

Lexi at 6 months

Height: 26 1/4 (75th)

Weight: 14lb. 7oz (25th)

Head Circumference: 17 1/2 (75th)

She's getting so big these days. I wish time would slow down. She's such a good baby. She puts herself to sleep and sleeps through the night most of the time. She scoots backward and can almost sit without help. She loves to watch other kids. She loves to eat rice or oatmeal cereal, carrots and other mixed veggies but doesn't like green beans. Her favorite thing to do is watch other kids. She likes to be on her belly or be held. She doesn't like the bumbo seat or her high chair. She's a smiley little girl just like her brother. She just brings us so much joy and is so pleasant.

The doctor kept making me feel good by saying I was so calm for a mother of two. I'm not sure what she usually sees. She kept asking if I get away from my kids a lot and if that's the way I stay so calm. The kids were both behaving really well which makes it easy to stay calm. I'm a slacker and didn't write down Lexi's 2 and 4 month stats so here they are:

Lexi at 4 months

Height: 25 1/2 (75th)

Weight: 12 lbs 9 oz (10th)

Head Circumference: 16 1/2 (50th)

Lexi at 4 months

Height: 22 1/2 (50th)

Weight: 9 lbs 11 oz (25th)

Head Circumference: 15 (25th)

new loves

2010-09-29T06:45:00.000-07:00

Tyson started swimming lessons. He likes to play with the toys more than he likes to practice swimming. There isn't much structure in the lessons so we've been practicing on our own. Tyson has turned in to a fish! After swimming one day Tyson was a few feet away and I was changing and wasn't watching him super close. This is what he did.We love to watch the airplanes take off. There's a nice grassy area behind the airport. Tyson was crying in the middle of the night a couple nights ago. I checked on him and asked him why he was crying. I thought he was having a nightmare but he said he wanted to go watch the airplanes. My sense of humor was much better the next morning than it was in the middle of the night.One night while we were there, they let Tyson sit in a helicopter. He was in heaven.

dirty boy

2010-09-17T19:23:00.000-07:00

"Never seen a horse with 2 rear ends!" All of you Aladdin movie-quoter's should know that one and this car reminds me of that quote. Don't know if it actually runs. It's always parked in the same spot when we drive by. There's actually a steering wheel on each end of the car. Tyson has gone through a dirty phase lately. Every time we go anywhere this is what he looks like when we're headed home. I don't mind so much. I think Thayne sometimes is a bit embarrassed over our homeless looking child. This day we were at the zoo. He was playing in the bone digging area. None of the other kids came even close to getting this dirty.

best friends

2010-09-17T19:06:00.000-07:00

Tyson LOVES Lexi and she LOVES him back. It makes me so happy I had a second child. I was so nervous about 2. Sometimes I feel bad for Tyson because when he was a baby he didn't have an older sibbling to watch constantly and be entertained. Lucky Lexi!

I'm potty training Tyson again. He's totally getting it this time and it only took a day to feel like he was catching on. Doesn't mean we don't have accidents because we do. He really worries me when he doesn't use the potty for hours. I feel like we have to be on the potty every 10 minutes when that's the situation. Tomorrow we are venturing outside for the first time with no diaper. Not gonna lie, I'm pretty nervous. Here are some cute, random pictures of the family:

Family pictures 2010

2010-09-07T11:02:00.000-07:00

Utah 2010

2010-08-10T18:31:00.000-07:00

We had a great vacation in Utah. It was relaxing and so fun!Even Lexi had a good time.We played games, hiked the Y, went to St. George, celebrated grandma's birthday, went to a fabulous reception, saw old roommates, ate out, went swimming, had fun with siblings, cousins, and grandparents. Tyson asks to go to grandpa and grandpa's house everyday. He LOVES it there. Their toy room is much better than his room at home. Plus, they have a dog. What else could a 2 year old want? Tyson got sick while we were out there and had plenty of tantrums but he loved it. I finally got a hold of his asthma doctor and got his prescription filled. Daddy carried him up and down the mountain when we hiked the Y. I guess he was exhausted from being carried and decided to sleep most of the way down.

Since our flight was overbooked, we volunteered to be bumped on the "airtrain" ride home and so delta will be paying for our flights next time we travel! Thanks Delta! Which should save us a lot of money since Thayne is applying to specialize and will hopefully be traveling for interviews. We were stuck in the Detroit airport and had a ton of fun. They have a train so Tyson was in heaven. He fell asleep right before we got to Detroit so we carried Lexi and put Tyson in her baby seat. He slept there for a couple of hours. Delta also paid for our hotel room and food that night. We thought it was a great deal.

Since coming home I have spent the last 4 days trying to potty train Tyson but have decided to give up for now. He was a good sport about the whole thing but really wasn't catching on so I've decided to give it some more time. He's never really shown interest in being potty trained I just figured he was old enough so like it or not he was going to learn. I'll probably try again in a month or so.

Miss Buffalo

2010-08-10T17:51:00.000-07:00

We took a boat cruise out into the Buffalo harbor to celebrate Thayne finishing the boards. It was fun and we learned a lot about the Buffalo harbor. Tyson loved the boat. They had ashtrays set up for smokers on the bottom deck of the boat and Tyson must know that smoking is bad because he gathered up all the ashtrays and stacked them. Occasionally somebody else would come along and put them back out but Tyson didn't disappoint. He would gather them up and put them away again.

Tyson and Lexi are starting to interract more. Lexi watches Tyson constantly. He usually doesn't give her much attention but lately I've caught him giving her kisses or tickling her feet.

2010-08-10T17:12:00.000-07:00

We just got back from vacation in Utah but before I'm allowed to blog about vacation I have to put some pictures up from before vacation. We spent the 4th of July with some friends. Eric BBQed some amazing chicken and we all had a great time visiting and letting the kids try out sparklers.

Tyson loves the movie Ratatouille. He likes to put a food item in each hand. He puts them both in his mouth, closes his eyes, and pretends like he is Emile (sp?). Pretty funny to watch. The video at the bottom of this post portrays it a little better. Thayne took his second set of dental boards and PASSED!! Yay! This should help alleviate the stress this last year of dental school. This is how Thayne felt after putting in really long hours of studying. This is Tyson acting like daddy.Tyson got a new bike and he refuses to pedal. Sometimes we tie a rope to his bike and pull him around. He prefers to not have our help. This is how he smiles for the camera.

growing up

2010-07-17T18:58:00.000-07:00

The kids and I went to the zoo a couple of weeks ago. The sea lions were having a birthday party. We had lots of fun. Tyson won a picture painted by one of the sea lions. He doesn't really care but I think its super cool. He also rode the train all by himself. He was so happy. I was happy and sad.
Lexi is so great. She is such a happy little girl. I just love her sooo much. She seems to be getting big so fast! I love how she doesn't have attitude or throw tantrums. She's super sweet and very patient.I wish she would stay little longer. Both kids are growing a little too fast for me.

Arcade and Attica Steam Engine

2010-06-24T07:33:00.000-07:00

While Thayne's parents were with us, we decided to go ride an old steam engine through western New York. It was lots of fun. Another favorite in Tyson's life. Grandpa bought him a train hat and popcorn. We packed a lunch and ate on the train. They also had people playing the accordion, harmonica, and guitar during the ride.

Lexi's blessing

2010-06-24T07:25:00.000-07:00

We blessed Lexi on June 12th. Thayne's parents were able to join us for the fun. We went on a double date with them to PF Changs. I LOVE that place. We also went to a primary picnic and rode an old steam engine. The steam engine will get its own post.Tyson and Lexi showing off their matching diapers. Tyson is so talented. He doesn't need any hands to drink his milk.

earthquake

2010-06-23T16:15:00.000-07:00

We felt an earthquake today. Thayne was working at the hospital and he didn't feel a thing but wanted to feel an earthquake. I felt it and wished I hadn't. Who would've thought we would have an earthquake here in Buffalo. According to the news it had a 5.5 magnitude, lasted about 20 seconds, and took place at 1:41pm.

What we have been up to

2010-06-11T06:58:00.000-07:00

Lexi likes to "hang out." She really likes her swing and to be held. She smiles a ton. I'll try harder to capture the moment. Tyson has spent a lot of time outside playing in his pool. His favorite thing is to fill it with dirt. Such a boy!

Tyson is great with his little sister. She's not quite as taken with him. Maybe someday. Notice Tyson got his first black eye.We hit up this free carnival one night and rode this slide over and over.

Memorial Day weekend was spent at Letchworth State Park, aka the grand canyon of the East. Tyson was GRUMPY and so our time was cut short. He quickly fell asleep on the way home.

We got to spend Memorial Day with this cute 10 year old as her parents were in Wisconsin for an interview. Tyson LOVED her. He would stare at her and smile and only wanted to play with her. I loved it. We tried to take her to Bounce Magic. It was closed. We then went to the mall. Also closed. We ended up mini golfing. Then Thayne stayed with our kiddos and Savannah and I went to the cheap theater to see Alice in Wonderland. In exchange for watching their easy, cute, fun child, Brent highlighted my hair and taught Thayne so he can do it next time. I totally got the better end of this deal and I love my new hair!

Lexi Jo's stats

2010-05-17T07:35:00.000-07:00

One month stats:

Height: 22 inches (80th percentile)

Weight: 8 pounds 10 ounces (35th percentile)

Head Circumference: 14 3/4 inches (65th percentile)

Tyson loves the bicycle

2010-05-17T07:21:00.000-07:00

He also loves to stand on my flowers. He also has opinions on how to dress. Silly boy.

Tyson and the firetruck

2010-05-17T06:55:00.001-07:00

Last week we had playgroup at the firestation. The kids thought it was awesome. I thought it was awesome. I could have passed on the major tantrum Tyson threw as we were leaving but I love hearing Tyson point out all the firetrucks and firemen.

2010-05-17T06:09:00.000-07:00

I found my camera cord. It was right where I left it. That's been my brain lately. Overall, I feel like we're adjusting well to having two kids. Sleeping has been different for all of us since Lexi arrived. Tyson thinks he needs to sleep on a sleeping bag on the floor now. Every night he asks for his "slee bag." Maybe he thinks the baby needs his bed. Maybe he just wants a sleepover with a friend or maybe he's practicing for camping this summer. I don't know but it's a battle I'm choosing not to fight at this point. Lexi slept in a laundry basket for the first month or so. It fit her perfectly. I should have taken a picture. She's recently graduated to sleeping in her car seat. I tried her crib, pack n'play, our bed, and her bouncy seat. She prefers our bed or her car seat so I usually put her in her car seat now. Lexi usually wakes up every hour or two. We're all a little sleep deprived but she's starting to do a little better. I hope. Tyson now thinks we need a bigger cart at the grocery store. He likes Lexi up front and mommy or daddy next to him. Now if I can only figure out where to put the groceries.We all love little Lexi Jo. She's such a great baby. Mommy loves to hold baby. Daddy loves to see baby smile and Tyson loves to play horsey with baby sister.

Easter and a little more birthday

2010-04-18T11:27:00.000-07:00

Tyson had his first easter egg hunt this year at playgroup. We should have practiced before going to playgroup. He picked up one egg in each hand and wouldn't pick up anymore. Since then we have hid eggs around the house and he knows that he should go find them. This is a picture of the kiddos at the easter egg hunt. My favorite is the little girl that is crying next to Tyson. Yesterday after Lexi's doctor appointment I took Tyson to Burger King to cash in on his free birthday meal. He loved the hat they gave him and I thought he would want to take it home but as we were walking out the door he threw it in the garbage. Whenever we pass a McDonalds, Tyson will point to it and say, "french fries." It cracks me up. He loves french fries just like his daddy does.

7 pounds and soccer games

2010-04-18T11:01:00.000-07:00

Tyson loves to watch daddy's soccer games. He thinks all balls are called soccer balls. Tyson's friend Hugh also comes to watch his daddy. They watch for a little bit

and then they go run down hills, splash in the mud puddles, play with the digger, slide down the giant dirt hills, fight, eat treats, run into the middle of the soccer game, and occasionally go back and watch the game and cheer for daddy. It's so fun to be outside in the nice weather and enjoy these cute kids.

Lexi will be 2 weeks old tomorrow. Time has flown by. It's a lot less down time with 2 kids but for the most part we are enjoying it. Lexi is still such a great baby. She finally hit the 7 pound mark this week at her doctor's appointment. I think she's even getting some chub on her. Go Lexi!

Introducing Lexi Jo Gardner!!

2010-04-08T07:22:00.001-07:00

Pictures are finally here.

Lexi has been such a good baby. She hardly cries at all and squeaks when she gets hungry. It's fun to have a baby in the house again. Tyson loves having the baby around and announces whatever the baby is doing. It's fun. We're so lucky to get 2 great little kids. We don't think Tyson and Lexi look that much like each other.

Baby ???

2010-04-05T04:10:00.000-07:00

I name this blog post "Baby ???" because we don't know what baby girl's name is going to be. However, more importantly, baby girl is here and healthy. We had quite the night last night. Right now, I really don't want to go through that again, EVER. I hear you forget about the pain after awhile. I hope so. Here's our timeline
2:00am Woke up to use the bathroom. Went back to bed
2:30ish Woke up feeling contractions. I'd been having contractions off and on for a couple of weeks but this was a little different.
2:45 Started thinking that the contractions seemed pretty close together. Timed them <5 minutes apart. Went downstairs to research labor. Learned that what I was feeling seemed like the real thing.
2:50 Woke up Thayne and told him that the baby might be coming. We talked about what to do. I still wasn't convinced that this was labor. I was in some pain by this time but I could still talk through the contractions. Thayne quickly decided that we would go to the hospital. Started packing my hospital bag. I really hadn't worried about this before because I figured I would have a couple of hours once labor started. Called the Doctor. She said to come in but she was on her way to a different hospital to perform a surgery. We decided I would go to the hospital she was at. Called our friends to take Tyson. Poor thing. He was sooo sad last time I saw him.
3:20 Got in the car, dropped off Tyson, took off toward the hospital. By this time the contractions were probably a minute apart and were getting VERY painful. I could feel the baby move down and I was trying not to push but it was sooo hard not to.
3:40 Arrived at hospital ER. Contractions were almost constant. We didn't know where labor and delivery were located and I really wasn't in any shape to walk. I collapsed on the sidewalk in pain when I tried to walk in. We made it to Labor and Delivery but the doctor wasn't there yet.
3:49 Baby girl arrived and life got a lot better for me. I'll take the epidural next time. So we had our baby girl in a different hospital than planned with a different doctor but atleast it wasn't in the car.
Little girl weighed in at 6 pounds 14 ounces and was 20 1/2 inches and has dark hair (but not a lot). I think her hair will lighten up. We'll upload some pictures when we get a chance (and the camera cord). I'm exhausted but can't sleep. I think the adrenaline is still pumping. Thayne is back at school today. He had a big day with patients today and needed to be there. These kids don't always come when it's convenient, do they?

It's Birthday Time

2010-04-03T18:56:00.000-07:00

This time of the year is birthday time for our family. Thayne's Birthday is first and a week later is Tyson's and if baby girl comes on time her birthday will be in a week after Tysons. For Thayne's birthday we, once again, went and got our free dinner from Red Robin on date night and then celebrated at home on Thayne's actual birthday. Thayne has been pretty busy with lab work lately so it was nice to have him around and just relax and enjoy family time on his birthday. Tyson has decided that he loves cupcakes. He especially likes to lick the frosting off the top and then ask for more. Silly kid. Tyson's birthday was yesterday. He didn't really get that it was his birthday or if he did I don't know why he was so grumpy. I tried to do lots of fun things with him. We went to the park and the zoo before queit/nap time. I got him a happy meal for lunch and planned a fun party for him in the evening but things did not go as planned. I learned not to feed my kid all the treats he wants just because it is his birthday. Tyson threw up right before his party in the car (He throws up a lot in the car. He gets car sick and has a really sensitive gag reflex) so Thayne and I quickly tried to clean him up so that we wouldn't be late to his party. I had made a choo choo cake for him and set it on the car so that I could pull something else out of the car and the cake slid off the car and fell all over the pavement. I was devastated. Luckily we have really nice friends that still helped to eat the cake. Our camera ran out of batteries so I didn't get very many pictures of Tyson's party. These last two pictures have nothing to do with birthdays but they show my two favorite people. We were at Target one night and Thayne and Tyson were both dawdling. They were pretty funny. They were trying on hats, playing with balls, and just walking around being silly. My favorite was when Tyson accidently knocked over a bunch of canteens. He was trying to straighten them and just kept knocking over more and saying, "uh-oh" and "messy." It's funny how clumsy their little hands are. He would pick one up and put it back and knock 2 more over. I sure love my two boys!

Spring Break BOCA Trip

2010-03-28T15:38:00.000-07:00

As Natalie said earlier, I went on a dental mission trip to the Dominican Republic. It was an amazing experience to give free dental care to the Dominican people. I spent the week in the pediatric clinic because I'm going to be applying to Pediatric Dental Residency programs soon, and I wanted to get some more experience with children. We started off most days treating special needs children, then we spent the rest of the day treating children from local schools or children who came with their parents. I wish that I could have spent more time there because we didn't have enough time to perform the level of dentistry that I would have liked to have provided those patients. We had to get through as many patients as we could, so it felt like we were putting out fires, or at least postponing them. The Dominican children like to chew/suck on sugar cane, so there were tons of cavities in the children that we saw. I got to do a bunch of fillings, extractions, cleanings, etc over the course of four days. There were 25 students and 15 faculty and staff members (dentists, nurses, translators, etc) who worked together to treat over 500 patients. I loved that we were able to work much quicker than at the dental school, were able to get a lot of experience and help a lot of people. I was grateful for my Portuguese abilities because I was able to mostly communicate with the patients so that I could be the main translator for the pediatric room by the third day.

The Dominicans were very patient, as they sat for hours waiting for their turn to be treated. Some people waited multiple times, as they wanted/needed extractions, fillings and cleanings. I was surprised at how patient they were and how kind they were with us considering how long they had to wait for their treatment. They were so grateful for us to be there and can't wait for us to come back next year.

This is Jason Bennion (one of my studly classmates), who is cleaning a patient's teeth. Sometimes we had to get into awkward positions in order to get their teeth cleaned while sitting in normal chairs.

In the pediatric clinic we would start the day with treating special needs children. We would strap them to a papoose board and get them whatever treatment we could. In this picture is Dr. Wells (an awesome pediatric dentist from my dental school, and is treating the patient in this picture), Dr. Delucia (a pediatric dentistry resident who went to my dental school, and standing next to me), and two Dominican dental students who translated for us and helped us out with treating the kids. This was the first day of treatment, and they would show me how to treat the special needs children. As the day and the week went on, I got more confidence and performed more of the treatment myself. I'm now a lot more confident with being around special needs patients and am looking forward to more training with such wonderful individuals.

During the trip I even got to do some esthetic cases, which I wasn't expecting to do. I was able to close a 3-4mm diastema on a patient that said that the biggest problem in life was his teeth, and I was able to make a teenage girl's front teeth look great (picture below). Hopefully that'll give them some more confidence and reasons to smile. The girl in the picture has huge interproximal cavities between her front teeth, and I think that her teeth turned out looking great!

Ezra Boekweg, another awesome dental student from my year, was able to do a different esthetics case on the boy below. Again, I think that the results are fantastic. I have a before and an after picture.

I had such a great experience that I would love to continue to go on dental mission trips throughout my dental career.

This was a little school girl who came in to the clinic. We gave the children goody bags with dental supplies and toys like sun glasses, tennis balls, rings, etc. The kids didn't always fit in the camping chairs that we had, so we would put suitcases on top of the chairs and then have the kids sit on the suitcases.

This was the operatory that I used for the week. There's a mobile dental unit with hand pieces and suction, a camping chair for the patient and a normal chair for me. I was lucky to have a good dental unit and a room that wasn't too crowded.

While we worked hard, we stayed at a resort on the beach, so we got to play on the beach and watch the sunset every night. I loved playing beach volleyball after a long day of work. Wouldn't that be fun to do everyday?
We also got to go up to the top of a mountain and look out at Puerto Plata, and see the Christ statue at the top of the mountain.

3rd year Spring Break

2010-03-26T12:40:00.000-07:00

This year for spring break Thayne took off to do dental work in the Dominican Republic. He had a great experience and I'm hoping he'll post some pictures and write about his experience so that we'll have a record but for now I'll post what Tyson and I did. We kept ourselves super busy and wore ourselves out so that we wouldn't miss Thayne as much. We went to the Children's Museum in Rochester, the Science Museum to see the Sesame Street exhibit, Bounce Magic, the Cool Cats exhibit at the zoo, a toy room, the mall playground, IHOP, and had dinners with friends. We had lots of fun but next time we want Thayne to join us for all the festivities. Thayne had our camera so I didn't get very many pictures but I did have a friend that took some for us periodically (Thanks Melissa!). I told Tyson that daddy was on a school trip and Tyson would ask for daddy and then say "Daddys school" which sounds more like Daddy's cool! Makes me laugh every time I hear him say it. Tyson has preferred mommy ever since daddy went away. Maybe he'll go back to preferring daddy when I leave him for a few days to have his baby sister.

Tyson update, waterpark, and cute pictures

2010-02-25T18:17:00.000-08:00

Tyson update: Tyson loves all things with motors. He is obsessed with choo choos. We don't even own a choo choo but he still loves them. His favorite movie at the moment is Anastasia because it has a train. (We don't own very many movies so he doesn't have very much to choose from.) He also loves elephants, eyes, cookies, babies, and stars. He calls himself Tysey. We think it's adorable so we've started to call him Tysey too. His vocabulary is growing every day. He copies what we say and now puts words together. It's pretty fun! He's starting to pick up on counting and colors but is hit and miss. He is very crafty. He colors and plays with playdough for about an hour every day. He also loves puzzles and not just the wooden baby puzzles. He has a couple of cardboard puzzles that he can put together with a little bit of help. He's soooo much fun when he's happy which we're lucky is most of the time. We love our Tysey! I love it when he lets me do his hair. Doesn't happen very often! One day Daddy was volunteering at a child dental health fair at the mall. Tyson and I played at the mall while daddy did his thing. They have this giant green dinosaur that Tyson loved to look at but not get too close to. At one point Thayne put on the dinosaur costume and Tyson was very confused. He still wouldn't touch or hug the dinasaur even though daddy was in it. He learned to say dinosaur and likes to point them out ever since the day at the mall.

Thayne had a day off of school for a holiday in January so we went to a waterpark with some friends. I love indoor waterparks (so does Tyson). We had lots of fun with our friends and playing in the water. The water could have been much warmer but we still had fun. Tyson wanted to go down the big slides even though he was too little.

Buffalo is famous for its horrible winters and tons of snow. We feel like this is the place to be this winter. Washington DC has had a lot more snow than us this year. (I say this even though we're supposed to be pounded with snow this weekend.) Thayne hates shoveling. Tyson loves it.

Tyson has become such a social child. He loves his friends. If he's being difficult I can use his buddies as leverage. His favorite friend is Hugh. They are frienemies. They fight just as much as they get along but they do love each other. Tyson calls him "who" and anytime I say we are going to go see friends he always asks if its "who." He even calls Hugh on his pretend phone multiple times every day. Here they are playing on Tyson's bed and at breakfast for Hugh's mommy. (Tyson has his back to the camera. Yes, he is wearing a tool belt. Such a little man.)

Prego Picture

2010-02-25T18:10:00.000-08:00

I really don't like prego pictures but since this blog is my journal I thought I would put a record of my growing belly. I have a little over 6 weeks left in this pregnancy. I haven't gained very much weight with baby girl so I'm hoping this will help me get back down to normal size quickly after the baby comes. (I think having a two year old will also help!) Tyson loves babies so I'm hoping the transition will not be too hard. I'm looking foward to not being pregnant but I don't look foward to the sleepless nights that come with newborn babies. We're excited to meet baby girl!

week of firsts

2010-02-25T17:49:00.000-08:00

I've had a fun week with Tyson. Playgroup this week was sledding and Tyson loved it! We played in the backyard with one of Tyson's friends a few weeks ago and they had built a small hill but Tyson hated it. However, Tyson loved sledding down the big hill. He would call it his slide. It helped that the sun was shining, which is rare for Buffalo at this time of year.

Tonight we took Tyson to see his first movie. The Princess and the Frog was showing at the dollar theater and so we decided to give it a try. Tyson sat through the whole thing. He laughed when the characters laughed, sang when they sang, and bonked his head (accidently) and cried during the sad part. We had so much fun with him. We were the only ones in the theater at the beginning but 5 other people showed up after a couple of minutes.

when the toddler is happy, we're all happy

2010-02-15T09:58:00.001-08:00

Tyson has been so much fun lately. Parenting is a blast when your child behaves. It's too bad that children aren't perfect all the time. We took Tyson to a car show last week and once he figured out he could sit in the cars the kid was doing his happy dance all night long. I don't care about nice cars but it sure was fun watching my boys be sooooo happy. Thayne has decided that Tyson and him can go on lots of man dates to the car show. Thayne loved the convertible Corvette and one of the Jaguars best. Tyson loved the convertible Mini Cooper. He got in that car and at the top of his lungs started shouting "mine, mine, mine." It was pretty funny. He had a lot of people chuckling. He would also say, "Daddy out. Mommy sit." Apparently mom is his traveling companion of choice or he knows that he has to convince mom that cars are cool. I liked the monster truck best. Maybe because it reminded me of Blackie - one of the farm trucks that my parents had. Blackie was amazing. She could pull out a tractor if it got stuck. My dad would carry a bucket in the back and my mom would stand on the bucket to climb into the truck. Good times indeed.

Christmas part 2

2010-01-09T09:22:00.001-08:00

We left Tyson with Grandma and Grandpa one night and went and stayed with my brother and his wife. We went to temple square and tried to get my brother's wife to go into labor. It almost worked. She started having contractions and was up a lot of the night but no baby. Temple Square was SUPER cold. Thayne was freezing. That night we played rock band. Thayne has finally found a talent. We see amazing talents all the time and basically we don't have talents or hobbies but Thayne has found his. He was on expert level the first night of playing. The next day was our anniversary and so we went to Tucanos (Brazilian food). Thayne and I have done this every year for the past 3 years and we love it. Daniel and Whitney came with us and Whitney out ate all of us but still no baby. We missed Tyson a ton while we were gone but he didn't seem to notice he was having way too much fun with G & G. He helped Grandpa to build a desk.By the way, my brother and his wife had their baby on Wednesday this week. She's super cute with dark, curly hair. They named her Oakley Ryan Van Tassell. I think it's a cute name. Congrats!

Here's Tyson with his Uncle Karey and his fabulous slide. Why don't they make these anymore?Tyson had his friend Hugh on the plane ride home. These two did great. I was afraid they would be a huge distraction for each other but they entertained each other and both took long naps on the way home. I'm sure the Melatonin we gave Tyson had something to do with that. ;) We had a bit of a layover in Las Vegas and we brought Tyson's leash. Hugh would hold onto one end and they both thought that was great. Tyson loves wearing his doggie. Sometimes Tyson would even get down on his hands and knees and pretend like he's a doggie.

Two Christmases

2010-01-09T04:30:00.000-08:00

We spent a relaxing Christmas here in Buffalo on December 19th. It was nice to be here for a few days before traveling to Utah. Tyson had a hard time moving on after opening each present. He got lots of car stuff. However, over the holidays he has decided he's not into cars as much as he was and now loves trains. We'll probably try to get him a "choo choo" for his birthday and he'll move on at that point too. We traveled to Utah on the 21st and had a wonderful time with family and friends. We kept ourselves busy by trying to make lots of visits and eating some of our favorite foods. We both think we gained 5 or 6 pounds. Tyson had tons of fun playing with my parents dog and his cousins. He made the transition to Utah much better than I expected.We got in really late the night we arrived. Tyson slept for a couple hours on the plane but then stayed up until 2am NY time. I put him down for his nap the next day thinking he must be exhausted. Thayne and I left to go meet some of my roommates so we put Tyson on the air mattress we were sleeping on. He prefers his toddler bed to his crib so we thought he would like our bed. We checked on him as we were leaving and he was looking out the window pointing at the snow saying, "down, down, (s)no." I told my sister to let him play and he'll fall asleep in a bit. (He does this at home all the time.) She checked on him after a couple hours and he had Thayne's electric razor in little pieces, our suitcases were open and things were rummaged through, and he had my makeup bag open and was trying to put on my makeup. We got a call from my sister and she asked if he could get up and play. Apparently he wasn't tired. He was so excited to be in a new place. He stayed up until bedtime that night. I don't know how he does it sometimes. I guess little kids can run off adrenaline too. He had SOOOO much fun at grandma and grandpas. After that episode we moved a pack n'play in the closet of the room we were sleeping in and that is where he slept after that. We all slept pretty good after that. This picture isn't Grandma and Grandpa's house but is his bed at home. This is how he looks when we go get him in the morning. It's pretty cute.

Sick little boy

2010-01-09T04:06:00.000-08:00

You may notice that it is 4am here in Buffalo and I am wide awake. Not by choice. I'm a sleepaholic these days so I don't know how I'm still awake. Tyson has been sick this week. He came down with Bronchiolitis again. Apparently his colds can get in his lungs really easily. He woke up around 1am and since he's sick I was letting him sleep by me. Well he won't go back to sleep. He's still crying in the other room. I don't know how he is still awake. He wants to play and jump on the couch, read books, and watch movies. I just want him to sleep. He is not sleeping very well at all and neither am I. I've become grouchy mom tonight. I've been patient all week with him but I've had it tonight. It's been 4 nights since I've slept in my own bed the whole night (wonderful for a pregnant body --NOT). I'm all about letting kids cry things out but our little one throws up if he gets too worked up when he cries. I think he's getting close to that so I'm sure I'll be cleaning throwup soon. Tough love. Well until then I'll try to get some blogging in.

Bowling fun

2010-01-04T10:01:00.001-08:00

It seems that bowling is a tradition in our family over the Christmas holidays. We thought Tyson would love bowling and he did for a little bit. He would get so excited but wouldn't help push the ball toward the pins like we wanted him to. This is the face that he would have after the ball was released. Doesn't he look like daddy! Then he would patiently wait his turn. Don't you love his bowling shoes? He lasted 4 or 5 frames and then decided the arcade was WAY COOLER than boring bowling until I bribed him with a sugar cookie to stay by us so we could finish bowling. It was a fun experience but I was hoping Tyson's attention span would last a little longer. I'm a great bowler when I'm pregnant. I don't know why I can't bowl like this normally but both times that I've been bowling while pregnant I was awesome. Thayne's score is pretty good too.

Big news for the Gardner family

2010-01-04T08:42:00.000-08:00

Thayne's soccer team almost won their intramural championship. They were ahead for most of the game but ended up losing. Thayne was disappointed. I'm not sad to see the season go. Most of their games started at 10:30 or 11:30 at night and I don't sleep well when Thayne's not home. He had a lot of fun playing with the other boys.
Tyson also has some big news to share. He's getting a little sister in a little over 3 months (were due the 2nd week of April). He loves babies so hopefully that will help him make the transition to sharing mom and dad. We didn't announce on our blog earlier because we didn't tell my parents until we saw them at Christmas. The first trimester was a lot worse for me this time around. I didn't feel very good until I was around 19 weeks. I'm already starting to get really tired again but I sleep whenever Tyson takes a nap and it helps me to make it. I popped out when we went to Utah. Must have been all the Cafe Rio that helped me put on weight. I'm nervous to take on two kids but I think Tyson will love having another sibling. Labor doesn't scare me this time around like it did last time but I hate thinking I can't see Tyson while I'm in the hospital. (They won't let kids come to the hospital because of H1N1.) I stress just thinking about it. I also had a bit of baby blues/postpartom last time and so I'm hoping that won't hit this time. Wish us luck but we're excited to see our little lady!

Meeting Santa

2010-01-04T07:26:00.000-08:00

I love the holidays. I love that we get to see family and play so much. I love that people give gifts and show each other how much they care. I love that Christmas is about baby Jesus. I love the look on Tyson's face when he gets new toys. I love the snow at Christmas (but not after). I love the whole month of December. Tyson and I had a lot of fun at a couple different events meeting Santa. The first time was at the mall. They have a fabulous FREE Breakfast with Santa event. They give the kids breakfast, balloons, a gift, a carousel ride, blow bubbles, and have face painting. Tyson didn't love Santa but he thought Frosty was pretty cool.Even though the mall had so many fun events, Tyson wanted to play in this stroller car. The second time Tyson met Santa was a lot more fun for him. Our realtor invited us to a meet Santa event at work. He was a little scared at first but he was one of the only kids there so Santa and Tyson played hide-and-go-seek and tag. It was fun watching Tyson chase Santa with his doggy balloon. He wouldn't leave Santa's side once he realized how fun he was (and he found the basket of candy canes sat right beside Santa).

Our silly boy

2009-12-07T05:52:00.000-08:00

Tyson has been a handful lately but we've still managed to catch our little crazy man doing some funny things.

Tyson and his friend Hugh. They fight over toys most of the time when they play together but all through sacrament yesterday Tyson kept saying, "Hugh."If he loves Hugh so much, why won't they play nice? Here he is with a bucket on his head. He won't wear a normal hat but he'll put everything else on his head and say "hat." Bags on his feet for shoes.Tyson loves these goofy glasses and I think he looks adorable.This one is of Thayne being a silly boy. We watched the BYU football game with some friends and they had this awesome blue wig.

Thanksgiving

2009-12-07T05:28:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. We started the week by going to the temple and stayed in Palmyra for the night with our friends, the Leighs. We love our overnight getaways from school and since we can't be with family we try to make the most of our holidays. Tyson learned how to climb out of his pack-n-play and so we all got less sleep than we wanted. He was very difficult the next day so we decided not to go to the children's museum like we previously planned and just went swimming at the hotel.
We spent Thanksgiving with some of our favorite people. (We're missing the Nielsens in this picture. I don't have pictures of the feast. I didn't have my camera on me the whole time.)The food was amazing! Maybe I was starving by the time we finally ate or maybe the food was that good but I think it was the best Thanksgiving food I've ever had. Thayne would disagree. He started to get sick on Thanksgiving and so he had a hard time tasting anything. I on the other hand loved everything and ate way more than I should.
The weather was beautiful in November. It didn't snow here till December 1st and we were LOVING the 50's and 60's that we got for the majority of the month. Buffalo is known for LONG winters so we're grateful that the cold waited a little bit before it set in. Since Thanksgiving we have all caught the dreaded cold. First Thayne on Thanksgiving, then Tyson, and now me. Tyson also had 2 teeth come in and he has been miserable, grouchy, and whiny. It seems like we got through the worst of it because he is our happy boy once again.

Gwen's wedding

2009-11-10T19:11:00.000-08:00

Thayne's sister got married last month in Maryland. Thayne, Tyson, and I flew down for the weekend wedding. It was crazy with all 9 siblings together but fun to see everybody. I love Tyson's suit for the reception. Doesn't he look smashing? The boys: Thayne and his 4 brothers with the bride. The girls: 4 sisters and 4 in-laws.

Halloween Fun

2009-11-10T18:34:00.000-08:00

We had a fun halloween. Tyson still doesn't understand the whole trick or treating stuff but he loves the candy. Tyson was a bat this year. One of his best friends was also a bat (his mom and I shop the same clearance sales). I was a cow and Thayne was the trigeminol(sp?) nerve. Don't worry if you don't get that. We went to our ward's party and then to the mall for their trick or treating activity. Thayne and I also went to an adult party. We gotta be more creative with our costumes next year. We struggle coming up with costumes for us.

We fed the missionaries on Halloween night. We played some tricks on them and had spooky spaghetti. We also swapped the drink for jello. Earlier in the week I stole an idea from a friend and we had grave yard shepherd's pie. I love making these fun meals.

fun weekend

2009-10-17T17:05:00.001-07:00

We had a great weekend. Yesterday Tyson was playing "hide and seek" with me. Can you find him?

Then we made a tent and played in it.

Then Thayne and I had a fun date last night, dinner and mini golf. We followed all of that up today at an amusement park. Thayne got tickets for $5 through the dental school. It was really, really cold but we had a lot of fun. We bundled Tyson up and only stayed at the park for 4 hours but we felt like we got our money's worth.
Isn't he cute?Here's Tyson's favorite ride and his least favorite. . .

sooo late

2009-10-17T16:54:00.000-07:00

I recently found a couple of pictures that I want a record of but they're from a while ago. The first 3 pictures are from our trip to DC in July.

The picture above is of my freshman roommate, Charlee. She's such a good person- inside and out. It was so fun to see her again. The next picture is Tyson's playgroup at the zoo. This picture only has a fraction of the kids that are his age. It's so much fun for Tyson.

Hawaii: part 3 - research

2009-10-10T18:12:00.001-07:00

Thayne did a great job with his research. He loved being able to get to know some of the other students that were there from other schools. There were about 50 dental students at the conference (one from each participating dental school). After the poster presentation, they had a nice award ceremony and luau. Here's a few pictures of both. Thayne's poster is hanging at the University of Buffalo library. We had to go get a picture. It's front and center of the library.

Hawaii: part 2 - things we did

2009-10-10T17:47:00.000-07:00

We had so much fun in Hawaii. We went to the Laie Temple, Pearl Harbor, the Swap Meet, ate shave iceBYU-Hawaii, Laie point, PCC, went to a luau visited friends and family, (Thayne's mission president and friend from England - no picture)and we spent a lot of time at the beach. Tyson would wake up around 5:30 or 6am so we would walk down to the beach and watch the sunrise a few of the mornings. My sister, brother, and sister in law all live on the North Shore so we spent a lot of time with them (mostly my sister). In order to fit everybody, we rented a suburban which was fun to drive and it entertained the kids with the dvd player. We spent Friday and Saturday at a super nice hotel in Honolulu. They gave us lei's and juice and banana bread and mints. Rachel, my sister, came along to babysit so that I could accompany Thayne to some of his dental events. One of my favorite events was the luau that dentsply threw for the student clinicians. I'm pretty sure it was one of the most expensive if not the most expensive meal I've ever had. They gave us another lei and invited the clinicians and their families to the luau so Rachel got to partake of the goodness with us.
I love the beach in Hawaii. It is so beautiful but so powerful. Thayne and Tyson both had some scarey rolls with the waves. Tyson fell down while chasing the waves and rolled a few times. He had no fear of the ocean until it got the better of him. Poor Tyson! He was so scared.Thayne was boogey boarding and also rolled a few times from the waves. He thought he was paralyzed at first but only hurt his back, got a black eye, and a few scrapes on his face. (The picture doesn't really do him justice)

Hawaii: part 1- traveling

2009-10-08T17:32:00.000-07:00

Thayne, Tyson, and I traveled to Hawaii last week for a dental conference that Thayne was presenting research at. Tyson did really well on MOST of the flights. The first flight we got on Tyson got motion sickness and threw up everywhere. They cleared out the row behind us and the row we were sitting in. Then during our layover he blew out of his diaper and I learned that I should have packed him more than one extra pair of clothes. He wandered around in his diaper and shirt for the rest of the day. He was very entertaining in LA during our layover. He would crawl beside the stroller and people kept asking us how old he was. I'm sure they thought our child couldn't walk. Tyson found a ramp and ran up and down the ramp for about an hour. The first 30 minutes Thayne and I joined in but he quickly wore us out. Melatonin worked to help Tyson take a nap on the plane. (Tyson doesn't sleep when he can see people.) Other than those incidents Tyson did awesome. We got a few comments that he was the best behaved toddler. However, when we got home he wouldn't sleep the next night. His schedule is still whacked. Hopefully the 6 hour time difference will work itself out soon.

Maid of the mist

2009-09-09T16:15:00.001-07:00

My parents didn't use their maid of the mist tickets when they were here so we got to use them. We went the after the first day of school for Thayne so he was tired but it was so much fun! I really think Canada got the better deal with the falls. It's so beautiful on their side and the falls are way cooler.

Tier olympics

2009-09-09T16:10:00.000-07:00

Rain was POURING during the dental school olympics. They played anyways. Tyson loved running around in the rain but after a while I was sick of chasing him around in the rain so we sat in the car. Thayne's team won. He looks so happy in this picture. (They only had to win 2 games because of the rain.)

End of summer fun!

2009-09-09T15:46:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged in a while. I guess I feel that after Disney World nothing else compares. Looking back we've done some fun things. Tyson got to go to a couple different splash pads for playgroup. I love his face in this picture but usually he was more interested in the playground than the water.

We ate lots of hamburgers and had lots of BBQs.

Tyson loves to play with his buddies and he is starting to get excited when he sees his friends.

Our church had a campout that was fun. We went canoeing and Thayne went sailing with Tyson.

A friend took me to this awesome park and so I took Thayne one night. Thayne didn't believe just how awesome it was until he was there. They have this awesome waterfall and some very aggressive ducks. Tyson enjoyed eating the food we brought for the ducks.

My little boy is growing up

2009-09-09T15:40:00.000-07:00

Tyson is learning to do new things every day. He plays ring a round the rosie, colors (kind of), puts his puzzles together, shakes hands, gives hi fives and bones/knuckles, eats hamburgers all by himself,

dances, sings, and can start his movies without any help. Most of the time he's quite delightful but he certainly has days when he's not. We sure love him!

Vacation Part 2 - Happiest place on earth

2009-08-06T15:33:00.000-07:00

We had such a good time at Disney World. It was especially fun that we were there with Scott, Heather, Ryley, and Piper. They made the whole trip possible and we had so much fun. We'd love to go on another vacation with them. We started out the week at the Orlando Temple and the church across the street from the temple. Then on Monday we went to Typhoon Lagoon in the morning and Magic Kingdom at night. Tyson looks so grumpy in this picture. He loved the water park and usually had this look on his face.Tuesday we went to Epcot. Wednesday we were back at Magic Kingdom where I got to meet one of my college roommates. Thursday we went to Hollywood Studios and Friday we were back at Epcot. I was a little worried about Tyson but he LOVED all the rides. My favorite rides consisted of the Toy Story ride, Tower of Terror, and Soarin. One night Thayne and I were at Magic Kingdom and it was pouring. We had so much fun running around and riding all the rides without waiting in line.

It was hard to get a good picture of Tyson because there was always something cool to look at. He loved the 3D glasses. The 3-D Philharmagic was one of Tyson's favorites but he didn't like the Honey I Shrunk the Audience at Epcot. He peed all over me at the beginning of the 20 minute show and screamed for the rest of it. Why did I have to be sitting in the middle of the Theater?This was one of Tyson's favorite places to hang out. We had a great view of Universal's water park from our Hotel.One of Thayne's favorite things was the car show outside one of the rides at Epcot.Thayne touring the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse at Magic Kingdom.

We were able to visit my cousin Emily on the way to Baltimore and on the way home. Her family is so cute!
We had a great vacation and I'm looking forward to going again when Tyson is a little older!

Vacation Part 1 - Maryland

2009-08-06T07:28:00.000-07:00

We had so much fun on vacation this year. We started off by driving to Maryland. While there we went to the DC Temple, went to DC, went to the park, went to a little kids petting farm and playplace, went rock climbing, swimming, and worked out. We visited my sister and parents but spent most of our time with Thayne's family. We went out to eat a couple of times. My personal favorite being the delicious korean BBQ. It was easily the best korean food since I've been home from my mission. Yum yum! Look at all that delicious food. Thayne and I are so grateful for loving families.

Chuck E Cheese's

2009-08-04T07:24:00.000-07:00

Thayne finished his boards and I told him that he could choose somewhere to go celebrate. He chose to go to Chuck E. Cheese's. Tyson has recently gotten to the age where he is really tough at restaurants. Thayne didn't feel like fighting with Tyson so he decided on something a little more kid friendly.

Eternal Flame

2009-08-04T07:18:00.000-07:00

The day before Thayne took his board exams we went and did a little hiking to help get his mind off the test. We hiked to see the Eternal Flame. It was a beatiful little hike. It's too bad I got the directions off the internet and they got us totally lost. We finally had to stop and ask somebody for directions.

Grandma and Grandpa visit

2009-07-15T05:52:00.000-07:00

We've had a busy month of July. My parents came to visit for the last 3 1/2 weeks. Tyson loved the attention and Thayne and I loved the company and all the free babysitting. We did so many different things. We went to the zoo a couple of times. We went to the mall and to story time. Tyson's favorite part was the escalator riding. We had a fun father's day. Of course we went to Niagara Fall's and Palmyra a couple of times. The Palmyra Pageant got rained out so we only got to see half of the pageant. We ran into my cousin Ben's family and a friend from our freshman ward. That's one of my favorite parts about being so close to pageant - we run into so many friends. We went strawberry picking. Tyson loves strawberries. We went to the movies, to dinner, and mini golfing. My dad and I spent a week refinishing our hardwood floors and painting the pink garage (with some help from the young men in the ward). We went to Fort Erie and had a BBQ on the beach.

We played a lot of spades and settlers. We also continued to train for a 5k. After my parents left, Tyson had his friend Brielle sleepover while her parents went to Toronto for a night. They had a lot of fun. I felt like we had twins. Tyson does not share very well with her and is starting to show attitude.Thayne takes his first set of dental boards this Thursday and we leave for Maryland on Friday and then to disneyworld next week. Wahoo!!!! I'm so excited.

Why is mommy cooler than daddy?

2009-07-04T12:33:00.000-07:00

Because when mommy is around, look what I get to play with! Here's how we play dressup when daddy is around.

Who knew a cemetary could be so fun?

2009-07-04T12:28:00.000-07:00

Recently we went to Forest Lawn Cemetary on a Sunday afternoon when we were looking for a nice walk. Little did we know that it was the coolest cemetary EVER! Here's a few pictures of President Milliard Fillmore's grave. We're going to take my dad tomorrow and he's going to love it!

Daddy the dentist

2009-06-11T18:48:00.001-07:00

Thayne is officially my dentist. I went in for my first 2 appointments lately. He did a great job. I still have another appointment left (he found a cavity). So far after 5 hours at the dentist my teeth are officially clean. It takes forever at the dental school. They do everything at least twice and there's lots of down time. He's worked so hard to get to this point. He was very gentle and professional. It was really weird when he would ask about my medical history. It was hard to keep serious when he would ask things like "Do you smoke?" or "Do you have an STD?"

Here we are with our camera man Brent. It's all seriousness at the dental school.

Funny boy

2009-06-11T18:28:00.000-07:00

Tyson has been getting funnier and funnier lately. He loves to put on daddy's sunglasses (which he broke last week along with our VCR) and our shoes. He also carries around daddy's BYU (go BYU!!) hat. He is such a funny boy.Recently we visited Cindy, our realtor. Cindy has dogs instead of grandkids. Tyson found one of the dogbones and would let the dog chew on the end of the bone. Then he would chew on it himself. Mmmmm. . . yummy! :)

We had fun at Daddy's dental school BBQ. Tyson loved looking at the boats in the marina. Okay, so I think we actually enjoyed it more.

Tyson's food ended up in my lap. He sneaks food under the table when he doesn't like what he is given. He doesn't think we see him. He is one sneaky boy!Daddy made wiffy breakfast in bed. I know I'm on the couch. I had to wake up early with Tyson who was teething and wouldn't sleep unless I was holding him. I end up on the couch when I have to get up and help Tyson in the middle of the night. Luckily it doesn't happen very often. He's usually a great sleeper.

We have been to so many birthday parties lately! Tyson has had so much fun playing with all his friends on their special day. The last party we went to was for his friend Hayden. He got his first sucker and birthday hat.

Here is Tyson with Hayden at our favorite grocery store. Wegman's gives you a balloon and cookie and lets you drive the car. Tyson loves it. He is so happy in his little car.

new diapers = plumber pants

2009-06-11T18:23:00.000-07:00

I've been a diaper snot ever since Tyson was born. I would only buy pampers. Tyson would leak out of everything else. Recently I decided to try cheaper diapers. They have worked fine (most of the time) except for they just don't fit as well. As a result this is the scene around our house lately. I love his little bum!

Camping!

2009-05-24T19:07:00.000-07:00

We were able to camp with some friends this weekend. We almost didn't end up going because it was memorial day weekend and we couldn't find a campsite. We were able to get one at the last minute and go with some fun friends. Tyson is all boy. He loved getting dirty and wanted to play in the fire. Our friends had this cute little chair that he couldn't figure out how to get out of. I kept putting him in it so he would quit eating dirt and rocks.
He looks so cute in his little chair.

Tyson loved the tent.
We weren't "roughing" it while camping. Our campground had a park and a pool. It's not my idea of camping but it was the only thing we could find. If Tyson could talk, I'm pretty sure he would tell you it was the best day of his life.

The next morning we went to hike around some swamplands. It was pretty cool. There were tons of cool creepy, crawly things and lots of vegetation. This next picture is one of my favorites of Tyson and I.

Fun in the sun

2009-05-24T18:58:00.000-07:00

We've been having so much fun at the Gardner household. Thayne hasn't had a lot of homework this semester so when he gets home from school or done with studying for the boards we get to play with daddy. One of my favorite things we've done is when we borrowed the Moeller's bikes and went biking. We've also gone on lots of walks, visited friends, visited PetSmart, gone to the mall and the zoo, camped, and ate a lot of ice cream.

This is a picture of daddy and Tyson watching Cars with Tyson's stuffed animals. Aren't they adorable?

Here's two of Tyson's favorite pals. These three boys are so fun! Notice there are two cars and Tyson has both of them. I wonder who is going to be a bully!

I hate throw up

2009-05-24T18:44:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid I would get really car sick. To this day there are foods that I don't like and don't eat because I threw them up as a kid (for example - donuts). I was a bit worried that Tyson was taking after his mother last week. He threw up in the car three days in a row! It was horrible. I was afraid that I'd never get the smell out of the car. Thank goodness for baking soda. He seemed fine until we would get in the car and then breakfast, lunch, and dinner would come up and there is no way that his stomach is as small as his fist. The worst was when we were taking a couple of Young Women to the temple. The throw up was even on their dresses! I started carrying a pitcher around with us. We would even practice. I would pretend that he would start to gag and I would grab the pitcher and shove it in his face. Tyson thought it was hilarious. I couldn't capture his smiling on camera.

Tyson's one year stats

2009-05-11T07:37:00.000-07:00

Tyson one years stats were taken on April 8th so these are a bit out dated
Height: 29 3/4" (50th percentile)
Weight: 21 lbs and 7.5 oz (30th percentile)
Head circumference: 18 1/4 in
Tyson was really happy when we were at the doctors office. The doctor kept saying he was as perfect. I'm sure he was saying that for my benefit so that we'd keep coming back but Tyson was performing and showed them all his tricks. They needed a blood sample and Tyson's blood wouldn't flow. They kept poking him and it took about 20 minutes to get the small sample they needed. Poor Tyson. He cried and cried.
Tyson is into EVERYTHING these days. I love his little personality. He's happy almost all the time and sleeps and eats so well. Here's what Tyson found this week at playgroup while exploring the playground. Mom stopped him before the beer bottle touched his lips.
As of yesterday, he has taken a couple of steps. He stands up all the time now while not holding on to anything but hasn't gotten very much farther than that. He tried his first Buffalo wing a couple of weeks ago. I don't think he liked it. He seems to have his mom's taste buds. He loves all the food that I love. It's pretty funny. If I like it, then most likely Tyson likes it too. What a good boy! He copies us all the time now. It's pretty funny. Last night we had friends over for dinner and he would copy one of them. He folds his arms and bows his head for 2 seconds or so for prayer time. He loves the attention he gets and he puts on quite a show. He dances, sings, reads, loves to share, plays peek a boo, likes to be chased, and loves when mommy reads to him in funny voices. We love our little man.

Tyson's first hair cut

2009-05-11T07:32:00.001-07:00

Some would argue that Tyson didn't need a haircut (that hair was really tough to grow)! Others refused to let their son grow a mullet so Tyson got his first hair cut this week. He looks so grown up in these pictures. I didn't take a lot off the top but the back lost all of his beautiful locks. :(