A New Milestone...

This may seem trivial or pointless to most people, but in our home Tyler eating something "new" is a BIG deal. So yesterday we had a simple, relaxed evening. Nothing formal for dinner, (although we almost always have dinner around the table every day) I just made some chicken nuggets for Tyler and grilled chicken for Tory and I. I was washing some strawberries for Chase and thought "how can a kid not like strawberries?" Sure the tiny seeds might throw you off at first, and some strawberries can be quite tart, but I was feeling very optimistic at the thought of offering some to Tyler. So I grabbed one strawberry and one carrot stick and went to the table.

I figured my chances were better if I cut up the strawberry into pieces and offered them with a fork, (nothing cold and wet to touch). And to my surprise, after offering it to him about 3 times he opened his mouth and reluctantly ate a bite! The taste was obviously a little shock at first, but tolerable. Carrots took a little more coaxing, but he did eventually take a few bites of the carrot.

In the end, Tyler ate one whole strawberry and almost a whole carrot stick.(Chase pretending to be a bunny wanting lots of carrots helped encourage Tyler). Plus, the whole experience was done with no screaming or forcing involved, and that is another big deal!

May 12, Tyler's 4th Birthday

My little Tyler turned 4 yesterday. We waited all day for Dad and Grandma and Grandpa Harris to get off work so we could have a party.

This was my attempt at a Wall-E finding a "bike" in a pile of garbage (garbage being granola bars).

I was so proud of him he actually blew out all his candles all by himself, which he couldn't do last year.

I got him some "Pop-Out" books in hopes he will sit better during church if his books are more interactive.



The cheapest little present seems to be the favorite: a glowing, spinning ball on a stick; under $2 at Toys R Us.

Grandma and Grandpa got him dinosaurs!! And to no surprise he knew at least half of them, Stegosaurus, Triceratops, Ankilosaurs, exct. His favorite is the one that walks and roars, which went to bed with him last night along with the glowing Ball stick.

We finally got him a bike (Lightning McQueen). He has been riding a little tricycle around that we got for Chase's 3rd birthday. He's defiantly ready for a bike. He is tall and growing fast. I'm so grateful for this little angel in my life, and I'm grateful that my Heavenly Father trusts me with Him. I love my little Ty-Ty. Happy Birthday little boy.

May 1st: Our Day Hike

Tory planned a nice little family hike for us on May 1st. So that morning we got up and packed some lunches and got dressed and packed our gear, the we met the Mitchell family at the church.
Cory and Tory like to do the out-door's things together once in a while. And Tina and I like to hang out a lot.
Cory and Tin have 2 boys, Ben and Dallon. Ben is in the same Primary class as Chase. Dallon is about a year younger than Tyler.

We went on a short mile (maybe mile and a half) hike by Camel's Back Park, down town Boise.

We parked one car at the bottom of the hill and piled in the van and went up the the top. There was a little nature walk where we started.

about half way down, there was a pond with a small beach where the boys could throw some rocks.

Then about 3/4 way there was ha large sand hill that looked fun, but too steep for my taste!

The little boys kept up pretty good. I had to carry Tyler occasionally, but that wasn't so bad.

We all had a lot of fun!

Tina refused to let us take any pictures of her.



When we finally made ti to the bottom of the hill we had a picnic.

Then we crossed a field to the park and let the kids play for a while. The whole experience only took about 2 hours including eating and play time. We had a lot of fun.

Thanks Tory for keeping our life exciting!

I'm a Believer...

Wow... Ok, I've been reading this book (no, not Twilight AGAIN...) called Master Your Metabolism. and I'm loving it. The whole book is about getting back to the basics with food. Balanced diet, Whole fruits, whole veges, whole grains, exct. and also reasons to "go organic"



I never though I would spend the extra money to get organic foods, but Julian backed it up with all the scientific and medical reasons why it's a good Idea... and this isn't even the reason I'm making this post....



She also talks about how bad pesticides, and house hold cleaners are for you. and about certain plastics that leak toxins. So today I wanted to I wanted to do a really thorough cleaning of my tub and shower and tile and the spots that are appearing on the ceiling above the shower. So I decided to try so suggestions given in this book (Master Your Metabolism) using natural cleaners.



So I started with the ceiling with vinegar and water. About a minute into my overhead scrubbing I got a drop of vinegar water in my eye! OUCH that burns!! But I quickly flushed out my eye under the running sink water then flushed it out with some natural tear eye drops that I had left over from the last eye injury (scratching my eye ball on the Christmas Tree.) I'm grateful it was vinegar and not Clorox soft scrub.

So I stopped with the ceiling and decided to get some protective goggles before I continued overhead. I scrubbed the tile with it also, then decided I would try lemon juice on my grout. The book says it has natural bleaching effects... I was shocked how clean it got!!! usually I have to scrub with a lot of effort to get it to look half clean... lemon did twice the job with half the work. AMAZING!!

So I'm a believer. Natural cleaners; they're cheep and they work!

Family Pictures...

We finally had our pictures updated!

I love them...

I wish we got a few more smiles out of Tyler.

These are a few of our favorites...

I'll get a slide show on here with the rest of them on my next post, but for now here is what I have time to put up.

Last weekend Tory and I were organizing all our Tax information papers which left us with a stack for shredding...

Camrey loves paper, and found the stack! Not a big deal, but She is so cute we had to take pictures.

I love this little girl; She is a pure joy! Seriously, the only time she cries is to let you know that she is tired and ready for her nap, which is usually after she has been awake for about 2 and a half hours.


She goes to bed around 8:30 and sleeps 10-11 hours at night. She has been sleeping through the night since she was 3 weeks old. She's not crawling yet but that doesn't stop her from getting where she wants to go. Rolling is highly effective. I am so blessed to have such an easy baby!