Two Years

Lyle,

Today you turn two years old.  TWO.  How in the world did that happen??  You are such a sweet, smart, ornery boy, and we love you more than we could ever say.  Here is what you have been up to lately.

A couple days old

Stats

You are weighing in about 29 pounds.  I don't know how tall you are, but I'm pretty sure you aren't breaking any records in that department!  You wear 2T pants and 3T shirts.

 Books 

"Mickey's ABC's"- You pick out "your letter" the L, "Mama's letter" the M, etc.  You request this book VERY night.  "Ho-Ho" aka "The Night Before Christmas"  Yes, it's April and we still read this book almost every night too.  You love to pick out all the silly things in the pictures.  "Happy Fish"  I am amazed by this.  You can read this book to me, it's awesome!

1 Year Old

Eats

You are still a pretty good eater.  Your favorite food is pancakes.  You would eat them for every single meal.  You also love eggs, tacos, fruit, macaroni, rice, cheese, popcorn, juice, and chocolate milk!  And Candy.  You loooove candy!

Says

You are such a good talker!  Some of my favorite things you say: "Bless you Daddy!" after he sneezes,
"Ohhhhh, ookaaaay!",  "Oh, Sorry Mama!" You will giggle and say this for example if you say the wrong color for something.  It is so cute. "Ah, happen???"  Meaning, what happened?  You sound so concerned when you say this, and it's usually for something silly like the TV went dark after a show ended.

Loves

Singing your ABC's.  I'll ask you during your bath if you want to sing a song with Mama, and you'll say, "ABC'S!!!"  You do pretty good, and make it to about V most of the time. The other day you made it to P and said, "AMEN!"  Mickey-  Your favorite show is still "Mickey Club-a-house."  You sing along and say all the characters names as they show them.  And you do a pretty mean hot-dog-dance!  A few others that you love are Chuggington, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, and Super Why!  You love having a character on your shirt.  Every morning when you get to daycare, you quickly take off your jacket so you can show Paula whether you are wearing Mickey, Spiderman, or Hulk!  Your love of being outside and at the farm has not faded at all.  You would play outside all day if we let you.  Some of your favorite things to do are to play in the sandbox, take gator rides, feed the goats, find sticks, and ride in the tractor.  You also love going to church!  Most mornings you ask, "chuch?" and if we are going, you get the biggest smile, clap your hands, and say "yaaaayyyy!"

Hates

We are hitting a bit of a whiny stage.  It just depends on your mood and how tired you are, or if you are in the mood to listen or not.  We haven't had many big tantrums, so I'm still calling us lucky!

Does

You are getting really good at your puzzles.  Most of the time all your pieces are mixed up and you can figure out what puzzle they go to.  You amaze us at what you can remember.  You are so good at your colors, numbers, and letters.  Your potty training has regressed a bit lately.  We have no idea why, but the accidents have been a lot more frequent lately.  Hoping you get over that quick!

Sleep

You are sleeping in your big boy bed, and most of the time you do pretty good.  If you wake up you come straight to our room to wake us up...so kind of you!  Your typical bedtime is between 8-8:30 pm and you wake up anywhere from 6-7:30 am.  You are still taking an afternoon nap.

What a fun two years we have had with you Lyle!  Happy Happy Birthday!

Life is FUN

We have been having a blast lately.  It seems like April is always filled with lots of fun (even if that means it's also a little crazy and busy!)  Here is our last week or so in iPhone pictures.

Driving the gator out on the farm.  His favorite places to drive are out to the pond or to feed the goats!

 This might be one of my most favorite pictures ever.

At the Wichita State track meet on Friday night watching our cousin Chase throw javelin.  It was a gorgeous night... even though we were out way past our bedtime!   

We even had kettle corn and New Year's cookies from the MCC sale to munch on!  Papa and Grammy were great at keeping Lyle entertained!

Birthday party time!  Riding her new bike!

 Selfies with my nephew!  

 Birthday fun with Gigi!

 Hungry Hungry Hippos!

Birthday Candles.  She shares a birthday with her Daddy!  Happy 3rd Birthday sweet girl!

 Waving palm branches at church

 Sitting so nicely while the other kids sang!  Side note...can you see the girl in the front hitting her sister in the face with her palm branch?? BAH! That is why everyone loves when the kids go up front!!!

And....snow this morning.  It was honestly 85 degrees on Saturday.  

Our next couple weeks include making and serving food at an auction as a fundraiser for the preschool, celebrating Easter, and getting ready to party for Lyle's 2nd birthday!  Woo-hoo!

You've Got Mail!

I recently changed my system for incoming mail, bills, and organization.  Before, I had a table everything got thrown onto.  And then my office was is a disaster so I would never work up the energy to go file anything.  So the table would pile up, both with new mail and things to be filed, giving the potential to pay bills late simply because I didn't know the bill was buried!  It was a mess. 

Table old from Target, Similar

This is my new system.  This spot is steps from our front door, so the mail goes directly here without making any pit-stops.  It's also is in our living room, because I like to sit on the couch to pay our bills.  Family and TV make that task so much more enjoyable!

Magazine File from Target

I realize that you can't read the labels very well, so here they are: Sort, Bills, Kim, and Zach.  Incoming mail goes in the first folder if we don't have time to sort it right away.  The next folder is for bills, so we can see exactly what we have and they don't get buried!  The other two folders are one for Zach and one for me.  Mostly magazine's go in our boxes, but I also put things in my box that I can't quite decide on.  Then the next time I pay bills, I go through my box too, to make sure I didn't miss anything important.  I also keep our budget binder on this table too, so as I'm paying bills I can track them.  We're still working on that process! :)    

 On the shelf is a little box with envelopes, address labels, stamps, extra checks, and pens.  Everything I need in one place!

The folders sit on this table, which is actually a file cabinet.  Once I pay bills they just get filed here without having to step foot in the office! Hah! This file cabinet is pretty small, but the intention is to only keep the current year here, then file them all in our bigger cabinet in the office.  

This change has worked so well for us, and keeps me sane, which is always a plus!   

Welcome Spring!

Spring is officially here.  In Kansas that does not mean that every day is a beautiful 70 degrees and sunny.  Most days that means a ridiculous amount of wind, alternating days of 50 degrees and 75 degrees, tornado warnings, and quite possibly a snowstorm still.  BUT when the warm days start outnumbering the cold ones, and when you can get away most days with a jacket instead of a coat, spring is HERE!

This winter was the longest winter EVER.  Maybe because I've never had a toddler who loved to be outside more than anything in the entire world.  But we finally can play outside again after work and I am loving it.

The past couple weeks have been filled with a trip to Botanica with my family, barbecues with friends, chasing bunnies on the farm, and lots of gator rides.

Here's a few pictures from our outside shenanigans.