Tyler's B-day

I can't believe I have a 5 year old! I remember the day he was born, I started to cry thinking that he would soon be leaving me for college. At the time, I was able to laugh it off as crazy emotions, but now I am realizing I was right. The years have passed too quickly.

This was a big year for you, Tyler! You have really begun to read well. You love looking at bus stop numbers, doing your workbooks, getting stickers on your charts, and watching Avatar with Dad. You are a huge help to me as you have started to walk your dishes to the kitchen counter, put your clothes in the hamper, and bathe yourself. You are so great with Austin. I can trust you to keep an eye on him for a few minutes.

You have started kindergarten and love everything about it. You are on your first soccer team and although you have lost every game so far, you still are excited about it. You have a great zest for life. I love you, buddy!

For your birthday this year, Uncle Aaron was able to come celebrate with us. You got lots of Legos, Transformers, and a Dart gun set. You spent most of the night running around shooting everyone with darts.

Happy Birthday, Ty! We love you!

Birth

1st Birthday
2nd Birthday
3rd Birthday
4th Birthday
5th Birthday

Age Comparison - 6 weeks

I like to see how my boys compare at different times. Here are pictures of each of my boys at about 6 weeks.

Clearly, Austin resembles Tyler quite a bit at this time:

Tyler

Dylan

Austin

Austin's Blessing

Arthur had to travel to a computer graphics conference in New Orleans last week. So, I did not want to spend the entire week alone. I went up to Sacramento to visit family (and get a little help while I could!). We arranged to have Arthur fly into Sacramento after his conference so he could make the drive home with me.

Because we would all be there together and both our families live in Sacramento, we decided to bless Austin. He was calm and content the entire morning. I was able to sit back and enjoy the moment fully. The blessing was wonderful and the spirit was felt very strongly.

My sister and her family were there, but they had church commitments after the blessing. Unfortunately, we did not get pictures with them.

Before church - I wanted to make sure we got a clean picture of Austin in his outfit before the potential sweat and spit up-filled pictures that could be present by the end of the day. Can you tell I have been through this 2 times before?

Just Us:

Arthur's Parents and Us:My Parents and Us:Almost the whole group:Uncle Alvin with my 4 Boys:This was taken about 2 seconds after Austin was placed on the wet grass:3 seconds after being placed on the wet grass:Cute shots of Austin:

A Few of My Favorites this Week

Introducing...

We are proud to announce the arrival of

Austin Tin-yi Shek
June 29, 2009
7 lb. 4 oz
20 inches

Although we had prepared to have Austin join our family on July 5th due to a scheduled induction, his low fluid levels enabled him to come a few days early. After a morning ultrasound appointment, we were asked to report to the hospital within 1 hour! Thankfully, we have a great support system. We rushed to pack our bags, feed and dress Tyler and Dylan, call our parents, call Nicole (thank you, thank you!) to arrange for last minute babysitting, and call for Super Shuttle to pick up Grandma from the airport. We made our entrance into Labor and Delivery within 2 hours of that call.

6 hours of pitocin and 1 push later, Austin was born!

Hammer Pants Dance

I am turning 32 this year - which seems really old. But, watching this video makes me happy. I definitely did not appreciate Hammer Pants at the time, but looking back, I am happy to clearly remember being a teenager when they ruled the dance floor:

Hopes, Dreams & Crime

I was putting the boys to bed tonight. As I was tucking them in, Tyler says to me, "Mom, when I grow up, I want to be a construction worker!"

Dylan sits up in his bed and says, "When I grow up, I want to be a bad guy!"

Baby Prep

This baby is probably going to be born in the next 2-3 weeks. So, I am in Baby-Prep Mode! I have been talking to the boys quite a bit about the new baby. I know they will never really be prepared until he arrives, but I just want to make sure they are in the loop about some of the baby stuff.

Today at lunch, we were talking about how the baby will cry and need to be held. I asked the boys who should hold the baby when he is crying and they both decided it would be best if me and Daddy do that. They were surprised to hear that they could also hold the baby on occasion.

So, the discussion then lead to how they can help the baby.

Dylan immediately said, "I can teach the baby about Lightening McQueen and Chick Hick!"

Tyler followed up with, "I can teach him how to hold hands and look both ways on the street!"

Although most of the time I am fearful for the baby to be brought to our crazy household, it is times like this that I think he could have a chance!

Last Day of Preschool

Today was Tyler's last day of preschool. I can hardly believe that he has already reached this milestone in his life and will soon be off to kindergarten! Why does time go by so fast?

This year, he has grown so much and learned so many new skills. Although, his energy is still through the roof, he can sit still and listen to instruction much better. He plays with groups and expresses himself much more. He still gets overwhelmed in some situations involving large unfamiliar groups, being put on the spot, or unclear instruction, but his maturity and ability to adapt is improving.

His reading has started to take off. He doesn't get as frustrated with new words and works hard at trying to spell. He will come to me with papers full of words that he has written just by sounding them out. Sure, the spelling is usually wrong, but it is a huge step in progress from a few months ago when he wanted nothing to do with reading.

Tyler really loved his teacher. She is one of the most patient people I know. Somehow she was able to get all the kids in the class to behave and listen without uttering a cross word or raising her voice. I was seriously amazed at how much the kids loved her and respected her. Tyler definitely became a different person when he entered her class.

This year, his best friends at school were Sarah, Charlie, Emma, Owen, Joseph, Madison, Jack, and Tay. His teacher taught him all about bees, rolly pollies, the calendar, days of the week, seasons, smells, and so many other things. He learned to blame things on "Mr. Nobody", and cross his fingers when he heard a siren.

Ty - I am so proud to be your mother and get to witness your learning and growth. Congratulations on finishing your final year of Preschool! I can't wait to see how much you love Kindergarten and how much you will learn next year.

Real Camping

After the success of the practice camp out in the back yard, Arthur took Tyler and Dylan to the Father/Son Camp Out that our church has every year. Dylan ended up being almost the youngest son there. He was trumped by a baby (who actually did not fare very well, from what I have heard). The boys behaved well, slept the entire night, and still have not stopped talking about it. Now whenever we drive on the freeway, the boys love to point out the mountains to the north where Daddy took them camping!

Here are a ton of pictures!

Eating a "healthy" dinner

Firearms TrainingBoulder ThrowingDirty Face + Nappy Hair = Happy Sons

"Kleaning" the K'nex

I have so much to post, and will eventually get around to it (hopefully before the baby comes)!

For now, I wanted to share something funny.

I asked Tyler to clean up his K'nex that had been spread across several rooms in our house. After about 5 minutes of total silence, I knew something had to be up. Well, he wasn't exactly cleaning, but he was working hard:

If you click to enlarge to picture, you will see that he replicated the Parts List exactly.

Pretty proud of his work:

Practice Camping

Arthur has been off the hook for taking Tyler on the annual father/son camp out. Tyler really would not have fared well and frankly, I don't think Arthur would have fared very well, either. So, we had decided to wait a few years until we were confident both of them would be able to survive the night without killing each other!

Well, Tyler is almost 5 and has really matured quite a bit in the last few years. Arthur is almost 33 and has also really matured as a father! So, we decided to do a trial run in the back yard to see how they would do. Since the safety of the home was just steps away, Dylan was included in this test as well!

Arthur got home from work really late, so there was not much time to do any official camping activities. Once the tent was set up, it was already dark and time for bed. The kids got their jammies on and loaded up with their trail mix snack. They snuggled into their sleeping bags and then watched Bolt on the portable DVD player. These kids really are spoiled when it comes to "roughing it"!

Despite the constant dog howling, thunder/bombing (not sure what this is), and psycho bird noises we have in our neighborhood, the boys were sound asleep by 10:15. They woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 6:15 in the morning. Although Arthur did not sleep very well, they all had a great night together. As soon as Dylan woke up, he sat up and said, "That was fun camping, Daddy!"

Major props to Arthur for being such a great dad!

Flashlights are clearly only to be used as Lightsabers
Once all the Storm Troopers had been slayed, the boys could nestle safely into their sleeping bags
Enjoying the movie and snack

Easter Hunt

I kept my promise from last year and did not give into the temptation of attending the local Egg Hunt sponsored by the city. Even though the money spent does support a good cause, I just couldn't put the kids through another disappointing egg hunt. So, a few of us decided to get together and plan our own Egg Hunt that would guarantee each child a certain number of eggs per child. Even though the logistics of egg division was a little tricky, it was definitely worth the work!

The bigger kids had to really hunt for their eggs in the lower level of our yard. The Dads really did a good job of hiding them, but then had the task of helping find some of the harder ones.

On the top level, the younger kids had it easy!
Dylan and JulieDylan and Tanner
At one point during the hunt, we looked over and saw buddies Dylan and Tanner enjoying the candy from their eggs together. Those sneaky boys!
After the hunt, we had all the kids gather for a picture (thank you Nicole - I stole this from your blog) and lunch

Nudie Days

Well we have officially started potty training Dylan all over again. After multiple accidents and his constant refusal to tell me when he needs to go, I am at my wits end. So, Arthur suggested we do nudie mode. With Tyler, it was really easy because we just stayed inside for a month while I let him run around naked most of the day. Now that our lives are a bit more busy, I obviously can't keep Dylan nude all day. He has to wear clothing! But, Arthur is right. I think it is the only way. So, Dylan will be nude when we are home.

And I had major progress today! He had just finished 2 cups of milk, so I knew he was primed and ready to go. We were working on letters, and he was shaking and wiggling a ton. But, I didn't ask him if he needed to go. I just sat as if I had no idea he was holding it. The letter-learning took a major downward turn as he was so distracted with holding his bladder. After 10 minutes of wiggle jiggles, I really thought an accident would happen. I mean how long could he put it off? Finally, after 5 unsuccessful attempts at locating the letter K, he had had enough. He looked at me and said, "Mommy, I need to go poo-poo!"

A big "WOO HOO" came out of my mouth! I was so happy to hear those words come out of his mouth! I have learned that there is a big difference between being potty trained and just having a strong bladder. I am really hoping that this will be the trick for him. I just don't want to have to show up at elementary school every 3 hours to take him to the restroom!

P.S. I know it has been a while since I have posted pictures. I do have some stuff to post - I just haven't gotten to it. So, hopefully in the next week I will get some more "fun" posts up here!