Oh, the trama....

Tyler is really struggling with sleeping. Some nights it is really hard to get him to go to sleep and then he always wakes up in the middle of the night and comes in with us. Before he used to have me rock him to sleep and then he would be good until he woke up and came in with us, but now he goes from rocking to "I want to lay in my own bed" to "I didn't go to sleep as fast as I thought I would so I want to go and rock again" to an hour later I am still trying to get Tyler to go to sleep ---- AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH! It is driving me nuts. I try to make him stay in his bed and then he cries so hard that he makes him self throw up, no fun at all. I don't really know what to do any more...maybe I am trying to put him to bed too early when he is not tired enough? Who knows. I will have to try to let him stay up longer and see if that helps. Really, he needs to learn to sleep better - for the sake of us all!

On a different note, we have been having some crazy weather. We had some awesome fog come in one night from no where. It came in so fast and was so thick. So we got out the camera and got some cool pictures. We don't usually see tons of fog, especially at night, so it was fun to see it so thick.

Luckily, now we are just having cold weather. The air was so bad for so long I hated going outside and letting Tyler play. He loves it outside, but I worried about our health. I did take him on a couple walks during the icky air weeks and I totally could tell a difference. I think that made us both a lot sicker then we would have been. But then the storm came and took all the bad air away...and now it is just cold. I think that if it is going to be cold, then it should snow. Then at least it is pretty and cold. I really do like the snow, it hasn't snowed much lately though. Okay that is boring...

Jazz Game

On Tuesday Tony, Tyler, and myself went to a Jazz game with my sister Sherri and her husband Richard. Richards brother, Mark Madsen, plays for the Timberwolves and so he was able to get us some tickets for the game. It was tons of fun. We met up with Sherri and Richard at the Trax station and then took Trax down to the ESA (I still totally think of it as the Delta Center). That was Tyler's first time on Trax and he really enjoyed the ride.
Once we got there we had to pick up the tickets from Will Call, and then we headed to our seats. We had really good seats on the side behind the basketball hoop. We even had the blow up things that you whack together to distract the player trying to make a free throw. At first I was really worried that Tyler would get bored and restless, but he did really good. He LOVED playing with the blow up sticks and climbing in and out of his seat. He loves balls and did really good watching part of the game. We were close enough that he could see the players playing really well and pointed out the ball a lot.
It was a really close game too. Mark didn't get to play, so that was too bad, but we did get to go and talk with him after the game. That was fun to wait around and see some of the players. We had to put on special stickers that allowed us to stay there after the game. We had met Mark before and he is always such a nice guy. After that we went back to the Trax and went home. It was a really fun night and we are way thankful to Sherri and Richard for thinking of us and letting us go and see the game.

Being sick sucks!

I really don't enjoy being sick, but what I really HATE is when Tyler is sick. Usually Tyler is the one that picks up the sickness and then passes it on the me so that we can be sick together. He's a good sharer. It is probably my own fault, who can stop kissing and loving on their baby just because they are sick? No one!
Tyler and I have been sick with a stupid cold for the past couple of weeks. It started out not too bad and totally under control, but then it got worse. Tyler spiked a really high fever and was just not happy. So I took him to the doctors on Wednesday and she said that she thinks that this might be two separate colds. She checked his ears (which is the main reason we went to his doctors, to check for an ear infection) and she said that one of his ears looked red. He hates getting his ears checked so he always cries a lot when she does it. So she said it didn't look way bad, but that we should treat the infection. So we got some medicine, which he has hated taking and we practically have to gag it down is throat. It is so much fun -- okay not really. But I am happy to say after a couple really bad days, he is starting to feel better. I didn't have to give him any Motrin yesterday or today.
I must say that I am so thankful for Tony and his priesthood. Tyler was hurting so bad and just so upset one night and Tony gave him a blessing (which was not easy because he kept moving all over the place and screaming) and then within maybe 10-15 minutes he had calmed down. You don't realize what a blessing it is having a healthy child until they are sick. So Tyler and I are slowing, but surely starting to feel better. Luckily, knock on wood, Tony has not gotten sick from us and hopefully it will stay that way.

Odds and Ends

We have been working on our house for a long time now. We moved in five years ago and have been busy making things more up to date. Most of the major stuff is done, but each room upstairs still has some odds and ends that need to be done to "finish" the room. We have decided to work on the kitchen first, since that is the room we just redid. We need to do some quarter round on the bottom of the cabinets and new window seals where their is currently ugly tile. We also bought some handles and knobs to put on the cabinets.
In the other rooms we are going to put up crown molding and put in a new fire place cover that small children can't play with. We would also like to put in closet organizers in some of the closets. It will be really nice when those things are all done. Don't get me wrong, I love my house and the things that Tony has already done, but those finishing touches with just be the icing on the cake. We just have to take things one room at a time and as we can afford to do things. Tony's parents gave a gift card to Home Depot for Christmas, so that got us the crown molding for the front room and the handles and knobs for the kitchen cabinets. Thank you to them for helping us make our house better. Plus all this gives Tony a good reason to use his new miter saw that I bought him!

Snow days are fun days

It snowed a couple of inches last night so we decided to enjoy it before it got too cold and Tyler had a wonderful time. He just loves being outside. It doesn't matter the weather with that kid. Tony and I had fun watching him walk on all the neighbors snow and make such cute little foot prints every where. It was only about 27 degrees and he didn't seem to mind at all. He really wanted to play basketball, he kept saying "ball...ball" and pointing to the hoop that we have outside. It is way too big for Tyler, but we are planning on getting him one more his size for his birthday in March - if he can wait that long. We finally got tired of being outside and then came back into the warmth. Now Tyler is sleeping like a baby and we are enjoying some quiet time. I really do love this time of year.

Find of the year...

We have been looking for a play set for Tyler to play with for a while now. We started looking in the summer, but everything was too expensive for us to buy. We saw this cute Clubhouse set at Sam's Club for $500. That was just too much money to justify spending on a play set. So we have been checking KSL.com in their classified section to see if we could buy a used play set. It seemed like every time something perfect for Tyler would come along, someone else would buy it first. So we decided to go to Sam's Club two days before Christmas to see if any of their toys were on sale yet. We didn't really find any toys, but we found this Clubhouse set for $225. It sales for $600 online. We couldn't pass up that kind of deal. So we bought it and then Tony borrowed his parents truck and took it home.
We decided to only set up the right third of the play set, with the slide, in our computer room and then put the green climber in the opening. Tyler LOVES it. He is having so much fun with it, I just can't wait until summer to set the whole thing up outside. That will be a fun day at the Steenblik house. So it pays to wait. It says that it is for 2 - 8 years of age, so it will last our family a long time before we then need to upgrade to something bigger (well knowing Tyler it will probably only be a couple years before he is needing something larger). We also went back to Sam's Club a couple days after Christmas and got a tricycle for like $20 off. Most the time we aren't huge Sam's Club fans, but sometimes it is the best. Oh yeah, Happy New Years!

A Very Merry Christmas

Christmas has come and gone. It was a very good Christmas. Not because we got a lot of things, though we did gets some nice things, but because we got to spend time with friends and family and watch Tyler enjoy the season. With every door bell ring from a neighbor bringing a gift, Tyler would get so excited to run to the door. It didn't matter who it was or if they were bringing something, but just a visitor was so much fun to him. I should be more like that.


The week started nice and quiet, but then on Christmas Eve the merriment started. My family has a tradition of going to a movie on Christmas Eve every year and it has always been one that I have enjoyed. This year, however I knew that Tyler wasn't ready to sit through a whole movie and since Tony had to work I said that I wasn't going to go. My sister, Julie, has a 4 year old and a 18 month old, so I told her that I would watch the little one so that she could go to the movie. Tyler and Hayden had a fine time playing together. Neither of them like to take naps when the other is there, so when Tony got back from work he tried to rock them both to sleep. Not too surprising that Tony is the one who feel asleep and the two boys are both awake watching Sesame Street. What a good babysitter he is.

Later that afternoon we then went to my parents house for a yummy Christmas dinner. My Grandpa Willis was there with Anna, and it was nice to see them. We ate and then we had to head over to the Steenblik's for the Kresser family party. Their was some food (which we were too full to enjoy) and lots of family. The kids exchanged gifts and then the adults had a white elephant game. They are always the best at this party because their are so many of us and they always bring funny things. Then Tony's mom gave Tyler some P.J.'s and we headed home.

The next morning Tyler was very excited to see all the gifts under the tree. It didn't take him very long to know what to do and to start opening the gifts. He did a pretty good job of unwrapping and being excited about the actual present. Normally in my family we do stockings first and then the presents, but Tyler wanted to open the big stuff first. I guess we will have to work on that tradition next year. After we were all done with gifts, we got ready and headed over to my parents house for breakfast. Once we got there we handed out our presents to them and they opened them and we opened what we received. Then we helped make breakfast and ate. After the Clarks house, we moved on to the Steenbliks. We hung out for a while and then once Tony's sister and her family came we did the presents. It was fun and we all got some nice things. We were all pooped after that so we decided to go home and put Tyler to bed. Then we just hung out at our house the rest of the day. It was very nice. We all had a great holiday and we are very grateful for the generosity of our family, friends, and neighbors.

Fun Holiday Weekend

This past weekend was tons of fun. On Friday we went to a friends party with our friends from high school. There happened to be a huge snow storm that day and it was quite slow going to get to Sara's house in Herriman. But luckily we made it just fine. We enjoyed good food, good company and an awesome White Elephant game. We did miss a bunch of our friends, so hopefully we can see them next year.

On Saturday I went to sister-in-laws (Amy's) baby shower at Margie's house. It was lots of fun to see those that came. Not too many of the family came, maybe because of the weather or because it was the Saturday before Christmas -- they missed out. We had some yummy lunch and then we got to see Amy open the gifts with all the cute baby stuff. She is due in January and we will have yet another boy in the family. Later that night we went to the Steenblik family dinner. It was really fun too. We got to see a lot of the Steenblik clan and eat some more food - tis the season. We had to leave early to get Tyler to bed, but Tony's late grandma had bought Christmas gifts for everyone, so we were given ours. Their gifts are always....how you say...interesting. But it is the thought that counts.

We don't have much more planned until Christmas Eve. Which is really good. We need a break and Tyler needs life to be normal for a while before all the craziness of Christmas. We are excited to enjoy Christmas with our families and can't wait to see Tyler open his gifts. What a wonderful time of the year to give to others and to remember the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Tony's Graduation

Tony graduated from Utah State University this past Saturday morning. I am so very proud of him, he looked so very hansom in his cap and gown. We drove up to Logan on Friday after Tony got back from work. We took Tony's brother and his wife (Nate and Amy) our glider chair, so we stopped by their house first. After we dropped it off, we all went to returns some books. Tony had about 12 books and they only took half of them back for a whopping $93. Yeah, we're rich. After that we went to check into the hotel, but I wanted to visit the people at the DFCU branch in Logan. So we stopped there first, deposited our riches and then visited with the employee's that I know there. It was good to see them, it has been a long time. Then we left to go to the hotel. It was just across the street from the credit union and Tony just went in to check us in.

Then we went to dinner with Nate and Amy. We had some coupons for IHOP, so we went there. It was pretty good. Then we went back to our hotel and went swimming. The pool was nice, a little chilly, but fun. We pretty much had the place to our selves. After about a half an hour Tyler was done. So we went to our room and hung out there for the rest of the night.

A storm was suppose to come in that night, and boy did it come. When we woke up their was about 3-4 inches on the ground and still coming down strong. The hotel had breakfast for us (always a treat) so after that we got ready and checked out. I drove so that I could drop Tony off and at a building different from where the ceremony was going to be because they had to walk there (in a snow storm....lucky them). It was SO scary driving around town, but we made it there safely.
Tyler and I found a good place to park and went and got seats. Nate came a little later and then Tony's mom, dad, and sister (with baby Gabe) came after that. They drove up from Murray in the snow storm. I know that meant a lot to Tony to have them there, so it was awesome that they made it.
The ceremony didn't take too long, only about an hour. Since it was the winter graduation their were a lot less people. After it was over we went and had a really nice lunch, thanks to Tony's parents. Then we stopped at Nate's place again for a break and then headed home. The weather was much better by that time, thank goodness.
Later that night we went to The Golden Corral with the Elders Quorum and that was lot of fun too. All in all it was a great weekend and I am very proud of Tony for sticking it out and getting his degree. I love him very much and I know that he will continue to do great things!

Some people are so nice...

Yesterday while at work I had a fellow employee come up to me and he said that he heard that I was leaving the credit union. I told him no, but then he told me that he wanted to make sure that I knew how much my friendliness has meant to him. How my Hello's had made his day and made him feel better. He works in the maintenance department and he is an older gentleman, and is a little different. He has had many trials and hard times so I have always tried to be nice and say "Hi". It was really nice of him to go out of his way to let me know how much that meant to him. You do things and try to make people feel special, and it was really nice to know that it does make a difference. So thank you Fritz for being so nice to me.

On a different note, on Saturday Tony, Tyler, and I went to the BYU vs. USU basketball game at the ESA. It was way fun. I wasn't sure how well Tyler would do, but he had a great time. He got restless with about 3 minutes left to go -- not bad at all. He would clap and cheer and say "Go, go, go", it was so cute. He really loves sports so he loved watching the game.

The USU fans came out to represent. Their were tons of them. They must have had buses that came down from Logan. They cheered and were SO loud, it sounded more like a USU home game then an away game for both teams. One thing that I didn't like is that they would chant that certain people sucked, or would boo people. I just don't think that is necessary. Cheer for your own team and be a good sport to the other team. Maybe I am just getting old, but that is just not right.