Merry Christmas, (a little late)

HOLY COW SANTA CAME!! Tyson didn't think that Santa would find us, (seeing as how we had a quick change of plans and ended up in Manassa, Colorado for Christmas) but luckily the man in the big red suit came through.
A QUICK BACK UP................................................................................
Yes, you heard it right, we were not in Michigan for Christmas. Vaughn has been back west on interviews for residency and had been staying with his parents in between two interviews. During this time his brother, Trey, gets his mission call to El Salvador and wants the whole family to come out to see him one last time before he goes. So, the kids and I put the breaks on our plans out here and quickly rearranged to head to Colorado. I had to get on a plane with the two kiddos by myself, something I never want to do again. But I survived and so did the kids. To make a long story short, we got there and had Christmas and got to see Trey one last time before he leaves.Me and the kiddos opening up gifts. Taryn loved the fact that she could rip the paper off of the presents and it was ok.

Santa brought her a Princess Purse with all the amenities.

Daddy helping his daughter open up a gift.

Hey Pretty Girl. She loved showing off her new sun glasses that came with the purse. Do you like the hair??

Papa Jackson gave Tyson a BB gun for Christmas. He thought it was cool. He is a pretty good shot, I might add. Takes after his mom on that one.

Even though Uncle Trey is leaving for 2 years he still give himself a puppy for Christmas. Taryn loved the puppy and wanted to play with it all hours of the day.

Tyson and the haul of presents. Now just remember that I have to get back on a plane and fly home with all of this stuff. Christmas was great and when we get home to Michigan we will have another Christmas with the gifts we couldn't fit into the suit cases. YES!!

Children's Museum

Today was deemed, A NECESSARY PLAY DAY, by mother and children alike. I decided that since we have been to crazy just doing all kinds of things, that it was time for a relaxing, fun, play day. I took the kids up to Flint, MI to go exploring at the Children's Museum there. It was the neatest place I have ever been. The whole place was all hands on, teaching all kind of science, math, and people skills. Here is Tyson learning about magnets.

All around the place they had these little circular chairs. Taryn had to sit on every one of them. This place was designed for children ages 1-10. It was so nice to just let her go and not to have to worry about her touching something she isn't supposed to. She could play with everything and she loved it.

This was an organ made out of PVC pipe. You used the sole of a shoe and hit the rings to make music. What kid doesn't like beating on something to make noise....I know I had a ball doing this.

This was my favorite room. The second you stepped into the room it started to make noises. The ground was rigged with these pressure points and if you stepped on them they made music. The acoustics in the room where awesome and so the kids ran around and around making their own array of music.

They also had a theater room with dress up clothes, and then a big TV where you could watch yourself perform.

Taryn found this jeweled king's seat and wanted to pick off the jewels. She sat here for about 15 minutes trying to un-stick the jewels.

They had a lot of stations where the kids learned about their bodies and hygiene.

This was our favorite part of the whole museum. As Tyson peddled, the skeleton in the glass box mimicked his movements. He loved making "Mr. Bones" move and Taryn loved to help out in the process.

Can you believe that they even had a climbing wall at this place? Tyson climbed until his hands gave out.

They even had this special room just for toddlers with all these tunnels for Taryn to go through. She thought it was great and it got better when Tyson decided to chase her through the tunnels.

If there are books anywhere, my daughter will find them. She loves to be read to and so she took out every book, sat down, and wanted me to read them all to her.

They even had these real fire trucks, mini helicopters and buses to pretend play on. Tyson enjoyed the fire truck. He is concentrating really hard on driving.

This place also came complete with a full fledged pretend shopping store with working cash register and belt. Tyson liked playing the cashier and Taryn just liked pushing the cart around.

They had just opened up this new Nursery Rhyme room today at the museum. The whole thing was centered around all kinds of nursery rhymes. Tyson like the cow catapult for Hey Diddle Diddle.....the cow jumped over the moon. HA HA HA. He played with this thing for 20 minutes. It was needed fun day and we were wore out after spending several hours at the museum. I will be taking a trip up there again after the holidays. It was so awesome!

Christmas Creations

Since living in Michigan, I have become a little more aware of the environment and the waste I make. And since there are an abundance of recycling places all over this city, I try to recycle as much as I can, plus some of the places actually pay you to recycle certain things. I like those places. This year I had an accumulation of glass baby jars from Taryn eating the baby foods and could not find any where to recycle them. So I have kept them in various bags and containers until I could decide what to do with them. I finally figured it out. We made these types of baby bottle Christmas trees when I was in Young Women's, back in the day, and so I thought, "Hey nice Christmas gifts." These are just two of the five trees Tyson, Vaughn and I made. I have to say it was a group effort. The hardest part was just gluing the bottles into the tree shape and then it was fun decorating after that. I hope the recipients of these fabulous trees like them. I did!

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

It was time to go and see the BIG man in the RED suit the other day and tell him what Tyson and Taryn wanted for Christmas. This Christmas Tyson has been a lot more quizing about Santa and his reindeer. For example: "Mom, can I see Santa's Reindeer?"
"Mom, how does Santa come to our house when we don't have a chimney?"
"Mom, why can't I go to the North Pole?"
And the list goes on and on.....Last year he was just understanding the concept of Santa bringing presents, this year it is a whole other ball game. He wants to know everything and I am running out of creative answers. I really hope Christmas comes quickly before I run out of ideas.Taryn, on the other hand, is not impressed by the Jolly man in the RED suit, not at all! She sat on his lap and began to scream......reminds me of my little sister Danielle, whom to this day still doesn't like Santa...Taryn might be just like her Aunt D. So, Tyson had to go back to Santa and tell him what Taryn wanted for Christmas. (What a good big brother)

This is how these two usually spend their mornings, or at least the mornings Tyson doesn't have school, and while mom is in the shower. They will sit by each other and watch cartoons. I love it!

They are the best of buddies. Taryn wants to be right by Tyson, doing what he does and if she can't she throws a fit! Such a girl.

Kentucky Interview

It is already the middle of December and WHOA do the weeks just fly by. I swear it was just Monday of last week and here I am starting a new week. I have no clue where the times goes, but it goes fast. Vaughn has been gone about one to two times a week with interviews for residency. We were lucky enough to get about 12 interviews, which I am told if you have about 10 you are 99.9% guaranteed a spot. Let's hope those statistics are right. We got lucky this last interview to be able to tag along. It was in Louisville, Kentucky and about a 6 1/2 hour drive. We figured the kiddos could handle the ride if we broke it up a little. I had no idea that Tyson would ask, "When we going to get there?" so many times. It was like a broken record, over and over and over.....

Here they are about 1/2 way to Kentucky. By Tyson's expression he is ready to be out of the car. Thank goodness Taryn was good.When we finally got to Kentucky, Tyson was elated because the hotel, the hospital put us up in, had a heated pool and a big one at that. We swam for an hour and then while Vaughn went to the dinner portion of the interview, the kids and I ordered Papa John's Pizza and watched "Prep and Landing" on ABC. I love pizza in a hotel room. I think it just makes it taste better.
This was Taryn's first experience staying in a hotel and she loved it. She explored every inch of the place and loved opening and shutting all the drawers. We were fortunate enough not to slam any fingers in the process.That next day while Vaughn was at his hospital interview, Tyson, Taryn and I decided to venture around Louisville for a bit. Now, being a VERY small town kid myself ,this big city was a bit intimidating, but thank goodness for the GPS, early Christmas present, because without it I would still be lost over there. We found a mall about 10 minutes away and set out to see a few sights. On the way we passed the Cardinal's Football stadium. Nice facility.

The mall was fun and I had "Chick-fil-a" (I think that is how it is spelled) for the first time. It was delicious. Good thing we don't have one close in Auburn Hills that I know of, because I would be 300 pounds.....Very good food.Vaughn's interview went well and as soon as he finished we met him back at the hotel, packed up and headed to the race track. We couldn't leave Louisville without seeing the famous Churchill Downs where they have the Kentucky Derby.

Even though we couldn't go inside, and it was frigid outside, we still got some awesome shots of the place.

It was fun to actually go with Vaughn to one of his interview places. We got to see a lot of beautiful country and go through some amazing looking cities. I just wish the kids liked the driving scenery as much as Vaughn and I did, but all they cared about was "When we going to stop and eat?" and "When are we going to get home?" AH kids, they make life interesting!

Me, Being Martha Stewart, HA!

I decided to try out my not-so-crafty skills and make a Christmas wreath for our front door. I have a TON of Christmas balls that I never use and thought, "what the heck." This isn't something you'd see in a magazine, but....it is as good as it gets for me. My little sister got the artistic talent, I got in the wrong line when they were handing that out. So no laughing....

Dancing to "Away In A Manger"

Grandma Jackson sent the kids an early Christmas present which is a Fisher Price Nativity Set. It comes complete with Mary, Joseph, Shepards, animals and an angel that will play "Away In A Manger." When Taryn figured out that it plays music she was all about playing with the set, or should I say the angel with the music. She will push down the angel and let it play out while she dances away. I have watched this video countless times and I never tire of it. It is just too cute. Hope you enjoy it as well.

The Good Piston Seats...Thanks Doug!

Doug, the guy that works here at Lake Village who always gets us the Piston tickets, came through again. He got us tickets to see the Pistons vs The Clippers on Friday night and the best part is, we were in the lower, nicer seats. It was great to be down lower and actually see the faces of the players instead of looking at the jumbo tron.

My mom has never been to an NBA game and we made sure she had a great time. It was even dollar hot dogs night and they were pretty good.Taryn got to sit in her own seat and loves every minute of the game. She only cried when they did the opening fireworks and then she settled right down and watched the game.

Our friend Doug was also there with his wife and family, (I forgot to get a picture of him). He is the nicest guy around. Thanks for the tickets Doug! The game was great and would have been a wonderful time, but they lost which put Tyson in a foul mood. He hates it when they loose. Oh well, the rest of us still had a good time.

Chuck E Cheese with Grandma T

Tyson's favorite thing about having someone come and visit is the fact that he gets to go to Chuck E Cheese. We had been putting this off all week long and finally we realized that it was Saturday and we hadn't gone yet, so we packed up the kids and headed to the Cheese's place.
Chuck E Cheese was packed on Saturday. We found one of a few open booths in the party area where the big robotic singing animals are housed. The place was noisy with kids and music and Taryn was elated. She stood in the booth, staring at the robotic singing animals and danced along with their music. I just sat and laughed and laughed. Tyson had hooked Grandma T into taking him around to all the games while Taryn and I waited for the pizza to arrive.
In the "Kiddie Korner" there were a few rides Taryn could enjoy, and enjoy them she did.We put her on this motion ride with Tyson and the second it started to move around, she wanted OFF!
Tyson had a blast playing games and riding the rides with Taryn. Grandma T and I just chased the two of them around and got our exercise for the year...

The Week With Grandma T.

This past week we didn't waste a second while Grandma T was here. We jammed packed our days with fun and exciting things. Tyson and Grandma T played lots of games. He taught her how to shoot his Nerf guns.

The kids loved to be with Grandma T. Taryn even went to her, which was surprising since she won't let anyone hold her but me and sometimes Vaughn. My mom had the charm I guess, because Taryn went to her the second we got home from the airport.While my mom was here she got to see Tyson's first primary program, and attend his school's Grandparent's day celebration. They all just happen to fall on the week that she was here. It was cool! When we found out that Tyson's school was having the Grandparents day I figured we would skip it since both sets of grandparents are far away, but lo and behold it fell right when my mom was out here. So on Tuesday Tyson and my mom spent the morning at his school. My mom even won a prize for being the grandparent that traveled the farthest. We played lots of games with Grandma T and did lots of crafty things. Thanks mom for coming out to visit us for a week. Oh how we wish it would last longer.