Big Boy!!

Happy Birthday to my sweet Ty Ty!! Today Ty turned TWO! My how fast these two years have gone. I feel like now that Natalie is here he's grown even faster than normal. Maybe that's just my imagination, but his speech has improved so much, he understands pretty much everything that I tell him, he's playing with Myles a lot better, and he just looks bigger! Ty has developed such a personality and I have to say that I'm going to have a very difficult time saying no to him. Ty learned early from his daddy to use his eyes to get what he wants. If I ever get upset with Ty and try to tell him not to do something he answers with the typical "why" that most kids do at this age, but he also adds in a head tilt and smile making him look SO much more innocent than he really is. He has also taken on the task of reprimanding Myles if he thinks he needs it. He will often say "Myles sassing. Go to time out". Usually he's right too. :-) Then if he sees me looking at him as he is telling Myles this he just starts laughing. My biggest hope is that he will use all this charm for good and not evil. Only time will tell I guess.
Some current stats on Ty.....
Favorite Food: Yogurt and anything with pasta sauce
Sleep schedule: Early to bed and early to rise. Goes to bed at about 8:30 and is up by 7 am
Favorite Game: Taking toys from Myles and running away.
Favorite Tv Shows: Shaun the Sheep and Curios George
Loves to sleep with his blanket and bunny at night.
Greets his daddy when he gets home from work by yelling "Daddy" and running into his arms...Every day.
Rocks the spiked hair like no other little boy I have seen.
Is great at yelling at the cat to stay out of the house. ( I am quite proud of him for this one).
Has become quite fond of his little sister.
Can work an Ipad better than most adults.
Has a stubbornness to him that makes me smile. I am thinking he will not be a pushover when he gets older and I like that. 
He is going to grow up and make me proud for sure!!!
Here are some pictures from the last year. I was going to try to limit the amount to my "favorites" and I'm pretty sure I have way too many favorites so I'm just posting them all.

2 years ago we were anxiously waiting to meet our little man.

A FAVORITE spot for Ty. Getting dirty in the sandbox.

Your 1 year old picutres

Just before you got your tubes.

Honestly.....

Chilling with Great Grandma Maynard.

We LOVE when Nana and Papa come and we LOVE that they are still young enough to play with us
the way we like to play!

This is how we do it in Kentucky

Some days things just don't go our way. Wish it hadn't been on Eric and Sara's wedding day, but what is a mom to do?

Showing Kade around.

Is there something on my face?

Playing on a hot summer day! SO much fun!

Hanging with Papa on the farm. What more could a little boy ask for?

Boys will be Boys...Good thing they are washable

Happy 4th of July!

When the Bean came to town.

Boys and their toys.

Oh No!

Ty and his girl Lauren.

Looking like Willy from "Swamp People".

Nana and Papa are still smiling even after 5 days of taking care of the crazy boys.

Daddy Love

Those are the eyes I am talking about.

Mommy's Supermen!

My Sweet Ty Ty

Seeing the circus for the first time.

Unfortunately with your height, or lack of, hoops may not be in your future.

A visit from the Shaws!!!

Loving our afternoons at John's pool.

Driving the Kubota like a pro.

Trying to break free. THIS is why we have locks on the top of the door.

Chatting with his sister before he knew she was his sister.

Tree climbing is just what boys do....at any age.

The Mitchell Boys

Sleeping in a big boy bed.

Brotherly Love

Mama and her boys.

Showing off our new Big Boy haircut.

Big Brothers!

Having fun with the coolest Nana in the world.

Such a helper.

Halloween Time!

Ty the Lion

Zins Grandkids

Brian and Tracy's wedding!

Such a good looking date!

So cute I could eat him up!

Going to work with daddy.

Santa never had such cute reindeer!

Wearing a shirt that was aunt Jenny's. It is from Great Grandpa Maynard who worked for Grove Cranes.

Keys...Oh how you can cause me pain...

Ever have one of those days when you wish you could just go back to bed and start the day all over again? We just had one of those days in the Mitchell house. The issue at hand.....this lovely set of keys.

Adding Natalie to our already crazy crew had been an adjustment for all of us, but one that has gone really smoothly in my opinion. The hardest part of it all has been the lack of sleep we have gotten. Although I feel tired a lot, I thought I had it all together. I was reminded quite loudly that that was not the case one wonderful Thursday afternoon. Twice a month I get to take part in a wonderful meeting with other lovely moms for fellowship and relaxing. This Thrusday was like all the rest. I took the kids with me and dropped them at the church daycare and then went to the meeting. 2.5 glorious hours later I went to get my kiddos. As I was walking up the stairs I just felt like I was missing something. After getting both the boys (Natalie goes to the meetings with me) I realized what was missing.....my keys. Luckily I never lock the van, yep this is an open invite to steal it. The van is OLD and had more things wrong with it than right with it. That being said I need to say THANK YOU mom and dad for letting us borrow it :-) Really though, if someone wants to steal my car, go ahead, you have to answer to something much bigger than myself. So anyway, I put the kids in the van and tried to play it cool assuming the keys were on the floor somewhere or next to Ty's car seat where I typically put them when unstrapping him. After a good 5 min, which seemed like 30 min I realized they weren't there and the leaders are starting to leave the building. Pretty sure they all know I am a cluster who wants SO BADLY to feel like she has it all together so they played it cool and said they were probably right in the meeting room. 3 of us looked and NOTHING....So 2 of them offered to go in the daycare room and look for them....NOTHING. The best part of the entire story is that since we are borrowing this van from mom and dad, we only have 1 set of keys. We weren't planning on keeping it this long and never got the second set or had a spare made. After tons of searching my NUMEROUS ladies I decided to take my crew home since they were having their lunch time meltdowns. What do you do when you don't have a car? You walk....LUCKILY we live a whole 2 blocks from the church and recently installed a gate in our back fence so we COULD walk to church if we wanted to. How perfect is that ? I must point out that many ladies offered to give us a ride, but a nice humbling walk home was what I chose over a humbling ride home. :-)
After getting home I called Nat and told him all about my adventure and he said, "what should I do about it?"  I don't know...tell me you actually had a spare key made without me knowing :-) He hadn't so mom and dad were sweet enough and had a key mailed to us. The key got here on Saturday and thankfully (or not) the van was still in the parking lot and had not been towed. We then got a call from one of the ladies who was helping me look for the keys and said they were found!!! They had fallen UNDER the check in counter in Ty's daycare room! I honestly felt so relieved that they weren't in the can in some really obvious place. So in the end I was made well aware that I DON'T have it all together, but I guess that is just kinda who I am. I want desperately to feel like I do, but I will gradually have to accept that I don't. I am hoping that God at least is getting a good chuckle at the cluster that I am!!

Celebrating the keys being found!!!!

Holiday Spirit

We are getting into the holiday spirit in the Mitchell house. We have the tree up, the Nativity glowing, lights on the house, stockings up, Advent calendar posted, and music playing. We are ready for some fun!!

Every kids loves crawling under the tree don't they?

Ty was blinging Natalie out with some shiny bells.

Ty looks like the angry reindeer!! He He!!

There are my boys!!!

Our newest little reindeer!

Thanksgiving

Amanda helped the boys make these cute little critters. They were some kind of tasty!

Oh how I LOVE this time of year. Although things seem to get a bit crazy with all the preparations for the holidays, it is SO worth it in the end. Right now the idea of sitting at mom and dad's with the a fire in the fireplace and all the kids running around just calms me like nothing else can. I need to slow down though and not get ahead of myself. This year's Thanksgiving was obviously extra special since our sweet girl was added to our little family.  We felt so lucky to get invited to the Baeslers' house for Thanksgiving. They are always so sweet and really are a great example of "family" being about who loves you and not necessarily who you are related to.  Myles found out that he has a new love for cranberry sauce thanks to Miss Jaye. Ty was not as fond of the Thanksgiving food, but the boy did eat his weight in grapes! Miss Jaye obviously has the best grapes in town.

David showing why he is the best grandpa in town!

Ty has really turned a corner with Natalie in the last 2 weeks. He is actually kissing her and calling her sweety. It is so cute because it sounds like Thweety and he says it in the highest voice he can come up with. She takes all the loving from the boys like a champ. I think she knows they have good intentions. :-)

Our Little Family ~Thanksgiving 2011

Nat has a tradition of making his own turkey and is insanely possessive about it. This year was no different. He made a TWENTY pound turkey for us himself. That's right...20lbs. I don't like turkey at all. I really have tried numerous times and just don't see what the hype is all about. A honey ham.....now that's a different story....Back on topic. So Nat has an entire list of food that MUST be a part of his Thanksgiving feast. Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, and Grand's biscuits. Hello starch filled meal. :-) Anything else is just extra, but these things must be there. While he was making the meal, I the Macy's parade that I had taped from Thursday and was doing my best to watch it with the boys. It really was the best decision ever because I was able to fast forward through all the commercials. I was also able to pause it and give Nat the stink eyes when he was mocking me for enjoying it. The entire 4 days of Nat being home was SO wonderful and just what our family needed!!

Thumbs up on dad's cooking. And YES we stayed in Jammies ALL DAY!!

Thanksgiving is exhausting!

He was trying to give a thumbs up as well!!Maybe by next year he will have it.

He thought she was cold so he was covering her up. He didn't know I was taking his picture.

My sweet little turkey.

Welcome back running shoes. Oh how I have missed you!! This weekend was the first time I got to run again in far too long. It was nothing spectacular, but it felt WONDERFUL and I have been loving every run since then.