Family Night

A random stranger walked up to us and gave us the rest of his Maggie Moo's gift card, so yesterday we out for ice cream with the Knowles. I haven't been to Maggie Moo's in awhile and it was delicious, especially when it was free. Then we walked around The Streets at South Glenn shopping mall and the kids played in the fountain. All in all a really fun night.

We had to drop Matt off at the temple where he was meeting Keith, so we quickly got all the kids out for some pictures. Even though they were all soaking wet from the fountains, they had fun going to see the temple.

The Kids Room

Matt and I got really tired (literally) of having Tyrel's crib in our room. It was about 1 foot from our bed and whenever he would wake up; he would just stand there and cry. It was hard to let him cry it out because 1) he was screaming a foot away from our heads and 2) he could see us, so he wasn't giving up anytime soon. When we wanted to go to bed, we had to sneak into our own bedroom and quietly brush our teeth in the dark so he wouldn't wake up. We came up with a couple different solutions, and decided to move Ty's crib into Mikelle and Jonah's room. This of course was a little scary because we were afraid of one of them waking up, crying, and then waking up the others so we would then have 3 crying kids in the middle of the night. We risked it anyway and it has been AWESOME! They have all been sleeping through the whole night without waking up, and for some reason they have been going to bed earlier and sleeping in longer.

Tyrel's birthday party

Tyrel had his birthday party a week ago. We had to cancel his first one because he was sick and reschedule it. He had a Mickey Mouse birthday party. All the kids got Mickey ears, and Becky Knowles made the cutest Mickey Mouse cake.

the cake

Cache

Jonah

The kids decorating their Mickey Mouse sugar cookies

Tyrel eating his cookie

Opening presents - all the kids had to help of course

Blowing out the candle

Eating his cake - I think he had eaten too much of his cookie beforehand that he wasn't really too interested in the cake.

Gamez girls

Mikelle's Day at the Colorado State Fair

Matt's Aunt Paula stopped by on Saturday and told us that the Colorado State Fair was taking place in Pueblo and wanted to take Mikelle with her. They left around 10:30 am, and Mikelle got spoiled rotten! They stopped at a restaurant to get some breakfast, then went to the fair, which included rides, a boat ride, a trip on the ferris wheel, and even holding a baby tiger. Mikelle came home with a new stuffed animal and some toys for Jonah and Tyrel as well.

A BBQ and a swim with the Netros

A few days ago, we went to Matt's aunt and uncle's house (Phil and Paula Netro) for a delicious BBQ and a swim in their fun pool. They live in Elizabeth, Colorado and it is so beautiful there. It kind of reminds me of Maine. You can see how green it is there from the pictures. The Knowles came with us, and then a college friend of Phil's and her daughter were there also. We got out Phil's remote control truck which is pretty big and the guys had fun chasing the kids around with it; of course the kids loved it also.

Mikelle on the swan, with Paula and Phil on the right

Kenzie and Ty on the swan

Matt on the diving board

Jonah

Mikelle

Kai and Becky

Boston on the slide

All the kids and Sam watching the remote control truck

Running from the truck

And just a random cute picture of Jonah at the park

Tyrel is ONE!

Weight: 24.85 lbs (74th percentile)

Height: 30.5 inches (73rd percentile)

Head: (80th percentile)

Sorry this is pretty late, Tyrel turned one on August 23rd, we were both sick; so I didn't post anything. He was even supposed to have his birthday party last Saturday, and I had to cancel it because he was still sick. It is rescheduled for this Saturday now. He has been walking now for a month and is trying to get running down. He has learned how to wave goodbye and point at things he wants. He also has started to color WITHOUT eating the crayons. Also, because of the surgery on his fingers, he has been behind on learning how to pick up food, but he is doing pretty good at it now. He loves playing outside, being around the other kids, and going up and down the little slide in the kid's bedroom all by himself. He loves swimming and bath time also. I am pretty proud of myself because I have also got him totally on cow's milk now and ONLY in sippy cups. No more bottles, he was definitely the fastest and easiest kid to do that with. I haven't heard any words (besides the occasional "ma", which I assume he is really saying my name), but Matt swears he said "bye" one time. Tyrel loves to do things that he knows he is not supposed to do; like open the fireplace glass. He will open it, then look at me, and if I'm not looking he will just sit there and say "ma, ma," to get my attention. He thinks it is real funny when I say "No No Tyrel." Then he runs away to get into the next thing.

ONE YEAR OLD PICTURES

At the end of the photo shoot, you can tell he has had it, and after only 4-5 minutes.