Farewell Elder Ellsworth!!!!

My brother, Carsten, left for the MTC on August 3 from the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. We all wanted to see him off, which meant that since his flight was at 7 am we had to be there by like 5:30 am and it’s an hour or so drive from my parent’s house!!

**Disclaimer: Okay people now don't judge, we had to be up by like 4 am, which is just too early for some of us to look decent, let alone get the boys up and dressed! Normally I wouldn't take them out in public in their pajamas and barefeet! However, if it makes anyone feel any better, Tyler can't walk yet so doesn't really need to have shoes and I DID bring Parker's sandals but being as it was so early and still dark out I couldn't for the life of me remember where I had put them (turns out they were stuck behind one of the rows of seats in our car!), so we mainly just carried him!!

Aunt Gabby looking at this cool statue, replica thing with Parker. Apparently he really liked it, but since I didn't even know it was there until seeing this picture my step-mom took, I have no idea really what he thought of it! hahaLast picture with Carsten for 2 YEARS!!Carsten's Dad and Step-momLast family picture before he leaves!It's crazy to think that when he gets home from his mission, Parker will be 5 and Tyler will be 3! I really don't know how I feel about that!!So long Elder Ellsworth have a great time on your mission!! We are so proud of you and can't wait to read all about it. WE LOVE YOU :)

Tyler's 1st Haircut :)

On August 2, 2011, my sister gave Tyler his 1st Haircut!!!! It wasn't super long, but it was quite a bit thicker on top so she basically just evened it out a bit. He did really well and he looked a little bit older when she was all done :( Thanks, Kels, it looks awesome!!

BEFOREI thought this picture of the two of them was so precious!!Apparently he wasn't quite sure about the whole thing at first, but he calmed down pretty quickly......after we gave him a comb to play with!!DURINGAnother adorable shot!I guess the comb just wasn't as much fun as he thought, so he went for my phone instead!"Hey Guys!!!"AFTER"Okay, seriously are we still doing this?!"My handsome little guy!!

1-Year Old

Yep, it's true...Tyler turned 1 on July 12, 2011. I still can't believe it! It seems like just yesterday that we were bringing him home from the hospital. He has been a joy to have in our family. The first couple months of his life were a little more difficult because we think he may have been a little collicky, but once he grew out of that, we were good! He has always been my little eater and I fear he will eat us out of the house, probably sooner than I would like.

The week after his birthday I was determined to get him to sleep through the night, because I was just plain tired of getting up 1-3 times every night!! I knew he could do it because he was big enough, so I asked the doctor what we could do. She said to just give him a sippy cup of water and lay him back down, maybe give him a snack right before bed to fill him up. She said it may take about a week before he gets used to the new schedule and may cry 45 minutes or longer at first, but he'll get it. So that night I tried it and it really wasn't all that bad and by the 4th night he was sleeping COMPLETELY through the night!!! Woohoo, I'm still not sure why I didn't try this sooner! I also wanted to completely get rid of the bottles since we were planning to move over to North Carolina, I just wanted to pack all the baby things away and put them in storage when we went to Idaho. So that same day that we started the night sleeping routine, we nixed the bottles and he's been bottle free ever since and doing great!!!

We have started teaching him a little bit of sign language and he now knows "Please".
The walking thing hasn't quite started yet, which I think I'm okay with. However, he is getting really close! He has started standing on his own the last few days for a few seconds. I have a feeling he will be walking in the next couple weeks :/

Here are his stats:
Height: 29 3/4" (50%)
Weight: 22 lb 11 oz (50%)
Head Circ.: 18.5" (75%)

My step-mom took some pictures for the boy's yearly pictures this year. They turned out so cute!! Here are my favorites of Tyler:

Benihana's- July 30, 2011

This day just keeps on going! After we finished taking family pictures my dad and step-mom took us all out to Benihana's for dinner to celebrate their 17th wedding anniversary and Carsten going on his mission. Can I just say, WOW!! This restaurant was such a cool place and the food was amazing! I'm so glad we were able to go. They cook your entire meal right there in front of you and the chef did all these cool tricks to make it more entertaining. The boys were just in awe by the whole thing, which I'm sure helped to keep them awake, because lets face it naps just weren't included in our day of fun!

Sportin' his cool new hat :)The picture is blurry, but it was the only one with both boys wearing their hats. Aren't they just so cute?!So, Tyler wanted my lemon, so I let him have it and his expression was just the funniest thing ever! It seriously made me laugh so hard, I know I'm such a mean mom, but seriously it was really funny!The chef put his spatula under it and made it "beat". lolThe delicious food! I'm getting hungry just posting these! hahaParker wasn't smiling for anything, he was so dead tired, I'm still amazed he didn't just keel over and sleep through dinner! (Normally he would sleep in the car, but who would when his aunts have i-phones with fun games, such as Angry Birds, on it! lol)He had no problem taking over my parent's complimentary ice cream sundae though. He pretty much ate at least half of it by himself! hahaHappy Anniversary!!!! We LOVE you :)

Family Pictures- July 30, 2001

After we went to the water park (see previous post), we came home and got ready to take family pictures. This will be the last family picture with Carsten in it for 2 years!!!Missing Stephan and AllenSISTERS!!!We will miss you Carsten, you sure are one funny brother! Can't wait to see you in 2 Years!My sister, Kelsey and her husband, AlexMy new favorite of Chris and I!Kelsey with her "COOL" nephews!!

Sun Splash, Arizona

We were able to spend a few days in Arizona at the end of July to attend my step-brother's mission farewell. We had a blast visiting our family and Chris even got to have a little vacation, which he really needed! On July 30, the day after we got into town, we went to Sun Splash with my sisters and my brother-in-law and his sister and kids. We had so much fun and wished we could have stayed longer.

Parker loved these slides! They were only for little kids so they didn't get run over by the big kids and the water was only like 2 feet deep.My little sister, Gabby, with her nephew Tyler...so cute!Tyler wasn't as much of a fan of the water spraying up from the ground as he usually is......He's all about going down the slides!! I'm pretty sure I pulled a muscle in my thigh from holding him as he went all the way down. He just kept going, over and over and over! hahaJust look at that face! That's one happy kid, right there!Parker was pretty excited because he was able to ride down on the BIG tube slides with us! He loved it and now every time we pass a water park he talks about going down the water slides! It was so fun to go down with him, and it makes spending the money to go to a place like this a little more worth it!!