Nate and Karen

Tyler's Third Birthday Party

2010-09-21T20:49:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Tyler's third birthday on the 11th. We started off the party having some fun in our backyard with his friends. Tyler's main focus was to go "driving" and ignore all of his little friends....

...or show off by going down the slide head first:

Lizzy had fun carrying around the "baby" (which was actually a rather awkward sprinkler toy...):

Instead of eating any of the delicious food people brought for the potluck, Tyler sat and ate a sucker while his cousin Jen read to him:

Tyler got the hookup with all the presents:

Lizzy had a hard time understanding that it was Tyler's birthday, not hers:

Karen made worms and dirt (aka gummy worms, pudding, and crushed Oreo cookies)...

...as well as a sweet car cake:

Happy Birthday Tyler!!!

Lizzy's First Birthday

2010-07-15T23:48:00.001-07:00

It's hard to believe that Lizzy is already a year old. We had her birthday party on Sunday. Here are a few pictures of the fun.

Yes, that is cake in her hair... however this is not unique--almost every time she eats, she slimes her head with the food.

Tyler had to help our with almost all of the presents.

No we did not encourage this, Tyler put it on himself. I'm going to keep this picture in reserve to use as blackmail during his teenage years. :)

Tyler Singing His Favorite Song

2010-04-21T20:59:00.001-07:00

Currently Tyler's favorite song is "You've Got A Friend In Me" from the Toy Story movies (the Disney/Pixar one). He loves the song so much that every time we get in the car, he demands that we play it, then sings along at the top of his lungs... literally yelling the . There's only one problem... he sings the lyrics slightly wrong: instead of "you've got a friend in me" he sings "are you kidd'n me". Enjoy the vid below in action. Oh and thanks Allison for filming it!

Tyler and Lizzy In Their Elements

2010-03-10T21:34:00.000-08:00

I think it would be an understatement to say that Tyler likes cars. Perhaps saying that he is completely obsessed with cars would be more accurate. Here's our little monkey playing with some of his cars:

Lizzy didn't like the bottle at first, but she loves it now! She can guzzle a whole bottle down in no time flat. Here's some action shots:

Our Smiley Little Drool Machine

2010-01-05T20:39:00.001-08:00

Lizzy is almost 6 months old and I can't believe it! The past couple of weeks her cute little personality has really started to come out. She is becoming a very smiley and happy little girl. Mom and Dad's fingers are her favorite chew toys right now. Karen put this on Facebook, but she got her two front teeth for Christmas... literally. They're kinda hard to see, but you can definitely feel them when she's gnawing away at your fingers--OUCH!! If you see me and I'm missing a finger, you'll know why.

Here are a couple of photos I took of our little drool machine the other day. A bib you ask? ...we put a bib on her even when she's not eating so that she doesn't completely soak her clothes with her slobber. She also is a master of spitting up, so I guess it's kind of dual-purpose.

Here is a video of her. She can sit up all by herself... well, as long as she has the Boppy behind her. She loves playing with toys and can actually entertain herself, which makes her Mommy VERY happy.

Tyler's Second Birthday

2009-09-12T20:22:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Tyler's second birthday today, which was of course... a Sponge Bob party!!! It's hard to believe that our little boy is already two years old! Karen made the cake, which turned out awesome!!

4th of July 2009

2009-07-05T21:58:00.001-07:00

For the 4th of July a buddy and I went to go and talk pictures of the hot air baloons in Provo. Here are a few shots:

After I took baloon festival, Tyler and I walked down to the parade... actually I walked and Tyler got to ride in his stroller (he actually stayed in it, that NEVER happens):

Tyler got his picture with Captin America... I seem to remember Captin America being in a little better shape...

Later on in the day Tyler had OtterPops with Mom and his cousins:

Colorado Trip

2009-05-31T20:15:00.000-07:00

We visited Karen's family out in Colorado last week. Jeannette and Steve were kind enough to let us stay with them. We had a lot of great adventures with all the family. Tyler really enjoyed the bubbles with his cousins. He ran around all afternoon exclaiming, "bubbles, bubbles, bubbles".

Uncle Dan created the master bubble maker out of a hanger and the boys created some huge bubbles, kyle had a really good one!

Tyler had a ton of fun playing with his cousin Alex, they both had fun running after the bubbles.

The grandparents and Aunt Christine chilled on the patio while the boys played...

Uncle Steve was the grill master for the day...

The boys eventually ended up downstairs to play Fourza on Justin's XBox 360 on the big screen.

It was fun to get together with Tyler's cousins Alex and Corey, who are just 6 months older...

Alex was so good at sharing with Tyler, he would ask for 2 chips, one for himself and one for Tyler...they sure did like Uncle Nate :)

Kyle's "got the whole [bubble] in his hands..." heh heh

So we got Grandma to participate in a little innocent game of craps, the funny thing is how good she was at it. :)

Tyler liked playing over at Uncle Dan and Aunt Christine's, they had a table just his size...

Here comes Dan and Christine's big ol' boxer, Tucker. No worries though, Tyler had him eating out of the palm of his hand :)

I was happy that we got a chance to visit an old friend of mine, Jenn, while we were in CO, good times!

The Zoo

2009-05-19T19:45:00.000-07:00

Last week we went to the zoo. It was a dream come true for Tyler... there was room to run around, water fountains shaped like lions, lots of animals, and most importantly there were lots and lots of monkeys (his favorite animal).

Test Burn

2009-05-12T20:44:00.000-07:00

The Fire Department burned down the house next to our complex. It was an incredible experience. We were about 40 yards from the house but it felt like standing right next to a camp fire.

Giggles At The Dinner Table

2009-04-06T19:02:00.000-07:00

Tyler's cousins Hannah and Isaac were blowing on their food to cool it off. For whatever reason, Tyler thought it was the funniest thing he had ever seen:

Bucket Head

2009-04-06T18:57:00.000-07:00

Yes, our son likes to wear a bucket on his head...

New Haircut

2009-03-25T19:38:00.001-07:00

So I have spent the last 6 months desparately wanting a new haircut, but afraid because I don't trust very many people with my hair. Thanks to my dear friend Megan I was able to find a new hair place and finally get some "style" back in my life :). Thanks to Megan and Justin for watching Tyler for me so I could have a chance to get a "new me". ta-da!

Monkey Jumping On The Bed

2009-03-16T20:25:00.001-07:00

Here's our little Monkey (aka Tyler) jumping in his crib, and babbling away in his alien talk.

Baby Ninja 2

2009-03-15T22:05:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday Karen had her ultrasound. We had felt like the baby was probably a girl all along, but it was confirmed: we're having a girl. Here are a few of the photos. I really like the last one, little baby ninja 2 is sucking her thumb.

The Warm Glow Of TV

2009-02-07T19:43:00.000-08:00

Up until about two weeks ago, Tyler didn't show much interest in watching TV... that was before he watched Shrek--it's his new favorite show. He really likes sitting on Mom or Dad's lap to watch it (we are his human recliners), but he doesn't mind standing and watching it. When Shrek's on, he's completely entranced--it's like nothing else exsists. We can call his name ten times, and he won't hear it at all. Here he is basking in the warm glow of TV:

Here's another photo of him--the only reason he looked at the camera was because I stood in front of the TV and blocked his view of the green ogre.

Playing Horse and Talking On The Phone

2009-02-05T20:38:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple more videos.

The first one is Tyler playing horse with Mom:

This is one of my favorite videos of all time--make sure to listen for Tyler's fake courtesy laugh:

Tyler's Sweet Dance Moves

2009-02-05T19:26:00.000-08:00

This video is about a month old, but we had to post it so you could see some of Tyler's sweet dance moves:

Christmas 2008

2008-12-29T13:44:00.001-08:00

Tyler started off his Christmas morning like he does every morning... with a bottle. It took him a minute to wake up, but eventually he wanted to get down and walk around… however, instead of going for all for all of the presents under the tree, he ran over to the window and looked outside then he ran over to the corner of the living room where I had put all of his “old” toys. He never quite grasped the whole "opening presents" thing. Here are a few videos clips of what happened:

Tyler did, however, love his new toys—here are some pictures of Tyler, his cousin Claire, and the Christmas festivities:

Tyler's Kitchen Adventures

2008-12-18T20:17:00.000-08:00

Tyler loves to play in the kitchen cabinets... today he decided that one of our cake pans was his car.

Tyler And His Car Noises

2008-12-09T21:43:00.000-08:00

Here is a video of Tyler and his car noises:

Gardner Village

2008-11-04T20:14:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday I got the day off from work and we went to Gardner Village with our friends Justin, Megan and their son Andrew. Here are some of the pictures:

Tyler's First Birthday

2008-09-18T20:27:00.001-07:00

Tyler had his Birthday while we were in California. We got to go to the San Diego Zoo:

He doesn't like to hold our hands much, so we got him a little monkey backpack with a restraint built into it. This photo was taken in front of the monkey cages... so I guess that makes it a picture of "Monkey" (Tyler) looking at monkeys with a monkey on his back.

We also had a little party for Tyler. We decided to make the party for all the kids... and thus all the candles on the cake: 1 for Tyler, 6 for Kailey, and 9 for Zack.

Tyler got a little remote control car from Zack and Kailey. Tyler LOVED it and wouldn't let go of it the rest of the night.

Trip To Califonia

2008-09-18T20:27:00.000-07:00

Last week we got to go to Califonia and hang out with Zack and Kailey while their parents (Matt and Kathy) were on vacation in Greece. Here are some of the pictures:

Tyler LOVED their pool!!

These are the dangerous stairs that Tyler liked to climb.

This is the dangerous step he liked to play on. When we first got there, he would try to walk off the landing (he wasn't too good at that). It took him a while but eventually he figured out that he could crawl down the step. We tried to teach him to go feet first, but as you can see he was very determined that he was going to go head first.

Clouds

2008-08-10T21:24:00.000-07:00

On the way home from Macey's yesterday, the sun was showing through the clouds.... so I raced home grabbed my camera and got a shot of it:

While I was out there, I took a few more pictures... actually I took a WHOLE bunch--here are my two favorite ones:

Claire's B-day

2008-08-07T18:51:00.001-07:00

It's hard to believe, but Claire is a year old! Here are pictures from her party yesterday:

My Eyes

2008-08-05T07:59:00.000-07:00

So we WAY overshot how much we needed to put into our Flex-Spending account... and we are supposed to use all of the money by 08/31, so I (Nate) decided to go to the eye doctor. I'd never been before so this was a new experience for me. I went last week and found out that I have 20/15 vision--which I'm really happy about. I also found out that I don't like the stupid drops that dilate your eyes. I thought the little roll-up sunglasses were a joke when they gave them to me... but I quickly found out that they weren't joking. I tried to go out to my car and was COMPLETELY blinded. Needless to say those silly looking glasses saved my life and I was able to locate my car (it was only 15 feet from the door).

As the Doctor was showing me the pictures of my eyeballs I noticed a little “Email” button on his computer screen... so I did what any nerd/computer-geek would do, and asked him if he would email me the pictures. He said he had always wanted to try using the email button, so he agreed... and here they are! I know this will probably gross some of you out, but I think it’s really cool:

Wheeler Family Reunion

2008-07-26T11:49:00.000-07:00

We had Karen's Family reunion last week. Here are some photos:

Timpanogos Harley-Davidson Grand Opening

2008-07-26T11:10:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning we went to the grand opening of the Timpanogos Harley-Davidson store in Lindon. It was incredible! There were over a thousand bikers that showed up for the "Ride for the Cure" charity ride. The fifth picture down is my Dad with his brother (my Uncle) Mike. Mike and his wife Mary are part of the Harely Riding Club. Being the extremely loud kid that he is, Tyler LOVED the event.

Tyler's New Sounds

2008-07-24T21:09:00.000-07:00

Make sure that your speakers are on for these--Tyler makes some pretty funny sounds. Enjoy!

Fourth Of July 2008

2008-07-06T21:14:00.001-07:00

We had a BBQ over at my Mom's house. Here are some of the photos:

Tyler's TV Stand Broke

2008-06-25T19:38:00.000-07:00

Tyler’s favorite toy (the TV stand).... um, "broke" (I put baby locks on the doors).... anyway, he's not too happy about it:

Tyler's Pastimes

2008-06-20T19:57:00.000-07:00

Tyler baby's new pastime is having people walk him around. He's even gotten pretty good at soccer--check it out:

Here's another one of Tyler's other new pastimes....

RIP Altima...... Hello Honda Pilot!

2008-06-19T19:47:00.000-07:00

Quite some time ago my Nissan Altima started making a strange noise when I drove it. Ignorance is bliss, so I discarded the sound and just keep driving my car. Eventually, though, the sound got louder and louder so I took it into the shop. I was told that my transmission was on it’s last leg and that it was going to cost a pretty penny to fix it (almost as much as it was worth). Karen and I talked it over and we decided that it just didn’t make sense to put that much money into an old car--we decided to start looking for a new car.

I was adamant that “We will NOT buy a car today—we’ll just go and look today.” ….but of course, I ended up eating my own words and that same day we bought a new vehicle. We got a great deal on a Honda Pilot. We've had it for a couple of months now and we love it. Here's a pic:

The "Jordan" not in Utah

2008-05-02T14:35:00.000-07:00

So my darling little niece/sister/cousin/daughter :) is now on her first foreign adventure in Petra, Jordan. She and her Mommy-Dear-Deanna stopped by on Saturday to say goodbye. She will be gone for about 6 weeks and we will miss her tons!!! Good luck Alliswan!

Tyler had fun with Aunt Deanna trying on Allsion's hat that she took to Jordan. Kind of reminds you of Indiana Jones doesn't it? Well I guess the trip in an archeological one...

Pearly Whites

2008-05-01T15:37:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I finally got a chance to "tickle the ivories". It has been a while and I was glad to have the opportunity to play. Tyler decided that he was going to play as well. With the way he was banging on those keys I think we may have another Beethoven on our hands :)

Check out that great posture and the way he is moving his left hand! Genius, I tell you, genius. Of course I am not biased at all...

Tyler Baby

2008-04-03T12:25:00.000-07:00

Tyler is growing like a weed and can never hold still. He can sit up on his own now and loves to suck on Mommy's chin...I think maybe he is trying to give me kisses...I hope :)

He sure is our precious boy!

Hannah's Birthday

2008-04-03T12:19:00.001-07:00

Nate got some great shots of the kiddos at Hannah's 5th Birthday party. It was a ton of fun.

O Tempo Passe Tao Rapido

2008-04-03T12:08:00.000-07:00

I keep promising myself that I will actually stay on top of updating our blog...yeah, obviously that's not happening. Nate got a new camera for his birthday and has taken a plethera of pictures so I will post a few of them (I think he has already taken close to five or six hundred, maybe more). Here are a few from his birthday...he is sooo old ;) Obviously there are no pictures of Nate, since he was the one taking the pictures :), but we had a good time anyway!

Baby Lovin' the Cereal

2008-01-28T19:45:00.000-08:00

We decided to go a 3rd round in our battle with the rice cereal. This time however, we had a secret weapon...we added a spoonful of pears. Our unsuspecting victim fell prey to its power (evil laugh).

Tyler baby loved it so much that he decided to not only eat what was on the spoon, but he started to lick the bowl as well. Excellent.

Yummy!!! Yummy!!!

It doesn't get much better than this...what a hungry little boy!

Another satisfied customer...

Wahoo! Another Update!!!

2008-01-22T12:11:00.000-08:00

Well I figured it was time to update the blog. I am really bad at this. I guess I haven't caught the "blog fever" yet, but I am working on it :). Life is going well on the homestead. We are keeping very busy with our little one, but he sure is a lot of fun. He seems to have had his talking-button turned on for Christmas and hasn't stopped since. He loves to play with his toes now, although he has a tendency to fall over. He hasn't learned how to sit up on his own yet....fun times :). He loves to run the roost and is pretty good at it. We sure do love him.

Tyler loves to steal Mommy's glasses now, actually anything he can get his hands on: hair, glasses, fingers, you name it.

Nate thought it would be fun to take a picture of our son just after he woke up. Kind of scared him.
What a little sweetie!

Tyler really loves his cousin Claire. He even loves to put his fingers in her mouth.

It doesn't get any cuter than this. Hugging cousins.

He loves to talk to Grandma Wheeler.

Tyler has become such the ladies man :)

Cute Pics

2007-12-31T11:34:00.001-08:00

Santa gave me a new camera for Christmas... and I love it!! Here is a picture I took of Karen and baby Tyler with his new hat on.

Many Moons Have Passed

2007-12-18T19:17:00.000-08:00

Well as most of you know we had the baby :). Tyler was born on September 10, 2007 at 11:16 p.m. He was 8 lbs 2 oz and 19 1/2 inches long. We are so excited to have him as a part of our family. He has struggled a bit with collic so obviously there has not been much time to write. Well, that and I had no idea how to do this whole "blog" thing, so Nate is ensuring that our blog will be updated occasionally (no promises).

Tyler has been growing like a weed and has become a little wiggle worm. He loves to stand and look at all that is going on around him. We are pretty darn lucky to have such a cute little guy. He isn't sleeping through the night yet, but we are trying to have hope that it will get better soon. Well that is about all we are up to, Tyler pretty much rules the roost. We hope all of you are well and will try to let you know that we have updated our blog :)

2007-08-18T20:36:00.000-07:00

Karen is having more and more contractions. The due date isn't for another month.... so we'll have to see when the boy decides to come. I just can't wait to hold him for the first time.

2007-08-07T23:38:00.000-07:00

Our first blog posting… well here goes nothing!

For our embarking post I figured I’d share a little bit about our focus in life: the baby. No he’s not here yet, but almost. Karen is eight months pregnant and we are counting down the days until he is born. It’s like waiting for Christmas… but a million times harder. We are SOOOOO excited with just a little bit of first-time-parent-jitters sprinkled on top.

Matt and Michelle had their girl yesterday and somehow it hurdled everything from fantasy into reality: our baby is going to be here any day now. Things are so close but at the same time so far. In the mean time, here is a picture of him at 19 weeks: