A laugh a day...

My day isn't complete until Tyler has made a comment that gives me a good chuckle. He certainly hasn't disappointed me the last couple of days!
So we are at the doctor's office yesterday (I suspect Allison may have a Urinary Tract Infection, and I'm waiting for results from the urine sample) and after we had been waiting for a little while, Tyler informs me that he needs to "go poop." Of course it always comes at the most inconvenient times, but when you gotta go, you gotta go! So we get our business done, and we meet Dr. Colon coming up the hallway. Everyone exchanges hellos and as we enter the room the following dialouge takes place:

Tyler: Guess what?!
Dr. Colon: What?!
Tyler: I POOPED!
Dr. Colon: Oh good, did everything go okay?
Tyler: what?
Dr. Colon: In the bathroom...did everything go well?
Tyler: Oh...yeah.

So yeah, very imformative. But wait, it gets better! For you to get the full humor, you must know that Tyler is the Bad Word Patrol around our house these days. We aren't allowed to say stupid, dumb, hate, idiot, shut up and so on and so forth. Anyone heard saying one of these words will most certainly be put in their place. Billy and I have even resorted to spelling a couple of these words a time or two to avoid any unpleasant encounters from Officer Hadley.
Now back to the story. As Dr. Colon is giving me all the options of how we can go about collecting a urine sample from Allison, this dialogue transpires:

Dr. Colon: I'd hate to have to do a catheter if we don't need to.......
Tyler: But we don't say "hate."
Me: I'm sorry, he's totally the Bad Word Patrol lately.
Dr. Colon: Oh my son is the same way. "Stupid" is the bad word in our house. (Now speaking to Tyler.) I'm sorry. I would RATHER NOT have to do a catheter if we don't have to. (Smiling) How's that?
Me: (Also smiling) Is that better Tylerman?
Tyler: Yes.

Then tonight Tyler inquired about a potential "bad word."

Tyler: Is "hideous" a bad word?
Me: (wondering where this is going) No, it's really not too bad.
Tyler: But sometimes is it a bad word?
Me: Well, it just means ugly. Who said that word?
Tyler: Wish Bear says it when she loses her tummy symbol. (On the movie Big Wish.)
Me: Oh, you're right. So Wish Bear was just saying that she looked ugly without her tummy symbol.
Tyler: Yeah, and when Princess Fiona is big she is ugly.

It's all about perspective!

Fall Family Traditions

Fall has always been a season full of traditions for my family. These traditions included the North Georgia State Fair, trips up to the North Georgia mountains and to our cabin in North Carolina, apples, pumpkins, and Trick-or-Treating. For several years, we enjoyed the tradition of going to the Ellijay Apple Festival to enjoy homemade root beer, apple dumplins, kettle corn and fudge. However, as the Apple Festival grew more and more crowded with each passing year, we realized that the word about this small town festival was getting out! We no longer enjoyed it the way we had in past years, so we decided to alter our tradition and spend more time at other stops, such as Bert's Pumpkin Patch and Hillcrest Orchards. (Although, I am discovering that the secrets to these places have spread like wildfire too!) Despite the growing crowds, these still continue to be our two favorite places to visit in the fall!

Hillcrest Orchards is our most favorite of the many apple houses (as we like to call them). They have the MOST amazing fresh apple fritters, apple cider and apple cider doughnuts! I haven't tried the pumpkin pie there yet, but Vanessa says they are also out of this world. I'm getting hungry just thinking about all these delicious treats! At Bert's, you can find just about any size or variety of pumpkin that you want - including green ones for Tyler! Here are pictures from last weekend's trip. And since everyone always adds a disclaimer, here's mine: MANY pictures to follow! :)

Pumpkin Discovery

"Is this thing for real?!"


"I just love big pumpkins!"

Allison busy at work. She loved picking up the wood chips and putting them on top of the pumpkins.

Having so much fun!

Tyler loved leaning over on the HUGE pumpkins!

Pausing in the sun for another quick picture.

My little "Love Bugs" again!

Taking a ride in the wheel barrow!

I honestly didn't know green pumpkins existed! Everytime Tyler wants to color a pumpkin green, I say "I really don't think pumpkins are green Tylerman." Guess I was wrong!

Loaded up and ready to go!

And finally, our pumpkins on display!

Cowboy Tyler

I have a couple stories to preface the story this post is actually about. I know that sounds a bit confusing and yeah, it will be long, but just hang with me for a few minutes! The first story is to explain why I chose "Cowboy Tyler" as the title of the post. On one of our trips up to our family cabin in North Carolina last summer, Tyler and Lana located a couple of Pawpaw's hats that he wears when he's out in the sun mowing grass or whatever.
After putting one of the hats on, Tyler declares, "I'm Coyboy Tyler!" He got this from a Backyardigans episode he watched where they were cowboys (Cowboy Austin, Cowboy Tyrone, Cowgirl Uniqua, etc.) So that's how Cowboy Tyler came to be!

Now on to the next preface story, which has nothing to do with cowboys, but I'll get back to that. Back at the end of September, we went to the North Georgia State Fair. We go every year for the Beautiful Baby Contest, Petting Zoo, and RIDES of course! If you want to see pictures of this event, you can visit Tyler and Allison's websites. When we decided to call it a night, Billy headed out to the car with Tyler to pull it around and pick Allison and me up at the gate. After waiting patiently for what seemed like longer than enough time to get the car and pull it around, I started to wonder what problem they might have ran into. Come to find out, the delay was due to the fact that our socialite Tyler decided to approach the traffic cops in the parking lot to make friends. He started out by showing off his frog he won in the duck pond game and before his chat was over, he had earned the right to play with the sirens and lights on one of the police cars and got his very own police badge sticker! Too bad I missed the whole thing and wasn't able to take pictures! He made a great impression on one police officer in particular, who offered to let Tyler ride one of the police mounted horses if we would bring him back down to the fair Friday or Saturday night.

So of course, Satuday night we headed back to the fair and enjoyed feeding the animals, racing on a HUGE inflated slide, and eating kettle corn and candy apples. After killing as much time as we possibly could (it was getting pretty late) we realized that Tyler's friend wasn't going to get a break from the relentless parking traffic. Sadly, we had to leave without the much anticipated horse ride. We were able to briefly chat with Sergeant Mark on the way out and he was apologetic and offered to have us come back the next night. Since we had already spent money on gas to drive there twice (you all know that's not cheap right now) AND it would be Sunday, we decided against going back.

On Monday, Billy got a call from Sergeant Mark who told him that he felt horrible and that it wasn't sitting well with him that he wasn't able to get Tyler on a horse that night. He also told Billy that they see SO many kids while working at the fair, but none had left an impression on him the way Tyler had. So in an effort to make it up to Tyler, he wanted all of us to come out to the rodeo, courtesy of the Cobb County Sherriff's office! And FINALLY, he would get Tyler his horse ride.

So now here's the story this post was dedicated to...our rodeo adventure!

Upon arriving, we met up with Sergeant Mark who presented Tyler with his very own cowboy hat! He and a couple other "guys" from the office went in together to get it for Tyler. Upon becoming official, Tyler got on the horse and rode proudly...and in style! He had a blast and even got to "drive" the horse on his own!

Allison wanted in on the action too. She's going to do whatever she sees Tyler doing! She got up there and after observing the situation for a couple minutes, decided she wasn't going for a ride. She looked so cute sitting up on that big horse and it was definitely picture worthy!

When Sergeant Mark had to leave, we headed down to claim some seats for the "radio" (Tyler's name for the rodeo)....YEE HAW!!! Tyler loved watching the "big bulls" and Allison loved dancing to the music (of course!).

We decided to leave after most of the exciting parts had passed, but grabbed some ice cream on our way out. As we walked to the car I said to Tyler, "Wow Tyler, we had a great night! You got a cowboy hat, you got to ride a horse, get a balloon, watch the rodeo, and get ice cream. What was your favorite part?" Without hesitation he responded, "THE ICE CREAM! I LOVE CHOCOLATE!" However, I think his answer was a bit biased at the time. His response now is "the big bulls knocking the cowboys off and riding the horse!"

My Love Bugs

It makes a mother feel so happy to see her children love and care for one another! I especially love to watch Tyler and Allison as they give "loves" (hugs and kisses) to each other.

Ever since Allison entered this world, Tyler has adored her...

...and Tyler is Allison's idol in every sense of the word!

How innocent and simple the love expressed by a child is! They love so unconditionally, the way our Heavenly Father intended. I am so blessed to be a mother and be reminded of these simple truths from day to day!

Tyrannosaurus Rex

Anyone who reads updates on Tyler's website knows about his recent love for T. Rex. In fact, he pretty much eats, sleeps, and breaths T. Rex. Everytime we go to the library we have to check out non-fiction books about T. Rex (or dinosaur books that at least have him in them). He has a light up T. Rex shirt that he LOVES to wear, and when we play his new dinosaur bingo-style memory game, he HAS to have the board with T. Rex on it! So it will come as no surprise that he wanted to be nothing other than yours truly for Halloween. Back at the beginning of summer, he had actually made up his mind that he was going to be a pirate (it's important to plan these things early you know!). And this decision to be a pirate came about completely on his own (although it could have been a result of my addiction to The Pirates of the Caribbean movies at the time), but I thought it was a very clever and fun idea! However, as Fall approached and Tyler's love for T. Rex grew and grew, the pirate was no longer an option!

So now the challenge was going to be to find an acceptable T. Rex costume that matched the idea in Tyler's head. He's a bit adamant about things like this - it has to be just right! Since green is his favorite color, it HAD to be a GREEN T. Rex! And it could have some blue accents (his 2nd favorite color), but most other colors were out of the question. So, initially I thought "well, I can probably make a costume out of some green sweat pants and hooded sweatshirt that would be to his liking." I'm not a seamstress, but I think I'm pretty creative. However, the more I thought about it, I wasn't sure. My problem was I wanted the outfit to be reusable after Halloween but I couldn't think of how to attach the costume elements without ruining the sweatpants and jacket. Plus, Tyler probably wouldn't approve of me destroying the beloved costume he'd waited so long for. Anyway, to make a long story short, I was at JoAnn's about a week ago looking for things I could use to create the costume and found THE perfect T. Rex costume instead! It was green with blue accents. It couldn't get any better. Luckily, Billy was there to help talk me into buying it even though it wouldn't be reusable after Halloween (oh, how little did I know!).

Upon showing Tyler the costume, his face lit up like a Christmas tree and he had a grin that stretched from ear to ear. SCORE! He immediately wanted to try it on, and I haven't been able to locate my Tylerman ever since. Instead, we have this green and blue T. Rex walking around and playing in our house!

It's definitely reusable, just not in the way I had anticipated!

Allison's doctor visit

Okay, so I must admit that this whole blogging thing makes you take pictures of things you wouldn't ordinarily think of. For instance, I don't have a single picture of Tyler at the doctor's office, and these are the very first ones of Allison. But of course, I'm sitting in the waiting room and think, "Hey! I can blog about this!" So I pull out the camera and document the experience. As if I don't already take ENOUGH pictures as it is! But, for your blog-viewing pleasure, here is Allison's 15 month check-up play-by-play!

Allison started the visit off very confidently. She was friendly to everyone who spoke to her and enjoyed playing with the Leap Frog table in the waiting room.

After being called back, I motioned for Allison to follow me and said, "C'mon Allison, time to go!" At this point, her confidence began to waver a bit, but she was reassured when I picked her up and carried her to the exam room. Upon arrival in the exam room, Allison looked around at the familiar setting and let out a discontented plea for help. She knew what displeasures awaited and she wanted no part of it. Who enjoys being stripped down to nothing but a diaper, measured, weighed, and asked to wait (practically in the nude mind you) for the prodding doctor to come along and "check things out?!" I certainly wouldn't, so I can sympathise with the poor little thing. After the nurse took her measurements and left the room, Allison was all smiles and giggles. I took a couple pictures while we waited for the doctor.

This is Allison's fishy face.

However, this mood was short-lived and much of the check-up looked something like this...

Now I do have to give Dr. Colon (pronounced like men's cologne) credit for being an amazing doctor. I absolutely love her, and even drive a bit out of my way to take Tyler and Allison there. Maybe a lot of doctors do this, I don't know, but she does the exam while letting the child sit on your lap so they will feel a bit more at ease. However, it really wasn't helping in Allison's case. She cried through the entire exam! Everything came out looking fine, and her stats are as follows:

Length: 32 1/4 in. - 90th percentile

Weight: 22 lbs. 5 oz. - 50th percentile

Head Circumference: 18 1/2 in. - 75th percentile

Dr. Colon said no one would believe she's in the 50th percentile for weight, seeing how thin she is, but it's her height that puts her there. She said Allison has the ideal combination - getting to be tall and thin! Lucky girl!

Picasso in training

Tyler is becoming quite the budding little artist these days. He loves to use his Doodle Pro to draw "shapes," as he likes to call them, and then turn it into something by adding details such as eyes, nose, and mouth. He said this one is an octopus because it has tentacles.

He also enjoys the common paper and crayons (or markers) method of expressing his creativity. Up until recently, EVERYTHING in Tyler's artwork had to be green. It's his favorite color to the absolute extreme! Lately, however, he has started to be interested in using a variety of colors - his pictures now must contain every color in the box before it is complete!

On a recent occasion, Tyler decided to explore a couple different types of art medium. I'll give him props for being creative, but I wasn't too happy with what he chose to use for his canvas. I'll let you be the judge...

Yep, those are the cushions on our leather couch! I have to say that I'm very proud that I didn't explode and yell at him. I guess it was how proudly and innocently he showed me his masterpiece. So, I calmly said "OHHHH, that is NOT okay. And now you get to sit in time out while I clean it." I also put in a little side note to him that he should be glad Daddy wasn't home to witness it, since I don't know how he would have reacted! Anyway, it took me nearly an hour to scrub off all the pen marks and he sat in time out for the duration.
I'm sure you are thinking, "So where were you while he created this work of art???" I was actually just right on the other side of the wall in the kitchen preparing lunch. When I left Tyler to head into the kitchen, he had just gotten out one of his library books to look at. He was sitting on the couch flipping through pictures of T. Rex and other dinosaurs and seemed perfectly content. But I guess he didn't look at the book very long at all, because I'm sure it took him most of my time away to accomplish all that he did!

We jumped on the blog train!

Well, here we are! I decided to take the plunge and set up our very own Hadley Family blog! Thanks so much to those of you who offered your opinions - it really did help. Also, thanks to my computer and blog savvy sister for helping me with many of the details (and for being patient while I took over an hour to come up with a blog address!). And yeah, I really did take THAT long just to think of the address! I don't know why I have to fret over something so minute, it's just my nature. But anyway, here it is. I'm just going to see how it works out with keeping the kids websites and the blog for now. They have different purposes, and I just can't bring myself to give up Tyler and Allison's sites right now. My blogs should be more frequent than my updates on their sites, so check back often to find out the latest! Thanks for showing interest in our family!