Memorial Weekend

I was so excited for Memorial Day this year. Well, I'm usually always a little bit excited for memorial weekend since it's my birthday, but this year we had lots to look forward to! Saturday, Nate had his Team State track meet, so he was gone all day. It wasn't the best weather so I was set on cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. In fact, Ty was such a good boy, I did 2 hours of errands, and then he played in the living room and in the garage (since it was raining) while I cleaned for 2 hours. At that point I put him down for a nap and cleaned an additional 2.5 hours! I was on a cleaning rampage!

Here is Ty playing in the garage, since it was raining out, and he just kept pounding and pounding on the door to go out side... He was happy with this option though!
After it stopped raining, Ty went to one of the kitchen drawers, got out the tongs that Nate always uses when he grills, and ran straight for the grill!! Nate has taught him well already! Ty just stood there hitting the grill with them, it was so cute!On Sunday, Nate and I were off to Traverse City for a friend's wedding. Both Nate and I have spent nights away from Ty separately, but we have both never been gone at the same time, so this was a first! Nate's parents watched Ty at our house and we were off! We went to the wedding, which was beautiful, and then went to one of the wineries in-between the wedding at the reception. The winery was on top of this hill overlooking the vineyards and the Lake. I hadn't been feeling the best, and we didn't stay long at the winery. I ended up getting sick multiple times throughout the rest of the day. I was pretty sure that I had gotten some type of food poisoning. We tried going to the reception, but were only able to stay for about 45 minutes. We were back to the hotel at 7:30 and I was out by 8 and slept till 8:30. We woke up the next morning and we headed back home. I was feeling better, and I was SO excited to see Ty.
Monday, was my birthday, and my cousin and her son (who is 3 days younger than Ty) came over to relax and play in the beautiful weather. The boys had lots of fun running around, playing in the water, and pushing around all the wagons and cars.

Overall, it was a fun weekend, and the beautiful weather got me anxious for summer to be here. 7 days and counting!!!!!!

We Can't Wait For Summer!

The VandeGuchte family is ready for the summer months! It has been quite the rainy season in Michigan this Spring and we are ready to be outdoors. Ty has found his love for the outdoors, and to say he loves it is an understatement.... Below is him pounding at the door to go outside....

and here he is now throwing a tantrum because it happened to be raining and I said No to going outside.....I'm such a mean mommy!

Last Friday Ty and I spend Friday evening with one of my best friends, Amy, and her daughter, Ryley, who is 4 months younger than Ty. They enjoyed going on the swingset, even though it was a little buggy...

Ryley is loving to give kisses, and she'll pucker her lips and give a big smooch. All we had to say was Ryley give Ty a kiss and then she did! haha :)

Ty then had to give a slobbery kiss back (Ryley looks a little scared haha)!

Ty has finally gotten his few days of "summer" weather. He has loved playing in his truck, wagon, and water table. It is going to be a fun but busy summer chasing him around! BRING ON SUMMER!!

April and May

I apologize for the long post!

Catch up time!
So it's been awhile since I last blogged. I thought I'd be better at being consistent, but hey I'm trying! I'll quickly update everyone on our lives over the last month. :)


We had a rough last two months with Ty being sick. He was just not himself and was throwing up almost every day for two months straight and we were trying to figure out what was causing it. After Spring Break we went back into the doctor and discussed some possibilities. We first thought that maybe he had developed a food allergy so we got some blood work done, which came back all normal. The next route we were going to take was to get an upper GI, but after he had gotten his blood drawn that was the last day he threw up! We were scheduled to get the upper GI that next week, and decided against it as the throwing up had stopped. Bizarre! Of course it always happens that way, he was sick for two months straight and right when you start investigating it is done. Obviously, we are VERY happy that this was just a weird 2 month phase, but we hope it doesn't come back. I can't begin to tell you how many loads of laundry, changing of sheets, cleaning of carpets, and scrubbing car seat covers I did in that two months!

Easter
This year we decided we'd do a little Easter egg hunt with Ty. He loves putting things in baskets so we figured he'd be "into" it. I have always grown up using real eggs, but we decided to put that off for one more year as a 14 month old probably doesn't know how to gently put the eggs in the bucket :) He loved finding the eggs! I couldn't believe how much he understood the concept of looking for the colored eggs and bringing them to his bucket!!
He loved his final little basket full of puffs (his favorite!), bubbles, chalk (which he has loved since it's been warm out), and 2 new toy trucks. Tulip Time
I love Tulip Time. I love seeing all the beautiful flowers BUT maybe more than the flowers, I love the food :) Also, I never thought that I would dress my kids up in dutch outfits, but after finding a deal on craigslist, I gave in and got one for Ty!

Here is a family picture from Tulip Time 2010

Here is a family picture this year. Ty has grown into a little boy!

Here is Ty in a his dutch boy outfit! I couldn't believe he actually kept the hat on! He was so cute!

Ty and his friend Ryley :) They loved riding around in the wagon together!

Ty and Ryley got the balcony seating while watching the dutch dancers :)

We got to go downtown twice for Tulip Time this year which has satisfied us until May 2012 :)

Arizona - Part II

Spring Break - Arizona
PART II

Finally, mid-way through the week Ty was back to his normal self! Wednesday was a little cloudy/cold (yes 70 degrees was too cold) so we decided to head to the children's museum in Phoenix. It was quite small but there was so much for Ty to do! There was a noodle forest with an entire room of noodles hanging from the ceiling. He loved it only when Nate was doing karate chops at the noodles as they went through....

They had cars for him to drive, legos to build, mini car races, tubes that blew koosh balls at you (which was his favorite!), music to play, bridges to cross, slides to go down, tunnels to crawl through, and so much for. We were exhausted after only an hour!On Thursday we decided to go to the Phoenix Zoo. Compared to John Ball Zoo it was HUGE! There were so many animals to look at. My all time favorite was the giraffes, I just LOVE giraffes. If you paid $4 you could feed the giraffe, and there was no hesitation for me to pay the 4 bucks..haha. Ty wasn't too sure about the giraffe and smacked it (oops)! I have to say feeding the giraffe was one my top highlights of the trip!

Ty was interested in looking at all the animals and it took us about three hours to walk around the zoo. By that point, Ty was completely exhausted and was ready to go home. Within 2 minutes of leaving the parking lot, Ty had fallen right asleep.

Of course, we had to take a few more pictures around the lake. It's 1.2 miles around the lake and we probably walked around it at least 4-5 times per day. The fountain goes off every hour and shoots 300-500 feet in the air. Ty loved watching the fountain go off as we walked around the lake. Another favorite thing of his was to "chase" the ducks. His squeal was priceless and made it all worth some of those 5:30am walks :)

We were more nervous about the plane ride home, considering how the first one went. So, we went to Target and Ty got to pick out a few new toys to play with just when we were on the airplane. The two toys he couldn't get enough of in Target were a truck that played "Play This Funky Music" and a little laptop. So they were tucked away and not taken out until we desperately needed them. Originally, Nate and I were not even sitting next to each other on the plane, and it was a full flight. Thankfully the wonderful counter lady called up some people and arranged it so we could be by each other (and 20 rows up!). Take off....bottle and asleep for over an hour... cereal bar...lunch...books...puffs...Baby Einstein...puffs...laptop...puffs (thank goodness for puffs!)...more books...we are descending...getting fussy....Play that Funky Music truck....Funky Music truck....Funky Music truck (sorry old man sitting next to us!).... Funky Music truck (get the picture).... and we land! No tantrums, no puke, no blowups :)

We were so happy that we decided to take this last minute trip. It was great to see family and relax together. It was truly a well needed getaway!

Arizona Part I

Spring Break - Arizona
PART I

Well, 2 weeks before Spring Break we decided we wanted to go somewhere warm. We found some good airline deals and booked tickets to go visit my parents, brother, and sister-in-law in Arizona. Of course, Ty gets sick right before we leave. He had a bad cold and was throwing up often. We went to the doctor before we left, and sinus infection. He was having so much drainage though that it was upsetting his stomach which caused him to throw up (and I mean projectile throw-up) at least 4 times per day. The one thing we were very nervous about was the plane rides.... Our plane left about an hour after he was suppose to be in bed, so we were hoping that he'd sleep the whole way. Take off - okay... 2 minutes after take off... puke everywhere (and all over me).....awesome....change Ty's clothes... wipe off my clothes.... distract Ty with Baby Einstein... crying.... finally falls asleep for 1 1/2 hours... huge blowup (on me)... wipe off my clothes.... change Ty clothes...and we make it (I'm alive still.. hallelujah!). We take a huge breath knowing we survived.

We crashed when we got to my parents house (about midnight) and Ty was ready to go at 4:30am again. Ty being our first child, we had never realized the challenges of a THREE hour time change. Thankfully it was beautiful weather and Nate, Ty, and I were out on a walk around Fountain Lake at 5:30am. This became our routine every morning. We could not get Ty to adjust to the time change and finally just kept him on MI time, which meant bedtime at 5:30 AZ time, and waking up at 4:30am AZ time. Nate and I took turns getting up in the mornings thankfully. The unfortunate part was that Ty's antibiotics did not kick in till about 4 days into the trip so he was still throwing up all the time. He was a little fussier than usual but the throwing up didn't seem to really affect him. Wednesday afternoon he was back to his normal self. Even though we were waking up early and he was kind of sick we were still able to enjoy the beautiful weather in AZ.

This is a hike that goes around my parents house and over looks Fountain Hills. Ty loved hanging out in the hiking backpack!

Fountain Park - They had a great playground for Ty to play on! Ty and Nate playing catch!

Saguaro Lake - We were going to rent a pontoon boat, but decided against because of how busy Ty is. Hopefully next trip out to AZ we'll feel like we can handle a few hours on a boat! Beautiful!

Sunrise Hike - This was a hike that overlooked Scottsdale. It was probably about 85-90 degrees and it was about a 2 - 2.5 mile hike up.

Ty was so hot and exhausted by the time we got to the top of the hike that this was him the entire way back down.... which I don't know how he could sleep through that...

Stay tuned for Part II........ It gets much more exciting :)

Ty's 1st Birthday Party!

Happy 1st Birthday Ty James!!

I had so much fun pondering about what I wanted to do for Ty's 1st birthday party. Nate wanted to do a sports theme but I insisted that I get to do my more baby type theme for his 1st birthday, since we all know Nate will get a sports theme in multiple years :) SO an animal theme it was, since Ty loves animals! Zeeland Bakery did an AMAZING job on his cake. It matched all his decorations perfectly.

Ty had tried "regular" cake before and didn't want anything to do with it. I ended up making him a banana type cake and he LOVED it when I tried out the recipe. I had then just let him taste test the frosting and he had liked it as well. I hadn't tried the frosting on the cake but thought he would do fine on his big day. We lit his candle, sang Happy Birthday (which he totally loved everyone looking at him), and then it was his turn to dig in.....

Once he got frosting on his hands, he totally freaked out. This was just the beginning of him losing it. I have to admit, as much as it was sad that he was freaking out, I had to hold back myself from laughing. By the time it was over, he had blue frosting in his hair, all over his shirt, over me, and on the floor. We got him pretty much cleaned up and I gave him a plain banana cupcake and he gobbled it right up!

After opening all his gifts, which he completely wasn't interested in opening,we put together a few and let the little kiddos play with them. They all had a blast! After playing, we all knew when the party should end as all the little ones were letting us know that it was well past nap-time :)

and....after a fun but long day of celebrating he was ready for an early bedtime!

It's hard to believe that his 1st birthday has come and gone so quickly... I guess I need to start planning for his 2nd one :)

Happy 1st Birthday!

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY TY!

It's 10:00pm and exactly one year ago I was still in labor with Ty. I still remember everything about that day and the exact feeling I had when I saw Ty for the first time. Instant love. Nothing else mattered in that moment other than loving that little 6lb 8oz boy. 12 months later we have a funny, sweet, running, busy, 24 pound little man that I love more and more each day. God has truly blessed our family by allowing us to raise such a wonderful little boy.



Here is Ty 1 year tidbits :)

Teeth: (with one more trying to poke through!)
Biggest Milestone: walking EVERYWHERE!
Favorite toy: Orange tunnel and now your new basketball hoop
Food: Cheese and bananas - Most days a picky eater but I always know that he'll take these two things. Ty HATES soft cooked vegetables. Sometimes he will eat pureed, if we can trick him :)
Sleep: 2 naps during the day and 11-12 hours straight at night (love it!)
Weight: Not official but I'm guessing around 24 pounds! Solid boy!
Favorite Movie: Baby Noah
Loves to..... dance, talk, throw the ball to Maggie, open and shut doors, play with measuring cups and the salad spinner, and LOVES LOVES LOVES LOVES his teddy blanket!

Happy 1st Birthday to our sweet little man Ty James VandeGuchte!
Birthday party post to come soon!!!