2008 Christmas Family Photo

I was supposed to send this picture out with Christmas cards this year but somehow Christmas came here before I knew it. So, instead I post this pic up here for you guys. Not quite the same as mailing out cards. But hopefully next year I will do a better job.

This was the one we were going to send out.

This is just us goofing around a litte. :-)

Have a MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone!!!!

I'm A Landscaper!! (Sort of)

So, since I am currently label "unemployed", Taylor has recruited me as a landscaper. I really just mow lawns. The first day working with him was this past Thursday and then I helped him today. I must say that when I stopped working at FedEx I was not sad to not be doing physical labor anymore. But lucky for me, summer is OVER! I do not myself out there in the hot summer days. Ugh!! So, I'm writing this cause I'm so proud that I have been able to do this but I should be giving Taylor so much recognition cause he does this EVERYDAY - even in the summer. Ugh!! Anyhow, I took some pics today of two of the lawns that I mowed and a pic of me with the blower and a pic of me and Taylor at the back of the trailer at the end of the day. Enjoy!

This one is so nice cause it's so green. It makes itself look pretty but I mowed it! Yay me! Actually, about 2 years ago, Taylor and I laid this grass (sod) down. So, I guess I've had it in me all along. :-)

This one is next door to the other. It's a pretty cool yard but there's so many little leaves. All the grass you see I mowed

Here is me with the mower. I'm smiling for the picture but who knows if I was smiling at all when I was working.

And now Taylor and I at the end of the day. I even have the earplugs just like Taylor always has. :-)

I think this may be one of our first blogs in a LONG time that did not have to do with Tyler. Hopefully there will be many more to come. :-) My dad has agreed to watch Tyler one night of the week so that Taylor and I can hang out. We have not hung out just the two of us since Tyler got here (That's 4 Months!!!). Yay for DAD!! :-)

A Change In Tyler's Room

So, I have decided to decorate Tyler's room a little bit. Tyler told me that he didn't like the plain white walls because it reminded him of his dad's house. And since we don't really want him to think about that, I decided to decorate his room a little. I asked for some of his input and then I got to work on it while he was at school. He didn't know that I had started working on it so it was a surprise when he got home. He was really excited when he saw it and he said that he really liked it. He also said that it doens't look like his dad's house anymore. So, here are some pics of what I did. It's not super fancy but it definitely makes the room feel different. And I had NO idea how hard it would be to non-permanently decorate it since we live in an apartment. Here it is. Let me know what you guys think. :-)

This is the best before picture that I could find. I didn't think to take a picture before hand. (Lame) But you can still see that the walls are bare.

Here's the first after picture. Tyler wanted his name above his bed so I did it with stars. Each star has one letter of his name on it. Tyler thought of having the ribbons hanging from each corner of the room. And I suggested the blue strip around the room. He agreed but I don't think he fully understood it until he saw it. And he really liked it. It looks like it's painted but it's A LOT of construction paper taped around the whole room. Above the blue line on the right are 3 quotes that I thought he would like. And below the blue line and to the left of the bed is something on good listening techniques cause he needs to work on his listening.


These two things are right next to his door. The top one is a little thing about character - "Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions...etc until you get to character." The bottom one is a picture that I colored for him and it has a bible verse on it. And the dry-erase board was already there.
And finally, this is Tyler's name on his door. I tried to make it so that it seems like the letters come off the door. I forgot to use the flash on this picture but it actually looks better than the one with the flash because in this one you can't see the tape.

So, I hope you enjoyed the tour of Tyler's room. Oh! I forgot to take a picture of this but we also put paper all over his closet door and we call it the "Wall of Frustration" and Tyler can color, scribble, write, draw, or whatever on it when he's frustrated as long as the writing is always on the paper and he never writes inappropriate stuff on it. So far, he's already used it once. Let me know what you guys think. And if you have any suggestions, please feel free to share because we are trying to decide if we need to add anything else. Other than the blue strip and the ribbons there really isn't anything else on the other walls. So, bring on some suggestions. :-)