Found this today

Found this video while looking through old pics and had to laugh!! I love this little guy! He is 4 1/4 here, and knows how to be careful from all his hiking with Daddy....too cute!

Disneyland at Christmas 2012

Car's land had so many cute decorations and we really had a great trip with my whole family! Super fun!! Tyler did Tower of Terror 3-4 times and I wouldn't go so far as to say he liked it, but he was trying to!! His faces were priceless and then all the pics he has this frozen smile cause he knows when they take the pics! He loves his cousins so much so it was super fun for them to all hang out again and Tyler to keep up :)! He also tried Space Mountain for the first time and on our last day pretty much only rode that ride, I think it was 10 times total!! He is a crack up!! Hope you had a great Christmas!!!

Disneyland 2012

Santa 2012

Tyler was tall enough to hang the stockings himself this year and he was very excited to do it! He was helpful with all the decorating! It was really fun! I love when he is excited about things! It is contagious!

Erik was not as excited about decorating!! But did an AMAZING job shaping our fake tree for inside, which I wanted to toss out and go buy a real tree after like 3 minutes and then put lights on our two outside trees.

Tyler rode his bike in the dark while daddy put up the lights!

Our 2012 ornament!! We buy one every year and I was so excited we found this!

Tyler had to get one too and of course picked another Jack Skellington. It is our second on the tree!

The Carter's annual Gingerbread house decorating party with a visit from Santa was a blast!

This one is too funny cause Tyler is using someone else's iphone to take pictures of the family with Santa! My little photographer in the making!

First Lost Tooth

Tyler lost his first tooth tonight! December 17, 2012! It has been dangling for days! Tyler also does a horrible job chewing his food and since it was so loose I have been worried for days he is going to swallow it with his food....well he did! He was kind of bummed but only really cared to write the tooth fairy and note and can't wait for morning :)

New York, New York!!!

We were in New York this November for 5 days and had an AMAZING TIME!!!! I put a lot more pictures into slide shows that are at the bottom with descriptions of the trip :)

The Trip:
Our first destination was Carlo's Bakery in Hoboken. Tyler is a HUGE FAN of the TLC show "Cake Boss" and this is the bakery where it is filmed. Hoboken was pretty hard hit by the hurricane Sandy. The train station was still closed so we had to walk a bit further but it was so worth it! Hoboken was the only place we really saw debris and cleanup still happening although our hotel had a ton of FEMA workers staying there also. People were also incredibly nice the whole time we were there because they had all been through this terrible storm and everyone was affected in some way or another, so my credit card had worked to buy our Metro tickets for the subway but then wouldn't work for the train to NJ, so an incredibly nice officer who Tyler LOVED talking to let us through on his pass and told us to enjoy the cannolis cause we had told him we were headed to the bakery! I had warned Tyler before we left for New York, he would have to be tough cause we would be walking quite a bit and I REALLY didn't want to push him in the stroller. He is really to big and the only place I take it is Disneyland cause I can't deal with his whining as we are leaving at 8pm. So I should have known better but Tyler was a little silly also cause half way to  the bakery he started his drama of how much farther is it??? We had barely walked a half mile???!!!! So we made it to the bakery and then Tyler had a panic attack and said he didn't want to go in.....I think he thought they were filming that day...he never really explained but I about yelled at him "We came almost 3000 miles to come here and you don't want to go it????" So we sat down on the bench for a sec to calm down and then went in and got cupcakes, cookies and a cannoli !!!! Delicious!!! I would have loved to have some other people with us so they could have shared one of the beautiful cakes with me, but Tyler and Erik don't like cake so there you go. Tyler did get a cupcake though so he could eat the frosting! Then we had a hot dog for lunch at Papaya Dog which I only know about because of Kramer from Seinfeld! We then walked around a beautiful park and got a GREAT view of Manhattan. Then we headed back to the city and Tyler fell asleep on the train in his new stroller we had to buy at a Hoboken Target :) Couldn't pull off being a New Yorker! Here is the link to the pics:
Carlo's Bakery

We took a short break at the hotel to get warmer clothes and I convinced Tyler he could make it through the evening! So we headed to Korea town to have Bimbimbap. I had it when I lived in Japan and our hotel was practically in Korea town so I figured we had to try it and since it is rice, meat and vegetables....I figured it would work well with Tyler! Not only did he try it but he also tried all the pickled Korean delicacies that they put in front of us! We were the only white people in the restaurant and Tyler was the youngest by 15 years! I was so proud!! Then we headed to the Empire State Building....which I walked DIRECTLY past because I was convinced it was a little further east than we were....but I figured it out quickly and dragged a very tired Tyler up to the FREEZING observation deck!!! We quickly walked around and took some pics and then Tyler had wanted to go up to the 102nd floor, which was NOT worth the money other than riding in one of the old school elevators where you had to get locked in and it was so slow!! When we got to the top Tyler looked out one window and turns to me and says "Mom is there a roller coaster up here?"......only a kid from Vegas would ask that :) It was fun....but I wore poor Tman out!
Empire State Building
The next day we woke up early to go to Erik's office but Tyler was just too exhausted so he went back to bed for a few hours and I enjoyed reading a book! Then when Tyler got up we headed on the train to the Natural History Museum. Tyler was so excited because we had watched the two "Night at the Museum" movies. He had said before we left..."Are both museums in New York? No sorry babe the other one is the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. AGGGH I wish we were going to D.C. too!" So we got to the museum only about 30 minutes before Erik's work commitments were finished and we had him for the rest of the trip which was SO AWESOME!!! Tyler ended up in the stroller for the end of the museum....it was so huge we were seriously lost for a good chunk of time...which I of course loved, other than the taxidermy animal rooms. After the museum we headed to dinner at Erik's favorite restaurant for lobster....the Blue Water Grill. We had been to one in Chicago, but when we were there last it had closed. So we were super excited to get to go! Tyler was dragging again at this point and wasn't feeling to great either....mostly lethargic ..I couldn't get him to eat or drink much. So we went to this AMAZING restaurant and Tyler had a milkshake for dinner :) When he was halfway done he said "Can I rest?" He put his head down and slept for two hours....so we got a date at one of our favorite places without having to pay a sitter :)! I had blackened swordfish with sweet potato and lump crab hash and red curry sauce....SO DELISH!!! I wish I had taken a pic of our food but my main camera battery had died and my old 3GS doesn't have a flash so the pics we took were all blurry...but it was FANTASTIC!!! Tyler perked up after his nap and so we headed to WholeFoods across the street to pick up his dinner and had the craziest check out experience ever!!! It was like being at Disneyland! They had color coordinated lines and a sign that flashed which lines turn it was and which register they should go to! We were cracking up in line and ended up talking to a guy next to us who said it is like this in almost any grocery store in Manhattan, and the WholeFoods is always like that no mater what time of day! It only took like 10 minutes but if you can just imagine 7 lanes across with about 12-15 people per line and then another single line leading into the queue with the 7 lanes! I was such the tourist cause I totally wanted to take a pic...but refrained!
Natural History Museum
The next day we headed to Central Park, but along the way hit Greenly Square and Tyler and Erik played a game of Foosball  The train station closest to the hotel was just below this park and Tyler and I had found it! So fun! I put a lot of pics of Tyler's cute face and enthusiasm over the game! I was amazed that the park still had so many beautiful colors in the trees after the storm! It was really nice except for all the crazy cart people harassing us to get a ride!! $50 for a half hour horse ride around the park....couldn't believe it! We didn't see a ton of the park but it was so nice to stroll through where there were no pedal carts or stinky horses!
Greenly Square and Central Park
While in Central Park we of course went to the zoo! It was a must for Tman! He loved the tropical region house..especially the Green Tree Boa, and the Tentacled Snakes who live in rivers in Indonesia (creepy!!) ..we loved it cause it was heated!! The polar bear tank had an ice sheet on it....brrr!!! And we got to see a 4D Polar Express Clip...where the whole theater shook like we were on a train and then it snowed, and smelled like hot chocolate, and pine trees. I smelled like a pine tree for a while :)
Central Park Zoo
We got in our only family dispute while looking for a late lunch after the zoo...cause it was already a little late and we were on 5th Ave so everything was expensive and fancy! We finally found a panini place and Tyler who never eats sandwiches was perfectly happy to eat a panini and salad! We then headed out to FAO Schwartz and spent almost an hour and a half there....crazy! Tyler got a fortune from "Zoltar" the machine in the movie "Big" and loved all the Lego's! Then we headed to Times Square and had dinner at a Cuban place, Havana Central, hence the Cuban music for this slideshow....this was how our dinner was, a big party! We took some funny pics while waiting for our dinner! I had some great handmade empanadas! Then we went to the Disney Store in Times Square which was already decked out for Christmas! We actually bought our 2012 ornaments....we get a new one each year! This year we got three cause we couldn't agree!
Times Square and Shopping
Our last morning when we woke up Tyler says from the bed "I love this city..." with all this sorrow in his voice that we are leaving! He is too funny and adorable!!! We then headed out to Erik's office in the Financial District....actually directly next to the 9/11 Memorial grounds and the new World Trade One building. We were able to go up to the 31st floor in the Halcrow office to look down on the grounds! World Trade One is topped out but is still being worked on and we got to see a crane lifting three flights of stairs that were attached to the outside of the building being lowered to the ground....pretty amazing! It will be the third tallest building in the world when they attach its external structure/antennae. The memorial grounds are all still sort of under construction because they are still building so much stuff in the city block surrounding where the fountains and the museum is. I don't even know if the museum is open yet....you can tour the grounds but again because of hurricane Sandy they were only letting people that bought passes prior to coming into the grounds. So it was really cool to get to see it from above! We also walked out to the bay and looked from afar at the Statue of Liberty, also closed due to the storm. Also got to walk through the Trinity Church which is right down the street from the World Trade Center grounds. And then had our last NYC pizza before taking a taxi back to the airport! Such an amazing trip! I would love to go again as there is so much we didn't get to do! Fun things to look forward to :)
Last Day
Hope you enjoyed my LONG story...it was really for me or any family who wanted to know every detail!! All our love!!!

Shark Reef Field Trip

Tyler's class got to go to the Shark Reef, and they had a really great time! They did a presentation on sharks and other marine life and then a guided tour through the facility so we got to ask questions!