"Hello" from Aunt Kimberly's Tower

The view from the 41st floor

Swimming at the tower.  Dallas had a major milestone during this swimming trip...his first pee on the potty (1/15/12).  WOOHOO!

Visiting the Shedd Aquarium

Ty found Nemo

All Dallas wanted to do was play with this bacon and eggs

Checking out the jellies

Ty and Uncle Nandan kickin' it at the bar.

Dallas is 2!! (sniff, sniff)

Well, here we go again. I feel like I was just saying "Ty's 2" about 6 months ago, and now it's time for my little Dallas to make the transition from baby to little boy. Makes me happy and sad at the same time. I hate to be losing my last "baby" but I'm so proud of the little boy he's growing in to. He's smart, loving, playful, brave, verbal (to the point I'm a little scared he's going to grow up to be a politician or something. He's been speaking in full sentences for about 4 months now), and who could help but notices he's as cute as they come!

"Oh, hmmm, this looks yummy. I think I'll have one."

"Why's everyone singing to me?"

"Oh well, let them sing. I'm just gonna eat this here cake."

"No, really, Daddy, what's all this singing about?"

"Blow out these candles, you say?  Well, OK."

"Everybody chow down.  I am."

"YES!! PRESENTS!"

The observation gallery

Of course, every Barnhart boy birthday party must include a fishing pole.

Here's what Uncle Collin got Dallas.  Yeah, nice.

And here's his present from Mommy and Daddy. 

Now when he turns 16 we can tell him we already bought him a car.

Dallas had a great time at his party.  Before everyone got there that day he was running around the garage after I had decorated it saying, "It's my party" repeatedly.  Then when the party was over he kept saying, "Happy Birthday to me."  What a sweetheart.  Mommy and Daddy love you, Dallas.  We hope you had a great second birthday, Buddy!

Christmas at "Mammaw with Taloose's"

We had Christmas at Christy's (aka "Mammaw with Taloose") new house on New Year's weekend.  The boys both got a stuffed animal with a book that the animal reads along with you.  Dallas' is a bear named Cooper and Ty's is a dog named Jingle.  They both LOVE them, and we have to read them before bed almost every night.

Christmas Morning

Ty woke up at 5:30 on Christmas morning.  He ran from his bedroom to the playroom, opened the door to check if Santa had come.  When he saw that there were presents under the tree, he ran into our room and said in the cutest, most excited voice, "Daddy, wake up!  Christmas is here!"  Man...it was cute!  Justin got up and somehow managed to keep him distracted until Dallas and I got up, about 2 hours later.  So here's our Christmas morning.  Please excuse the picture quality....

Stockings.

They both got little tractors with various farm implements (mower deck, disc, etc) to pull behind them.  Honestly, I think we could've stopped right there and they'd have been perfectly happy.

Waiting for their first presents from Santa.  Ty's was a battery for his tractor.  Just what every kid wants, but something he asked Santa for many times.

Dallas lost ineterest in opening presents several times during the morning.  He just wanted to keep playing with the things from his stocking.

I mentioned in the last post that Ty's favorite present from my mom was this crossbow.  Here's the evidence.

Here Dallas is opening a caterpillar tunnel.  And Ty, again, with the crossbow.

The other thing Ty asked Santa for was Beyblades (spinning tops that battle each other), so here is his battle set.

Dallas loves Mommy

Playing Beyblades

Dallas got a bowling set.  He liked to "Smash 'em over!" as he said.

Ty and Dallas got Mommy a very pretty wall hanging and a candle.

Ty's turtle beanbag game

Not to be left out, here's Dallas' crossbow. 

Christmas 2011

Christmas at Dad's

12/23/2011






The Kids' table



Cousins at play

In this picture, Justin is holding a remote control train that Dallas got.  His name is Brewster (from Chuggington...that's a cartoon for those of you without preschoolers), and Dallas went around for several days after Christmas saying things like, "That's my rooster" and "Where's my rooster?" and things like that.  He just cracks me up.  Ty got a remote control Lightning McQueen, so I've been walking around the house the past few weeks with cars and trains zooming underfoot.

Christmas at Mom's

12/24/2011

Dallas got this tool cart, which all the kids were very interested in.  He saw it under the tree before we had started opening presents and just went over and wheeled it out from under the tree and they all started playing with it.haha  So much for patience.  Both boys got tons of toys (as always...I mean, this is Mammaw...)  Ty's favorite was a crossbow.  They got a sandbox that will be getting a lot of use once spring gets here.

Christmas at Mammaw's

12/25/11

It's probably not obvious to anyone but me, but you might notice that I'm in many more pictures than usual.  There's a reason for that.  These are Trista's pictures.  I'm more than sorry to say (as a matter of fact, I'm infuriated to say) that I lost the memory card from my camera with ALL my Christmas pictures on it.  This blog is evidence that I'm CRAZY about pictures, especially pictures of my boys.  So you can probably imagine how....(I don't even know what the word is)....SICKENING....it is for me to lose pictures of CHRISTMAS, of all things.  But...that's life, I guess.  So Trista was good enough to make me copies of her pictures, and as you'll see in the next post, we video taped Christmas morning at our house (Thank GOD!!) so I was able to make stills off of the video.  It's not the same, but better than nothing.  Who knows...maybe the card'll turn up somewhere.  Here's hoping anyway.