"No mom, I love Ty."

Okay, so maybe not the best pictures I've ever taken, but couldn't let today go without posting about Carter and his brother, Ty.

I'm so happy that Carter was a little boy. Of course, I had a small hope for my little girl the second time around, but Carter and Ty are the best of friends and I could not be happier!!!

Ty is so good to his little brother and Carter just loves his big brother!! The first thing Carter asks when he wakes up every morning is "Where's Ty?" He loves to play with him and wants to be just like him. Today when we pulled in to Ty's school parking lot Carter said, "No Ty school!" and as we were leaving he told me he missed Ty. As we were shopping in Target today while Ty was in school I said, "I love Carter." and he looked at me and said, "No mom, I love Ty." So cute! It makes me so happy to see these two develop a friendship and it is my hope and prayer that it will only grow stronger as they grow older.

The Polar Express

I need to preface this post: The night of the Polar Express my camera was slowly dying. I didn't know then that my lens was going to be completely useless and need replaced (totally bummed!!!) this week, but it wasn't working so my shots were completely hit or miss. Even so, I managed to still take 135 shots!

So anyways, there is a scenic railways near us that does the coolest thing in December. They turn their train into the Polar Express and take the kids to the North Pole! The kids wear the Christmas jammies and they read the story and act out the whole book! It is really popular and was hard to get tickets for. You enter into a lottery in October and hope you get tickets. We have been lucky to get to go every year. This year Keith's dad was able to just get enough tickets for the grandkids, my sister-in-law, mother-in-law and myself. We had so much fun.

It is especially fun because Ty loves the Polar Express movie and book and Carter is absolutely obsessed with trains, so we are really excited for this night!


The kids are greeted on the trains by elves who give them "Elf Helper" name tags and elf dust.



The boys loved hanging out with their cousins.




Grandpa surprised them by ordering each grandkid a box set with the book, cd and bell for the elves to deliver while on the train.




They even punch your ticket, just like on the movie.




Carter was so interested in what was going by outside. He was so excited to be on a train. He just tried to take it all in.

Here are the kids looking out the window when we arrived at the North Pole. There were a bunch of elves waving, reindeer, and even Santa.

Santa even comes on the train to give each child a bell from his sleigh. Ty asked for a pogo stick for Christmas.

This was Carter's reaction to Santa.

Carter had to call his dad to tell him all about it.

Here is us saying good-bye to the "choo-choo."

Hunt for the perfect Christmast tree

Each year the weekend after Thanksgiving, rain or shine, freezing or comfortable, we gather the Bielozer troops and head out in search of the perfect Christmas tree. This year was no different. Friday it snowed all morning, so we put on all our snow gear and headed out (the snow all melted by the time we got out there).

The boys loved the wagon/tractor ride out to the fields. This year was so fun because Ty totally had an opinion on what tree we should get. For the first 15-20 minutes he would not leave the side of one tree because he wanted it and was convinced someone might take it if he left it. Fortunately we were able to convince him otherwise (the tree was only 3 feet tall) and eventually found the perfect tree. Ty loved helping to cut it down and carry it back to the tractor.

Grandma and Grandpa surprised all the grandkids with a set of ornaments from our Disney trip this past summer. Carter said "Thank you Grandpa" all the way home. Thank you Grandpa (and Grandma).

Being Thankful

You know it's been a long time since I blogged when Keith is telling me I need to blog. He used to make fun of me for always blogging and now he's concerned I'm "losing interest." No, I'm not losing interest, I have just been so sick and so tired that I just haven't been able to gather up the energy. Finally though, I think I'm nearing the end of this morning sickness (more like all day sickness) thing and might finally have some of my regular energy back. I totally feel for the women who have horrible morning sickness and am counting my blessings that I didn't feel this way with my other pregnancies!!



I've been spending a lot of time lately feeling sorry for myself and how sick I feel, so in the spirit of feeling better and my Thanksgiving day post, I decided to take some time to reflect on all that I'm thankful for. I'm thankful for:



1. My health. It's too bad that it takes feeling horrible to be thankful for your good health. Even though I have felt so sick and tired, I'm grateful that it's not permanent. I'm grateful that overall I have been blessed with good health and that this pregnancy is going well (we heard the heartbeat last visit).





2. My husband. Yes, I really am. I'm grateful for his love and dedication to our family. I'm grateful that he goes to work each day for us so I can stay home with our children. I'm grateful for his unselfishness and the way he cares for and loves our boys. I'm thankful for his handiness around the house and all that he does for us.



3. Ty. I'm thankful for his sweet, sweet spirit. I'm thankful for his gentleness and the way he hugs me and tells me he loves me. I'm grateful for his desire to do what's right and to do everything "the right way." I'm grateful for how polite he is and for his ability to make friends. He truly makes our home and family a better place to be.






4. Carter. I'm thankful for his love for life and his spunk. I'm grateful for how he loves his brother and wants to be wherever he is. I'm thankful for his energy and his sweet little voice. I love his determination and strong will (most the time:)).





5. My extended family. I'm grateful that my parents are near by and always will to help out. I'm grateful for their unselfishness and love. I'm thankful for all the support and love all our family gives us.





6. My faith. I'm grateful to be sure in what I believe. I'm thankful to have a knowledge of the gospel that gives my life meaning. I'm thankful for my Savior, Jesus Christ, and for my Heavenly Father.





7. My friends. I have been blessed with so many wonderful friends in so many areas of my life! I don't know what I would have done throughout life without each one of them.





I'm grateful for many more things, but this is what it all comes down to. If I lost everything else and still had these seven things, I would be blessed!



THANKSGIVING
We had a great Thanksgiving this year. As we have for the past 3 years, we had both my family and Keith's family over to our house for Thanksgiving dinner. I love have Thanksgiving at our house because we can have both our families together! Everything went perfect this year. The turkies were done on time, the food was excellent, the company was wonderful...I couldn't have asked for a better day (except to have had more familiy in town!!).

Here is Ty after his Thanksgiving feast at school.





Carter entertaining the crowd in the basement. What a ham!

Smooching little Sammy.

After all the tables were cleared and put away, Carter found one lonely chair and climbed up with a big helping of pie. That's my boy!

Carter helping with the dishes. Definitely the highlight of his day!

One of the two birds this year.

The boys wrestling before dinner. My boys are in heaven when the older cousins are over!

Turkey will do this to you.

Ty Guy playing comando with the cousins.

A family get together wouldn't be complete without checking out Utube.

The table before dinner was served. Thanks Gammy for doing the decorations!

Dad doing what he does best. LOVE his mashed potatoes!

Gayla was in charge of the gravy--super yummy!

Carter had to sample to turkey before it was served to make sure it was okay.

The man of the house.