Gabriella's Baptism

Sunday was conference weekend (a semi-annual church meeting broadcasted from Utah) and my niece's baptism. I absolutely love conference weekend. In Utah I loved attending the meetings or listening to the speakers outside at temple square with friends. Now I love watching church from home on t.v., listening to the leaders of our church, snuggled up on the couch usually with some good munchies.


In between sessions we had my little niece's baptism in the Catholic church. After the baptism we had a delicious meal at Claddagh's (I have no idea how to spell that) restaurant at Crocker Park--my first time there. Very yummy!

The best part...Kecia was in town for the event and the week!! But that's a whole other post (or twelve!)...

Busy!

Wow! It has been a totally crazy couple of weeks. I know I have been completely MIA lately. I have so much to catch up on, so I thought I'd just to a quick recap of what's been going on in the Bielozer household.

--Loving the beautiful weather (90 degrees today!!, which I know is no big deal for those of you in AZ, but total big deal here in Cleveland!)
--Squeezing in a last few days of sprinklers and waterguns!
--Cheering for our Tribe!! Ty and I got to go to a game just before the playoffs with my sister-in-law and nephew. My sister-in-law knows the umpires, so we got free tickets and the boys got several MLB balls!
--My brother, Chase, is home from Bolivia. Ty told me he missed him a lot!
--Soccer games every week. Ty cracks us up. When he is in to it, he does great. Mostly, though, he is interested in looking cool while he runs and checking out who's watching him on the sidelines.
--Ty started Tae Kwon Do where I teach recently and is loving it. So cute in his uniform and listens really well in class (he's very serious about it).
--Simply Said business is booming (hence the big time gap in posts).

I know there is tons more, but not coming up with anything right now. Later!

Reminiscing and Re-evaluating

I really should be catching up on posting all that we've done the last week, but I'm feeling very nostalgic today. I take a lot of grief from Keith about blogging, but I love being able to keep in touch with all my family and friends. Just recently I have reconnected with some good friends from college and it has been so fun to see what everyone is up to. I had forgotten how crazy we were and how much fun we had together.

Unfortunately I also learned that one of our friends from school was recently diagnosed with melanoma. Every since reading the news I have been taking it all in and reflecting on my life and blessings. Our friend, Mary, said it best when she said, "If you don't know Alisa, you should. She is hilarious, brilliant, talented, etc" As I follow her blog through this hard time she inspires me to be a better mother and wife and count my blessings each day. She has managed to keep her sense of humor (which is one of the things I like best about her!) though it all and value what is really important in life. She has inspired me and will be in my prayers!

The Final Days

Hard to believe it's already mid-September! Where did the summer go? The boys and I have been trying to squeeze out the last bit of summer and visiting the "birdy trail" (the bike path through the woods in our neighborhood) and the park behind our house as much as we can before it's too cold!

Ty mastered pumping on the swings this summer and is so proud of himself (and I'm so happy that I only have to push one on the swing now!)

Cold Turkey

Apparantly that is how we are getting rid of the binki--cold turkey, because this is all that is left of it!

Ironically, just this morning I was telling the babysitter at kickboxing that this was our last binki. I told her once this one's gone that would be the last.

For those of you not familiar with Carter, he is obsessed with the binki! He doesn't just use it to sleep, he needs to know where it is at all times, so getting rid of it is no easy task.

Well, today after kickboxing my friend, Stephanie, came over with her daughter (and little dog) for lunch and to do some vinyl design work. While we were working on the computer the kids were playing great. At one point we wondered where Bella, the dog, was and asked Ty to go upstairs to check it out. Ty came down a few minutes later, looking very concerned. "Carter's binki is broke Mom," he said sadly. Sure enough, it was broke! Bella had eaten off the nipple!

So, Kieth and I decided rather than buying a new one we would take this as the push we needed to get rid of it. Day 1: Hasn't been as bad as I expected. Carter was very concerned that it was broken and searched the house for more. Bedtime was a little harder. He never cries when we put him in bed and he cried to sleep for the first time tonight. It broke my heart. And apparently when you lose a binki you need to add five more stuffed animals to your crib. Pretty soon there is not going to be room for him in his bed. So, he is currently in his crib, binkiless, surrounded by a zoo of stuffed animals. I just hope we make it through the night!

Photoshop Tips

I was introduced to Sabrina through our mutual friend, Karolyn. It's thanks to Sabrina that I didn't give up on Photoshop after opening it and being totally lost the first time. She is full of knowledge and teaches classes around Cleveland on the program, and has now started a blog strictly for sharing Photoshop tips! How great is that?! So, for all of you aspiring photoshop artists, check out her link.
www.phototipstergirls.blogspot.com.

I Apologize

My husband has asked that I publicly apologize to him for accusing him of misplacing the soccer pictures. I was wrong. I did not see them in the appropriate computer folder and assumed he had misplaced them. Sorry Keith.

I Spoke Too Soon

Sorry everyone--two posts without pictures! I hate that, but felt the need to record this. As most of you know Carter turned the big 2 yesterday (and it's like instantly he knows you are supposed to be terrible-two, but that's another story) so my friend, Melissa, asked me today if we were switching him to a big boy bed soon. I said "no way!" He actually goes to bed really good in the crib right now (I put him in and he doesn't make a peep) and who knows what he would do if he could get out, so until he starts to climb out, I'm not switching him.

Fast forward to tonight. Our night time routine lately has been to all meet in Ty's room for family scripture and bed time story and then we take Carter to his crib. Well, tonight Carter layed down in Ty's bed and was not budging. He wanted to sleep there. So, reluctantly, we decided to experiment. Since Ty doesn't have school in the morning, we took him to our room and left Carter in Ty's bed. As of right now he's been in there 20 minutes and hasn't made a peep. I checked on him once--he was still awake, but hadn't moved a muscle. Is my baby really growing up? Could he really be ready for a big boy bed? I don't know if I'm ready!

EIGHT!!

That's how many goals Ty scored in his first soccer game of the season this past Saturday. The boy was on fire! After a minor injury the third play of the game (he fell and someone stepped on his arm with a cleat), he returned (after a brief time-out and pep talk from his dad) and turned his game on, scoring 8 of the team's 10 goals! We may have found this boys sport. I was going to post pictures from the game, but I have no idea where Keith saved them. Stay tuned...

Photoshoot Melt Down

Ty didn't have school today, so I thought it would be a perfect day to check out a spot I've been wanting to try for a photoshoot. It was also going to be Carter's 2-year photoshoot, but Carter had other plans. This is how he looked anytime I pointed the camera in his direction.

Ty on the other hand was awesome (is it any surprise, the boy loves the camera). So I still got to try a few shots and love them. Not sure when I'll venture back with Carter....

Here are a few of my Ty Guy. Aside from needing a haircut, I think he looks adorable.

Ty wanted to be the photographer too, so he took these of Carter and me. Don't mind the sweat drenched clothes and wet hair--I just got finished teaching a very strenous kickboxing class. The little photographer did pretty good though!

Labor Day Air Show

It's long been a tradition in my family to watch the Cleveland Air Show on Labor Day. We never actually pay to go into the show though. We always go to the lake (usually behind the stadium) and watch, making sure to be there for the Blue Angels and Thunderbirds It is the boys absolute favorite tradition we have! This year we invited Keith's brother, Brian, and his family to watch with us.

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Beware of the Two-headed Monsters!

We had my family over for dinner Sunday and after dinner Ty overheard my sister, Whitney and I talking about how we used to dress up as two-headed monsters. Ty thought that sounded like fun, so he found one of Keith's old shirts and we took turns being scary two-headed monsters!

Night Golfing

Last Friday my sister, Whitney, and I decided to bring back something we used to do with our friends in high school--night golfing. We used to gather a group of friends together after Dad's golf course closed and the sun went down and golf in the dark. You use glow in the dark balls and put glow sticks on the pins. So fun! All you can see on the course are glowing balls flying in the air or rolling on the green.


Since we've evolved since high school (hee-hee) we decided to put a fun twist on the night. Instead of just getting together to play at night, we (well Whitney really did all the work!) had a cook out and asked everyone to come in tacky golf attire. All though we threw it together last minute and on a holiday weekend, so a lot of friends couldn't make it, we still had a blast with our families and friends who could come! I regret that I didnt take more pictures, but I was able to capture a few fun moments and outfits.

So mad I didn't get a picture of my mom's complete outfit--her sweater was great and her hat was made out of turf with a flag and ball sticking out!

The cousins

This is what happens when you show up without your tacky golf attire--you have to wear Whitney's pink socks and headband! You look cute Orlando!

We were very proud of my dad who came up with this all on his own!

First Day of School

I've been reading all these other blogs of my friends crying on their children's first day of school. Am I a horrible mom because I didn't cry? Maybe it's because it is still preschool and no school bus was involved. Maybe it is because he went to this school last year and I know he loves it. Maybe it is because he was so excited to go. Maybe it is because technically next Tuesday is his real first day because I got to go with him today. Whatever it is, I wasn't sad Thursday, but more excited and happy for him. He was so excited to go back to school, to use his Spiderman back pack and to meet his new teacher.

I was reading Kecia's blog about how Kyra had to have the perfect outfit for her first day of kindergarden and she figured it was a girl thing--wrong! I had a cute outfit picked out for Ty to wear today but he cried and told me he just "wouldn't be happy" at school if he had to wear it. So...it is not just girls. I do have to say he did pick a good alternative outfit!

After school we met Grandpa Noll at his golf course for Ty's first golf lesson. Grandpa and Grandma and Aunt Whitney gave Ty his very own golf clubs and bag for his birthday and he has been dying to use them. I have to say, Ty did awesome! He has a great swing and really hit the ball well. Apparently he inherited his dad's athletic ability! He made it through 7 holes (we had to skip two so we didn't hold everyone up behind us) and wanted to do more! Carter James even took a swing at things (he swings a bit like Happy Gilmore!), but preferred to just put our balls in the holes for us on the greens. Such a fun way to top off the first day of school!