HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

This Mother's Day is in loving memory of my grandmother, Tyson's great grand mother, who passed away just a few days ago

Artie Ruth Beall

October 2, 1933 to May 7, 2009

I'm a TODDLER

since I finally have some extra time on my hands guess i'd grace you all with some wonderful pics of Tyson's first birthday. We went up north to celebrate his birthday. I have a lot of friends with kids and figured since it is a kid's birthday probably should have a lot of kids.
The day started out (technially weeks before) at 6am when I had to pick Justin up at the airport by 8:30am. I drove up a week before and since Justin had work and finals he stayed hom the week to study. I picked him up and previously had remembered that I had forgotten my high chair back in LA. We stopped by Wal-Mart to pick up a cheap one that we could return after the party. Of course we had to have a king's throne to decorate. We then had to run to party city and pick up a dozen and half balloons as well as some extra stuff we needed to decorate.

I was stressed out about getting a spot at the park because it's a very nice park on a very nice day. Of course we got to the park at 11 and there was no one there. Gave us time to run to get something to eat as well as money to pay the clown and lion we got for the kids. But then OF COURSE we got back and had to rush to set everything up before people showed up at 1pm. I mean on top of that people calling and texting left and right.

My mom had the birthday boy though so at least that was one less worry while we had to set up. So she calls on her way and realizes she forgot the potatoe salad at home and had to go all the way back. Mind you her home is about 25 miles away from where the party was. People started showing up and there was NO birthday boy! Luckily I at least got to bring some of the food and some toys for the kids to play with. So all of a sudden there a friends and kids at the park and my mom has fruit and veggie platters and TYSON. I aske her to ring Ty to the park at least before she has to pick up the cake from Safeway.



She did that and the party began. But hey it was 1:30 and only 3 friends and 4 kids down. I was happy because it gave me more time to setup but stressed because I felt like no one was going to show up. Well the birthday boy was there at least so had to at least entertain him since he decided to get shy around all the people. We stuck him in his birthday chair with toys and food and he was set. So everyone started showing up around the same time when I realized "Where is my mom?". She dropped off Tyson and the food but she had all the stuff to start cooking the hot dogs and the ice so all the drinks were warm. None of my family had shown up at this time either.

Finally around 2:30 my mom shows up with the cakes as the lion gets there and is slowly setting up (of course dressed as a real man at this point). Family come in one by one and as we begin to finally cook some real food (besides rice cakes, chips, PB&J sandwiches, and fruit). From the parking lot we then see a clown and lion walking towards the party. Some kids are happy, some already crying. Tyson.... just eating non chalantly with no clue what day it is nor that all of this is for him. They begin their show and not to be mean, but it was VERY corny. Since I had scared half the kids, they didn't want to come close to the clown or lion so only a few (and by few I mean like 3) participated in his games which made everything I guess a little more amusing for the adults.



The show was about an hour and 15 minutes. It consisted of birthday presents for the birthday boy, educational interactive games for the kids to participate in, magic show, and balloon animals. They gave Tyson this big glasses to wear that looked so funny on him. He actually kept them on for a long time too during the show. Tyson was in his chair for most of the event until the end he finally wasn't shy to walk around. The lion took some pictures with the kids and Tyson and they were on their way. Now it was time to bring out the cake and sing "Happy Birthday". A few days befor ehis Birthday we recieved this coupon in the mail for "Buy a 1/4 sheet cake or bigger

and get a 4x4" cake for free. This was perfect because I was planning on having a tiny cake for Tyson just to stick his face in and mess up himself. We ordered those two and an extra cupcake cake for the kids only because they look so cool. So I bring out the madagascar cake (his party was safari themed) and the cupcake cake but where is Tyson's cake? My mom forgot it while rushing for everything else at the store. I was a little mad but luckily the cupcake cake had this little section of 4 cupcakes I could just give Ty for himself.

We gathered around Tyson and started singing Happy Birthday. I think this was the first time he was around so many people with all eyes on him and everyone singing (i mean where else would this all happen besides his birthday...lol). He had the biggest smile on his face. I'm glad my friend let me use her video camera becuase besides his birth I dont have Tyson on film at all. How ironic both times are on the same day.

After singing Happy Birthday of course it was time for the borthday boy to stick his face in his cake. I handed him the 4 cupcakes and the laughs begin. He immediately just sticks his face in the cake as if he knew that's what everyone was expecting. It was the most adorable thing I have ever seen. We left him with the cupcake/frosting heaven and he went to town. I dont even think he realized it was food and he could eat it. It was like he was just shoving his face in the icing the whole time. My mom was freaking out "Ashley he can't breathe" becuase he had frosting ALL over his face including his nose. I just laughed b/c I knew he was having so much fun. He then tried to start throwing the cupcakes on the ground but he has so mcuh frosting on his hands, everything was just sticking. We then decided it was time to clean him up and attempt to clean the highchair (b/c remember we were going to take it back). It was a a mission trying to get all that cake and frosting off hsi hands and face not mentioning it was dying him blue. We opened all all of presents, cleaned up,stuffed the high chair back in the box and was out the park by 5pm. Gave Justin and I just enough time to stop back at Wal-Mart and back to Oakland by 6:15pm to catch his plane home. I havent gotten the chance to mail the Thank You cards yet (dont worry they're coming) but I wanted to thank everyone that was able to come and celebrate this special time with Tyson. He enjoyed himself and I hope you all enjoyed yourself and he's so lucky to have so many people around him that love and care for him so much.

SO many that Birthday Party number 2 is just around the corner. Hopefully I'll be a little more organized. This one is at our house in LA with LA family and friends. AHHHH let the wildness begin!

I'm It!

I was tagged by the lovely Mrs. Law

8 Things I Look Forward To:
1) Getting Married
2) Having more kids
3) Going on a vacation with my family
4) Watching my kids grow into wonderful adults
5) The Beach
6) Tyson's BIRTHDAY PARTY!!!
7) Meeting my grandchildren (i kno I have a long way to go)
8) Going back to school to get my masters

8 Things I Did Yesterday:
1) Got a ton of food for Tyson's birthday party
2) Went to Chile's with Katie and Ashley
3) Had two margaritas and thought of Mexico
4) Ordered the birthday cake
5) Ate Costco pizza
6) Blow dried and straightened my hair
7) Made a list of things i still need to get for the party
8) Uploaded pictures from my camera to my computer.

8 Things I Wish I Could Do:
1) Go swimming
2) Get into some kind of shape
3) Run everyday
4) Travel the world
5) Make someone a scrapbook (and they pay me for it of course)
6) Buy photoshop and learn how to use everything on it
7) Graphic and web design
8) Invent something

8 Shows I Watch:
1) Gossip Girl
2) 90210
3) The Game
4) Oprah
5) House
6) Weeds
7) Californication
8) United States of Tara

I Tag the following people! (i dont have many blogger friends)

The Mueller Chronicles
Jamie and Lance Hunter
Baking Baby Lovf
Waiting for Baby Foreste
Whatever Happens Happens
Katrina is a Princess

i'll have to cmoment to even tell these people they are tagged!!!

Baby Einstein

So I have about 3 Baby Einstein movies and when I moved back to LA I left them at my mom's house on accident. So now that we are up north visiting, Tyson get the chance to watch them. It's actually a little better at his age now b/c I feel that he can understand it a little more. It was so cute, he had his own little chair on the floor as he ate snack and watched his portable DVD player. He actually watched the whole thing. I was amazed. He didn't want a second one though, b/c then he tried to keep climbing out of his chair. We'll try that one again tomorrow.

T & D

I had to share this picture b/c it's seriously so freaking cute. It's Tyson and his best friend Damien. We are having a joint birthday for them in so-cal and Jackie I wanted to make an invitation with their picture on it so we set up this mini photo shoot outside of IHOP after breakfast the other day and this is the BEST picture i got and I actually love it. I wish I could see a little more of Tyson's face in it but it's still cute. Taking pictures of two toddlers is not easy. Especially trying to get a good picture where they are BOTH paying attention. and yes, Tyson is officially a TODDLER on saturday!!! wow almost a year already....this is too crazy

Easter Weekend

So since this year is Tyson's first Easter I really wanted him to be involved in an egg hunt. I know, I know he's too small but it still would have been fun to see him picking up the eggs to place in his basket. Even if it was only 1 or 2. Well I had no idea where and Egg Hunt would be, esp since I am not from around the SFV. I kept telling Justin that most of them were going to be on the Saturday before Easter but he was convinced that Sunday they'd have to have something. Well according to my hunch, early Saturday morning I decided to do some Internet researching and found that I was right and most egg-stravaganzas were being held on Saturday. Well the one that was the closest to us was the one in Calabasas at it was only being held from 10am-12noon and it was already 10am when I found it. So of course we RUSHED getting ready and headed to the Grape Arbor Park for the fun festivities.

We missed the egg hunt. But there was an Easter Bunny and they were taking pictures with him for $5. So Justin and I really wanted Easter picture with the Bunny so we stood in the VERY long line to get one. It was so cute. We took a family picture first and then I took one with my camera of just Tyson. Tyson sat on his lap and kept looking up at him like "what is this thing". I couldn't stop laughing. Glad I got a good picture of it though. [I have the family pic on the other computer so when I get to it I'll post that up too. There was a petting zoo at the event so after we took pics with the Easter bunny we stood in another long line so Tyson could pet all the animals. Well I stood in line while Ty and Justin went to eat food. It was funny because about two people in front of me this lady was holding her little baby that kept crying and the man directly in front of me turns and says "i don't know if it was just me, but my son NEVER cried like that". I said "MEE TOO...my son hardly ever cries and when he does he's tired that's it". It was funny b/c then we just started going on this tangent about our kids that never cry. I was hoping that poor lady couldn't hear us.

We finally got into the petting zoo and there was this little Tyson sized baby goat. Just perfect for Tyson. He had this tiny little horns and everything. Tyson didn't really pet him that much but we could tell he liked him. Then there were bunnies, horses, big goats, sheep, chickens, ducks, and I'm sure more kinds of animals. Tyson wasn't paying too much attention to them but he got a few pets in here and there.

I think he was more interested on what was going on outside the fence. It was so cute though. He went over and stood next to the fence and looked out as if he were a little animal locked in the cage. So we took him out after that. Since we missed the egg hunt, there wasn't much to do after that and it was already getting past 12pm so we went home.

The next day was Easter and Justin and I decided to have some friends over for a BBQ. I had been lazy and didn't take the time to get and make an Easter basket for Tyson until last minute. And of course there wasn't much left in the stores. Luckily I found at least a few things to scrounge and make this one for him. I thought it was just the perfect size for him.

He didn't care about anything in the basket though except for the plastic eggs filled with candy. Although he has no clue what candy is. I guess the Easter basket was more for me since I'm the one that ate all the candy for him anyways. :) I was on a sugar high for the next few days afterwards searching for candy everywhere.

We did have a small egg hunt though. I boiled some eggs and since we obviously weren't prepared and didn't have dye Justin decided to color them with the only marker we could find. I thought it was really cute! I ate all of those too! hahaha.

All in all we had a fun filled Easter and I'm glad we got to share it with family and friends. Like I was saying below, I am not that religious and really haven't been to church in years so kinda embarrassing to say this but until now I had no idea what Easter was even about. Learning more about Passover made me want to learn more about Christian holidays as well. So I read up on it and learned that Easter was the day that Jesus was resurrected from death. It is the holiest day of the Christian year. THAT is something new I learned. To me, Easter was probably one of the least important and obviously because I never understood its true meaning. Easter is actually linked to Passover. The original Christians were of Jewish heritage and they believe that the last supper may have been a Passover Seder. The celebration of Easter likely evolved as a new facet of passover with emphasis on the resurrection of Christ. Easter starts 40 days prior which consists of fasting and penitence known as Lent. Holy week is the last week of Lent which commemorates Jesus entry into Jerusalem and Good Friday, the Friday before Easter, is the anniversary of Jesus' crucifixion. It concludes with Easter Sunday. Easter is held on the first Sunday following the full moon following the spring equinox. Rabbits symbolize fertility while colored eggs represent new life. Egg Hunts are traditions for the children. Similar to the hiding of the afikomen at passover.

And all this time I would stop eating a certain food for 40 days and never really knew what I was doing. Not that I ever made it past a week anyways. Maybe from now on, I'll actually try and fast during Lent for the right reason.

Passover Seder

so this year Ty and I both had our first 2 passover seders. One with Justin's close family and another the next day with his extended family as well. To tell you the truth I was kinda nervous because I didn't know what to expect. When Jerry (Ty's grandfather) had sent me the invitation via email about the big passover seder I started researching what passover was all about. But of course that was a while ago and when the time came I completely forgot what I learned. Of course when we started some things started to come back to me.

On Wednesday April 8th, when we arrived at Justin's Grandma's house, she had two tables set up beautifully for everyone. The setting's included wine, boiled egg in salt water, matzah, and gefilte fish. In the middle of the two tables that were set up was the Seder plate which had symbolic foods that would be eaten or explained throughout the course of the Seder. We each received a copy of the Haggadah which is text that explains the complete Seder service. What I thought was cool was that everyone is equally obligated to participate in the service. I had never read the Exodus, which is the story of how Moses led the Jews out of Egypt from the salvery of the Pharaoh, so it was very interesting to me to be able to learn something new.


This was also my first time trying most of the food like Matzah Ball Soup and Gefilte fish. The fish I could do without, although it wasn't that bad, but the Matzah Ball Soup was delicious. There's no way anyone wouldn't like it. I also am NOT a wine person. All wine just taste sour to me and I usually never drink it. Sometimes when I think I can possibly handle it, always turns out that yep I don't like it. Well I discovered Manischewitz Wine which is a Kosher wine that tastes oh-so-good.

This is Tyson and his Auntie Doris, who is a huge follower and commenter for the blog, thank you Doris, if it weren't for you I wouldnt be so sure anyone takes the time to actually read this. lol. Everytime we go to great Grandma and Grandpa's house, of course everyone just loves Tyson and wants his attention because he's the only grandchild and great-grandchild in the close family. We always joke around if Justin, Tyson, and I arrive before Stacey and Neal about how everyone has about 10 minutes to spend with Tyson before Stacey and Neal come and steal him away. So lucky auntie Doris got a picture with the infamous Tyson and this day everyone got a little time with him.

This is Justin and Tyson wearing his Kippah aka Yamaka, which used to be uncle Jordan's when he was younger. It was a little big for Tyson but it was cute for him to wear it all night. Sooner or later he'll fit in it better. The Passover Seder is a great tradition where in the telling of Jewish history and tradition is transmitted from one generation to the next. One way to encourage children to participate is by hiding the afikoman, which is a piece of Matzo that is broken during the early stage of passover, and encouraging the children to find it after the Seder proceedings for a prize of money. Well Tyson, being the only person under the age of 12 was lucky that he had no competition. He found the afikomen and got $5 for it.

All and all my first passover experience was great and I look forward to many to come and teaching Tyson more about his Jewish heritage. I think that with most other holidays, specifically mentioning Christian holidays, many people lose the true meaning and reasons they are celebrating the holiday in the first place either from being caught up through presents, food, or suedo-figures. WHat really amazed me about Passover was that since the Haggadah serves as the guide, the seder must be performed pretty much the same all over the world. I learned a lot of new things during teh passover seder and I think it is a wonderful way for Jewish people to praise, gives thanks, remember and passdown the true reason the holiday is celebrated in the first place.

And the next day we did the whole thing all over again...but with more family.