Happy Easter!!

Landon and Leighton have had quite an exciting Easter weekend. At daycare on Thursday the kids got to paint their own plaster eggs, eat Easter cupcakes, got their faces painted like a bunny, and were sent home with an Easter basket. Yesterday we went to the Egg-stravaganza at Joe Pool Lake. Landon and Leighton got a picture with the Easter bunny and Landon got another face painting. We spent plenty of time playing in the playground now that Landon loves climbing up and sliding down. For the egg hunt the city places over 30,000 pieces of candy in a large field. Landon got off to a slow start but after awhile he was picking two at a time. He also put some candy in other children's baskets. He is sweet just like the candy he was picking! We had a great time and all that excitement led to an early nap time. This morning the Easter bunny hid eggs all over the house and Landon found almost all of them without assistance.

So other than Easter what else have the kids been up to? Leighton just turned 6 months old recently and Landon will be turning 2 on May 4th. The McNeely grandparents will be in town to celebrate his birthday with us. A week later we will be taking out first "official" family vacation. We are renting a waterfront cottage in Lake of the Ozarks. Landon will do a lot of swimming, jet skiing, and will try fishing for the first time. He cannot wait to catch the "big one" with his Spongebob fishing pole. Leighton is ready to start crawling any day now. She likes to get up on all fours almost in a baby yoga pike/downward dog pose. Recently Leighton also started eating baby food. The Tetzlaff grandparents were in town last week. It was great to see them as it had been about 4 months. They took the kids and Munchie for a lot of walks and trips to the park. We also went to the Fort Worth art show, one of the best in the nation. We always wish they lived closer or vice versa. Brooke and I are becoming big Texas Ranger fans and attended a day game opening week. We will be back at the ballpark this week and hope to make it to at least 10 games this season. Hope everything is going well for you as you read this and we love reading your comments. Thanks for looking and Happy Easter!

Love the Tetzlaffs

Landon and Leighton melting hearts!!

Ah the things we do for our kids....

So grandma McNeely wanted to get Landon a sandbox for his 1st birthday last year, but he was just too young, so this year is the year. Spring sales have been popping up everywhere, so before they made it back to Texas to visit, we sprung for the box as an early birthday gift from the grandparents. Well, with a small yard, it actually made it a challenge to figure out where to put it. Once we decided on the appropriate corner of the yard, there was just one problem....its the one corner that gets the most shade, and therefore is the most wet. How to solve this problem? Well after mulling it over for a few days, we finally decided to take the plunge and cap the sprinkler head. Sounds easy, but after reading on-line, we actually had to follow it back to the previous head and cap it at that spot in order to prevent freezing of the standing water in the line due to the capping.

Despite our worries about being able to accomplish this correctly, we were successful in capping the line and NOT flooding the yard, yea! In addition, I thought we would have to dig up the whole yard based on where we had to dig back to, but due to a little educated guessing, we had minimal damage to the yard.

We started Landon in swim lessons two weekends ago. We took the camera with us this last time because he had so much fun the first lesson. This time he looked terrified the entire half hour, so we didn't have one good photo opportunity. Maybe next lesson!

Leighton is of course cute as a button. She is just growing growing growing. She just learned to rollover consistently both directions last week. Now we cannot leave her unattended or she will be halfway across the room. She has a very sweet temperament already. She differs from Landon though in that she doesn't laugh a whole lot. She smiles constantly, but not much laughing. I can sometimes get a little giggle out of her, but not very often.

Landon has turned out to be quite the little helper. Even his daycare provider comments on how much he wants to help when none of the other toddlers have any interest in helping. His daily chore (by choice and his demanding!)at both daycare and at home is filling the dog bowl with food. He gets the cup full of food, dumps it in the bowl without missing a kernel and returns the cup to the bin. He is quite a kid.

Grandma and Grandpa T come to visit on April 13 and we can't wait till they come. They are going to be amazed at how much the kids have grown just since Christmas. We hope to have some fun activities planned for their visit as it will be an early birthday celebration with them for Landon's 2nd.

Not much else to report on, other than Brooke isn't really happy with the dog and wants to sell her!

Love, the Tetzlaffs

February Update

This week Leighton went to the Dr. for her 4 month check up. The doctor told us what we already know, that we have a perfect baby girl. Her growth and development is right on track, her muscle tone is excellent, she is eating well, all and all it was an A+ check up. Leighton now consistently eats 6oz at a time, and has been sleeping through the night for weeks. Occasionally she will wake up in the middle of the night because she spit out her pacifier, but mom or dad just pops it back in and she is right back to sleep.

4 mo. old stats:
Weight: 12lbs 9oz, only 1 oz away from doubling birth weight, 50th percentile
Height: 23.75 inches, 50-75th percentile

With the weather improving, Landon wants to be outside all the time. He recently started saying the word "Elmo" at daycare, although mom and dad haven't heard it yet. His vocabulary has not grown much over the past few months, but he still babbles a lot in his own little language. He is also becoming the big helper at daycare, putting shoes away and feeding the dog. He is so proud to be able to do these activities and get the praise for it. I think he likes the little bit of extra attention it gets him.

Dreaming of a white Christmas!

We didn't have to dream of a white Christmas this year, we spent 10 days in Wisconsin with Grandma and Grandpa Tetzlaff and Landon got to experience several inches of snow. Grandma had him outfitted with snowpants, boots, and a heavy coat, but Landon didn't want much to do with any of it, including the snow, much like his momma! Family Christmas in Wisconsin was spent at Uncle Kim and Bill's, where Landon had several cousins to keep him busy and entertained while Leighton was passed around from one aunt or uncle to another.

Unexpectedly (in a good way) we were able to celebrate Christmas twice with the McNeely grandparents. We celebrated with the McNeely's prior to heading out for Wisconsin because we weren't sure when we would see G-ma and G-pa McNeely next and we wanted to make sure they got to watch L&L open presents. We returned from Wisconsin on Christmas day and were able to have a wonderful meal and spent two more days with G-ma and G-pa McNeely before they headed back to Arizona.

We have been blessed with two "easy" babies, if there is such a thing. Landon was very easy on us, and Leighton is equally wonderful, usually only crying if she needs a diaper change or a bottle. She is doing so much smiling and starting to coo at us too...I even caught her laughing in her sleep the other day. Life with two kids though is definitely an adjustment, especially two kids under two! I think the adjustment from one to two may be harder than from zero to one! Landon is at a stage where he requires all of our attention or supervision, so by the time he goes to bed at night, both of us feel completely worn out! Make no mistake about it though, we feel completely blessed with both of our children who truly are the joys in our lives.

Enjoy the pictures! You may notice that Landon is in a bit of an "animal" stage, or shall I say he has never gotten out of the "animal" stage! We took him to Bass Pro shop for our Christmas card picture and he loved it, so now we have been back a couple additional times...cheap (free) entertainment! Some of the photos posted are in the massive Cabela's in Wisconsin where they had some safari animals in addition to the normal deer, bears, etc. found in those stores.

Happy New Year! Love, the Tetzlaff's