The early days.....

Life was hectic in the beginning and quite truthfully I didn't have the time or energy to have Brody's stories and pictures shared with the world....so here's my attempt at catching up.  I can't say I remember everything that went on during the first 4+ months - a lot of it is a blur and forgotten.....Gods way of tricking you into thinking having another baby might not be so bad!!  But here are some of my favorites from birth to 3 months.

Blessed....

The early days were rough with both the boys and sometimes we didn't think we would make it through but I tried (and continue to try) to remind myself that we are blessed with two healthy beautiful boys.  Just looking at how big Tyler is getting I get sad thinking about how quickly things change and how the here and now disappers at a blink of an eye.  While there seems to always  be something just as amazing and exciting around the corner - I often look at my babies and just want to freeze time and never forget how sweet and innocent they are.  One of my favorite books to read with Tyler is I love you through and through.....the words couldn't capture my feelings any more clearly.

Blissfully Happy & Blessed - Kristen Onyon

 

3 months of Brody

My boy at 1 month, 2 month and 3 months........... Brody has gone through tons of changes in these three months.  Right now our boy is rolling from belly to back (started around the two month mark due to his inability to sit still for one moment), loves to be held but is not a huge snuggler like his brother, is cooing and giggling up a storm and has the most amazing smile that takes over his entire body (his savor during these rough months).  We can't wait to see all his exciting changes over the next few months. 

Wow....

I know it's been a long stretch of no posts but life with two (or what feels like 10) has proved to be a challenge and then some. 

Creeping up on Brody's 15 week mark I sit here and wonder where did that time go.  I can't say that these past few months have been the most enjoyable moments of my life - actually quite the opposite - it has been almost like a living hell at times (just being honest here).  As much as I would love to sit here and say I loved every second of being home with my little man enjoying our bonding time - it would be a total lie.  While bonding did take place there was also a lot of screaming and crying, trips to the dr's, long long days and very little sleep.  Following in his big brothers footsteps Brody has proved himself to be quite the challenging baby.  In his defense he doesn't want to be a hard baby he so badly wants to be happy - but he just got dealt a bad hand dealing with an awful case of reflux, colds, pink eye, the list goes on and on.  The little guy just can't catch a break!

This week Brody will begin transitioning into the life of daycare and next week will be back to work for me.  While I'm excited to return to work and have a life that consists of more than shhhhing and bouncing a baby all day - I am also sad that my time of being a stay at home mom has come to an end and the amazing smiles I get on a daily basis will be limited to mornings and nights. 

Christmas 2012

This was our first Christmas home together as a family - just the 4 of us.  In years past we always traveled to be with our families (parents and brother/sisters)  but with the additon of Brody so close to Christmas, as well as Tyler starting to get an understanding of the whole Santa thing, we decided to begin building our own tradition of having Christmas together at home.  We had a great few days making cookies, watching movies and relaxing - spending quality time together.  The holidays this year really made me excited for years to come (not to rush it!) - seeing the excitement on my boys faces every Christmas morning, introducing old family traditions to them and building new family traditions.

Making cookies for Santa - Tyler was very specific on how the cookies were to be decorated

Warn out from all the morning excitement

Loving his baby brother

Checking things out

One happy boy on Christmas morning

Brody has arrived

The day has come and gone - the arrival of our 2nd beautiful baby boy - Brody Michael Onyon born on 12/11/12 at 8:29am weighing in at 8lbs 13ozs and 20inches.

We have been adjusting to life with two beautiful boys but couldn't be happier to have the addition of a healthy baby boy to our crew!  We can't wait to experience all the good times and build lots of memories in the years to come with our boys.



Our precious boy



Loving my little boy

First Onyon family photo

Apple Picking

Another late post but wanted to include some of the fun times we had with apple picking this year.  Two trips to the orchard this year  - one with Tyler's school and the other part of our annual Onyon/Norman apple picking trip! 

First was our trip to the orchard with Tyler's class.  I was able to take the day  off from work and went on Tyler's first school trip.  So much excitement with this trip -  not only was it Tyler's first school trip, but in order to get to the orchard the kids took a school bus.


Big boy on his first school bus ride - excited doesn't even begin to explain it!



Tyler and his buddies Maddie and Jack

Mmmm delicious apples

Next apple picking trip was on  part of the annual Norman/Onyon outing.  Each year it is more and more fun as the kids get bigger and enjoy running through the orchard an picking apples themselves.  This year was the most successful yet as Tyler was a very good helper and we kept daddy down to only picking two bags of apples rather than his normal 4-5 bags.  We love doing this and hope to continues this for years to come!

Our little family

Tyler taking some pointers from his girlfriend on how to take care of his baby brother

Tyler taking care of some heavy lifting

It wouldn't be an apple picking trip without a tractor drive

  

Late post of Oct/Nov going on's....

Here is a post that I started to write back in early November - as you can see it's far behind but figured I'd post anyway.

Life has been quite hectic the past few weeks. Hurricane Sandy hit us on 10/29- we lived through another hurricane (2nd one in two years) and are lucky enough to report we had zero damage to our house or property and only had a minor inconvenience of no power for 4 days.  We weren't really sure how things were going to go being home with a 2+ year old w/o power for multiple days- but surprisingly it was a lot of fun.  Tyler was such a trooper and had a blast helping daddy build fires and listening and dancing to the radio - our only source of entertainment.  Plus it helped that we had visitors over all the time so Tyler had lots of playmates to cause trouble with and we had an escape to Aunt Cwiss and Uncle Waawwwyyy's house on two of the days!  The morning after we got power back I think Tyler was actually a little upset to have power since the morning did not start off with being daddy's assistant and carrying in fire wood to start a fire. 

Due to the unfortunate events of Hurricane Sandy - there really was not much of a Halloween this year.  Halloween was officially cancelled state wide on 10/31 and moved to the following Monday.  But with all the problems that still existed in the area and daylight savings causing it to be dark outside very early - we decided to skip the trick or treating this year and just hangout and home and tend to any treak or treaters that did venture out (which was not many about 10 compared to 30-40 in previous years).  Daycare did have a little party for all their little girls and boys so Tyler did get to show off his costume for an entire day.  This year we decided on Thomas the Train - he look adorable in his little hat! 

So another crazy October for us - last year around this time was a huge NorEaster - this year a Hurricane....I'm hoping this is not the new normal!

Summer 2012

What a crazy summer it was......as usual no time for posts but lots and lots of pictures to document our fun times.  Tyler has grown up so much over the past few months it's hard to believe that our little baby is now a toddler who is constantly on the go, talks or makes some sort of noise every waking second and has so much life and energy that you can't help but smile when you are around him.  He's a very special little boy and Mike and I are very lucky people to have such an amazing son.  We can't wait for the new addition to our little family this winter and can't wait to see Tyler as a big brother.

Lots of our summer pictures are from Cape May this year - another great trip with the Onyon crew.  Tyler had a blast running crazy with his cousins Sophia and Lucas and loved seeing his baby cousin Jack.  Next year Jack will join the ranks of the crazy kids and Tyler's baby brother Brody will be the baby chillin on the beach watching his crazy cousins!

Chillin on the beach

Loves doing swan dives into his pool



Who doesn't love Skee Ball



Grammy & PopPop love

Family shot!

Trouble Trouble

We love visitors.......

During the month of July we had lots of visitors......Tyler loves having visitors because he can run around like the crazy little man he is and get lots of giggles and laughs
from his audience!

First up was Tyler's beloved cousin Baby Jack.  He loved having baby Jack around and continues to love seeing pictures and watching video's of his baby cousin.  I'm pretty sure in this picture Tyler was going to give Jack a sweet little kiss...not sure how sweet Jack thought it was as he doesn't look too happy!

During the month of July Grandma and Papa were in town staying in MA for a few weeks and then coming back to NJ for some visiting time with T-man before their trip home.  Grandma got some snuggle time in with T while watching one of T's favorites Shrek.

Uncle Larry silly as always - taking a ride on Tyler's Sesame Stree bus.  Lots of giggles on this one!

Could this picture be any sweeter - Tyler loves his big cousin Sophia.  Laying together watching Mickey the night before our trip to Cape May . 

Happy 2nd Birthday

Tyler's second birthday included multiple days of celebrations and many many rounds of Happy Birthday being sung.

Celebration Day #1 6-5-12 The night before Tyler's birthday Grandma and Papa came over for dinner to kick-off Tyler's 2nd birthday celebration. We had a pizza party wrapping up the night with cake (1st round of the happy birthday song) and presents from Grandma and Papa .

Loves having happy birthday sung to him

Snuggle time with Papa

Celebration Day #2 6-6-12 Tyler's actual birthday began with overwhelming excitement (from Mommy and Daddy) for Tyler to get his big gift of a new John Deer Tractor (aka death trap).   Tyler has a love for all tractors, fire trucks, ambulances and police cars out there- so we knew getting our little boy a tractor of his very own would be a huge hit (or at least we hoped).  We are happy to report upon the reveal of the "mean machine" Tyler's eye's lit up with excitement screaming tractor and running over to it pushing and pulling every lever and pushing every button he could find.  Lets just say we had one happy little boy....and we were happy parents to see our little boy so excited.   On a side note I would not recommend this toy to any child (or teenager for that matter) even though the recommended ages are 2-5yrs old.  When putting in the batteries this "toy" flew through the backyard going what seemed like 50mph (realistically 5-10) far to fast for a 2 year old.  Let's just say this toy will not have batteries in it for a long time in our house!

After present time we got ready for the day - we have a tradition (2 years in the making) that Mike and I take off work and spend the day doing something extra special with our boy.  The day kicked off with Tyler's two year checkup (I know nothing like going to the dr on your birthday but it just worked out that way) and then off to McDonalds for a birthday morning breakfast of hotcakes and hash browns (Tyler would live off of hash browns if we let him).  After breakfast we headed off to a minor league baseball game.  We had been talking to Tyler for weeks about going to a baseball game and he couldn't have been more excited.  It was a beautiful day and Tyler was a very good boy sitting on daddies lap enjoying the baseball game (as well as the planes and butterflies that flew by) and his french fries (it's his birthday if he wants everything that is fried and potato then that's what he gets). 

The day ended with a nice yummy meal of another of Tyler's favorites - Pasta - at home and ice cream with another round of Happy Birthday sung to celebrate his actual birthday!

Celebration Day #3 6-9-12 Tyler's 2nd birthday party - Paaarrrtyy - The weekend after Tyler's actual birthday we had a celebration with family and some friends.  This year we decided to scale down Tyler's party so that the day was fun for him rather then overwhelming with the amount of people that would be there.  It was a great day with family and friends and I think Tyler thoroughly enjoyed himself.  2 years down....how old are you when you stop birthday parties because they are just exhausting!

Another birthday cake

Nope not french fries - but veggie straws

Another round of happy birthday

Smiles with GG, Sossie and PopPop

Tyler's 2nd birthday celebration(s) was a success!  Thanks to everyone that came out to celebrate and for all the generous gifts.....Tyler is so lucky to have so many people that love him so much in his life.

As you all know I am writing this post almost two months after celebrating Tyler's birthday and he still is insisting on having Happy Birthday sung to him....what have we done!

Happy Fathers Day!

My handsome boys!

Nothing like a sweet kiss from his baby boy to make his day!

2 Months Away

Busy days and busy nights since our last post. I'm sitting here wondering where the heck the past two months have gone knowing that with each week there is so much I'm wanting to document and tell but just not finding the time to do it.  After some gentle reminders that this blog is to not only to track the progress of our lives with Tyler but also to fill the void and boredom of those whose days revolve around checking blogs and getting progress updates - I knew I had to get something on here.

Our time away has been busy as usual.....lots of  laughs, happy tears and of course memories to cherish.  We have done a lot of celebrating of important events including our baby boy's 2nd birthday, the announcement of the addition of another member to our little family and finding out that the new addition was going to be a baby brother to Tyler. 

While we have been MIA the past few months we've had a lot of moments to reflect back on the past two years of life with Tyler and realzing how special each moment has been and how lucky we are.  While Mike and I are not very religious people I can say we feel blessed to have a healthy, happy, funny and lovable boy to wake up to every day and feel even more blessed to be expanding our family with another special little boy whom we know will complete our crew! 



Daddy and his little man



Mommy and her two little men