Crazy Christmas time

We have had fun these past few weeks with many activities going on at church, at Mackenzie's school and in the community. We were also excited about being able to decorate the house this year. After being in seminary for over 2 years and living in an apartment we were excited about decorating again. We hope you are having a great time making memories this holiday season as we are.

In this picture is Judah and Rebecca. She is our neighbor and she was over to play for a while the other day when her mom, Rosemary, had to go to her daughter Lauren's school.

Mackenzie had her Christmas party at school this past Friday and here they are singing Christmas carols for us.

This is a picture of one of the Turkey Bowl groups we had at church two weekends ago. The students played and had a great time. As you see in the bottom of the picture the turkey that was used.

Mackenzie sang in her first Christmas program at church and had a great time with her little friends.

This is Mackenzie's good friend Hope before they sang in their Christmas program.

Here are Mackenzie and Matt's Christmas cookies they baked for us and also some for her teachers.

Here they are at work.

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas

We have started to take pictures during the Christmas season and we wanted to start sharing them. This is Mackenzie and Judah witht their Christmas picture this year. They did a great job this year. And the pictures underneath are from this past Saturday night after returning from Pensacola. They were so excited about putting the tree up. Judah doesn't understand why he can't touch but he loves looking at the lights and that gets him excited to touch. Hopefully he will get used to it. We'll see.

Thanksgiving in Pensacola last week...

Thanksgiving weekend we went to Pensacola beach with Matt's parents and his sister and her family. We had a great time and enjoyed the time away with family for a change. We have a few pictures to show the weekend.

Our attempt to have a family photo on the beach. Judah wasn't cooperating, he was getting sleepy.

The grandkids and Mimi and Granddaddy.

We enjoyed a good dinner at Landry's while staying in Pensacola.

Mimi and Granddaddy with the grandkids at the National Aviation Museum in Pensacola. We took them there to show them the museum. Mackenzie was so excited to go back. She loved it when we went in the summer.

Mackenzie and Ellie waiting to leave the hotel on Friday.

Tyler, Judah, Mackenzie and Ellie waiting to leave the hotel on Friday.

Happy Birthday Judah Benjamin Tyler!

Today is Judah's 1st birthday and boy has it been a quick year. We can't believe he is already a year old. This year has been challenging as he was completely different from Mackenzie. He is all boy and can also be lovey and cuddley almost at the same time. He is so funny with his mannerisms and funny faces. There isn't much that he doesn't smile at. He is our joy.

He doesn't meet a stranger either. We hope you enjoy the pictures of our celebration this past Saturday for Judah's birthday.

Our neighbor Rosemary made his birthday boy shirt for us.

A sweet lady at our church made his birthday cake and we picked Elmo for his theme because he lights up when he sees Elmo.

His first Tonka truck. He was so excited. He actually found the present early in the day and started opening it and wouldn't leave it alone.

His Vtech Helicopter from Nana and Papa.

His new Black and Decker worktable from Granddaddy and Mimi.

He really enjoyed his cake. So much so that he had a tummy ache later from it. Oh well.

Sweet Cake face! Happy Birthday Big Boy!

Daddy and Mackenzie baking cookies...

Matt and Mackenzie wanted to bake cookies recently and I decided to catch a few pictures of the action. They made peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies. They were pretty good if I say so myself. Mackenzie even has her own apron and chef's hat thanks to Nana. She made sure to wear them for the event.

A quick look back & Halloween on the square in Andalusia, AL

We are taking a quick look back to Mackenzie's Halloween picture last year as a cheerleader and a look at how much she has grown up to this year. It is always neat to look back and see what they have accomplished in a year. Last she was awaiting her little brother's arrival and now we are awaiting his first birthday in a few weeks. Time sure does fly.

This year Mackenzie wanted to be Mulan and for Judah to be Mushu from the movie. She already had the china outfit thanks to Matt's parents bringing it back from San Fran from their vacation this past year. So that was a neat fit. Now to find Judah's outfit. Old Navy did the providing this year. I was afraid that I was going to have to get real creative and boy was I glad to find the dragon custom on SALE! What a blessing. My sewing skills are not the greatest. We enjoyed Halloween on the square this year. Our town shuts down the major area of our town and vendors represented in town pass out candy to all of the kids. It was really a neat experience. There were alot of people and we enjoyed it and I think Mackenzie got plenty of candy up to next year.

Mackenzie and Judah trying to pose for a picture before getting their treats.

Our town was even visited by the Mystery Machine from Scooby-Doo.

Mackenzie and Judah love their pediatrician Dr. Baldwin. Mackenzie refers to her as Hunter's mommy (since they do go to church with us).

Prior to flu shots yesterday I tried to get a few poses with our festive shirts on.

Judah was more excited about the pumpkin though.

We hope you are enjoying the Fall!

Field Trip to the Pumpkin Patch in Ozark, AL

Today Mackenzie's pre-k4 class went the pumpkin patch in Ozark, AL. I was able to go with Mackenzie and Matt took the day off to stay home with Judah. Mackenzie and I had a great time and enjoyed the time together. She enjoyed the hay ride, corn maze, playground and the petting zoo, too. She has looked forward to this for a week since they started talking about going. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Mackenzie is here watching the baby chicks.

This is Mackenzie's pre-k4 class.

Here is the class listening to Spud the scarecrow talk about the things that are done on the farm.

We enjoyed walking in the corn maze.

Fun Times in the Tyler house...

We have a few busy weeks recently and I wanted to share a few shots from these past few weeks. As this first picture shows we now have an addition to our family. Diesel came to visit last week for a trial visit since we already had another dog to see how he would get along with Belle. A family in our church was downsizing their animal count at home and Diesel became available. Diesel is a Great Dane and is a sweet baby. He is about a year old and is doing great this week. Mackenzie is so excited because she loves animals. She always wanted a dog and now she has two.

Two weeks ago was homecoming here in Andalusia and this is the tradition here in town. Students at the high school roll houses in town and it was so interesting to see what house they hit each night. Our house escaped this time but here is a house that was just down the street from us.

We also celebrated my niece, Ellie's birthday in Fairhope, AL two weeks ago and Matt was sharing guy time with our nephew Tyler and Judah. They are eight months apart and had a great time playing now that both are walking everywhere.

Mackenzie had her last soccer game on October 13th but to our disappointment. We will miss soccer season but have already enjoyed the new free time at night. Soccer time was great and we'll be ready again next year.

Happy Birthday to our niece Adeline Grace Stalnaker

Yesterday was Addie's first birthday and we are excited for her. Her big celebration with family is this coming weekend. Happy Birthday sweet girl! Judah's birthday is just 6 weeks away now, how time flies and they get so big.

Our little guy is 10 months old...

Judah was 10 months old on the 24th of this month and we are truly seeing an indepentant little guy emerging. He started taking steps about two weeks ago and as of today is fully walking with very little falling. He gets into everything. He finds everything interesting and toys for this little guy are everything in the house that isn't a usual toy. So our life is filled with chasing him around and finding us saying no all of the time. He is our charmer and the one that will be testing us a lot I believe. Just look at the second picture. You can see it there. Judah Benjamin is a true boy. We hope you enjoy seeing these pictures.

The past week or so...

We have had a crazy but fun week this past week. We have some random pictures of our adventures for you to enjoy. The first two pictures are of Mackenzie and Judah in our play room. I was trying to get them to pose for a Grandparents Day picture to send to the grandparents. These were the only two that even looked good. With two little ones it is so hard to get a good picture. We went to Night of Joy at Disney last weekend with our college students and had a great time. We also spent the day on Saturday at the Magic Kingdom and three of our students who had never been before had a great time. We were tired from the trip but had a great time. We left Friday morning at 5 am and returned on Sunday afternoon around 4:30 pm. I can tell we are getting old because that was a quick weekend. Not only did we have that trip to go to but Matt and I also had to go to a Student Minister's conference in Birmingham on Monday and stay until Wednesday of this week. The middle picture taken at night of the castle like building was where we stayed thanks to Matt's sister. We had a great time of refreshment and worship at the conference and enjoyed hearing Chris Tomlin and Louie Giglio speak. The last part of the week was the pictures of Mackenzie at soccer. She had team pictures last night and practice, too. Our first game is Saturday and she is so excited. One of the girl's mom took care of getting bows for all of the girls so they would match. She has such a great time. Thank you Nana and Papa for coming to help us out last week while we were gone and being grandparents.