Tristen is two! (about 2 months ago)...

I've been feeling guilty for months for not posting on Tristen's 2nd Birthday. Between Primary work, photography business, house projects and more, I haven't made time to write this up, till now! I have so many pictures from the last post I've made that I think if I made a post every day, I'd be caught up by the end of August. I am ALL caught up on photography work (which hasn't happened for almost 3 months, so I am ecstatic and hardly know what to do first with my spare time).

Anyhow, this post is supposed to be about Tristen's accomplishments by year two.

We love Tristen! He give the best hugs just like his daddy; long and sincere. It seems that just after we left AZ in March, Tristen's vocabulary exploded and he's been very talkative. I had been slightly concerned about him not talking enough so when we went in for Tristen's second year doctor checkup in May, I proudly informed the doctor of the news.

The day before Tristen's birthday, Duane put together this sweet sandbox. It took me more time to mow the lawn than it did for Duane to finished putting the box together, with weed barrier on the bottom and all.

 Tristen loves his sandbox to say the least and even two months later, now, it's still the first thing he goes for when he gets to go outside.

 Here's Trisen opening his birthday gifts. He got sandbox toys like shovels, and buckets.

 Oh, and he got the blue truck he's dumping into here as well. He loves that truck.

 One thing I love about being out in the branch with a bunch of other transplant families, is that they don't have family's to go to on the weekends either, so throwing together a weekend party a day in advance, is not uncommon (and most the time, everyone who's invited, comes). That's what we did for Tristen's birthday party this year. I made shish-ka-bobs and a couple other friends brought sides or desserts. It was delicious!

Our backyard is not very big, but having the sanbox there, kept each child entertained (and every parent on edge, getting after their kids from dumping sand on other kids or stopping their kids from eating the sand).

 Duane picked up some soda last minute and that was a big hit with the kids (though again, I think the parents could have lived without the elevated sugar levels)

 

 I made some sugar cookies (from a box) and made them so small and cooked them a little more than they needed to be so they ended up tasting like Nilla Wafers. Next year, I'm gonna have the kids frost wafers instead of trying to put together cookies!

 My friend, Dani, was great and helped the kids frost the cookies. I relaxed mostly, instead of taking pictures. It was a lot of work getting ready for the party and cooking ka-bobs!

         

But I couldn't pass up taking a picture of Tristen's dirty face and body following the cookie decorating.

  Just after eating cookies, the kids found a spot with no grass in the corner of the yard and found tons of worms!

 Next, Tristen found the water bottles under the table. He tried to plaster Duane, but he blocked it and it fell mostly on Tristen.

 Laugh crying after another attempt to get Daddy, but ended up falling over after Duane pushed back a little too hard.

 Tristen then moved on to a good buddy and sport, Cecily.

Then, she had enough

 and Duane started the fire for smores.

 

 

 Tristen has an amazing fascination with fire and the smores were a perfect idea for his pleasure.

 I think we were laughing at our kids.

 Cecily wanted to cook something too and was sad when mom said no to the toy.

Tristen is growing into a fun boy. He has always loved to climb and is very advanced for his age in his motor skills. Tristen sleeps on the top bunk of his and Kalvins bed and instead of using the ladder, sometimes, he'll climb with one food on the lower mattress, and the other on the ladder and pull himself up to the top bed while holding onto the safety railing on the top bunk. A lot of times, I am probably too lenient with how much he climbs on things, but it's because he's so confident in his climbing that I'm not too scared. Don't get me wrong, I do stop him from climbing on things, but spot him on other climbs. I believe the confidence we have in ourselves for any aspect, makes all the difference in our performance in that aspect and Tristen has a strong confidence in his climbing.