2007 Christmas Letter

Friends and Family:

As this year is quickly coming to an end it is time for the annual "last minute" Christmas letter to give you a quick update on our family.

Ryan (14 months) is vibrant, mischievous, and full of life. He loves to play with balls, spoons, and cars. He has been walking for the last four months and running for almost as long. The kid may be short, but he can close a gap in nothing flat! Ryan loves his big brother and really loves to egg him on. They are in the chasing and wrestling stage, which is really fun until someone gets hurt. Ryan loves his mom and is very attached to her. He will only tolerate Dad after he has searched the house and verified that mom is not home. Ryan is starting to talk and has embraced his "M’s." You know, Mom, Milk, and Matthew.

Matthew (3) is a great big brother. He loves playing with Ryan and playing with Ryan’s toys. Matthew loves cars and his whole life revolves around them, especially those from the CARS movie. He has learned most of his letters and numbers and will pick them out wherever we go (the Target symbol is an O or the M of the Golden Arches.) Matthew is very thoughtful and caring; he always wants to make sure that you are happy. Matthew loves playing outside, in the dirt, and with his friends. He will be moving out of nursery this year and we hope that he will be okay when he finds out they don’t have snacks or toys in Primary.

Amy is the typical amazing mother of two very active little boys. She fills her days with selfless service and love. Earlier this year she recertified her Utah teaching certificate. Amy continues her service as the Primary president in our ward and loves working with the children. Amy enjoys reading books, updating our blog, and doing the occasional craft. Miraculously, Amy found time to plan our trip to Disneyland in October. She is amazing and does it all.

Kevin transferred to a new position at BYU working as the Assistant IT manager for the Alumni Association. He really enjoys his corner-cubical office in the new Hinckley Center. Kevin plays "casual" indoor soccer once a week and is really enjoying the chance to exercise. Kevin loves playing with the boys. Balls, trucks, dirt, cars, blocks, and a thousand other toys…having little boys is wonderful.

As you can see our family has been very blessed this year. We have felt our Heavenly Father’s influence in our lives on a daily basis, strengthening our hope and faith. As a family we know that our Father in Heaven loves each and every one of us. May your Christmas season be filled with love and the light of Christ.

Love,

Kevin, Amy, Matthew, and Ryan Tams

Little Ryan

It seems Matthew has been getting a lot of face time, so here are some pics of Little Boy #2. Ryan is growing up so fast. I can't believe he is almost 14 months old! He likes to climb into and onto things. He loves dogs - everytime he sees or hears one he stops and responds with an "oo,oo" or "boof." He LOVES to get a rise out of his older brother and they enjoy chasing each other and wrestling. He also likes to play with balls and for some reason has decided to take one up the stairs every time we go up. I usually have to bring the ball collection downstairs at the end of the day. He likes to play with dishes (especially spoons), and he likes to wear hats around the house. If he can't find a hat he will put a blanket or shirt on top of his head. (I haven't been able to get a picture of that yet. He always pulls it off before I can take one.) He can also be really good at getting into trouble, especially things involving cords (Christmas lights, vaccuum, etc.) We sure do love our boys!!









Here are some pictures of Ryan snagging some raisins from the table and happily helping himself.

Christmas Lights!!!

We went to see the lights at Temple Square last Thursday night with Mom, Dad, Brittany, Kyle, Dillon, and Mylie. It was VERY cold, but the lights were pretty as always. Here are some great pics. My favorites are of the kids all bundled up, especially Ryan and Mylie. They just have

this look on their faces like "What are you doing to me?"





 

Matthew Part 2

It's a good thing Matthew had some sweet moments last week because he has more than made up for it the last couple of days. These are some of the messes he has gotten in to over the last two weeks. And no, I'm not exaggerating.

• Graham cracker crumbs dumped all over the floor


• Sneaking hamburger buns from the counter (aided and abetted by his younger brother)

• Green marker colored all over his face


• Hand soap on the bathroom counter, floor, and toilet seat cover


• Mom's makeup


• Hot chocolate powder spilled on the kitchen floor


• Spilled milk (would have been worse if I hadn't stopped him from almost dumping the last third of the milk carton on his cereal)


• Hand soap again


• Toothpaste squeezed onto the bathroom floor


• Hand soap again (it has been relocated)


• Water dumped onto the carpet in his bedroom


• Liquid dish soap squeezed onto the kitchen rug


• Raisins dumped out on the floor under the table

So we have had lots of timeouts and many talks about not getting in to things when Mommy is busy with Ryan or washing the dishes or doing other things. He has this uncanny ability to sneak away without me knowing. My mommy-sense is starting to kick in, though, and I have been able to avoid many potential disasters. A lot of the things were my fault, i.e. forgetting to put the hot chocolate or dish soap away. I have learned my lesson and am trying to remember where I leave things. My favorite response to all of this: "Mom, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to." Yeah, sure.

Matthew Part 1

It has been a long time since we have posted. I can't seem to keep up with this month. It won't be long before Christmas is here! (and I still have some shopping to finish!) Here is a brief summary of what has been going on around the Tams house and some of the sweet things Matthew has said or done.


On Monday, December 3, we found out that my sweet little nephew Ethan had passed away. Matthew could see that Kevin and I were very sad with the news. This is what he said to me after Kevin went to work: "Mom, don't worry. I'll call Grandma and Grandpa to come down and give you a blessing. Where's the phone?" He proceeded to look for his toy phone and when he found it he called my parents. "Hi Grandma and Grandpa. Will you come and give mom a blessing? Okay, Bye." It was such a sweet thought and I was glad to see that he recognized the significance of a priesthood blessing.


A few days later I was again having kind of a tough morning. I think Matthew knew what I was thinking about and he asked about Logan and Ethan. I tearfully explained that Ethan had gone back to live with his Heavenly Father and that he was no longer with Adam and Brynn. Matthew replied, "That's okay mom. The angels came to get him." I honestly didn't know what to say. All I could do was smile and give him a huge hug.











On Friday we went up to Logan, UT for Ethan's viewing and funeral. It was a very special service and Adam and Brynn did such a wonderful job. One of my favorite moments was when Matthew saw us all crying and asked why everyone was so sad. Kevin told him that Ethan had gone to live with Heavenly Father and that we would miss him until we could see him again. Matthew then said, "I'm not sad." When I asked him why he said, "Because I get to go back to Grandma's house and play with toys." I had to chuckle. I think it was just what I needed to hear. We were sad that Ethan was gone, but we also know that we will see him again someday. In the meantime, we need to be happy and live a good life to make sure that happens. And yes, that includes playing with toys. :) We love you Ethan!












Pictures of Matthew with his cousins - Trying to sneak some cookies with Makenna and looking a little bored with Dillon.

Ethan

Ethan Tuft, beloved cousin and nephew, passed away this morning. He was a little more than eight weeks old. We will miss you Ethan. Visit the Tuft family blog. Ethan's Obituary.

Our Christmas Tree

Here is the final product. The 2007 Tams family Christmas tree. Complete with plastic ornaments, plastic snow flakes, and a indestructible tree. We will see how long the lights last on the bottom of the tree. Ryan really likes to pull on them.

We need a little Christmas!

So Thanksgiving, black Friday, and cyber Monday have come and gone and we still haven't blogged anything about our adventures. We spent Thanksgiving with Amy's parents in West Jordan. It was a lot of fun for Matthew and Ryan to play with their cousins Makenna, Dillon, and Mylie. It was great to see them all. Matthew enjoyed the olives...who doesn't? Ryan really got into the post turkey tryptophan-induced lounging. The real challenge came in preventing our two little boys from destroying their grandparents' home.

It seems that our boys have this "ability" to get into trouble.
And like all superheros when the two get together there is no human possible way to stop them. I'm not quite sure if I want to classify them as superheros or diabolical masterminds. Ryan, believe it or not, tends to be the initiator. If Matthew gets put into timeout Ryan is right behind trying to get him out and into more trouble.

As the boys were putting up the Christmas tree we were reminded why we only decorate the bottom half. But we also came upon a new discovery: a three-year-old has the same tendency to pull things off the tree as his one-year-old brother. Matthew also has the firm belief that ornaments can only hang on the lights.

Ryan is starting to say more words (of course we are the only ones who can understand what he is saying). He now says, Wow, Thank you, (Day Do) Mom, Milk (Mah), Matthew (Ma Ma), Dad (Da), Good night (Oo ni), woof (boof), hot dog (ha da), and moo (boo).

Matthew is also fun as ever. This is part of his prayer from FHE last night, "Grateful to have Family Home Evening and bless that we will have a REALLY BIG treat." I guess that demonstrates Matthew's motivation for attendance. He also told us that when he gets big he will go to school on the bus and Ryan will be sad, but he will come back from school to do his homework and Ryan will be happy again. Dreaming about homework? I'm sure that comes from Amy.

Tagged...Again!

I was tagged by my good pal Jenette, and seeing as how this is the third time I’ve been tagged, I had better respond. So here goes the list of 6 random things about myself.

1. I’m really good at reading something but not very good at responding (as evident by this post.) I have good intentions, believe me. But these days I get distracted pretty easily and forget to go back and finish. New Year’s Resolution: write things down!

2. I love nuts. Peanuts, almonds, cashews, pecans, you name it. Even better when paired with chocolate (ie. Peanut M&M’s or Reese’s) Yummy!

3. I’ve only been in one car accident in my life, and it wasn’t even with another car. I hadn’t been driving very long when my mom asked me to move our car from one spot of the driveway to another spot. I backed up, turned the steering wheel, and gently pushed on the gas, but nothing happened. Somehow my back wheels got stuck on the curb. I gave it a little more gas to get the back of the car up and over the curb. Bad idea. I ended up gunning it instead, crashing into our portable basketball hoop which tipped over and pulled down the chain link fence in our front yard. My parents have still not replaced it.

4. Someday I want to go back to school to become a librarian.

5. I’m not a very good housekeeper. Now I keep everything clean as far as scrubbing, washing, etc., but it’s the clutter that I can’t seem to keep up with. And it tends to migrate – I get one room de-cluttered only to find the next room in worse shape. Someday my house will be totally clean all at once.

6. Call me crazy, but I hate it when people don’t use their blinkers when they drive. Can it really be that hard to turn on? I don’t think so.

Way too smart

These are some of the adventures I've had with Matthew over the past couple of days.

About two days ago, I had planned on doing some things for Primary while Matthew was taking his nap. As always happens when I have things to do, Matthew decided not to take a nap that day. I had postponed my responsibilities long enough, so when he asked if I would play cars with him I had to tell him that he needed to play on his own for a while. He did so peacefully for five minutes and then the "Mom, are you done yet?" started about every two minutes. Each time I had to tell him that it would be longer. He finally gave me a time limit of three more minutes to which I smiled and hoped he would forget. The phone rang about five minutes later and after I came back Matthew told me that I was all done with Primary. I told him that I would be in about ten minutes (I was being very accurate) when I noticed that my binder had disappeared from the table. I asked Matthew if he had seen my binder, wondering if I had moved it with the phone call. He smiled and said yes. The next question: "Did you take Mommy's binder?" Matthew again said yes (at least he told the truth) and showed me where he had stashed it in his toy box. I decided that I wasn't going to get anywhere and it would be best to go and play with my son.

Today we were again playing cars while Ryan was asleep and it was getting close to lunch time. I told Matthew I was getting hungry and it was time to start thinking about lunch. He told me he still wanted to play cars, so we did so for a few more minutes. I then said, "Matthew, my tummy is growling. It is saying 'FEED ME'." And what was Matthew's response? "My tummy is growling too. It says 'I WANT TO PLAY WITH CARS'." Checkmate.

Halloween

Okay, so I am really late on the Halloween pictures. I tried to think of an excuse, but I don't have one (except that I couldn't find the camera for a couple of days.) Matthew was super excited this year and asked for almost a week when we were going trick-or-treating. We went to our ward Trunk or Treat that night and when we came home we ran into our friends the Vigues. Matthew was able to go to a few houses with his friend Jack, I mean Peter Pan. Ryan liked being outside, but wasn't really sure why he was dressed like a monkey (as evident by the blank look on his face in all of the pictures.) He did enjoy eating the candy afterward though.

Here are the boys at the Trunk or Treat. It looks like our little monkey might fall over. :)


Happy Matthew running for candy with Jack.













Here are the boys after their busy night. Matthew is trying to hold Ryan still, but it looks more like boys from the 'hood. (Or maybe boys with hoods? Bad joke, but I couldn't resist.)

Ryan's Birthday

October is Birthday Extravaganza at our house! Grandma and Grandpa Tuft came to visit a week ago and of course brought presents for the birthday kids (I'm still a kid, right?) It was fun to have them come over. We also got to meet my little brother Brad's fiancee, Eve. What an eventful weekend!

We celebrated Ryan's birthday this weekend. It's sad to think that he's no longer my baby. He's still a little guy, though. A little guy packed full of energy and personality!

Here's the birthday cake. We went with a fire engine theme. And you can laugh all you want - it didn't quite turn out as well as I wanted it to. I was trying to get it made with a 3-year-old hovering over my shoulder and trying to do everything in his power to "help." I was also informed that the wheels are a little misplaced, but what are you going to do?


Here's the tasting of the cake. Mmmm...frosting.




And here's the happy boy.

The Great Pumpkin

We went to the Red Barn in Santaquin with Kevin's family. Matthew loved the fact that we were riding to the pumpkin patch on a trailer pulled by a tractor.

Ryan thought the ride was great, but he really wanted to get down and play with the straw.


We had a fun time picking out our pumpkins and then went to Kevin's sister's house for pizza, treats, and birthday celebrations. Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Tams for the gifts!

Disneyland and Birthday Albums

I finally created the web albums for our Disneyland trip and for Amy and Matthew's birthday. Of course we have too many pictures for the blog so you will have to follow the links to see the pictures.


For all you parents with little boys did you read that Disney will be adding on to California Adventures and creating a 12-acre "Cars Land" inspired by the Disney/Pixar film cars. It sure will be interesting to see what it turns out to be.

Click here to visit the Disneyland Photo Album
Click here to visit the Birthday Photo Album

Happy Birthday - Amy, Matthew, and Ryan

October is a busy month for Birthday's in our families. Last week we celebrated Amy's Birthday, this week we will celebrate Matthew's, and we will celebrate Ryan's birthday next week. I will post some pictures soon from Amy's party and Matthew's it was a great day. Last week we also welcomed two new cousins, Logan and Ethan. They were born at 24 weeks and both are doing fine.

Disneyland pictures

Here are some quick pictures "Live" from Disneyland. We have a few really funny stories and some awsome pictures. We will tell you more about the trip when we get back home to Utah. Until then. Enjoy the pictures.

Matthew's Snack

Today I went upstairs to put Ryan down for his nap. I left Matthew downstairs at the table with his snack. It took me a little longer than usual to get Ryan to bed and when I finally came downstairs this is what I found:



It appears that I had left the raisins on the table along with the pepper shaker from last night. You would think that I would learn by now to make sure the table was completely clean, but I admit that I can be a slow learner sometimes, much to the delight of my son. He informed me that he needed some "salt" on his raisins and since there was some within reach he decided to add it. Makes sense to me.

Toddler Logic

Matthew said this to me yesterday:

Matthew: Mom, I want to go trick-or-treating.
Mom: Well, we have to wait for a few weeks before then. First we have to go to Disneyland and have your birthday. (We are going to Disneyland in a couple of weeks).
Matthew: Mom, let's go to Disneyland today so we can go trick-or-treating.

If only life were that easy.

Big Brothers don't need naps!

Here is a funny conversation I had with my dear little 3 year old today. You'd think he was a teenager with all of the indecisiveness.

On the way home from the store....

Mom: Matthew, we need to get home so you can have your nap.
Matthew: But mom, I'm not tired. I don't need a nap.
Mom: I think you might.
M: But mom, big brothers don't need naps.

At home shortly thereafter....

M: Mom, I want to play with the pumpkins. (We just bought some new pumpkin buckets for Halloween.)
Mom: I think it's time to read a story and get ready for bed.
M: I want to play with both pumpkins.
Mom: One of them is Ryan's.
M: I want two pumpkins.
Mom: We have two pumpkins - one for you and one for Ryan.
M: (while crying) But I want two. You should buy me another one at the store.
Mom: I think you are tired. Let's put the pumpkins away and take a nap.
M: But I want a snack first. (still crying)
Mom: Okay, let's have a snack.
M: But I don't want a snack.
Mom: Then let's read a story and go to bed.
M: I don't want a story (real tears now)
Mom: Then let's take you to bed and tuck you in.
M: I want a story (wailing)
Mom: Go pick which one you want.
M: I will go and pick it by my own self. I will read it by my own self.
Mom: Are you sure? I will be happy to read you a story.
M: (still crying) No, I want to do it by my own self.
Mom: Are you going to tuck yourself in too?
M: Yes.
Mom: Okay, I love you.
M: Okay (still crying as he walks up the stairs)

Amazingly enough, he stopped crying, read his story and shut the door. I went up to check on him and found the story slid under the door and Matthew in his bed asleep. I guess big brothers really do need naps sometimes.

The Adventures of "Uh-Oh" and "Grumpy"

Good morning kiddies! These cute boys look innocent, but they can be the cause of lots of mischief. Let's see what they've been up to the past couple of days....

Ryan is learning to talk. He is in the parrot stage where he tries to mimic whatever you say. He finally learned to say "da-da" (or something close to it) and his new favorite words are uh-oh and ba (ball). He is very affectionate and loves to give hugs and kisses. He also knows a little more than we give him credit for. The other day I was in the kitchen doing the dishes when I saw Ryan bend down and pick something up off of the floor. He shoved it in his mouth as quickly as possible and took of running (or walking as fast as he could) toward the front room. He was laughing when I caught up to him. I found a piece of a fruit snacks wrapper in his mouth. He knew he wasn't supposed to have it - that's why he ran away and laughed. How does he catch on to this stuff so soon?

Another time I was at the kitchen table working on some things for Primary when Matthew and Ryan decided to play in the bathroom. I told Matthew not to play with the toilet paper and he said they weren't. Matthew closed the door and I continued to work away. He opened it again to reassure me they weren't playing with the toilet paper. Then he shut the door and it got really quiet. I knew this meant trouble, so I grabbed the camera, opened the door, and this is what I found. Caught in the act! Look how happy they are disobeying their mother!

Matthew sure does have an imagination. One morning I went to get him from bed and this is what he told me: "Mom, there was the biggest elephant in my room and I pushed him out and locked him out FOREVER." I'm glad the elephant is gone forever. I don't have any room in my house for elephants.

The other night we read about the Rameumptom in the Book of Mormon. Matthew really liked that story for some reason and the next day he asked to read about the Grumpy again. Grumpy? What is a Grumpy? I scanned my knowledge of his books to find one with a Grumpy in it. He looked at me with an impatient gaze, "You know mom. The Grumpy in the scriptures!" Ahhh, the Grumpy Rameumptom. It all becomes clear now.

Here are the boys after church on Sunday. Aren't they handsome?