No More Babies!

I have been trying to get a good picture of her all day, but she doesn't stop moving!  So this is as good as it gets:)
1 Year ago today Tyra Alice Dykstra came into our lives.  What a surprise to see a baby girl born into our family!  The year has gone by soooo fast.  She was a pretty good baby for having tons of ear infections!  Since she got her tubes put in her ears she pretty much always sleeps through the night, has made it through a cold now with out it turning into an ear infection! AMEN!   She has been walking since 10 1/2 months (so now she can almost run and lately she tries to jump)  Oh yeah, the other night she wasn't going to sleep in her crib she just kept talking, so finally I went in there and I found her trying to get her knee up like she was trying to climb out!  I am seriously PRAYING this wont happen anytime soon!   She is a spunky girl, her hair says it all :)  I just can't cut it even though the top keeps growing more than the sides and back... it just fits her... wild and crazy.  She is so sweet with her leg crossing, dancing with her singing dog, cuddling with the kitties, but she also is wild and "plays" soccer, (kicking the ball around the house), knows how to make a basket on her little hoop, tackles her brothers when they are doing a dog pile, and LOVES to get dirty and play outside in the sand and dirt.  She knows how to say dada, momma, nana, kitty (she just makes the K sound), she knows how to do so big, wave bye bye, blow kisses, if you ask how old she is she holds up 1 finger (we have been practicing for a while )  Whenever the ABC song comes on she really trys to sing along.  She just popped another tooth through, so she has 3 total!  This age is my favorite, so now I will begin to get sad about her growing up :(  We are so happy we have her in our lives.  Happy Birthday Tyra we love you!

What keeps me busy

These FOUR keep me Busy!!!  All in the bath together is getting pretty crowded now!

For Tyra's birthday that is next week I asked Grant if we could just paint and decorate her room.  If she would have been a boy she would have shared a room with Gunnar... Once she was born and we knew she was a girl she stayed in our room for a while and then we moved her to the room that was an office and never did anything to it.  No painting, decorating, nothing.  So it was about time since she is going to be one!!!  So this last week we moved her to Gunnar's room... they actually did good sharing a room... and I got started on her room, new trim, carpet, painting, sanding and painting dressers, new lights, closet doors and some decor!  I AM TIRED!!! I only would paint at night once the kids went to bed and I would paint till 1am!  I couldn't do it during the day or they all wanted to help and you know how that goes.  It is all finished now except the closet doors need to be trimmed off on the bottom to fit and soon a bed and bed spread for her... for now she is still in the crib and sleeps good and stays in it so far!

The chandelier in this picture I am pretty proud of... It was a big ugly gold thing with glass around it... I bought it for $5 from the RE-STORE and took it apart,  spray painted it, installed it and glued black glass beads on it.  I saw one online that I wanted for 69$  mine cost 15$!

another dresser I sanded and painted... I didn't make that lamp, just bought it at Target... I am thinking about spray painting it black :)

Mirrors I found at lowes and Target

Letters I painted for TYRA and a picture put on a canvas of her when she was in the hospital... I love this picture, Grant took it, she was sitting on my lap after I had changed her diaper in the hospital... she was just looking at me so alert and trying to coo at me when she was only 1 day old... he got my arm in the picture with my tatoo of all their names except for hers.  I just like this picture.

Her headband holder I made and bow/clip holder.  I absolutely LOVE how her room turned out and I hope she likes it for a while because I am not in the mood to do another project for a while!

STATE TOURNAMENT IN THE PALM SPRINGS OF WASHINGTON??

Grant and I took the three boys to the State Basketball tournament this year.  We left Tyra behind because she would have wanted to climb up and down the stairs the whole time.

They boys getting pumped up for the game :)

Chase De Boer had his 4th birthday party the last day of state in their hotel room.  Not a bad way to host a birthday party... rent a room for the day... have a party... check out... let someone else clean up the mess.  I am SERIOUSLY thinking about it :)

It was nice and sunny the last day at state and we had to waste some time before the Championship game so we went to the park to let the kids get some play time since we spent most of the time in the gym and hotel.

The Nintendo DS kept the kids entertained most of the games :)  We didn't let them take theirs to the championship game, but they had fun watching their cousins play.

De Boer boys and our boys

Group of kids up at the top of the Sun dome watching the game and playing DS's.  It was a fun trip, the boys did really really good.  Gunnar is only 2 but he doesn't like to leave my side out in public so it works out really well in places like this :) As long as he had a few snacks and a turn with the DS every once in a while he was GOLDEN.  The boys loved the hotel room running around with kids, playing nerf basketball in the deboer boy's room, going out for dinner, going on the alligator (elevator), and watching the championship game.  They actually got into watching the girls championship game... Gunnar was cheering, Griffin said to Grant " I am going to be pissed off if we lose"  (don't worry we told him not to say "pissed off" anymore, doesn't sound good coming from a 6 year old.) At least his emotions were in the game :)  Gannon was even watching the other team foul our team a lot, and telling us exactly where our player got hit and fouled :)  Everything was great EXCEPT for our car getting broken into, $500 getting stolen from Grant's wallet, along with his cell phone, and our kids DVDs we had along.  (I saved my cash from working for a while so we could use it for the hotel room and any extra costs at state... ended up being an expensive trip, could have gone to Hawaii... but the kids probably wouldn't have had as much fun there. That part of the trip SUCKED.  We went into a store for 15 minutes and came back out missing all of that!  I guess we learned our lesson about Yakivegas... Its not safe!  Good Job LC girls for making it to the CHAMPIONSHIP!  Now my boys keep playing basketball at home saying they are in the CHAMPIONSHIP!