Winter finally ended, we think...

Yes, it's been a while since our last post. The winter was rather uneventful. We spent Christmas with Tyler's family and Derek wanted nothing to do with helping Mom and Dad unwrap presents once he opened his megablocks. Tyler has finished another semester of school and now only has 1 more!!! Mindy continues to work full time and after some events at work, is looking to return tot he hospital setting. This will hopefully lead to working part time after Tyler's graduation and hopeful career beginning.

After some pondering and exploring, Tyler is looking to go into strength and conditioning coaching. He is planning on studying for and taking a national certification exam over the summer. We are very excited since this a passion of his and something that can potentially bring lots of fun future adventures.

Derek continues to keep everyone in the household entertained. His vocabulary is expanding. He now says the following words: more, bah (ball), orange, ya, shoes, cheese, and the other day he said, "mais" (more in portuguese). Occasionally he'll say, "Dadda" and shakes his head, "no." We're grateful the actual word has not entered his speaking vocabulary yet. :) He loves being outside and probably thought he was going to die of cabin fever as the last few months have displayed all extremes of weather- mostly on the cold end. He ADORES nursery, constantly is throwing the tupperwares from the drawer in the kitchen everywhere, stacking his blocks, and placing his balls in the kitchen window sill- they all have to be touching.

We are finding that our house and yard are a constant project. Tyler recently decided to re-do the pantry on a whim, after Mindy asked him to put away the groceries. We're planning on a garden this summer, and will hopefully finish up the back laundry room before the Millenium. Never-ending, but that's the nature of the beast with an older home, and one that was build strangely (that's putting it very lightly). We love it though and are grateful for our own space and plenty to keep us busy.