Strike!

We decided to take Tyler bowling last week.

This one? Ummm...16 lbs? Maybe not.

Watching his score beat Mommy & Daddy's.

The joy of a great "roll."And waiting for the ball to come back.

We love bumper bowling!

A little video of Ty's intense concentration while bowling. It doesn't look like he's having much fun here, but he got into it after a while.

Monkey toes ... ATTACK!

We having a standing joke in our family about Jessica's amazingly dexterious feet.  She can pick up about anything with her toes, and does quit often.  What is really amazing though is how hard she can pinch with her toes, hence the title.  Tyler watches her and has started doing the same thing.  He will stand there for several minutes trying to pick things up with his toes.  So the other day while he was coloring I took this picture.

It is a lot of fun to see some of the traits your kids pick up, or are born with.  As long as he keeps only getting the funny and good ones I think we'll be ok.

First Movie

We decided to take Ty to see his first movie in a theater. We chose...
He was so excited to see the movie after we told him there would be monkeys, zebras, lions, and birds in it. Nathan wasn't sure that he would sit through the whole thing, but he loved it! When the movie was over, he kept asking for more.
And this picture really makes me believe the "experts" that tell you that your little kids shouldn't watch more than 30 minutes of TV. Look at that face! A little sensory overload?
And for those of you who don't know already, Tyler LOVES to eat! He is the only toddler I know that eats everything I put in front of him. He especially loves Oriental food, and rice. So when we were out for Chinese the other day, and he wanted more food (even though he had already eaten two servings of rice), we decided to give him the almost empty rice bowl.
So he started to shovel it in, for the next 5 minutes or so.And when that wasn't fast enough, he stuck his whole head in the bowl! Funny boy!

Halloween!

We started our Halloween festivities early this year. I took Ty to Gardner Village to see the witches with my friend Rachelle and her boy Issac. We got tons of cute pictures, and the boys were so good to sit in their strollers for a couple hours so their moms could shop.
Ty loved feeding the ducks in the little stream.
This is super-cute Rachelle and her little rough-and-tumble Issac. Issac was so funny, he wanted to sit on the witch about a million times.
Ty on the other hand wasn't too happy when I made him sit on her. This is his "Get me off of here" face.
Then of course the moms had to stop at Tai-Pan for a bit. After five hours out, a lot of treats, and watching "Cars" in the car, the boys are still happy to be shopping...amazing!
The next day, we carved pumpkins. I don't like to carve them until right before Halloween, so that they look good instead of old and shrunken. Here's a picture of our (my) creations. Nathan hates to carve pumpkins, so his contribution is getting them scrubbed and cleaned out for me.
Then on Halloween day, we went out to lunch with my parents and brother. And Ty discovered salsa! We've known that he likes spicy food for a while now, but I haven't given him any salsa thinking that it would be too hot for him. Guess not.
He spent the entire time we waited for our food dipping, and eating. It was the easiest 20 minute wait at a restaurant ever! I guess we need to go out for Mexican more often!
For Halloween, Tyler was a ninja. I told him the day before that he would get candy in his Elmo basket, so he was very excited to be running around the church parking lot getting candy. He was literally pulling me from trunk to trunk until his basket got too heavy.
I thought it would be fun to decorate my trunk, and I'm glad I did. The kids thought it was great, and I was one of only a couple cars that was decorated. We made the little spiders and the teeth. But it was a little too scary for some of the really little kids because they didn't want to stick their hand in to get candy!
What a busy few days it's been. Tyler was pooped! Hope everyone else had as great of a Halloween as we did!

Post-Its

The other day, Tyler found Nathan's stash of post-it tags. He is REALLY into stickers lately, and this was a thrilling find. He proceeded to take them all out and stick them on his head, arms, and all over his clothes.And this was the end result. As cute as the picture is, the funniest part is that he wanted to keep those darn things on all day! When one would lose it's stickiness from the constant sticking & unsticking, he was very, very sad. Also, here's a video of Ty making Chester do tricks for goldfish. He loves our dog to death, mauls him everyday, and has been really excited that he can get the dog to do the same tricks mommy & daddy get him to do. Chester won't perform for Tyler unless Nate or I are around, but Ty still thinks it's great.

They call it the UPS scam

So here is a fun story.  Last Tuesday I ordered a new laptop that was supposed to arrive this week.  Except on Saturday I was over at my in-laws having lunch and Fedex delivered a package for me.  It contained an HP laptop.  It seemed a little strange that I would get a package at my inlaws and even stranger that it would a computer that I hadn't ordered, I had ordered one of the new Mac Book Pros.  So being the optomistic guy that I am I assumed someone had sent me a laptop as a gift.  So we immediately started trying to figure out who would give me a laptop.  The only one I could come up with is Abraham, a guy who my in-laws took care of for a couple of years when he was younger and who I am building D&H Auto Parts for.

So I tried to call him and say thanks a couple of times on Saturday and then sent him an email.  Since I assumed the HP laptop was for me I called Apple and got the laptop I ordered cancelled and started setting up the HP one.  Imagine my surprise then when Abraham calls me Saturday evening and says, "I didn't buy you a laptop, sorry."  So then I went and looked at the invoice that came with the package and noticed that it was charged to my credit card.

So basically someone stole my credit card information and bought a laptop with it.  So that the credit card charge wouldn't look suspicious they had it shipped to my address, except in this case it was an old address.  I immediatly called Discover of course and cancelled my card and then I called HP, who put me off until the fraud department opened on Monday, they made a special point though of saying, "If UPS comes by to pick up the computer don't give it to them, we only use Fedex."  Sure enough UPS called my in-laws house to schedule a pickup for the computer.

After talking to HP I learned that they call it the UPS scam.  Someone steals your credit card information and buys a computer that is then shipped to you.  They then schedule a pickup with UPS to get the computer, assuming that you realize you didn't order it and have contacted your credit card company and/or HP and so are expecting a pickup.  I wonder how many people gave the computer to UPS before HP started saying, "Do not give it to UPS.  We don't use them and we didn't schedule the pickup."  So if any of you mysteriously get a computer delivered to your house, check the invoice.

Logan

So we went to visit my sister over General Conference. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, Tyler LOVES his Emo. He could live there forever, and never even miss us. Why would he? After all, she does run the geriatric pet clinic in her area (aka: her collection of really old pets). He loves to feed the deaf German Shepherd, chase the nearly-blind Chihuahua, and search for the cat that is always hiding. Not to mention, look at the gecko, and ride the horse. She even makes grocery shopping seem fun. Of course, having a store with cool car-carts helps.
My only complaint is that Logan is WAY too far away! 2 1/2 hours for a toddler is about 2 hours too long. The picture below shows you just how bored Ty got on the drive home.

A Temple in Italy!!

For those who don't know, I served my mission in Italy.  You can imagine my excitement when I heard President Monson say that a temple was planned for Rome Italy.  He didn't say when it would be finished or even started but it will be such a great blessing for the Italians.   There is a prophecy that Italy will blossom as a rose and I think having a temple there will go a long way towards doing that.  A beautiful temple will make people much more aware of who we really are, instead of thinking we are the Amish, and will give the members there a lot of strength.  I am so excited.

Ekstrom Look-alike Meter

Everyone debates who Ty looks most like, me or Nathan. He obviously is a pretty equal mix of the two of us. But I win, by just a little bit!

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celeb - Collage - Morph

Commuter Car, Anyone?

We are selling the Jetta. It's a great commuter car (35 mpg), has been running perfectly, and has less than 50,000 miles. Let us know if you, or your friends are interested!

New Favorite Toy

We recently bought Ty a Weebles Camper from Ebay. It instantly became his new favorite toy. He plays with it all day, everyday. And recently, has integrated it into his non-play activities as well. The other morning, he decided that his camper needed to eat breakfast with him, so he gave him a place setting.
Later that day, when it was time for a nap, Tyler also put the camper to sleep. He cracks me up!

Carnival Fun

Over Labor Day weekend, our town celebrated Onion Days. They have parades, races, bake-offs, and a carnival. Ty LOVED the rides!
The cars were his favorite. He actually cried when this ride stopped!
In other news, Nathan graduated. I forgot to write about it last month. Here's a pic of all the male Ekstrom BYU grads.

Family Pics

Las Vegas

Last week we went to Vegas to see Heidi & Dave (Nathan's sis) officially adopt their baby girl, Gabby. I had to borrow these pics from Heidi's blog since I forgot my camera everywhere we went!
It was so great to be there with them in the temple, and see the joy in their eyes. What a blessing it is to have eternal families! Thanks you guys for a great weekend!