Things Jackson has said about Tyson

When Jackson saw Tyson's umbilical cord he told me that is yucky.  Clean it up mommy, clean it up!!

I was burping Tyson and Jackson told me not to spank the baby! 

Another time I was burping Tyson he told me to be soft and came over and showed me how to be soft with Tyson.

One time Tyson was crying and Jackson stood over him and was moving his hands side to side and said it's ok Tyson daddy will be home soon.  It is ok daddy will be home soon.

At first he wasn't overly interested in Tyson he would just leave him alone and occasionally come over and touch his feet and say tickle, tickle.

He asks me to put the baby down.  Mostly when he wants me to do something for him.


Sometimes when he cries he does say you stop it baby.  Or be quiet baby.


He is getting alot more helpful and will get diapers for the baby, throw them away, get the pacifier for you, and other things.

Lately he has asked more to hold Tyson and wants to help feed him bottles and give him his pacifier.

He likes to give Tyson hugs and kisses and tells him he loves him.  Normally we are asking him to but sometimes he does it on his own.

When he gets up in the morning or gets up from his nap and doesn't see Tyson he asks where the baby is.

Jackson has three blankets that he likes to carry around and sleep with.  They are just flannel receiving blankets.  There is a sailboat blanket that is around the same size that he uses sometimes but wasn't super attached to.  So one day Cody put the sailboat blanket on Tyson and now Jackson is very attached to it and carries it around as his 4th blanket.  When I try to leave it in his crib he always asks for me to get it!!  Little stinker.  Thankfully we bought Tyson 2 blankets that are his own and Jackson hasn't tried to confiscate those as his own.

He definitely loves his brother and loves him more and more everyday!!


I am excited for them to get to play together and hopefully be best buds!!

Welcoming Tyson to the family

Jackson was a very quick unexpected arrival so we tried to surprise as many people as we could with him.  We wanted to do the same with Tyson.

This is Jackson meeting Tyson for the first time - he was more excited than I thought he would be - he was super cute and reached over and tickled Tyson's foot - I also think he was super excited to get to be with his parent's again - he stayed over at our friends house for two nights

 

I was so excited to see Jackson again - I felt bad that he wasn't with us and when we would talk on the phone from the hospital he would say I want you mommy - it was sad

Here is how we tried to spread the word about Tyson.  My family lives all over so there was no way any of them could come and see Tyson so I sent them a text from the hospital.  I told them that Jackson wanted to let them know he was going to be a big brother.  I waited for a few minutes before I texted back.  Several people were confused and asked if I was pregnant.  Then I texted them back a picture of Tyson and explained briefly what was going on.  My parents and my sister already knew mostly what was going on.  My parents weren't able to come up because they were out of town at my brother's house in Colorado.  Next we started texting our friends and hoped that we got the word out to everyone, if we didn't let you know I am sorry.  We were both texting everyone from our phones and may have forgotten some people. 

This was what we did for Cody's family.  Cody's oldest sister Stacie knew what was going on but she was the only one.  She and I were shopping at Arizona Mills a few weeks before Tyson was born and she saw me looking at baby clothes and started asking me a lot of questions.  I didn't know that we were getting Tyson for sure but I was hopeful.  I finally spilled the beans to her after I decided to buy some Big Brother/Little Brother shirts.  After we were told we were going to be Tyson's parents we invited Cody's family over for Sunday dinner.  The Sunday just after he was born.  We told the family members that live a few hours away that we were going to plan the family reunion for this summer at dinner since we are in charge this year and invited them to come give input.  We hoped that might get them to come without letting them know anything was going on.  This was a gamble because we weren't sure exactly when he would be born.  Cody's parents didn't want to make the drive just for reunion planning so Cody texted them a picture of Tyson and they responded back we will be there.  All the local people were in and Cody's sister from Tucson decided to come.  Stacie who lives in Flagstaff already knew so she was definitely coming and we were working on Cod'ys sister from St. Johns.  They were in town that weekend shopping for houses so Cody was trying to get them to stay for Sunday dinner.  It turned out that the weather was going to be bad in Flagstaff on Sunday so Stacie asked if she could come on Saturday.  Mark and Stacie and two of their kids showed up about 10 minutes after we got home from the hospital.  They brought stuff to make us dinner and dessert.  It was great and they brought gifts for Jackson and Tyson.  Since Kim who lives in St. Johns wasn't going to stay over to Sunday Cody was trying to get her to stop by our house.  He told her Jackson wanted to see her.  I didn't think this was going to work so I told him to tell her husband Mike he had some ammo for him.  I knew this would get them to stop.  And it worked!!  I think Stacie or someone had Tyson hidden and came around the corner after they came in the door.  They were very excited and surprised.  It was funny Cody's twin sister Cari tends to know everybodies secrets and what is going on in the family and Stacie and Kim were so happy that they knew and got to see Tyson before she did!!  Now for the rest of the family at Sunday dinner the next day.  Cody's parents knew what was going on now but no one else did.  Cody went to pick up Little Ceasars for dinner (please don't judge we just got a second child with little notice I was definitely not going to cook anything!!).  I was hoping that Cody's parents would show up first but they didn't.  Jackson was taking a nap and Tyson was getting hungry.  I had Tyson in our bathroom so hopefully no one would hear him and I kept running back and forth putting his pacifier in his mouth.  Of course Cody's twin sister showed up first (Cody was still getting the pizza) so I had to adandon Tyson.  Thankfully his parents were just behind her.  I intercepted Cindy at the doorway and had her go feed Tyson in my room.  Everyone that showed up after kept asking where Cindy was and I told them she was in the bathroom.  Cody showed up with the pizza and we got a few weird looks from people wondering why we invited them to Sunday dinner and then got pizza!!  One of my sister in laws did ask us if we were making some kind of announcement!!  I calmly said no we are just wanting to plan the reunion.  Cody's sister Aubrey from Tucson was going to be late so we went ahead and blessed the food and let people start to eat.  Cody went and got Cindy and Tyson.  It took people a while before they noticed her and that she was holding a baby.  We got lots of good reactions and then got to surprise Aubrey's family about 30 minutes later.  I was fun!!  I wish we would have videoed it but we didn't.  We didn't get any pictures of the surprises really either.

      

Chase and Kailin meeting Tyson Saturday night 3/17

Kim with Tyson Saturday night 3/17

Mark and Stacie were nice to help us get a family picture in our St. Patricks day shirts.  I put a lot of them on here because I think it's funny seeing the mess ups and also we got lots of good ones!!

Tyson tried to leap out of my hands  so I was trying to get him under control

 

Cody is really bad about having his eyes closed in pictures or making a funny look

Seriously!!!  Eyes shut again!!

In the middle of taking pictures Jackson decided he wanted to hold Tyson - he didn't say a word just reached over and pulled him towards him - it was funny

Then all of a sudden he decided he wanted to give him back!!

 

He jumps on our couch and says he is jumping on a trampoline - I promise we don't let him do this at other people houses but we do at ours!!  Well at least I try not to let him!!

 

After Cody's sisters left on Saturday Tyson had a gift for Jackson!!  He gave him a set of wood construction trucks that come apart and a book called I'm a Big Brother.



Jackson checking out what he got

 

Of course he is playing with the thermometer and not his trucks in this picture!!



Tyson's first night in his cradle - we have the same picture of Jackson - just like Jackson, Tyson didn't stay there very long - he actually slept better in his car seat for awhile so we let him!!  3/17

Later that night trying to put him in his swaddle blanket

All bundled up - this didn't last very long

This is on Sunday 3/18 just after we surprised Cody's family - I realized later that I had fingerprints on my camera lens so some of the pictures are fuzzy in the bottom left corner - very annoying!!

It was a challenge to get Jackson to look in these pictures and sit still!!  They are wearing there Big Brother / Little Brother shirts

Cody's sister from Tucson stayed the night.  We put some of her kids in Jackson's room and some on the couch.  They woke up their oldest boy and told him to go to the bathroom and then to move him out on the couch.  No one could find him after he was done in the bathroom.  He was lost in my small house!!!  We found him in the pack n play with his little brother!!  We aren't sure how he got in there while he was sleep walking and how he didn't wake up his little brother.  It was pretty funny!!! 

 

Of course we took pictures of it!!

Jackson got to bed very late Sunday night and woke up very early Monday morning with Aubrey's kids.  After they left I went to change his diaper.  As I got up to throw the diaper away he said I want to take a rest (which he hardly ever says) and by the time I got back from throwing the diaper away he was out!!

Jackson out like a light on the floor

I love this picture - Cody and his two boys!!  Just after he got off work 3/19

 

Our friends came over Monday night to meet Tyson and bring us dinner - they were so nice and got Jackson a gift - he is really excited about the play doh - they also got a really cute outfit for Tyson

Checking it out - Jackson has gotten spoiled by gifts from lots of people that got stuff for Tyson

 

What a cutie!!

It has been a whirlwind but we have loved every minute of it.  We are getting back into the swing of things a little more each day and I feel like someday soon my house will be clean again.  Although that is debatable with Jackson around.  He makes a mess really fast and isn't good at cleaning things up yet.  Something I continue to work on!!!  After getting Jackson and Tyson pretty fast and somewhat unexpected I am not sure how it would be if we had a lot of notice!!  I wouldn't change it for anything and am so grateful for our little boys and for everyone who has given Tyson and Jackson gifts and even brought us over dinner.  We got very spoiled and had lots of great food!!!  Thanks to everyone!!

The Story of Tyson

If you have been confused about the picture on top of my blog well this will explain it.  I wanted to get this posted a lot sooner but I also really wanted to get my blog updated before I did.  Here is the story of Tyson Drew.  He was born on March 16th at 11:20 am.  He weighed 7lbs 10 ozs and was 20.5 inches long.  No I wasn't pregnant!!  We are adopting this sweet little boy!!

Tyson at 12:35 pm just over an hour old!!

After Jackson's adoption I figured any future adoptions would be a lot different and maybe more planned out with us having to wait a while for our baby to be born.  This was not the case with Tyson.  Cody got a phone call in the morning on Saturday Feb 25th from his cousin.  He told us that a baby was born the day before and the girl wanted to give it up for adoption.  Cody's cousin has a friend who knows a doctor and that doctor we believe knows the doctor that delivered Tyson.  I was told by Cody's cousin to send an email to this doctor that his friend knows and they were going to print my email off and show it to this girl.  I quickly sent the email within about 30 minutes and then got ready thinking that we were going to be rushing to a hospital to hopefully meet this girl.  It was a long day and we never heard anything.  On Sunday I emailed the doctor again to see if she at least got my email and if she knew anything.  At this point I figured we weren't going to hear anything and that someone else probably got the baby.  We never heard back.  By Monday I figured we would never hear back and we weren't going to get this baby.  On Wednesday February 29th I was at work (I have a part time job that is two mornings a week) talking to my co-workers and my cell phone rang.  I didn't recognize the number but I answered it.  The girl told me her name and said she was due in three weeks with a little boy and asked if we were interested in meeting her.  I thought are you kidding me of course we are interested in meeting with you!!!!  I could hardly contain my excitement.  We set a meeting for Monday March 5th.  This was the same girl that Cody's cousin had heard about.  There was obviously some miscommunications.  Suprisingly the rest of the week and the weekend didn't seem to drag on too long.  Finally Monday rolled around and about 3 hours before we were going to meet up she had to cancel and said she would call the next day to reschedule.  I didn't hear from her the next day.  I sent her a few texts and then on Friday evening March 9th she said she was headed to the hospital because she thought she was in early labor and thought the baby was going to be born over the weekend.  We told her she could contact us any time any hour no matter what she needed.  She said she would keep us updated.  We didn't hear back.  I texted her again on Tuesday March 13th to see how she was doing.  She texted me back that day at 11:50 am and said she was going to be induced on Friday and that she wanted to meet us before then.  I told her we could meet anytime, anyplace even that same day if it worked out for her.  We met up that evening.  We had a really good meeting with her.  I was so impressed by what a strong, wonderful person she is.  She said she had met with 5 other couples and didn't like any of them.  Two of them had told her they wanted to have a girl.  I thought that was so sad for someone to say.  She told us that when she read our email and looked at the links I provided for her she thought we were to good to be true.  Thankfully after meeting us in person she did still like us!!  She said you guys really are easy going and nice.  We were fortunate that Jackson was being really good when we met with her!!  We visited for just over 2 hours and she told us she wanted us to adopt her little boy!!!  We were so excited!!  She said she would let us know when they were planning on inducing her.  On Thursday March 15th the hospital finally called her in for her induction and she texted us just after 11 pm.  We dropped Jackson off at a friends house, got ready, and then headed over to the hospital.  We showed up at the hospital around 2:30 am.  We had a pretty long wait on the couches in the waiting area.  Our friend showed up to take pictures for us maybe around 5:30 / 6 am so it was nice to have some company.  About 30 mins before Tyson was born we were invited into her room to see her and meet her mom.  He was born at 11:20 am on Friday March 16th.  When he was born we were in the hallway right outside the door so we saw him right after they pulled him out and put him under the warmer to start cleaning him off.  He was so sweet and didn't cry a ton but I think he had a lot of gunk in his lungs still that he was trying to clear out.  Cody was able to cut the cord.  We got put in the room next door and they wheeled him in there and we got to stay with him the rest of the way.  They cleaned him off, let us hold him, and then we were checked into a room on the next floor where we got to stay over night with him.  He got his first bath and then from that point we were pretty much taking care of him.  The nurses would come in and check on him but besides that he was with us the whole time.  When we showed up at the hospital we weren't sure if we were going to have our own room and be able to stay with him so we weren't sure what to expect.  That evening Cody went to check on Jackson and got him settled in bed and then he came back to the hospital to stay the night.  Everything went great.  He was up quite a bit the first night and wanted to be held a lot.  The next day he got his hearing checked and was checked out by the pediatrician.  We were given the go ahead to take him home.  We left the hospital around 4:30 pm on March 17th.  

 Getting to hold Tyson for the first time

 I feel like he looks huge in these pictures!!

 Getting his footprints done

 Getting cleaned up after his first bath

 Chowing down - he is a really good eater

 His first father and son nap time

 Getting his hearing checked - he passed!!

Cuddling with mom

About to get dressed so we can go home!!

In his St. Patrick's Day shirt - we brought him home on St. Patrick's Day - I bought this shirt on a whim thinking that he might be born before St. Patrick's Day and that was also assuming that she was going to choose us - I am glad I bought it!!!

So excited to have our new baby boy and get to introduce him to his big brother Jackson!!

  All packed up and ready to go home!!

We feel so blessed to have Tyson in our lives.  He is such a wonderful little guy.  It is amazing to see our prayers answered and to be able to welcome another sweet boy into our family and with such a neat and exciting story.  The Lord definitely knows where these angels are meant to be.  We feel so blessed to have two of them now.  Thanks to everyone who has kept us in their prayers, we really appreciate it.

Family Hike - Hieroglyphic Trail

Cody's sister was in town visiting with some of her friends and invited us to go on a hike with her.  Cody was at work but my brother-in-law Mark was so kind to carry Jackson in the hiking backpack.  It is to heavy for me to carry with Jackson in it.  I could probably last maybe 10 minutes but not the whole time.  We went on the Hieroglyphic Trail.  3/12/12

 Jackson excited to get to explore out of the backpack

 Everyone taking a rest and eating lunch

 Jackson with his cousin Shayne - he loves her and talks about her a lot

 Inside a little cave

 Cody's sister, her daughter, and his sister's friends next to the Indian Petroglyphs on the rocks behind them

 Shayne, Jackson, and Me

It was a nice day for a hike - the weather was nice and it wasn't too hot!!!