9 months!

Now that I am nine months old. . . .
-I love to eat puffs (they are sort of like cheerios, but they dissolve really quickly). Mommy thinks my chubby little fingers are adorable when I try to pick them up.
-I still don't sleep well (but whats new about THAT?)
-I pull up on the furniture. (Mommy and Daddy ditched the coffeetable, because they were tired of rescuing me from impending doom as I crashed.) I even figured out that I can stand up in my crib. (Mommy HATES this.)
-I really think that shoes are quite yummy, (especially Daddy's.) I know you think it's gross, but I am telling you, they are DELISH!
-I have lost a lot of my chub. I got tired of everyone calling me Fat Baby, and Chunka Lunka. I get lots of exercise scooting and crawling on my tummy, and pulling myself up on the furniture.
-Giving rasberries on Mommy's shoulder or leg makes a GIANT gross sound, and it's sooo funny!
-I tried to eat one of Bryce's Legos last week. Plastic doesn't taste as good as Daddy's shoes, and Mommy thought it was pretty terrible that I found a Lego. Now Bryce keeps his Legos up even higher and farther away from me. (Totally unfair.)
-I still have no teeth. Bryce told me that he had teeth poking through by now, but I am going to do my own thing. I'm doing okay without them.

silly old bear!

I still haven't finished the graduation photos and videos, but I am taking a break to share THIS little ditty with you! LOVE this baby in the Pooh towel. Gigi and Lizzie got this towel for Bryce a few years ago when we were at Disney World together. Bryce looked adorable in it, but a chunky little baby crawling around in a towel (with ears no less!) that is way to big for him is a sight to be seen!!! LOVE it!!!!
We are heading to Orlando today for Scrapbook Expo and a day at SeaWorld with my parents. . .hopefully it won't be pouring down rain like it did the last time we went to SeaWorld! And hopefully the Scrapbook Expo will be FABULOUS and my mom will sell TONS of stuff!! :) But either way. . we are going to have a GREAT weekend. (Minus the fact that we will be in hotel rooms with a baby who cries periodically throughout the night. I am a littttle teeny tiny bit anxious about that.)
And once I get more photos added to the graduation post, Iwill let you know!!! Have a great weekend!
XOXO

Graduation recap!

(new pictures are being added at the end!)

The handsome man after graduation!
Bryce and his teacher, Mrs. McMillan. We LOVE Mrs. McMillan. She had a class full of BOYS this year, (nine boys and one girl in B's class!) and two boys of her own at home (one of them graduated with Bryce) so she definitely knows how to handle and have fun with goofy wild crazy boys!!!

Because I have a baby on the floor who is trying to eat everything and climb on everything, and because it's almost time to wake the big boys up for breakfast, and because sometimes Blogger doesn't cooperate, I am just going to keep adding to this blog post. But I didn't want to make you wait too long for pictures and video from graduation. So here's what I have for you so far!! Each of the four classes memorized a Bible verse for graduation. Each class stood up and said theirs. This is just a QUICK video of Bryce's class reciting their verse. Bryce is on the top row, the last one on the right, in his group.

I'll keep adding to this post later today, so check back!!! :)
XOXO

I'm pretty sure this face means "Mom and Dad, can you PLEASE get me out of here? The girl next to me is picking her nose, and my friend, Christian won't stand still . . .PLEASE get me out of here!"

today's the day!

Bryce is graduating from preschool today!

Today is his last "official" day of school, graduation is tonight, and then he is going to go for two more optional "fun days" at school to finish out the week.
XOXO

what tanner does. . . .

WARNING: there is lots of crying and its funny and painful to watch this video!!!!
We don't make good sleepers in this family.
I am just rolling with it now. .. . these sleepless nights.
It's going to make our summer travel plans a bit more difficult, but I am doing the best I can, and trying to do everything right, when it comes to sleep.
But this baby finally realized that he can sit up in his crib.
And now he SITS . . .
and he CRIES. . .
and he SCREAMS. . .
and he loses his paci 17 times.
And on this particular day, he SAT and CRIED and SCREAMED and lost his paci 17 times, all while in the midst of falling asleep. But because he was sitting up, every time he started to keel over, he would wake himself up and scream louder.
(As you are watching, when he starts to quiet down, he's falling asleep. . . .and then he wakes himself up and screams. . ..again and again.)
But yes - eventually. . ..eventually. . .he DID fall asleep.
And one day - ONE GLORIOUS DAY - he will sleep well, like Bryce does now.

Slip and SLIDE!

Bryce enjoyed his first experience with the age-old favorite summertime tradition of. . . .a SLIP AND SLIDE this past weekend!!! I've had it for a few years, just waiting to break it out of the box. For the kid who loves to jump in the air and land on the floor, a Slip and Slide is perfect for him! He thought it was the best thing EVER, although he is still perfecting his slide! (I have more pictures to share over the next few days!)

no shirts no shoes. . .no problem!

it's hard to believe (and sad as can be), but tanner is losing his chub. my chunka lunka is soon to be just lunka. . .. his chunka seems to be disapearing just like his big brother's did. sniff sniff.

granted he still has quite a lot of chub to squeeze, but nothing like it USED to be!

(we'll keep him anyway though!)

XOXO

the first REAL swim of the season

We all had our first REAL swim of the season this weekend . . .Bryce and Eric had been in once a few weeks ago, but there were no Super Soakers or goggles involved, so it really doesn't count! And it was Tanner's very first EVER dip in the pool - and he LOVED it! He splashed, and sat in his little baby innertube, and had lots of fun! Bryce is signed up for swimming lessons in mid June, so we will be at the pool a LOT this summer. (He took lessons last year, but it wasn't quite enough.) If you ask him, he is NOT looking forward to it, but I think a bribe of icecream every day will help win him over.

Bryce only has two more weeks of school, and then he is officially on summer vacation!

Happy SUMMER!

Happy Mother's Day to ME!!!!

This is ME. . . .can you tell? Bryce painted this BEAUTIFUL portrait of me, and gave it to me at our super fun Muffins With Mom party at school on Friday. I also got lots of other sweet presents, and this VERY entertaining card. . . .

If you click on it, you should be able to see it closer up, but if not, the highlights are: I am 60 years old, my hair and eyes are blackish-brown, and I cook the best french fries (and I "probably cook them". I am beautiful because I dress up sometimes. Cute huh?

Muffins with Mom was SO much fun. The kids sang a song, and Bryce asked me what food I wanted, and he fixed my plate for me, (muffins of course, along with fruit, and juice). The kids in his class all did such a great job, and it was really sweet. This has been my favorite Mothers Day so far!!!

Happy Mothers' Day to all the amazing MOMS in our family!!! We love you all!

The boys and the veggie.. . I mean fruit.

What Bryce and I would like to show you, is the teeny tiny tomato that is growing at our front door. All the sudden, THERE IT WAS!!!! Now if only we can keep it growing and survive long enough to eat it, it will be a miracle!

But I know that what you REALLY want to see, is not a tomato, but the BOYS. . .so here is a picture of THEM too!!!!

XOXO

say cheese!!!!

he's loving the sunshine, and watching his big brother play ball, and trying to eat some leaves!

the compromise

This is the sweet face . . .it's a compromise, because in order to get this sweet smile I had to take three pictures of him making mean, grumpy, and crazy faces. And they ARE funny. . .but this is my SWEET boy! This face makes it hard to believe that he ever has tantrums, slams doors, gets grumpy, or is totally mean to us!!! Just every ONCE in a while!!! ;)

check out the chub!

He's sitting up all by his big-boy self now!!! This week he was laying down on the floor and even got up to a sitting position on his own. Pretty impressive.

So how bout those arm and leg chub rolls?

They are delicious!!!! :)

Oh my cuteness!

Today it was time to go outside and take some pictures of the ever-so-quickly growing boys.

Tanner is sitting up really well now, which should make picture taking a lot easier!

Check back this week for the rest of the cute pictures!!!

XOXO

Knock 'Em Down!

One of Tanner's favorite games is to knock down stacks of blocks. Perhaps this is a skill we shouldn't be encouraging, because there will come a day that two brothers are going to have SERIOUS disputes about who knocked down who's block tower. But for now, its super cute! He wasn't as into it, in this video, as he normally is, but it's cute just the same!!

mommy and tanner

just me and little T, watching the big kids Easter egg hunting!

Easter/Spring Break recap

Spring Break is winding down . . .we had a fun and busy week! Here's the recap!

*We celebrated Nana's birthday on Easter, with lots of family in town - which means lots of yummy dinners at Nana and Gil's, wayyy too many desserts, and lots of cousins running around.
*The big cousins hosted a BIG Easter egg hunt for the little cousins (Nana might find eggs hidden in strange places throughout her house for months!) Bryce had a BLAST playing with his cousins and hunting for eggs.
*The Easter bunny came (he always visits our house the day BEFORE Easter, so that Daddy doesnt have to miss out on baskets, since he leaves so early for church.) The bunny even remembered Tanner, and left baskets at both boy's doorways.
*We went and painted pottery with some of our friends, and we are looking forward to picking up Bryce's rainbow colored mug next week after being fired.
*We spent lots of time outside, washed the car, had a bunch of squirt gun wars, went for walks, and did a little more planting in our garden. Our rose bush has grown TONS in the past few weeks, and I can't believe how many flowers are blooming!
*We went to the library, and got twelve books . . .dinosaurs, outer space, and volcanoes were some of the topics of choice!
*While Eric was home we did some reorganizing, closet cleaning, budgeting, and decluttering. (If you know me, you know the decluttering and reorganizing was one of my favorite things!!)
*Oh - and one of Bryce's highlights was probably the day we realized that the refrigerator/freezer wasn't working. . .we ate ice cream cones at 9 in the morning! (But yes, it's fixed now!!)

Big thanks to Nana for feeding us for so many meals this week! And to Meghan, Katie, and Michael who are SUCH wonderful big cousins to Bryce.

happy easter

Happy Easter!!!

xoxo

now that i'm 7 months old . . .

Hi, its me. . .Tanner. I wanted to let you know that i have decided to scoot. and i can prove it. please excuse my spitting up at the end of this video. mommy thought about editing it out, but there are more important things to do, like get ready for the Easter bunny to come. so, be warned. be very warned. there is spit up at the end of this video. mommy thinks its kind of funny, but she realizes that you might think its pretty disgusting (like you Aunt B. . .you will think its totally disgusting.)
(the video looks black, but press PLAY, and i promise it will work!)

so now that i'm scooting, i'm pretty much on my way to being into EVERYTHING. i still like to roll too, but rolling and scooting work fabulously together. i have been finding all sorts of great stuff under the couches, like trash and cheerios and legos and tiny bits of this and that. bryce brings home lots of mulch in his shoes, from the playground, and that looks like pretty cool stuff to eat.

At this moment . . .

Bryce today:

*favorite foods: steak on the grill the daddy makes, mac n cheese, french fries, BBQ at Bono's

*favorite drinks: Sunny D, lemonade, milk

*if Bryce could go anywhere right this minute, it would be: ToysRUs (i reiterated ANYWHERE in the WORLD, and still, ToysRUs is what he chose!)

*if he could buy one thing right now (Bryce chose this question!): Battle of Endor Lego set.

*best thing about school: playing football on the playground

*best thing about being a big brother: playing with Tanner and making him laugh and smile

*worst thing about being a big brother: "if I had to change Tanner's diaper"

*play inside or outside? outside.

*sneakers or Crocs? Crocs

*icecream or cookies? both. (smart kid!)

*favorite icecream flavor? strawberry (that's news to me!)

*best thing about being 5 years old: "I'm old enough for some StarWars Lego sets."

*three things needed for bedtime: Blankie, stuffed animals, water, books. (yes, i know thats four.)

*when Bryce grows up he wants to be: a football player