Catching Up

Well ...

Because we love our little guy so much ...

And because we love birthdays so much ...

We had a bit more celebrating to do in honor of Tanner's turning 3.

On his actual birthday, he got to open up his brand-new big-boy bike.

See how HAPPY he is??

And how much he ADORES his Daddy?

The two of them had a great ride that evening.

Unfortunately, the very next day, we had a MINOR spill on the way to the park. He's been scared to ride ever since, but we're working on that! So far, our "bike rides" have mainly consisted of him WALKING his bike from one point to another. :)


Little brother was extremely excited about all of the new toys Tanner got to open.

They've been fighting over them ever since. :)


Of course, no birthday is complete without a family celebration. So, we headed down to the beach over 4th of July to party with the people we love most.


Uncle Daniel was in town ...

and so was Aunt Lauren! (We love you!!!!)

Tanner had a BALL, of course.

And Landon did, too.

When it was time to open gifts, our birthday boy came a-runnin'!

I think it's safe to say he's a little spoiled.

Landon was just happy that we were going to be bringing all these cool new toys home with us!

Tanner was already thinking of good hiding places for them.

Tanner blew out a LOT of candles ...

... because it was Uncle Eric's birthday, too. And he was nice enough to let his "mini-me" have all the fun.

Landon enjoyed every last bite, finishing with a good plate-licking.

Later in the weekend, we went to pick some cherries.

It's a good thing we had our #1 picker with us!
That would be Poppy, of course, Tanner is still in training. :)

And finally, we headed home to enjoy all of our new birthday loot!

Daddy's birthday is next (end of October), and he likes to celebrate for an entire month! Oh boy!

(Actually, he just said to me this morning ... "someone's got a birthday coming up soon!" You know it's bad when the planning starts 4 mos. out!)

Happy Birthday

To my first baby.


Thank you for making me a mommy.


I love you to INFINITY and BEYOND!!

Under Construction

Notice anything new?

Jon just informed me that he didn't like my changes.

Bleh!

I think it looks fresh and fun. And it's my blog, anyways, right?! I tell him all the time that he needs to get his own blog, thankyouverymuch. :)

Anyways, I'm still trying to iron out a few things, but I hope you like the new look!

Caught In The Act ...

Imagine how delighted I was when I peeked around the corner after lunch to find this:

Backyard Bash

Oh, my! I'm soooooo behind!

Instead of sitting here and feeling overwhelmed at how much we've done since I last posted, I'm just going to start from where we're at now.

Today we had a small birthday party for Tanner with a few of our most special friends. It was his first birthday party outside of a family party. Each year, I've gone back and forth about whether or not to have a "friend" party for him, and each year I've decided not to do it.

This year, though, he was having such a GREAT time at everyone else's party, I thought he needed his own! I still wanted to keep things simple, so I decided to do it during the week, in the backyard, with just his closest friends. It was total chaos (or maybe every hostess feels like that), but I think it's safe to say he had a great time!

Our theme was Toy Story. We attempted a few games: Toy Bowling and Potato-Head Mix-Up -- but most of the kiddos were much happier just playing around in the baby pool. I did order a Buzz Lightyear balloon bouquet, but you won't see it in any pictures. I decided that's the last set of balloons I will ever order. It was whining and tears from the time I picked them up yesterday -- Tanner and Landon fighting over them. Tanner wanted to run around with them screaming instead of leave them on the table (didn't he understand that they were the centerpiece???). Then they started popping. No. More. Ballons.

Ever.

Anyways ... Here are some pics from our little bash!

The Invites

The Ugliest Cake Decorating Job Ever
Courtesy of Baskin-Robbins
(but it tasted GREAT!!)

Just ask my boys ...







I don't know WHERE my children learned to lick there plates. They were the ONLY ones doing this, which makes me think it must have learned it from me or Jon. Probably me, since ice cream was involved. :)




Tanner was so excited to blow out the candles all day.
He was totally caught off guard when he went to blow them out and the wind had already done it for him! Poor guy!



Tanner and one of his best buddies.

Sidetracked

I have good intentions for this blog. Really, I do. Each day I plan to carefully go through the 600+ pictures I've taken in the past week, find the best ones, and then write a witty post about what we've been doing.

But something always comes up.

Laundry needs to be washed and folded.

Some sort of exercise needs to happen.

The boys go on a nap strike.

I sit down at my computer for two seconds, look over my shoulder, and find Landon on top of the kitchen table ... or one of the end tables ... or eating food out of the trash (this befuddles me, since he throws EVERY SINGLE MORSEL of food that I give him at mealtimes straight onto the floor). Or, every once in a while, I hear a strange noise that sounds like splashing. Where could that be coming from? Oh yes, the toilet.

And really, before I know it, Jon has talked me into watching The Bachelorette with him -- his new favorite show :) -- and it's 10:00 at night. And I'm just tired.

But, I did at least go through some pics and select a few of my faves from the past week or so. We've been having a blast outside. This is the time of year that I am so happy to be staying at home with my kids! There is so much going on and so many places to go and things to do. And if a day comes when there isn't any place to go, we can always just hang out in the backyard and have fun anyways.

"Look, Mom! My hair is crazy like Lewis'!!"
(You will only appreciate this if you watch Meet the Robinson's 17 times each week)

"Don't worry, Mom! Now that I'm almost 15 months, I can TOTALLY climb up this playground equipment meant for 5-12 year-olds!"

Over Memorial Day weekend, my dad told me that he and my brother were going to take Tanner out fishing on the lake behind their house. I was like, "See you in about 15 minutes!"

Oh, how I underestimated my firstborn!
He stayed out in that boat for 1.5 hours and caught 6 fish ALL BY HIMSELF -- reeled 'em in and everything. I'm so so proud!


*Hope you're enjoying your summer as much as we are!!*

Catching Up

The weather has been consistently nice here, which is SHOCKING ... and also my excuse for slacking here on the blog! We are having so much fun and doing so many things, I don't even have time to write about all of them! But ... I've promised myself to try and catch up a little bit here in the next few days.

For right now, I'm going to tell you about the little trip I took. Remember the one I mentioned here a few weeks ago? The one I was going on sans kids? Oh yes, that's the one!

Almost two weeks ago I left to spend 4 days in beautiful Sea Island, Georgia with my family. Everyone was there except for Jon and the kids. He stayed back to be Dad of the Year with my little munchkins. More on that later (he totally ROCKED IT!!) Anyways ... I flew solo for the weekend and loved every second of it. Imagine waking up to this every morning:




I spent all four days on the beach with my favorite people. The highlights:

Good Food
Great Conversation
Sleeping In
Going for a few runs
Brainstorming names for my sister's baby (Lauren -- she's about 16 weeks pregnant!!!! :)
Taking care of NOBODY but myself






A few days before I left, Jon asked me "What are you most excited about -- only having to wipe one person's bottom all weekend?"

"Ummmm .... YEAH!! That pretty much sums it up!"

(I know, he's so eloquent and proper. Actually, he didn't even say bottom, he used a bad word instead. But I won't repeat it here.)

Jon was SuperDad while I was gone. The first day, he went to Tanner's end-of-the-year preschool party. The next day he took the kids to the children's museum. (I haven't even had the guts to do that on my own yet!!) They also went to the zoo and the forest preserve. And on the last day, Jon set up the baby pool for them in the back yard and they had a ball splashing around in the water. I can't tell you how IMPRESSED I was with all that Jon did with the boys. And even more importantly, when I got home he was STILL smiling! He said it was one of the best weekends he's had in a while.

That makes two of us :)

More to come on what we've been up to! Stay tuned!

What do you do ... ?

... if you're 2 years old and your mommy puts you in your room for a time out?

Why, dress up in your dragon costume from Halloween 2 years ago and try to scare her when she opens the door, of course!






Then, go outside and ROOOOOAAAARRRRR!!!!!!! at Daddy while he builds his shed. :)

Wow!

What a week it has been!

This time last weekend, I was feeling pretty down. It had been a long week and I was just kind of tired of being a mom. Have you ever felt that way? Like ... if I have to clean this kitchen one more time I'm going to lose my mind? That's all I do ALL DAY LONG!!! And ... do you seriously have to throw every single toy out of the bathtub, then try to make a tsunami with the water, and finally throw yourself out of the tub? SERIOUSLY??

My Saturday night post-kiddie-bedtime went like this:
8:00 towel off from kids' bathtime
8:03 put on pajamas
8:05 try to pick out something nice to wear to church on Mother's Day. Settle on a dress.
8:15 realize that I haven't polished my toenails since the week prior to Landon's birth.
8:17 find a bottle of nail polish that's NOT crusty and yucky and slap on a few coats of it.
8:30 head downstairs.
8:31 Jon (with a seriously disappointed look on his face): "Ummm ... you're already in your pajamas? Really?"
8:32 slip even further into Mommy depression

HOWEVER ...

Things started to turn around on Sunday morning. Yes, it was Mother's Day, but my expectations were pretty low. My only request was Starbucks in bed. This is how Sunday went down:

8:30 Jon and boys wake me up with a breakfast tray, complete with my favorite Starbucks drink, some yummy breakfast casserole, a sweet card, and my first gift -- the first year of my blog made into a book. I. Loved. It. And I spent the next hour sipping my coffee and peacefully reading about what my life was like in 2006. (Ummm ... SO different)

10:30 Leave for church. Jon has dressed both boys (use your imagination), put them in the car, gotten sippy cups, snacks, and the diaper bag ready. We actually make it 5 minutes EARLY!!!

12:30 Arrive home from church. Jon throws some hotdogs on the grill, but says we have to hurry because there is somewhere we need to be by 1:30.

1:15 Load the boys up in the van and we're off. Jon doesn't tell me where we're going. Imagine my surprise when we arrive at the mall, where Jon tells me to go in and pick something special out for a trip I'm going on next weekend. (Yes, sans kids, more on that later!) He watches the boys while I shop for a bit, but we only have an hour he says. I haven't settled on anything by then, so he says we'll come back.

2:30 The whole fam is in the car and once again, I have no clue where we're headed. Which is why I was just tickled when we pulled up outside of a massage place and Jon informed me that I had an appointment for an hour-long massage!!!!! OMG!! Am I dreaming?

4:00 Massage ends and we head back to the mall, where Jon watches the kids while I try on clothes. He helps me pick out something chic to wear and we both agree we had a really good time. I was so surprised he had so much fun -- I think he gets the shopping gene from his mom.

6:30 Return home, put kids in bed, and enjoy a relaxing evening.

Best. Mother's Day. Ever.

Needless to say, I was on a high most of the week. To think that my husband put so much thought and time into the day just made me feel so special and valued as a mother. Here are some of the other highlights of my week:

* Listening to Sarah Palin speak at home in Michigan. My mother-in-law gave me her ticket and watched my kids so that I could go. Aren't I lucky?
* Taking the kids to the zoo with my father-in-law. Every year, Tanner gets more and more excited!
* Getting our first REAL babysitter ever and going out to a movie last night. We already can't wait to schedule another night out! I feel like a whole new world has opened up for us!

Okay ... gotta get going. Just a little confession, first, though. I was already in my pj's at 8:15 this Saturday, too. But this time I'm getting ready to cuddle up with the hubs and a big bowl of ice cream. :)

Look-Alikes

C'mon, Grandpa! Look at the camera.

Can you see the resemblence?

You're only missing one thing ... a paci.

If only you had one, you could look super cool like me. See?

I think you're pretty cool, anyways!!