Mother's Day

Mother's day was a very low-key event this year. Chris was out of town for annual training and my dad was out of town for business, so the only man around was my brother, Joseph. No worries though- he totally threw together a delicious meal for us on Mother's day!
But lets start from the beginning. The Saturday before Mother's day, the kids and I met my mom for Thai food, then she came back to our house to stay the night. In the morning I made her a big breakfast for Mother's day and the kids and I gave her our presents. It was great and I was so happy she was here so I could spoil her on her special day.
Then it was off to church for primary responsibilities and then home for naps. We went to my parent's house for dinner where Joseph served us a wonderful meal. Then the kids played for a bit while we visited and it was home by 9:00 pm.

It was a little sad because even though I was able to wish my mom and my mother-n-law a happy mother's day, Chris and I never got to talk. He had been busy all day with training and then had to go to bed around 6 pm because they had to wake up at 3 am. We played phone tag that day but never got to actually talk to each other.
He sent me a text and that was about the best we were able to do.

We talked the next day, but I'm not going to lie- I missed my husband. He would usually make me breakfast and lunch and then do something special- like a gift card for a mani/pedi or a massage. And then he and my dad and brother would make a big dinner for us. Its a great holiday!

He, of course, made it up to me when he got home and ordered me a new phone, but I still missed him!
Anyways, that was my Mother's day 2012.
I have to say, as my kids get older (especially my almost 3-year old) I realize what a kind and patient woman my mother was and still is- maybe even more so. I know my kids are loud and rambunctious sometimes, but she is calm, cool and collected. She never raises her voice and even when she is discipling, you know she still loves you. She's my role-model. I want to be just like her and even though someday (most days) I fall really short- I'm trying. Because if I can't be half the mother she is- I will be happy. She's amazing!
And a word about my Mother-n-law. Well she raised three boys. I think that's enough said. She's a wonderful, loving woman who means so much to me. She's thoughtful and would drop everything at a moment's notice to help her kids. She's been such a support to me and I feel lucky to have married into a family with such a great matriarch.
Motherhood is definitely not a cake walk. It tries my patience EVERY DAY, but its SO WORTH IT!
I can't imagine my life without my crazy little Tanner bear. I can't imagine not hearing his adorable high-pitched voice every morning when he comes running into my room saying "Hi Mom" and kisses me on my cheek. Or seeing him read books to his little sister or finding him snuggled up in my bed when I say its nap time. He brings such joy to my life and I love him more than words can say.

As for Bailey- I fall more in love with her every day. We had a rough start- with the whole non-stop crying for 3 months straight- but now everything has changed. I love to hear her call my name. "Mama" never sounded to sweet. I love to see her light up when I walk into a room or watch her crawl after me as I go into another room. I love it that she is perfectly content in my arms. She's a ray of sunshine and I'm so happy I get to be her mom.

I feel blessed to have such a sweet little family and I'm trying my best to be a sweet mom. Patience is not one of my best attributes but I'm working on it.
Happy Mother's day to all my favorite moms out there. Thank you for all you do for me and your wonderful examples!
ps.Here are a few pictures. I put my kids in their matching easter outfits again because I love them. And I made myself a matching skirt. ( I know- I'm super weird)
But anways. Here's my skirt and then a few of me and the kids.

This is how our pictures usually go....

Yeah- me totally frustrated, Tanner has given up trying to hold still and is preparing to bolt and Bailey is pulling her headband off for the millionth time...
But eventually I might get a good one. Love these kiddos!

Keepin' Busy While Daddy is Gone

Chris left for annual training on Monday, May 7th. It was really sad. I love having him home and after getting use to having him here, its been a HARD adjustment. The kids, for the most part, have been good. I'm completely exhausted by the end of the day, but I'm sleeping pretty good at night. Bailey only wakes up once around 5 am, if at all, so I get a solid 6 hours of sleep each night. Purely wonderful!
But here are a few of the things we've been up to since Chris left.
We had lunch with two of my best friends from high school, Adrian and Jaime. It was so fun to see them. We ate lunch and then came back to my house to hang out for a bit. Jaime had brought gifts for each of the kids. Adrian has twin girls who are 5 months and then there were my two. So lunch was crazy but fun. Tanner opened his present and found a new book, a stuffed frog that went with the book and a bumble bee bubble blower. Jaime couldn't have picked out a better present for him. He loves books and bubbles. He was thrilled. Bailey got two darling little outfits that will actually fit her- so I'm thrilled!!
Tanner with his new bubble blower

Here are Adrian's adorable baby girls. Seriously- why are they so cute?

And here is my huge 9 month old with her two tiny soon-to-be best friends.

Tuesday morning the kids and I went to town to buy some flowers. While Bailey was napping Tanner and I planted them in our stacked flower pots. He had so much fun helping me dig in the dirt. He wore his little work gloves so that helped with cleanup.

helping dig holes for our flowers

A few days later we busted out our new swimming pool. It has a sprinkler attachment that Tanner loves! We played for a solid hour before it was time for lunch and naps. I love when my kids play outside because they are thoroughly exhausted and take nice long naps afterwards.





We also went down to cotter springs with our neighbors. My kids were total terrors. Between Tanner splashing everyone and throwing rocks and Bailey trying to eat every choking sized rock in sight- I was near tears. But luckily my sweet neighbor helped and we survived. I don't think we can do anymore rock beaches though, Bailey is too fast. She grabs rocks at every opportunity.
This is Tanner's "I'm a sneaky buster" face

Bailey trying to eat a rock- don't worry- this one didn't even fit in her mouth.

Oh and Bailey started pulling up on everything!!!

Besides that, we've just been hanging out at home. Reading books, playing with toys that haven't seen daylight in way too long, and watching alot of movies.


Tanner's favorite thing to do on a Saturday is snuggle up on my bed and watch movies. Its so cute!

p.s. I'm so in love with this sweet face

This weekend I'm having my first garage sale. Chris gets home Friday afternoon, but has to go to drill on Saturday. But he will be home at night, so we'll get to see him then! I honestly couldn't be more excited. Its been a rough 10 days. I was a big girl though and stayed every night at our house, even though I hate sleeping alone. I'm actually really proud of myself- however pathetic that may sound- its a big deal. But I can't wait to see my sweet husband!!! only a few more days!

David's Trail- Hiking/Lake Day

Thanks to our awesome neighbors, we discovered some gorgeous hiking trails down by the lake. It's actually a whole network of hiking trails called "David's Trail" We decided to make an afternoon of it, we packed a lunch and threw on our swimsuits and we were out the door.
Bailey all ready for our hike

It was a gorgeous day. A little warm, but just right for the cold lake water.
We hiked around a little first and then we headed down to the water. Tanner loved the hike. He was making me so nervous though because he'd run ahead of us and I was convinced he'd trip and fall and roll into the woods. But he survived and so did I.
Bailey and Daddy on our Hike

Tanner and I with our sticks we found on our hike

Once at the beach Tanner hopped into his old water floatie. He was way too big for it, but it was funny to watch and it made him happy so we let him float around in it for a while.
Chris pulled Tanner all around in the floatie.

After playing for a while we settled down for lunch. Tanner devoured his and then was back to playing. He LOVES the squirt guns he got for easter and was so excited to get to use them in the water.

Love this crazy little boy!


Bailey thoroughly enjoyed the sandy beach. She kept eating handfulls of sand. I couldn't keep her hands out of her mouth. I finally had to switch sand for chips and then she was happy. Well what actually happened was this, Tanner got up from his lunch and left his bag of chips within Bailey's reach and before we knew it, she dumped the whole bag out and was chowing down. But she wasn't eating sand, so I'm calling it a victory.
Bailey with ALL her chips

silly face

Bailey and I watching the boys play

cute little Bailey feet

Daddy and Bailey on the beach

Also, May 4th was "star wars day." "May the Fourth be With You". I know- we are such geeks. But we had to celebrate with a new t-shirt for Tanner. He helped me cut out the freezer paper and we made this stormtrooper shirt. We also watched star wars episodes all day and ate star wars fruit snacks. HE LOVED IT!


Jedi-in-training

Modeling his new shirt

Its kind of nice having Chris home. We get to do so many fun things together. We are really dreading him leaving for annual training next week!!!

Happy Easter

I LOVE Easter! Its such a beautiful holiday.
Here are some pictures from our Easter celebrations.
The kids digging into their Easter baskets.

Tanner loved his because pretty much everything in there was "Star Wars" related. (He's REALLY into star wars right now)
I can't let him watch the shows or movies because it makes him way to violent- trying to cut/hit everything with his lightsaber. But he plays with the legos and we got him a small storm trooper action figure. HE LOVES IT.

Bailey's was mostly full of food/snacks and a couple toys.

Bailey is such a ham. She always smiles for her pictures, which is great because Tanner will hardly look up at me for his pictures now. What happened to the boy that would stop whatever he was doing to say "CHEESE" and actually smile cute for a picture??? I miss that kid!

I got the kids dressed in their Easter outfits. I worked so hard on Bailey's dress. It took ALOT of late nights, but I love how it turned out. I love how she looks in it and I LOVE THAT THEY ARE MATCHING!



Me and my boy

Daddy and his girl

We dyed eggs and had an Easter egg hunt in our backyard. Tanner loved dying eggs this year. He dropped all of his eggs into the cups, even though most the cups already had eggs, he just piled them on. It was so funny to watch him pull out the colored eggs though. He thought it was really fun.

Hunting was pretty fun too. He ran around and found all but a couple, which we made him leave for Bailey and Clark.


Bailey with her egg

And I made my first ham for our Easter dinner. It turns out- Ham is super easy. Not intimidating at all now. Dinner was great and it was fun to all be together. I LOVE Easter. I really love all the holidays, but the ones when I get to dress my kids up are at the top of my list.

Tanner the Tiger- He's GRRRRREAT!

We went to the circus last month and Tanner had a great time. Bailey was mostly indifferent. She didn't care for all the loud noises but besides that she happily sat on my lap for the majority of the time.
Here are the kids before we left for the circus. Bailey is super excited and she has no idea why!

My parents came with me because Chris was out of town and they brought Julieta and Clark. It was really fun.
Tanner had to get use to the loud announcer and the weird clowns. (I think my kid was the only one not laughing at the clowns- maybe he is more like me than I thought. I've never liked clowns.)

During the halftime break I took Tanner to spend the $5 I'd given him for the circus. I thought for sure he'd want to buy cotton candy or some kind of snack with his money, but he saw the face painting booth and everything else ceased to exist.
He picked out the design he wanted and then held so still while the guy painted his face. I mean- he sat on the big stool all by himself and hardly moved a muscle. Which is pretty amazing considering he's a VERY busy two-year old.

Tanner "ROARING"- seriously- this kid cracks me up!

He loved the way he looked in the mirror and immediately started growling at everyone in sight. I was dying- he loved his face so much. He told everyone that walked past that he had his face painted. "Paint, Mom, Paint!!!!"

Because I can't go to a circus/fair without eating cotton candy, we grabbed some on the way back to our seats and then settled in for the second half of the show. Tanner devoured our cotton candy and cheered for the different acts. It was fun to see him enjoying himself and I'm really glad we went even though Chris wasn't able to come with us. I didn't want Tanner to miss out and luckily my parents came- I couldn't have done it without them.
Yummy cotton candy!

Cheering for the different acts

Even now, weeks later, Tanner tells me about the time he had his face painted. He remembers and that makes it worth it to me. I love making memories with my kiddos, but its even more fun when it becomes a memory for them as well.
Tanner roaring and poor Bailey covering her ears- she did not like all the loud noise. haha