An "Explore and Discover" Thanksgiving

I was able to visit Tanner's preschool for his class' thanksgiving feast today. It was pretty adorable. He was so excited to see me. His preschool really encourages parent involvement. I don't usually get to visit during the day because I have two other young ones at home. Well today I thought parents were invited to the feast, so I asked my friend too keep my babies so I could visit Tanner. It turned out, it wasn't really a parent thing, but they were gracious and let me stay. 

I had so much fun watching these cute little preschoolers enjoy their feast. Aren't they the cutest pilgrims you've ever seen.

While we ate, Tanner and his little buddies told me the story of the first Thanksgiving. It was so cute. 

Here is Tanner and one of his little buddies in his class. Aren't they cute in their hats?

The cutest little pilgrim around. Love this boy

Tanner is learning so much this year and he's loving his preschool. I feel so blessed that he is happy learning and enjoying his school. 

Tanner's Primary Program and First Primary Talk

Today was Tanner's primary program. Nanny and Papa drove over yesterday so they wouldn't miss it and we are so happy they came. We all went out to Tanner's favorite restaurant, Kobe Sushi and Grill, to celebrate. He has expensive tastes but it was delicious. 

 The primary program was absolutely adorable, all the kids did really great and they sang so well. Tanner knew his part really well, but when it came time to say his part over the podium, he got nervous and asked for help. 

His part was "Repentance is the change of heart and mind." and he was really good at saying it at home. This was Tanner's second program and he did pretty good, although he got pretty wiggly up there. It's hard for kids to sit still for an hour. 

Then after the sacrament program, Tanner gave his very first talk in primary. 

His topic was "I can strengthen my family by living the gospel of Jesus Christ".

He talked about how he helps his Daddy build things and make things stronger and he uses his Dad's tools. He said Heavenly Father has also given us tools to make our families stronger.

Then he opened his toolbox and took out the "tools" we had packed. 

The first tool was "prayer". It was a toy phone. He said praying is like calling Heavenly Father. He said you have to pray "because Heavenly Father lives in Heaven and heaven is in outer space"

That was the beginning of his improvisations. 

His next tool was a book of Mormon. After saying the part we had practiced, he added "Joseph Smith turned the gold plates into English to make the book of Mormon". Joseph Smith finding and translating the Gold Plates is Tanner's favorite scripture story. 

The following two tools were "Family Home Evening" and "Restored Church of Jesus Christ".

He added in a little bit about his favorite FHE game and then for dramatic purposes, I'm sure, he threw in a couple "Oh Yeeeaaahhh!"'s. 

By the end of his talk I was having to hold in my laughter because he was saying so many unscripted, funny things. He wasn't shy at all and loved getting to give a talk. 

We were so happy that his talk and primary program fell on the same Sunday so Nanny and Papa could be there for both. 

We are sure proud of this sweet, smart little boy. He did a great job today! I can't believe that next year I will have two kids in the primary program. My kids are getting way too big!

A Typical Week in Our World...

I've been feeling the need to document our everyday life recently. I'm not really sure why, because every single day seems like "Ground hog's day" as I do the same thing every single day. But I know someday I will look back and miss these days, so I want to make sure I have something to show for this time in my life.
Most days are pretty laid back. Every single morning Tanner and Bailey cannot wait to see Tucker. They get so excited when he wakes up for the day.
 
On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays  Tanner goes to preschool. During that time Bailey, Tucker and I run errands, clean, fold laundry, play and Bailey and I do preschool together. We've got a good routine.  Bailey and Tucker spend a lot of time together while I try to be a little productive.






Tucker naps each day from 9-11 am and from 1-3 pm.
Tanner goes to preschool from 8-12 on Mondays and Fridays. On Wednesdays he stays until 2 pm and eats lunch at school.
After Tucker's morning nap we usually leave to pick-up Tanner. Every single time Tanner climbs into the car,Tucker grins from ear to ear. It's adorable. Those two are such pals.



When we get home from picking up Tanner, we have lunch and then its time for naps.

 Tucker and Bailey take afternoon naps and Tanner lays down for "quiet time". During quiet time he plays games on my kindle or watches a show. It's a nice time for me to relax and recharge.

After naps we usually pick up the house and try to survive the last hour before dad gets off work.
I usually try to have the kids play in their rooms with their toys. Sometimes I feel like their toys never get touched.






Our nightly routine consists of dinner, baths, bedtime story, scriptures, brush teeth and then hop in bed. Pretty standard I'm sure, but again- just documenting for the future.

Tuesdays are our super busy days. In the morning Tanner and Bailey have swim lessons. They are in different classes, but the same pool so I can watch them both at the same time. SO nice!




Tanner is the one on the left side. Tanner loves the water.

Bailey learning how to straighten her body and float. She's in the beginner 1 class. It's been funny to watch her learn to get her hair wet.

While they are in swim, Tucker and I hang out in the observation room and watch. Tucker is a total champ.

After swim, it's home for lunch and early naps. We have to be up at 2:30pm on Tuesdays for ballet class. Bailey is one of the youngest in her class and you can tell. But each week she gets a little bit better.

At the end of each class they do a "freeze dance". The teacher stops the music and the girls freeze until the music starts again. Bailey loves it. 

After ballet we hop back in the car, eat a quick snack and then take Tanner over to tumbling class. He really loves this class. It's at the gym and its a small class so he gets lots of attention. He just loves getting to run, roll and jump all the time. 

Here he is on the balance beams. So cute right?

During these classes Tucker just chills in his car seat. I've never seen a more content little person. He is the happiest kid ever. 

We usually get home around 6:30 pm on Tuesdays and then we eat a crock pot meal, take baths and go to bed. It's an exhausting day. 

Wednesdays Tanner goes to preschool and it's nice because we have an extra two hours before we pick him up. He loves getting to take his lunch on Wednesdays. Naps get pushed back until 2:15 but we manage. 

Thursdays. Oh glorious Thursdays. How I look forward to you all week long. Thursdays we don't get out of our pajamas. We don't leave our house. We just chill. We watch movies, we play, we make messes. It's fantastic. 

Then Friday is usually a nice relaxed day because its Friday. TGIF!!!

The weekends are spent hanging out with Daddy and doing things as a family. And those activities are usually what I blog about, but this is our everyday life. It's incredibly exhausting. It's incredibly hard. And it's incredibly amazing. 

The days seem to literally drag on sometimes, but the weeks are flying by way too fast. I feel so blessed to have my sweet kids and my awesome husband. I don't know what I did to deserve all the blessings in my life, but I love it and I want to make sure I can always look back and remember how amazing my life is.

It's a "Jolly Holiday" with the Herbs on Halloween

This year for Halloween we decided on a "Mary Poppins" theme. I bought the movie in September and the kids and I watched it together. Tanner and Bailey absolutely loved the movie and that pretty much decided the theme for us. They just loved the magic scenes, especially the scene where the kids snap their fingers to put their toys away. But their favorite part of the movie is when they all jump into Bert's paintings and enjoy a "Jolly Holiday" together. So that's why we picked these costumes for the kiddos. 

Then Chris and I got our costume idea from another favorite scene near the end of the movie- the chimney sweeps dancing on the rooftops in London. I absolutely love this theme. My kids adored their costumes and that made all the hard work worth it. 

So without further ado, here is the Herb Family Halloween 2014

Now onto some cute pictures of my adorable babies. 

Tanner was a total HAM for the camera. He was dancing around with his cane and smiling the whole time. Wow. I love this kid. 

And this girl. Oh man, she was in heaven in that dress. Each time I would bring the dress out to work on it, she would just beg and beg to try it on and wear it. She loved it so much. Don't you love the parasol? She sure did. 

And last but not least...Tucker the penguin. So he couldn't dance like the penguins in the movie, but he was super squishy, fluffy and cute. 

Now one of all three of my cute Poppin characters together.

Yesterday we went to Daddy's work Halloween party. It was awesome. Each of the vendor rooms were decked out again in different themes. There was a "Lego Movie" room, a circus theme, a "Box Trolls" room, a monsters room and a superhero room. There were a bunch of others but those were our favorites. The kids' buckets were filled when we left. They are pretty spoiled. 

Walking into the SAMs corporate office. I love the one of the kids holding hands. 

In the line to go through the vendor rooms. Chris takes his role as a chimney sweep very seriously. lol

Here is the "circus" room. 

and these cuties leaving the party. I don't know what it is, but I love it when Tanner holds his hat. Its adorable to me. 

After the company party we went over to our Ward "Trunk-or-Treat". 

The kids were excited to get more candy. 

We actually won an award at our "Trunk-or-Treat" for "Best family/group costume. Thank you for the $10 gift card to Dunkin Donuts. The kids are pretty excited to get donuts next week. 

Today, Halloween day, I got all three of my little ghouls dressed in their Halloween outfits. 

Aren't they cute?

Then Bailey, Tucker and I went to IHOP and met some friends for scary face pancakes. 

Bailey devoured her pancake. Yum!

Then we ran some errands, went to the library and then picked up Tanner from preschool. From there is was time for "Sonic's .50 cent corn dogs" Tanner was so excited for this. 

Then it was nap time. After naps we got our costumes back on and went to our friend's house for dinner before trick-or-treating the neighborhood. Here is the group shot of all the kids before leaving to go trick-or-treating. 

After trick-or-treating for about 40 minutes, we called it good and went home to binge on candy and watch "Toy Story of Terror". The kids loved it. Unfortunately, Chris had to leave for drill in Little Rock right after we got home, but at least we had the night together. 

I'm so excited for November! Those costumes were a labor of love and I'm so happy that it came together so well. But I'm so done with Halloween. I'm ready for Thanksgiving now. So until next year, Happy Halloween everyone!.