Grandma's Birthday

My Grandmother turned 83 this past week! It's been a bit of a rocky road for her and her health the past couple of months, and we were so grateful to celebrate with her and have such a fun family day loving on her. Right now she is in a rehabilitation center regaining her strength. The sweet nurses and staff made her a birthday sign for her room. They also let us use their conference room to have a small party for her and put this sign on the door. The birthday girl with her "Birthday Diva" tiara... We pampered Grandma and gave her a birthday manicure. Hannah put lotion on Grandma's hands, and it was a team effort filing, trimming, and painting her nails. So much fun! Hannah decided Uncle Scott needed his nails painted too. What an awesome Uncle! :) There was a fenced in courtyard outside, and the boys had a blast riding their bikes around the sidewalks. It was a perfect place to let them run off some energy! During the afternoon, we let Grandma rest for awhile and put the kids down for a nap at my Grandparents house too. When they woke up they were ready to do their favorite thing at Great Grandma and Peepaw's house...golf cart rides! We went back for more visiting with Grandma and opened presents. Here's her family picture board we made her for her room. She has a big family to be proud of! Carson and Tanner both were so loving with Grandma and Carson even got to ride on Grandma's lap. We loved spending the whole day with her!

Valentine's Date...a little late

My incredibly sweet husband surprised me with a special post-Valentine's dinner date to our favorite restaurant, Ohana! Ohana is not the easiest restaurant to get into, as it's very popular, and requires reservations. Somehow, he managed to squeeze us in and made-up for his out of town business trip during Valentine's week. So thankful for him. What a fun night!

20 months

It really is so hard to believe that our baby boy is getting so close to turning 2 years old! Tanner is very active, snuggly, and funny! He loves to copy everything Carson does. When Carson bumps his knee on the couch and begins to say "Ouch!" Tanner immediately grabs his knee and starts saying, "Ow, ow, ow!" Tanner is very compassionate. When Matt, Carson, or I cough or sneeze, Tanner asks, "You ok, Daddy?" "You ok, Mommy?" Tanner loves to play at the park. He loves to swing on the big boy swings like Carson. He is also quite the climber! He climbs on everything, including the furniture, tables, and chairs.This week he found that he loves climbing the ladders on the playground and was quite proud of himself (as was Mommy too!). Tanner talks very well, puts several words together, and recognizes when things are hot or cold. He is still a very good eater and surprises me all the time with things he eats! Tanner has started his own nightly ritual with Matt when Matt gets home from work. As soon as Matt walks in the door and tells Tanner hi, Tanner says, "Night night Daddy" and takes Matt's hand and leads him into our bedroom. Gotta get some snuggling in with Daddy after work! Our little TT is growing out of being a baby and into the toddler stage too quickly! But we are so thankful that he is healthy and learning new things everyday!

Carson learns to swing!

Matt has been working with Carson on swinging all on his own. Carson has had the pumping of the legs mastered for a few weeks now, but just mastered how to start swinging all on his own AND keep himself going just this week! So proud of our big boy!
Notice our busy boy Tanner in the background. :)

Tanner goes to school!

Matt and I have been so pleased with the school we chose for Carson this year. The teachers are so loving, and it has been such a wonderful experience for our family. At the beginning of this year, I had the opportunity to take on a few more part time hours with our church. Even though my hours are all done from home, it still requires some focused time, and so Matt and I decided to put Tanner in preschool one morning a week, on the same day that Carson goes. Tanner is a Mommy's boy for sure, and it was a bit hard adjusting the first few times. Tanner's teachers love on him even through his tears, but I was so excited when I picked him up last week and he was playing with his friends! The socialization with kids his own age has been so good for him. Tanner has adjusted well, and our tears are only at a minimum at drop off. He is such a happy boy at pick up, and his teachers rave about his motor skills and speech! He attends music class on the day he goes, and absolutely loves it. He loves showing me his stamps that he gets after class. We are so proud of our sweet boy!

Carson's big boy haircut!

It was time to make a change in Carson's hair. He's pretty much had the same cut since his hair grew in and I was feeling adventurous! I asked Carson if he wanted to try out "spikey" hair and he was all for it. So off came the hair! It took a minute to get used to, all of a sudden Carson looked 10 years old, but it was super cute and Carson kept calling his hair "sharp". Love my big boy!

Valentine's Day

We've had a fun month celebrating love in our house! Crafts galore, treats, and lots of talk about our memory verse for the month "Love God with all your HEART". Carson and Tanner had the most fun getting crafty on a project they made for Daddy for Valentine's Day. Matt went out of town for the week, and the boys made him a handprint/footprint craft for him to open while he was gone. They were silly! Thanks to a great idea I found on pinterest, Carson handmade his Valentine's for his preschool class. They were dinosaurs complete with googly eyes, and chocolates for the spikes on the stegosaurus. It read, "Have a DINOmite Valentine's Day!" He couldn't wait to give them out at his Valentine's party. We had a great time making red heart rice krispie treats. They were so yummy! Carson was all about the stickyness!Tanner snuck one too! Can't celebrate Valentine's Day without heart shaped food! We had heart shaped pancakes for breakfast, and I made Carson's turkey and cheese sandwich into heart shapes for school. He said they tasted better...haha! On Valentine's night, Carson was my date to a Valentine's function at our church. We sure did miss Daddy, but we had so much fun together! Hope you all had a great day celebrating LOVE too!

Butterfly Garden

Our Mom's group headed to the butterfly garden this past Monday. The weather was perfect and the kids did great inside the exhibit. We have recently visited the butterfly garden with friends within the past few months, so Carson knew what to expect and was not shy at all about trying to hold the butterflies. The room where all the finches are was Tanner's favorite. He loved watching them fly all around. Carson and Landon checking out the waterfall... Trying to get my sweet boys to pose for a picture... What a fun day with our friends!