Swimming lessons begin!

Carson and Tanner both started their summer swimming lessons today! Tanner did great for his first day! There were definitely some tears, but Mr. Geoff was so good with TT and reassured him the whole way.

 Carson was a fish last summer after his swimming lessons, but he was a bit unsure when we hadn't been in the pool for months. He got right in and remembered Mr. Geoff, but wasn't too thrilled about having to do what Mr. Geoff asked him to do.

Carson swam like a fish the minute he entered the water, but was still saying "I can't do it!" as he was doing it! By the end of the lesson, he was more sure of himself.

We're looking forward to a great 6 weeks of lessons!

"Strawberries"

Tanner is talking so much these days. I just had to share the way he says "strawberries"! So cute!

Boys will be boys!

We've had alot of boy fun the past few days in the backyard! It's much cooler in our backyard in the early evening, and we've been taking advantage of the nice breeze. We picked up a small trampoline, at a garage sale when we were in Jacksonville a couple of weekends ago, for 50 cents! The boys love to jump on it on our back porch, but on this particular evening, we had more fun with it by pouring a little dish soap on it and adding water!

 It wasn't as slippery as you would think, and the boys loved taking turns jumping on all of the bubbles! When you add some dirt to it, it's even better!

 Tanner has turned into the little jungle gym monkey! He knows how to climb up the ladder of our jungle gym, as well as the side of it! Once he reaches the top, he is SO proud of himself, and swings like a monkey.

 We have 2 sandboxes filled with fresh sand and lots of toys in our backyard, but Carson would rather just dig in the dirt where we have no grass! A shovel and a bulldozer truck makes him happy for hours!

 Love those dirty little legs and feet!

Last Day of Preschool

It seems like yesterday I was packing Carson's lunchbox for his first day of Preschool. Everyone told me the time would fly by, and it truly is! Even on our craziest of days, I still try to remember that my babies are growing fast and to hold on to each day and memory as much as I can. Here's our sweet boy on his first day of Preschool back in August...

 Here is our little stud on his last week of school, holding his bag he painted with apples for his teacher, Ms. Betsy...

The past year of preschool has been such a blessing to our family. Carson did well from the very first day, and I credit his wonderful teacher Ms. Betsy for that. She was the perfect teacher for our little boy, and he has grown so much over this past year.  

The couple of months that Tanner went to school one day a week, was also a great experience, and he loved his teacher Ms. Heidi so much!

  On Carson's last day of school, he participated in Water Day and had so much fun!

We are so grateful to God for leading us to this school, and have made so many wonderful memories and new friendships there this year. Both Carson and Tanner's teachers gave them sweet gifts on the last day, and made these picture collages for us to keep.

We're super excited for the summer, and are already looking forward to our year back at the CCC in August 2012!

Life cycle of a Butterfly

For Christmas, Carson got a butterfly kit from Uncle Robbie and Aunt Jessica. We waited until spring came to order our caterpillars from the company. The day they arrived, I had books on the life cycle of a butterfly and told Carson all about what the caterpillars would do over the next week or so. He was very interested!

We checked on the caterpillars everyday, and began to notice how fat they were getting. We woke up one morning to them hanging upside down and getting ready to go into their chrysalis.

Carson wanted to take his caterpillars to show and tell that day, so we carefully transported them, and we made sure to tell him that he could not shake the container. He was so excited to show his teacher and his friends when we got to school, and immediately told them that they could not shake the container! :)

After all of the caterpillars were in their chrysalis', Daddy moved them into the butterfly garden net. We patiently waited for a few days, always checking on them each morning, noon, and night!

 The day came when we had our first butterfly appear! His wings were so beautiful and we sprayed sugar water on some flowers for the butterflies to drink.

 We watched the butterflies for a few days in the net, and then released them in our backyard.

What a fun couple of weeks learning all about the life cycle of a butterfly! We can't wait to do it again!

Tanner's tubes are out!

It's been 14 months since Tanner's tubes surgery. He has been ear infection free (minus 1 just recently) the entire 14 months, which was a HUGE deal considering how much he was suffering before he was 9 months old. We went to his ENT appt this week to see the progress. Tanner did such a great job in the waiting room. He played with puzzles and sang just about everyone "Baa Baa Black Sheep!" 

When the doctor looked into his ears, he noticed that the tubes were fully out of the eardrum and on their way out of the ear canal. He went ahead and took us into a different room, where he used a microscope and tool to remove the tubes from his ears. Tanner did amazing, and layed on the table and sucked his thumb! We have the clear to start swimming lessons next week, and are hopeful we will be ear infection free from now on! Great job sweet boy!

Mother's Day

Our Mother's Day celebrations began at the park after we celebrated my Dad's birthday. We surprised my mom with a girls afternoon at the Garden Gate Tea Room in Mt. Dora. The grandkids made Nana a "Helping Hands" oven mitt with their handprints painted on.

The Garden Gate Tea Room in Mt. Dora is such a beautiful place. We shared a couple of their delicious desserts and had tea. It was all very yummy! We loved having our girl time and celebrating our wonderful Mama!

We attended church Saturday evening. Our pastor had all the mothers in the room stand, shared a special video, and prayer. Me with my two amazing blessings after church...

On Sunday morning, I woke up to beautiful flowers and cards on the dining room table. I went off to church for both services for Children's Ministry, while Matt and the boys took Matt's mom to breakfast. The boys made Grandma a special helping hands mitt too, and enjoyed their time with her. 

Here are my sweet presents from the boys that they made at Preschool. Tanner made me a flower pen. His teacher used his fingerprints to make a bumblebee and ladybug. So cute! Now I have a fun pen at my desk. :)

Carson gave me a bag of chocolates with a sweet poem written on it. He also made me a Mother's Day card and said I am special because I put him to bed after we play race cars. :)

 

After church I enjoyed a nice nap by myself, and woke up to more presents on the table from my sweet hubby! Matt had stayed up until 3am two nights in a row to make me the most thoughtful DVD of me meeting our precious boys for the first time, and my journey through Mommyhood so far. (I will try to post the DVD at the end of this blog post). After watching my DVD, and wiping away my joyful tears, we all loaded up in the van for an afternoon trip to the beach! We stopped at a pizza place for cheesesticks and pizza...yum!!

The weather was a little overcast, but that didn't keep us from having a great time. It was actually better because the sun wasn't beating down on us, and there were hardly any people on the beach! The boys started digging and "building a wall" right away!

Matt had fun burying the boys in the sand! Tanner wasn't sure what to think of that, but Carson thought it was great!

Mommy and her silly boys...

The perfect way to end a perfect Mother's Day...double butterfinger blizzard, Mommy's favorite!

So thankful for such a special day and so thankful to God for blessing me with the honor of being a Mommy!

Dad's 55th Birthday!

We sure know how to party in our family! We had quite the celebration weekend! We started off celebrating my Dad's 55th birthday on Saturday. We had a picnic at Wooton Park in Tavares. Wooton Park has the coolest splash park I've ever seen, and the kids were thrilled to see all of the fun sprinklers, buckets, and water slides!

 Daddy was brave enough to take them all in. He looked like he enjoyed himself too!

 

 Carson loved the water slide!

 After our splashing fun, we played on the playground for awhile. A kids dream! A giant playground and splash park side by side.

It was so nice spending time with family. We sat out by the lake and enjoyed the breeze. My grandmother is doing much better after a few months of recovering from her recent health scare, and we were so glad to spend time talking with her and enjoying the day.

 A yummy picnic lunch...

The birthday boy with his grandkids! They all HAD to sit with him and help him blow out the candles! I think we may have lit the candles several times so they could all have a turn. What a nice Papa!

Mmmmm.....chocolate cake!!

One of the presents we had for my Dad was a surprise dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Ohana, at the Disney's Polynesian Resort! We all couldn't wait for the huge feast of delicious food and had a wonderful time!

 The waitor and waitress led us all in singing Happy Birthday to Dad, complete with Mickey ears using small white plates :)

Matt and I with our favorite part of the whole Ohana experience...Banana Fosters! Yum!

Happy Birthday Dad! We hope you enjoyed celebrating your birthday as much as we did! We love you!



Blonde Beach Boys!

The boys and I have turned into quite the beach bums the past few weeks. We've gone about every Friday for the past month, and have gotten the hang of what to pack, where to park, and how to set up! While Mommy sets up, the boys dig in the sand...

 Then they're ready to conquer the ocean waves!

 They absolutely love splashing in the water and floating their boats...

Their new favorite game is to bury Mommy's legs in the sand. Tanner just cracks up laughing!

Time for a little lunch and water break...

 Then it's time to collect shells. Tanner does a great job carrying the bucket around and picking out shells.

 Carson is more choosy on which shells he picks up. We hope to make a craft project with all of our shells when we get enough!

 Love our lazy beach days with my boys!