"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates." Deuteronomy 4: 6-9

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Food Truck/Movie Date

Life can sure get crazy! Matt and I have realized over the past couple of months how important it is to take time for each other. We are so busy with our boys, and our jobs, and volunteering, and all that comes up inbetween, and so we have designated Thursday nights as our date nights! Thankfully we have wonderful parents in town that help with the boys and make it so easy for us to focus on ourselves! Recently we visited a food truck stop and had so much fun ordering all kinds of things! Matt's first stop at a swedish truck had him put on their viking hat after he ordered their surf and turf burger!
 We walked away with chicken tostados, gator tail bites and fries, the surf and turf burger (hamburger with crab meat), an italian meatball empanada, and a smores crepe! Can you say a crazy amount of food?!
 We headed to downtown Winter Park where the Enzian was showing a free movie in the park. We set up our blanket and our buffet of food for a nice evening!

 Matt approves of his surf and turf burger!
 And I was over the moon excited about my smores crepe! Yum yum!!
Love our Thursday night date nights!

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Carson climbs a tree!

Carson is ALL boy! He may not like loud sounds, but anything with nature, he is all about it! (Hmm...must take after his outdoorsy Daddy!) We were playing out front one evening when Carson decided he could climb the tree in our front yard. So one foot at a time, up he went!
 Quite the natural at figuring out how to get up about 5 feet, and then he sat right down! Such a big boy!

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Hello Summer!

The first day of Summer is finally here! Creating Summer bucket lists (aka activities to keep your kids busy and you sane!) is the new hype among the Mommy's around here! It's such a fun idea and I had a great time searching for ideas and coming up with ones on my own. I "presented" our Summer list to the boys this morning and Carson yelled "Thank you Mommy!!!" and hugged me! It was so sweet! We are excited for all of our art projects, outings, and most of all, the memories we will make by doing all of them. Summer bucket list is on!!

Monday, June 18, 2012

Happy at the beach!


Serenity and happiness is at the beach for my boys and I! We took advantage of a totally free day on Monday and headed to the beach after breakfast. My two happy and handsome beach boys...
 The tide was up when we first got there, but soon went to low tide. The tide created a little "pool" between the waves and the shore and was perfect for us to lay in and play. Tanner was thrilled!!
 Little swimming buddies...
 There's nothing more fun to watch than a little happy dance from TT! He loves the waves!
 So thankful for a relaxing day at the beach! Just wish Daddy could have been there!

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Father's Day 2012

We had a little backyard barbecue for Matt and my Dad for Father's Day. We filled up the pools in the backyard for the boys to play.
 Tanner having fun in his new pool Nana and Papa got him for his birthday...
 The 2 guests of honor relaxing...
 Matt grilled some turkey burgers, and I made homemade potato salad, and corn on the cob.
 Carson ate corn on the cob for the first time and loved it!
 Then it was dessert and gifts time. The boys made Daddy a picture puzzle he had to put together.
 Daddy and his sweet boys on Father's Day...
 Dad with his cards and gift card...
Happy Father's Day!

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Dance Recitals

 My sweet nieces, Ali and Hannah, both had end of the year dance recitals. I was thrilled to get to watch both of them dance their little hearts out and steal the shows! Ali had a sassy yellow costume and did so great on the big stage! She was enthusiastic and I loved watching her!
Hannah Grace danced to "Ladybug Picnic" and had the cutest ladybug costume! She was the youngest dancer in the whole dance company and we were so proud that she went on the big stage and did a fabulous job!
Love my sweet nieces and so proud of all 4 in all that they do!

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Tanner the little fishy!!

I am so amazed and so proud of how well Tanner has done in swimming lessons the past 2 weeks. He started off his first week with a few tears, and a little hesitation when it was time to get in the pool, but 2 weeks later and he is a fish in the water!
He greets Mr. Geoff as soon as we arrive, and gets right in! He loves to give high fives when he completes a task.
He is almost too sure of himself, haha! Here he is telling Mr. Geoff "1 more" time. :)
He has mastered swimming a short distance and grabbing onto the wall, and now he has started working on floating.
This video is a perfect way for you to see just how much he loves his lesson and how well he is doing. He is so happy in the water! Love our little fishy!

Monday, June 11, 2012

Tanner's Splash Party Playdate

We had a splashin' good time at Tanner's splash party playdate! We invited his closest friends from our Mom's group at church to splash with us!
"Seaweed" pasta salad, "Take a Dip" veggie tray, fruit bowl...
Sunbutter & Jellyfish sandwiches, Starfish cheese sandwiches...
And I loved the Under the Sea cupcake toppers I ordered off of Etsy! Super cute & super easy on Mommy!
The kids splashed all around and we were so grateful for the water cooling us all off...it was a scorcher outside that day! Birthday boy jumping and having fun...
 Our bathing beauty Hannah Grace complete with her beautiful flower headband over the ears! (She had tubes put in recently and has to keep the water away).
 Having so much fun...
More bathing beauties...
Swinging after all of that fun splashing...

 Mommy and her TT...
 And Daddy got to come splash with us for a little while too!
The birthday boy's special crab cupcake...
"Yay! I'm TWO!"
Thank you to all of our sweet friends for splashing with us and celebrating our Tanner! And a big thank you to Nana and Aunt Mamie for all your help too! What a fun day!

Friday, June 8, 2012

Chuck E Cheese

We invited our familes out to Chuck E Cheese Friday night to celebrate Tanner's birthday with us. We were excited to spend time with all of them and have fun playing games and eating pizza! I was super excited to get some snuggle time in with my adorable nephew Ryder!
And Aunt Lori was excited to get some Tanner time too! Aunt Lori has some strong arms!
 The kids loved getting up close with Chuckie the mouse. Brooke was really excited when he sang a Taylor Swift song (her favorite!) and I loved hearing them sing along! 
 With a little help from Mommy climbing half way up the stairs, Tanner was able to climb all around the tunnels. We were laughing so hard everytime he popped out somewhere and giggled with excitement to see us looking up at him.
 Carson did great with all the games, my favorite was this "Stinky Feet" game!
 Hannah Grace had a blast too!
 We opened presents and had birthday cookies. The boys were zonked by the time we got home! Thank you family for making Tanner's night so fun!

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Tanner's Birthday

The night before Tanner's birthday, Carson and I stayed up a little past bedtime to make Tanner special birthday cookies! Carson was a huge help, and even rolled the dough into little balls all by himself! He was so proud and couldn't wait for Tanner to see them the next day.
The birthday boy requested "Pancakes and Eggs!" for breakfast. We made birthday sprinkle pancakes and stacked them high with 2 candles on the "It's Your Special Day" plate I made last year for the boys. Carson and Tanner blew out the candles!
We had a fun day with our TT, went to swimming lessons, and waited for Daddy to get home so we could go to dinner. Tanner loves Chick-Fil-A (mainly the cow!) so we headed to a new Chick-Fil-A that had an awesome indoor playground. The boys had fun playing. 
 Birthday dessert....Mmmmm.....
 After dinner, we went back home for presents. Tanner's "big" gift this year was a new picnic table and umbrella. He opened it up and was so excited he thought he should get on top of the box!
 We had to set it up in the living room right away! We are already loving the new table on our back porch.
What a great day celebrating our big 2 year old!