Tanner is TWO!

Wow, it's so hard to believe that our baby boy is TWO today! I remember his debut into this world very clearly! Our sweet boy shocked us with his 9lb 3oz self and his 3 hour delivery! We should have taken that as a warning to expect the unexpected with our TT!

 The second I layed eyes on him, I instantly felt the overwhelming love, joy, and gratitude that I did when I first met Carson. My boys mean everything to me!

 Our Journey as a family of four began! Carson seemed so little to be a big brother, but he took on his role very seriously, and loves his brother so much.

Although alot of the time I feel as though I need a black and white referee shirt and a whistle with their wrestling, they are the sweetest brothers to each other. Carson really looks out for Tanner and Tanner just wants to do everything his big brother does.

Tanner is a very busy toddler! I have learned ways to keep him occupied when I am doing things with Carson, or needing to get things done for myself.

Tanner loves the water, especially the ocean waves. Everytime we get on the highway, he says, "Mommy? Go to beach?"

He loves a good game of hide and seek! His favorite hiding place is under Carson's bed! Such a sneaky little guy! 

His new favorite thing to do is to try on different clothes. He recently has been pulling random things out of his dresser and insisting on wearing it. One day it was his brother's Buzz and Woody pj pants...

 

And one day it was Mommy's work-out shirt! He also loves the color blue and wants to wear "blue shirts" when I dress him each day.

Tanner still sucks his thumb and loves his blanket and froggy. His thumb sucking has dwindled a bit, but he still does it, and loves to play with Mommy's hair at the same time. It's one thing I can hold onto his baby years with, so I'm okay with it for now!

 We love our sweet TT to pieces and are so blessed to have him in our lives! Happy 2nd Birthday our sweet Tanner! We love you!

One week down!

It's amazing what 1 week can do! Tanner is swimming a short distance to the side of the pool. He still is not too thrilled, but he is such a trooper!

He does a great job swimming to the steps, and sits on the top step for a rest when it's time!

He looks for Mr. Geoff's hand under the water and reaches for it. He follows direction so well!

Tanner always swims first, then watches Carson's lesson. He always looks so serious while he watches. I think he gets nervous for his big brother! :)

Carson is doing extremely well! He is a fish in the water!

He is still a bit nervous to go to the floating position for breath control while he is swimming, but the good thing is he does know how to do it. Mr. Geoff has been great with working with Carson on being confident in floating.

Here are some short videos of the boys swimming this week!

Carson the fishy...

Tanner our soon to be fishy...

And both boys swam for a few minutes together today...

So proud of our sweet boys!!

Porch painting with Daddy!

I really have to brag on my incredible husband for a moment! Matt was meant to be a Daddy, sometimes I joke that he really should be the stay at home parent with our boys. He is always up to something fun when Mommy isn't around, and I love it! We attend church service together as a family on Saturday nights, and then Matt stays home with the boys on Sunday mornings while I work at church. He is always texting me fun pictures of what they are up to. This past Sunday, it was easel painting!

 I love that he knew it was probably best to get them outside with paint, haha. And I also love their matching pj pants and no shirts!

 Tanner's beautiful masterpiece...

 And Carson's masterpiece...

I love your spontaneity honey! You are awesome!

Matt's 29th Birthday!

Matt's birthday festivities started the night before his birthday when our homegroup surprised him with a homemade chocolate birthday cake! Matt had no clue that they were going to serenade him with their beautiful singing voices and was a bit taken back, but extremely grateful! We just love our homegroup! Matt and I went out to a favorite restaurant after group for a little birthday dinner, just the two of us!

 The next morning, Carson and I made a big breakfast for Daddy. Carson helped roll out the dough for our homemade biscuits. We had pancakes, biscuits and gravy, sausage, and scrambled eggs. Daddy woke up early to the delicious aroma! Nice hair Daddy! :)

 At breakfast, Matt opened up his cards and gifts. His big gift this year was his hiking trip he took the weekend before, but we wanted to do something special for the morning of his birthday. Matt has been wanting to take the boys to one of his favorite childhood hangouts, Wekiwa Springs. I wrapped up two floaties that I bought, and put a note in his card that said we were spending the morning at Wekiwa Springs.

The boys had a blast! The water was a bit chilly when you first got in, but within minutes, you were used to it. Tanner loved his floatie, and Carson preferred just hanging on Daddy's back. We "swam" for quite awhile and just enjoyed the sun. Matt took Carson over by the more shallow part by a bridge to see the minnows too.

 The boys hanging by the bridge looking at minnows and the canoes going by...

 After all of our water fun, we were hungry for lunch! We headed back to our blanket for a yummy picnic lunch.

 TT and Mommy being silly with Daddy's phone! Tanner loves that he can see himself on the screen!

 We had such a fun day at Wekiwa Springs! The boys took a nice afternoon nap and then we went to church that evening. After church I made Matt's favorite german chocolate cake and we had Matt's parents, my parents, and Jamie, Will, and Hannah over. Matt just sat back while we sang him happy birthday and the KIDS blew out his candles! :)

Happy 29th Birthday Matty! Next year it's the BIG 3-0!!

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!