December

December was filled with lots of pictures(trying to get a Christmas card photo), baking fun, wrapping presents, and parades. We also went to the Rural King Christmas party where Baylee got to sit on Santa's lap and asked for a book. We had that one covered already. Tanner would not sit on his lap but did eat some pizza with him. It's the male bonding way, I guess.

We also had Baylee's dance recital at the mall. They did a great job. It was fun to watch her perform and not be nervous but just ready to get up and show off her skills. Proud moment!

And of course there was Christmas day. The kids didn't get an overload of presents because they got a big trampoline for the yard. Which at this point I can say as it's still the middle of winter and it has gotten plenty of use, it was a success and great purchase. Cody sucked it up and stood in line at Walmart on Thanksgiving evening/ Black Friday sale to get it at a price I could afford. I owe him for that one. Christmas was a fun day and the kids made their 8 presents each last 2 hours to open. It was exactly like I like my holidays, slow paced and relaxed.

November News

We conquered a do it yourself home project. We built a wall and rearranged our house. We turned our 3 bedroom house into a 4 bedroom house. It has worked out really well. I thought I would hate closing off the space and was quite reluctant for a while before I finally came to conclusion we needed to separate the kids. Tanner and Baylee had been sharing a room while we decided how and what to do and who to put together. Turns out they are not great roommates for each other. She loved having him in there and she hated having him in there. He still naps for over 2 hours most days and she couldn't get anything out of her room during that time. He also enjoyed jumping on her noggin in the morning whenever he got up. It was really hard on them both at times. It took a while due to technicalities like old lath and plaster walls are thicker than the average drywall. After a bit of tedious finish work, it now appears that the wall has always been there. Turns out, I don't hate it, it's been a good decision. We got a bigger bedroom and Tanner has his own room once again and moved to a big boy bed.

It started getting pretty cold. There were days that required hot chocolate after being outside for a while. We attended the Christmas parade in Mattoon with Miss Hannah and Izzy. They were kind enough to invite us over for Thanksgiving since we don't have any family around. Baylee and I made Oreo Turkeys. We had a great time making them.

We had many days of goofing off. As you look through the pictures, there was one day we were playing with the camera and letting the kids take pictures too. We have to get creative sometimes since were indoors so much because of the weather.

Zoey worked more and more on smiling as much as possible, which is just awesome. At the end of the pictures is just an everyday video of the kiddos. They love on the Zoey often. I realized I don't take nearly enough videos and I'm not sure why. I going back and watching them, so the more the better, it's more for me than you :) I don't have the time to scrapbook, so this is my record book right now.

Ending October...

Rest of October : The harvest season ended with Baylee and Tanner taking turns riding with Cody. They both enjoy it so much. Tanner is in heaven around big loud machinery. From painting and playing outside to costumes and sibling discomfort, it is all there in our pictures. 

I guess the last focus of the month was Halloween and our trick or treating. We had a great time. We teamed  up with Dan, Hannah and Izzy at central base and made a night of it. It was quite chilly outside but we made the most of it for as long as the kiddos desired. Tanner was so cute and funny walking around and trick or treating. He would say trick or treat and hold open his bag all the way to the front door. He was such a big boy with his trick or treats and thank yous this year. Baylee's hair needed 2 cans of red, I learned too late, but it was so fun to do and she loved it.

A Zoey update: she lost her hair in the weirdest pattern. It started to grow back in some but it's definitely been a new experience for us in the hair department. She started smiling when we talked to her. Love her!

Aunt Faith visits the chaos!

We had the chance to have Faith join us for a while in October. It was October....so most of our outings and adventures included a pumpkin of some sort. We went to the nature center one day for a fall festival. The kids got to decorate pumpkins, play games and make a scarecrow. Though I think the scare crow was mostly created by the biggest kids in our group.(Dan and Cody) We got caramel apples and just had a grand time. I think my favorite part was watching the kids pick their pumpkins and then watching Tanner try and wrestle his. We then went for Chinese food. While most of you think this is not blog worthy, in my book food is always blog worthy :) and it was a special trip for the beloved Aunt Faith.

We also went to Boo at the Zoo one night. We had a great time even though it was quite frigid out. There were carousel and train rides and candy for the littles. Not to mention the fun of friends, costumes and animals. Food....of course it shall be mentioned there was a visit to O'Charleys for delicious warm rolls, be jealous!

It was nice to have Faith around for our normal day to day activities as well. She's definitely lots of fun and entertainment for all. She never complained about lack of sleep or silence at our house. She even suffered through grocery shopping and a visit to my favorite Amish Salvage store! We think she's a keeper but somehow she thought it best to return home and then move back to Boise for a long awaited job. (We are very proud of her and super excited still she got to go back "home") And we carved pumpkins, it was tedious work, but super fun!

I need to also acknowledge that Tanner made buddies with Aunt Faith. I know it's his aunt, in his book this means nothing though and this was a HUGE success on both of their parts!

We had a great time, it always stinks to say goodbye to family, especially ones that we know will be a while until we get to see again. We loved the time we got though, even if Faith barely survived our chaos!

A two year old Tanner

Tanner turned 2 at the beginning of October. We give him a hard time often because of how grouchy he was as a baby or because he's so temperamental. In all honesty, I had no idea what was in store for me with that little boy. Sometimes, I am surprised we both survived each other until he was 2. He is a bit of stubborn tossed in with a little bit of stubborn and a dash of stubborn, don't forget to sprinkle the stubborn on top. He has redefined that word for us. Not sure where he gets it, it surely could not have been his parents.

He has enlightened me with new experiences, some good, some bad, but none the less, he teaches me many different things, a lot of patience among those. Most importantly, despite his screaming fits, he is pure humor in his tiny fun sized package. He is hilarious and forever making me laugh, when he's not screaming or angry or adamant things are not going his way and that it's not acceptable. I find myself attempting to be mad at some crazy escapade he has invented but often, he just makes me laugh. It sure is hard to scold when you are laughing. And often I should not be laughing at what he has done, but if I didn't laugh I'd cry. So I continue to laugh through it. He has a huge heart and can be found giving his big sister a very sympathetic hug when she's upset, even if it was something she did wrong or even to him, he's there with his arms open wide.

He has the desire to always be helpful. I try my hardest to let him help even when it's not so helpful. He can always be found by my side in the kitchen or on the counter in front of me. He might grow up and be like his uncles, not only in stature but with pure skill of whipping up something fantastic in the kitchen without even blinking an eye.

I love that he is very well rounded. He is all boy in some aspects....hates being clean, loves to BAM things with his hammers; if it goes... he's intrigued; he has a daily goal to make my heart skip a few beats with some daring stunt he has invented and performs before I realize what's going on, and finds himself in sticky situations already. I'm pretty sure the count is up to 3 times this week that he has requested a Barbie story at bedtime. He can also be found wearing his sister's dress up clothes, though I'm sure the power of her persuasion hypnotizes his thought process sometimes. He loves to play babies as well and is quite good at it, until he remembers he likes to throw things and it's usually the baby.

I give him credit. I expected the worst with his attitude toward his new sister. He has made me a liar 10 times over on that one. He ADORES every bit of her. He helps with her, he loves on her, he gives her things to play with(as long as it's not his things) and wants to hold her multiple times a day. He is so caring and quick to help if something is wrong with her.

 I know the picture is fuzzy, it's hard to get him to slow down, but I just love that smile.

He had a truck cake I made for him and got many great presents. We(excluding the picky Baylee) had chili, his favorite, for dinner. He was sad he couldn't have the trucks before he blew out his candles. I think he blew them out 3 times. And the next morning he was found double fisting the left over cake for breakfast, that's my boy. I could venture to say it got his stamp of approval.
*sorry for the bad bday pictures, my camera was not charged(this brain doesn't always perform well) and had to use Cody's Blackberry...boo.

This little 2 year old monsoon has blessed us in so many ways. We are very lucky to have him in our family and love him beyond measure. Happy Birthday to our Tanner Monkey!

September Summary...

From kite flying with friends to baking with Tanner, we find ways to occupy ourselves. The adjustment of 3 kids was kicking in at this point and we did venture here and there and even conquered our big grocery shop but we stayed home quite often too.

The homeschooling plays a big part in my lack of blog time and lack of break time and lack of venturing out as much. (Sadly,) the kiddos all have colds and are surprisingly still asleep and I am benefiting from the much needed sleep for them. 

Cody gave his first hair cut ever. Tanner was on the other end of that one. I think it was harder than he expected....Tanner would be happy to never have it cut again, so that does play a role in the difficulty level. There might have been a tidbit of appreciation for me giving them their haircuts. 

We got applesauce made and canned. Tanner and Baylee both helped peel apples, mostly Tanner. He was quite intrigued by the peeler/slicer/corer and was studying it as he turned the apples. He's going places I tell ya.

Zoey is so much fun to have around. She started smiling in response to us in September and that little smile can light up the world. I had a hard time getting the full effect in a picture. (As if they ever really do justice anyway.)

One of the big highlights were the ones in my hair, haha. I have been waiting for close to a year to get the pink and purple in my hair. I was glad to finally get to have fun with it. Though the ends didn't turn out as vibrant as they should and we have since tried to fix the problem, I still like it. It's fun and different. In retrospect, dang well water has won this battle of the colors. But I'm not giving up yet.  

MaaMaa experiences Illinois

In September, MaaMaa (my mom) got to visit us in Illinois for the first time. I'm just positive she was impressed by the vastness of corn fields and soy bean fields. Right? Ok, probably not, but we were sure glad she ventured out into the wide open spaces to visit. We had a great time hanging out with her. Baylee LOVED having someone willing to play Barbies with her every waking moment of every day. She deserves to never have to play Barbies again, but the likeliness of that does not look very good.

I failed to take pictures on many occasions but I did capture some of our fun. We made our way out to the apple orchard for some fun on a beautiful day. I got to get my apples for making applesauce and we got to play on the playground. We then ventured up to O'Charleys to eat. It was a must.

We had a picnic at the park one day. It was super windy but we still had a good time. MaaMaa pushed Zoey girl around for us and kept her covered from the wind so that I could play with my monkeys. It was very kind to let me do that. We had an enjoyable time and we were all worn out.

From stories in the treehouse, to Barbies, to lots of tickles, and many chats with me, we had a fantastic visit with MaaMaa! And she even got to cut our grass....oh how she misses the hum of a lawn mower?