March 2013

You will find pictures from March an assortment of chaos. 

Highlights:

-We had our biggest snow storm since we have been in Illinois(Happy Spring). built many snow features and I pelted Tanner in the mouth with a snowball while he was cackling one day, didn't mean to do that. and hit Baylee in face while doing some video. OOOPS! Bad aim.

-Tanner hurt his neck and got neck xrays...I'm sure there will be many of those in our future, he is adventurous

-Storytimes at the library

-Salt dough..ugh, messy

-Spring gingerbread boys (sugar overload)

-seed starters for the garden(epic failure, recovered by what we know best, starting them straight in the soil)

-cookie pops, masks, bird feeders oh my!

We tried to keep entertained. We taught Zoey to crawl through a box, now she knows what to do with a box whenever one is available. Life lesson for sure!

Easter will be added soon!

February

February in a flash:

We had more snow playing, more jumping, a family day of shopping, lunch and bowling, Valentine's celebrations and Cody's birthday. We made balloons since he hates the feel of real balloons. We got him his big fancy schmancy pilot's watch, which he is still so excited about almost 2 months later.

January

Yep, just doing this, better late than never?

In a nutshell....playing in the snow, jumping on the trampoline, makeup all around(continue to thank Aunt Faith for that one, haha) and a homemade Zoey sized bed.  Does the video make up for being so late? Probably not, but in my book, I just don't make time for the blog....working on that.

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!