Not the only one...

I am not the only one enjoying our new piano. We have some firm rules about it, but I still let the boys get on and play around if I'm supervising them.

SOME Reasons why

I love Stephen.
1. He works hard at work and at school to support our family.

2. He is a fun dad. He makes faces and plays fun games with the boys. He doesn't even make me delete silly pictures of himself, instead he lets me post them on my blog for anyone to see.

3. The main reason I am loving him today is because he let me buy this beauty.

TA-DA!! Some people know her as the Yahama Clavinova CLP-220 I prefer to call her my new best friend. Isn't she beautiful?

You can e-mail- I may not respond. You can call-I may not answer. You can comment on my blog- I imagine I'll get around to seeing it sometime. I will be busy getting to know my new best friend so excuse me if I do not respond to you immediately. :)

Happy Birthday!

Okay, I am just that lame and posting about two birthdays together even though these two's only connection is me.
It is my sister-in-law, Erin's birthday today! She is one of Stephen's three sisters. We love you and hope you have a wonderful birthday. Her is a picture of her and Vance around Christmas time.

It is also my brother-in-law, Sean's birthday. He is married to my sister, Holly who had a birthday a few days ago making Holly three days older than Sean. How fun to celebrate your birthdays together every year. Happy birthday Sean. Hope you have fun. Here is a picture of their cute family.

This wraps up the September birthdays in our family. So we have a rest until October. :)

"Joys" of Motherhood

Motherhood is not always a field of Daisies. There are ups and downs. There are times when you want to rip your hair out or run away. You do have some tender moments where everything seems to be going your way, but that is not what I am sharing with you today, no today I share SOME moments that are not so tender. I keep these pictures around so that my children will take pity on me when I am old and put up with me when I am senile because it will be there fault.








Hmmm... maybe they are tender after all, just in a different sense of the word.
(P.S. Stay tune for more "Joys" of Motherhood in the future.)

Sidewalk Chalk

It seems to always turn cold fast here so we are taking advantage of every nice day we have and playing outside. The main event outside today was sidewalk chalk.

I think Vance's favorite part is dumping chalk all over the sidewalk, but he will draw a little too.

This was Tanner's first time playing with the chalk. He loved it, but I was sure saying a lot of, "Tanner keep the chalk out of your mouth." or "Tanner draw with your chalk." or "Yuck, Tanner, get that out of your mouth or I will need to take it away."

Vance Update

I'm constantly being asked how much Vance weighs and how tall he is nowadays and frankly I just didn't know. However, he had a physical with the doctor today so I can now tell you. He weighs 37 pounds (90th percentile) and is 37 1/2 inches tall (70%) so he is what he looks-SOLID. :) Now, you can see why I can call Tanner a runt. Vance has ALWAYS been that way.

Happy Birthday Holly!

Here is an, oh so lovely (ha) picture of Holly and I. Holly is my one and only OLDER sister and it is her birthday today. Happy Birthday! I hope it is a great one-even if you are creeping up on 30...don't worry you've still got a couple more years. What can I say other than Holly is my older sister and I have always loved and looked up to her. I wanted to be just like her when I was growing up. She is a good example to follow for all of her younger siblings. She is a great and fun mother. She helped me decorate Tanner's birthday cake which I really appreciated. She is easy to carrying on a conversation with, perhaps because she likes to talk. :) Anyway, hope you have a great day Holly!

Runt

Tanner had his year check up this morning. He had to have three shots and get his finger poked to test for anemia and lead poisoning then I drug him the a few stores and Vance's speech appointment so you can feel sorry for him if you want to. He is taking more after his mother than his father at this point in life. (hence the title of this post). He is 29 inches (20th percentile) and 21 lbs. 10 oz. (30th percentile). He is looking healthy and growing and developing as he should. Here's a picture of him with his birthday gifts. He literally loves everything he got. Yay for new toys. :)

Happy First Birthday Tanner!

Today my baby turns one! I'm glad I went through that whole birthing process a year ago and not today! This is him with one of the gifts Stephen, Vance, and I gave him. It was a dreary day outside, but we had a lot of fun inside. Thank you for all that came to celebrate with us. We missed all of you who couldn't come. Here are some pictures to hopefully make you feel you were a part of it.

Birthday Cake

Here's Tanner blowing out his candle (which I did of course) and eating his cake. He took little bites the entire time, that was after Stephen convinced him it was good. He hardly even got his face dirty. Oh, and I am in no way a cake decorator- I just pretend to be...

Birthday Presents

Tanner got a ton of fun stuff. Vance took it upon himself to help Tanner unwrap each gift. He helped me wrap some of them and told Tanner what one of them was before he'd gotten to it. Good thing Tanner doesn't know the difference.

Birthday Party Guests

Here are the people who were able to attend the birthday festivities.
Vance

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandpa Jeppson

Aunt Mandy, Uncle Jake and cousin, Luke

Uncle Eric and his girlfriend, Emily

Aunt Holly and cousin, Jillian

Thanks to everyone for coming!!!

Happy Birthday Mabel!

Happy Birthday to my mother-in-law, Mabel. We hope you have a wonderful birthday! (You will have birthdays crammed down your blogging throat the next week or so). Mabel is a very thoughtful, kind person. She is a wonderful seamstress and a great grandma. I've lucked out in getting wonderful in-laws. Have a great birthday!

Blog change (again...)

My last background wasn't loading up so I changed it (again). I don't plan on doing it again for a while so I hope you like what I changed it to. See how productive I am while the boys nap...haha.

Highlights from Vance's afternoon

Yesterday I posted a lot about Tanner so today I'll post about Vance. Here are some things he did yesterday.

Nap time on Mom and Dad's bed.

Having fun outside.

This is his getting ready to run stance. We count to three and then he takes off running.

Coloring as part of our FHE activity. See the concentration he exerts while he colors.

Getting comfy on Dad while he is trying to catch a snooze after work. (Notice the other little hand there too- they miss their dad when he is gone)

Tanner

Tanner's birthday is on Saturday. I'm posting this now because it's going to be a busy week and I want to post this before his birthday. Let me know what you think of the video.


Dear Tanner,

You are our second born son, but that doesn't mean we were any less excited for you to come into the world and join our family. I really wanted you to come a month before you actually did. I just couldn't wait to meet you. I could tell that you were a very special person.
Right from day one I've known you were strong. You started holding your head up just hours after you were born. I instantly fell in love with your huge, blue eyes. I loved to look in them and to know that I was blessed to be your mother. You have been a very good sleeper from the get go, but when your eyes were open, man they were open wide. Those big eyes of yours so wide, blue and alert. So many strangers have commented on how beautiful your eyes are and how could they not?
The temperament you have is so peaceful. You are so easy going and mild mannered- even with having reflux I would have never guessed it with your behavior, just in the amount of spit up that you projected! Tanner, you have always let people do whatever they wanted with you, especially Vance. Now that you are getting older your opinion is more obvious and you will let it be heard if you do not approve, but really you are so calm.
If someone smiles at you, you can not help but return that smile. Even now that you are older and more shy you still smile, but you also turn your head and hide in my shoulder. We love your little reserved giggle, your snuggles, your little gibberish talking. We have loved watching you grow and learn this first year of your life and are excited to watch you continue to grow and learn throughout your life. You have and will always be such a blessing in our lives.
I love you, my little Tan-The-Man! Happy Birthday.

Love,

Mom

Playing Outside

We spent a lot of time playing outside today. It wasn't too hot or too cold so you have to take advantage of that.
The boys played with bubbles.

Had fun getting dirty.

They also helped me wash our mats because they were dirty so the boys not only got dirty but wet as well.

I decided between the dirt and the wet to just stick them in the bathtub.

After a nice bath it was time for a snack. Tanner decided to eat his laying down. I guess this concerned Vance because he kept asking Tanner, "You okay?"

Hopefully I wore him out enough he'll take a good nap this afternoon.

Vance feeds Tanner

At times Vance insists on feeding Tanner and if all three of us are in a good mood I'll let him. This is an idea of how things go:

Vance takes a long time getting settled in and Tanner lets him know that he is impatiently waiting.

Tanner opens his mouth as wide as he can because Vance's aim isn't always the best.

Vance literally stuffs Tanner's face with "Vance-size" bites and Tanner tries to make sure he gets it all in his mouth.

Vance thinks the mess on the floor and tray is "Gross."

Tanner about gets sick with the big spoonfuls of food.

Tanner then wants to feed himself.