Visitors

My sister-in-law Mandy and her son, Luke came up for a quick visit this weekend. We haven't seen them since January so it was great to see them again. Luke is 2 months older than Tanner. Here are some pictures from our weekend.

At the temple groundsVance at this "Children's Museum" we went to that really wasn't a musuem and was over priced for what it was. The boys still seemed to have fun. Vance especially. Tanner and Luke were a little young for it. Vance has asked if we can go back the entire afternoon today.
Tanner at the Children's Museum.
We played with bubbles on Sunday afternoon. Tanner had the most fun with the bubbles, I think.We tried to give Luke a good look at the llamas near our house, but they weren't out. We were happy we got one shot of them all looking at the camera though.

You Know You've Said Something Too Much...

When your almost two year old starts saying it back to you in his sleep. Last night as Stephen and I were getting into bed we heard Tanner in the other room saying, "No touch. No touch." The kid indeed talks in his sleep. This has been confirmed many times. Most often he chooses to say, "Come here Mom." I can't tell you how often I've gone in there after hearing that to find him completely zonked out. I've learned not to respond to only that. Anyway, I suppose
I have been telling my boys not to touch certain things a lot lately. A few days ago I got out of the shower to find my wedding ring missing. Vance decided to hide it in one of his Dad's shoes. I took the opportunity to tell both boys that Mom's ring was a special gift from Dad and they were not allowed to touch it. Yesterday Tanner got a hold of a permanent marker and started to draw on the sofa before I realized what he had. Any time one of sons gets mad at the other they hit each other. So you can see that "No touch" has become a popular phrase at our house. I just hope that since Tanner is saying it in his sleep maybe it will start showing in his behavior that it is stuck in his head.

Anniversary Weekend

It was our 6th year wedding anniversary on Sunday. We celebrated by leaving the boys with my parents all day Saturday, that night, and a good chunk of Sunday while we went to the Seattle area. We went to a Japanese Garden in Seattle, drove around downtown some, but mostly we spent our time in Bellevue. We went to a couple of malls, had a yummy dinner, and stayed at a nice hotel there. I love my kids to pieces, but it was nice to get away. It was even nicer to get away from reality and spend some quality time with my husband. It might sound corny, but it is true. It was the first anniversary since we've had kids that we've gone away over night. The previous three I've either been nursing a baby or very, very pregnant. I'm posting one of many pictures we took at the gardens.
The boys had a blast with my parents and the uncles and aunt that were around too.

My First Toy Review

I did my first ever toy review. You can check it out here on my other blog. Not long ago I got an e-mail from http://www.ebeanstalk.com/ looking for moms and children (of course) to test out toys. I let them know I was interested. If that isn't up my alley, I don't know what is. Not to much time past before they notified me that I'd been chosen. This fun little Pelican from www.tinylove.com arrived out our house and we've had a lot of fun with him. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I posted about this toy over on my other blog so go check it out even if you aren't a regular visitor over there. :)

Sunday Drive

Some Sundays we like to get of the house and go for drives. Vance loves to go by the temple. It is on the very opposite end of town so we never just pass by it, but Vance loves to see it so sometimes we'll drive by and get out and let them look at the temple and the flowers on the grounds. Here is a picture at the grounds and another of the boys riding in the van with their sunglasses on.

Miracles

Vance was the first grandchild on both my side and Stephen's side of the family. He wasn't very old when I started feeling like it was time to add another child to our family. In fact, he was only a year old when I became pregnant with Tanner. I remember feeling so blessed, but also a little guilty. You see, my sister had been trying to get pregnant for a while at that point and my sister-in-law Mandy and her husband had desired to have a baby for much longer. I remember praying so hard that they would both be blessed with a child of their own soon. I wanted to get rid of the guilt I felt, I wanted my children to have cousins to play with, I wanted the grandparents to have other grandchildren to dote on besides mine. I am selfish, I know but I'm not selfish enough to think that it was my prayers alone that did the trick. A few months after I got pregnant with Tanner my sister, Holly also became pregnant. When I was seven months pregnant with Tanner, Mandy called to inform us that a birth mom had chosen her and Jake to adopt her baby. You can read about that miracle here . It's a beautiful story.

Each time a baby is born it is a miracle and a blessing. Sometimes, however we need help receiving these miracles. That's where adoption comes in to play. Adoption can affect so many people. I look at Mandy and Jake's son, Luke and how he has blessed and enriched so many lives in so many ways and he is only two years old! One of my grandmother's was adopted and what a never ended blessing that has been in so many lives. It is almost incomprehensible to think about.


Mandy and Jake are ready now to extend their family with another child. You can view their profile on LDS Family Services here. Just as each child that becomes part of their family is a blessing, that child will also be blessed to have such a wonderful family.
(P.S. The picture is of Vance, Tanner, and Luke in December 2008)

Funny Boys

Vance is in that fun preschool age where he is learning and exploring using his imagination. It is fun to watch. Today he came up with his own computer.
He was pretending to use a mouse and as you can see in the picture he was pointing at things on the "screen". He even made me come help him with this or that-things he normally asks for help on the real computer with.

I thought I'd post another video of Tanner doing a few more animal noises. Stephen was disappointed I didn't get him doing a cow noise the first time around...

Scorching HOT!

It is scorching hot here! Yesterday, I think was the worst. It hit 108 degrees! It's been hitting over a 100 a lot and doesn't show signs of cooling off anytime soon. I am so GRATEFUL for air conditioning! We've been hiding out at our place as much as possible. I do feel bad for Stephen who is in and out and all over the place at work and wearing pants and a collared shirt on top of it. He seems to be surviving.

I've been trying to teach Vance about girls and boys. Nothing specific, mind you, but anytime he sees a little kid- girl or boy he calls them a boy. If it is a group of girls he calls them boys. So I've been trying to teach him that girls are girls. Here's how it has been going.

Me- "Vance is a...?"
Vance- "Boy!"
Me- "Tanner is a...?"
Vance- "Boy!"
Me- "Dad is a...?"
Vance- "Boy!"
Me- "Mom is a...?"
Vance- "Princess!"

Not exactly what I'm going for, but sweet nonetheless. We've had that conversation a few times now. I told him that girls generally have longer hair and boys generally have shorter hair. This will probably come back to haunt me when he calls a boys with long hair a girl, but for now it was the simpliest way I could think of to help him figure out the difference.