Tommy's 1st Birthday!

Our little Bubba has turned one!  We celebrated a few days early last Sunday (March 23) with Puna, Papa, and Uncle Brady.  We made him a chocolate cake with sprinkles - Lily's suggestion - she's a sucker for glitter and sprinkles.  And he opened his presents from the Wanners.

 Tommy liked opening his presents.  He probably enjoyed the boxes more than the presents themselves.  All the ribbon and wrapping paper was fun to play with too.

He loved hearing the Happy Birthday song.  He smiled all the way through it.  He seemed more interested in the candle than the cake.  We had to help him blow out his candle.  He just kept reaching for it and trying to touch the flame.  He was excited to eat the cake, but after his hands got covered with sticky frosting, he just wanted to be clean again.  He partied hard.

On his actual birthday - March 27th, Puna called to sing Happy Birthday again.  Tommy cried through the whole song because Mommy wouldn't let him hold the phone.  Later that day we called Grammy and Grampy via Skype so they could watch Tommy open his present from them.  Tommy had fun hearing Grammy sing Happy Birthday.  He loved the cars.  He kept saying "ooh" as we pulled each car out of the box. Lily and Annie like to make them go and Tommy will chase after them.

Can you tell we like to stretch out celebrations as long as possible?  The day after Tommy's birthday his present from Mommy and Daddy arrived in the mail.  He got two new books and a set of bristle blocks.  The blocks were such a hit with the kids, they all played with them for almost two hours.

Happy birthday to our darling boy.  You have such a special spirit and we are blessed to have you in our family.  We love you Tommy.

March 23, 2014

What a fun week!  Grammy and Grampy came to visit for a couple of days.  Then we finished the week with a visit from Puna and Papa.  We were on grandparent overload - in a good way.  The kids miss everyone already.  And all the visits helped brighten our spirits and get us moving again after being so sick.

We decided to stay home from church Sunday and catch up on rest - plus hopefully avoid sharing our tummy bug with our church friends.  The sickness came on so suddenly last weekend, we just weren't sure if we were still contagious or if we were truly done being sick yet.  It was a very restful day.

Monday arrived all too soon.  The good news - it was St. Patricks's Day and Grammy and Grampy came for a short visit.  The girls asked me to paint their nails green and help them choose all green outfits to wear that day.  I even painted my nails green for the day.  But I was so bothered by it I had to take it off after dinner that night.

Monday morning the kids woke up to find some treasures that the leprechauns had left for them.  They even got to have some ginger ale and Sour Cream and Onion potato chips for breakfast which catapulted me to rockstar status for the day in the kids eyes.

Annie was excited about the seeds and mini green house she got. 

Wednesday was kindergarten registration for Lily.  Here she is in front of the door of the school, with a sucker in her mouth, trying to look tough.  I was choked up the whole time as I sat there and filled out all the paperwork.  Lily was super nervous during her readiness evaluation.  But of course she knew everything and is totally prepared for school.  We have entered a lottery to try and earn her a spot in a Spanish language immersion program.  If she gets accepted, half of her school day will be in English and the other half will be in Spanish until she completes sixth grade.  Ideally by the time she finishes ninth grade she will be able to take and pass all the required tests to earn a college minor in Spanish and be a completely fluent speaker.  It takes a lot of dedication and at home work on the part of the parents but we feel like this is an amazing program to be a part of.  It will be a big adventure for the whole family.

We were sad to see Grammy and Grampy go.  See how broken up Tommy is?  Grampy helped Daddy install a gas line to our laundry room so we can install a gas clothes dryer soon.  Lily loved having Grammy snuggle in her bunk bed with her every night and both the girls liked snuggles in Grammy's bed in the morning.  Unfortunately we shared our tummy bug with Grampy.  He was sick shortly after visiting us.  Sorry Grampy!

After Grammy and Grampy left, it was life as usual for a few days.  Lily is still working hard in her dance class.  They have started a new hip hop style routine that is really cute.  During Lily's class, Annie had some tummy troubles.  She didn't make it to the bathroom at the dance school in time and we had a poopy mess to deal with.  It was REALLY bad.  I had to throw away the panties and pants she was wearing and clean the bathroom at the school.  After everything was cleaned up, I wrapped Annie in her jacket and took her out to the car with Tommy.  A few minutes later the same thing happened again.  A teenager from my ward offered to hold Tommy while I cleaned Annie up a second time.  Now we had no clothes and no coat.  I had to wrap naked Annie in her blanket and pray for Lily's class to end soon before I ran out of options.  Once class was over we went straight home and got Annie all settled.  She was better after that.  Of course all the mess would happen in the 45 minute window we were away from home that day!

Poor sick little one.  Thankfully after this episode, we were completely done with tummy troubles the rest of the week.  I finally got caught up on laundry and did some shopping and housecleaning before Puna and Papa arrived Friday night.

On Friday night Lily went on a date with Puna and Papa to see "Savior of the World" at BYU-Idaho.  Brady sang in the choir for the program.  Lily was super excited to go.  She took a little purse filled with peanut M&M's to entertain herself.  She fell asleep after Act I and slept for the remainder of the show.  Papa said during the quiet moments the people around them could hear Lily snoring.  While Lily was on her date, Mommy and Daddy took Tommy and Annie to a wedding reception for Natalie Webster - Jeremy's boss's daughter.  It was a beautiful reception.  Annie loved the chocolate fondue fountains.

Saturday we made a trip up to Heise Hot Springs.  It felt so good to swim in a perfectly warm pool with chilly Spring air around us.  Tommy took a little while to warm up to the idea of swimming, but ended up loving it.  Lily was super brave and jumped in over and over again.  We are so glad we signed her up for swimming lessons last year and we can't wait to do them again.  Tommy also liked being set up on the edge, then he would launch himself into the pool after we'd count to three.  Sometimes he wouldn't wait for Daddy to get to "three" and Tommy would just throw himself toward Daddy's arms.  Annie was perfectly content to stay with Papa or Mommy and stick to the shallow end where she could easily touch the bottom.

It was a lovely afternoon.  The only thing missing was Uncle Brady - who had to take a test and couldn't make it up in time to go with us.

The highlight of the day (who am I kidding - the week!) for Annie was a new pair of pink boots from Puna and Papa.  She insisted on wearing them to the pool with her Princess Anna dress.  She also danced around the house all the rest of the day saying "I just love my new pink boots!".  Silly little sweetie!

Sunday we had stake conference.  Our stake presidency was released and a new presidency was called.  It was a wonderful meeting.  It got a little long for the kids.  But they behaved very well.  Jeremy was asked to be an usher before the meeting.  When the kids saw him standing by the door, they just had to join him.  First Tommy wanted to be with Daddy and play with the usher badge Jeremy was wearing.  Then the girls wanted to "help" Daddy.  Puna snapped a quick picture of the three of them on her phone.

They even got to wear a badge like Daddy's.  Oh how we love our little ones!  Thanks again Grammy and Grampy and Puna and Papa for coming to visit.  It made the week fly by and it made the kids very happy.

March 16, 2014

Lily spent most of the time behind the camera this week.  She got some great shots that she wants me to share.  On Tuesday morning we met a friend of mine from college at a local cafe for breakfast.  He and his sister were in Rexburg visiting family and called me up to meet them.  It was fun to get out for a visit with a friend.  The kids were on the shy side - and very tired since they were still adjusting to Daylight Savings, but we had a nice breakfast and catch up.  After looking back at the pictures Lily took, I realized we never got one with Alex and Bailey (my friends).  Oh well!

After breakfast we went to gymnastics.  I think Lily took over 100 photos of Annie during class.  Lily was such a proud big sister.  She was cheering and snapping pictures just like a Mommy would.  Annie loved the attention.

Setting her cones on the beam.  During this class, they were working on stepping over and jumping over the cones on the beam.  Before mounting the beam, Annie would go and organize all the cones if the gymnast before her moved any of them.  She is still our little organizer!

Thursday we met Daddy on campus for a lunch date.  It was a gorgeous sunny day.  We sat in an atrium type area and enjoyed the sun shining on us through the windows.  Tommy loved looking out the windows at all the students walking by.  Annie loved standing over the HVAC vents and getting her hair blown around.

Preparing for her career as a supermodel.

Tommy trying his first pickle.  He wouldn't bite it, but he sucked it to death.  I think the cold and bumpy texture felt good on his teething gums.

I found a great idea for a "Calm Down Jar" on Pinterest and decided to give it a try.  Sometimes the kids get on each other's nerves and just bicker all day long.  These jars have helped a lot in the past two weeks.  When I can feel the tension between them begin to build, I send them to their corners with their jars.  I took them to the craft store to choose their glitter.  Annie's is aqua and Lily's is dark blue.  They shake the jar and then set it down and watch the glitter settle.  It takes about 5 minutes for the glitter to settle to the bottom.  By the time the glitter has settled, the girls feel calmer and ready to play again.  It is also a good tool for time out.  I let Annie hold the jar in her lap while we talk calmly about why she is in time out and how to avoid that negative behavior in the future.  Often, she will shake it up again while sitting with me which gives us more time to talk and let her cool down.  I have to confess that these are great for parents too.  I have used it to help myself calm down in frustrated moments.  Watching the glitter sparkle and spin in the sun is really soothing.  Thanks Pinterest for another great parenting tool.  As soon as I have a large plastic jar available, I'm going to transfer the glitter solution to it and super glue the lid on.  The glass jars are a little heavy and awkward for the kids at times; and something tells me that sticky glitter sparkling all over my carpet and kitchen floor is not nearly as relaxing as it is in the jar.

Tommy is old enough to ride in the bike trailer!  The sunshine and warm (45 degree?) weather just called to us one night.  Mommy and Daddy took turns pulling the kids up and down the street.  Tommy was willing to get in and strap in, but as soon as we started moving he started crying.  He was so relieved to be taken out.  Lily tried hard to comfort him and show him how much fun it can be.  We'll have to try again soon.

Tommy is our master mess maker!  I feel like I spend all day picking up after him.  On Friday I decided to take pictures of some of his messes to help me remember this phase.  Here are four of the many just from one day.  He is unstoppable.  Basically if something is in a drawer, cabinet, or container Tommy makes it his personal mission to remove it from where it belongs - while Mommy is busy cleaning up another mess in another location.  Then there is laundry......I try to get it folded and put away while he naps but that doesn't always happen.  And when it doesn't, he pulls it all off the couch and then crawls through the piles.  Busy!  Busy!  Busy!  I just can't keep up some days.

Our week ended on a low note.  Friday night we had a game night with friends.  We all got home and went to bed.  At 12:30 a.m. Tommy woke up hungry.  I got up to feed him and then tried to get back to sleep.  But I just didn't feel well.  At 1:30 a.m. I went to the bathroom and basically spent the next four hours there.  I dragged myself back to bed after 5:00 a.m.  At 6:00 a.m. Annie woke us up.  She threw up all over herself and her bed.  She had a fever and tummy bug.  Jeremy let me stay in bed and took care of all the kids for two hours.  By 8:00 a.m. he was sick with the stomach bug too.  Somehow this one missed Tommy and Lily - Maybe it is the same one Lily had last weekend?  Anyway.  It was a long weekend of bathroom trips, ginger ale, soda crackers, Coca-Cola, dry toast, laundry (lots of laundry) and disinfecting.  We're starting to come out of it and feel better.  Hopefully we're done with stomach issues for a while.  To celebrate feeling better I went all out and cooked us an amazing dinner.....

Doesn't get much better than sticky rice and chicken broth after being sick!  We're hoping for a healthier weekend next week while Puna and Papa are here.

What was really disappointing about being sick was: Jeremy had won tickets through a radio station to the Home and Garden Show in Idaho Falls Saturday morning and we had plans to go to a catered dinner party Saturday night.  But we were just too sick to go anywhere.  That's what we get for trying to plan a date away from the kids!  We are excited about the coming week.  Grammy and Grampy are coming to visit and then Puna and Papa are coming to visit!  Don't worry grandparents - we are going to clean every inch of the house before you get here so we don't share our germs. See you soon!