Finally!

I'm not even going to tell you when we bought a table and chairs for Izabel but it was way too long ago! It was unfinished so I bought paint and asked Noah over and over to paint it and put it together for her. Well last weekend Noah called Izzy into the kitchen. When we walked in he had her table set up for a tea party! She lit up like it was Christmas morning and it was so exciting. They sat down and had tea together. Then she "ate" with me. She spent the rest of the day asking us "Do you want to eat with me?" It's so cute and I'm so glad she finally has this table to play with and do art projects on!

This is so exciting!

Yummy!

House Rules

I just finished reading "House Rules" by Jodi Picoult. This was the first book of hers that I have read and I loved it. The overall story deals with the struggles of raising a child with asperger's syndrome. Asperger's is a highly functioning form of autism. The story is told from the points of view of the mother, the boy, his brother, the local police chief, and the lawyer. The boy gets in some legal trouble that you'll have to find out about for yourself!

This book is a little heavy. I have been thinking about aspergers, autism and a variety of other issues that children can deal with lately. All we think about before our kids are born is having a healthy baby, but that's not the end of it. There are a hundred things that could be wrong that don't even show up until 2 or 3 years of age. Luckily my children are still healthy, but you can never take that for granted. This book really showed the difficulties of having an autistic child and how the mother struggled with raising him. She had to give up so much but she wouldn't trade him for anything in the world. It made me think and I definitely recommend that you pick it up!

Firehouse Subs...Kid Friendly???

Now don't get me wrong - I love Firehouse Subs! If you haven't had it yet you should really go. The company was founded by firemen and they make great food! Noah and I both enjoy going there. On Sunday we were doing some shopping so we stopped by for lunch. This was the first time we went there with both kids needing kids meals. Big mistake! They have a variety of sandwiches for kids such as turkey, ham, grilled cheese and pb & j which was fine. The problem was the only side choices were chips or oreo cookies and the only drink options were soda or water. I don't know about you but I am pretty picky about what I let my kids have. Milk is a must for us but they didn't even offer juice! Soda for a kid's meal??? And why can't they have a fruit or veggie option for a side? If fast food restaurants and pretty much any other food place we've ever been to can offer healthier options for our kids, why can't Firehouse? I will still be visiting them every once and a while but we will choose somewhere else when the kids are with us from now on...very sad!

Tanner Wayne

Yesterday I took the morning off of work to take Tanner to his 12 month well check. We had to go all the way out to the Great Bridge office but it was worth it to see Dr. Scott before June! Tanner is 23 lbs 10 oz (60th percentile) and 30 1/2 inches long (80th percentile)! I knew he was around 23-25 lbs but I thought he would be higher on the chart than that! Dr. Scott was really pleased with all of the babbling that Tanner was doing and the physical progress. He is not walking yet (which is no concern) but he is crawling and walking on his knees, waving, giving high fives, and starting to say a few words. He is eating all table foods now and drinking regular milk. Both kids will be going to 1 or 2% milk the next time we go to the store. Tanner is still having one bottle at night but that is getting smaller and smaller so pretty soon it will be gone. He only has his binky in the bed and I think we'll probably let him have it at least until summer time. I'm not ready to go through that quite yet!

At the end of the appointment Tanner had his foot pricked to check for anemia (which of course was fine) and he didn't cry at all. He was more annoyed that the nurse wouldn't let go of his foot! Then he had three shots. He cried like his heart was broken and it took me longer than normal to calm him down, but after a few minutes he was fine. I took him home and then headed off to work but it was so nice to spend the morning with him and have such a great check up!

First Birthday Party!

On Saturday we had Tanner's first birthday party. We had a lot of family and friends over to celebrate including a bunch of little ones for Tanner to play with! We went with a baby animal theme and really focused on monkeys. Tanner had a great time ad got lots of great gifts. He got several really cute outfits, a bunch of trucks and other toys (which we didn't already have) and a bunch of new Disney movies! We got him a mega blocks table. Both Tanner and Izzy play with the blocks all the time. The table will go in Tanner's room and it has some extra building pieces other than the blocks. It is also portable so we can take it on vacation with us! He loved his cupcake and all the other food we let him have. After the party Tanner and Izzy played outside for a little while and then went to bed. We had some friends stay for the UFC fight. It was a really great day, thanks to everyone who came and celebrated with us!

Monkey Cupcakes!

I was so proud of these :)

The spread, I had to refill everything after the party for the fight!
I guess that means it was good!

Tanner as a 1 day old and Tanner as a 1 year old!

1st Birthday Banner

And you can't forget the balloons!Tanner has started walking on his knees..it is SO funny!

Izzy had no problem helping Tanner open his presents :)So many presents...he just wanted to play after a while!

Mommy and my little monkey!Ready for my birthday cake!This is GOOD!

Can someone clean me up now please???

Birthday Trip to the Zoo

I took Izabel and Tanner and met Candace and Drew at the zoo for Tanner's birthday. We had a great time and we'll be going back a lot this summer! Enjoy the pics and then continue scrolling down to see all the updates...1st Birthday Pictures, Easter, and Family Vacation.

Family Vacation!

For spring break this year Noah and I took the kids to Massanutten. We own timeshare there and go pretty much every year. We love going and each year they add more and more things to do! This was the first trip all four of us have gone on together and Tanner's first vacation ever!

We left on Friday right after work. We hit quite a bit of traffic and stopped for dinner so we didn't get there until a little after 8. We checked in and started settling into our beautiful unit. We got into one of the new ones and it had two bedrooms with a big living room and full kitchen. There was lots of room to run and play which the kids loved! The part they liked the most was the fenced in porch. Izabel could go in and out whenever she liked and she loved having that kind of freedom! Aunt Amy came up for the weekend and arrived about an hour after we did. On Saturday Noah and I went to the grocery store to get food for the week. Afterwards we all walked to the park and had a picnic. Both of the kids had a great time playing and we were all exhausted when we got back just in time for naps. After a nice steak dinner we went down to the pool for a while. We thought Tanner would love it since he loves the bath so much but he started screaming as soon as his toes touched the water. I tried to get him to go in but he wasn't having it so I took him over to the lounge chair and we just snuggled. It was a great time for the two of us and I wouldn't have traded it for any amount of swimming in the world!

Playing on the little deck
Tanner loves the swingsIzzy climbed right up the rock wall with no problem!

Sunday Aunt Amy left first thing in the morning to get home and celebrate Easter with Ray. We had all of our Easter celebrations there - see the Easter post below! We finished up the evening with another swim. Daddy and Izabel played in the pool while Tanner I spent some more time snuggling!

Izzy started jumping in and going under all by herself!

Tanner was very unhappy!
Monday we got up bright and early to go do our owner update. It's the normal timeshare tour but they try to fill us in on what's going on with the resort and what new things will be coming soon. The fed us breakfast and showed us the new cottages they are building. They are really nice but kind of small. After the update we went back to have lunch and naps. We played some more and then went to the waterpark. Izabel had so much fun going on the slides and the lazy river with Daddy. I very slowly moved Tanner into the little kiddie pool. It took a long time but I eventually got him in the water. After a while he was playing and splashing and having a great time.

He finally likes it! Yay!
Going down the big slide with Daddy
He's such a big boy now!
Riding around with Mommy

Tuesday morning I left the kids with Daddy so I could go to the spa! I was super excited. One of the perks of sitting through the owner update is the $100 they give you that I always spend in the spa. I started with a spa pedicure. Afterwards I spend some time in the relaxation room with my book. It was so nice to just sit and read without any interruptions! Then I moved on to my hour long Swedish massage. It was fabulous and I can't wait until next year...or maybe Mother's Day :) We pretty much just laid low the rest of the afternoon. Then we took the kids down to feed the ducks at the lake and play at the park. It was really hot so we went in to the pool for a little while. Tanner actually played in the water for a little bit.

Wednesday it was time to go home so Noah could go to his first class of the new quarter! He made straight As last quarter and we want him to keep it up! We had a wonderful family vacation and we can't wait to do it again!