End of the Year!

We now officially have a kindergartener and a first grader! It's crazy to look at how big they have gotten over the past year, but we are SO happy that summer is here!!

Izabel did amazingly well this year. She is reading - full on every word on every sign and every page of every book she picks up, reading. I mean obviously there are some words she gets stuck on, but for the most part she can sound them out and it has just blown us away. All of these milestones in her life have just seemed to happen overnight, and evidently reading happened the same way! At the end of the school year she was tested for her reading level and she tested end of 1st grade/beginning of second! She's also learned a lot outside of reading and math through her gifted class. She loves telling us about plants and presidents and all kinds of topics. I think the extra simulation was a great thing for her behavior this year - she may or may not have gotten in her share of trouble when she started off - and she loved every second of her experience in Kindergarten! 

Her favorite parts were going to art, the field trip to the zoo, and having fun with her friends :)

Tanner has grown leaps and bounds when it comes to his speech, and unless he is trying to make funny voices - which happens more and more frequently - you can understand him about 90%+ of the time. He met all of his goals that his speech therapist set for him and she is thrilled with his progress. The preschool program provided books once a month for him to bring home and three field trips which we loved. They had bubble fest and both kids loved the preschool/kindergarten dance and field day! Tanner has done great learning his sounds and is picking up tons of sight words from his big sister. He also had an awesome teacher who we will forever love. We have been so blessed with amazing teachers that truly love our kids and we couldn't ask for anything more! 

His favorite parts of preschool were art, P.E., and his field trip to the beach :)

 

Preschool and Kindergarten Graduation came with ceremonies that were adorable and the kids loved the cake and punch at the end :) We had a great last week of school playing games and Tanner came home with an awesome portfolio of all of his best work and a class picture. It's a great keepsake. Report cards came yesterday and they were perfect! Now we are relaxing, keeping up with our studies in our workbooks (which the kids can't get enough of), and getting ready for the big move to the new school in the fall!! Happy Summer :)

Tanner's Zootastic Birthday!

On Saturday we had Tanner's 5th birthday party at the zoo. Because of the various spring breaks around the region and Easter we decided to have his party a little late this year. We lucked out with the most beautiful day for the party and everyone had a great time! We had a party room with four animals for the kids to learn about and touch. The kids had a great time playing, learning about the animals, and then eating pizza and cupcakes before heading out to explore the zoo for the rest of the afternoon. Many of our friends and family came for the party and the Ingrams came up for the weekend so they could be there too! Tanner was a happy boy and we had a wonderful weekend!

Easter 2014 and Nana's Birthday!

Birthday season concludes on Nana's (Grandma, Mom, Genevieve...she has a lot of names now that she is a great-grandma) birthday April 20th which also happened to be Easter this year. We celebrated with a beautiful church service and then a nice brunch out. We spent some time playing with our new Easter goodies and watching Frozen (I know we waited a long time to give it to them). In the afternoon we all went to the nursing home for Nana's birthday party. We made her a cake and brought balloons and she seemed to be pretty aware of everyone that was there. It's tough to think that just one year ago she was living at home and eating at The Cheesecake Factory on her birthday, but we were there to make this birthday special no matter where we had to do it....you never know how many more you might get! The kids were all great with her and all of the people living in the nursing home loved having Tanner walk by and say Happy Easter with his big beautiful smile :) It was a great day filled with family, faith, and love!

Tanner is FIVE...and spring break :)

We've been celebrating Tanner turning FIVE for over a week now! We started with cupcakes for his class...which I had to buy from a specific store and get approved by the main office so they weren't what I wanted but the kids don't really care...and then we jumped in the car to head to Georgia for Philip's wedding.

 

When we came home we had spring break waiting for us! We were all thrilled to have a few days off, one of which included Tanner's birthday. We filled his room with balloons the night before and we woke up a very happy kiddo :)

 

For his actual day Daddy got off work early and we headed to Busch Gardens with our friends the Thurston's (aka. Officer Furston). We got lucky with the threat of rain that never really came and nice cool but not cold temperatures. Both of these things along with the fact that most cities were not on spring break yet gave us a nice empty park to have fun in! Tanner had a great time and even got ice cream when we went out to dinner before heading home.

The rest of the week was spent with a healthy mixture of getting things done around the house and relaxing as much as possible. On Friday we had a lot of family and friends come to Friendly's for Tanner's birthday dinner. He likes this choice because you get ice cream with your meal! He loved running around with the other kids and getting some more presents! Soon to come will be his actual party held at the zoo and we can't wait to have a wild time there :)

What can I say about my crazy, charming, hilarious, wild, cautious, independent, little man??? He's just every piece of deliciousness I could ever want in a little boy and we are oh so very thankful for this guy! What God knew I needed after Izabel was a child that will cuddle and snuggle and this is what He gave me with this sweet sweet boy!! His speech has come so far and you can understand him at least 90% of the time the first time he says something. He's been learning a lot at school - and getting in plenty of trouble - and having the best time with his little friends :) He's finishing up gymnastics this month and moving on to t-ball which he is thrilled about. He loves reading stories, playing cards, playing on the iPad, riding his scooter, and watching movies! He's certainly a handful - I think we're just now getting the worst of the terrible twos - but we love him more than we ever thought we could and our lives gets better everyday because he's in them!

Philip and Ashley's Wedding

This past weekend we made a quick drive down to Georgia for my cousin Philip's wedding. This is not the first wedding for either of them...they've been down some rough roads and it's taken a little extra time to come to this point. Philip is such an amazing man and we have always prayed for him to find someone deserving of his loving and giving nature...someone who would love him the way he deserves to be loved. He has finally found that in Ashley, and I am thrilled for their beautiful family and happy to welcome Ashley and Eva Joy into ours. 

Birthday Season and my 30th!

We call March and April birthday season for my family because we start March 9th and go until April 20th with 8 birthdays in-between! It's busy and it gets expensive, but I love getting the whole family together so frequently. This year we got together for pizza and cake for Matthew's birthday at Amy's house and then celebrated Keith's birthday at Mom's house. Me, mom, dad are just a few days apart so we celebrated all three birthdays this past Sunday at my house. Amy and I split the responsibilities and everything went wonderfully.

On Saturday I turned 30...I know I'm still kind of in shock myself! I spent the weekend hanging out with the kids, getting a little pampered and then spent the evening with my amazing sister! Noah was out of town so it was a quiet weekend, but it was wonderful. It's crazy to think that I'm not in my twenties anymore and I have joked plenty about being sad about being so old. In all seriousness though I am excited to turn 30. I'm so very blessed to have such an amazing family, great friends, and a good job. I am proud of where I am in life and what we have been able to accomplish. I know who I am now and I am the person I want to be. I'm happy and content but not complacent. I'm very for all of the adventures and challenges that this decade is sure to bring!!

My students always make me feel special. They might drive me crazy but I love them!

Tanner's Lunch Date!

**Today's post brings us up to date! Yay!! Make sure you scroll down as there have been a lot of posts the past few days :) 

Tanner's "girl"friend Kaylee had Monday off from school along with her mom so they wanted to have a playdate with Tanner. Unfortunately we had a makeup day because of all the snow. Instead of missing another chance Kaylee met Tanner at school for lunch! They brought Chick-fil-a and had a great time with each other! Tanner was the happiest boy the rest of the day :)