Milestone Birthdays!

Over the course of almost a month, the kids all turned 1, 3 & 5! We went in for their yearly check ups and got all their latest stats!


Hadley: 1 Year

Weight: 20 lbs 6 oz, which is the 30th percentile
Height: 29 3/4 inches, which is the 55th percentile

Hadley is almost walking and is an exceptionally fast crawler! She babbles on and on, says Hi, Mama, Dada, and beep beep when she pushes on your nose. She loves all kinds of foods, but is having a hard time with whole milk-she thinks its pretty gross! She has 7 teeth, She is such a good and fun little baby!

Carter: 3 Years

Weight: 31 lbs, which is the 50th percentile
Height: 41 inches, which is the 95th percentile

Carter is a joy! We love to listen to him talk and explain what is going on to us! He will bombard you with questions which I just adore! He loves to play and has a vivid imagination. He is doing so well with his potty training, I love that most days I do not have to clean up poop! Carter is such a smart and fun loving little boy!

Tanner: 5 Years

Weight: 45 lbs, which is the 80th percentile
Height: 48 inches, which is the 97th percentile

Tanner is a great kid! He is a super big brother to Carter and Hadley. He is very articulate and knows just what he wants. This is helpful to me! Tanner loves to play and swim. There is never a dull moment at our home!

Dr. Baker is the voice of reason for me! I come in to the office with questions and concerns which are dealt with, fixed, or my mind is put at ease. It is so refreshing and encouraging to me! All the kids are healthy and doing great. We feel so blessed!

The big 1 year old at her birthday party!

After getting their immunizations, the brothers are wiped out! I will say, it is difficult to watch a baby get shots, but the older they get, the worse it is for me! The boys can tell the nurses to stop, and tell them they are hurting them. It is awful!

A little something fun!

I decided to go ahead and try making my own laundry detergent. I figured it couldn't be too difficult and probably would save me some money! I was correct! The cast of characters for home made laundry detergent is one bar of Fels-Naptha, one cup of Borax and one cup of Baking Soda. I think I was able to buy all three items, which included two big boxes of the Borax and Baking soda for around $7.00.

I shredded the Fels-Naptha in my food processor and then added just a cup of each of the Baking Soda and Borax and mixed well again all in the food processor!

It took me all of about 3 minutes! It smelled WONDERFUL too! Something that I wasn't expecting and was worried about as well...Can't wait to see how it performs!
Finished product! The directions said to keep in an air tight container and use only 2 tablespoons per large size load! There is about 3 cups of detergent in this container and I only need to use 2 tablespoons per load. That's quite a lot of loads and I still have lots of Baking Soda and Borax left to do it all over again when I run low. Money saved! Yay!

The art of asking questions

It is very interesting how the human mind works. I have the need to justify everything, to explain and understand everything, in order to feel safe. I have millions of questions that need answers because there are so many things that my reasoning mind cannot explain. It is not important if the answer is correct; just that the answer itself makes me feel safe. This is why I make assumptions. I make all sorts of assumptions because I don’t have the courage to ask questions. Get ready because that is all about to change!

I've noticed that my kids, the 2 that can talk, ask the best questions! I can and do learn so much from them. Carter had a slew of questions for Dr. Baker last week and he sat down with him and answered every last one, including where he parked his car. I'm not sure why this was important, but it was, and it got answered.

It feels good when people ask me questions. I want to be better about asking people questions too. I don't want to pry into business where I am not welcome, but I want to make people feel like I care about them, when I really really do care about them! So, the next time I ask you a hundred questions, it's all out of love!

Fun Family Weekend!

We spent a wonderful weekend up at the cabin with Tyler's family. It was a blast and so much fun to get to visit with everyone, especially the people that we don't get to see very often. It was a fantastic reunion and I wish it had lasted longer! I tried to get Tyler to take Monday off so we could stay, but he didn't bite!

I can't say enough great things about my in-laws! I am very blessed to have these people in my life. Not only are they my family because I married Tyler, but they are also my friends!

As I went through my pictures, I realized I didn't take that many! Luckily Jill and Shannan were snapping away too so I will have to share some of theirs!

Jason had a very cool lighted Boccie Ball set which! Here are the boys playing it!

Caden, Carter and Tanner getting ready for bed. These 3 boys are hilarious, it's never a dull moment!

After a full day of boating and playing in the dirt pile, Tyler gave the boys a shower Saturday night (I hope this picture isn't too crazy!) but I couldn't resist! So cute!

Carter with cousin Ty!

Matt, Liana, Jill and Bruce checking out pictures!

Caden and Grandma!

Sandy, Corky, Rick & Denise!

Tyler and Aunt Kat

Terry took Tanner for a ride in the Razor! Tanner was beyond excited!

Caden and Carter eating Bananas on the boat!

Carter and Caden playing on the beach!

Lauren!

Tanner and Casey getting ready to ride the tube!

Bowling!

Earlier this week I took the boys bowling. It was so much! I dropped Hadley off at my friend Lisa's house to play with Chelsea and Makayla and have a little "girl time"! This way, I was able to treat the boys to a fun morning with my full attention! It was a blast! Kids bowl free at Westy's, they put up the bumpers, and the boys had a blast!

The brothers getting ready to bowl!

Carter, he has great form! He bowled a 51! Way to go little dude!

Tanner did awesome! He even got a spare! I was so impressed!

Swimming Lessons!

The brothers are taking swimming lessons this summer. We stumbled across this great swim teacher, Miss Nicole, through one of my neighbors and she is wonderful! The boys are almost half way through lessons right now and have made such huge progress I am so impressed!

Tanner was very excited from the beginning to start swimming lessons with Miss Nicole. Carter was not very excited to do swim lessons, and even less excited when he started. He cried through the entire first lesson. The second lesson he cried through the first half and laughed through the second half. Today, he made a huge break though and didn't cry at all! In fact, he even swam by himself today!

Today, both boys swam across the short side of the pool all by themselves! Wow!

Carter crying on the first day while Miss Nicole swam around the pool with him.

Carter's little swim class. Miss Nicole bribes them with a pirates treasure chest full of toys!

Tanner learning how to do "big arms"!

Tanner giving me the thumbs up after he took his turn!

Carter, still crying........

Tanner starting to swim!

Goofing Around

Sometimes big boys get so tired towards the end of the day.

They get so tired they fall sound asleep on the floor!

I'm not even really sure how this happened!

For part of Tanner's special day on July 1, he got to have lots of treat! One of them was driving daddy's pick up truck! Happy birthday to our big 5 year old!

Tanner and Carter pretending to be scarecrows out in the garden. They started standing there about an hour before Daddy was supposed to be home waiting for him. I finally had to go out and tell them to keep playing and I would let them know when Daddy was closer to being home so they could surprise him!

Tanner got a birthday balloon which he promptly let float up to the ceiling. Our ceiling in this particular area of over 20 feet tall and we do not have a ladder to reach the top. So, the balloon is living up there and still holding strong 5 days later! It says Make a Wish on it and I really wish it would float back down!

4th of July Weekend!

Happy 4th of July! Our street throws a mean 4th of July bash and it was great fun! We got to meet more of our great neighbors, celebrated with friends and family and had a wonderful night! Tyler had gone to Fat City the week prior to load up on fireworks that are "not for residential use", I think that might be code for illegal too. That just makes it more fun in my opinion! Dave, one of our neighbors had built a launching station for these fireworks too! Cammie said it best when she said that this is like Christmas for these guys and that Chris might no have slept the night before out of shear excitement! How true!

Tyler, ready to start the bbq an light off some fireworks!

Becky rented the kids bounce houses!

Mimi and Hadley!

Chad sporting his 4th of July headband!

Chloe and Inara

Brennan and Carter

Addy!

Tanner, Carter & Kristin.

Tyler and me!

Carter & Auntie Cammie

Tyler, Pete and Dave bbqing!

The big boys a the launching station just waiting for it to get dark!

Carter, Orion & Tanner watching the show!

The kids doing sparklers!

Party in the street! It was so much fun! We can't wait for many more street parties with these people!

Tanner with his sparkler

Corey, Adrienne & Orion

Kristin and Carter

Sparkler fun!

Carter with his sparkler

Kristin and Carter doing sparklers!

Mimi and Carter during the firework show!

Jock teaching Carter how to throw a smoke bomb!

Happy 4th!