Tis the season!

Hello!  This blog is a combo of our Christmas letter and a few other updates of what's been going on!

Our Tanner Boo is three and a half years old!  He loves his preschool and is so proud of his handwriting and projects that he comes home with everyday.  His favorite color is orange.  His favorite food is noodles.  He loves to watch football.  Bobby and I took him to his first NFL game which was the Panthers vs. the Falcons.   He LOVED it!  He likes Cam "Nuku" and the Falcons.  He's a little confused, but hey....   He only had one minor meltdown and we were gone from the house from 10:30am to 7pm.  It was a long, but really fun day.  Now if only the Panthers had pulled off the win.....oh well, there's always next year!  His favorite movie is The Lord of the Rings (which he and Daddy watch together).  His favorite superhero is Spiderman.  (I did an interview with Tanner to get all of that previous info for our family Christmas card this year)  He loves to pretend that he is a Jedi and he makes almost anything into a Lightsaber.   He calls Brennan his "best friend," and is very sweet with him (most of the time).  He also has recently started calling him "chicken nugget."  Hehe!!

Brennan Bear is almost two years old!  He continues to be our little snuggle bug!  He started school for the first time and is doing great!  He gets really excited when going to school and loves to talk about his teacher and friends.  He finally started walking and now loves to strut his stuff.  He talks in two or three word sentences.  He calls Tanner "Te-Te."  He calls me "Mama."  It's really sweet in the store when I walk a few steps away from the cart and he calls "Mama, Mom, Maaaaama!" after me.  He has learned the dreaded word "mine."  He loves to go on walks or bike rides with Daddy.  He has become very interested in "choo-choo's," just like Tanner was at this age.  He loves all things Christmas, especially Santa.  When asked what Santa says, he responds "Ho, Ho."  He also enjoys watching "putball," and pretends to run with the football around the house.  When asked who plays football, he answers "NuNu."  

We have an exciting week coming up with lots of fun Christmas activities planned, the boys have their Christmas program and parties at school, then we will be traveling to see our family!  Hooray for Christmas!

Craftiness!

Here are a few of the projects that I have been working on (courtesy of Pintrest, of course)!!!




The first is pumpkins made from wine corks!  (Finally found a use for all of those)  I saw a pin about making Christmas trees and thought, hey, why can't I make pumpkins?  And I did!  I glued them together with E-6000 fast dry and painted them with acrylic paint!

The picture above is my ongoing family canvas photo wall.  I got the idea from Pintrest. Here is the link-  http://www.literallyinspired.com/2012/02/picture-perfect.html.

I made these mini-pumpkin pies for a "Taste of Fall" party that I threw at my house with my mommies group!  They were really good!  Here's the recipe:

Mini Pumpkin Pies

Crust:  2 c. flour

1 c. brown sugar

1 c. quick oatmeal

1 c. butter

Mix ingredients together and press into a greased mini muffin pan.  

Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes.

Filling:   1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon all spice
• 2 large eggs
• 1 can pumpkin
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• Mix all ingredients until well blended.  Put about a teaspoon 
• and a half in each mini crust.  Bake at 350 for an additional 
• 12-15 minutes.  Yields about 48 mini pies!

For those of you who are not on Pintrest and are wondering why I am doing a blog about these crafts/recipe, it is just in order to pin it on Pintrest.  I wish you could pin from Facebook, but oh well!

The Latest!

Wow, it has been a long time since I have blogged.  Well, may as well jump right into it.....

Brennan:  My sweet "baby" is no longer a baby.  He is a walking, talking, bundle of joy!!  He is going through a major Daddy phase right now.  He says so many words:  "Tete" for Tanner, "But-buy" for pumpkin (?), "gape" for grape,  "caw" for car, "none" for done, "put-ball" for football, along with shoes, ball, night night, woof woof and a ton more that I can't think of right now!  His fave thing to do is to go on bike rides with Daddy.  He started school in August and loves it!  He still cries when the teachers get him out of the car, but calms down quickly.  His teacher said that he loves to do his art projects and that he is a really good eater!  Hehe!!  Before bed, he likes for me to read him a book.  He brings over his dog and bear to sit in the chair with us.  When reading books, he pretends to pick up and eat the things on the page.  Cute when he's "eating" a strawberry, not so cute when he "eats" a cat!  He gives his animals and us lots of kisses.  He watches Tanner very closely and likes to repeat everything that T does.

Tanner:  My big boy started playing soccer and is doing pretty well!  He used his hands quite a bit during the first practice, but since then, he hardly ever does!  Since he is only 3, either Bobby or I have to participate with him during practice, which is really fun for all.  He LOVES his new school!  He didn't cry a all this year when going to school.  He talks about all of his friends and his teacher everyday when I pick him up.  His school is very academic focused, but they teach the concepts through play (and there is no pressure), so I love that!  He has become totally obsessed with Star Wars. He constantly talks about who is mean and nice.  He finds sticks in the yard that become his light sabers.  Brennan even copies him by waving his arm around and saying "pshhh, pshhh."  Boys!!  He has begun to play more pretend playing now.  He plays going out to eat, going grocery shopping, and wait for it....Star Wars!  He got a big boy bike with two wheels and training wheels.  He has done really well with it!  He loves to hit the tee-ball set that Bobby got him for his birthday.

Visitors-My Grandma came to visit from Colorado last week!  We had so much fun with her here!  We shopped (of course), relaxed outside, and the best part was taking Tanner to the bowling alley!  He really liked bowling and had a few decent rolls!  Auntie Jacqui and Uncle Tony came to visit the first week of August.  Tony could only stay one night, but Jac stayed for a whole week!  It was awesome having my bestie here!!!  Bobby had to work out of town, so Jac was my replacement hubby!  :)  She helped me take the kids to school, she did all of the dishes, and we watched trash TV at night!  What fun!!!  My cousin, Lizzy came and stayed with us for almost a week.  Another fun week!!!  John, Lorie and LJ visited earlier in the summer.  We had a blast playing HORSE and going to the Braves game!  :)

Beach Trip- In July, we traveled to my in-laws beach house for a week.  We camped in our new camper in order to break up the 8 hour ride.  It was pretty awful, but since then we have gone again and it was better.  Ok, back to the beach trip.  We got to hang with my SIL and her family the first day/night.  It was wonderful seeing all of the cousins playing!  For the rest of our time there, we had my nephew staying too!  Tanner and him had so much fun together!  We went on Papa's boat, swam in the ocean, went to the aquarium, and the highlight was taking the two older boys to the amusement park!  They had a blast and rode everything that they could!!!  We also had a fun adult evening out with the Owens', followed by a camper dance party.

Tanner's third birthday-We celebrated T's birthday at home with just my mom this year.  He wanted a Shrek birthday so Bobby and I made him a Shrek cake.  I baked, Bobby decorated.  Tanner liked his cake so much that when Bobby's birthday came around, he asked if Daddy was going to have a Shrek cake too!

That's all for now.  I will try to do a better job at keeping this blog current, but no promises!  :)

Randomness

This blog is going to highlight some of Tanner's and my random thoughts.  I'll start with me.

Friendships-Until I moved I didn't realize how lucky I was to have made such wonderful friends in the Carolinas.  The past two weeks, it has really hit me:  I have not made any friends (yet), and I am in need of some.  I am thinking back to when Jacqui and I first became friends.  It was so easy and it just seemed to fall into place naturally.  But we were also young(er), with less obligations and more free time.  On the bright side, it's summer and my besties are out of school, so hopefully they come to visit very soon!  (Hint, hint)  ;)

Family life-I feel bad complaining about the lack of friends because our family life is so wonderful here!  It's great having Bobby here every night!  The boys love seeing Daddy everyday!!  The boys also love our yard.  We go on walks almost every day (sometimes with Bobby).  We pick wild blackberries, pet the horses, and Tanner picks me "mother's day" flowers!

Mom and Jon visit-My mom and Jon came and stayed with us for about week. We had lots of fun!  Jon helped Bobby make a stone wall in the basement where his office is going to go.  Jon also made the boys a teeter-totter, which Brennan really loves!! Mom and I played with the boys and did some shopping.

Tanner's random thoughts-My almost three year old has decided that I am now to be called "Mom."  Not Mommy, but Mom....really???  Already, he's too cool to call me Mommy???  :(  When his song comes on in the car, he says "That's my jam!" Then him and Brennan dance in their car seats and giggle!  His jam is number 1 and 6 of the new Shins album...no, I do know the names of the songs!   Bobby bought him a camo "mom-mow" hat and now he calls all hats "mom-mow hats."  He loves to start sentences with well. Ex:  "Well, I'm going to play on my mom-mow.  Well, I want wogurt (yogurt)."  He has also developed a fear.   He is afraid that "Baa Baa Black Sheep" is coming to get him.  If you have seen the YouTube video, the sheep is really creepy.  He closes all of the doors in the house "so Baa Baa doesn't come in."  He asks me if Baa Baa is coming.  It really make me sad that he has developed this fear.  I'm sure it's normal, but I don't want him to be worrying about something coming to get him.  That breaks my heart!  He has also decided that he will no longer nap.  Mommy is NOT happy about this one!!!  But I can't make him sleep.  I do, however, make him have quiet time in his room for most of Brennan's nap.  (If not, I will have two non-napping boys)  Tanner picked a bad time of year to quit napping, since it's light out when he has to go to bed (based on the amount of his crankiness b/c of not napping), but oh well!

I feel like there is more, but I can't think of it now.  So, that's all!!

Mother's Day

This year was my third Mother's Day, and it was the best one yet!!!  My mom came and spent the weekend with us.  Bobby cooked us tasty steaks on Sat for our Mother's day dinner, then we sat out on the rocking chairs and had some drinks.  It was so relaxing!  My mom had to leave on Sunday early because it takes her a long time to get home now and it was raining like crazy.  Therefore, I went out shopping on my own.  Shopping with no kids is such a joy!!!  :)  I went to Kohl's and Target, got some cute clothes and a few things for the house as well.  When I came home, both of the boys were napping, so I tried to take a nap, but couldn't (unfortunately, that has been the case for a while now.  And you know how much I love my naps!!)  After the boys got up from their naps, they gave me the cards that they made me.  Tanner was so excited to give them to me! I got three cards, one from Tanner, Brennan, and Bobby.  All of the cards had tickets for me to pick.  Tanner was sure to tell me that I could only pick one each day and helped me choose the tickets.
I have now picked all of the tickets from each card.  Tanner's were things like "clean up toys, help make dinner, vacuum, etc."  Brennan's were "stop fussing, clean my plate (which he always does), kisses, etc"  And Bobby's were.....well let's just say that they all said the same thing!  I'll leave it at that.
Bobby and I put the kids to bed and had a romantic dinner just the two of us, then watched a movie.  It was a fun and relaxing Mother's day.  I am so blessed to have Bobby as my hubby and best friend.  I am so blessed to have two sweet and loving little boys.  And I am also so blessed to have the world's best mommy (I know, I am biased), who celebrated 3 years of not smoking this Mother's day!

What's up?

What's up?  Well, tons!  I have so many updates I don't even know where to start! But here goes nothing:

The BIG move:  We made our big move near Atlanta.  We are about 45 mins north of the city, right near the mountains!  Our house has everything we need, a playroom for the boys, a big kitchen, a nice open living room, and a huge yard!  We are so happy with our new house, but we miss all of our friends in the Carolinas!  Come visit!!  :)

Potty'ing:  Tanner is working on potty'ing!!  He found his "big boy" underwear (CARS) and asked if he could wear them.  I told him that he had to tell Mommy when he had to pee or poop if he's wearing them. He agreed, and we put them on.  Five mins and two pairs of underwear later, I gave up!  Then the next morning, he asked again and I said "Ok, let's try again."  This time he only had 1 accident, which was when we were playing outside, and ever since then, he has been wearing underwear all day except when sleeping!!  :)  We started with rewarding him with candy (M&M's) when we used the potty.  I told him if he went poop on the potty, he could have a LOT of candy.....he somehow managed to poop every time he used the potty.  Then he would get made if I only gave him 1 piece of candy.  Lesson learned....only 1 piece of candy for using the potty!!!  He has been using the potty for about a month now, and he hardly ever asks for candy anymore, but if he does, I still give him a piece!  :)

Easter:  My mom and Jon came for Easter sunday.  We did an egg hunt with the boys and fried a turkey.  Our first holiday in our new house-what fun!

My cousin, Stephanie's, wedding:  Bobby and I traveled to Asheville for my cousin's wedding.  My in-laws came to watch the boys, so we had an adult weekend (Woohooo)  :)  On Friday night, we went to the reception dinner.  We had so much fun drinking and catching up with family!!  Saturday, Bobby and I walked around downtown Asheville.  Bobby made sure that we hit up every craft beer bar, well maybe not EVERY, but many!  We did a little shopping with the fam and went back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding!!  The wedding was wonderful!  Stephanie looked stunning, Rob's family did the music for the ceremony, and the dance floor was hopping!!  Congrats Stephanie and Rob!!  :)

Brennan:  My baby is almost 15 months old!  He is cruising (a little) on the furniture, but not walking yet.  He loves to dance and clap his hands.  He just started blowing kisses!  It's the sweetest!!

That's all I can think of, I am sure that I have missed a few things, but it's getting late and I'm sleepies!  Here's some pics for ya!!