The Big 3-OH!

Well, I guess it's official...I'm an adult. After seeing the picture of me and the girls standing in front of a cake with a big 30 on it, I finally felt kinda grown up. On my actual birthday I had to work, but everyone made it extra special for me. Micah came in the house before I left bearing a lovely snowman cake. I would have been very disappointed if he hadn't shown up with a random character cake! Summer brought me a cake and a big button to wear that said old, old, old, old...thanks! The day before was moving day for us, so I was able to wake up in my new house (although it's far from being presentable....lots of decorating and unpacking still to be done). I also became an aunt again...baby Carter (Jeremy and Sarah's son) was born on my b-day...what a fun thing to share with him! Then, this past weekend Micah took me and 3 of our couple friends to San Antonio to see The Lion King musical! I've seen it once before and absolutely loved it, so he knew that I would love it again. He was actually able to keep it a secret from me up until a few days before. I was very impressed that the girls played it cool and didn't leak any info either.

Thanks for making my birthday extra special!!

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving holiday visiting Micah's family in Alabama. We always love staying at his Aunt and Uncle's farm house...so beautiful!




Annalee had a blast getting to know all of the cousins and aunts and uncles. Of course, her Jo Jo is always a fav.



Grace and Papa (wearing his infamous turkey shirt!)




Annalee also befriended their cat, Tina. Here, she decided to read Tina a story...it was about Jo Jo, Papa, and baby Jesus!

Grace did awesome on her first plane trip!

And Annalee was in heaven on the way home after Papa scored a great deal on a portable Dvd player!

6 Months!

I can never pick just one pic each month for Grace's monthly post! She is half a year old already!! For the special occasion she decided to cut her first tooth. Amazing. She also celebrated by trying rice cereal for the first time and was definitely not a fan. We'll work on that one some more. A few days later while we were headed to Alabama for Thanksgiving, she learned how to say "da da da da." I love hearing those sweet sounds. What a growing girl!

Sittin' Pretty

Looked who learned to sit all by herself this week!




Who is this big girl??

How Could I Forget??

I almost forgot to mention that we bought a house!! It's under renovation right now, but should be ready to move into in the next couple of weeks. Can't wait to show before and after pictures when it's done.

Cutest Almost 6 Month-Old Ever!

Trick-or-Treat

I guess I better get my Halloween pictures up! We had a great time trick-or-treating with Caleb(he was a ninja turtle...handmade by JoJo!) this year. Annalee was Snow White and Grace was a dalmation. Side note story: Weeks ago I ordered the girl's costumes-both dalmation puppies. Annalee was all into 101 Dalmations and she said she wanted to be one for Halloween. Well, that was a rookie mom mistake. Never again will I prepare a costume weeks in advance because she changed her mind! She started asking to be Snow White and I started thinking that would be cuter than a puppy, so the hunt began. I finally found one on Craigslist and she has worn it just about every day since! We couldn't come up with a coordinating costume for Grace, so she stuck with the puppy. Random...Snow White and a puppy dog. (Micah nixed the idea of letting her be a dwarf!)

Fun, Fun, Fun!

We've been thoroughly enjoying the beautiful weather lately!! This week we ventured out to the zoo with Caleb and Sarah (along with every other school-aged child on a field trip!). Unfortunately, we had to leave a little early because Caleb wasn't feeling well, but we sure did have fun while it lasted! Annalee wanted to hold Grace while we waited in the parking lot. Such sweet sisters!

Then, today we got to spend some quality time with Grammy! Such fun!

This is just a cute pic of Grace and her friend Will...their first official picture together! They are 9 weeks apart. Poor Will is surrounded by girls when we hang out.

5 Months!

Grace turned 5 months old yesterday! She is just as sweet as ever! Here's some milestones and tidbits from the past month.

• doing MUCH better in the sleep department...I won't say exactly because it always jinxes me, but we have definitely improved.
• she is getting close to sitting up on her own, she can do it in our laps, but is still wobbly on the floor
• can roll easily from front to back and back to front
• she outgrew the bassinet...this was a major reason for our sleep progress...loves the big girl crib!
• I had to stop swaddling her because she is so active in her bed
• she's a slobberer! wow, annalee never slobbered this much...we are soaking our outfits everyday
  
  

Pet Peeve

Does anyone else hate it when you're at the check-out counter at the grocery store or Target and the person behind you is all up in your space?? Tonight I had to say excuse me to the lady behind me in line so that I could get to the credit card machine to sign my receipt! Seriously...back up people. The fact that your crowding me does not make the process go any faster.

Fall Extravaganza

Oh boy, how I love fall! Today we literally had a fall extravaganza. We have to take full advantage of the time that Micah is home all day, so we planned a fun-filled day with fall activities.

We started the morning off with pumpkin pancakes! Yum!


1 1/4c flour
2 tbs sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cloves
whisk these ingredients in a bowl.

in a separate bowl combine:
1 c milk
6 tbs pumpkin puree
2 tbs melted butter
1 egg
mix well and fold the two mixtures together and make pancakes! This recipe will make about 10 pancakes and you can make 2 batches of them out of one can of pumpkin.

The wonderful cook!



Our buddy Brady dropped by (with his fun parents too)! Annalee took this picture of him! She also took about a dozen others, but this was the best!



Next, we grabbed some Chipotle because kids eat free on Sundays in October! Then we headed over to a farmer's market for some photo ops and to purchase our yearly mini pumpkin patch. The Wardlaws had joined us by now....always a good time.















At first, Grace was asleep, but I had to have her picture at her first pumpkin patch even if she was sleeping through the whole thing!

Next on the agenda...NAPS. We actually managed to get all 4 kids asleep at the same time. Meanwhile the guys watched the football game. After David and Annalee woke up it was cookie time!

Wow, what a day! Can't wait for more fall fun!

Jammies

I love cute jammies! I love them even more now that I can buy matching ones for the girls. I know that no one sees them but us, but I just can't help myself! Random thought; what term do you use for pajamas? Another thought; what do you think of when you hear the word toboggan? (Karson, this one's for you!) And one last one; do you use the word cart or buggy when referring to the push device used to carry your groceries around the store? I personally like the word buggy!

Fun Times

How about some random pictures of what we've been up to lately?





This is Annalee and her little friend Sydney at the FWC homecoming parade. I had grand plans of making her a cute shirt that said "Go Cards!" but my printer wouldn't work!! Thanks for the pom-pom Brittney!








Sydney and Brittney cheering on the cardinals.








The other day we popped in on Karson and Mallory and the girls had so much fun playing together. I cracked up when Annalee came driving around the corner in a pink car! She was actually a pretty good driver.




Look who's loving life in the exersaucer. I busted it out the other day since we've outgrown the swing. She thinks she's big stuff now. I love how her eyes get a little googly when she stares at the toys too close.





Of course Annalee had to get in on the action and utilize the snack tray for her own goodies....yes she likes Thomas!

4 months!

That's right folks, Grace is 4 months old today. My little butterball is just the greatest ever. (except at night right now, we've done some MAJOR regressing in the sleep department...argh!)
I love these pics, the first one shows some awesome drool...our new favorite past time apparently and the second one proves that she does indeed have the Tanner chin, it's just hiding under a few other ones!

So sorry that this video is sideways...I was holding the camera funky, but I had to post her giggling at sister.

Whew!

Wow, we made it....today was the first day of school. I pretty much felt like a pack mule schlepping my two children, 3 bags, and a nap mat into school today. The morning started off way too early with Grace waking up at 6:30 raring to go and then Annalee following not too long after, but we managed to get dressed, fed and out the door on time. The girls did great in their classes today. I'm so glad there is only one first day of school, because I was beat by the end of the day!

Busy Weekend

What a fun weekend we had! It was super busy, but loads of fun. Micah and his brother, Jeremy, "camped out" with Caleb and Annalee. We want to be able to do some camping this fall, but we needed a trial run in case Annalee hated it, so they set up shop in the backyard. To say that she loved it would be an understatement. She was literally dripping with sweat because she was having so much fun. They stayed up past 11pm!

Their little campsite.



Wrestling with the cuz...this is where most of the sweat originated.



Jumping on the air mattresses. This went on and on!



Micah's sister, Rachel, and her husband were in town for a visit as well. It was great to spend some quality time with them too.




We also attended our BFF's 2nd birthday party...happy b-day Mallory!



Annalee thoroughly enjoyed herself.

Weeeee!

Well, hello friend.