August 2013

July 2013

Tank's 3rd Birthday!

Tank has been looking forward to his birthday party for several months now!! We decided long before his birthday to have a Mickey Mouse theme! Just weeks before his birthday he went to see his first movie in the theater, Monsters University! He began to love the characters in Monsters Inc. but we still pulled off a great Mickey birthday party! It was fun to have some new friends and great to host families that were at his first and second birthday parties too! I made the birthday cake for the first time on my own. It is easier to make it when I am not in my own kitchen! I tend to feel rushed and want to get onto other things much quicker, but it tasted great! Our gift to Tank was the bounce house. He and his friends had a lot of fun playing and jumping in it! We are grateful lots of family made the trip as well! Our little man is another year older! We love you Tank!

Fun in June

Strawberry Patch

Our first time strawberry picking!!! We had a blast meeting the Moms group out to pick a bunch of strawberries. The farmer assigned us a row and we went at it! It was a very hot day and the kids had a blast! Tapanga ate a few bites here and there even though I tried my best at showing them how to pick them (only the red ones) and put them in our bucket! We didn't pick long and decided to spread out our picnic blanket and enjoy our treats!

IL trip May 2013

Kentucky Derby

Kentucky Celebration

The kids did so well in the 12 hour car ride to Tammy's graduation!  This was Tank's first big trip in the car long distance completely potty trained!  Not one accident!!  We spend three nights in KY with Aunt  Laura and Uncle Kevin celebrating Tammy's PHD graduation!  The rest of the family met us there for lots of fun activities for the weekend!  Sunday we drove to IL for spend the next week at Na Na's and Paca's!   It was a treat to spend time with Aunt Trysta, Aunt Tam and Eric for a few more days!!  Tank helped with the horses several mornings!  Tapanga was very excited meeting all the horses again and she loved the barn cat!  She has no fear when it comes to animals.  Tank rode Cherry the pony for the first time!!  He also rode the ponies at Keeneland and didn't want to get off.  I think the difference was those ponies were smaller as well as it was a western saddle.  I had a great Mother's Day with my mom!

Tapanga's 15 month well check up!

Tapanga 15 mo.

Words, words, words that Tapanga can say up to  15 months old:  apple, milk (1x), amen, hi, bye (100x) with a wave, book, bubbles, bath, thank you (1x),  good (1x), woof, baa, neigh, moo (a little bit), baby,

Signs:  hat, all done, more (100x), eat, book, please (100x),

She goes to the closet and gets her shoes, brings them to me and points outside.  She really wants to go everywhere and do everything Tank does.  Her new thing at the end of 15 mo. old is climbing up on the dining room chairs and onto the table.  She also likes helping load the dishwasher!  She loves loves Alvin!!

She loves giving hugs and kisses and does this to her friends too!  She is pretty cuddly.  Hates baths!  Loves swimming!  Loves books!  Loves to eat!!  Her appetite is bigger than Tank's current appetite.

I have started putting her hair in a rubber band.  She leaves it in for a little bit :/

Tank continues to be a great big brother.  He is very protective of her.  Recently he wants to include her with everything.  If he gets a snack, "Tapanga snack?"  He makes sure she is also going down for a nap.  Bath, yes!  "Tapanga bath too?!!  Which again she doesn't like baths at the moment!

He loves going down the slide holding her hand!  Thanks Na Na!

Mommy gives Tank a haircut!

Tank has had four haircuts to date:  4/8  two paid for, two by mommy!  Yes I finally bit the bullet and decided to scissor cut his hair without any training!  He sits real still in the bath tub and watches Minnie Bowties on You tube!!  He even fetches the stool and puts it in the bath tub himself.  I guess he has watched Dada get his hair cut every 2-3 weeks and knows the drill!  Tank even lets me use the clipper to edge around his ears and neckline!!  What a trooper!!!

Easter 2013!

Easter came early this year and the weather was cold!!  We were fortunate enough to be invited to an Easter Egg hunt at our neighbor's church.  Both kids had a blast!!  Tank actually loved hunting for the eggs and did very well!!  Tapanga did awesome on her very first egg hunt to including picking up the eggs and putting them in the basket herself this year!!!  This is after she had to look at and inspect every egg to see what was inside!  LOL  After the hunt we enjoyed a nice hotdog and cupcake lunch provided by the church.  I signed up and paid for the Ida Lee Easter Egg hunt that afternoon.  Both kids came home pooped from the morning egg hunt, but I ended up conviencing Tank to go to the afternoon one as well.  The egg hunt wasn't any rave but Tank loved the "jump jumps"!!  aka Moonbounces that were set up all along the fields.  He just have jumped, slid, climbed, etc. for at least 30 minutes.  This was all happening as Tapanga and Chip were home taking naps!

Easter Sunday Tank woke up before 6 am to hunt for his Easter basket!!  He kept saying "Santa, Santa"!!  oh dear!!  He was very excited to receive a mickey puzzle, Berinstein Bears books, Mickey cup, Elmo juice, Bunny sippy cup.  Tapanga's basket had minnie cup, toy turtle, light up bunny necklace, books.  We dressed the kids in the outfits I sewed to go to church.  At church they hosted another Easter Egg hunt and had a Jump, Jump!  It was a pretty chilly day but we came home, ate some ham and relaxed!

Tapanga is 14 months!

Tapanga is a joy at 14 months old!!  She is walking everywhere, climbing onto everything, up and down the stairs independently, and its just beginning to walk on uneven surfaces since the weather is finally nice this week!  She likes to hold a hand and walk some though she is slow and gets distracted easily.  She tries to do a lot that Tank does and he has a short fuse for it sometimes.  Other times they laugh and play on the couch for a while together!

Tapanga loves to eat!  She can sit and eat and eat and isn't picky!  Her biting has calmed down and I just finished nursing her on 4/7.

This month continues her swim sessions.  She loves the water and can hold onto the side and put her leg up really well.  She loves when I lift her off the side into the water!!  Now that she says "duck", that is her favorite part of the class.  She even sees them in the bag at the beginning of the class and we don't duck hunt until the end.  Pending on the instructor there are also balls.  She says "ball" and gets excited to do this part of the lesson.  I have the kids in separate swim sessions so after Tank's class the three of us swim together afterward.  This makes quite the adventure in showering all of us and getting dressed!

Tapanga loves her baby dolls.  She is very possessive over any doll in front of other kids.  I have been babysitting my neighbor's twins and Tapanga did not want to share any of her baby dolls.  She has become very opinionated lately!  She and Tank even fight over them as well.  She will put her dolls in his truck and push them around the room!!  It's really cute!

We went to an Agriculture Day and there were lots of goats, sheep, rabbits, chickens, etc.  Tapanga is very brave and wanted to pet everything!!  Tank not so much!  I was kinda surprised!

St. Patrick's Day 2013

Tapanga's Firsts!

Tapanga is 13 mo.

Tank and Tapanga play well together even  though she will let a scream at times.  Sometimes its Tank's fault other times she doesn't want him near her.  She has bitten me and Tank on occasion.  She loves climbing up into Tank's bed during story time and playing.  Sometimes he likes her up there, sometimes not.  She loves books!!  She brings the books with her to bed, though throws everything else out of her crib!

The group of mom's that came to Tapanga's party continue to meet.  Its fun seeing all her friends at play groups and having them over to our house!

Tapanga loves Alvin and is still learning to be gentle! She says "woof woof" when she sees a dog.

It is still pretty cold out and winter keeps dragging on.  I have bundled the kids up a couple of times to the park.  Tank loves riding his bike to the park now too, if Mommy can stand the cold for a little bit.  

Valentine's Day 2013!

Tapanga's 12 month well check up!

Tapanga's One Year Photos

First Snow of 2013!

Tank wakes up before the sun so when we got up there was snow on the ground!!  He is so excited..."Snow, Snow"!!!  He wants to get right out there and play in it.  Getting both kids dressed at the same time can be time consuming but we made it!!  Tank even pulled Tapanga in the sled.  He also made snow angels!  The snow wasn't quite the consistency for a snow man, plus Mommy would be doing it while Tapanga is hanging out, anywayz didn't happen!!  Tank does point out every snowman along the way so maybe next winter!!

Tank is 2 1/2!

Tank and I had a very grown up and hilarious conversation today. 5/24   It went something like this:   He has been talking about GaGa (my MIL) and since he was on the subject I told him he was going to see her in another week.  Chip will be taking Tank and Tapanga there for a week while I fly to Germany.  Tank was asking if they were going to take the Pontiac.  I said no, the Ford.  Sford?!  Yes.  Why?  Because you and Tapanga's car seats are in that car.  Okay.  Yes.  (He always repeats Yes).  Alvin also got a haircut today preparing for the week's vacation and helping me check things off the to-do list!  Tank asked how I am going on my trip.  I said airplane.  Where is your seat?  I replied, window.  Window?  I replied yes, he replied yes.  I little while later he asked, "Your suitcase packed?"  I said not yet.  LOL  This was the conversation in the house after we just got back from picking up Alvin from the groomer.  While we were in the car he was worried where Tapanga was.  I said she was taking a nap.  Tank decided not to take a nap today.  He said when he is at GaGa's he sleeps in the crib.  I suggested he sleep in the big boy bed since he is potty trained.  He disagreed.  I am not sure I convinced him but sleeping in the crib will not help when he has to go potty and Daddy will be sleeping then you'll be stuck.  Stuck?  Yes.    He is all very intuitive about this next week approaching.

Tapanga's First Birthday!!

Our little angel is one year old!!  We went to Cartersville, VA to make the birthday cake with BB the week before.  She had a cupcake themed birthday party at the Leesburg Moose Lodge.  Chip made many crock pots of chili!  We had most of the family join us that could come and Tapanga's new friends as well.  We brought tents, tunnels, blocks, etc. from home so the kids would be entertained.  Pastor Chip gave a beautiful prayer and speech to Tapanga reflecting her first year of life!!  We were really blessed and overjoyed with love from all of our friends and family!

Tank's First trip to the Dentist

Tank's Trains and Creations