Blocks and Buzz-Cuts

We spent Memorial Day weekend at home and ended up having a lot of fun! Hailey asked if she could have a puppy and sadly the answer was no.




So we made a lego puppy instead. In my opinion, it is better than the real thing. (For now, anyway.)



Then we made a to scale model of a Nephite temple . . . complete with helocopter propellers.




As you might imagine, Tanner was a great helper.

Brandon and Tanner got buzz-cuts for the summer. I didn't think I would miss Tanner's long baby hair, but I have to admit that I'm surprised to see how much he looks like a little trouble-maker now. He's getting so big and getting into everything lately, but he's so stinking cute while he's getting into trouble! It's hard not to smile at him when he's grinning at me while he knows that he's doing something wrong. Lil' stinker.

Tanner is really big into figuring out how things fit together. He loves his shape sorter box. He will grab it, crawl to find me and then hold it up and grunt, "uhg! ugh!" He loves figuring out how the mega blocks fit together and then come apart again. He's figured out the magic of taking pen lids off. He found the vasaline on the floor the other day and got the lid off; that was a fun mess. He loves putting whatever he can find in the bathtub or toilet. And Tanner doesnt' like to put things away, but he loves to slam them away! (looks like he might have a promising future as a slam dunk champion) He'll throw the blocks or toys into their container with full force, and he is so pleased with himself doing it. Brandon recently taught Tanner about high-fives and it became an instant favorite. The following day when Brandon came home from clinic, he picked Tanner up and Tanner instantly put up his hand to give his Dad a big high-five!

We have a few more soccer pics to add just because they are so cute!

This is Hyrum . . . the "fiance." : )

Hyrum loves Hailey.

And this, in a nut shell, is how Hailey feels about soccer. No really, she made up this pose on her own. Yeah, we're in for trouble.

Soccer and Mom, but not a soccer-mom.

Soccer! What a funny game for 3 and 4 year olds! We signed Hailey up to play with some friends from the ward this spring. The first practice Hailey refused to participate. But THEN, I picked up some soccer cleats and shin-pads at a consignment sale. All she needed was the right accesories because then she was all about soccer! Well . . . or just all about getting onto the field and picking flowers . . . and then chasing her little friend yelling, "Hyrum! Marry me Hyrum! Marry me!"


But on this "lovely" day none of the kids wanted to get on the field. Don't be fooled by the clear blue sky, it was about 50 degrees and blowing like crazy that day. I brought a blanket to wrap around Hailey on the side lines and by the end of the game, she and two other kids were curled up in little mounds underneath the blanket on the ground and refused to play any more.






Then she got Daddy's sweatshirt. That worked for a bit.

This was Hailey's last game. I think she kick the ball three whole times! That's a big game for Hailey. But her favorite things about soccer are: putting her hand in the team circle and shouting "Gooooo SHOCKERS!" (just like "Super Why"), running throught the tunnel that the parents make with their arms at the end of the game, and, of course, the treat and drink at the end.

A highly motivated player.

Notice all the "3"s? Can you guess what everyone's favorite number is?

We love our star player's quality warm ups, enthusiastic jumping-jacks included.


My birthday seemed to last a whole week this year. We celebrated my birthday the first weekend in May, then Brandon had that following week off of school, which finished off with Mother's Day. I got special treatment for the full week! Poor Brandon, he feels the pressure at the begining of May.

Tanner's first birthday was the day after Mother's day. Yippy! He's a mischevious little guy. Not walking yet, but getting close. He likes to get into trouble and make it a game. He loves to chase his big sister and try doing/taking whatever she is doing. Hailey loves the attention and having a playmate . . . she also loves to tattle, scold, and get Tanner into trouble when ever possible. I never expected having two little ferocious redheads to tame, but I wouldn't change them for the world!

And Tanner likes the fan.

p.s. I HATE the way blogger doesn't allow you to control the way the pictures and text actually post! Arrgh!

Happy Spring

Well, since Easter is usaully in April we decided to do our Easter post in April. You know . . . for tradition's sake. We are still enjoying the spoils of all the egg hunts we participated in this year. After every meal (and in between as well) Hailey asks me for a treat. She snuck a piece of candy last week that resulted in some serious candy restrictions. Every time she remembered that she didn't get to have candy due to the restrictions she said, "That's okay, Halloween is coming soon."























The Easter Bunny stuffed Tanner's eggs with Cheerios. Hailey didn't have any problems mixing Tanner's eggs up with hers.






























The other day Hailey decided to play a little football. She put this basket on her face and with every throw of Tanner's football she yelled in a grough voice, "FOOTBALL!" She'd probably go out for quarter-back if they had pink jersies.

Once there was a snowman.

Hurray for snow days . . . or just day. It all melted the next day, but that's the way I like it. Unfortunately it didn't come until late Friday afternoon, so Brandon didn't get to miss school. Shucks. He and Hailey enjoyed it while it lasted; something about that Idaho blood I guess.










































Hailey's first snowman.









Needless to say, Hailey really loved her snowman!

She was a little concerned about him the next day. It continued to snow during the night and the snowman got snowed on. We did our best to reasure her that snowmen prefer that kind of weather.

In the end she may not have cared about him that much because she pushed him over after playing outside for a while. Too bad I didn't get a picture of that!

Unrelated thought: While we were getting ready for church today, Hailey wanted to find some jewelry to wear. She couldn't find anything that satisfied her so she turned to one of her dress-up crowns. Our conversation went something like this:

"Can I wear my crown to church?"

"No, I'm sorry honey."

"But its so beautiful."

"I know, but we don't wear crowns to church."

"Please? It will be so beautiful?"

Princesses and pink are still at the top of her list these days.



Tanner loves to wave now. He flaps his hand while scrunching his nose in a grin and grunts something that sounds similar to "ha-ee". He does a lot of grunting. I've been trying to do baby sign with him, but he hasn't taken to it much. I get the feeling that he knows what the signs mean, but he would rather grunt, yell, or screech at me to tell me what he wants. We run into problems when he yells the exact some way for "more" as well as for "all done". You can imagine the frustration for both of us.

Tanner crawls all over the place with great speed now. He crawls with his right foot rather than his right knee, but it seems to work for him. One of his favorite games is grabbing a small ball and letting it go infront of him so he can chase after it. He quickly learned this game works best in the kitchen. Plus there's the added bonus of eating the cheerios that he previously dropped from the high chair.

This picture was taken while Hailey was banging on the xylophone and singing at the top of her lungs. Tanner isn't afraid to share his opinion with us.

Back on the Wagon

Hope your Christmas vacation was as good as ours -- we took a two month break!




Tanner has a mouth full of teeth. The poor kid was teething over Christmas and now has six chompers that he loves to use. You should see this kid pound a graham cracker!

Hailey wants to role play everything she sees lately. She’s big into “Super Why” on pbskids and one morning after watching it she asked me if I could make her a super mask and cape. Everything had to be light pink, of course. So naturally, when I asked her what her super-hero name was she replied, “Light-Pink-Super-Hailey!”

These two adore each other! Hailey always tells me, "Tanner and I are a team!"

The world through the eyes of a three-year-old.

Bam-bam-bam-bam! Lately I feel a little hand pounding on my mattress to wake me in the morning and then I hear a tiny whisper, "Don't worry Mommy, it's not a monster -- it's just Hailey."

She barged into the bathroom this morning while Brandon was getting out of the shower. He closed the shower curtain to finish drying off and Hailey asked him why.
"Because I need my privacy," he said.
"You should probably lock the door, Dad."
"You're right. I thought that Mommy might need to come in though."
"Well, people might want to talk to you."
"People like Hailey?"
"Yep."

She continues to astound us with profound insights like, "Sometimes people need to talk to each other." I wish I could remember the world as a three year old. They know just enough about what is going on to have a simplified perspective. Hailey likes to utilize what she does know and then fill in the gaps with whatever she feels like. It makes for some funny conversations. Like last night at dinner she informed us, "Scenes and beans come on Fridays."
"Oh really?" I commented.
"Yes, and sometimes Wednesdays forever."
"Hmph. Interesting."

I just laught listening to kids conversations sometimes. I over heard Hailey chatting with her friend Scotty the other day. He asked her, "Can you make a boy voice?"
"No," she answered, "I only have a girl voice." Sometimes I find myself envying their uncomplicated world.

She seems to be getting a grasp for how meetings work as well. Brandon was leaving for an Elder's quorum meeting tonight and she said, "Bye, you'll be back in a month!" Spoken like a true Latter-Day Saint!

Well, I had my turn with Tanner calling my name, now it's Dad's turn. All day long (and the past few) he's been saying, "ada da da da." It's pretty cute to see how pleased he is with himself when he realizes how affective calling for "Da-da" or "Ma-ma" can be. He has become quite chatty and he's cut two teeth. One on top and one on bottom -- way to go Tanner!

funny talk

Hailey has a couple of princess dolls that have seen better days. One is missing both her arms and the smaller of the two is missing both her legs (lucky for her she has a long, stiff dress so she can sort of get away with it). I want to make them "disappear" but she still likes to play with them. Yesterday I heard her playing with them in this way:

Smaller legless doll: "Mommy, will you hold me? I don't have any legs to stand on."
Larger armless doll: "No, I'm sorry honey. I don't have any arms to hold you with."
Smaller legless doll: "oooohwa."

Don't worry. Christmas is coming and those dolls will soon have a happy place in toy heaven.


Hailey makes us laugh on a regular basis. Here are some some recent quotes:

"Don't worry horsies. It will rain in a couple minutes and you can have a nice shower!"

"Don't leave me while I'm sleeping, Mom, because that would make me especially sad."

"Do you want to listen to my tummy? It's saying 'FEED ME! FEED ME!'"

Believe it or not, Tanner has been saying something that brings a smile to my face too! Just before his 6 month mark he started saying, "mmom" when he was ready to be picked up. He did it consistently for a couple weeks then stopped just in time to go see family for Thanksgiving. Well, now almost 7 months old, he's picked it up again. We were sitting in chruch today and Brandon was holding Tanner. Tanner took a look at me, said, "Mmom," and leaned over for me. Dada is a little bummed, but it melts my heart every time! Here is an old video to prove it:

I told Hailey we were going to do a photo shoot. She picked all her poses. She just kept moving and I kept clicking.