Gracie's 3!

My baby girl turned 3! Her birthday was the end of April but I have been a little slow to blog. I made her cake this year I thought it turned out pretty good for my first attempt. It is a princess castle. She also got a princess scooter for her main gift she was excited about it. It was a fun birthday for her ever since she has been telling me what she wants for the next one! hahaha little does she know it will be awhile.

Lots to Say

We have had a very busy month here are just a few things that have been going on

Birthday Boy

Tanner is officially 1!! He is a leap year baby so we just declared he is officially 1 on March 1st. Jake and Gracie made him a chocolate cake with sprinkles at first he just was kinda of eating it but then he decided it was delicious and by the pics below you can see he really ate alot of it. We had to hose him down after he ate cake. Then he opened presents and played with his new toys with Gracies help. He is a really a good boy he is very happy and smiles alot. And he loves to give kisses and hugs. He is also quite the talker he will babble to Gracie and I all day. He even talks to himself in the mirror its pretty funny. He is so silly and goofy he can cheer everyone up with his antics. Also he just loves his big sis they can sit and watch a whole 2 hour movie together and play. I'm glad that so far they are good friends. I'm really blessed to have such great kids.

New York here we come

I went to New York and saw my sister Melissa and her family. Yay! On our way there however we got delayed in Cincinatti for five hours talk about BORING! It wasn't very fun especially with an almost 3 year old running around and the airport was freezing cold. But we did finally make it NY. It was fun to see my Lissa and her cute family we mostly just hung out and chatted and played with the kids. Did some housework for her while I was there. It was cold but we had a few days of warmth so we got out of the house and played.

We had a girl night and Spencer stayed home with all 4 kids while we went to a movie and dinner. Thanks! It was fun to get to know their kids better and Gracie had a great time having another girl to play dress up and barbies around here she mostly just gets to play trucks with Tan. So she had a fun doing all those things girls like to do. We unfortunately also go sick while we where there. We got the flu or stomach infection as spencer would say ( he is a doctor). So we passed it around while we were there but luckily that last week we were all semi healthy! Yay. We stayed and visited for 17 days and then we headed back home. The trip home was better no delays but still along trip about 10 hours. I'm not sure how my sister does it with 3 kids with one it had its moments but luckily Gracie loves Airplanes so she did pretty good. Here are a few pics of my cute niece and nephews we had alot of fun and wish we could see them more often!

Anniversary

And then on March 18th Jake and I have been married for five years! Wow time flies by when your having fun. I was still out of town on the actual day but after we got home we had my sister Jen babysit while we went to lunch Ruby River Yumm! and then that saturday my parents offered to babysit so we could go out to dinner! So mine and Jens kids went and had a pizza party while we went out. That was fun for all we had a good time without kids and they had fun playing with the Grandparents.

Potty Training

So Gracie girl his going to be 3 soon so I though enough with the stalling it was time to get this potty training thing done! I tried a little bit before but she wasn't into it and really I wasn't that motivated to get it done. But since our trip was over it was a good time to go for it. The first day was to say the least Painful!! We had many accidents and she just didn't seem to care. I tried to reward her with Treats or Stickers but she would just say ummm...no thanks I don't need one.

Ughh... so I would praise her if we happened by some miracle to catch her in time when she went on the potty.

Finally it was afternoon and I called my sister Lissa to ask for advice. And she told me that maybe I should take something away when she has an accident like he fav blanket or toy or something so I thought I might as well try it out. So she has a favorite blanket she calls it her purple blankie but its really pink! And she had an accident and i took it away and told her she can have it back next time she goes on the potty. And it worked! YAY! She has been going on the potty ever since. She has had a few accidents but overall she has been doing very well. I can say its wonderful to be diaper free with her. She has been doing really well for a week now so Good Job Gracie!! And we also took the bottle away from Tanner that was so easy its easier to get that done before they can say bottle and make you feel guilty. But he has been bottle free for 2 weeks so it is gone for good. My kids are getting so big :)

Cute Girl

Just thought this was a cute pic of Gracie girl she was being a good sport the other day and posing for pics. She is such a sweet girl, I'm really lucky to have such a smart wonderful daughter. She is definately a little mother she makes sure everyone is taken care of.

Tans Tubes

Tanner got his tubes in today! He did a good job he was very patient with all the waiting around. We had a early appt. in Salt Lake and so we got him up early and took himin. When the nurses was checking him out they were concerened that is oxygen levels where low which is sometimes the problem with him. So we gave him a breathing treatment and waited around it got a little better but the doctors felt it was enough to procede so he went ahead and had the surgery.

It only took 10 minutes and no IV required which I was grateful for. He was a little trooper after we got him back we had to sit around some and get him to drink and his blood pressure was low so we had to wait for it to go up. All in all it was good but alot longer process than I thought we left our house at 6 am. and didn't get home until 2 pm. Gracie had tons of fun at Aunt Jennifer house she loves to play with Garrett and they had a good time together.

Tubes and Vacation

I took Tanner to the doctor yesterday and after looking at his ears and his history with infections we decided it would be best to put tubes in his ears. I hate to think of my little man being put under but I think this will really help. That way hopefully we won't be having to take him to the doctors every 3 weeks and he won't have to take quite as much medicines well.... at least not for his ears.
His breathing is also starting to look better since his doctor put him on an some inhalers so we are grateful for that we are hoping eventually it is something he will grow out of but for now the medicine seems to be doing the job.

Also in other news I'm very excited to be heading to New York!! yeah!! Gracie and I will be heading out to stay with my sister for two whole weeks actually more than that 18 days. I'm excited to go and see her home and visit with her family! It is always too long in between visits. I'm sad to be leaving the boys home, I'm sure we will get homesick but I'm glad that I can go and help out and play. Gracie is excited too! She likes plane rides but it will be alot longer one than she has ever been on so hopefully I will go prepared with enough activities that we will have "no crying and no fussy" as Gracie would say.

Yumm.....

Yummy!! More pics of my cute little kids I can't help myself lately they are just so fun to take pictures of. Everytime I tell Gracie she is cute or silly she tells me to go get the camera and the after the picture is taken she wants to look at them and she makes fun comments like Ahhh... so cute or we are silly in that one!
She is just too funny lately she talks a mile a minute lately when we babysit Rocky she will come up to me to put drink orders in. She always says I want Juice, Rocky wants milk and Tanner will have water. Although Tan isn't a big fan of water that what she says he wants. Silly Kids!!

Tanner

I can't believe how big Tan is getting. He will be one in just a couple weeks he is getting so big. We just switched him to Whole Milk Ya no more formula!! I always like switching he eats more big kid food and stays full longer. He still has the bottle for now but I'm sure in a few weeks that will be gone too. Now onto potty training I haven't quite figured that one out yet!! But here are a few pics of Tan he was being a little model for me one day.

Lately when I vacumn Tanner doesn't want to be on the floor apparently when your little the vacumn is a little scary, so I have been putting him in his crib to get the job done. Gracie decided playing in the crib is lots of fun so they played in there for a good half hour while I cleaned the house. I'm glad that they get along so well with very little fighting they just play and love on eachother.





Gracie, Tanner and Rocky all wanted to sit in the rocking chair that morning so I let them. Luckily they all were nice and shared and rocked for awhile. They have lots of fun together!

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. We had are annual Christmas Eve dinner at the Holmes house all the kids where there and almost all the grandkids. It was a houseful and the kids got to open pj's from Grandma and Grandpa. We also exchanged gifts and the kids had fun playing with eachother.
Christmas morning was nice are kids are little so they still slept in until 8. And then we got up and opened our gifts. This process takes awhile because Gracie after opening one present is totally content just to play with the one toy. But we did finally open them all up.
This was Tanners first Christmas I think he enjoyed eating the paper more then the gifts. He had fun playing with boxes and got some fun gifts. After are morning of presents and Treats. We got ready and went to Grandma Flaglers for an early dinner with my parents. Unfortunately Jen and fam got the flu so it was just a small group this year. We had a nice time and had my favorite Ham dinner and we just had fun playing with the kids and we watched a Christmas movie Bandits :)

Christmas