Grandma's Visit

Joseph's mom came to visit and meet Tanner the first week of February. Ashton looked forward to her visit for many weeks as we have talked about family coming for a while.

While she was here, we went to the zoo, played at the park, installed our automatic watering system in the backyard, and went swimming. The biggest thing Ashton learned during the week is that llamas spit. We've been reading the Llama Llama series by Anna Dewdney before nap and bed. And she saw llamas at the zoo. Joseph and his mom informed her that they spit. So now when Ashton is upset at me (which is a lot lately since someone is a little jealous these days), she threatens to spit on me. Thankfully, she doesn't know how to spit yet.

Here are some pictures of the week.

Joseph's mom makes a blanket for each grandkid. This is Tanner's. I'm proud of my little future BYU Cougar.

Now, we have a few weeks of just the four of us until my parents come visit in March.

Love Day

Before Tanner was born, I found heart sprinkles on sale at Target for a dollar. I picked them up and threw them in the sprinkle/cake decorating drawer in the kitchen. It didn't take long for Ashton to find them and want me to open them. I told her they were for Love Day (it's what Valentine's Day is called on Daniel Tiger). She loved that idea and every day, she would ask me if it was love day yet.

Here's what we did for Love Day. Ashton enjoyed it a lot.

The Friday before, we went to a lunch at a friend's house. I told her we would celebrate a little bit of Love Day there. She got to put the heart sprinkles on the dessert we brought. And she wore her adorable outfit from her aunt.

On Saturday, we made pink cupcakes with pink frosting. Apparently, I only have neon pink food dye. They were definitely pink. Ashton had fun bringing some to our neighbors and then eating one for dessert at dinner.

Then, on the 14th, we made our traditional red meal. Yummy spaghetti. Then, I used our new ice cream maker attachment for my Kitchen Aid (thank you to Joseph's parents for that) and made strawberry ice cream. Very tasty.

My Big Girl

I witnessed another milestone of Ashton's. It is during these moments that I'm thankful I have the opportunity/privilege to stay home with Ashton and Tanner. I would miss seeing the little things. Of course, I enjoy the first step, word, etc. But the little, almost unnoticeable milestones are the ones I love the most.

The weather has been lovely the last few days so we've enjoyed the afternoons outside. The other day, we went out and two neighbor girls were out playing in the cul-de-sac. Ashton told me she wanted to play with them. We know one of the girls through playing at the park together but it's been months since we've seen her. I coached Ashton on how to ask them if she could play with them. She was pretty nervous walking up to them and needed me to follow her. But then she did it. "Can I play with you girls?" It was so precious and brave of her. She'll ask her friends from church to play with her but she knows them. I was proud of her for asking and then they said yes! The girls are a bit older than her. I think they're 3 and 4 so they rode big bikes and everything. She did great with keeping up with them and was able to communicate pretty easily with them despite differences in vocabulary. She now requests to go play with the girls after her nap every day. I didn't take a picture of her playing with the girls as I thought it'd be awkward in front of the other parents to randomly take pictures. But here's one of her riding her balance bike.

Parties

We had a couple parties in the month of January. Some friends threw a baby shower for me the week before Tanner came. It was a wonderful time with lots of friends! Here's some pictures that a friend took for me since I completely forgot. I received lots of wonderful gifts and really cute boy clothes. I can't wait for Tanner to get bigger so he can wear them all. My guilty pleasure for baby clothes is Sunday outfits. He will be one handsome man on Sundays as lots of people got us really cute Sunday/Church clothes. The best present was wrapped in the prank Crib Dribbler box. I was really confused about it and tried to act excited about such an odd present. And then the friend told me it was a joke.

This is also the last pregnant picture I have. So there you go. I was huge!

Lots of yummy food.

Later in the month, Ashton was invited to a friend's birthday party. It was held at Chuck E. Cheese. We've never taken Ashton there. She had a blast to say the least! She still talks about it all the time and can't wait for another birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. I think I will make her reward for sitting on the potty be coins for Chuck E. Cheese. She spent most of her coins on this duck shooting game as seen below.

Here's some random pictures to share:

I often find Ashton hiding in here.

We went to a playgroup and she loved swinging.

Bug eyes!

Highlights

Here's some highlights from the last week:

Ashton continues to love Tanner. Daily, she says that she loves him and that Tanner is her friend. I was expecting her either completely ignore him or to be upset that he was here stealing attention. However, that is not the case. I hope this love relationship continues once Tanner is old enough to play with her toys...

We typically sing to Ashton before nap/bed. Lately, she's taken this part over and sings her songs. I was able to record her singing the other day and she did great. She often sings to Tanner as well when he's sleeping.

Joseph has been staying home in the morning, which allows Ashton to get out of the house and lets me get a little more rest. Tanner sleeps pretty well at night in three to four hour stretches but I still enjoy a quiet house to sleep or get some work done. I've been successful at getting both kids to nap together in the afternoon, which is great too

Overall, we are loving being a family of 4. I am shocked at how natural it feels to have Tanner here. It strengthens my testimony that God has a plan for our family. So far, adjusting to two kids seems much easier than it was adjusting to having Ashton. But Tanner is still pretty sleepy/laid back so we'll see how life is once he wakes up and becomes more needy/demanding.

We've had some good laughs with Ashton lately. She's definitely asserting her independence. Often she will say things like, "Hold on. Let me get something first." or "Just a minute. I'm busy." The other day, she was mistreating her toys and I told her we don't treat toys that way. Instantly, she looked at me and said, "Treat? Can I have a special treat?" Silly girl. She clearly has selective hearing.

Holding the balloon that my parents sent. The helium is about to run out and I'm pretty sure she will be devastated.

Aunt Anah sent a package with some things for Ashton. She was very excited and had to put everything on right away.

First bath

Built a Lego house. She was very proud and asked to take a picture.

Sorry kid... the pink blanket was the closest one available. Typically, he can also be found with princess stickers on him, courtesy of his big sister.

 Joseph came up with the idea to celebrate Tanner's birthday at the hospital. Ashton is very into birthdays and singing Happy Birthday. We brought cake and ice cream to the hospital when Ashton came to meet Tanner. My parents sent some presents too so we opened those. Every day before Tanner was born, Ashton would ask if it was time for ice cream. We were all very excited to finally eat some ice cream.

Our Little Boy

Tanner is here! Now our world can turn upside-down again...

After realizing he was not going to arrive as early as his sister, I joked with Joseph that it would be convenient for him to born on 1/16/16. Ashton was born on 9/13/13 so it's easy to remember birthdays. Well, I woke up at 3:30 Saturday morning with contractions about 5-6 minutes apart. I never went through that with Ashton since her water broke. It was weird to sit around having them and not knowing when I should go in. About 6am, they still weren't letting up so we went to the hospital. I was 2cm but didn't progress over two hours of observation. I was sent home, which I feared would happen throughout the pregnancy. I just thought I would be so embarrassed to be sent home and I was.

We went walking around Target and got a few last things as the nurse felt I was definitely going to have the baby during the weekend. We went home and I tried to get stuff done around the house and then went to an anniversary party for my visiting teacher. After I got home, the contractions were really bad. We went back to the hospital after Ashton woke up from a nap at 4:30pm. I had progressed to a 3 but the nurses could definitely tell I was in pain. The doctor said I could stay, which was nice of him. After getting fluids, I got the epidural at 6pm and life was great after that. I love epidurals and I love anesthesiologists. At 8, the doctor checked me and it was go time. We were shocked at how fast it went. I thought we wouldn't have a baby until the next morning.

Tanner came out screaming at 8:22pm. Weighed in at 8 lbs 2 oz. How do I make such big kids?! He was two weeks early too! Just over 20 inches long. People say he looks like Ashton as a baby. I'll let you be the judge.

We're happy he's here. I'm happy to be home, out of maternity clothes, and not have a huge belly anymore. He went down to 7lbs 14 oz in the hospital and we'll see how much he weighs tomorrow at the doctor. He eats like a champ, so that's nice.

I couldn't believe he was bigger than Ashton. He seemed so tiny when I held him.

Here's Ashton in the hospital to compare Tanner to.

Not the best quality of picture from the hospital but I love his little outfit we picked out. Such a handsome boy.

She is in love with her brother. She wants to hold him and touch him all the time.

Breaking out of the hospital.

Christmas Break Crafting

BYU schools offer short Christmas breaks, which I thought were fine as a student. However, for teaching faculty, it is even less time. By the time I graded all the final exams/assignments and submitted final grades, I had about 12 hours of "Christmas break" before my class next semester opened. Even though classes don't start until tomorrow, I still need to get all the documents, lectures, etc ready to go by the first weekend of January. And with the pending arrival of our little boy, there's even more work that I need to get done.

Despite the craziness, I also needed to get some projects done over Christmas break. I was fairly successful. I think the only loser is my sleep. I haven't slept great as I'm staying up late and skipping naps to get everything done. Add in the fact that I'm pregnant, going to bathroom twice a night and our toddler deciding to wake up more lately. Oh well, I'll sleep again in 30 years.
 
Before Christmas break, I made a few Christmas presents this year. I hope they are enjoying them. For a few of my nephews/nieces, I made Fort Kits. The idea came from Pinterest. All I did was sew the bags holding all the supplies to build a fort but that still was a small challenge as I made the first set of bags too small.

Then, I made two car mats for my youngest nephews.

Here are the projects I finished around the house:

Reading nook for Ashton's big girl room. I used modge podge for the letters and bought Dr. Seuss books from Goodwill. I felt a little weird cutting up books. We wanted a bean bag and couldn't find one that matched her room for a reasonable price. So I made it instead. The beans haven't arrived yet but here is what it will look like, except purple and gray.

Bow holder. I recently bought a bunch of bows for Ashton for super cheap. But I needed a place to store them all. I had this old board thing from college so I resurfaced it.

Bathroom artwork. This wasn't so much a craft as it was just time I had to make. I wanted some artwork for the bathrooms for a while and got one set for Christmas. Then I ordered the other set and we hung them up. I like them a lot.

Kid's bathroom

Master bathroom

Baby boy ties/onesie. This is probably the most exciting part of dressing a boy. You can't do many fun accessories so I made some bow ties and onesies that have snaps to use the ties on. The normal ties are tied around elastic so I can interchange those as well when he gets a little older. I hope to make matching hair bows for Ashton so the two can match some Sundays.

Ready to support BYU this fall

I also filled our new deep freezer in our garage with freezer meals. We should be good to go for the first month after baby boy arrives. Hooray! Joseph also finished a few of his projects including adding shelves to our entry way closet and installing a watering system for our garden (almost done). Everything done just in time for my semester to start tomorrow!