Easter 2016

We had a wonderful Easter this year. I started doing some tot school activities with Ashton during the Easter week and she talks about it constantly. It was a good week to kickstart that since there were lots of activities related to Easter in the community. By the end of the week, she would tell me that Jesus was resurrected on Easter. At least something stuck! We had a great Easter dinner with some friends and Ashton is all egg-hunted out. Holidays are more exciting now that she's into them more.

Ready for the Richwood egg hunt

Getting her face painted. She sat so still.

Using giant tweezers to move pom poms to eggs based on their color. She loves it.

She used her scissors to cut pieces of tissue paper and placed them on the contact paper egg.

My Tot-School board

Ready for the Lake Jackson Easter egg hunt

She dressed herself this day. Shorts, raincoat (it was NOT raining), and tennis shoes...

Easter outfits. I have been waiting to do this since the start of my pregnancy with Tanner. Many more matching holidays to come in the future.

Nana and Papa

Ashton has been waiting for Nana and Papa (my parents) to come visit since we told her they would come when the baby came. That was a long time ago! Every time we skyped with them, she would tell them exactly what she wanted to do while they were in town. I think we did everything on her list.

We went to the Houston Zoo the first day here. Unfortunately, it was Houston School District spring break so the zoo was PACKED! But we still made the best of it and she got to ride the carousel with Grandma.

We visited the Crocodile Encounter in Angleton. Some friends of ours went last year and told us it was neat. Ashton has no fear of large animals so I figured she would like it. She did except it was long. Typically, tours last 1.5 hours. Right before our tour, a mom's group went through and I think they were holding up the line a lot with lots of small kids. After being there for two hours, Ashton was tired so we left. We'll go again with Joseph's parents next month for their short visit.

Ashton helped with all the projects we did during the week. She loved helping Papa with tools.

Nana and Papa playing with her tool set.

Every morning, Ashton wanted to go on a walk to watch for Nana and Papa coming (they stay at an RV park when they come). One morning, despite me telling her it would be an hour until they came, she wanted to ride her bike looking for them. She was so excited.

A neighborhood cat she found one day on a walk. She has no fear of animals.

They brought her a little bouncy ball and Ashton loved playing with it. Molly, the dog, liked it too so Ashton got upset when Molly would steal it from her.

Nana and Papa got to babysit the kids a few times as I had a doctor appointment and so did Tanner. It was nice to not tow my kids with to the doctor. Ashton loved it and insisted on riding in their truck all the time instead of my car.

We also went to Chick-Fil-A (Ashton's choice) and Chuck E. Cheese to play some games. Ashton's reward for potty training is getting coins for Chuck E. Cheese. She's been doing a lot better so we went.

Lastly, we visited the beach where they stayed. I remembered how much I like Quintana Beach again. Ashton found some seashells and buried them in the sand.

Tanner's blessing

With my parents in town, we decided to do Tanner's baby blessing during the week as they were only in town Monday-Friday. We're happy we did as it was a wonderful experience. We had my parents and then a few families from church come one Monday evening. Tanner looked so handsome in his outfit. Ashton was probably the most reverent at any church meeting I've seen. Overall, we had a good time and his blessing was great.

House Updates

Over the past month we've worked on several home projects/updates.

We built two additional garden beds. The sister missionaries came over to help unload the dirt to fill them. It took several hours as we had a lot of dirt. Ashton was a big helper and Tanner and I hung out inside. Then we had a yummy lunch to thank them. Now, we can plant more blackberries as well as have a larger bed for squash and cantaloupe that like to spread out.

We bought a new dishwasher. Our's is the original one that came with the house when it was built in 2004. It started to make really loud noises every cycle. The dishes were still clean but the noise was terrible. We replaced it with a nice black one. I like it and it is very quiet. My parents helped us install it, which was great.

Then we purchased an awning for the back porch. We wanted to build a covered patio initially but then the contractor told us the concrete slab was not deep enough to handle the covered roof part. Digging up the concrete and pouring a deeper slab just about doubled the quote so it was not worth it to us. Instead, we purchased and installed an awning that retracts out when we want it. My dad helped Joseph put it up as I definitely could not have done it with two kids to watch after.

Same type but our's is green. And we don't have a nice pool next to it. Bummer.

We also bought bushes to match our other bushes in the front of our house. It bothered me that the front of our home was uneven. Bushes were only on one side and I didn't know what type of bush it was. My mom did some investigating for me and then we found the bushes at the store. Hooray! Now we need to wait a few years for them to get as big as the other side.

My parents brought a toddler bed that my uncle made for my niece many years ago. I loved it and begged my parents to bring it for Ashton's new bed. We put it together and Ashton loves it. She still sleeps in her crib for now but enjoys playing around on it.

Now we can add more house projects to our list since we got so much done this month! It helps having parents in town. If only we could have them all year long.

Tanner is 2 months!

Weight: 13.5 pounds

Height: 23.5 inches
A pound more than Ashton and an inch taller than she was. 80-90 percentile on everything. Another tall kid in our future I think.

Clothing Size: 0-3 month and size 1 diapers still. Ashton was this way too. She seemed to wear diapers past the weight limit on them. 3-6 month clothing will probably come out in the next week or two...

Daily Schedule: Tanner is somewhat on a predictable schedule. He wakes up between 7 and 8. Then he cat naps all morning as we're out and about. He'll nap in my baby carrier when I walk at the gym thankfully every morning. Then we get home around lunch time and he almost always takes a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon to catch up. Then he'll take a little cat nap around 5. After that nap, he's up until bedtime around 7:30. Then he wakes up once, sometimes twice a night to eat for five minutes and then back to sleep right away. I'm pretty fortunate so far in the sleep department.

Special Outings: Baby blessing, zoo, and crocodile encounter

Firsts: First social smile and I caught it on camera! First Leap Day, First trip to Chick-Fil-A, first time rolling over from stomach to back, first time meeting my parents

Sibling love: Tanner will almost always smile and laugh when Ashton is near him laughing too. I think the newness of Tanner is fading with Ashton. But every now and then, Ashton gets excited about playing with Tanner. She loves to sit next to him if I'm taking pictures.


Monthly Pictures:

Did not like Molly! This is from his blessing. Another post to come on that.

I love sleeping babies.

First smile

And now he never stops smiling.

Does pretty well in the seat

Gardening with Mom and Dad

2 months already! Yikes!

What the next month should bring: First Easter

2.5 years old

Ashton is now 2.5 years old (I guess technically tomorrow is her half birthday). I thought I would just do yearly posts once each kid turned two but so much has changed in six months. Our girl continues to be full of energy and personality. Often, I think her body is too small to handle all she has in her. She keeps up on our toes and there is rarely a dull moment with this girl. We love her, independence and all. Here are some fun things about Ashton.

- She wants to go to a costume party all the time. This stems from Daniel Tiger and Halloween. Often, her costume is putting on a tutu and a tiger ear headband.

- Ashton is becoming a little "mommy" by telling us to stop doing whatever we're doing, trying to feed Tanner a plastic bottle, etc.

- Told me the other day that she plans to ride a motorcycle to the beach

- Thinks the clouds in the sky are elephants

- Also, she says thunder is bears growling in the sky.

- Excited to start preschool in the fall. When we went to the open house, she thought she would go back the next day. It will be a long summer until she gets to go.

- Very talkative. She is ALWAYS talking. Right now, we're working on using an inside voice. It's not going too well.

- Ashton will say, "It's a little freezy outside." Mind you, it's 70 degrees out.

- Draws circles and lines. She does get frustrated if you ask her to draw a house and she can't do it. Ashton reminds me of myself. I think she will be a high achiever in school but will be stressed when things don't go according to her plan.

- Does everything on her own that she can possibly do- buckle her car seat, put on shoes, get dressed, twist the top of her sippy cup on, etc. Independence runs deep in this child.

- Gets scared while watching a Halloween show like Curious George Halloween or the Little Einsteins Halloween one.

- You must read EVERY page in a book. Title page, author page, copyright page, etc. included. She knows if you skip a page.

- "Last night." Anything that she did prior to that moment happened "last night." She fell one day and immediately told someone that she fell last night.


- Is in love with her schedule clock. She asks it nicely to go to the color she wants at that moment.

Here is her typical schedule. I found myself looking back at her schedule for Tanner lately so I figured I would write it down in case I want it in future years.

6:15-7am Wake up. We are a morning family. I'm grateful for this as it will make the school years slightly easier when we have to wake up and get ready for school. Tanner seems to follow suit so far by getting up about 7am so that makes it easier.
7-8am Eat breakfast and watch a show. Say goodbye to Daddy.
Morning: We go to the recreation center together and she plays in the daycare while I walk with Tanner in the gym.
Then we go to playgroup, library time, grocery shopping, etc.
12-1 Lunch and watch a show
1-4 Naptime! She typically naps 2-3 hours. After all the months of fighting with naps, she finally sleeps!
4-5 Wake up, snack, wait for Daddy to come home
Evening: Play with Dad. She loves jumping on the bed with him. They have a bunch of little games that only they play together. It's really cute and I love the few minutes I have to make dinner or give more attention to Tanner.
7:45 Bath-time
8:30 In bed. She is typically asleep by 8:45 or 9. She still sleeps in her crib. We are in no rush to transition her. I am fairly confident she will no longer nap once she moves to a big bed. And she loves her crib so if it's not broken, don't mess with it!

She's a delight to raise as our daughter. As I said, we definitely have to be creative with her as far as consequences and limits. As most toddlers do, she likes to see exactly how far she can push her limits without getting into trouble. We love her and look forward to most of the years ahead of us. I don't look forward to her teenage years. I can tell those will be hard.

She climbed in here and then couldn't get back out. I was busy feeding Tanner so natural consequence was she had to stay in here until I finished. She was unhappy to say the least.

Every trip to HEB includes her looking for candy in the dispensers. Every now and then, she gets lucky.

Gardening with Daddy

Bad picture but they're both looking.

A trip to the lawn mower store (aka Home Depot)

How I found Tanner one day when we were ready to go to church.

Her schedule clock.

Home Depot Workshop

Last Saturday, Ashton and I went to Home Depot to look at dishwashers. We needed a new one and I wanted to see them in person before picking one. The appliance man was busy so another employee told us to try out the free workshop for kids that was taking place that day. I've known about these for a while but the age range starts at 5. I figured we'd take Ashton when she was older. I went down there and Ashton loved it. We built a small wagon. Ashton loves tools and doing things just like Joseph does at home. Anytime a tool is out, Ashton must have a turn to try it. This was a great time for her and I am sure we will be back every month now.