This is the time of year that I'm really thankful to live somewhere warm. I can't imagine being stuck inside for the winter months. I love that we can play outside. Ashton says, "It's freezy" when it gets below about 65 degrees. Sad little Texan girl.
February was full of fun! Here's the recap.
We had a Love Day party. All hearts and love shared with some friends.
Tanner got his first haircut. Here's a before and after.
Ashton and I headed up to Houston for a girl's day. We went shopping at the outlets and then painted some pottery. We also hit up ice cream. It was a great day!
Joe's mom came for a quick visit. We took her to the children's museum one day.
We bought a van! Yikes! We wanted Joseph's car to last us another year but it started having reliability issues. We tried a few things to fix it and it didn't help. Since the car isn't worth that much, it didn't make sense to spend hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars to fix it just to get by one more year.
I caught Tanner starting to build block towers.
I organized a tour of the local fire station. The kids loved it! While we were there, the life flight helicopter had to land, which meant they closed the parking lot exit. We got the watch the helicopter come in and leave, which was cool to see. Although, I hope we never need to ride that helicopter!
Ashton had no fear about this.
Watching the helicopter leave.
Ashton also had her first official campout. Our ward did an activity and the night before, you could campout on the property. Since Joseph had to be there for scouts, Ashton tagged along. She had a blast but was exhausted the next few days.
Joseph:
- Working. He's increasing production at his plant through various projects. One project is installing video cameras to monitor a truck unloading each day so an employee doesn't have to stand outside watching it. I told him to just install a video baby monitor and he nixed my idea. It was a lot cheaper than his plan.
- Fantasy football is over until the fall. He's pretty bummed about that.
- Planning house projects like painting the back of our house in all the free time he has.
-Taking the kids on bike rides.
Casie:
- Desperately trying to fulfill my calling as Young Women's president. Last June, I was called as the Relief Society president. Then our ward split in December and I was asked to be the Young Women's president in the new ward. It's been quite the juggling act in our family as Joseph serves as Young Men's president in the Spanish branch. But we see blessings through our service.
Ashton often accompanies me to youth activities. At one activity, the Bishop made duck tongue and I told Ashton it was chicken. She loved it and took a baggie home.
- Teaching for BYU-Idaho again. It's my sixth semester. I only have one class this semester so I enjoy a little more free time.
- Attempting to cut back on processed foods in our home. We'll see how that goes! So far, I miss the convenient kid snacks the most. I am realizing that we don't consume as much processed foods as I thought we did. But there's still room for improvement.
- Ran a half marathon. I haven't run that much distance since my full marathon over 8 years ago as a freshman at Utah State. It was fun to have a race to train for again. The half marathon is on the beach, which is definitely a different terrain than I'm used to.
Ashton:
- Finished up speech therapy for now. Ashton was going twice a week for speech since last September to help the habit of stuttering. The therapist and I felt Ashton had progressed as far as she could at this age. Each time they evaluated her, she was at about 70 percent fluency over most of January. This is a drastic improvement from where she started around 30 percent. We had a surprise party for her therapist on her last day.
- Completed her first on-her-own swim lesson class. She did alright. Now, she can swim around with just a noodle instead of her puddle jumper. The final day she was brave enough to put her head under water. I bribed her with ice cream and it worked.
- Enlarging her imagination! I love her reasons for things. The other day she saw a semi truck full of cars and I asked her how they got the cars on the truck. She said they use bridges to drive the cars up there.
- Has a few more ballet classes left. Before Christmas, one dance studio had a promotion for two months free with no requirement to continue past that. I thought that was a perfect way to see how Ashton did with dance. She now asks for gymnastics. We'll try that maybe in another year.
- Sad that River doesn't always want to play with her. If Ashton had her way, River would play catch and chase 24/7. I'm hoping the newness of the dog fades off soon as I am tired to telling Ashton to relax.
- Making sock puppets like crazy.
Tanner:
- Finding the joy in playing with toilet paper.
- Perpetually making messes. I don't why I even bother cleaning up one mess because as I do, he makes at least five more.
- I love this video of him laughing. He is typically a very happy kid!
- Learning the art of selfies.
- Climbing every possible surface. If there's a will, there's a way for this kid.
Weight: 25 pounds. He's been the same weight for three months
now. For the first 9 months, he was 95 percentile in weight. This time,
he is in the 80 percentile. Now that he's up and walking all the time, I
suspected as much.
Height: 31.25 inches (I guess I mismeasured the last few months of 32 inches.) 95 percentile for height still.
Comparatively, Ashton was 21 pounds and 31 inches long at 12 months.
Clothing Size: Pretty much 18-24 months in everything. Some 12 month pants still work. Daily Schedule: Same as last few months for the most part. I wake him
up when Ashton wakes up around 7:30/8. Then he naps from 10-11:15ish
most days as he has to get up then to pick Ashton up from preschool and then again from 2:30-4/4:30. Then bedtime is around
8:30. One day, I tried to skip the morning nap due to some errands we had. He was not okay with that. Oh well... not too much longer and he'll transition to one nap.
Personality: His personality is the best! He is always a happy boy, smiling and laughing away. It doesn't take much to make him happy. We see a little more impatience coming this month and he wants to be heard at times. One happy kid!
Firsts: First Christmas and first time away from Mom for more than a few hours.
Favorites:
Meal: Still pizza. He also loves macaroni and cheese, anything peanut butter, and bananas.
Time of day: Waking up Ashton from her nap. On days that Ashton has speech therapy, we need to wake her up and Tanner loves that. Or playing chase/hide and seek. He likes that too.
Toy: Balls. He is typically walking around with a ball or two. He really enjoys trying to bounce them.
The day I tried to skip a morning nap. He fell asleep on the way home and refused to wake up in the house.
Yikes! My boy is one already! It's been a good year. After having Ashton, I was pretty determined to be done having children. It was a rough first year. What is sad is that it wasn't Ashton at all. It was all me and my adjustment to motherhood. Then I had a change of heart and "made a deal" with God that I would have one more but if it was anything like my experience with Ashton (PPD, anxiety, etc) then that was it. Well, Tanner came along and this past year has been a night and day difference from Ashton's first year. No postpartum depression this time, which has been a huge help! I've enjoyed the baby phase this time around, partly because I know each phase only lasts for so long. I'm grateful to have Tanner and I know he will continue to be a blessing to our family.
We celebrated his birthday over two days due to some evening activities on his actual birthday. On the 16th, I took the kids to Chick-Fil-A for lunch. Tanner loves climbing around their playplace and he loves the food. We didn't get Tanner a birthday present so going to lunch helped me feel like I did something for him.
That night, we got pizza (his favorite food) and ate dinner at a park. He was more excited to play than eat. After Ashton's swim lesson, he opened presents (more like Ashton opened them) and we skyped with family.
Loved the boxes!
More balls for our ball pit.
He enjoys skyping with family. His main objective during a skype call is to knock down the webcam.
Then, on Tuesday, we had cake and ice cream. I made him a football cake because he loves balls. Joseph is convinced he will be our little linebacker one day.
Used my new cricut machine to make a 1st birthday banner.
We had a wonderful New Year's Eve party at our home. I planned ten Minute to Win it-type games for the older kids to play. Ashton still asks to play some of the games so it was a hit to her. We watched a YouTube video of the ball dropping at 7pm to celebrate the new year. Ashton enjoyed celebrating with her friends. Ashton got her first kiss from a boy as one of the boys grabbed her after the ball dropped and kissed her. It was cute.
My brother and his wife had a baby in November. My family all came to North Carolina to meet her and spend the days after Christmas together. I decided to fly out as well but kept the kids home. I'm glad I did as I just sat at their home imagining everything Tanner and Ashton would destroy in the nice house. It was a nice break from the mundane at home but I missed my family. Joseph took time off to be home with the kiddos and Ashton milked it for all she could!
Ashton and I had parts of the best friends necklace. She asked me to show it to her every night during our Skype call. She put hers around her stuffed dog.
Since the three of us were together, we did a childhood picture recreation.
Joseph and Ashton made this for me. They missed reading books, singing songs, yummy food, doing fun crafts and playing together.
Christmas was wonderful this year. Here's the highlights in picture form.
We went caroling at a nursing home. Afterwards, I found sweet Ashton helping a lady with a puzzle. She had a blast going!
Singing songs with Papa over skype.
On Christmas Eve, I took Ashton to see a movie at the movie theater for the first time. It was during her nap time, which was troubling. She almost fell asleep during the movie and was pretty tired afterwards. The highlight was getting popcorn. I think it will be a while before we take her to another movie... like a few years!
So happy to open Paw Patrol band-aids
Bike trailer from my grandma
This was a daily activity for most of December. Ashton would line everyone up to see baby Jesus.
Decorating a gingerbread house with her friend.
Playing together Christmas morning
I tried to get a picture of the Christmas outfits. This will do.
