Easter 2019

Easter came and went again this year. Between Joseph's bizarre work schedule and our campout, we didn't do a huge Easter meal. Oh well. I am slowly learning that we can have different traditions than the ones I grew up with. Camping was a lot of fun but I was exhausted so the idea of cooking a huge meal only to have three kids not eat it didn't sound fun. Instead, I took a nap after church.


My sister made the girls' dresses and Tanner's coat jacket. His jacket has hidden dinosaurs ironed in it. He LOVES it! They were perfect for our kids.

Instead of doing Easter baskets, my sister-in-law shared this cool idea with me. I felt much better about buying this instead of spending money on junk for baskets. We've never done baskets so Ashton still doesn't know any different. I think that will change next year when she's in school. The kids have acted out the Easter story countless times and play with this all the time. I love hearing their conversations too. It was the perfect gift for our children.

Springtime

 We've been soaking up the beautiful weather as much as possible this spring. It seems to me that it is not as hot as past years in April. I know it will be too hot all too soon. Here's a little bit of our spring.

A house down the street from us has a northern screech owl nest in it. The owl comes out a few times a week for us to see him/her. The kids are enjoying watching it grow.

 Ashton continues to take piano and is doing really well. She loves it and begs to practice several times a day still. Her first recital will be next month.

 

 Gemma is now walking full time rather than crawling. She also continues to love puddles and water.

 With all her walking, she is also finding new things to explore like the treehouse.

Random family shot of the kids and I. It doesn't happen often but we were sending some pictures to my parents.

 Our local Chick-Fil-A hosted a father/daughter date night in February and then a Mother/Son game night in March. Tanner loved going with me and played lots of games. We like this Chick-Fil-A because it is right across from the Space Center so is very "space" themed.

 We got the tricycle out for Gemma. She's slowly getting used to it.

Huntsville 2019

Ashton, Tanner, and I ventured up to Huntsville for the annual campout with our old ward/stake. This was Tanner's first year going and he did great. I'm glad we waited another year for him to go. He enjoyed it a lot more and only got lost a few times. He is such a quiet wanderer so getting lost is a gift of his.

We left Thursday afternoon once Joseph got home to stay with Gemma. We are not big fans of taking babies camping and I am grateful we left her home this time. Maybe next year, we can all go. Maybe...

We successfully did all the activities between Thursday and Saturday. The kids were exhausted and Tanner slept for the whole 2 hour drive home and then stayed asleep in the van for another hour after getting home. The weather was much colder than I anticipated, especially at night. But the kids slept well despite it.

The first two days were windy and cooler so the water was pretty rough. But Saturday was beautiful and we got the canoe out. The kids stayed still and didn't tip the canoe.

 Some gymnastic/cheer girls wanted to lift the kids. They loved it.

Tanner found some Y-scooter (or something like that) and loved it. He does well at balancing with his regular bike and he continued to balance well with this. I might be looking for one on sale/used for his Christmas present. We'll see what I find.

 Saturday morning is the Easter egg hunt. The kids loved doing it with all their friends. This was the only egg hunt we did this year and I like that. I am already sick of the candy.

 Friday night, we do a big dinner with the 100+ people who come to the campout. After the dinner, we do a skit show. This year, the kids and I sang "Alice the Camel" for the show. Tanner was pretty hesitant but quickly joined right in. One of the families brings their drones every year and the husband showed Tanner how it works.

 While they didn't stay overnight, the Coon family came and Ashton and Tanner were so excited to spend time with them too.

 We made it swimming but it was FREEZING! The kids begged me all morning to go and then begged me to go back to the campsite shortly after getting wet.

 Tanner swimming out on his own. He was pretty adventurous with how far out he went.

 Ashton stayed much closer to the beach.

 We did go real fishing but the kids preferred to "fish" at the campsite. Our fishing rod just has a rubber fish on the end of it so no hook. That way, they can "fish" wherever they want.

 If you look real close, there's an alligator in the middle of the picture. This was about 15 feet from us on the fishing boardwalk.

General Conference Weekend

We had a wonderful conference weekend. I tried to plan ahead as much as possible and it seems my efforts paid off a little bit.

The kids all knew that conference weekend was coming up. I loved seeing their excitement. They picked out treats for the key words they were going to listen for. We focused on cleaning up the house before the weekend so we could truly relax on Saturday and Sunday.

We set up the folding table upstairs with all the snacks, water bottles, and other essentials. The kids were beyond excited. Tanner kept asking all morning, "Is it General Conference yet?"

For the first time, the kids actually caught on to the key words and what to listen for. Tanner and Ashton kept running back and forth to the table to grab the specific treat. Ashton kept asking when President Nelson would speak. It was hard for her to wait that long. When she did see him, she identified him immediately. I'm grateful she knows who our Prophet is.

When I asked Ashton what her favorite part was, she said when the choir sang, "I Am A Child of God." Tanner's favorite part was eating the treats. I know the kids felt the Spirit as they listened between their whining and yelling.

For the next conference, we will definitely do the treats with certain words again. This time, we did Jesus Christ, family, and love. It worked great! I will try to find better coloring pages. The ones provided on LDS.org were a little over Ashton's head with her limited reading skills. I've seen other ideas of getting quiet activities ready such as a new puzzle, Lego building, etc. I should have focused more on that.

My favorite talk was probably Sister Craven's. At least so far. I'm sure it will change when I read them all and study them more. It's always a hard month between conference and the Ensign edition.

12 Months Old

Gemma is officially one! I look forward to the next year of her becoming more independent. She's been a great baby but she is also pretty sensitive/particular. I am well aware that the baby phase isn't my favorite. I much prefer the toddler years so I am excited that Gemma is getting closer to that.

Playing with a ball when driving to Lake Jackson.

She is now a walker. She took her first steps a few weeks before her birthday. Just in the past week or so, she's walking more and more. Gemma is an efficient crawler so I anticipate crawling to last a little longer.

Her schedule most days:
Wake up by 7:30am
Nap from 10:30-11:45ish (she can get by with a catnap for this nap and then a longer afternoon nap)
Lunch/play
Nap from 3-4:30ish
Bedtime around 8:30pm
She wakes up 1-2 times per night. I am hoping this ends very soon as we are about done with breastfeeding. If not, Joseph gets to take care of her for a few nights to convince her to sleep.

Her hair is starting to curl a little like Ashton's. I'm hopeful it stays that way.

Took her to the zoo and she did pretty well. Her favorite thing was to crawl behind the fences and play in the dirt/mulch.

Gemma is the most attached kid out of the three. Her separation anxiety is pretty bad. All I have to do is walk into our YMCA and she starts screaming. If I take her to the drop off daycare so I can work out, she loses it completely. They try to console her for 15 minutes and then they come find me. Gemma is finally getting better with staying with Joseph but even then, she just tolerates it. While I love her affection towards me, I also look forward to some change in this area. Hopefully by about 18 months, she should be good to go with other people.

First trip to the splashpad for 2019 and Gemma was a big fan!

She figured out how to go down stairs correctly so she turns around at the top and slides down. This also helps when she plays on our playground outside. She knows to go down the slide correctly. Hooray!

Her favorite toys include books and balls. She also loves playing with Ashton and Tanner. They can often get her to chase them around a room. Another favorite of hers is playing in mulch, dirt, or water. This girl loves being outside and getting dirty.

Gemma is finally warming up to solid foods. She is just about done with nursing so she has no other options. She drinks almond milk rather than whole milk. Tanner did this too. Her favorite foods are cheese, eggs, meat, anything close to spaghetti (ravioli, etc), peas (she eats them by the handfuls), and apples. I pretty much feed her what I know she will eat since she is picky. I'm not too worried as Ashton and Tanner have turned out okay with their eating habits.

Weight is 22 lbs and height is 29.5 inches. She's our shortest baby so far, which makes sense as her pants are always a size smaller than her shirts.

She had a great birthday. The big kids were much more into it than she was. She had some yummy cake with some friends. The big kids opened all her gifts for her. As usual, Gemma cared more about the boxes that the gifts came in. She got some new dresses, a few toys, some yummy snacks, a bubble machine, and a few books.

Dog food cake (cocoa puffs and chocolate frosting). She actually ate some, which surprised me. I thought she would just throw it off her highchair.

The Cold Winter

It's been a pretty wet and cold winter this year. Nothing compared to my friends and family living up north but we are definitely acclimated to the warmer weather.

Ashton's big achievement in her world was mastering the monkey bars. She can officially go across them and she is very excited. She's been working on this for several months.

Tanner has been working on riding a two-wheeler. He figured it out pretty quickly and took off with little problems. We had to get him a 12 inch bike as Ashton's 14 inch one was a little too tall. I'm looking forward to some fun family bike rides in the upcoming months.

We've been working on a few house projects lately and that means lots of trips to the lawn mower store for Tanner. This boy loves riding the lawn mowers.

We're preparing for our summer vacation to the Great Smoky Mountains and step one was finding a hiking backpack/carrier. I have a soft structured carrier but knew a frame one would come in handy for our hiking trips. Found this really nice one that someone was selling locally so we scored big time. It can hold any of the kids and is pretty comfortable. We're looking forward to romping around some mountains.

As always, the kids continue to have crafts galore going on.

Our local library hosted some events for Chinese New Year. I took Ashton one Saturday to the Lion Dance and she had fun. She got to clash the cymbals too, which she loved.

We're going camping this spring and I had to double check that our tent would fit the kids and I. We had fun setting up the tent and playing around in it. The kids can't wait to go camping now.

Ashton is definitely mastering her artistic skills. Here was a page of everything she is thankful for. The family, Earth, trees, bunnies, fish, and a Christmas tree (to remember Jesus Christ's birth).

I decided to be a super cool mom and make funiculars at home. Well, it didn't last very long but the kids had fun making them. It's the process that counts, right? Not the end product... or so I tell myself.

Ashton started piano lessons in January. I'm surprised with how well she's doing. Our teacher is someone from church who has a pretty low-key commitment requirement. So we felt comfortable testing it out and seeing what Ashton thought. Well, she loves it. Two months in and she still loves to practice. Here's a video from a few weeks ago of Ashton and her teacher playing a duet together.

 I'm ready for the sun to come out and the rain to go away. I miss our 70 degree days. But before I know it, it will be 95 degrees and 10000% humidity so I should be grateful for the cooler weather.

Gemma at 11 Months

Weight: 22ish pounds
 
Height: I didn't catch her height at the doctor's the other day so probably about the same as last month.
 
Clothing Size: Still rocking the 12 month size for a while.

Daily Schedule: Gemma follows our typical schedule for almost one year olds. She wakes up by 7:30am. If she's not awake by then, Tanner not-so-nicely wakes her up. Then she naps from about 10-11:30 and again from 3-4:30. Bedtime is between 8 and 8:30pm. She may drop her morning nap earlier than the others but we shall see. I'm hopeful she makes it to the end of the school year with two naps.

Gemma is still not a huge food eater. We'll see how the next month goes for this as she weans from nursing. Her favorite foods consist of anything with cheese and anything with chicken or beef. So high protein foods.

Firsts: First tooth finally. I think she is our latest teether out of the three kids. She now has her two bottom teeth poking through. Definitely saying "Mama," "Dada," and "Dog." She can stand alone now but does not attempt to take steps. She waves at everyone and every car that passes by. She appears very friendly until you try to touch her. Gemma is still very, VERY attached to me. She screamed the whole time at the cardiologist as the nurse was desperately trying to get her pulse ox, blood pressure, and her EKG. Thankfully, she liked the cardiologist enough to sit still during the echo exam.

She is also able to climb up and down stairs quite well. Hooray for that!

Heart Update: She went earlier this week but we will have more information to share in the next week or two as decisions are being made.

Monthly Pictures:

Her normal reaction to food.

Exhausted after a playdate at a park. Fell asleep on the bike ride home.

Gemma loves to "perch" herself in certain things like this dollhouse or other bins of toys.

Typical picture of the laundry room. Gemma loves to scatter (and eat a few pieces) the dog food.

She loves balls! Always happy to hold one.