Huntsville Campout

For the past 25-30 years, the wards in our area have organized a campout in Huntsville, Texas at the state park. This is about two hours north of us. This year, there were about 200 people there, which is great! It is always over Easter weekend as the schools and most jobs have Good Friday off.

We have wimped out the last few years as I couldn't imagine taking Ashton away from her crib for two nights. This year, I decided Ashton would do great but Tanner wouldn't. He didn't really sleep consistently through the night until about six weeks ago and even then, he still wakes up every so often. Unfortunately the only way to get him back to sleep is holding him for a few minutes and letting him cry for a little bit. I didn't want this to happen in a tent surrounded by dozens of families with other small kids. I could just imagine a domino effect of Tanner waking up the entire state park!

So we made the decision to test the waters this year by me taking Ashton and Joseph staying home with Tanner. It worked out well as Joe could get a lot of house projects done with us gone. Tanner is a pretty chill kid around the house.

Ashton couldn't wait to go camping! She was most excited about fishing. Overall, it was a fun few days with her. She slept great in our tent and I was pleased about that. We went swimming in the lake, biking, hiking, paddle-boating, canoeing, fishing, and played with all our friends.

So glad we brought the bike trailer. It made it much easier to carry our stuff everywhere.

Swimming in the cold lake. She made it to the raft/dock but didn't want to jump off.

So happy in our tent.

We got an Anna and Elsa fishing pole. It came with a purple plastic fish to use as pretend bait. Ashton thought she caught a purple fish every time. Maybe next time, we'll buy bait to use.

The scouts put up a rope bridge every year as well. Ashton loved it but made sure to wear her helmet to protect her head. This girl loves her helmet.

Naptime!

Always up for a game of Alphabet Go Fish

They do an Easter Egg hunt as well on Saturday.

Next year, we hope the whole family can go. Joe has a turnaround scheduled in the springtime so we'll have to wait and see on that.

Tanner is 15 months old

Weight: 27 lbs! This kid is huge!
Height: 32 inches tall

Still about 75-90th percentile for height and weight.

Comparatively, Ashton was 23 pounds and 32 inches at 15 months. Tanner has slowed down immensely in weight so I'm guessing a growth spurt in height is coming our way. Their head circumference is about the same as well.

Typical Schedule:
Wake up about 7/7:30 as this is the only way to squeeze in two naps.
Breakfast is almost always a piece of toast with peanut butter and half a banana plus some milk.
Depending on the day, we drop sister off at preschool or head to the rec center.
10ish-11:30 is his morning nap.
11:30-1 We use this time to run errands, pick up Ashton on preschool days, head to the park, etc.
1 is Lunch Time! He really likes grilled cheese or noodles (mac-n-cheese). Tanner isn't a huge fan of cold sandwiches yet. He also likes tacos and chili if I have leftovers of that.
We play around outside until about 2:30 and then it is nap time for the kids. He sleeps until 4-5pm.
The evening is spent playing outside, going running with the kids (we're doing a family 5K this summer so I need to prep the kids to last the whole time in the bike trailer!).
Bedtime is between 8:30 and 9pm. I do look forward to dropping the morning nap so he has an earlier bedtime but for now it works.

Vocabulary: Tanner doesn't talk nearly as much as Ashton did at this age. I miss that. He says Mama, Dada, and milk. He is always babbling so I keep hoping more words are coming soon. He definitely understands commands so that is nice.

Movement: Tanner never stops moving! It is a good Sunday if we make it through the sacrament at church before taking him out. I thought Ashton was active at this age but Tanner has her beat. He is always trying to climb and push chairs around the house to get to what he wants. I'm surprised he hasn't cut his head open yet. His favorite movements lately are to walk backwards and spin around in circles.

Favorite food: spaghetti, noodles, pizza, milk, and yogurt covered raisins.

Likes: Trains/Cars/Trucks, his Thomas the Train remote control train, puzzles, anything Ashton is playing with, swinging, straw cups, milk, playing outside, opening and closing doors, climbing up any surface, flip books, and swimming

Dislikes: Spinning on the tire swing, Ashton taking toys away, waiting for anything, and sitting still.

Climbs everything in sight!

Has gotten pretty good at riding the little tricycle around. Normally he propels himself backwards.

Attempt at a nice picture but he wouldn't sit still long enough.

March Madness

We had a great time in March! Here's the highlights of the month.

We started off the month with going to the Houston Zoo day with friends. We had a giant group, which was fun! Everyone corralled the kids along.

 The local library had a Dr. Seuss party one Saturday. I took Ashton and she had a blast.

That same day, I hosted a baby shower for a sister from church. I love planning events/parties and this was no different.

Tanner got a terrible 24 hour stomach bug the same day. He spent most of the day/night throwing up and sleeping. He even fell asleep on the floor once. Poor little boy. I became a little nervous about dehydration as he had gone about 18 hours with no wet diapers and wouldn't keep any fluids down. But right when I was about to take him in, he finally had a wet diaper. Hooray! Always like to avoid an ER visit, especially since we'd have to go to Houston for it.

One week was the school district's spring break, which means Ashton had no preschool that week. Joseph accompanied the scouts on a long campout that week as well. While he was gone, we went to the beach and the zoo again.

We finished up some house projects. One date night, we had the sitter take the kids to the park so we could finish painting the back of our house. Such a fancy date! We also built garden boxes with chicken wire around our garden beds to keep the kids out of them.

We found bluebonnets on a bike ride so I had to take the traditional Texan picture with the kids. They were less than enthused.

 We've been doing some training with River and Ashton loves doing it with her. We're teaching her to spin, bow, and shake paws.

My semester at BYU-Idaho is wrapping up. Just one more week of classes and then a week of grading final exams. I received a spring semester teaching contract, which means I have been teaching non-stop since Sept. 2015. I hope to get the summer term off but we'll see what happens. I enjoy the class and teaching helps me find a balance between my desire to work and my desire to be home with my kids.

3.5 year old Ashton

Ashton continues to grow and change so much. Here's a summary of our little girl at 3.5 years old.

She LOVES preschool. This doesn't surprise me with how social she is. Placing Ashton in preschool has also helped me enjoy my time with her more. She loves going and learning all about science, music, and whatever else they teach her. She soaks it all in and retains it pretty well. I love that she'll tell me pandas come from Asia or what makes the clouds move.

Ashton's drawing and writing has really taken off recently as well as learning her letters. She points out letters in a sign or book as long as it is a capital letter. Lowercase letters are tricky. She has started asking what sounds each letter makes. One thing we've discovered with Ashton is that if I sit down and try to teach her something, she is pretty stubborn and resists learning. She has to be ready to learn it first. Now that she asks about letter sounds, she's willing to work with me more on it.

A person.

A spider

Thankfully, she still naps. Every day! Although we are transitioning to her big girl bed soon and that may be the end of nap time as we know it.

She's growing like a weed. I had to pull out 4T shorts recently because her old ones are getting too short on her. She likes to measure herself almost every day and talk about how she can't wait to be taller than me. Well, good thing that won't take her too long to accomplish.

Our biggest struggle at this age is listening. Ashton hates to listen and if we give her a direction, she instantly asks, "Why?" It drives me nuts! I say, "Because I said so" all the time now. We created a sticker/reward chart recently. At the end of each day we discuss how well she listened and if she listened the first time. If she did well, she gets a few stickers. Once she gets 25 stickers, she can have a treat. Once she gets lots of stickers (really when we see a drastic change in her listening skills), she gets a new bike (we already planned to buy her a new bike so this works). She wants a pedal bike so we're hoping she can skip training wheels and go straight from balance bike to pedal.

Ashton continues to love Tanner and be a good big sister. She will normally help me if I ask her to find diapers, give him a toy, help him up the slide, etc. When I asked her if she wanted another brother or sister, she said, "Only a baby sister." I guess Tanner hasn't had the biggest impact on her.

She has grown immensely since attending primary in January. Her prayers have improved drastically and we love hearing them. Ashton loves reading the scriptures and enjoys having the missionaries over. Anytime I have a church meeting (which is a lot), she begs to join me. I hope her love for learning stays with her.

She's an outdoorsy, active girl. She enjoys playing in the backyard, helping with house projects, riding her bike, visiting the park, playing with neighborhood friends, etc. But the second I say, "would you like to watch a show?" she is sitting on the couch. Her favorite show right now is Magic School Bus.

Loves the beach

Almost always a smiley, happy girl.

Her best friend. She told me the other day that someone else wants to be her best friend but that's not possible. "I can only have one best friend" was her response.

February Fun

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.

And a few videos of Tanner having a blast

Family Updates

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.

- Says "Dog" every time River comes by him.

Newest family picture.