Lydia Turns 2

 

Lydia celebrated her second birthday with a hedgehog cake and lots of attention from the family. We sang to her all day and said "Happy Birthday" so much. I think she felt loved.

Here's some favorites for our two year old!

Favorite book: So many books! This girl could read books all day long if I was willing to sit and read. She loves Elephant and Piggie books, Latter-day Baby books (especially our Temple one), Pete the Cat books. Any book works for her!

Favorite toy: Aside from books, probably the magna-tiles. She loves to bring a bunch anywhere she goes.

Favorite word: Lydia seems to follow Tanner's progress/development for language. She is slowly getting there. Her most common word is MaMa! She says the names of everyone in the family. It's pretty cute to hear her yell, "Tanner" "Ashton!" She started putting two words together last week. Her common phrase, "Mama... Look!"

Favorite show: She doesn't really sit to watch anything.

Favorite Outing: Parks. The library. Playgroup is a favorite because she can play with a friend from her nursery class.

Favorite food: Lydia eats anything and everything. Her favorites include cottage cheese, yogurt, blueberries, and peanut butter. She knows if Tanner left it out where she can reach it. She finds it, unscrews the lid, grabs a knife, and enjoys some peanut butter.

Favorite activity: Being with me. Lydia is still pretty clingy. The pediatrician said that starts to fade around two, but then quickly stopped as Lydia screamed at him. "Maybe it will be closer to 2.5 for her before it fades."

Height: 36 inches

Weight: 34 pounds! She is huge! In 3T clothing and everything.

Tanner's Birthday Interview

 

 How old are you? 6

What is your favorite color? Royal blue (his preferred BYU uniform color)

What is your favorite animal? Island Fox

What is your favorite book? His non-fiction BYU football books. He has 3-4 of them.

 What is your favorite show? Wild Kratts or game highlights (there is a YouTube channel of a guy that edits sports games really well and Tanner enjoys watching one periodically)

 What do you like to eat? Toast

What is your favorite game? Board games (although he doesn't really play games because he may lose. And Tanner hates losing.)

What is your favorite thing to do? Play my sports

Who is your best friend? Joseph (a kid from his class)

What do you like to do with Daddy? Watch BYU sports games

What do you like to do with Mommy? Play with her

What is your favorite restaurant? Chick Fil A

Where do you want to go for vacation? Utah to go skiing (winter Olympics has impacted him)

What do you want to be when you grow up? Professional soccer player

What is your favorite song? When I am Baptized (same as last year)

What is the best time of day? Going to school

What makes you happy? Playing with friends

Brazos Bend State Park

 To start off the new year, we visited Brazos Bend State Park. They hosted a fun, interactive hike around one of their lakes that day. The kids enjoyed the little stops along the trail with the park rangers. Ashton found a broad-headed water snake in a big tree trunk. The park ranger was impressed she could spot it. I was grateful for two things: 1) The snake was deep down in the trunk and 2) It wasn't poisonous.

This park is notorious for alligators everywhere. We typically see a ton in the water and along the trail. This time, we didn't see any adults. Instead, we found a huge "nest" of baby alligators about two feet from the trail. The kids could get pretty close, but we couldn't see the mother. There had to be a dozen baby alligators all piled together. It was cool to see.

I love that Lydia is slowly getting old enough to do fun trips like this again. She sat in the hiking backpack for some of the trip. Otherwise, she walked a bunch.

The little girls climbed to the top of the observation tower. I fed them gummy bears to keep them from climbing over the top.

Where the snake was found.

Gemma was pretty scared to climb herself. Thankfully, Joseph was brave. I didn't want to go anywhere near the snake.

Tanner is Six!

 Tanner turned six and was so excited. He had a huge countdown every day and would update his teachers, his speech therapist, our neighbors, everyone knew when his birthday was. He ran into our room so excited that morning. His birthday fell on a Sunday so we got ready for church and enjoyed our morning there.

After church, my parents came over. Part of Tanner's gift from us was a Cameo from Alex Barcello (a starter for BYU basketball). You can pay a small fee and have a famous person send a personalized video to the individual. We had Alex Barcello do one for Tanner and Tanner loved it. He immediately went outside to practice shooting with the tips that Alex gave him.

 The rest of the day was spent opening gifts, eating waffles for dinner, and playing with the family. He picked movie night that night and chose Togo. We like that one. It's a cute story. 

Tanner is most excited to be six because that is the age to play basketball at. He knows the leagues around here don't allow kids to play until first grade. But to him, that just means he has to be six. I foresee Tanner playing a sport every season. In his perfect world, he'd play soccer in the fall, basketball in the winter, soccer in the spring, and swim team every summer. Tanner also accomplished the monkey bars right after turning six.

Tanner also planned his own birthday party by telling a bunch of friends that we were having a party at a certain time on a certain day. This was all, of course, untold to me. So at the last minute, we planned a small get together at our local park. I guess I just didn't think of having a party for him. Whoops. We had some pizza and cake at a park. Then played soccer and basketball. The kids had fun.

His cake request was not just the BYU field but the entire stadium.

Tanner got some playboards to draw his own plays for football, basketball, and soccer.

Playing soccer with friends.

One gift was a dino fossil kit. He liked it a lot.

Parents Visit

 Since my parents retired last year, they plan to come to Texas once a year for a few weeks. They came shortly after the new year and stayed through Tanner's birthday. It was fun having them close enough to visit often. They will bring their RV and stay at a park somewhere in Houston.

We had a fun visit with them. The kids spent all their time playing games and showing my parents all their cool tricks. Tanner loved throwing the football with Papa. Ashton loved to teach Nana some new games. Gemma soaked up her time playing Candyland and drawing with them. Lydia liked reading books with them, but really just enjoyed having their dog visit too.

We're already looking forward to their visit next winter.

BYU Bowl Game

 Joseph, Ashton, and Tanner went up to Shreveport for the BYU Bowl game. They had a good time despite the loss. Tanner held it together a little better than the Baylor game. It rained pretty good for the first half so the kids were chilly. Thankfully, they brought blankets and ponchos to stay decently dry.

Friday was an early release before winter break so the kids left after school for the 4 hour drive. Once at the hotel, they went swimming.

Saturday morning, they found an indoor climbing gym. There isn't much sight-seeing in Shreveport. The kids enjoyed it.

They arrived at the game early to catch the players practicing. Tanner braved the weather to stand out and watch the team practice. He even had a player throw the ball to him in the stands and Tanner got to pass it back to him. I can only imagine his smile!

He is the little blue dot at the top of the walkway. Out in his poncho watching his team warm up.

Sunday, they went to church in Louisiana and headed back home. Now we have to wait until 2023 for a Texas football game, assuming they play a team in Texas when they enter the Big 12 conference.

2022 Goals

 Here are our goals for the new year!

Physical:

Joseph: Run 2,000 miles

Casie: Run a half marathon in March

Ashton: Improve the butterfly stroke on swim team

Tanner: Play soccer and join swim team

Gemma: Learn to ride a bike (two wheeler with no training wheels)

Intellectual:

Joseph: Learn to officiate a sport

Casie: Play the viola for a special musical number at church

Ashton: Read her Spanish books every day

Tanner: Learn to read (in either language)

Gemma: Learn the letters

Social:

Joseph: Go hiking with friends

Casie: Continue involvement in the community via swim team board and PTA

Ashton: Invite friends to play with her

Tanner: Be a good sport, not cry and scream when his team loses or when he loses

Gemma: Speak kindly to her siblings

Spiritual:

Joseph: Continue interactive family scripture study

Casie: Prepare for the Sabbath day

Ashton: Read the Old Testament Scripture Stories

Tanner: Sit reverently during the sacrament

Gemma: Learn the 1st Article of Faith