Potty Time!!

While I am on the topic of how my Tanner loves to run around naked, I thought I'd share my day! Tanner woke up and he was laying in bed with me drinking his bottle. I realized his diaper was dry. He held it all night! He has been fascinated with the potty and always likes us to sit him on it backwards. He pushes his little tummy as hard as he can to see if something will come out. (I guess this is the advantage to having 2 older brothers to watch!!) Well I asked him if he wanted to go potty and he shook his head yes. So off we went.

He was a little unsure but sat there. I walked away to get a book and when I came back he came running out the door!!! He peeped in the potty!!! It was enough to get excited about but I think it scared him. We danced our little potty dance and cheered!! Then we woke up Isaac and Dax to tell them. He  sat down and went more. I was so proud of him!!!

This is how the rest of my day went. Setting little alarms to check on him, no clothes = no shame! He just ran around wherever he felt. My favorite is when he had to go potty he would move his arms back and forth like a train!! I think that was his potty dance. The kid's got moves!

He went potty at least 3 of 4 times. We did have a few accidents but nothing we couldn't clean up. (I love hardwood for that reason!)

I'm so proud of my little man. I don't know if he is ready or if I am ready, but we sure are going to try!!  On a side note, I had the carpet cleaner come today. Does anyone else find it ironic that I had my carpets cleaned on the same day my Tanner decided to possibly potty train?!!

I love this little face. I guess I'll keep him! Good job Tanny Tann! Mom's so proud of you.  Now eat your cookie.

Up Goes Tanner!

I've been on a blogging break for a year now. I've missed it, and I really hope to play catch up and share all the many fun things that has happened this past year. Every time I wanted to sit down and blog I thought, "I can't do that! I would have to blog a million things to get caught up." But I soon decided, I must start somewhere or I'll be so far behind, I'll never catch up! So here I am... hopefully back to blogging.

Life with 3 kids through be for a curve ball. Once my Tanner started moving and getting into everything I could only keep up with what was in front of me that day. Now I seem to have gotten the hang of it... until they are awake again!

Tanner is a spitfire. I mean my other boys were busy... but it's like Tanner has studied them and mashed their energy with his and created this whole new level of crazy! Seriously, this boy has so much energy and so much to see and do in the hours he is awake in the day.

He is almost 21 months old. This past month he has decided he hates clothes and tries really hard to get them off. I tried to button him in a onesie but he would pull at any little thing to get his clothes off and run free with the wind. Well yesterday morning I was getting ready for Preschool graduation. (This is one of those things I will get caught up on, I headed up a Joy School/Preschool for Dax and his friends for this past year.) Anyways... So I was running around like crazy because the little preschoolers were coming in less then an hour. I was trying to get Isaac out the door for school, who was already running late... again (love the boy, but he takes after me and thinks he has all the time in the world to get ready!) Tanner did not care for his clothes... (yet again) and was running around the house bare bottomed with a bright blue pajama top on.

I didn't have time to chase him down this morning. I could hear the garbage man coming down the street and I remembered I hadn't taken out the two stinkiest garbages of the house! The kitchen garbage and the diaper pail. So I gathered those up, ran them out back and made it to the trash! Success! I love beating the garbage man... I even had a few houses to spare. (It's really not a game to see if you can get your last few items out to the garbage can before the garbage man comes... but it should be, cause it's a pretty fun accomplishment!!)

Anyways, I came back inside to see the door to the garage wide open. Oh, did I forget to mention... Tanner learned to open doors a month ago. Yes, I said that right. My youngest child ever at 20 months to learn to open any door. Now he just leaves when it's convenient for him! AH! I knew what he would be doing... climbing up Brett's lawn mower to get to Rosco's collar on the shelf. It was a daily occurrence.

I walked out into the garage to see what my mischevious little son was getting into but instead I found him standing next to the lawn mower.... staring at the ground.... at a piece of poop! POOP! Oh Tanner. He pooped on the garage floor. Why do I have a dog again when I have kids doing similar things?! My quick game skills went into play. I thought to myself, I bet I could scoop this poop and get it into the garbage before the garbage man picks up the trash... One house left! Without hesitation I hit the garage button, grabbed the shovel and started to scoop the poop. Then I heard screaming.

I turned around to see my garage 3/4 of the way open with a little bare bum and legs kicking in the air. Tanner had decided to jump on the garage while it was opening and go for a ride! HOW!? How was he even this strong to hold on so tight and not fall off?! It was one of those parenting moments where you wonder what in the world your child was thinking... and at the same time you wished you could stop and take a picture!! But you can't! That would get me the worst mother of the year award for sure!

I quickly dropped the shovel and grabbed my son and brought his little bare bum back down to safety. I'm sure it was a long way up for such a small fry! I really am just baffled at this story as I'm writing it down. I'm sure your wondering if I made it to the garbage can... the answer is, yes with a few seconds to spare!

And this is my Tanner. I'm not sure what I am going to do with him! Love that little french fry!

Our First Fish, Nemo.

Fish. They are tricky business aren't they? You just can predict how long you will have them. On May 3rd Aleesha invited us to her school carnival. The kids had a ball! They ate cotton candy, snow cones, bounced in a bouncy house, dunked some guy in a dunking booth... they even got their face painted (after standing in line for  2 hours, thank you Kenzi and Leesh for being so patient and even waiting until after the carnival closed!)

Anyways, there was one game they kept trying to play. The object of the game: throw a ping pong in the jar of water and win a fish! Isaac came so close. His bounced out. Dax was so sad. He came up to me with his darling little eyes and said, "mom, will you win me a fish?!" I tried. I sat in line while the kids went and played. I'm not dumb though. With how long the line was and the amount of fish that were left there was no way I was going home with a fish. (Which honestly wouldn't have been the worst thing in the world.) But, Zander had won a fish and the boys wanted one too. So I did what any good mother would do. I asked the gal behind the game booth if I could BUY A FISH! And you know what, she gave me one for 7 tickets! That's it!

So, there I was. Holding my 9 month old and a zip-lock bag with maybe 1/4 cup water inside and my new fish. Isaac and Dax saw me coming and they started running... MOM YOU WON US A FISH?!!! Yes children. Yes I did. "Won" being a relative term. Nothing could take away the joy I felt when I saw the looks on their faces. They were so happy!!! Not even going over to the mall, to eat dinner, carrying a fish in a bag and hoping Dax wouldn't shake it to death before we got home. On our way home Dax named him, Nemo.

We dumped the fish into a jar. Brett was really thrilled (as I'm sure you can imagine.) Luckily Rach had got some fish food from my mom, so I borrowed some from her. It took Nemo a day or two to eat.

Dax had his head in the bowl for the next week. He loved looking at Nemo.

After about a week, Nemo didn't die so I bought a plant and grabbed a bigger bowl and some rocks. I think we made him a pretty nice home. He was such a little thing.

I actually really enjoyed the fish on the counter. I would usually end up feeding him in the morning and he would swim up so quick like he knew I was coming. I loved having a clean tank. He looked so pretty. The boys loved him.

Two months passed and Nemo grew a lot. I wish I would have thought about getting him a bigger bowl. But, we left on vacation. The little neighbor girls took care of him all week.

Sadly, the day we got home Nemo had gotten a little too big for his bowl or it was getting too dirty. But he had jumped out. It made the boys so sad. They were heart broken. They cried and cried. We loved you Nemo and were happy you were apart of our family for two months.

The little neighbor girls were really sweet. They brought over a new fish the next day... same size and color. This is what led me to believe Nemo was getting too big for his tank, cause that fish jumped to his death the next day too. It wasn't as sad for the boys. I think they realized fish are just stupid. Even Isaac picked him up off the floor and carried him to the toilet. (That gave him the power to chase me and Dax around with a dead fish. So glad he didn't loose his humor in a sad situation!) So with that, our fish journey has come to an end.

It's Quite for a few minutes when...

The boys are sleeping!

It's really a rare occasion, but the boys do finally get tired and they fall asleep. I love sleeping pictures!!! I don't know why, they are just my favorite. So here is a few, enjoy!

Dax had been swimming all day, he came and curled up on my chair and was out like a light.

How precious... this is the reason to have stuffed animals! All children should sleep with stuffed animals.

Even sweet Brett falls asleep when someone isn't jumping on him.

Isaac and Dax LOVE sleeping in my bed when Brett is out of town. It makes it a little squishy, but I love having them there next to me. I got a kick out of them sleeping in practically the same position!

Where is Dax? He's under there... sleeping under all those blankets.

Isaac is a hard one to get to sleep. He is like me, he LOVES to sleep in. But going to sleep is a different story. It takes him a while to actually fall asleep.

And then there is Tanner... I laughed so hard when I found him all crazy in his swing. His neck looked so uncomfortable!

Naps are usually only for a short time...and before you know it, they are awake again.

Isaac Isms - Crafting Corner

My little Isaac is so creative! He puts his heart and soul into whatever he makes. Because of this I can't throw anything of his away without snapping a picture. The little flower that opens, he gave me that on Mother's Day. It opened and said, "I love you mom." I kept it for months. Just precious. Isaac took an old white shirt and used fabric markers and colored a darling shirt! He had so much fun. He went through a faze of folding airplane papers and collecting them.... he folded a lot of planes! Then it was Ninja Stars. He would get Brett involved and they would watch movies on you tube of how to make the perfect ninja star. Then he learned to make a transforming ninja star... well he was the talk of the first grade when he brought that to show and tell!

He makes all kinds of things at school and writes the cutest stories to go with them. He colored a picture of Jesus at church. He made "paper flowers' but they weren't flowers, they were things on sticks that we put in a vase. He made Dax a train that had the words "choo choo." It was precious. Oh he made a duct tape ninja star. He really loves duct tape. He has even duct taped his bike seat in BYU duct tape!

One day he was outside forever making a huge chalk masterpiece. You walked out the front door and it said, "BEST FAMILY... DANSIES" Then he drew a flower and a rainbow. Then you followed the steps down reading our family names. Then he had hearts and sports and all kinds of pictures. It was really darling. I love how hard he works.

What Does the Tooth Fairy Do with your Teeth?!!!

It's really a valid question for any child... "Once the Tooth Fairy takes my tooth, what does she do with it?" Recently, Isaac and I read Junie B. First Grader, Toothless Wonder.  This is Junie B.'s biggest question in the book. At the end of the book she found once she gave up her tooth to the Tooth Fairy, her baby brother Oliver got his first tooth!

So to answer the big question of what does the Tooth Fairy do with all these teeth? She recycles them of course!!! She has to give the baby teeth to the babies! So is it really a coincidence that the same week Isaac lost not one but two teeth.... his baby brother Tanner starting cutting his very first tooth?! I think not!!!

It was proof enough to us that the Tooth Fairy must recycle teeth. None of my kids have gotten teeth at 9 months old. Isaac lost his two bottom teeth and Tanner is growing his bottom right tooth! Which I believe was the very first tooth Isaac lost. There you have it folks, case closed!

Toothless 1 & 2!!!

About two months ago in March, Isaac was getting ready for school. He was annoyed that his tooth had a bump behind it. I looked and couldn't see anything. We flossed, brushed, flossed again... still he was so bugged with this bump. I thought it was strange but he had a dentist appointment coming up. Later he said, "it feels better when I move it a little." I said, "what?! You can move it?" It didn't even occur to me... Isaac you have your first loose tooth!!!

He was so excited! He has been wanting a loose tooth for years. It's so hard to see your friends loose teeth and you still have all your baby teeth. I would tell him, "don't worry, it just means your teeth will be healthier longer." With a very disappointment tone, "yay, you always tell me that" was always his reply.

The dentist thought it would fall out within a couple of weeks. His tooth was stubborn! 2 months of wiggling his tooth, in May, it was loose enough he pulled it out! He had watched a funny video that someone tied their tooth to a mouse trap to pull it out. No! We didn't do that. He tied a string to it nightly to try and pull it out.

So late Saturday night he put a string around it and Brett tugged so hard it made his tooth so very loose! Eek! It really gives me the creeps! Isaac was brave and decided to give it one big tug. Then he came running, (with a Kleenex full of blood) "MOM!!! I LOST MY TOOTH!!!"It was 10:15 at night but he had to call Brett's parents. He was so excited to tell someone!

I had started making a monster tooth pillow a month ago to put his tooth in. I wondered how I didn't loose my tooth under my pillow at night? Anyways, I had never glued on the eyes, so at 10:30 at night our monster pillow got some eyeballs. Isaac hung it on his bed and left a note for  the tooth fairy asking her not to take his tooth until Monday night. He really wanted to show Daxton and he had show and tell on Monday, he wanted to show his class.

Isaac was so surprised to wake up and find not only the tooth fairy agreed to let him keep his tooth until Monday, but she gave him a dollar and a pack of bubble gum. Grandma Linda told him his tooth fairy was really on the ball! Mine would take days to come sometimes. I'm happy for him and his hole in his mouth. Isaac is really growing up fast.

Just a few days later Isaac lost another tooth!! It was another bottom tooth, right next to the one that just fell out! He had one giant hole in his mouth!!!

He kept the tooth fairy busy that week!!! He got another dollar and a new pack of gum!

Tanners Tales - 8 Months Old

Hello Feather's! I just love you.

Tanner is crazy. He is so busy. He moves all the time. I joke that he had to learn to move before sitting or even eating because he would get flattened by Dax. I'm not joking though. That's the truth.  I feel like he's so little because he didn't get a chance to get nice a chubby from food before he started moving.

Tanner is loud. He likes to be heard. He doesn't want to get lost in the shadow of his brother's. He screams and shouts! And if you have food, you better plan on sharing with him because he will let you know if you aren't. One day at my mom's house my dad was giving my mom a glass of water. Tanner crawled right over to my dad and was hanging on his leg screaming and whining at him. My mom finally yelled, "give him the water Dale! Give it to him!!!"

He always gets what he wants. That's one good thing about being the baby, his brothers give him everything. These boys adore Tanner. Isaac is his protector and Dax is his playmate... though just like any playmate, Tanner has learned to fight for what he wants.

He looks so innocent and sweet... like he could never hurt a fly. But he has got a grip like you wouldn't believe!!! When his little hands get a hold of my necklace, earrings, or hair...watch out! He learned to sit up. He's very strong now. Dax was in his face the other day... (again) and Tanner got back at him. He grabbed ahold of his hair and pulled so hard, he wasn't letting go. Dax whimpered and cried. Brett and I were right there... debating. Should we do something? Tanner puts up with an awful lot. We did do something about it, eventually. But Dax learned his lesson. Don't mess with Feather's!

Tanner eats everything. It doesn't have to be food. He will find the tiniest speck of something on the floor and stick it in his mouth.

When he's not eating dirt, cardboard boxes, or paper... which is another favorite... he enjoys bread, yogurt, applesauce, really anything.

But seriously, paper. The boys shout when he has paper because Tanner just stuffs it in his mouth. I don't know what mineral he is lacking but I'm pretty sure he has munched down a full document by now. He's eaten important papers of mine but how do you tell people, "sorry the baby ate my....."

When he roams the house he is all over the place. He doesn't let anything get in his way. Not even a chair. He crawls right through, goes up over the bar (usually gets high-centered and screams,) flops down and goes on his way.

He makes noises with his mouth. He loves hearing the different sounds that come out. He crawls up to everything. He is usually under my feet hanging on me. If I move, he crawls right over and hangs on me again.

He loves vacuums and dishwashers and gets so excited when I open it. The other day I found him hanging on for dear life as he crawled into the dishwasher, pulled himself up and grabbed a hold of the top rack. He didn't know what to do, but the wasn't letting go and just hung there. He proceeded to do the same thing with the kitchen drawer and the shower curtain! Oh he's such a monkey.

His feathers are out of control... and I love them!!!!!! He wakes up with crazy hair every morning and it makes me smile. He is so happy to see me ... or really anyone who walks in, but I like to think it's just me.

I've been trying to just put him down in his crib for bed. It works and he will eventually scream himself to sleep. Other days you can tell there is no way he is taking a nap. He will scream and scream and scream! Man he's a tough cookie. He does not give up!

It's probably cruel to hold Tanner's hands just to get a picture of him in Daxton's sunglasses, but it made me laugh.

We visited with Grandma Dansie one day. Tanner loved her glasses.

I thought this picture was so cute of Nancy and Tanner. It's rare that he will  hold still and sit with someone.

Tanner keeps me busy. He's into everything. He likes playing with baskets of things.

Isn't he just the cutest?!

He likes to help me with my laundry. Climbing in it and pulling out the clothes counts as "helping" right?

Tanner loves being outside! He loves this little car of Aunt Lizzy's.

Isaac likes to take him on a walk in it. It's so nice to have a kid old enough to help out and entertain the little ones.

The boys fight over Tanner a lot. I have to remind them that he is a baby and not a toy.

One day I was taking in the groceries and Tanner was screaming to get out of the car. I can't leave him inside cause he would crawl out the door, so I asked Isaac to stop playing for a minute and watch his brother. Well he watched him. And so did the other 5 little boys that were at our house. They sat in a circle and stared at him saying how adorable he was. I laughed so hard I had to snap a picture. Tanner wasn't sure what to think of everyone starring at him!

Look at how much Tanner and Dax look alike!

I bought Tanner this little table to play with. I thought he needed a little toy.

Kaz and him get to play once in a while. Kaz is crazy in love with wubanub binkis. Doesn't matter who's it is, because it's his! Tanner never sucks on them but tries to when Kaz is around.