Roberts Family Adventures

Stationery card

2011-12-03T07:24:00.001-08:00

Snowflakes Ribbon Christmas Card

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Indoors and Outdoors

2011-10-26T11:17:00.000-07:00

The first half of October:

Joey loves when he and Tanner have matching clothes on. They both love their dinosaur PJs.

I can't believe what a handsome young boy my little Joey is turning out to be.

Tanner's hair looks extra red in these photos, but most of the time, it's just a very light brown.

A week after he tested for his green belt, Joey had his award ceremony where it was rpsented to him by Mr. Baker, his instructor.

Thought this was so cute, how Aiden and Joey were in the same position at the same moment.

We went out to dinner to celebrate their achievements. Elayne decided Joey was her boyfriend. He seemed okay with that. :)
I got a new motorcycle (new to me). It's a Kymco Venox. This is the day we got it ^. Earl and Joey are in the process of fixing it up for me, below, and repainting it.

Tanner loves getting to sit at the table like a big boy soemtimes.

More fun doing Joey's Backyard Safari missions. This time it was Rock Excavator.

Earl helping Joey identify his collection of rocks.

Tanner chasing squirrels.

Joey tried to climb a tree.

The Rest of September

2011-10-26T11:03:00.000-07:00

Joey tested for his green belt in TaeKwonDo.

One day Joey got his kitty pet (this is actually my Pound Purry from when I was a kid, but he's adopted it, and renamed it) and Ramadi (the name of the orange monkey Angie sent him from Iraq) for Tanner to hold while they watched some cartoons.

My Junior Ranger

2011-09-21T16:23:00.000-07:00

We spent the first weekend in September up in the Newport News area, visiting some parks for the junior ranger program. You get these missions to do and then you do them, and then they give you your Junior Ranger badge. Joey was super excited to do them.

Buckets, Badges and Baskets, Among Other Things

2011-08-28T06:47:00.000-07:00

Tanner loves putting the bucket on his head and walking around.

This is an outfit Joey wore when he was 2. Tanner's just 16 months.

Handsome Josiah.

Before his haircut.

TaeKwonDo

He loves his Backyard Safari vest, badges and missions. He has the gear and everything. It's his favorite thing to do. He's too young for the cub scouts, so this is tiding him over till he's 6 and can join the scouts.

Once he got the Backyard Safari vest for his birthday, he gave Tanner his old hiking vest.

Tanner loves emptying baskets and containers, and getting inside.

We went to a pool the other day (the day of the earthquake). Joey had a blast. Tanner was a lot of work: in and out of the pool, fearless, wanting to jump in off the sides without help.

Look at Joey's pose above! I don't think he was posing at all. I just happened to catch him in this stance. I think it's hilarious. Like a little GQ model.

One lazy moment. They never last long. Tanner is up immediately running around and making messes.

Tanner is so affectionate. He loves kissing and hugging on people, especially Joey.

We had to drain the big pool because we couldn't find the filters anywhere for the pump and the water got gross. The boys seem perfectly happy with the tiny pool. They're saying "Score!"

Tanner loves helicopters and airplanes in the sky.

Joey got a desk for his room. He loves it!

Hurricane Irene hit us last night. It didn't do any damage except a few branches in the back yard. This one was a very big one. Glad it wasn't closer to the house.

Tanner now says Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw. He and Joey also love running around the house chasing each other. I love that Joey still wants to play with Tanner. He's practically counting the days till they can share a room together.
Right now Tanner is obessed with making us put his shoes on and off, on and off, on and off. Socks too.

All About the Boys

2011-08-13T07:05:00.000-07:00

It's been so long since I've posted a blog. I don't even know where to begin. The boys are growing up so fast. They continue to amaze us everyday. They still get along great. Tanner is getting to the stage where he wants everything Joey is playing with, but Joey handles it great. We're trying to get Tanner to understand about taking turns and sharing, but he obviously isn't sold on that yet. Joey loves when Tanner gets to dress the same as him. He likes picking out their clothes, especially ones with dinosaurs on them.

Joey starts Kindergarten after Labor Day next month. He's extremely excited. He'll be going to the same place he went for Pre-K and preschool the past 2 years, so he's not nervous at all. He's started a new collection of things, besides dinosaurs and ZhuZhu pets, he now collects Backyard Safari gear and patches. They are like boy scout stuff, with missions he has to do in nature, with bugs and creatures and hiking and identifying and using all the Backyard Safari gadgets. It's really neat. When he completes the missions, he gets to have the patches sewn on his vest. It's really a great thing he loves doing with his daddy. And you know Earl is loving it too. (In fact, they are off on a bird-watching mission as I type this.) He does great. He's called birds with his bird callers, he's caught fish all by his self with his net, he's sucked up bugs with his Bug Vac.

I'm positive he's away ahead on his reading skills. He sounds out everything (except for those tons of words he doesn't have to sound out anymore because he has them down pat.) He even can read long dinosaur names.

He's still a picky eater. He lives mostly off chicken nuggets and cereal. He's also having some issues about not wanting to sleep alone or fall asleep alone. He has to leave his light on in his room almost everyday. And most nights he ends up coming in our bed in the middle of the night. I'm hoping he'll grow out of this phase soon.

He cracks me up daily with some of the things he says. His new exclamation is "Oh Crud!" (We have his friend Eric Webb to thank for that one.) This morning as he was walking out the door to go on this mission, I told him to have fun. He replied, "Why would I not?" Point taken.

He still loves TaeKwonDo--going twice a week to his cub class. In a couple months, he'll be testing for his next belt: green I think.

His favorite TV show is still Dino Dan. His favorite color is still Red, but he says he also loves Camoflauge. In fact, he's already started planning his 6th birthday party: he wants a Camo theme. He's thinking he wants to be a dinosaur for Halloween. Of course. We haven't decided on what Tanner will be yet, but I'm sure Joey will want to be part of that decision.

He loves helping in the kitchen, making toast and mixing batter and anything else he can help with. He does not love cleaning: comes by that honest. We're working on starting a chore chart for him, so he can "earn" all these collections we have to buy for him.

He's still the clumsiest person on the face of the earth.

Tanner is going through his copying stage. He loves copying Joey the most, but mimics me and Earl too. And other kids. He loves wearing shoes (Joey didn't as a baby). He tells me when he needs a diaper change (well, sometimes), by saying "dype" and leading me to the diapers, handing me one, then laying down spread eagle for a change. He loves the bath, loves playing in any water (including the dog bowls--we find all kinds of things in there). He's still growing well. He was wearing 18 month clothes long before he was 1, and now, at 15 months old, he's wearing all Joey's old 24 month clothes. He still has to be put to sleep, but is gradually learning to go to his crib awake. Joey was falling asleep by himself in the crib as a newborn, so this is so different for us. He still wakes up throughout the night and needs us to lay him back down. He has 8 teeth now, 6 on top (including 2 molars) and 2 front ones on bottom.

I wish I kept a running list of the words he says. He's not as articulate and as good as an inunciator as Joey was, but we can usually make out these words even if no one else can:

Mama, Dada (or sometimes it's just Da), Jo Jo (usually Da-do), trash, bath, water, dog, woof, cow, moo, thank you, tree, hot, aahh ahh (monkey sound), uh-oh, ball, more, milk, yes, this, that, throw, car, hi, bye bye, shoes, feet, "cheese!" dinosaur, duck, quack quack, night night, ow, pacifier (pass or "das"). That's all I can think of off the top of my head. He can find his belly, and head. He's working on nose, eyes, ear and hair. He smacks his lips when asked if he's hungry. He loves using things to hit balls with (he might be a baseball player). He loves seeing planes and helicopters in the sky. If he's looking for something, he goes around "calling" it--"pass, pass" when looking for his pacifier. One of his favorite places to play is on my bed, so him and Joey and I spend lots of time there during the day. Anytime he sees or hears a motorcycle, he says dada. He likes to color or draw, for a second or two.
I think his favorite animal is a dog. Anything he sees a picture of one he goes crazy. You'd think he didn't have 2 of his own at home.

He discovered how to turn on the stove eyes with the knobs (why would they make knobs on the front!?) so we had to buy the child-proof covers for those. He loves the vacuum and tries to help with that. He likes helping pick up toys (but also likes getting them right back out again). For some reason, when he picks up a toy gun, he makes a "ssssss" sound for it. (Joey used to actually say, "shoot shoot.")
He likes to dance and sing (which Joey never did). Like Joey, he loves looking at books, especially with animals or babies in them. He can give hugs and kisses when asked (if he wants to). When he sees a picture of an animal, he says "awwww" and gives himself a hug, like he's hugging the animal.

Roberts Family Photos Spring 2011

2011-06-02T05:05:00.000-07:00

(posted with permission from Elegant Touch Photos, Christine Crum)

Easter 2011

2011-05-17T04:22:00.000-07:00

Joey wouldn't have his picture taken with the Easter bunny, so we bribed him by having his friends, Aiden and Elayne in it with him. But he was still grump and whiney, and cried the whole 60 seconds--until the he got up and the Easter bunny gave him candy.

Joey has the most awesome bed-hair. ha ha.

Best buds!

Dinosaur Easter eggs.

Tha blue egg is attached to the Easter basket handle. Why, do you ask? Well, let me tell you. Angie mailed Joey and Tanner Easter baskets this year. When we opened Joey's, there was a tad of glue on the packaging that accidently stuck an egg to the handle of that basket. When Earl pulled it off, Joey got upset and made Earl put it back. He didn't care that it wasn't meant to go there. So Earl had to use a bread-tie to reattach it. Then, when he got his Easter basket on Easter morning from the Easter bunny, he made Earl attach one of his eggs to that handle as well.

We hid a few plastic eggs for Tanner in the grass. He found them, and picked them up and put them in Joey's Easter basket! It was adorable.

Eventually Tanner got his own basket, which he promptly used!

White House Easter Egg Roll, Washington DC - the monday after Easter:

Such a large crowd to get in.

Checking out the White House from afar.

We tried to cool off as we were waiting for our turn to stand in line.

My handsome husband bringing us some lunch as we wait.

Joey loved the double decker buses.

We finally made it to the line. Boy was it hot. No shade either.

Joey's getting checked by security.

Bad place to be for someone who hates crowds as much as Earl does. But he did good! I'm very proud of him.

Joey didn't know I was watching him mess with Tanner while he was sleeping. :)

We finally made it to the gate of the south lawn!

Colbie Caillat was on stage performing when we got there.

This was the extent of the Easter Egg hunt. They let a few kids in at a time, gave them an basket and told them they could find 2 eggs. Then they were sent out, having to return the eggs and the basket. Then there was a lady afterwards giving a prize for whoever found golden eggs, but you weren't told that when you went in, so you didn't know the kids were looking for golden eggs. It was horrible.

Security on top of the White House.

The crafts were Joey's favorite. That's all he cared about.

Future President?

John Lithgow performed some children's songs.

Tanner enjoyed a tasty and refreshing apple.

Crafts.

Willow Smith performed last.

We got to take the hula hoops home with us.

Happy 1st Birthday to Tanner!

2011-04-29T11:24:00.000-07:00

We decided to celebrate Tanner's birthday while we were in Asheville, even though it was a few days early.

Partying it up at Grandma's house!

Partying it up at Pawpaw's house!

It was a rough day on all of us, having to force ourselves to eat 2 birthday cakes in one day, but we somehow managed. :)

My little sleepyheads.

Spaghetti, Stripes, Smiles, Sand, and Some Family Time

2011-04-29T10:22:00.000-07:00

Tanner loves spaghetti!

Joey has all but one stripe on his belt for TaeKwonDo! I'm so proud of him. He still loves it so much.

You can see a tooth or two in some of these smiling pictures of Tanner.

We loved having a visit from our Georgia family.

We drove down to the Grave Digger's Garage. Joey found a monster truck designed like a dinosaur, named Jurassic Attack. He's now a monster truck fan.

There's a diner there called Digger's Dinner so we had lunch.

My Beautiful Boys

2011-03-19T18:55:00.001-07:00

Tanner's favorite thing to get into right now is the dog bowls, especially if there's water in them. If they are empty, he pulls them out of the stand and "drives" them around the house. He turns them upside down, then puts one hand on each of them and pushes them around as if they were cars.

St. Patrick's day was a good excuse to get them all decked out in green. These are actually Rugby shirts/jackets that Aunt Angie had bought Joey years ago on her way through Ireland.

I'm so happy that they still get along so well.

His other favorite toy is real car toys that have wheels that he can drive around the house.

Joey is still obsessed with dinosaurs. This is him out in the backyard doing some dinosaur discovering and dinosaur experiments (just like Dino Dan). That's my old cell phone he's using as a "DinoTalkie" and "Dino-corder" to document his findings.

While they boys were playing outside in the beautiful weather on Friday, I took a lot of pictures. I had fun editing some of them as you can see. My boys are sooooo gorgeous! :)

^Unfortunately, I don't know how to edit off snot and chocolate.

Joey spend much of the time Friday riding his fourwheeler. He loves it!

I got all 4 of my boys in this shot! Whoowhoo! Lars turned 10 in Feb and Thor turned 9 in Dec. They are getting old.

High fives!

Daddy and his boys swinging on the hammock.

Silly boys.

Our Weekend

2011-03-13T14:31:00.001-07:00

We had a nice warm weekend this weekend so we got to enjoy some outside festivities. We got out Joey's bounce house and let Tanner on it for the first time. He didn't fall in love with it. Maybe when he's on his feet in a few months.

We went car shopping and got a new vehicle. It's a 2006 Saturn Relay. It's basically a mini-van inside, but looks a little more like an SUV outside. I don't really love the way minivan's look on the outside, so this was the perfect solution. We got all the room we need, especially with all the traveling we do.

The other thing we're working on now is Earl's motorcycle touring business. He's starting a business on the side for motorcycle tours. He's got the website almost built and even has some tours lined up. Now all we need are customers!

Tanner's sleeping is gradually getting better again. I'm hoping, anyway. The last 2 nights, he's slept one 3 or 3 1/2 hour stretch. The rest of the night is 1-2 hour stretches, but this is progress. I've been going months now on 1-2 hour stretches of sleep at night. Not sure how I even function, it's miserable. I shouldn't even be able to remember my own name from this exhaustion. But hopefully it's getting better. He's as happy as ever, so the lack of restful sleep doesn't seem to be affecting him at all. He really is so happy. And loveable! I seriously fall in love with him over and over every day. As I do with Joey, but Joey's easy to do that with: he's teaching me so much and learning so much. He has such a wonderful personality, despite his phase of whining. I'm hoping he's growing out of that soon.

Tanner is holding on to things and thinking about cruising, but he's not doing that yet. Any day now. For now, he really enjoys cars, and emptying out all the toy buckets in the playroom.

Joey's still loving TaeKwonDo and got his first stripe on his belt last week for memorizing his TaeKwonDo promise (not sure if I already posted that in the last blog). Joey has also been planning his 5th birthday party since the day after his 4th birthday party last summer. And it hasn't changed much at all. He's planned out specific decorating ideas and everything. He's a planner!

Enjoying some family time

2011-03-09T06:58:00.000-08:00

We went to Dismal Swamp State Park last weekend to enjoy the decent weather. Joey got to ride his bike. He's got us convinced that when he's done with training wheels, he gets a new bike--with dinosaurs on it. But he won't let Earl take these training wheels off so he can practice.

He had to stop and pick up this stick.

My happy baby.

Yup. ^ That's my boy.

Joey's showing us one of his TaeKwonDo positions ^

^ Position #3.

I honestly have tried a few times to keep Tanner's hair down, like a normal baby. But you should see it. It's ridiculous looking. It stands up on it's own in the back and in the front, and the middle lays down to the side. I can't have him going around looking like that. Ha ha.

The boys get along so well at home. Joey still loves playing with Tanner, especially now that Tanner's getting bigger and can interact better.

Tanner was trying to put the harmonica in Joey's mouth so he'd play some more.

Helping with the dishes. He got up there by himself.

Tanner's favorite toys to play with is cars. He loves crawling on his knees pushing them around. Joey didn't have any interest in doing that at this age. Joey was obsessed with balls back then. It's so fun watching how different Tanner is than Joey and how similiar (can we say climbing monkeys!?)

Tanner still isn't sleeping through the night. In fact, it's gotten much worse. He used to go 4 or 5 hours at least, but now he won't sleep longer than 1 1/2 or 2 hours at a time. He started that when he started teething, but now that the tooth broke, he is still in that habit and I can't break him no matter what I try. It's difficult, but I'm hoping once he's weaned in a couple months, he'll start sleeping better.

TaeKwonDo

2011-03-06T05:04:00.000-08:00

Joey started taking TaeKwonDo lessons last week. He absolutely loves it. This is much better than his experience with Soccer.

Tanner also enjoys TaeKwonDo class.

Parents sit outside the glass, so it's hard to get a good photo without all the glare. There are a few different positions they learned, #1, #2, and #3. Above is #2 I think.

We signed up for the class because there was an awesome deal for 10 classes for only $20, and that included the uniform. I thought he'd probably be bored after 10 classes, but now I'm not so sure. It's looking like we'll be forking out $10 per class after that runs out. They do offer 6 months free for parents to take the adult class, so that they can help the kids at home, but I can't really take that with Tanner. But it's a neat thing for the place to do.

His age group is called the Tiger Cubs. He goes twice a week. It's a 30 minute class which is perfect for his attention span.

His uniform is about 2 sizes too big for him, because he's so petite, so, per his teacher's instruction, he's trying to eat better so he can grow into it. (That worked for a couple days, now he's back to his regular eating habits.)

He gets his first stripe on his belt when he says the TaeKwonDo promise. He'll do that tomorrow. He had it memorized in one day: "TaeKwonDo is for protecting myself. I will not use it if I'm mad or sad. Only if someone tries to hurt me. This is my TaeKwonDo promise."

February Family Photos

2011-02-27T09:56:00.000-08:00

February was a busy month for us Roberts. Again, I'm stuck putting all the month's pictures on one blog since I'm so behind.

One of Earl's co-workers had a going away this month, he's moving to California. So they did a motorcycle ride and camp-out for him. It was rainy and wet, but we all had fun:

Joey finally got a much-needed haircut:

Tanner learned to push himself up to standing from a box on the floor.

Earl's mom had a medical emergency and we rushed to Georgia while she was in the hospital. She's doing much better now. She had a bacterial infection in her lungs. We hated that she was sick, but we are grateful for the time we got to spend with family down there.

Louise and her grandbabies, Nic and Trey.

Mike, Darlene and baby Trey.

Uncle Mike trying his best to trip Joey up on his dinosaur knowledge. It didnt' work!

Sandra and Joey

Iva Jean and Tanner

Tanner and Nic

Earl holding baby Paige and Tanner.

Joey and Bradley hanging with the cows.

Our great newphew Nic exploring the outdoors.

Earl's mom coming home from the hospital.

They boys had a blast together. I'm so glad Joey got some valuable cousin time with them.

Earl's mom with Paige and Tanner.

Hunter, Bradley, Joey, Nic and Earl

Nic got comfy with Earl.

Right now, Tanner loves standing. He learned to pull up also, so he stands everywhere he can. He has at least 2 teeth, and the teething process has been miserable for us all. I never lost so much sleep when Joey was teething. Tanner turned 10 months old yesterday. Joey is still obsessed with dinosaurs and is learning new stuff everyday. He's already reading so much: road signs, cereal boxes, books and anything else with words on them to sound out.

January

2011-01-26T10:38:00.000-08:00

I'm a little behind in posts, I think. Here's a few things from this month.

Tanner went in for a check on a boo-boo on his tush. Turns out it was an abscess, so they admitted us to the hospital that day and did surgery the next morning (Saturday the 22nd) to cut and drain it.

He's recovering nicely. His bum is very sore, of course. And we have to work at keeping the site clean because it's in his diaper area. We change the dressing daily. He goes back on Friday hopefully to get the last of the packing out of the wound and be given the go-ahead for baths and business as usual.

In the hospital, everytime a new shift or new nurse/doctor would come to our room, they'd say, "I heard about the mohawk. Let me see." Or something like that. So he was well-known there.

Napping with daddy on the couch.

The boys loving Joey's bathtime.

Tanner started saying Ma-Ma 3 days ago and hasn't stopped. He doesn't seem to know that I am Ma-ma, but I'll take what I can get. He's crawling so fast, following me around the house. He turned 9 months old today.

Christmas in Georgia

2011-01-06T14:50:00.001-08:00

Charlie and Joey

Donna's hairstyle for Joey.

Mexican for lunch.

Charlie and his "baby"

Arron and Tanner

Grover

Hunter and Earl

Patrick, Hunter, Holly and Nic

Charlie and Chris

Hunter and Heather

Ben and Earl

Tanner, Brian and Nic, and Bradley.

Brian and Tanner

Donna starting the gag gift exchange.

Brian and Chris

Brian

Hunter and Joey.

Sleeping.

Ready to shift!

Earl and Tanner on the tractor.

Mamaw with Tanner and baby Paige

Tanner loving on Paige

Earl feeding baby Paige

Nancy and her new baby boy, Trey

Hunter, Bradley, Joey

Trey and baby Paige

Louise and her new grandson, Trey

Bradley and Joey

Christmas in Marshall

2011-01-06T14:27:00.001-08:00

Mom opening her photo blanket.

Thanks Bryan for the military set!

Joey LOVES his dinosaur gifts!

Can you guess what Tanner liked to do with his presents?

Joey and his beloved Zhu Zhu coloring book.

Ray and his photo blanket.

Tickle Me Elmo for Tanner.

Christmas in Barnardsville

2011-01-06T14:06:00.000-08:00

Sabrina and Macy playing around.

Daddy, Kenny, Sandrina, and Sabrina and Tanner.

Paige, Sandrina, Wanda and Macy.

My dad's grandkids: Tanner, Paige, Macy, Akira and Joey.

Macy and Sabrina.

Daddy and Tanner

Yummy apple juice.

4-wheeler for Joey.

Joey opening his new 4-wheeler.

Wanda, Tanner and Paige.

Joey going sledding.

Paige and Joey

Joey opening The Land Before Time DVD.

Joey and Tanner enjoying Tanner's new toy.

Daddy is trying to divert Tanner's attention from his shoe to the toy.

Christmas is here!

2010-12-26T07:43:00.000-08:00

Santa was good to Joey.

Tanner's first Christmas was a hit!

3 monkeys looking in a mirror ^

Joey helped Tanner open his gifts. He was a big help. :)

Thanks Mom and Angie for the boys' presents you mailed to us. They would have been fine waiting till we got to Asheville, but they (and we) really, really appreciate it. They loved all your gifts!

Today (the day after Christmas) we got inches and inches of snow.

Tanner turned 8 months old today. He's still not crawling, but close. He's not saying Ma-ma yet, but Joey was over 9 months, I think, before he started saying it.

Birthday cake, naps and fun times!

2010-12-24T17:52:00.000-08:00

Earl and Joey got me a Coldstone ice cream cake for my birthday today. Joey insisted putting all 32 candles on the cake.

After Tanner finished his bowl, he went after Joey's.

Tanner loves these little bottles of juice we give him sometimes.

Joey decided to wake up before 4 a.m. one morning. He was crashed by 3 p.m.^

Daddy and his 2 boys.

Tanner wants so bad to be crawling! Soon!

These are some of Joey's Zhu Zhu collection. This is most of his tunnels and a good chunk of his hamsters. We have really gotten our money's worth of these toys.

My son, the author

2010-12-22T09:20:00.000-08:00

Joey's newest obsession (other than dinosaurs) is making books. He makes many books, a few a day sometimes. He makes all the pages himself, then brings them to me to straighten up and staple together. Here are some of them (only some):

It started with the spanish numbers one he made at school. Since then he's created some very unique books with awesome names, such as "Oll Ki Uv Flawrs" (All kind of flowers), "Stop in Go" (stop and go), Dino Dan and more.

For his Dino Dan book, he often updates it with new dinosaurs. He draws the pictures and sounds out the name. Above is the Maiasaura.

Brachiasaurus.

His book titled: "Hoo has so mch fun"

"Hoo is gun hv Crismas"

One of my all time favorites ^ "Hoo wuch u babee" (Who wants a baby")

This is from his Happy Birthday Jesus book. It says, translated, Jesus has Mary. Mary is his mother.

He has a wonderful bed.

This is from his flowers book. It says, from bottom to top, Rose and regular flower.

Jesus will have a wonderful party today.^

Another shot of some of his books, such as "Mofs in budr flis" (Moths and butterflies), "Sxl Timu" (School time)

Dromeosaurus ^

^ Pachycephalosaurus.

"Hape Brfda to Jeesus"

These are the Brontosaurus and Ankylosaurus pages^

Just the Boys!

2010-12-14T13:38:00.000-08:00

These pictures are self-explanatory. Enjoy!

The Christmas Spirit!

2010-12-11T10:40:00.000-08:00

We went Christmas tree shopping yesterday and Joey found this cool chair on the lot.

This is Tanner, holding the tree Joey picked while he walked around to make sure he didn't see one he liked better.

Joey really studied the trees to find which one he wanted.

This is not our tree, just where Joey chose to stop and say Cheese.

Getting started with the decorating this morning.

Tanner trying to make his way to the tree.

Tanner and Earl putting on the beloved Harley and Marine Corps ornaments.

Joey loves decorating the tree.

Putting on the Star/Bow topper.

I'll probably be spacing out all those blue ornaments near the bottom that Joey put there--since he couldn't reach much anywhere else to put them. But other than that, he did great and I won't rearrange his work. :)

Around the House

2010-12-06T07:48:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to stay caught up on blog posting, so here's some photos from the last week or so, just around the house.

Tanner got very excited about Joey's Zhu Zhu hamsters running around in front of him. He's not yet up on his knees or ready to crawl, but I suspect soon, he'll be crawling to get to some toy of Joey's.

He loves playing with phones, cell phones, remotes, keyboards, or anything with buttons.

Joey desperately wanted to camp out one night, but it was way too cold, so Earl talked him into camping in the living room and using the fireplace to make s'mores (which is Joey's sole reason for wanting to camp).

Tanner loves bath time, especially now that he can sit up on his own and splash and play with toys.

He discovered the fun in sucking his own toes, also.

Thanksgiving Hiking

2010-12-03T08:14:00.000-08:00

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, Earl and Joey started a new tradition: hiking and dinosaur hunting. They went a few days in a row, just them two:

Then, Joey relented and allowed me and Tanner to join them. But I messed up, because I forgot to bring my own backpack, so that upset him. He thought I should wait in the car while he and his daddy hiked.

He found a dinosaur bone:

When he let me go again with them, I remembered to bring my backpack (all I had in there was gloves).

The Boys

2010-11-27T05:17:00.000-08:00

I hope they get along so well forever, but I know better. But for now, they are so funny together. Joey loves entertaining Tanner, and Tanner loves laughing at Joey, and trying to get toys out of Joey's hand, and chasing Joey's shoes.

Joey is very good, so far, at sharing toys, too. He just wants to make his little brother happy.

Sometimes when we're eating something yummy, Joey says, "Sorry, Tanner. You can't eat this yet. Maybe when you grow up."

Tanner's sleeping is pretty sporadic. He went a few weeks of sleeping through the night, then he stopped, now it's back to eating through the night once or twice, but he's going back to sleep much better than before. I'm finally not going through the day like a zombie.

Joey's newest obsession is dinosaurs. He's always been slightly interested, but ever since the new show Dino Dan came on Nick Jr, that's all he talks about. He can name more dinosaurs than probably you or I combined knew existed. He made his own book, where he drew 10 dinosaurs on 10 separate pieces of paper, then sounded out their name on his own and wrote it there (the way he thinks it's spelled) and then had me staple it together. It's adorable! I need to hurry and scan it before it's worn out and unreadable. He imagines dinosaurs are around the house, stealing food or toys, biting things (he puts pen holes in paper and says it's dinosaur bite marks), just like Dino Dan does.

He wanted his picture taken with some dinosaurs and Tanner.

I love these shoes on Tanner!

Joey insisted on going on a Dinosaur hunt on Wednesday. His daddy took him to some trails at a nearby park. They had backpacks packed with snacks, binoculars, Joey's dinosaur book (helps him identify which dinosaur he's seeing), water, a safari vest thing complete with his markers in the pocket (wish I would have gotten a picture) and more I'm sure. They spent hours out there. On Wednesday, Joeys says they found 3 dinosaurs and 1 in the water that didn't come up. They went back again on Thanksgiving and found a bunch more (at a different place). Joey nicely offered to let me and Tanner come, but also said he wanted it to be just Daddy/Joey time, so me and the baby have been hanging out waiting at home for the dinosaur stories. They are apparently going back again today. He does know that dinosaurs don't live anymore, though. He just likes to pretend. If you ask him his favorite dinosaur, he'll start naming pretty much every one he knows. But Ankylosaurus (sp?) is usually one of the first. He likes that big club-like tail and body armor.

Tanner enjoyed his first Thanksgiving.

6 months old!

2010-11-22T07:47:00.001-08:00

This first picture is Joey on the day he turned 6 months old (Jan 29, 2007).

I took this picture of Tanner on the day he was supposed to get his 6 month check up (he was actually 6 1/2 months old--and the hospital didn't have any parking, so I didn't make that appointment, we went the following week). I didn't have Joey's picture handy when I took Tanner's, I just rememered that he was wearing the Elmo outfit from my mom and that he was sitting on the changing table. I can see a lot of similarities and a lot of differences.

Joey's eyes were brown-brown when he was a baby, Tanner's just now is settling on brown, after months of back and forth of hazel and green too. And his brown is a lot lighter than Joey's.

Tanner weighs more at 6 1/2 months than Joey did at 8 months, so Tanner's got some more meat on those baby bones.

Joey was already pulling up to standing at 6 1/2 months, Tanner still loses his balance sitting on his own. He's no wear near standing yet.

It's so funny how similiar and how different your own kids can be. Tanner's personality has really come through. He's so happy most of the time. He loves to laugh and smile. He's much better in the car seat than Joey was. He seems to sing and coo a lot. He still adores his big brother. He loves hanging out in Joey's room and playing with Joey.

He gives these sloppy, big, wet, open-mouth kisses to us. He was sleeping through the night for a few weeks, but the past week or two, he's waking up to eat twice during the night. But he goes back to sleep much better than before, so I'm not losing as much sleep as I was before he turned 6 months. He's eating solids twice a day now. He weights 16.04 lbs. He's 27 inches long. He loves the dogs, and tries to hold onto them whenever they get close. He really loves remotes. When he's extremely sleepy, he gets so giggly and will chuckle so loud over nothing. If he's falling asleep in our arms, he likes to put his hand up and touch our face or neck as he falls asleep. Sometimes he even falls asleep with his fingers in my mouth. He's hilarious.

October 2010

2010-11-22T06:21:00.000-08:00

I am so behind on uploading the blog, so this post is just a hodgepodge of pictures from October.

Outer Banks Vacation

2010-09-27T14:32:00.000-07:00

Me and Angie had tons of fun on our sisters vacation. One of our favorite places was Jockey's Ridge State Park where these huge sand dunes are. It had the most silky sand ever.

Sunset at Jockey's Ridge was beautiful.

Back at home--our toes in the grass again.

Smiles, Siliness & Sleeping!

2010-09-25T18:51:00.000-07:00

Tanner smiles so much now. He laughs hard too. He's very ticklish. He only has to look at Joey to smile. He adores his big brother already. And Joey is still a great big brother. He likes just hanging out with Tanner and making him smile. It's so adorable.

Joey discovered that tossing Zhu Zhu blankets onto Tanner made him smile, so he kept going.

This is Tanner's first time eating rice cereal. He has a bowl every evening now and I think it's really helping him sleep better! For the past week or so, he's been doing great at night. Going 7 hours or so between feedings. It makes such a big difference in my day the next day.

Joey helped Angie put her new tag on her new car before she left for AZ.

Tanner helped Angie with some computer research.

Joey is very into flags right now. Angie got him a book with all state/country flags in it and a poster too and he loves them. He has many countries' flags memorized. He has his favorites (Republic of Georgie and Greece), and he likes to create his own and tape them on a "ba-dute-da-dute" (what he calls those cardboard rolls).

The boys had so much fun with Angie. Joey really got attached to her and was extremely upset to find out she was moving to AZ. Just out of the blue he'd say, "I'm going to miss Angie." In the car when I picked him up from school one day, he was fighting back tears talking about missing her and not wanting her to go. So sweet. And sad!

Tanner's eyes are still dark gray. Some days at certain angles, it looks like there's small brown specks in there, and other days green specks. My eyes used to be brown brown, but somehow over the years they've changed to a hazel or greenish color. Earl's are green. Joey's are brown. No telling what color Tanner will end up with.

Joey likes putting himself in his big Tonka truck, and Stonewall the Kung Zhu Hamster in the little one and take rides through the house together.

Lars got a great haircut!

Earl had to organize a Evening Parade for work, where the security forces marines show off their drill skills and the band plays and what not.

Sleepy boys.

Soccer (a.k.a. August Part 3)

2010-09-25T18:41:00.000-07:00

Tanner really enjoys watching all the kids at soccer practice. :)

Joey LOVES soccer practice. These are pictures from his first practice, which was a little, well, a lot, chaotic because they had all the same aged teams practicing together to give the parent coaches some idea of how to do the coaching when they are on their on.

This is an example of the chaos.^ All these kids are actually practicing together.

He still laid down when he was tired or bored, right in the middle of the field where anyone could have stepped on him.

August Part 2

2010-09-21T15:42:00.000-07:00

As summer was winding down, we stayed busy busy busy!

At the zoo here they have the water geysers for the kids to play in at the entrance.

Joey is almost obsessed with maps. He makes them, he loves looking at them, like from Busch Gardens, he just is really into maps for some reason. He just got over a phase of drawing zoo maps. He'd do like 20 a day. They'd all basically look the same. I'll try to find one and scan it to post here if I think about it later. He does a great job. He draws in the roads that go to the different animals. It's cute. He's finally getting over that phase. Before the zoo maps were cards. He was obsessed with folding computer paper and making greeting cards out of them. He made like 20 a day of those (you can see we go through computer paper often--he won't use the lined paper). And as alot of you know, he was most recently obsessed with mailing letters. He loved decorating the envelopes, putting on his pretend stamps (stickers) and putting his letter inside. Then he'd give it to me and have me "decorate" my "side" with the address (he calls I-dress for some reason) and put the real stamp on. Then we'd have to walk it to the mailbox (even if the mail had already ran that day) and put up the flag.

We joined a mommy's group this summer and made some new friends. It was great. It was a wonderful way to get out of the house and do fun stuff with kids Joey's age while preschool was out. I really wish I would have found this group last summer when we moved here. But we're glad to have them now.

The Botanical Gardens here is very kid friendly. There's more water geyser play, plus these cute nifty little furniture carved from trees.

Tanner is much more into tummy time than Joey ever was.

Earl uses my boppy for a pillow sometimes.

This was Tanner's first time on a ride. It's the merry go round at Busch Gardens. We had to sit on a bench and not a horse, but maybe next year :)

August Part 1

2010-09-20T12:17:00.000-07:00

I'm so behind in blog-updating. Here is part of what we did in August:

Joey started getting excited about starting soccer again, and (with the help of his soccer goal birthday present from Angie) got a head start in the backyard.

When Angie gets tired, ^like that, Joey tells her to play "Numberless" (or is he saying "Number List?"). It's a game he made up. Apparently, you just write numbers on a piece of paper and it gives you more energy! (He's doing great at writing all his numbers even though they didn't do that in preschool and we haven't even done it at home together. He just taught himself.)

He also took advantage of Angie's visits to have a wrestling partner...

...as did the dogs.

Tanner getting so big and adorable!

Joey with the funny spiral tree he loves at Busch Gardens.

Joey, Earl and our friends Jehn and Mike at Busch Gardens.

Angie and our friend Ryan.

Tanner LOVES getting tossed up into the air. He smiles and laughs!

His favorite place to sleep is on his daddy.

He learned to grab things in August!

Our sleeping prince.

Family Fun!

2010-08-21T10:49:00.000-07:00

I'm a little behind on posting these, but better late than never, right? :)

Joey went through a major obsession with lemonade stands (thanks Max & Ruby). He made his own from a box he found. He drew a picture of a lemonade pitcher on it and a glass of lemonade. At first, he kept 3 empty cups on it and had us pretend to get lemonade from him (no charge). Then he talked Earl into taking him to the store one day and getting real lemonade. So then we let him pour us real cups. Then he remembered to charge. First it was a nickel, but he quickly changed it to a quarter when he found a quarter laying around some where.

After having one for a few days, he found another box and made another one. He kept one in the playroom or living room, and the second one he kept in the hallway that led to the bedrooms and bathroom. No one would be able to get by without stopping at the stand. Ha ha. He's so smart.

He is finally over that obsession (although it wasn't too dreadful for us. I don't think I'll need pink lemonade again for a long time, though.)

Joey loved opening his birthday cards, especially the ones with money.

He got armor for his birthday too. That was his new obsession. He was making his own armor out of random wierd toys and things laying around (half of a hamster ball for a hat, etc).

Angie came up on the weekend and gave him some more presents.

He quickly roped her in for some more pretend games. They had to make space helmets.

Joey made this one for Angie.

The things an Aunt has to do for her sweet nephew.

She also learned that if you get Joey games to play with, you must play with him. Over and over and over. He loves his new Hot Potato game. He especially loves with the hot potato begs "Again! Again!"

There is no way the pictures could really capture how hilarious this was. Tanner fell asleep clutching his pacifier holder. His fingers were actually stuck on it and could not slide down. The holder was holding his arm up like this. It looks like his arm is holding the ribbon, but it's the other way around.

While Angie was here, we took a day to go to Water Country USA. It was a lot of fun.

Joey's favorite was Hubba Hubba Highway, which is like a lazy river. It has a current that carries you around. He got very proficient in doing it alone, with no one holding him.

Earl would go get us refills while we were playing in the water sometimes. I caught a picture of him passing us by (I used my zoom, he's actually much farther away).

And then turning around and passing us again. He he. He finally found us.

Joey fell flat on his face coming off one slide. He didn't cry long, don't worry.

We took turns hanging out with Tanner (who slept most of the time).

Joey loved getting his chance to squirt the people going down Hubba Hubba Highway.

Joey went for his 4 year checkup the other day. He's 3 ft 3 in tall (in the 19th percentile) and 30 lbs (4th percentile). He had a hard time with the immunizations (probably because of the recent visit to the ER with that abscess. He's all registered for Pre-K, and starts Sept 7th. He's also trying Soccer again this year.

Captain Angie Comes Home!

2010-08-11T05:38:00.000-07:00

We were blessed enough to be able to be there for Angie when she stepped off the plane after her long journey home from Iraq. This was her second deployment to Iraq and we're hoping she won't be going back!! I'm a little late putting these pictures up, but I'm hoping to get back into updating the blog more regularly. Too much happens and if I don't write about it, I'll forget it!

We started off in the...well, it's not a hangar I don't think, but it's a big open building where the plane pulls up to. Not sure what it's called.

We decided to wait inside instead of outside where the plane comes in, but we could catch a little glimpse of outside through the doors.

Joey started off pretty awake. But it was so miserably hot and late in the afternoon, and we (me, him and Tanner) had driven in from Camp Lejeune where we were spending time with our friends on the beach. Earl drove Angie's car down from VA and met us there.

After just a few minutes, Joey started nodding off. On Earl's head!

Because of all the sweat on Earl's head, Joey kept slipping. Ha ha.

We didn't have to wait too long (we had gotten there late anyway). Angie's unit marched in and luckily, she was almost right in front of us.

This is just some of the troops.

There she is! She saw us before we saw her, I think.

Poor Angie...all sweaty and hot and tired, and still smiling at us. :)

Reunion time! Hope we didn't squish Tanner with our hugs!

Joey trying on Angie's beret.

Aunt Angie and her smallest nephew getting reaquainted.

Tanner had some smiles for his aunt.

Then we went to her work building so she could get her gear. Joey waved the flag so she could find him (there was NO ONE else around where we were, the rest of the crowd was down the street).

Tanner and Daddy hanging out. This was Earl's first experience welcoming someone else in. He's always the one coming in from a deployment. He claimes he much prefers this part. I tried to explain that all of his returns have been much more difficult. We are usually waiting hours and hours in the sun with kids for his unit to come in.

Joey insisted on helping Angie find her bags.

Bingo!

The rest of the night is the big adventure, and I don't have pictures. We tried to find a hotel as Angie was finishing up at work, and everything was booked. We ended up a seedy, shady, scary Ramada in a not-so-great part of town. The A/C didn't work, the rooms were smelly. There was trash and crud all over the floors where it hadn't been cleaned. The bathtub was FULL, I mean FULL, of dirt and hair. It was the most disgusting thing I ever saw. All the rooms were the same, so we got our money back instead. A "working girl" even approached Earl outside, as he was waiting on the curb to show Angie where to turn into the hotel parking lot, and she asked Earl when he was getting off the corner. Ha ha! We went a couple more miles down the road and found a much nicer Quality Inn with vacancies. We finally got into bed around 1am I think.

But it was worth it to get to be with Angie. We are so glad she's home. And I know I speak for everyone (even Earl) when I say how proud we are of her. She's given up a lot of her life to serve overseas, in some of the most miserable conditions ever. We wish her luck and happiness and stress-free living in Arizona for the next year where she'll be doing some more training for the Army. It's been great having her here (lots of pictures of her visits to come), and we're getting spoiled. Not going to like having her so far away again, for so long. But thank God it's not Iraq. We love you Angie!

Boo Boos, Boys, and Bouncing!

2010-07-12T16:47:00.000-07:00

Josiah had what we thought was a spider bite on his right knee. After the 3rd day or so, when it kept getting worse instead of better, we figured we better take him to be seen. He had been crying with it all day and couldn't even walk on it.

If you look at the above picture, you can see how it first was looking.

Earl took him to the ER on Thursday night, and they determined it was an abscess. So they cut and drained it. They packed it and wrapped it and sent him home.

We went back the next day for a recheck with the same doctor. I waited with Tanner in the lobby while Earl took Joey back. Have you seen the commercial with the interrupting cheese being examined by the lab coat guy? Well, Earl busted up laughing in the ER because the doctor came in and started to say, "How are you doing, Joey?" But before he got it all out, Joey blurted, "Interrupting cheese!!" The doctor also thought it was funny.

They saw it was getting better and prescribed him antibiotics and he has to take 3 soapy baths a day to keep it cleaned. I thought I was doing good to get him bathed 3 times a week, much less in a day! But he's been good about it. Especially after we went and bought him some new bath toys. He loves the baths now. I'll have to get a picture of that.

The day after he spent most of the night in the ER, he was exhausted.

His knee is doing much better. He can bend it just fine now and as you'll see in coming pictures, he has no problem playing on it!

Tanner gets his best sleep on his daddy.

He's so cute, just staring at people and being curious about everything. His eyes are still dark gray. They haven't changed to whatever color they're going to be yet.

He is going through my favorite baby stage: baby talk! I love the gibberish! He coos and goos and does all sorts of talking. He talks to himself, to his bug toys, to his elephants on his bounce chair, to anyone who will listen and talk back.

We went to Kangaroo Jacs today and met some new friends.

Joey played with Aiden and Aiden's little sister, Elaine. They were all so cute together.

They didn't have quarters, but that didn't stop them from playing (and spending 20 minutes or so on) the race car game.

When Tanner woke up at Kangeroo Jacs, he had lots of smiles for me!

And when we got home, he had even more smiles and laughs for his daddy!

Tanner went to the doctor last week for help with his gas pains and reflux. They increased his dosage of Zantac. We'll see if that helps. Last night he did sleep much better than usual. He slept in his crib all night for the first time, and had a 5 hour stretch between feedings. That was wonderful! He didn't keep me or himself up all night with the gas pains and grunting either. I pray this improvement lasts and isn't just a one-night fluke.