Tanner's 1st Birthday

Where does the time go? Happy 1st Birthday to our Tanner! He is such a sweet and happy little guy. He is adored by all!

The theme for the day was pirates! I made a big cupcake to look a pirate and pirate cake pops which were all a big hit. As we sang Tanner immediately reached to grab a priate cake pop. As you can see he wasn't really into blowing out his candle.

Enjoying his cake pop. I didn't even have him eat his big cupcake. It was huge and the black frosting would have stained him purple for days. He was completely happy to eat his much smaller cake pop.

Opening presents. Carson had to help him with the wrapping paper. We got him a Lego farm which he really likes to destroy. Grandma and Papa got him a walker that he is loving. Grandma and Grandpa got him three new books. Aunt Marci and Uncle Adam sent him some new clothes.

I hope this little boy feels celebrated. We sure love him to pieces!

A few things about Tanner at age 1:

- he is the happiest little guy around, always smiling
- right now 'mama' is his only word (I'm happy to be his favorite)
- he isn't quite walking
- he loves to eat anything we are eating (except peas!)
- he loves to crawl after his older brothers and try to do what they do
- he loves to be tickled
- he lights up when you sing to him
- nicknames: Tanner-man, Mr. T and little Tanner coconut (thanks to Carson)

Not too cold apparently!

Carson says...

I will have to find a picture of Carson and add it to this post, but I wanted to write down a few things he has said just so I can remember them.

• "Someday, in a really long time, when I'm in heaven I want to live with you and Dad, but if I'm still on this earth can I go live with Noah and Hunter's mom and dad? They have really cool toys."
• "Mom, I can't think of anything that starts with the letter 'e' for show and tell today. I have an idea, I'll just have my pants be my show and tell. Don't worry, I won't take them off to show them." (I was a bit confused. Pants doesn't start with an 'e' and why he thinks that would be a cool/fun show and tell...I'm not sure.)

Big Helper

I asked Carson to go get Tanner from my bedroom just to see if he would actually go pick him up. I thought it was so funny to watch them walking down the hall.

Enjoying Arizona

The Great Outdoors

I love that we get to enjoy wonderful weather in March! On Sunday we headed over to Grandma & Grandpa Woolf's house. The boys ran and played in the yard while we visited on the porch. Tanner was content to just hangout in the grass.

Dinosaurs Before Dark

We started our very first chapter books with Carson. He is beyond excited! We read the first chapter the other night and he has asked me several times today what will happen next. Dinosaurs Before Dark is the first book in the Magic Tree House series.

My little goofball insisted that we take the picture like this. He's five. I guess this is normal.

Team Evans

The weather has been so nice that I decided to bust out some of the new summer clothes I just purchsed for the boys. I got each of them a pair of basketball shorts. Blake is still obsessed with balls. I should take a picture of him while he sleeps. He is completely surrounded by all sorts of balls. I saw these shirts and shorts and just had to get them. Carson put them on and started dancing around saying he loved how they felt. Carson loved that he and Tanner both had orange shorts and said they could be on the same team. He said Blake could be on a team with me because I was wearing blue jeans. For the most part these boys get along great. I am glad they will always have each other.

I love this picture because it's very typical of Tanner. He loves to watch whatever his big brothers are doing. Carson is very helpful with his brothers and Blake is well...Blake is two right now so we'll give him a break. He is quite the tease, loves to scream and scratch and yell, "Stop baby!" when Tanner is fussy. I still love him. Lots actually.

7 Month Old Tanner

Our little Tanner-man is 7 months old this week! He is one sweet boy. He lights up when anyone looks at him and gives him attention. He loves to laugh and smile and is generally the happiest little boy. For the past two weeks he has been a bit more mobile. He gets up on his hands and knees and scoots backwards. He loves to roll around to get to his desired destination.

His new trick! Tanner can sit up all by himself. We love watching him sit and play and then suddenly topple over. Just look at that little face. Can you say darling?? He reminds me so much of Carson.
Sunday evening he was rolling around and finally got all tuckered out and stopped to take a little rest. Why do I love babies sleeping on their tummies? I think it is so sweet and peaceful.

One more shot of our little chub master showing off his sitting skills. He is looking at his big brothers off to the side who are cheering for him. Oh how we love this boy. He is such a joy!

The past two nights we've been showing Tanner a little bit of tough love. For some reason over the last couple weeks he thinks he needs me to put his binky back in around 2 or 3 a.m. and then again around 5:30 a.m. He also gets a bit frustrated that he ends up on his tummy. No more for this mama. He can work it out. I finally told Matt I would purchase him earplugs if he wanted and I didn't care if he woke everyone up, but I was done getting up. I thought for sure Tanner would scream his little guts out. 5:45 a.m. rolls around and sure enough he woke up and I just let him cry. He only cried for about 20 mintues and then fell back asleep for 2 hours. Yesterday he woke up early from his nap and I could hear him talking, playing, crying, etc. on and off and he finally fell asleep. When I went in to get him he had his binky in. He's figuring out how to do that himself. Hallelujah! I am grateful for good sleepers.

Two can play this game

Let's call Blake our "spirited" child. He's always very busy and often doing something he shouldn't be doing. Since transitioning him to a twin sized bed getting him to stay in his bed or in his room has been a challenge. I started locking the door and when I heard him banging and playing I'd go in an put him back on his bed. Well, the other day he just wasn't having it. I finally gave up on putting him back in bed and figured if he was quietly playing in his room that was fine. After his "quiet time" was over I went in to get him. Blake was smiling and happy. Blake was also naked. There were four pee spots on the carpet too. Fast forwarded to naptime the next day. I decided two can play this game! I changed his diaper before naptime and added some ducktape to reinforce and secure his diaper in place. Glad he thought it was funny.

Now he looks like a nicely wrapped Christmas package. He stood up and wanted it off and I just smiled.
Needless to say there were no pee accidents this time around. If he figures out how to remove the ducktape I already have other ideas. Blake, don't even think about it.

Blake & good 'ol Charlie Brown

Blake looked like he was in a trance watching Charlie Brown. Very still, mouth hanging open, etc. My favorite is when he looks over at us out of the corner of his eye and then answers no to my question. Seriously, this kid drives me crazy sometimes, but he sure is sweet and darn funny too!