Kiersten's First Post

kiersten we
wa
ud
wont
yor
frends
kam
help
selabrat
my
brthday
i
love
my
famley
i
love
skoowl
in
skoowl
the
ledr
i
tokt
a
baot
is
keoo
wen
i
gro
up
i
wont
to
bey
a
mthr
wen
igro
up
i
wont
to
bey
a
mathr
wen
i
gro
up
i
love
it
wen
i
hav
a
brathr
i
lik
my
brathr
and
tanner
thegnks
it
is
fun
to
hav
a
big
sistr
the
wacky
substitute
my
frens
are
hailey
masy
cordr
wyitt
jona
sidney
kiersten
i
love
you

Laughing and Jumping

This post is really for Grandmas and Grandpas and anyone else who might care. (Don't worry, we won't be offended if you don't watch the videos - we won't even know!)

We thought this video was a pretty cute shot of Tanner laughing and jumping, over a light-up bouncy ball that . . . bounced!

I was going to post a couple of other videos, but apparently the files are HUGE and either won't load, or will take all night, so I'm not going to post them. They weren't that great anyway! :)

Planting our Garden

I don't think that planting our garden is all that exciting, especially since we haven't yet figured out how to grow things in Arizona and most everything dies before the end of the summer, but I just had to share since everyone else seems to be buried in snow and cold weather!

Yesterday we planted the flowers in the front yard and today we planted some vegetables in the back yard. (I start small, and once those are in the ground I can go back and get more. I've had too many plants die before I can even get them in the ground because I bit off more than I can chew!) Tanner loved his "vo-vel" and he liked to scoop dirt out of the flower bed and onto the sidewalk. Once he missed the sidewalk, and poured a shovelfull of dirt right down my pants! Kiersten quickly lost interest in digging and planting, but she loved to water the plants once they were in.

My hope with planting earlier this year than we have in years past is that they'll survive longer - they may only make it until June this year, like they usually do, but that gives us 4 moths to enjoy them instead of the usual 2 1/2!

Tanner speaks . . . a little!

About a week and a half ago we had a speech therapist come out and evaluate Tanner to see if he had a true speech delay. I was warned ahead of time that he had to have at least a 50% delay to qualify for speech therapy, and I didn't expect him to do that poorly. Turns out he did! According to this speech therapist, an 18-24 month-old child should have 50-100 words, and Tanner has about 15.

However, in the days since the speech therapist came Tanner has added several words to his vocabulary . . . several of which are pretty cute!

-"ba-lee" is "please"
-"nut-nut" is "night-night"
-"lee" is "lid" (like for pots and pans)
-"dee" or "dee-dee"is "CD," "DVD" or "movie"
-"hovel" or "vo-vel" is "shovel" and "watering can" (but sometimes watering can is "bubble")
-"bow" is "ball," "bowl" or "computer" (Nate's laptop, and I have no idea where that came from, except that's what Tanner says as he points to the laptop!)
-"hoos" is "shoes"
-"yeah" is "yes", but it's never just said, it is usually yelled as loud as he can with all the excitement and enthusiasm he can muster, even if I'm asking if he wants green beans for dinner
"-lella" is "Cinderella" - yes, my little boy doesn't say car or truck, but he recognizes Cinderella and calls her by name!
-"hoo-ey" means that he has a stinky diaper (I said "whoo-ey" once when changing a stinky diaper, and that's stuck ever since)
-"wah" is what he says when he sees a dog; I think he's trying to bark

I'm sure there are more, but that's all I can think of right now.

Daddy Daughter Dinner and Dance

Every year Rancho Sahuarita (the community where we live) has a Daddy Daughter Dance around Valentine's Day. Usually it is on Sunday, so Nate can't take Kiersten. This year, however, it was on a Saturday, so he signed them up. Kiersten was so excited that she picked out her dress and accessories weeks in advance (including a veil, all the jewelry she owns, and an old black purse of mine). She got quite upset with me when I tried to hang her dress in the closet, because she was afraid that if I put it away she wouldn't be able to get ready! She also told me that she was going to be very brave when it was her and daddy's turn to dance. I tried to explain to her that everyone got to dance at the same time and that it wouldn't be like dancing on the stage. I don't thing she really understood until she got to the actual dance.

Here they are, ready to leave for their Daddy-Daughter-Dinner-Dance-Date (say that one ten times fast!)
A self-portrait while they waited in line. Nate commented on how many dads were wearing pink ties. I think he was impressed, or scared, I'm not completely sure which!
The clubhouse went all out for dinner - macaroni and cheese, pigs in a blanket, chicken, fruit, Capri Suns and cupcakes for dessert, and served on the finest china with the nicest silverware they could find! :)
One of the highlights of the evening for Kiersten was getting to choose a corsage (they had several colors and styles to choose from). She was so excited that they had flowers for her. So excited, in fact, that she wore it to church the next day. When Kiersten came home that night she told me that she'd been a "crazy dancer, but Daddy didn't dance crazy." Come on, Dad! What were you thinking! :) Kiersten and Nate had so much fun. It would be so nice if we could make this a tradition . . . if only the clubhouse will continue to hold it on Saturday nights!

She's so excited, she just can't wait!

With the new year, one of the things I've been looking forward to is changing the time we go to church. Last year we went from 2-5 and I absolutely dreaded it. But this year we've got the 8 spot. It's a little early to be out the door in the mornings, but being home by 11:30 is WONDERFUL!

So, we've been talking a lot with Kiersten, letting her know that she's going to have to get up early (for the past few weeks she and Tanner have been sleeping until at least 7:30, if not later - it's been wonderful) and get ready quickly for church. Kiersten has been very excited to wear this dress to church that Aunt Angie sent her. So was so excited, in fact, that she came out Saturday night wearing the dress, and then pulled her pajamas on over it. That way, when she wakes up in the morning all she'll have to do is take off her pajamas and she'll be ready to go to church. Nate and I laughed so hard - she looks like she had a pretty large growth around her middle! (And Angie, you were worried about the wrinkles from shipping it. That was nothing compared to being bunched up in her pajamas!) We finally managed to convince her that there would be plenty of time to get dressed in the morning and that she didn't need to sleep in her dress.

Then the next morning when the alarm went off at 6 I noticed that Kiersten's light was on. I figured it was left on from one of her many gettings up in the night and didn't think much about it. As I was doing Kiersten's hair she told me that she woke up really early (it would have still been dark out), and thought it was time to get dressed, so she got up, turned on her light and put her dress on. Then she decided she was still tired, so she climbed back into bed and fell back asleep.

Maybe next time we should just let her wear her dress to bed!

New Year's Eve Skookie Party

For New Year's Eve, we decided to have a fun family party. My brother, Todd, and his wife gave us a skookie for Christmas, so we decided to have a Skookie party. Skookies are the 7-inch cast iron skillets you see in the pictures. We let each person make their own personal pizza . . . well, except for Tanner. He got to help put some of his toppings on (more like he threw what toppings I gave him onto his pizza!), but I didn't think letting him go at the pizza sauce was that good of an idea! Kiersten, though, had a great time and felt very grown up, making her own pizza.


Tanner LOVES playing with the spatula, and when he found this round of pizza dough just sitting on the counter he couldn't resist getting out the spatula and helping!
We had quite the festive dinner - Nate bought matching paper cups, plates and napkins (my way to do dishes!), and Martinellis (although, now as I think about it, we forgot to have a New Year's toast!). Kiersten really liked the Martinelli's, and I think we let her drink too much because after dinner was over, she told me that it felt like there were bubbles trying to come up her throat!
I even gave Tanner some of the Martinelli's (I figure he likes grape juice, so why not?), but he didn't like it so much. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of the horrified face he made after a couple of sips. But, when I let him keep his straw to play with, he was in heaven!

After dinner we had a race to see who could put on their pajamas fastest - I don't remember who won. Probably Kiersten, she's quite competitive! Nate put Tanner to bed and then we played a game of "Somethin's Fishy," a card game Kiersten loves. Then we got out the blowers, and rung in the New Year (at 7:15 pm!). I must have ended up with the dud, though, because everyone's but mine made noise as you blew on them.
After that we put Kiersten to bed, and Nate and I played several rounds of a game Santa brought him for Christmas, Sequence. Let me just tell you, I LOVE that game! Nate is very analytical and thinks all the possible scenarios through before ever making a move. I, on the other hand, tend to make the first move that looks good. Needless to say, he almost always wins whenever we play a game. But, with this game, I won 3 of the 4 rounds we played! I love a game I can win at on a regular basis, and I really LOVE a game where I win more often than not!

We finished around 10:30, and were ready to head to bed. Nate got on the computer to check something "real quick" and I was going to read "just a couple of pages" while I waited for him. Yeah! At 12:05 Nate looks up from the computer and says, "Happy New Year" and then we get sucked back into what we were doing for another half hour until we realize it is MUCH, MUCH later than we should be up and head for bed. We're such the party-ers, huh? :)

(Unfortunately Kiersten didn't sleep well that night, and I was up from 2:30-4:00-ish with her, and then up for the morning with Tanner at 7:30, and Nate slept through it all! Oh well, he made up for it - he got up with her the next 2 nights.)