A Problem Solved

So a while ago I mentioned a problem we've been having with Tanner - he likes to stand up in his high chair regardless of how tight we make the seat belt or tight we make the tray. I was all for getting a new high chair that had shoulder straps. Nate, however, came up with a more creative solution . . .He found a pair of toy handcuffs, and shackles the poor kid at every meal. While I'm not sure how I feel about the solution, I have to admit, it does work. Tanner doesn't even try to stand up when he has the handcuffs on.

On the other hand, I came out of my room a couple of days after he started this and found Kiersten and Tanner playing. When I looked closer, I realized that Kiersten had the handcuffs out and was trying to cuff Tanner's feet together. When I asked her what she was doing she told me that she was playing with Tanner, but he wasn't staying still in the car while she was driving them somewhere so she was going to handcuff him so that he would stay still. Trying not to laugh, I explained to her that we don't handcuff people. She looked at me, and very seriously said, "But Mom, Daddy does." How can I argue with that?

Cookie Monster

We'd brought back a few chocolate Oreo-like cookies from Disneyland and decided to have them for our FHE treat. It was a rare treat for Kiersten, and even more rare for Tanner (usually Nate and I have dessert after we put them to bed!). I think he liked them. Nate's comment was that he figured we'd get some pretty good pictures of Tanner on his 1st Birthday (I have always been disappointed with Kiersten's pictures - there wasn't much of a mess.)

I'm not sure even a mother would want a kiss from this face!

Easter Pictures

I finally got Kiersten and Tanner in to have pictures taken of them in their Easter outfits. I figured that I'd kill two birds with one stone, and count these as Kiersten's 4-year-old pictures. I was pretty happy with how they turned out.

Plum Tuckered Out!

So I put Tanner down for his nap this morning and of course he started crying the minute I put him in his crib. Thankfully today it only lasted for a couple of minutes (we had a day last week where the screaming and crying went on for almost an hour). About 20 minutes later I felt like I needed to go check on him (I kept having these visions of him having fallen out of his crib and laying on the floor). So I snuck in as quietly as I could, and this is what I found. (I'm not sure the picture really does this justice, but I'm standing so that the camera is right above his head.) When I'd put him in his crib he sat right up (not unusual for him!) and he fell asleep siting up with his forehead resting on the bars of his crib/the bumper pad. After taking a couple of pictures I laid him down and helped him to get more comfortable so that he could take a decent nap! Poor guy, to be so tired you can't even lay down!

Happy Easter!

We had such a fun Easter! I was determined to not let Easter slide by un-noticed, since it came just a couple of days after Kiersten's birthday and the day after her party. So we started the festivities the week before . . .Nate gave a good FHE lesson on Easter and the Resurrection Monday night, then Tuesday we had our Easter party in preschool (which I was in charge of), then Easter parties in dance on Wednesday(Kiersten's birthday), Easter treats for our playgroup friends on Thursday, dying eggs Friday night, the ward Easter egg hunt Saturday morning (and her party that afternoon), and of course Easter baskets Sunday morning! Hmmm, as I read this I'm beginning to wonder if I went a little overboard! We didn't need to do something Easter every day of the week! Oh well, maybe next year I'll remember to tone it down some.

Kiersten's main excitement for Easter was getting to wear her new church shoes. A couple of months ago she started complaining that her shoes hurt her feet and she would cry when I would make her wear socks to church (I didn't think much of the tears - there's always lots of drama in our life!), so I checked and realized that her shoes really were tight. So we went out looking and she found a pair that she really liked. Unfortunately they were more than I wanted to spend on shoes, so I told her we had to wait until they went on sale. She was ok with waiting, which surprised me since patience is not one of her strong points. They finally went on sale, so we rushed out to get them, and then didn't have church the next week (General Conference). So, Easter Sunday was her first chance to wear them and she was so excited. She was sure that everyone would tell her what pretty shoes she had on.

Tanner, on the other hand, is not in his Easter suit. For Christmas Grandma and Grandpa Berrett had given him the cutest suit that is just now starting to fit him. I was so excited for him to wear it - it has a cute little bow tie and everything! I got him dressed 10 minutes before we needed to leave for church (which is our typical routine on Sundays, and even then he usually manages to spit up on his outfit before we get to church!). I walked out of the room for just a couple of minutes and when I came back to get him to take a quick picture I realized that he had messed his diaper (which I had just changed!) and it had managed to leak onto his shorts. I know he didn't do it on purpose, but I was so mad at him for ruining my picture, and for making us late to church (but more for ruining the picture!) that I was in such a bad mood by the time I got to church! Oh well, there's always next week for his picture in his Easter suit!

Happy Birthday to our Little Princess!

It's hard to believe that on April 8th our little Kiersten turned 4 years old! Really, it's more like she's been 3 going on 16 than just 4, or at least that's what she thinks! She was sure that when she woke up on the morning of her 4th birthday she would be all grown up. We have tried and tried to explain to her that she grows a little each day and that she won't ever see a big change over night. I don't think she gets it, because on the morning of her birthday she told me that she could tell that she was taller than when she went to bed!

Kiersten trying out her new bike from Mom and Dad on her birthday.

A girl can never have too many shoes! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Larsen. Notice the princess locket she's wearing, compliments of Grandma and Grandpa Berrett.

For her birthday she wanted a princess party. In fact she has been very specific for the last 6 months - she wanted a princess party with a princess pinata! So we had just that - a princess party with a princess pinata! Everyone came dressed up in their favorite princess dress (Kiersten had a hard time deciding which dress to wear, but in the end Sleeping Beauty won out over Cinderella. I was pleased for one reason - the long sleeves of this dress hid her red, long-sleeved Christmas shirt she insisted on wearing that day!). We played some princess games (our Sleeping Beauty game ended early when one of the girls started eating the apple they were supposed to be hiding and finding!),

had a princess pinata,

a princess cake
(although Kiersten told me later that I should have decorated it to look like Sleeping Beauty instead of Cinderella because, even though Cinderella is her favorite, this doll looked more like Sleeping Beauty because her hair was not in a bun like Cinderella's),

and lots of princess fun!

Standing Up

Tanner has a new "trick" - stand up in his high chair! The little stinker is so skinny that he can wiggle around in the high chair even when the try pushed in as far as it can go and he has the seat-belt on (something we never even used with Kiersten!). I think we're going to be trading in our current high chair for one with a 5-point harness (the kind with shoulder straps!). Nate thinks that if we just wait a little longer, until he gets a little bigger, that he won't be able to wiggle out and stand up. I think he's a wiggly little monkey who will always be pulling stunts like this.

Unfortunately, it's hard to be stern with him when he's standing up. I can't help but melt at that cute smile!

Oh, and tooth number 2 finally poked through today, and I still have yet to get a good shot of his teeth. He'll show off his teeth until the second he thinks someone actually wants to see them and then he covers them with his tongue! Someday . . . !