cinco de mayo and other fun

Our church had a Cinco de Mayo party that was a big hit!! When we told Tanner about the pinatas and that he could hit it with a baseball bat, he was super excited. He was actually chosen to be the first one to hit the pinata, lucky duck! He was very aggressive about it!

We had fun listening to the high school mariachi band and visiting with friends.

Tanner liked watching the mariachi band violin players, so he used his spoon and sucker stick to play his own violin. What a funny kid.

I love this pic of him eating dessert with his friends.

Jackie and Serious are two of the awesome young women I get to serve in our youth group. These girls come to my house at least once a week to learn piano and help me with the boys.

Some of Tanner's buddies. 

Other Fun

I've convinced Tanner that our yogurt is ice cream. This is just normal yogurt, not frozen yogurt. 

The funniest part is that Tanner thinks the picture on the ice cream cone box of chocolate chip ice cream is actually raisins. So he told me to put raisins on his ice cream. 

He loves it!

We are both pretty happy about it this new snack! Tanner even had us give a toast for our ice cream cones!

We still eat in the dining room about once a week. Tanner's new thing is that if his shirt gets at all soiled or wet, he has to take it off. We did not have this problem in the winter, so maybe it has to do with the growing heat and humidity?

Basement play on a rainy day! Dallin climbs up and slides down this slide all on his own.

After lots of practice walking short distances, Dallin made the switch from mostly crawling to mostly walking during the second week of May. On Tuesday he was mostly crawling everywhere and on Thursday, we noticed that he was mostly walking everywhere!

He loves to climb and play.

Inventing new toys.

Dallin is quickly gaining a lot of motor skills, including hammering.

Excited about something!

Dallin makes the cutest faces when he eats! He has seven teeth, chews and eats well, wanting to try everything. We let him eat everything except raisins and nuts. LOVES mandarin oranges, lima beans, scrambled eggs and watermellon. 

Dallin has a major sweet tooth; will only eat veggies if mashed up and mixed with something like yogurt, applesauce or bananas. Eats chicken really well. Also loves fish. Does not like carrots in any form and hasn't since the first day I offered it. Sort of drinks from a sippy cup. We are still breastfeeding all the time. He refuses to take a bottle. I keep saying that I'm going to wean him cold turkey, but that hasn't happened yet. This cutie pie is hard to say 'no' to!

I love this baby!!

Springtime

Our spring has been great so far. Here are pics from after Easter through May 4.

Playing with toys and puzzles from the Toy Lending Library.

Dallin talks to us a lot. One of my favorite things he says is "Woh, woh, woh!!" because of this adorable face he makes while saying it. 

Rainy day. Dallin trying to use the computer. 

Tanner watching a dinosaur youtube while playing with his dinosaurs.

Pretending to have a baby in his belly.

Rainy day. Our little climber.

Right after a bath.

Out to eat at Applebees.

Followed by a trip to Home Depot to get garden stuff.

No rain! We went outside to blow bubbles and play on driveway.

I've been wearing Dallin on my back a lot lately. After naptime and right before dinner, he sometimes gets really clingy. The bjorn helps us stay happy. (I'm sitting in a chair while taking this pic).

Blossoms!

Date Night--disc golf at Todd Park after a couple days of rain. Jeremy bought real discs for us, so we were totally legit. It was nice being outside in the fresh, spring air.

Jeremy was making fun of how I look when I throw the disc. I do look pretty dorky!

Saturday morning cuddles, on a rainy day.

I love this pout face.

Jeremy worked from home on a Weds. He and Dallin weren't feeling good.

Bowling game from Toy Lending Library.

Tanner asked if he could climb this tree in our yard. We decided to see if he actually could. He really surprised us! Also, this was the first day of the year that he wore shorts!

Tanner made a T-rex bed in our room. I think he is pretend-sleeping in this picture, but I can't remember.

Dallin is really strong. At this point, he wasn't very good at walking yet, but he was so determined to push the broom around that he found a way to do it!

Story time before bed. This is one of me and Jeremy's favorite parts of the day.

We are trying Square Foot Gardening this year!

We dug out 3 of our old garden beds and made these new ones. It's been a big project, and has been taking us longer than we planned (what doesn't, right?). The gardening book Jeremy has should have had a chapter on how to make a garden with toddlers around. I love that my boys are getting muddy and exploring our yard! I don't love that they pull the tarp after we've laid it perfectly, move the garden boxes that we've leveled meticulously, throw rocks into the soil that we have churned diligently (and then throw that soil into the grass), and dig up the seeds that we have planted faithfully. We were debating on what kind of fence to use to keep the deer out, but I think our biggest perpetrators are our own children!

We'll let you know if our gardening efforts end up in vain. I have faith that we'll do okay! Jeremy jokes that he doesn't think the crops will do well this year and it's going to be a hard winter. He says we will have to go to Mr. Walmart for help, haha. I sure am glad this garden is just recreational and not our only source of food!