Saturday, May 4, 2013

Spring Happenings

Hello, everyone!

Today was a great day—we planted flowers in the hopes of attracting butterflies to honor my Granny who recently passed away.  We miss her terribly but remember her with the utmost fondness.

David has gotten our whole family interested in geocaching, so another thing we did in Granny’s honor was to create & plant a geocache on the Oregon Trail near our home.  We all walked up & picked the spot, so it will be interesting to see who is the first to find it; and even people who never had the pleasure of knowing Granny will get a small glimpse of her unique personality.  If you’ve never heard of geocaching, you can read more about it here: www.geocaching.com

To back track a bit…..we had a lovely Valentines Day.  David & I got to have a date night thanks to the grandparents. :)  And I also took the kids to a Valentines Day party with the Idaho Moms’ Network.  They had a lot of fun!

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In March, we celebrated St. Patrick’s Day, and the kids had a blast with the treasure hunt the “leprechaun” left for them.  We made green food, listened to Irish music, and they even got to take a green bath!  Here are some fun photos:

We also took Ariel to Kindergarten registration in March, and that was exciting!  It’s kind of sad too that she is growing up so fast!  But she was very proud & did well with her readiness “exam” by identifying shapes, numbers, colors & counting & telling stories.  She’ll start in August.

We did some fun things with the Idaho Moms’ Network including a pee wee soccer trial class at the park.  The kids loved it!  And Ariel was thrilled when she won the Lego tower building contest at the library!

We also enjoyed four Easter celebrations in the month of March!  We had one with the Idaho Moms’ Network, another with our own little family, one with David’s side of the family combined with his Auntie Jill’s birthday, and the last one with my parents & sister.  The kids were just thrilled!  Though I think next year we really need to work on encouraging everyone to leave quarters rather than candy in the eggs for the Easter egg hunts because that was a whole lot of CANDY!  :)

Ariel had her preschool bike rodeo in April, and we all had so much fun watching her participate.  She really thought she won the whole race, and was so excited that she grabbed Dylan & picked him up in a happy embrace.  So cute!  It was great having Nana, Grama & Grampa there too!

We celebrated David’s grandma’s (Laurice’s) 80th birthday near the end of the month.  Ariel & Dylan sure enjoyed the cake!  They really like singing the Happy Birthday song too.

We attended another birthday party the very next day—my friend’s Jessica’s little boy, Adric, who turned two.  So now Dylan thinks it’s someone’s birthday everyday (technically, it is…but not always someone we know of course).  Ha, Ha!  The kids had a blast playing in the backyard and eating cake again!

Ariel also started her Hot Shots gymnastics class in April, which is a class for more advanced 3 & 4 year old girls.  She gets to do more floor work (routines, cart wheels, & such) and she also gets to work on the “big girl” bars, balance beams & trampolines.  She was a little nervous about the changes at first, but she’s doing great now.

And of course the end of the month brought very sad news of my Granny’s passing.  Angie & I flew to Minneapolis & then drove to Iowa to be there with our  family for the funeral.  It was the most beautiful ceremony I’ve ever seen & so perfect for Granny—she would’ve loved it.  My cousins, Tom, Ryan, & Greg made it personal and tailored to Granny individually by creating a perfect eulogy, playing a beautiful harmonica song, and reading one of Granny’s poems.  We were all moved to tears of course; but we were able to sit down & reminisce later and  laughed so hard sharing stories of Granny and honoring her wish of remembering her with our smiles.  She will never be forgotten; her optimism, strength & love will be in our hearts forever.

We had a brief visit with Jackie (my sister), Xander (my nephew) and Bert (my stepmom) while we were in Iowa.  We look forward to spending more time with all of the family again soon.

Love to you all,

Tammy, David, Ariel & Dylan

p.s. Here are some bonus photos:

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Saturday, February 9, 2013

2012 Wrap Up & Happenings in the New Year

Hello, everyone!  I hope the new year is treating you well so far!  There’s lots to catch up on, so I’ll start with November. We had a visit from my best friend, Maria, and her kids, Livie & Carson; and it was great catching up & letting the kids play together.  We also got a fun opportunity to tour the post office with the Idaho Moms’ Network, & the kids liked playing in the mail truck.  And of course, we celebrated three Thanksgivings last year, and each was quite a feast!  It’s a good thing they were spaced out a bit.  We also put up my parents’ Christmas tree at their house & bought a real one for our house.  Here are some photos:

Then in December, we celebrated my 32nd b-day, four Christmases, and David’s 31st b-day. We also went to see the Winter Garden Aglow at the Botanical Gardens here in Boise, visited the downtown Santa Claus, attended a Christmas party, and hung out with family. Busy month!  The kids had a lot of fun opening gifts this year, and Ariel helped to pass them out too.  They were thrilled with the packages they received in the mail too!  We also toured a paramedics unit with the Idaho Moms’ Network, and the kids got to sit inside an ambulance.  And David has gotten into a new hobby—terrariums; you’ll see his first attempt in the photo album.

January brought colder than normal winter weather for us & much more snow than we’re used to in Boise!  We celebrated Dylan’s 2nd birthday with a cute Mickey Mouse theme, and he really enjoyed having family over & opening his gifts. Here are the photos of the birthday boy and his party:

Dylan had his two year check up at the doctor’s office last month as well, and he now weighs 33 lbs, 2 oz (93%); he’s 36 inches tall (87%).  He’s a big boy!  Here are his “tree photos” to see how he’s grown…the tree not so much yet.

Ariel weighs 38 lbs & is 41 inches tall, so Dylan is catching up to his big sister!  He’s adopted her habit of having a hot chocolate & watching a t.v. show first thing in the morning, so it’s pretty cute to see the two of them with their drinks & blankets on the couch together.

We also had a visit from Patrice last month, and we all went to McCall for the winter festival.  The kids had a lot of fun looking at the snow sculptures, and Ariel even got to climb & slide down some of them.  Dylan had just gotten over a nasty stomach bug prior to the trip, so we were lucky that we still got to go.  Unfortunately, David & I got sick the day we were driving back, which made for a long drive, but we got through it.  It was a lot of fun at the hotel—the kids really enjoyed playing at the pool—that was quite a treat for them given that it’s winter & that’s not a normal activity we can do!  We didn’t get a lot of photos because I remembered to pack everything but the camera, but here are a few:

And now it’s February & we’re looking forward to Valentine’s Day.  Ariel & Dylan have been making Valentine hearts for everyone & we have several taped on our window too.  They love celebrating holidays. ;) 

We hope you are all doing well & staying healthy.  Lots of love from all of us!

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