more independent

get this folks, tyler will be done with his second year of medical school soon. wow. our first year here i used to look at the fourth years and think...lucky. but now we're not that far off anymore. he'll be moving on to rotations for his third year, and i know he can't wait. but first things first, he must do well on his finals then, dun-dun-dun...the boards. only 44 days left to study my dear husband.

as for the kiddos, they keep growing and wanting to do a little more on their own. take tanner here. he wants to eat everything we give him and everything we don't give him. we have become a huge fan of this hand held net he can eat out of. we can stick almost anything in it, and he can happily suck away. no worries about choking.

katelyn's desire to read has increased ten fold. she practically always has a book in her hands and always wants to read the book by herself. one of her favorite things to do is sit in the bathroom while we shower while reading a large pile of books. fine by me. this way i know she's not getting into trouble.

we found out recently that mr. tanner loves showers. he just can't figure out how to get a good grasp on that water.



we taught katelyn how to play candy land. this is a good thing and a bad thing. it's good because we love that she's learning new skills that come with playing games. it's a bad thing because it takes a long time to get through the game. she gets easily confused with the twisted path and makes her guy move backwards quite often.

katelyn has decided that she wants to be the one to comb her hair after her baths. i think she's found a new style for hair. wonder why i hadn't thought of that look before?

and look at how excited this little cutie is that she's turning three soon. can't wait to celebrate. only 9 more days until the big day.

easter

there were a lot of easter festivities this year to keep us busy. katelyn had 4 easter egg hunts scheduled this year. a little crazy, fun and ridiculous all at the same time. she ended up only doing two of them though due to the fact that she got sick. probably a good thing since this girl can down her candy.

this year we went to our neighborhood easter egg hunt. it turned out to be quite a cold day, and we weren't very prepared for the cold weather, so we didn't stay long.

i loved how they set up the hunt. they roped off a huge area where they had put all of the eggs out. they let the youngest group of kids "hunt" first for their 10 eggs, then the next age group and the next. it was nice to know my kid wasn't going to get trampled while searching for eggs. i guess searching isn't the right word since there was an egg everywhere you stepped.



the cheeser grin. gotta have the cheeser grin.



and wow, an actual picture with me in it. i'm so used to being behind the camera.



katelyn talked and talked about seeing the easter bunny, but when it actually came time to say hi to him, she didn't want to. since i had already given my camera to a stranger to take our picture, i made her get in. thankfully there were no tears since i was holding her.

of course there was also dying easter eggs. we actually did this very early on in the month, and it was a hit. i think katelyn could have dyed at least 3 dozen eggs by herself if we had let her.

she was very proud of her eggs.

the easter basket. we obviously didn't prepare katelyn for her easter basket. the day before we were at the doctor's office for katelyn. everyone kept asking katelyn who was going to come visit her house the next day. she had no clue who they were talking about. i'm even pretty sure she knows we gave her the basket. oh, and that tinkerbell painting kit. not even from us. my visiting teacher gave that to her.

we loved having conference and easter in the same weekend. since conference didn't start until 11:00 sunday morning, we had time to sit down as a family and talk about our Savior and the Resurrection and were able to read some accounts out of the Bible. katelyn actually listened very carefully and made appropriate comments.

conference was a whole different story. we were up and down trying to keep kids quiet. thank goodness for the conference ensign.

heading to the park

right now i'm listening to the rain coming down. april showers here we come. it rains a lot here during the month of april. rainboots are practically a must around here unless you want your kid to have wet shoes all month.

before this rain hit we headed to the park to enjoy the beautiful weather. it had been so long since the weather has been really warm that i forgot what it felt like. i dressed the kids and myself way to warmly.

tanner hid in the stroller protected from the sun and wind. don't babies have it so easy?



our original plan was to push tanner in the stroller while katelyn followed on her bike. too bad we didn't have her practice riding her bike all winter long like we planned. she can get her bike going, but has frequent set backs. this just frustrated her.



so she gave up and decided to push elephant on the bike instead. at least somebody is getting use out of the bike. i think we'll have to let katelyn practice often. darn it-we'll just have to spend lots of time outside this summer.



katelyn was very excited to be back on the playground. she went down the same slide again and again and again.



she even made a friend. see the girl up at the top? somehow katelyn always finds a bigger kid that will follow her around and play with her at the park.



this was one of tanner's first experiences outside, and he loved it. can't wait to get him on the playground later on and into the water. this is going to be a great spring/summer. i can feel it.

finally a break in the clouds

so we have had the best weather lately. the best. i'm talking high seventies. wow. it's so nice to get outside with my pasty self and my pasty kids to visit the sun and the warmth. especially after having sick kids for almost two weeks. the fresh air felt so good.

and look what i found on the side of our house. life again in wisconsin. it's coming! one of my favorite things about wisconsin is how green everything gets. the green is so rich. it's beautiful.

in other good news, look who mastered sitting up this month. it's like there's a whole new world out there for him. not only that, but he's had a full month and half to perfect his rolling. now i leave him in the room in one spot and by the time i get back, he's across the room. katelyn hates this. her toys aren't safe anymore for this persistant little boy. if he wants it he works hard for it.

katleyn is still in love with playdoh and loves to make balls, snakes and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. i guess she also loves to cut her snakes in half.

katelyn discoverd that if you put this turtle under your chin, pull the cord and let the turtle vibrate, it tickles your neck. she demonstrated this for me the other day and laughed and laughed at herself.

here's to hoping for more nice weather!