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!

the laugh

we finally managed to get tanner's laugh on camera. he is a very happy guy, but he is so hard to get a laugh out of. also he's cutting some teeth (or so we think) and that is why he's playing with his tongue. and now we want to share.

spring break

one of the perks of having a husband who is still in school...spring break. a full week of relaxing and not worrying about studying or tests or even getting to class on time. it just couldn't get any better than that. the only downside was that both of our kids ended up getting sick just in time for our break.

first of all, i have to say that none of my spring break pictures turned out great. so many of them were blurry. who knows, maybe i was completely distracted with our awesome company.

i love that st. patrick's day fell over spring break. that means we could celebrate all day for one of my favorite holidays. dressing the kids in green, leprechaun shakes and our traditional green dinner.





grandma hedin and emily flew in the afternoon of st. patrick's day. they were able to join us for our green dinner.



while they were here in wisconsin, we headed out to the outlets to do some shopping. grandma thoroughly spoiled our kids and us as well. thanks so much! since both kiddos were sick they were pretty tired and cranky while shopping. we decided to take a small break to let the kids sit and relax.



shopping isn't always the most exciting for a toddler, but katelyn found ways to entertain herself. she is in love with bracelets and kept loading her arm with them.



we also hit up a bounce house place for katelyn to run around at. she had a ton of fun running around and jumping but got worn out quickly. that darn sickness.



of course we couldn't have them come and visit and not grab some custard. katelyn was totally okay with that.



and while grandma and emily were here they took great care of our kids. both kids were pretty needy with their snotty noses and nasty coughs, but grandma and emily were always willing to hold the kids and play with them and even give them baths.



thank you for coming out to wisconsin grandma and emily. i must add that lori was so nice to let us all go out to a movie while she watched the kids and put them to bed. it was wonderful.

we had a great time and miss you already.

the verdict is in...

tanner does not like rice cereal. the poor kid just sits there with this disgusted look on his face. especially as the spoon gets closer and closer to his face.



katelyn and i took turns painting toenails. she wanted to get it just right and kept telling me, "you have to hold still. don't move." just like i tell her when i paint her nails. she is such a girly girl. i love it.

katelyn loves to help me fold the laundry, but folding turns into playing with the clothes (and messing up my neat piles). by the time we're done she's tried on a little bit of everything. her favorite though is putting on our socks.

next week is spring break. we are so excited for the break especially because we're going to have some visitors. grandma and emily, these two are waiting to be spoiled. hurry to wisconsin!