some warm weather

i'd be lying if i said we haven't had any nice weather here because we have.  it has definitely been few and far between though this spring.  we are so ready for the warm weather to stick! 

i decided early on this spring that any time we have nice weather, we go outside. it is a rule, not just something fun i try to do for the kids.  i learned my lesson the hard way when warm weather first hit.  i told myself that i had too many errands to run and playing outside could wait until tomorrow.  wrong-it couldn't.  because what happened the next day?  oh, it rained.  and that seems to happen pretty much every time we have some nice weather.  hence the new rule.

look at this! it was actually warm enough for shorts.  in fact, it was hot that day.  (i kind of feel bad looking at these pictures.  i changed into shorts and left my kids in long pants.  bad mom moment).

tanner feels that he is big enough to do just about anything.  i think it comes with the age and with having an older sibling.  minutes later he bent over to pick up a stick and dumped out half of the water bottle.  cute kid.

i don't know why, but i just love the way this kid holds his drinks.  he tucks them safely in his arm then wanders around with it. 

both kids resting in our chairs. 

the flowers have finally bloomed, and they're so pretty.  i just love waiting for the flowers to come out, although i've started noticing that someone has been picking just the tops of the flowers off.  i'm pretty sure it's tanner, but boy is he sneaky because i've yet to catch him.

i'm one of those moms that keeps their kids pasty all summer long.  they'll thank me later i'm sure.  i just loved how hard katelyn was consentrating trying to get some out herself. 

tanner loves flowers and is always telling us about them when he sees some.  if i need to distract him outside, i just tell him to pick some dandelions (which are all over right now).

but picking flowers always leads to destroying them.  poor flowers.

more beautiful flowers growing by our house.

i had to step outside of the gate to take a picture of the flowers.  tanner looked so sad watching me  like some poor, neglected kid.

tanner running around with his "tail".  his white onsies are all too little, so they are always sticking out of his shirt.

hopefully we'll have many, many more opportunities to let our feet hang down in the grass!  warm weather, please come back.

easter weekend

we had a great easter weekend! we were so lucky to have tyler's mother fly in and spend the weekend with us. it flew by, but that always seems to happen when family is in town. we kept ourselves busy!
of course with it being easter weekend, we thought it would be a great time to decorate some easter eggs. we knew this would be a big hit with the kids. they decorated our big bowl of eggs in no time flat.  tanner even had a little taste of a boiled egg. (not his favorite thing).

examining the egg.  tanner was serious about his work.

katelyn was definitely more careful than tanner, but she didn't hesitate to drop and egg in, take it out and move onto the next one.

tanner tasting the boiled egg.  he wastn't a fan.

the whole gang.  i love that tanner is still trying his hardest to get as dirty as possible.

we also decided to drive up to madison to check out our state's capital.  we took a tour of the capital, but i can't say i heard  a ton of it. tyler and i took turns walking around with tanner during the tour.  he is not at an age where he will sit for something like that.

a replica of the liberty bell.

in efforts to try to conserve energy when building the capital, they decided to include skylights in almost (maybe all?) all of the rooms. the plan was to keep lights off and just use natural lighting to see.  sadly, the plan didn't work like they had hoped.  even with those large skylights they still have to turn on the lights.  and did you know that there is one lady in charge of changing every single light bulb in the capital.  before they changed over to energy saving lightbulbs she was changing a little over 100 lightbulbs a day.  now she changes around 14.

lady liberty herself.

the dome from inside.  it was beautiful.  do you see the red dot?  that's a red balloon that has been stuck up there for quite a while.

we also checked out the madison botanical gardens.  too bad we went at a time when nothing was growing yet, but it was still fun.

we had to keep an eye on our little runner because you were not allowed to touch any of the gold paint on this building.  i'm not sure why we let him walk on it.

one of the days grandma was here we visited the village of wauwatosa.  there were a lot of cute, quant stores to check out.  one of our favorites was a store that only sold olive oil.  they had the olive oil in these big containers where you could walk around and taste test before buying.

it was a busy, fun weekend with grandma!

i wonder what the kids got into

the kids got into my bathroom drawer. care to take a stab at what they were playing with? thankfully tyler found them before little tan man could do more damage!







love these little stinkers!

random moments in our life

this is just some of the stuff we've been up to lately. it seems pretty random, but sometimes when you sum up a day, it feels like that right?

in the winter i feel like we spend a ton of time in katelyn's room playing with all of the toys. i'm hoping it will warm up soon so we can get out more.

isn't it amazing, that without really ever teaching them, that boys are drawn to cars and other boy things?



but of course that's only fun for a bit. standing on the toy and jumping is way better.



i swear katelyn does wear clothes. but these days, during her quiet time she loves to change outfits. i think we interrupted her mid-changing. at least she's wearing lots of jewelery.



showing off her beautiful jewelry to tanner.



this month tyler happens to have an amazingly easy schedule. one afternoon i got a text from him that said, you, me, katelyn in a fort watching tangled. so that's what we did. he has wanted to build a fort with katelyn for a loooooong time.



this is how tanner navigated through the fort. he really didn't understand the concept of being careful when he was inside. the fort didn't survive with tanner inside for very long, so tyler had to rebuild it after he went to bed.





i found a nice, big workbook for katelyn at targe that she can work on in the mornings while i'm finishing up with my shower. it's a great way to keep her entertained instead of the t.v. babysitting her.



and if katelyn is up at the table doing something fun, tanner wants to join in. this is tanner saying cheese for the picture.

dance recital

this year decided to enrolled katelyn in a dance class with her little friends. it was a great arrangement because a friend of ours in our ward was teaching the class, so it was nearby in her own home. katelyn loved having dance, and although she probably wasn't the most coordinated, she did very well and learned a lot. she often came home showing us what she had learned.

this last week was the big dance recital to show off the dances all of the girls had learned. as a parent, it was such a cute thing to watch. i think katelyn and all of her friends were incredibly excited that night. i think it was even more fun that they were all there together in their pretty costumes. of course all of the moms were snapping pictures of their little girls.


before the recital with her teddy bear prop and her cheesy grin.


one of katelyn's dance poses.


katelyn and her good friend eliza. probably my favorite picture from the whole night.

and i honestly couldn't narrow down these pictures of these girls together. i love any pictures of katelyn with her friends.









and of course the teachers. i know katelyn loved her teachers, and it's because of them that she had so much fun.

a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjinh80q_nNyojoRy0TjT1uqIK6i8nYwlZ5jAU7BFKPdKOOLsxqdPl3zZS05-ezZfS3Wpe1UZqY1wNlsC3Y1g83wz0NUF181esK2-Od6AM9ZJOODDlrD9HwJ4HDl2NlHXOpyXu7EC0Tua1/s1600/katelynwithmelissa.jpg">
miss melissa


miss jenna

and of course the video recording of the recital. maybe a little long for anyone who isn't related to my daughter.
we were pretty impressed with katelyn. she did really well and knew the dance! we're proud of her!

Untitled from brooke hedin on Vimeo.