Flying Sugar Cookies

Tanner loves to be in the kitchen. Though it can be frustrating at times, I always invite him to come cook or bake with me. He always says yes. He'll even leave his daddy to do chores on his own to come spend time with me in the kitchen.

For a little busy-bee project, with not much mess, I bought a mix of sugar cookies. I never buy mixes, so I'm not sure why I did this time. I won't do it again. It's just as easy and tastes so much better cooking and baking from scratch. At any rate Tanner and I had fun making airplane cookies and decorating them with star sprinkles.

 

Eating the sprinkles

Momma got lazy and just made a few drop cookies.  The shape of the airplanes didn't hold after baking.

A Visit From My Parents

My parents were here for a visit from August 17 through August 27th.  It felt like we were so busy during this time.

My dad and Brandon went fishing in Seward and caught a total of 50lbs of fish.  Their trip was extended by a day.  They left home on the 19th and drove to Anchorage to pick up Brandon's brother, grandpa, step-dad and Brandon's brother's friend.  From there the six of them drove to Seward and spent the night.  The next morning the weather was too bad for them to charter a boat for fishing so they had to head back to Anchorage empty handed.  Everyone, besides Brandon and my dad, left that night for home. The next morning Brandon and my dad headed back to Seward and fished for the day.  After a day of fishing they went back to Anchorage, spent the night and then finally headed back to Fairbanks. 

Brandon and his grandpa

My dad and Brandon with the entire boats catch... they kept 50lbs of this.

While the men were away my mom, Tanner, Dillan and I stuck around the house, played at the park, went into Fairbanks a did a little shopping, and went to Creamer's Field to check out the birds.  I was a little stressed during this time because with Brandon gone Tanner decided it would be a swell time to act out and throw tantrums.  As my mom said; he is two years old and has just figured out he has a mind of his own.  It's tough when I want things done my way and Tanner wants them done his.  We still had a fun time though.

A tree fell in our backyard and it had Tanner all sorts of concerned

Pushing those babies

Enjoying a Thai Iced Tea at Thai Cuisine Restaurant in North Pole

Grandma was cool enough to get in this truck... Now Brandon and I always have to get in this truck when we go to the park. THANKS GRANDMA! ;)

Park Play

Tanner at Creamer's Field

My mom and Dillan at Creamer's Field

Brandon celebrated his 33rd birthday on the fishing boat.  When he returned home we celebrated again.  I made him a German Chocolate cake from scratch.  It was delicious!  Tanner loved putting candles on his cake and singing happy birthday to his daddy. 

Gift from the DeGroot Family

Gift from my parents

As a big ol' family we took long drives and went fishing.  We made awesome meals together, as well as had a night at the Turtle Club, kid free.

Green Beans and mixed greens from the Farmer's market, Salmon that Brandon caught, Roasted Beet Salad that I made. YUM!

Mom and I enjoying a lunch on our own at Pikes Landing before an afternoon of shopping.

Photo by Tanner

*Cheers*

Silver Wings

Today, September 7, Brandon left for TDY (Temporary Duty) to Guam for 2-3 weeks.  The last time he went on TDY was two years ago this time of year.  He went to Guam and Korea for a total of 6 weeks.  I went home to MT with Tanner.  This go around I'm sticking around the house.  I pray for patience and lots of ideas to keep  my rambunctious two year old busy.

I'm nervous about so much time alone with the kids without any real breaks.  I love spending quality time with my boys, but every parent needs some alone time.  I get that with Brandon here. I may not leave the house, but I'm not "on call" 100% of the time when he's home.  I hope that I'm able to get some down time during naps and after bedtime.

We went out to the Chena Flood Control to watch the jet carrying Brandon fly over.  We almost missed it due to Tanner falling down and then his need to pee as I was trying to run to the top of a little hill. 

Watching daddy's plane fading out of sight

Tanner 2yrs 9mo

Tanner is now 2 years, 9 months old, as of yesterday. He is such a sweet, smart, handsome little boy.

He loves doing puzzles, playing with his train set, eating ice cream cones, watching cartoons, reading books, playing hide-and-seek, being in the kitchen with momma, flying airplanes and helicopters and kicking the soccer ball around.

Tanner's speech and vocabulary are improving everyday. Somedays he wakes from nap and I swear he has new words to use.

He is entering a pretend stage. He loves to imagine all of the main characters in his Disney movies are momma and daddy. He sees castles and rocket ships in all sorts of buildings and stacks/piles of stuff.

I really enjoy watching Tanner and Dillan play. Tanner still needs to learn to share with his brother, which is typical of 2 year olds, but in my opinion he's doing pretty great.

Tanner has a stubborn streak and once he gets something in his head there is no way of getting him to change his mind. This has caused some throw-himself-down-on-the-floor fits in very public places. Not so much fun.

8 months

Yesterday my littlest turned 8 months old. He started pushing himself into a sitting position and pulling himself into a standing position all on this day! I'm pretty sure that there should be some law against this kind of stuff!

Dillan is eating baby food very well and is starting to eat more and more little finger foods. He really loves Cheerios and taking bites of bananas himself.

He has been doing the army crawl for a few weeks now and is on the verge of being able to crawl on his hands and knees. He'll get to his hands and knees and start rocking back and forth. He'll even move a hand or knee but hasn't quite got it all mastered yet.

He has 8 teeth and I'm pretty sure I see 2 more wanting to come through soon.

Dillan loves to follow and play with Tanner. He will growl and wrestle with Tanner if a toy he's playing with is in jeopardy of being confiscated. He loves to bounce in his bouncer and crawl through a canvas tunnel we have.

His next well baby checkup will be in four weeks. At that time we'll find out his weight and height.