Dear Tanner #6

Dear Tanner,

Things I want to remember and want you to know.

For your birthday you asked that your friends Ares and Camdyn could come over for a pizza party.  You wanted an outer space theme...

The day before your birthday, we made your birthday treats.  We started with Oreo pops and finished with your cake.  It was a full evening in the kitchen with you and your brother doing most of the work.

You started your special day by getting up at 3:30am to check out the decorations, that I'd put up while you were sleeping. I was able to talk you into going back to sleep, but you were awake by 5:00, and this time stayed up.
We FaceTimed with daddy and then woke Dillan up shortly after 6:00am.  We readied ourselves for breakfast at a restaurant!  It was so fun eating out for the first time since daddy left us, for Korea. You ordered french toast and bacon. You also had a big cup of hot cocoa with lots of whipped cream.
We dropped you off, at school, with your Oreo pops. You were so proud of them. You told me that if an Oreo broke while a kid was trying to eat it, you'd tell them, "It's OK, it still tastes good!".

After school we came home and ordered pizza and waited for your buddies to show up!  Your party was filled with lots of running and playing, eating pizza, cake and ice-cream and of course presents.  Your friends and family gave you such great gifts, and you more than enjoyed yourself.

Happy Birthday, my Little Love. What a great year this has been!  You learned to ride a bike, without training wheels.  You have to be in the lead when we go for bike rides because you are so afraid of running us all over.
You started Kindergarten.  You are such an amazing student and your teacher even calls you a "gem".  I love your thirst for learning.  Listening to you read your school books brings me joy.  I know you will love reading for your entire life. You love bringing your school projects home to show me, and you're so proud of yourself when you show me how to do your homework without any help.  You are such an inquisitive child with a thirst for learning, school is definitely your happy place!
You love for me to cuddle you before bed and when you wake up, and always ask me how I got so cozy.
You and your brother are BFF's.  You fight non-stop, but when you take a break from it to enjoy each other's company, it's the best!!!  Dillan loves to give you hugs before you head off for school, and if he had it his way he'd plant big kisses on your lips all the time, but you are too big for that! You love to boss him around and make sure he is doing as he's told.
You love going to church and now you want to pray your own prayers before bed every night.
You have now lost seven teeth with one more than is loose!  The dentist is always asking me what I feed you to make you have a mouth of a kid years older than your age!
I love you so much, Tanner.  You bring me such joy.  I am proud to be your momma!
I love you,
Love, Momma

I have asked Tanner the same questions, on his birthday, for the four years now.  You can find pervious years here for #3, here for #4 and here for #5.

How old are you? Six
Favorite color? All the colors of the rainbow
Favorite toy? Miles from Tomorrowland Stellosphere
Favorite food? French Toast
Best friend? Ares and Camdyn
Favorite thing to do outside? Go down fast slides
Favorite drink? Orange Koolaid
Take to bed at night?  Chicken (A sock monkey)
What do you want to be when you grow up?  Astronaut
Favorite animal? Rhynosaucerous

This week in photos;

I'm running out of places to hide this thing....

Ralphy sat in this spot for two days because he remained unfound the first day of hiding.

Legos were spilled all over the floor by 5:30am, the day after Tanner's birthday.  I didn't even get a chance to pour a cup of coffee before I was summoned to help!

Proud of the shirt Meema sent him.

He lost a tooth while eating some birthday cake.  Makes that number seven.  Still has one more loose one in there.

This Week in Photos

A FEW of the things that made our week special.

On Monday, I had just gotten home from picking Tanner up at school, when I got a phone call. The caller told me she had a few questions about my application to the YMCA. I interrupted her and told her that I had not applied for a membership at the YMCA. She asked if she had the correct name, phone number and birthday on file, which she did.  Once again, I told her I had not applied for a membership.  We both sat on the line, in silence for a minute and then I said, "You are telling me my Christmas present!" I started to laugh because I was excited and thought it was funny this woman had spilled the beans. She kept repeating "Oh no, I'm so sorry!" I assured her I'd act surprised when my husband told me what he'd done!
Brandon wanted me to have a place to go to workout and chance to be around people. I have plenty of workout DVD's, a treadmill, a spin bike and weights.  My boys love to interrupt every workout with questions, fights, and every other little thing they can think of.  Brandon wanted me to have a daycare to drop the boys at, specifically Dillan, so that I could get a little break from them. I have many friends offering to watch the boys, but I'm not good at leaving them. If my boys are going to be at my friends' house, I want to be there too, so I can chat and have fun.  Paying the daycare a small fee, to watch Dillan for up to two hours a day, is awesome for me!
I have already taken a spin class and have gone into the gym to work out on the cardio equipment and weight machines, numerous times.  My favorite reward for a good workout is.... the sauna!  Ahhhhhh!  I also took the boys swimming there, this week, which they loved!

I downloaded YouTube Kids onto the iPad.  Tanner has discovered mass amounts of science related videos to watch.  He watches all sorts of experiments, every chance he gets.  He asked if we could do an experiment. I found a simple Borax crystal activity for us to do. 

"I caught the feather for Meema!" (He lost it during story time at the library.)

The best helpers... for 5 minutes.

Ralphy popped up all over the place this week.  Both kids kept saying, "I bet Ralphy will be hiding in my room tomorrow.", so of course we had to make that happen.

Tanner refused to dress in his room with Ralphy watching.

The hardest to find.

Safe and Sound

On Thursday night I put my boys to bed before 8:00pm, as usual, and was talking to my cousin on the phone and wrapping Christmas presents, along with Tanner's birthday presents.  I normally detest wrapping gifts, but this night I was embracing the task, and had a good attitude about it.  About a half hour into it, my home security system started going off.  The monitor told me that the exterior garage door had been opened.  I turned the security system off and stood very still, listening for any movement in the garage. I couldn't hear anything. I checked the outside cameras and looked out all of the windows to see if there was any movement that I could detect. Nothing. I called Brandon and told him I was scared.  That I wanted to turn the security system back on but couldn't without going through the garage and closing and locking the door, that had been opened, and I wasn't brave enough to go into the garage alone at that moment.  He told me to call my friend Lawanna and have her husband David come over and go into the garage with me.  David came right over, checked the garage, checked the vehicles and found that everything was just fine.  I'm assuming the boys had played with the door and didn't get it shut all the way, the wind or an animal nudged the door open setting the alarm off.  David and I got everything closed and locked up again.  I reset the security system and I went back to my room to finish wrapping a few more presents, no longer excited about the task at hand.  I climbed into bed, and opened my Bible to Proverbs.  The last verses of Chapter 1 stated;
 ³² For the waywardness of the simple will kill them,
    and the complacency of fools will destroy them;
³³ but whoever listens to me will live in safety
    and be at ease, without fear of harm.”
I asked a few friends and family members to pray for peace of mind.  I prayed, to God, and fell into a peaceful sleep.  I believe in the power of prayer and that God never gives us more than we can handle.  I don't stress over being alone with my two little boys every night, and I certainly don't go through life feeling fearful of the unknown.  I take the proper safety precautions, and put the rest in God's hands. 

This week in pictures;

I keep seeing people posting creative pictures of their Elf on the Shelf posed in all sorts of great positions and up to all sorts of mischief.  Not Ralphy, he just plays a good game of hide and seek.

 

On Wednesday morning Tanner told me that he couldn't eat breakfast because his tooth was hurting too much. When I looked in his mouth his tooth was poking straight into his mouth! I messaged his teacher and told her that Tanner would most likely be losing his tooth.  Sure enough, Tanner came home with his tooth in a little envelope, holding his tooth!  This was tooth number six for him.

I'm very proud of the bread I made this week.  

This meal, brought to us by a friend, fed us for a few days! It was so nice to night have to plan or cook a meal!