Tanner may need a new name

. . . TAN-ZMANIAN DEVIL!

I know I have mentioned a few times before that Tanner is a fully loaded pistol with a loose trigger that can go off at any time. As much as this is SOOOO TRUE, he is also so sweet, kind, funny, thoughtful, playful, sensitive, caring, and the list can go on and on. Sadly oh so sadly, Those traits of his get over shadowed by his firey spark of defiance, adventure, stubbornness, passion, temper, strength, and his overall "out there" mannerisms. Some might claim he is just "all boy" or even a "typical" 3 year old - however, I know better than that. There is something completely special about him that sets him apart from the rest of the pack, and although it riddles me to tears more times than I would like to admit, I know that he has something amazing to offer this world. Nonetheless the fact remains that I am bewildered by his complex passion for life. I want to just list a few of the things that have left me baffled and at a loss of words that Tanner has added to his repertoire of perplexing behavior just in the past week.

- Flinging strawberry yogurt across the dining room table - splattering all over the table, the floor, and his brother. (I was in the bedroom getting dressed while the kids were eating breakfast before school.)

- Spitting toothpaste in Brooklyne's hair, not once, not twice, but three time. He also spit toothpaste on her face.

- Using a plastic fork to scrape/scratch off the finished surface on our dining room table.

- painting the playroom wall (using the left over paint from our painting the room a few days earlier) as well as the blue sofa and his clothes.

- Flooding the upstairs bathroom while Don and I were putting the playroom back together.

YUP,,, all of that in just 6 short days.

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1st day of School

Trent and Kolby had a great first day of school. Trent is in 3rd grade this year and his English and Reading teacher is Mrs. Goldman and his Math and Science teacher is Mrs. Moore. Kolby is in 1st grade and is in Mrs. Sharplings class. They both love their classes and have a few friends from last year to get to hang with. Oh, and no surprise at all that recess and lunch are their favorite things of the day.

FINALLY vacation pictures

Since we had sick kiddo's we were not able to do too much.

But here are some pictures from Down Town Disney.

the kids climbing on the Lego people

- which they of course are NOT suppose to do, lol.

Brooklyne dressed as Belle. You know, we call her our southern B.E.L.

Donald and the boys in from of the dinosaurs.

The kids jumping on the bed at the resort.

Donald, Trent, and Kolby were able to head down to the arcade during

nap time and have some "guy" fun.

water basketball at one of the resort pools. Kolby could barely stand in the

water without it being over his head.

Water slide fun! Brook loved going down the slide and just look at

"smooth and cool" Kolby.

Waterfall fun at the pool. Brook wasn't lov'n it all that much, lol.

Kolby being thrown in the air by Don.

Trent is really "flip'n out".

It's Brooklyne's turn for a nice straight legged flip.

Help me decide

So Halloween is just a few short months away and of course I am trying to figure out what we are going to be this year. I am asking for input on which of these 2 ideas would be best for my family for costuming this year. As usual, we are looking to dress up as a family and I have a budget of 100$ or less. Here are the ideas:

PETER PAN THEME:

Trent - Peter Pan

Donald - Hook (with a gator attached to the tush because that is what the boys say, lol)

Kolby and Tanner - the twin lost boys OR Wendy's little brothers (I think the boys would rather be the lost boys,,, but I don't know which we would do.)

Mom - Wendy

Brooklyne - Tinker Bell

Ghost Busters:

Donald and I - Ghost busters (you know the jump suits and big contraptions on our backs, lol)

all 4 kids - zombie ghosts.

Please help us decide what we are going to be for Halloween and even HOW to make it work best for our crew of 6.

Vacation Woes

We have been in Florida for the past week and it has proved to be NOT THE GREATEST of trips. It started off with arriving 2 days prior to our check in date. How in the world did we do that???? There were NO rooms left at the resort for us to even pay $200 a night till our Sunday check in. Thankfully, Don's uncle Kenny lives in Orlando and welcomed us in with open arms - - all 6 of us! I declare his aunt and uncle as saints because they took our little, ok, not so little and not so tame family in without much hesitation at all. Saturday we headed off to a day at the beach and had a blast. Kobly was not scared at all and ran right out into the waves with Trent and mastered body boarding in no time flat. Tanner amazed us as well. He was such a trooper and even did some body boarding and didn't freak out when he would wipe out. Brooklyne, she was the one who DID surprise us. She is a total fish in the water, but man, at the beach, she was a scared chicken and didn't want to have anything to do with the ocean - that is, until we were getting ready to leave. After getting back from the beach, Don's cousins come over to meet up with us for a yummy dinner fixed by Aunt Margaret. On Sunday we got up and got ready to head out to church. As we were loading up in the van to head to church, I noticed that Kolby was burning up. YUP, sure enough, he was running a fever. So after sacrament meeting we headed back to the house.

So as you can see, this was just the start of a very long vacation week/1o days. So far we have:

- oops wrong check in date.

- had to find a different place to stay for 2 days - thank you Uncle Kenny and Aunt Margaret

- got a funny burn from the beach

- 1 sick Kolby -- 105 temps.

Still to come . . .

- Kolby goes the the doctor, he has a bad infection

- still have not gone back to the beach

- several storms that have rolled thru

- a sick Tanner

- a sick Brooklyne

- 3 kids with 3 separate infections and 8 different meds equaling the need for a chart to keep track of WHO gets WHAT and WHEN.

- 3 shopping trips that all end up in a BUST.

- me getting lost trying to go to the outlets by myself.

- I think I will be getting a $100 fine for a tole road I think I went on but it was a NO CASH tole road.

- the last day of vacation,,,, all kids are finally acting mostly normal, but alas, we have rain.

Picture to come later ---- well, not a lot of pictures because we have not been able to do much.

HAWK

TRENT'S ROCK'N THE HAWK.

Trent has been asking us for several months - maybe even a year, to cut his hair in a mohawk. Last night Donald and I agreed that Trent could have a mohawk for a week or two and then we would cut his hair again. At first Trent was excited, then nervous, then excited again. He was kinda afraid people would make fun of him, but he has found the response to be VERY DIFFERENT - he is loving all the attention, lol.

lost tooth

Kolby is so proud of his new "bigger kid" smile now that he has lost his first tooth.

Happy 4th of July

We spent the 4th of July in Illinois with my parents and sister's family. Before we blessed our dinner, the kids stood up and sung the STAR SPANGLED BANNER - like only kids can (so of course all us adults were laughing so hard we had tears coming out of our eyes) and recited the Pledge of Allegiance. The kids loved playing with all the flags and celebrating the freedom of our country.

Happy Birthday Kolby

So I am a bit late on posting about Kolby's 6th birthday, seeings how it was a month ago. OOPPPS. Nonetheless, Kolby had a GREAT birthday - and was spoiled rotten. He got a super yummy breakfast, Daddy took him out to Taco Bell for lunch, and Pizza at the ball park for dinner. A few days later we were suppose to have a swim party - the the rain storm kinda got in the way of that, lol. So we quickly thru together a "movie" party and changed it to our house. Kolby loved having so much attention and having so many friends all there for him. He is such a great kid and has the best personality.

It's hard to see him growing up because I know the older he gets the less mommy will be important to him, sniff sniff. It is wonderful to watch how he is growing though. He has such a fun personality and wants everyone to get along and be happy. He is willing to give of himself all the time so that he can help others. He is a natural tender heart - and that is a gift. I look forward with a bitter sweet view in anticipation for the years to come. He is going to make such an amazing young man, husband, and father.

Kolby with his friend Dominick.

The birthday crew getting ready to sing happy birthday to Kolby.

My happy birthday boy making a wish.

Greetings

This is how my wild troop likes to wake me up on a Saturday morning.

Mississippi State Games

rent played in the Mississippi State games in mid June. His soccer games were all on Saturday - a very very very hot Saturday. It's amazing no one passed out with heat stroke. The night before his games there was a huge parade with all the teams from all over the state. The kids had a blast at the parade. They were the Commando's and Donald was the assistant coach. Trent's team did not win any of their games, they came close in the first game, but after that, they just weren't able to out preform the other - more established teams.

whose been caught???

Looks like I found my marshmallow thief!

I guess she DOES like marshmallows as her "pee pee in the potty" treat!