Tessa

Tess is almost 15 months old now. I swear I just posted about her 1st birthday and now she's almost 15 months- crazy!! She finally started walking the week before she turned 14 months old. I thought she would never walk! I guess if you get packed around by 5 people all day every day why would you ever feel the need to walk, right? Anyway- she finally did it and she loves it! Although her "activity" level has greatly increased because I now find toys, food, bowls, utensils, and other random objects laying all over the house! She has always been SUCH a good baby and she still is except now she has learned to throw some royal fits! She will arch her back and throw herself on the ground and cry big crocodile tears... it's sort of pathetic but cute at the same time. And of course we're all suckers around here and she usually gets what she wants although we're trying to break the habit of giving in to her every whim!

She has this little blanket that my mom sewed for her with some leftover material and she carries it everywhere! She cannot go to sleep without it and she can't get out of bed without it! We call it Stinky Blanky because she sucks on it when she goes to sleep. It's SO gross and I have to wash it several times a week but she loves it!!!

So the sun finally decided to make an appearance for a couple of days and I accidentally sunburned Tess. OOPS! We played out in the yard for about an hour and when we came in she was bright red! Thankfully it has turned into a tan but I might have to watch out for this girl- our boys never burn!

Naked baby... She loves to streak around the house naked if we will let her!

She is SO smart! I can't believe how fast she picks things up. She has a list of about 20 or more words that she says. My favorite is when someone walks into a room and she looks at them and says "Hi guys". It is so adorable. She says: mom, dad, bubbies (brothers), hi, hi guys, puppies, Nan (grandma), puppies (she LOVES my moms dogs), bye bye, knock knock (as she knocks on something), horsie, birdie, ball, baby, night night, treat (how she says she is hungry), drink, more, thank you, cheese (during pictures). She will say Hi Teg, or Hi Tay (Tray). It seems as if she picks up a new word every day. She will fold her arms and squint her eyes during prayers. She loves to give kisses and she is a huge flirt!!! She loves to flirt with teenage boys. It's so funny! If we go into stores she waves at strangers and says hi and they always give her a funny look and say hi back. She takes either one or two naps a day and goes to bed at eight. She is getting to be a bit pickier on her eating habits- darn it! She is still a good eater but this is a hard stage to feed babies I think. They don't eat baby food but can't eat everything we eat so the variety of foods is somewhat limited. She also loves to play outside. This may be one long summer of her staring out the windows watching the boys play while she is trapped inside with mommy. The boys are pretty good about taking her out now but I wonder how the summer will go.. I guess we'll see! She can point to her eyes, nose, hair, mouth and teeth. She says that a monkey says "ooh, ooh, ahh ahh" and puppies say "arrrr". She has 4 teeth on top and just cut 2 more on bottom making 8 teeth total. We are having so much fun watching her grow and learn. It seems like she picks up something new every day. I think it is absolutely amazing to watch a little person forming their personality. She is so happy but definitely wants things her way and isn't afraid to let us know it! We love her so much!!!

Talen soccer and graduation

Talen is growing up so fast! He has played soccer this spring (indoor-yay!). It seems like he was always sitting on the sidelines watching his big brothers play sports and now he's playing too. Where does the time go?

It seems like Talen just started kindergarten. I can't believe he's almost done! They had a kindergarten program and graduation on Tuesday May 17th. They sang some cute songs with actions (which Talen actually does- the other boys refuse!) and received their "graduation" certificates.

Ha ha! I thought this was funny. I guess they're comparing certificates??

WAY TO GO TALEN!!!

There were several kids from our neighborhood that were in his class. It was fun to go in and help this year because I knew almost everyone in the class. They were so cute... and this wasn't even all the kids we know- just the ones we could round up and make stand still for a minute or two!

Talen and Mrs. Taylor... He has learned SO much this year. Don't they say you pretty much learn everything you will ever know around the age of 5? I believe it. He went from not being able to read- to reading very well. He can count way high, count by 2's, 5's, 10's, add, subtract, ect. He's learned so much!!! But he's excited to go to school ALL DAY next year!

Looks like FUN!

This looks like SO much fun doesn't it??? The boys are trying to earn money so they can attend football camp this summer. They did a fantastic job!

Gotta love those darn spring chores :)

Springtime is here.. kind of...

So spring has sprung and the boys have been loving playing outside. There new favorite thing to do is do flips on the trampoline. It scares me to death- but they're boys- I've learned to deal with them scaring me!

Ed's Knee Surgery

Ed has been dealing with an injured knee for about a year and finally decided to get it fixed! He had to have an ACL graft, both miniscuses repaired and the head of his femur shaved a little bit because of a chip in the bone. This is him pre-surgery~
This is mean... this is him coming out of anesthesia. He kept asking me to give him high five. It was so funny. We are still laughing about it!

He had to spend one night in the hospital but he was SO tough. He never took any pain medication the whole time he was in the hospital. The doctors/nurses say that the ACL repair is a very painful surgery but for some reason Ed got so lucky and never felt any pain at all in his knee. The nurse said that she has never, ever written "no pain meds taken" on discharge forms. She was shocked and asked me to call her if he ever ended up hurting ha ha!

I got to bring him home and be his nurse. I decided that he does NOT make a very good patient though because he has WAY too much energy to lay in bed. It just about drove him crazy to lay around for the weekend and do nothing!

He had surgery on Thursday May 5th and went back to work on Monday. He only went to physical therapy three times because he had more range of motion in 3 days than most patients do in 3 weeks they said. He never did feel any pain in his knee at all. Honestly the worst part of his whole surgery was laying in bed! I am married to one tough man!!!

Second Chance Prom

I can honestly say that I never thought I would be returning to high school to attend PROM! Apparently our local high school has an annual "second chance" prom so our group of friends decided... oh, why not! We even sprung for the limo! We went out to dinner...

We stopped downtown to get some pictures taken...

Then we danced, danced, danced.... Looks like we are all havin' a good time!

Yea... we are totally crazy! I promise the only thing in those glasses is Sparkling Cider, but I'm pretty sure the limo driver thought there was a lot more than that! He even said- if you ever need another limo, please request me to be your driver. I'm not sure if that means he thought we were funny or what! I thought it would be a ridiculous way to spend the evening but I was floored when we saw about 500 or more people there. Apparently there were lots of other couples wanting to have a "second chance" at prom too! I'm grateful for good, fun friends and the chance to laugh 'til my belly hurt!

Easter

Easter was actually a nice day this year! We had a neighborhood egg hunt...
Found baskets on Easter morning...

Went to church...

And had a family get together in the afternoon. We had an egg hunt and a big dinner. It was fun!

Of course we had to have the adult eggs too.... Ressha was the big winner this year. I think she won a $100. Dang... I have to try to win that thing next year!