Bragging rights!

Just wanted to brag about my boys a minute :)   They are just such a joy to have and I feel so blessed that I get to be their mommy! Everyday they do things that make me smile...along with things that make me...well...not smile!  but overall I feel so lucky to be able to spend everyday with them! There are so many things that I'm glad I don't miss!
 Tanner got a Red Ryder bb gun for his first Christmas and Ross just put it in the gun cabinet until Tanner would be old enough to use it...well Tanner found out that it was his and ever since...he has been asking if he can hold it!!  Ross finally caved and opened it and let Tanner hold it!! here are some pics. He was soooo proud!!! (so was Ross!) 

Blake is changing soo much the past few weeks its amazing!!  I forgot how that happens!!  He all of the sudden has started saying things like "mama"  "dada" "baba" "puff" and "t..t..t..t" ( i think for tanner??)  He also started to wave "bye bye" and will do "soo big!"  It's crazy!  He can also get on his hands and knees and move backwards but he hasn't figured out yet how to go forward..soon enough!  I kinda like it that he can't get too far!  I can still use the bathroom without worrying!

 Speaking of...I was blowdrying my hair the other morning and Ross was taking a shower, Blake was sleeping and Tanner was playing...or so we thought!!! this is what happens when you think you can trust your 2yr old!!! oh my!! Thank goodness for Mr. Clean's Magic Eraser!!

                                               yes! this is pen all
                    over the bathroom door and wall!!!                                         

  
It's crazy that we are already thinking about pre school for Tanner!!  I have been trying to get him ready by teaching him a few basic things and he has caught on really well!!  He knows all of his colors, he can count to 15 (when he wants) sorta sing his ABC's and we are working on shapes and letter recognition.  So far he knows A, B ,D,M,O,P,S,and of course, T (for Tanner!) I am soo proud of him and it makes me so happy to see him grow like that!!
 They both surprise me EVERY DAY seriously!  I just LOVE them!! Sometimes I wish I could freeze them at the ages that they are but then again...I really look forward to what the future has in store for us :)

I thank God every day for giving me this life..it's all I have ever wanted!!!

"Snowed In"

                                                               the swingset is buried!!

On Feb. 2 we had almost the biggest snow in history!!! It was sooo exciting!! We had been hearing about a huge storm for about a week and we sure got it!!  In Holland we got a little over 13 inches from about 8pm on tues. night until about 10am on wed. morning!! It was incredible...I couldn't sleep I was sooo excited...I love the snow...especially snow storms!!  We were even having lightning?? kinda wierd??  Ross got up at about 3am to plow and couldn't get down the road because it was so drifted over!!  When he finally got (about 1hr later) he plowed ALL DAY and didn't get home until about 10:30pm!!!! Let's just say it was a LONG DAY!!!! but for me... it was really fun!!! Tanner and I got to play outside for a little while when Blake was napping, and for the rest of the day...we just did fun "inside" stuff :)

Tanner in the sandbox...there is drifts all around him!

our front door

     our slider      

My boys

Here are some pics that I took of my boys and a couple of our family!!!  I love them soo much, I truly feel blessed to have them!! Even when things are a little stressfull!  For example....this week Tanner has...
-fallen in the bathroom and hit his head on the counter and got a black eye!
-he has officially figured out how to open ALL child locks!! ( cupboards, doorknobs, and even his vitiman's)
-he got a hold of Ross' pocket knife and opened it!!!!
-he tried to flush a play cell phone down the toilet
and fell off the kitchen table chair and bruised his OTHER eye!!!
Then he proceeded to ask me if I would fall and hurt myself because he wanted me to cry!!! OMG!!
While this was happening...Blake apparently thought it was hilarious because he was laughing SO HARD!!
I guess that's the life of having boys! Gotta Love My Boys!!!!  I REALLY DO!!

                                                             can you tell they are related???

eeew don't look at mom and dad kiss!!!

My name is KID ROCK!!!

         Ross got me tickets to Kid Rock for my birthday!  Kinda funny story behind it...apparently he bought them before christmas, and happened to mention it to Marcy and my mom....  Well let's just say that their reactions got me really excited!  So for the few weeks before Christmas I was very curious!  I thought that I had it figured out, I was pretty sure it was tickets to something just based on the little bit of information that I got out of everyone. I had no idea what the tickets would be for but I was pretty sure that they were tickets!            
         Well Christmas came and went and I didn't recieve any tickets!  So then i started the interogating and Ross said that it was all fake and there never was a really cool present! ugh!! Not Fair!!
         Well, as you know Ross took me out for my birthday and then he ended up giving me the tickets...mystery solved!!

          We went to the concert with some very good friends of ours, Jeff and Ruthanne and we had a BLAST!!! I had never been to a concert before so I was just excited to go out and have a fun night with Ross and our friends, and we definately did!!!  He put on a great show!! (I could have done without the pole dancers for part of it but hey...it's Kid Rock we are talking about I guess!!)  I also ate WAY TOO MUCH!!! we went to the Louis Benton Steakhouse before and had a really nice dinner and then to Friday's afterword and we had some appetizers!!  Oh well, it was fun!! Thanks again Ross!!!

Our hike

We went to the Saugatuck state park the other day with Marcy and Milaya.  Ross stayed home with Blake and had some bonding time :)  Let me just say... it was quite a hike!!! We started out thinking that we wanted to take a somewhat longer trail so that we could get a little workout in but not something to hard for the kids.  As we started walking Tanner and Milaya were SO SLOW!! they kept stopping to do snow angels about every 5 steps...so much for the workout!  After we got them moving a little, we had a pretty good pace going and we thought that it would be fun to hike to the beach and see the water and all of the ice!  We were doing really good and having so much fun, just playing and goofing around and we were sure that we weren't to far from the water....boy were we wrong! After a while we stopped and had to make a decision...do we keep going and will the kids be able to make it back???? or do we turn around??? well... we decided to keep going!!! When we finally got there I was sooo glad that we decided to keep going.. it was BEAUTIFUL!!!!  The kids loved it too!! although they were a little dissapointed that they couldn't go swimming! hahaha!  Here is when it went from really great to really....not so great!  The wind by the water was so much stronger and so much colder and the kids suddenly were DONE!! to make a long story short...Marcy and I ended up carrying the kids on our backs for most of the way back, while they were in total meltdown mode!!! they were so whipped!!! (so we got our workout afterall)  For a while i kinda felt like we were NEVER going to make it back to the car and we were going to have to be  rescued!!! Toward the end the kids got their second wind and we started having fun again...i'm so glad for that because I was worried that they would never want to come back!  Overall....this experience was sooo moving!  It was the most beautiful, peaceful place to be and it was such an accomplishment for all of us that it just felt sooo good! It was awesome to be in nature and enjoy God's creation!!! and spend some special time with Tanner and do something fun with just us :) To top it all off... after all of that hard work and fresh air...Tanner didn't fall asleep on the way home!! I thought for sure that he would! so we had a fun and early night with him that night :)  Looking back...it was a really good experience!  Oh i almost forgot we also had to have a couple of potty breaks for Tanner along the way!!! that's fun when he is all bundled up in his snow stuff!! hahahaha!!

A little taste of summer!

We spent the morning at the Aquatic center and let the kids play in the water and they had such a blast!!  We hadn't been there for about a year so it was a treat for all of us!  It was also a first time thing for Blake, he had never been swimming before and he loved it!  I thought he would because he loves to take baths and i was right :)  It was nice too because when we were done both boys totally crashed and took a wonderful nap at the same time!!  I love the winter but i cant wait to be able to do things like this in the summer more, it was fun to just get out of the house and just play together :)


                      Ready to go swimming!!!!

            it can be quite a handful!

          Me and my boys :)

                   just like in the sandbox!

Happy New Year!!!! Happy Birthday!!!!

                                
We had such a fun new year hanging out with Marcy, Justin, Milaya and Pierson.  It was nice to just stay home and chill.  We played games ate lots of good food... it was a great time.


 My birthday it was soo great too!!!  I spent the day with Marcy and the kids and we had pizza for lunch (always yummy) and later that night we dropped the kids off to Jim and Gails for the night!! This was huge...i had never left Blake overnight before!  Ross and I went to Red Lobster for dinner and then went to see the movie, "Little Focker's."  Then Ross surprised me and took me to a hotel for the night!!! When we got there he had already filled the room with all of my favorite things... he was SOOOO romantic and thoughtful!! I couldn't have asked for a better birthday!!  We had such a great time!!!! Oh and to top it all off..... he got me tickets to go to a Kid Rock concert!!! woot woot! we have never done anything like that before so this will be fun!!! Thanks Ross for such a great birthday I LOVE YOU!!!

                         this is what the room looked like when i walked in!! how romantic!

                                                               I love you!