Chase and Bridger's Piano Recital

Chase and Bridger had their first recital with their new piano teacher up in T.  We found out last fall that our next door neighbor that moved in during the summer is a fantastic piano teacher.  Luckily she  had room in her schedule to teach the boys.  It's so nice to have the boys run over to her house on Wednesdays for lessons.  Abby is so patient and encouraging with the boys.  She's so sweet with them.  She picked up right where they left off in their books.  (It was nice that we didn't have to switch books)

Bridger played three songs:  The Milky Way (which was my favorite), My Heavenly Father Loves Me, and Star Wars.  He was amazing!  He's worked so hard on his songs and memorized all three of them.  Bridger had an amazing touch when he played "The Milky Way."  He played that song with such feeling and softness.  His dynamics were amazing.  He has to cross over his left hand and play it in the treble clef.  He played it with such smoothness.  Every time he would practice the song I would say "I love that song!"  

Chase also played three songs:  The Imperial March, In the Hall of the Mountain King (by Grieg) and Teach me to Walk in the Light.  Chase has been so dedicated because I found an arrangement of Teach Me to Walk that I wanted him to do but it was a more challenging piece for Chase.  Each week he worked on it a little bit at a time.  He never gave up!  I was so proud of him.  It's probably the hardest piece he's ever worked on.  His Imperial March had such power to it.  Abby loves how the boys play with power and force.  My favorite song Chase played was the Mountain King song.  His fingers danced on the keys when he played that song like little trolls.  I love to hear the boys practicing their piano.  They're a joy to listen to.

Love This Little Guy!

I told Tanner that he couldn't do something so he went over and sat on the f front porch and was pouting.  I thought he looked so funny so I pulled my camera to take a picture of his pouty face but the minute he saw my camera, he pulled his "cheeser" face out!  What a character!  

We were at a baseball game of Bridger's and it was FREEZING!  It was so cold that Tanner just sat on our laps snuggling us to keep warm.  He was snuggling with Matt and I thought they looked so sweet all snuggled up together.  We love this little guy!

Mother's Day

Today was a great Mother's Day!  While I was getting ready for church, Matt and the older boys made me breakfast.  They fixed me some delicious cheesy scrambled eggs and bacon.  Bridger and Matt picked me out some beautiful roses the day before.  At church, the Primary President, Cami, made these darling book marks for the children to give their mothers.  I LOVE my bookmarks!!  I will always cherish them.

When we came home from church, I opened up my presents from the boys.  Bridger made me the card on the left at school and then made me another card in Primary.  He's so sweet to be so appreciative.  In school, he made a beautiful flower arrangement and vase out of blue and orange craft paper.  Then the next day, he gave me this little gift from his baseball team.  (He forgot to give it to me).  I love his baseball picture and the sweet little poem that goes with it.

Matt and the boys picked out some very sweet cards for me.  Matt tried to go shopping but struck out at every store he went to.  He tried so hard but it was no big deal because I had bought me a couple of shirts, skirts and a really nice bag to haul all my stuff in at their games.  Plus, Mother's day isn't about presents.  It's about being a mother my wonderful children.  I'm so thankful that I can be a mother to three amazing children!  They add so much joy and happiness into my life!  

Bridger gave me a card with this "Mom Off Duty" button.  I wore it for the rest of the day and I'm keeping it for all future Mother's days and my birthdays.  

We were able to have nap time after church which was heavenly!  Around 3:00 we headed down to the R's for a wonderful dinner.  Mom fixed Cafe R for dinner.  She always goes above and beyond!  Mares was there and so were the C's.  Bud was with Jill's family and Mylissa's family was traveling back from California.  It actually was really nice to have a quiet dinner.  After dinner, we pulled up a video Dad had sent us of Giraffes jumping into water.  Tanner and Lilly love this video so we watched probably 4 times.  Tanner and Lilly would just giggle and giggle.  I love Tanner's face in this picture.  Shan captured the moment!

For a Mother's Day gift for Mom and Marilyn, I made a scrapbook of our Disneyland trip in January.  I felt like for a couple of weeks I didn't get anything done besides scrapbook but it was all worth it.  They loved the book! (Now our memories are preserved!) I'm so thankful for my sweet mother.  She is so self serving and is always thinking of others.  She's an amazing example to me of true charity.  How lucky and I to have an extra mom because that's what I consider Mares to be.  She's always there for us and supports us in all we do.  I feel so much love from her!  I also have to say how lucky I am to have such a wonderful Mother-in-law.  Charlene is an amazing women who is another example of a loving woman.  She puts the gospel and her family first in all that she does.  

 

We celebrated Tanner's birthday.  Mom and Dad gave Tanner this little Tikes cozy coupe.  He loves his new car!!!  Bridger loves to push him around in it.  Luckily it has a part that you can place in the bottom that keeps their feet up so they don't get run over.  Bridger pushed Lilly and Tanner down Mom's hill for over a half an hour.  They couldn't get enough of it.  They would scream and giggle like it was the best ride ever!  It cracked us up watching them!

Marilyn gave Tanner a bubble maker lawn mower.  It's been a huge hit!!!  He loves it!  We bring it to Bridger's baseball games to keep Tanner occupied.  It's a little bit harder to push it on the grass so he likes to push it up and down in our driveway.  

At the end of the night, Mom had us go through all of our clogging costumes.  I can't believe that she's kept them all these years.  The boys had fun dressing up in them.  Shan and I made Chase wear the red costume.  He was a good sport and tried it on.  Bridger loved my "pirate" costume.  He wanted to take the blue pants home but I said they needed to stay at Grandmas.  

Tanner's 2nd Birthday

On May 1st, we went to the A's for dinner.  Angie was in town so everyone got together for dinner.  All but Chelsea and Austin were there which made it really fun to see everyone.  Tanner loves being sung to and loves to blow out candles.  When he's done he'll say "again! again!"  I think we sang to him two times and had him blow out the candles four times.

Tanner was spoiled by our families.  Mike and Amy gave him a Melissa and Doug tool set.  He LOVES it!!!  He takes the hammer and pounds on it as hard as he can.  Jake and Jess gave him these awesome pull back cars that fit perfectly in his hands.  Angie gave him a fun little fishing game with two fishing poles.  Grandpa and Grandma gave him a great semi truck that has four rows to carry cars and then some batman cars to go on the truck.  Tanner loves to play with cars!   

Before I went to bed, I blew up some balloons and tapped them to Tanner's crib for his birthday.  (Thanks to Shan's tradition)  When he woke up, he was so excited with the balloons.  He kept saying "baoons!"  Baoons!"  I've been trying to teach him how to hold up two fingers and say "I'm 2."  It's so cute when he does it!

Unfortunately we weren't able to do anything fun for his birthday because Bridger had a baseball game that night.  When we got home for the game we ate dinner and opened up presents.  Tanner got a new Mickey Mouse camping chair.  So now at all of his brother's games, he has his own chair to sit in.  You can tell from the picture that he loves his new chair!  Then he opened a "Growl" sound book and that could have been the end of his birthday.  He was perfectly content to sit in his new chair and look at his sound book.  It was so cute!  

But then Bridger helped him open some more presents.  He got some Mickey Mouse band instruments.  He wasn't too sure about those but maybe that's ok because one day I'm sure he'll be super loud with them.

Tanner got Old MacDonald driving a John Deer tractor with animals on the back wagons.  The animals make sounds and the farmer sings "Old MacDonald."  It's really cute!

Another big hit was his Mickey Mouse microphone!!  You press a button and it sings the "Hot Dog" song!!!  Tanner started to dance around the room when he heard the song.  His favorite show to watch on TV is Mickey Mouse clubhouse.  So he was really excited with the Mickey microphone.

His last present was a t-ball set.  We took it outside (even though it was dark) and let him hit some balls off of the T.  Grandpa A has been teaching Tanner how to play baseball so this is the perfect gift for him.  He loves it!!!

Because it had been such a crazy day, I didn't have time to make a cake so I ran to the grocery store and bought these delicious snickers chocolate cupcakes.  Tanner ate the whole thing!  I took his shirt off because I didn't want chocolate cake smeared all over it.

He started off using his spoon but quickly realized it was a lot easier to eat it with his fingers.

I can't believe that Tanner is 2!!!  Time just flies by! We're so grateful for Tanner!  He's added so much love to our home.

Scout Campout

Chase and Matt went on a camping trip with the scouts in our ward.  Normally it's just the deacons that go but this time the teachers were invited because they're working on their hiking merit badge.  They camped at Devil's Playground which was about an hour away from here.  They loved climbing and jumping on the big rocks.  I think the boys hiked 10 miles but Matt said it was a boring hike because it was along a dirt road.  Matt hiked about 5 miles of it but then they needed him to follow along in his truck so he and Jason T were happy to help with that.  I'm grateful that Chase has such great leaders!  I'm also grateful that Matt gets to spend some of this "church" time with Chase.  Chase has done an amazing job of making friends in this ward.   Unfortunately it rained on them a little bit.  It seems like every campout Chase and Matt go on, it rains on them.