After Party

My favorite part of Easter weekend was our after party. My parents were in town to join us for our celebrations and things got pretty exciting after we put the boys to bed.

It began when we were sitting around the dining room table emptying out plastic eggs full of candy. We were also dividing up dollar bills from the adult egg hunt that we insist on doing year after year. Maybe when we hit 30 or so, our parents will stop that tradition, but until then, we still give them puppy dog eyes when they suggest taking the competitive adult egg hunt away. 

Dividing up the cash led to some pretty riveting musical renditions. Every time someone was asked what was in the egg they were opening, if they responded "cash," it naturally led to reciting the full version of "cash for the merchandise, cash for the button hooks" from The Music Man (Rock Island lyrics here). The guys collectively came up with all of the lyrics from that fast paced song and we were rolling with laughter every time it was started. It was probably one of those things where you had to be there, but I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard.

Somehow all of that that riling up led to the cup challenge. My brother challenged us to bend over and grab a cup off of the floor with our teeth. The tricky part was that we had to balance on one foot and our hands could not touch the ground. He kept decreasing the height of the cup to make it even more challenging.

We were rolling with laughter once again as we fell on our heads while attempting the task, except for my dad who was falling asleep in the background, and Troy, who conveniently was upstairs packing for his trip to New York to avoid our giddiness.

Since we already had the cups out, we had to play the cup game, of course. You know, the one where you tap the beat and pass the cup to the next person while increasing in speed.

I'm sure that our shenanigans were much funnier because it was late and we were all so tired. Nevertheless, I felt so blessed to have family surrounding us. It has been a little lonelier lately without any extended family nearby, and I really appreciated those moments where tears were forming in my eyes from laughing so hard.

Easter

I made some efforts this year to start some spiritual traditions revolving around Easter. Our most recent Christmas was such an over-scheduled, rushed blur that I resolved to do better to incorporate the true meaning of Easter into our celebrations. We had a great Family Home Evening lesson where we picked out symbols from a basket and talked about what they meant (soap, coins, sacrament cup, crown of thorns, white cloth, rock, nail, etc.).  

Our discussions throughout the week kept Blake somewhat interested, but it's hard to compete with the Easter Bunny and baskets full of treats.

The Easter Bunny left a trail of yarn that led from Blake and Nash's rooms to their baskets. They had to go on a serious hunt throughout the house to find their goodies.

Blake was pretty excited about what the Easter Bunny brought him.

Nash was mostly just delighted that I let him bring his lovey downstairs.

Blake helped Nash find his basket too. Then he threw a tantrum when I rolled the yarn back up. So much for making Easter a spiritual day.

By the time we went to church, the boys took their afternoon naps, and we had our big dinner, it was almost dark out when we got around to the egg hunt. I was a little disappointed that I didn't get the pictures I was hoping for (don't look too closely at the grainy ones I did get), but I loved watching the excitement spread over the boys' faces as they collected eggs.

Troy's mom sent us egg leis from Hawaii since they couldn't be here with us to celebrate. We used their nice large yard for our Easter egg hunt in their honor.

Happy Easter!

Airborne

A co-worker of Troy's recently opened one of those trampoline arenas. He invited us to check it out. It's safe to say that the boys thought they had died and gone to bouncy heaven.

The warehouse had over 75 interconnected trampolines, including a specific arena for dodgeball.

It's a good thing our boys are too young to get embarrassed, because if they were older they might not love the fact that their mom was reliving her glory days. I sure had a blast flying around though.

Another favorite area was the foam pit.

Nash kept making a fish face the whole time we were there.

I'm not really sure what the face was all about, but he was making fish lips in every picture I took.

I would highly recommend this activity if you want to wear your children out and ensure a quality night of sleep.

New Name

Ever since I started this blog, I've debated about what to call it. I've never been able to settle on something that I could stick with.

We started out as "The Tanner Trio."

That worked until we became a family of four. Then we were "It's Tanner Time"  for a while. That one seemed a little too corny to me so it didn't last long.

We moved on to "Boy oh Boy oh Boy" when the number of boys started outweighing the girl in our family. I actually really liked that title. But, if we ever have that girl I'm dreaming about, it won't have quite the same ring to it.

I have been trying to come up with something for years that could last, regardless of how many children we have or where we live. I wanted it to be something that represented our family but wasn't purely a cutesy alliteration of the word Tanner (I could think of plenty of those; Tanner Tasties, Tanner Terrain, Tanner Talk...oh man). I thought about using my first name in the title since I am the voice behind our blog. I even thought about incorporating a favorite quote. I just couldn't come up with something that fit just right. 

And then it came to me. 

To a T.

It's short and simple. It uses our T from Tanner without being too clever. It can last through the years regardless of our age or stage or location.

I did some research on the phrase "to a T" and found out that it actually dates back to the 17th century. It is a late variation of the phrase "to a tittle," which means, "to the smallest detail."

That definition encompasses everything I write about and photograph. The small things. The details. The everyday moments that make us who we are.

Hopefully I won't change my mind about this one. I apologize if all of the name changes were getting confusing. Our url will remain the same; troyandlindsey.com. Only our title is changing. So, edit your sidebar links if you'd like - because we're To a T from here on out.

Taste of Summer

I've been counting down the days 'til summer for a long time.

I can taste it now even though it hasn't technically arrived yet.

I'm proclaiming this summer to be the summer of enjoyment. It will be the first summer in five years where I won't be sick and pregnant or have a nursing baby to schedule around. Not that I don't love those things (at least the newborn baby aspect), but I can hardly wait to bask in the luxury of freedom with our little guys.  

I have summer bucket lists swimming around in my head and heaps of activities I'd like to fill our mornings with.

But what I'm looking forward to the most are days like we had over the weekend. Spending hours outside in our yard with bare feet. Catching the sparkles in Blake's eyes when his dad teaches him how to catch and hit and ride his bike. Performing roundoffs and headstands in our grass to invoke adorable baby giggles. Taking strolls around the block and joining up with other neighbor kids who are playing in their yards.

It's official. This weekend's taste of warmth confirmed to me how much I'm going to love this summer.

Blake insists on studying his Disneyland (technically California Adventure) park guide every time he rides in the stroller. The guide has been zipped in the stroller pocket ever since our visit, and has been given a lot of love (and wear and tear).

The neighborhood kids enjoyed pointing out their favorite rides on the map as well, although Blake was hesitant to let it out of his hands.

Another summer event I'm looking forward to is Blake being able to release some of his energy outside. He had no problem initiating a three block run back to our house. Maybe, just maybe, all of that exertion will produce some good naps.

Welcome, impending summer. So far, I love you.

Lopsided

In general, I think babies are cuter when they only have those two little bottom teeth. But I have to admit, I am loving that Nash's top teeth have only grown in on half of his mouth. His lopsided grin makes me smile.

This boy won't wear socks and shoes for the life of him. Usually we just go without since they are off his feet before I pull out of the driveway, but we at least make an effort for church. This particular Sunday, he took off both socks, both shoes, and his pants and belt within the first half hour of church.

Nash loves to go outside and hand me fresh pieces of aerated dirt.

He proceeds to shove rocks in his mouth.

And ends up with a (lopsided) mouth of rocks and sand.