Blake's Birthday Party

There is nothing better than celebrating your child's birthday. It is so much better than your own birthday. It is incredible to watch the anticipation in his eyes as he tears open the wrapping paper and discovers new toys. You laugh as he devours his chocolate cake, a rare treat, and delights in making a huge mess. You know that your child knows that he is the most important person in the world on his special day, and nothing else brings you more pride. You look around and see family members celebrating the life of the little being that brings everyone so much joy. If I could re-live specific days throughout my life, this would definitely be one of them. Blake's second birthday party was just perfect.

The theme was transportation; cars, trucks, buses, planes, and trains. I kept it pretty simple but I wouldn't be an indulgent mom or true to my craftiness if I didn't get a little carried away with the theme. I made some paper trains to hang from the light and found the most adorable bus and airplane bath toys to use as balloon weights.

Since there was just a small group attending the party, I filled the empty cupcake spots with cars, trucks, trains, and planes.

I made a transportation banner too, of course.

We decided to have a brunch birthday party since December is a busy time and Blake has the most energy in the morning. It was fun to plan brunch foods; waffles, mini-quiches, and my favorite; fruit kabobs.

The birthday boy probably could have played with the balloons all day and not even cared about opening his presents. Love this age :)

On to the presents! Blake carefully tore little minuscule pieces of wrapping paper off each gift, taking forever to get to the actual item. I have a feeling that Christmas morning is going to be really slow this year. He absolutely loved every present. He focused on and wanted to play with each item individually before moving on to the next gift. We even had to move some puzzles and a fire truck into the other room to get him to open the next present. It was really sweet how he was genuinely interested in every single item he received. He played all day long with his new toys as he discovered them over and over. Every time he wakes up from a nap now, he immediately asks for "toys?"

One of the funniest things that Blake did was when he opened what was supposed to be a shopping cart, he immediately disappeared into the kitchen with this unassembled part. I guess he thought it was some sort of sliding toboggan because he tried to slide all around on it! We laughed really hard at his cleverness and at the fact that he knew that it would slide better on the hard floor than the carpet. He does now love his assembled shopping cart too, but I guess this toy is multi-functional.

And finally, the kitchen!

Blake loves it - just like I thought he would! Troy asked me the night before the party, "What if Blake doesn't get as excited about the kitchen as you think he will? Will you be crushed after putting so much work into it?" I said no, but thankfully he loves his new play kitchen. It surprised me how much he know how to do without me even showing him; filling up his cup at the sink, using the right utensils to cook with in the pan, and putting appropriate food items in the oven.

The adults liked the kitchen as well. I have to add that birthdays for children are just as much for parents as they are for them since we are also the ones who play with these toys day after day.

The funniest moment of the party was when Troy was comparing the proportions of the plastic food. I guess you had to be there, but we were just rolling with laughter when he was pointing out how the croissant and strip of bacon were the same size as the whole chicken.

Lastly was some singing and a candle to blow out for the birthday boy.

Unlike last year, Blake knew exactly what to do with his cupcake. In fact, he begged for "take" all morning.

Happy Birthday, Blake!!

Birthday Present

Blake's birthday party is tomorrow. We are keeping it pretty simple with just a few family members because 'tis the season for everyone to be busy. I mentioned before that I made Blake's birthday present this year. Here is the finished product:

I know that play kitchens are generally more for little girls, but I am disregarding the gender-typing because I think that Blake will love it! He is getting into the stage where he enjoys pretend play, and he loves to feed his toy animals and "cook" with me. I don't think there is anything wrong with a little boy learning to use a kitchen at a young age. Or maybe I still don't know quite what to do with little boys because I also bought him art supplies for Christmas...

I didn't want to spend a fortune on a play kitchen especially since most of them are pretty girly, so I built my own. I am happy to say that I built this for under $30, using mostly Ikea components, scrap wood, contact paper, and paint. That doesn't include the cookware and food, but it's still not bad for the end result! Here are the hanging pots and pans, kitchen sink and faucet, and stove top.

In the cabinets are a little oven tray, silverware, and storage bins for plates, cups, and bowls.

I added a shelf on top to store food and utensils.

I am so excited for Blake to open his play kitchen and for us to make food together. I think that he is going to love it. Now I just have to figure out how to wrap it.

Update: Here is the tutorial as requested.

The Final Stretch

28 Weeks With Baby #1

28 Weeks With Baby #2

Wowza! I am definitely bigger with baby #2! I remember taking that picture during my first pregnancy as the first real sign of a baby bump. I have had the baby bump this time around for a while.

I entered my third trimester this week with a violent round of throwing up and one of those awesome night-time leg cramps to which my calf is still sore 2 days later. Apart from the grand welcome I received into the final 12 weeks, I actually feel pretty great. I have constant heartburn, but I pop my Zantac around the clock and the heartburn is magically gone. I wish there was such a quick fix for the endless nauseated months. I am at what I like to call the pregnancy sweet spot; I have energy, I am sleeping wonderfully, and I'm not so huge that every position is uncomfortable.

I feel like this baby is coming right around the corner. Once the holidays are over, we will only have a few more weeks to prepare and enjoy our last days as a family of three. I don't think I'm quite ready yet for the changes that this baby will bring. We have our little routine down and I love that I can quickly load my one child in and out of the car with ease and spend all morning running errands and going on outings. Blake and I are buddies. We have a system and I'm about to be outnumbered. I don't know if I'm ready for all of the sleepless nights. However, as I feel the little kicks from the baby within, I am excited to meet him and to have a newborn to snuggle again. I am also really excited for Blake to have a brother and playmate. I am sure that we will adjust to having two children just as we adjusted to having one. But for now, I am going to enjoy these last 12 weeks of pregnancy and as a one-child family. Here's to the final stretch!

Thanksgiving

We had a w-o-n-d-e-r-f-u-l Thanksgiving this year at the Tanners' cabin. One of the best parts was that Tricia came home from New York for the occasion. Blake was thrilled to make cranberry sauce with his favorite aunt.

Tricia and her boyfriend, Jacob, took Blake on a walk while the feast was cooking.

The Thanksgiving feast required all day preparation. We were joined by Troy's aunt and uncle, Grandma Tanner, and lots of Tanner cousins. There were 16 people in total at the celebration, helping out in the kitchen at various times.

It is a Tanner tradition to go around before or after the meal and share what each person has been grateful for in the past year. It usually turns into a testimony meeting-like event, but it is something that we should do more often. It took a while for 16 of us to each share our blessings, and we laughed when Blake got bored and disappeared, and shortly after, all of the lights in the house mysteriously dimmed to off. Blake still has an obsession with lights and light switches.

Troy took his place at the head of the table, ready for his meat. The food was SO delicious that it made my tiredness after eating almost painful. Blake enjoyed the feast as well and added his own very loud "Amen!" after the blessing on the food.

Thanksgiving wouldn't be complete without a little family football, even in the snow.

The brave bunch endured the cold.

There was also a lot of wii Rockband that occurred, including a guitar debut by both Blake and Troy's 89-year-old Grandma. 

Blake wanted to be just like his dad with his guitar strapped around him.

Just the three and a half of us.

In addition to the feasting, football, and Rockband, we popped bubble wrap with our feet.

We colored file folder games for Humanitarian Aid.

We spent time on the hammocks. Blake found a new best friend, Troy's 12-year old cousin Alex. The two of them were inseparable as Blake dragged her around the house. It's too bad that she lives an hour away from us because we would hire her to watch Blake every weekend.

The cabin was the perfect place to have Thanksgiving. There was so much to do both inside and outside and everyone was able to fit into beds or couches to spend the night. We did have a few electrical problems, however. The lights randomly went on all night long in two of the bedrooms. Of course one of the bedrooms was where Blake and I were sleeping (Troy slept separate so that his 5am work alarm wouldn't wake Blake up). I think I put Blake to bed at least four times because every time he mellowed out or drifted off, the light and fan came on full speed in his room and he stood right up in his crib with confused tears streaming down his face.

It became an all night long battle with the lights; I'd turn them off and they'd go right back on. These battles lasted for several minutes at a time and happened every couple of hours. Then, each time the lights stayed off, I lay in bed wide awake anticipating the next time the battle would occur, hoping that Blake wouldn't wake up. We finally outsmarted the lights by unscrewing the light bulbs. I'm sure that there was some electrical wiring issue, but it was kind of creepy and also incredibly frustrating to be at war with the light switches all night. We had a good laugh about it in the morning when I found out that the same light switch battle was happening in the room full of cousins below me.

The day after Thanksgiving, we all went to Zermatt, a Swiss resort in Heber. They had the most fun life-size chess board; life-size for Blake anyway.

We pointed out various locations on this indicator by the chess board. We all posed by the Moscow locator for Troy's aunt and uncle who are serving as mission presidents there.

Tricia and Jacob are from opposite ends of the country.

Zermatt also had a carousel that everyone rode on, including Grandma Tanner. She hadn't been on a carousel since she was 20, but she saddled herself with ease and enjoyed the ride.

 Blake loved the carousel as well. He is still mentioning the "horses" we rode on two days later.

Our final event for the Thanksgiving that never ended was a stop at a quaint little train diner in Heber. Blake was in heaven as he watched all of trains and trucks on the ceiling and played with the train table. I don't think he has ever played that long with something independently; it's a good thing his birthday is in a week, because trains just may be involved.

We feel so blessed to have family nearby to create holiday memories with. We hope that you had a great Thanksgiving.

Miscellaneous

I feel like I haven't posted much lately and that is probably because my organized mind hasn't been able to sort our recent pictures and activities into central themed posts. So, much to my dismay, here is a random assortment of what has been going on with us lately!

As far as projects go, I have been constructing something big for Blake's 2nd birthday (more on that later). I have also whipped out a few small things this week like some scrapbook pages for a Christmas album I started, and some tissue box covers. Troy thinks that I just invent projects to do while Blake is sleeping, which is probably true, but it has always really bugged me that the tissue boxes clashed with the rooms. We go through a lot of tissues in our house, so only having them in one location is not an option. So, I made these slipcovers for the ugly boxes. It was the first sewing project that I completed without my mom sitting next to me dictating each step. So, although they are not perfect and I now have cuts on two fingers, I am happy with the sewing progress that I have made.

I made a tissue box cover for our bathroom.

And one for the family room.

Sometimes, while I am working on projects or folding laundry, Troy and I like to watch TV. This is somewhat embarrassing, but we have gotten really hooked on the TV show "One Tree Hill." Ever since Blake was born and our evening activities after 8pm became limited, we started watching various TV series. We have watched series such as Prison Break, Friends, Gilmore Girls, Felicity, Alias, The Office, etc. We love giving our commentaries about the acting and plot. It is fun to have something to do together that we look forward to. 

Usually we spread the seasons out over several months, watch episodes here and there, and eventually get burned out with whatever series we are watching about half-way through. However, we are completely hooked on One Tree Hill. It is a pretty well-written drama with interesting characters. We are going through the discs so fast that we can't even keep up with the library holds, so we've had to turn the couch around to face our computer and watch them online on several occasions. We are just too eager to find out what happens next to skip a night and wait for our library holds to arrive! We just started season 4 and we have only been watching for about 4 weeks. It always gets to be about 10:30pm and we debate about going to bed, but we always end up watching "just one more episode...," leaving us both tired the next day. It is pretty pathetic, I know, but we are completely addicted.