Our Eternal Family

Easton's Blessing

2011-02-22T16:33:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, February 20th, Easton received his name and blessing. We are so grateful to have our family and friends participate and enjoy this event with us. Easton was given his blessing by Daddy. Those who participated included Grandpa Allan Applehans, Grandpa Skip Cederquist, Branch President Keith Scott, Uncle Kevin Cederquist, Adopted Grandpa Doug Schroeder, Brant Schroeder, and Joe Whitney.

Here's our precious Easton Joseph in his blessing outfit and homemade blessing blanket from Grandma Applehans.

Our family. We're so happy to have these three precious little boys! Andrew - 5 years old. Tanner - 3 years old. Easton - 3 1/2 weeks old

Daddy and his littlest man.

Mommy's Boy.

Thank-you to all of our wonderful family members who came and celebrated with us. We love you and appreciate your love and support. We have the best families!

Our Precious Easton Joseph

2011-01-28T21:38:00.000-08:00

We are so excited about this adorable little addition to our family: Easton Joseph. We are all in LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!
Our birth story: We'd been anticipating this little guy's arrival for weeks. On Wednesday, just 2 days from my due date, I'd pretty much given up any hope that I'd ever give birth. Wednesday night was a pretty typical night at our house: Jess had scouts, the boys and I played with playdough, read stories, sang songs. I was kinda grumpy and didn't feel the best, but we carried on our normal evening. Ieven made my sweetheart a cheesecake while he was at scouts after I put the boys to bed. :) Once he got home, Jess and I stayed up visiting until about 11pm. I was having some contractions, but that was nothing new - I had been for the past few weeks. We went to bed. I woke up about midnight and noticed I still felt contractions and they were a little more noticable - but still didn't hurt at all. I got up, walked around, tried to decide if I should wake up Jess or not (still no contractions that really hurt). About 12:50, I decided that I should probably wake him up as I was starting to get a little uncomfortable and the contractions were about 3 mins apart. We were out the door in 10 mins. We met Aunt Melissa at the hospital at 1:10 (yes, if you do the math, we made it from our house to town in record time - LOL!) - I checked in while Jess transfered the boys to the carseats we'd installed in her call weeks before. By this time I was having to breathe through my contractions. We got all set up in the birthing room, the doctor was called almost immediately, and by 2:10 we were holding this most precious gift from God in our arms.

Andrew and Tanner are so in love with their baby brother. Tanner is enthralled with what he calls Easton's "little paws" - his hands and feet. He is like a bull in a china closet, but he tries to be so careful around his brother. It's so precious to see him light up when he gets around Easton. Andrew can't get enough cuddle time with his brother. He wants to be holding him every chance he gets. He's also a bit protective - he got after me because he thought I wasn't being careful enough putting on Easton's hat. It was cute. Everytime he's near him, Andrew gives him kisses on the cheek and head.

We are so glad our little Easton's here. We are looking forward to having THREE little boys to love, laugh, learn, play with, teach! There are not words adequate enough to describe the feelings that we have felt in the past day and a half - the immense amount of love we feel for Easton and the love that continues to grow each day for Andrew, Tanner, and each other. Families are truly a blessing from our Father in Heaven.

Opps, almost forgot his stats:

8lbs 3 oz

20 1/2 inches long

100% adorable

Christmas Time!

2010-12-28T12:26:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Christmas in the Applehans Family! We started off with our traditional traipsing through the woods for the perfect tree. We found it! We enjoyed Christmas parties, Breakfast with Santa Primary Activity, shopping, and lots of snow. We made gingerbread houses, dipped pretzels, and decorated sugar cookies. We spent several hours Christmas Eve Day and Christmas Day sledding. We enjoyed lots of family time! We loved our traditional Christmas Eve celebrations - focusing on the true meaning of the holiday - the Savior, as well as leaving cookies, milk, and letters for Santa. We thoroughly enjoyed only sleeping until 7am on Christmas morning as excited little boys couldn't wait to see what was left under the tree for them. We spent the day as a family and enjoyed every second of it!

Daddy and the boys looking for the perfect tree.

Mommy and Tanner (and Baby Easton) Reindeer

Mommy and Tanner making gingerbread houses (with Aunt Melissa and Andrew)

Precious little Andrew hands.

Making dipped pretzels.

Making and decorating Christmas Cookies. I think more frosting ended up in little mouths (esp Tanner's) than on cookies.

Cuddle/story time with Daddy.

The boys got new robes for Christmas. Mommy and Daddy make a good team -

Mom cuts stuff out, Dad sews!

The boys LOVED their new cranes from Santa. This was the only thing they really asked for!

Our precious little boys in their new Christmas outfits from Grandma Applehans.

I LOVE Christmas time! I love celebrating the Savior - his birth, life, and gift to each of us. And I LOVE that whenever we asked the boys why we celebrate Christmas, they told us it was Jesus' birthday. Yes, they are typical children who loved opening their gifts, but they also enjoyed the GIVING of gifts, time, and homemade goodies just as much. Now I'm eagerly awaiting next Christmas when we get the share the joy and excitement with THREE little boys! (Not that I'm anxious or counting down the days or hours or anything, but less than a month to go until we meet our youngest little man!!!!!)

We hope you all had a Merry Christmas and best wishes for a fabulour 2011!

Tanner Turns 3!

2010-09-19T23:02:00.000-07:00

Wow - already?! Where has the time gone? I can't believe that my baby is 3 years old already!

First "Family of 4" picture, 3 years ago:

We had birthday celebrations for 2 days! Saturday was his actual birthday, but since Daddy had to work, we just had balloons and went out to dinner. Doesn't he look so cute in his sombrero? He LOVED the fried ice cream!

For months, this little guy has talked about wanting a tractor birthday cake. I thought he'd enjoy a "real" tractor as a keepsake, but still wanted to honor his request:

He was such a happy little boy. He thought it was so fun to receive a birthday balloon, crown, tractor birthday cake, and presents. He was giddy with excitement when he opened them and saw what he'd been given:

Thank-you everyone who helped make his birthday so much fun for him!

Spokane with Daddy!

2010-08-28T09:10:00.001-07:00

This past week Jess had training for a few days in Spokane and he got to bring the family! The boys were thrilled that we stayed at a hotel with a swimming pool. We had a lot of fun swimming, shopping, exploring several parks, and just hanging out. Here's proof:

I took the boys to Manito Park and Japanese Gardens - about 90 acres of beauty! One portion of the park boasted over 1500 rose bushes. My little Tan-Man thought his Mommy better have a rose...

Andrew loved going around and smelling the different colors/varieties of roses:

Mommy and her Boys:

At the Japanese Gardens, the boys were thrilled with the size fish in the water and loved playing on the bridge:

I've always wanted to take the boys to the "Big Wagon Park." Sadly, once down the slide was enough for them - I think they were a little scared.

They LOVED the carousel horses!

...all the boys did. :)

Sunday Best

2010-05-26T21:20:00.000-07:00

Jess snapped these pics before church last Sunday. I just think little (and big) boys look SO GOOD in their Sunday best!

In this pic, Jess told them to be silly.
Brothers. Best friends. I feel so blessed to be Mom to these two precious, handsome, sweet, adorable little boys.

These two are Daddy's little mini-me's. They are Daddy's boys for sure! When he gets ready for church and sprays on his cologne, two little boys are right there begging for some too. After they get their little spray, they come running to mom, hold up their necks, and BEAM when I tell them how good they smell. So cute! I love these two little boys!!!

Mother's Day 2010

2010-05-26T21:04:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pics taken on Mother's Day.

Mommy and Tanner:

Mommy and Andrew:

Giving Mommy kisses.

The reasons I LOVE celebrating Mother's Day:

10 Things I Love About Being "Mom":

1. Hearing angelic voices say "Mommy, Mama, Mom"
2. Lots of kisses - sometimes sticky, sometimes slobbery
3. Kissing owies and handing out "ban-maids" (bandaids)
4. Unconditional Love
5. Being referee, chef, maid, coach, chauffer, nurse, and teacher
6. Pure joy and happiness
7. Reading together
8. Cuddles
9. Rediscovering the world through little eyes
10. Belly laughs

Saint Patrick's Day

2010-03-22T20:10:00.000-07:00

We had a fun St. Patrick's Day this year. The boys really got into it and enjoyed all the fun stuff I planned... even green eggs for breakfast!
Daddy had to work, but Aunt Keri came over for dinner (including green jello) and art projects. We make these adorable shamrock hats and colored a leprechaun picture.

I hid shamrocks around the house for the boys to find and we ate yummy, green cupcakes with green frosting and green sprinkles.

My little Andrew leprechaun.

My little Tanner leprechaun.

We had a fun, LUCKY day! :)

Our 2nd Honeymoon

2010-03-22T19:42:00.001-07:00

I realize this post is WAY overdue, but...

The end of January, Jesse and I left the boys with Grandma and had a 2nd Honeymoon/business trip to Anaheim, CA. We had a blast! We were gone 8 days and had beautiful California weather for almost all of them.

We spent 3 1/2 days at the CHA Convention, drooling over all the beautiful, new scrapbooking supplies. Jesse won me a Slice. He was such a good sport, and at least pretended to have a great time while I did my thing at the convention. :) We have lots of fun and gorgeous stuff planned for our upcoming Paper Posies Scrapbooking kits!
We spent 2 days of our trip at the happiest place on earth: Disneyland (and California Adventures). We had a great time riding rides, eating Disneyland food, laughing, holding hands, and just being together!

We missed the boys! We had to get this picture to show them we got to meet Lightning McQueen and Mater.

We spent a day at the beach and had dinner at Bubba Gump's Shrimp Factory on the Santa Monica Pier. We got to watch the sun go down at the end of the pier - talk about GORGEOUS!

We also went to Hollywood one afternoon and Jesse took me shopping at a huge, southern CA mall. Another day we spent a half day at an outdoor mall. Of course he bought me some really cute stuff both places! I'm so spoiled. Our motel was right across from Disneyland and we got to lay on our bed watching the fireworks both Friday nights we were there. We hot tubbed, tried The Cheesecake Factory for the first time (oh, yummy!), ate at a very nice restaurant overlooking the ocean from the top balcony view, and really, just had the time of our lives together. We really enjoyed celebrating our 5th anniversary (a couple months late) and made some great memories!

Christmas 2009

2010-01-09T22:40:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Christmas season at the Applehans' home. We were blessed to be visited by all of our families, had 4 Christmas celebrations, had opportunity to share Christmas with others, participate in many traditions brought from both Jesse's and my families, but most importantly, reflect on the birth, life, and gift of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Here are a few highlights, in no particular order:

Dad and Elaine were able to come up the middle of December and visit for the weekend, along with all the girls in the family (we sure missed Kevin, Amy, and Chloe!). Their visit occured during our Stake's Creche Show. It was simply amazing. There were hundreds of navitities on display, a Children's Room where the kids got to create some art projects and play with children's nativity sets, and a room set up for taking pictures such as the one below. We thoroughly enjoyed their visit and the boys loved playing with Puck (their little dog). We played many games of Wacky Six and ate lots of good food!

The day after Christmas, we were blessed have Jesse's parents come for a visit. We had the privledge of having them here for 10 days, during which time we accomplished a lot of eating, game playing, finishing projects around the house, shopping, and playing with the boys. We also celebrated Jesse's collage graduation! Tanner loved getting reacquainted with "Bub" (Grandpa) and getting spoiled by Grandma. Andrew thought Grandpa's mustache was really great and tried creating one of his own with sticky white paper. He also enjoyed going into Gma and Gpa's room each morning to cuddle. We sure wish they lived closer because we don't get to see them often enough!

One evening, we went to Lewiston to walk through the park with an amazing Christmas light display:

Our own little family's traditions this year included baking and decorating sugar cookies, making a gingerbread house, sharing Christmas with others in need, driving around looking at Christmas lights, cutting down a live Christmas tree, and spending as much time together as possible. We also enjoyed writing letters to Santa, reading a new Christmas story together, telling THE Christmas story, and having Daddy off work Christmas Eve for the first time since starting his career. Jess and I both ended up with a horrible 24 hour stomach flu about 9pm Christmas Eve. Go figure. We still loved our time together (even if it included several trips to the restroom).

Just a couple days before Christmas, my Mom and some of my sisters were able to come down and celebrate an early Christmas with us. We had a lovely Christmas dinner, played games, talked and talked (us girls do that quite well), decorated cookies, and worked on Amy's recipe scrapbook. The boys love visits from their "special Bonner's Ferry Grandma" and Aunts.

Well, I guess that's it in a nutshell. Now we're on to 2010 already! I just can't believe how quickly time passes. We have so much to be grateful for and count our blessings everyday for Jesse's job, a nice warm home, a graduated husband (woo-hoo, finally!) our wonderful families, good friends, the gospel, our Savior, our special little boys, and most certainly each other. We're looking forward to all the happiness this year will bring!

Ice Skating

2009-11-09T00:19:00.000-08:00

Daddy surprised us one day (like he enjoys doing!) and took us ice skating. It was a blast!!! The boys were a bit scared and timid at first, but as the hour wore on, they started venturing out and trying to skate on their own. It was so fun to watch them and Daddy was proud of his little skaters!

Once Andrew figured out that this red thing (sorry, can't remember what it's called) helped him balance on his skates, a whole new skating-world opened up to him!

Tanner had fun too! He needed a little more support (ie. Mom or Dad)than Andrew, but he started catching on towards the end too. Last year when we took the boys skating, he didn't even wear skates, he enjoyed just sitting on the ice (he all but threw a fit everytime we tried to help him walk) but this time, he tried skating!!!

He didn't seem to mind spending time in this position:

My boys. My world.

And he's so stinkin' HOT! :)

HALLOWEEN 2009

2009-11-08T23:41:00.000-08:00

The boys were so much fun this year. They got so excited to pick out their BIG pumpkin, carve it, and go trick-or-treating. It was so not the plan, but we ended up going trick-or-treating three times. Never again. That's way too much candy that we don't need lying around the house!

The first night of trick-or-treating, some friends invited us to go to the Uof I Kibbie Dome, where the college athletes handed out candy. The boys dressed up as ARMY BOYS. The 2nd night, we decided to go with some friends to go the the local ward's trunk-or-treat. We hadn't planned on doing so when we came into town, so I hadn't brought the boys' costumes. The other mom had some costumes lying around, so Andrew was a dinosaur and Tanner was a tiger. On Halloween, we went with the same friends and when it came time to put on the army boy costumes, the boys emphatically declared that they wanted to be dinosaur and tiger again. So, there you have it. :) Jess had to work all week, so when he joined us for a little trick-or-treating fun, he did so as a COP. I dressed up as a MOM. That didn't require much work and I probably even had someone's leftover dinner somewhere on my costume to add that little extra "umph" to my attire.

PS. Sorry the first two pics are sideways. They took over 15 mins to upload and I'm ready for bed, so they're staying as is. :)

Andrew the dinosaur.
Tanner the tiger.

Army boys and cop.

Tanner and Andrew with their pumpkin. They were so proud of it! Great carving job, Dad. Great de-gutting job, Mom and Andrew.

Our new deck

2009-09-27T20:16:00.000-07:00

Here are pictures of our new deck - posted by popular request! As you can see, it's not quite finished yet, but we've eaten several meals outside and the boys love playing on it. It turned out quite a bit larger than we'd imagined, but it's perfect (I'm sure not going to complain)! It still needs the stairs built in the middle indented section and stained along the edges, but that'll probably happen here this next week (hopefully)!

What we've been up to today...

2009-09-03T18:01:00.000-07:00

I love the look of concentration on Tanner's face! He got to use scissors for the first time today and it actually kept him entertained for quite a while. He also got to participate in Joy School (Andrew's preschool) today since it was my week to teach. He loved snack time and coloring during art project time.
What's wrong with this picture? Oh, yes, you got it - there's a little boy on the bottom shelf. Our Tan-man keeps us constantly entertained (and on our toes)! He climbed on the next shelf up, too, but I don't have picture of that.

Andrew loves "art projecks" as he calls them. Here he is "scrapbooking" - that's what he told me he was doing. That's my boy! :) I think that is one of his favorite parts of Joy School too - doing stuff with paper, scissors, crayons, and glue sticks. Notice the pen on Andrew's shirt. Yep, he wears his pen just like Daddy. So cute!

So what have we been up to today? Well, here's today in the life of the Applehans' fam.

3:25am: Jesse arrives home from work (yea, he's on swing shift now)

6:40am: Michele wakes up in order to have time to do P90X before the day begins

7:30: Michele finishes exercising and checks her email, showers, finishes preparing her lessons for Joy School

8:30am: Boys wake up, give Mom lots of hugs, get dressed, eat breakfast

9:00-11:30am: JOY SCHOOL I had all 4 preschool kids here today, Tanner, plus I babysat a friends' little girl. We had a house full!

10:30am: Kids are having way too much fun (or my singing is too abnoxious) and Jesse wakes up

1:00pm: Lunch - I made hamburgers, fries, and milkshakes - our big meal of the day since Jesse had school and work

2:00: Jesse was supposed to be at school. Opps, we lost track of time. Be better start setting a timer so he doesn't miss any more classes since he has school everyday this semester.
2:00-4:30: Boys took long naps today. Preschool must tire them out. Mom and Dad get some time to just chill, check email again (I know, I'm obsessed), Jesse does homework, Jesse takes a short nap, Michele finishes ordering Oct and Nov Paper Posies goodies.

4:30-6:30: Boys "scrapbook" and play while Mom blogs, cleans up the house, and thinks about what she should make for dinner.

6:30 (now) until bedtime: I think we'll go scrounge up something easy, yet nutritious for dinner, then we'll take a walk, play outside, and read stories. After the boys go to bed, I'll probably work on my Sharing Time for Sunday and maybe try to scrapbook the cute pictures taken today. Oh, yea, and I'll eagerly look forward to Jesse getting a slow streak at work so that he can call me! :)

There you have it. Just a peek into one of our days. I'm sure I forgot some important stuff, but oh well.

The Red, White, and Blue

2009-07-28T00:02:00.000-07:00

Let this be a reminder to us all how blessed we are to live is this wonderful country of America. Despite the challenges we are currently facing and the different opinions we might have than some of this country's leaders, we are still very blessed to live here, to worship our Heavenly Father as we please, and to experience the other freedoms we do.
For as long as I have known him, Jesse has talked about "someday" having a flagpole in our front yard. That "someday" has finally arrived. When he found this flagpole on Craigslist (imagine that) and presented to me the idea that we should own it, of course I said yes, despite the fact that we had to drive over 2 hours to get it. After picking it up, he immediately went to work ordering a suitable size flag, pouring concrete, and laying decorative block around the base. It looks really nice!!! I now just have to get deep purple (as close to blue as I can find), red and white flowers to plant around it. At first I didn't know what the big deal was, but now that we have it in our front yard, I am very pleased that we do! And no, as you can tell, we don't have grass yet. But the yard is level, the weeds have been sprayed, and now we're waiting the two weeks after spraying to plant the grass! YEAH!

Flowers for Mommy

2009-07-27T23:18:00.000-07:00

I love it when my precious little boys pick me flowers. Sometimes I get dandilions, sometimes I get wildflowers, and sometimes I even get the flowers that I've been waiting to see bloom the minute they finally do! Occasionally, Tanner has even been know to bring me sticks and he treats them like they're flowers. I love it!

Tanner

Andrew
Apparently Andrew decided that instead of picking me individual flowers, one by one, he'd just skip the tedious flower picking and give me the whole plant! It doesn't get much better than this. I sure love my boys!

Funny story: The other day Andrew and I were weeding the strawberries. Tanner decided he should help, but when he got bored with the weeding, he moved on to the flowers. He spotted a beautiful marigold that I got for Mother's Day (you know, the church tradition). There were two beautiful blossoms and one quickly ended up getting picked for Mommy. I graciously accepted his gift and then suggested that he leave the other one on the plant. No sooner than I turned my back, then he proceeded to pick the other bloom. I don't remember what I said, but Andrew responded, "Mom, CHILL, there are other ones!" Okay, okay. Now, WHERE did you hear that, Andrew-Man?

Thank-you for your service!

2009-06-18T10:05:00.000-07:00

This is my 100% AWESOME brother and my sweet little neice. This picture brings me to tears everytime I see it. Thank-you Kevin, Melissa (sister), and Amy (sister-in-law) for sharing your life with the military in order to serve me, my family and children, and our country. It is no small sacrifice and should not go unnoticed. Thank-you and I love you!

We LOVE Summer and Flip Flop Season!!!

2009-06-03T01:32:00.000-07:00

Elk River Falls

2009-06-03T01:14:00.000-07:00

This weekend we went on a much needed family get-away! Jesse surprised us all by planning an afternoon excursion to Elk River Falls in Elk River, Idaho. We had a picnic, a water-gun fight (well, Jesse and Andrew had water guns and ganged up on me), and then we hiked a couple miles and saw the beautiful Elk River Falls. We had a ton of fun! We all love being outside and it's so much fun to watch the boys run and explore. The only bad part of the day: Jesse ended up with mosquito bites larger than quarters (despite all the insect repellant he used). I sure wish he wasn't allergic to those stinkin' things!

Boys Will Be Boys!

2009-05-21T10:00:00.000-07:00

This post is long overdue and I apologize that I've been a bad blogger lately. We have (as always) been very busy. The past few days we have been busy doing yard work! Yeah! I can't wait to have a yard for the boys to play in. Maybe it will cut down on the dirt tracked into the house and covering two little boys all the time! Sigh. At least I can hope it will. :)

Here's our dirt covered, bruised-legged Andrew getting a ride in the wheel barrow by Daddy. He LOVES to help his Daddy, his "special Daddy" as he always refers to Jesse these days. "Mommy, where is my special Daddy?" "Daddy is my special Daddy." "I want my special Daddy to get me a treat from work." "When is my special Daddy going to be home from work?" You get the idea. :) Hey, what about your special Mommy, little boy???? :)

Tanner "escapes" outside every chance he gets. He's figured out to open the front door, so if someone forgets to deadbolt it, he's out in his jammies, no shoes, someone else's shoes, etc. He LOVES being outside. In the picture below, yes, you guessed it, he picked out and put on his own shoes. I didn't even know he knew where his snow boots were. Silly boy! At least he's wearing his own shoes this time.

Life is so full of fun times, great laughs, occasional tears and frustration, and lots of dirt with these two precious little boys - and we wouldn't trade any of it for anything!

Tanner @ 18 Months

2009-03-31T21:53:00.001-07:00

Where has the time gone?!? Our little Tanner is 18+ months old already. It seems like just a short time ago that we found out that we were expecting him. Then we were holding him for the first time. And now we can't keep up with him!

Tanner is a very happy, healthy, energetic, mischievious, loving, giving little boy. In case you can't tell from the picture, the pics I snapped of him tonight are taken with him smack-dab in the middle of the dining room table, with his favorite blankets, a book, and a snack. Three of his current favorite things. The table is his new favorite place to play (no matter how hard we try to keep him off.) He has two blankets that Grandma Applehans made him that are his absolute favorites. He gets so excited when he seems them, he drags them all around the house, he chews on them. He loves to read. I love to hear him "read" books to himself. Tanner is ALWAYS good for a snack. Always! If he hears someone rustling a bag, he comes running so he doesn't miss out. If he hears the fridge open, he's right there almost immediately. We have only found two things so far that he simply won't eat: tomatoes and olives. Everything else is a go! He is a very giving, sharing little boy. He loves to share his snacks with Mommy and Daddy. His little fist is usually covered in slobbers when he shares a morsel, but how can one resist such a thoughtful gesture?! :) He also is very polite, always saying "thank-you" when one is warranted. It sounds more like "da-do", but we know exactly what he means! He's starting to talk a lot lately! Much is spoken word, but he also remembers most of the sign languare we taught him as well.

We are very blessed to have this special little boy in our family. We love him with all our hearts!

FHE - Planting our Garden

2009-03-31T21:21:00.000-07:00

It was Jesse's turn to plan Family Home Evening this week and we started our garden. The missionaries came over earlier in the day and shared a spiritual thought on faith being like a seed and things we can do to "water and nourish" our faith. So this was a very fitting FHE.
We planted carrots, cucumbers, radishes, peas, tomatoes, onions, cilantro, okra (okay, didn't know hubby liked that stuff, yuck!), and some flowers. Our FHE was on Friday since Jess works Mondays, but get this - our plants are starting to sprout already!! :) Andrew thought that was pretty cool!

I found these really cute, foam construction hats at Michael's. Apparently the planting of the garden goes much better when wearing a construction hat.

And this is what kind of mischief Tanner got into once he was bored with planting the garden - dumping powdered sugar ALL over the livingroom/playroom area! (Okay, so you must know that he and Andrew got into the powdered sugar the other day, too, and I found them licking if off the floor!!! Ewww!)

I'm really excited about planting a garden this year - I hope it turns out well! Yummy, yummy, fresh grown veggies!

This Week

2009-03-22T21:47:00.001-07:00

Jesse had his spring break from school this past week. It was nice to have him home a bit more and we got a lot done! He detailed my car for me one day (including taking out the seats and shampooing the carpet). We went to Spokane for our monthly temple trip. We had a little family get-together with my Mom and siblings who live close enough (you know: good food, great company, some games, visiting).

The biggest thing he accomplished though, was this:
For a year and a half, we've had this space ready for a built in entertainment center, but hadn't got around to do anything with it. Last Saturday, Jesse decided with spring break coming up, it was time to tackle it. Immediately we headed to the building supply store, picked up the necessary supplies (he'd created the plans quite a while ago), and started. It's not quite finished yet, but you get the basic idea. He still has to put the finishing trim on it, and it will have a drawer and cupboards where you currently see the big, white space at the bottom. This picture really does it very little justice - it looks awesome. AND he designed and built it himself. I feel very blessed to have such a talented, motivated husband (and a new entertainment center)!!!

Okay, next pictures - the boys. Tonight Tanner found his church tie on the floor and decided he needed to wear it around the house. So he did. And he found a hat to complete the outfit. He looked so cute and funny all at the same time! He's such a little character! We love him to pieces!

Andrew decided that playing dress up with Tanner would be fun, so here he is, too! Who said you have to have girls to play dress up??? We sure love our little Andrew-man!

Here are the boys, sporting their new outfits from Grandma Applehans. They were so excited to get their package in the mail and even more excited when they opened it and found new shorts and shirts, animal crackers, Easter candy, a new movie, and Andrew got new pjs. (The new pjs came because Andrew "complained" to Grandma that his blue jammies and his red jammies both had holes in the toes. Grandma told him she'd send him some new ones and for the week and a half after that, everytime he put jammies on he asked when his new ones would be here.)

Happy St. Patrick's Day! (A few days late)

2009-03-22T21:34:00.000-07:00

For St. Patrick's Day this year, I decided we were going to do a little celebrating. Jesse had to work, but the boys and I ate a green dinner and made green cupcakes with LOTS of green sprinkles. (Andrew had a lot of fun with the sprinkes!) Yummy!

Andrew also had a lot of fun with the frosting of the cupcakes.
Tanner had a lot of fun with the eating of the cupcakes. By the time he was finished, he had green cupcakes, frosting, and sprinkes everywhere!

Feeding the Ducks

2009-03-08T21:56:00.000-07:00

We took the boys to some ponds in Lewiston last week to feed the ducks. It was a huge hit - they LOVED it! At first Jesse wasn't so sure of the idea, but once we were finished he informed me that we would be doing that again soon! I think Andrew would agree with that because the next day he told me the ducks were hungry and needed bread - as he pretended to throw an invisible piece of bread to some invisible ducks in the living room. Tanner, being a ham as usual! His favorite part of feeding the ducks was throwing the bread, running over to the piece he just threw, picking it up, and throwing it again. He also liked stirring up the gulls that landed trying to get their share (ie, chasing them!) Andrew went through piece after piece of bread rather quickly. He really got into feeding as many ducks as possible. We even caught him picking up a piece of bread, blowing it off, then feeding himself! EWWWW!

Mommy and the boys. Look, short sleeves! (Short lived spring-time feeling though, as we got a couple inches of snow just two days later.)

Daddy and the boys. We love our family time together!

Jesus Wants Me for a... Nursery Boy!

2009-03-01T17:28:00.000-08:00

Today was Tanner's first day in nursery!!!! He LOVED it! Now, some of you may be wondering how this could be already, since he's not 18 months old until March 18, and the 18 month mark is the golden one for nursery. Well, it happened something like this... We finished sacrament meeting and while we were gathering our stuff, visiting, etc, Tanner disappeared. Gone! No where to be sighted. Since I'm in Primary, I go directly there to help kids transition, set the tone, etc. So I leave Tanner in Jesse's hands. He later informs me that he FINALLY found Tanner in nursery (the classroom is right across the hall from where we meet for sacrament meeting). He'd made himself right at home! The nursery leaders told Jesse to go ahead and leave him since he was only 18 days from the mark anyway. So, our little guy is now a Nursery Boy! He did so well. Bro & Sis Garrison said he was so good (relief), he folded his arms during prayer (we've been practicing a lot lately, since he tends to like to run around like a crazy boy), and played nicely with all the other children (yeah!). He's growing up sooooooo fast!

Some Random Cute Little Boys Pictures

2009-02-25T21:45:00.000-08:00

Right now our little Tan-Man is going through a shoe-fettish stage (wonder where he gets that ???). He LOVES wearing other's shoes, from Daddy's church shoes or tennis shoes, to Mommy's heels, to Andrew's slippers. Even when we go over to friend's houses, if he finds their shoes lying around, he'll put them on and traipse around. If you can't tell from this pic, he's wearing a heel. :)
Our little Andrew is Mr. Fix-It. The other day we walked into his room and found him busy at work sawing, screwing, hammering, and using his air compressor to "fix" his bed.

Both the boys are obsessed with the vacuum - seriously. Whenever we get it out to vacuum, we have riders, helpers, gigglers, and little boys to chase around with the hose! A few mornings ago, I heard some "strange" noises coming from our bedroom and went in to find that Andrew had gotten the vacuum out, plugged it in, moved the necessary floor clutter, and was vacuuming our floor - ALL BY HIMSELF! (And was pretty proud!)

Andrew is quite the budding little artist. He loves coloring, painting, and drawing on the white board. His most recent accomplishment is drawing people, like the one shown here. If you look closely, you should be able to see a body, legs, arms, a belly button, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, forehead, and hair. Wow, what detail. This was his first ever person, now he's refined them quite a bit. He's also been into writing his letters lately. Though he doesn't write them all, he's can write all the letters in his name and the other day he told me he wrote "Daddy" on the board. It was spelled something like TDAAW or something along those lines. Smarty-pants!

Tanner LOVES to read books. He loves to plop himself right in my lap (sometimes that causes a fight because that's Andrew's favorite spot, too) and read, read, read. Lately, though, he's also been into reading to himself. Currently his favorite book is "Wheels on the School Bus." Tonight I found him lying on the couch, partially holding up the book with his feet, and singing to himself. Sometimes I thought I even caught some the the "Wheels on the Bus" tune. I guess you must know that I do sing it everytime I read it. :)

Jesse and I are constantly amazed by our boys. They are just so cute, so smart, so wonderful, so challenging, so 3 and 18 months, so perfect. We love being parents. It's not always easy and we don't always know how to deal with the different challenges we face, but it's still great and we can't imagine our lives without these two precious little guys! What blessings they are. We're grateful to know we can be an eternal family!

PAINTING!!!!

2009-01-19T01:51:00.001-08:00

The boys and I have had some fun creating these last few days! They both love to paint and it doesn't matter what medium they use. Pudding just happens to be a favorite because they can eat and play at the same time. Of course, a bath and complete wipe down of the kitchen is in order when they're finished!

There's a picture of Melissa and me when we were very young, playing in pudding. I have to admit that picture was my inspiration for this project - thanks, Mom! Thank goodness the boys didn't think of what Mis and I did - we smeared the pudding in our hair!

We painted with "regular" paint this week, too. Tanner did paint a little bit on the paper, but his favorite place to paint was his face. Silly boy!

Andrew painted many pictures. Most of them had the letter "A" on them! He's really getting the whole letter, alphabet thing down. He knows the alphabet, can recognize all but a couple letters, and writes a few of them. Smarty pants!

Daddy's Boys

2009-01-19T01:02:00.000-08:00

I never know what I may find when Jesse and the boys have a little Father-Sons' time. Both boys just absolutely dote on their Daddy. Jesse is a wonderful Dad, so it's no wonder they love each other so much!

A little whip cream fun with Andrew.

A little more whip cream fun with Tanner.
Playing airplane with Andrew.

Playing horse with both boys. (They got bucked off shortly after this, which I think may be their favorite part!)

Trip To California

2008-12-17T23:53:00.000-08:00

We got to go to California for 5 days the end of November - what a treat! We had a wonderful time! The weather was beautiful (up to 75 degrees), we got to spend the entire time with family, we got spoiled by Uncle Jim and Aunt Claudia, and we made tons of memories!

Andrew got to re-meet and Tanner got to meet, their 2nd cousin, Cole. The boys got along splendidly. It was great to see my cousin, Jessie and her husband Jason, and Aunt Lisa! We spent Thanksgiving and the day after just hanging out together. The boys loved the walks through the orange orchard in the garden cart. Great times! We also got to spend a few hours with my biological father, Mike, and I met my cutest little half-sister, Cassandra. Cassandra and the boys played together the entire visit and it was nice to see Mike and introduce him to my little family. Mike says I look just like Mom - I think I've heard that before! :)

We spent most of our time here, at Uncle Jim and Aunt Claudia's beautiful home in Oroville. Andrew loved the one on one time he got to spend with "Unca Jim" and "Aunt Cwadia." We were able to do some sight-seeing, eat what Jesse considers the "best Chinese food ever," celebrate Thanksgiving, and welcome in the Christmas season with caroling around Aunt Claudia's grand piano. We laughed, we visited, we made some wonderful memories! Thanks for everything!

Puddle Splashing

2008-11-13T19:20:00.000-08:00

Here is a picture of what was once two muddy little boys who really enjoyed puddle jumping! Now they're two clean little boys who want to go puddle jumping again soon.

Tanner's little rubber boots were a bit challenging for him to walk in. I tried to hold his hand to avoid the inevitable, but alas, little Mr. Independent fell down right in the middle of the mud puddle, not just once, but over and over again. He loved it!
I told Andrew that after he ate all his dinner we'd bundle up, put on our rubber boots, and go play in the puddles. He ate his dinner in record time! He found the biggest puddle in the yard and didn't stray from it, except to get rocks to throw in it. He and Tanner giggled and giggled until Tanner got too cold and we had to come in for a nice, warm bath. Even though I hadn't put on my play clothes, two little boys made sure I got plenty of oversplash. That'll teach me!

The Zoo Family

2008-11-03T22:58:00.000-08:00

This year for Halloween, the boys and I dressed up like zoo animals and Jesse was the zoo keeper. We thought we were pretty clever. :) Most days I do feel like I'm part of a zoo with two very energetic little boys!

Andrew was the cutest giraffe I've ever seen. He loved his costume and he enjoyed the Halloween festivities. We went trunk-or-treating at the church, then to a few homes in the neighborhood near the church. He was a little shy, but told everyone thank-you went he left their door. Now, a few days after Halloween, when he wants me to let him pick a piece of candy from his bag, he asks for a "trick-or-treat." When we drove around while he was wearing his costume, Andrew was very worried about sitting on his giraffe's tail. I looked back from my seat up front to see him trying, with both hands, to get his tail out from underneath him. It was quite hilarious.

Tanner was the cutest little lion, especially with his eye-liner whiskers. He loved wearing his costume, too. And he loved Andrew's costume. We had to get a few items from Walmart before we started our evening's festivities and the boys were in their costumes, riding in the back of the cart. Jesse and I turned our backs for just a moment to look at something and Andrew started carrying on something awful. We turned to see that Tanner had grabbed a hold of his horns and wouldn't let go. Basically, Tanner had Andrew in a headlock of sorts. It was so funny! He was our cute, FEROCIOUS little lion. He loved trick-or-treating, too. The first two pieces of candy he was given, he quickly figured out how to get open, so for the rest of the evening, he just got to go from house to house and NOT get any more candy. He enjoyed that just as much and we didn't have to try to regulate how much candy he tried to eat.

This is the only picture that we got of all the zoo animals. You may not be able to see my ears, but I was a black panther. Our zoo keeper was taking the picture, so unfortuately, we don't have one of him, too.

Jesse's Taser Ride

2008-10-24T00:24:00.000-07:00

Don't mess with the police, or this could be you! This video was taken at Jesse's taser instructor recertification training. No, being tased wasn't a requirement - he volunteered! Crazy guy! This is now his fourth time being tased. When I asked him if it was finally out of his system (PLEASE), his reply was, "Well, for at least two years." (Two years will be the next recert.)

Perfect "Punkins"

2008-10-23T22:41:00.000-07:00

Growing up, our family tradition was to visit a "real" pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins. Often it was at night, by full moonlight, and we'd have hot chocolate or hot cider together after we'd found our perfect pumpkins. Well, this is the first year that we've been able to kind of carry that tradition on. Thanks to Charlie, we found out about a real pumpkin patch in Spokane. Since we were there for Jesse's work training, we took the boys to Green Bluff Farms. Even though it was by bright sunlight (a 60 degree autumn day), and Mom was the only one who wanted hot cider (yea, try caramel, fresh pressed cider with whip cream and nutmeg on top - delish!), it still felt like it did when we were kids.

Tanner sure had fun walking around the pumpkin patch. He kept getting tangled up in the vines as he was walking, but he didn't seem to mind. He'd just pick himself back up when he'd fall.

Andrew had a blast picking up "punkins." I just love how he says "PUNKINS!" Between him and Daddy, we ended up with six pumpkins, when we started off thinking we only needed two. Here's Andrew with his first pumpkin. From there he kept finding "cute baby ones, Mommy, Daddy" so of course we couldn't resist. Then Daddy found a perfect pumpkin, just like they're supposed to be. Then there was Tanner's... so you see how it went. Mommy and her two precious little boys. The farm had these cute little wagons that we got to pull the boys and our stuff around in. The boys loved it!

The whole family! (Thanks to Mom Diana's cool tripod she gave Jesse for Christmas and a pumpkin, we were able to capture this shot.) After we got finished picking out our pumpkins, we went to another portion of the farm and picked apples. Yummy! I decided we have to go back here EVERY year (especially after I drank my carmel apple cider)! The boys didn't argue.

Tanner on the Move

2008-10-09T00:53:00.000-07:00

Tanner can move! I thought he could get around before, when crawling was his thing. Well, in just the three short weeks since he took his tentative first steps, he's gone from wobbly to practically running. He's an all-terrain kid, too - gravel, toys, grass, it doesn't matter, he can get over it or through it.
He's sure looking cute (and he knows it) in his birthday outfit from Grandpa Skip and Grandma Elaine!

Opps!

2008-10-08T20:26:00.000-07:00

Okay, so these are so not the pictures that I thought I was uploading, but since we have satellite internet and these took like 15 minutes to upload, they're staying on!!!!!!!!!!!

Up first we have here a picture of our happy Tanner. This is how he always wakes up in the morning - happy, happy, happy! We sure love this little guy!
Up next we have our helpful Andrew. He's such a sweet, polite, helpful little guy. One of his favorite "chores" is to take out the trash - and we never even have to ask him to. In fact, we've found more than one only one-third- of- the -way full trash bag flung on the garage floor after Andrew has taken it upon himself to empty the garbage. He also likes to put away silverware, fold towels, and pick up toys. Yea! I hope he always so cheerfully helps around the house! We sure love our little boy!

Tanner's 1st Birthday

2008-09-25T00:48:00.000-07:00

We can hardly believe that our little Tanner is one already. We have sure enjoyed the past year, watching him learn, grow, and just keep getting cuter and cuter! On his actual birthday, we celebrated in small ways, but his actual party was a few day later when many members of the family were able to attend. Mom and Amy joined us from Bonners Ferry; Keri from Moscow; Charlie, Adrianna, Jimmy, Shania, and Chris from Post Falls; Dad and Elaine from Boise; and Kevin, Amy, and Baby Girl from Middleton. We missed Melissa, and Jesse's parents, all currently in Alaska. We also had an impromptu baby shower for Kevin and Amy as they found out just two days previous that they had four days to get packed before they had to leave for Alabama for Kev's officer training and flight school (they thought they had until November). So, here are a few pics of Tanner's big day. He's such a precious little boy!

Tanner took his first steps the eve of his first birthday. The next day, he was still wobbly, but by the end of the day, he was taking about 4-5 steps before he tumbled to the floor. It's so cute to watch him learning how to walk!
Here's our little birthday boy with his birthday crown. It was really tricky getting this picture because he did not like the idea of having the crown on his head. You can't see the arms holding his in the picture and I plopped the hat on just milliseconds before snapping this shot and it came off immediately after it! It was actually quite commical! The little birthday boy got a happy birthday balloon, which he played with ALL day. Andrew also got a balloon, crown, and gift for his un-birthday. (We figured he's too young to understand why brother gets a birthday and he doesn't.) If I would have known two, one dollar, helium balloons would keep two little boys busy all day, I would have definately bought them sooner!
Tanner caught onto the idea of eating his birthday cake right away. At first he enjoyed some of the frosting, but soon discovered if he dug his hand way down, he'd get some delicious cake as well. Oh, he had more sugar in those few bites than he's had his whole life!
Amongst other things, Tanner got a Tonka dump truck for his birthday. For the guests of the party, we made a dump truck cake in the bed of the truck, consisting of chocolate fudge cake pieces, chocolate pudding, and oreo cookie crumbs. It was the best "dirt" we've ever eaten (well, not that we've ever actually eaten dirt)!

The House

2008-08-30T17:55:00.000-07:00

We commited the ultimate sin by moving into our house unfinished. Unfortunately, by the time we moved in, we were so burned out, we had a brand new baby, and we have all kinds of other excuses for not working on the house, that there were lots of little things unfinished. This summer, though, Jesse has had renewed energy and in the past several weeks, many things on the house to-do list have been completed including the following:

The house is finally painted! After deliberating for, literally, months, we finally decided on the following color scheme: Thistle grey (almost a tan) for the body, nilla vanilla (white) for the trim, and beetroot (deep merlot-color) for accenting (the peak above the garage and the front door). It turned out just like we'd hoped. To top it all off, for Michele's birthday this year, Mom and Art made a porch swing. It is the perfect touch to the "coming-soon" front entry. As I type this, the front patio and walkway are being formed up for concrete to be poured this next week. Yea!

The breakfast bar is finally grouted! We ran out of grout when we grouted the rest of the kitchen tile, so we've been using the bar ungrouted. Well, by the time we got around to doing it, Jesse didn't like his tile job anymore. So, one night Michele got home from a church meeting to find the kitchen all up in a mess and the tile removed from the bar. Within short order, Jesse had re-tiled, adding the cream tiles and creating a masterpiece! It looks great. I got lucky to marry such a talented guy!

Okay, now here is another masterpiece! Our walk-in closet is to die for! All four walls are covered in shelves, shoe racks, clothes rods, and lots of storage. Designed and built by the MAN himself, this is truly a "Michele is spoiled for life" closet. I won't ever be able to use a "normal" closet again. Just look at my shoe rack, would you? Okay, so it's a lot of shoe rack, but I have a lot of shoes, so I need a lot of shoerack. *Smiles*

Our master bathroom was something we spent a lot of time designing. We wanted our master suite to be a sanctuary and it is! This week we got the tub and shower grouted and it's great to have another fully functioning bathroom!

Our Own Redneckedness

2008-08-26T10:26:00.000-07:00

On our family walk a few nights ago, we discovered we have a little redneck in us. Since the double jogging/biking stroller had a flat tire, we had to try to fit both boys in the regular stroller. Jesse had a good little spot for Andrew to ride - and, wa-lah, a new double stroller was created (redneck style).

ALASKA!

2008-07-15T14:47:00.000-07:00

We just got home from our two week vacation to Alaska. We had such an enjoyable time! We spent time visiting with family, playing games, eating good food, playing on the beach, deep-sea halibut fishing, king salmon fishing, and just enjoying beautiful Alaska. We made lots of great memories and look forward to going back again in two years.

Tanner just loved playing on the beach. He sat on the sand and rocks and enjoyed his time on the beach very thoroughly - tasting rocks, running his feet all through the sand, listening to the waves wash on the shore.

Here Andrew is wearing Grandpa Applehans' fishing hat. Andrew loved the time spent on the beach & by the river. This picture was taken on the Kenai River as we were trying to catch some fish. Andrew tried fishing with Mommy's & Daddy's poles, but throwing rocks in the river was much more rewarding.

Below is a picture of us enjoying a little family time on the beach in Homer, Alaska, located on the Kenai Peninsula.

The Applehans Clan: Jesse, Michele, Andrew, & Tanner with Jesse's parents, Carol and Allan.

Hopefully we'll have some more pictures to post soon of our trip (pictures taken on cameras other than ours): Halibut fishing with Dad A, Jesse, Michele, Mom, Keri, and Amy and King Salmon fishing with Dad A, Jesse, and Michele with Michele's 30lb. king salmon catch!).

Mr. Photogenic

2008-06-11T18:34:00.000-07:00

Whenever the camera comes out, Tanner is ALL SMILES! Actually, he's pretty much all smiles all the time. He's such a happy baby! Really though, he does love to have his picture taken.

Silly-Billy Andrew

2008-06-11T18:03:00.000-07:00

Andrew is so silly! Here he's posing for a picture after putting a yellow swimmer-thing on his head for a hat. He's always doing somthing silly or cute!

First Picture

2008-06-08T19:23:00.000-07:00

I'm learning how to do all this fancy blogging, so this will be the trial run with a picture. :) We thought we'd share our new barstools with you. We had them custom made since we have a tall bar. I don't know if the picture does them much justice, but we love them and think they look great!

We're On Board!

2008-06-08T18:45:00.000-07:00

Kevin and Amy suggested this as a good way for us to all keep in touch. So, we're trying to get it all set up. 1-2-3 Testing!