Ice Skating

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

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

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...

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

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

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!

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!!!

Elk River Falls

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!

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

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

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

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)

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

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!

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

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!!!!

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!