Pay special attention to Tanner in the above pictures. I added a soft color dodge around him to highlight his presence in these photos. I think it is so precious how often I catch him in the background smiling on. He doesn’t like to be far from his sister. You can really see it here.

Baby Went to Church

I forgot earlier this week to write about Church on Sunday. It was so WONDERFUL to sit in the pews with my daughter! Well… we have hard pews so the pews weren’t the wonderful part 🙂 . I pray that she will love her worship Sunday’s as I do and feel like her whole week got messed up if she wasn’t there. Many people have insisted to me over the years that that going to church is unnecessary for a Christian. I disagree. Scripture says to forsake not the assembly and I think that is pretty plain. We NEED to grow together, to learn together, to love and serve and be loved and serve, to fellowship with one another, and most importantly to set time aside to worship our Creator every week. (End of soapbox). Our church is very family oriented and it didn’t feel like Tori met the “family” until she arrived at Grace Family Fellowship. I want my children to grow up with their children and have sweet relationships with their church family all their life. In fact, Tori already has an established BFF. Kristi and I are insisting on it. Beth’s first trip to church was last Sunday as well and she looked adorable! She also looks like her mommy. Uh speaking of Kristi…Kristi where IS that T blanket?????? Just remembered! LOL. Kristi and I are “kindred” spirits. We want to sit around and have movie marathon’s with Gone with the Wind and Scarlet, Anne of Green Gables, Thornbirds (we are trying to break that addiction and not pass it on to our daughters), Pride and Prejudice…. We are just certain that our girls will share this favorite past time with us…we really really hope. 🙂

The most popular comment was “SHE LOOKS JUST LIKE YOU”. 🙂 🙂 So I guess it isn’t just in pictures. 🙂 The boys were glad to be back too! Missing six weeks in a row is so NOT fun. I wouldn’t recommend it! (For some of you that is a hint – oops I said I was done – sorry! LOL).

Tanner

Well guess who has allergies? We have this yellow bitter bush out here that has sprung up everywhere and it just kills my poor husband. This year it is attacking Tanner as well. He is continuing to be the little parent. The other day Ty demanded that I do something RIGHT NOW and Tanner was first to respond. He told him that he was not to use “not kind words” to mommy. 🙂 Yeah…this is working out nice. He is also getting more and more protective of Tori – especially with other children around. I have heard him telling people to wash their hands and to give her space pretty consistently. If people start swarming her, he appears out of no where and just hovers like a little meerkat on watch. Have I mentioned lately how much I love home schooling Tanner? My days are so well spent GETTING to be with Tanner. He is a true treasure.

Ty

“Oh goodness egg!” – just heard that from the bed while I was typing. LOL. I say “Oh for goodness sake” all the time so I am guessing that is what he intended.

Having a bit of an issue with Ty being girl crazy at 4. I am so not encouraging this and am working on distracting him from it. He now can’t decide who he is going to marry. Elasti-girl, Giselle (from Enchanted)…or Cat. That’s a toughie because Cat is already married and the other two are fictional characters so it seems I don’t have much to worry about today. 🙂 I told him the other day that he doesn’t need to talk about who he will marry. For one thing, he only gets to choose ONE woman and she needs to be the perfect woman for him because she will be his wife for life so he doesn’t need to make such a big decision at 4. 🙂 For another thing, he isn’t getting married until he is 30 anyhow. Tanner then adds “or 50”. 🙂

He also has gone back to calling Tori baby Sophie again. I reminded him that was not her name and he said “Can I just call her Sophie?” I give. I told him that could be his special nickname for her. Probably the best way to distract him from it is to actually say YES. 🙂

He picked up a new food interest this week! He likes shrimp! How did I get two seafood eaters? Weird. I think you have to be careful with seafood and kids too because of the mercury content but I like him getting some protein too. Hmmmm….

Don’t know if I have mentioned it but boy did I potty train him in the nick of time or what?? He is still doing well with this though we haven’t attempted overnight yet.

Loved yesterday’s line:

“Excuse me mommy – you are cute”. 🙂 🙂 Doesn’t get much better than that does it? LOL

Tori

She is consistently sleeping a 5 to 7.5 hour stretch at night. I really think consistent use of her miracle blanket has made all the difference. Yeah!!! She is full of morning smiles and talking to Tanner right now. The other morning I heard Jim talking to her and she was just cooing away at Daddy. I love the tender timber of my husband’s voice when he is talking to a baby.

Papa however, is apparently the apple of Tori’s eye right now. She smiles EVERY TIME she sees him. Her response to him is actually strange because he is the only person that gets the most consistent grins out of her and this has been going on for weeks. She knows who she will bend to her will doesn’t she? 🙂

And if you want a good laugh this morning – read THIS spoof article about the CA Home School ruling. I don’t know who just sent this to me but I am laughing!