Tanner is 5!!

Like I've said before (not that long ago) the kids just keep growing up sooo fast!! Tanner had a great birthday planned. We were supposed to get cupcakes and take them to preschool and have a special poster board with pictures of him to show his class, Have a couple of neighbor friends over for a party, then have Grandma and Grandpa Astle over for some Pizza and cake and ice cream. Instead he woke up with sick.

Instead we went to Sam's club to pick up some food, Walmart to pick up his cake, then the doctors office to get some prescriptions. Grandma and Grandpa did end up coming anyway and Tanner decided he wanted "Crab, shrimp, and all the seafood" instead of pizza. Besides Jackson, we were all happy with his decision.

All he asked for was an easy bake oven. So he was happy when that's what he got. I also got him some roller skates and he absolutely loves them.


Before he went to bed I told him sorry that he had to miss all of his special birthday activities and he said "Mom, I'm still happy because I had a nice birthday." He has a great attitude! Jackson hurt his feelings while they were getting to bed and I told Jackson he needed to tell Tanner 3 things he loves about him before they fell asleep. The next morning Tanner got up and said "Jackson made my heart happy. He told me so many nice things about me."

Tanner really is one unique little kid. He always has something nice to say and finds the positive in most situations. He certainly can drive teachers and parents crazy with his lack of sitting still skills but it's also one of his more endearing characteristics.

Later the next week he did finally get to do his special birthday at school and had a small neighborhood friend party. I was a little worried how it would go since Jared wasn't going to be home but it turned out great and kids this age just love running around and playing together. No need for over planned activities!

He has been asking to have a costume birthday party since his last birthday. He finally got what he's been begging for.

Annie girl turns 1

Annabelle and my brother John's little boy Wells turned 1 just a day apart from each other. They celebrated their birthdays together and my sister-in-law MiaLisa bought THE cutest cakes for these two. Sadly, I had the camera on black and white the whole time so I didn't get any good pictures of anything.

The two birthday pals with their cute cakes.

Annabelle just wanted to play with the cake.

I couldn't get enough of Wells. He was inhaling that cake and just laughing the whole time. Annie was pretty cautious at first but here she figured out she can stuff her mouth full of cake.

The boys with their cousins. Jackson was especially sad to know they had to move back to Texas. He said "I'm really sad we don't ever get to see them again." We're hoping John gets into residency here at the U despite what he and Misa want :)

Annie after Jared figured out I was taking pics in black and white the whole time.


I don't care how cliche it sounds, I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW FAST TIME FLIES!!! It's so much fun to watch Annabelle go through different stages but I already miss having a teensy weensy baby in the house (this does not mean we are ready to add another one to the mix, though!!). She is such a sweet little girl and it seems we still fight over who gets to hold her and play with her. Last Sunday after Sunday school she was snatched up by one of our friends and we didn't see her until after church. Apparently people in Relief Society were fighting over her the whole time. As far as her growing, she finally made it onto the chart. At her 1 year appointment she was 18 pounds!! She seems to be chunking up nicely :)

Christmas in a nutshell...

We had my parents over a few weeks before Christmas to make "gingerbread" houses because Jared and I found out neither of my parents had ever made one before!! Here are the results.

My uncle and aunt Paul and Cindy held a little Nativity performance (put together by my cousin Jennifer) and it was really nice. We got to sing some Christmas songs, read about the Birth of our Savior and the kids got to dress up and have fun.

Christmas Eve the boys slept in our room so they wouldn't sneak out and find Santa's loot before us. Here are the boys waiting to see what Old St. Nick brought them.

This little girl is one who LOVES her sleep. Christmas morning did not come as a pleasant surprise to her.

Excited about Santa's gifts!

Jackson kept telling about this guitar and drum set that other kids had and it took me until Christmas Eve to figure out what the heck he was talking about. It's super thin and light and luckily pretty inexpensive!

All Tanner wanted was a cape from the Quilted Bear he saw several months ago. He was excited to see his superman cape along with his Ironman stuff.

You can see how Annie's feels.

It seemed like all the kids and their friends wanted for Christmas were pillow pets. I thought they were kind of silly at first but the kids have loved them and sleep with them every night!


We all had a very nice Christmas!! It was sad to see it come to an end. I think this was the first year in a long time I wanted to do it all over again.

Christmas fun

We were up in Ogden last week for a wedding and we passed a really cute park full of fun Christmas things and Jared told me they used to go there every year as a family! We called Jared's sister Sharidee and planned a night to go and it was so cute. They had a little snack hut where the lady gave the kids marshmallows to roast over a fire and we bought some hot chocolate and roasted chestnuts too. Santa was also there and our boys were insistent we wait in the freezing cold to see him.

Annie was being a pretty big cheeser for all the pictures.





The kiddos


Jared and Sharidee with the chestnuts


The boys waiting patiently to get into Santa's warm house


Annie was not cheesing for this one!


Tanner was really excited. He did say that this isn't the real Santa. It was just one of Santa's many helpers.


Jackson loving the idea of getting whatever he wants just by asking this guy! (luckily all he asked for is a pillow pet!!)



Since Annie was born she's been the star of our family. I guess that's what happens whenever there's a baby around. It's been so much fun watching her grow and do a few new things on her own. She LOVES baths and I can't get her to stop drinking the water. Her new trick is to blow bubbles in the water. Every now and again she gets a mouthful of water too.

Thanksgiving

This year we went to my grandpa Astle's house for Thanksgiving day and had a really nice Thanksgiving dinner. I didn't take my camera so I didn't get any pictures of it. It's always nice spending Thanksgiving there, though. It just feels like the holidays and we've gone there since I can remember.

The Weaver side usually does a big huge Thanksgiving dinner the day after Thanksgiving. It's Jared's mom's side of the family with all the aunts, uncles, and cousins. They usually rent a cabin and have a big auction (they donate the money usually to whoever has a missionary out at the time), dinner, and a talent show. This year Jared participated in the talent show.

Jared apparently doesn't know how to suck helium very well. He should have taken some helium sucking lessons before the big show but it turned out pretty funny anyway.


A couple of weeks later I had Jared put up our fake Christmas tree (thinking it would be a good idea so the baby wouldn't eat pine needles all month) but he was not happy about having a fake tree (plus it was a tiny midget tree). The boys were excited about going tree shopping and getting it all decorated!

We didn't get great pictures of us decorating the tree.

Here's Annie and Jared,


Jackson doing his "fire power" move from Night at the Museum.


And no surprise Jackson's staring at the tv while Tanner decorates the tree.


We've forgotten our camera for a couple Christmas parties already! Guess we're having too much fun enjoying our time with our friends and family!!

Raining on our parade

So, this year for Halloween we decided to go trick-or-treating in our neighborhood but wished we had gone down to our traditional "Astle's soup and trick-or-treating" party.

Here are the many faces of Annabelle...(I had a lot of costumes from hand-me-downs and we also found some fun stuff in our costume bin)...

Little bunny foo foo


Jackson's hand-me-down lady bug costume (I vaguely remember Jared not being happy about bringing home a lady bug costume for his first born son back in the day...)


Our little fairy princess who doesn't think this whole fiasco is nearly as fun as the cameraman.


A sweet find from the costume bin. Annie's not thinking it's so sweet.


The little Ninjas.




As soon as we went out it POURED!! We only went to a couple of houses then headed over to the mall.


This wig was also another sweet find from the costume bin. Jared dressed up as Brett Michaels but with the way he's holding that umbrella he seems to resemble a princess (and a lot happier one than Annie).


The mall was a mistake so we headed back home. By the time we headed home the rain slowed and Jared took the kids to all the houses the kids wanted to go to. The kids had a blast and all in all, it was a fun Halloween even with all the rain.

Lagging...

I have had a really hard time keeping up with the blog these days. Here are a few things we've been up to...

Jared's youngest brother got married to Michelle Van Hemert in September. Their wedding was small (surprising, I know) and pretty. Here's a picture of all the Weaver adults together. A lot of people still ask me who's who so here they all are...

Left to right..
Jason(Jared's brother)&Shelly, Tomas & Suzette (sister), James (brother) & Tricia, Shanna (sister), Shaylee (sister), Jonny (brother) & Michelle, Mom & Dad, Sharidee (sister) and Jerrin, Cole (brother) & Janet, Sara & Jared (person who these are all related to).

Closer look from left to right of just siblings (number represents where they fall)...
Suzette(5), Sharidee(3), Shaylee(9), Shanna(7), Jonny(8), Cole(1), Jared(4), Jason(2), James)6)

Jared's brother-in-law Jerrin always wants to be the first person to throw a snowball every year so we decided to beat him to the punch (or the throw, ha ha). We drove up Farmington Canyon and packed a bunch of snowballs into a cooler and caught him off guard!




We also took our 3rd annual trip to the Witchfest at Gardner Village. We took some family pictures that turned out pretty nice. And the witches are really cute and I love going there to see it all decorated for Halloween.





One of the things that has been keeping us busy was fixing up Annie's room. It all started when my friend told me about a crafty blog and told me about wallpaper "bead board". It's this cool wallpaper that looks like bead board and it's even paintable. I told Jared right away that that's my new project. He tagged along with me to Lowe's to check it out and talked me out of it. He decided we should just buy regular bead board which would cost us about $200 just for the materials not including the paint. I decided to use Jared's handyman skills to build our own "bead board". The skinny boards were on sale for $0.76 and we cut each one if half. Jared honestly didn't think it was going to turn out well BUT it looks great!! He did a great job. It ended up being a lot of work but it was worth it. Here are the before and after pics. It really doesn't seem like much in the picture but I love going into Annabelle's room and looking at it.