ABCs

Lucy's been very into writing her name lately. She spent about 15 minutes signing her name onto Valentines a few days ago. And now she's writing her name everywhere! I love it! She concentrates so hard and does it just so each time.

1st year stats

Tanner Christian Burningham January 26, 2009
8 pounds 10.5 ounces
21.5 inches tall

January 26, 2010
22 pounds
30.5 inches tall

Gained 13 pounds, 5.5 ounces

Grew 9 inches

We love this boy! He's so adorable. While we tease him that maybe he's not as advanced as his sister was by this age, he's growing and learning everyday. He claps, waves, smiles and crawls to Daddy as fast as he can when Daddy comes home. He's sleeping tons better (knock on wood) and will even play in his bed for a few minutes if we put him down before he's really ready for bed. He loves to play with toys-especially any type of toy he can carry in his hand while he crawls around the house. He's not really interested in standing or walking; he has stood a few times, usually when he wasn't paying attention. I think he's of the belief that 'why should I walk when I can ride?' He's still really snuggly, but not quite as much as he used to be. He loves songs and to be sung to. A few times while riding in the car he has been cranking pretty badly-so like the wonderful mother that I am-I turned the music up louder. He calmed down and fell promptly asleep. He's not afraid to make his opinion known now...he'll let you know if he doesn't like something. He's saying his first word...'Bubba' which is his nickname. He's starting to really enjoy playing with Lucy and will giggle and laugh most times that she tries to tackle him. We hope they are becoming good friends!

number-ology

7:00 - the time that I first looked out the window.
2 - inches of new snow on my balcony at 7:00 a.m.
8:30 - the time I first went out to shovel this morning.
almost 3 - inches of new snow by the time I went out to shovel
45 - minutes it took me to shovel.
1/2 - inches of snow on the ground when I finished shoveling.
0 - the number of times I cursed while shoveling. Surprising, I know.
1 - the number of times I made an odd shouting/grunting sound
18 - inches tall my shovel is. (maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but it's seriously tiny)
250 - the number of times the snow got stuck in my super tiny shovel.
6 - more times I think we'll have to shovel before this storm is over.
20 - number of peanut M&Ms I ate -and deserved- at 9:15 a.m. after shoveling. Okay, it was probably closer to 30.
100 - percent of admiration I have for my mother for shoveling our driveway and sidewalk almost each and every time it snowed in Chicago.
100 - percent of admiration I have for my dad for trying to get out and shovel when it was really bad-with horrible back problems and all.
95 - percent of snow Tyler has shoveled for us since the dreaded blizzard/torn Achilles of 2005...back pain or no back pain.
100 - percent of wonderful that my husband is for doing 95% of the shoveling since the dreaded blizzard/torn Achilles of 2005.
100 - percent of waste of my shower this morning.
100 - percent of embarrassed I was after I came inside and saw what my hair looked like after talking to the neighbor this morning.
0 - percent I think the mail will be delivered today.
12 after never - the time I think the snow plow will come to scrape our neighborhood roads.
27 - the date in JULY I think school will finally be let out after a terrible (for this area) winter with tons of school closure days.
1399 - the cost of the most tricked out snow blower at Home Depot...might also be the amount added to my credit card in a bit.
100 - percent of chance Pat & Jessie (Ty's cousin and wife) having me show up on their doorstop-in Hawaii-with all my belongings.

photo taken at 9:47 a.m.

Recap of T's day

Tanner's birthday was wonderful! After Daddy got home from work we had dinner and then hurried to open the presents. Everything was a huge hit! (with both of them-Lucy was showing some major jealousy) and everything made noise! I didn't realize how noisy our house was until every singing toy stopped for the same 5 seconds and I could hear the voices in my head again. Then the kids shook or pushed something and the moment was gone. But we embraced the noises and the fun!

Our good friends came over to share in the demolition of Tanner's cake. We had such a fun time sharing all of Tanner's new toys with everyone.

Daddy did the birthday shopping this year and once again he picked the best presents. Tanner hasn't put down the maracas yet and Lightning McQueen is constantly being played with.

Tanner's cake design was more of a nod to his daddy than to him but I thought it was cute. He was so into his cake! You would have thought it was some expensive and exotic skin treatment at the beginning because he would grab a fistful of icing, then spread it on his leg, the repeat. After a couple of minutes, Tyler showed him what it tasted like and then it was all over. He was destroying the cake and scraping off his leg and putting it ALL in his mouth! It was so fun! And now Lucy tells everyone we meet, "Tanner had his birthday and he attacked his cake."

Pure bliss.

Since we had friends over we were able to get a picture of the 4 of us for T's birthday.

look who's 1!

We love our Tanner-boy! He's growing up and is so much fun!! We had a great day today (more on that to come!)

our nutcracker sweetie

We did it. We started Lucy in dance class. And even though I'm very girly with her-buying a leotard, skirt, and ballet slippers was a little much even for me. But I love the results! She's the cutest dancer in the class-of course. Although her 2 friends in the class run a very close second. The best part is she LOVES it! She's a dancer at heart, I think.

krisper power

Not only is my little 3-year-old in AP Sunbeams (just kidding, of course), but she's obsessed with her 'krispers.' (That's 'scriptures' to you and me.) We recently had a pot luck lunch after church and Lucy had been running in and out of the gym. I had been keeping an eye on her while visiting with friends but we realized she hadn't popped back into the gym for a while so we went looking for her. Several of the kids were playing and running wild in the nursery. Others were coloring on chalkboards. But we still couldn't find Lucy. I was getting nervous-we were at church so I knew she was pretty safe, but I still couldn't find her. A few other people were helping us look-which was so kind but also slightly increased my anxiety.

Then we found her...in the lobby...sitting in a large armchair...reading The Book of Mormon. She had found a copy of The Book of Mormon and was sitting quietly, turning the pages, and telling herself 'krisper' stories. When I found her she said so excitedly, "Mommy! Look! Here's Jesus!!" as she pointed to the picture of the Savior inside the cover.

So for my scripture-obsessed little girl, here is the world's-cutest scripture bag (at least it's 'world's cutest' to me. Don't look too closely, though-there are plenty of mistakes and flubs.)

1st Article of Faith

When I went to pick up Lucy from Sunbeams last week the teacher told me that she had been learning the first Article of Faith that day. We came home and each night for 'family scripture study' (aka Lucy repeats part of one verse after me. That's it. That's all we do.) this week we continued to work on the same verse. Now she has it down pretty well and sometimes I catch her saying it to herself when no one's around.

accountability. (you don't have to read this long post-it's mainly for me)

Here's what I want to do. Everyone's posting all of their goals for 2010 (are you saying 'two thousand ten,' or 'twenty ten?' I still haven't decided.) I don't do resolutions. Never really have. The beginning of a new year isn't much to me but another day. But I do have a bee in my bonnet right now-the organization bee-and so I've decided that 2010 is the year I get organized. I'm hoping that bee stays put long enough for me to accomplish the tasks on my list. So my goals for 2010 are to get my home and life in order. I'm so hoping that 2010 is finally the year I get my bum in gear and get it all done.

The goals:
ORGANIZE THIS HOUSE
Organize the craft/office/whatever-you-call-it/junk room. Craft supplies put in containers and where I can quickly and easily find what I want. This is a mammoth task. One I've already started and keep thinking I need all this gear to buy to get it finished. But I'm trying to be economical and get a couple things at a time and only get what I really need. I'm also trying to use what I already have-can't tell you how many baby food jars I've washed and cleaned so that I can store little items like brads and buttons in them.

Organize and clean out the kitchen. Some of my cabinets are just fine-many are not. I want to gut and organize the cabinets, drawers, and especially the pantry. I can't find anything in there. Also hoping not to spend too much moola on funky little organizers for this project but have you been to Bed, Bath, & Beyond lately??? There's so much I NEED. Okay, want. I'll try to keep it under control.

Get photo books made. I went visiting teaching to a friend probably a year ago. We talked about the photo books she had made for her kids and family and I was drooling. I got the bug, borrowed a couple of her books to get ideas from (and haven't yet returned them, but I know exactly where they are and they are safe-I promise! You'll have them back soon!) and quickly lost the bug. It's still there, just dormant. So 2010, this is my year.

Bathroom closets and cabinets. My bathroom closet and cabinets aren't too bad, but I'd like them spruced up and easier to use to find what I need when I need it. Until last week I had the charger and A/C cord for the drill under my sink in my bathroom. Why? Because we put up a new blind and used the drill-over 6 months ago. I'm real on top of things around here.

Blog books. I've been toying with the idea for a couple of years now, and I've gone back and forth but I think I want to make my blog posts into books. There's just SO MUCH! And I have so many pictures that one site wouldn't even let me use them because they have a cap on how many pictures one can put into a blog book. I had to settle for making a 2-3 month book instead of the 1 year book I was hoping for. So I lost the drive on that one, too. And I need to come to terms with the fact that the videos on my blog will not make it into the book-unless I wait a few more years. Maybe by then books can be integrated with videos with new, cutting edge technology...maybe I should patent that. Maybe it's called and iPod touch. or a Kindle? I'm not really sure.

Family videos archived. So that leads me to the next goal: getting our family videos (there aren't too many-no soccer games, dance or music recitals in the works...yet) onto DVD. I did this last year for Ty for Christmas, but haven't added to the collection yet.

Entertainment center. Obtain some sort of entertainment center so that Tanner won't break all of our DVDs or our VCR or DVD player. I can't stand looking at the t.v. area in the basement-make me nauseous it's such a disaster.

Subset #2:ORGANIZE OUR LIFE
Financial. So that we can one day retire-and hopefully before the age of 85, I'd like to visit with a financial planner and get some saving-for-college and saving-for-retirement and saving-for-a-summer-home-in-France plans started.

Legal. I'm giving myself the deadline of 6 months to get this accomplished because it's so crucial. We HAVE TO GET A WILL. Nothing's happening to us. Nothing will happen to us. I won't let it. But we've needed to do this for 10 years, and especially for the last 4 years since we discovered we were pregnant with Lucy.

I have a few more personal goals I'd like to accomplish this year, or just continue working on, but I've written those down somewhere else. These are free to the public. So a nice, long, boring post for you. No pictures of the kids. No wonderful scenery to display. But necessary to keeping me on task. Maybe I should get off this computer and get to work. Okay, fine. You've been patient: here you go...

Christmas crafts

I don't know what I was thinking. I've done this twice before and I surprised even myself when I got bit with the 'you-want-to-make-a-quiet-book' bug. And of course I never do anything easily-so I made not one, but 2 quiet books: one for Tanner for Christmas and one for his cousin. Luckily I made 2 identical ones so it was somewhat easy. I had so much fun planning my ideas and trying to carry them out. I hope someday he likes it. . .he doesn't even give it a second glance right now.

circus tent * * * clown with pants falling down * * * lace the clown shoe

clown car * * * ferris wheel * * * circus train

elephants balancing on ball * * * lion in his cage * * * tight rope walker * * * match balloon patterns

And Lucy has been obsessed with Memory lately, so I made her (and her cousin) a game of Memory with our family's pictures on it.