Legoland

If there's one thing EVERY knows about Tanner, it's his obsession with Legos.  

If you could only imagine his excitement when we all went to Legoland together as a family.  Every now and then, Anthony has off on Fridays, and we're able to go on fun adventures together.  We had the ENTIRE place to ourselves, and Tanner was the happiest lil boy alive.

What's not to LOVE?  

The take you on a tour of a mini-factory -- and we learned a fun fact -- there's been over 400 Lego bricks made -- meaning there's more Legos than people that have lived on the earth...ever.

First, we went on a Kingdom Quest ride -- where we conquered evil trolls and skeletons, and ultimately saved the princess.  The best part -- the whole family got in on the action --including Ms. Brooke who sat on my lap.

Then we toured Kansas City min-figure land, which had replicas of all sorts of KC landmarks made out of nothing but Legos.  Of course, it wouldn't be complete without scenes from the Wizard of Oz.

Legoland is a Tanner's dream come true...but pretty sure Anthony was having fun.  Once a kid, always a kid.

Tanner had a blast racing his car, which consistently one even some of the older boys.  Anthony was having fun designing his own...

Brooke loved the unrestricted access to piles of girl LEGOS!  Once again, Tanner makes sure never gets even close enough as to touch one of HIS small Legos...so she was having herself a grand-ole time.

And she got Daddy all to herself while Tanner was busy playing on the fire escape play structure.

We also LOVED the 4-D movies, except Brooke could have done without the splashing water.

Tanner also got to ride on Merlin's Wizard ride -- where the faster you peddled, the higher you rose.
Luckily, he was over 4 so he was able to ride.  Last summer, I got the crazy notion to go with just Tanner, Brooke, and newborn, and he was a few days shy of turning 4 -- so he couldn't go on any of the rides by himself.  Such a bummer...but this trip made up for it.  Now, we were having to convince him to go on the rides, cause he was just as content building, racing, playing away.

We had a blast, but would still say it's one of those "special treats" -- all in all, it's a bit pricey for what you get -- and we still love all the museums and other exhibits in KC too.

But I'll never ever regret any other Lego toy we've purchased for him.  Tanner could have no other toys  the house, and be totally content just with his Legos.  He has every single Lego piece/accessory memorized from his collection, and will randomly request that I help him find the item -- like a the pirate's gold drinking class,  the Lego man's face with a certain face [insert Tanner trying to make face], or whatever the flavor of the day may be.  It's especially fun when he looks through his Lego Encyclopedia Book, where he spends hours glancing through, and then determines we need to build said item, although we don't have any of the pieces.  But we improvise, and do the best we can, and he's always so PROUD of our creations.  So PROUD, that you better not ever break a piece off or play with idea -- or you will be banned from any future Lego playing.

Imagine his sadness when he dropped a Lego man's helmet going into a store but didn't recognize it until we were leaving the store, and then re-traced our steps until we found the helmet, in the parking lot, ran over by another car.  Sad day in the Callison home!   

But usually he's busy quietly playing, plotting, building, and imagining away...just as lil boys should be!

Weekend Getaway

We headed out of town for long 3-day weekend to Branson. 

We originally booked this trip back in Spring Break – but the weather was cold/miserable so we decided to wait until the weather warmed up in the Spring.  But who would have thought, in May, it would be pouring down rain and SNOW?  Seriously.  The weather has put a serious damper on the weekend activities…but not our spirits.

The best of trips just involve spending time together.   My sister, Chelsea, and her family also came with.  The kids were all instantly entertained and loved all the cousin time they got to spend together. 

Here’s some memorable moments shared together:

Silver Dollar City

Anthony and Tanner braved the cold, rainy weather to visit this fun amusement park that is literally a blast from the past.  The park transforms to life 100 years ago—and all the works are dressed in costume and activities centering around it.

Tanner’s favorite part was the roller coaster. This was the first time Tanner was tall enough to ride a “real” roll coaster.  We honestly thought he’d be scared out of his mind, but Anthony kept talking it up and telling him how much fun it would be.  Tanner totally agreed!  While teenagers and even his older cousin Avery were freaking out and some even crying, here was Tanner enjoying every moment!! 

Later that afternoon, I asked him what he thought of it.  His response says it all “It was AWESOME!  It’s like a train ride gone crazy.  We went down these HUGE drops --it felt like my wee-wee was going up, even though we were headed down!”  That’s one way to explain it…

Tanner also was so excited to tell me all about the cave—with real BATS!  They climbed down the 600 steps to go on a tour of the Marvel cave.  Tanner held on tight next to the 200 ft drop off points in the cave, but was absolutely amazed when the sleeping bats woke up [he’s totally into Batman right now—and this just fed his excitement even more].  He was totally exhausted after all the stairs/walking, but luckily, there was Daddy to help, and a lil cable train at the end that takes you the rest of the way up – and Tanner was shocked they knew their way back :)

Anthony also had a good time – he LOVED seeing the cave as well – but he still says his favorite part was the train ride they went on where the workers totally stumbled over their rehearsed lines.  Oh the simple things in life that make us all laugh :)

Brooke and I decided to stay back at the condo.  It was her nap time – and it was on/off raining/snowing the entire time.  When she woke up, was amazed she had the whole place to roam by herself. And once she found the remote, she was in HEAVEN! She sat there, all smiles, changing the stations, adjusting the volume, doing whatever the heck she wanted with it– a simple luxury Tanner would never let her have at home!

Still Waters Resort

We rented a really nice 2 bedroom condo overlooking Tabletop Lake and tree covered mountains.  Scenery was beautiful! 

When we got to the hotel room, the kids were so excited to be staying somewhere completely new. They checked out every nook and cranny, and were shocked when they found an edition of the “Holy Bible” in the nightstand.  The favorite hangout spot proved to be the whirlpool tub in the master bath – followed closely by the murphy bed that folds down from the wall. 

Perfect for these two lil monkeys.  And yes, they did get to JUMP on the bed. 

Uncle Brandon also happened to find a few “lumps” in the bed , but turned out to be a few misplaced kids, hiding in their “fort” of sorts. 

Originally – we were looking forward to hanging out by decked out pools with slides and renting some wave runners on the lake, but the weather was way too cold.  Instead, we went exploring in the lake on the paddleboats.  The last day the weather cleared up, making it nice enough to enjoy some outdoor time. 

The kids also liked feeding the ducks, it was too hard to resist when we saw them outside our patio all day long.

And while we didn’t get to use the pools, we played a few games at the local clubhouse.

Joseph

One night, the kiddos went to bed earlier and Chelsea and I got to go see this show. Of all the hundred live shows in Branson, this was rated #1 so we had to give it a shot.  For some reason, I was thinking it was “Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat” Broadway show, but this was a totally different play – as the sales lady informed me, based upon the actual biblical account of Joseph and his brothers.  While I appreciated the spiritual touch and the awesome special affects – which included live animals on the stage, I would have preferred a better scripted songs and singing.  It had be questioning, where is Donny Osmond?

The best worse part was the group of 20+ old women sitting behind us, one of whom was CONSTANTLY saying, Oh yeah!, Yes, Yes!, or Amen! to every single line spoken.  Maybe I’m not use to this certain evangelical style of worship, but we’re not at church, so be QUIET already.  Sheesh!!

Discovery Center – Children’s Museum

On the way down, we stopped off in Springfield for lunch and then headed to the children’s museum for a fun-filled activities. 

Waterworks – anything involving splashing water is always a hit

Even Brooke could make this chair spin in circles!

Ever wonder was a Tornado going up to 80 mph would feel like – well, now they know!

Wind tunnel?  Brook was loving it, and we just love the hair!

Want a drink?  A bit perplexed at first, but then dives right in. 

The budding scientist…father like son :)

Brooke touches anything she could get her hands on...and this proves it

World travelers.  Tanner asked me later if Japan was a real place, and when I said yes, when we were going to visit.  One day…

Instead, he’ll have to ask Uncle Kenneth all about it :)

We also loved watching Brooke “play house”, Tanner and Avery’s puppet show performance, Tanner forecasting the daily weather (if only he would have been right – we would have had sunshine!), walking through a MOUTH and learning about dental hygiene (Anthony’s personal favorite, of course, but having to point out every lil error – go figure!), and grocery shopping in the store.  Pretty sure the kids could have played there forever, but we’ll definitely be going back.  So much FUN!

Gotta love how my membership to Perot Museum get’s us in for free at every other science museum.

Road trip

Not that I would ever refer to the driving time, all 3.5 hours of it, as a highlight of the trip, but it always proves to have the the most memorable moments.

Brooke, this time, would NOT stop talking.  She would incessantly repeat my name.  “Mom, mom, maaaa-maaa, mmmmoooommm!” It was quite cute, the first 10 times, but after a 100, it got old.  That’s when Tanner started pulling out the threats, “Brooke, you’re not going to get any BLUE ice cream” [a road trip tradition at Braum’s], or when she was repeating, “No mom, no.  Mom, no!” Tanner declared, “Brooke do you want mom dead?  Wouldn’t you be said?  Stop saying that or you’ll be sad!”

But somehow we all survived…but the grace of higher power or junk food overload…we made it to our beloved destination.

But 3 days goes by way too fast.  And we were pulling out and leaving town, Tanner, declared solemnly, “Branson, I’m going to miss you!”

One thing is for sure – we’ll have to go back again – and soon!

Baby Steps

Over a month ago, Brooke took her first steps, in front of everyone!   She's been walking around furniture and standing up without holding onto anything for weeks...but was scared to death of letting go.  But apparently, all it took was an audience cheering her on.  Over Easter weekend, she was loving all the attention -- and just kept taking steps all by herself -- over and over again.  She mastered 4-5 steps before falling, but could have kept going if she didn't launch herself towards me. 

It caught us all by surprise, but Aunt Kristan got the tail end of it on camera -- how lucky is that!!

And then days and weeks went by, and she didn't dare do it ever again.

Instead, she spent her days dancing away.  She'd lift herself up everywhere and get her groove on.  Clapping, swaying, and shaking.  Play a song, sing a song, make a beat -- anything will get her moving! 

She's addicted to toddler radio Pandora station.  She was listening to it on the iPad, and when Aunt Katelynn came by to pick her up, she looked at the iPad, then Katelynn, then back at the iPad. She handed her the iPad, then insisted on getting picked up next.  Wherever she was going -- the iPad was coming too!

She also loves to confiscate my iPhone, for the sole purpose of listening to music – or playing with the protective rubber bumper :)

Sometimes, even Tanner will join in too!

 
So while Brooke could stand up all by herself and dance her heart away, we weren't sure when she'd learn to walk.  Then something magical happened -- Brooke turned ONE and she realized, “Hey, wait, I can do this!”  The day after her birthday -- literally, OVERNIGHT -- she mastered the art of walking.

She just skipped the “baby steps” phase and went right to walking.  She'd take 10-12 combined steps, and within a week, too many steps to count.

Carpet, hardwoods, grass, cement, with or without shoes – nothing is stopping her now! This girl is on the go—and it’s as if crawling is beneath her—save if be for only the most desperate attempts. 

It’s opened a whole new world for her.  The food pantry – now she can really go explore and get exactly what she wants.  Playing outside – now she can run around and enjoy time our play system and other fun toys– and her favorite favorite, the SLIDE.

Ever since she was a baby, she’d sit by the porch window just wishing and hoping to go outside.

The ONLY sad thing...is she grew up OVERNIGHT too.  Now that she's ONE...and she's WALKING...I've had to come to term with the fact she's not a baby anymore.  But she'll always be my little girl, even when she's all grown up.  And I'll always remember the sweet moments we've shared -- with her as a teeny tiny baby in my arms.  And here's to many more sweet moments in the years to come!!

Grandpop's 60th Birthday

It's hard to believe, but it's true -Grandpop turned 60 this year.  This was a big year to celebrate, and celebrate we did!

On his birthday, we went out to dinner at Jack Stack, one of our favorite KC BBQ joints. Turns out everyone else in KC had the same idea-- it was backed!

The guest of honor -- caught mid-chew.  I'm nice like that :)

Ms Brooke -- who seemed to think it was HILARIOUS to stand up in her high-chair.

 Katelynn came straight from work -- and Ms Scarlett was so happy to be apart of the festivities too.

And these two -- you never know what you're going to get!! 

The other cute couple -- and Q being shy.

And I couldn't believe it -- I forgot to capture of the night's most important guests -- my brother Collin!  He was in town visiting -- after two years of being away.  He's in the Navy so it's hard for him to get away, but was so happy to get to see him and hear his stories over the past few years.  We're so proud of him and the all the hard work he's done -- and can't wait to for him to visit again!!

And Keith and Kristan wanted to come, but just having returned the day before from Dubai and Keith being in charge of a Cub Scout Pack Meeting made that a little difficult.

But we made it a whole week of celebrating!  And this time, everyone was able to my other brothers, Keith and Brendan -- we also able to join in.

On Saturday, we got together for lunch for some grilling (all gatherings most involve food, of course!)  And we topped it off with mom's homemade German chocalate cake!

The entite gang 

The boys then heading out to the golf range to shoot some balls, one of my dad's favorite pasttimes.  Unfortunately, none of the boys share his talent, but Anthony's hoping to change that now that he has an excuse/partner to "practice" with :)

Happy Birthday Dad!!  And I said in my card and as I'll say again: The only thing better than having you as a Dad, is having you as a grandpop to my kids.  We enjoyed it so much, in fact, we decided to have another one.  So -- expect the rest of your b-day present October 2013! 

Tannerisms

Lately, Brooke has been dominating this blog.  That’s what happens when you have a baby…especially a girl. 

But, I’ve been keeping score of all the incredibly adorable and hilarious things this boy has been saying and can’t WAIT to share.  These are always my favorite memories:

One Sunday, we had the Missionaries from our church over to dinner.  Right as we began to eat our dinner, Tanner tells everyone, “Sometimes my mom says bad words!” 

And just as a disclaimer, by bad words, he means words he isn’t allowed to say – like “BORING” (I hate it when he uses that word – all.the.time! – so I’m encouraging him to expand his vocab & be more creative if he’s going to criticize) and “STUPID.” And yes, I hate that word too, but he still catches me in the act.  I LOVE how kids never act like they’re listening, but the minute we have a friend over or I don’t follow the prescribed “rules,” Tanner is the first to let us all know.

Another time, we were having a group of friends over for some basketball.  As Tanner greets them at the door, he confesses to them all, “Our house was a MESS before you got here!!”

Love how kids share all your dirty secrets!

When morning after returning home from vacation, I was rolling out of bed and was greeted by Tanner:
“Mom, I’m grumpy at you!  You forgot to take the trash out.  Now the garbage truck is going PAST our house.  You didn’t make a GOOD decision!” {don’t-cha love it when ALL my words come back at me}

The kid was on a rant and was practically in tears– and all I could say was to wait for him to talk to his dad about it cause that’s his dad’s responsibility [and while we don’t have any other gender defined roles in this house, that is one I’m fine with keeping].  Can you tell OCD runs in the family?  At least he does us the honor of vocalizing all of his concerns…

We never have any pop in our house.  But when we invite friends over, we always seem to serve it.  Anthony especially is always a fan of all the fancy root beers.  Anyhow, one morning, Katelynn was getting a sip from some of the previous’ night’s leftovers.  Tanner immediately started freaking out, “Oh no, you’re drinking our friends juice!  Now they won’t have any!!” 

Funny cause it brings back memories of living in Dallas and Tanner always referring to Uncle Kenneth’s Mountain Dew in the fridge as “Kenneth’s Juice!”  He just knew that he wasn’t allowed to have any…and that’s never been a problem cause he hates carbonation and refuses to drink it.  Fine with me!!

Lately, Tanner has been on a Transformer fix.  One morning, he woke up and in all seriousness, asked, “Do we have a Transformer robot protecting our house?” How do you respond to that?  Any answer would result is serious disappointment.

One morning, Tanner woke up just as Anthony was leaving for work.  Usually he insists of being fed immediately, but this morning was different.  He curled himself up next to me and began to cuddle.  He started gently rubbing my back and said “Mom, I’ve giving you my energy!”  Oh man, if only it worked!!

As we heard the garage door shutting, he reassured me, “Don’t worry Mom.  I’ll protect you so you don’t have to be scared when  you’re by yourself!”  Now it that ain’t love, I don’t know what is!  Seriously, I just want to keep him this CUTE forever!!

For church on Sunday, we let Tanner back a few toys he can play with quietly.  During the week, he was looking for one of his toys, and after searching everyone, we remembered it was in his backpack…and he had left his backpack at church.  He immediately wanted to go to church to get his backpack, but I explained that the doors were locked and we’d have to wait for it to open.  He response, “I know.  We’ll ask President Monson [the Prophet of our Church] – he has ALL the KEYs to the church!”

Yes, he has all the PRIESTHOOD KEYS to lead/guide the church and act as a seer/revelator/prophet, but not keys to every single church building!  And yes, let’s just call him right now…

I always wonder what goes through kids head when we teach about the Gospel.  I personally think kids comprehend and understand spiritual matters so much better than adults-- it’s just natural to them and the scriptures oftentimes refer to “becoming as a child” as we learn.  But then there’s those times where not all the dots connect.  One night before bed, Tanner said a prayer and “hoped people would keep the commandments and not lose them.”  And on another occasion, was telling us the story of Nephi and his brothers returning to Jerusalem to get the Gold Plates from the Book of Mormon– and explained how they needed plates so they could eat dinner in the wilderness.  

Anthony and I were getting ready to go to the Temple – and Tanner was very concerned about where we were going –without him.  I explained to him that we were going to the temple, and of course he wanted to come with.  I continued to explain that one day, when he got older, he could get married in the temple, and have his own family, his own house, and yes, even kids.  And if he wanted, he could go to the temple to remember the sacred promises we made when we got married.  As I was telling him them, he sat quietly, pondering and thinking.  Then he responded, “No, I always want to live with you Mommy, but I want my own car!” Maybe Freud was onto something...

And yes, this is just one of the many reasons we just absolutely adore our Tanners around here!

Anthony’s Birthday Celebration

Happy birthday to my one true love!  Here’s a look at all the birthday adventures--

During the day, we took the kids to this awesome indoor trampoline arena.  But for some reason, I only took pics of the bounce houses.  As you can tell, this is a kids dream come true.

But no matter how old guys get, there’s always a kid still inside of them.  Anthony had fun whipping up at ping-pong and Kinnect Adventures. 

Brooke probably should have been asleep taking a nap, but she’s a trooper and always up for a party.

Tanner was definitely in his element.

For dinner, Anthony and I were able to escape kid-free and enjoy an evening all to ourselves.  We went out to eat at a nice steak house and even had time to go shopping too.

We baked a cake and sang happy birthday too with the kiddos.  Of course, tanner suggested chocolate for the cake, but went with Anthony’s favorite, carrot cake. 

When my dad came back in town, he arrived with a box full of fresh west-coast Dungeness crabs, fresh from Pike’s Peak in Seattle!   These were the hit of the party!!

Tanner was all about helping wash/clean them.  But when it came to eating them, he stayed far away!

My dad grew up in Phillie in the east coast, and they’d host an annual crab fest each summer featuring fresh Maryland Blue Crabs.  But those where tiny in comparison to these.  Just look at the size of those suckers!!

And yes, we still like to play with our food.

The entire grew, going to town.  Most of us girls were highly skeptical and had a few bites here and there – but they guys – they enjoyed a crab or two entirely to themselves!

Brendan was in town visiting too.   He’s just like his older sister – officially interning at Deloitte!   He was in OKC for the week, but was able to take the weekend off and come to KC. 

We all enjoyed extra time with him, especially the kiddos!

Every other year, I’m usually knee deep in tax returns working 60+ hours a week to hit client deadlines.  This year, it was so nice just to be able to relax and have fun – and go all out for his birthday.

Babes – It’s hard to imagine life without you by my side.  I’m so blessed – and know how lucky I am!  I couldn't have picked a better husband or father, thank you for just being  you!!