Update

I'm too tired to try to think of a fun title for this post. Sorry! It has been so long since I posted anything that two nights ago I dreamt that our blog got shut down because we weren't posting enough. I just haven't had the blogging bug for a LONG TIME. But today I finally do...kinda... So hear goes. I'll try to bring you all up to date on what we've been up to.

Nathan is so busy that it stresses ME out. I honestly don't know how he handles it all. He works his regular 40 hours at the pharmacy and sometimes overtime, too. Then he is doing health screenings a few times a month so on those days he ends up working from 8 AM to 9 PM. He does yard work, takes care of the pool, fixes stuff around the house and still finds time to help me with housework. He is amazing and we appreciate him so much. He just had his 28th birthday on Wednesday so we had his sister and bro-in-law over for dinner and dessert. It was fun! For his birthday I got him a Brinkmann grill that he has been wanting forever! I can't wait for all the yummy dinners he's going to make. (Hee hee...selfish gift??? But hey, he wanted it!)

We were trying to take advantage of the weather last month before it got too hot so we spent a lot of time outside. We have a decent sized backyard and a pool that we enjoy so we had a picnic and took Tanner in the pool for the first time. So here are some pics of that.

Our curious little explorer...

In April we took the opportunity to go to the Tax Day Tea Party and rally for lower taxes and less spending in Washington. It was cuhRAZY!!! There were so many people there with their signs and all. We made a little sign for Tanner...we thought it would be funny to use the box from the toilet we had just purchased. And yes, I am standing by the outhouse on purpose...we thought it would add a nice touch. Ha ha!

Nate's younger brother Dallin, who recently returned from his mission has decided he is brave enough to move in with us. He got a job at Anasazi (the wilderness retreat program for troubled teens) which means he is gone for 8 days at a time on the trail. We decided that we would hardly notice he's here since he will be gone over half the time so we told him he could have our back room for the summer. He's gonna help us paint a few rooms while he's here which will be really nice. I'm getting tired of the yucky green in the back room. It'll be fun having him around, especially for Nate.

Tanner continues to get bigger every single day! He is ever the little explorer, always venturing into a new room or finding something new to make a mess with. He keeps me on my toes. We've had a few adventures just trying to keep him well as about a month or so ago he had pneumonia. Seems like they always have something! Anyway, he is such a blast and we love him.
This video totally shows his personality. He's such a good baby he even laughs when he's crying! :D Sorry about my arm being in the way in the 2nd half...I didn't notice it until it was too late.

As for me, there's not much to say. I struggle to keep up with the daily tasks so imagine how chaotic things get when we add anything new to our plans. I am learning all the time how to be a better wife, housekeeper, mother, cook...you name it. But hey, I'm a work in progress. I'm still doing Weight Watchers and still losing. Believe it or not I have lost a grand total of 40 pounds. I'm to a point now where I'm not really trying to lose anymore just trying to maintain where I am. It's nice to be in a smaller pant size than I was in college.

I had a good Mother's Day. I didn't cook all day because Nate took over all the meals which was nice and he got me a pedicure. Anyone wanna go get a pedicure with me??? :)

It's been fun to get together with Karli and her boys more frequently lately. She had a free pass to the Phoenix Children's Museum last month so we went and took our little guys. It was really fun for all of us and very exciting/tiring for little Tanner. Lots of play=a really good nap!

I hadn't even put him in the car yet!

Any of you who read Karli's blog might already know this but last Friday she came out and spent the day with me and it was SO NICE! Together we tackled all sorts of projects from decorating to cleaning and painting. I haven't taken pictures of all of the stuff we did so I will post more pictures eventually. But for now, I have pictures of the bookshelves in the living room she helped me with. And I'll finally post pics of our kitchen with the new paint job and floor from forever ago. My brother Gary helped Nate tear out the old tile and Nate and I repainted. Gary and Nate also put in a new light fixture to replace the plain old boxy one and they added some lighting over our dining area.

Remember this???? This is the picture we posted when we were considering buying this house. Oh canary yellow kitchen with the orange tile, I don't miss you at all!!!

Before: After:
And the shelves before:

And after:

So there's the update! We have the best life and we try to always count our blessings. Oh and thanks if you actually made it all the way through this!

Tanner-rama-ding-dong

I seriously have The. Cutest. Baby. EVER...and I can't believe I haven't been better at posting about him. I have SO many pictures and videos I have been wanting to share so this post will be a major Tanner update. Oh...and a little update about my weight loss. There's a lot to say about the work we've been doing on our house, too, but I am saving that for Nate to blog about (hint hint, Nate...hurry up... :D).

Tanner has learned how to give kisses. It is so funny...he opens his mouth as WIDE as possible and sucks on your cheek leaving plenty of slobber behind.Tanner loves to play with his Daddy. They have fun together and sometimes Tanner outlasts Nate with his never ending energy and spunk.
But when he crashes, he crashes hard! So tired from crinkling that paper all up!Tanner has made peace with his bath time and loves the warm splashy water.He is getting so strong and is even able to stand by himself for a few seconds when holding onto the furniture.

As I mentioned earlier, we've been working on our house a lot which has taken a little time away from our sweet boy but he's been such a trooper! He's spent a lot of time hanging out with me while I work as he sits in his high chair with toys.

Here he is sitting with his giraffe (literally, as he pulled it in the seat next to him) and enjoying a little "finger food". Peeking at mommy.

Playing with Elmo and Giraffe.

Getting sleepy and resting his head but still smiling for the camera.
Getting really sleepy.
Sucking on a pea pod. He loves to "eat" (even though he's not eating anything) big people food.

Here are a bunch of videos. I edited them to try and keep them short so they weren't boring but you know how parents can be...everything is cute to me so it still might be boring. I hope you enjoy!

Tanner vs. Pea Pod

Tanner vs. Carrot

Tanner vs. Apple

(He originally did this without Nate knowing it...sneaky! Then we saw it and grabbed the camera)

Tanner's first taste of rice cereal. He literally LUNGES at his food!

He loves to laugh at mom which is good cause I love to make him laugh. When he really gets laughing he ALWAYS gets the hiccups like in this video. So cute!

No night night! Tanner has learned to shake his head!

I was making that noise to try to get him to talk to me cause he likes to imitate it but he was too tired.

Okay, so there's my Tanner update. He is such a fun and good baby. He brings so much joy to our lives!

Now for the update on my weight loss. I have been feeling so good lately and I really wanted to get some new clothes that would actually fit. So a while back I went on a shopping spree and bought a bunch of new clothes for the new thinner me. Well, I unfortunately jumped the gun and went shopping too soon. Only a few weeks after I purchased a whole lot of new clothes, they were baggy and didn't fit well anymore. I guess that's a good thing because I'm still losing but I really didn't think I would go down another size. So anyway, I had Nate take a few more pictures so I could show my progress.

My Day

So I had "My Day" this past Saturday. I ended up doing it all in one day after all...I just came home to feed the baby after being gone for 3 hours. It was really nice to have some time to myself. Here's how I spent my time...

I got dressed up, even did my hair (a luxury these days) and makeup so I felt like a woman instead of a frumpy mommy. Nathan even walked in the room as I was curling my hair and said, "You look skinny!" Yes, I trained him well. Ha ha! No, just kidding, no training involved here, he's just a good guy. But it sure is nice to hear that.

First, I drove downtown to meet Karli (a friend from high school) for lunch. It was really fun doing that. Going downtown is always exciting and annoying at the same time. Fighting the traffic, crowds, construction, etc. can be a major pain. But there was so much going on it was kinda fun. There was a huge protest, an opera matinee, a "Jesus Rocks My World" convention and some dance thing all going on so there were tons of people. It was good to catch up with an old friend and chat about mutual interests. (Love ya, Karli!)

After lunch I drove home so I could feed the baby and then I went out again. I went to a bookstore, clothing store, home decorating store and spent a little bit of money at each. Then I came home again, fed the baby, and then the friend from my ward came and gave me my first ever massage. That was GREAT!!! I loved it. Overall it was a really fun and enjoyable day. Thanks, Nate for a great gift!

On another note, after blogging about my weight loss, a lot of you asked me to post pictures. I debated doing this for a while. I wasn't sure if my weight loss would be that noticable to other people. Yes, I've lost quite a bit of weight but I didn't know if it was obvious to others and I didn't want people to look at the picture and say, "She looks the same to me" or something like that. But my sister-in-law told me that it was obvious and talked me into posting a picture. Keep in mind that if you haven't seen me in several years I might not look that different. I weigh now just about ten pounds more than what I did when we got married. So if you haven't seen me since then I'll look ten pounds heavier instead of thirty pounds lighter. Oh and by the way, the picture below of me and my sister is a year old...I was about 25 pounds heavier in that one.

A little shout out...

I have had something on my mind for quite some time now and I finally decided I would just blog about it. So this is a shout out to one of the most amazing women I know...my sister. There are a lot of reasons why I love and admire my sister but for now I just want to name a few.

• The day after I got home from the hospital with Tanner, my mom, who had come to stay with me to help with the baby, had a severe allergy or asthma attack (doctors still aren't sure) and had to be hospitalized. I was a wreck. I had a little bit of postpartum depression and was also worried sick about my poor mother, all while trying to take care of a brand new baby. My amazing sister dropped everything in her life and flew in from Texas to come and stay with me and help out. She cleaned my house, cooked, and even helped get Tanner's room ready since he surprised us and came so early. Tiff, I would have never survived that first week without you. Thank you!

• My sister and her husband live in the middle of nowhere in a placed called Salt Flat, TX. The nearest sign of life is 30 minutes away in Dell City but is still in the middle of nowhere. Dell City is the nearest place to get gas, groceries, etc. and also where her kids go to school but there is still only one gas station and one tiny little market. El Paso is where they usually go for groceries and is 2 hours away. Oh and they drive there every Sunday morning for church with their 4 kids. I seriously think I would go inactive if I had to drive 2 hours to church. They practically LIVE in their car. AMAZING!!

• My sister is Superwoman! She seriously has like 5 jobs. Not kidding. She keeps books for her husbands trucking business, sells Close To My Heart scrapbooking products, works at the library and a couple more that I can't even think of cause she's so busy. She's also the PTA president and has 3 church callings. She does all this and takes care of her 4 kids and husband.

I love you, TIff! You've always been a wonderful sister and now that we're adults I'm glad I can call you my best friend!

The gift of time...

...that's what I got for Valentine's Day. Normally he gets me some flowers and a card or something like that which I do love but it's nice to switch it up sometimes. He asked me what I wanted this year and I said, "Just do something thoughtful...I don't really care what." So his gift to me is an entire day all for me including any money I want to spend. I can go and do whatever I want and he'll stay home with the baby. And you know what I said? "Can I make it two half days? I will miss Tanner too much to be gone for a whole day." How pathetic am I? :D But I still haven't spent a whole lot of time away from him. I've already started thinking of some things I want to do. I've never had a massage and a girl in my ward is a massage therapist so I might do that. I was thinking about seeing a chick flick with some friends or get some lunch. Probably do a little clothes shopping. But I wanna know........what would you do?

It's about time...

It has been so long since I posted...it's almost shameful. Well, we have been doing so incredibly well. I am so happy and blessed...I know it seems like I say that every time, but it's true. Life is good. We had a wonderful holiday season. I have some really cute pictures/videos of Tanner's first Christmas that I need to post. I will soon. As for today, I have to talk about something that makes me so happy...feeling SKINNY!!!

During my pregnancy I was SO sick all the time that I couldn't eat anything I wanted to eat. I was seriously stuck eating crackers, toast, cereal, apples and applesauce for the majority of the pregnancy. So after I had Tanner I went to the opposite extreme eating all kinds of yummy things...way too much actually. But I was still losing weight in spite of all of the crap I was eating because I am nursing. (Yes, I am one of those lucky people.)

So one day I was sitting on the couch with my Sonic Burger and soda in hand and I started thinking, if I can lose weight eating all this junk, how much weight would I be losing if I ate healthy again? So I joined Weight Watchers with a friend from my ward and I am LOVING IT!! I am a true believer in their new Momentum program. As of today I weigh 26 pounds less than my pre-pregnancy weight. That means I have lost all of my baby weight plus 26 more pounds in the five months since I had Tanner. I know it sounds like I am bragging because I am. :D Ha ha...forgive me but it is a great feeling to lose weight. If you have been trying to lose some weight and have the money to spend on Weight Watchers, it comes recommended. And good luck!

We partied like it's 2009...

And I am exhausted! Well, I sent out a Christmas (New Years, really) letter, but in case I don't have your email or something, I thought I would post it on here. Enjoy and Happy New Year!!

Hi everyone! This year has truly flown by and unfortunately, I didn't get my Christmas letter done in time. Normally I would just say, "Oh well" and try again next year but we have had the most eventful year that I couldn't pass it up and so it will be a New Years letter instead. Sorry!

To start from the top...in January Nathan and I found out that we were expecting our first child! What a way to start out 2008, right? We were so excited and the timing couldn't have been more perfect since I had just graduated a month before. Pregnancy was definitely an experience for me...a true emotional roller coaster. I was so excited to be having a baby but less than enthusiastic to be so terribly sick for the first 20 or so weeks of my pregnancy.

The first half of the year was spent traveling around with Nathan on his different pharmacy rotations. He had rotations in Tucson, Thatcher, Sacaton, Phoenix and Glendale and we were so lucky that we had family and friends willing to let us stay with them through all of this. He had some incredible experiences and felt truly prepared to start working as a full time pharmacist. He made us so proud when he graduated from Pharmacy school in June (WOO HOO!) and started working full-time at Fry's. The part he loves most is being able to do the clinical side of pharmacy and finds his work very fulfilling.

While staying with my parents in Thatcher for Nathan's rotation, I was able to put my degree to use a little bit and substitute teach for a couple of months. This was a fun and challenging experience for me, but more than anything it made me want to write a thank you letter to every sub I ever had...it's hard work to step into a classroom full of kids you don't know and try to convince them to behave as well for you as they do for their teacher, even though they will never see you again.

In March I had the opportunity to travel to Washington D.C., all expenses paid, as a leader to student ambassadors, going to learn about our nation's capitol and history. The intent was for the students to learn, but I learned so much right along with them! It was so incredible to see the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, White House and other great landmarks. It was also very humbling to see Arlington National Cemetery and Gettysburg and other such historical sites. This was an experience I wouldn't trade for anything and look forward to going back again with Nathan in 2010.

After a lot of looking and paperwork and headaches, we bought our first home in July. It's a perfect little starter home for us and we've already spent a lot of time working on it, trying to make it our own. When he's not working, Nathan is doing some project around the house. He keeps pretty busy between maintaining the pool and the yard along with fixing things that I break. We've been lucky to have lots of help from my brothers, especially Gary, because Nathan claims to not be very handy. If you ask me he gets handier by the minute. He works so hard for our little family and it definitely doesn't go unnoticed. He's truly appreciated.

And of course our biggest news of all...Nathan and I celebrated our 4th anniversary in the hospital, bringing our sweet little boy into the world. Tanner Allan Coons was born on September 4th in Glendale, Arizona. He weighed 7 lbs. 3 oz., was 21 3/4 inches long and has kept us on our toes since day one when he decided to come 3 weeks early! He has been so much fun and has brought Nathan and I even closer as we learn to be parents together. I never thought I would be one of "those parents", gushing over every little thing your child does. But the love that you feel for your own child is indescribable and you find that you can't help it...you just have to gush! Things like, "Oh my goodness! He just said, 'Guboooah!'" I know perfectly well that Guboooah isn't a word but it was something new for him. We get very excited over every little milestone he reaches. He is so sweet and so much fun! I attached some pictures for those of you haven't seen him yet.

Nathan and I feel so blessed to have such a good life. We often wonder why we are so blessed but just keep praying every day that it will stay this way. We have felt the Lord's love for us repeatedly this year and hope that you, too, know of His love for you. We hope you have a wonderful and safe New Year!

Love,

Nathan, Corrianne & Tanner Coons