Here Goes Nothin'

Ok I am going to attempt to actually bring the blog up to date. My blogs are always so long since I only do it about once a month so I will break it down into topics…that way if you aren’t interested in a topic you can skip to the next. Although, I highly recommend reading the entire thing because my life is so exciting. You really don’t want to miss anything. (Ha ha...Right…….) Anyway, here goes!!!

Topics:
Tanner and his latest achievements
The Big 2-5…my best birthday ever!
The Mysterious Primary Visitor (you know you're dying to find out who it was)

TANNER AND HIS LATEST ACHIEVEMENTS
So as I was sitting here typing this Nathan came in and said, "Hey, have you seen Tanner crawl yet?" He has been doing the army crawl for quite some time now with his belly dragging on the floor as he pulls himself along, but he hasn't figured out how to actually crawl yet until today! Nate had him outside and I guess he decided that crawling in the grass is easier than dragging himself. Here's a little video.

He is getting bigger and bigger and cuter and cuter. We adore him and I think he knows it and milks it for all it's worth. :) He pulls himself up on the furniture now so I think he will be cruising soon. His top two teeth are trying so hard to break through but still haven't made it. He says dada but still not mama. But even his gibberish is starting to sound more and more like actual words. We had his pictures taken a couple of months ago but I don't think I ever posted any pictures on here so here those are. They were done around Easter, hence the little outfit and basket.

He gets into everything and makes plenty of messes. He especially loves the DVD cabinet and my makeup bag. Hmmm....do I love it? Not so much.
Here he is catching up on his reading...at least he chooses good reading materials. :)

He waved bye-bye for the first time Saturday as we left him at my brothers to go to the temple. That was so cute! And on a side note, I love the temple! We decided at the last minute that it would be fun to help out with sealings. I had never done them except my own and it was so neat! Especially because when it's your wedding day you hardly remember anything. I loved the experience.

He still definitely lets me know when he doesn't like a certain food. His reactions just crack me up sometimes. And is the gagging necessary? Really? He's so dramatic. I wonder where he gets that from..... :)

THE BIG 2-5…MY BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!
Last week I had my 25th birthday! Nathan worked SO hard to make it a really great day and it was.
I had given him a few ideas on what to get me but then jokingly I said, "Or you could get me a Nintendo DS!" (I didn't think he would actually get it because it was more expensive than the budget we had set for our birthday gifts.) I know a DS sounds like a little kid thing to ask for but it has some cool cooking software I wanted to try out. Plus, I love to do crosswords in bed at night but Nate is usually ready to turn the lights out before I am. The DS has a crossword puzzle game and I can play it with the lights off because it has its own backlight.

The night before my birthday when we were getting ready for bed he brought my present in all wrapped and said I could try to guess what it was if I wanted. It was kinda the shape of a CD or DVD so I thought that's what he got me. Then first thing in the morning he told me I could open it. I did and it was the crossword game for the DS. He said, "The Nintendo is out in my truck and you have to go get it.” I went outside to get the Nintendo and I saw the front of my house decorated with two birthday banners, streamers, sidewalk chalk, posters and all sorts of cute stuff, including an "Over the Hill" sign! (Very funny...) It was SO cute! Nate told me that my friend Alicia and her daughter had decorated the house the night before. That was so sweet.

Before Nate left for work, he told me he had made plans that evening, to be ready by 5 and to dress nice. He made arrangements with his sister to watch Tanner without me knowing until that afternoon then he told me to go drop him off at her house and meet him back home. When I got back home I walked in the door and Nathan had made a really nice candlelight dinner for us. He kinda made it look like a nice Italian restaurant complete with a menu and everything. He had picked up some Italian food while I was gone dropping Tanner off. We enjoyed our nice meal together and then he took me into our game room where we had our own little dance. He had gone on the internet and downloaded a bunch of fun songs to dance to, fast and slow, and put them on a CD. It was SO MUCH FUN and such a surprise. Especially because he HATES dancing. But he did it all just for me because he knows how much I love to dance. So we had a lot of fun dancing around, being goofy, talking, all of the above. After that he brought in a beautiful bouquet of flowers (daisies and something I don't know the name but so pretty). Then we needed to go pick up Tanner so we did and on the way home we went out for some yummy ice cream. It was seriously the best birthday I've ever had. Thanks, Babe! I love you!

THE MYSTERIOUS PRIMARY VISITOR
I had a pretty interesting Father's Day. I am the primary secretary in our ward and I volunteered to make Father's Day cards for the kids to give to their dads. I had a cute idea for a necktie card where the pattern on the tie said, "Happy Father's Day" over and over and the kids face was the tie tack. I worked pretty hard on them and I think they turned out pretty cute. Since I had made the cards I also volunteered to be in charge of Sharing Time. As the secretary I NEVER EVER do Sharing Time. This was literally my first time ever doing it and I was a little nervous, as silly as that sounds. But I worked hard and got a really cute story from the friend with some pictures and stuff. After the story the kids would use the rest of the time to work on their cards.

So I get to primary and we had a woman visiting our primary that day...I didn't take time to introduce myself before Sharing Time because I was still a bit nervous and stressed, gathering all my things and getting ready. I did Sharing Time and I thought it went pretty well...could've gone better but not bad for my first time. After all was said and done, I made my way over to this woman who had been watching to introduce myself and find out who she was and why she was visiting primary (usually when you visit another ward you go to Relief Society, right?).

She complimented me and said what a cute idea it was and that she thought I did a really good job. I asked her name and found out she was the mother-in-law of a girl who had just had her baby in our ward. So then I asked, "Oh, so are you in primary back home?" because I was trying to figure out why she came to primary. She said yes and I asked her what her calling was. She said, "Well, I'm actually on the primary GENERAL BOARD." The GENERAL BOARD, people!!! As in Salt Lake City. The ONE time I volunteer to give a Sharing Time and there is someone like that watching. No pressure! We might as well have just invited President Monson to come watch me. Ha ha...ok I know I am being a bit dramatic but you have to admit you would feel a little pressure if you were in my position. She was really really sweet though. I enjoyed chatting with her and at least she said I did a good job. But let's just say I won't be volunteering for Sharing Time for a while.

Anyway, bless you if you made it through even one of these topics. I think that’s enough for now. We have lots of family fun coming up in the next couple of months since we’re going on TWO vacations! (Yay!! I’m spoiled, right?) So come back in about a month and I should have some pics of that for ya! Bye for now!

The Blogging Bug

In case you hadn't noticed I've lost the bug to blog. I don't know why but I just never want to blog anymore. I keep telling myself that I am going to take more pictures and post them but I just don't look forward to it like I used to. I used to blog in my head all day long and I couldn't wait until I could go type the funny stories up, but not anymore. So if you are one of my avid readers (ha ha...who am I kidding?) then I'm sorry. Hopefully the blogging bug will return soon. Until then, just know that we are doing well! It's summer!!! Go play!

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?