Catch a wave and your sittin' on top of the world!

Now I understand why the Beach Boys have so many songs about surfing...because it is SO FUN!! We had a lot of fun on our trip to San Diego and at the reunion but this post is going to be part one of our vacation and devoted strictly to our surfing lesson. It seriously was one of the funnest experiences of my life. The instructor spent a half hour with us on the beach teaching us the pop-up and other important maneuvers and then we hit the water! He would push us into a wave and we would have to paddle, pop-up and then balance ourselves on the board. Nathan did REALLY good! I did ok, not great. But it was still a really good time. We're already scheming to figure out another time we can go. I can't really claim to be a surfer girl yet but at least I got a nice tan. :) Here are some of our pictures.

Our instructor saw some dolphins that he pointed out to me. I finally stood up.......only to fall again. :D Oh well.
It at first you don't succeed...pick up your board and head back into the water.
At least one of us was good at it! But he had his share of falls, too! :D Our instructor was awesome and really patient with how bad I was! But I did get up a few times.

Why I love being a stay at home mom...

These are just a few little videos that show my sweet boy and how much I love staying home with him! There's no place I'd rather be!!! I got some of his funny faces and greeting me as I come to get him out of his crib. He always follows me when I go in the bathroom, sticks his hands under the door, and waits for me to come out so I decided I would catch it on film. But this time he brought me a present! :D I also caught Tanner and his cousin being mischevious and getting into the snacks! I can tell already...Jaren + Tanner = TROUBLE! He also recently started saying mom so I have a few clips of that. Just little things but those are the things that make every day enjoyable. Hope you like it!

Vacacion de la Familia Coons

Take that Senor McBride! Now someone just needs to teach me how to type an N with the little squiggly over it and I'll be all set! :) So we went on vacation to Utah last week and it was lots of fun. We were very tired by the end but it was totally worth it. So here's a load of pictures for your viewing pleasure. Heeeeere we GO!

After a BBQ in the park with relatives Nate and Tanner enjoy a little relaxation in the grass.

We went to Temple Square and viewed the art on display at the Conference Center...beautiful!

A hike around Silver LakeAfter the hike we went back to Aunt Sharon's and enjoyed a little R & R on the lawn and ate some watermelon...well mostly Tanner ate and I got sticky.

He eventually took the whole thing from me and dug in! See...he's even got a little chunk on his eyelid. We call him our little piggy. If you wonder where he gets it from see the next picture.

We went out to eat at my cousin's restaurant (Utah Natives have most likely heard of it) One Man Band Restaurant. These were the BIGGEST pancakes I have EVER seen. The breakfast was so delicious!! Cedar BreaksFamily Hike around Alpine LakeThe Wildflowers were everywhere and so pretty!Tanner seemed to really enjoy it......for a little while. And then he crashed. Poor kid!

Utah is really gorgeous!

We saw a few plays while at the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City. Together we saw "As You Like It" (pretty good) and "Comedy of Errors" (hilarious!). Then I saw the musical "The Secret Garden", which I loved, with Nate's mom and he saw "Henry V" with his dad.

On the way home we stopped at the Grand Canyon because Nate had never seen it. His Dad was reading a book which talked about all the people who've died from climbing on rocks at the Grand Canyon. So what does Nathan just HAVE to do when we get there????? Ugh...boys!

All in all it was a great vacation...considering no one died. It was really nice of Nate's parents to stay in Cedar City longer to watch Tanner so we could go to the plays. Once we got home we were pretty exhausted so we took a couple of days to relax and catch up on our sleep, laundry, etc. Fun times! Now we just have to get ready to do it all again because in about 3 weeks we're going to San Diego! Woo hoo! Anyway, that's about all there is to say. Except, I of course have to give a little Tanner update. Here's his latest and greatest. Enjoy!

He has made his way into plenty of nooks and crannies...here's one I caught on camera. This is our computer desk.

I have no idea where this face came from or what it means but it sure is funny.

This boy LOVES music! Even when my cell phone rings he sits there and bobs his head to the beat. Well. one day I was cleaning and had some Michael Buble playing and Tanner just couldn't help himself...he had to sing and dance along. I grabbed the camera and played the song a couple more times to get a few good clips.

And we took Tanner to his first baseball game. Too bad the Diamondbacks were totally squashed by the other team. Oh well...it was fun anyway.

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!