First Flight

Please forgive my long windedness...I have never been known to tell a short story.  Bear with me because it is a pretty fun story. 

We had the wonderful opportunity to fly to my sister's place in Texas last weekend for under $100 round trip for all three of us.  (Thank you, Southwest Airlines!)  Tanner of course flew for free and it was his very first flying experience...and what an experience it was!!!  I have to blog about it because it was CUH!!! RAY!!! ZEE!!!!  Read on....

The flight to El Paso from Phoenix is really short...less than an hour.  And it seemed even shorter on the way over because Tanner kept us busy.  I made sure to change his diaper right before we boarded the plane but of course he had a huge MESSY blowout diaper just as soon as we took off.  The flight attendant told us we could get up and change him when the plane leveled off at cruising altitude.  So we waited patiently for 15 minutes or so.  Then we got up to change the diaper and it seriously took about 20 minutes.  I know that sounds pathetic but it seriously was up to his shoulder blades!  It was yucky! I had to change his entire outfit not to mention practically BATHE him with wipes!  Plus I was standing in a tiny little 1 1/2 foot square room.  I could tell the stewardess really loved us. 

We hadn't even left the bathroom when the pilot came on and said we were starting to descend into El Paso.  Um, what?  We've been in this bathroom the whole flight???  Granted we still had to descend for about 15 more minutes but it seemed so short.  Oh and guess what...as soon as we sat down and buckled up Tanner pooped again.  Yep!  Thanks, little man!  :)

The time we spent at my sister's was 98% perfect.  We had a really good time!  The 2% is for Sunday when Tanner threw up on me right after drinking a bottle of milk.  Then a little later we attempted to feed him again and we thought he was going to keep it down so we put him down for a nap only to find him covered in barf when he woke up.  Poor kid!  Nate was awesome and took care of him so I could still do all the fun stuff with my sister since I don't get to see her that often.  Nate is wonderful like that and he totally took one for the team.   

Now comes part two of the flying story...the best part!  We arrived at the airport to find out that our flight had been delayed two hours.  We were originally supposed to land in Phoenix around 9 PM but our flight wasn't even going to take off until 9:30!  Keep in mind Nate was scheduled to work early the next morning.  We were kinda bummed but it was still okay.  Once our plane finally arrived we boarded and flew all the way to Phoenix.

Tanner was pretty good on the flight home and didn't cry too much until we got close to Phoenix and that's when it started.  All of you who live in the greater Phoenix area, remember that super windy storm that blew through town Monday night? Imagine being in the air during that. It was so scary!  Every time a gust of wind came we would bounce so high and Tanner would just start crying and crying!  Nate was sitting in the window seat and told me when he could see the Dbacks stadium and other landmarks.  I just kept telling myself that we were almost there and singing songs in Tanner's ear to soothe him.

Next thing I know, Nathan told me that we had passed Phoenix.  About that time the pilot came on the speaker and told us that we had to circle around for a while because the winds were too strong to land right now and if it didn't clear up we'd possibly have to divert to Tucson.  We thought this was bad news but we didn't know ANYTHING yet.  So we just flew around for about 5-10 minutes and then we started going faster and climbing higher again so we assumed that meant we were going to Tucson after all.  But we were so wrong.  The pilot came on and told us that we were going to...guess where....EL PASO!!!  Where we had just left!  UGH!!  This was so frustrating.  Tanner was SO tired and I felt so bad for the poor little guy.  Not to mention Nate who had to work the next morning. 

We landed in El Paso about an hour later and a customer service rep. came on the plane and told those of us who were just going to Phoenix (it was just a layover for some) to stay on the plane because the storm had blown over and we could fly back to Phoenix.  We still had to wait a while for a new pilot because ours had timed out.  Nate and I debated just staying the night so Tanner could get some sleep but we trudged on.  Luckily our SECOND flight back to Phoenix was a LOT nicer.  Tanner fell asleep almost instantly and we were able to land with no trouble.

So, as I said before, we were originally supposed to land in Phoenix at 9 PM and we ended up getting home around 3:30 AM.  Nate was able to call in and get the day off so we all slept half the day to recover a little bit.  It ended up being a nice relaxing day as a family but we sure had to go through a lot to get it!  Anyway, thanks for reading my story.  It was fun for me to write about it and if nothing else I'll always have the memory of Tanner's first flight!       

New Approach

I've decided that my new approach to blogging will be to do just a little here and there so that I don't wait 2 months to post EVERYTHING all at once. And I realized today that I never posted our Halloween pictures so here they are. We hadn't decided what we wanted to be so at the last minute I decided we'd be face cards and I made the costumes at home using cheap supplies like paint markers and pillowcases. Nate & I were the King & Queen of Hearts and Tanner was the Jack.  :)  I am not the greatest at these sorts of things but considering my lack of artistic ability and time, they turned out okay.

Family Pictures

Trying to get a decent family picture with an EXTREMELY WIGGLY one year old can be pretty difficult.  We finally got a pretty good one that we'll be sending out in our Christmas cards this year.   

Blog? What blog???

It is so embarrassing that I haven't updated this thing in almost 2 months now. Here's a little of what we've been up to!

I bought a dresser several months ago off craigslist for dirt cheap and it's just been sitting in my garage waiting for me to make it pretty. Well I finally got around to it once it cooled off a bit.



This is the bedspread I bought online and I wanted to paint the dresser a gray/blue to go with the bedding.

So here's my before:

And after:

And a close up of the hardware, because I love it!

My Grandma gave me these nightstands when she wasn't using them anymore and we've been using them for years now but they needed an update so I painted them to match.

I'm not gonna lie, the whole thing was kind of a nightmare. I just happened to get some REALLY crappy paint from Ace Hardware so it made the whole process miserable and they didn't end up as great as I had hoped. I think the workers probably hate me because I literally returned cans of paint three separate times. So there are some flaws but I'm counting on the fact that no one will really see them that much since they're in our bedroom and I will forget about all the little flaws with time, I'm sure. Overall, I like the color and I'm happy to be that much closer to having a COMPLETELY finished bedroom!

ONE

It's hard to believe that our sweet little Tanner is already one year old! His birthday was a couple of weeks ago but I am just getting around to posting pictures. Here is a little poem I wrote in honor of the most precious gift I've ever been given.

What is it about this baby

That makes me love him so?

Is it big blue baby eyes
Or his tiny little toes?

Was it that very first sweet cry
Or that first big belly laugh?
Or could it be the way he always
Seems to fall asleep in my lap?

Could it be the rise and fall
Of his little tiny chest
As I saw in his room
When I snuck in to watch my baby rest?

Those ten little fingers
Those big baby cheeks.
The first time he walks
The first time he speaks.

All good reasons to love him so
but I really need just one
The best reason to love this child
is because he's my sweet son!

We tried to make Tanner's birthday so special but it was difficult considering he was sick! We had intended on having a few family members over and having a little intimate party but that didn't work out. But I think it ended up being MORE special because we were on our own.

I let Tanner make a mess with finger paints on a poster board and he LOVED that. And it is a great keepsake of his first birthday.

Then when daddy got home from work we went into the backyard to play bubbles! He liked the bubbles but didn't last long outside because he wasn't feeling too good. We took a video but I'm not going to show it because it ended with him throwing up. :(

Our dinner was made up of his favorite finger foods and of course after dinner came dessert! I had so much fun making this little fish & bubbles cake for Tanner.

Before:

During:

After:

We blew up lots of balloons and put up streamers and let him play and make a big mess and then we opened up his presents! I think his favorite was the blocks!

Okay, and maybe they were my favorite, too!

All in all it was a great day! It was our fifth anniversary, too, which we totally didn't celebrate because we were too wrapped up in making it special for Tanner. Oops! We'll have to work on that next year. Thanks for the cards and presents and birthday/anniversary wishes from family and friends! We love you guys!

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!