Jimmy, Cassie, Tanner & Rylee

Christmas!

2011-12-28T20:11:00.010-07:00

We had a fabulous Christmas! From Christmas eve with Santa and new pj's to Christmas morning that ended in a HUGE mess, hurrying to get to Church on time, but enjoying the message and feeling blessed when we finally made it, to spending time as a family and trying out all the new stuff for the rest of the day. We were a little spoiled this year. =)

I love having Christmas on Sunday. It is a perfect time to remember the gift that we were given, and why we really celebrate CHRISTmas. It was also a perfect time to think about all the other ways I am blessed in my life and I know I have a lot to be thankful for.
We hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas!

Big Day For Rylee

2011-11-15T20:00:00.010-07:00

After much anticipation, it finally happened. Rylee turned 3! She celebrated her big day in an outfit that she picked out personally, and it happened to go with the party perfectly.

She got all the princess things a little girl could ever ask for! I think she was pretty happy. Happy Birthday my sweet angel!

Trick-or-Treat!

2011-11-01T13:20:00.006-06:00

We love Halloween and it was a much anticipated holiday this year. Tanner was a night and Rylee finally settled on Super Girl,

They had so much fun! They both got loaded up with candy, which is bad for me. Now we can look forward to the rest of the holidays!

As of late.....

2011-10-03T20:20:00.009-06:00

I have been the biggest slacker lately. We have had so much going on between Jimmy's new job and moving to Orem. All in all, we are very happy with our decision and are enjoying the time we have to spend at Granny and Papa Gay's house.

I couldn't have gotten a better picture if I had planned it! We were just playing in the front yard, and I started taking pictures. Lucky for me, my kids love to pose. This is definitely going on my wall, eventually.

This is one of the super cute outfits that Jim gets to wear at work, one of the many!

Awww, they do like each other!

More posing!

The boys were climbing the tree one day so of course Rylee needed to try it. Who says a princess can't climb trees?!

I think they were sick of being a Costco. What do you think?!

Barik loves it when we play outside. He gets someone to play with! And that someone always ends up being me. I'll be sitting on the front porch and then I'll feel his huge head on my shoulder. I always take the hint and scratch his ears a bit.
Like I said, we are enjoying our time here. It has been really nice for me to be home with my kids and I think they are even enjoying it. We are looking forward to not being in limbo and having our own space again. But for now, we couldn't be happier where we are.

Fun in The Summer Time!

2011-07-20T09:10:00.021-06:00

We have been having so much fun so far this summer! We love being outside and the kids love to play in water. And I love to take pictures, so this is a long post. What can I say, my kids are adorable!

This is what Tanner did for the 4th, he got to ride in the parade and throw candy!

Rylee really had more fun that it looks like.

She wanted to eat her candy as soon as she got it. I was a little tempted myself.

Yay for sparklers!

Cute cousins!

What better way to spend the summer than to play in the water! My kids have been having so much fun, especially since a lot of our summer has been spent with family. They LOVE playing with their cousins. We have the best family ever! We are looking forward to more playing time. Anyone is invited!

Happy BirthdayTanner!

2011-06-28T16:45:00.009-06:00

I can hardly believe that my little Tan Man is already five! I can clearly remember the first time I saw his little swollen face.
Tanner was lucky and got to celebrate his birthday over three days.

He was pretty excited to get his "real" fishing pole.

Just checkin things out.

What a cutie!

More presents!!

This is a "cheese" picture if there ever was one.

Not only did Tanner have two days worth of presents, but Jimmy took him fishing on Sunday to try out his new pole, so that just rounded the weekend out nicely for him.
Tanner is such a fun little guy. He loves superheros and dinosaurs, and even his little sister. He is very smart and very sweet and he LOVES to entertain everyone. We are so blessed to have him for our little boy.

Summer Time!

2011-05-25T17:54:00.016-06:00

It is starting to warm up fast around here so we have been outside a lot, doing a lot of playing.
This is another reason we play outside a lot, the kids find more and more things to get into all the time.

While I was in my bedroom, Ry decided to try out my makeup. Of course it had to be the some that I just barely bought. I hope I do a little better job than this.

Aubs and Kev came down and invited us to swim with them. The kids were all very excited.

He is so handsome!

Ry is a little sun baby.

Tanner was really excited to be swimming.

Every now and then I can talk Jimmy into taking a picture with me.

Rylee was having fun watering her daddy. She thought it was really funny.

Ry and her little cousin, Brooke. This picture probably would have been cuter if I had gotten their faces, but Rylee doesn't do anything she doesn't want to, and she didn't feel like looking at me. Man, that's going to be fun when she is 16.

Tanner and Rylee both had an opportunity to learn that they need to wait for us before they get in the water. They both went under, pretty much at the same time, and it scared them, and me, pretty good. It took a while for us to talk Tan into going in the deep water again, but he finally did. I was pretty impressed.

Rylee wants to ride the horse just about everyday. Pretty much all she has to do is show up at her Poppy's house with her boots on and he gets the horse ready. This time she road all by herself. She is wearing Tan's hat, and it's a little big.

She is my little cowgirl.

I love this picture. She just adores her Poppy. He kinda likes her too.

Country Kids

2011-05-18T12:30:00.009-06:00

My kids are lucky enough to have grandparents who love animals and have all sorts of them. Horses, goats, chickens, and a big rooster named Rocky. Tanner was confused why we call Papa a cowboy if he doesn't have a cow. So he suggested he get one. It's probably next on the list anyway.
The other day, my dad was out working with the horses, and Tanner needed to help him, so Rylee needed to help him. He had a lot of help!

This is classic Tanner, always posing. I'm just not sure what this one is.

Rylee has been wearing dresses constantly lately. "I wanna pincess dress!". But wearing one doesn't really make her act like a princess. She had to have her boots on just like Tan and Papa. She reminds me of a little pioneer girl.

Tanner and his buddy, Barik. Tanner has his share of strange outfits too. He is dressing himself a lot lately. This one isn't too bad.

Rylee and Blondy. Oh, and the goat is in there too.

Tanner and his cousin, Thain, just being little boys!

Easter ans Such

2011-04-27T19:34:00.022-06:00

We went to Orem over the weekend to spend some time with Jimmy's family. It is always so much fun when we get the kids together and just let them be kids. We kept them busy with plenty of activities. I have a lot of pictures and a camera that has seen better days, so bare with me.

My kids' favorite snack is ice cream and if it comes in the form of an ice cream sandwich, or a sandwich ice cream as Tanner calls them, even better! But no less messy,

The kids had these cute little birds nests made from rice crispy treats. They put little peep chicks and jelly beans for their eggs.

Rylee couldn't wait to taste her little chick.

They also decorated some Easter cookies. Tanner was a little heavy with the sprinkles.

I love Ry's face. She is concentrating very hard.

Then they played 'Pin the tail on the Bunny'. Tanner got right in the middle and had quite a celebration!

I love that face!

Granny Gay had an amazing race game for the kids. Tanner was gathering all his flags.

Rylee had just woken up from a nap and she wasn't too excited about it.

Onto the Easter egg hunt. Of course that was the highlight.

Rylee even got into it. She had a pink egg in one hand and a purple one in the other and would not let them go. Jimmy had to gather her eggs.
After the kids were finished they all sat in a circle and examined their loot! I'm really mad that I didn't get a picture because it was the cutest thing!

Another picture of them enjoying their sandwich ice creams.

Tanner took this picture. I thought it was cute!

Tanner being Tanner!

Me and my sweet Rylee girl! We had so much fun with the family. We are also enjoying the weather down here. We love spring!

2011-03-01T10:59:00.008-07:00

We haven't really been doing anything lately. Just hangin out at the house mostly. Tanner draws about 500 pictures a day and Rylee bugs him the whole time. It's kinda funny!

All of these pictures suck so bare with me. Rylee has been getting into trouble a lot lately and she has her own little corner that she goes to. She hates it and cries the whole time. I think it's kinda cute though!

My kids LOVE ice cream. Every time we go to Dairy Queen (which is not that often), they know that they have ice ream and some days I just give in. This is a progression of Rylee enjoying hers!

She always needs to taste the cone.

Then in go the fingers!

So messy! But it was worth it just to watch her enjoy it and listen to her in the backseat making her little sounds that made it clear that it was delicious!

We have the best dog in the whole world! Our kids absolutely love Barik. He is truly a gentle giant. The kids are always cuddling up to him and giving him hugs. Sometimes in the morning, Rylee will sit with him on his bed and just visit for a minute. It really is the cutest thing.

I really wish this was a better picture because I love it. We really got lucky with this little guy and I hope he lives forever!
We have been enjoying some sunshine and then some snow. It will be nice when the weather finally decides that it's spring so we can play outside. Until then it's more drawings and probably a lot more corner time!

Happy 2011!

2011-01-12T15:16:00.006-07:00

We decided to ring in the new year with Jimmy's family. We had so much fun! The kids played and played. We even got to have a night with just the adults! I'm not sure how that worked out! Granny Gay was prepared with some gingerbread cookies for the kids to decorate. I'm surprised any of the candy and icing actually made it to Tanner's. It all made a stop at his mouth first. Rylee was pretty into it. So much fun!

Present time! We had a Christmas party while we were there, so we got to drag out the presents a little longer. Both of my kids are very spoiled and they were very impressed with their gifts.

Aren't they just adorable?!
We really enjoyed the spending time with Jimmy's family. For our Christmas, Jimmy's parents gave us coupons for overnight babysitting. I think they wish they could take it back now after a weekend with Rylee!

Merry Christmas

2010-12-28T10:38:00.008-07:00

Our Christmas was so much fun! It started out on Christmas eve when Santa came to do one last check to see if the kids were being good and to bring them a little goody bag.

My dad is the best and I love that he will do this for my kids. This year he came to my friends house and had 9 little kids to check on. Most of them were pretty good. He had one cryer, but for the most part they were all very excited to see him. I love to watch kids when Santa is around. There was so much excitement on their little faces! It was a perfect start to our Christmas!

Christmas morning came and Tanner was in my bed, waking me up to get things started.
He was so excited that Santa brought him EXACTLY what he wanted!

Ry got some dress up clothes and was in heaven! Don't be fooled by that sweet angelic face. It's a total cover up!

Tanner got this fun little vest that has all sorts of tools for finding bugs. It was pretty awesome!

They had plenty of presents to open and were full of energy all day long. We had so much fun! It was the best weekend with our little family all together. Oh, and I cooked the best turkey ever for dinner! We hope that everyone had a fabulous Christmas! Happy New Year!

2010-12-05T19:17:00.018-07:00

We recently had our family pictures taken. As always with little ones, it was hard to get the perfect shot with everyone looking at the camera and smiling. Tanner did really well. Rylee on the other hand was not happy to be there at all.

Tanner is so easy to photograph. Of course he gets that from me!

Our challenge was getting Rylee to smile. There was this awesome little house that the kids were playing in, so we just tried to keep up with them all to see what we could get. If you take enough pictures, your going to get at least one good one. We finally got a little smile out of her.

Tanner found a lot of things to occupy himself.

Playing in the leaves!

I love this little family so much. I love all of the candid shots that we got of the kids. They have the biggest personalities and it's just the best when we can get a little piece of them on camera. I thought they turned out pretty cute! I might be a little bias, though.

Lately.......

2010-11-30T13:14:00.009-07:00

We have been doing all kinds of stuff lately. We went to Delta for Thanksgiving and had a lot of fun. Tanner even participated in the talent show by singing. I love the holidays! For me it's all about getting together with everyone and enjoying the food and the company. Jim, on the other hand, ate his Thanksgiving meal and went back to my sister's house to watch football for the rest of the day. He's not much of a socializer. We had a good time without him!

Rylee really enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner. Every time I looked at her she had food in her mouth. She didn't even wait for a plate, she just dug right in! And she isn't satisfied until there is no more room in her mouth. We are working on that!

We were waiting for the prayer and Ry was too cute to pass up.

On Saturday after Thanksgiving Tanner and I went shopping to get a present for Rylee and pick out his tree ornament. Ever since we cut his hair, he has wanted it to look like a rhino (mo hawk for the late person!) like his cousin, Joshy. So, if he refers to it that way, you will know what he is talking about. I think it looks pretty dang good!

On Sunday we were blessed to have a little snow at our house. When Tanner woke up a realized that it had snowed, he came and got me and said "Mom! Come and see what freakin' happened last night!". He could not wait until church was over so he could play in it. He even threw a snowball at me when we were walking to the car right after church! I love this picture of him! The look on his face is priceless. Pure joy! Wouldn't that be nice?!

On another note, we have acquired ourselves another dog. Now I know what you all are thinking "Do you really need five dogs?". The answer is NO! We don't need five dogs! We have a couple that we would like to see go. But for now, we will have five dogs. Zoe is my little buddy. She is the sweetest thing! Just the kind of dog I wanted. It's funny to watch Barik when she jumps up on my lap. It's almost like he is trying to figure out how he can get up there. So, we have a really full house. But we are enjoying it!

Birthday Girl

2010-11-15T14:07:00.010-07:00

Our sweet little Rylee turned 2 on Saturday, so we had a little party to celebrate!
I can't believe that it she is already two years old! She is a very big girl and is constantly reminding us of it.

It would have been really nice if she would have smiled for me. She says smile, she just doesn't do it.

I was putting her little tutu on her and she said in a very excited little voice, "PINCESS!".

Opening her gifts. She had about five little kids helping her. I don't know why I thought it was necessary for me to help. Silly me!

It was really hard for her to not play with every gift she opened. She just didn't quite understand and was a little mad at me until I put another gift in front of her.

Blowing out the candles! She wanted to blow them out so bad, I had to cover her mouth until it was time.

Rylee is my little monkey, so I wanted to do something fun for her cake. I saw one similar to this one on the Internet and loved it. I thought it turned out really cute. I can't take all of the credit, but I am pretty proud of what I did do!
We are so blessed to have Rylee as our baby girl. She brings such a sweet spirit into our home. It's so fun for me to watch her and Tanner interact, especially when they are getting along!
Happy Birthday Rylee Girl!

No more Curls!

2010-11-10T10:17:00.008-07:00

Tanner got another haircut, not that the hair cut in and of itself is all that interesting, but it is the shortest that we have ever gone and I was a little apprehensive about it.

Before

He just can't help but make a face.

After

We have always left it long enough for at least a little curl, but this time he wanted it short. I was a little sad when the whole thing was over, wondering where my little boy went. Tanner loves it. He said that it was just like his dad. He keeps checking himself out in the mirror, admiring how good he looks. And he does look good!

Halloween!

2010-10-31T13:49:00.013-06:00

We had a fun Halloween day. We started off at the pumpkin patch. They have all kinds of fun stuff for the kids and they had so much fun.

This is the best picture I could get with the two of them together. There were way too many other things for Rylee to look at.

When we got to the pumpkin patch, the kids just took off. We just let them run all over the place. I think they looked at every pumpkin out there, which its a lot!

Again, the best picture I could get of the two of them. I just need to clarify that Tanner is now dressing himself. I had to bargain with him to not where the camo shorts he had on to begin with.

I love this picture! They had so much fun!

Rylee loved the hay ride to the pumpkin patch. She really wanted to sit by herself and got mad at Jimmy when he tried to hold on to her so she wouldn't fall off. How rude!

Riding on the hay ride!

My little Pippy Long Stocking. She looked so cute! I couldn't get a good picture of her because she is just about incapable of holding still. She looked so cute though. It was perfect for her.

Of course we had a second year of being a super hero. Every time he put his mask on he said in a very super hero voice "I am Iron Man!".

Making faces.

Trick-or-treat!

Tanner Singing

2010-10-22T09:35:00.003-06:00

Tanner loves to make up songs. This is my favorite so far. Enjoy!

Gone Fishing!

2010-09-28T12:08:00.009-06:00

Tanner has found his favorite thing to do, besides being a super hero that is. He LOVES fishing! It has become a weekly activity for Tanner and Jimmy. I love that they get to have their "guy time". Tanner knows that Saturday is fishing day, and he looks forward to it every week.

This is one of the first fish that Tan caught at Grandpa's Lake. It's nothing to brag about, but he was pretty excited about it. You can tell by the look on his face! I love it!

This picture is courtesy of Tanner. He is actually quite good with the camera, and he gets a lot of practice! But this is one of his better ones. Pretty good timing!

This is at Pine Valley. Tanner does everything Jimmy does, and he watches him so close. That's a scary thought!

Here is my little princess who hates getting dirty and anything gross. Ya, right!

She isn't afraid of anything, and I'm pretty sure she is the happiest when she is covered in dirt! She thought the worms were pretty neat. I didn't let her eat them though. I know, I'm pretty mean.

Every time Jimmy moved to a new fishing spot, Tanner was close behind. They are the perfect little pair!

This is just a picture of the lake. It was so pretty and the weather was so nice. We didn't catch anything, even though we could see the fish jumping all around us. I'm pretty sure they were laughing at us! It was a nice family activity regardless of the lack of fish. Perfect for a Sunday afternoon!

Camping, Again!

2010-09-13T15:52:00.014-06:00

Last weekend we went camping for a family reunion. We went to Oak City canyon, just outside of Delta. It brought back so many memories from when I was little. We used to go camping up there all of the time. We had a great time.

Jimmy didn't get much sleep but he was a good sport about it. It's hard to sleep in when your camping. My aunt was convinced that he is a vampire and just doesn't need any sleep. My dad said that's probably why I'm so pale, Jimmy is sucking my blood. It would also explain Jimmy's heart of stone!

Haley slept in the trailer with us. She was so sweet and helped me with my kids the whole weekend. I was glad she came with us. She is so much fun!

There was a creek right next to where we were camping. Tanner happened to find a stick that looked just like a fishing pole. He sat by the creek forever just pretending to fish. It was so cute! And, yes, the "fishing stick" got to come home with us.

Anyone that knows Rylee, knows that she loves any kind of food. We were eating some watermelon, she was even enjoying a piece herself. I guess she decided that she wanted to see what it tastes like from the outside in. Or maybe she was just making her mark on it so no one else would eat it.

Speaking of eating, Tanner did his share of damage, too!

If you see my dad, chances are Rylee will be with him. He couldn't go anywhere without her right on his heels. Poor guy didn't get any rest. In all actuality, I'm pretty sure that it didn't bother him a bit. She adores her papa. Who could resist that?

The creek was the best part for the kids. Once they figured out it was fun to play in, I couldn't keep them out of it.

I didn't even have time to put shorts on Rylee before she was in the water up to her waist. I could tell that the water was cold, but that didn't deter them at all.

The kids were having so much fun running around with their cousins and having almost no boundaries. The mountain was beautiful and it was a much needed break from the real world. I defiantly needed the fresh air.

Camping!

2010-08-24T12:21:00.011-06:00

We had so much fun camping over the weekend. Tanner was so excited to sleep in the tent and make smores. The kids didn't slow down the entire time. Rylee had her fare share of dirt and had dirty hands and face the whole time and Tanner wanted his face and hands washed the whole time. I love how different they are!

There was this little lake by our camp site so we took full advantage of it. We got the kids some fishing poles and let them go at it. Rylee didn't really want any help, she is almost two after all, so she was just throwing the pole around. Tanner, on the other hand, found his niche. He did so good at casting and was loving it. He is a natural. That made Jimmy happy, so there will be many fishing trips in the future, I'm sure of it. Oh, and no, we didn't catch any fish. Even though the people that were next to us caught a ton. I guess they had better bait. Lame.

It was a challenge just to keep Ry out of the water.

Tan was in a zone.

Ry found lots and lots of treasures. They would always make it to her mouth. Maybe she was just tasting them to see if they were worth keeping!

Always a face maker!

We got a little BB gun action in too. Ry wasn't too impressed.

Tanner was loving it!

Needless to say, the kids had a great time! Oh, and Jimmy and I did too. I could have skipped sleeping on a queen size air mattress with all four of us, but I guess it was better than the ground. It's always fun to go to the mountains and have a little fresh air. Nothing beats a fire on a chilly night. We need to do it more often for sure.

Summer Fun

2010-08-10T21:09:00.011-06:00

We are having all of the fun we possibly can this summer. Considering that it's already August, we are trying to take advantage of the warm weather because it will be Halloween before we know it!

A little swimming in the back yard.

Apparently playing in a small plastic pool works up quite an appetite. Rylee snagged this tomato right off of the vine and ate the whole thing. She really enjoyed it, too!

Every so often I walk in and catch Tanner in a strange spot. I guess sitting in a box on top of the table makes watching TV a little more entertaining.

We went mini golfing the other day and the kids had so much fun. Rylee even got to try it out. It was the perfect weather, almost like it was meant to be!

Tanner actually got a hole-in-one! For the next five minutes he danced around with his hands in the air chanting "Tan-ner scored! Tan-ner scored!" I guess he was a little excited about it.

Rylee has learned how to fold her arms for the prayer, and I think it's the cutest thing ever, just sayin'!

Tanner decided that he needed to tie my dad's dog up to the porch swing. Considering the size of that knot, I'm not sure he ever wanted her to get lose again!

It is a rare thing to see this little one with a clean face. She loves to be messy! It's the total opposite of Tanner. The first thing he wants to do after he's finished eating is wash his face. Weird!
Thankfully summer lasts a little longer down here so we can sweat our guts out until September! You know that's why we live here.

Playing in the rain

2010-08-04T15:01:00.007-06:00

My kids absolutely LOVE the rain. They love getting all wet and messy. Thankfully, the rain in Delta was pretty warm, so no hypothermia!

Tanner was having the best time with his cousins, running around and getting soaked to their bones.

He makes some pretty good faces! I'm pretty sure he was telling me not to take his picture, which is kind of different for Tanner because he always wants his picture taken.

Rylee was having her share of fun as well. She found a couple pretty good puddles and to avoid ruining a perfectly good outfit, I just stripped her down! She was having the best time going from puddle to puddle. I think the first thing she did was get her hands muddy and them rub them all over her face! The more messy she can get, the happier she is!

These two are so funny! Rylee is saying "Cheese!" and Tanner is pretending to be asleep. Who knows with that kid! I sure love them, though.

Fun on the 4th

2010-07-07T13:59:00.015-06:00

Our weekend was packed with what seemed like one thing after another. What, after all, are the holiday's for?

We started out with a little water time in the back yard at Granny and Poppy Gay's house. Playing water baseball, making good use of the slip n' slide, and just plain hangin' out.

Really, did we need a picture of me?!

Tanner and his cousins checkin' out the fireworks.

Rylee loves to smell flowers. Really she just blows on them, but we won't tell her that.

Tanner wanted me to take a picture of him while he was talking, so here ya go. Little weirdo!

Rylee discovered the snapping popper things. She was having the best time with them. I think she went through at least four boxes of them.

Tanner hardly stood still enough for me to get a good picture of him, but I love this one.

And we are back to funny faces. Silly kids. We had so much fun with our family over the weekend. It was good to celebrate our Independence with people that we love. We are so grateful for this country that we live in and pray that we can continue to be free. I hope everyone's weekend was as fun as ours was!

Birthday Boy and Getting Dirty

2010-06-29T13:28:00.021-06:00

Warning! I haven't posted for awhile, so what you are about to view might take a little more time than usual. But it will be worth it! This past week has been a busy one. Tanner celebrated his 4th birthday so we had a little party for him at Pirate Pizza (his favorite place on earth!).

Batman was the theme this year. I knew it would come around to super hero's eventually! I thought this his cake turned out cute, mostly because I didn't make it!

This is a typical face that Rylee likes to pull. It's a good thing she is so cute and only 1 1/2 or this face just wouldn't fly. Funny little girl!

Of course Tanner is always good for a silly face. I hardly get anything else these days.

I was a little slow on the camera and missed him blowing out the candles.

He is very curious about everything, so we got him a globe to help him learn about the different continents. He also got some dinosaur stuff and some batman stuff, so he was pretty happy. He played some arcade games with Jimmy while I tried to keep Rylee from getting stuck behind one of the games again.

There is an animal museum here that Tanner loves to go to, so we decided we would take him for part of his birthday celebration. He decided he needed to be our tour guide so we let him wander and he would look back at us and say "Are you following me?". I guess he thought he had to remind us that he was the leader.

They give the kids these little red binoculars so they can get a better look at the animals. Tanner had them in hand almost the entire time and would stop "guiding" us from time to time to check things out. It was pretty cute!

As soon as Tanner would look through his binochs, Rylee would follow suit, only she wasn't quite sure what they were for. It was pretty funny.

Tanner is such a little poser! I think he had a pretty good birthday. He did tell me that he wanted to be five. He was pretty disappointed when I said that you don't really get to chose how old you are. Later he said that it was OK to be four but he can't wait to be five.

We went camping over the weekend. Well, my family went camping, I slept in my cozy bed and drove to the camp site for the day. Jimmy had to work and I didn't want to camp with the kids, in a tent, by myself. Don't judge me! While we were there we had a little b-day party for Tanner. His uncle Russ got him a white board and markers and he LOVES it. The kids were in the trailer drawing and Tanner was way too busy to smile for the picture.

You just can't go camping without horses. We love to ride the horses and all of the kids can't wait until it's their turn. This is Rylee's first horse ride. She didn't want to get on the horse at first, not even with her papa. So, I had to get my butt up there so she would, and then she was loving it. She loves animals and needed to give Blondy a little pat on the neck before she went on her ride.

Her face was dirty pretty much the entire time. I know, I know, we are camping, she is going to get dirty. I did really good at not washing hands and faces every five seconds. As you can see, it didn't bother her a bit!

Tanner wouldn't hold still long enough for me to take very many pictures of him. He was always on the move.

Ry was just having a little pudding.

I think that you can tell how much fun they are having by how dirty they are. The kids had so much fun. They both just ran and played and didn't stop until they were put to bed at the end of the day. We love summer!

And Another Furry Friend Makes Four

2010-05-27T18:22:00.007-06:00

Well I guess three dogs are just not enough for us. Jimmy found another Mastiff that needed a good home and decided that home was ours. We named him Tank. He is a Bull Mastiff, 15 mo old and already at about 102 lbs. So pretty much he is going to be huge!

They were loving our time at the park.

The crew!

We have been lucky to find two Mastiffs that are very good with kids and other dogs. They all get along so well and the kids absolutely love them! We just have to be constantly on the lookout for flying tails. Especially poor Rylee. She usually gets them in the face. I know you all think that we are crazy, but it is working out pretty good for us.

Hangin' Out

2010-05-18T14:33:00.008-06:00

We have been enjoying the nice weather lately. These are just some pictures of the kids playing and hangin' out.

Rylee had an especially good hairdo this day. A little like Cindy Lou Who, don't you think?

Tanner can't ever pass up a photo opportunity. And this is usually what we get!

Somehow Rylee can see these microscopic bugs and she has to get down on her tummy, with her little feet in the air, to get a better look. When she is finished looking she usually squishes them. Isn't she tender?

Tanner has a little gun that blows bubbles so it's been fun for him and Rylee to play outside with the bubbles.

Don't you love the look on Tanner's face as he is shooting bubbles right in Rylee's face? Little stinker!

One of Ry's favorite places is the porch swing at my parents house. She climbs up on it and says "WEE!", which means she is ready to swing. If her papa is outside she says "Papa!" and that means "Come and swing with me.", and he is happy to comply. As soon as her papa gets on the swing with her, she smiles from ear to ear and is pretty content for a minute. She loves her papa!

Bath time for these two is almost as fun as playing outside! Thankfully, because of all the playing they do, they are in there a lot! We are enjoying springtime and hope that it lasts just a little longer before summer comes. I am not looking forward to 100 degrees and above!

Our Little Gardener

2010-05-05T13:51:00.012-06:00

Tanner has been begging me to get some flowers that he can plant and take care of. So I finally made it to the store and got whatever flowers he pointed out (of course with my approval :P) and the biggest pot we could find. He had so much fun 'helping' me. He was smiling the entire time. We even let Rylee in on the action.

Thanks to Tanner, we have something pretty to greet our visitors. I'm going to have to hide his watering can so he won't be tempted to drown them!

Easter and Such

2010-04-06T10:45:00.015-06:00

We have had a couple of fun and busy weekends lately. Starting with Easter. It was nice to be able to relax instead of trying to get everyone ready and on time for 9:00 church. We also got to spend a little more time with Jimmy, which is always a bonus.Because Eater Sunday was conference, I had the kids wear their Easter outfits the week before. They looked so freakin cute! This is the best picture I could get of the kids in their Easter outfits. We were just heading out to church and I couldn't get them to hold still. Go ahead and make fun of me for having them match. I couldn't resist! For those of you who are going to make fun of me (Dave!), I'm not going to do it when they are ten. They are little kids! It's OK!

It was a little more fun for Tanner to color eggs this year. He would NOT let me help him at all. He did a pretty good job, too. I guess he didn't need me after all. He had fun with his little friend, Tylee.

This is his favorite egg. Can anyone guess why?

TA DA! Not too exciting, but I wasn't in the mood to get too crazy. Maybe next year I'll be a little more creative.

Here is their loot. It seems like I buy more every year. This year I had to buy a third basket for the things the Easter bunny brought for them to share. Of course I ended up eating half of their candy! That's why I always buy candy I like! I'm just planning ahead.

Tanner was pretty impressed.

Rylee was just getting frustrated that she couldn't get the eggs open. I was ok with that. I didn't really need candy flying all over the place.

My parents were camping, so we went out to play a little in the dirt. It got windy and cold, so we all ended up in the trailer. The kids didn't mind too much!

Barik is Rylee's best friend! She LOVES that dog. This is a typical place to find her. She is always cuddleilng on him, but he doesn't seem to mind too much.

Last weekend we took Tanner to Vegas to see "Walking with the Dinosaurs". It was really neat and I think it goes without saying that Tanner had a good time.

My camera kinda sucks so these pictures aren't the best. This is a Stegosaurus and an Allosaurus.

Momma T-Rex with her baby. I really wish that I had a better camera because they did some really cool stuff.

It was a fun little trip to take with just Tanner. He had so much fun and it was worth it just to see how much he enjoyed it. We were only in the car for a couple minutes when he asked when he could see it again and then for the next few days, he acted out the entire thing with all of his dinosaurs. It was so cute! I love that kid! By the way, he is a face maker now. I'm lucky when I can get him to actualy smile. Stinker!

Hangin' Out

2010-03-12T21:31:00.009-07:00

We haven't been up to much lately, just trying to keep up with the kids. These are just a few pictures of how we do it. Feel free to take notes!The weather is on and off lately but it was sunny and pretty nice the other day so we decided to take advantage of it and play outside. We love to draw on the driveway, until Rylee makes a break for the road, then we have to resort to the backyard where she can be caged in. But there is still plenty to do with the goats, chickens, and of course she has to help her Papa feed the horses. She just might be a country girl!

Tanner always falls asleep in the weirdest positions. What would it be like to be a kid again and be able to fall asleep anywhere?!

Jimmy is such a cute daddy! Tanner loves to color and he talked Jimmy into doing it with him one day. I think Tanner might be having fun!

On the way home from Orem the other day, Tanner was being silly and tucked his little toy into the seat belt with him. I guess he just needed to make sure that EVERYONE was safe!

So, today, Rylee took advantage of the fact that I was not in the room and emptied an entire box of cheerios onto the table. Barik was happy about it, he got to snack a little before I walked in. He seem to be very close to Rylee every time she has food. And she gladly feeds it to him. Little stinker!

Rylee didn't feel to guilty about it though. I figured the mess was already made so I just let her play in it. She had a great time, too!

The kids and I have been traveling a bit lately. We went to my sisters house in Delta and had a movie party for the kids. We didn't get much movie watching done, but they had a good time. And, yes, that is Tanner in the middle with the fro.

Rylee needed to try it out too. I think we should consider it for the future!
I just love playing with my kids and watching there BIG personalities blossom. They are so entertaining and exhausting at the same time. They seem to have a knack for that. They could not be more different from each other and that makes it more fun. I just love them sooo much! I almost don't want them to grow up! Almost......

Rylee Girl

2010-02-09T11:02:00.007-07:00

Rylee has sooo much personality in her little body. She is so funny and keeps us pretty entertained.

She loved the camera, just like her big brother, and gives me a big cheesy smile every time.

She loves wearing hats and for some reason Tanner's bike helmet is her favorite. Probably because it looks by far the best on her.

We went to the park the other day and we couldn't keep Rylee out of the dirt. I guess she doesn't mind getting a little dirty, and in that she does not take after me!

We got her a little cabbage patch doll for Christmas and she loves snuggling with it. I couldn't resist this picture!

I am so grateful for this little girl! She keeps me running and chasing and I am ALWAYS looking forward to bedtime, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Oh, Tanner!

2010-01-28T19:22:00.010-07:00

Tanner has such a funny personality, I just wanted to share some things he has been doing lately.

Tanner always says that when he is a daddy he will have a smiley beard and a smiley mustache. Well, my dad found this mustache in a 50 cent machine and got it for Tanner. The second he got it on he said "Now I'm a daddy!".

This is his latest trick. Pretty cool!
(In case you are wondering, he LOVES running around in his undies!)

When my mom was getting ready to read him a story he says "Wait! I need to get my glasses on first."

This is Tanner and Jimmy making the letter 'T'. You gotta admit, he has pretty good form! Stephen would be so proud!

He is very resourceful. As soon as I had the eggs emptied from the carton, Tanner needed it to eat his marshmallows. Just for the record, I didn't let him eat all of those marshmallows. I shared a few!

The other day we took Tan to see 'The Squeakwual" and he LOVED it. He was dancing around an laughing. I'd say he had a pretty good time.

This is all of us at the movie. It was pretty fun to spend some time with just Tanner. That kid has more personality than I can handle sometimes, but I wouldn't trade him for anything. Well, most days!

Yes Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus

2009-12-28T23:48:00.015-07:00

We have been pretty busy lately. Needless to say, I have been slackin on updating the blog. After Thanksgiving, two trips to Orem and Christmas, I'm exhausted! We have had a good couple of months though. Here are some pictures of our Orem trips.
This is at the Bean Museum. They had a full size elephant and it was HUGE! Tanner thought it was pretty cool.

Rylee had her share of fun, too. She was just happy to get out of the stroller and run around.

We also went to the Dinosaur Museum. Tanner was pretty excited about it. It's the best place in the world, next to Pirate Pizza!

We had a little Christmas party with Jim's family and the kids were making snowmen out of marshmallows and icing. They had so much fun! Tanner was pretty proud of his. The poor little guy got sick while we were there, so it was hard to get a smile out of him. :(

And now onto Christmas. We had a great Christmas this year. My dad has a Santa suit and come over every Christmas eve. This year when he walked in Tanner says "It's Santa!!" and didn't stop grinning the entire time. It was the cutest! Rylee on the other hand......

However she did enjoy Christmas morning. It was so much fun watching them, especially Tanner, unwrapping and playing and unwrapping some more!

As you can see, we had a wonderful holiday. Hope yours was just as good!
Have a Happy New Year!

Tanner's Awsome Bed

2009-11-24T19:31:00.005-07:00

Tanner just got a new bed and I'm pretty sure he likes it. When he got up on it for the first time he said "This is the most awesome bed in the world!". The spiderman sheets were a bonus!Rylee likes it almost as much as Tanner. The bad thing is that she has already figured out how to climb up the slide with her bare feet. Little stinker! Hopefully we can avoid the ER due to broken limbs.

Happy Birthday Rylee!

2009-11-14T17:12:00.010-07:00

Our baby girl has turned one! I can hardly believe it had already been one year.

We had a pig party for her. She was just about to give the piggy a kiss!

As you can see, she had plenty of help opening her presents. They were a little more excited about it than she was anyway.

Her aunt Kendra gave her some books that she already loves. She wanted to look at them all as soon as they were opened.

She actually blew out her candle! I was so surprised. Tanner was a little disappointed because I didn't think that she would so I told him to help her, and he didn't even get to. But he soon got over it because then it was time to eat the cupcakes that he had been waiting to eat ALL DAY!

It was so funny how dainty she was eating the cake. She just picked all the pink dots off, and as soon as she was ready, she dove right in. She loves having her hands all messy!

These are the cupcakes that I had to hurry and make because the cakes I tried to make didn't turn out. I thought that they turned out pretty good for a last minute project. Now I remember why I always pay someone to do it for me!
Rylee had a fun birthday. Thanks to all of the family that were able to come an celebrate with her!

Halloween!

2009-11-01T11:04:00.009-07:00

We had a great time this past week preparing for Halloween. Tanner asked everyday if he could wear his costume. Time is such a hard concept for little kids to understand.With much persuasion on my part, Jimmy 'helped' Tanner carve some scary pumpkins to greet our trick-or-treaters. Tanner picked out the designs he wanted and supervised Jimmy to make sure he was doing it right. He was very impressed with them and went outside every ten minutes to look at them again and again.

Tanner and his pumpkins.

On to Halloween. Rylee was a little Punk Rocker, complete with tattoos and a pink mohawk. She looked so cute. She was loving playing in the pumpkins.

Tanner, of course, was Spiderman. I bet you didn't know that Spiderman wears cowboy boots. It was fun to have Tanner get a little more excited about it this year.

Tanner had an unfortunate accident that rendered his Spiderman costume unwearable, so I had about five minutes to hurry and think of something else. Thank goodness for Poppy Jeffery and his cowboy paraphernalia. It was a quick fix, but he makes one cute cowboy.

We had fun this year with the kids. I do have to say, though, that I am glad it's over. we are now looking forward to the upcoming holidays and time with family.

This and That

2009-10-25T17:32:00.009-06:00

I thought that I would get the creepy stuff out of the way! Jimmy and I went to a Halloween party last night and this was what I got to come home with. Jimmy looked great! It took a minute for people to recognize him.We are not a very likely pair. We had a great time at the party. It was fun to be around some adults for a change.
On a cuter note, we went to the pumpkin patch with the kids and we had a lot of fun. It's located on a farm that has all kinds of stuff for the kids to do. We rode on a little trailer puiled by a tractor to get to the pumpkin patch and Tan thought that was pretty fun. Rylee even liked it. She didn't care, however, about getting her picture taken.

Tanner got to pick put his own pumpkin. It wasn't very hard for him to decide, he pretty much picked the one that was closest to where we were standing. Jim was OK with that since it was small and he had to carry it around for the rest of the time that we were there.

They had this little thing to take pictures with. I told Tan to put his face in it so I could take one and I guess he did! He's so funny. They also had all kinds of farm animals to pet and little rides. It was perfect for a little boy who doesn't have much of an attention span.

Rylee is getting so big! I can't believe she is going to be one next month!

The other day, Tan had the camera and was taking all kids of pictures. This is a self portrait (obviously!). He was having so much fun with the camera. Some of the pictures he took are pretty funny.

The boys! The weather has been pretty nice lately so we took the dogs to the park to let them run around a bit. Tanner and Jim also got a little exercise!

A Few New Things

2009-10-11T20:16:00.010-06:00

We have a new addition to our family. He' s a bit bigger than the other dogs, but he seems to fit right in. His name is Barak (pronounced Barick) and he's an English Mastiff. Jim has been wanting a Mastiff for so long and just happened across an add for this little guy. He is just as sweet as can be. As you can see, he's pretty big.

Tanner already loves him. He didn't take any time to adjust, just walked right in like he has always lived here.

My parents got some miniature goats that are just adorable. Tanner was pretty concerned that they didn't have their mommy and daddy. It was pretty sweet.

The other day, Rylee thought that a crayon would make a good snack. It was a huge mess. I literally had to scrape it from her teeth. That girl puts everything in her mouth!

Tanner had started to draw almost constantly. He really needed a picture by some of the pictures he drew.

I just thought I'd throw in a picture of my new haircut. It's super cute! Rylee is totally not interested in taking a picture. She couldn't keep her eyes off of the new horse, I mean, dog!

30 Already?!

2009-10-08T14:51:00.002-06:00

The rumors are true folks, I just turned 30! It's not so different than 29, but I do feel like I have to be a little more responsible. BLAH!! I had a good birthday. Jimmy did so good this year, remembering all of my favorite things. What a sweetie! He had to work that night, so my mom took me to dinner at Olive Garden, my FAVORITE place, and we had a really good time. My sweet little daddy got me an ice cream cake from Baskin Robins, and it was just perfect. I think Tanner was pretty impressed that the cake AND the ice cream were all in one. Birthdays are just not what they used to be, but I was with my family, and it was a good day. Thanks to everyone for the Birthday wishes!

Feels Like Fall

2009-10-04T22:13:00.002-06:00

The other day it was pretty nice outside so I thought I would sit out there with the kids and get a little fresh air. Tanner is still working on learning to ride his scooter. I'm sure the boots aren't helping any. But he does LOVE his Spiderman sunglasses!

Rylee loves being outside. She sat and watched Tan ride his scooter and had a snack of Gold Fish crackers. It was really nice to just sit and enjoy the day. I'm looking forward to more days like this. Yay Fall!

Finally!

2009-09-21T10:49:00.005-06:00

The unthinkable has been accomplished! Tanner is potty trained. After thinking that it was never going to happen, and Tanner not being interested in any reward I could come up with, I guess he finally decided that he was ready. He takes after his father in the fact that he does everything when he feels like it's his idea, not mine, so I knew that I was going to have to wait until he was ready, but I was getting impatient waiting. The boots were his reward. They must have been just enough motivation, because they worked! Now he has new brown boots that I have to take off almost every night after he has fallen asleep. I love it! Way to go Tanner!

One down, one to go. I hear girls are easier to potty train than boys, so maybe we only have another year of diapers! Wouldn't that be nice?!

Jim's Birthday

2009-09-15T10:20:00.002-06:00

Jim had his 30th birthday this last week. He had to work so we weren't able to celebrate it until Sunday. He said all he wanted was a big fat steak! So that's what he got! He had all of his favorite things for dinner. He was pretty happy!Thanks, Jim, for all that you do for your family. You work so hard for us and we love you so much!
Happy Birthday!

Gone Campin'

2009-09-08T22:33:00.011-06:00

Over the Labor Day weekend we went camping with my mom's family. We had a lot of fun. Tanner wouldn't hold still for anything. He loved being up in the mountains. You would think that he is a city boy with how fascinated he was with everything, or just a three year old boy! This obviously isn't when we were camping but I had to throw these two pictures in. This was when Rylee turned 9 mo. Hopefully her hair is long and curly to help cover those ears! Just kidding! She couldn't be any cuter!

Tanner had to take a picture with his strawberry marshmallows. Weirdo! By the way, this is before his haircut.

Onto the camping trip. We were in an RV and Tanner got to sit in the front seat and navigate. He thought it was the coolest. He was telling us almost the entire way that we were being chased by dinosaurs. But lucky for us, some of them were nice.

He confiscated some boots from his cousin and had outfits similar to this one the whole weekend. You will all be proud to know that it only bothered me a little. This was on one of our many walks. We just let Tanner lead the way. Just so you know, he can run fast in those boots, he told me so himself.

Rylee loved going for walks too. Only she wanted to actually walk. Any day now, I'm sure of it. She sure loves her Daddy!

And her Daddy loves her!

Tanner is a little poser! This was by a big rock that he would climb all by himself. He was so happy to be so independent.
This is an after of his hair cut. Not he best picture but it's the shortest it's ever been. Good thing it grows fast!

Rylee just wanted to get in the dirt!

Tanner played in the creek as much as he could. The water was freezing, but he didn't even notice! He was having too much fun.

This pretty much sums up the way we all felt at the end of the weekend. We were all so exhausted, but we had a great time!

Tanner's Pirate Belt

2009-08-18T19:37:00.004-06:00

Tanner's thing lately has been wearing this belt everywhere, because pirates wear belts, and he puts just as much crap in it that he possibly can! I'll start from the left: walkie-talkie, electric screwdriver, walkie-talkie, wrench, sword (the only thing that a pirate would actually have!), hammer, and last but not least, a gun. Whew!!

Now lets get a couple side views so you can get the whole effect.
Notice in this one that the walkie-talkie is pretty much smashed in there because there was no more room for anything else but Tanner just had to have it!

Oh, I just love that kid!

Another funny thing that he did that I wish I could share the pictures of (but I'm afraid if I do I'll get turned in for child porn) is tape his up his little penis! He took his diaper off (yes, still a diaper, UGH!) and found a roll of scotch tape. I thought that I would just watch for a while and see what happened next. Well, it was worth it! He started experimenting and soon found out that it hurts when you try to remove it! At one point, he even had the roll hanging from it! The best was his face when he was taking it off! Oh, Tanner! You are your fathers child!

Our Weekend

2009-07-29T12:57:00.012-06:00

Over the weekend, we went to Delta to celebrate the 24th. They had a little parade in Hinckley that started out the morning.

Rylee is obviously way to excited to watch the parade!

My Grandpa Jeffery has a lot of tractors that grace the parade every year. This time he took a bunch of his great-grand kids for a ride in the parade to throw some candy.

This is the best picture I could get of Tanner. He thought it was so cool that he got to throw candy! He was so busy, he wouldn't even look at me!

After the parade he "helped" Hailey drive one of the tractors.

When the parade is through, everyone goes down to the park to enjoy some entertainment. All Rylee needed was a cup and a straw.
Tanner also had a lot of fun at the park. They had a dunking booth and they let Tanner stand about two feet in front of the target so he would be sure to hit it. Well, he did and the kid went into the watter. Afterward when Tanner realized that he did it, he turned around, threw his arms in the air and yelled "Whoo Hoo!!". It was sooo funny!

We had plenty of chances to play in the yard at my sisters house. Again, here is Rylee entertaining herself with a coke can.

Tanner's cousin , Grady, had a lot of things for Tanner to play with. He ran around like this for awhile.

This is another outfit that he chose to sport. We all know how he feels about hats! And the boots were just an added bonus!

We also went to a rodeo while we where there. Tanner was loving it! We sat in the front row and every time they would play music, Tanner would jump in front of everyone and dance his little behind off. Everyone around us were just laughing and saying how cute he was. It was great!

Another fun thing that happened is Rigo getting stitched up. Somehow he got a huge sore on his side and it just got bigger and bigger. So he got it stitched and stapled and now he has to wear that fun little cone.

The poor thing just walks around like he is humiliated. It's pretty sad. On the bright side, I feel a little sorry for him so he gets to spend more time in the house. I guess there's an up-side to everything!

Messy Rylee

2009-07-22T17:21:00.003-06:00

This is what happens when I try to get anything done at my house. I was cleaning the kitchen and pretty soon Tanner tells me that Rylee's hands are messy. I guess so! Can you believe this is from one chocolate chip cookie! Courtesy of Tanner I'm sure.

And then into the bath!
I learned from Suzy that you always take pictures before the bath. I have received many opportunities to do just that!

Silly Kids

2009-07-19T18:04:00.002-06:00

These are just a couple pictures of my silly kids. I love watching the personality come out in them. And believe me, they both have plenty of personality!

I am working on potty training Tanner so he runs around in his undies a lot. He also is constantly wearing his pirate hat, so this outfit was destined to be. The two combined made for a great look. One of his finest I would say! What you have missed out on with this picture is when he was using his undies as a place to hold his sword. I'm sure that's what all the pirates use!

Rylee thinks she is so big and she is constantly pulling herself up onto things. I guess she couldn't get a good enough view of Baby Einstein from the floor. Not that this really put her that much closer. Don't worry, Sis, I know just how you feel!

4th Of July Celebrations

2009-07-06T11:37:00.006-06:00

We spent the 4th in Orem with Jim's family. We always have a good time when we are up there. It just makes it better when there's more partying to do!

Tanner and Rylee in their Red, White and Blue.

Our little family.

Tanner loves spending time with all of his uncles. Steven was having fun entertaining him this weekend. As you can see, Tanner kinda likes him!

Rylee didn't really care about the fireworks. She was just happy to be outside!

Tanner thought the sparklers were pretty cool. Who doesn't?!

Tanner loved the fireworks this year. He keeps telling me that he is going to shoot some fireworks into the air. We had a lot of fun! Holidays are just so much better when you have kids! Happy 4th everyone!

Party Time!

2009-06-28T21:54:00.007-06:00

Tanner had his Pirate Birthday Party on Saturday. He was so exited! For days and days, it's all he would talk about! It was FINALLY time!

He had a cute little treasure map cake! My friend knows a girl that likes to decorate cakes, so she did this for us. Isn't it cute?!
We had a Pirate treasure box (my friends idea!) full of all the treasure essentials!

We also had a little action on the slip-n-slide. It took a lot of coaxing to get that hat and sword away from Tanner so he could go on it.

But he finally did!

And I think it was worth it!

And whats a party without cake and ice cream?

It was a fun party! Tanner had a blast! Thanks to all who came to play!

Happy Birthday Tanner!

2009-06-24T23:05:00.007-06:00

Today Tanner turned 3! For his birthday, Granny and Poppy Jeffery took him to Pirate Pizza. It's his favorite place in the whole world! (Anyone surprised by that one?!) The wait staff came and sang to him and he thought that was pretty cool!

On a side note, I have no idea why he wears these hats sideways! He does it every time we go, but it's pretty cute so what can ya do!

I had to throw this picture in! Rylee had a good time too! She just loves to hit the table and make a lot of noise.

This is where Tanner stands and says "I'm Captain Jack Sparrow!"

He was loving this whack-a-shark. I need to get one of these. Tanner loves to hit stuff and I could let go of a little aggression! (I only have a little!)

Needless to say, Tanner had a great time! He is very excited for his Pirate birthday party on Saturday! Happy Birthday my little Pumpkin Head! I love you!

Family Fun!

2009-06-16T10:24:00.015-06:00

Over the weekend we had a family reunion of sorts with the Jeffery's. The kids had a blast and it was fun just to sit and visit. (Although with 8 kids under the age of 6, we didn't sit for too long!)

I thought I would start out this post with Jim's new look. He's pretty proud of it. I just have to let Jim be Jim.

Riley is getting so big! She is crawling all over the place now and even has her first tooth. I'll be glad when we are done with the teething stage!

These are two of Tanner's little cousins, Thain and Grady. They have so much fun playing together.

The weekend was full of fun activities. One afternoon the kids started doing tricks and all we could hear was "Watch me! Watch me!". This is one of Tanner's tricks.

They also had a water fight. Tanner is locked and loaded and ready for action!

They all had a really good time just blowing bubbles. It was so fun to watch them all and remember what it was like when such simple things were so fascinating.

They also had a treasure hunt, and Tanner, being a pirate most of the time, was VERY excited! Just for the record, he did have his pirate hat on at one point, that's what the crazy hair is all about.

Rylee also quite enjoyed herself. She loved all the attention and also the Popsicles.

Apparently she also loves coke! Papa Gay was having some and she just attacked the can. It was hilarious!

While all the little kids were outside playing, Jim was inside teaching the older kids poker. Wasn't that nice of him?!

Tanner played so hard, by the end of everyday he could hardly keep his eyes open. He wanted to watch TV from the back of the couch. Next thing I knew, he was fast asleep. Wish I could fall asleep anywhere like that!

Taking a walk with his daddy.
Thanks for all of the hard work and planning! We had a great time with the family!

Curling Iron-1, Tanner-0

2009-06-01T13:03:00.004-06:00

No matter how many times you say "Don't touch that, it's hot!", eventually they are going to touch it to see what you mean. Last Sunday as I was getting ready for church, Tanner pulled my curling iron down on his arm. It took a second for him to realize that it was burning so it got him pretty good before we got it off.
He sat on Jim's lap all morning and just cried. It was so sad. He was even more sad that he wasn't going to "nursery house", as he calls it.

This was on Friday, so it's slowly getting better. It's going to be one of those things that we'll be dealing with for awhile.

Rylee Girl

2009-05-20T19:17:00.007-06:00

My baby girl has just turned six months old! I took some pictures of her to celebrate her 1/2 year birthday.

She was so much fun! It was hard to decide which ones I wanted to edit. I guess that's one drawback of doing them yourself. I can't get enough of those chubby hands and feet!

Messy Faces and A Day At The Pool

2009-05-17T14:45:00.009-06:00

One of the things about being a mom that I have had a hard time with is messy faces. But I know they happen so instead of cleaning them twenty times before they are even finished eating, I take pictures!Tanner LOVES strawberries. He would eat a whole Costco basket if I would let him. But they are very messy, so I let him have a few and then the wipe down starts. It's amazing to me how one little strawberry can make such a mess.
Rylee on the other hand has started to eat baby food and all of you who have ever had to deal with baby food know how it goes. It goes all over the place! And Rylee likes to help so the mess is extra big. She takes her sweet time to eat so she is usually messy for awhile.

If it gets too bad, into the bath they go.

Tanner loves that Rylee can take a bath with him now. She is still too little to really play but Tanner likes to help me with her and that makes him feel pretty big.

Kev and Aubs came down for a visit and let us hang out with them at the pool. It's perfect weather for that right now so we had a lot of fun. This is Rylee's cute little bikini. Her chubby little thighs are my favorite part!

Jimmy was Tanner's favorite pool toy. I was so glad that he was there to entertain him!

Tanner is just a little fish. He had sooo much fun!

Rylee quite likes the water too. She kicked and kicked. She stayed in the water for quite awhile. She was having fun watching the boys swim around her.

Tanner was getting brave and jumping off of the step to Jimmy. I was surprised that he was worried about this. When we first got there, I had to keep telling him to stay away from the steps. Silly kid.

Rylee and her Mommy!

Jim probably had as much fun as Tanner did. Good thing he remembered his floaty!

Thanks to Aubrey and Kevin for letting us hang out. We had a great time!

My Girls and Playing Outside

2009-05-12T17:32:00.005-06:00

This is a picture of some of my friends. We have known each other for awhile and every couple of months we get together to catch up. It's always something I look forward to. I love my girls!Summer is here in full swing in St. George. Tanner is outside more than inside and he absolutely loves it! This is yet another pirate sword. It's the first thing he picks up in the morning and the last thing he lays down at night. And all throughout the day I can always expect to be "died" with it, at least a couple times.
This is Rylee's first taste of ice cream and she loved it.

Tanner also had a first, his first time roasting marshmallows. He thought it was pretty cool until he went to eat it. He wasn't really sure what to think of it and I ended up finishing it for him. I guess that means he didn't like it. :)

Rylee also loves being outside. Jimmy has this talent of putting Rylee to sleep anytime, anyplace. So when he is around, he's the man for the job.

Fun With The Gay Clan

2009-05-04T21:40:00.012-06:00

We spent the weekend in Orem with Jimmy's family and the kids, mostly Tanner, had a great time. Tanner played and played with his cousins. This time all of them were there except the newest one, Zach. We did miss Dave and Ashley while we were there. Funny story about the strawberries. Tanner loves strawberries and apparently so does his cousin, Josh. Granny Gay went to eat some and found that a good amount of them had already been tasted by two little mouths. They just went ahead and put them back after the taste test. It was good of them to make sure they were OK for the rest of us to eat!
I just thought this was a cute picture, Rylee was fascinated with the balloons.
Tanner actually held Steve's snake all by himself. That was a pretty big thing for him. He was pretty proud of himself!
Rylee was loving all of the attention she was getting. She had her Papa Gay wrapped around her finger, just like her Daddy. She is the only Granddaughter, it has it's perks!

This looks like a mug shot, but really it's just the before picture of her first haircut. Her hair is crazy and out of control so at 5 1/2 months old, she got a haircut!

Her hair was pretty long. I think we cut almost an inch off. She did pretty good. Just sat there and looked around.

Not a great after picture, but it's a lot curlier now.

This is a little while after we got home. I guess Tanner played so hard, it just wiped him out and he actually fell asleep on the wipes container. Looks comfy!

I couldn't resist this picture. This is after I took the other picture and moved him to the couch. If you look close, you can see the imprints of the word 'huggies' on his face. I guess he was there longer than I thought!

Fun Stuff

2009-04-29T11:45:00.011-06:00

Just some pictures of the kids. We haven't been up to much but a whole lot of playin'. The weather has been so nice, we've been outside enjoying it before it gets to hot. Rylee is all ready for church. I just can't help taking pictures of her when she's all dressed up. I love having a girl!
Playin' at the park. Tanner is always trying to be as big as the other kids. It's funny cause the first thing he says when he sees other kids at the park is "Tan I go pfway?" (that really is play. I tried to spell it how he says it. It's funny!) He loves playing with other kids, no matter who they are. It's pretty nice.

Rylee has had this bow for a little while and I just found an outfit to match it. Is that like buying an outfit to match your shoes? I guess I'm getting her started early.

There are a bunch of these splash pads here. It's a great idea! It's just a huge sprinkler to run through and Tanner has so much fun. Plus, I don't have to get in the water with him, so it's nice for me.

Rylee and I like to lounge on the blanket while Jimmy and Tanner are playing at the park. It's nice to have girl time. Check out that hair!

Tanner insisted on taking a bath in his pirate getup. I'm not sure why he needed to wear flip flops. Come to think of it, I'm not really sure why he does most of the things he does.

Tanner got to ride in the tractor with his Poppy and it was the coolest thing for him. He follows his Poppy around everywhere. The other day, my dad was digging a hole and Tanner asked him if he was digging for dinosaur bones. He thought that was pretty funny.

My dad is doing some landscaping in his back yard and Tanner is sure it can't get done without him. He loves being out there with his Poppy and his Poppy would do just about anything for him.

Arrrr Matey!

2009-04-19T17:32:00.002-06:00

Can anyone guess what Tanner's newest obsession is?

Car Show and Easter Festivities

2009-04-12T20:11:00.015-06:00

Jimmy and his business partner, Skyler, had a booth at the car show this year. They were able to show off a couple of their cabinets and got a lot of positive feedback. They also had a couple of people that were very interested and want them to to some jobs for them, so hopefully that works out. Jimmy was pretty happy about the responses they got. Here are a couple of pictures of their work. If you click on this picture, you can see their logo on the back of Skyler's truck. It's pretty cool.

We wanted to throw in a couple pictures of what they have done to our garage so far. It looks pretty cool. It will be way nice when it's finished.

Rylee loves her Daddy!

Onto Easter. This is the only picture I got of our Easter egg hunt. We were at my friends cabin in Pinto and the wind was blowing and it was way cold! This is the only egg Tanner actually picked up.

Tanner doesn't really understand the concept of the Easter Bunny so I had to tell him where his goodies came from. I said "Tanner! The Easter Bunny brought you this basket and all this stuff!" He just said "Ya! He did!" It was pretty funny.

Tanner coloring Easter eggs. Well, I colored them, Tanner just played with the stickers and kept trying to drink the dye.

More stickers! I was pretty lazy this year. Maybe I'll try to be a little more creative next year.

Can you believe that this is the best picture I could get! Tanner refused to look at me and he would not out that stupid sword down! Some days........ They looked so cute in their Easter outfits, even if Tanner was being a stinker.

Haircut #2

2009-04-06T21:25:00.010-06:00

While Tanner was eating his breakfast of Raman noodles (it was one of those 'pick your battles' moments), I realized that he needed a serious haircut. I just love bed head! I resisted a little because I love his curls (not here, but usually) and I was afraid that they would disappear if we cut them off. Just a couple of before pictures.

When I told him he was going to get a hair cut he let me know that he did not want one. And he cried the whole time. Here he's begging Jim to let him get down.

It was kinda sad. This is only his second hair cut so he's not used to the whole 'sitting still while someone comes at you with a sharp object to cut your pretty curls off' thing.

This isn't a very good picture, but we had about two inches cut off and he still has his curls! YEA!

Rylee is getting so big! She loves to be on the floor and play with her toys.

She LOVES her big brother and Tanner just adores her! He can almost always get her to laugh at him and make her smile. It is so nice to have him to entertain her sometimes. He was playing peek-a-boo with her the other night ans she was busting up laughing at him! It is so fun to watch them playing and interacting together. You can just tell that there is already a bond between them. So cute!

I Dr. Grant!

2009-03-23T22:13:00.012-06:00

Tanner's Poppy (his new name for my dad!) gave him this hat and it has quickly become the Dr. Grant hat. For those of you who haven't seen Jurassic Park 4 million times lately, he's one of the dino experts and he wears a hat very similar to this one. Anywho, Tanner, for some odd reason, likes to pretend that he is Dr. Grant. So this hat just made it all the better. When wearing the hat, he prefers to be called Dr. Grant. One such incident went as follows:

Tanner: "Hi mom."

Me: "Hi Tanner."

Tanner: "I not Tanner! I Dr. Grant!"

(By the way, in this picture he is tasting the water and telling me that it "tastes dood!")

He wears the Dr. Grant hat (with so many hats, we have to be specific!) just about everywhere. Like to the Wildlife Museum. He did look pretty cute.
Apparently it goes good with dino jammies and a nice pair of pink shoes. These happen to be his favorite. They do make his calves look good! By the way, Tanner has started kinda dressing himself. I really had nothing to do with this outfit.
Or the crown.
Or the bra. Although it was pretty funny when he got it on and spun around saying "I a princess!" I'm still not sure what a bra has to do with being a princess. (Don't worry, this kid is has enough boy in him not to be too concerned)

These glasses were not my idea either. You got to give it to him though, he sure knows how to accessorize!

Tanner's cousins helped him raid my closet for shoes. It was pretty funny to listen to him and Lanie fight over the pink ones. Does wearing dino jammies and a Dr. Grant hat make them look more manly? ;)

Of course I have to throw in a picture of Rylee. Jim hates when I do this to her. But I just love the giant flower! Besides, I at least put it where she can see past it.

I just love this picture! Two cuties with wild crazy hair!

On a side note, Tanner went on his first sleepover without me. He went to stay at my sister Amber's house in Delta. This is only the second time I've been without him overnight and I already miss him. He's only been gone five hours! I guess that means I really do like him. I'll just tuck that away for a day when I really need it!

Sharing Time

2009-03-15T15:47:00.010-06:00

These are just some pictures that I thought I would share with all of you. After all, that's what blogs are for, to show off your kids! Jimmy was in an indoor soccer league and we went to watch one of the games. Tanner had fun playing with Jim before the game started and was a little ticked that he had to leave the field. Although he did start a conversation with the lady sitting behind me and ended it telling her that she was his friend. He is pretty friendly! Jimmy was glad that he got to play but always came home with sore muscles. I guess he is getting old.

Tanner always has a favorite toy. It usually changes from week to week but it's a toy that he carries everywhere and almost never gets put down. This is an elephant that his Papa Gay went all over town looking for because Tanner just had to have an elephant. He liked it so much, he ended up sleeping with it, and I ended up rolling over on it in the middle of the night. But at least Tanner was happy!

Regardless of what Jim might think, I know that Rylee is not a doll, but she is just so stinkin' cute when she is all dressed up!

Tanner has discovered my ipod and loves to walk around the house with it clipped to his shirt. He even does a little head bangin' to it. It's funny to watch him. And no, he hasn't been hittin' the sauce!

Rylee has enough hair for a little pony tail. So cute. And I don't even have to curl it! Just one more reason to have more bows.

Ahhhh, this was a fun day. Tanner crawled into the cereal cupboard and chewed me out when I opened the door. We are having more and more of those days lately. Fun for me!

We have started putting Rylee into the walker and she seems to enjoy it. She likes to be able to sit up and look around. The only problem is that Tanner is more in her face now. But it probably doesn't bother her since she hasn't known a life without Tanner in her face.

We thought that we would start potty training Tanner so we bought him these undies. He wanted to wear them as soon as we got home from the store so we put them on him and then he said" I go swimmin'!" So we put him in the tub with his undies on. I hope he eventually figures out what they are really for!

I have decided that being a parent is not all it's cracked up to be. Or maybe it is. We had an episode on Valentines Day with Tanner. He was sitting on a stool, lost his balance and fell over onto the hardwood floor. At first we thought it was just another fall until he passed out in my arms and then the freaking out began! We took him to instacare and all was well and good with him. Me on the other hand.....

So life goes on and Tanner is just Tanner (crazy, wild, cranky, gotta love toddler stage!) Yesterday he spooked the horse and it knocked him over. He cried and got a bath and took a nap and then he was fine. Or so I thought. Later that night I notice that his head is a little misshaped, OK allot misshaped and I take a closer look. Behind his ear is totally swollen and has pushed his ear out to where he looks kinda like Sloth off of 'Goonies'. Only kinda though! You gotta give me a break though, it was hard to see under all that hair! We have him checked out and once again he will live through his rough and tumble boyish ways, but I'm starting to wonder if he will live to see three. I know that I am not the first parent to experience these fun trips to the instacare or calling your neighbor who is an MD @10:00 at night just to be sure there really isn't any permanent damage but I'm just saying, I don't remember signing up for that. And it's only the beginning!

Catching Up

2009-03-08T21:13:00.013-06:00

Just a warning, this entry is going to be a long one. We've been without a computer for about four weeks and I haven't been able to update our happenings lately. Now that we have the computer back, I feel whole again. It's pretty bad when you can't function completely without one. Anywho, I will do my best to update you all on what we have been up to. About three weeks ago the kids and I went to Orem to visit Jim's family. Tanner had the best time while we were there. These are just a few of the pictures I have to share.Tanner loves his little sister and is constantly reminding her. Here he is saying "Hey, Rylee, Rylee!" Only when he says Rylee, it sounds like Ryee. He's pretty cute with her.

Tanner loves to play in the snow and doesn't really care if it's cold. He wanted to make foot prints in the snow and wouldn't come back in until his Granny Gay talked him into it. Then as soon as he got back inside he had to wear his Granny's pink slippers to get his feet warm again. I guess since we were making a big deal about his feet being cold he decided they were. The cold doesn't seem to bother him a bit.

This is his first experience with a snake. Jim's brother, Steve, has a couple and let Tanner hold one. He was pretty good with it until Steve tried to put it on his shoulders and then he said "No! I don't want to wear it!" Then he decided he was done and told Steve to put it away. He's a bossy little kid!
And now for Tanner's favorite part of the trip! For any of you who know Tanner, he is way into dinosaurs. We took him to the Dinosaur Museum and he had the best time. I was surprised that he recognised the dinosaurs. He had never seen just the bones before. He could name a lot of them. Smart little guy!

Tanner's Uncle Mac (aka Matt) came with us and was pretty much Rylee's personal tour guide. He only put her down a couple times and once was to play in the sand with the kids. What a great uncle! I think he kinda likes her. This is Jordo, Tan , Ty, Rylee, and Matt. Tyler also felt it was his duty to take care of Rylee while we were there. By the way, Ty is "holding" Rylee on the dinosaur. :) I had a lot of help. I should go to Orem more often!

Tanner is just trying to soak it all in. There was so much to see that it was a little overwhelming for the little guy. I could barely get him to look at the camera, he was always looking at something else. This is by the T Rex. He thought that was pretty cool.

These boys just have so much fun and the best part is that at the end of the day, they are still friends. This is when we were on our way out. Aubrey happened to glance over and grab a quick shot of them. So cute! They all had so much fun! Thanks for the fun trip! Tanner had so much fun, he asks at least a couple times a week to go to "Dranny Day's" and the dinosaur place!

This is just a picture that I took before church one day. It's hard to get Tanner to smile anymore because he always says "Cheese!" and ends up with a funny face. So I love this picture because I actually got a smile! He is still saying cheese but it's not as obvious. Little stinker! Rylee will smile and smile until I put a camera in front of her and then she just stares at it. Good thing she's cute anyway!

These next two picture are some I took of Rylee. I thought they turned out pretty good for my first real try. I'm kinda getting into this photography thing. It's a lot of fun and it saves me money that I'm not giving someone else to take them. That's smart thinkin' right there. These were for Rylee's 3 month pictures. I can't believe how fast she is growing! She is starting to giggle when we tickle her and she smiles all the time. Well, a lot of the time. She is such a little chunk!

She is just so opposite of Tanner's look. I lover her big blue eyes and her long curly hair. It's just so fun to play with! And, yes, we have bows coming out of our ears! But bows are like shoes, you can never have too many!

6th picture tag

2009-02-06T13:16:00.004-07:00

This is my 6th picture in my 6th folder. It's pretty obvious whats giong on!

My six tags:

Suzy
Aubs
Pam
Ashley
Aimee
Brielle

A Day In The Life Of Tanner

2009-02-03T12:30:00.005-07:00

This is what happens when I leave Tanner alone for to long. It doesn't help that the baby powder was so conveniently located in the diaper bag, on the floor. I've learned my lesson on that one.

Dood Job!

2009-01-28T22:32:00.000-07:00

Not much goin' on 'round here. I just thought that I would do a little updating. Rylee is growing and changing so fast, I thought I better get some more pictures on here. Jim likes to accuse me of treating her like a doll, but what good is having all the cute clothes if she doesn't wear them. And she has to have a bow! She has these cheeks that just I just want to eat up every time
I give her a kiss. They are pretty hard to resist.
She is starting to suck on her knuckles which I think is very cute. I wonder if she will be a thumb sucker like her brother.
These next few pictures are a collection of Tanner. Every time I take a picture of Rylee, Tanner needs a picture taken as well. That's all fine and dandy except that he always stands really close to me and every time I move back, he moves forward. So I take the picture and this is what we get. Notice his thumb is always in or very near his mouth.

Who doesn't like a bath? She loves them!

Tanner is always looking for new places to crash. At least Rylee wasn't in there that time.

So Tanner is always saying things that crack us all up and I would like to share a couple of them. Yesterday my parents were over. Tanner had just woken up from a nap and my dad was giving him a hard time. Well, I guess he wasn't in the mood for that because he gave Papa KJ a stern look and said "I daddy's Tanner!"

Lately Tanner has been telling everyone "Dood job!" every time we do something right. For example he will ask me what an animal is called and when I tell him he says "That's right, dood job!" Well, my dad was giving the opening prayer in sacrament meeting and Tanner was being good and folding his arms. (Something that we are working on!) When my dad finished the prayer Tanner said, in a loud, proud voice, "AMEN! Dood job Papa!" It was so funny! Everyone around us were giggling for the next couple minutes. Oh, I love that
kid! I never have a boring day.

Tanner & Granny Gay

2009-01-19T13:20:00.000-07:00

Tanner's Granny Gay is so nice to let him "help" her ice the cookies for Rylee's blessing. Not much of his icing ended up on the cookies, but that's a good thing because it was most likely in his mouth at some point during the activity. (For all those who ate the cookies, I'm sure you got the ones without Tanner saliva!)

When he started to flinging icing all over the kitchen, we decided he was done. Granny had almost as much on her as Tanner did. He didn't see a problem with that!

And directly into the bath he went. But he sure had fun with Granny Gay!

Rylee's Blessing

2009-01-05T16:11:00.000-07:00

Rylee got blessed yesterday. She looked so beutiful for her special day.

I had to take a picture of her shoes!

Jimmy did such a good job with the blessing. We sure feel blessed to have this little girl in our family. We had alot of family come to support us and it was fun to have them here. Thanks to all who made the trip.

Our Christmas

2008-12-27T21:14:00.000-07:00

Our Christmas was fun this year. Tanner was a little more aware of what was going on. My dad has a santa suit, so he dressed up on Christmas Eve and came to see Tanner. When he walked in I told Tanner to say hi to Santa. Tanner just looked at him with the biggest smile on his face and said "HI Santa!". He didn't get around to telling him what he wanted because Santa pulled out a treat and Tanner got totally distracted. We'll remember to save the treat untill last next year. Here are a couple pictures of Tanner on Christmas morning. Rylee liked santa too, you just can't tell. :)

When Tanner saw this he said "Oh, I wuv it!" It was so funny!

Tanner's Granny Jeffery made him a dinosaur blanket and he got a cars sleeping bag, so I guess he decided to put them to use. He's pretending to sleep, silly kid.

Rylee had fun too. She got some cute new bows, so that's fun for me. She doesn't look like it bothers her to bad either.

We had a fun morning. Tanner's favorite phrase everytime he opened something was "Oh my doodness!". He was so excited with everything. It was fun! Jimmy had to work later in the day so we just hung out and then hurried to have a Christmas dinner before he had to leave. Tanner was ecxited to have some of his cousins to play with. He is at an age where he kinda likes to be mean and he kept picking on his cousins. My dad was checking on him and my little neice asked him if Santa had braught Tanner any toys. When my dad said yes, she said "Why, he's naughty!". We all laughed at that. It was true, he was being naughty. Maybe next year I can hang that one over him. But all in all we had a good time with my family and it was fun to see them. We did miss being with Jim's family this year. We hope everyone's Holliday was fun and relaxing and everything that Christmas should be.

So Original

2008-12-22T03:35:00.000-07:00

These are just some more of Tanner's random places to be. I guess when your that small, why not try to fit wherever you can.

I thought this was pretty funny. He was watching a movie in his room. When I went to check on him, there he was.

For those of you who know Tanner, you know he's not your ordinary 2 year old. His favorite movie is Jurassic Park 3 and he would watch it 20 times a day if I would let him. Well, for a little change of pace and to help save my sanity, I suggested that we watch something different. Maybe Shrek or Cars or something like that. Well, Tanner chose to watch 'The Lord of The Rings'. He has now seen all of them. Well, the other day he had a something in his hand and he was talking to it. It took me a minute to figure out what he was saying but when I did, I was laughing my butt off. He was calling it "My Precious"! And he was saying it almost like Gollum in that freaky little voice. It was so funny! That kid cracks me up!

Tanner's Favorite Places

2008-12-16T11:02:00.000-07:00

Tanner has some pretty random places that he likes to be in. This one was his favorite! The rest are just places I found him on different days.

This is a baby bathtub. Also good for a little TV watching.

This is our Christmas tree box. He fit in it perfectly. What would I do without so much variety in my day?

Our Rylee Girl

2008-12-03T13:23:00.000-07:00

Well, we got Rylee's two week pictures taken and thought that we would share them with you all. I thought they turned out really cute!

This is one of my favorites! Her Daddy's little girl.

We were lucky to get this shot. Tanner would not hold still! I know it's hard to believe. But it turned out good. I think I'll keep them both. :)

Rylee is one week old!

2008-11-20T18:14:00.000-07:00

Today Rylee is one week. It's amazing how fast it goes. I feel like we just brought her home. She still sleeps most of the time but is very content to just lay there when she is awake. Tanner still likes her, so that's nice. I'm not the best photographer, but I'll keep trying to get better pictures of her.

This is how she felt about our little photo shoot earlier. I thought it was a funny picture. She really hardly ever cries, but apparently she doesn't like her picture taken. Maybe she doesn't like what she is wearing. I know that would make me cry.

She looks a little worried in this one. She must not be convinced that I'm doing a good job. She has tons of unruley, curly hair that is fun to play with. I just hope it stays. She was also a little jaundice and had to be under the billi lights, but thankfully it was only for a day and then just sunlight. She is doing well now and Tanner is getting used to her being around. One little episode today though, I was doing laundry and I walked in the living room where Rylee was. Tanner was standing in front of her and I could see that he had something in his hands but I couldn't see what it was. When I got a little closer I could see that he had a squirt bottle and was vigorously squirting Rylee with it. Her whole head was soaked! I guess he thought maybe she needed a bath. I'm going to have to be careful when I leave the room. At least that was all he did!

Jim's mom came down with his brother, Matt. Well, now he is Uncle 'Mac'. At least that's what Tanner thinks. He followed his uncle Mac around the whole time they were here being his little shadow. Matt was a very nice uncle and had allot of patience with him, which I appreciate! Tanner would wait all morning for 'Mac' to wake up and his little face would light up. He would say "Mac awake!"

This picture isn't very good, but when Matt got to our house he had on his hoodie, hood on head, and some white shoes on. Well, Tanner picked up on that quick and within no time had on his hoodie, hood on head, and white shoes! It was so funny! It was all over for 'Mac' after that. Thanks for being such a good buddy!

Hot out of the oven!

2008-11-14T21:12:00.000-07:00

Well, here is our Rylee girl. She came on Thursday, Nov 13 at 10:41 am. She weighs 7 lbs 10 oz, and she is 20.5 in long. Only about two oz different than Tanner. She has a round little face and tons of long, dark hair. I know this isn't the greatest picture. I'll do better ones later. I have found that sharing my energy between an infant and a two year old leaves little for anything else. Shocking, I know. But we are very happy to have her here. It was a very short labor and very easy so I was happy about that.

Tanner was more excited about washing his hands at the hospital than holding Rylee. In fact, as you can see in this picture, he hardly even looked at her the whole time. I was a little worried.

But this morning he decided that she might be kinda neat so he wanted to hold her and count her fingers and toes. He really is quite cute with her now. He wants to hold her all of the time and can't figure out why she is always attached to me (She eats ALOT). So far so good with Tanner. I think it is funny that they look nothing alike. But I guess it's still early and we will have to wait and see. Thanks for all of your calls and well wishes. We really appreciate all of our family and friends!

Rockin Out!

2008-11-11T22:02:00.000-07:00

Tanner's Granny Gay and Aunt Aubrey came down this weekend and brought his cousins, Ty and Jordo, to play. Granny Gay always has the funnest ideas of what to do to help them have fun. This time she bought them a drum set and a guitar so they could have a little rock band. They had so much fun! Jordo was playing the piano but he got a little bored with it so that just left Tanner and Tyler to jam out. And beleive me, they were jammin'. They thought it was the coolest thing ever. It was fun to watch for a while, but then when they wern't looking we hid the noise makers and resorted back top some quieter toys. Granny Gay was nice enough to take the intruments back to her house. That was really appreciated! If I knew how to upload video I would because these pictures just don't do "The Band" any justice. :)

Here is another one of Tanner. The next morning he talked me into playing the drums while he was on the guitar. It was quite a site, I'm sure. Me and my big fat pregnant belly sitting on that little tiny stool. Oh yeah, I had to sit on the stool. Tanner even showed me how to play. To bad I didn't get any pictures of that. Granny Gay did, but hopefully she will keep them to herself. What mothers won't do for their children!

Tanner loves to go into the baby's room and mess with everything. The other day I caught him just chillen in the bassinet, just the wrong part! But I guess if your comfey...... He did get stuck and I had to help him out. Thats my Tanner!

Just an update: I am scheduled to be enduced on Thursday (thats this Thursday-hallelujah!) sometime in the morning. So next post I should have pictures of our baby girl! YEA! I can't wait to have her here and to be able to see my toes again. Ah, the simple things in life.

My little Dinosaur

2008-10-31T23:12:00.000-06:00

We, well I, decided that a dinosaur would be perfect for Tanner this year since that is his current obsession. I got lucky and was able to find a costume so I didn't have to be creative and make one. FEW! It's accually a dragon costume but don't tell Tanner that. This is at our annual neighborhood halloween party. Tanner hadn't had a nap all day and he cried all the way to the park. When we got there he just plopped himself on the ground and wouldn't get up for anything. We finally talked him into playing some games, but it took some effort.

Tanner and his cousin, Annie, are pretty much inseperable. In fact, they act just like brother and sister because they are around each other so much. But they have alot of fun.I couldn't get a picture of Tanner by himself because he would not hold still. Shocking, I know. But they are cute together. Maybe it won't be so hard on Tanner to have a baby sister. He's pretty used to having Annie around. Tanner didn't do so well with the whole trick-or-treating thing. I'm sure he'll get it next year. He went to a B-day party today and they were bobbing for apples. Tanner got one on his first try and he was so proud of himself. I wish I had a picture because it was so freakin cute!

The other day I asked Tanner if he needed a nap. He told me that his dinosaur needed a nap and the next thing I know, Tanner is sneaking out of his room, shutting the door. So I waited a few minutes and then went in and this is what I found. I did not set this up! Tanner really did put the dinosaur down for a nap. He even tucked him in!

This is just a cute picture of Tanner. Everytime I get the camera out he says "CHEESE!" so of course I have to take a picture. This is a perfect picture of Tanner's little happy self. I just need to remeber this when he starts acting like he's two.

An update on us: Jimmy got a second job working weekend security at the Blue Bunny plant. Today is his first day so we'll see how it goes. He gets to eat all the free ice cream he wants so it can't be that bad. He can't bring any home though. That really stinks but it's probably a good thing because I would just eat it. I am officially unemployed! YEA! I am so excited that I get to stay home with Tanner and with the Baby. We will be extra poor, but it will be worth it. Now I can work on potty training Tanner. YIKES! Can't wait to get that over with. I will also be teniding Annie a bit so that should help Tanner with the baby transition. Just for an update, I have about 3 weeks left (if I can wait that long!) untill our baby girl comes. Everything is fine as far as the pregnancy goes, but I'm not sure my body can take anymore. I will probably end up getting enduced, but I'm not sure when yet. I just can't wait for her to get here!

One Year Older and Wiser?

2008-10-08T12:37:00.000-06:00

Well, I'm not sure about the wiser part but I am one year older. 29 to be exact. This last little while was pretty eventfull fo Jimmy and me. Well, at least it should have been. Jim's b-day, our anniversary, and my b-day. But since we are pretty lazy we just stayed home and enjoyed being together with our little family.
I'm going to take Ashley's suggestion and do the questionnaire about my hubby. Any reason to brag!
1. What's his name? James Patrick Gay.
2. Who east more? Deffinitely Jimmy.
3. Who said I love you first? I can't remember to clearly but I'm pretty sure it was him.
4. Who is taller? Jimmy by 13 inches.
5. Who is smarter? Jimmy, and he always reminds me ;)
6. Who is more sensitive? Me by far
7. Who does the laundry? Me, but he will help if I ask him to.
8. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Jimmy
9. Who pays the bills? Jimmy makes the money, I pay the bills.
10. Who cooks more? I cook more, but I don't like it.
11. What meals do you cook together? If we are grilling, Jim grills, I do everything else.
12. Who is more stubborn? Probably me. I hate addmiting when I am wrong.
13. Who is the first to admit whem they are wrong? I'm usually wrong, so eventually I'll admit it.
14. Who has more siblings? Jimmy, 2 sisters, 5 brothers. I just have 2 and 2.
15. Who wears the pants in the relationship? I'll just say Jimmy.
16. What do you like to do together? We like to go to dinner, our only alone time.
17. Who eats more sweets? Me by far. Jim doesn't eat sweets, unless it's brownies.
18. Guilty pleasures? For me it's pedicures, for Jim it's McDonalds.
19. How did you meet? We served in the same mission.
20. Who asked out who first? Jim came to visit me when I got home from my mission, so I guess it was mutual.
21. Who kissed who first? Jimmy kissed me.
22. Who proposed? Jimmy,the cutie pie! It was the only time I've ever seen him nervous!
23. His best feature? He has a great body and he is so good looking!
24. What is his greatest quality? He is very patient with me, and I'm a little spoiled so it's not that easy :) He also loves his family and is a very hard worker. I appriciate that!

Fun In The Snow!

2008-10-05T19:05:00.000-06:00

We decided to take a little drive to Cedar Mountain. I didn't realize that there was going to be snow when we got there! I realize that it is October and that it snow's in October but just last week it was 97* here in sunny St. George. So we were not quite prepared when we arrived and there was a foot of snow. But it was very pretty and Tanner had such a good time, so thats all that counts right? Who cares that I don't have a jacket to fit over my belly and was freezing the whole time while Jimmy was in shorts and a T-shirt and only his right ear was cold. Yeah, weird I know.

Tanner and Annie were having so much fun! Tanner kept running around saying "Snow! Snow!"

Tanner's Papa KJ was nice enough to show him how to throw a snowball and he couldn't get enough of that. He was throwing snow at everyone and then he would crack up laughing everytime. It was usually his little evil laugh. I had to drag him out of the snow several times on our way back to the car. He did not want to leave. Oh, to only have the energy of a two year old.

Needless to say, Tanner had a very good time!

On another note, Jimmy and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary last Monday. At times it seems like we have been married forever, in a good way. In the years that we have been married we have lived in four places, owned two of them, had seven different cars, have one little boy with a girl on the way and are still getting to know each other and learning from each other every day. I'm sure the latter will continue through the years. Yeah, I think I'll keep him. Jim has no comment, but I'm sure he feels the same. :)

Just Tanner

2008-09-25T20:35:00.000-06:00

Tanner has recently become obsessed with a couple different things. One of them is motorcycles. Everytime he sees one he yells out what is supposed to be "MOTORCYCLE!". And for some reason they are always blue, regardless of what color they really are. His Papa KJ has one so when we go to his house he has to stop and admire it for a minute. We decided to put him on it the other day and he thought that was pretty cool. Some more of his obsessions are dinosaurs and shopping. We went to Wal-Mart the other day and as we were pulling into the parking lot he yells out "SHOPPING!". I guess that one can be blamed on me.

I have a stool in my kitchen because I am very tall and can reach all of the shelves. This has become Tanner's 'table' and he plays on it alot. He hauls it around the house to do whatever task he needs done. Well, apparently it makes a pretty good spot for lunch. (By the way, those are dinosaur shaped sandwiches. I thought it would make him want to eat them more but he just plays with them more) He also uses it as an acctual stool to get into the silverware drawer and get whatever he needs in there. The other day he used it to put back together his basketball hoop because he realized he wasn't tall enough to put the hoop back on. Then he used it to throw the basketball in. It's alot easier when you can reach it. Smart kid.

I am starting to get my fall decor out and Tanner loves theese little 'pumkins'. He lines them all up in a row and then rearranges them again and again. He also throws them alot. I guess tiny things are neat when you are tiny too.

I had to add this one! Tanner has had a habit lately of falling asleep in the strangest places. I went to check on him one day and there he was in the corner surrounded by his toys sound asleep. Maybe I need to start putting the poor kid down for a nap!

I'm married to an OLD MAN!

2008-09-12T15:31:00.000-06:00

Well, that is what Jim would have you beleive. He had a birthday this past week and turned 29! He is always telling me that he is an old man so I guess this makes it official. It's hard to beleive that we are almost 30, but life goes on. Jim got his windows tinted in his truck for his birthday. Those of you who know Jim well won't be surprised to hear that his birthday dinner choice was McDonalds. In a way I was releived that I didn't have to cook but I thought maybe he would choose somewhere a little nicer. Oh well, thats my Jimmy. I asked him the night before what he wanted for dinner and he said whatever. I had to remind him that it was his birthday so he had to choose. He didn't even remember that it was his birthday! He did it again the next day at work. I guess thats another sign of getting older, it just doesn't matter that much anymore. Thank you to all of you who called. He sure loves his family, beleive it or not!

Tanner's First Haircut & Fun with Ty & Jordo

2008-09-01T15:49:00.000-06:00

This picture tells the story of how Tanner felt about getting his hair cut. He accually sat really still for the most part but he still didn't like it. I was really not wanting to cut his pretty curls but they were getting in his eyes and every now and then Tanner would say "Mamma, hair in eyes." So alas I knew it was probably time for the inevitable. Because his hair is so curly we have been able to put it off untill now. His hair was about 5-6 inches long, but it's hard to tell with all the curl.

He's not looking so happy here either. He was trying to watch Dora and Aubrey kept getting in the way while cutting those locks. Nice, Aubrey!

And now he is really done sitting for a hair cut! The funniest part was that he kept trying to find his thumb that was under that dang cape. We finally had to get it out for him so that he would sit for the remainder of the haircut. He still has his curls! They just won't bother him so bad and will be a little more tame for me. We ended up cutting about two inches off, but I'm probably the only one who can tell. Jim also got a hair cut, but he didn't think I needed to tell you all about it.

Aubrey, Kev and the kids came to visit us this weekend. We had a good time with them and the kids had sooo much fun! It was nice to be able to just sit and talk once the kids went to bed ;). Ty & Jordo are a little scared of the dogs so it was Jim's mission to help break them of that. We had the dogs in as much as Ty would let us. Here, Jim had just given the dogs a bath so we had to keep them inside untill they dried off. Jim put up the baby gate and locked the dogs in the kitchen. Turns out this was safe enough for the kids because they sat in front of the gate and just watched the dogs play.

I have the biggest bathtub in the world so we put the boys in and let them play. And they played and played and played! It is almost as big as a swimming pool so really, it was like they were swimming, not taking a bath. The best part was that the power was out so we had to light the bathroom with a lantern and I guess that just made it all the more fun!

Cheese! Thanks for coming to our house guys! Tanner had so much fun with you!

Ride 'Em Cowboy!

2008-08-24T15:46:00.001-06:00

The other night my Dad decided to take the kids on a horse ride. Annie and Tanner usually do things together so they went for a ride on Bud. They had so much fun! Here are some pictures of them riding around the yard.

I don't know why it took us so long to get the 'cow-hat' but luckily we had one for both of them and they thought it was pretty cool. Don't you love Tanner's curls! I hope they never go away.

Of course when it was time to get off, Tanner threw a fit. I don't know why he keeps acting like a two year old.

Tanner has been putting imself down for naps lately. I guess he knows when he is tired. Here are some pictures of Tanner sleeping. It's the only time he is holding still!

Who doesn't love a nap with Daddy?

I always have to wonder when it's been quiet for awhile. This is usually why!

I guess I can do a little update on Jimmy and me since it's been awhile. We are just looking forward to November when our little girl will be here. Fall is now my favorite season! The baby is due very close to Thanksgiving, Nov 23, so I figure that gives me a pretty good -get out of fixing Thanksgiving dinner- card. So we will see if Jimmy is having Thanksgiving dinner at the hospital, or if he just ends up with a turkey sandwich. If any of you know Jimmy, neither of these choices will do so there will probably be a third alternative. So you don't have to feel sorry for him, I'm sure he'll get his fixins. The bigger I get the harder it is to bend over, put on my pants, tie my shoes (which is why I wear flip flops) get out of bed, breath (just to name a few). I am looking forward to fall when it will cool down a little so I can be a tiny bit more comfortable. But mostly just for the baby to be here all together. I will be quiting my job at the end of October so that I can be a stay at home mommy. I am sooo looking forward to that too. Jim says that there is nothing new with him to report. He is just being modest! I have been so grateful for him lately. He is being so patient with me and my moodiness (which I blame entirely on the pregnancy) and helping me so much with Tanner. Tanner just loves him so much and can't wait for him to get home from work so they can play, watch TV, eat poppcorn, whatever the activity might be. It is so fun to see Tanner bond with his Daddy! He is such a mamma's boy that I was worried how he would react when the baby came. I'm sure we will all get through it. ;)