Just Tanner

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!

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

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!

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. ;)

What we've been up to

Tanner started climbing out of his crib so we decided it was time for a big boy bed. He loves it! He loves that he can climb on and off of it and that it is just his size. It took a couple nights for him to get used to it, but now he climbs right in and goes to bed. He has also put himself down for naps so thats been kinda nice. Sometimes I go in there and find him just playing on his bed. It was a good purchase.

We went to delta over the weekend and they had a little fair goin on. They had all of theese blow up toy things that the kids can play on. Tanner loves them, especially the slide! He must hav went down that 20 times or more. You should have seen Jim going down it with him, I'm not sure who was having more fun!

This is Tanner at the bull riding thing. He loved to see all of the "cows" and loved when the cowboys got bucked off. At one point the rodeo clown came up to Tanner and Grady and tried to shake their hands. Tanner just looked at it like "What am I supposed to do with that?". Then we told him to give him the rock, so then he understood. He thought that was pretty cool. He just played and played with his cousins and had the best time ever. He always has so much fun when we go there.

This is just Tanner entertaining himself with the laundry basket. He still fits inside of it pretty good so I guess it makes a pretty good place to play. He was pretty mad when I had to take it to do the laundry. Life is so hard when you are only 2!

Family Reunion

Well, I'm a little slow getting this picture posted, so prepare for a very long blog. ;) We went to Delta for the 4th and Tanner had so much fun at the parade! He loved the horses and the marching band. (Hey Dave, ya never know, maybe we will be going to band off's!) He couldn't quite get the concept of picking up the candy that was thrown. I would pick it up and put it in his bag and then Tanner would take it out of his bag and throw it at the floats. Thats what they were doing so why shouldn't he? Finally I talked his cousins into picking up the candy so I didn't have to bend over anymore. He was all wide eyed when it came to the fireworks later that night. He didn't move one inch untill they were finished, and that's saying alot for Tanner. While we were waiting for them to start, the sprinklers came on where we were sitting. He thought that was pretty funny. He had alot of fun.

We had a family reunion with Jim's family last weekend. We went to the lake and hung out alot. Tanner had so much fun with his cousins. I think the dirtier he was, the happier he was. I guess that's a typical boy for ya. He is giving us a 'cheese' smile in this one.

When we got to the lake, Tanner ran up to the water and put his feet in. I didn't think much of it and the next thing I knew he was up to his chest in water. So I guess he's not afraid of the water. He had alot of fun with his daddy. They went for a ride on the wave runner and Tanner was pretty mad when he had to get off. I pretty much just sat under the canopy and tried not to get skin cancer.

This is just a shot of the boys. It's pretty hard to get them all together at the same time, so we don't always get the best pictures. They all had so much fun and they got along so well. We all had a pretty good time, I was just happy that Tanner had some alternative entertainment. Next year we will at least have a girl in the middle of them all!

Tanner's Birthday

Tanner had an Elmo Birthday party and he had the best time! For those of you who don't know, Tanner LOVES Elmo so it was easy to decide what to do for him. He had some of his cousins over and they had alot of fun. Tanner didn't really know why everyone was there but it was a party so he didn't care. They played Pin the nose on Elmo and we had an Elmo pinata and they all had fun beating that with a bat. Jim ended up beheading Elmo and then Tanner carried it around for a while. When it came time to blow out the candles, Tanner knew exactly what to do and blew them right out. We've been working on blowing on our hot food, so Tanner was prepared. He is a smart little kid. He still didn't quite get the present concept. We had to keep showing him that there were things inside the packages. I guess it has been awhile since Chirstmas.

Tanner needed a little help with the bat since it was bigger than him. He took the first turn and then had a freak out because he didn't want to give anyone else a turn. But it all worked out. It was funny to watch the kids try to hit it. We had to hide the bat afterward so Tanner would stop swinging it at random things, like me and his cousins, just to name a few. I wondered if that would give him any ideas.

Finally Jim whacked it good and the candy went flying! All of the kids went for all the candy on the ground except for Tanner. He dug it out of the beheaded Elmo body. He knew where the good stuff was!

This is just his cake. I thought it turned out really cute. Better than I could do that's for sure. It was a fun day and Tanner had a blast. It should be better next year when he actually knows whats going on.