The Main Men in My Life

May has been a CRAZY month! But two of the highlights of the month involve my main men, Brandon and Tanner. (Oh, how I love them!!)

The first major event being GRADUATION! May 1, 2009

I am so proud of Brandon and all the work he has put into the last four years! Even graduating with honors, he always made sure to give us the time we needed. It was taxing for all of us at times, but Brandon always made school time, school time and home time, home time. Thank you for all your hard work and sacrifice, Brandon! You made it!!

(Can you tell it was an emotional day for me?)

Brandon's mom Sherri was able to come out to Memphis for graduation. It was great to see her and feel her love and support!

After having a great visit in Memphis seeing good friends (that we will continue to miss) we came home for a couple days, turned around and drove up to Idaho and Washington for some job interviews. When we go back Brita (my lil' sis') and Ace where here just in time for Tanner's birthday on the 12th of May.

Yes, Tanner turned 2 this year! I know everyone thinks their kid is a genius, but Tanner has continued to surprise us over and over the past 6 months or so! He knows all his colors (even the not so colorful ones like white, black, brown, and gray), he can count to 10 (and now is starting to learn into the teens), his vocabulary continues to skyrocket, he speaks in sentences and is over all just one smart little cookie! He's also a little joy to have around! He's been experimenting with throwing tantrums and the "terrible two's" kind of stuff, but so far he is mostly a pleaser. (We'll see if he has some curve balls in store for us with the months ahead!) He's got just about everyone he meets wrapped around his little finger -- his church nursery teacher, his doctor, ladies at the grocery store (everyone has a story about red-heads), and of course, his aunts, uncles, and grandparents. My mom has always said that God made two-year-olds cute so their mothers don't kill them. Tanner seems to be oozing with that kind of charm!

Here he is helping me on the morning of his birthday make his cake.



He was very pleased with his puppy cake (I find a great deal of motherly satisfaction making a fun birthday cake), but even more pleased to have everyone singing "Happy Birthday" to him! He giggled the whole time!

And then presents!
Tanner was super excited about his tricycle, but as soon as he climbed on he looked at us and asked, "Helmet?" Thank goodness Gramma was ready with her present for him! Tanner is really into motorcycles right now and often calls his trike a motorcycle. In this picture he is revving his engine saying, "Vroom! Vroom!"

And here is one of the reasons for his fascination with motorcycles -- Uncle Jeffy!

Now he can be like Uncle Jeffy and Papa Dennis with his own "motorcycle" and
helmet!

A quick up-date for us, Brandon got a job in the Tri-Cities area in Washington. (It's in the south-eastern corner of the state, not the rainy side.) We didn't expect to end up that far away, but we love the area and are really excited about this next chapter in our lives! We've really felt the help of the Lord as we've planned and prepared for this. We're moving in the middle of June, getting ready for a baby at the end of July and Hailey will be starting kindergarten this fall. Whew, summer '09 is gonna be an exciting one!

Drum roll please . . .

Well, the verdict is in - we're having another boy! You can see his profile here, looking up. Oh boy, oh boy - he's cute already!

As for our other cute ones:

We've been having lots of fun at Gramma and Grandpa's house!

Gramma is always making some kind of treat and loves to have little helpers.

Hailey and Tanner love having all the space in the basement to play.

We all have fun playing air-hockey; we've found it is most fun playing with two pucks on the table at the same time.

We've made a couple trips over to the Dinosaur museum which has been a lot of fun!

Hailey had a lot of fun making "The Great Valley" in the sand and water play area.

Tanner, on the other hand, preferred to just look -- he doesn't like to get his hands dirty.

The museum has lots of hands-on displays and activities that makes it really fun for the kids. Hailey and Tanner did their best to climb up the legs of the supersaurus.

We came across a funny quote from Hailey that I jotted down last November. One afternoon, deep in thought Hailey said to me, "I want to stay alive forever because I like sucking on my fingers . . . and I like drinking . . . and I like snacking . . . that's why."

Though Hailey has been a dedicated finger-sucker since back when it was still cute . . .

about a month and a half ago, she decided she was ready to be a big girl and quit. She spotted a doll at the grocery store that she decided would be worth giving up finger-sucking for. (I'd been suggesting the idea to her everytime she saw a doll that she wanted, if she could stop sucking on her fingers than she could get it. But it didn't work until it was her idea and she was ready.) After filling out her sticker chart for a week she could have her doll. We continued putting the yucky fingernail polish on at night for the next few weeks, but she didn't need it. She's a determined little spit-fire and she broke her habit! We are so proud of her! Way to go Hailey!!

Great News!

Yes, we have some mighty fine news -- two things to be excited about: First, we SOLD OUR HOUSE! After seven long months of our house being on the market, it is sold! We closed Jan 29th so it's all done. Needless to say, January was a very busy month trying to get this all taken care of long distance. I couldn't have done it without Brandon -- he's wonderful! To be honest, it hardly seems real but we are so very happy and grateful!

The second thing to be excited and grateful about is that we are pregnant (for those of you who haven't heard yet)! I'm 15 weeks along so we are due at the end of July. I realize that it has been a long time since our last post and now you know why! If I ever had a minute to myself, I slept rather than getting on the computer. But now I am back in the world of the living! (It's good to be back!)

The kids make us laugh so much! Just before Christmas Tanner came up with a nick-name for Hailey that he could say: "LuLu". Hailey was thrilled that Tanner could finally call her by "name" and it stuck! It's pretty darn cute to hear him say! When he was born, Hailey called him "Shaw-Shosh" for a nick-name. So now we have "Shaw-Shosh and LuLu!" Sometimes Tanner will sing a happy little song to himself, to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle" saying, "Mama, Dada, LuLu, Ma, Da, Ma, Lu, Dada, Lu ..." We love to hear him sing! I melts all our hearts to hear him say, "I ya yoo!" (I love you.)

Last week Hailey was pretending to be a "Rescue Princess;" wearing a princess dress and brandishing a sword. During this pretend time, I gave her a cookie and she asked me, "Is this for being such a good warrior?"

While driving home from preschool one day, Hailey was telling me about opposites (something they were talking about that day). So I asked her, "What's the opposite of high?" This is the answer I got, "Well, birds can fly up in the sky because, well, Heavenly Father put magic on their wings. But He didn't put any magic on our arms, so we can't fly. So, birds are high because they are up by the trees and the sky and we are low on the ground 'cause we can't fly." I wasn't expecting anything so elaborate. She certainly has the gift of gab.

A couple of weeks ago, Hailey was helping Grandma make pancakes for a Sunday morning breakfast. (We have late church -- not my fav.) Grandma Marti said to her, "After we're finished making the pancakes then we'll set the table." To which Hailey replied, "Yeah, well, someone will." Maybe we could look at it as developing leadership qualities and learning the value of delegating. She's definitely got sass. Does sass count as a leadership quality?

In sacrament meeting last Sunday Hailey leaned over and whispered to me, "This is magic bread, it helps you think about Jesus." She's got lots of other good qualities, too!

Tonight, Hailey was getting out of bed over and over with one long-winded excuse after another. It resulted in her losing out on her beloved TV time for tomorrow. After hearing her consequence she turned and started stomping back to bed and I told her that I loved her. She turned around and in her angry voice said, "Don't say that! I know! I love you, too! I just -*huh*- I won't be angry in the morning!" And off she went. My mom and sister Mary were there to witness the whole thing and had to stifle their laughs until she was all the way up stairs! Yep, she's definitely got sass.

Halloween Happiness

Since we moved back to Utah, I was planning on bundling up the kids for Trick-or-Treating, but we were pleasantly suprised that we didn't have to. It's a good thing too, because I didn't know how I was going to convince Hailey that she had to put a coat over here ballerina costume.

A slight variation from her "light pink ballerina" costume last year, Hailey was a fairy ballerina this year. Well . . . the fairy part she decided to throw on just before walking out the door to trick-or-treat. She appeared at other Halloween parties as a regular ballerina.


Example of the pre-wing costume below . . . because I know you were all dying to know the details of our costume picking process. It's very important around here. But the thing that really made the costume was the beautiful skirt that Aunt Amber made for Hailey! Thanks Am!

And then we have little Clark Kent! The thing that makes this costume so great (besides the fact that it only cost me $3 to make) is the fact that Tanner didn't know he was wearing a costume so he didn't feel the need to tear it off. For some reason he's not into the dress-up thing the way Hailey is . . . go figure?

It was fun to be at home this year to carve pumpkins with my family. We understand that pumpkin carving (much like Easter egg dyeing) typically turns into a 2+ hour art project. Mary and I kept eachother company while we fussed over our pumpkins for a couple of hours and Mom finished her's up in about 20 minutes. Maybe that makes her the real artist.

Mary's very cool dragon and Mom great jack-o-lantern face!

Just like always, I'd rather Halloween be cute than scary.

Tanner was so funny trick-or-treating as a first-timer! He would pick a piece of candy at one house, but wouldn't let it out of his tight little fist. He'd get a piece for the other hand at the next house but wouldn't let us put either one in his bag. Sometimes we would manage to sneek one out of his hand to put it into his bag when he was ready to grab a new piece of candy, or somtimes he would just drop the one in his hand in the new bowl of candy and get a different piece. I'm sure in another year or two, he'll get the concept down and be running from house to house!

We didn't trick-or-treat long but the kids still made a good hawl, which of course, the 5 adults in the house have been helping out with. About a week after Halloween, Hailey took a look in her candy bag and started to cry. "How did this happen?" she said, "I want MUCH more candy than this!"

kids and the farm

These were actually taken before our move (hence the house in shambles in the background) but I think this kid is so cute I couldn't resist posting these pics! Tanner loves using baby sign and you can almost understand him saying things like "I want that" (it's more like "i-ahn-at"). He usually only calls me by name when he wants me to do something for him, "MA MA MA MA!" He quickly figured out the advantage to having a Grandma around to pick him up when "MA MA MA MA" won't. Tanner loves soft tickles on his face and neck and he will lay all over your lap so his neck is exposed for you to tickle. But this little snuggler absolutely refuses to give kisses! I ask him for a kiss and he shakes his head, turns away and laughs. Stinker.

One of Hailey's new neighbor friends had a birthday party at the Thanksgiving Point petting farm. Our kids are kind of sissies when it comes to animals, but after feeding enough sheep, goats and chickens, they were finally warmed up to the idea of riding the ponies.

Did we survive the summer?

Umm, just barely. Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.

But I'll back up a bit. Allison brought Jeremiah and Eliza at the end of July for some much needed family visiting.

We had fun reading silly books . . .

more fun at the sprinkler park . . .

fun eating eating popsicles . . .

and even more fun playing dress-ups.

We love having family come visit! Thanks for making the treck on your own Allison -- soggy car seat and all!

We managed to squeeze Brandon's birthday in for a bit more fun before packing up.

This, by the way, was a fabulous Reeses Peanutbutter Cup cheese cake. Oh yeah. It was pretty amazing, if I do say so myself. But, ah, I didn't realize we were down to one candle. At least he didn't have to blow out a match.


The rest of the month was a blur of packing, only to be interupted with Tanner coming down with croup 3 days before the move. I spent the night before loading up the truck with Tanner in the hospital (next door to the crazy man yelling about his "sever pain" and his "need" for morphine) so he could get a breathing treatment. Hailey came down with it the next day, but didn't get nearly as sick. But needless to say, all the babysitting I had arranged for the last couple days had to be canceled. I only survived with the help of the Relief Society; a.k.a. my really good friends.

The morning of the move Hailey disappeared for a while. We found her in her room for one last snuggle there with her blanky. It was pretty bitter-sweet. It's been hard to leave our home and ward there.

We broke up our drive out to Utah by going up to Navoo (but our car decided to take a break in Missouri so we could meet a nice mechanic who gave us some gospel cd's). Brandon and I traded off so we could both go to a temple session while we were there. It was a nice break.

Then back on the road . . .

I brought some sliced cheese for Tanner to eat on the trip. The cooler was right next to him and apparently I hadn't put it away very well one time. I turned around to see him chowin' down on about 5 slices of cheese. He was pretty pleased with himself and I couldn't stop laughing!

We made it to Denver to see Grammie Sherri and take a much need break from being in the car.

I don't know, do you think he was a little worn out? I know I was.

But here we are in Utah at last! The weather has been great and the leaves are changing. We went up to "walk on the Utah mountains," as Hailey puts it, this past week. It was just gorgeous! I didn't realize just how much I missed this kind of nature. Wow!

So we are done with the "school" portion of optometry school in Memphis. Brandon is here for 2 externships, equaling 8 months until graduation. We're staying with my parents in Bluffdale, who just moved back to Utah also. It's great to be so close to family and see extended family that we haven't seen in years; some since our wedding. Which reminds me, we just celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary last month.

And to top it all off, BYU is having a great season and we can watch it all on my partents wide screen, HDtv. What more could we ask for? (Well, I guess a decent job opportunity for Brandon would be nice too.)