Family Pics

Our sister, Desha, took these while we were at our parents' house in Colorado for Thanksgiving.

Blessed by Visitors

We had not one, not two, but THREE visitors during the weekend right before Thanksgiving. Our sister (technically Jeremy's sister, but she's mine just the same)and her husband visited us as part of their epic 54+ day road trip around the country. They are Melissa and Jon, and are known as MeliJon. And then our cousin Briana (from my side of the family) came to visit as part of her trip to a wedding. Jeremy spent all week getting the kitchen and house projects done before they arrived. It was great to have a functioning, beautiful house for our guests!

We took the family to the tidepools in Carona Del Mar. The highlight this time was seeing way more starfish than normal (thanks to Jon) AND we (well it was really me) found FOUR sea slugs!! One interesting thing is that we did not see any of those fist-sized blackish purple crabs that hover in between the rocks. Maybe they're seasonal?

Tanner was very well behaved. He got curious and touched some starfish!

 During the day on Mon,Tues & Weds, Jeremy and I had to go to work, Briana visited with other friends, and MeliJon babysat Tanner. Melissa and Jon were the perfect substitute parents! Tanner fell in love with them. During the 3 days that they watched him, they took Tanner to Mile Square Park, the neighborhood park, a bike ride to the pier, an afternoon on the beach, a trip to Target, and skateboarding! They also played lots of games at home like dancing to dubstep, playing dress-ups, jamming on the piano and reading stories.   

At the park, Tanner went on all the slides, including climbing up to the super, duper high one. I didn't know he liked slides that much.

 He LOVED the wheel. He's really been into cars and anything locomotive. He's been playing with cars and making them go "vroom" since he was 10 months old. He watches the Baby Einstein episode of "things that go" on Youtube. Lately, he started saying "beep, beep" in addition to all his other car noises. He even tipped the stroller over so that he could turn the wheels like a steering wheel.

I feel like Melissa and Jon were an answer to prayer by being willing to spend some of their vacation taking care of Tanner. I had no luck getting a sitter for that week and prayed that someone would be able to. When Melissa said she would love to, that meant the world to me! And it was so fun to have Melissa and Jon light up our home with their spunky personality. The two of them make a perfect couple. They have this genuine way of always being happy and getting along with literally anyone. I've admired Melissa since the day I met her, and one of the major perks of being Jeremy's wife is that I get to have her as my sister-in-law.

During the evenings, we all partied together (Mormon style)! First, we made and ate amazing food together. I LOVED being able to cook without Tanner getting into everything- Jon was the main entertainer during meal making. Melissa and I cooked together; it was so nice to have an extra hand in the kitchen and she made me feel like a professional chef! Our dinners included Thai Cashew Chicken, Parmeasan Chicken, and Spaghetti with pink sauce, and Dominican ChickenRice&Beans. My favorite part of the whole food thing was sitting around the dinner table with all 6 of us, eating healthy, yummy food and having great conversation. I feel like the Food Nanny would be so proud (she's my new hero and has a cute TV show on ByuTV). We really DID achieve La Vita Vera- The True Life.

After dinner on Monday, our party time continued by going to Downtown Disney. We spent a lot of time in LegoLand. Jeremy made an ice cream cone, specifically sherbet swirl.

 I made an M.C. Escher sculpture.

 Briana kept Tanner entertained in his stroller for awhile. But then he realized there was a huge table with little things that you can throw everywhere. So he got involved with "organizing" the lego parts.

Jon and Melissa started making a city, which became the City of Jon. We helped them complete it.

You'll notice the park, fire station, house, and Chinese restaurant. The skyscrapers aren't featured in this picture. Jeremy's breast cancer skyscraper was the funniest. He used all pink legos.

 Then, we enjoyed the Disney fire work show while we all had our first taste of french beignet, compliments of MeliJon. It was SO good!! Tanner cuddled with Briana during the firework show. She is so good with little ones! 

Then our partying continued at home. Briana and I spent hours talking about our jobs. She is currently working as a speech therapist for toddlers, so it was really interesting to learn from her. We also dug up the letters that she sent me while we were growing up (remember, that's what people did before email). Some of the letters were super funny. I haven't been able to play or visit with Briana for a long time, so I'm so glad she was with us! She is such a beautiful, loving, smart person. We've made lots of fun and sweet memories together over the years and it was really nice to keep making memories with her and to have her at our house.

On Tuesday night, we all partied around our fire place and made s'mores. Melissa and Jon taught me, Jeremy and Briana how to play Dominion. Briana and I won on our first round! Since then, Jeremy and I have played maybe 14 rounds of Dominion with MeliJon and we can't wait until xmas break to play more with them. We love it!!

It was so great to have both Briana and MeliJon with us that week. It might sound like having 6 people in a tiny 2 bedroom town home would be stressful. But it was just the opposite! It really was a blessing to have all of them with us. I found that their energy kept me going through what would have been a really rough week of work. It couldn't have been more perfect.

Being a Boy

To be boy, you gotta be tough...

 and aggressive...

 and friendly...

 and dramatic...

 and silly...

 and intent on biting...

 and curious...

 and obsessed with sticks and balls...

 and carefree... 

 and sneaky...

 and creative...

 and happy to eat...

 and responsible (wiping and blowing his own nose)

 and helpful!

We LOVE our little Tan Man. What a boy!

Tanner has something to say!

If the video isn't working, try this link to go to Youtube: Tanner Talks 

Happy Halloween!

Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet, eating her curds and whey.

 Along came a spider who sat down beside her, and frightened Miss Muffet away!

Tanner was really intrigued by his own costume. He stared and smiled at himself in the mirror (we were at a hotel on Halloween because our house was under construction).

 We went trick or treating to 5 or 6 houses. Tanner really liked the jack-o-lanterns and wanted to touch them. Tanner said "chick-a-chee" in the car, but not actually to anyone at their doors. He didn't want to do any walking, but I made him walk up the pathway to each door (he has to do SOME work for his candy!) Most people let him take his own candy from their bowl, which he did very slowly, as if he was in dis-belief that a complete stranger was letting him take their food. We had a tiny bucket for him that fit about 8 pieces of candy in it- just his size!

 

 The last door that we trick-or-treated at was Lucy's. We joined their baby party. She had yummy treats like these mummy dogs (above) and the seven layer graveyard (below).

Tanner LOVED his mummy dog. He chomped on it diligently and left a little trail of crumbs around the kitchen. He held his own plate and dipped his treat in ketchup.

 For awhile, it was just us and the Corey's. This was perfect because it gave Tanner and Matilda a chance to get used to each other in weird clothes. Eventually, we had a good little group of 6 families and lots of little monsters that mostly just stared at each other.

Jeremy also managed to come up with a costume. 

We had a super fun night! Thanks Lucy for such a great party!!