Still Alive

Okay, so my last post was in November and I had great plans of being a great blogger. This did not happen, but we have been VERY busy.

Track break was great! I usually need a break physically. I feel like I need naps and some relaxation. This was not the case. I was just anxious for some time with my boy. Not only did I have lots of time with my boys, but we moved. That meant that Tanner's nap time was Mommy's packing time. I did fit in some time for fun play days including Bounce U and Lied Discovery Museum. Tanner loved Bounce U, but didn't have as much fun at Lied. Bounce U has a preschool playtime which was great because there weren't any big kids to pounce on Tanner. We recently went to a birthday at Pump it Up and that is a great place, too. Tanner was the bratty kid at the end who didn't want to leave and ended up being carried out screaming. Life is great!

There is little in this world that I hate (yes, I know that is a strong word) more than moving. But we did it and I don't plan on moving for a while. Our new house has more room, a real yard, and no stairs (Tanner can run all he wants-and does). The backyard was in desperate need of help so that has been Ben's project for the past few months. Tanner has also LOVED this. Before moving Tanner has mostly normal/typical baby toys. He now has his own shovel and complete set of gardening tools. A few weeks ago, we bought a shed that had to be put together. Tanner LOVED this. We were using a small drill to put the parts together and Tanner had to help (we just took out the drill bit). Since then, all Tanner wanted to play with was the drill. So over the weekend we were at Walmart and they had a complete set of drills/boy toys. Luckily they were on crazy clearance so Tanner has the complete set. Now, he walks around the house all day drilling things that are just fine.

Last week, Tanner turned 18 months. He is growing by the mile. Every day he says a new word or shows more personality. I am convinced that I love him more and more every day. I am also working with him to learn sign language. I got off to a great start, but need to add more signs instead of being consistent with the few he knows. Tanner signs more, eat, all done. He says please, but the sign is more of eat. Tanner is talking up a storm. He says Mom, Dad, Murphy, all done, more, please, thank you, I did it, go, out, Elmo (he is crazy about Elmo), teeth, up, no, and "1,2,3, go" among many others. He definitely keeps me smiling. He runs all over the place and is ROTTEN! If Tanner could watch Elmo all day, every day he would. He LOVES Elmo! He also does things to be naughty and smiles because he knows he shouldn't. I think that is so cute. He loves the new house. We have a huge yard for him to run and ride his 4-wheeler, bike, or cozy coupe. And no more stairs means Tanner can run all he wants in the house. He always thinks he needs to do what Mommy and Daddy are doing, this includes house chores! We will see how long that lasts. I still haven't cut Tanner's hair. He has beautiful curls in the back that I'm not ready to part with. Ben, however, wants Tanner's hair cut so this is often a topic of discussion in our house.

Before going on track break school was crazy!!! I had an intern (like a student teacher) who created a lot of stress for me and my classroom. I cannot turn off the teacher within me so I took her on as a special project and really tried to help her become a good teacher. But she was convinced to do things her way and those ways were not beneficial to anyone (especially my kids). I spent every available minute to help her, but she never made any progress. After some really serious mistakes and unethical decisions on her part, I had to ask for her to be removed from my classroom which led to her being removed as an intern. I felt bad that this happened because of what I had initiated, but I know that I would NEVER want her teaching Tanner so she shouldn't be teaching other kids either. This process did give me a glimpse at administration and I am interested more than ever, but don't want to go back to school right now.

I am on track break again, so I hope to be a better blogger, but we will see how that goes!

Life has changed a lot of the past few months, but I think it is for the better!

Halloween

I think mom was more excited about Halloween than Tanner. He was a monkey, but I joke that you're supposed to be something different for Halloween than what you are everyday. He did a pretty good job of dealing with his costume including his "head". We did the trunk or treat thing with our ward on Tuesday, then Halloween weekend we went to St. George with some friends. The picture of Tanner on Ben's bike was after we got home from the trunk or treat. Tanner stole a butterfinger and ate a good part of it before I realized what he did, so I think he had a little sugar high. I did want to take Tanner trick or treating, but didn't want to look like a pathetic woman who can't buy her own candy. Luckily our friends have a 3 year-old that Tanner could trick or treat with. I was hoping to teach Tanner to say "oo-ahah" since he was a monkey, but that never happened.

We had a great time in St. George and love to just get away without having a big to do for a vacation. When Ben and I were first married we used every excuse to go to St. George (birthdays, anniversaries, 3 day weekends). I love it there because I can find great deals on modest clothes. Plus,we have our list of places we have to eat at.

Well, my little man will be 14 months tomorrow and I have a "dread of nursery" countdown going on. I'm sure the people in ward think I'm crazy because I spend most of the 3 hours walking the halls with Tanner, but I love having 2 whole days with my boy. I'm sure he'd rather be playing in the nursery than walking the halls, but I'm not ready to lose more time with him. Since I work, every available second in my life is Tanner Time. The thought if losing another hour of his life is really hard for me. But that does not mean I want a nursery calling! (Ben and I spend about 4 years in 2 wards in nursery. It's only been since Tanner's been born that I have ever been in Relief Society). Tanner has 12 teeth, 4 of which are molars, but no canines. I was joking the other night with my sister, who is a dental hygenist, that Tanner didn't come with canines. She said some people are that way with their baby teeth. Not something to tell a first time mom!

I can't wait for Christmas! I know that Tanner and I will have several discussions about leaving the presents that are under the tree alone and not pulling over the tree, but this is his first real Christmas. I love the music and going to see the lights (s0mething Ben still thinks is strange). Tanner liked the lights last year, I think the Vegas boy will love the lights this year! This season seems to be the small portion of the year that almost anyone is happy. The best part is that I will have 5 1/2 weeks off with my boy!!!! I'm hoping to post more with lots of pictures. Stay tuned...

Save some money???

Ok so I've recently become a coupon dork. I used to think I was money savy,but now I really am. I am a faithful user of grocery smarts (great free site-leave comment for more info) and am saving tons of money. But not only do I use this site, but I'm reading several money saving blogs. Last night I was reading one ( http://www.beingfrugalisfabulous.com/), and found another great site for digital coupons. What are digital coupons?? You go on a website and register your Smiths/Vons card and the website saves to your store card coupons. There is no work in redeeming the coupons. I now have 3 sites that I use for digital coupons (http://www.cellfire.com/affiliate/fullpage.php?cf_tlc=cxr, http://www.pgesaver.com/Sites/PG_eSAVER/Page/HomePage, http://shortcuts.com/). When I use these coupons, it's like a fun surprise at the register, because I often forget which digital coupons I have. Even better, you can use a manufacturer coupon and a digital coupon! Happy savings!!!

Where has the time gone???

So my little man is already a year old! Tanner's birthday was Sept. 8th and we had his party on the 12th. I can't believe how he's grown over the last year. He is very independent but knows that he still needs mommy. He is walking and talking like crazy. It seems as though he is interested in anything "big boy". Yes, he crawls a little, but he always wants to do what big boys do. He won't eat baby food because he has to feed himself. He transitioned from formula to milk over night because formula is for babies. He even tries to walk in the store without holding mommy's hand (that hasn't worked out so well for him yet). I just love to sit back and watch him. He is amazed at almost everything and smiles all the time. His favorite words this week are "go" and "ow". He wakes up in the morning talking and amongst his Tannertalk is "go". He also pokes his finger in his ear or to his head and says "ow" over and over. He cracks me up.

Last week, Tanner had his first unofficial ride in Daddy's 4-wheeler. Ben needed to move his 4-wheeler from sitting the garage to sitting in the garage on the trailer so Tanner rode with Daddy onto the trailer. I was very nervous and yelled at Ben the whole time to make sure he was holding Tanner. Ben showed Tanner the throttle and told him "go". So my brilliant son kept pointing to the trottle after the bike was off saying "go, go, go". Ben tried to convince me that meant Tanner is ready to ride, I didn't agree.

10 Months and Growing

I can't believe my little guy is already 10 months old! I don't know where the time has gone. People say that they grow fast, but where did my baby go?? He's been walking along furniture for about a month and a half now, and I'm both excited and scared for him to start walking. Even more scary, is how talkative he is. He already says "Dad", "Mom", "Go", and "Hi". He loves his Murphy (our 4 year old toy poodle), but Murphy doesn't love him as much. Murphy worries about Tanner and is the first one up the stairs when Tanner wakes up, but Murphy does NOT like when Tanner tries to show Murphy how much he loves him back. I love when Tanner wakes up and I can listen to or watch him play in his bed. He is always smiling (unless I'm not feeding him fast enough) and his laugh is more than contagious. It's amazing how Tanner has filled a gap in my life that I didn't realize I had until he arrived. I love my little bug!

Here come the Englands

I've been thinking about starting a blog for a while and now that a few friends' blogs have become private I had to register with google so here I am. We just got back from our first camping trip as a family. And what an adventure it was. We spent the weekend at Duck Creek, UT. Camping is usually fun and relaxing for me, but camping with a 9 month old is a whole other world. Tanner thinks he needs to constantly be crawling or pulling himself up on things. These are not easily done when camping. Our house is VERY babyproof. However, the mountains are not and Tanner had a hard time understanding this. This is our first day back and he has woken up only long enough to eat then back to sleep. Sleep was another fun aspect of our trip. Tanner and I slept on a blow up mattress and he is very much a mover. Everytime he started to move, I was worried he was starting to wake up(and most of the time he was). So I spent most of the night rubbing Tanner's back and and shushing him back to sleep. It was very nice to sleep in my bed and my son in his last night.

On the other hand,it was great to see Ben's family from Utah. I really enjoy the limited opportunities that we have to spend time with them. Everytime we come home from a trip to see them, Ben and I start to make our long range plans of moving to SLC so we can spend more time with them and their families.