Saturday, September 27, 2008

New Members of the family

It was just a laid back week day morning as I was playing with Tanner and talking on the phone with my friend Natalie, when all of a sudden I saw two mice run across the room!  And like most normal people, I jumped up on the sofa and called my husband for help.  I got his voice mail, so I told him in a frantic voice that I was going to buy a cat.  And that was exactly what I did. (after buying a million mouse traps first, of course)  My mother-in-law, bless her heart, took time off work to take me over to the animal shelter where we found a sweet little abandoned kitten for sale.  We named her “Mouser” and all I can say is, she better live up to her name!!!!  She lives outside with the dogs and had really made herself into the leader of the pack.  The dogs follow her around like she’s one of them.  Which is good...because Brent figured she’s be eaten by one of them her first day home.  Nope!  Not my Mouser!


Duke and Mouser became fast friends!
Then on Saturday September 27th, we said good-bye to my beloved 2002 Volkswagen Jetta, and traded her in for a 2008 Toyota Hybrid Highlander.  It was a bitter-sweet day for me, since “Meg”, my jetta, was the first car I bought with my hard earned “Phantom of the Opera” money.  I had even paid her off!  It was so sad to leave the dealership watching her sitting there alone in the driveway, knowing I’d never see her again.  I’m pretty sure she feels abandoned.  But she served us well for all these years.  And since Tanner joined our family, we needed to get ourselves a safer car that will fit our growing family.  So welcome to the family “Violet” (said in a sultry french accent).  



Good bye Meg.  ((sigh))




Monday, September 15, 2008

Army Crawl Master

Just Taking a break
So Tanner learned to crawl in September, just a few days before his 7 month birthday.  To this day (Oct 20th), he is still army crawling.  He can crawl on his hands and knees, but he doesn’t want to.  I guess he likes to just army crawl instead. 
But as I was changing his clothes, I noticed little rashes on his arms, legs and chin.  I couldn’t figure out where he would’ve gotten this from?  Until it dawned on me that he was getting carpet burns as he crawled.  He would dive his face into the carpet and pull with his forearms, and push with his legs.  So, I had to cover his whole body with baby leg warmers to protect his skin.  That’s why he looks like he’s going to dance class in these pictures...I had to cover his body with something and still keep him cool in the hot weather.  My husband thinks Tanner looks silly in the leg warmers...but oh well.


Wish I had a video of this.  It's really cute to see him stick his little butt up in the air.

When he sees something he wants.  He sure goes after it.

Awwww.  It's mommy!  That's what he wanted!

Saturday, September 13, 2008

A weekend away.



We decided to take a mini-vaca to Seattle for the weekend in September.  The guys wanted to see the Mariners play and BYU beat WSU.  It was a pretty good weekend.  Two other families joined us: The Copelands, and the Andersons.  Since Natalie and I aren’t really that big of Sports fans...we took our littlest ones to the pool and Seattle Aquarium.  It was pretty fun.  Tanner seemed to like it.  And, of course, Natalie got some really great shots of Tanner with her new lens.  Then when the guys weren’t at the games, we all went to the zoo and a great Italian restaurant.  I love the big city!  Wish I could live there for reals...

Photo shoot at the pool in the hotel










Papa and Natalie M came to the game but left afterwards.  Here's Tanner and Natalie sportin' BYU tattoos.


At one of the games.

Goin' to the children's museum.  Ella wanted to push Ethan in the stroller...much to his embarrassment.

Discovery museum

The Zoo


The Anderson's knew of a good authentic Italian restaurant.  Yep.  I ate everything I could.  When you're nursing you think you have to eat as much as you can.  So I do...no wonder the baby weight is hanging on!

Ella! Eyes like saucers!





Saturday, September 6, 2008

The big 3-0!




Back in August (the 9th to be exact), we celebrated Brent’s 30th birthday.  We had a Wii bowling party for him in our double-wide home.  We invited a lot of friends and family to the event.  Natalie Copeland helped me plan and decorate.  She’s a great friend.  We set up the house as if it were a bowling alley called “Double-Wide Lanes”.  I made Wii characters of all the people that were invited to attend the party and put them on balloons in the house.  We even had a snack shack where Natalie and I would serve people “bowling 4 bacon” burgers or “spicy wiings”.  It was a ton of fun! 

The Menu.  Yes, we served it all.  And people got to order.

The Snack Shack's waitresses


I spent countless hours making each wii person to look like the party-goers who were attending.
I guess I have a lot of time on my hands.

Wii bowling.  fun.

Tanner bug.  His poor goopy eyes.  He inherited it from Papa...hopefully he'll grow out of it.

Yes.  That's Tanner's wii character.  Nice huh?

The decor.  That IKEA lamp can be anything, I tell ya.  And notice the bowling trophies to the right.  Yep, thought of everything.








Thursday, September 4, 2008


The Martin family had a little family vacation in August at a lake in Idaho called Sandpoint.  It was nice to spend a few days catching up with everyone.  Jeff came home from his mission just days before we left.  So it was nice to have him there.  Karianne and Larry came down from BYU to join us, and Carol Beth came all the way from Boise State too.  Byron and Nancy and the kids were there too.  It was nice. No...I'm not freakin' out or anything.  Look at Brent with his smug little face.  He told me I was making our niece freak out too.  Whatev...



We also made a trip to the local amusement park.  Tanner got to ride on the elephants, ferris wheel, old fashioned cars, merry-go-round, and kiddie coaster.  Mommy was worried the whole time...but we made it through without any accidents.  He looks so little on the rides--after all he is only 6 months old in these pictures.  What was I thinking?!?


Byron's leg was in a cast while we were there.  I'm sure that was fun for him.  He was a good sport though.