Happy Birthday Tanner!

It's a little hard to imagine that an entire year has come and gone already. Time goes so fast when you're having a great time. Happy Birthday big guy! We love you!!

Thanks to Shirley and Jared for hosting Tanner's birthday this year. (We really should stop having kids around the holidays.)

Tanner's extremely yummy icecream cake.

Tanner enjoying his extremely yummy icecream cake.

The crowd patiently waiting while we try to find a candle.

The Birthday Boy.

Posing.

Attacking.

One happy kid. He couldn't wait for me to cut the truck off the box. He recieved quite the load this year for being only one. He got a handful of little cars which he loved because right now he loves anything with wheels. He also got some blocks, clothes, a ball popper thing which makes him laugh every time it starts and some books.

Conversation with Lana

Me: Tutu sent you a package in the mail. Do you want to open it?
Lana: Tutu sent me a package for my bur-bur cake? (birthday in Lana language)
Me: No, it's not your birthday. She just sent you a present just because.
Lana: Oohhhhh....opens gift
Me: What did you get?
Lana: Look mom! holds up two $1 bills
Me: Wow! What is it?
Lana: I dunno, but it's Lana's!

I guess we haven't been too good at teaching the concept of money. And since we're all about the frequent flyer miles, we mostly use plastic when buying things. Needless to say we had an important talk about what you don't do with money (ie. no ripping, no cutting, no drawing, don't give it to Tanner etc.). She is so proud of her monies and keeps it safe from Tanner in her drawer.

Lack of pictures

You might have noticed that there has been quite the shortage of pictures on here for a while, or you might not have noticed at all until I just pointed it out. Either way, the reason for the shortage has been due to a broken flash on our digital camera. Now, as happy I was with that camera (it served us well for almost 2 years), it really came at quite the convenient time. We'd been talking for a while about purchasing a Canon Rebel, but wasn't quite willing to fork over the $800+. However, Canon came out with the Rebel XS (a slightly more econimical version) and we took advantage of a broken camera and bought the Rebel. It's been lots of fun playing with our new toy. Luckily Lana and Tanner are both very willing participants (snotty noses and all!).

Funny Commercial

This commercial always throws me into a fit of uncontrollable giggles. Best commercial I've seen in a while.

Food storage made fun

I really don't like food storage. It costs money, it takes up an entire closet of much needed storage space and it's a pain in the bum to move (7 times so far). However, I understand it's important and a necessity and I will be grateful for it when we need to rely on it. That being said I haven't added anything to our food storage since Paul and I got married (6 1/2 years ago). Our Relief Society scheduled a trip down to our Bishop's storehouse to can our orders. We had such a good time chatting on the way down, during the canning process and on the way back up. It really made the entire process more than bearable and a lot of fun. Wish I had brought my camera to snap a picture of us in our hair nets and plastic aprons. We were smokin'!

Ball and chain

After a year and a half of "freedom", Paul is once again shackled. Meaning he finally broke down and bought a new wedding ring.

Paul's first wedding ring is somewhere at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Kona probably acting as a fish toy. After finding out that to get an exact replacement would be $500 neither one of us was willing to make a decision. Finally yesterday after passing the jewelry counter at Sam's Club we came across a ring that was an acceptable replacement for only $100. And how happy I am to not have to listen to anymore "I'm single" jokes.

Baby Vic's facials

This is one of those not-funny-at-the-time-but-will-be-funny-later stories:

So last night I was at Enrichment, eating some yummy food and making some way cute christmas blocks when I get a text message from Paul that says, "Your kids are covered in Vics baby rub." Hmmm, that's funny I think to myself because the neither one of the kids seemed sick when I saw them less than 2 hours ago. So I reply via text, "why?" Apparently the kids had gone off to play in their rooms when Paul noticed after a while that they had become really quiet. I know from personal experience that when my kids go quiet that's when I start worrying. So Paul goes and checks on them and finds them in the bathroom. Lana has the jar of Baby Vics in her hands and is in the process of smearing it all over her face. It is not until after Paul has cleaned Lana off that he notices that Tanner's face is also smeared with the goo. Luckily none of it got in their eyes as neither one was screaming their heads off and everyone is fine today other than Tanner's face looks a little irritated. Paul commented that Tanner was remarkably calm as he wiped his face off. Needless to say that I have thoroughly searched the kids rooms today and everything and anything that could be applied to one's body (or another's body), wall or carpet has been removed to a higher more remote location.

Shopping!

We decided to go spend the day down in Gulfport since Paul had a little bit of work at a house down in that area that he needed to do. I did not realize how much I missed Outlet Malls until today. There's nothing like getting a $150 leather bag for $25 and a $200 jacket for $53. I [heart] Outlet Malls! Oh, and it's only an hour from our house!

Need a good laugh?

A friend of mine posted this link on her blog. It's a place where people submit things they overhear in church. Some of the quotes on there were so funny I choked on my breakfast, and that is when I knew it was too good not to share. Caution: This is not for the faint of heart or easily offended. Also do not read the quotes while eating or drinking anything, or you might be cleaning it off of your computer. Enjoy!

Click here for Overheard In the Ward.

What!? No stickers? Seriously?!!

Come on people, how much would it kill you to stock up on some "I voted" stickers? It's not like they ran out (Hello, voting at 9am!). They never had them in the first place. I asked the 3 old ladies manning my sign-in table. "Oh, some one else asked about that and free coffee and doughnuts, but we've never had any of that and I've worked here for 20+ years." Oh well. They did atleast have free leftover Halloween candy at the tables. And I also didn't have to stand in line, except there was an old guy in a motorized wheel chair in front of me flirting with the old ladies. Nice.

Update: I guess when Paul went to vote 2 hours later, someone had gotten their act together because they had coffee and doughnuts. Lame.

Happy Halloween!

We had a very nice first Halloween here in the 'burg. Wednesday we had our Fall Festival and enjoyed the Trunk or Treating and the appropriately chilly weather. And Friday night we were invited to a Halloween party where they loaded all the kids (and parents) on the trailer with a bunch of straw bales and hauled us around the neighborhood.

Lana decided she wanted to be a princess and or fairy (what else is there for a 3 year old girl??) So I made the executive decision on princess after finding her dress at Target. Next came the princess hair because she refused to wear the crown. (It hurt her head, so I don't blame her.)

This is the back of Lana's hair after trick or treating because I forgot to take a before picture. So it's a little bit more messy than the beginning, but you get the idea.

One very happy princess!
Tanner, the cutest dragon I've ever seen.

Tanner refused to wear his hood, so technically he was a headless dragon. This picture gives a better shot of Lana's hair.
The Burger King, Queen, Princess and Dragon.Paul wins creepiest costume in my book.
Tanner going crazy over these skeleton heads at the fabulous Halloween party.