the hunt family

Finn Family Winter Get-A-Way

2012-02-19T11:15:00.007-07:00

This post is going to be very disorganized. I have had some serious issues with uploading these pictures for some reason. I titled this the "Finn Family Winter Get-A-Way" because Mima typed up an itinerary for the weekend and titled it that. That is one thing that is very distinct about my mom. She likes to have things organized and planned out and it is ALWAYS typed. So, in January we took a trip to Utah for the weekend with my family. We wanted to have one last horrah together after Morgan came home and before Jordan left. My parents rented a condo in Salt Lake and we spent the weekend down there. Tanner called it the "special house". He still thinks any kind of hotel is a special house.

Kennedy and Maddex....two cutest babies just chillin on the couch at the special house. It is really funny to watch them together. Most of the time, Maddex ends up crying because Kennedy gets a little crazy. There is no doubt that in no time, the tables will be turned and he will stand his own ground. You wouldn't know it because they are so close to the same size, but Maddex is just over 3 months younger than Kennedy

We went ice skating at the rec center in Bountiful during the afternoon one day. It was a ton of fun. I have only ice skating a handful of times and I had forgotten how much fun it was. We all did really good, but our feet were seriously sore at the end of it.

Tanner LOVED the ice skating. Jonathon was speeding all around the rink with him and doing tricks. He had a to take a little break and get some popcorn with Papa, and then he was ready for another round.

Tanner was so excited for his ice skates!!!!

STUDS!

We took a trip to the planeterium at the Gateway. Tanner thought it was pretty cool. However, the think he liked the most was the "elebator". We went on the elevator like 5 times because he wanted to push the buttons. This is a replica of Mars that the kids could walk on.

Tanner kept putting pennies down the black hole.

While we were ice skating Mima took care of Maddex. He is always decked out so cute! He had the best hat on that day!

This is the sign that Tanner had a good time. We took him sledding to Gorgoza Park in Park City and he had a great time!

On Sunday we went to Temple Square and went to Music and the Spoken Word. It was amazing! We didn't get to sit in the tabernacle because of the babies, but we watched it on video from the visitors center. It was well worth the effort to get everybody dressed and ready to go so early that morning.

When Tanner saw the statue of Jesus, he just kept staring at it.... and then he said, "Hey! Mima has one of those!" Which is true because they have a much smaller statue just like this in their living room.

Thanks Finn Family for a Fabulous weekend! Love you all!

Grape-Juice....Duh!

2012-02-06T16:45:00.002-07:00

One thing about Tanner, especially at this age, is he takes everything literally. He believes everything that we tell him and he is very straight-forward with us as well. I love this about him. He is so pure and honest right now. If only we could all stay this innocent for the rest of our lives....this world would be a much different place. I love his innocence and what you see is what you get. If he is grumpy, you know it. If he is happy, he has a ginormous smile that melts your heart and you can't help but smile back at it.

This story totally illustrates Tanner at this age......

One day, we were eating our usual lunch: a BIG sandwich (this is Tanner's version of a big boy sandwich...turkey, mayo, mustard, lots of pickles, lettuce and cheese and he eats the WHOLE SANDWICH!!), apples or grapes. Well, today was especially exciting because we had some orange juice left over from breakfast that morning. The next thing I know, I look over at Tanner and he has done this......

I asked Tanner what he was doing and he said, "Mommy, it's grape juice!"

Well, duh! I don't know why I didn't realize that! This would not be my first choice of flavors to add together.... sour green grapes in orange juice, but he sure loved it!

HOLA MO-MO!

2012-01-23T15:30:00.004-07:00

A couple of days before Christmas, we got the greatest gift ever! My brother Morgan returned home from his mission to the Dominican Republic. We were so excited that he was going to be home in time to spend Christmas with us. Tenille and I made shirts for the kids to wear when we picked up Uncle Mo-Mo from the airport. We had a lot of changes in our family since Morgan went on his mission, including these two cuties. We also had two weddings, our Grandma Finn passed away and our dad was released as the Stake President.

Kennedy is such a drooler right now. She seriously needs to wear a poncho all day. After we got home that night, her shirt was totally soaked!!!

Tanner and Daddy had their binoculars on watching out the window for Mo Mo to come. Tanner had a great time watching all of the trucks and stuff outside on the runway.

Tenille, Jordan and I made some seriously cool posters. I think Morgan really appreciated all of the glitter.

THERE HE IS!!!! I think we were all in shock when we saw him because we all just stared at him for a little bit. Then he said "Isn't somebody going to hug me?"

I was a little worried about how Tanner was going to react when he saw Morgan. He was only about 16 months old when Morgan left. It was the cutest thing. When he saw Morgan walking towards us, he RAN to him and jumped into his arms. We kept a 6 ft cardboard cutout of him in Tanner's room for a long time. We found him dancing with him around his crib and having great conversations. I wish I could have known everything that he had told to Morgan. When we were driving home from the airport, Tanner said "Hey Mommy, Mo-Mo didn't talk when he was a picture! He can talk now!" I think he was so excited that Morgan could talk back to him because when we got back to my parents house, he would not leave Morgan alone. It was getting a little crazy. He wanted to show him every toy and trick that he had missed out in the last 2 years.

Welcome home Mo-Mo! We love you!

Tanner the Elf

2012-01-21T14:56:00.002-07:00

Oh, how we love our little Tanner Man! He is always trying to become more and more independent. One night he was supposed to be "asleep". The next thing we know, we hear him crying and screaming for help...and this is what we found. Tanner had gotten ahold of this very much too small Santa Suit and tried to put it on. However, he had a few things working against him. #1- The suit is a size 18 months, #2- He started putting the shirt on upside down. This would explain why he was totally stuck and screaming for help!

After we got him out of his little predicament, we decided to let him put it on the right way. He is the cutest little elf have ever seen. He looks ginormous in this little elf suit. It makes me a little sad that my little dude used to fit in this cute little outfit and now he has grown up so big.

Tanner, we love you so much! You always keep us on our toes!

Santa Babies

2012-01-18T16:46:00.005-07:00

This Christmas I spent some time taking pictures of my cute kids.
Here are a few of my favorites

These 2 are of Tanner at his first Christmas. Since Kennedy was born, I have been amazed at the resemblance between the two of them at the same ages. Kennedy was 5 months at Christmas and Tanner was 4 months for his first Christmas. I dressed Kennedy up in the same outfit I had Tanner in and I couldn't believe how much they looked alike.

We decided Kennedy looks like a "Who" when she has her piggies like this. She is extremely tolerant of anything I want to do with her hair. It is GREAT!

I was letting her play with this berry from my tree while I was taking the pictures. It ended up not being the best idea because after we were done her face and jammies were totally red!

Check out these cheeks!!!

OH! Kennedy and Maddex....Best Buddies!

Mima got the kids matching Christmas outfits this year. The 3 of them looked so cute in them!
THANKS MIMA!

Wow! This is love!

This is the best picture we could get of all 3 of the kids together.

I took Tanner to the store to pick out a special present for him to give to Kennedy. He was so excited about this! We went to Fred Meyer and we were walking down the toy aisles and he yells (literally yells) at me to stop! He had found the perfect gift! He picked this cute ilttle piggy bank. He has absolutely LOVED playing with it with her. He really loves his baby sister and he is extremely protective of her too.

We hope everybody had a wonderful Christmas and best wishes for the New Year!

Christmas Tree Hunting

2012-01-12T22:54:00.002-07:00

We did our annual Christmas Tree Hunt this year up Knox Canyon. It was pretty eventful. We took Ryan, Kali and Jordan and our great friends the Millers. It was a party! At that point, there was a lot of snow in the mountains and we got stuck behind some people that were seriously stuck in the snow. So, we had to back down the mountain until we could get to a spot where they get around us. (Don't worry Kali, I'm sure they weren't from American Falls.....) So, things took a little longer than usual, but it was still a great day!

We used the sleds to get the kids up the hill. Tanner and Landen were a little scared, so they were holding on to each other to make sure they didn't fall off. It was so cute!

Love my little Tanner!

I love my brothers! They are so awesome! I love it when can all get together because we have such a great time! They are good dudes!
It is so fun when Ryan and Kali come to visit!
Tanner always has so much fun with them!

This is Frosty, one of Tanner's bestest buddies. He frequently calls him and Rudolph on the phone to tell them what is going on in his day. Too bad this Frosty got totally demolished. Maybe if we get some snow one of these days, we can build a real Frosty!

Jordie and Tanner are best buddies! We are really going to miss Jordie when he leaves for his mission in February. Tanner thinks that he is going to go with him.

Jordie is so strong! He can carry his tree with no hands!

And he secretly wishes he was an Abercrombie model.

And here is Kennedy the Snow Princess. We weren't quite sure how far of a trek it was going to be, so I opted to stay in the car with her and let the rest of the gang figure it out. Luckily, it wasn't too far and Ryan and Kali came back to save us! Thanks a lot guys! I'm pretty sure we would have been forgotten had it not been for you! :)

She was so ready for the snow. I was set on making sure she would not get cold, so I seriously bundled her up. She couldn't really move and may have had one too many layers on, but she was warm!

Kennedy's knight in shining armor. Ryan packed her around, which I was extremely thankful for. If you've seen her thighs, you'd know why.

Isn't she the cutest!??

Our cute little family! In case you can't tell, Kennedy is hanging out in the backpack....totally asleep!

I love this tradition! It is so fun to get our family and friends together to come with us! It is something we look forward to every year.

October-Fest

2011-12-11T14:12:00.007-07:00

Since it is almost Christmas, I thought it would be a great time to show how much fun we had in October. Better late than never has become my motto when it comes to blogging lately. We took an evening and went to a local farm that had a huge pumpkin patch, corn maze and kid play area. Jordan and his friend Hai-Dang came with us to go through the corn maze. It was a ton of fun!

The corn maze had trivia questions at each turn. It made it a lot of fun! Our fearless 3-year old leader chose the answer to the questions and ironically, he would choose the right way most of the time. He would read what he thought was the question and then say "Let's take this path." It was pretty cute!

These are the treasures we returned with! The pumpkins were absolutely ginormous!! Some of them weighed 70 lbs!

Tanner colored his pumpkin and made a pretty scary face on it!

Jonathon and Jordan cleaning out the "guts" from their pumpkins! It wasn't as bad as they thought it was going to be.

We had so much fun this year on Halloween. For a long time Tanner had been telling me that he wanted to be a basketball for Halloween. So, with the help of Mima, we make his dreams come true. We rig up the best basketball costume we can. Then, the big day arrives....our ward trunk-or-treat. I was so excited for Tanner to be able to put on his costume and show off how cute he looked at this 3 foot basketball. To my dismay, the costume was on for about 5 minutes total. I think he might have gotten embarrassed by people looking at him or something because he kept saying he didn't want to be a basketball anymore. The same thing happened at Mima's trunk or treat. He had more fun passing out the candy, than getting his own. This was exactly how Halloween night was too.

This is Kennedy, the penguin princess. We re-used the costume Tanner had when he was a baby, but I HAD to add a bow and a tutu to the ensemble. She just isn't the same girl without her bows! Plus, I wanted to be able to tell the difference between their pictures in this costume because they look so much alike!

This is Maddex and he REALLY liked his puppy costume! He was only a couple of weeks old at this time and definitely the cutest puppy I have ever seen!

Here are the three kiddos in their costumes! Aren't they so cute?!

HELLO MADDEX!

2011-12-04T15:12:00.007-07:00

In October, my little sister gave birth to an awesome little guy, Maddex Devin Anderson. We were teasing her while she was pregnant that he was going to come out bald and with a beard and mustache because she had to use some steroids for a little bit during her pregnancy. When he finally came, he wasn't the average sized baby. He was 9 lbs 7 oz! When she told me to come and see him she said "Come meet the toddler". That's a pretty good description of our Maddex.
He is BIG BOY!

He came out with the perfect hair for a little baby mowhawk!

He is totally his parents' child. He came complete with some very distinct characteristics from his mommy and daddy. He has his daddy's ears and he was lucky enough to get his mommy's webbed toes!

We love you Sissy, D and Maddex!

I am so excited to see these guys grow up together! Kennedy and Maddex were playing and she was squealing like crazy and Maddex was just chillin! It was awesome! It was totally fitting for her especially with her crazy hair she was sporting that day.

Tanner is super sweet with his new cousin Maddex. He loves to hold him and give him loves. The other day Maddex was at our house playing and Tanner and him had on matching shirts. Tanner was more than excited to get a picture with him!

This is a terrible picture, but the moment was priceless. Maddex was having a hard time that day at my parent's house. My dad had been changing light fixtures and he was wearing a head lamp. The only thing that calmed Maddex down that night was Papa rocking him in his arms and the red light blinnking on the head lamp. It was priceless!

Welcome to the world Maddex! We love you!

Life Lessons From a 3-year old

2011-10-16T14:34:00.003-06:00

I know that I am supposed to be the teacher to my children, but more often than not I find myself as the one being taught. Since I have been able to spend a lot more time at home with my kids, I have had the privilege of being taught at their feet, especially with Tanner. The past few months I have learned some valuable life lessons from my terrific 3-year old son.

Here are a few....

1) I am a child of God
We were having a day. It seemed as though nothing was going according to plan and I had just about had it. I had felt totally unproductive and that I was basically going in circles all day cleaning up toys, then feeding a baby, then cleaning up toys again, and so on. Tanner had made yet another mess and in my frustration I said something like "Oh! Child!" To my surprise, Tanner responded with "Mommy, I am a child of God." That totally stopped me in my tracks and I knew I needed to re-evaluate the way I was handling this situation. Tanner had just learned in nursery that he was a child of God. I was so grateful for this little reminder that these children that I have been entrusted with are children of God and I need to treat them as such.

2) Unconditional Love
Children have the most amazing ability to have unconditional love in any situation. In many cases, I have seen Tanner's feelings be hurt by a friend, family member or even myself at times. After the initial sadness is over, Tanner always reverts back to being "best buddies" with whomever offended him as though nothing had ever happened. What a world this would be if everyone had unconditional love as a child.

3) Everybody is my Friend
Throughout the summer we spent a lot of time at the park having a lunch and playing with friends. Many times, Tanner did not know his "friends" until we had gone to the park. I never had to worry that Tanner would be playing by himself because he would always make a new friend. Many times, Tanner doesn't know the child's name and so he just calls them "Friend". There is no judgement on money, looks or abilities with children. A friend is a friend. I wish I had the courage of my 3 year old and everybody I came in contact with instantly became my friend.

4) Mommy, Be Patient
One day we were spending some time out in the front yard with one of Tanner's best buddies, our neighbor Gavin, and his mom. Gavin was trying to get his mom's attention while we were having a conversation and she told him that he needed to be patient and wait for his turn. Tanner caught onto this idea and he has on many occasions told me to be patient. Sometimes they have been unwarranted, but others, that is exactly what I needed to be doing. It seems that the mere act of getting myself and 2 kids into the car should change the world with all of the effort it takes. This is generally the time that Tanner takes the opportunity to tell me to be patient because he wants to play with something he just found or anything else that catches his attention. Patience is definitely an acquired skill and just when I think I have mastered it, I get humbled. So to me, "Mommy, Be Patient".

5) Life is Fun!
Having a 3 year old has made me look at the world in a whole new way...through the eyes of a child. I have really tried to make sure we do a fun activity every day and it is not always easy. It is very easy for me to get focused on my to-do list for the day that I forget to have fun. Tanner will not let me do that. He loves to play and have fun all of the time, even if it is not the most convenient time.

Thank you Tanner for your wonderful spirit and example in teaching me many of these life lessons I needed to know. You are a terrific kid and I hope you never lose the good spirit that you possess. I love you!

Meet Our Little Angel

2011-09-19T18:29:00.005-06:00

This is our little angel Kennedy Dawn. We are so blessed to have her in our family. She is such a wonderful baby. If every baby was like her, I'm sure there would be a lot more children in this world. She is so loving and it is very evident that she has a good spirit about her. She loves to snuggle and in fact she is laying on my chest as I am posting this. There is nothing better!

Most of the blankets and things in the pictures have a special significance. When we were getting ready to take her pictures, my mom went through her hope chest and found some treasures! The teal blanket in the first picture was my dad's blanket when he was a baby. I love it!

It is fascinating for me to watch how much these little babies change and progress in such a short period of time. Kennedy is now two months old and she has been holding her head up for about a month now. She smiles and interacts with us all of the time. We can really get her going if she is laying on the bed and we talk and play with her, especially if big brother Tanner is there. She rarely cries, and if she does it is because she needs something, i.e. diaper, food, or burp.

This cute dress is the present that Tanner (actually Mima) brought for Kennedy in the hospital right after she was born. It is by far my favorite dress that she has. She has been wearing it a lot. It will be a sad day when she grows out of it!

One thing we love about our Kennedy is the fact that she can burp and toot like a man! I have literally jumped when she has let one loose because it startled me so much! Usually following it is a huge smile!

Kennedy has AMAZING hair! People are always commenting on it. It curls when it is wet and it is absolutely adorable. I love her hair! It is so much fun to do! I get some grief from people because she always has a bow in her hair and she is usually all dolled up, but i love bows. It is a rare occasion that she does not have a bow in her hair. I wanted to show off her hair in these pictures, so there aren't a lot of bows in them. Another reason that I keep bows in her hair is because she looks so much like Tanner did at this age that there are times I feel like I am looking at him instead of her! It is kinda freaky how much they look alike!

This basket is my mother's. When my oldest sister Tania was born, they were living in California and it was the "thing" back then to use these Moses baskets to carry your baby around in. She would take this to church and everywhere she went. It is huge! I am so glad that trend has passed, but I love the fact that we have one in our family.

My wonderful friend Mary made this super cute bonnet for Kennedy. She spent a lot of time making cute hats for her and I love every one of them, but I think this one is my favorite. She looks like a little pioneer girl in it and I love the colors.

This white blanket was made by my Great Grandmother Finn for my sister, Tania, when she was born. It is such a treasure. We wrapped Kennedy in it for her blessing day as well.

Tanner is my biggest helper and he is a wonderful big brother. He is so great with Kennedy. He loves to make her laugh and give her kisses. He always asks me, "Mommy, can I see my baby?" or "Mommy, can I hold my baby?" I guess, she is his baby and not mine.

This is one of my favorite pictures! My little Tanner has killer eyes and ginormous eyelashes to go with them! I sure hope Kennedy ends up with his eyes!

The blanket they are laying on was also my dad's blanket when he was little. I love having these pictures with my kids and these treasured heirlooms.

I know Tanner will always be watching out for his little sister Kennedy. He loves her so much and they will be great friends as long as he doesn't maul her to death before they can get to that point in their lives.

This is our new family! I have awesome kids and the best husband a girl could ask for! We are so blessed!

Tanner's 3rd Birthday!

2011-09-09T15:38:00.004-06:00

I can't believe it, but my little man just turned 3! How time flies! He has been looking forward to his birthday for a while now. Anytime he would get asked when he birthday is he would say "3 in August". He could not wait to turn 3 and I wanted him to stay 2! Well, I guess I lost. On his actual birthday we woke him up with a happy birthday wish and this was his response...."But Mommy, where is my cake?" We celebrated his birthday the following Sunday so that we could have all of our family there and he didn't think he was 3 years old until he had gotten his cake.

Here is the cake!

I must say that I was so excited about this cake! It was so much fun! My great friend Mary helped me so much. She pretty much showed me how to do everything! We started around 7:00 and finished around midnight the night before his party. Tanner had a really hard time deciding what he wanted his cake to be, but he finally decided on the soccer ball. I woke him up the morning of his party to show it to him and he said, "Oh Mommy! I love my soccer ball cake!" That was worth every minute I sleep I missed out on while we were making it. All day, he kept opening the fridge because he wanted to look at his soccer ball cake.

Tanner was loving his cake. I think the cake tasted almost as good as it looked. However, there was so much green food coloring in the frosting, I think it stuck around with quite a few of us for a couple of days. All of the kids wanted to make sure that they got a piece of the soccer ball. The whole thing was made of cake, so they went to town on it! We pieced at the little bit of leftovers for a couple days after too. It was yummy!

We had a crazy fun party with family and some close friends. Tanner was set on making party hats for his friends. He decorated each hat himself and was so excited to give them to his friends. A couple of them were even adorned with mickey mouse ears.

Riley, Landin, Darin, Tanner, Brody

It was a great party. Jonathon and I were totally wiped out by the end of it. We were so grateful that our family and friends took the time to make it to his party. It really meant a lot to us.

We love you so much Tanner. Our lives would not be the same without you. You bring so much laughter, fun and love into our home. You are an incredibly special boy. You are so loving to all those around you. Thanks for being apart of our family and my biggest helper!

Tanner's American Idol Debut

2011-08-14T20:59:00.003-06:00

If American Idol allowed 3 year olds as contestants, Tanner Hunt would surely be the winner.

Check out these awesome primary songs!

Book of Mormon Stories

I Love to See the Temple

Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree

I Am A Child of God....Tanner learned this in Nursery

Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam

Welcome Baby Kennedy!

2011-08-07T13:37:00.003-06:00

We welcomed our beautiful baby girl, Kennedy Dawn, into this world on July 9, 2011. She weighed 7lbs 9 oz and was 19 3/4 inches long. Her actual due date was July 12 so she came sooner than I thought she would considering I went a week and half past my due date with Tanner and was finally induced. I really didn't think she was going to be born until at least around the 20th of the month, but she had a different idea.

Well, here's the story....

Ever since I completely finished up with school and my licensure exam, I had been trying to get things done at home that I had been procrastinating and needed to be done before she came. So, the day before she came, I had cleaned out her room to get it ready to paint and everything. I had taken TONS of bags of JUNK to the DI and moved a lot of heavy stuff around, which I probably shouldn't have done. That night, I told Jonathon that my back was hurting, but I thought I had just lifted stuff that was too heavy. So, we went to bed and around 2:45 I woke up and thought I had to go to the bathroom. I started having what I now know were contractions, but i was really skeptical because the pain was in lower back and my tummy didn't hurt. I woke Jonathon up and said, "Don't freak out, but I'm having back pain that is coming and going, I'm going to sit in the tub for a minute. I called my mom and asked her what it feels like when you are in labor and she said to get up to the hospital and she would be right over to be with Tanner.

So, we headed up to the hospital. When we got there the nurse checked me and she said, "OK, don't cough or sneeze or you're going to have a baby right now." Jonathon and I couldn't believe it. We both gave each other this look of disbelief. Then, a bunch of nurses and people started coming in and out of the room. I told them that I wanted an epidural and so they were drawing blood and trying to get it ready. My nurse was fantastic and she said I should really just do it without because the hard part was already over. I ended up not getting an epidural and they just gave me an spinal block, which took the edge off the pain, but I could still feel pretty much everything. So, they broke my water and off we went! I pushed 3 times and out she came! The doctors couldn't believe how quickly and smoothly everything went. They said you're like a pioneer! You should have a baby for everybody that can't have babies! It sounds crazy, but i actually really enjoyed the delivery. It is such a joy to bring a new baby into the world. The whole experience was so exciting, especially because we weren't expecting it. I told Jonathon it was so fun, I wanted to do it again! I know, I'm crazy!

The new family. I have the greatest little family ever. I am so grateful that I was blessed with such a great husband, wonderful little boy and now a beautiful daughter.

Jonathon is a wonderful father! It melts my heart to see him with our kids. He is incredibly loving and does so much for us!

Mima and Kennedy.
I am so blessed to have the mother that I do. I hope one day that I will be able to be as good of a mother as she has been for us. She does so much for me and my family. My kids are so lucky to have her in their life. Tanner and her have seriously bonded lately and he loves to go to her house to play.

Tanner, the big brother!

It has been wonderful to see how much Tanner already loves his baby sister. He calls her "His baby" and he rushes to her every need. He lets me know what she needs when she is crying. I was a little worried because I didn't know how he would react to a new baby in the house, but he is loving it! He really is very sweet with her.

This is Tanner meeting Kennedy for the first time. It's not really that exciting, but I am so glad we have this.

Welcome to our family Kennedy! We love you and we're so excited to have you in our lives!

It's Over!!

2011-06-28T22:00:00.002-06:00

I am so excited to say that I am officially finished with school and I am a now a licensed Physical Therapist Assistant. It feels so good to have it done, but I still feel like I should be studying or something all of the time. I am so glad that I have a career that I can use now or just if I need something to fall back on. Right now, I'm not planning on working, but just filling in for vacations and things. I have to say that going back to school with a little boy and a hubby that is extremely busy was not the easiest thing. I have also been anything but mother-of -the year with Tanner because school was very busy and demanding. I had to spend 4 months doing clinicals and one of them was in Burley. That was my final clinical affiliation and I had to drive over there every day, which was a big bummer, not to mention when I finished I was 7 months pregnant. It was so worth it though. I have a huge respect for moms that go back to school because it is so much easier to get it done before the kiddos come along.

I am so blessed to have the great little family that I do and I am so grateful that we all made it through this experience! Jonathon was totally supportive of me. There were only a handful of times he would look at me and say, "What were we thinking!?". Mostly it was when I would have him staying up very late with me helping me review my thousands of flashcards I made throughout the program. He never complained and was my biggest cheerleader!

When I was looking into applying for the program, I told Heather about it because she was thinking about going back to school at that time as well. I am so glad that I did because it was so wonderful to have such a great friend as a classmate. We got to know each other way more than we ever thought we would. Let me just say that there are no boundaries when it comes to physical therapy treatment and we got a lot of practice! There are some pretty great stories about our palpation labs and especially with our main instructor Darin. We got some pretty good laughs! I was really blessed to have her in class with me because not only is she family, but through this experience she has become one of my greatest friends.

These are my girls. We pretty much did everything together during school. We have been through a lot together and are great friends.

Whitney Christensen, me, Heather Jones, Courtney Porter

Our kids came and sat through the whole graduation. I don't think it was easy, but they were troopers. Tanner loves hanging out with Riley and Brody. Yesterday he told me that he could not take a nap because he missed Riley and Brody too much and he wanted to play cars with them. They are such good buddies!

My parents. What can I say! They were so supportive of me and literally raised my child for 2 years. I used and abused them, especially my mom. She was always asking if she could take Tanner so i could study or just get caught up on things I needed to do. Not once did she complain or tell me she couldn't help. I know I could not have done this without her and it was such a relief to know that my little Tanner was being taken care of so well. I had to be gone a lot and I never had to worry. They have formed quite the bond too. Since I graduated he has asked me several times if I was going to go to school today so he could go to "Mima's house to go." That is what he says when he wants to go to Mima's house because when Jonathon would take him over there in the morning they would sing the song "Grandmother's house we go" but changed it to "Mima's house we go". So, now it is always what he says. Initially it hurt my feelings that he wanted me to leave, but then I realized he was having such a great time over there, why wouldn't he want to go?

My baby brother graduated from Highland this year. I cannot believe he is old enough to be graduating! He is still 10 years old to me.

Jordan, the two cutest pregnant girls ever and the cutest little boy ever! We are all really excited for my little sister to have her baby boy in October. Tanner will no longer be the only grandchild!

Happy Daddy's Day!

2011-06-23T15:20:00.002-06:00

Tanner and I are so blessed to have such a wonderful daddy in our lives! He is the best dad ever! He works so hard for us every day and we love him so much! We don't get to spend as much time with him as we would like, but we definitely make the most of it when he is home. Tanner wants to do everything that his Daddy does, whether it is wearing matching clothes to helping him hammer nails when he is working on projects. He is the kindest person I know and there isn't anybody else in this world I would raise a family with.

Thanks for all you do for us! We love you so much!!!

Punkin Party Time

2011-01-25T13:15:00.005-07:00

I am still playing a lot of catch up right now, but we had such a fun time in the fall with pumpkins and Halloween, I had to put some pictures of them.

Tenille, Tanner, Mima and I went to the pumpkin patch and let Tanner pick out a bunch of pumpkins. It was a seriously hard choice. How do you choose just one when there are so many great pumpkins? How would it be to have that be the hardest choice you have all day? What a life!

After we picked the pumpkins, we loaded them up in the wagon and headed to the car. It was a lot of work deciding which pumpkin to pick, so Tanner said he needed a ride in the wagon.

The pumpkin patch had a couple of tractors for the kids to play on. Tanner thought he was seriously cool when he was driving the tractors.

Do you think my tractor's sexy??

We are always teasing my youngest brother Jordan because every time he laughs or smiles, he loses his eyes. One day we were teasing him and then we told Tanner to smile like Jordan, and this is what he did.

We headed back to Mima's house to start carving the pumpkins. Tanner was coloring his pumpkin and he was so proud of it. It was a ton of fun!

You know you are a mother of a 2-year old when you get more excited about carving Elmo into a pumpkin than anything else. It was fun and Tanner thought the Elmo pumpkin was the best! I was very disappointed a couple days later when my greatest creation starting rotting from the inside out. Apparently, when you only carve the outside layers off, you have to poke some kind of a hole in it somewhere because it will start to mold on the inside. It was really gross and very sad. We had them outside on our front step and it was a pile of goo in no time.

Our awesome creations. Tenille made a girl pumpkin complete with a cute red bow. Devin is a huge Atlanta Braves fan and carved their logo into it.

For Halloween this year, I had the cutest Elmo around. The costume was so great! It was so warm and I didn't have to worry about him getting cold in it. It took a lot of convincing to get him into it initially. We had to tell him that he would get candy if he puts it on. Yes, it is true, we totally bribed our 2-year old with candy to put his Halloween costume on. But there was some truth to it because he was going to get candy anyway if he put it on. The only problem now is that if he puts it on now, he thinks he gets candy.

Fun on the Farms!

2011-01-06T21:29:00.003-07:00

Back in October, Kali came home for a week and she took some time to let Tanner and I come to her house and take a ride on her horses again. It was a ton of fun! Tanner calls Rival, the horse, by name and he thinks that every horse is named Rival. He has a little stuffed animal that is a horse and he named it Rival. He really loves being around animals!

Rival is a really great horse and such a beautiful animal. After a super fun ride, Tanner was leading him all around the pasture and we didn't have to worry at all.

Tanner was feeding Rival grain and he was eating right out of his hand. He thought it was great and wanted to keep going. I think Rival thought all of the extra food was a pretty nice treat too!

OH, Bestest Buddies! We went inside to get some drinks and Kali's mom was dehydrating apples with cinnamon. They were gracious enough to share a few with us and they were delicious!

Greg is Ryan's best friend, and he is pretty much part of the family. He invited us over to his house so that he could show us the baby cows, pigs and chickens. They were really cute and it was just like we were at our own little petting zoo. Tanner especially loved this little baby cow.
She was so sweet and she even let Tanner sit on her.

Two Weddings

2011-01-03T12:40:00.004-07:00

We have had such a fun and busy year and I really wanted to try to get everything posted that we've been doing. So, I am going to be playing a little bit of catch-up.

I had 2 two siblings (Ryan and Tenille) get married this summer. It was a ton of fun, but it really made our summer go by too fast! We are so excited to have 2 new members of our family joining us as well. They are both fantastic!

Tenille's wedding was the first one and it was in May. It is way different to have your sister get married than your brother. We had so much more to do to get ready for Tenille's wedding, especially because she wanted the reception to be a surprise. She gave me, my mom and my sister Tania a theme and the colors she wanted to use and we were in charge of the whole thing! She had so much other stuff to worry about that she just wanted it to be a surprise. I thought it was a really fun idea. I must say that even with all of the stress and lots of work. We did all of the decorating ourselves, and for a church gym reception, I must say I think it turned out awesome. When Tenille walked in and she loved it, it was like a total relief for me and I immediately started crying. I'm not sure why, but it was such a relief to know that she was happy with everything we did for their reception.

We didn't get a lot of pictures of the reception, but this is pretty much how most of it looked. We made the candles and we had a set on each table with different words on them. It really was beautiful.

Dorks, is all I have to say.... Tania needed help getting her lighting set and this is what she got.

Tanner was not having a good weekend. We didn't get a single picture of him smiling and it broke my heart because he loves "Sissy" so much. He was really sick that weekend. The night before the wedding, we stayed at a hotel and I was up with him all night with a fever. Of course, he would get sick on such an important weekend.

Some of my mom's side of the family.

The new whole family

Ryan was next in line to tie the knot. They were married in the Idaho Falls Temple in July and it was a beautiful day.

We were waiting for Ryan and Kali to take their pictures and decided to take Mo-Mo around and take some fun pictures of him. We tried to take a picture of him and make it look like he was replacing Moroni on the top of the temple.....it didn't work. It was probably a good thing, because it might not have been the best idea.

I did get a few picture of Tanner with the bow on his bowtie, but it did not last long. At least he still had part of the tie on. I felt so bad that Kali had found him this cute bow tie and it was destroyed within 15 minutes.

I was really disappointed that I didn't get a picture of just my little family at Tenille's wedding, so this was a goal I had at Ryan's.....it didn't happen. I'm not sure what happened, but these were the closest I came.

Tanner was playing the drums on Daddy's head and BOTH of them were loving it!

Sissy and D are some of Tanner's most favorite people. When we say prayers with him at night, he will not end the prayer until he has prayed for them. AND LOOK~ THE BOWTIE IS ON!!

Tanner loves his new Aunt Kali and she is so great with him too! We are so lucky to have her in our family!

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER
Oh, Kali! I hope you are ready for this. He is one of a kind!

The whole family...NOW

Happy Birthday Tanner!!

2010-10-16T14:53:00.001-06:00

Well, its only been 2 months since Tanner's birthday...I guess it is time to get some pictures up. Tanner turned 2 on August 16!!!! I cannot my believe my little baby is growing into a little boy! Time has just gone by way too fast. He is the greatest joy in our lives. He had a bunch of birthday parties this year. It was kinda crazy! We had a little party for Tanner a few weeks early before Ryan and Kali moved to Arizona. We also had one with Riley while we were camping because their birthdays are 1 day apart. Then, the Sunday before his birthday we had a party with my family because it is just too crazy to get everybody together during the week. And finally, we had a little party on his birthday with Jonathon's side and some friends. It was wayyy too many...I don't think we will be doing that again. It was a ton of fun, but next year we are definitely consolidating.

Tanner loves opening his presents! I wrapped up a bunch of random stuff like crayons and clothes for him to unwrap. I thought he was really going to enjoy opening all of the presents, but I think it got to be too much for him.

This is the tool set Sissy and D (Tenille and Devin) got for Tanner. It came with a "hammerberger" (hammer) and a power drill. Initially, I don't know who enjoyed playing with it more, Tanner or Jonathon. But now, whenever Daddy has his tools out Tanner is right there with him being a really BIG helper! We have been working on a bunch of stuff with our house and Tanner has been helping a ton.

Tanner LOVES blowing out the candles on his cake. He can't get enough of it. Down below I posted a video of him blowing out his candles... it is great!

This is Tanner's birthday cake. I must say that I am really proud of this cake. It is the actual size of a basketball, totally round and it tasted pretty good too.

I wasn't as excited about the Elmo cupcakes because they turned out kinda weird, but Tanner knew what they were and he was excited....that's all that matters, I guess.

Mima gave this to Tanner for his birthday. He loves to count and uses it all the time.

This is Tanner blowing out his birthday candles.

Open WIDE!!!

2010-10-01T21:58:00.002-06:00

I took Tanner in for his first trip to the dentist. I was a little nervous because he is so little still, but he actually did really well. We went to see everybody at Dr. Fellows' office, which is where I used to work. It was so much fun to have a reason to visit them.

Rick was attempting to check out all of Tanner's teeth, but every time Tanner opened his mouth, he would stick his tongue out. It was great!

My great friend, Cyndee cleaned his teeth. She was wonderful and so patient, especially with a crazy 2-year old! She has been around Tanner since he was born. We just love her so much!!!

Tanner was absolutely captivated by the squirt gun and it was a great motivator to get him to do the things we needed him to. I think he drank close to a gallon of water! Needless to say, the potty training that day, went out the window. I should have heeded Cyndee's advice and put a diaper on him for his nap, because the flood gates bursted during his nap and I had a serious mess to clean up! Oh well, at least his teeth were clean!

It was such a great experience and Tanner keeps talking about when he can go to the "dennis" again. It does make me little sad that my baby is getting big enough to go to the dentist. Where did the time go? I can't believe that we have been blessed to have him in our lives for two years!!

Man Hike 2010

2010-08-23T15:58:00.005-06:00

Every summer Jonathon, my brothers and a bunch of their friends go on their annual "Man Hike". They blaze their own trail through the wilderness in search of their manhood. This summer they went to the Sawtooth Mountain range at the end of June. They were hiking through snow and frozen lakes and they still had a great time! Those crazy boys! This is the whole crew.... Paul Haislip, Alex Castro, Ryan Finn, Jordan Finn, Jonathon Hunt, Paul Hall, Kyle Daniels, Kevin Miller, Devin Miller, Chet Packer, Max and Joe.

Ryan standing on top of the mountain as they were hiking.

This is a great view of the area they spent the week.

Ryan, Jordan, Alex and Jonathon did a day hike by themselves. These are a few pictures of their hike.

The second love of Jonathon's life...SNOW!
Of course, it is second to Tanner and myself. :)

The boys were throwing popcorn kernels into the fire and watching it pop.
Who knew throwing popcorn into a fire could be so much fun!?

On their descent, Ryan, Jonathon, Alex and Jordan tied themselves together and skied down in the snow. They said it was a riot! Here are some videos they made of their ski trip. Jonathon is the one at the end saying "I think I broke my back!" ENJOY!

Sweet Rides!

2010-08-09T13:54:00.003-06:00

Since I finished my clinicals this summer, I have been trying to do fun stuff with Tanner a lot. We have been able to go to my parent's cabin a few times and Tanner absolutely loves it up there. He enjoys going exploring (yes, even with his helmet on), throwing rocks in the river or just throwing them where ever he can find them and he loves going for rides with anybody that will take him.

For Christmas this year, Tanner's aunt's and uncles bought him this mini 4-wheeler. He thinks he is so cool because he can drive it all by himself. He's actually a pretty good driver, as long its a mostly a straight shot.

This is my dad and Tanner on a "motor bicycle" ride. Tanner loves going for rides with Papa and it is really hard to get him off the bike when the ride is over. It is such a great thing to see him having fun with my dad doing the things we used to do with him as kids. I have so many great memories of riding motorcycles and spending time at the cabin.

Tanner and I went on a little horse back riding trip with his newest aunt, Kali, or Kaki, as Tanner calls her. It was such a fun day. We started the day with a little horse ride along the canal by her house. After that, Kali let Tanner feed the horses some grain and he thought that was the coolest thing ever. Initially he was trying to shove it up their noses, but then we showed him to just hold his hand out and the horses would out of his hand. But that wasn't good enough for him, he had to shove his hand into the horses mouth! It was hilarious! After the horses, Kali took us to get penny candy at the pharmacy in American Falls and we had some milkshakes there too. When we finished our milkshakes, we headed over to the park and played on the toys. It was such a fun day! Big thanks to Kali for everything!

Kali is so cute! Even early in the morning and not made up yet, she still looks like a rock star!

A Great Day at the Zoo

2010-07-17T16:25:00.004-06:00

A few days ago we went to the Pocatello Zoo with Heather, Riley and Brody. We had such a fun time. Riley and Tanner walked hand-in-hand pretty much everywhere. It was so cute! They are such great pals! Tanner is always so excited whenever he gets to be with Riley and Brody. It is all I can do to contain his excitement when they come around. He nearly ran into their car when they pulled into the parking lot.

These boys are such good buddies.

It will be fun to see them grow up together

and be great friends.

We took the kids to the petting zoo. it was quite the adventure. Tanner and Brody thought the goat droppings were rocks and they were trying to pick them up and throw them. They both tried to go exploring into the barn with the goats and neither one of them knew what to call them. One of them was calling them puppies and the other was horsies. Pretty good guesses, though.

We had one little accident with Riley, it was kind of scary, but she is tough and super cute kid. She ended up with some banged up knees and she was a little frightened. We love you Riley!

It looks like Riley is torturing Tanner to give him this hug, but in her defense, this is the face Tanner always makes when he is giving hugs. They are usually followed with a "OHHH" and a pat on the back. He gives great hugs!

What better way to end the day than a group hug from Riley!

We had such a fun day together! We need to have more adventures like this before we both get back into school and our lives are crazy, yet again.

Ryan's getting hitched!!

2010-07-09T10:06:00.002-06:00

Not a month after we finished Tenille's wedding, Ryan decided that it was his turn to tie the knot! He met Kali Jo Hess in Peru while they were both helping in a medical mission over spring break. They had to make some tough decisions really quick because Ryan is moving to Arizona for medical school the first of August. So, they are getting married July 23 and moving to Phoenix July 30. We are going to miss them both so much! I wish it wasn't so far away. Eventhough it has only been a few months, we have all grown very close to Kali and she already feels like part of the family. I couldn't have asked for a better girl to marry my brother and I'm getting an awesome new sister as well! We are so excited for you guys!

With a little help from a fabulous sister, Ryan surprised Kali with her ring while they were taking their engagment pictures. It seems a little backwards, but they have such a short amount of time, they had to get things moving really fast. Kali thought the ring hadn't come in yet and they were just going to take the pictures without the ring. The ring happened to come in two days before the pictures and Ryan had the idea to surprise her with it. So, I went to the field they were taking their pictures at and hid the ring for him. As they walked out there, we were taking pictures and then he popped her the question. We got tons of pictures of it and she was completely surprised. It was so fun! This picture is her reaction when gave her the ring. It was priceless!

Kali invited me to go take her bridal pictures with her and I was so excited! We had so much fun! These are a few that I shot. She is just gorgeous, it makes it easy to take great pictures of her.

Congrats on the engagement guys! We could not be more excited to have such a fabulous girl joining our family.
We love you both!!

A Bike, A Hat and A Ball!

2010-05-23T14:06:00.005-06:00

This is Tanner and his bike he got from Santa this year. We have been dying for some nice weather so he can ride his bike more. He would ride his bike all day if he could.

He never rides his bike without his helmet on and most of the time we cannot get it off of him when he is done. I think he may like his "hat" more than the bike! I'm sure our neighbors think we are really over protective parents and make our kid walk around with a helmet on. It's probably more than a hazard to him than anything else because it always falls down over his face!
Isn't this jacket the best!! A couple of my siblings went to Peru for Spring Break and brought this back for him. We love it!

Tanner is shooting hoops in the backyard with his buddy, Michael, before he left on his mission. Basketball is still one of Tanner's favorite things.

Tenille's Getting Hitched!

2010-04-25T07:50:00.004-06:00

I can't believe it, but my little sister, Tenille, is getting married! She is marrying Devin Anderson and we just love him! He has been around our family for a while because he was Ryan's friend first. I went with them to take their engagement pictures and these are a few I shot. It was great fun, but it was a really cold day! We were glad to get in the car when we were done.

We are so excited for you guys! The countdown is on! We love you!

The Start of New Tradition

2010-03-23T13:47:00.005-06:00

We did something fun and new for New Year's this year. My parents have a cabin in Island Park which we only usually get to use in the summer time. But, thanks to my dad, it is now ready to use all year round! We took the maiden winter voyage over New Years and had a great time! We had a few bumps in the road, but we loved every minute of it!
(I realize that it is almost spring, but I was trying to get pictures from everybody.)

When we got to the cabin, the pipes were frozen solid, so Ryan got the privelege of sitting outside with the blow dryer trying to fix them.

We had to shovel a pathway through the driveway for us to walk to the cabin. The snow was about up to our knees. That was Jonathon's job (and he LOVED IT!) The best part was when the snow fell off the roof the next day and we had to shovel the path all over agian!

On the way up, Tanner was watching Finding Nemo on Tenille's iPod.

This picture made us laugh so much! It looks like he is really into the movie, but it really only lasted a minute.

We all had so much fun playing in the snow, especially because at that point, we didn't have any at home. We completely buried Tenille in the snow. The boys adorned her with a broom and a headstone that said "Tenille RIP". She was pretty much stuck!

Tanner loves playing in the snow, which he totally inherited from his Daddy. We couldn't get him to come inside once we started playing outside. The weather was perfect too! There was a little snowfall, but it was just warm enough to be outside!

We took Tanner sledding down the road. We had to pull him with a rope because it wasn't steep enough to go by itself. He kept saying "More, More, More", so we all had to take turns pulling him up and down the hill.

Tanner and Sissy.

(He calls Tenille Sissy)

Tanner had his first experience skiing this weekend too! Jonathon put him on top of his skis and went down the hill with him. He really loved it! It was fun watching him have so much fun with his Daddy.

Jonathon hooked himself up to the sled with Tanner and me and pulled us all around the road. Tanner and I are so blessed to have him!

Jonathon, Tiffany, Ryan, Tenille, Morgan

Thanks for such a great time guys!

Let's do it again next year!!

Just Some Fun Stuff

2010-02-28T21:18:00.007-07:00

Oh, how we LOVE our Tanner! He is such a joy and blessing in our lives! He keeps us laughing every day. It is amazing how much he learns at such a young age. He is constantly surprising us! These are just some random pictures we've taken in the last little bit.

Tanner's newest obsession is ELMO, Big Bird, Sesame Street, Etc. I get at least an hour of snuggle time with him everyday while we watch Sesame Street. It blows me away how much he learns from that show! Last week Elmo went to the doctor and so did Tanner. When the doctor asked Tanner to open his mouth he proudly opened and said "AHHHH!" (which is just what Elmo did at the doctor). We were laughing so hard! The last time Aunt Ta-Ta (Tania) was here, she totally spoiled him with a bunch of Sesame Street books and an Elmo doll that is as big as him! He has to sleep with it and he carts it around wherever he goes, which is quite the chore because he's pretty big! He shares his Cheerios with Elmo too!

These are all of Tanner's Elmo prizes from Aunt Ta-Ta.

I was making brownies one day, and Tanner kept saying,"Mama EAT!" So, I gave him the bowl of frosting and he went to town and loved every minute of it.

Our friends gave Tanner a little basketball hoop that he loves, of course. It's just small enough we can stick it in a drawer in the kitchen and he is completely entertained, which is awesome! one day, Daddy put his sunglasses on Tanner and he would not shoot hoops unless he was wearing them, even if they were falling off most of the time. He loves basketball no matter what!

We recently inherited a horse. A rocking horse that is. Our neighbors were getting rid of it and offered it to Tanner. He loves it! He is a little bit of a dare devil, though. He knows he's not supposed to ride it unless he's holding on to the handles and every so often he will throw both of his hands in the air and try to keep riding it! I'm afraid this might be the start of a kid with no fear like his Daddy.

Tanner has started saying his prayers. It is the cutest thing! He prays at the dinner table and gets really upset at anybody that is not folding their arms. And he will pray FOREVER! I feel bad telling him that he can't pray anymore, but we've got to eat too!

Tanner loves playing the piano with Mi-Ma. His favorite song is "I love to see the temple". He runs over to the piano and says "PEMPLE". It sounds a lot like how he says football and it kinda sounds like pimple too, but we all know what he wants. He gets very upset if you only play the song with one hand, and most of the time, he wants to play it himself.. I always play primary songs for him while he is going to sleep and the temple song is always the first one on.

WE LOVE YOU TANNER!

Christmas Tree Hunting

2009-11-29T21:39:00.004-07:00

This weekend we ventured into the mountains and cut down our own Christmas tree. This is a tradition Jonathon has done with his family forever and we have adopted it into our own little family. We were not able to go with his family on the day they chose, so we headed up on our own and it was great fun! It was so nice to do something like that with just us. Well, my brother Morgan came too. He was a trooper! He didn't think there was going to be any snow and didn't bring any snow clothes. All he had was a jacket, jeans, tennis shoes and ankle socks. I did have an extra hat that I let him wear, but he wasn't thrilled with the color.
He made me promise not to take any pictures of him in the hat. (yeah right!)

We found our perfect tree! We had to cut off about 5 feet, but it looks awesome! I'm not sure who had more fun, us or Max, our newest addition to the family. He was running around like crazy and slept like a baby on the way home. He has been such a good puppy. We love him so much!

Cute hat!

Uncle Mo-Mo carrying Tanner to safety. He was ready to be done at this point.
Tanner has just recently started calling Morgan "Mo-Mo". It's pretty cute.

We hauled Tanner around in the back pack. It took some convincing, but he did really great. He couldn't really move because of all of his snow gear,
so he was pretty much stuck.

He could NOT move. I think it was partly due to his boots. I'm not sure if we had them on all of the way. His feet are pretty chunky so, it was hard to get them in.

He has the best eyelashes!

We had a few traumatic moments, but he did awesome!!
It was so much fun to do that with him.

tk design company

2009-11-14T13:04:00.004-07:00

My sister, Tania, owns her own graphic design and photography business called tk design company.

She just recently opened her own etsy store also!

tkdesignco.etsy.com

Check out the store! She has really cool Christmas Cards and Photo Collages that make great Christmas presents.

I would highly recommend it. :-)

Also, mark her store as one of your favorites and you might win a free set of 25 customized christmas cards. . . what a deal!

The "Basketball" Patch

2009-11-14T11:52:00.002-07:00

Tanner is obsessed with balls, especially basketballs. He could play with them all day! He even has a kid-sized basketball hoop and he never gets tired of playing with it. My sisters and I went to a pumpkin patch by Tania's house in Utah and he thought he went to a basketball patch! He kept walking around pointing at the pumpkins saying "ball, ball, ball" or "basketball". Most of the time it sounds like "has-et-ball" or "bas-het-ball". It's pretty hilarious. It is usually the first thing he says in the morning and the last thing he says at night. It is getting to the point that Jonathon has been begging me to teach him more words. He is starting to talk quite a bit now, but basketball is definitely his favorite word, and anything round is a basketball. I love this stage! He has been so much fun lately!

Tanner was absolutely in heaven! There were way too many "basketballs" to choose from.

He was trying really hard to carry his own pumpkin, but he wasn't quite strong enough.

Maybe next year!

In this picture he is calling the pumpkin next to him a ball.

We finally found the perfect pumpkin.

Tanner's Birthday

2009-10-12T15:57:00.003-06:00

Tanner had his first birthday on August 16th. We had a big party for him over at Grandma and Grandpa's house with our family and some friends. I can't believe Tanner has been with us for over a year now. He is such a blessing and a joy to us every day. What did we ever do without him!!

We got Tanner a puppy for his birthday. He is a golden retriever and we named him Max. We really didn't think we would get another dog for a while after Clifford died, but we have some good friends that had a litter of golden retriever puppies and we couldn't resist. We decided to name him Max because in the Clifford cartoons, Max is Clifford's buddy.

Tanner and Max have become good buddies. I kind of feel like I have twins right now because they are both somewhat at the same level right now. I can't really tell either one of them to leave the other one alone. It has been so much fun to have a puppy at our house.
My Grandma and Grandpa Harker came down for the party. It was so much fun to have them there! Tanner just loves them!

Here is the cake. I attempted to make an edible replica of Tanner's truck. I think it turned out pretty good! It took him a minute to figure out what to do with the cake, but as soon as he did, he went to town on it! It was pretty cute!

I asked Morgan to help me get all of the balloons we had blown up so that the kids could play with them. This was his way of only having to make one trip.

All in all we had a really fun night celebrating our Tanner. We love him so much! Thanks so much to Grandma and Grandpa for letting us crash their house again! We had a great time!

My new friend

2009-09-08T13:34:00.004-06:00

So, this last month, we had a life altering change. I quit my job, of 7 years, at the dental office and decided that I needed to go back to school. I have quite a bit of school done already and I just felt like I needed to do something with it and not let all of that work (AND MONEY) go to waste. I had tried for four years to be accepted into the dental hygiene program at ISU and it just did not work out. So, I thought I would try a different route and I applied to the PTA (physical therapy assistant) program and I was accepted. Thus far, it has been really good, but a lot of work. My only regret is that I didn't get all of my schooling done before I had Tanner because it is just that much harder to try to get everything done. I am so grateful for my mom and my sister because they help me so much with Tanner. It's hard enough to leave him as it is, but it makes it a little easier to know that he is with people who almost love him as much as me.

This book and I have become good friends and I am sure we will only get closer over these next two years.

So long to the days of sucking spit and taking xrays and hello to kinesiology!

Water Baby

2009-08-15T16:12:00.003-06:00

Tanner loves water! It doesn't matter if it is the bathtub, swimming pool, the hose outside, the sink full of water, cups full of water, or even an occasional sneaky trip to the toilet when the lid is accidentally left open (gross, I know) ... he loves it all!

I have been doing a mommy-and-me swimming class with Tanner since he was 4 months old. I think that's how he started becoming so fond of the water. This last time, his best bud Brody did the class with us. It was so fun! We even got the daddys to do the class once.

Yes, Heather and I gave birth to amazing babies. They are floating in 3 1/2 feet of water!

They must get that from their moms!

So, one day, we were at Grandma's house and Tanner decided it would be fun to play in the water from the hose. We stripped him down to a swim diaper (I always keep one handy) and off he went!

THE TRUCK

2009-07-17T15:59:00.002-06:00

So, this is Tanner's pride and joy, not to mention my life saver. He can play with this for hours on end. IT IS AWESOME! This truck actually belongs to my brother Jordan, so thanks Jord for letting Tanner borrow it for a while. It used to be that this truck was Tanner's only mode of transportation, but now that he is walking, the truck just helps him get around FASTER. He has gotten pretty good at driving it, even if he runs over a few toes.

He never lets go!

Like father, like son!

OH, WE LOVE OUR TANNER!!

Shout Out To The Grads!

2009-06-15T12:11:00.003-06:00

This May, Jonathon and Morgan both graduated!

Jonathon graduated from ISU with a bachelors in Business Administration

in Marketing and Management.

Morgan graduated from Highland.

Our cute little family!

Dad Morgan Mom

Tanner, myself and the fam went to the graduation. It was 4 HOURS long! We ended up getting there about 1/4 of the way through. It was a long time, but well worth it!

Thank goodness for cheerios and animal crackers!

Tanner LOVES Uncle Morgan! All Morgan has to do is look at him and he starts to laugh.
Maybe someday Tanner will be a Highland Ram too!
But not too quickly please!

Bengal Triathalon

2009-05-31T22:01:00.003-06:00

Clear back on Easter weekend, Jonathon and my brother Morgan did a triathalon together. Jonathon did the swimming and biking and Morgan finished it with the run. It was a little chilly that morning, but overall everybody had a great time!

Morgan did a great job running, but I think he will do a little bit of training before the next one. He was a little tired after.

Morgan and Jonathon after the race. What a team!

They ended up getting 3rd place.

Of course, Tanner was there to cheer everybody on!

Barrie, Dave Walker, Jonathon, Michael Hunn and Morgan

Tanner is famous!

2009-03-05T17:52:00.000-07:00

Tanner and I have been taking a mommy and me swimming class at the hospital for about a month, and yesterday the newspaper came and took some pictures of the class. They ended up publishing a picture of Tanner in the class. So, if you got to www.idahostatejournal.com and find the story called "PMC program makes a splash with tots" you'll be able to see his famous picture!

GO RAMS!

2009-03-01T23:18:00.000-07:00

We have been going to a ton of basketball games lately! My brother Morgan is on the varsity team at Highland and Jordan is on the JV team. They didn't make it to state, but they both had a great season! It was tons of fun watching them and we are really missing being able to go to those games now.

This is how Tanner was during most of the games, totally zoned! He loves watching basketball!

Go Uncle Morgan!

We had to get Tanner dressed up. We made two jerseys for him,

one with each of their numbers on them.

Go Uncle Jordie!

Morgan

Jordan

Tanner's Favorites Things

2009-02-14T22:09:00.000-07:00

Tanner on Christmas morning in the bouncer Santa brought him and yes, he does have bed head. It's like this every morning!

Tanner loves bathtime!

This is Tanner's latest craze. He started sucking on his toe one day after we got him out of the bathtub. We were laughing so hard, and of course, we had to get pictures of it!

The Beginning

2009-01-16T22:22:00.000-07:00

Well, I have finally broken down and decided to do a blog. Now that we have a such a cute baby, we wanted to share him with everybody! It has been so much fun to be parents! I can't imagine our life without our little Tanner.