Oh to be Thankful

It was a great Thanksgiving.  All the Tanner kids were home (except Paul & Jill).  Will ate turkey, stuffing, potatoes, and rolls; all via Mama's milk, of course.

Ron wore an excellent turkey hat and entertained us with his traditional "Thanksgiving Turkey Gobble."  He really is quite good at it.

What a Turkey

We cookied for Thanksgiving.  After finding a tutorial here, I convinced a few family members to help me out.  

They turned out pretty darn cute, despite my 4,000 mistakes.  (No really, the first time making anything, I unintentionally sabotage everything.)

This time, the main issue was frosting consistency.  An attempted rescue by the microwave only made things worse.  Don't microwave.  Just don't do it.

But like almost any project, the little flaws created in the process become minimal when the cuteness is finished in its entirety.

Just ask Elaina...

Getting Cozy

Getting Will up from his nap-- Daddy version:

How Will feels about sharing his crib:

The End.

Cutest Baby in the World

Baby Will has his own theme song.  (With Grant and me as his parents, really... are you surprised?)  While we love to make up silly songs, we're rarely patient enough to write much more than one line.  So I guess you could say we love to write jingles instead of songs.

Building Baby's Room: Part 7

Will loves his room.  (Well, he hasn't complained...).  The bedding turned out great.  I love how all of the fabrics look together & the colors work well.  The bumper turned out a little too big... and I've been too lazy to fix it, hence the overlapping corner.  But that corner allows Catan, Will's sock monkey, to look over him while he sleeps.

Reunited and it Feels So Good

We headed to Utah for the weekend.  I counted a grand total of 40+ people that we managed to visit in two days...

We saw nearly half of those people Friday night at a Provo staple, Brick Oven Pizza.  Out of the 12 members from Apartments 1810 and 2310 (plus one adopted member), 10 were able to make it to our grand reunion.  It was awesome.

These guys are awesome.  I talked a little bit about them here.  I spent three years at BYU.  The first year was with these folks, the second year spent driving to dance in Salt Lake every day, and the third year married.  So as far as friends go, they constitute the bulk of my experience.  And I couldn't have asked for a better group of friends.

It is exciting to see how our "family" is changing.  Will is the only baby so far, but we've added quite a few spouses and significant others.  I can't wait for our next reunion.  The attendance will dwindle with the years I'm afraid.  Perhaps we'll have to make the next one even more exciting... destination reunion?!

Preview of Will's Room

The room is done.  Mostly.  But it is also filled with unhung picture frames and a twin bed that threatens to become a permanent fixture.  (It's just a little too handy).  

So until things are a little tidier, enjoy this snippet of Will's room.  Everything is homemade. Except the crib... and the sticks.  Some tree made those.

Family Hiking

McFarlands came to visit!  For one of our jaunts around town, we took them to our favorite local hiking spot, Roxborough.  We were greeted by a handful of deer.  

We see deer everywhere here.  It feels like home.  It makes me happy.

Home

We're home!  We had an excellent 5-day stay in Texas.  Will & I visited Denton to see TWU friends, Colleyville to see Pat Riddle School of Dance friends, and Grapevine to visit church friends!  It was awesome.  I managed to take a grand total of 0 pictures... So instead, here are a few oldies from hanging out at Mumsie's house.

Blizzardy Blizzard

It's supposed to snow tonight and tomorrow... blizzard style...

Will & I are supposed to leave for Dallas tomorrow...

Bad combo...

So say your prayers for an uneventful trip.

And in the meantime, picture cute babies in the snow.

Um, Yes. I'd like a Small Rainbow.

A small rainbow snocone, that is!  Leslie helped me make a killer snocone costume for little Will.  We covered a hat with colored felt and made a white cone out of felt as well.  Then I cut holes for his legs (a stressful scissors moment).

Flying Solo (+1)

Will has become a frequent flier.  He has been to San Diego, Chicago, and Boise.  Half of those flights were attended by three Tanners: Will, Grant, and yours truly.  But the other half, I managed solo... plus Will of course.

Which is one of the many reasons that I'm super lucky that he's such a good baby.  The last two flights, the plane wasn't full, so I even got to bring his car seat onto the plane!

Which means I got to sit in my own seat, and take pictures of Will, in his own seat, sleeping like a little baby... which he is.

(The only unfortunate part about taking the car seat on the plane is that is has to go in the window seat... Which means I sit in the middle... and nurse my flailing baby right next to a strange man...  Such is life.)

Meeting the Fam

I headed home to Boise for two weeks.  It was awesome.  I had a 24/7 babysitter, willing to change dirty diapers and wake up in the middle of the night if neccesary, (Bma, of course).  I spent nearly every day in the dance studio, teaching classes and choreographing.  And of course, we got to visit my family.

Papa, Will's favorite cowboy:

So much to blog about!

So here's the scoop:

I just got home from a two-week trip to Boise- Yay!

And now we have visitors: Linds, Taylor, and this beautiful babe:

We're busy having sisterly fun, but when the fun is done, the blogging will have begun...

(I know that was bad grammar, but wasn't the rhyming awesome?!)

Mini-Pity-Party

Will is a great sleeper.  An awesome sleeper.  It makes me happy.

But Will is a horrible go-to-sleeper.  I would like to say I've gotten used to his pre-bed screaming... but it would be a lie.

I'm not sure whether it makes me really sad, or just down right tired.  Probably a combo.

Okay.  Pity session... over.

Ingredients

I do grocery shopping every two weeks.  I make a meal plan (or try to), and buy everything needed for the meals for those two weeks.  This week, I ventured out into new territory and bought lots of new ingredients (that interestingly, ended up being almost all cheese...).

I bought gorgonzola.  Or is it Gorgonzola?  Are you supposed to capitalize the name of cheeses?  

Only fancy cheeses?  ...Just kidding.  Maybe.

H-2-Whoa...

Will had a blow out.

I started the water to soak his pj's in the sink.

I forgot that I started the water to soak his pj's in the sink.

I remembered...

Meet Tina Townie

Grant has been trying to convince me that I need a bike so that we can journey about town together...  

I have been trying to convince Grant that there will be endless scars and bruises if I attempt to journey about town on any fewer than four wheels...

Finally I conceded with one stipulation.  I had to have an awesome bike.  If I am going to risk life and limb (seriously, sometimes it feels like that) then I better look totally rad doing it.  

And dude, I'm going to look totally awesome with my new friend,

Tina Townie!!

She's an Electra Townie, bright yellow with a step-over frame, tan seat and handlebars and super cool orange "rims."  She also features the patented "flat foot technology" that allows you to put both feet on the ground while sitting on the bike.  

I plan to deck her out with sweet accessories over the years... perhaps one update per Christmas/birthday.  Perhaps sweet fenders, a bike bell, and of course, a basket!  I can't wait to get a little trailer for Will so that we can go on produce trips to Sunflower Market.  

I'm officially a biker.  A hard-core, Tina Townie riding, biker chick!

Do you ride a bike? Do you accessorize your bike?  Recommendations?  

Bathtime & Baby Bums

Caution: This post contains a photo of a naked baby bum.  If this either A: makes you uncomfortable; or B: makes you want to squeal with glee... you have been warned.

We have been trying to settle into a nightly bedtime routine with Will.  The first part of his routine is to get a bath.  It's amazing how much lint & gunk can get between his tiny little fingers.  I mean really, he doesn't even touch anything!

One of my favorite parts of bath time is the nakie baby bum.  So squeezable.  So pokeable.  Do I dare even say it... so kissable?  

Note: I haven't actually kissed his nakie baby bum... but would you blame me if I had?!

Amazingly, Will wasn't screaming for this particular bath.  Usually bath time consists of 10 seconds of "Ahh...." and 5 minutes of "AHHH!"  But that's good.  My mama always says, "Screaming is how babies get their exercise."  Bath time is partially intended to wear him out, supporting a successful sleepy time to follow.

Double chin!  Those adorable rolls need serious scrubbage. 

And who can resist the belly button through the washcloth?!  Even Grant has the "cute baby lips" going on in this picture.  I'm fully convinced that there is some biological connection between cute babies and the inward lip purse.  Usually there's a shoulder shrug and head tilt incorporated as well. 

Are you doing it now?  Reading back through this post, I had to do the lip purse/shrug/tilt just to make sure I documented it correctly :) 

Water baby

It was Labor Day and Grantie had the day off (yay!).  He has been begging me to take the kayak out, but I've been stubborn because of our lack of life jackets.  We finally found a little baby life jacket and decided it was time to get Will out on the water. 

(Never mind that we didn't have life jacket for ourselves... We're good swimmers...)

Cousin lovin'

We have been especially blessed lately with being able to see family a lot.  After living in Texas for two years where our closest family members were multiple states away, we are loving being in Colorado, one flight (or drive) away from nearly everyone.  

I stole these pictures from my sister-in-law Jill's blog.  During our trip to San Diego we spent a day in Long Beach, with Grant's brother and his family.

Happiness...

... is an unexpected smile.

Thrifted!

I have officially decided that Pinterest has saved my decorating life as we know it.

I rummage through other people's genius ideas.  I find new websites full of images of great design.  I don't know why they're great.  I don't really know why I like them.  But I keep track of them.  And I copy them.

Yesterday we found this sweet mirror at Goodwill.  Two bucks.  Yes, that's a 2... I saw it and immediately knew it would be great in our bathroom.  (This whole "immediately knowing" thing is new... thank you Pinterest).

I'm digging the girly-lacy feel around the edges.  I want to find some cool apothecary-like jars to put on here as well.  I also need to fill those vases with something... any ideas?

Yay for small successes!

2 whole months

I can't believe that Will has been alive for two whole months! (as of yesterday)  

He had his 2 month appointment, complete with shots.   We both cried.  Angry baby wailing is completely different than injured baby wailing. And Will's injured baby wail breaks my heart. 

But all is well.  Here are his stats:

Weight: 13lbs. 1/2oz.    80%

Height: 22 3/4in.  50%

Head: Can't remember.... 50%

Our little chunker is growing fast.  

He slept through the night last night. (Yay!)  He was in bed from 10:30-8:00.  

How much of that was sleeping... we'll never know.

But Mama was feeling good with a hearty 7-8 hours of hardcore sleepage.

Will really is so wonderful.

He is super smiley in the mornings.

He has super strong legs and likes to be standing most of the time.

He does little dances where his legs are straight but he bobbles his hips around.  Super cute.

He hates taking a bottle.  He's been having bottle lessons with Grant lately.  No luck yet.

He screams "Hun-geeeee!!" when he's hungry... or angry... or hot.

He is quite the chunker and so I find myself picking lint out of his baby rolls a lot.

He still has quite the serious forehead.  

He's the best baby in the world.  

Except for right now because he's crying in his crib and I want to make him feel better... but can't.

Darn that crying-themselves-to-sleep stage.

Chicago Walks

We spent a lot of our time in Chicago walking around, being touristy tourists.  Because our hotel was close to Michigan Avenue, most of our jaunts were on or around that street.  Chicago has such a nice feel (at least this area does).  It's busy and bustling, but feels safe and exciting, and even relatively clean.

Marilyn Monroe & her giant underpants...

The real reason we were in Chicago was because Grant had training for work.  Fidelity is on Michigan Avenue, also known as the Magnificent Mile.  All of the best shopping is on Michigan :)

And so is Marilyn Monroe!  

Statement and Question

Statement: I can officially wear my pre-pregnancy jeans.  Hallelujah.

Question: Must I always be covered in poop and spit-up?  Tis' true love at it's finest... and messiest.

That's all.

Chillin in Chicago

Will and I flew to Chicago.  By ourselves...  Because Grant and I are such cheap-o's...err... frugal... we didn't want to pay an extra $100 to get on the same flight.  Luckily, Will was great and we made it easily.  (But getting around Chicago/O'Hare with a stroller is no picnic.  We're talking multiple elevators).

We were picked up by Aunt DD, Uncle Bruce, and Gma.  The next day, DD and Gma took the train and met Will and me at the hotel. 

Gramma's Camera

Last week we spent some time visiting the windy city: Chicago.  I was especially excited because visiting Illinois means visiting family!  My Grandma made the 3-hour drive up to the city and we spent the day with my Aunt DD, Grandma's sister.  

After we got home, Gma sent us a CD of the pictures she took:

World Class Traveler

Last weekend we took off for a little vacation in San Diego.  It had been exactly 3 years since we visited the same place for our honeymoon.  It's amazing how much our lives have changed in those three years, especially with little Will!

Catch-up

It has been a crazy few weeks!  Will has now successfully completed his first four airplane rides with trips to San Diego and Chicago.  Before I post pictures from our long-distance adventures, I wanted to catch up with the few weeks before that.

I had a birthday!  Being four days after giving birth, I can't say it was the best birthday I've ever had... but Leslie & Lauren made me an awesome birthday cake.  Twenty-three is going to be a good year.  I can feel it.

B-ma came to visit for two weeks!  Not only was it fun to have my mom around, but she was so helpful with little Will.  She has been going through Will withdrawals since she left (who wouldn't?!) which means she should come visit again soon... :)

Grandpa also came to visit for a weekend.  He loves babies and had lots of fun with his second little grandson.

And of course, he had to take Will to Player's Bench for his first hockey store experience.  Maybe he'll be a Penguin someday...

Bma made sure Will got a picture with Sidney Crosby.  Good ole' Sid was my mom's first choice for my future husband before she met Grant... :)

Will has also been spending a lot of time with his Mumsie & Grumsie.  It is so great to have them close by!  

The weekend of Will's blessing, Matt & Rachel came to visit as well.  We hadn't seen them since Christmas so it was great to catch up with them.

And of course, Will's been spending a lot of time sleeping, eating, and pooping.  

And now, smiling!  Although this picture doesn't exactly show that off...