Thanksgiving at Grandma Tanner's

This year we had Thanksgiving in Boise with Grandma Tanner

We always love seeing family in Boise, and this was no exeption. We had Emily & Jeff, Ben & Moni, Sass & Matt and of course all of there kiddos. The cousins love playing together. It's such a good experience for them.


Here's Ester and Abigail playing peek-a-boo under Grandma's quilt.

 Oreo turkey place settings that the kids made.

 After dinner we played football and Red Rover, and jumped on the tramp.  Here's Sass!

 Abby - trying to keep up with cousins.

 More football.

 Gingerbread Houses with real ginger bread I have learned is a Tanner family tradition started when Grandpa Tanner passed away.  A friend gave the family gingerbread, and still does almost every year.

 Abby helped this year....well eat the candy I mean.  She sure does like sugar these days.

Happy Halloween!

 My Mom made Pumpkin Stew that she actually cooked inside a pumpkin for Sunday dinner.  Oh it was YUMMY!  Too bad Brian was sick.  But Beca and Vraina joined us for a delicious evening. 

 Here's our two little bundles of mischief, Vraina and Abby, playing on the back porch. 

 Abby likes to clime as high as the kitties!

On Friday we had a ward Halloween party.  It's the best party of the year in my opinion.

Abby was a fairy princess, Scott was our little frog prince, and Brian and I were just some crazy royalty.

Our ward seems to have a lot of contests (pumpkin carving, pies, cup cakes, chili, bread). After 2 years of trying very hard to be a winner and only utterly losing I just gave up. So when Brian signed me up for making bread, chili, and potatoes for the ward Halloween party I said heck with the contests, lets just get everything made in time so there will be enough food for everyone.  My chili was nothing special and I made a batch of my regular old wheat bread. While I was talking with my old friend Amy Casper Heartwell in the back of the room Brian happened to be up at the front getting some pie when they held up my bag of bread as the winner. Brian claimed it and later handed me the very....creative?.... trophy. I was actually super excited!

Abby's new stroller

Little Miss Abby loves her bran new "stroller" that Grandma Tanner gave her for her birthday. She puts anything she can find inside it. Dolls, blocks, TV remotes... Today we went for a walk down the street during Brian's lunch break. Of course she didn't want to ride IN a stroller, she wanted to push one.  In about 15 minutes we made it almost to the end of the street and back.  Not much of a walk for us but she sure enjoyed herself. 

 Here's Brian in his monkey suite.  He sure does love our little Abby.

Abby's Second Birthday

I can't believe my baby girl is two years old! What is Abby like at 2 years old? She is such a beautiful sweet daughter and a loving big sister. She also has her difficult "terrible two's" moments that can drive me crazy at times. But for the most part she is very happy. Abby is starting to play make-believe with her dolls (feeding them, changing diapers, washing their hands, putting them in the baby swing, etc.) She absolutely loves playing with her cousins and other young friends. Her vocabulary and sentences are growing so fast it's almost she's like a little sponge. She loves learning letters on Starfall.com. Physically she can run, jump, climb out of her crib, and almost bounce on the trampoline. We are proud of every ounce of her whop'n 22.5 pounds.

So we had two birthday parties for her 2 year old birthday (a pattern we don't intend to continue). We celebrated the first one last Sunday in Twin Falls with my mother, the Madsen's and the Hales.

  I made a pink "princess castle" birthday cake.

 

Abby got a really nice baby doll that's just about the same size as her six week old brother Scott.
Yup, she is way into babies right now.

We had her second birthday party with Grandma Tanner and Ben and Monica's family in Boise
on her real birthday, Oct. 1st, after the priesthood session of General Conference. After doing such a good job blowing out her birthday candles we decided to light them again and took the following video. She had been excited for hours about her elephant birthday cake. I also think she loved being the center of attention.

Abby is Two!

Baby Scott

Introducing the newest member of our family!  Scott James Tanner was born August 15th, 2011 at 6:42 a.m.  8 pounds 3 ounces, 21.5 inches long.  APGAR 8 & 10.  He is one healthy big boy!  He has dark hair and very long toes (just like his mom).  We think he has Grandpa Tanner eyes.

 Short version of his birth story:
We went in the night before with contractions very close together - and then they stopped and they sent us home:(   Well, that was just expensive so we decided to wait MUCH longer next time.  Well, maybe we waited a little too long?  Brian dropped me off at the ER entrance.  After telling the receptionist my name my water broke and the baby started to crown!  This big athletic ER nurse RAN me up to L&D in a wheel chair.  Brian, still parking the car, got left behind.  While he was locked behind the doors right outside L&D he hears all this commotion about a lady who just walked in and was about to have her baby.  Finally, the ER doc (sent up to attend the delivery) walks by and lets Brian inside.  My OB made it there just in time to catch the baby.  He came out so big and healthy I was just amazed and over joyed....and very tired.

Abby just loves her new little brother.  She calls him "Baby Brother" and "Baby Sott."  I'm sure eventually she'll get the "c" in there:-) She often asks to hold the baby, but her interest only lasts a few seconds.  Abby likes to give the baby blankets, pat his back to bubble him, and give him kisses.  She also gets so excited to throw his diapers (both dirty and clean) in the garbage.

 Of course my mom was pretty excited to come see Scott.  She was watching Abby for us.  Thanks Mom!

Why is Brian in a suit???  Believe it or not he had to go to court just a few hours after the delivery.  That's what you get for being self employed.  He's such a good daddy.

 After 48 blissful hours in the hospital it was finally time to go home.  I just loved being able to get some rest and get acquainted with our little guy.     

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 Brian is one happy proud father!

Today Brian gave Scott a name and a blessing.  We just feel so blessed by our Heavenly Father to have this new little one in our family.  We are so grateful he is healthy and well.   

Play time with Abby

Abby turned a whop'n 15 months old on Saturday.  Here's what she's up to these days.
She started walking in November.  Now the only time she's not walking is when she's eating (and even then...) reading a story, or sleeping.  It seems like she's always walking around with something or other in her hands (a book, the remote, a cell phone, a spoon...).

 Abby loves story time. (Pictured above is Grandma Leavitt reading her Good Night Moon.)  She especially likes to take the story reader's finger and point to the pictures with it.  Silly girl.  One book we a reading right now is Baby Signs.  She loves the pictures of the babies making signs.  So far she has signs for "All done,""Up," "Christmas Tree," and "Hat."  For anything else she wants she just points to it. She isn't using any words so I'm hoping the signing will help.

Another thing Abby is getting really good at is stealing mommy's glasses off her face.  I try to stop her, but to the detriment of my poor optic lenses she is getting pretty quick and sneaky about it.  Maybe I should get contacts again.

 Abby loves playing in the kitchen...perhaps even more than she likes playing in her room were all her toys are. 

 She's like a "magnet" to the refrigerator. 

 And ever since she's learned how to access all those fun "toys" in the cupboards............

 ...my kitchen has never been quite the same.

I think she likes this wooden spoon  more than any other toy in the house.  Maybe I should decorate it for her.  It's not like I get to use it now anyway because it's either in the dishwasher, being pulled out of the dishwasher by excited little hands, or on the floor.

Christmas Vacation

This year all 5 of Brian's siblings and their families (14 grandchildren included) made their way to Boise to celebrate the holidays. Boy what a blast! We all pitched in fixing up Diane's house, cleaning, and cooking mission meals.  We had fun playing racket ball and swimming at the YMCA and ice skating at Ice World.  At home we played Christmas Carols with chimes, the Grinch game, and of course we had a big indoor snowball fight with marshmallows. Too bad most of us got sick from being in such close quarters with each other.  However, we felt so blessed to have everyone together again.  T's family flew in from Alaska and Cam's family flew from Michigan.   I didn't get pictures of everything, but here's some of the fun ones I do have.

 Abby having a great time learning how to climb up and down Uncle Ben's stairs over and over again.

 This pretty little dress is actually a 3T skirt Grandma Tanner bought at Moni's boutique.  I just untied the bow and tied it around her neck to hold it up.  Way cute!

 The kids' table

 All of T's kids, including Maddy here, seemed to love carrying all the babies around.

 Christmas Dinner

 Time to act out the Nativity!

 John reading his part

 Drew playing a shepherd.  Is that PVC pipe really supposed to be sheep?

 Lizy and Brinley playing the angels

Essie was a great big baby Jesus, Sass was Marie, and Maddy was Joseph

 Brian, James, and Jake playing Wise Men

 Snowball (marshmallows blown through PVC pipe) fight!

 All the moms got pj's from Aunt Merilyn.

 Abby was feeling sick and just wasn't that interested in opening presents.

 Abby mainly got books....

 ....and dolls.   Just perfect!

 Cam and John's family

 Excuse me folks, I'm hungry!

 Gracie and her dad Steve

 John and Daniel

 Grandma Tanner, Clara, and James

 Brian heavily protested when he saw the larger size on his new jeans....then he tried them on and admitted they were a perfect fit for his growing belly:)  I told him if he lost weight I'd buy him a smaller size.

 Baby doll from Grandma Cathy

 Well no one really looks all that pretty early on Christmas morning do they???

 Gracie really scored with ALL the Disney princes dolls

    Abby is becoming quite the doll lover herself.  She usually smiles and squeals at them for about 20 seconds before she's off exploring the next object of interest.