More pictures and other things

Obviously I didn't get around to posted more pictures yesterday. Here they are today though. You can see that Vance's mood had improved after church.

We saw Twilight on Saturday. When we walked in a group of women cheered for Stephen (there were only a handful of guys at our showing). I then bragged that Stephen had read the books. Yes, my husband is not only cool that he was willing to go see the movie with me, but he is extra cool because he read the books and liked them! I know, I'm lucky. :)

We are headed to Utah for Thanksgiving. I may or may not post while we are there, we'll just have to see. If not I am wishing everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Life Can Go On

We are saved! We bought a second camera so you don't have to go without pictures for a while and neither do we. YAY! Good thing too because the boys were failing on their instructions to not be cute while I didn't have a working camera. Vance and Tanner have matching Sunday outfits. Don't they look cute? I have more pictures. I'll probably post some of them tomorrow. Vance hates wearing ties which is why he is pouting in his picture. Stephen HATES having his picture taken so I don't get to do it very often, but I wanted to show off what we bought for him to wear to interviews. How do you think I did (because of course I did the picking out for everything)?

NO!

I was going to write last night, but when it came to it I decided I was too grumpy and my post would be really negative so I didn't.

Yesterday evening Tanner was in his high chair eating dinner. Vance wanted me to take pictures. He is like that sometimes. Well, he likes me to flip the screen around and take pictures of us together so he can watch. He thinks it is pretty funny. I humor him and then generally erase the pictures because 99% of the time they aren't worth keeping (beauty of digital cameras). When Tanner finished his dinner he started to get noisy wanting to get out so as I'm trying to get Vance off my lap and stand up to get Tanner, the camera (which was still on) slipped out of my hand and went flying to the floor. NO! I picked it up hoping I didn't do too much damage to it, but I could get it to do anything. Stephen came home shortly after and tried to fix it as well. I made him call customer support (fixing things is his job) and he told us to send it in to get it fixed. Unfortunately, the repair shop is in Illinois so we get to package our little baby up and send it off to be fixed. It'll take two weeks. Darn.

This is bad news people. I am obsessed with taking pictures. I take pictures all of the time. I feel naked without a working camera. We will have to get a backup camera of some kind. We could handle having a camera for Stephen anyway, right? But oh the timing of it all... The good news is that our camera is still under warranty so it should be covered (at least we are hoping).

Here are the pictures I took before the camera bit the dust or should I say the linoleum?

Not worth a broken camera, for sure!

I actually have news and cute pictures

Here are some cute boys to brighten your day. Well, at least they brighten my day. Don't you just love their blue eyes?

Okay, enough drooling over my children. This post in not suppose to be about them so much.

This may or may not be a shock to you to find out depending on what you've been told or not told. We've kept things pretty low key up to this point, but since it is official I am spreading the news the quickest way I know how. Stephen is quitting his job. His last day will be November 26 (the day before Thanksgiving). He does not currently have a new job to go to, but we are hopeful. Things are looking promising at this point to work for LithiaMotors. There are a few different possibilities there and we are hoping one will pan out for us. If not them, then somewhere else. We are looking outside of this area, but would stay if we found the right job for us.

Stephen still has a little less than month left in the semester so he will be concentrating on school while he looks for a new job.

Things at his current job have been on the decline for sometime now. I would say since about last January. Stephen would be more generous and probably say August. Let's just say it has gone in waves, but the past few months have just been a steady decline and we feel good about having him quit now.

Since Stephen put in his resignation I have had a warm feeling inside me that I haven't had in a long time. The future is unknown and when that is the case it is kind of scary, but we have an optimistic outlook. We know that Heavenly Father is aware of us and we have faith that he is guiding us in the right direction (whatever it may be). We are looking forward to this change. If you would like to pray for us please feel free to do so because we can use all the help we can get!

Musical, Sleeping, and Food

Sometimes you just need to have posts with random things that have nothing to do with each other lump together. This is what I've got for you today.

First off, here is a picture of Holly and I in front of the high school where they filmed "High School Musical". Stephen wasn't excited about pulling over so we could have our picture taken, but come on it was by the zoo so why not?

Here are the boys on our drive home from Utah....so tired....Lastly, remember me posting a picture for a contest a few posts back? Well, I'm not a semi-finalist but the good news is that my sister-in-law is, so go over and vote for her picture. The person with the most votes win and we'd all like to see her get that $500 grocery card! Mandy's picture is #16 of her cute son ready to dig into a big pie.

To Utah and Back

We made a quick weekend visit to Utah to visit with Stephen's family. His sisters were all there for a New Kids on the Block Concert and since Erin won't be able to come again for Thanksgiving we took the opportunity to see her the past couple of days. Since they are the reason we were all brought together here is a picture from the concert from Mandy's camera. And, yes I did pass up the offer to go to the concert although I was a fan back in the day (when I was like 6) :)...On Saturday morning we went to the Hogle Zoo. My sister, Holly and her daughter, Jillian came with us. We all had a lot of fun. Here are some pictures.

Tanner telling me all about the monkeys we are looking at. We were both fascinated if you can't tell.

A lot of us (like everyone minus Holly, me, and our little ones) got on the Carousal. Vance really wasn't too sure about it even though he didn't even get on anything that goes up and down.

Jillian looked like this the entire time we were at the zoo minus when she ate and minus when she fell asleep.

Vance was enjoying all the animals. We couldn't figure out what he was saying, but today it occured to me when I heard him say it again that he was saying "animals" over and over again.

Vance tells Tanner all about the cool giraffe they are looking at. He's an expert, you know.

We had a fun quick trip. We're headed back for Thanksgiving. :)

I didn't forget

I didn't forget that today was my father-in-law's birthday, but I hadn't remembered to post about it until now. Anyway, here he is pictured with my newborn Tanner.
We think you are a great Grandpa! Happy Birthday!

Stuff

Okay, so I admit that this isn't the most exciting picture, but it is recent so you have to give me credit for that! I am trying to do a Thanksgiving related activity or craft every week day of the month (starting yesterday...). Here they are working on Pilgrims and having a little snack. You can look at my other blog if you want to find out more about what we've done. Yesterday Vance wanted me to put that he was grateful for "Vance" and today he had me put "Panda Bear" which translates into the movie Kung Fu Panda. He and his Dad love that movie.
Vance is a great helper (when he isn't bullying Tanner). Last night I knocked a box of cereal on the floor and he helped me pick it up. He also helped Tanner unzip his jacket after we'd been somewhere yesterday. Just little things that are so nice.
Tanner loves singing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and pretty much any other song with actions. He is at a fun stage and is walking around really well now.

Fun With Food

5 Minutes for Mom is a fun blog I found recently. (Notice the Christmas Giveaway button on my sidebar.) They are doing a Fun With Food Photo Contest with a $500 grocery card as the prize. We all know how handy that would be. I had a really hard time picking a picture to enter but I finally decided on this one Vance (age 2) feeding his little brother, Tanner (age 11 months).

Trials and Turkeys

Okay, so the picture I am posting is old, but it makes me smile so that's what you get to see. This was taken in February I believe.
For those of you that have noticed my lack of posting, I apologize. I have only missed a few days, but it seems like a lot more to me. Hopefully no one else has noticed.
To sum it up October was a fairly crappy month for us and November hasn't been much better, but the month is not over so there is hope. I will spare you the details. Although I will say that the most recent trial (which is a trial that comes and goes) has been my back. Let's just say I've been in quite a bit of pain, but today has been better than I've felt in close to a week so hopefully I am on the road to feeling good again in that department.
I asked Stephen the other night if he felt like we were just going from one trial to the next. He does and so do I. Something he said though helped me feel a little better. He said, "We must be doing something right." I accept that reasoning for all the trials we've been having because it keeps me motivated to continue striving to do what is right despite all the frustrations that could bring us down. It also got me pondering. Trials can come to us for various reasons. However, I do believe that Heavenly Father gives us trials to test us, to humble us, to help us increase our faith, to be more grateful, along with many other reasons.
Heavenly Father is aware of all of our trials and our burdens. He knows that I have a 22 pound one year old I have to lift everday-even the days that I can hardly stand because of the physical pain I'm in. He knows I have a very active two year old who I have to run after all day long. He is very aware of our family so why does he give us these trials that at this point never seem to stop? It's simple, he loves us and he wants us to grow. Without trials we wouldn't grow and we wouldn't learn. So while some of the trials we are dealing with are big and some small, we've past the hurrdle of some, while others continue, and new ones seem to always becoming I plan on taking each one and learning from them. Hopefully I can learn and grow in a way pleasing to my Heavenly Father and my Savior. They see the big picture while our little family does not. We can't even comprehend the big picture. Line upon Line, precept upon precept I will continue to learn and grow from all of the things life gives me- good or bad. Even in the midst of trials I see my Heavenly Father blessing me abundantly and helping me become more grateful for all of these blessings.

On a less serious note we are doing a Turkey count down to Thanksgiving. You can check it out on my other blog. Vance is helping me name things he is grateful for each day. We didn't start on the first.
Here's is what he is grateful for so far:
1. Cars
2. Dad
3. Mom
4. Mouths
5. Tanner
6. Nursery
7. Trains

And yes, that is the order he has named them. Notice Mom wasn't named until day 3. What is up with that?

16 Candles

Happy Birthday to my little sister, Rosemary! Today she turns 16 years old. Wow. Rose is a friendly, outgoing person. She gets good grades and is very talented. She plays the piano and the bassoon-both very well. Rose is also playing the lead female part in the high school's fall play that is currently going on. Pretty impressive for a sophomore, don't you think? Anyway, we love you Rose and we hope you have a wonderful birthday!

Gross

You are probably wondering what about this picture is gross. Well, nothing. I just wanted to have a picture with my post.

Vance's potty chair has a lid that you lift out of the chair itself so that you can dump the contents into the toilet. Well, lately Vance has been trying to get away with dumping it after he uses it. A lot of times I catch him before he's left the bathroom and make him do it. This morning however, that did not happen. Vance used the potty, left it sitting there unbeknownst to me. In the meantime Tanner had noticed and being the observant and helpful boy he is decided he would do it himself. I walked into the bathroom to see what was going on to find Tanner with the potty lid in his hand and pee all over his clothes. Yes, in attempt to pour it into the toilet he managed to dump it all over himself. You can say it with me, "GROSS!" Funny, but gross.

I am picture all kinds of things in our future. Some include Vance bribing and/or threatening Tanner to do his chores or Tanner trying to suck up to his paernts by doing Vance's chores.

Oh dear. This just adds to the list of all the things that Tanner tries to do to be just like Vance. This isn't a good thing people, Vance is generally a very typical naughty two year old! So this is where my picture ties in. Tanner trying to be like Vance sitting up to the table like a big boy. I don't think I'll have a dull like for at least another 20 years or more.

Eric is cool

My brother, Eric is taking a class at BYU-Idaho called Visuals Media. One of the projects he had to do was with Photoshop. Maybe it is because he used a picture I took, maybe it is because he used one of the cutest subjects possible (my baby), or maybe it is because I think I have a talented brother, but I just love what he did and I wanted to share it with all of you.
He took this picture:

And turned it into this:

Pretty cool. So if you like it let me know and I will in turn let Eric know. I'm sure he'd appreciate some loving. :)