Ouch!

Earlier today we were doing our normal Sunday morning things. I was feeding Tanner in the kitchen, Stephen and Vance were playing in the living room. We had a cartoon in that Vance was watching. He likes to act out what he is watching so he took off running into the kitchen slipped (on who knows what, his pants maybe, his own feet, don't know). I saw him fall to his knees and crash into the corner of one of the kitchen drawers. I will spare you the gory details of it all. The end result was us taking him to an urgent care place and Vance getting two stitches in his forehead! I must say it got my heart a pumping, but although I'm sure his head still hurts a lot, but he is fine. Later this afternoon and evening we had to remind him not to run around because we were worried about him bumping his head and irritating his stitches. Kids get over things so much quicker than us older people. He always injures himself doing the simplest, everyday things. Anyway, here's a picture of what we get to look at.

Beds are so overrated

Being first time parents we made a lot of sleep mistakes with Vance. A couple of them still hunt us today, but we are working on it. Vance thinks he needs one of us in his room to fall asleep and the other problem is that he thinks he needs to come in our room at some point in the night. Last week we started making him go to sleep without one of us and made him go back to his room in the night when he came in. Well, we keep finding him lying on the floor in different places. At first i thought he was just trying to get as close to us as possible without being caught, but a few times we've seen him asleep on his bedroom floor. Tonight when we saw him doing this I suggested to Stephen that we just put his mattress on the floor and see if he'll stay on it. Surely, the floor can not be that comfortable. He fell asleep as you can see from the pictures. We'll see if it helps him stay off of the floor. Here's some pictures I took. Please ignore the clutter of his room. You have to love a camera that will let you take a decent picture in the dark... I know I do anyway. I'll have to keep you posted. The close up is just so you can see how cute he is asleep. He loves to sleep with his Mario now and as you can see he was doing some nighttime reading. :)

Playtime

This afternoon Vance found some sheets in our upstairs closet that I had used to build a little fort with about 4-5 months ago. He insisted that we get them out and do it again. That kid has a good memory. He wanted everything set up just like we had done it before. He helped me remember what went where (because I sure didn't). Then once we had it all set up he had to go upstairs and bring down some stacking blocks that he had played with the first time we had the sheets up. He also insisted that we watch Ratatouille because we did last time. He then started talking about his dad because he remembered that Dad had come home during his lunch break and played with us under it. What a silly kid. Here is a picture of him playing away.

Have You Ever...

Have you ever had someone that just kept bugging you and would not leave you alone or take a hint or anything???Apparently, Vance has experienced this.Apparently, so has Tanner. What goes around comes around I guess.

Check ups and Swimming

Tanner had his nine month check up today. He's looking healthy and on track developmentally. He lost a little weight, but considering how chunky has been and the fact that he only lost a little bit the doctor isn't concerned about it. He weighs 20 pounds 13 oz. (55% for weight) and is 27 1/4 inches long (16% for height). So he isn't a long nine month old. I guess we'll just have to see if he gets his momma's or daddy's genes in that department.

We bought a little kiddie pool for Vance on Saturday. I set it up this afternoon. Vance had a great time once he realized that he could sit in there with his suit on. He kept trying to take it off before that point. He has a Cars swim suit and Tanner has a Finding Nemo one. Tanner got the bottom of his feet wet and decided that was enough for him. Probably for the best anyway, since he has a bit of a cold. Anyway, here is our froggy pool. It is suppose to squirt water out of the front, but Mom isn't smart enough to figure that out so we'll let the boy's dad do that. :)

Nine Months Old

Tanner is nine months old as of today! He is a fun, easy going baby. Although if you are doing something he doesn't approve of or not doing something he wants you to do he will let you hear about it. He is doing lots of things and continues to do new things almost daily. He is not a traditional hands and knees crawler yet. He can get around well pushing himself with his arms and legs on his stomach and he'll scoot himself forward on his bottom if he wants. I am surprised at how well and fast he gets around. Vance is learning that he can't leave things wherever he wants because Tanner will take it. Tanner is very into waving right now, he also is into making a clicking noise as you can see in the video. He also is starting to clap a little bit. That started earlier this week so we are still in the beginning of that. He loves to jabber, splash in the bathtub, and play with Vance.

It's official...

...I'm an airhead. The past few years it has been easy for me to blame my blond moments on the fact that I was either pregnant or just had a baby. However, with Tanner being 9 months old, I really can't use that for an excuse this time. As much as I don't really want to admit it I've come to grips that I am an airhead. How did I come to this conclusion? Well, I shall tell you.
This morning Vance had a speech appointment so we headed outside to pile into the van. There was a squirrel in the tree by our front door so Vance wanted to watch it so I let him while I put Tanner in his car seat and started the car. I then put Vance in his car seat and shut his door. I walked around to the driver's side to get in and the door was locked. I instantly knew this was trouble. I checked all the doors and the trunk. All locked. The pit in my stomach would be the same feeling you get when you run your mother's new car into the back wall of the garage door taking it out (what, you don't know that feeling?) There was a sigh of relief when I remembered I had Stephen's keys in the ignition, but my keys were... dang, they were in the diaper bag which was in the car. Yes people, I'm telling you that I locked both sets of keys in my car with it running and my two boys strapped in their car seats. Well, what else do you do in that situation then pray? So I said a quick prayer and two thoughts came to mind. Thanks, Heavenly Father... Fortunately for me my house was not locked so I could get in and use the phone (my cell phone was locked in the car, naturally) I was grateful for that since I really didn't want to explain my stupidity to any neighbors (assuming any were home) by asking to use their phone. However, they could have looked out their front window and seen what was going on. Either no one did or I have some rude neighbors because no one came out to see if I needed help (it seemed obvious what was going on). Anyway, my thoughts...
1. I could go in find the phonebook (where it was), call a LockSmith, hope he wasn't too far away from us, and pay to get my door open.
or
2. I could call Sage Creek (Stephen's work). Of course, Stephen would be out of town when I do something this stupid! I knew the number, I knew that someone there could do it, I knew Sage Creek was within a ten minute drive, and I knew they wouldn't charge me to do it.
So I swallowed my pride and dialed the number.

Joey answers, "Sage Creek Repair. This is Joey."
Me- "Joey, this is Stephen's wife, Heather." (thankfully, I have met Joey a few times outside of work because he was friends with Stephen before working there)
Joey- "Heather, how is it going?"
Me- "I have a favor to ask." I breath in and plunge already realizing how humiliating this is going to be for the rest of my life... at least so long as Stephen works there. "I locked my keys in my car with it running and my boys are inside. I was wondering if someone could come unlock it for me."
Joey- (trying not to laugh) "Alright, let me talk to Dale and see what we can do."
Pause while he explains the situation to the entire shop.. well, whether he did it right then or not I don't know, but I'm sure within five minutes everyone knew.
Joey- "Heather, Dale will be down there in a few minutes to help you out."
Then I refresh his memory of how to get to our place.
You are probably wondering who Dale is. Dale is the owner of Sage Creek. He is a nice man in his early 70's. I knew it would be Dale who would come help me out when I called. He is the owner, but he does whatever misc. thing that they need done at work. I don't think helping one of his employees pathetic wives is on the list, but I'm grateful he did it anyway.
At first when I realized my dilemma the boys thought I was playing a game with them, peeking in the window and what not. Well, that ended and by the time Dale arrived Tanner was screaming and crying and Vance was mad at me and letting out his own angry screams and I was near tears. Dale was kind and very helpful. Tears sprung in my eyes as he pulled up and I told myself not to cry in front of my husband's boss. He unlocked my door without too much work and I literally could have kissed him, although I didn't think it was quite appropriate so the next thing I wanted was to hug him, but that didn't seem appropriate either so I just thanked him and thanked him until he left. I'm pretty sure he saw my tears. As soon as the door was unlocked I grabbed Tanner from his car seat and cuddled with him. Vance was fine once the door was open. By that point we had pretty much missed our appointment and reason for getting into the car in the first place. Oh, and I almost forgot to tell you my favorite part of Dale coming to help me out (read into the sacrasm). He is in my ward. Yep, so not only do I get to be embarrassed anytime I go to Sage Creek I get to be embarrassed whenever I see him at church... maybe I should have just paid a Lock Smith to do it.
I remember my mom locking the keys in our car several times while I was growing up, but she never did it when her kids were inside! At least, not that I know of! Grrr... Well, there is my embarrassing story. I didn't post yesterday, but this should make up for it, right? By the way, the picture is of the boys in Vance's car seat before it was installed in the car. Well, until next time I embarrass myself and tell the whole world about it.... Oh, and one great thing... think about all the gas I wasted going no where! Sweet....

New Car Seat

Let's just say it was time to get Tanner in a bigger car seat so as a result Vance got a new car seat and Tanner will get Vance's old one. (pains of being a second child, trust me I know from personal experience) When I say it was time, I mean it was past time. Tanner pretty much out grew the car seat he has been using nearly three months ago. Shame on us, I know. I am blaming it all on the fact that we could not find Vance a car seat that we wanted. One that fit him now, but he could still use as he gets older and bigger. Silly me, I was looking in stores! Once I actually started looking online it took me no time at all to find this one. It has the five point harness for younger children, but also can be converted to the high back seat booster, and a backless booster so assuming all goes well this will be Vance's last car seat. Hurray! Since I ordered online we have been waiting for it to come and it came today. Now we need to get Stephen to install it before he goes to California for the remainder of the week. We also took a picture of Tanner in the car seat because he doesn't like to be left out of anything. Funny how early that starts. If we like this one a lot maybe we'll get him one just like it when he gets a little bit older.

Family Time

This past weekend was full of lots of family. We went to Preston, Idaho on Saturday for my cousins wedding reception and were able to see lots of extended family then as well as my mom, both my sisters, and my niece. Then on Sunday we were able to see Stephen's entire family. It is great to see family. We love and miss them so much when we are far away from them. Here's a picture of my sister, Holly and her baby Jillian with Tanner, Vance, and I.

Happy Birthday Stephen

Happy Birthday Stephen! My old husband is turning 27 years old today. That is only three years away from 30. Man, that is crazy. We hope you have a great birthday. Stephen is a wonderful husband and father. We couldn't ask for better. He even let me post this silly picture of him on my blog for all to see. We love and appreciate all you do for us! Stephen works hard with school, work, and taking care of us. Thank you! Have a great day Stephen!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all those Father's out there especially to my own dad. Here is a picture of him with Vance when we were in Zilah in May. I have been blessed with wonderful father's in my life. My dad use to read to me when I was little and I loved it. He has also helped me with my homework, taught me gospel principles, and so much more. I love you Dad!
Also, Happy Father's Day to my husband, who is a wonderful father to our boys.

Too Cute- Take Two

Vance's turn for a cute ancedote. I really wish I was better at writing down all the funny things he does and says because although he makes me want to rip my hair out daily, he also does something so cute, sweet or funny that I want to squish him to pieces.
The other night Vance was "helping" me give Tanner a bath. It was a night Stephen was still at work. I had left the boppy that I use to nurse Tanner with sometimes downstairs and I wanted it. So I turned to Vance and said, "Vance, can you go downstairs and get the boppy for Mom?" He looked at me and said, "Downstairs." and I replied, "Yes, go downstairs and get the boppy." I emphasized the last word. He took off and I smiled wondering what he was going to do. He came right back upstairs with a water bottle in hand. I guess bottle and boppy might sound similar. After I got Tanner out and dressed I started nursing him and I asked Vance again to get the boppy thinking that maybe he'd make the connection then. He ran downstairs and brought something else up. I don't remember what it was anymore, but it wasn't the boppy. Oh well, I tried.

Too Cute

My boys are constantly doing cute and funny things (like all children their age) and I forget to write it down and then forget what the heck I was going to write down in the first place. Since I find myself having an easier time writing things on this blog than in my journal I am going to share a cute thing Tanner did the other day. I put him in his crib not too long before we were headed out the door in hopes that he would take a quick nap before we left. Well, after several minutes I realized that was not going to happen so I went upstairs (his mobile has little bugs on it and it was on and spinning around). I said hello to Tanner and picked him up. He then turned to his little bug friends on the mobile and waved bye-bye. It was like he was saying, "Mom's here. I'm out." Also with waving, I was talking to Vance and I looked up at Tanner from across the room and he smiled at me and waved. I know you are all thinking it, "Too cute." Okay, maybe you aren't, but I sure am.

This one is for my brothers

I feel the need to point out that dancing on chairs to Linkin Park is not a common occurrence in our house. Although I must also add that Tanner was getting into it as well. So, this is for the true rockers in our family, Eric and Glen.

Why are my boys obsessed with markers?

The better questions might be, why is Vance obsessed with eating markers? Let me tell you how today's victim went down. I was looking in the upstairs hall closet for something. Tanner was sitting on the floor next to me playing with a toy and Vance was standing next to me. I thought he was watching me, but... well, let's just say he wasn't. He found a marker, a BLACK marker and was eating it. I'm not kidding, biting the tip of of the fatty marker and everything. Of course, I was busy looking away and when I looked down this face was looking up at me. Aaaah! I thought he would grow out of this stage of wanting to eat markers or learn his lesson, but apparently neither has happened. This time though, I promptly took him into my bedroom and showed him what he looked like. He did not like that, he tried to hide in my leg and was scared. I took the opportunity to give him a lecture then we washed his face and brushed his teeth about five times.

Yes, this is indeed his tongue, people. It's crazy.
Personally, I don't think he should go for the black make-up look, do you? Gross!!!! Everytime he does this to himself I think, "Well, at least he didn't do it to Tanner." Then I promptly look on wood. Tanner can do it to himself, like we already know! My crazy children...
I plan on posting more about our pizza week on my Mommy's Little Helper blog so if you are interested in that take a look there.

Pizza Call

Okay, so here's some of the fun we've been having today. I hope you enjoy the video as much as Stephen did when he was here for lunch. He was busting a gut laughing. I apologize for my annoying voice.
Here are some pictures too. Tanner needed to get in on the action as well and didn't mind wearing the apron I made. Vance's favorite thing has been the cash register. He's having a great time.

Pizza Week

We are going to have a Pizza Themed week at our house. Stephen not only agreed to let me turn the living room into a pizza parlor, but he also helped me move some furniture around. What a great guy, huh? Anyway, here are a couple of pictures I took tonight (before everything gets destroyed tomorrow). I will probably put some more pictures on my mommy's helper blog at some point if you are interested in seeing more. I hope we have a fun week with pizza or as Vance says "cheezza".

Doing Laundry

Two posts that have videos from me today. Boy, are you lucky. :) Here's a video of Vance putting some dirty clothes in the washer. Isn't he a big helper?

Applesauce

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Tanner had his first taste of applesauce today.

Blogs and Cars

I was thinking that I should start a website, but I'm just not that good so I started a new blog. It is especially for mother's. You can visit the link on the side title "Mommy's Little Helper" if you would like to see it. I hope you do and tell all your friends to as well. You can learn more about it when you visit the blog.Now to the reason you visited this blog. Here's a picture of Vance playing in our backyard in the car he received from his Grandma Jeppson on his for his first Christmas. Yes, his first Christmas when he was three days old. :)

Who needs crawling?

Tanner has been cracking me up for about a month and it is more so as time goes on. He hates to be on his hands and knees. Whenever I put him in that position he will do one of three things: 1. flop immediately to his stomach 2. Stays in that position for a minute and then flops to his stomach or 3. Rock back and forth for a few seconds and then flop to his stomach. Needless to say he is not doing the traditional hands and knees crawling yet. It's been a few months now that he has rolled around and been about two since he realized that he could get places by rolling. He also in the past month though has started to pull himself around on his bum and also creep along the floor pulling himself on his stomach using his hands and knees as you can see in the video. So I guess he is in no rush to crawl since he can do all of these other things. Oh, and I do realize that the video is not the most attractive angle of my son. He went for something else.

He's at it again...

...So says the T-Rex on Toy Story. I know I have threatened to stop shower before and I just haven't done it, but today when I stepped out of my five minute shower this is the face that greeted me. I'm glad I was letting him hang out in his diaper while I showered so I didn't have to worry about his clothes. This my friends, would be lotion. Yes, nice thick and creamy lotion all over my boys face, hands, and my bedroom carpet. This story is as good as yesterday when he ripped a pattern that my mom had just sent me right in two. "Thanks, Vance. No, that's okay, I didn't actually want to use that pattern..." What am I going to do when he turns three and I can't blame his behavior on the fact that he is two anymore? Oy...I think I'm going to be finding gray hairs in my head sooner than later.

Yes!

It is much easier nowadays to get pictures of the boys together. I'm still working on getting one with them both smiling cute though. In the mean time I enjoy trying. They are watching their dad play the Wii and both sucking on their lower lips in this picture. Vance loves to say "Yes." It cracks us up so I was trying to get a video of it. He is kind of whispering and also kneeled over so I don't think it really does it justice, but you get the idea. He generally does it while watching Stephen play on the Wii or asking if he can play. Although he will do it at other times as well.

New Calling

Last week we had a member of the bishopric call and ask Stephen and I to give talks on the 8th. (Boo.) We also had another member of the bishopric call and set up an appointment with us before church yesterday. Somehow Stephen escapes getting callings more than I do. A lot of times we've had team callings, but when we haven't I've had a calling and not Stephen. Such is the case this time. I'm sure his turn will be coming soon though... Have I got you on the edge of your seat waiting to hear my calling yet? I am going to be team teaching (with a lady I just met yesterday) the Valiant 9 primary class. I will say this, I'm disappointed about two things. First, that since I'm team teaching it is not with Stephen (lame) and second that I'm not teaching a younger primary class. Oh well though. Who has ever been able to pick the calling they have? On the plus side I shouldn't have to babysit 8-9 year olds. I haven't been in primary since I was in primary myself so it should be fun.

Vote

I know everyone is anxiously waiting to find out when Stephen made it home from work Friday night. (lol) He got home at 1:45 am, which to be technical was Saturday morning. So, let's take a vote. Who thinks Stephen should get a raise? There's one big YES from me.