A Trip to the FIREHOUSE

October 2007
Every October in So.Cal seems to be fire season. All the fire stations have an Open House in October. This was our second year going. Tanner got a fire hat, got to sit in a truck and talk to a real firefighter.
October 2008


Me and my little future firefighter.

I love this look he has. It looks like someone is ready for longer jeans!

My two heroes! What a fun fall day!

It's OCTOBER!

It's October and fall is here. We had a break from our heat wave and it was so cool on the night we went to the Pumpkin Patch. Tanner loved seeing all the pumpkins.


Tanner went on the car ride and the train ride. The looks he was giving us during the train ride were so funny. He loves trains but was so scared as he was riding on this train. He thought the car ride was a lot more fun.

What a happy boy on the pony! I love this smile. Look at our big boy! 19 month old.

What a difference a year makes. Here he is last October in our front yard. His hair was so short last year. Next October our little girl will be the same age Tanner was last year. I wonder if she will look like Tanner or have her own look?
Happy Harvest time everyone!!

India's Birthday Party!

India is 2! We went to Build-A-Bear for her party and it was so much fun!! Happy Birthday Pooh Bear!

Bun In The Oven Party

We made our families guess what they thought the baby was. Then they all grabbed a sucker from under the bag. Then we counted to 3 and revealed.

Tanner didn't understand why everyone was yelling!

The Grandmas! Our daughter's middle name is Elizabeth after our Grandmas.
Ellen Elizabeth Soft and Mary Elizabeth Lyons.

Kipp made us Hot Dogs and Hamburgers for our Bun in the Oven Party.

India and Tanner loved the candy!

Kristen and I were pregnant with Tanner and India together. India is 5 months older than Tan to the day. Now I am 20 weeks and Kristen is 12 weeks and we are both doing great.
People have asked me if India and Tanner are twins, they are the same size and both have blond curly hair. I wounder what these next 2 babies will look like?

Thank You India

Today India turns 2 years old! What a big girl. Tomorrow is her birthday party at Build-A-Bear Workshop. I asked Kristen if I could bring the cupcakes. I made them look like bears to go with the rest of the party.

DON'T TAKE MY SKATEBOARD AWAY!!!!

For those who do not know, Tanner is 18 months old and has no fear. When he sees the skateboard in the garage, he goes nuts and wants to ride it so bad. I thought it would be fun to show all of you what Tanner does when I take his board away. I think I am a nominee for father of the year by laughing at Tanner while I take his skateboard away, letting him go down a hill head first (without a helmet, sorry Child Protection Agency), and watching him almost hit a curb (again, ditto to the CPA). This just shows me that I need to invest in a helmet and pads for Tony Hawk Jr (for those who do not know, Tony Hawk is the Michael Jordan (greatest basketball player ever) of Skateboarding).

P.S. For those of you who do not speak "Tanner" he is saying: Please, Please, Please, cry, cry, some sort of laugh, bye, and at the end he says done.

Baby #2 is a ...

I am so overwhelmed in God's blessings on our life. Tanner has brought us so much joy in our lives. Yesterday we talked to our Washington and Idaho family and had our local family over for dinner. We felt so blessed that they wanted to share in our joy of our second child.

Kipp and I had an ultrasound yesterday to see how our second baby was doing. We are 20 weeks along and baby looks great. We got to see the strong heart working so hard.

So here is what you have been waiting for...It's a GIRL!!! Tanner is going to have a little sister. I tried to have his say sister but it sounds a lot like thank you. We'll work on it. Tanner loves to kiss my belly and say night-night baby.

Before we had dinner we passed out pink suckers to tell our family that it was a girl. I'll share pictures of the night soon!!

THE SECOND GREATEST PLACE ON EARTH!!!

Before we went to Hawaii, Tanner and I left Sarah at home, and we headed off to the greatest place in Orange County. I know what you are thinking, and no it is not Disneyland. The wonderful, mysterious, tropical place that I am writing about is, wait for it.......The Santa Ana Zoo. This zoo has it all: Free parking, $6 admissions, Farm animals (four pigs, a couple of goats and chickens, oh and a cow), Monkeys (four different types), Exotic birds (8 of the same birds), some sort of Mexican Horse thing, a Bald Eagle (broken wing included), and a couple of sloths. It also has a train ride, merry go round, and the Elephant from the movie Operation Dumbo , starring Danny Glover and Ray Liotta (the elephant was on tour, he will be back in October). The San Diego and LA Zoo have nothing on Santa Ana.
Tanner just can't wait to go see the animals.

If you look closely, you can see some turtles.
I think it is dead!!!

Tanner loved seeing a monkey.
Choo Choo!!!

Did you know this???
Tanner had a blast. We are psyching up for our next trip, hopefully we will get to see the elephant (and ride it, it is only $5).

Aunt Kelle

The reason that we went to Hawaii when we did is to see Aunt Kelle and her team play Hawaii State. The girls were all so nice and loved Tanner. The 2 girls to his right are his girlfriends.
Tanner loved spending time with Aunt Kelle and the 2 other Boise coaches Doug and head coach Robin Davis.
We were only on the island together for 3 days but we were so lucky to get a lot of time together. Kelle was so glad that Tanner was there for her to show off.
Kelle got us all new BSU shirts. Here they are after the big game.
Tanner was scared at first when we got to the game because our seats were on the front row! He finally calmed down and ended up having a great time. We love you Aunt Kelle.

A Family Vacation

We just got back from a wonderful vacation to Hawaii! We didn't buy a ticket for Tanner but we got lucky and he was able to have his own seat. He did great on the flight. We all got to watch our own movies and Tanner took a great nap.
Finally, we got to our Country Inn! It was in the middle of nowhere and was so cute. It was a 2 bedroom condo so Tan got his own room. This was the view from where we ate breakfast every morning. My parents gave us the condo as a gift and it was so wonderful!! Thanks mom and dad!
Derek's mom hooked us up with a luau. We were so excited that it was inside because it was pouring down rain that night. The food was so good, and Tanner sat through the whole show. He was fine as long as he had his arm around me or Kipp.
One day, we drove around the island and stopped where ever we wanted. We went for a hike up to some waterfalls. It was HOT and there were no waterfalls! That's what you get when you go at the end of summer.
My two boys looking so cute on the sand. Tanner loved spending so much time with his family.
We shared shaved ice on the beach of Waikiki while Kipp was on a scooter. We rented that floater behind us and floated in the water together.
Tanner sharing a smoothie with his daddy.
We walked down to a bay to snorkel. The views were beautiful and again Tan loved just playing in the water. This was the only day that we rented a life jacket for him. He loved running in and out of the water.
Tanner gives hugs to Daddy and Mommy! It was a great vacation. We were there with Kipp's sister Kelle and her volleyball team. I'll post more pictures of them next time.

I Love My Husband

Today Kipp got off work early and we has been playing and skateboarding with Tanner all afternoon. He is such a stud. We are going to Hawaii for a vacation in a few days and we are so excited to have some good family time!

Tanner's Surfer Buddies

On Monday, Tanner and I went to the Boost Mobile Pro Surf Competition. This is the second year that we went and I got some great pictures of Tanner with the Pros. We sat on the far end of the event because there were lots of people there. The good news for us is that the surfers got in the water right where we were sitting. Rob Machado, who is Kipp and Kelle's favorite surfer, was stretching when Tanner went to say hi.
Here is Tanner and Rob last year.
Here we are with Sunny Garcia last year and this year. Please look at that baby belly getting some sun! We are 16 weeks along.

Lastly, the big daddy of surfing, 8 time World Champ, Kelly Slater! Tanner and Kelly are both sponsored by Quiksilver. Kelly was so nice to Tanner. He took a picture with him then talked to him for a while before he moved on. Tanner was a little starstruck and super mellow.
We were at the beach all day and we played hard in the sun! It was a great day!
I felt very proud of myself for taking a 1 1/2 year old to the beach, we parked a mile away, with my prego belly, and staying all day. We'll be there again next year.



The sign of a good day: shirt off and dead asleep before we are out of the parking lot! My future surfer boy!

Christmas is coming.

I know that it is September but I am so excited about Christmas. Yes, it' s4 months away but I can't help it. It started about a week ago when I taught Tanner how to say ho, ho, ho, like Santa. He thinks it's so funny. A few days later he was sad and I started to sing Christmas songs and it made him feel better. I think Tanner loves Christmas as much as I do.

Last year after Christmas I bought some soft decorations that Tanner can help us put on the tree. We used to have 2 crazy cats who loved knocking down the tree. Last year we didn't put a tree up because Tanner was too little. I am so excited for him to help us decorate the tree this year.
So happy end of summer, happy fall... and then Christmas!!!