The Birthday Party

Tanner's 1st Birthday Party was so much fun!! His actual birthday had been the Wednesday before so it was good to have a few days in between to re-coup and get some last minute party stuff done. We decided to do a Western theme and it turned out so cute!! I'd done most everything earlier in the week, but my family came up a few hours before the party started to keep an eye on Tanner while me and Scotty put on the finishing touches. We had hot dogs, baked beans and potato salad for lunch and the goodie bags were bandanas filled with sherriff badges, harmonicas, and animal crackers tied to dowel rods. I don't have a picture of it, but the invitation was a wanted poster with Tanner's picture on the front and at the bottom it said cake reward instead of cash reward!! And it was super cute!! It was a hectic day, but also one of the most fun!! We definitely made some great memories!! And the weather was AMAZING!! It was really cool for being August. It felt like a fall day which was perfect for being outside!!

Here's Tanner with his cowboy gear on! He's so sweet, but that's just me!! Don't forget to check out the cute cake in the background!!

Waiting patiently for his party to start.

Greeting friends and neighbors as guests begin to arrive.

After everybody got to the party we ate lunch and opened presents. O my gosh Tanner got so much stuff!! Thanks everybody!!

Then it was time to blow out the candles (or CANDLE as I should say!!). We started practicing how to blow a few weeks before, but the party was smack dab in the middle of his nap time so he was a little out of it!! But he still did good!!

At first he was like, "Are you sure I'm supposed to be doing this?"

It didn't take him long to get the idea!! He loved his cake and what a mess we had!!!

After getting a second wind from all the sugar we had to give him a little bird bath in the sink, but he didn't mind since he's such a water baby!!

We'd set up some hay bales outside (thanks "Aunt Nichole & Uncle Jonny"!!) to take some pictures and I think they turned out really cute!! Here's one of our family!!

Here's Tanner & some of his friends - Emily, Ava, & Morgan!!

The hay was such a hit with these two they wouldn't even look up for a picture!! Aren't they sweet!! Morgan is Tanner's friend from Jackson and he loves her so much!!

Tanner loves his cousins - Bryson, Peyton, & Keely!! We can't wait for you to get here, Miller!!

Here's just a couple more of our sweet little buckaroo!! We love you, Tanner and we had so much fun celebrating your Birthday!!

Tanner's first birthday party went off without a hitch and was so much fun. We appreciate everyone making time to be a part of his special day and all the gifts everbody gave him. He's enjoyed them so much. We'd also like to say a special thanks to all our friends and family from Jackson and Birmingham for making the trip to our house. This birthday celebration would not have been the same without you!!

Tanner's 1st Birthday

Here are the pictures from Tanner's 1st Birthday! Not his party, mind you!! We took so many pictures that it was just better to do 2 different posts!! His birthday was on a Wednesday, but his party was the following weekend!! So I'm apologizing now for how long this is gonna be, but it's so worth it!!

I can't believe Tanner is 1 year old!! The day he was born is still so vivid in my mind. Maybe because it was so traumatic, but none the less, it's still vivid!! This past year with Tanner has been so much fun and there's nothing I would change about it!! Not even his sleeping!! (or lack there of!!) He's growing up so fast and each day is something new with him!! I love staying at home with him and getting to see each new milestone he reaches!!

Birthdays are big events at our house so I'll take you through Tanner's Big Day!!!

When Tanner woke up that morning we had a few happies waiting on him in the kitchen!! After he opened them we sent Daddy off to work and couldn't wait to meet up with him later on!!

Then we got ready and went to Shipley's for donuts!! It was his first time to have them!!

Here goes nothin'!

You don't hafta ask him twice to stuff his face!!

He's like, "Thanks for introducing me to donuts, Mom!! This is the best day of my life!!"

For lunch we met Daddy at the Mexican place!! But we forgot to get a picture with him!!

After a nap we went to the park!! He loves to swing!!

We went back home to meet Daddy for supper and while we were there Tanner's friends from next door, Christian & Carter came to bring him a present since they wouldn't be at the party. It was a riding/walking toy that he LOVES!! And now he's got something to play with outside with the big boys!!

For dinner there was none other than....(drum roll please!) CHUCK E. CHEESE!!!! He'd never been there before so Scotty thought it would be a good idea!! What an understatement!!

I think he rode everything in there more than once!!

By the end of the night he was exhausted!! We took the next few days to get ready for his Big Boy Birthday Party!! Pictures will be up soon!!

Happy Birthday Tanner!! We love you!!

Vacation Bible School

Back in July Tanner and I were invited to go to Vacation Bible School with Angie and Emily. This was the first time Tanner had ever done anything like this and he had so much fun!! We would meet in the sanctuary to sing songs, then go to our separate classes for snack, then a skit, then meet back in the sanctuary for more songs and then we'd go home. Tanner loves music so I knew he would like all the singing, but I was so proud of him the way he interacted with the other kids. He made lots of friends and had so much fun with Emily. The theme was Heroes of the Bible where we studied Noah, Moses and Abraham. Every night there was a skit to go along with each story. Most of the kids didn't do so well during this time, but Emily and Tanner loved it and paid close attention. We made sure to be at EVERY skit!! The last night was a hot dog supper and they had blow up jumping machines for all the kids!! Here are some pictures from our time at Vacation Bible School!! Thanks for inviting Tanner, Emily!!!

We're Boostin' Up Bible School!!

Here's Tanner at the table with his class for snack time.

The parents would sit at the back of the room so Tanner kept turning around to make sure I was still there. After he was reassured he'd turn back around and pay attention to his teacher.

Here they are learning about the animals that went on the ark!! Tanner has an elephant in his hand!! This boy loves him some Bible school!!

Tanner loves Emily and they play so well together. Here they are playing in a little tug boat!

Here's Tanner at the hot dog supper!! He ate so good and couldn't wait to go jump!

Here they are in the jumping machine!! They loved every minute of it!! And just let me tell you, when it was time to leave it was so hard to get Tanner out of there!! He would've spent the night in that thing!!

Quick Catch Up

Who'da thought? I'm behind again!! I feel like there's been so much going on lately and I haven't had time to post so I'm just gonna take you through some random pictures to get you all caught up!! Maybe I'll be able to stay updated this time, but don't hold your breath!!

Tanner has discovered the world of the Internet!! I was checking my blog one day and he started laughing at the screen and you could tell he recognized the people in the pictures!! We're not sure if he thinks people are inside the computer or what, but he loves looking at blogs with me and I think it's so cute!!

Tanner is such a big help to Daddy and on this day they decided to wash the truck!!

This could be trouble!!

We were waiting for him to squirt himself in the face, but it never happened!!

Play Group is in full swing. We met the other day and decided on dates and activities for the kids!! I have a hunch there's gonna be some really cute pictures from all these field trips!!

The other day Scotty was putting up the gazebo in our backyard and guess who was staring out the back door wishing he could help?!?!

So we went outside to help Daddy!! Tanner was in charge of manning the box!!

He loves crawling under things these days!! Everything's an obstacle course and somedays it doesn't go so smoothly!! He doesn't understand to duck his head yet, so most of the time he tries to barrel through furniture, but this day was a success!!

A while back we met Scotty at Best Buy to look at cameras. Scotty had gone by the bank and he got Tanner a sucker while he was there. Scotty said his dad always brought them a sucker from the bank and that's what he was gonna do for Tan Man!! So Tanner had his first sucker and of course, I embarrassed Scotty, pulled out the camera and snapped away, but he was a trooper!!

This was the very first time Tanner ordered off the menu like a big boy!! It was at Subway and he got turkey and cheese slices!! Yummy!!

Solitary Confinement

Now that Tanner gets around so well it's really hard to get things done around the house because he never stays in one place very long. I had a moment of insanity (that lasted about 5 minutes) and thought about just letting the house go!! No cleaning, no laundry, nothing!! I thought to myself, "Who could blame you? You've got a baby for Heaven's sake!!" Then....I regained my composure and pushed through!! I told Scotty that I was overwhelmed and couldn't do it all. His solution? A play yard. Simple enough. Then he showed me what a play yard was and I was like, "Absolutely not!! I can't do that to Tanner!! I need to play with him, teach him, interact with him!! Not leave him in this cage just so I can return to the domestic goddess that I used to be!!" So, I dug in deep and decided I can do this! Then a few days later reality set in, I caved, and we went to Walmart and bought the play yard. Wondering what I think about it? O MY GOSH!!! I LOVE IT!!! Go get one, especially if you don't have family around to help out here and there!! I can get stuff done so fast and Tanner really enjoys it. He'll sit in there and play with his toys and books and he's just content. And he needs that time so he can be independent. Scotty gets complete credit for this play yard because I wouldn't have chosen this, but it's a lifesaver!! We use it for Edie too when we're gone so she doesn't have an accident in the house!!

Block Party

I love, love, love, my neighbors!! I really do feel like God led us to this house, because we have made some of the best friends just by walking out of our front door!! We're all so close and we look out for each other just like a little family!! And almost every single night all the girls go outside for our "6:00 meeting" and we chit chat while all our kids play!! We always have such a good time that we decided to have a block party!! Because, obviously, we needed even more time together!! Lucky for the guys they were invited!! Lucky for us they were there because we got to eat!! Everybody pulled their grills to the end of the cul de sac to cook out!!

The NRC Posse - Nichole, Sara, Me, Narnie (Mrs. Candy), Tiffany, Krista, & Ginger

The Boys - Tanner, Scotty, Jonathan, Andrew, Jackson, Jason, Jim, Christian, Carter, & David

Nichole brought watermelon that she'd cut up to the block party and wanted to know if Tanner wanted some!! He'd never had any before so we gave him some to see what he'd do!! The look on his face says it all..."Mom, are you sure about this?"

You obviously didn't hafta twist his arm!! He dove right in and enjoyed every bite!!

Our family

Ginger has a little white dog named Cotton. Tanner was playing at her house one day and "Con" (Cotton) became one of the first words in his vocabulary!! He loves "Con"!!

And this is Narnie (Mrs. Candy). We love her so much!! She's so good to all of us, but especially Tanner!! That's her "boyfriend"!! She's got lots of little boyfriends on our cul de sac!! She's always passing out popsicles to the kids!! When Tanner needs "help" eating his, I've always got his back!! Yummy!! (P.S. - the Mt. Dew ones are the best!!) Her grandson, Brandon, gave her the name Narnie so that's what Tanner calls her!!

Krista is my inspiration to let Tanner "cry it out"!! Eventhough I haven't gotten my nerve up yet, she's always there to give me a pep talk!! Preesh!! No more crashin' jewelry parties for us!!

Tiffany is the reason my plants don't look like weeds!! She's so got a green thumb!! I love our little chit chats!!

Tanner with the big boys!!

Nichole is just great!! That's all I can say!! She's such a great friend and she loves Tanner so much!! I can't thank her enough for all she's done for us!! We always have so much fun with her and Tanner loves her too!! He's extremely comfortable with his "Aunt" Nichole!!