Super T!

tanner's cape came in the mail...it's awesome! granted it's a little big (ok maybe a lot too big) but he'll grow into it! and the best part...it was FREE! wahoo!

and apparently he thinks he can fly (no cape necessary)...he loves to dive head first off the couch. And yes, we are always sitting right there next to him and catch him, but i had to catch a few pictures to document how hilariously funny he thinks it is to do nose-dives off the couch. no fear! and yes, he is hanging upside down in the picture on the right...and laughing about it!

PUFFS!

so we tried puffs about 2 weeks ago, and they just made tanner gag. it was kind of funny watching...he'd stick one in his mouth and instantly start gagging and fake coughing. 

can you say dramatic?!?! i had even bought the sweet potato kind-and he loves sweet potatoes!

so i put them up and pulled them out again today. 

SUCCESS! 

he likes them...and he gets the chewing idea. 

he's still working on mastering the pincher grasp, but he can definitely get them. of course EVERY toy goes STRAIGHT into his mouth...but these...oh, no...he just wants to play with them until their nice and gooey and stick to everything!

still not so sure if they are yummy or not...new food=hilarious facial expressions! (i love his expression on the right...not so sure what he thinks about these things)

dakota and gizmo are excited about tanner starting finger foods too! they have both decided they like puffs...and tanner loves to share! he had so much fun playing with gizmo and his puffs and he's great at sharing...let's just hope he keeps that up!

(it's ok grammy-don't freak...i washed his hands after he finished sharing and eating his puffs with gizmo!)

Mr. Busy

tanner is busy! i know he'll only get even busier once he really starts crawling (he's close and it's driving him crazy that he can't always get where he wants!)...so for now, i am FINE with him at least semi-staying-in-one-place. just with his army crawling, rolling, turning, crawling backwards and lunging, he is all.over.the.place! and he never sits still...even during dinner time he is constantly moving, waving his hands, kicking his feet and wiggling! i have a feeling tman is going to keep me on my toes!

this is what i found the other day...tanner was playing in the floor while i ate some breakfast. i look over and he had decided he was tired of playing in his pjs. i didn't think kids learned how to undress themselves until later...way later! maybe he's just a fast learner...or maybe he's like his daddy and would rather just hang out in his diaper!

"look mom!! i did it all by myself!!"

"what do i do with this sleeve now?!?!"

 and any time he lunges and scoots close enough to something, he's working on his pulling up skills...

since he's not sitting still anymore, getting things done around the house is getting even more challenging. one of our "mommy needs a shower" activities...watching everything going on outside with the dogs in my jumparoo. at least he can't jump out of this...yet!

or hanging out in the exersaucer...

but we have lots of fun...tanner is getting lots more interested in playing and i'm loving every minute of it!

zumba

 taylor just started teaching zumba after school for some of the teachers that work with her. yesterday, me and tanner decided we wanted to try it out...he was pretty entertained watching everyone! he laughs anytime i dance around the kitchen or living room acting goofy so i knew he'd be pretty entertained by watching us attempt to zumba! taylor did a great job...now if i can only learn to zumba like her!

and one of my favorite pictures from this past weekend. my mom was able to catch tanner giving me a kiss (he only gives kisses when he wants and usually i can count on them early in the morning when tanner wakes up...but during the day they're way less predictable!). i just love these slobbery kisses-so sweet!!

                                                   

and one other funny pic i captured last week. tanner has learned how the nosefrida works. for those of you that don't know, the nosefrida is AWESOME! something i couldn't have lived without these last 8.5 months! mom calls it the snot sucker and it sounds super gross, but it works WONDERS (and there's no way for anything icky to get to your mouth!). i wouldn't say that he loves it, but he definitely knows that he feels much better after we use the nosefrida. and since we use it almost every day, he's learned how it works. he's started reaching for it and as soon as he gets it, he sticks the red end into his mouth...hilarious!

                                                          

shower for baby riley

this past weekend tman and i headed to temple to help throw a shower for rachel and baby riley (due in early december).

and i actually did a little crafting for the shower...and i think it turned out pretty cute (not quite as cute as if stacie or aimee or steph were crafting it, but hey, it's a start!). i got part of the idea off another blog so mom and dad built the base and i made the letters...you'll probably be seeing this again (with pictures instead of letters) at tman's first birthday (that was actually where the idea originated-for a 1st birthday). and then tanner so generously shared some of his toys and books to help add to the decorations.

we also had a basket of texas goodies for baby riley (since his momma loves all things texas...especially cowboy boots...and he will live in tennessee). allison and her mom found some super cute texas stuff-a fun book, a onesie and burp cloth, a bib and a wooden teether in the shape of texas. yes, kind of a silly gift, but it was totally rachel! :-)

and tamara added to the texas goodie basket with a GREAT idea...she got some dirt from rachel's parents' yard...so riley can be born on texas soil! it was so cute!

here's a pic of all the hostesses with rachel and her mom.

and the three of us (we missed you allison!!!)

and here are all 3 babies that were at the shower...they had lots of fun playing together on the couch! henry (tamara's little boy), tanner (in his little man clothes...LOVE it!), and caleb (sarah's little boy).

we had so much fun helping rachel get ready for riley and can't wait to meet him!!!

the new look

hope everyone likes the new look! i LOVE it! i got a FREE (yes-can you believe it!?!?) blog makeover by Cristin. she was great...gave me a fun, new look that i really love and was super quick and easy to work with!!! my most favorite part is that she knew how to make everything wider...so now i won't have to keep shrinking my pictures to fit the skinny little text box (yes i tried but couldn't figure out for the life of me how to change it...but she knew!) thanks Cristin! i'm loving the new look!

labor day at the lake

we had a great labor day weekend...i love long weekends-they should all be 3 days i think! we headed to the lake house friday night and taylor, brian, grant and mom and dad all came up saturday morning. tanner had c.o.n.s.t.a.n.t. attention since he had pops, gigi, ipop and grammy there...not to mention aunt taylor, uncle brian and uncle grant! tanner got some new blocks to play with this weekend...with pictures of family members on each side (just to remind tanner who everyone is in case he doesn't get to see everyone every.single.week...don't worry grammy-he's got a good memory!). he loves them! he also had fun discovering all the toys kept at the lake house-they were all new and exciting to him!

the weather was wonderful so we spent lots of time down at the dock and hanging out on the porch. everyone loved the hammock (it's my FAVORITE spot at the lake house!).

even tanner had fun swinging in the hammock!

we took the boat out a couple of times on saturday and let everyone wakeboard. gigi stayed back on the dock with tanner (thanks gigi!)...he had fun just chillin in his shades!

some wakeboarding pics...

there's grant...

and then there's the rest of us who are just glad to be able to get up and stay up for longer than 10 seconds (lance is actually pretty good...but old knee surgeries and wake boarding don't go that great together)

and then there's dad...this was his first time to wake board and he got up on his second or third try which is pretty impressive. he was a pro at falling...he had us laughing pretty hard (even mom...after she made sure he was ok!). pic 1-he's up. pic 2-everyone is yelling at him to fix his shorts...fixing his shorts results in picture 3 and the whole boat crying we're laughing so hard. he was good at getting up and a master at major wipeouts!

there was also lots of swimming...dakota even decided he wanted to go for a swim and jumped off the dock into the water (he's never done this before...it's a pretty big jump for him!). gizmo, on the other hand, just loves laying around and sunbathing...he's got relaxing at the lake house down!

tanner got to go swimming in his own miniature swimming pool...he loved it!

what a fun weekend!!!

We WON!!!

I was so excited tonight...we got home from the lake and i got on blogger to read a few of my blogs. one of the ones i have on my reader had a contest a few days ago and when i looked at the preview of its post, i saw MY name! kind of funny because i remember thinking as i was commenting/entering to win..."i never win these things so this really isn't going to work, but i have to win one day right?!?"

what did we win?!?!? well it's a personalized super hero cape for tman! i'm getting a head start on his costume collection! we ordered it tonight (blue cape, yellow circle with a big red T)...i'll make sure to take his pic once it arrives (it'll be a little big but he'll just get even more fun adventures in it this way!). so fun!!!

Tanner Bananer is 8 months old!

How is tman already 8 months old?!?! The other day someone asked me how old he was and I almost said 6 months…um what happened to the last 2 months?!?! He is two-thirds of a year old!

He is definitely getting bigger-I’ve given up using his carseat as a carrier…he is way too heavy for that!

He is still in size 6-9 month clothes (some are just labeled 6 months and some are 6-12)…but a lot of these 6 month outfits are getting a little snug…he’s a long little guy!

He is still in size 3 diapers…we’ve officially switched to Huggies…I think they’re more absorbant and this kid needs all the absorbancy he can get (maybe this will prevent future kidney stones-a mama can hope right?!?!). We put him in a size 4 Huggies overnight diaper and wow…it’s like a brick in the mornings! Kind of crazy!

Sleeping…well, Tanner was doing great sleeping through the night and then we decided to take a vacation to Colorado. Um this messed him up royally in the sleep department and he started waking up 1-2 times a night. We have now officially entered self-sooth boot camp…you need your sleep and I need mine. I’m hopeful this month will get us back to good sleep! Bedtime is about 6:30 and he usually sleeps until about 7 or 7:30 in the morning! He’s still taking 2 naps a day-the best one in the morning for sure!

Tanner is still mr. snaggletooth with only 1 tooth on the bottom…lots of days of drooling but no other teeth that we can see or feel.

No pacifier for several months now, but I’ve noticed just in the last week or 2 that you have really decided you LIKE your thumb! I might regret this later, but it’s super cute right now!

Food…he has gotten so much better at eating and so far, we haven’t given him something that he absolutely won’t eat. We tried green beans this month…definitely not his favorite but I think it was more of a consistency thing. Other new foods this month: carrots, plums, pears, peaches, oatmeal and blueberries. He also LOVES to drink water! He loves it out of a straw, out of a normal cup or his sippy cup-it doesn’t matter…he just loves to drink water! I have to hide his sippy cup at meal time until after he’s eaten some or else all he wants to do is drink! He hasn’t mastered the cup, but we’re working on it!

He started giving kisses this month. It’s so sweet…huge, slobbery open mouth kisses. He’s definitely an “independent” child…he will only give you a kiss if he wants to. He thinks it’s funny at night when Lance asks for a kiss to pretend to give him a kiss and then to turn his head away at the last second…of course with a huge smile on his face!

He pants (just like a puppy) when he gets excited-it’s hilarious! He also is still mr. fake cougher for attention and his newest trick (besides all of his babble) is doing the motorboat sound with his mouth/lips. He does it all.the.time!

He still loves his praise baby dvds and gets super excited when he sees little kids on the tv. He also loves dancing to any kind of music with me (or watching me dance-done soley to make him laugh)! His favorite toys-his exersaucer, loves to chew on his tools (he plays with his hammer, screwdriver and saw every day!) and his very hungry caterpillar, loves his bath toys (doesn’t have to be bath time to play with them!) and LOVES a water bottle as a toy.

No crawling yet but he’s definitely getting around…he twist, turns, and scoots across the floor or his crib.

He loves bathtime and loves splashing with his arms and legs…I usually end up quite wet by the end of his baths.

We both had a cold at the end of this month…no fun…but we just spent lots of time snuggling and watching praise baby in our pjs!

We love you, tanner, so so much and are having so much fun watching you grow up!!!

(he didn't want to pose with his puppy dog...instead he just wanted to play with him! lance pointed out tonight that he's now officially bigger than his puppy or monkey that we take pictures with-he's getting so big!!!)