Tanner's First Day

Last year, Tanner came with me every Mon, Wed, and Friday to drop off Lacey at Preschool. And every one of those days, I had to remind him that he needed to be three to go to school like Lacey and that when he turned three, he could go. Well, he turned three in June and here I am sticking to my word :) I think it helped that Lacey went to this school last year because he was familiar with going there so often. He didn't give me a run-down of the entire day like I always got from Lacey, but I guess I'll just assume the day went fine :) And now, every M/W/F morning, I'll have a couple hours of 1 on 1 time with my baby girl!

Irene

After preparing as much as we could over the last couple of days, yesterday, we just waited and braced ourselves for it. It started raining at 10:45 am yesterday and as the day progressed, the winds and rain got worse. By 10pm, they started reporting hurricane-related deaths (11 total), many from trees falling on homes, so the newscasters urged us to not sleep on the top floor if you live in a wooded area. Our house is SURROUNDED by huge Oak trees, so we got all of our kids and brought them down to the basement and had a big family slumber party! By 10:45, our power was out. And then this morning, we walked outside and surveyed the damage. There are two entrances to our neighborhood, but today there was only one, because this massive tree was in the middle of the road blocking the other entrance.

This is the house of our neighbor. Look at how this huge tree was just taken up by the roots and just tossed over!

Dave's brother lives just a few houses down from us and this tree fell over on his fence.

Luckily for us, we didn't have any damage to our home. Just a lot of debris. Rather, A TON of debris!

And some rather large branches....

And the clean up begins!

I have to say that this has been a unique week for us. We experienced a 5.8 Earthquake on Tuesday and then a Hurricane just a few days later. Mother Nature is sure making sure we are aware of her! Anyway, I am just very grateful that we are all safe and that the storm wasn't any worse than it was. And, after 21 hours of no electricity, I am so grateful that it just came back on! I missed you, electricity! You are so wonderful!

Lacey starts Pre-K!

On Friday, Lacey started school. We put her in a Pre-K program this year that goes from 8:35 - 11:15am M-F. Kindergarten is full-day here, so I think this will get her used to going to school every day, but in shorter increments. Thankfully, her 3-year old preschool class last year was a very positive experience, so she was very excited to start school again this year. It's crazy to think that this is my last year that I won't have a child in "school school" as in taking a bus to an elementary school. Anyway, I'm excited to her grow and learn and hopefully this year will be as rewarding as last year was!

Accidents Happen.....

but for the most part, this 3 year, 2 month old little boy is POTTY TRAINED!!! And to think, he accomplished it with an entire week to spare (before starting pre-school and the mandatory potty-training rule)! Way to go, Tan! It was so funny because for the longest time, she just down right refused to go in the toilet. I would have him in underwear and he would just pee his pants over and over and over and over again until I just didn't think I could handle cleaning up one more accident! But, then, I guess he just made up his mind he would do it and within a matter of about a week, he went from needing a diaper 24 hours a day to refusing to wear a pull-up even for bed-time. Lacey was in pull-ups at night for months after she was potty-trained during the day, so I was expecting we'd do that with Tanner too, but he wears underwear all the time now. And do you know what that means???? It means that for the first time in OVER THREE YEARS, I only have ONE child in diapers! And that is AWESOME!

One funny Tanner quote: Two days ago, Tanner had crawled in to our bed during the night, so he woke up in our bed. As he was sitting up, I told him to go potty. He sat there for a second and then just started laughing. I again told him to go potty. He started giggling some more and then pointed at our bed. He was pointing at a big wet spot where he had just peed. I looked at him very seriously and said, "Tanner, that is not funny!" And he looked up at me with this adorable, mischievous smirk and replies in a British accent, "Well, I suppose it's a little bit funny?" Where does he come up with this stuff? Needless to say, as I was washing my sheets that day, I had a "little bit" of a smile on my face!

My Baby Brother's Big Day

Here I am holding my baby brother, Ricky on the day he was born.

And here we are on his wedding day 23 years later. I was 12 years old when Ricky was born, so he has always been my baby. I can't believe he is married! But, he is. And I am so grateful that we were able to spend the past few days in Utah to be a part of this wonderful occasion!

Ricky with my parents

The sisters....

And the brothers... (you have to know Ricky to appreciate the cane and top hat!)

You know what my favorite part of this weekend was? Being with family. It was like a mini- family reunion. In addition to all of my siblings, there were aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews, etc. So fun to be together!

The couple's first dance at the reception

My beautiful sister, Maret and my brother-in-law Kevin

My mom holding "Baby Ry"

It was a whirlwind weekend. We flew in Thursday, had wedding festivities Friday and Saturday and flew home Sunday. Riley started vomiting at the airport and continued vomiting on and off the entire way home. We had a layover in Dallas (I thought of you, Steph!) and our flight got delayed, so we didn't get home until well after midnight. Today's been a little rough. But it was all worth it because we had a fabulous weekend. I know I have some Utah friends reading this that will wonder why I didn't call, but the fact of the matter is that we were busy with wedding and family obligations the whole weekend and didn't have a car. Dave was able to sneak in a hike to the top of Squaw Peak with his college buddy, Jeff and I was able to see the Sound of Music in the outdoor theatre in Sundance (beautiful!!!) with my parents, aunt and uncle, but otherwise, it was filled with wedding stuff. And I'm not complaining - I love weddings! And I love spending time with family, so to combine the two made for a perfect weekend. Congratulations Ricky and Heather!

9 Months

Oh, Riley Jane, please stop growing! Please just stay right where you are! I can't believe my baby is now 3/4 of the way through her first year. As you can see, she has two chompers and yes, I have now see her roll over and over and over and over again. She loves to just sit and play with her toys, then fall over herself and start rolling over all over the room. Still no sign of crawling, standing or any other form of mobility, but that is fine with me! She sits in her high chair and feeds herself (finger foods like cheerios, obviously not spoon-fed items), loves to be held and loves her Baby Einstein shows. She sleeps like a champ at night (usually 7pm - 7am), but isn't always very good about giving me two naps a day. She's only 9 months and already, I have a hard time getting her down for 2 naps a day. Oh well, at least the nights are blissful! She has such a pleasant personality. She loves to just look around and soak in her surroundings. She is just so chunky and cute and I love her a hundred million!

Tennis in the rain

I happen to be married to a tennis lover. I never paid much attention to the sport prior to meeting Dave, but six years later, I know the players and I know the lingo. I know how many Grand Slams there are (four). And I know where they are (Paris, London, NYC, Australia). I know how long they last (2 weeks). So, for a wedding anniversary gift (2 months ago), I gave Dave two tickets to the upcoming Legg Mason Tournament in DC. We went to this tournament once before in 2008 and brought Tanner, just 6 weeks old, in the Baby Bjorn. Anyway, on Saturday night, we went to the John Isner vs Gael Monfils match. Even if you don't follow tennis, you may know the name John Isner. He is most famous for playing in the longest tennis match in history during Wimbledon last year. The match went on for three days before Isner finally won 70-68 in the 5th set. So, it was kind of fun to see Isner in person.

And Monfils was equally fun to see. He is ranked #7 in the world. We saw him play during the US Open last year as well.

Me and John :)

Getting ready....

Are you kidding me? Yes, that is what you think it is. A torrential downpour. The match that was supposed to start at 7 was delayed until 8:30. About 10 minutes later, the rain returned. We waited another hour or more. A little more tennis. Then is rained some more. By this time, it was 11:30 and we had a baby-sitter at home, so we threw in the towel and headed home. They did finally finish the match, after the 3rd rain delay, at 1:16am. Oh well, it was still a fun evening and the tennis we were able to see was great!

White Water Rafting

Oh, Travelzoo. I just can't say no to you. And that is why I am here in West Virginia camping. Yes, it's true. I saw a deal on my weekly Travelzoo email update that I just couldn't resist - White Water Rafting on one of the Country's best rapids (the Lower New River) just 6 hours away. The deal included 2 nights of camping and one day of White Water Rapids. Here we are after setting up our tent. This is only the second camping trip Dave and I have been on together since we've been married.

We got up early Monday morning and headed for the water! We rafted on the Lower New River, which had a few 3's and a few 5's and a whole lot of Level 4 rapids. Here we are approaching a 5....

Here we are going through it....

Coming out of it.....

We did it!

You can't see my head in this picture, but i'm in the back left waving my hand. Dave is in the back right. And lucky for us (since we always think traveling with friends/family is more fun), our good friends Kim and Pete can't say no to a good Travelzoo deal either! So, that is our friends Kim and Pete in the front of the raft.

After rafting, we still had a few good hours of sunlight, so we took advantage of some of the fabulous hiking trails in the area. We hiked this trail to Diamond Point for some absolutely gorgeous views. It was such a fun little trip. I absolutely love being outside and surrounded by views like this one. Our guide told us the Gauley (which only runs in Sept. and Oct. but is very close by the New River) is "several steps up from this." So, Gauley 2012 anyone?