Snap Yo Fingers

So Tanner thinks I need to explain the music playing in the background...

This is a song Tanner has on his iPOD.  Zack loves it and sings along with it.  Too cute!  Now we sing "snap yo fingers" to him when we want him to do something on his own because it goes on to say, "you can do it all by yourself--let me see you do it"!

Thing is...it actually works!  (some of the time, anyway)

Brothers Late Night

The other night Tanner asked me if he could have a "late night"......with Zack!  It was so nice of him to want to do that with his little brother, how could I refuse?

Then it just got better.  They went upstairs and returned a short time later wearing their matching jammie bottoms and tee-shirts.

They got their pillows out, laid on the floor by each other and watched a movie while having some fun snacks.  Then it was up to bed to have a sleepover in Tan's big bed together.

I hope these brothers stay close throughout their lives!

Happy Birthday Tan!

I can't believe we now have an official teenager in the house!  Tanner just turned 13 last week.  He is just an awesome kiddo.  We think the world of him and are so very "pleased" with what a great young man he is becoming.

Here are some of the things we admire in him:

• He is a hard worker--he has his own lawn mowing business and banked over $1500 last summer.  He likes to save and is a prudent spender.  (but when he does decide to spend his $, he likes the nice things!)
• He is a great older brother to Liz and Zack.  Tan has a lot of love for his family.
• Tanner is very responsible.  If he says he's going to do something, you don't have to check up on him--he'll get it done!
• He does things "right" the first time.  He's not one to cut corners.
• Tan is a great student.  He earned his cell phone by staying on the high honor roll every term his 7th grade year.
• Tan has a good moral compass.  He can stand up for what he knows to be right.

OK...enough bragging (but remember, this is my journal here, so give me a little liberty)  :)

We love ya T-Bob!!

Mama Mia!!

So it's been a while!  My camera is gone with Bob and Tan this weekend (more to come on that) so I can't upload new images...

Last night Mindy asked me to go out for a fun girls-night-out.  We went to Barbacoa for their yummy pork salad, then headed off to the movie theater.  We saw Mama Mia.  I loved it!  I wasn't so sure about it as I sat through the previews.  Many of you know my funny thing about previews--I can't watch them if it looks like a movie I want to see.  I cover my ears and talk to myself so I don't spoil the movie (they just show WAY too much of movies in the trailers nowadays).  Well, I could watch every one of the previews (meaning I was wondering about the movie we were about to see)...it was incredible!!

Mindy and I laughed so hard the whole time.  She was the perfect one to see it with--my oldest (not age-wise :)) friend.

This definitely did NOT help with my obsession to vacation to Greece.  That water, those beaches, the islands!!  Oh my...Mindy is already researching our trip.  As soon as the movie was over she leaned over and said "I have a passport"  :)  What a friend!!

Now we want to see it again--anyone up for a fun girls-night-out?

Fun with Ben!

We were so lucky to have the kids' cousin, Ben, stay with us for a couple of days this week.  He's here for a while visiting from Vegas.  We packed quite a bit into our two days!!

Let's see.  First we had a fun family night.  We talked about Alma 32 and having faith.  We talked about the faith being like a seed.  We each chose something we wanted to work on that involved faith.  I chose prayer being more meaningful, Tan chose obeying parents and prayer, Liz wants to feel the Holy Ghost in her life more frequently, who knows exactly what was going through Zack's little mind or just what he chose, and Ben wanted to read his scriptures.  Then we planted our little seeds in cute pots.  We're supposed to remember our goal each day as we water and care for our little seed.  Hopefully they grow!! 

Today we went to Raging Waters.  We all had a good time and I believe we tired everyone out!  Our kids are like half fish--they love the water!  We joined Julie and kids, as it was her work party.  It has been a very long time since we've seen them!  In fact, I don't think her kids have ever seen Zack and he's 3 1/2 years old now.

Camping in the backyard!

Bob was too nice and set up the tent for the kids to have some fun "camping" in the backyard the other night.  We enjoyed sleeping out there as well as having some fun  with the kids jumping on the tramp in the dark.  What a fun dad!!  I'm so amazed at how good he is with so many things, including being a wonderful husband and father.  I feel so lucky to have found him!

Computer woes!

So...it's been a long time since a post...  That's because our computer went kaput.  Not such a good thing.  The silver lining is that we had to get a new one and chose a Mac.  Does anyone out there know how to actually use one of these machines?  It seems to be quite a cool computer if you can find out how to use it!  Good news is that the Mac store has free classes everyday on tons of things to do with their computers.  Maybe I'll get more computer literate than I had originally planned....we'll see!  Now I can hopefully post more of what is going on in our lives.  Let's see on the next post if I can actually figure out how to post a photo!