Busy and Busier

Baby Seely

2011-06-04T13:15:00.001-07:00

As you can see, it has been awhile between posts due to some crazy changes in our lives. The biggest one happened this week. We welcomed...

Alyssa Dawn Seely into our family. She was born June 1, 2011 at Sutter Memorial Hospital in Sacramento. She weighed 7 lbs, 7 oz. She has dark hair and stretches out 21.5 inches. She is very sweet and wiggly.

The labor and delivery process was unusual. I was scheduled for induction at 5 am and when I arrived before dawn, the doctor had not written any orders on how to start the process. Eventually the on call doctor arrived and got things underway. After some medication and pitocin I started having some contractions. To move things right along I went walking. I did tons of laps in the hall then finally I could really feel things happening. I got an epidural around 3 pm and was only about 4 cm dilated. I was finally able to relax and rest and just as I was falling asleep around 4:30 things started really happening. At 4:45 I was all of a sudden ready to push, and sure enough, there was her head. We waited a few minutes for the doctor to come in and by 5:18 pm she was born, healthy and crying.

I stayed in the hospital for 24 hours and I have been recovering miraculously well in the last few days. Tanner and Parker made a wonderful sign with Nana to welcome us home. We are so excited to have our little GIRL!

December Fun

2011-03-21T13:05:00.000-07:00

Some other wonderful events happened in December this year that really made it memorable.

We attended a creche exhibit at the church which was really beautiful. There were over 200 creche displays from all over the world. They were so beautiful and the youth from the surrounding area provided a live Nativity show and live music. It was great. The boys and I got our photo taken. Darryl had a military training in Virginia for 2 weeks in December, so he was noticeably absent. I'm glad that the Nativity exhibit is an annual event.

Since we have no snow in December in these parts, our trees finally lost all their leaves, so we did some massive raking. We made a great big pile then the boys and the neighbor kids jumped in and threw the leaves everywhere. It was a fun time.
The Mom's Club of Elk Grove Franklin had a great little Christmas party complete with reindeer food and a visit from Santa. We love the mom's club and the kids had a fun time eating snacks and playing duck duck goose. They even joined in singing some Chistmas songs. Parker didn't want anything to do with Santa, but Tanner tolerated receiving a new book from the nice man. My favorite part was when the moms wanted a photo with Santa so we gave our cameras to the kids and had them take the photos. We got a good laugh from how they all turned out.
I was called as the new Young Women's President for our ward. We attend the Laguna Creek 5th Ward and I am in charge of about 12 young Women. For a fun activity we decided to do International Christmas night. We have several nationalities represented in our ward, so we decided to have people talk about christmas that they celebrated growing up. We heard about South Africa, Korea/Japan, Germany and Mexico. Then we ate tamales and broke a pinata for good luck in the coming year. It was lots of fun and the kids went nuts for the pinata.

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is decorating Christmas cookies. This year we went to the Spjut family's house and the boys decorated several cookies. Tanner really stuck to decorating for a lot longer then he ever has before and the cookies were cute and delicious. Parker lost interest after we ran out of M&M's, but he sure had a good time eating every cookie he could get his hands on.

Tanner got to participate in 2 Christmas programs. The first was at his preschool. He attends the CSD preschool and loves it. For their Christmas program they learned 3 songs to sing, they made antler headbands, and did a book gift exchange. Tanner didn't want anything to do with the singing and pulled the hood of his jacket over his head for the duration of the performance. He loved the book exchange and said when he opened his book, "It's the book I always wanted." He gave the boy who brought the book a big hug and said thank you. I was so impressed by his gratitude.

The other program was during Tanner's gymnastics class. Every year the kids get to demonstrate their skill for all the parents. Tanner is really skilled on all of the equipment and did a great job showing off his jumping abilities on the tumble track. When it came time to do a little stretching show set to the music of "hot chocolate" from the movie Polar Express, Tanner got very embarrassed and went to pout in the corner. From that moment on he couldn't be convinced to continue the demonstration. Performing may not be in the cards for Tanner.

We had such a great Christmas time, but missed Darryl greatly. Next year hopefully Darryl can see all these fun events.

Happy Birthday Tanner

2011-03-21T12:48:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Tanner's 5th Birthday with the cousins and some friends nearby. It was small and simple, because we want to make 5 1/2 a big fun party in the summer. Tanner shares his half birthday with his grandpa Seely and Darryl's birthday is shortly there after, so we can have a party week with warm weather fun.
The kids were so fun. They helped to make the cupcakes for the party and chose to have green frosting. They mixed and decorated the tops with more sprinkles than frosting. Tanner liked opening presents from the kids. His favorite thing recently has been dollar bills, so when he opened cards from the grandparents with money inside he was elated. The other favorite gift was a silly giraffe limbo game. It plays music and the kids spin the dial to figure out which way they will limbo under the bar. Sometimes they would bend over backwards and other times walk like a crab or bend forward. No matter direction the dial said, the kids would come up with some way to go under the bar. They all laughed and had a good time.
The boys absolutely loved having their cousins around for fun and excitement. They wish we lived closer and we wish it didn't snow in Utah.
Tanner had a great day and we enjoyed all of the birthday wishes.

Christmas 2010

2011-02-02T21:51:00.001-08:00

We had such a fantastic Christmas at our new home. This year we got to celebrate with everyone here in California. We were so happy when the family wanted to come to us! We also felt very blessed that there were good long breaks in the weather, so the Sierra Nevada mountain passes were clear and safe.
My parents and younger brother Steve came into town just before Christmas Eve. They came the southern route through Vegas to get here safely, but made it without too much trouble. We enjoyed showing them around town a bit and playing lots of games. We had a delightful Christmas Eve dinner complete with ham and fresh pineapple with sweet potatoes and salad. We read the Christmas story and watched lots of movies. We even went to the theater as a real treat to see the new movie "The Tourist". On Christmas morning we had lots of fun sleeping in. Tanner and Parker didn't wake up until almost 8 am so it was a nice and relaxing morning of opening presents.
Some of the favorite gifts were from Santa. He brought Tanner and Parker an indoor jump house and new bedspreads. Darryl got an air-zuka, which is an air cannon that you can shoot across the room. The boys got a big kick out of it. I got some of Steve's prints of his photography that I love. My dad also put together some wonderful 2011 calendars with our old photos and some of the photos of the boys. We felt very fortunate to be so blessed.
Tanner was so cute this year. While Darryl was away for the military, he really wanted to give Darryl a gift so I took him to the store to pick out some of Darryl's favorite gum. Tanner came home and wrapped the gum, then wrote his name on the outside of an envelope and put one of our old pens inside and wanted to mail the whole gift to dad in Virginia. Instead I talked him into putting it under the tree for Christmas. On Christmas morning he couldn't wait to give it to his dad.
Uncle Steve as also a favorite toy for the weekend. Tanner and Parker climbed on him and ran him around all over the place. They also liked crashing out on the couch or a movie with their fun uncle. We were so happy that he came.
After the Christmas weekend. We had a family change over. My parents and Steve headed back to Utah, as Cheryl Savage with her bunch came with Darryl's mom (Grandma Seely) to visit for a week. It was so much fun to have all the cousins in town. We did something every day. On the afternoon they arrived we were blessed with some great weather, so the kids played outside with all the neighbor kids and at one point there were 12 kids playing between 2 houses. It was mayhem.
One of our fun outings was to the train museum in Old Sacramento. We walked through all the exhibits and the kids climbed all over the trains. We looked through the mail train and took a photo for grandpa Seely so he could appreciate from afar. One of my favorite parts was the upstairs toy train exhibits. I loved looking at the toy train sets that were electric. I was amazed that the toys were so true to life and extensive. The kids loved to watch them go cruising all over the tracks. They even got to play with toy wooden trains and since they have a pretty big collection of those, we came home to build a few more.
Another fun outing was to the roller skating rink. We went with the oldest Savage children and Tanner. Tanner and Ashley really liked it. I traded my roller blades with Ashley for her skates and we skated the afternoon away.
We were sad to say goodbye to all the cousins when the week was done. We can't wait for summer time to see them again.

Army Christmas 2010

2011-02-02T21:33:00.000-08:00

Our December started with flair. Darryl's unit hosted a Christmas Party for the soldiers in his unit and their families. It was held at the armory in San Leandro. We got there early and found out that Darryl was the MC for the event. He's not much of a big talker, but as the Commander he gets that opportunity more than he would like.
The party was a big success. The food was all donated and prepared by the soldiers and volunteers from the community. There's a group called the blue star moms (a group of volunteer ladies that all have children serving in the military in some way). These ladies are so wonderful. They helped get things set up for the kids of the soldiers (gifts, games, activities etc.) as well as food and support services for the families in the unit. They do wonderful things and they are so invested because they have a soldier. Other groups were also represented. Darryl's big push for the overall success of the unit is geared toward education, so many of the colleges in the area had representatives on hand to encourage the families to go to school. My favorite part of the day was when Santa came. He was WONDERFUL. He came in with music and bells. He sat down and took time with every child. Tanner even sat on his lap and accepted a gift from him. This is the first year he even talked to Santa. Parker wasn't interested. He only liked to admire Santa from afar. The boys did like a small toy Santa that played music. They figured out how to push the button and get it to play music, then they would dance around to the Christmas song.
Some of the highlights of the day were the 2 big bounce houses, the delicious food, and the fun pinatas for the kids. It was a long fun day and the boys were sad to leave.
Unfortunately for us we didn't get to take Darryl home with us. He flew to Virginia the next day for a 2 week training called a Captain's career course.Having him gone was no fun at all. He enjoyed having some time away for the first few days, but around the holidays it was hard on all of us. We were so happy to welcome him back. When he got home it really felt like Christmas was around the corner.

Thanksgiving 2010

2011-02-01T21:32:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving is still one of my favorite holidays. This year we were sad not to be able to go to Utah for the Hartley family festivities. Hopefully in the future we can get together and bring home the trophy. From the family reports however, the Richard Hartley family did their part to represent by bringing home the goods for the year.

In Elk Grove, we didn't have a trophy, but we did get some good bowling time in. This year we invited the Spjut family to our house for the big day. They have 3 kids that match up in age with our kids (and they like to go bowling). It took some calling around to find a bowling alley open on the holiday, but we finally found an old place and hauled the families up to Carmichael to let them loose with the bowling balls while the turkey cooked. The kids almost made it through a whole game and the adults didn't exactly post record breaking numbers. We did have a great time and came home plenty hungry.
In the afternoon we had our big meal. The kids ate in 10 minutes flat, then they were off to play games and run around the house. We tried to enjoy our meal but we laughed at how interrupted and frantic the meal really was. It's fun to have young kids. They are just very demanding. To end the meal on a high note, Katie Spjut brought out 3 desserts to help us all really indulge. Pie, cake and pudding filled all the extra cracks we may have had left. We chatted and played with the kids for the rest of the evening and had a fantastic day.

Black friday was crazy for us this year. Darryl went to Toys R Us when they opened up at 10 pm on Thanksgiving night. He waited outside the store in line for an hour and a half then finally got in and waited another hour to buy the items he picked out. Unfortunately the weather turned cold on Thanksgiving day. The temperature was about 20 degrees that night. I went to Kohls in the morning around 7 :30. I shopped for an hour then waited an hour and a half to buy my items. We were both exhausted by noon on Saturday. We found our second wind in the evening when we decided to paint the living room before getting a Christmas tree. It only took 3 hours and we got through 3 big walls. We went to bed very satisfied.

After the shopping spree for Christmas stuff, we decided that we should get in the Christmas mood and decorate for Christmas. We went on Saturday to pick out a tree then brought out our meager decorations. We realized that most of our Christmas stuff is from decorating the condo in Fremont. Once we got everything out and hung, we started to notice how bare our home looked. We added to our Christmas supply by making some window decorations with the boys and neighbor kids. We also picked out some new non-shatter ornaments and garlands. The boys were great helpers putting ornaments on the tree and reading Christmas stories. We caught the Christmas mood really quickly.

Beautiful November

2011-02-01T20:57:00.000-08:00

We had a beautiful November this year. All the way up to Thanksgiving we had awesome weather. Our neighborhood is awesome because the kids are outside playing in the street everyday that they can. They ride bikes and scooters and climb the trees and jump on the trampoline. We love that all of those are still options even in November.

One weekend we took a little trip back to the bay area for some fun. We went to the Children's Museum and Zoo in Palo Alto. We went with the Winmill family because their dad had drill the same weekend as Darryl, so we decided to get the families together. The kids loved the exploration exhibits and Tanner especially liked riding the bike to make the lights turn on. The exhibit demonstrated electrical current based on wind power. After our little outing we went to Subway for lunch then back to Fremont where the kids played the afternoon away.

My biggest highlight was going to the "So You Think You Can Dance" tour. Darryl gave me tickets for my birthday. It was a hard wait for the evening of the event, but it was worth it. We went to the show with the Linewebbers. They are friends from KPMG, and she and I share a love and background in dance. Darryl scored on our tickets. We had floor seats about 10 rows back. I went crazy for a few numbers. One of the best was a hip hop with 3 guys. All of them are AMAZING break dancers and did things I have never seen before. I was on my feet before the music even ended. I think I was horse from screaming so loud. I'm sure the other people around thought I was a bit nuts, but I had a great time. We went out for frozen yogurt after the show, then made our way home.

Darryl is still liking his work with KPMG and the Army. He's playing basketball once or twice a week at the church. His soldiers love having a straightforward commander and it's nice to get some positive feedback from the Army. Darryl was also called to be the financial clerk for the ward and has been busy with Church financial matters as the year comes to an end.

Tanner has been busy with gymnastics and preschool. His class had a Thanksgiving feast and they made pilgrim hats and the parents brought potluck dishes for the feast. I had to laugh a little bit at the things people brought. I laughed only because it was so indicative of the diversity of the kids in the class. We had a roasted fish (complete with head and eyeballs), 3 kinds of rice, cookies, an interesting Indian dish, crackers, pasta, and mixed vegetables. Parker had a lot of fun exploring the classroom and sampling a bite of several things.

Parker is 20 months old this month, and he is so curious about everything. I couldn't pass up the chance to have some photos taken of him while we were in Fremont. Janine always does such an amazing job of capturing the personality and joy of our family. The photos were taken at the beautiful Vallejo Mill park near the canyon.

Halloween 2010

2011-02-01T09:01:00.000-08:00

It was party time for Halloween this year. We had a fantastic Mom's Club party at a Senior Citizens care facility here in Elk Grove. Tanner and Parker dressed in their bat costumes and we went around to each of the different houses of the residents and did a little parade through the living room. Tanner had fun showing off his wings and shaking hands with all the cute little old ladies that loved his little show. Parker liked exploring the homes and finding things to grab. After our little parade we went back to the main common area and had snacks and played some carnival games. I like the mom's club and I'm starting to get to know a few more of the ladies. I find that our kids have a lot of activities in common.

We had a wonderful time on a fieldtrip to the zoo. We went with the Elmor family on a day that was beautiful and not very busy. Tanner and Parker loved holding a live turtle and watching the Lion pace in his enclosure. Tanner was determined to find the flamingos, so we went on a search and when we found them, he wanted to climb right in with them. We had a good laugh. We rode the carousel and a funny little dump truck ride. Those were the highlights of the day.

Tanner's preschool had a halloween carnival. Tanner loved going fishing for purple fangs to match his bat costume. He played lots of games and Parker wandered around trying to be involved in everything.

Another great Halloween party happened at the church. It was called a harvest festival and feast. We had a chili cook-off and corn bread. The winning chili came from our neighbor Todd Lewis and his was awesome. It was a bit sweet with bacon in it. I told him he could come cook for us anytime. The boys had hot dogs and loved it. After the feast and a bunch of games hosted by the young men and young women, we headed outside for a trunk or treat. All the cars were decorated Halloween style and many had animated characters or lights in the back. I liked this part the best. I love handing out candy to the kids. It is so great to see all the costumes that the kids are proud of. We also confiscated the candy Tanner and Parker got, because they were ready to dive right in and pound it all.

Halloween night landed on a Sunday this year, so we kept it low key at our house. We went to church in the morning then hung out at home all afternoon watching movies and playing games. We had some friends come over for dinner, then we carved pumpkins. All evening the boys had a great time running back and forth to the door handing out candy to the trick or treaters. They got a kick out of giving fistfuls of candy to each kid until we started running low really fast. It was awesome that they wanted to help so much. Our pumpkins turned out really fun and Tanner loved lighting the candles and watching them glow.

We had only one sad event happen in October. One afternoon as I was picking up Tanner from preschool, my van was broken into and my purse stolen. I didn't have a lot of cash, but it was such a pain to replace everything and I had to drive all the way out to Rancho Cordova to a salvage yard in order to get a new window. I was upset that someone would be that heartless. Luckily we were safe and we got it all cleaned up. The thieves got away with very little and from what I gather, the police will have no real answers on who did this or how to keep it from happening in the future. I did learn my lesson about leaving my purse in the car. Even if I'm gone for only a few minutes, I always take it with me.

October Fun!

2010-10-24T16:35:00.000-07:00

Hello from rainy Elk Grove. We have been getting the first rain of the season and it is coming down in buckets. Our trees are loving it and now it feels like fall. I even made Kale Soup to celebrate our garden spoils. This is my favorite time of the year!

Tanner and Parker have been loving the season. It was really hot at the beginning of the month, so they spent every afternoon with the neighbor kids eating Popsicles. We love our street. The kids are out almost every evening on bikes and scooters. One evening the kids came up with "eat the alligator" game. It really meant chasing Darryl all over the back yard because he was the alligator and the kids tried to catch, tackle and eat him all up.

We went to a pumpkin patch with Tanner's preschool class. It was called Fog Willow. They had a giant pyramid made of hay and tons of pumpkins all over the lawn area. When it was time for our group to tour the farm we got to see lots of animals and the workers were very good about engaging the kids and getting them involved in the care of the animals. We went on a hay ride and Tanner sneezed his guts out. I think he won the prize for the longest booger of the day (there were many competitors). After all of the festivities the boys got to pick out a small pumpkin to take home. Tanner scoured the field and found just the right one. Parker's favorite part of the day was the ponies. He wanted to ride on them so badly. He climbed up on the fence and watched the ponies eat for the longest time. It's cute that he can say so many words now. He says things like,"pony, soft" or "all clean". His favorite things to have an say are, "blankie" and "OH!" He is a fun kid and loved every minute of playing at the pumpkin patch.

Darryl and I had some fun times with parties and events this month. We went down to Merced, CA to play with the Murphys and celebrate Heather's 30th birthday. The party was great fun. Tanner and Parker loved the bounce house and chocolate cake. They also loved seeing their friends and dancing all evening. We always love to see the Murphys and try to get together any chance we get.

Darryl's boss was recently promoted to Partner with KPMG and he was gracious enough to host a party at his home. Darryl and I has a great time meeting many of the other managers and partners of the firm as well as family and friends. One of Darryl's co-workers has some interesting ideas about astrological signs and baseball cards as well as investing. We enjoyed talking to him about his theories and ideas. It gave us a new perspective. Unfortunately we had to leave a bit early in order to head down to Danville for a wedding reception for Dustin and Emily Seely. Dustin is Darryl's second cousin and married a wonderful girl from Danville so they were married in the Oakland Temple and we got a chance to party with them for the evening. The reception was beautiful and we had fun taking crazy photos, eating lots of delicious food, catching up with the family, and lighting giant sparklers to send the couple off on their honeymoon.

The last great event so far this month was our block party yesterday. I organized a block party to meet more of the neighbors and celebrate Halloween. When I planned it, we had 90 degree weather and perfect afternoons every day. Unfortunately, winter decided to show up yesterday at 3:45 when our party started at 4 pm. Undeterred by the rain we put up canopies and had our potluck anyway. All the kids got their costumes on and rode their bikes around in the rain until they got too cold. They we did a upcake walk in the garage and made craft masks. We danced to Halloween music and bobbed for apples. We met a few more of our neighbors and had fun with the ones we know pretty well. By the end of the evening the rain was really starting to come down so we busted out the hot chocolate and a lamp and kept right on talking until we were too cold and wet to stay outside any more. We live on a wonderful street and we are so glad that we can have great times right here in our front yard.
We hope you are having wonderful times too! Happy Halloween.

Hot Hot September

2010-09-30T20:53:00.000-07:00

Maybe now is not the best time to visit Sacramento :) We have had record temperatures (105 degrees) for the last 4-5 days. It has been fun to hit the pool and play at the splash parks to try and beat the heat. That's not the only thing that has been keeping us busy in the last few weeks. It has been fun, especially for me, so here it goes.

During drill for Darryl this month, we had the annual family BBQ and pic nic. One of the soldiers had a great idea to roast a pig and serve it with the meal. Many of the soldiers brought their entire family and Tanner had a great time running around and climbing trees with the kids. Many of the coordinators for the unit took the time to make care packages for all the kids with boxes of school supplies and small toys. Tanner and Parker also rode the carousel and jumped in the bounce house at Kennedy Park in Hayward. Darryl gave some awards and recognized some of his soldiers, then generally did a great job of leading the activity for the day. In the evening we went to visit the Darringtons and chat with cousin Dave that was in town. He and a bunch of his local friends were there for dinner. We had a wonderful evening of laughing and eating. The weather that night was perfect, so we spent all of our time out on the porch. It was tough to say goodnight, and we got home really late, but it was worth it.

One of the biggest events of the month has to be that I turned 31. Not nearly as weird as 30, but still strange to say, "I'm in my 30's". My birthday was a wonderful day. As a gift, my friend Suzette planned a pic nic in the park with a bunch of other moms with kids. We let the kids all run around for awhile while we munched, then we blew out candles on my cupcake. In the afternoon Darryl called saying he had arranged a babysitter and wanted to take me to dinner and the Temple. He also gave me tickets to the So You Think You Can Dance tour show in November. I met him in Sacramento and passed the kids off to Michael his co-worker, who took the boys home with him and put them to bed. Meanwhile Darryl and I went to a great little restaurant on the Capitol Mall called "The House". When we walked in the owner greeted us with, "Happy Birthday!" Our meal was good and the waitress brought me a piece of chocolate pecan cake with a candle in it. I was glad that I didn't have to make my own cake this year. The temple was as beautiful as always and we enjoyed some time to chat as we drove to pick up the boys, then go home. It was a great day!
The fun for me didn't stop there. Last weekend I finally got to use my birthday gift from last year. It was a gift card for a hotel stay. I planned a girls weekend with all my friends from Fremont. It took a year to find the time to slip away, but with all the planning we had 10 ladies that were able to come. We stayed at the Pleasanton Marriott Residence Inn to have rooms with a little kitchen. We all got there Friday afternoon and drank smoothies and hung out while we waited for everyone to arrive. Then we went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner and to see the movie "You Again". Dinner was delicious and the movie was funny. We got back to the hotel and talked until 3 in the morning. We soaked our feet and painted our toenails. It felt like a regular high school slumber party! One of my favorite parts was our introductions of eachother. One of the ladies that came was new to Fremont, and needs some girlfriends so she came along. She asked us to each introduce ourselves, but that felt awkward so we decided to introduce the person next to us. Everyone had such wonderful things to say about each other and we had so much fun remembering how we all got to know each other and end up at "Girl's Weekend". Saturday morning dawned quickly, and we got up to have breakfast at the hotel. Some people had to leave but a few of us were very hesitant to head home so we went to Danville to do some shopping at the Farmer's market and look in all of the cute little shops on the main street. I even had to detour into an art gallery or two. We ended the day with a late lunch at Mimi's Cafe then headed for home. It was a WONDERFUL weekend. (In the photo Sharman, Heather Murphy, Holy Devito, Amy Crane, Janine Weston, Julia Madsen, Suzanne Hale, Laura Hancock, Krissy Rich, Priya Raj)

We did a couple of other fun little outings. One evening we had dinner with Analyn Sorge and her cute son Sam started singing to the people next to us at Chevy's because the were celebrating a birthday.

Another highlight was a Saturday pic nic at the local Morse Park. We ate and played and Tanner came up with a great game he called, "flying" where he would jump off a giant rock and Darryl would catch him and sail him to the ground. Both boys played the game over and over. I think it scared just about every parent in the park. One other great evening was our back yard campout. Darryl and Tanner set up the tent on the porch, we had chicken and hot dogs on the BBQ then roasted marshmallows for s'mores over the coals. Parker really liked the flaming marshmallow.
We are still madly working to renovate our office and of course we have hit a few snags. The goal is to have it done by Halloween, so we will see. When it is done it will double as our guest room, so we will need some visitors to come and try out our very fancy wallbed. We are all now happy and healthy, so life if great. We hope you are too.

Where did August Go?

2010-09-07T21:14:00.000-07:00

Hello from Elk Grove. Summer goes by so fast, we can hardly keep up. Luckily it has been a very temperate summer and we have been outside playing as much as possible. Here is what life has been like.

The end of July shaped up to be fun at home. We started some home improvement projects and prepared for a crazy month of August. At home we started on the office. We planned and prepared the room to make it double as a guest room. We got estimates on costs then found a supplier for cabinets. It is a fun project that we now have underway. We took some "before" photos to do a comparison at the end. I think anything will be an improvement from what we had in there.

August was full of travel for all. Darryl had 2 weeks of annual training for the National Guard. As the new commander he found his work to be very busy. They trained at Camp Roberts on the central coast. It's a military establishment that was created in the 1940's for World War II and hasn't been updated since. Many of the buildings are worn out, but it works for a supply company like Darryl's because they are training to move and handle supplies as well as be trained soldiers for combat. Darryl reports that the training went well overall.

While Darryl was playing GI Joe, the boys and I went to Utah to visit the family. Tanner started preschool at the beginning of August, so we stayed around long enough for him to meet the teachers and have 3 days of school. Then we hit the road. We broke up the drive by staying in Elko, NV. The Holiday Inn that I picked just happened to not have a pool, so we went down the street to the best western and swam in their cold pool for a few minutes because Tanner insisted. We then found a funny pizza place and the the boys were mesmerized by the arcade games. We sort of slept that night and got back on the road the next morning. We drove straight to Midway, Utah to see the Seely cousins. All 10 of the kids were together for the weekend and the boys loved it. The condo complex had a pool and we all got in. Parker was happy to hang out by the hot tub, and so was I. We also went down to Granny's in Heber to have their wonderful milk shakes. Tanner and Nikki struck up a deal and shared a root beer flavored shake, while Ashley and I got strawberry and cheesecake and traded a scoop for a scoop. On Sunday we went to church with the Savage family and then went to a pic nic in the park with their extended family. We did some ice block sliding at rock canyon park and the kids had a sponge fight with the left over water from the cooler. It was a beautiful evening and made me miss the mountains. It also reminded me of all the memories of Rock Canyon and that park.

The fun continued when we went to Nathan Savage's 6th birthday party. Cousin Nathan and all of his neighborhood friends as well as the other Seely(Gebs) cousins got together and played water baseball, had a water fight and ate pizza.

The rest of the week in Utah was filled with swimming at my parents house, visiting old friends, holding darling new babies and generally hanging out. We got to see the Stringam's new little girl Sadie and I didn't want to let go. I'm hoping that some of the baby GIRL karma rubbed off on me. The last time I was in Utah was Christmas time, and since then I know of 5 baby girls that have been born. I love it!

I got to meet my new little nieces, Alexia (Marshall's daughter) and Blakely (Brad's daughter). They are so cute and fun. We also celebrated Isabelle's 8th birthday and baptism (Clark's oldest daughter). Isabelle picked out her new white dress and she looked like a little princess. The baptismal service was held in Farmington at the church near Brad's home. The kids were so excited and enjoyed being part of the service. We stayed at the church for lunch afterward and had a nice relaxing time catching up with everyone. The festivities continued all afternoon with a water fight out on the driveway, and lots of popsicles for the kids. I liked having a few minutes to just sit and chat.

Of course our vacation flew by way too fast. We had to pack up our stuff too soon and head back to California. On the return trip we brought my mom. I booked 3 weeks of swimming lessons for her to teach about 10 other kids along with Tanner and Parker to make it worth her time to come. Swimming was great. Tanner is such a fish. He loved every minute of his time at the pool. By the end of the lessons he was sliding down the slide and jumping off the diving board as well as swimming across the deep end. Parker took some time to warm up to the idea of really swimming, but it's amazing what he is now able to do. He can hold his breath and swim short distances. He can float and dive for swim toys on the steps. I'm happy for both of them and so glad Nana was willing to come and teach. All the other parents were so excited for the lessons and their kids had such a good time.

In addition to teaching, we enjoyed playing with Nana. One Friday, we went to Fairytale Town and played all morning. The weather was perfect, too cold for the original beach plan, but great for the play land. The boys tried out everything and ran until they could hardly keep their eyes open. That being the case we loaded them up and headed to the Bay Area for a visit with the Darringtons. We stayed overnight and unfortunately Tanner got sick with croup so he laid low the next day while I did a bit of garage sale-ing (my favorite activity) with Wendy. I found some treasures for our house and liked the little break. We were sad to miss Grandma Cuff's 91st birthday party, but becuase of Tanner's illness we decided not to stay. I brought him home and tucked him into bed for the weekend. Since then we have been battling coughs and colds. I think Labor Day weekend helped us get past the worst of it. We are on the mend.
It has been a whirlwind of fun and craziness for us in August. We had so much fun and we are looking forward to the fall weather and a little monotony :).

Darryl's Big Events

2010-07-16T15:25:00.000-07:00

Hello from Elk Grove. We have 100 degree weather this week! Lucky for us this is some of the first hot weather we have had. Despite the heat, we are having so much fun.

Darryl is the big star of the month. He turned 30 on July 1st and all the stars aligned for him this year. He was recently promoted with KPMG and he was appointed to a Company Command position with the California National Guard. For his birthday we celebrated with a cake and signs made by Tanner and his friends from next door. We hung streamers all over the kitchen and played games and opened presents as a family after dinner to celebrate. As a surprise for Darryl I invited our very good friends the Murphy's to dinner on Friday July 2nd. Mike Murphy and Darryl became friends while we lived in Fremont and the Murphy's now live about 2 hours south of us in Merced. Mike won the great friend prize by keeping our dinner date even though he had to drive all the way from a business meeting in LA to join us on Friday night. Dinner was awesome. We ate at the Rio City Cafe in Old Town Sacramento. It's a great restaurant on the waterway with beautiful back patio seating. The food was good and the company fantastic. We even stopped at the candy shop across the road for some salt water taffy tasting to finish off the evening.
Darryl's other great event was his change of command ceremony for the National Guard. He became the commander of the Alpha Company 340th Brigade Support Battalion. The ceremony was nice and the outgoing commander received gifts and a lot of praise. The Battalion Commander spoke and gave some great advice. During the ceremony the guidon, or company flag, was passed to Darryl and he was able to give a brief speech about his plans for the future. He did a great job and he is excited for the opportunity to be the decision maker and create a strong unit for the next 2 years. We were glad to have our wonderful family there to support us. In attendance were Darryl's cousin Ryan Nielson, my aunt Susan Hartley and cousin Robert Hartley, my Uncle Bruce and Aunt Wendy Darrington. After the ceremony we went to the Darrington's for a great BBQ and relaxing afternoon with the family.

July has been amazing for the 4th of July festivities as well. After the birthday we went to a great swim party and BBQ on Saturday July 3rd at the Elk Grove Racket Club. We played games and swam and ate all afternoon. The kids had a blast throwing poppers and streamers to celebrate Independence Day.

On Sunday we continued our tradition of celebrating holidays with other families that are in California without a lot of family nearby. Dinner was at our house this time and we ended up with 10 adults and 7 kids. The Carr family, the Valdez family, the Ryan Family and our family contributed what we had in our pantries and fridges to a potluck dinner and blew off a few fireworks with our neighbors in the street out front. We laughed when the kids wanted to become super heros all evening and put on safety goggles to enhance the super powers. Most of the kids didn't love the fireworks. The sparklers went well and nobody got burned so it was a wonderful success.

The boys and I have also been on some great summer field trips. We went to the Oakland Zoo with a bunch of our Fremont friends. Tanner and Parker were all over the place. Tanner liked grooming the goats, watching the elephants, looking at the sea otters and exploring the bug exhibit about leaf cutter ants. Parker liked the bats and the lily pads floating on the water. I liked the company of all the other moms. We had fun with the kids. It was hot, but fun to help them discover new animals and experiences.

Our other fun field trip was to the Stockton Children's Museum. The whole museum is geared toward the local region. It explains what is grown, produced and supplied to the area. There are also exhibits about the police and fire department. Tanner liked the bones exhibit and Parker loved the balls that flew through a tube and down some ramps. I liked all of the exhibits related to magnets and how they work. We spent all morning at the museum and had a lot of fun. We went with the Leger family and the kids helped each other to learn and put on a puppet show for us. All the kids painted their faces. We had so much fun the kids came back and crashed out.One of my favorite events of the month was girl's night out at Macaroni Grill. My friend Suzette is a singer at the restaurant so she gets a great discount when we go. All of us are moms and we escaped one night for some fun. It was a delicious meal and we laughed and talked until it was so late we couldn't stay any longer. My favorite part of the evening was the fact that it was not a gripe session about kids or spouses. It was an evening of fun stories and great advice on how to handle our lives. I came home excited to be a mom another day and that was worth every moment.

We are looking forward to some more adventures and we can't believe how fast the summer is going by.

Fun in LA

2010-06-30T22:03:00.000-07:00

Traveling seems to be the theme lately for us, so... hello from Elk Grove by way of Los Angeles. In the last couple of weeks we've had some fun. Here it goes.
We celebrated Father's Day for the whole week before the big day. For FHE we made Father's Day cards for the grandpa's and great grandpa's in our life and Tanner had lots of fun coloring and writing in them then putting on as many monkey stickers as he possibly could. I took photos of the boys for the fronts of the cards and they happily posed with their favorite "I Love You" message. During the week we talked about Dad and picked out some books to read about dads. Tanner helped me make some "surprises" that he told Darryl all about as soon as he came home from work.
On Father's Day we went to church and I took the boys, while Darryl got to attend all the meetings. After church Darryl took a long nap before we went to our friend's home for a Father's Day dinner with lots of other families that are not close to home. We shared funny stories about missions and kids and we enjoyed their company all evening. Darryl went to LA on business this past week for training, so I drove down on Thursday to meet up with him and visit with family we have down there. We stayed with Darryl's wonderful aunt and uncle, the Neilsons. Tanner loved that they had a pool and was bound and determined to get in. The weather wasn't exactly hot, so he got his wetsuit and we headed out to the pool first thing in the morning with cousin Luke. It was funny. I spent more time in the water than Tanner but he sure looked ready.
On Friday Darryl finished early so we picked him up in the city and went to a museum called Kidspace. It is AWESOME! The boys were in heaven. They had an indoor learning area about bugs, dinosaurs, gardens, sea creatures, shells, and animals. They had a 2 story enclosed tower for the kids to climb. Tanner especially liked the "ant hill" where he could climb up thru the ant hill from the basement up to the main floor and come out of a little mound built into another exhibit. Outside they had a bike path for tricycles and a water element. Those were the favorite events of the day. Parker got soaked and Tanner rode everywhere. The boys also explored all over the creek and garden on the back hills. It was hard to pull them away!
Saturday was great. We went to Griffith Park. The Neilsons came and we met up with my cousins the Hansons that were willing to come up from Escondido. We rode the mini train and the ponies. Tanner started on the slow track with the ponies but needed a bigger thrill so he went on the medium speed track twice and loved it. We also found a Carousel so the kids needed a turn on that beauty. I did a little exploring while the kids rode and found the remanents of the old LA zoo. The enclosures for the large animals are still there built into the side of the mountain and the fences have been removed so the kids loved climbing all over the enclosures and exploring the animal caves. The Hansons also have 2 fun little boys so we enjoyed the fun that they brought. We have such deep talks with them about life and politics. It's fun to find people with great informed opinions! We will someday make it down to their house for some fun in San Diego.
After all that fun the boys were exhausted so we brought them home to relax with a babysitter for the evening while we went out to Dinner with the Neilsons. We ate at a beautiful and delicious place called Mi Piace in Pasadena. Then we walked down the boulevard and got fun frozen yogurt with mix ins. They weren't all that delicious but it was fun. The weather was great and we had fun talking about life and books and family. Sunday morning was fun. We went to church then packed up and headed home. The drive home on Sunday was uneventful, but the boys were done in the car after that. We came home to some very hot 102 degree weather so we relaxed all evening and just enjoyed our time together. We love traveling, but it is nice to be home for awhile.

June 2010

2010-06-21T23:26:00.000-07:00

Hello from Elk Grove by way of the best east coast vacation (with kids). We have been VERY busy for the last month and we've had a lot of fun.

At the end of May we flew to Philadelphia to visit the Bradbury Family. They have 2 beautiful little girls that match up in age with our little boys. We stayed for 3 fun filled days with them. We had a barbecue and played at the park. We went to an amazing all kids park called Smith Playhouse. Tanner loved riding down the big wooden slide. Tanner and Lexi ran between 5 different play areas as fast as possible and had a wonderful time. We went to a nature preserve and saw turtles while the boys threw sticks into the creek. Tanner liked Lexi so much he started calling her "My sister" and he would introduce her like that to everyone.
One evening the adults went to the city without the kids and ate Thai food then walked around a crazy trinket shop. After the shop we got dessert at the Naked Chocolate shop that had everything chocolate on the menu. Nick and Nickie got the drinkable chocolate while Darryl and I tasted a few bites of the various chocolate treats from the display case. The crowning events of the visit were the late night games of Puerto Rico. We played until the wee hours and often had to play quietly so as not to wake up the sleeping children. When our time in Philly ended we did a rendezvous with Paul and Larisa Cuff and went up to their home in Lawrenceville, New Jersey.

Paul and Larisa also have 2 great kids that Tanner couldn't wait to see again. The weather was so hot and humid we had to do a lot of playing in the water. The kids brought out the sprinkler and they jumped and played. We visited the Lawrenceville ward Memorial Day pic-nic in the park and the kids had a great time playing on the playground, eating watermelon, playing Frisbee and baseball. In the afternoon we relaxed and did some home improvement projects around the house. While in New Jersey we learned that the southern part of the state is predominantly devoted to agriculture. We visited a farm to feed the geese and goats, then we picked some strawberries and munched all the way home. We also enjoyed a great tour of Princeton University courtesy of Paul. The buildings have wonderful architecture and the grounds are lovely. We walked all over campus, let the kids swim in the shallow fountain, ate gyros, ice cream and gelato. We generally had a fun day and wore the kids out.

It was hard to say goodbye to the cousins, but we boarded the Amtrak bright and early one morning to head down to Washington D.C.. The train ride was great. No need for seat belts and plenty of space for all of our suit cases. The weather was super hot and humid. We got off the train and went site seeing to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. Tanner wanted to see rocket ships, and on the way to the building we passed the Carousel on the Mall. After that sighting there was nothing more important to Tanner than riding the carousel. Tanner did like the activity about flying paper airplanes so he participated in a paper airplane flying contest at the museum.
Both boys were exhausted hot and hungry by the time we got to the car heading for Virginia. We loaded them up with snacks and water then they crashed out for the trip south.
In Virginia we met up with the Jensen family. They were so nice to let us stay with them. They have 4 great boys, so Tanner and Parker jumped right into the mix and had a great time running around as super heros, playing tag and eating pizza. The next morning we went to see our house in Hopewell that we renovated a few years ago and now keep as a rental. It was nice to meet our wonderful tenants and see how the house is holding up after our attempts at improvements. Luckily things look good.
That last day in Virginia was the hottest of our trip. It got up to about 95 degrees with 100% humidity. We all just walked around sweating. We went to visit with our friends the Gorbetts. Tanner shares a birthday with their daughter Taylor so it was fun to see and play with them and catch up on their adventures. Soon they will have a new home on the western side of the country we hope :)
The flight home was quite an event with 2 stops, in Denver then LA. By the time we reached LA, Parker was totally done and ready to get off. He screamed his head off for about 10 minutes then went to sleep during the whole flight. He woke up just as we landed and he was content for the rest of the evening. We weren't up for long. All of us hit the pillow very hard and slept in the next morning. We had such a wonderful trip and we are glad to be home again.

Happy Mother's Day

2010-05-10T11:26:00.001-07:00

Happy Mother's Day after from Elk Grove. I had a lovely day off! Darryl got up to make waffles for breakfast. Then he helped get the boys out the door for church. He took Parker for all the meetings and then came home to make dinner for us and a great single mom in our ward with 4 boys under age 10. Our house was complete mayhem in the afternoon with 6 boys running around. We introduced "fat brothers" as a way to keep them happily playing together. Fat brothers is a game I used to play with my brothers when I was a kid. My dad would get out his old T-shirts and we would put them on over our clothes and stuff them with pillows. Then we would run into each other like sumo wrestlers. Usually the game ended in an injury, but it would last for a good long time being fun and we would definitely be exhausted after a good round. The boys on Sunday had a great time. It helped the littler boys have a more even playing field with the older bigger boys. The whole day was an event!
In recent days we have had some very fun times. We are settling into life here and making some great new friends.
Darryl was recently given a new position with the National Guard. He will be accepting a command position with a unit in San Lorenzo, CA as a Captain. He will be leading approx. 120 people for the next 2 years. His unit is a supply unit that is similar to the unit he served in Iraq with in 2007-08. It's a great opportunity for leadership and he is looking forward to being the man to make the decisions. His full time job in Sacramento is going very well. It is wonderfully steady and we are all enjoying having him home regularly.
I have been adjusting to our new area and so much space at home. We built a garden box out of scrap wood from the shed, and moved a bunch of dirt from a mound in the front yard to fill the box. Tanner and I had fun planting our garden this week. We are looking forward to having a bunch of great vegetables again this year. Its also been fun to meet so many new people. Last weekend as a mother's day gift, Darryl gave me a girls night out. Suzette (a new friend) and I went out to dinner and window shopping then ate Gelato and walked all around some great shops. We had so much fun and chatted the night away.
Tanner and I found a fun recipe for snake pizzas, so we made 2 that could crawl across our pans. He even helped with a color stripes across the top.
Tanner is a social butterfly. He practically lives at our neighbor's house (they have twins age 5). We signed him up for pee wee basketball. This area has a wonderful public sports program and Tanner was able to learn basketball for 5 weeks and get the fundamentals. He had fun but didn't really find his niche. Last week he started pee wee soccer and he's liking that quite a lot. We also signed him up for gymnastics at a great local gym and he LOVES it. I only have to ask him once to get into the car to go to the gym . It's also a sport that doesn't require shoes so he is in heaven. Tanner is anti-shoes these days and he will take off any type of shoe whenever he can. I'm sure he will have great summer feet this year.
Parker is doing his best to keep up with Tanner. His latest trick is running with arms flailing. It's funny to watch. It reminds us of how Pheobe runs on "Friends" with complete abandon. Parker's favorite activity is to drive the shopping cart with Tanner at Safeway. Parker loves birds. We made a few simple bird feeders for our back yard and every morning he checks for the birds to come eat breakfast. Recently we went to a cute little zoo called Micke Grove Zoo where we fed the Lorikeets. One of the birds landed right on Parker's head and he loved it.

Birthday Boy 1 year old

2010-04-15T14:29:00.000-07:00

This post is a bit out of order because sometimes that is just how my life rolls!

Parker had a very big birthday he turned 1 year old on March 4th. In the last few months he has made some big changes. By his first birthday he's walking (running really--He took his first steps at about 10 months). He has 6 teeth, he giggles every time you squeeze his knees, he weighs 16 lbs and measures 26.5 inches. He's incredibly active and tries to keep up with his brother. His favorite foods are sweet potatoes, mac and cheese, grapes and crackers.
We had a fun little birthday for him. Our friends Padu and Priya with their daughter Sheewane came over for dinner and cake. I made a little square cake that looked like a letter block. We gave him the cake and he didn't want anything to do with it. He just looked at us funny and tasted a little bit of frosting then called it a day. He liked the ice cream to go with it. That's my boy! He got a cute little play cake as a gift from the friends and some cards and money from the grand parents and great grandparents, and some new sand toys for the park. The cake sings and counts and lights up, so Parker loves it! We tested the sand toys out at the new park near our home and they were a hit. We spent a few hours at the park for the birthday boy and played with bubbles and ran all over the place. The day turned out to be beautiful so we played and played.

Home at last

2010-04-12T13:23:00.001-07:00

Hello from Elk Grove. It's a rainy and cold springtime, but we are in our new house and couldn't be happier.
Darryl is officially working for the KPMG office in Sacramento and has a long term client here. We are getting settled into our neighborhood and the welcome wagon just keeps coming. We have next door neighbors with twin 5 year olds and across the street neighbors with boys 8 and 9. They have been here almost every day and the twins just walk right in the front door. It's great. Tanner and Parker are also making friends at church and the park. We've found several families with kids just their ages.
We moved in the middle of March after several closing delays. In the days leading up to our move we had several events happen that made things very challenging. My mom flew to California to help us and planned to stay for 2 weeks, then the delays happened and she had other plans that she needed to take care of so we did some packing and the day we got keys to the house was the day she left. Darryl had drill and I got sick with a fever of 104 degrees. I tried to lay low and feel better, but after the weekend of getting worse I went to the doctor and they found that I had a severe kidney infection. It knocked me out flat and Darryl had to be in Sacramento for the week on sight with a client. So we were in a real pinch on the Monday before the move. I was sick, mom was gone, Darryl had to be 100 miles away and clean the other house and we were supposed move on Saturday. Our ticket out of that mess was given to us by the wonderful members of our ward at church. I couldn't believe the outpouring of help and love we got that week. Ladies came to my house and took me to and from doctors appointments and lab tests, while others entertained the boys. Come Thursday we had a whole group that came and packed my house. On Saturday all the men from the elders quorum came to pack the truck with Darryl and a whole new team of young women came to clean the house we were leaving. We even had help from the new ward to unpack the truck and when I arrived Saturday evening with the boys, we had a house full of set up beds and furniture in the right places.
Since then I have been busy trying to figure out where things are and how to get around town. Mom came back to help with some more unpacking and stayed several days. The boys couldn't get enough of their time with Nana. At the end of March, Darryl's parents came to town for a visit during their spring break. We had a great time with them. The weather was terrible, but we attempted the park and a few other outings. We went to dinner and worked in the jungle of our yard. One afternoon, Tanner and the grandparents cleared out the whole corner full of weeds and made 2 piles of yard waste, each taller than Tanner.
For Easter we had some fun. On Friday and Saturday we colored Easter eggs and had our customary egg war with the neighbors. Their son Ryan (5) came out the victory by default. He picked up his egg and smashed the others with it without rolling his egg. It was a fun and short war that I'm sure will improve with time. On Sunday morning the boys went on an egg hunt for treats and their colored eggs. Tanner really got the idea and Parker just sort of wandered around and played with one plastic egg. We spent the morning eating waffles and watching general conference. We had dinner with 3 other families from church that don't have relatives nearby to share the holiday with. It was a great evening. I even attempted a new dessert...Neapolitan rice crispy squares. They were so yummy, and fun for all.
We love to finally be "home". Please know that if you are in the area, let us know and you can stay with us!

Moving Day is at hand

2010-02-21T16:57:00.000-08:00

Where has February gone! We have continued to have rain on and off in Fremont, but we were very excited to have a few days of sunshine and 70+ degrees this week. Tanner and Parker have been loving it. They have made up new games and generally lived outside in the back yard.
Early in the month Darryl and I set up a big date. We went to see Avatar in IMax 3D. We set it up with our friends to do a trade. We watched their kids while they went to the theater, then they took Tanner for the evening while we went. Parker was sick with a really nasty cold so we still had to get one of the young women to come over to babysit. The movie was cool because of the effects, but not really our style of storyline.
Darryl spent the month working from home and traveling up to Sacramento. He's now officially working out of the new office, but because of the transition he is still helping to finish up with some of his other clients here in the bay area. He is also the king of researching appliances. We needed to buy a couple of things for the new house and he found some great deals and read a bunch of consumer reviews. We are hoping that we chose well.
I have been doing a lot of interpreting and attempting to finish up projects before we leave the area. The dance studio I've been working with was recently invited to produce the Nutcracker for Christmas 2010 in Oakland. It's a huge undertaking and I've been helping the Studio owner to work out the details and prepare for the event. It helps me realize the magnitude of large productions as well as the headache and reward of owning a studio.
Tanner is a fun and crazy guy. He spends most of his days on his head. He loves headstands on the couch, on the floor on the walls outside and anywhere else he can balance upside down. He recently learned how to snap his fingers. That one is not my favorite because he picked up the habit of snapping at me and saying, "Mommy I want.......right now." I now have a better understanding of why waiters hate it when you snap your fingers. Tanner also has a PJ fetish. He loves to wear his pajamas. Especially the ones with his name on them. He puts them on every day around 6 pm and comes charging out of his room so proud that he's ready for bed.
This past week, Tanner's school celebrated Valentine's Day with a party. We made rocket ship valentines that said "Have a Blast" on them. We wrapped up a mini marker with construction paper then glued on a chocolate kiss to the front and a paper flame to the back. They turned out cute. Tanner had fun at the school party and decided that he needed to dress up like Minny Mouse in order to attend. He has a very strong will so talking him out of it wasn't happening. I think he may regret the pictures later in life.

Parker is our walking man. He is walking all over the place now. He took his first steps on his own several weeks ago, now there is no stopping him. He is so tiny and loves to be a streaker after a bath. We all laugh when he gets so excited to run naked in the hall. Parker also loves the dirt. He digs in our planter boxes and dumps the dirt on his head. He loves the backyard and tries desperately to keep up with his big brother. He's all smiles and makes Dadadadada noises which we hope means something. He is so fun to have around.

The rest of our life has been focused on our big relocation to Elk Grove. We close on our new house this Friday if all goes well. Darryl and I have been frantically putting together documents for our lender. The house is wonderful and we are very excited.

Happy January 2010

2010-01-26T20:20:00.000-08:00

Hello from Fremont. We are currently experiencing loads and loads of rain. We have a little bucket in our backyard and I have registered about 7 inches of rainfall in the last 10 days. (Its my imprecise measurement, but I've been amazed at how full it's gotten) It makes me laugh when I hear all about the beautiful sunshine in Seattle :)
The biggest news in our family is that we are in limbo. Darryl is officially transferring with KPMG to Sacramento starting in February, but we don't have a house yet and no really close prospects on a place to live. We are doing the waiting game. We have made 8 offers on homes and we have a few more in the works. We have run the gambit on responses. We've been out bid by a cash offer; we were told that we were days away from an approval from the bank and we have been waiting 3 weeks; and now we are in 1st position on a home I totally love and it might be 3 months away from approval. Massive frustration. The one good point is that we get to stay in Fremont just a bit longer. It will be very hard to leave this area. We love it and have made some of the best friends of our lives.
January has been busy with this and that. Darryl had a lasic eye surgery revision done last week and he now has as close to perfect vision as possible. This last weekend Darryl went camping with the boy scouts for their winter campout. They drove to the Sierra Nevada mountains near Lake Tahoe and camped in tents on top of the snow. The rain in the bay area also brought loads of snow to the mountains, so this last weekend was packed with travelers, traffic and several feet of fresh powder. They stopped at In 'N'Out Burger on the way there, so they finally set up camp about 9:30 pm and the boys played around in the snow. Of course they were cold and wet overnight, but Darryl slept warm and dry. He brought all of his military gear for cold weather and it worked great. The next day the boys went sledding and played in the snow for the morning then they all came home tired and happy.
Tanner has been a happy big guy lately. He tells everyone that he's 4 now. He loves preschool and last week they had a California snow day. The school ordered a whole pile of shaved ice from the local ice company. It was enough to make a big "snow" pile. The kids got out their snow shovels and mittens. They climbed all over the pile and threw a few snowballs. They also read a bunch of books about snow and penguins and winter. Tanner loved all of it but recognized the difference in snow at school and snow in Utah.
A funny thing happened this morning that made us laugh. Tanner found a pair of size 4T underwear on the shelf and pulled them on. They came up to his chest but he was so proud of them, he had to show his dad. They had such a funny conversation, it went like this T: "Dad, look what I have!" D:"What do you have?" T:"New huge underpants!" D:"Congratulaions" T:"They're huge but they fit and I like them that way."(Tanner did some spin moves in the kitchen in just his underpants to show them off)
Parker is a character. He is such a climber. He can do pull-ups on the table and his latest move is to climb up the step stool and swing from the cross bar. He now has 6 teeth with 4 of them coming in within the last week. It's been tough for him at night, but for the most part he is a very happy kid. This week we went to the pharmacy to pick up some things and I had Parker in the front pack. As we walked past an older man the guy looked at Parker and said, "Hi" Parker responded with ,"UUUUhh-Huh". The man wasn't expecting a response and started laughing out loud in the store. This just made Parker laugh and it brightened everyone's day.
Parker is very close to walking. He will walk on his own between things, but has fallen a lot lately so we've noticed that he has gotten a lot more cautious. One of our favorite games is racing down the hall. Tanner will give the ready, set, go and we will all take off running. Parker now wants to hold my fingers and he tries his best to keep up with Tanner. We have a good time.
I have been busy with interpreting and dancing. I'm trying to tie up the loose ends and finish all of my jobs here in Fremont. Not an easy task. Luckily I will have a bit longer to wrap things up. For fun I have been reading a lot. I just finished the first 3 books in the Eragon series, and I re-read Mindless Eating and presented that book for our book group. I only wish I had time to read more!(aside from picture books)
Our life is full and fun. We hope the sun will come out tomorrow!

Merry Christmas Season

2010-01-10T22:23:00.000-08:00

December shaped up to be a fun filled and crazy month. We were very busy preparing for Christmas and our upcoming move. We bid on 8 homes and visited neighborhoods several times to try and find just the right place. Everything has slowed down in the real estate game during the holidays, so we were not able to make a lot of headway. Tanner had a wonderful program at his preschool for Christmas. He didn't like being on the stage so he did his part from the teacher's lap. He visited with Santa and we ate treats. The school did the most wonderful book exchange. Each of the kids brought a favorite book all wrapped up and then Santa did the exchanging so each of the kids was able to open a gift from eachother/Santa. Tanner had a great time and he loves his teacher Miss Heather.
Darryl pounded out a lot of work between Sacramento, San Jose, and Oakland. We hardly saw him until Dec. 19th when we took a trip to San Francisco to see Alcatraz at night. We met up with one of Darryl's old college friends and her family. They are currently at DLI in Monterrey-He's in the Marine Corp soon to be stationed in Taiwan. Our 2 families had a lot in common including very busy 4 year olds. Tanner had a great time with their daughter. They ran everywhere together, held hands, climbed on everything and generally had a blast exploring alcatraz island. Night time on the island is creepy and strange. It is very cool, but not very kid friendly. We did more child wrestling, baby feeding and potty breaks than I would like to remember. FYI if you go to Alcatraz with kids...go during the day and keep it short.
On Monday Dec. 21st we hit the road for a 2 week travel extravaganza! We visited Idaho and Utah, saw the family, played in the snow and generally had a wonderful time. Here is the summary.
In route to Idaho there was a snow storm in the Sierra Nevada mountains. We had chains with us but luckily made it through Donner pass before the chain requirement. On our first stop in Nevada for some gas we were shocked by the ice cold conditions. Just a reminder as to why we love living in the bay area. We drove to Winnemucca and stayed at the Holiday Inn for the night. Tanner was determined to go swimming, so as soon as we put our bags down Tanner was in his swimming suit headed to the pool. Ironically the pool was only 60 degrees because the heater wasn't working properly. That didn't stop Tanner. He jumped right in and played with a couple of boys that were there. Every so often he would go warm up in the hot tub then it was back to flipping off the side of the pool. He's a fish. It was great for him to burn off some energy. We made it to Idaho by mid afternoon the next day. We enjoyed several days in Blackfoot eating, playing games, watching movies and generally enjoying time with the family. There are 10 grandkids in the W & K Seely family. Everyone was able to get together on Christmas day and play for 3 days. It was a bit of a circus during the day, then when all the kids were finally in bed the adults stayed up late playing board games. Darryl brought out his best Carcassone skills and I won some and lost some in Ticket to Ride.
Darryl and I had a lot of fun visiting with Darryl's friends from High School and their families. Everyone came over one evening and we munched on delicious goodies, looked at old photos and let the munchkins play and get to know eachother.
This year we celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary and it's the first time we have actually celebrated on the day. We went to Chili's for dinner then out to see the movie "Blind Side". It was so nice to spend time just the 2 of us.
Tanner's 4th birthday was the next big event. We went to Farmington, Utah for the birthday party with the Hartley cousins. We drove down in a snow storm that slowed things down a bit. It took awhile for the family to gather in the poor weather conditions. Originally we had planned to take the kids to a bounce house place, but opted out due to my lack of enthusiasm for going anywhere in the snow :) Instead we stayed home and played with balloons, ate donuts off a string, opened presents, had pizza, watched movies and ate cake. Tanner just loved having all of the people around. He was so excited to tell everyone he is 4. Recently he told me that because he's 4 now he should be able to drive. I told him that when he can reach the pedals on the car we would talk about when he can drive.
After so many big events back to back, we spent the rest of the vacation in low gear. We visited our rental properties and checked in on some friends. We took the boys sledding and Tanner found a little sled just his size. He commandeered it from his cousin then found his own area to sled. He even pulled Parker up the hill on it one time. Parker loved sledding and we stayed until we were semi-frozen.
We celebrated New Years with my parents. We watched a movie then the countdown in New York on TV then went to bed. It's always so nice to have enough down time to spend visiting. We took it easy on New Years Day and prepped for the long haul home. We made it back to Fremont in 1 day and luckily had good weather the whole way.
It's good to be home...now for the move. More to come on that subject soon.

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-10T20:18:00.000-08:00

So I guess my weekly posts have extended to monthly posts. Life truly is busy and busier and busier still. We've had some fun stuff happening so no complaints here.
We had a wonderful outing to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium just before Thanksgiving. We went with a home schooling group that the Westons belong to. Tanner liked to watch the diver feed the fish. We all liked the sea horse exhibit and learned a lot about tide pool animals. The aquarium has an AWESOME section for kids. There is a little baby zone that has a giant water bed that the babies can roll on, and a little water fountain that Parker couldn't get enough of. Tanner liked the climbing area and the dress up stuff that the kids could put on to look like rays, sharks, sea horses etc. We had a great time and made it back to Fremont with just enough time for me to get to the dance studio and teach my class. My dancers got a good laugh out of seeing my chaparone stickers that the boys helped me put on the back of my jacket and I forgot about.
With the holidays upon us we have had a blast. Thanksgiving was at home this year. Darryl took charge of the Turkey and I did the side stuff. We outsourced a few of the sides to our friends the Hancocks for the remainder of the trimmings. Thanksgiving morning dawned bright, clear beautiful and warm. The Hancocks ran a 5K with their kids in San Jose, while we went to the bowling alley for the annual Turkey Bowl. Darryl made the best showing with a 147, but we didn't make much of a splash and I definitely didn't maintain my champion status from last year. Maybe I need to be pregnant to properly balance the weight and really bowl well :) Tanner made a great showing by bowling without the ramp this year. He loves to bowl and we enjoyed every minute of his "wooo hooo" after each ball thrown. He made it thru about 1 game and a half then he was done. Parker wanted to walk the length of the bowling alley, so we took turns with that. He smiled at everyone along the way and made some great friends. We had a wonderful time. Dinner was so delicious we just kept eating. The kids ate like birds and ran around all over the place. The Hancocks have 3 kids so with all 5 it was a fun circus all afternoon. Luckily we had beautiful weather and enjoyed being outside a bit in the evening.
We opted out of braving the black friday crowds. I did a bit of shopping over the weekend, but long after the 4 am craziness. On Saturday we went to pick out a real Christmas tree and pulled out the Christmas decorations. Darryl hung the lights on the house and we put our ornaments on the tree. Tanner had a great time helping. He especially loved the nursery with all the trees. He ran through all the rows and finally decided on a tree that was about 3 feet tall (just his height). We trumped his decision and opted for a 7 foot tree. Tanner wasn't trilled about that, but he got over it pretty quickly when he learned that we were strapping it to the top of our car. He thought that was a good idea and wanted to help. His best helping was staying in his seat, which he did rather well. The rest of the weekend was fun and relaxing. It was the most time we've had with Darryl in a long time and we really liked it.
Work for Darryl has been crazy with all of the year end projects coming to a close. He's been working with Dreyer's ice cream lately and will often get samples...not too bad. His client in Sacramento is pushing to finish a new computer program and they have to get about 1000 parts finished before the first of the year, so Darryl has put in a ton of time with them too. We see him when we can and he is looking forward to some much needed time off for Christmas.
I am still my crazy self with about a dozen irons in the fire. I'm the gardening group leader for our relief society and recently we had a fun group/potluck lunch at one of group member's homes. She does some great stuff in her garden. There is a company in Fremont that will deliver a load of compost to your house for free. She took them up on the offer and they brought her a whole driveway full of chopped up trees and bushes. She spread the compost between her beds in the garden to used it to cover the walking paths. We walked all over her garden and it worked great to keep our feet from getting muddy and to define the walking areas. I think I want to incorporate the idea.
Recently I've been doing a lot of interpreting. One slightly strange experience happened at a mental institution. I had a job fairly late in the evening and I had parked on the wrong side of the building. When the appointment finished I had to walk across this big parking lot by myself. I wasn't thrilled about the idea especially since there are guards posted at a few of the entrances and creepy trees and bushes all around the building. I couldn't find an escort, so I called Darryl on the phone and gave him my exact location and told him if anything happened then he should call for help. I think I could hear his eyes rolling at me, but the place gave me the creeps. I told the agency I'm not up for any more late evening jobs there. In all I like interpreting and have a goal to certify nationally within the coming year. We'll see if that happens in 2010.
We are excitedly getting ready for Christmas and we look forward to visiting with family and friends. We hope you have a wonderful Holiday season!

WOW November!

2009-11-09T15:16:00.001-08:00

Wow a lot has happened in the last month. We are well into November and having a good and busy life. The weather in the bay area is near perfect this time of year. We have cold nights, but beautiful sunny days in the 70's. We have tried our best to make the most of it with trips to the park, work in the garden, bike rides and play time with neighbors and friends. Here is the summary.

We went to the pumpkin patch with some friends. We had a picnic and Tanner's favorite buddy Calvin helped him pick out the perfect Halloween pumpkin. The boys also got to climb on a giant hay pyramid and run around the farm with pigs and peacocks.
For Halloween this year we went to a few great parties as the skeleton family. The festivities began at Tanner's preschool. The kids played on a spooky playground, then read some Halloween stories and took some pictures. Then all the kids did a costume parade and stopped at "treat" stations to get non-edible Halloween prizes (there are a bunch of kids at the school with food allergies). We handed out plastic skeletons and bugs.
The next party happened at church. We had the trunk or treat in the church parking lot and even won a costume prize. We got an orange ribbon for our unique costume idea. We ate pizza for dinner and had caramel apples, face painting, orange play dough, and the young women danced to Thriller. It was a great time. We ended the evening with the kids trunk or treating in the parking lot. I took Tanner and we made at least 3 rounds to each trunk and he loved it.
On Halloween night we went 2 doors down for a Halloween party with our best friends on the block. They had wonderful food and we made some primary punch to contribute. The kids all played for awhile then we took them out trick or treating to the neighbors on the court. Tanner found a great little friend that totally got into it. When they both figured out that you just have to ring the doorbell and people come to the door with candy, they were off and running. The little girl would ring the bell about 12 times. Tanner and little Spider-girl could make it to the next doorstep in no time at all. We were laughing and they loved it.
Since all of the trick or treating fun, we have had to regulate the candy consumption with doing jobs and being good. Tanner had been a great little guy and now he wants Halloween to be again tomorrow.
Parker is our little mover. He is now 8 months old and trying his best to start walking. He loves to pull himself on everything and wants our fingers for stability all the time. He laughs all the time and loves to be startled. He also especially loves the tupper-ware cupboard.
We have some other big news as a family. It is official that we are moving to Sacramento. Darryl is transferring to the KPMG Sacramento office. We are hoping this will be a positive change for us. We are so sad to leave Fremont. We have made some of the most wonderful friends here. Sacramento has some great things about it. Mostly the home prices and opportunities to live near Darryl's job are the biggest reasons for the change. Hopefully it will mean that Darryl is around a lot more often!
That's our big stuff for now. More to come...Happy Fall!

Happy October

2009-10-10T17:34:00.000-07:00

Time flies when your having fun...or stressed out. Either way I can't believe it is already well into October. Our family is cruising right along and celebrating having Darryl home finally! He has had to work every single day since Labor Day and today we finally had the chance to get up late, eat waffles and hang out. Darryl even took Tanner to the air show in San Fran today.
Tanner is a wonderful little guy with so much energy. He loves preschool and especially the instruments (they sing with little instruments like violins, guitars, tamborines) He always wants me to sing with him, but I haven't learned the songs. He also says some funny stuff. Whenever he wants something and I say no he says, "Come on Mom!" I also got frustrated one day and said, "Tanner I'm so frustrated I'm going to tear my hair out." He looked at me sideways and said, "Don't do that...it hurts." This week we built a rocket ship in the backyard that Tanner said will take us to Nana's and Grandma's houses. They live far away in "OOtah and Ida-who"
Parker is now fully mobile. He is my very best dust mop. He can climb the one step in our house and he can go from one end of the house to the other. His favorite spot is under Tanner's bed so many times I will find him kicking at the bed posts and cooing from underneath. He laughs really hard when you startle him and he is very ticklish. He loves to eat and started on some solid foods. So far his favorite is sweet potatoes and likes to get it all over the place. Recently he's had a bit of a cold. I think it comes from his other favorite pass time of sucking on shoes.
My big news was my 30th birthday. It was weird planning my own party, so I kept it simple. We had some friends over for dinner, then went bowling (we had 7 kids in total) so bowling was a safe bet. Darryl helped me bowl while I held a sleeping baby. In my honor he bowled a XX Turkey. After bowling we came back here for ice-cream cake then called it a night. 3 decades WOW!
Darryl is worn out. Luckily work is not all that strenuous, but he does have a lot to accomplish so it has been taking up all his time. We are still waiting on some future job change options, but for now we are in the thick of the busy season and will continue one until at least the end of the year.

First Day of Preschool!

2009-09-15T15:16:00.000-07:00

Fall has begun and Tanner started preschool for the first time this morning. He was so excited he had his backpack and family photo for the teacher, and he drew his own picture to hang up in the classroom. Tanner LOVED preschool. He has a lovely British woman named Heather as his teacher. His class has 20 kids in it and he already made some friends. I like the school because it focuses on socialization. That is Tanner in a nutshell.
Lately he has loved reading books from the library and cutting and gluing. He had a fun time making a card for Nana's birthday and of course we had to show off his muscles a little bit because he loves to be a super hero.
Parker went for his 6 month check up today. He weighs in at 14 lbs 2 oz and he's 26 inches long. His growth has really leveled off and I think it may be because he has a very busy brother that is teaching him all the ropes. The great thing about Parker is his smile! He is one happy guy. He loves to be part of everything and he can army crawl everywhere now, so he just takes off across the floor until he gets to a barrier he can't get over then he will either cry or roll a different direction.

We recently had some family photos taken. That was a lot of fun, we love Janine for her skills behind the lens. Tanner and Parker took turns looking all over the place and Parker grabbed and ate most of the plants nearby. My favorite shot of the day was of our feet. This photo of Tanner next to Darryl's leg is a perfect snapshot of Tanner's favorites all in one. He never wants to be without his car, whole pants, brown shoes and it's hard these days to keep a shirt on him that hasn't been chewed on. The only thing missing is gum, maybe that's why he likes the shirt--who knows!
Darryl has been SUPER busy with work and military. He has had to be in Sacramento for work quite a lot and this month has had drill and annual training for 2 weeks. His work in Sacramento is more along the lines of the work he's interested in. He has also been kept in his 349th Guard Unit with a new drive for making things better for his soldiers. He is also continuing to take classes for his real estate license and mostly enjoys that work. We may be on the hunt for our own piece of property.....yeah one we actually live on...we will see!
I have been busy with a little bit of nursing, quite a bit of interpreting, not enough dancing (but my one class was full on Thursday!) and a whole lot of Mothering with 2 VERY busy boys. Things are progressing, and I'm tired a lot. I like to be busy so that's how I roll. We are eating lots of fun things from our garden and I have bell peppers and zucchini coming out my ears. Our zucchini has taken over the garden anyway so it might as well produce something.
My other biggest task to this point has been the sacrament meeting primary program. This is the 6th program I've written and I learn something new every time. The kids were very squirrely and rambunctious for the practice on Saturday, but on Sunday morning they were all wonderful and well behaved and prepared. I was so impressed with some of the kids memorizing their parts and all of the talks were in their own words, so it showed their personalities. I loved being part of it. I'm exhausted and satisfied.
We hope you have a wonderful September!

Family Reunion

2009-08-16T20:45:00.000-07:00

Hello from Fremont. We are enjoying a beautiful August back home at last. We recently came back from Utah and 2 1/2 weeks of family fun. We all flew to SLC for the 24th of July weekend with my family. We had the 1st annual Hartley Family Reunion. It was the first time all of my siblings have been in the country at the same time for 9 years. We had a great time! On day 1 we went to Farmington and spent the day in the canyon with water balloon and squirt guns. We had lunch and played in the freezing cold creek that ran next to our picnic area. The water fight lasted until we were all sufficiently soaked (even the babies didn't get any mercy!) The afternoon and evening was spent at my brother Brad's house. We did a fun family history talk with my parents and learned a bit about my grandparents on each side of the family. In total there are 11 grandkids in the family with more on the way. It was really fun to watch Parker with his cousin Ethan (1 month older) as they were rolling on the floor. Parker didn't want to be left out of the fun so he learned how to roll right over and quickly started rolling across the room. On day 2 we were in Orem for some early morning family photos and crafts then off to the Scera pool for some fun in the very hot weather. It has a huge shallow area and some water slides. The kids had a great time! After the pool we went back to Mom and Dad's house for a BBQ and some fireworks. Brad took charge of the festivities and the kids loved kicking over the fountains when they finished. On day 3 we were in SLC at Liberty Park for a picnic and family meeting. The kids made some great little rain sticks and painted the outsides. In the late afternoon we went back up to Brad's house for pizza and games. We played the names game while all the kids ran a little nuts. We were all pretty spent after that, but had a great time being together.
After the reunion, Darryl flew home to go back to work in Sacramento, while the boys and I stayed for some swimming lessons with Nana. Each morning Tanner got up and got his suit on then went swimming with a few other kids from the neighborhood and his Savage cousins. It was great for him to wait his turn and watch the other kids progress. He has a strong will, so it took some work but he is now a lot safer in the water.
I was also really excited to see the birth of my new nephew. He was born so healthy and strong, and I was shocked and impressed that Cheryl could come for swimming lessons the very next week. Tanner loved every minute with them in the pool. He especially appreciated the extra granola bars from aunt Cheryl after each lesson.
We pretty much spent every day in the back yard pool. Friends that I haven't seen in a long time came over with their kids and swam. We had BBQ's and played games. It was a lot of fun to catch up and see how much our families have all grown.
We flew home about a week ago to find an overgrown garden with giant veges. We are blessed to have so much, but some of our zucchini are bigger than Parker! We have been enjoying the fresh garden goodness each day since we've been home.
Darryl is still hard at work, but as you can see...he still finds time for some fun in the skies! He has also done a little golfing and taken in some movies on his evening off while he is travelling. I found a few minutes to go garage sale treasure hunting and Tanner and Parker are just fun all the time.
Life is good and we love SUMMER!

Freefall

2009-08-15T16:47:00.000-07:00

I went skydiving yesterday. I am too cheap to pay for a video but Paul did, so check it out.

Paul Cuff Sky Diving from Paul Cuff on Vimeo.

Catching Up

2009-07-15T14:42:00.000-07:00

Wow a month has gone by already! Welcome to the middle of July. I remember summer going by pretty quickly while I was a kid, but this has to be the hyper-speed summer for me this year.
We have had some major fun, so here it goes.

We played with Paul and Larisa and celebrated Paul's graduation from Stanford. We ate and laughed and all the kids played hard. We will miss them so much when they move to New Jersey to take a job at Princeton.

Clark came to town for a short visit. We got to see him and have dinner at the Darringtons. Clark told us all about his new job and it was great to catch up with him.

We hit the beach in Santa Cruz one Friday with a bunch of other moms and kids. It was a bit windy and cool, but beautiful and the kids had a lot of fun. Some even ventured out into the cold water. Tanner stayed safely in the sand and had fun building castles and throwing rocks. After the beach we hit a great ice cream place called Marianne's. Tanner loved his blue lips from bubble gum ice cream.
We celebrated Darryl's 29th birthday with some cake and ice cream and he got his new iPhone. He loves the new toy and has already loaded a bunch of music and movies.

Our most wonderful trip this year was had over the 4th of July weekend in San Luis Obispo and Pismo Beach. We drove down on Friday and stayed on the Army base in San Luis. Our friends the Madsen's stayed there too. We went to a great little farm for some ice cream and to feed the animals. We also went on a hay ride and ate some of the fresh fruit from the farm. Then we hit the beach for a fun evening of Surfing. Darryl got up a few times and the water was surpisingly warm enough to stay out for a couple of hours. We had our own little house on post with a kitchen area, so we did red white and blue pancakes on Saturday morning, then met up with the Weston bunch for more fun on the beach complete with frozen yogurt and a great big sand castle. In the evening we went to a BBQ and watched the fireworks from the beach in Oceano. The fireworks there are beyond belief. Drivers are allowed to bring their 4WD vehicles right onto the beach and build bonfires. In addition to the fires people buy all kinds of illegal fireworks and shoot them right out of the fires. There are huge exploding fireworks all over the place and they are everywhere for miles up the beach. It feels a little like a war zone. We were shocked that all the kids fell asleep despite the noise. It was the most amazing fireworks extravaganza/chaos that I have ever seen. On Sunday we went to church in San Luis then all crashed out for long naps until we went to Morro Bay in the evening to watch the sunset and play at the park. We went again the next morning to Morro Bay and found a fantastic Pirate ship playground for Tanner, then we took a walk on the beach and fed the seagulls our leftover pancakes and found seashells. Then we had lunch at a great little seafood shop on the pier. We watched the seals, sea otters and pelicans playing in the bay as we ate lunch. It was almost a disappointment to come home. The central coast was wonderful!
We also had a wonderful time at the county fair. We went with the Murphy family and enjoyed an evening of yummy fair food, pig races, and riding the bull. The kids got to pick a treat and Tanner kept calling cotton candy "the blue food" and I got my fill of kettle corn. Darryl had some funnel cake and took Tanner on a couple of rides. We came home tired and happy.
Unfortunately life is not all play and no work...Darryl recently started working in Sacramento for the next little while. He's looking forward to the work he will be doing, so it is a great opportunity. I went back to working at the hospital in Hayward. I'm working on call, and very rarely. My first 2 shifts back were over Father's Day weekend, so Darryl really did his Fatherly duties! I still don't love that job, but until I find something else a bit closer to home I will continue to pick up shifts occasionally. In addition to the nursing stuff, I'm starting a new year at the dance studio teaching Jazz and Hip Hop. It's fun and very laid back. I love dancing and I am fully addicted to So You Think You Can Dance!
Tanner and Parker are growing so much. Tanner is able to do flips off the side of the pool and loves swimming as often as possible. Recently he earned a trip to the new water park in our area and he loved the lazy river and shallow pools. Parker is rolling over and laughing up a storm. He's so funny and relaxed. Both boys are loving the warm summer weather and more than once have turned on the sprinklers to cool off in the afternoon.

We are truly busy and loving it. Happy July!

June Update

2009-06-07T21:02:00.000-07:00

As you can see I seem to be suffering from "Mother of 2 boys" syndrome. Before I knew it I saw the calendar changing over to June and here we are almost to the middle of the month. Time flies when you're tired all the time...oh yeah and having fun.
Our biggest event recently was camping during Memorial Day weekend. We went on the trip with some friends from church. The Crane family has 3 boys and a girl. Their youngest boy is Tanner's age and the two of them play so well together. We went up to Rucker Lake in the Sierra Nevada mountains. The young women will be going there this summer so in exchange for the opportunity to camp there, we did a little bit of trail prep, cleaning and general maintenance. We stayed Saturday until Monday and had a wonderful time. Darryl was the master dutch oven chef. We ate dutch oven treasures the whole weekend. We even won the unofficial prize for the fluffiest pineapple upside down cake and didn't burn any of it! Parker really liked camping. He was held and got to lounge in chairs all day long. Tanner got to see a lizard one of the men caught. He helped the older boys go fishing and paddle in the paddle boats. He tried his hand at archery and hit the target. He also astounded everyone with his ability to scale every group of rocks in the place. We loved it because the camp was every contained by a mountain on one side and a lake on the other. Tanner could only go so far, but he had the freedom to roam. Darryl and I were glad to have some time to get to know the Crane's a bit more. Overall the trip was a great time, my favorite part of the weekend was my 3 hour nap in the tent when all the boys were gone playing. Ahhhhhh!
We are hoping to go camping a few more times this summer, the boys seem to do just fine and it will get even more fun as they get older.
Summer is shaping up to be pretty fun. We are planning some fun "field trips" with friends to see the local sights and take in some of the festivals and fairs around this area. Tanner is also working toward a trip to the new Fremont water park. He has a nice jar and naughty jar that he fills with buttons depending on his behavior. If he can get 20 buttons in the nice jar then we can go to the water park. So far he's doing pretty well it seems to be very motivating, so hopefully on the next really hot day we can hit the water park.
Darryl has been working with a new client in San Francisco. He is looking around at other National Guard units in hopes that he can find a great spot to slide into when he is promoted to Captain later this summer. He is also hoping to find a unit that will not need to deploy again before he's finished with his commitment in 2012. In all his spare time he is prospecting real estate. He is constantly on the hunt for our next property or group of properties. It's like a big treasure hunt and he does well at it. Who knows where we will find the next one.
I have had some changes come my way. I will be returning to the hospital for a few shifts a month. I've been getting back up to speed on my nursing stuff, and I'm pretty excited to get back in the medical game. I've also been teaching at the dance studio and we had our year end concert. I didn't choreograph for this years show, so I helped out back stage with the little kids. It made me miss performing, but also reminded me why I don't want to have my own studio. The parents are brutal! The dress rehearsal was a disaster, but the show was wonderful. My favorite dancers were the 3 year olds. There were 6 little girls dressed as flowers and one of the older students was the gardener with a watering can. Their dance started with the little girls curled up in a ball and when they were watered they grew and started spinning. I came home wanting to have a little girl. Hopefully someday!!
Life is good for us. We are busy and happy. Tanner is a bit under the weather this weekend, but overall things are going just great. We love it when people come to visit us and help us enjoy this beautiful weather. (hint hint)
Happy June!!

Update

2009-05-12T18:48:00.001-07:00

What a beautiful May we are having! Fremont is gorgeous right now and we are loving it. In the past few weeks we have been very busy and have had several events that have kept us on our toes.
First, Cheryl and Brandon came to town for a visit. It was great to have them for the day in San Francisco. We met up with them after lunch and attempted to go to Golden Gate Park, but we couldn't even find a parking spot so we cruised over to the Legion of Honor Museum. The museum is a stunning building on the top of the cliffs overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge and surrounded by a golf course. It's always windy there and smells like the ocean. It's wonderful. We met a guy on our way in that wanted to sell his tickets to the special exhibit in the museum so we got a discount and went in to see the Tiffany's and Faberge displays. We saw some beautiful glass work, amazing jewelry and furniture that went beyond function to sculpture quality. I loved every minute! Tanner's attention was short lived, so Darryl took him exploring around the golf course and cliffs. Tanner could have hours of fun on a pile of rocks. In the evening Cheryl and Brandon came to our house and we had dinner and visited for awhile. It was fun to see them and reminded us of the times we had when they lived just up the road from us!
Darryl had some fun recently with a minor basketball injury. He came home after church ball one night with his shirt bloody and all balled up on his eye. He collided with a friend's elbow and ended up with a great shiner and 6 stitches. Luckily it has healed up just fine.
Tanner has been growing up so much. A friend of his was getting a new bike because his old one was too small. We used that as an opportunity for Tanner to learn about money and buy the old bike from his friend. Tanner had a jar of all the birthday and Christmas money he has received so far, so he traded his jar of money for his "new" bike. When we got the bike home he didn't quite understand that he could keep the bike. He kept saying, "That's Jason's bike!" and wouldn't ride it. He stuck to his tricycle for about 2 weeks, then decided the bigger bike was more fun and now he wants to ride it everywhere. However, in his eyes it is still Jason's bike, we are just keeping it here from now on. He likes it so much in fact, he can ride it the entire way around Lake Elizabeth (about 2 miles). People always comment on how little he is and riding such a big boy bike. He does a great job.
Parker is cute and chill. He found his smile and his fists recently. He sleeps well, eats well and generally just sits back to take it all in. He's a very pleasant baby to have around. Tanner is always cuddling him and wanting to hold him, so we make arrangements and he is my big helper. I think the boys will be great friends.
For Mother's Day, Darryl sent me to the A's game on Saturday. He got some tickets from work and sent me and Larisa to the game. Paul and the kids hung out at our house for the afternoon, then we came back and grilled up some dinner. It was a fun day and the kids were spent by early evening. On Sunday Tanner made a card for me and we ate my favorite kale and chicken soup with kale from our garden.
That's about it from our end... so long from Seelyland for now.

Aloha!!

2009-04-28T20:47:00.001-07:00

Hello from Fremont by way of Oahu Hawaii! Many may think we are a little nuts for taking our newborn and busy 3 year old to the lovely island of Hawaii and you may be right! We went to Hawaii for a week to have a family vacation. Darryl has been very bored at work and doesn't start on a new client until May so we made some phone calls, booked some flights found a place to stay then got on an airplane a week later. We think we are a little nuts too.

We had a wonderful trip. We stayed in Waikiki and because of the time change the boys were up at the crack of dawn. It was fun to get out early and find things to do to entertain Tanner. On the first day we strolled through the international market as the shops were opening and found Jamba Juice. We drank smoothies and walked all over town until things we were ready to hit the beach. We drove up to visit the Dole Plantation.

We rode a train and learned all about growing pineapples. Then we went up to the North Shore and found shave ice, great beaches, big waves and delicious Thai food. We also found the place on the beach where giant sea turtle love to hang out in the sun.

Tanner liked the turtles and looking at the waves but he would not get in the water! At sunset we got some pie from Ted's bakery and watched the sunset over the water from inside the car while the boys were fast asleep. Not exactly a romantic stroll, but good food and great great company.

The next day we went to visit the USS Arizona in Pearl harbor. Tanner was a bit restless but he managed to get through the tour and video and he loved the boat ride out to the wreckage. Parker saw Pearl Harbor from the front pack and pretty much experienced all of Hawaii the same way...asleep. I learned a lot about the bombing of Pearl Harbor and I was shocked to learn that the Japanese came in undetected and attacked all of the US Navy, Air Force and Army areas in Hawaii. The attack lasted almost 2 hours and the military stationed there was unable to mount a solid counter attack. Now I can better understand why there was such an outcry to join the war after such a terrible event. I can also see the parallels between that and September 11th. I know exactly how the people felt on that awful day in Hawaii. Visiting Pearl Harbor was interesting.

That afternoon we found a lovely little beach in the resort of Ko'Olina. The resort built little coves along the coastline so the beaches were beautiful and there were no waves. Tanner still wouldn't go in the water so I picked him up and took him out to the water with me. I got him all the way out to where his swim shorts would get wet. He wasn't happy so I brought him back to the sand where he immediately took his shorts off. He didn't like them to be wet. He was a streaker up the beach to our stuff. We finally talked him into wearing his regular clothes so we could stay and enjoy the beach a little longer. For dinner that evening we found a little treasure in the town nearby. It's a restaurant called the Hapa Grill. We went in because the most cars were parked there and it turned out to be one of the best meals we had. Their brownie sundaes were AMAZING!

On Sunday we went to Church and enjoyed a great meeting. After Sacrament meeting we talked with the Primary President (Karla Wardell) and she offered to babysit the boys so Darryl and I could have a little time to do some grown up stuff. After church we went on a short hike up to the top of Diamond Head Crater. It was a hot hike and Tanner was pretty grumpy on the way back down. He decided to stop in the shade and wouldn't go any more until he saw a really pretty girl run by in some tight little shorts and top. He all of a sudden got his second wind.

Monday was our day out. Karla needed some help with her kids, so we did a trade and we stayed at her place for a couple of hours and then we left to go snorkeling in Hanauma Bay. She even let us borrow her snorkeling gear. The fish were beautiful and we saw some sea turtles. The backs of our legs got sun burned and I am not an expert with a swim mask, but we had a good time. In the afternoon we took a drive around the island and found a beach with a seal camped out on the rocks and some tide pools. Tanner loved throwing rocks into the waves and looking into the pools. That evening like the others, we came home with the boys totally crashed out.

On our last day we went to the Polynesian Culture Center. It was fantastic. We had a guided tour to all the villages so we got to see all the shows and participate in lots of activities. That was the only day we had rain. It wasn't cold so we just pulled on the ponchos and kept having fun. We opted for dinner in the restaurant over the luau because Tanner couldn't sit still any more. The food was excellent and Tanner kept flirting with the girls and showing them his hula moves. The boys both crashed out during the night show even though it was very loud with drums, shouting and dancing. We totally enjoyed it and came home exhausted. It was a fun way to end our trip.

The flight home was relaxed and fairly quick. We came home, unpacked and tried to get back into a routine. It's taken a few days, but we are glad we went. On our next trip we will look into relaxing!

Blessing Day

2009-04-07T15:20:00.000-07:00

We have had some event filled weeks here in Fremont. Best of all we have been enjoying Parker and his wonderful little personality that adds to our family.
The Grandparents from the Seely and Hartley families came for the blessing. It's so great to have enough space now to welcome visitors. My parents drove in and had a day at our house then on friday we picked up Darryl's parents from the airport and all went up to Oakland for some Fenton's ice cream (I highly recommend the Leprechan sundae). Then we headed over to the Oakland Temple and saw the beautiful flowers and view. That evening we ate some delicious Thai food and relaxed. Parker never left grandma's arms! Tanner even go ahold of the camera and started snapping some pictures with grandpa and grandma. He's getting pretty good at aiming.
On Saturday we did a bunch of preparation for the blessing and cooked all day. It was fun to have all the help and Tanner loved having the full house.
Sunday was beautiful. We had several friends and a lot of family come for Parker's blessing. Darryl did a wonderful job with his blessing. Parker was happy and awake through first part of the meeting and looked precious in his very special blessing outfit made by my friend Heather Murphy. The weather in the afternoon was beautiful and breezy, but still warm enough to sit outside for lunch. We had a great time visiting with family, neighbors and friends. It has been great to have so much support.
My mom stayed for the week to help me with all of the long nights. We tried several different tactics to help me get more sleep and some worked better than others. My favorite was when mom took Tanner and helped him play hard so I could nap with Parker. This little one is such a great sleeper. He will already sleep for 4-5 hours at a time and if he gets bored with looking around, he will just fall asleep wherever he is. Our only concern is Tanner trying to climb over him or give him hugs and kisses while he's trying to nap. Tanner's favorite activity with Nana was reading. She is a great story teller and every book comes alive when she's reading.
I went back to teaching my dance class in April. Dance is pure therapy for me. I enjoyed every minute and its fun to be able to bend over again! The studio is preparing for the year end Recital. my dancers opted out of doing a Hip Hop dance this year so I'm not too stressed about the whole event. It's nice to be able to just be supportive of the dancers and other teachers.
Darryl had drill last weekend. His unit made some leadership changes and he is slotted to become a Captain by the end of the year. This will probably mean a change in units and possibly a move to a Battalion position. Unfortunately one of the other units in the Battalion is a unit of interest for a deployment to Afgahanistan in 2011. We will see what happens in the coming year and hopefully Darryl will get to stay state side for the next few years.
While he was away Tanner and I had fun with a bunch of kids. The Westons were moving and doing some painting and repair on their old place. Their 3 kids came over and one other neighbor while all the parents did some painting. Having a house full of kids meant we needed some fun activities to pass the time. We did some fun spring projects. We dyed easter eggs and made nests with playdough and twigs, then we made "rock a bye birdies" from the dyed eggs and old egg cartons then hung them in the trees. We also had a pic nic in the back yard. It was a fun but exausting day. In the background I caught a few minutes of General Conference.
On Sunday Tanner had me laughing. He made it through about 20 minutes of General Conference. We have to stream in on the internet, so he doesn't really get why he was supposed to sit and listen to the computer. He got so stir crazy that by early afternoon we got out and went for a walk to our neighbors home. They have a big garden and all kinds of bird feeders. Tanner had a blast helping them to pick things from the garden, do some watering and watch the birds. He was having so much fun he forgot to use the bathroom and had an accident. Instead of coming in to take care of changing or cleaning up, he just took off his pants and went right back to his activities. We all had a good laugh. Tanner says lots of funny stuff. He likes to bless his "flamily" in his prayers and always wants a "opsicle" for a treat.
We are all doing well and we are excited for some fun upcoming events. More details to come.

Spring Planting

2009-03-20T14:23:00.000-07:00

Hello from sunny Fremont. We are enjoying a beautiful spring as the weather is changing and the blossoms are in full bloom. We have been very busy with the garden and a couple of growing boys, so here is our update.

This week Tanner has been the big helper in the garden. Darryl sifted rocks for days and turned the soil with leaves and compost using our neighbors tiller. Tanner was almost always at his side with a shovel or rake or fingers helping to do the digging. We have 2 areas of garden in hopes that we can have a nice big crop this summer. We planted spinach, kale, tomatoes, carrots, peas, potatoes, cucumbers and zucchini. Tanner loved helping to transplant the starts to the ground. He is the expert watering guy. He also thought it was a great idea to water the holes then drop the seed potatoes into the new mud and make it splash everywhere. We are excited to see what grows.

Darryl had a bit of a near miss this week at work. When he went back to the office on Wednesday he found that 20% of the staff in his department had been laid off. We are counting our many blessings that he still has a job. Right now this is the slow season for Darryl's department so he isn't very busy anyway. He's expecting that things will pick up in the next few months.
I have been recovering just fine. We took Parker out for his first walk by the creek on Sunday. He was all bundled up in the baby bjorn. He slept the whole way and it was nice to get out and get some fresh air.
Parker is growing well and sleeping like a champion. He got his first bath this week and loved the warm water so much he didn't even cry. He is almost too big for the kitchen sink! He is so pleasant and easy going when he is awake. Tanner loves to snuggle up close to him and give kisses. He only gets jealous when he's really tired and wants some mom time. On St. Patrick's Day we went to visit the cousins in Palo Alto. We had lunch together and the kids all played really hard. Parker can just sleep through it all.
As a point of interest. We will be blessing Parker in church on Sunday March 29th at 9:30 am at the Walnut building in Fremont. Anyone who is nearby and would like to come is more than welcome. We will be having a lunch after the meetings at 12:30 at our house 38860 Godfrey Place Fremont, CA 94536. We would totally love it if you want to come.
We hope you have a wonderful week.

Baby Parker

2009-03-10T19:48:00.000-07:00

We have definitely had our hands full for the last several weeks. With a move and new baby, it has really kept us on our toes. Our little family is growing and changing and we love it!
Parker Richard Seely was born on March 4th at 2:13 pm after about 8 hours of labor (much better than the 26 hours with Tanner!). Dr. Elizabeth Kurkjian was wonderful. Things went very smoothly with the delivery and I had all the help I could handle because I was the only woman in labor that day and several nursing students were visiting from the local college. I had plenty of coaches and Darryl at my side. Tanner spent the day with our wonderful friends the Stouts and had a lot of fun with them. Parker was born weighing 7 lbs 13 oz (the same as Darryl) and measured in at 19 inches long. However we went to the pediatrician today and he was remeasured at 20.5 inches long. I don't think he grew 1.5 inches in 6 days. I think he's just trying to measure up to his dad (21 inches at birth). So far he's right on track.

Parker is a great eater and sleeper during the day. Darryl is home on paternity leave until March 18th. It's wonderful that Tanner has a buddy and Darryl can help with some of the baby entertaining at night. As you can see it's taking a lot out of him.
I'm recovering well. I have my good days and bad. It's hard for me to stay so sedentary, but I really feel it if I overdue my activity level.

Tanner has been enjoying the new little brother. The other day he saw some of our neighbors outside chatting and told Darryl, "I'm gonna go talking." He walked over to the group and told them about his new brother Parker. He's glad to be the big boy and he does like to help. He isn't so good at keeping the noise level to a minimum. He shouts a lot and plays hard. His favorite thing lately has been to "fix" things. He will get out any tyoe of toy that resembles a hammer and start pounding on everything. He got a big kick out of the moving bed in the hospital when he came to visit. It didn't take him long to figure out how the buttons worked and start fixing all of them. He did charm all the nurses and loved it when they would bring him some graham crackers.
Darryl is keeping busy with Tanner and getting odd jobs done around the house. His latest project is a workbench in the garage. Today he bought the lumber and did all the measurements. He is so organized and the garage is looking better all the time.
The last couple of days have been sunny and chilly, but beautiful enough to be outside for some fresh air. The starts to our garden are just coming up. Tanner helped me plant them about 2 weeks ago. We'll be tilling the dirt this week in hopes of planting next week. I love to work in the yard and I'm glad I can do a little at a time as I recover.
We hope you are all doing great. Thank you for your prayers and encouragement. If your in the neighborhood stop by and be sure to come hold this new little munchkin!

2009-03-04T17:30:00.000-08:00

The newest edition to the family...

Parker Richard Seely

Born today 3/4/09 at 2:13 PM. He weighs 7 lbs 13 oz and is 19 in. Mom and baby are doing well.

All Moved In

2009-02-22T14:06:00.000-08:00

Hello from rainy Fremont. We had a little break in the pouring rain to get moved into our new house (we wish it were ours permanently, but we will be leasing for a year). We have been unpacking ever since and it's starting to really feel like home.
Before moving in we painted the place. We painted almost every room and did the finishing touches a week later. It's mostly a sage green in various shades and we are liking most of it. In the coming week we will be working on the baby's room. A friend of mine does custom baby rooms so she will be helping to create our jungle theme room.
We did the official move on Feb. 14th. We packed up all our stuff in boxes and got a moving truck so people could help us as much as possible. The move started at 9 am and by 9:55 am the condo was empty and the guys were over at the new place. The entire project was done by 10:30. We love the missionaries and elders quorum for helping so much. After the big stuff and boxes had found their resting places, the guys all stood around eating donuts and wondering what else needed to be done. They hadn't moved anyone so fast, so they had some more time. I loved the help. Several men stayed to help get us all set up. They even helped make the beds, put on the lamp shades and organize Tanner's toys. By the evening we had everything we needed in place to live. This last week has just been about organizing and putting up the decorations. Yesterday Darryl and I went through several of our "storage" boxes and found things that we have been waiting to use when we had some more room. Now that we do, we couldn't be happier.
Tanner loves the yard and living on a court helps to contain him within earshot. Darryl organized the garage so we can fit both cars in comfortably. I was so excited to go pick out a new washer and dryer. I was giddy as the guys from Sears set them up and tested them. We were even able to get through our mountain of laundry yesterday.
In other news. Darryl has been busy on the Kaiser account at work. He has been traveling to Corona, CA to meet work with the people at the data center there. This week he was gone Monday to Thursday and flew back just in time for our big date. We went to see the Broadway play Wicked. We went on a double date with our friends Steve and Amy Crane. We made it to the city with very little time to spare, so we ate some dinner at Sam's Diner then went to the show. It was awesome. The Orpheum theatre is very Gothic and ornate. It isn't a very large theater and the set for the production was huge. It's a great show. We were laughing and having a great time. We loved the music and I loved the costumes and most of the choreography. After the show we headed home to find a sick Tanner. He had an ear infection and had run the babysitter ragged. He was up for about an hour more until he was finally able to go to sleep. Luckily he slept well after that and we were able to go to the doctor and get and antibiotic in the morning. He's doing great now.
Still no new baby yet. I'm due on March 7th, but my doctor will probably induce me on March 4th if I haven't had the baby yet. On my last appointment the baby had a couple of periods of a low heart beat, so my doctor sent me to the hospital for a non stress test. I was monitored for an hour and there were no signs of distress with the baby, so things are looking good. On Friday night some friends of mine thru a baby shower for me. We ate delicious desserts and played the "what's that poop" game. I received some wonderful gifts and had so much fun. Since this is my second boy, the ladies put together a meals calendar and play date calendar for me. They sign ed up to come play with Tanner and bring me dinners. They are so fantastic!
We love having Darryl around more and getting the feel for our new neighborhood. We are excited for this new baby, so hopefully he will come soon. We hope you are all well and staying dry :).

Moving ever so quickly!

2009-02-10T20:39:00.000-08:00

The Seely Family has been on the run for the last few weeks! Fremont has been beautiful and lots of fun. We have so many events that have happened you may want to sit back and relax for a few minutes...This could be a bit lengthy.
After all of our beautiful weather, we finally started to get some rain. It's great because we need it, but it really cut into our fun plans for the park and zoo. A couple of Saturdays ago we ended up going to the aquarium by the bay on Pier 39. It's a very small aquarium, but wonderful because it focuses on the sea life that is in our bay. We walked through 2 long tunnels and watched the fish and sharks swim all around, then we headed upstairs to touch the sting rays and anemones. Tanner loved the Tiger sharks and reached all the way into the water to feel them. We went with Paul and Larisa and kids. Outside the aquarium there was an Anti-abortion protest marching by and we were impressed that so many people in San Francisco would be so pro-life! We walked with the group until we got to the Rainforest Cafe. The kids loved lunch in the jungle. They got all the animals they could handle in one day.
On the way home to Fremont, I got an interesting phone call from a friend. She said that there was a home available for rent in our ward area and we should look into it because the rent was so great. It sounded like a fantastic opportunity, so I called the property manager and set up a walk-thru for the next morning. It only took about 10 minutes to decide that this was the house for us. It has 4 bedrooms a huge kitchen/dining room and seperate living room. It has a BACK YARD that is fully fenced and the house is on a cul-du-sac. The owner was willing to drop the rent a bit and allow us to do some minor fix-ups, so we set the terms and signed the papers on the next day. We heard about it on Saturday afternoon and the deal was done by Monday morning. We got the keys, painted last weekend and we are doing the big move-in this coming Saturday.
In addition to the new home, we had a wonderful visit from my parents (Nana and Papa). They came to town for some business and meeting up with friends. We got to catch them as a side note, and it was wonderful to have them around for a couple of days.
Darryl has been recovering well from his Lasik eye surgery. His surgery was Jan. 30th and the effects were immediate. The next day he was sitting on the couch saying,"That surgery is cool!" as he was shutting one eye at a time and looking around the room. He said the procedure took about 15 minutes and felt strange but not painful. He's needed eye drops regularly, but his vision is getting clearer and sharper all the time. He loves the fact that he doesn't need glasses any more.
Welcome to February. I took on several interpreting jobs because I know I will be out of commission pretty soon. I hit my 1 month mark on Saturday. Hopefully this baby will come in 4 weeks or less. Because of this fact, it has been crash and burn on getting the house painted in time for us to move in. The owner gave me the liberty to choose the paint colors I wanted because he really didn't want to put any money or time into doing it for us. I coordinated the efforts of the missionaries and young women of our area to help us paint 5 rooms in the house. We had 16 people show up to help, so it was a bit overwhelming to try and teach people how to paint. Luckily we had a few adults to help out and give pointers. Darryl took charge of the instruction for the painting crew while I walked around doing quality control. After 3 hours we had enough paint on the walls to call it "finished". We've been doing the touch ups in the evenings after Tanner goes to bed. We have just a little bit more to do before the furniture gets moved over on Saturday. Pictures will be coming soon.
In baby news....I toured the hospital where I will be delivering. It's pretty old but I've heard the care is great. So far this little monkey is just as active as Tanner was and he's really running out of room fast. I had a little scare last week when I was bitten by the neighbor's cat. The cat is blind and I saw it outside our condo wandering around. I am terribly allergic to cats but I felt bad for this little guy so I bent down to pick him up and take him home. As soon as I reached down he bit into my left hand and scratched up my arm. I threw him off of me then told my neighbor about what happened and she went to get her cat. I went home and cleaned up the wound (even removing one of his claws), took some benadryl then bandaged myself up. After about 4 hours my hand was so swollen I couldn't move my thumb and I wasn't feeling very well so I went to the emergency room. They gave me an antibiotic shot in the bum and started me on oral antibiotics for 10 days. The first 3 days were really rough, then the swelling and infection quit and I'm back to normal now with only a couple of little bite scars to show for it.
Tanner has been a good sport through all of this busy/craziness. He is excited for the new house and especially for his new big boy bed in his very own blue room. His favorite toy these days has been the broom. We have a small one that he takes everywhere and at the new house he has swept every room a couple of times. He likes to be a helper and we are hoping that continues with the new baby.
We are having exciting and busy times. We hope all is well with you. Feel free to come see the new place!

Sunny Days

2009-01-19T22:35:00.000-08:00

Fremont is beautiful this time of year. Who would know that it's January and we are enjoying 70 degrees almost every day. I will take it while we can get it!
Darryl is doing great at work. He's still working on projects from his office in San Francisco. He commutes on BART and has a relaxed schedule so things work out pretty well getting stuff done.
Tanner has had some fun times this week. His best friend right now is Calvin Greenwood. Calvin will usually come to our house once a week then Tanner goes to his house on another day. This week Calvin was here for the evening and both boys wanted to play super hero. They ran around and played so hard they were both out cold by 8:30 pm.
On Saturday we went as a family to Tilden Park in Berkeley. It's a gorgeous area in the Berkeley hills. We rode the little steam engine train. Tanner got an engineer's hat to commemorate the day. We also took a walk around Lake Anza in the middle of the park. Tanner hiked the entire way with several detours up the side trails. He was so funny when he found a couple in a clearing nearby. He walked right up to them with one of the sticks he found and said, "Hi friends!" then gave them his stick and left. He didn't even listen to what they were asking him. He just wanted to drop off his stick. We had a fun pic nic and threw rocks in the lake then headed home.
Tanner also had his 3 year check up this week. His latest statistics are as follows: 25 lbs 7 oz weight, 35.5 inches tall, and beyond the mark with motor function and mobility. He's a little bit of a munchkin for his age but his appetite is improving so we think a growth spurt is headed our way. He's generally happy and healthy so we have no complaints.
We hope you are all doing well. Feel free to come enjoy our weather with us!

Happy New Year

2009-01-12T21:55:00.000-08:00

Hello from Fremont. Welcome to our blog. We hope this will be a good forum for our craziness and an easy way for many to know what we are up to.
We have had some extraordinary weather lately. Everything from windy and cold to sunny and warm. Today we had 75 degrees with sunshine. What a January!
We celebrated the New Year in Orem, Utah with my parents. We watched a movie and relaxed all evening. We watched the ball drop in New York then went to bed. Nothing too exciting.
We relaxed on New Year's Day and tried to get Tanner to play in the snow one more time before we left Utah, but he had enough. He wanted to stay inside and watch movies with Daddy. We flew home on Jan. 2nd and our travel was uneventful. It was nice to have a few days of recovery before getting back on track with our busy lives.
An interesting event happened Jan. 3rd. I was called in for an emergency interpreting assignment for the ER at a downtown Oakland hospital. I arrived about 8:30 pm and had to pass about 9 security guards just to get into the area with the deaf client. I stayed for about 3 hours and in that time I was able to chat with the client and his girlfriend. She was very curious about Mormon beliefs and because we had so much down time waiting for the doctor and lab results, I had the chance to explain a lot about Christianity and LDS beliefs in general. It was a good experience and helped me realize a lot about the things I learned as a missionary. I realize just how long it's been since being in New York.
Darryl has been back to work in San Francisco. The client he was supposed to be working with has not yet come through with a contract so he's still in limbo on assignments. His company did recently pick up the contract for Kaiser Permanente, so it's interesting that he will be visiting the Kaiser hospitals all over the country starting in May. He also had drill this last weekend and put in a lot of planning and organizing hours. His unit has a new commander and Darryl is now in a command position over the company which takes in 3 platoons. It takes a lot to get organized for that size of a group so he has a lot on his plate with the National Guard. Darryl has also been very ambitious around the house. He tried out his new drill on Tanner's room. He pulled everything out of the closet and moved the built in shelving around to make it more efficient. Then he went through everything in the room with the goal of making space for the new baby. He even organized Tanner's bookshelf because Tanner got a whole library for Christmas.
Tanner is funnier everyday. He loves to watch shark videos on You Tube and can't get enough of the discovery channel footage of sharks and whales. He's constantly talking about something and his latest favorite game is to play "superheroes". I pin a pillow case around his shoulders then he pulls out the golf clubs and takes off the heads. Then he puts one club shaft inside the other and calls it his sword. He adds a utility belt for good measure and he is set. We laugh all the time.
As a family we started having regular family night on Mondays. We started by coloring snowmen then adding hats that have our assignments on them. Tanner likes to rotate the hats and attempts to participate in the activities. Last week we learned about compassion for our little lesson and read a story about a boy giving away his coat to someone in need. We went around our house and collected jackets and sweaters that we don't need anymore then donated them to the DI truck. This week we learned about the Priesthood so we made our home teacher's favorite dessert. Tanner was in charge of the game so he wanted to play Ticket to Ride--the Tanner version with means taking out all the trains and setting them up randomly on the board. After they are all set up he decides how to play next. Tonight it was Darryl and Tanner blowing all the trains off the tracks. We are having a good time being together as a family. It's a nice change of pace that we hope will continue all year.
We hope you have a wonderful year ahead of you too.