The Visiting Tanners

Sarah Tanner came to visit us this week! Well, she really came for her brother's graduation but she did get to spend a little time with us. Doug was totally taken with the "male offspring" that he has been coveting, and it was awesome to see Sarah again. Unfortunately, she lives in stinking Buffalo and so our visits are few and far in between, and not nearly long enough. Please come back to us soon Tanners, or at least meet us in the Midwest for grad school!

The male offspring, Derek. Look at those big brown eyes!

The girls! Looking fabulous!

Manly men

Showing off his good side while Derek shows off his sock. :)

Graduation!

Yes, it's true, Doug has finally graduated with his bachelors degree! He now has a BA in Political Science and a minor in Landscape Management (very different, I know, but the Landscape is for Grad school). Graduation was at 11:00 am in the Marriott Center, and his college was the largest one at BYU (they said that 1 in 5 students on campus were in this college). The program was one page of program material (aka speakers and music) which lasted maybe 30 minutes. The rest of the program was 11 pages of names to be read, which took 2 hours. Needless to say, it took a long time, but for my graduation Doug was so sick that he had to run to the bathroom to vomit and/or dry heave every 5 minutes, so I endured this for him without complaint. Doug's parent's were able to come down for a long weekend to celebrate with us. It was great to have them here and we are so thankful for their generosity towards us. Here are some pictures for the happy, LONG day.

Morning Routine

I have trained my kid so well... maybe too well. I overheard Evelynn's early morning routine and I found it funny how far she has come, so I thought I would share.

Wake up (about 6:50, still too early for mom, which she knows).
Comes out of her room, closes the door (this is to help her sister stay asleep).
Goes to her book shelf, selects books to read, deposits them on the couch.
Goes to toy box, gets her Leap Pad book (which we named her "music book") and backpack (which hold all the books and cartridges) and deposits on the couch.
Goes to the fridge, selects and apple and a cheese stick, brings to couch.
Turns on table lamp on low.
Turns on Leap pad and selects story with back ground sound she likes.
Proceeds to read books and eat apple until mommy wakes up or she runs out of books, then comes into my room to demand breakfast.

In all this gives me about 15-20 more minutes of "extra" sleep, which I appreciate. It's "extra" because I wake up when she turns on her music book, but I at least get some time to wake up and ungrumpify myself (for those of you who know what a wonderful morning person I am, you'll know why this makes sense). Sometimes Eloise will sometimes stay asleep, sometimes not, but at least Evelynn makes the effort. Now if only she could pour herself some cereal, reach her clothes, and pretty much take care of herself entirely, my work would be a lot easier. I'd say she's well on her way anyway.

35 lbs and counting!

For those of you who didn't know, I have been setting goals to lose weight over the last year. I decided to start this goal when I stopped losing the baby weight through just plain nursing and moderate exercise. That meant that of the 37 lbs I gained during pregnancy #2, I only lost 15 lbs by having the baby. Very depressing, I know. Almost exactly a year ago I started exercising, but I did not count my calories, because lets face it, that's hard. Sadly for the first 4 months, I only lost 4 lbs. Not encouraging. So I bit the bullet and started counting calories. That helped. But the thing that helped me the most was setting goals for myself. I always set small, obtainable goals. Like when I started, I didn't say "My goal is to lose 35 lbs." My first goal was 10lbs, then another 10, and then to my original weight before Eloise, and then another 5 etc etc. I must admit, I had some help with the last two pounds because I got sick right after Easter, but I'm better now and I made my goal, so it was worth it... right? Right. So here I am, 35 lbs lighter and I've met all my goals thus far. Doug asked me what I was going to do now. You know what? I think I'm going to set another goal. See you in another 5 lbs!

This picture was taken 2 1/2 months after Eloise was born, right about the time I stopped losing weight easily. It was at the BYU Traditions Ball 2008, almost exactly one year ago.

This picture was taken today, April 16th 2009. Evelynn is shouting HURRAY!

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Please note the date, April 16th.... that's really all I have to say.

Walking at last!

Yes my dedicated readers, it's true. Eloise is finally walking! Doug was the first witness of Monday when he took the girls to the park (mommy was sick and needed a break) and Eloise took 3 steps. Then yesterday we tried it again with Aunt Lori, and she just took off, taking 7-10 steps or more. It was awesome! She was like, oh, I can do this, no problem. And since you're dying for videos (or at least I know the grandparents are for sure) here they are!

Easter fun!

Easter this year was a small family affair, which was nice because it meant that there was Ham and that there was a lot of it to go around. Now this may not seem like a big deal to some of you. Some of you may be thinking "Ham is good, but it's all about the same... very ham-ish." This is where you are sadly wrong my dear readers. Not all ham recipes are created equal. In fact, there is only one that is absolutely the best, and we make it! Curious? Please let me know and I will send you the recipe. Anyway, Easter was also my "day off" from calorie counting and my no sugar goal, and let me tell you, I took advantage of the situation. As a result, I'm working out extra long and hard for the next few days, and I won't be going near a scale for at least 2 weeks. :) But oh man, it was worth it.

On another note, the girls also had a good Easter. I didn't want to emphasize the Easter Bunny and goodies because I don't want them to think that Easter is just another Christmas in April. They did get presents, and they did get candy, but I tried to keep it low key. I am big on Easter dresses though. It's the first time in a while (at least it has been this year) where it was warm enough on a Sunday to wear cute spring dresses, and so we did. I got Eloise's dress from the baby shower I had for Evelynn (she was way to big for it by the time she was 14 months, but it fits Eloise, so I'm glad it's finally getting some use) and Evelynn's dress came from DI ($3!). I am a firm believer of not spending a lot on my kids clothes, and my mom and mom-in-law help out immensely on this by buying a lot of clothes for the girls themselves. So here's some pictures of our Easter. The only pictures missing are from the meal. I meant to take a picture of the ham, but I got too excited and ate it instead.

Cute girl #1

Cute girl #2

Eloise has a gap in her front teeth, part of the Jacobson genes. She's still dang cute though.

It was impossible to get pictures of the girls sitting next to each other. One or the other wanted to come after the camera.

Evelynn's Easter basket. She got stickers, a Disney princess hair brush/clips kit, a notebook, crayons, and some candy.

Eloise was so excited to get her basket. She had those eggs opened in 10 seconds flat. She's a lot smarter then I remember/realize sometimes. She got sidewalk chalk, stickers, and a book.

Look what I found in this thing mom! Can you believe it?

A night out on the town

Doug and I went to the BYU Tradition's Ball on Saturday. We went last year about 2 months after I had Eloise, and I must say I looked much better this year than I did last year. There was a live band, dancing, some food, and some vocal entertainment. Doug and I also got our picture taken but they won't be up for a while. Lori graciously baby sat for us, and took our picture. It kind of felt like going to pron all over again, but with someone I like a whole lot more.

My hot hot hot husband.

Candid shot of me getting ready.

HURRAY WE'RE GOING OUT!

Evelynn trying to get in our pictures.

Oh yeah, so much better than prom. :)

The difference between men and women.

Apparently it begins early.....

Every man who has been married more than five seconds, or who has dated a girl seriously has experienced this situation.

Imagine you and your beautiful wife/girl friend are driving in the car. You've been out running errands, visiting the sick, rescuing poor defenseless animals - you know the drill. Seemingly out of nowhere your wife turns to you and says, "Aren't you hungry?" or "Aren't you thirsty?" Now, the inexperienced man will probably answer this question truthfully. "Yes," or "No." However, a man who is worth his snot knows that this question is code for "Dear, we've been out a long time doing lots of things and I'm rather hungry/thirsty and was wondering if perhaps you wouldn't mind stopping somewhere so that I could get something to eat?" Heaven help the man who answers "No" to the question....

Yesterday morning (Saturday) I was in bed enjoying the fact that my electronic alarm didn't have to get me up this morning. As is often the case Evelynn was the first person up in our house. This morning it was late enough that she also woke Eloise up. Geneen got out of bed first (also a rarity ;o) to go help Eloise, leaving me alone in the bed. Soon I was enjoying the company of my darling daughter Evelynn. As I lay in bed struggling to defeat all of Evelynn's logical reasons to wake up; she asked me a rather interesting question. I will now switch to dialogue mode:
"Dad, are you hungry?"
"No, I'm not hungry."
"Don't you want to eat breakfast?"
"No, I'm not hungry right now."
"Dad, aren't you hungry?"
"No, I'm not hungry, I'm tired."
"Dad, do you want to eat breakfast?"
At this point I realized what she was doing. I obviously wasn't listening to her. I thought she was aksing if I was hungry. When obviously she meant, "Dad, I've been asleep for a long time. The last time I ate food was over 11 hours ago. I'm quite hungry. If it's not too much trouble could you please get out of bed and get me something to eat?"

After realizing what was really going on, marvelling that this phenomenon seems to be a gender characteristic I did what any good dad does. I rolled over, looked at my darling daughter, and said, "Go ask your mom."

General Conference

Saturday session of General Conference has been very pleasant, surprisingly. Usually it's hard to corral two girls for two hours, or at least keep the fighting, screaming and whining to a minimum to let the two parents listen to the speakers. But this year we babysat the Phipps boy Sam for the morning session, which turned out to be a life saver because Evelynn was entertained the whole time with her friend, and Eloise wore herself out following them around and then took a nap half way through the morning session. During the afternoon session Evelynn sat on the couch with me as I tickled her belly and arms and legs (she pesters us ALL the time to do this, and it keeps her quite so we usually do) and it put her to sleep! She slept the last 40 minutes on my chest. It was so cute. She hasn't slept on my chest, with me, or even near me in years.

My Saturday Conference position.

Cutie pie!