Randomness

I have lots of random things to post today:

1. CONGRATS to my brother Andy and his NEW FIANCE, Paige!!!! They are such a cute couple and I couldn't be happier for them (and for me getting a new sister-in-law!)!
If you don't know the story about these two lovebirds, here's the short version: Paige taught at the same school as me (the only reason I ended up at that school was because I had student taught there a year earlier - CRAZY!! Good thing we decided to move to cute little Payson, Utah.) I set them up at the recommendation of our school secretary after Andy visited my classroom in November when he had just returned from Iraq. They went out over Thanksgiving break in Utah and she spent a night hanging out (and participating in a super fun and sticky marshmallow gun war) with our family in Midway. They talked on the phone mostly as friends until the beginning of January. Andy came to visit his new nephew Tanner in January and went on a date with Paige then. They actually almost broke things off but didn't. More long distance until April. She spent spring break with him in Georgia where he was attending Captain school for the army. A month later, she moved to Georgia to be with him. Two months later they got engaged! It's so crazy to me because Paige and I were friends even before she met Andy! I always told Andy that he would marry one of my friends! Well I married one of his friends (he knew Eli long before I knew him) from high school so now we're even. SO EXCITING!!! The hard part for them is planning WHEN the wedding will be because he is leaving for Special Forces selection tomorrow and doesn't have any idea what his schedule will be like for the next year. They have more long distance in store for them with Andy going to training without being able to communicate for a few weeks and Paige going back to Utah to start teaching again. She is getting a glimpse of being an army wife right away!

2. My sisters and Paige (we missed Doug's wife, Dana!) came to visit for a few days. I miss them and Tanner misses all the attention. We packed their trip full with visits to Baltimore, DC, a crab feast, a hike through the woods, getting stuck in the rain, stories about Aly's Africa adventures, and lots of yummy sweets. They get an A++ for awesome sistas.

Here's a link to a few more pictures of our adventures together: http://picasaweb.google.com/saramorey13/BaltimoreAndDCWithTheGirls?feat=directlink

3. Eli and I are still happily married as evidenced by this picture Kristie took of us! It's amazing how many pictures you take of your child once you have a baby and how little pictures you take of yourselves.

4. Eli has been working late for the past couple weeks so Tanner just stares at him when he gets home. He sat still for like 3 minutes when I shot this picture which is so unlike Tanner. He is GO GO GO GO GO all the time! Isn't he precious?!
5. We miss Ari and Christian after spending a weekend with them in Upstate New York at Silver Lake. They let us hang with Christian's family at their cottage for a few days and we loved being with them! The lake was gorgeous as well!
6. Tanner experienced life jackets for the first time. He didn't like it one bit. He screamed until we gave him his binky and then he fell asleep because he couldn't move. Poor kid! But as my dad would say, "Better safe than sorry!"7. Eli and I went sailing for the first time. I commend all you sailors out there. It's a lot of work! I felt so close to Christopher Columbus not having a motor and all.
8. Like I said above, Tan is quite the active little munchkin. He crawled an actual, bona fide crawl when we were at Silver Lake. He just whipped it out (at midnight when we arrived) like he'd been doing it forever! Now he army crawls and normal crawls and switches between both. He also learned to sit up from crawling at the beginning of last week. He just randomly did that as well which shocked me! It's amazing how babies just learn to do these things on their own! Eli and I tell each other about a hundred times a day how cute he is! Oh and now he has 3 teeth. Once the first one popped up, the rest have been speedily making their appearance.
9. Tanner learned how to control his glowing super powers! Ha ha ha, just kiddin. But he did experience his first arcade which was actually a little too over stimulating, even for him.
10. After a year off due to being pregnant, I popped right up skiing and, let me tell you, it felt INCREDIBLE!!! Can't wait to go skiing more in Colorado in a few weeks. (Mom, we need to learn how to back the boat into the water together!)
11. Eli showed his evil farmer side a little bit this weekend. I wouldn't want to run into him at night in a cornfield.
12. We are loving the beauty of the rural areas in the East. Everything is so green and lush. We'll miss that back West. And there are A LOT of barns.
13. Check out this cool trick Eli did with our camera and a sparkler!
Whew, now my head feels clear! I can clean my house and prepare for my mom to come tomorrow. I'm excited to see her again and Tanner will LOVE being around her again!

Oh, one last thing. Tanner has started biting me sometimes when he nurses. Any suggestions on how to get him to stop doing that? I want to keep nursing until he's one but definitely don't want the biting to continue.

Have a fabulous August!