How we miss the Holidays!

Isn't it crazy how there is such a build up to Christmas and then it's over so quickly, just like that?! It always makes me sad, especially in the middle of January when it feels like Christmas was ages ago. Thank goodness for photos so that we can relive the feelings of Christmastime! We have too many pictures to post on the blog so click on this link to view a slideshow of them: http://picasaweb.google.com/saramorey13/ChristmasBreak#. Just click on "Slideshow" in the upper left of the screen.

We had a wonderful Christmas and especially loved it because of Tanner! Technically his first Christmas was last year but he was only 1 week old, so this Christmas was his first time actually celebrating. He's still young for the whole Santa thing but he loved the lights, nativities, songs, food, Christmas trees, and presents. And Eli and I enjoyed spending time with my family since that is rare these days. Thanks for such a wonderful Christmas, mom and dad!

P.S. There are also pictures of Tanner and his birthday cake since that was right before we went to Colorado!

Stuck inside...

...and wishing that we could go outside to play.

Toddler Book Suggestions

I need help, again. By the way, thanks SO much for all of the advice you gave about eating and toys. It was super helpful! This time I need to know what informational toddler book is good to get. I have used the What To Expect books for pregnancy and Tanner's first year, but the toddler version didn't have very good ratings when I just looked. Are there any good books you'd suggest?

I've seen two on Amazon that look good to me so far:

1. Toddler 411
2. Gentle Ways to Encourage Good Behavior Without Whining,Tantrums, & Tears by Elizabeth Pantley

Also, do you have any suggestions for Toddler activity books? Like a book full of ideas of activities for toddlers.

You're ideas are very much appreciated!! THANK YOU!!!

Good news!

Eli got a job here:

As an:

EPIDEMIOLOGIST

Which means:

"Epidemiology is the study of factors affecting the health and illness of populations, and serves as the foundation and logic of interventions made in the interest of public health and preventive medicine. It is considered a cornerstone methodology of public health research, and is highly regarded in evidence-based medicine for identifying risk factors for disease and determining optimal treatment approaches to clinical practice. In the study of communicable and non-communicable diseases, the work of epidemiologists ranges from outbreak investigation to study design, data collection and analysis including the development of statistical models to test hypotheses and the documentation of results for submission to peer-reviewed journals. Epidemiologists also study the interaction of diseases in a population, a condition known as a syndemic. Epidemiologists rely on a number of other scientific disciplines, such as biology (to better understand disease processes), Geographic Information Science (to store data and map disease patterns) and social science disciplines (to better understand proximate and distal risk factors)." (Wikipedia.org)

This makes more sense: "Epidemiology is the study of disease among a population. Public health laws require certain diseases to be reported to the Health Department to ensure the health and safety of the community. An epidemiologist investigates each of these reportable diseases and looks for the "who, what, where, when, and why" of each case. A Public Health Epidemiologist is essentially a disease detective." (http://www2.state.id.us/phd7/Current%20News/2006/July/Program%20Profile%20-%20Surveillance%20Epidemiology.htm)

Which means that we'll be here

until August.

But first, we have to move from here:


















(Utah County - aka Payson)


To here:















(Salt Lake County - aka a city that we need to find that isn't too far away from Rose Park where he will work)

in a month after Eli does this

with his Masters Degree in Public Health.

Hooray for Eli! Eli is super psyched about his new job and I couldn't be more proud of him!

Any toy and food suggestions????

Tanner is a PICKY eater. He likes a few fruits, bread, and CHEESE CHEESE CHEESE. Pretty much he is obsessed with cheese and cottage cheese and eats it multiple times a day. That said, does anybody have any good food suggestions to try for an almost one year old??? He won't eat veggies at all unless I sneak them in his food without him knowing. What were your children's favorite foods at that age? When can I start introducing berries, oranges, etc?

Also, I need some good toy suggestions to get Tanner for his birthday on Dec 17th and Christmas. I won't be the type of parent that gets him a combined birthday/christmas present so I need some good ideas that I can use for both. Toys that he can use for the whole year from 12-24 months! Any broad or specific suggestions????

Thanks for the help! You are great peeps!

How is this comfortable????

I put Tan down for a nap 20 minutes ago and this is what I just found:


Sometimes he pulls the blanket on the stack of boxes next to his bed until the monitor, African drum, and African elephant fall into his crib. This is the first time I've seen him fall asleep holding onto the rail of the crib!

A Ghoul of a Day!

I loved having Halloween on a Saturday - it really felt like a holiday!

We started off by eating pumpkin pancakes. They were DE-LISH, especially mine because I put chocolate chips in mine!

After playing at home and dancing around the house to "Thriller" and "Monster Mash", we took pictures in front of our pumpkins.

Tanner loves dogs!

Mine, Eli's, Tanner's

We headed to Provo and stopped at the store with Aly to grab some groceries to make a Halloween dinner. We made a homemade Spider Fajita pizza. Our family always had pizza before trick-or-treating so we kept up the tradition.

The finished product and it was yummers.

Tan started feeling sick at Aly's house so he just played with his feet while laying on Eli's lap for a while.

No I didn't go to the Utah game on Halloween (even though there was one). That was my Halloween costume! It was supposed to be funny because I grew up as a Utah fan with die hard fans: my dad, grandpa, and uncles. Us Colorado Archers all went to BYU at the slight disappointment of my dad, but that's what happens when you move out of Utah. Most of my cousins are major Ute fans but I have mellowed out and will cheer for both teams. I have been known to wear Utah stuff in the BYU student section which angered quite a few BYU students (and BYU stuff in the Utah stadium - don't worry Anthony, I had a Utah shirt under my BYU sweatshirt!). Thank goodness I had an army brother to put them in their place!

Tanner really didn't feel well by the time we got to the mall to go trick-or-treating. He sat in his stroller like this the whole time and he never does that. Poor guy! He was nice enough to share his 3 pieces of candy with his parents.

The night ended with Tanner having a fever of 102.5 and a cool sponge bath followed by cuddles with dad to warm up.

We only got one group of trick-or-treaters all night and it was an old student of mine. I was nursing Tan when they came so I couldn't see her - bummer! Now we have a big bucket of candy left over. Anbody want more candy? I need to go on a sugar fast until Thanksgiving!