YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!

Dean might be mad at me for posting this, but I just had to share. So this afternoon I got a rare opportunity to run to the store without Tanner. It's Saturday and Tanner was down for a nap, so I took off and left Tanner home with Dean. It was so great to be "free" for an hour or so. Not that I don't totally LOVE Tanner, but every once in a while it's nice to have a little break. So all day I've been very grateful to Dean for allowing me this moment of freedom, until tonight! I went to put Tanner to bed and looked at his crib and found this...

Yes, that is Tanner's crib, and yes that is POOP! What on earth!? How did that get there??? So I went to track down Dean to get an explanation for this strange occurrence. I'm still not entirely sure how you can get a huge chunk of poo stuck on a crib without noticing, but apparently Dean can. I knew he was a man of many talents, but this one takes the cake! Don't worry, the poop is cleaned up, Dean won't get out of changing diapers in the future (despite his best efforts to today), and we're all still alive. I'm sure we'll be laughing about this one for years to come!

Winter Birds...

Thanks to Grandma and PapPap Furin we now have a bird feeder outside our kitchen window. It has been SO much fun! Tanner loves to watch the birds with me and he waves at them as they fly in and out. Here are a few pictures from today. We love it when the cardinals come - they are so bright and beautiful. We also have our friend Mr. Fat Squirrel. He likes to snack on any thing the birds might have dropped. There's a squirrel guard to keep him from climbing up to the feeder itself, but that doesn't mean he hasn't tried!

Mr. Cardinal with a seed in his mouth

Mrs. Cardinal - (She's not as brightly colored, it's sad, but girl birds just aren't as pretty as boy birds)

All our little bird friends - I love the little black headed ones

Tricky Mister Squirrel packin' it away for the winter

Gingerbread Houses

For family home evening on Monday we went over to Dean's parents to make gingerbread houses. This has been a tradition for Dean and I every year since we've been married. Each year Dean gets more and more ridiculous and over-the-top. At least this year he didn't pull out his calculator.

(Last Year)

Dean and I didn't quite finish ours on Monday (I feel like I have to try and keep up with him) and he wouldn't let me post pictures until his was "done," so finally last night we finished them up and here they are...

Thanks Mom and Dad and Janna for a fun night!

Trying to outsmart our 10 month old

BEFORE:
AFTER:
I used to spend my days putting everything back on these shelves over and over and over again after Tanner had pulled everything out, but not anymore! Dean was thoughtful enough to come home and make this door to protect all our goods from the little monster. Today's the big test of whether it will actually work. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before he figures out how to open it, but until then, I'm one happy mom!

I just couldn't resist posting this. My boy is SO cute! I realize I'm biased and all mothers think their kid's the best, but hey, mine is! He's growing up WAY too fast and he'll be 10 months old tomorrow, so in honor of that here's this super cute picture of him! We love you Tanner!

Tanner met....

SANTA! He was a little curious at first...just checking him out.

Then he decided he's not such a fan of the weird guy in the red suit.

Dad came to the rescue! Maybe next year. Hopefully Santa wasn't too offended and he'll still drop by our house on Christmas Eve.

AHHHHH!!!

We've had a lot of these stinky bugs in our house and outside the past few months. I thought that with the cold they were done for the season, but Dean found one in Tanner's HAND today! Of course it had squirted it's putrid juices all over, so Tanner now smells like stink bug! We did our best to wash his hands with soap (good smelling soap) but he still stinks. I'm just grateful Dean found it not me, cause I wouldn't have reacted quite as calmly.

our friend the....

RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. I finally caught a good picture of him today. This guy frequents the trees outside our house several times a week. It's hard to tell in the picture but he's actually pretty big. There was actually two of them outside at the same time today. One thing that's been pretty different for me since moving here, is living in the "woods." I'm used to having to be in the mountains to see things like this. Now it's right outside my window! And it's pretty fun! We've also had a lot of cardinals and blue jays lately as well!

Elf Yourself

Every year we like to bring in the cheer by "Elfing" ourselves. But this year you can put multiple people on at a time and choose several dances! Plus the face uploading technology seems to be better. So please enjoy our dance and go ahead and Elf yourselves! Merry Christmas! (oh and pause our music first)

Send your own ElfYourself eCards