New Quiet Book

So I made another quiet book, pretty much the same as the last one, with a few changes. I did a lot more embroidery on this one and its a lot thicker because its all felt. But I like how it turned out. I decided to personalize this one for Tanner and give the previous one to my future nephew. Anyways.. here is the latest...
The cover. The large letters I stitched on with my machine, but the rest I did by hand. And I had to bind it by hand because it was SOOO thick.

1st page- Old MacDonald's Farm. The horse (Jim-Bob) is on Velcro and the little animals inside the barn are finger puppets.


2nd page. "Gone Fishing" The fish have Velcro mouths and the fishing pole has Velcro on the end to "catch" the fish with.

3rd page "Choo Choo" This is a new idea. It just came to me. I didn't use zippers in the last quiet book and with this page Tanner can unzip the train cars and put cargo inside...cargo like toys or snacks...

4th page "Tanner's Mailbox" Again the flag can move and you can open the mailbox door to deliver the mail. And again- if anyone is interested, Tanner's mailbox is accepting 3 X 4 inch postcards. And he loves getting mail.


5th Page "Build-A-Burger" again. But this time I added a drink and fries.

6th page "Monster Truck tires" the tires bottom off so he can change them out.


7th page "Race Track" this is just a smaller version of the two-page spread i used in the last one.

8th page "Under the Sea" This treasure box is buried at the bottom of the ocean and he'll have to swim with the fishes to get the treasure box unlocked.


9th page "Mr Potato Head" This was a new idea I had based on the original potato head. Each part of the potato head comes off by Velcro and the side of the potato head unzips to store the different pieces.


10th page "Blast Off" the rocket ship travels along the ribbon so it doesn't get lost in the stars. I don't know why blogger rotated this picture, but you'll have to get the idea looking at it sideways.

Well that's it. I found a bunch more ideas for more quiet books. They are linked on the side of my blog under future projects. I tried to keep all the quiet book ideas together. They are about halfway down the list and I highly recommend making one. They are a ton of fun. I'm saving my pennies so I can get supplies for my next one. Pretty exciting!!!

Playing Catch Up...

I've been neglecting my blog lately, but not without good reason. Chris recently moved over to ING and then last week we had our annual audit. ING sends a guy down to inspect our office, go through our files, and make sure we are "following the rules." Well- that was a headache believe you me. I had to take Tanner to work for three days and the poor little guy was still recovering from the flu. It was quite a hectic three days.
Tanner working hard. Oh and he is wearing his pj's. Little boys who don't feel good don't have to wear work clothes. Don't be fooled by this smile- he really wasn't feeling good.

After going through two filing cabinets of files and working some 20 hours, we were finally ready for the audit. Which I'm happy to say WE PASSED. "Our files are the gold standard for files" What a relief! So anyways, now I can go back to being a wife, mother and housekeeper.
A couple of weeks ago Chris and I took Tanner to the park to feed the ducks during Chris' lunch break. He didn't know what to think about those ducks. It was funny. He would just stare at them and then at the bread bag and back at the ducks again.
Tanner and I feeding the ducks. They got full pretty fast and didn't eat much.

But we was enthralled by the water in the pond. He wanted to climb right in. I'm telling you- this kid is going to be a swimmer.


Tanner and his Daddy. Yes, Chris is wearing his work clothes- like I said- this was during his lunch break.

Me and my Boy


Then last weekend my sister Laura had Prom. My friend Adrian and I helped her get ready. (Thanks again Age!) We did her hair and make-up and then we took pictures of her with her date. OK, not her real date- but he was by far the cutest boy dressed up for Prom. After Laura bought her dress she asked me to alter it. So I added the blue around the middle, the bow and the blue around the neckline so it wasn't so low cut. Then with the leftover material I made Tanner a matching bow tie. They made such a cute couple.
Smiling. What a handsome couple!

What a Stud!!!

Tanner and I


Also- garage sale season is almost in full swing. I know it sounds trashy or whatever, but I can't help myself. I love to find a good deal. And honestly, when it comes to baby clothes, shoes and toys- most of them are still in excellent condition because they only get worn a few times. So I have been having some good luck lately at garage sales and getting some awesome toys for Tanner. I found this baby piano that can sit or stand according to whatever stage works for your child. I paid $1 for it and I cleaned it up with Chlorox, so it looks brand new. Then I put some batteries in it and Tanner had a ball. This kid is a piano whiz. Baby Mozart- EAT YOUR HEART OUT!!!



I'm working on another quiet book. I think its a new addiction. Its really quiet ridiculous! I'm working on this one for my newest nephew. Well he isn't here yet, but I wanted to make it while I still had my motivation. I found a bunch more ideas too, so I'm going to be spending my allowance on quiet book materials for the next few months. I just can't help myself.
Well that's pretty much my life. I know it doesn't sound busy, but I feel like the last two weeks have flown by. Here are some random pictures of us from these past blurry weeks.
Tanner's newest obsession. He loves to sit or stand by our glass door that goes out to the porch and play with the blinds.



What is it about naked babies that makes them so stinkin' cute? I love this chunky baby!

Me tickling Tanner's belly!

Anyways, I'm loving this spring weather and I'm counting down the days until we leave for Oregon. Although, my parents have been Europe for the last 5 days and we are missing them terribly. On the bright side, when they come home at the end of April they are bringing David home with them. YAY!

Happy Hunting and Happy Easter

I can hardly believe that its April. Luckily for us, April brought a week of beautiful weather in the 70's and a chance to plant some flowers. So its actually starting to feel like Spring around here.
This week has been very busy. On Tuesday Chris started his new job. That's right. He quit his old job and he is now working with my "occasional boss" at ING. Unfortunately, our boss had to go out of town to take care of her mother, so Chris hasn't actually been at work with her. But he's been keeping busy just the same. On Wednesday Chris had to represent his office (by himself) at a Chamber of Commerce Event. I went too since I work(ed) there, and between the two of us we put together a pretty awesome booth. We handed out a bunch of his business cards, flyers and did some really good networking. And it didn't hurt that we had the cutest salesman in the world to help us.

I made him a little name tag- it says "Tanner Herb- ING- Ask my dad how to make your future easier" We got tons of comments on that - it was a pretty good way to advertise.
I also had to work on Tuesday- so it was really busy. Tanner of course loves going to work because our office connects with my parent's law office. So they come to play with him all the time.
Tanner before work

Sometimes Tanner gets to help Nanny at her desk

And other times he just gets to play with Papa

On Thursday Tanner and played outside and planted flowers. He really liked playing with the grass. It was so funny to watch him discover his environment. Babies are so amazing!


Then Thursday night we dyed just about a million eggs. OK-really there was 72 eggs- but it felt like a million because I had already stuffed 72 plastic eggs earlier that day. Tanner found the whole egg business quite amusing.


After only smashing two eggs, I managed to get him to let go of his eggs.

On Friday I made Tanner's Easter bucket. I realize he is a little young for an Easter basket- but I couldn't resist. Here is his basket stuffed with plastic eggs.

On Saturday we had our FIRST ANNUAL EASTER EGG HUNT. We had so much fun.
Here is the food table.

We had fruit skewers with pineapple, bananas, strawberries, kiwi, apples, and grapes. Fruit dip, a vegetable plate with ranch dip, finger sandwiches, cupcakes, and drinks.
Here are the peep cupcakes

Easter Egg Cupcakes- Chris decorated these for me. And he did dang good too!

We had the party on our back porch. The entire porch was decked out in Chinese lanterns and flower garland. I totally spaced getting pictures of the porch, so here is the corner of the porch...you can get the idea.

The kids hunted for Easter eggs and then they got to choose a prize for finding so many eggs. We didn't really count- we just let every kid get a prize.
Then the kids got to destroy the pinata with a baseball bat. Which is always entertaining. It was really fun.
I loved watching Tanner. Since he doesn't crawl yet, I would just plop him down in front of an egg on the ground and then he'd grab it and shove it in his mouth.
Here is Tanner with his favorite plastic egg.

Here is Tanner chilling on his Aunt's lap in his Easter outfit.

And Tanner getting into his booty- he made a haul. He got a total of 4 eggs. Unfortunatly- the older kids were way faster than he was.

I had to get a family picture of course.

We had so much fun and thanks to my mom- cleaning up afterwards was easy. She is so awesome. After everyone left I put Tanner down for a nap. (Oh yeah- Tanner is able to go to sleep on his own now- I just lay him down in his crib with his binky and Gerald and he goes to sleep- SO AWESOME- makes nap time so much easier)
Then I was able to relax. Tanner went to bed by 7:00 because he was so exhausted from his big day and Chris and I were able to snuggle up and watch a movie. (We watched "The Blind Side" and it was really good)
This morning we let Tanner get into his easter basket. He just pulled everything out and tossed it around him on our bed. He wasn't really into this year, but I can just imagine how different it will be next year.
Tanner stuffed Easter Basket

Tanner digging into his bucket/basket

Here is Tanner thinking- "Yeah- Easter is pretty cool"


Oh and next year I'm totally doing this. I saw this on another blog but I think the idea is so cute that I'm going to do it with Tanner.
Each year this lady gives her kids a little package of brightly colored jelly beans.

The day before Easter they got outside and plant them in the ground. Then on Easter morning they go outside and they find...

So cute right?

Anyways, today we watched General Conference at my parent's house and then we had Easter dinner together. Conference was really good and it really helped center my thoughts on my Savior. I've been thinking a lot about the resurrection lately and what an amazing event with eternal consequences it is. I'm so grateful for my Savior and his love for all of us. He faced an agonizing death on the cross and then rose three days later, allowing us to each do the same. He loved us so much.
One of the speakers today mentioned how much our Savior and Heavenly Father love us. He likened it to the love a mother feels for her children. The only thing I could think of was “There is no way anyone could love Tanner more than I do...” But I know our Heavenly Father and Savior do. It seems impossible, but I KNOW it’s true. I'm so grateful for the inconceivable amount of love that they have for each of us, despite the many mistakes we make. I know that I make mistakes on a daily, if not hourly basis, but because of my Savior I can fix those mistakes. What an amazing gift. I hope I can teach Tanner the significance of the gift our Savior gave to us on Easter. I feel blessed everyday to have my boys and I know that I owe everything to my Father in Heaven and my beloved big Brother! Happy Easter everyone!