I'm a big kid now!

This morning, we discovered Tanner's first tooth! And last night, he just layed on the floor and drank a bottle all by himself! He's almost 9 months and it's crazy how fast he's growing - sometimes I wish we could just push pause and let him stay like this just a little bit longer. At the same time, it is so fun to watch him grow.

Tanner does not suffer from lack of attention around here! During Christmas Break, if he was alone in a room, someone would come running to me, "Mom, Tanner's by himself! He's all alone! I'm sure he's scared!" And I'm sure he was just savoring a little piece and quiet.

He is such a sweet baby! The only time he cries is when he is hungry or tired. He loves food! And he has tried pretty much everything. Everybody that walks by eating something is a sucker to his longing looks and grunts for a bite. When he wants something, he holds out his arms and opens and closes his fists while grunting. He still isn't crawling, but that doesn't stop him from getting around.

I got a camera for Christmas and have had so much fun playing with it, and of course, my favorite subject is Tanner.

Although clapping doesn't sound like much, we all were super impressed, and Tanner finds an immediate audience whenever he does.

He gives kisses now too.

Is he well loved, or smothered?

Happy New Year!!

This year, we decided to welcome in the New Year with a BANG! For the first time, we decorated for New Years, and it was so fun! We just took down all of the red and green and strung clear lights all over everything- I couldn't get enough! We lit candles and had gold balls everywhere - so fun! We had a bunch of families over to celebrate with, and if this picture seems busy, then, that's how the night was! The kids all played around the world ping pong, Quelf, Balderdash, karoake, hide and go seek in the dark, and watched a movie, while the adults visited and played Apples to Apples and the sign game - apparently you need alcohol to get adults to agree to karaoke=), because we couldn't get anyone to take on to the idea. We ate all night, including an ice cream bar. Believe it or not, but the evening went so fast we forgot to make our party hats and barely got the sparkling cider poured in time for the count down. And, we finished the night with some loud fire works that we picked up the last time we drove through Wyoming. Happy New Year!!

Poor Kennedi! She was so tired, she tried so hard to stay up for the party, but crashed, sitting up in her chair trying to eat her ice cream, about 11:15pm.

Talie and her BFF Megan and Erika Glatt.

Ashy, with her posse, Chelsea and Madison.

Dallin and his buds Aaron and Ryan are in the background and Megan and Emma are checking out the ice cream.

Merry Christmas 2011

Christmas was preceded by our Christmas Eve dinner. Of course, yummy ham, potatoes, rolls, and our favorite jello pretzel salad. We then went down to the stage to perform the Nativity (directed and produced by our very own Ashlynn Smith - a little chaotic, but all the important parts were there). Grandma & Grandpa Smith and Kim & Jeff came to celebrate with us.

Then it was time for an early bedtime - we put out Santa's goodies, of course, and opened Christmas pjs. It is pretty fun now that Talie and Dallin know about Santa - they get so excited to stay up and help us get ready for the big day. They are cute and cut our time in half!

At 5:00am, Peyton, who is always the last one awake in the mornings, woke up all of his siblings - except Tanner - phew, and came running into our room to ask if he could see if Santa came. We climbed out of bed and everyone went through their stockings. Santa was too lazy to wrap presents this year, so they all played with their present from Santa. Since Christmas was on a Sunday this year, we saved the rest of the presents until after church, and Benson and I went back to sleep until it was time to get up for 9:00 church. It was a wonderful day just to spend together as family and, as always, kind of sad for the whole holiday to be over. Merry Christmas!!

Although Tanner missed some of the festivities, he did join in on the rest. He was more interested in eating the paper than what was inside.

Talie & Dallin opening up tickets to a Brian Regan comedy act - that was the present I was most excited for them to open.

Christmas Break 2011

Over Christmas Break, we had lots of fun! We . . .

sang lots of karoake,
played lots of ping pong,

attended white elephant parties - complete with a Lobster white elephant gift (he even made it on facebook),
ran into Justin Bieber at the mall,
ate lots of good food,
had some quarrel and apology sessions,
had lots of late nights,
a wedding anouncement (my brother and fiance Maddie),
played lots of Christmas games (especially Quelf and Balderdash)
had photo shoots with my camera,
and basically, just hung out.