October 8, 2004

What a great day that was!! It was the day I became a mom! There were a few scary moments, but at 8:31 PM we had a sweet, adorable bundle of goodness, with a head full of blonde hair :)

Michael Tanner Stone has blessed our lives sooooooooo much since that day! He is kind, loving, funny, smart, and constantly happy! He doesn't know a stranger..lol..he talks to everyone and makes friends instantly.

Tanner,

We love you buddy! You are such a sweet boy and you are so extremely smart! We are very proud of you every day.

Happy Birthday Tanna Banana, we hope you have a great day!!

Where, Oh Where, Have the Stone's Gone?

We are here I promise! Ever since I started school last year, I have become one of "those bloggers". It is not on purpose, it is just hard to juggle so much stuff.
We have been busy since school started, we took a two week trip to Utah. Driving cross-country proved to be interesting and we actually had a great time :) The boys were sooooo good! I knew there was a reason that I demanded a DVD system when we were buying the new van..lol.
We had some crazy experiences in Nebraska, my most unfavorite state, but we made it there and back and enjoyed every minute we spent with our family and friends.
In fact, we had so much fun we came home and put a FOR SALE sign in our front yard!! Yes, we are moving to Utah!! We have to sell the house first, but we are looking forward to this new adventure!
We are also looking forward to fall/winter. It is a favorite time of year at our house, mainly because Tanner and Gavin have birthdays coming up and Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are my favorite!! The sites, the smells, the feeling of the atmosphere...I LOVE IT!!
I promise there will be blog posts, and lots of them, in the coming months. I have to make up for my lack of posting in the last year..lol.
It is also the time of year when the very popular music on my blog..lol..gets switched out for Halloween music. I hope you all enjoy! I know I will :)

Kindergarten!!

Hi! This is Tanner Stone. I am 5 years old. Yesterday was my first day of Kindergarten. It was GREAT! I got to eat lunch in a big room called the cafeteria and my mom came to help us get our forks and milk, then she ate lunch with me :)

My teachers are very nice and I am really excited to be in school again. My mom took some pictures of my first day...here they are!

I look at little scared in this picture but I wasn't, I just forgot to smile.

I really missed my Gavin and I know he missed me. He was very excited to see me when I got home.

On my way into elementary school. That is one big school compared to 4K!!

Oh yeah! This is my teacher, he name is Mrs. Styles. She is very nice!!

I found my cubby and and got ready for a fun-filled first day.

My mom took this picture when we were having lunch together. I have to say, the food wasn't half bad!

Well, that was it. I am excited to have 178 more days of Kindergarten. My dad told me that it will fly by...maybe it will!

"Gee Mom, I Wanna Go To Camp!"

It is hard to believe that 8 weeks of summer camp fun have ended. Tanner has had such a blast and we cannot say enough wonderful things about Super Summer Day Camp. The director and counselors are amazing and Tanner has made so many friends. Our little people person was a hit with all the campers and led them in all their camp songs every morning and afternoon. I think we have heard "I said a boom chikaboom" and Icky icky ooh ah" enough to last us until next summer. He got to enjoy a baseball game, swimming every Tuesday, ice cream every Friday, movies at the theater, visits from the police and firefighters, a trip to the zoo and water park, and so so so so much more. We are definitely looking forward to next summer so he can go back.

One of the best things they did is they got together with all the other summer camps that the city parks and recreation host and had a talent show. All the camps were assigned a genre of music and Tanner's camp got reggae. HILARIOUS! They learned Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds" (you can listen to it on our music list) and Ziggy Marley's "Friends". They did such a great job and we love listening to Tanner sing them. They even tye died shirts to wear..lol

(Please notice Tanner just a rockin away..lol)

The last day of camp was bittersweet. We will definitely miss all the campers and leaders....

Miss Pam, you are the best camp director ever!!

Miss Colleen, Miss Nell, Miss Olivia, Mr. Chris, Mr. Ray, Mr. Steve, & Mr. Devin...YOU ROCK!

Summer Craziness

You know, I think I need a vacation from Summer! Holy cow! We have been soooo busy this Summer with swimming lessons, day camp, visits from friends, yard sale, ward activities (Michael is the activities director), Dollywood, water parks, and everyday life on top of it all. We have been having a blast but it is definitely exhausting. I guess I am way overdue for an update so this post will basically cover our Summer...so far.

Gavin was blessed to enjoyed swimming lessons for 2 weeks in June. He is surely going to be our little fish and take after daddy. Michael is determined to have one of his boys on the swim team to follow in daddy's footsteps. I don't know, but I am pretty sure Gavin will be the man.

I have to say I was extremely excited when I recieved an email from a great friend letting me know that he and his family were going to be staying a night in Greenville on their way to the beach. I have not seen him in 10 years and it was wonderful to get to spend the morning with Kurt and his sweet wife along with thier beautiful children. They live just outside of Atlanta, less than 2 hours from here, so we will make sure that another 10 years does not go by before we hang out again :)

We also took a quick 2 day vacation to Dollywood. It has become a yearly tradition in our home and we enjoy it more and more every year.

Those are just a few of our many activities in the last month. I am sure we will have many more before the Summer is over. The boys have completed the Summer reading program at the Library and each got a ticket to a Greenville Drive baseball game. That will be coming up in a few weeks.

Another thing....I cannot believe that Tanner starts Kindergarten in a month from today. He is very anxious to get back to school and meet some new friends. He is our sweet, happy, friendly boy and we know that he is going to love every day he is at school. His Kindergarten teacher has been coming to our house once a week for the past 5 weeks and doing activities with him to get him ready for Kindergarten. The school district provides this program and it is wonderful! Next week he gets to go take a tour of the school, his classroom, the Kindergarten playground, and they give him a backpack.

Well, that is it for now. Hopefully I will remember to post again before our journey west. In a month and a half we will be.......here:

(That would be Payson Lakes)

And on September 4th at 5:00 we will be here:

That's right, BYU against Washington and I will be there! I am soooooo excited!!

We really are looking forward to our road trip to Utah. The last time I was there Gavin was 3 months old and he is now 2 and 1/2. The last time Michael and Grandma June were there I was only 13 weeks pregnant with Gavin. Wow, that was a looooonnnngggg time ago!! Anyway, we are looking forward to it and cannot wait to see what the rest of Summer has in store for us.

Almost a Month??

I cannot believe that Tanner has been out of school for almost a month! The Summer is surely going to fly by. My little man will be in Kindergarten before I know it :)

We have been doing a few fun things this month, not many, as you can tell by my lack of posting. Tanner started summer camp last week and he is having a ball. He went to the baseball game, he learned folk dancing, and yesterday he went for ice cream. On Monday he gets to go to the zoo and have a picnic at the park. I think these 8 weeks are going to wear him out :)

We also checked out the new waterpark in the area. Very fun! So much fun I forget to get out the camera :) We have been going to the library, which I feel is only fun for Mom, and we have also been going to our friends house to swim. We got a new swimming pool but we have yet to put it up. We better get going on that before the summer is over and we don't get to use it.

We were able to spend last Saturday with a friend of mine from high school who happens to live 2 hours from us. He and his family were headed to the beach and they stopped in Greenville for the night. It was wonderful to catch up and take them around our great city.

Oh, and in the middle of it all Grandma June turned 86! We shared her favorite meal with her, got her an Edible Arrangements fruit basket (she has always wanted one) and we had planned on taking her to the BBQ festival but those plans fell through. I hope she had a great day :)

We will be heading to Tennessee in a few weeks, oh wow, it is less than a few weeks..we are going to Dollywood again. We could never get enough of Dollywood and have decided that we have to go at least once a year. We are also counting down the days, or months, until we hop in the car and DRIVE to Utah. Michael promised me a few days in Nauvoo to get me to oblige..lol..at least my little boys can just aim out the car door if they have to go potty..LOL..we don't even have to stop!! Just kidding :)

Well, I will definitely be posting next week because my absolute favorite holiday is coming up in a week. I love the 4th of July! I could watch parades, fireworks, fighter jets, and celebrate our nations freedoms every day of the year :)

OK, one picture...the time has come to potty train the monkey! He looks so old in this picture!

Memorial Day Weekend in Pictures

The Scottish Festival:

Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, 7th in line for the throne :)

The wonderful Scottish Day's Parade on Main Street:

Tanner and a few of the hundreds on Bagpipers...I am not sure they knew to smile..lol:

Mass Bands:

The Highland Games:

Decorating Grandpa Grover's grave:

Celebrating the lives and service of three great men...PRICELESS!!

Miles Allen Grover: World War II

Miland Marcel Keele: World War II

Steven Blaine Tanner: United States Army

We are very blessed to be related to these 3 wonderful men and celebrate their lives this past weekend.