The quick low down!

Ok, for those of you faithful followers that have noticed the lag in my blogging, I apologize again. I have been trying to blog some details of our last month or so and have encountered obstacles with downloading pictures. I have finally been able to download pictures, so they are now posted..read on after this post! I will have more pictures to add for Michaels birthday as well as my mom's visit and the Baptism! A lot has been going on in our lives. We are quite busy. Things are going well for all of us and we are adjusting to the HEAT! Baseball is now over and we have entered a new venture of swimming. I am totally excited! I am in my final class of school to get my associates and I am very excited about that as well! Robert is still enjoying teaching soldiers. Elisa is finding friends at school and church and adjusting. Still misses Washington terribly, but she is coping!
Well, I hope all is well with everyone! I love reading all of your blogs. I just wanted everyone to know that I love and miss all you you so much! I will have more to post soon. Keep in touch with me and I will do the same!
Love and hugs to all !

A Very Special Day...more ways than one!

Well, today was such a very special day. Michael was baptized today. What made it even more special than it normally would be is that his grandma got to be there. My mom and I collaborated together to surprise Michael and fly her her so she could witness his baptism. He was so excited. He actually knew that we were going to try and get her her, but did not know the date. So, when Robert and I went out on a date, he thought nothing of it. We actually were going to pick her up from the airport. When we arrived at home I called him and asked for his help getting something out of the car...here is his reaction!

Elisa is the only only one who knew she was flying in that night, but she did a good job and keeping the secret.

Now, quite a bit happened before the baptism. We went to Sea World and a couple baseball games. (Which I will write another blog about and post lots of pics) but I have to tell you that the adversary worked very hard at trying to keep my sweet Michael from being baptized. The day of the scheduled baptism, we were returning home from a baseball game to get ready and we had a slight mishap. Mom, missed the step to my front porch and fell cutting her leg very badly. Robert and I wrapped it up, but we both knew it needed stitches, the problem was we had no idea where to go. We called the paramedics and all they did was tell us that we did a good job bandaging her up and draw us a map to the hospital. I am exaggerating, they did take her blood pressure, check her sugar and so on. They were great and Michael was excited to see them, cause he just loves anyone in that kind of uniform. They did ask if we wanted them to take her, but we decided to take her instead. We had to cancel the baptism for that night and reschedule for the 12th. We would have tried to do it on Sunday, the 10th but that was Mother's Day. Michael was sad at first, but he was more worried about grandma. In fact he went to the ER with Robert and I. He was such a great trooper. The Dr. let him come back and watch them stitch her up. I was worried at first, but he did amazing! He was so interested in what the Dr. was doing. I told him then that he could be a Dr. He immediately said, "No, I am going to be a Firefighter!" I then told him that he could be a fireman while he went to school to be a Dr....you should have seen his eyes light up. And I immediately thought "What did I do????"

It was a long night for all of us, I was just so grateful that mom didn't break anything. She felt so bad, but I know it was just the adversary trying to keep the strong spirit Michael has from progressing. It didn't work. Today Michael entered the waters of baptism, and it dawned on me. My BABY! was just baptized. How special this was. He was so excited and he just seemed to absorb everything the speakers said. We had two amazing speakers Brother Luna and Sister Schoen and I am so grateful for their willingness to speak at his baptism. We sang Micheal's favorite songs, "When I am Baptized" and "I'm Trying to be Like Jesus". The closing song was done by us, and it was "Teach Me to Walk in the Light" It just went so beautifully. I really could have not asked for a more special day. I hope it is a day that Michael will remember and hold dear to his heart...I know I will.

He is such a special little man, and I am so grateful for the opportunity to be his mother. I hope someday he will be as proud of me as I am of him EVERYDAY! (as I am with all 3 of my beautiful children)

Happy 8th Birthday Michael :)

My baby is 8 years old. I can not even believe it. It seems like just yesterday he was a born. I guess the neat thing about Michael is that he still is and will always be "the baby". He still loves to cuddle whenever he can and would still sleep with Robert and I if we would let him. He is growing up to be an awesome young man. He still has the dream of being a firefighter and every time we see one he shakes their hand and tells him that he is going to be a fireman someday. I think it is so wonderful. For his birthday he really didn't want anything. Robert and I asked him so many times, and he just never really said, so it made getting him something very challenging. But, the big thing he will receive is his Baptism. And the gift that we thought he would enjoy the most is grandma coming to visit and be here for his special day. He will be very surprised when he sees her! We went to incredible Pizza for his birthday and had a great time. That place is so awesome. Elisa hit only one jackpot this time, but we still earned enough tickets to get Michael a cool little toy. And the boys and daddy got to do the "Go Karts" this time. They had fun, and even won first place. Well Daddy did, but he gave it to Michael. They had to race in a different race because Robert could go FAST and Michael had to go SLOW because of his size. It was a great night. Michael will be baptized on May 9th...after Grandma gets here. Sshh, it is a surprise!

Visit with E's Mema

Elisa got a weekend away with her Mema. (Tishaun's mom) I know it was long overdue and they had a wonderful time. It was nice to see her and nice to know that they had a good time tourning downtown San Antonio for the weekend. She brought the boys kites and they were so thrilled. Robert took them out on Sunday to fly them. The wind wasn't too good in our cul-de-sac so he took them over to the High School, and they had a good time. Elisa and her Mema did a lot of shopping and the boys even got new "DC" shoes. It was an enjoyable weekend for Elisa. Teresa is always so great about including the boys. I really appreciate her and it is fun for the boys to have a "mema" as well! Thanks Teresa!

Happy Easter!

Reflection of our Savior's Resurrection is so wonderful. We watch The Lamb of God every year, and each year I learn something more. This was the first year that Robby didn't cry. I guess that means he is growing up. I still cried though. I am so thankful for Jesus' sacrifice for me. I am humbled at his grace and power and thankful that I have the gospel in my life, that I may return to live with him again.

This Easter snuck up on me, just as everything else has this year. I am beginning to realize that this year will all be a blur to me. It is going by so quickly, which is good in way. Anyhow, I had a hard time today. We have a tradition that started 13 years ago. We celebrate Easter with Aunt Patti and Uncle Kim. (except the 3 years that we were in Germany, which was hard on me as well.) We usually have a huge feast and all the grand kids, hunt for Easter eggs. Uncle Kim always fills one of the eggs with a dollar coin which the kids love. But this year it was just us. We dyed Easter eggs after our nap on Sunday. We even blew eggs this year. I thought it was so funny to watch the kids faces when they began to try and blow the egg. It was fun.


They didn't get much from the Easter Bunny. (Who knew that Easter would be such a huge thing here) The Easter Bunny must have been really busy!!! They were still excited that they got such a big chocolate bunny though!


I hope everyone had a great Easter. Love to all of you!

Catching up!

Well for those of you that have been checking to see what I have blogged only to find that I haven't, Sorry! But, I think I have caught now. I had most of these post waiting for pics to be downloaded into them. So, please scroll down and see the last two months worth of news from our Family. I hope all of you are well and happy. We are working on both of those elements. Allergies have been keeping me very "head heavy" to say the least. I feel as if my head is twice the size it should be and the pressure is sometimes unbearable. I finally went to the Dr. today and he seems to think that Zyrtec will be my saving vice. I sure hope so. I don't know if I can take the Pressure anymore...hahah! As for the rest of The Texas Tanners we have been pretty busy. With me working now and baseball in full swing, it seems as if we barely have time for anything. Hence my lag in blogging lately. When I am on the computer, I am doing my homework and when that is done, I want off here. I hope that now that I have somewhat caught up with blogging and my classes seemed to be going well, I will have time to blog a little here and there. So, here is a fun story.


Spring Break fun!

So, since I am now working, the kid's spring break wasn't very exciting. I did take Wednesday off early and I took them to the Alamo. Robby was to do a scavenger hung for extra credit in History. I thought it would be fun to see the movie of the Alamo and just enjoy the day downtown. The weather was a little gloomy. but we didn't mind though cause it reminded us of Washington. We luckily did not get rained on so it made for a nice afternoon. It kept it cool. We go to the Alamo around 3:00 in the afternoon. We must pay to park and after seeing that it was going to cost $10 one place and $5 another, I chose the $5. place. It wasn't much further and hey, it's $5 right? So, we parked. I went up to the meter to pay. I inserted my money. It asks me if I want a receipt. I said, "hey, it didn't ask me for my space number" so I press cancel. Well, it canceled it, but kept my money and I didn't get a receipts. Robby is so sweet, says "I will pay Mom. " (Because it clearly states that you must put a receipt in the dash of your vehicle) Being the stubborn person I said, "NO...I paid. And I am not paying another $5 when I could have parked over there for the $10." So, we went along our way. We had a fun time. We watched the video, wandered in the gift shop and a few others. Michael got a rubber band gun, which he loves. And Robby bought himself the worlds largest jawbreaker. This thing was huge! When it was time to go and we were walking up to the van, and I jokily said..."I hope I don't have a ticket!" Phew, no ticket! Just this....
.
That's right! I got booted! Not just once, but twice! And the fine to remove the boot is $100!
I couldn't believe it! When the guy got there to remove the boot and collect his money, I argued. I told him that I paid. I explained to him what happened. He said I understand, but it worked for everyone else in here! He has a valid point, but I was NOT paying $100 dollars. So, I had him walk over to the machine with me and I walked him through step by step what happened. Obviously, I paid for the person in front of me. There was a group of people standing by the machine when we got there, and me being a scardy cat, waited until they had gone to approach the machine. He did believe me in the end, and let me go with a warning to make sure that I follow the promptings and read the messages carefully. Made me laugh and think as I got back to the car. We prayed and thanked Heavenly Father for watching over us and asked that the gentleman would be blessed for trusting me.
It was a very neat experience, although I hope it won't happen again. The message sure was clear though. "Follow the promptings and read the messages carefully!"


Take care. I love you all!

Rodeo Days!

So this last week was the Rodeo here in San Antonio. At school they were able to dress up on Friday. Michael insisted he have a cowboy hat. So after baseball practice we went to Walmart to see if they had any cowboy hats. Much to our dismay they didn't, so we hurried to the mall before they closed to find a Western wear store. We found one and he got a black suede cowboy hat, that he loves! He begged and pleaded for a pair of cowboy boots, but I just couldn't see spending 60 dollars for a pair. He was upset, but he got his hat and proudly walked out wearing his baseball uniform and cowboy hat. I sure wish I had a picture of that! It was priceless!

He wore his jeans and white shirt. I colored the buttons silver so they looked a little more "cow boyish" I even made him a huge belt buckle. He loved it. We added a sticker of a Transformer on it! It turned out so cute. Michael has fully embraced being in Texas!

I am also including the project that we did for 100 days of school. Michael had to put 100 things on a poster or paper to celebrate the 100th day of school. We (I) wanted something original, so I asked him, "Do you want to find 100 of your favorite things and put them on paper?" He said "YEAH!" So, that is what he did. He spent quite a bit of time finding things in magazine and we found some pics on the Internet. Then we glued them down. I think it turned out so cute. He now has it on his wall proudly displayed. Michael's 100 Favorite Things!