Merry Christmas!!!

Just posting to say Merry Christmas and we are still alive! Here is a picture of Tanner and cousin Morgan on their first Christmas! Tomorrow is Kate's and I am sorry to say that I think Santa is being a little more generous to Tanner than my baby girl, even though according to the rules Kate should be getting more! Oh well, at least she won't know the difference! We are excited to meet our new cousin Violet this weekend...good luck with the flight and both kids Ali! So as a card that I found says..."Be a rebel, have a Happy Christmas and Merry New Year!"

Gobble Gobble

My kids are ready to eat... are you?

Happy Turkey Day!!! From us to you! Eat up, break the diet rules, and wear your stretchy pants! I hope you all gain some weight today! Thanksgiving is more of a Happy Pumpkin Pie Day for me (I think my record is 4 pies, but don't tell anyone!)! So enjoy your day and your food!

Love, Us

As of late...

I do apologize for my lack of blogging... but in all fairness, you have been warned of my inability to commit to this thing! Anyway, it's been a while and life has unavoidably progressed! So to catch you up...

CONGRATS to Morgan for becoming a big sister on Friday! (oh, Ali and Brad to, not for becoming big sisters, but for having another baby!) Here is my pretty new niece, Miss Violet Patricia... that is right everyone, my kids now have 2 cousins!

Also, we had Halloween...

Tanner was sick for two very long weeks and got addicted to Mario Cart while he laid around. So when it came time to decide on a halloween costume, he, of course, chose Mario! (thanks Shannon for the picture... Tanner has recently broken my camera.) Anyway, his little neighbor buddy was Luigi! I thought they were hillarious! Kate was a red mushroom and Luigi's little brother was a green 1up mushroom! Unfortunately they didn't win the costume contest! Oh well...

To mention other things that have recently broken...

We came home from Cory's parents house last Sunday to find that my clock fell off my wall, hit the shelf below it and obliterated my things that were on the shelf (to protect them from Tanner.) Needless to say, I cried... mostly over one thing, but I have such a limited number of nice things... and the number keeps getting smaller, daily. Oh well, it is just stuff, and no one's fault because we weren't home.

The changing table... not sure how, but both shelves are broken through. I am guessing that it has something to do with a little monkey that starts with T and ends with anner! Oh well, I guess it is easier to part with things when they are broken!

The kitchen chair... actually this thing is just old.

The rocking chair... another Tanner special.

I am getting depressed, we won't be talking about this anymore...

Kate is crawling, don't know if I have mentioned that, but she is crawling up the stairs, into drawers and cupboards, under stuff, and Tanner loves it. And she is so funny when you catch her because she gets a sneaky little look and tries to do at least one more thing before you get her. She is turning out more like Tanner daily, honestly, I am a little worried! So until I get a new camera or something... Sorry for the lack of pictures! (I will keep stealing the from other people!)

The annual pumpkin search...

As it is October, we went to find our pumpkins at the pumpkin patch. The first thing we did when we got there was ride the cute little train...
I was on there with them, but it was quite small and I was a bit squished. But Tanner loved it!
We then visited the chickens at the coop...
Then the great search began...

He was in heaven. He really couldn't decide which one he wanted to take home. Then he found these little babies for Kate. They are the "baby watermelons and baby pumpkins for baby sister". We ended up getting quite a few between the kiddos and Nana! Not to mention the caramel apples, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, and donuts! Yummmmmmyyyyy!!!
So thank you Nana for the fun day out at the pumpkin patch!
Love Tanner, Kate, and Kinley

Recently...

So first of all, I know this happened a while ago, but I LOVE Patrick Swayze. You may not know this about me, or maybe you do. Either way I was very sad that he died, and yes, I even cried during the tribute to him on Dancing with the Stars.

On a different note. We went to the park several times before the weather turned. Kate loves the swings and Tanner loves to push her, or throw balls at her. So it usually works out well!

I also went to Vegas with my mom and Kacey to see Ali and celebrate Kacey's birthday! We had fun and were completely spoiled! (Thanks Jerry!) He got us a suite at the Venetian (AWESOME) and made sure we all had a great time! Here is our room...

I didn't take a picture of the bathroom, but it was quite lovely! It was down the hall thing behind where I was standing! Anway, thanks again Jerry! We went to see this...WOW. Really. WOW.
And lots of other stuff. So thanks mom for taking us. Thanks Ali for moving there. Thanks Kacey for having a birthday. Thanks Cory for keeping the kids and letting me go. Thanks LaNette for keeping the kids while Cory was at work. Thanks Brad and Morgan for letting Ali play with us. Thanks everyone else involved. And thanks for reading all of my thanks!

And finally, we woke up to this today and Tanner couldn't help himself!

Look how happy he is! Oh my little boy!

I hope you all have a nice day and I make no promises of posting again soon, because I wouldn't want to get your hopes up! (because let's be honest, I would just disappoint you, and then I would feel bad!)

A quick post...

Happy 9-9-9 everybody! This fun day is almost over! I hope it was good to you! I am not sure that is should be for any real reason, but I am sure the Chinese or someone find it to be prosperous or something!

A Few Miscellaneous Things of Our Summer...

This is Tanner and our favorite cousin Morgan playing in the hole in Nana's trampoline! The hole is a long story, so we won't go there! Anyway, they are two of my three favorite kids in the world! When Ali has her baby in November, my kids will finally have 2 cousins! Yay for them!
So a few weeks ago, I turned... well, lets just say old(er). Fortunately I only have 2 more years of aging! Then I get to stay in a youthful state right? I know, I know, that isn't how it works! Whatever~ So then a few weeks later, Cory and I had our 5 year anniversary! WOW! That went by quick! So here is a little moment from that day!

Oh so long ago! And so many (okay, 2) kiddos ago! We got married on Friday the 13th! Loved it! Anyway, the kids have been sick almost every other week this summer and we have been trying to keep up with family and friends in between! We went boating with Ali and Brad last week, and Tanner LOVED tubbing, if you know that kid, that won't surprise you! But this little video is Tanner break dancing. My brother Andy taught him these sweet moves, he does it over and over and over if you ask him too. The kid is hillarious! I like how Morgan is just staring at him, this happens a lot. I am pretty sure she thinks he is nuts half of the time!

Oh, I thought I should mention Kate,

I love her too after all! She was helping me cook! She is getting huge, it is going by so much faster with her than it did with Tanner! She is almost 7 months already! Oh my baby girl!

Well, have a good one!

Family Pictures

Not much to say, but here are some newly taken family pictures. Kids are hard to take pictures of (especially ours I think), but we think we got some great shots.

Family Reunion

We went to a family reunion this past weekend- just up at Heise- we had a great time, it is always fun to see family! We don't see most of them except for this reunion, so we like to go!

We pretty much just ate, swam, and sat around the fire! Can't complain about that!

The boys built rockets and rocket launchers and were nice enough to help Tanner build one too! And then he spent the rest of the time begging to launch them over and over again!



Kate enjoyed having so many people being willing to hold her! She loves attention! But hey, she is so cute I really don't think anyone minded!

This is Shaneece, Tanner, Preston, LaNette, Kate, and Grandpa Simper (I am not sure where everyone else was!)

Kate ended up sick, so she was in heaven because we let her eat popsicles, since she wouldn't eat anything else!

We had a great time and it was fun to see everyone, so until next year Simper family!

This one is about the Tan-man

My name is Tanner and this is how I roll...

Tanner loved going down this waterslide my brothers built. He went down a few hundred times. Then he moved on to this...

Then he consummed not 1 but 2 orange creamies. Can't get better than that!
Lucky kid!

And the next day,
we went to
Nana's Rotary Party
We ate dinner at the zoo! It was really fun, Chiz's catered (yes Jeff, I said Chiz's) and it was delicious as always. So then since we were already in the zoo, we ran around and saw all the animals! It was fun to be there later in the day because all of the animals were out and running around. I don't know why the zoo's hours are only when they are sleeping. I don't get it! Anyway, we had fun!

Uncle Andy teaching Tanner thumbs up, and Tanner kind of getting it!

After dinner, we went and rode the rides, this is Tanner on the airplane ride at Tautphaus Park.Then he rode the train. He really wanted to sit in the front, but he was too slow at pushing his way up there. Oh well, maybe another day!

This ride was a mistake! Cory and I both took Tanner on the Octopus and just to say, the more weight in the seat, the faster you spin! I was sick for a few days after this one! I was afraid Tanner wouldn't ride anymore after that, but he was a trooper and went on a few more rides!

...So here is my little guy's own post and many more adventures!

A few pictures from some of our adventures...

This pictures illustrates Tanner and Morgan's (his only cousin) enthusiam about the fireworks. Needless to say, we left early. But earlier that day, we went over to Cory's aunt and uncle's house for a barbeque. It was fun because we only see most of them on the fourth. Tanner shot water balloons for probably an hour. I think this is where all the enthusiams went!

Tanner loves riding his bike, and dressing himself. Note the cowboy (Woody) boots and shorts. This kid was cursed with his mother's stubborn streak. He sings the ABC's as he goes. It is funny when he sings them, it goes something like A BC D E and G F huh huh huh W X Y N M O P I love it! Little kids are so cute!

We went to the air show several weeks ago with Cory's parents. We love grandma!

And finally, isn't Kate just beautiful in the morning? We haven't been able to get that tear duct to open up yet. It makes me think of baby kittens! Yuck! But a fun pirate show every morning!

Well, we are still out and about, so I will try to keep posting! I did better than last time! Oh, and a quick shout out to Ali and Brad- Hooray, they are having a girl in November! Kate is excited to have a cousin her age! And Tanner is just excited for another cousin!

So it has been a while... Sorry!!!

So nothing like a month and a half between blogs! Well, here are some pictures...

Cory's dad built Tanner a sand box and I have to say, the thing is HUGE! and Tanner loves it. He likes to plant like grandpa, so he picked leaves off the trees and planted them. It was funny, I love what little kids come up with!and I just put this picture up because I think it's cute.

Now on to Kate...

She layed here for about 20 minutes just looking out the window, I thought it was sweet, something Tanner would have never done as a baby! And dun, duh, dah! She rolled over a few weeks ago, she gets from her back to her stomache and won't roll from her stomache to her back, she just yells. Kinda funny, but this video was the second time she did it! The little milestones come so much quicker with the second than the first, maybe I just don't have as much time to obsess over them, but all the same, she did it!

Well, I hope you all have a great 4th of July, yes, we are already there! Holy smokes! Until next time!

The past few weeks...

Well for starters, someone is now potty trained!!!!!!

Can you say WOOHOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

Very exciting! and someone else found something special.....

that is right, her thumb!!! Say it with me now, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! You can take a binkie away, but those darn thumbs are hard to remove! It all started with her fingers and it was a slippery slope to the harder stuff. What can I say? an addiction is an addiction! She has been living with socks on her hands. Stylish right? Oh man.

Well, this week, we have been busy entertaining Tanner, we went and saw some friends that were in town, so fun to see them, Tanner and Macie are going to get married, Macie even told Marianne that they were going to the temple! Too cute.And we went through the car wash, always a hit with Tanner, but this time they didn't have colored soap, but he loved it all the same!

And today we went and fed the ducks, no pictures, sorry, I thought I had forgotten my camera, but I found it in my bag when I got home. In the words of Tanner, "Silly Mom". So other than that, we have been hitting up the park on the warm days and watching lots of movies and reading books on the not so warm days! Hope you are all having fun too!