AAhhhhh...Summer in Spokane

The winter was long, cold, snowy & a bit depressing, but summer is making up for it! As I told Jared last night, I am rather fond of summer in Spokane! Here we are in mid-to-late June and we haven't used air conditioning in our house yet! Heck, we don't even own one yet! Although we're buying 2 small window units from friends who are moving to England today. Anyway, my point is that this is the mildest summer I've ever seen and I like it! I love being able to spend hours outside without getting too hot, keeping the windows open, not breaking 90 degrees! Kids just got out of school this week, in NM I remember getting out in early May and starting up again in mid-August. And the flowers! There are some gorgeous peonies around our neighborhood, as well as hostas, iris, and many beautiful tulips through the spring. The outdoor pool on base opened last weekend so hopefully we'll get a few good swims in before our season of travel begins.

It's also the season of moving, or as we AF families call it, "PCSing" (permanent change of station).

Yesterday my Bible study group got together at the park on base and said good-bye to two of our own, Krista and Michelle. Krista and I were pregnant together and had our babies just a few days apart. She is a Spokane native and ironically, they're headed to Cannon AFB in the 505! Michelle is a more experienced mom of 3 who I've turned to for advice and help. She was so gracious to help in those early weeks of new baby, toddler & husband deployment. I'm always sad that people always seem to move just as I am getting to know them. I will miss them. God bless you ladies.

Notice the necklace grabbing. Jared and I realized the training of Elena began wayyyy too late so we've started teaching Miriam not to pull on necklaces.

Pictures with Bridget while big sister was begging off swing rides from anyone who would listen to her.

My first summer hat!

Krista & Michelle

Happy Birthday Jared!

Thanks for the tips, Karin & Sarah! Although this evening I'm too beat to actually use them so I'm just uploading new pictures and however they land, that's how they're gonna stay! 

Yesterday was Jared's birthday! Our friend Jonathan Schultz (from the family who introduced Jared and I, AND brother of Sarah and Karin, the blogging-picture-extraordinairres) joined us for a lunch of Navajo Tacos. Then 3 families from our neighborhood joined us for a rich chocolatey confection of Devil's Food cake with chocolate ganache and milk chocolate curls on top. If you have known Jared for any length of time, you know he loves chocolate. So this was my attempt at outdoing any previous birthday cake. We had vanilla ice cream with it. Jared says it was the best birthday cake ever, in the frosting department. :) So next year I'll tweak the cake part a bit and maybe we'll have the perfect combination! 

Jono took a picture of the whole family for us!

Right before digging in

The chocolatey goodness

Wow, has it really been 2 months?

HHmmmm, apparently is HAS been 2 months since my last post. Shady, as Jared would say. I was emailing my friend Sarah tonight and saying how I am behind on blog posts and I don't do them because I am overwhelmed with how much I have to catch up on. But these little girls are little now! So here I go-one small post for now while I'm up and alone! I really don't want us to be those distant acquaintances up in Washington, and it doesn't have to be perfect, right? :) By the way, does anyone else have issues moving pictures within each post? I always waste so much time fighting with Blogger to move pictures into the order I want them on the post. Let me know how you do it!

So these are some of our Easter pictures. I love the back of their dresses, and look at that furry little mullet sticking out of that Easter bonnet! In the last 4 weeks or so Miri's hair has begun to grow and it's gotten lighter. Maybe from the sun, but that's about when Elena's hair started growing too. My baby is growing up! While Auntie B was here in early May Miriam rolled over for the first time, and now she's a creeper! I often lay her down on the floor to play on a blanket and just a few seconds later I'll look again and she'll be rolled over, facing a totally different direction and gnawing on some toy. She's definitely teething, too. Nothing has popped out yet though.

These girls LOVE each other. Miriam lights up when she sees her sister and Elena is good at entertaining her and making her laugh!
The "girls" on Easter morning. Too bad we didn't get a family picture that day. Daddy looked so handsome too!

Cabin Fever

The long winter has encouraged lots of creativity when it comes to keeping little ones occupied. Elena found her own way to stay busy yesterday, which I was astonished to find after turning around for just a few minutes! I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She also got to clean up the floor after the fun of coloring on it. God bless whoever invented washable markers.

The winter just keeps lasting and lasting and lasting...

Yesterday morning (April 2) we woke up to this view out our front door:

It's officially the snowiest winter on record for the city of Spokane. We have been told (numerous times) that last year it snowed in June! We've loved having a real winter but are SOOO ready for spring.

We're Back!

Well, friends, as some of you know, Jared left January 19th for his first KC-135 deployment. He deployed to Manas Air Base in Kyrgystan-14 time zones ahead of us here in Pacific time. He came home safely to us on Tuesday. Thank You, Jesus! It was a big day for the Tanners, and we are SO happy to be together again. It was a rough 2 months for me as we were apart, and I was a single parent to a 3-week-old who didn't sleep through the night yet and a 2-year-old potty training toddler (shout out to the Petersons-NOW I know why Tracy's story of going through deployment with a newborn and potty-training toddler seemed to be such a significant memory for her). God definitely designed the family with 2 parents for a reason.

I must say, though, that we had an incredible amount of help, offers of help, and support! Our small group gave Miriam a welcome party, complete with presents and food for the freezer so I didn't have to cook as much, our new friends the Halpins made a commitment to come over on Mondays and Fridays to give me a break and bring us dinner. Amber (Hum) came to visit-it was like a mini vacation! Our Blackhawk family (squadr

on) checked in on us, visited, called, and encouraged. And our wonderful neighbors checked in often to make sure we were okay, had us over, came to visit, and went to lunch with us! When Jared left Elena was in diapers and Miri was a newborn, now Elena is (almost completely) potty trained, Miriam is sleeping in her crib, and I have gained some parenting confidence! Thank you for your prayers and support. In true Air Force fashion, we already have the dates for the next deployment. New Mexico, here we come!

No, those are not the same baby

The picture on the top is Miriam at 2 days, the one on the bottom is Elena at 8 days. I think we have an idea of what Miriam will look like when she gets older! I love how cute my babies are! :)