Zavoral Villa!

My best friend from college, Janae, came to visit us May 2 - 7. She watched Tanner while we worked, and she helped me get everything ready for the baby. Tanner became her little buddy.  We went to the pool, the beach, Target, the Getty Museum, had a bonfire on a beach near San Juan Capistrano, Downtown Disney, and the HB Farmer's Night Market.  While Janae was here, Jeremy cut Tanner's hair. Here's before...  Here's after the 1 inch trim that I gave him.    But Jeremy insisted that we give it a real cut. So now he looks like a totally different kid! It took me about a week to get used to it. I sure do miss the curls, but he is very handsome with his new look. While Janae was here, our sister Katie & Steve (Kateve) had a flight get canceled on their way home from Hawaii. So they spent the night with us, which meant that we got to see our baby nieces! Tanner REALLY liked his baby cousins. We hoped this meant he'll like his new baby brother. We all went out to ...

Jeremy was super excited to get us tickets to the Grand Prix on April 20. I didn't know much about it, and I still don't know much about it, other than it was really cool. Basically, they close off a bunch of roads in Long Beach and let race cars zoom around the town at 200 miles an hour. They have food, venders, entertainment, the works.  The cars are really, really loud. Tanner was pretty nervous about them at first. He did NOT want to watch the races at all.  They had a big car show/vender's fair thing in the giant conference hall. Tanner liked that much more than the real races. He was elated when we found the model cars to sit in and "drive." They had a kids area with games and little race cars. Tanner was too little to make them drive, so he was upset that his car was not moving.   We got great seats right next to the race track. By this point, Tanner was much more comfortable with the race cars. He was yelling "Go car, go!!" and "WOW!" ...

I mentioned in the previous post that during my spring break we had our home on the market (Tues to Sun). We couldn't be at the home from 10:00 am- 7:00 pm in order for people to see our home. During that week, we had over 100 agents come through and about 40-50 buyers. Here are some photos of Tanner and me passing the time. Naps had to be in the car...   Lunch had to be eaten out... (Tanner loved seasoning the table with salt. Can you see the layer of white on the table?) and we got to visit Dada a few times.  One day we ate at a super yummy Indian Restaurant. This is Tanner learning to say "cheese" for the camera. Don't forget, we also visited with Taryn in LA for one of these days.  And we spent some early evenings with friends from church, including the Bendheims and the Wells.  On Saturday while our home was on the market, we went to Newport beach and got ice cream cones. On Sunday, we also had people viewing the home, so we stayed at the church for a looon...

Lots of big changes are happening in our family. To say that we've been busy is a huge understatement. Staying Home Full-time Friday was my last official day teaching music at the private school. Now, I get to be home full-time with Tanner and my future baby. We decided this a long time ago- even before I got pregnant. It was always in the plan that baby #2 would be the time to call it quits with teaching for a few years. At this particular job, the workload is unbelievably huge and the pay is about 20,000 less than what I would get teaching in public school. So besides the emotional and spiritual benefits of being home with my kids, the financial benefits are huge, too. We wouldn't make much money if I keep working.  I've definitely learned a lot this year while being a mom of a toddler, being pregnant, and working full-time. It really has been one of the most challenging years of my teaching career. A lot has happened at work this year that has made it very easy for me to...