Zavoral Villa!

It's time to play catch up! We've been traveling and remodeling our kitchen and I started work this week, so I am a month behind on my posts.  Here are some pictures of my summer days with Tanner. You'll soon notice a common theme: SMILES! Tanner has always been a very easy going, happy baby. All summer long when we were out on errands, people would comment on how happy he is. "What a big smile!" "I haven't seen such a smiley baby in such a long time." "Wow! He sure is a smile-er." "That's the biggest baby smile I've seen!" These pictures are from July 18-23.  Tanner practiced a lot with a sippy cup, but could never get the hang of it. Now, he does really well with a straw. I think it's easier for him to control the water flow. We drew with window markers on our kitchen mirror. It was great because I knew the mirror would get demolished soon.

Do you remember that video that I made called " Six months in six minutes "? It was awesome, right? So I tried making another awesome video that would include the next six months of his life. Well, that turned out to be a terrible idea because we had over 3 hours of footage. There was no way I could edit all of that down to a YouTube video that anyone would actually watch.  I had to come up with a better way to entertain all of you. As I filtered through the videos, certain themes started to emerge:  Tanner learning to crawl and walk, Tanner with relatives and friends, Tanner exploring the house, Tanner traveling, Tanner exploring music. Here's the first video that I completed from all of the footage: "Our Little Music Man"-- less than 9 minutes long! I love this video because it supports the philosophy that EVERY child is musical. We are all born with musical potential, and when we are given the proper experiences, we can thrive as musical creators throughout o...

Tanner graduated from wearing his helmet on July 16! His craniologist is really pleased with the growth that his head made. His head isn't totally round, but much better if we hadn't done the helmet. One thing I am very grateful for is that Tanner had a huge growth spurt while wearing his helmet. This is something that I specifically prayed for, and I know that God answered my prayers.   I kind of feel like He helped delay Tanner's growth until he got his helmet. That would explain Tanner's consistently low numbers in heighth and head width for so many months, but then a huge spurt during his helmet time, and now he is at normal numbers.  We are going to miss this little helmet face. Tanner looks like a totally different kid without it.   And here's a few pictures of Tanner practicing walking with his walker toy. These pics are from a few weeks ago. Tanner officially became a real walker yesterday, making 10-15 steps in a row throughout the entire house!

My wonderful grandmother, Ruth Higgins, passed away last month. She asked that we go on a fun trip in her honor. (What an awesome grandma, right?) So we all met up in Oceanside, Ca July 12-15 to enjoy a special time with the family. We went to the Wild Animal Park in San Diego, cave kayaking in La Holla, played in the hot tub and condo, and had a nice devotional in remembrance of Grandma.  This trip was the perfect thing to do because Grandma was always taking us on outings to the beach, parks, and tourist sites. She was constantly entertaining us with art projects, songs, stories, and games. I miss her very much! She has influenced my life in many, many ways. Grandma was an elementary school teacher and a music minor. In fact, her mother was a teacher, too, so I guess teaching runs in my family! I've always admired Grandma Higgins and tried taking advantage of every chance to be with her, to sing with her and to enjoy her company. When I was 20, I recorded her and Grandpa singing ...

Our name for Jeremy's sister, Katie, and her husband, Steve, is Kateve. They came to visit right after Independence Day for July 5-8. We had a blast with them! We felt so special that they wanted to spend part of their vacation with us. And Tanner loved being with his Aunt and Uncle!!  Can you tell that Katie is 20 weeks pregnant with twins? We are really excited for Tanner to have 2 baby girl cousins. We made a hole in the sand so that Katie could sleep on her belly. Tanner chilled out with a bottle next to her.    Tanner loved climbing on the boogie boards.  It was a beautiful day at the beach! You could see Catalina really well, the wind was the calmest it's been in months, and the water was warmer, too. Steve's nieces and nephews were with us at the beach. They proved to me that you can find crabs on this beach. I was really surprised because I didn't think these critters lived on our beaches. Can you spot the big one in the left side of the bucket? On Saturday, ...