So what I'm gathering from most everyone is:
1.) For a live scenario, it's best to just use the editor within my Fantom to go ahead and create/manipulate the sounds for whatever needs I might have
2.) However, I can't directly transfer any of my created sounds/patches from my Fantom to Sonar (or vice-versa) for editing, but I can sample them (i.e. record as audio)
3.) If I'm messing around on my home rig and I create a killer groove/beat/loop, I'll have to export it as a .wav and import it into my Fantom in order for it to be used 'live'
4.)  I can check out Cantible (http://www.cantabilesoftware.com/) or this Resampler (http://www.audiosolutions.nexoe.de/products_RSMPL_overview.html) - someone can check this one out and see if it seems legit.  But again, it'll require me toting a laptop around.
 
Am I understanding all this correctly?

I'm not sure I know what a "conventional Rompler" is?

Your Fantom is a conventional rompler. It means a hardware sample player, a sampler that can't sample, only play back. The samples are stored in Read Only Memory, hence "rompler". Most romplers are also considered synthesizers, though, in the same way that Omnisphere is considered a synthesizer, because they offer synthesizer-style control over the way the samples are played back.

Hi, musmin! I have tried both ways, laptop and hardware synth. I found myself in the same position you are. From my experience, the laptop direction is the most unstable. I had many embarrassing moments during performances that the laptop left me standing there in the middle of the stage looking like a total idiot. Which I might be,BTW!
As much as I would love for my performances to sound exactly the same as my recordings the laptop has let me down too often. Load times using X2 as my playback are horrendous because of the amount of VST instruments to load samples in to the RAM. I have gone back to using my old hardware synth and no one has known the difference. Although I miss the quality of using the laptop, the stability of the hardware unit makes me more at ease and it has never quit or gone down on me, EVER!
Unless you have a backup laptop for emergency, I would stick with your Fantom for live performance. I also agree with the post about programming your own sounds. ALL synths have quite a large learning curve when it comes to programming but it is worth it.

Thank you all so much for your feedback and willingness to help me out!!  I've learned a lot.

Sidroe:  I really appreciate you sharing your experience!  You've definitely helped (along with everyone else) me lean more towards just diving a little bit deeper into my Fantom and learn about its editing capabilities.  But I'm sure when I get further into that I'll be jumping on some other forums for some more help!

I'm still definitely interested in experimenting with soft synths (Kontact, Absynthe, Omnisphere, even Reason - as much as I hate to join the crowd), but there are plenty of posts out there about personal favorites that I can glean from.

Thanks again everyone!  And as always, I'll be checking back bc I'm always open for more feedback!

@musmin2415 If synth looking for check minibrute or moog minitaur or Dave smith instrument mopho. And use your Fantom as controller. 

Here new synth just came out 

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Rocket/

Sweet gear man - I'll check it out!  Thanks

Welcome, Know you said soft synth but hardware is some times better. 

Here classical hardware by korg release 2013 http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MS20mini