Make a Smilebox photobook

Birds of Prey

This summer we decided to visit the Birds of Prey center located in Coaldale, a 20 minute drive from us. I was really amazed at the facility they have there. They take in birds that have been injured in one way or another. They have owls, eagles, hawks and lots and lots of ducks. All different varieties of each. We had a great time wandering around and watching a demonstration. The favorite part of the day for Maddi and Kaitlin was holding the little burrowing owl. I think we'll put this site on our list of summer visits.

New Look for my Blog

Okay, I'm terrible at keeping up with this blog. I admit it. But I'm playing around and getting more familiar with it, mostly by trial and error. I found this fantastic site the has the cutest blog backgrounds. Hence the new look for my blog. Im trying to post the link but I'm having trouble. the site is Leelou blogs. Cute, Cute stuff. I am hooked on checking out all the cute blogs out there. There are millions, people, millions! It is addicting. As I figure out how to do this better I will add links to the ones I like. My favorites, of course, are my friends and family. You guys do a terrific job and put me to shame.

Missionary Update

Elder Dustin Tanner has been out in the mission field for almost 4 months now. He is doing so great. We always recieve such positive emails from him each week that I can't help but grin from ear to ear as I read them. He has just gotten a new companion, an Elder Boyed from Colorado. He thinks that they will get along great. He also got to move to a new apartment, in a new neighborhood. He describes it as a much nicer place in a nicer neighborhood but their are still lots of cockroaches. You get a picture.
He has had such great experiences since being a missionary. You can just feel the spiritual growth that he is going through in the messages we recieve. They are short but sweet. As most missionary moms know, you don't get a whole lot of detail, but you can read between the lines. He has met some very interesting people in N.Y. and a lot of different nationalities. They have had a baptism and Dustin was asked to baptized the young man. They are now getting a young girl and another man ready for baptism on the 23 of this month. He loves the people in the Bronx ward. He says that he thinks they all like him too because they remember his name and they don't remember the other missionaries. He is such a people person that I think he can influence people just by getting to know them.
I am so happy to have him there. People always ask me if I worry about him and I can honestly say that I don't. If I could see where he was that would probably change, but probably not. I don't worry at all because I know he is where he needs to be and he is on the Lord's errand.
Dustin has had a mission conference with all the missionaries in N.Y. Elder Uchtdorff attended and Dustin said it was a highlight to shake his hand. The couple missionaries in his district, The Morrisons have sent a couple pictures of their district missionaries and we have loved seeing him. He looks healthy and happy.( Though he did inform me he was sick for a while and lost about 20 pounds) He has also had the opportunity to go to the museum, The Bronx Zoo and A Yankees game. My favorite part of his letters is hearing about the people he teaches and how the spirit effects their lives and changes their lives. Overall Dustin is doing great and loving what he is doing.

Kaitlins photoshoot

Aunt Tera had a photo shoot with all the cousins. She borrowed my hat collection and took the kids out behind the townhouses in the tall grass and had a great time. Here are a few of the cute pictures of Kaitlin

Major Update

Cassin and Brandon as stripling warriors

Last day of Moroni's Quest

Old Faithful

Hi to everyone,

It has been forever since I have done any updates. I could say that life just happens and it seems to get in the way of everything else, but that's just an excuse. Life has been busy and exciting. I have loved the beginning of our summer. I finally feel like I can sit and say "Aaaaah" There are no more deadlines or have to's for the summer and I kind of like it.

Summer began with a blast as we headed out to Island Park to meet up with the our great friends, the Larkin Family. We left on May27th and headed for Ennis, Mt. We stayed in this fantastic motel called the Rainbow Lodge. Little cabin rooms and a very homey feel. The kids all bought fishing poles and fished in the kiddie pond at the park while mom toured the antique shops all down mainstreet. It is a really cute little town. The cabin at Island Park was fantastic. The Larkins and the Tanners fit perfectly. We toured Yellowstone National Park one day. We saw buffalo, bald eagles, Elk, and salmon. Everything was so beautiful. We all loved the hot pots and old faithful. Fishing was on the agenda for the next day. No one lucked out with the fish till they tried the pond that was closest to the cabin. The kids had success and we had fish for supper. I think our favorite part of the vacation was just being able to spend time with our friends, just being together and having fun.

From there we headed to Rexburg to spend the 4th of July with my sisters Lori and Tera, and my brother Brett and their families. We went to the parade in rexburg then spent the day at Porter Park with the splash park and the merry go round the big hits. The fireworks were fun but I think Stirlings are better.

Next on the summer agenda was Moroni's Quest. This was a 4 day stake camp that took us back to Book of Mormon times. We all had to dress as Nephites. We had reenactments of 26 book of mormon events. It was fantastic. I went as a young womens leader but it was great because Brandon and Cassin were also there. We started off building travois and heading off on a hike. We came across Nephi as he went to get the plates from Laban and then when he was building the boat. We were divided into tribes. 12 Tribes of youth and 3 tribes of adults. Each tribe would get together after the re enactments to discuss the modern day applications of the stories. The first night they did the Tree of Life and it was incredible. They had brought in metal railing and put it up in the meadow leading to a tree that was adorned with lights and white balls. They did it at 11:00 at night so it was gorgeous. I didn't get to watch because I was one of the wandering in the dark mists, but Cassin and Brandon both said it was great. They let each of the youth come and grab the iron rod and walk to the tree while we were wandering and those in the spacious building were mocking them and trying to get them to let go. What amazed me was that as I wandered one of the boys that came from our ward who was not a member stretched his hand as far as he could without letting go and grabbed me to pull me back to the rod. A lot of the kids told us in a fireside we had 2 days later that this really touched them and none of them want to let go of that rod ever. WOW! I was so happy to hear that. Another favorite story was that of Abinadi. They had some incredible people from our ward acting this one, and as King Noah decided that they should burn Abinadi some of his soldiers and people in the crowd began yelling"Burn Him! Burn Him" and they got everyone up on their feet as they marched abinadi down and the kids started yelling too. And as I was walking it just hit me that this had really happened. They took the kids down to a lower meadow and there they had a pole and they had a manaquin dressed just like Abinadi and when they put it up on the pole and started the wood on fire there were kids snickering and laughing, but as those sticks caught fire and the body began to burn there was not a sound. Throughout the whole thing no sound but sniffles. At the end, ,Fred Hillyer, who played King Noah picked up a stick that was laying on the ground and threw it in the fire then stalked away. That had not been rehearsed that way but a lot of kids said that was so powerful for them because they realized that King Noah didn't even care that he had killed a prophet of God. The kids didn't even move at the end and it was quiet for anothe 5 min before their tribe leaders led them away for their discussion. I wish everyone could have been there to experience these wonderful stories come to life. My wish as i went there was that it would touch these kids in even a little way, and I wasn't dissappointed. As we met as a ward for our campfire at night on thursday, we had such a special meeting. By the time it was over there were no dry eyes, and I was so impressed with each of our youth and the things they had expressed. I don't think any of them had realized what an impact it would have on them. A lot of them including my own kids had said they didn't want to go or their parents made them , but that none of them would miss it for the world now. The spirit was so strong that no one wanted to leave our little group. It was such an amazing experience for every person there. I can't say enough about it. Other re enactments were from King Benjamin, The anti- Nephi Lehi's, King Lamoni and Ammon, The 2000 stripling warriors all the way through to the Prophet Joseph Smith getting the plates from Moroni. If anyone ever has the chance to participate in Moroni's Quest I encourage them to do so.

July 18th and 19th were our Stirling Settler Days. My sister Tera and her girls were here for that, and my dad's sisters Kay and Muriel came for a visit too. We were being very organized this year and got our float for the Creamery done by 5:00 on Friday instead of starting it at 10:00pm that night. And I have to say I was extremely proud of ourselves. Then we headed down to the park for the big chili cook off and cake walk. They have bounce houses all over for the kids but their favorite is trying to win one of the great cakes that people bring. Just as it all got started a huge windstorm blew in. It didn't last very long, thank goodness but guess what? Our float was torn in half and ripped apart. So much for getting it done early. oh well, we got it put back together in time for the parade the next morning. It was one of the best parades we've had. They throw tons of candy for the kids, but all of our kids wanted to be on Grandmas float for the Creamery and throw the candy instead, so I got a lot for myself. The rest of the day we spend having a BBQ at the creamery. (I mostly got to serve ice cream) The kids love the pool games where they get to catch goldfish to keep. This year it went a little differently because a lot of the poor fishys didn't make it through the night. They had a fish for a ducky and win a fish instead of swimming to catch your fish. They then had the kiddie carnival in the tennis court. All the kids get free tickets to do all the games and win the prizes. I think they had record turn outs. While all this is going on there is also a rodeo too, but we usually miss that. The scouts have a beef on a bun supper in the evening. We round it off with a family street dance in front of the pool. All the kids love that. and then they have fireworks. Most of the time I rave about our fireworks, but this year they changed the location that they shot them off from with out telling us and I think they really screwed them up. so this year they don't get a thumbs up from me. (Like my opinion matters all that much) But all in all it was a great day.

While my sister was here she helped me paint Maddi's bedroom. We had a lot of fun. Maddi picked out new bedding and then we went from there. I think it turned out spectacular. We couldn't have done such a great job without Aunt Tera's help. I am going to post the pictures so I hope it turns out that you can see it.

Well in between everything I've been working here and there.(probably not as much as I should) Making lots of pies and serving more ice cream. Managing lots of cousin sleepovers. Watching Mama Mia at the movies with my mom and sisters.(loved it! Great chick flick though my dad actually liked it too, and I'm listening to my ABBA Gold cd again. I can't get the songs out of my head)

That's it for my major update. I'll try to be better now that life has slowed down a little and update more often.

Garage Sales

Garage Sales! Some smile in delight and can't wait to be up early pedaling their wares. Then there are those that eagerly jump out of bed at the crack of dawn to be the first to get the good deals. I am really neither of the two, but today found me up at the crack of dawn (really 6:45 on an already sunny morning) setting up for the big sale. The village of Stirling holds its now annual town garage sale day on the May long weekend. For you in the States thats a week before you. I believe they hold it then to celebrate my birthday each year as it is such a huge occasion (do you believe that?). I have sworn how many times now that I will never hold another garage sale but here I was again. The weather was beautiful (That is a plus). We had record crowds (I really don't know what the record is but we had lots.) Not quite enough to clear out all the junk (I mean treasures!) But it is hard to clear it out when your children are wandering up the street and returning with treasures of their own all in the guise of birthday presents for mom (a fondue pot from the 1800's, a set of 4 brandy glasses with the olympic torch on them, and a very cudly teddy bear) I love them all. Well, the sale is over and we made out not to0 bad for 5 hours of sitting in the sun getting a farmer tan. My car is loaded (literally) with the remaining treasures that will be dropped off at good will (or is that the dump?), and we still have most of the day to maybe accomplish something. Not bad for the beginning of our long weekend, and I am still saying that is the LAST GARAGE SALE I will ever have. (I'm sticking to it this time. REALLY!)

Everyday Life

It is crazy how busy life gets just with the day to day things that need to be done. Getting kids up and dressed and trying to get them to eat breakfast (it is the most important meal of the day don't you know) then out the door on time.

Now that I work I have to take into consideration I only have a limited time to get the kitchen clean and laundry done (it seems like it never gets done, but wait, it felt the same way when I wasn't working so how can I complain). Then there are the sports. Soccer almost everyday and T-ball for Kaitlin. The nice thing for me is that most of the time it is right here in Stirling and I don't have to drive the kids. They can make it to the soccer field by themselves. Then it just falls to me to make the time to be there to watch. Thursdays are the only rough day there. Kaitlin has T-ball at the park a whopping 3 blocks from the Soccer field that lies behind the school, but Maddi's soccer game overlaps by 1/2 an hour. Good thing she is a good sport and can play for that amount of time without mom's eyes on her. Kaitlin on the other hand can't. She has to make sure mom will be there to watch anxiously as she wacks the ball from the stand. I am lucky that the boys just seem to handle most things on their own, most of the time (I wish the same were true where school work was concerned). I love watching them all and they are all great at what they do. I love seeing them try new things and realizing they have a talent they didn't know about. Even Cassin is getting into soccer and likes it (most of his sports are of the individual nature, skateboarding, biking, snowboarding, dirt biking, It is nice to see him in a team sport and playing nice with others)(just kidding) I feel like I'm rambling here and running out of time. Wait that was what I was complaining about at first, Not enough time! We all have the same 24 hours, and we probably all feel the same stress of it not being enough. I don't think any more would really make a difference it would just mean one more load of laundry and who wants that. I really do love my life. I'll just have to squeeze a little time here and there for updates on this blog.

Cassins Graduation

We attended Cassin's Graduation last night. It started with the banquet at 6:00. All the graduates looked fabulous in their suits, tuxes, and evening gowns. Graduation in Stirling is a lot different from what most schools have. It is a very personal evening all about the graduates. In this case all 16 of them.(You can see why it can be more personal) After the banquet we had time for photos with dates and family members. At 8:00 was the program. There is a tribute to the grads. A tribute to parents. The valedictorian address. The guest speaker (Shaun Nelson). The class history, which is a funny remembrance of each grad. They then had a video presentation that each grad had done of themselves with pictures throughout their life. It was a really nice evening. Now they have to wait till the end of June to really finish their high school career.

Sending out a missionary

We sent out our first missionary on the 23rd of april. What a great experience! Dustin gave his farewell talk in sacrament on Sunday the 20th. The WHOLE family on both the Tanner and Memmott sides of the family were there except uncle Dan whose plane was grounded because of snow. What a fantastic site to see everyone together to show support for Elder Tanner. We love everyone for making such a huge effort to be there!(Even through the blizzards and family pictures) Cassin and Dustin both spoke that day and did a great job. It was nice to just spend time with family and friends. Dustin was set apart as a missionary sunday night by President Evanson. That was a special experience to witness.
Dustin told me "NO Tears Mom. We've said goodbye before." I think that helped in letting him go out the door marked MISSIONARIES. I held up my end and only cried a little when I left the building to walk to the car. Jeff was doing his happy dance. I haven't seen a prouder Father. What a great feeling it is to have a son serving the Lord and doing what is right. Now we wait on pins and needles to find out how life in the MTC is going. We will keep you all posted as we hear from him. Anyone who would like to write to Dustin in the MTC the address is :Elder Dustin Jeffrey Tanner, MTC mailbox #150, NY-NYCN 0513, 2005 N. 900 E., Provo, Utah 84604-1793

Wow, I never really thought I would be a blogger. But a lot of my friends are doing it( that sounds so lame) and it looks fun and seems to be a great way to share information. I'll probably make a mess of it at first so bear with me. This will be my first attempt at blogging. I've already messed up the picture but I'll get it staightened out eventually. Stick with me and I'll try to update you on the exploits of the Tanner 8.