May 8 2022

20 Years ago!

I sure love this guy.  Can't believe how fast 20 years go by though.  It's fun to think back to all the things we have gone through-So much growing up (I mean look at us, we were babies!) and learning and loving and experiencing.  Lots of laughs and a few tears.  I love where we are and the things we have learned through these years together.  

Lately at the Tanner house:

A new kitten.  Whose name is Battle Cat.  I know.  Battle Cat???

Apparently, this is Battle Cat.  Who knew?

Tree forts with the cutest friends

Cleaning up the playground at the elementary school afterhours.  Putting all the left coats and jackets in the "Alien Underwear"

Will finished his desk that he has been working on for a bit.  He got to use his new fancy table saw.  Now he has his desk in his nice, cleaned out room with his dart board.  So as Reed and I drift off to sleep, we hear the 'thunk...thunk...thunk..." of the darts being thrown downstairs. 

And, today is Mother's day.  I love looking back at these cute kiddos.  I sure loved those little kids stages.  So much fun.  Also, a lot of work, but fun kids.  It's easy to get sad over those years being gone.  But as I was talking to Mom last night about how fast those years go, we talked about how every stage is fun.  We had a backyard full of teenagers last night, roasting marshmallows, eating pizza and drinking lots of sugar and caffeine.  This is a fun stage too.  Seeing all my boys up with the Young Men singing for Mother's day made my heart pretty dang happy.  I am humbled to know these kids are mine and are entrusted to us!

April 2022

 The kids got a bit older and bigger the past year.  And time has seemed to speed up.

  

Abbie, Mikey and I took a walk on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.  Scout loved the water and the sticks, as usual. 

Dad and Sam were down at the state wrestling tournament where Sam won both the Greco and the Freestyle tournaments.  He's excited for high school next year!

Grandpa came and watched his mini-me both days.  

I was headed back home after taking Abbie and Will to school, and happened to see Mikey and Abe (and Sam) walking to the bus stop.  Their eyes got big when they saw me.  They had each snuck a Creamie on their way and looked so guilty!

The kids are all raising goats this year for the fair.  Last year we did two goats at our house.  This year they are each doing a goat, but they are staying at Cache High.  Our neighbors are excited about that!

Will is the FFA President and keeping busy with that and school and all the girls. 

Limiting factor

I took the kids on an "easy" hike today.  Hikes usually consist of me prodding the children along as they look at every rock and bug and flower. I told Reed once that I should enjoy it, because one day they will be running ahead and dragging me along. Well, that day came. We hiked up Richards
Hollow to a waterfall and it was a beautiful day. This was my view:

I thought I had a few more years before I was the limiting factor.  Oh well.

I love taking the kids up into the mountains.  Even when I have to drag them there and they are not happy to be there, when they get up away from everything and using their bodies, their attitude changes.  Everyone is usually happy to go, but this time Mikey was mad because we didn't do the "beaver trail."  (Temple Sawmill trail- there are several beaver dams along that hike.) But after a little pouting and moaning, he had a great time.

Lunch at the waterfall.  Look at those cute dirty feet.  Everyone said it was only a mile to the waterfall.  It felt like 3.

You can't tell, but Abbie was super nervous to be up on this rock

The "throne" on the way up 

This was at the beginning, they wanted a picture on the rock.  Except Mikey, he was still pouting.

This is Will's pet moth "Night Flight." Which is an  ironic name, since it had deformed wings and never flew.  The boys tried to take care of it for several days and they loved playing with it.  They would let it crawl all over their bodies.  Ewww.  Will brought him along for the hike, where, eventually, poor little Night Flight passed on.  Will asked me to print this picture so he could always have it.

Blogging...

The other night one of my sister's reminded me of one of the best videos.  (see June 2009, something about raisins.) So we all sat around the computer and looked back at the blog for an hour or so.  The kids loved looking back at all the pictures and funny little stories from the past 6 or 7 years.  It reminded me that I need to do it more.  I try to write in their journals as well, but this is fun with the pictures and little stories.  So I am going to try to do both again.  Thanks Nat for the reminder.

Memorial Day

May 2015

On memorial day we went down to Micah's birthday party, and on the way we stopped and Grandma and Grandpa Kayser's grave.  There were a ton of people there.  We found their graves and talked about them a litte.  Then Reed trimmed around the head stones.  Then Abbie and Mikey spend the next 20 minutes running around and picking up all the flowers that fell down.  They could have spent the whole day doing it.  Then we went to Micha's birthday party where the kids had a lot of fun playing with cousins.  And the only picture I got was of Micha's double wide...

Singing

May 2015

I snuck this picture during church.  Abbie loves to sing in church and we always bring a little children's songbook.  We forgot this week and she was so sad, so we went to the library and borrowed one.  She loves singing!

Lagoon

May 20, 2015

On May 19, it was my 6 weeks and I didn't have to use my crutches anymore...Well, at least I could put some weight on my foot, but after 6 weeks of non-weight, I still needed my crutches a little.  To celebrate, We took the kids to Lagoon.  Actually, it was my schools Lagoon Day, so I brought along the kids and the Reedo.  

This seemingly happy picture was before we went on one of the kids favorite rides.  It's some octopus thing and you can control going up and down and water can spray you, depending on where you are.  Well, Reed was so nice and let me in first "so he could help me." Actually, it was so I was on the inside and he could get me soaking wet.  See his face?  It's a scheeming face, he's so excited to get me wet, and believe me, he did.  

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Will seems happy now, but you should have seen his face while going on the roller coaster.  This is on the white roller coaster that's not really white anymore.  He was pretty scared-but in a good way, right?

The kids started off the day by getting soaked in the fountain.