A review of 2008

Let's see, what happened this year . . .
We started off with the temple open house and dedication. What a neat experience for all of us! And ever since then, Cheyenne and I have been doing baptisms there about every other month and some of those months, twice in the same week. What a blessing to have a temple so close now!

In March, Natalie started karate lessons. She loves it and especially loves practicing her "moves" on Cheyenne. Cheyenne is a little afraid of her now. Natalie earned her yellow belt in Sept. and is now working toward orange, I think. This is her in her sparing gear.A huge milestone was accomplished by the triplets about the same time. All three were potty trained in about 6 weeks! It was awesome!! It is sooooo nice to be diaper free at our house.

The kids were thrilled when we got a swing set this spring. Bill and I were not so thrilled with the assembly that was required to put it all together.

The summer was spent working in the garden, much to Cheyenne, Natalie, and Billy's chagrin. Despite the stupid gophers taking nibbles out of about everything, we got a good harvest and did a lot of canning this fall, too.
I got to spend a few days up at Girls Camp with Cheyenne, although I hardly ever saw her. We as leaders were trying to decide if camp is more fun as girls or as leaders. I think as leaders! I haven't laughed so much in a long time. I think Cheyenne had a blast, though, too!

Bill got to take a few rides up in the hills on his 4-wheeler until he dumped it down the side of the mountain. Luckily, he got off it first. The girls told me I should "ground" him from the 4-wheeler, but after a lot of work and a few parts, it's running like new and he enjoyed a few more rides with his dad, uncles, and friends.

A huge milestone was reached for Billy, too. He started kindergarten this fall. It made mom sad and Chloe, Maddie, and Jon weren't sure what to do when he left, but we've adjusted now. Billy is really enjoying it, especially recess where he loves to play "army guys" with his friends, and he loves to ride the bus.

Bill has also been busy starting a new business this fall. He and two of his friends started a dvd rental business. The have 5 kiosks (like Redbox) around the area. They're still doing some tweaking on it, but things are coming along. The best part is we usually get to preview the movies a few days before they come out to rent/buy.

I got to take a little weekend "girls only" trip to UT with my mom, sisters, and sisters-in-law in October. What a blast! We even made our television debut on "Good Things Utah".

Natalie started playing the clarinet this fall and Cheyenne is still playing the saxaphone. They both love it! I get a little lost when they start talking about reed numbers, ligatures, embouchure, and what "key" their instrument plays in. Good thing Bill understands their language. It's fun seeing them enjoying playing music (and learning counting is important, not just something mean old moms/piano teachers make them do).

I've been playing with the camera again, and wishing I had more time to play - that's my goal for next year.

I guess that brings up to now. We're excited for Christmas and enjoying the snow we're getting (well, except for Cheyenne and maybe Bill.) We wish you all the best for 2009! Love, The Tanners

New Room

Well, we finally got everything finished in our room, so I thought I'd share some pictures. I'm so excited!!! We bought new furniture - which we've never had, a whole new bed set, we painted (Bill moved away from white walls!!), and I found the perfect pictures that I just love. My mom (the wonderful and talented woman that she is) recovered the chair for me again. We even got "saloon" doors for our closet - the kids think they're the funnest things to play with ever! The only thing left to do now (according to Bill) is get the flat screen tv that we so badly "need" in there.

Thanksgiving Fun

Ahh, Thanksgiving . . . what a great holiday! Family, food, and fun, what could be better? Well, we started off the festivities with my sisters, my mom, and me going to see Twilight. A fun "girls time" but the movie could have been better. Of course Thursday was a great feast at my parents this year. All of us siblings and kids were there and as we discovered later, this could be one of the last times we are ALL together. Between my parents leaving on a mission soon and nephews leaving one after another, it could be a while. After dinner was the traditional browse through the circulars, as Grandma Clements would call them. We didn't find much worth getting up early for and even Curtis couldn't find anything worth camping out for, what a disappointment! Friday, we all got beautiful and froze while we took family pictures. All the red noses and cheeks will just remind us of the fun of Idaho in November. The kids loved playing with cousins for days on end and I don't think the xbox was ever turned off the whole weekend. The girls even had to take a turn at Rock Band, and we ROCKED!!

Happy Halloween!

We had another fun Halloween filled with tons of candy and lots of fun. First, I was in charge of Billy's class party. Then we hurried home to get everyone dressed and ran into town to pick up Cheyenne and Natalie so we could go to Bill's office. Every year Bill's office has trick-or-treating for all the employees kids/grandkids. This is awesome since you never know what the weather will be like in Idaho. We don't have to design costumes around coats or sweats even. The kids get TONS of candy, which means we don't have to do much other toting either - only a few select houses who give full size candy bars! lol



So here is the Justice League! This has been one of our favorites for a couple years now. We have 4 seasons (Justice League Unlimited, too) on DVD, the boys room is decorated that way, and they all have their claim on a certain character - Billy is Batman, Jon is Superman, Chloe is Supergirl, Maddie had to be WonderWoman (which is usually Natalie's character) . She's Hawkgirl when she watches the cartoon, but Mom couldn't find that costume, much to Maddie's dismay. It's good to know our home is well protected from all evil, badguys. Here they're posing like the picture the boys have in their room (below.)

Natalie wore her karate gi for halloween (picture coming soon) and Cheyenne (wearing her dad's old jersey) and I dressed up for a party at mutual a couple nights before, too.

More Fun

I had so much fun, I had to do the rest of my family.



I always wanted you to grow your hair a little longer, Bill. There was one that looked exactly like a picture of your Uncle Bob in high school, except the goatee didn't work with the picture.

Cheyenne, I think we graduated together!

Natalie, circa 1964.











I think Billy graduated with us, too!

Chloe in 1990 fashion.

Maddie in 1954.











Jon's chillin' in 1976.

Yearbook Yourself

Okay, I had wayyyyy to much fun with this site: www.yearbookyourself.com Billy kept telling me, "Mom, stop laughing!" Check out my results -

• Here's when I graduated with Mom.

• Now with Brad

• Next Shaun, I was probably friends with Kristen.

• And this one looks really close to my senior pictures. lol

New Job Charts!

Okay, I'm an organizing freak, I'll admit it. One of my favorite pastimes is organizing something - closets, scrapbook stuff, kids drawers/closets, recipes, just about anything. I'll even go to my sister's house to organize her stuff when I run out of my own. Two of my favorite times of the year are "back to school" and New Years. Why - that's when all the organizing stuff is out and on sale! Along with the organizing of stuff, I'm always looking for new/better ways to organize my life. So here's my latest creation - new job charts for the kids. The older kids were getting a little annoyed/worried that the little three didn't have charts yet, so I was sure to include them now, too.

Okay, I had to do it, too.

Loved the books, looking forward to the movie!


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Top 10 List

Long time, no post! Things got busy for a while, canning kind of took over my life for a while. When I wasn't actually canning, I was harvesting, cleaning up the garden, on the hunt for bottles, planning for it, gathering supplies for it, then rearranging all the food storage afterward, etc. etc. It's a big LONG process. We're all so glad it's over. So now, my top 6 (I'm too tired to think of 10) list of "Reasons I'm Glad to be Done Canning".

6. My counter tops can be used again and are not covered in bottles full and empty/canners/dehydrators, etc.
5. My life is not revolving around when fruit comes on, when the timer will beep, when Mom can come and help (Thank you soooo much, Mom!), which food item is more ripe than the others, etc.
4. My kitchen floor is no longer poka-dotted and sticky. Ahh, a clean floor!
3. The little kids have never watched so many movies in a day. They loved it, and it kept them busy so I could get more done. They really were good while I worked.
2. It invaded every aspect of our lives. It was the topic of discussion constantly - what got done today, what is left, when will it be done. An example, Cheyenne was helping Billy with his homework one day. He was supposed to repeat the sentence she told him. The sentence was, "My shoes come in pairs." He repeated, "My shoes come in peaches?" We laughed and laughed and I knew canning better come to an end soon.
1. Seeing my storage shelves overflowing with all my hard work and tastiness!

Cut off from the World!

That's how I've felt the last week, like I was in the dark ages almost. lol I've been without a computer (or scared to use it for fear of what it would do to it) for over a week. And to think, just 13 years ago I was barely getting hooked up to the internet and email, back in the days of dial-up and 20 min. page loading. The girls have been going bonkers not being able to check their email or chat each day. And Billy has been lost without his 30 min. of game time. Ahhh, we're glad to be back to civilaztion. ;)

First Day of School

Summer has now come to an end for us. I can't believe it went so fast! The big kids started school last Wednesday. Cheyenne started 7th grade, Natalie is in 5th grade and moved into the middle school with her sis, and Billy started kindergarten. The all had a great first day!
Both girls were very excited to start; I think mostly because it meant less time spent weeding the garden. lol After almost a week, they're both still enjoying it. Natalie just got her clarinet on Saturday and can't wait to get started in band this year. Cheyenne is playing the sax still and so far, the only complaining is about her band teacher's LONG, repetitive lectures. They've both even managed not to have any homework yet.Billy couldn't wait for school to start! He's been counting down for almost a month now. He LOVES school!!! While I was trying to hold back the tears (I still can't believe my little buddy is in kindergarten), he ran right into the school leaving me behind. He had an awesome first day, although, I was informed that he was the only kid who didn't have a snack. I make sure he has one every day now. :) He loves riding the bus and his favorite part of school, according to him, is playing either in class or at recess.

Cheyenne's Haircut

I forgot one other thing we did in our crazy week last week, we got haircuts. Cheyenne really cut hers!! She cut off 10"!! She wanted it shorter for school this year since it's been long for a couple years now, so she cut off 10 inches and donated it to Locks of Love. She was very excited to get it cut, but not so excited after it was cut. I think the hairdresser cut a little extra off and as Cheyenne's hair dried, those curls made it go up, up, up. After we got home and straightened it and played with it for a while, she was feeling better about it. And now after getting lots of compliments on it, she's liking it. Either way, I think she's beautiful! Love you Cheyenne!

Crazy week!

Since I've gotten a little flack for not posting again since I started, I'll share what kept us so busy for a while.

We've been picking raspberries and making jam and canning pickle relish. These were for Cheyenne and Natalie's 4-H projects for the fair.

Then last Monday, it was the annual Grandpa's camp-out for all the grandkids who've finished 1st grade. They had a blast!! Oh, and before they left, the girls did all the baking for their fair entries.

They got home Tuesday afternoon just in time to register for school and make it to the Cookies, Cakes, and Pies contest. Cheyenne won first place in the cakes, okay here's was the only entry, but it was still delicious. Natalie didn't place, but we all know her's won the popular vote. After the contest everyone can try all the entries and her plate was empty in seconds! ALL of the others took cookies home.

Wednesday was registering Billy for school, another trip to town and then the regular mutual and karate routine that night. I can't believe my little buddy is going to school this year, but that will be a post for a few more days.

Thursday was trying to catch up on somethings.

Friday morning we went to the fair to check out Cheyenne and Natalie's winnings. Unfortunately, we were slightly disappointed by no "special award" (better than blue) ribbons, and a red ribbon each. But 3 blue ribbons each isn't bad!!

Finally, Friday and Saturday were all day fun at our family reunion at my parents house. Another great weekend of fun, volleyball (well, the twisting my knee part wasn't so fun), lots of cousins, water fights, and the 20 ft. waterslide - which we even got the grandparents on (yes, Aunt Ann, we got Ray, Margie and Mom to go down, dad wouldn't have anything to do with it. Shaun got a great picture of the two lovely ladies going down, but I didn't think they'd appreciate me posting it here. lol)

It's been a busy week. Now we're just cramming in the last bit of fun and a little more weeding I can get out of the girls before school starts on Wednesday!

Recipe of the Week

I love to try new recipes, often times to my family's dismay, but I get bored cooking and eating the same things. Plus, I love cookbooks and can't pass up a friend's wonderful recipe. So I usually try a new recipe a week and then we rate them to see if it gets added to our list. Each recipe gets up to a five star rating.

So, here's this week's from a wonderful friend of mine:

Crockpot Cream Cheese Chicken (5 STARS!)
Ingredients:
--1 can cream-of-chicken soup
--1/2 cup chicken broth
--frozen chicken pieces
--packet of Italian salad dressing mix
--2 cloves minced garlic
--block of cream cheese (to add later)

Directions:
Put everything except for the cream cheese into the crockpot. Cook on low for 6 hours, or until the chicken is cooked through and begins to shred. Shred the chicken with two large forks, and mix in the block of cream cheese. Switch the crock to high and cook for another 30 minutes, or until the cream cheese is fully melted. Serve over pasta or rice.


Super easy and super yummy, oh, except Bill got a hold of it and he thought he'd change it up a bit. So his modified version changes the cream cheese to a can of cheddar cheese soup and a little cheddar cheese sprinkled in. It was delicious and would be great as tacos to use up the leftovers.

Thanks Ginny!!!

What's in a name?

Okay, I did it, too. I jumped on the blogging bandwagon. I couldn't resist any longer. Now hopefully, I have enough to say to make it worth it.

So what's in a name? I believe it was Shakespear who said, "A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet." So after much deliberation, "The Brown Eyes Have It" is what I came up with. And why? Because of the fact that 6 out of 8 in our family have beautiful, dark chocolate eyes. Cheyenne and I don't. The triplets are very interested in eye color lately and love to name everyone with brown eyes. Bill used to sing "My Brown Eyed Girl" to Natalie when she was a baby and then started singing it again to Chloe and Maddie. Natalie was thrilled when I found her a shirt that said, "Everyone loves a brown-eyed girl," and was even more excited when I found smaller ones for Chloe and Maddie. No one ever sings songs or raves about green eyes.

So around our house, when the battle begins of what color eyes is the best, green always gets out voted and the brown eyes have it.
(Picture was taken July 2007 in their "brown-eyed girl" shirts.)