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.