Halloween 2010

Halloween is a favorite holiday at our house. We love the dressing up for school/work. The dressing up for trick or treating. Seeing all the cute/scary/weird kids that come for candy.

Well, here is who and/or what we were this year...

Wynn the gunslinger

Pretty normal, huh?

Mom the hippie

(both school & passing out candy night of)
And this was Elder Gary's costume the last Halloween before

leaving on his mission.........

(nobody recognized me in this.....the kids, coworkers, friends,

people in the ward....)

Scary part is how much I LOOK LIKE HIM IN IT!!!

Nothing feminine here!

(absolutely wore my 5 inch heels to

church the next day!)

Drew as Pebbles for work on Friday

Drew as a ghost for Halloween night








Scary?

Morgan the zombie
(for school)

Nothing like her Homecoming pics huh?

Lexie ready for her Hillbilly prom?

(school)

Ain't she purty?

Lexie and friends RaQuel and Sharilyn

The Purple Ninjas

ready for trick or treating

Scary Ninja pose

Tanner wanted to be a baby girl doll

(both for school/and treating)

after all, his dad and brother (Elder Gary)

had both done it before!

And isn't he a cutie!!!

(nobody recognized him either!)

And now you see why we love Halloween. How can you not? We have soooooo much fun. Hope you had fun too!

Happy Very Special 8th Birthday!

Today is a very special day for a very special boy. Today Tanner turns 8 years old. Which means that in 4 days he is going to be baptized. He keeps us laughing with his quick sense of humor. We are so glad that Tanner came along in our family, it's been fun having him as the caboose to the train of our family.

Oh how he loves his TMNT--

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Looking a little tired thinking he's never going to eat the cake!

Finally getting to blow out the candles!

Was so excited to get the same present all his brothers and sisters got on their 8th birthdays. A real set of Scriptures with a case and his named engraved. He couldn't wait for his birthday to go pick them out!

Happy Birthday 8th Tanner!!!

Tannerism #13

The other day I was on my Facebook. I noticed that the 'Farm' on there that Tanner usually takes care of for me was getting a bit overrun. I decided I would take care of it by deleting a few things and rearranging and then readding things back on. Tanner walked in while I was doing it......

"Mom! What are you doing?"
"It's getting over crowded so I'm rearranging it."
"Why are you getting rid of the plants. I don't want you to delete them!"
"But I have to for right now. We'll put some more back on. I'm going to make it bigger and rearrange things so they fit. It's too crowded."
"You're deleting them. I told you I didn't want you to do that."
"But I told you I needed to."

He turns his back and sticks his foot out in a very teenager sort of way and says in a sing-songy way....

"I'm not done not liking you right now."

I couldn't help it. I cracked up. It was too funny!

And he did like the 'farm' when I got it rearranged.

Tannerism #12

Lexie and I were sitting at the table playing 'Sorry'. Tanner was at the table playing with some of his toys and watching us. (Lexie and I are having a 'Sorry' tournament) I went to make a move and hesitated, to think, and Tanner put his hand on his chin and said "Hmmmm." So Lexie and I did that too and noticed that we both rolled ours eyes up.

Us, "Why do people always roll their eyes up when they're trying to think? Maybe it's so they can see in their brain."

Tanner, "Or that cloud over their head."

Us---Hysterical laughter

Tanner, "What? You know how they always have a cloud over their head when they're thinking in a commercial. If you would just look in the cloud over your head then you would know what you're thinking!"


Then he proceeds to disappear in the office, coming out a minute later. He had with him a notebook they use to draw in. He flipped right to a picture he had drawn a long time ago of a person with a dialogue cloud over their head.

"See. The cloud over peoples heads like in the commercials. Just look in there people!"

Tannerism #11

Lexie, Tanner and myself have been watching the old school Beverly Hillbillies reruns on TVLand. We were watching an episode where 'the wealthiest woman in the world' wanted to buy the mansion. She wound up trying to bribe Granny and Ellie Mae with some fur coats. The two of them finally realized that she wasn't being sincere and decided they needed to return the fur coats. Of course, they decided they needed to return them clean, so they threw them in the washer. When they get to the woman's hotel room, they explain what they did, then show her the coats. One was shrunk, of course. The zebra one is completely white, the lye soap took the stripes right off. Etc, etc. Tanner doesn't even skip a beat and in all seriousness says........

"Well, that explains why we can't put Moose in the washer. His fur would shrink and his grey would be gone."

Yeah, that's why. Bahahahahaha!!!!!

Tannerism #10

Morgan and Lexie went to breakfast for one of the girls that was leaving Young Womens to go to college. Of course, they decorated with balloons. Lexie brought 2 of them home and gave them to Tanner. They were just regular balloons blown up by the girls. Tanner let go and they fell to the floor instead of floating to the ceiling like he was expecting. He looked at Lexie and said......

"Why aren't these balloons made out of Helaman?"

Seriously!

Tannerism #9

Lexie and Tanner were building things with the Jenga blocks. Lexie had built a tower and Tanner told her it was leaning......

"It's leaning."

"No it's not."

"Yeah, it's leaning over."

"Tanner, it's not leaning. It's straight."

"Lexie, it's leaning. It looks like that Leaning Tower of Paris thing!"

Laughing so hard we were crying.

Tannerism #8

A few weeks ago Lexie, Tanner and myself were driving in the car. We saw someone that looked a little.......different, to put it mildly. So the saying was said of 'Don't judge a book by it's cover'. Tanner and Lexie start saying random things and Tanner comes up with.......

Don't judge a spy by it's gadgets!

Really? Then we find out that, (all in one breath) "Well, you guys said don't judge a book by it's cover and that reminded me that Lexie has that book 'Don't Judge a Girl By Her Cover' and she's a spy in the book so I thought of a spy and a spy has lots of gadgets and I just came up with 'Don't judge a spy by it's gadgets'."

Really.

Tannerisms #7

At the first of July-ish I bought Tanner a pair of khaki pants for Church so he didn't have to wear his suit all summer. (he gets too hot and that's never good!) He wore them to church, they were to the bottom of his shoe just above the floor so not dragging. He wore them the next Sunday and I noticed they were at the top of his shoe. I thought they must have shrunk and then remembered they hadn't been washed since he only wore them a couple of hours. I washed them and he wore them the next Friday when we went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House. I noticed his socks were now showing between his shoe and pants when he walked and they were really tight on his tummy. He had only wore them 3 times in 2 weeks and had been washed once!!! So I bought him a bigger pair and took the now too small pair to Tawnya for Sammy. That day I got to thinking that even though I had to buy him new pants for school in the spring because his others were too small (so they were fairly new), he hadn't worn them all summer. I figured he probably ought to try them on to see how they were so I knew what I had to buy for school.......

(If you haven't watched 'Over the Hedge' you probably won't find this as funny as it is)

Me--"Tanner go get all your jeans and try them on for me."
Tanner--"Why?"
"So I can see how long or short they are."
"Fine."

I was cooking dinner so he gets them and takes them to my room which is next to the kitchen. He comes out and I see they are WELL above his ankles. Wynn was in the back yard working on the yard....

Me--"Go show your dad your pants Tanner."
Tanner--"Where is he?"
"In the back yard."
Tanner opens the back door, looks out, and with no hesitation what-so-ever turns around to me, puts his hands out and says........
"He has a weed hacker Vern, A WEED HACKER!!!" Grins and goes outside.

Honestly...where does he get this? We were laughing so hard we had tears running down our faces!

Tannerisms #6

Earlier today I was in the office sitting at the desk and Tanner walked in very straight faced. For the full affect, picture this with him straight faced, monotone, slight shrug of the shoulder and tick at the corner of his mouth........

"I guess Drew and I have a date tomorrow night."

"Oh really. Why?"

"Cause she just called me and said she will be here at 6:00 tomorrow night just in time for me and her to go swimming. So.......(sigh)I guess that's a date." (I didn't even hear the phone ring!)

"Don't you want to go swimming? Aren't you excited to go swimming."

(more excited) "YES! (shrug) But I just guess it's a date."

Doesn't figure he's supposed to go on a date with his sister I guess. Hahahahahaha!

Happy? 4th of July

We started the day by going to the Lewiston Parade. It's a ways out there, but since Morgan was marching in it, we decided to lend her our support, hahaha. It was a bit chilly when we first got there, but warmed up nicely by the time it started. There was....us with the visiting Kelli and Kiri, Drew and her roommate Emily, Andy and Leza and Leza's family. Lexie took posession of my camera.

Kiri was a little chilly

Me, Wynn, Kelli and Tanner.

It looks like I'm yelling at someone in the parade, but I was pushing up my glasses while talking to Wynn, the parade hadn't even started yet.

Morgan is the dark haired cutie in the middle.

She made rifle as a sophmore!

Yeah! She caught it!

(She's the one in the capris)

The horses

(County Mounted Posse)

The silliness that's so cute

The sign on front says Where's the engine!

The cute floats








The old cars

After the parade it was back home to rest, odds and ends, the kids playing, lunch. And on the way home the kids decided that my kids needed to go home with Kelli and Kiri on Sunday for the next week. So they were texting with their mother....all unknown to me. When finally asked, I was fine with Morgan and Lexie, but Tanner has been having nightmares lately and climbing in my bed every night. I didn't want to do that to my sister-in-law. But I finally decided I could drive the 2 hours to get him if he just couldn't do it. So Lexie decided to grab everybody's laundry so they could pack. They all worked on the laundry and the packing. Lexie grabbed a bag for her and Tanner and packed her clothes then helped Tanner choose and pack his. They were all so excited you wouldn't think they had just spent a whole week together here. I guess the prospect of 2 solid weeks together, just at different places, was an adventure!

Then it was time to get ready for the annual neighborhood 4th of July party. We have a bring your own meat and potluck dish bbq in the backyards of 2 adjoining neighbors. The moms and dads bbq (mostly dads) while they visit and the kids play. Then after, it's around to the street for the fireworks, we always supply the sparklers. Then usually back around to the backyards for a movie. (this year being a Saturday night, we'll do the movie another time. So no movie tonight) Since I have had a cold all week, I was pretty tired and opted to not go. That and I didn't want to spread it around. They got their hamburger patties ready and grabbed a fruit salad and headed over. I grabbed my book and settled in. Pretty soon I could swear I heard Tanner crying but talked myself out of it. Sure enough here came Wynn carrying a crying/sobbing Tanner. He was playing on the swinging bar of the swing set and fell. Being at our doctors house, they were sent home while he called xray, being pretty sure it was broken after observing him for a bit.

The doctor told Wynn to bring him to me and come back over and finish eating while he called and got everything set up. Of course Moose came running when he heard Tanner. I got a picture on my phone of them laying on the floor together (of course) to comfort Tanner, but I don't know how to get it on here. Then Doctor sent Wynn back over to get us to head to the hospital. He called me and told me to go through the ER to get him checked into xray, but no need to check in to the ER. So we grabbed Spotty (his new stuffed Leopard) and left. When we got there, they wouldn't do it and our doc was on the phone to the ER doctor, who just happened to be another friend of all of ours. Anyway, our doctor left the party and came down to meet us there. He had to sign a requisition, a phone call wasn't good enough, so we didn't have to go into ER. We headed to xray. Wynn held him and I was the one that got the unfortunate job of inflicting pain on the poor little guy in order to hold his arm in the unnatural positions they needed for the xrays. They took 4. He was a trooper and only whimpered even though I told him it was ok to cry.

The doctor then emailed the photos to the radiologist and they discussed them over the phone. Yep. A facture next to his elbow. There was a lot of fluid though. And now they don't cast for just small fractures. Kids heal so fast. (Lexie only had a removable splint on hers this spring) They figure if we can keep him from injuring it further,(mmmm hmmmmm!) he should be ok in 2 weeks of just a sling. So no trip to the cousins house for Tanner. Lexie got him unpacked.

What a trooper

Trying to smile

He actually chose to go back to the party after the xrays! Of course he was doped up on Motrin. So with Spotty in tow, he went to the fireworks with his dad. And slept in my bed when he got home.

Happy birthday America!!!

My Life This Week...So Far/Tanner swimming vids

Monday-6/22

• Tanner's swimming lessons. They kept him in the higher level. Yeah! We'll see how he does.
• Went to the movie at the theater. Kung Fu Panda. Yep seen it before, will probably see it again. We love it.
• Got all my pictures off my camera. Took a while but it's done!
  

Tuesday-6/23

• Tanner's swimming lessons. He did Ok. Don't know that he'll progress enough to pass this time, but at least they didn't move him down. (The vids are all super short)

His teacher is Drew's friend from high school

He did better on his first swim across the pool but I didn't have the camera ready. He is a little tired on this trip.

Can't get the concept of no arms quite yet

Better this time!

• Movie at the library...Tale of Despereaux. Hadn't seen it before. Wasn't what I was expecting. It was ok.
• The library called as soon as we got home from the movie. Our books on hold were in, so we went back down and got them.
• Got all of my pictures put on my blogs of the vacation. Took all day. SUPER YEAH!!! They start on June 7th. Go ahead. Take a look. I'm not a great photographer, but some of them are actually rather good!

Wednesday-6-24

• Tanner swimming lessons. (Even shorter vids)

Not quite comfortable

The penguin dive/no help

• Took Morgan to the doctor. He was afraid her cough was because of asthma. It wasn't! She just has junk in her lungs. Relief. He gave her meds and some nasty cough med for night time. She can't take it during the day he said because it does some funny stuff to ya. Hmmmm.
• Read.
• It's warm. But not as hot as it would be without my new curtains. It's such a short period that it gets warm in here I think we can live. We'll see what happens if we get hotter days than today.

No More Bunkbeds In My House!!!

What a day. When I plan out what to do in a day, it doesn't always go as easily as it seems it will in my mind.

When we moved in this house, Tanner picked his room because the closet had a low bar that he could reach his own clothes. At the time he didn't like being by himself, so Gary, being the nice guy he is, and although being a junior in high school, said he would share with him. So all the toys and games and trains etc, went in what would have been Gary's room. The next summer before his Senior year, he asked if he could have his own room. So all the toys and games went into Tanners closet (since it's a walk-in) and Tanners trains on his bedroom floor. Needless to say, that room was hard to keep clean. I wish we would have gotten a before picture this morning. His closet was a disaster! So we had decided that when Gary left, we would move the toys and games back to the closet of what would now be the guest room. And that is what we had planned on doing today. Planned on.

We went to the store to get Morgan some curtains I found for her room. While at the store, I had a brilliant idea to move everything out of the hall closet (which was being used for the bathrooms extra supply storage) into the 3 bathrooms, somehow, and use the hall closet for the game/toy closet instead. Then Gary & Drew's stuff and the extra bedding could go in the closet of the guest bedroom and still have room for using the closet. Easier said than done. We even moved the kids books out of the office and into Tanner's closet. I haven't liked the bookcase we had in the office and so kept one of the bookcases in his closet that we had been using for the games and probably going to sell the one out of the office. Here are the results....

Game closet now in the hall

Look how organized it all is now!

And I still need to dejunk the toy part of it.

The now guest room

And there is still room in the closet

Tanner's new bed (need to get the headboard/footboard)

And it's a pillow top...comfy!

NO MORE BUNKBEDS IN MY HOUSE!!!

View from the closet

Look how clean the floor is, you can walk in here now!

Wall of posters from Wynn's (daddy's) work

How clean is this closet!!!

Still need to make him new curtains

Before pillows

After pillows

Before curtains

After curtains

One side of Morgan's room

What a difference the finishing touches make

Her matching lamp

Now I can't wait to get to Tanner's curtains, the office and my room. What a difference those last little touches make.

Tanner's And The Bee's Day

Today was the last day for Tanner's swimming lessons...for THIS week. His teacher wasn't there and he had a substitute. The paper didnt' say whether he had passed or not, and she had 2 papers there with his name on it. Lexie asked the sub and she didn't know. But she did say that with all the things that he was doing today while she was there, she would move him up to the next level next week, then they would just move him down again if they felt he should be. YEAH TANNER!!! (my batteries were dead in my camera again, so pictures later)

There was a bee in my entryway window. I laugh now at what happened after reading this link Tawnya has on her blog. (Really? Are you serious?) Well, I went to pull up the blind so I could swat and kill, yes kill, this bee. I don't know what happened but the blind broke. In pieces All_over_the_floor. Irrepairable. It was crawling on the pole of the flag I had in the window (to keep it in out of all the rain we've had) so I couldn't get it. Tanner is allergic to bee stings so I didn't want it to take off flying through the house. I picked up the flag and released the bee outside, putting the flag up outside again. So does this make me a more humane person than President Obama? Or Morgan that killed a fly with a fly swatter in the family room tonight? I'm sorry. That's funny.

Going after the bee and the blind breaking turned out to be good though. We don't have central air, or good windows for that matter. And the back of the house faces east, the front west, and that's where all the windows are. The sun comes in right over the top of the trees every day as the sun goes farther in the west. It got blazing hot in here with nothing covering the entryway window.

Wynn got off work early, so I told him I wanted to go get a Thermal Curtain to put up on that window. They are expensive so I have just kept putting them off, but since I needed something on that window anyway, I figured now is the time. And I would just start getting them one room at a time. When we got to Shop-ko, they were on sale. Yeah! I got curtains for all the windows in my room, the living room, entryway, office and Elder Gary's/guest room. It cost a bit, but only about 1/2 what it would have normally. They only had about half the curtains I needed for my room, so I'll get the rest of them later, and least there is at least 1 panel on each of the windows in there. The back side of the house and the basement rooms will all come later. While there I found some cute pillows for Morgan's bed that I had been looking for for a year. (pictures to come) So should I say Thanks to the bee!

Moose-isms... Moose's search for Tanner

As I wrote previously, Tanner has been sleeping in Gary's bed since Gary left. Andy and Leza are moving and needed to stay here on Wednesday night, so Tanner had to sleep in his own bed, Moose found him on his own and all was good.

Yesterday was the last day of school, so Lexie and Tanner decided to sleep on the trampoline. I couldn't sleep because Moose was wandering around looking for Tanner. He looked in his room, in Gary's room....no Tanner. He came meowing for me in my room. I got him food and water. Still not happy. At one point he even jumped up on my bed looking for Tanner. He was a very sad kitty. I didn't want to show him Tanner was on the trampoline because he was sleeping in Wynn's sleeping bag and I didn't want cat hair all over it. So Moose curled up on the floor under my window and slept, kind of, the rest of the night.

When I got up he just watched me pathetically, with little pathetic sad mews. I left for my walk. When I got home they were all still asleep and Moose was nowhere to be found. I finally found him under my bed, not even lifting his head from his paws as he quietly mewed.

Tanner had woke up by now so I told him he needed to go to his poor sad kitty that had searched for him all night. Tanner walked in the house saying, 'I didn't think he would be that sad for me. I was just outside. It's OK Moose, your Tanner is here!' At this point he was at the bottom of my bed and lifting the bed skirt. Moose lifted his head, meowed a happy meow as he came out from under the bed and rubbed his head on Tanner. They layed on my floor together for just a bit while Tanner reassured Moose. Tanner went outside to put things away and Moose went straight to Tanner's bed, where he had me straighten out the blanket for him to promptly bury himself under it, only his belly showing this time. And he stayed there all morning.

Busy morning

I didn't have to go to work today. I was supposed to be done on Friday, but I wasn't there Mon-Wed last week, and Colleen wasn't there Wed or Friday and couldn't go today. So now we will have to go in tomorrow to finish up (hopefully so we don't have to go Wed) for AmeriCorps. But not having to go to work didn't seem to give me the lazy day I thought I was going to get. Ya, right.

We got a letter from Gary Saturday, YEAH!!! He is no longer nervous and ate a big meal Wednesday night, just like I said he would. He had started getting nervous about last Friday....big weekend, the unknown, big responsibility, etc. He had just nibbled some here and there since. I said once he got there, met his companion, saw his room, etc he would be fine, and he was. He is the senior companion and has a lot to read and do because of this assignment. He is up to it and will do great. Then he asked me to send a copy of his immunization records. It seems at the doctors office they missed writing down an MMR on his mission record and he will have to get another one if I don't send a copy. No big deal, I'll mail it Monday morning. So.....

I got up and not having to go to the school for work forgot Tanner still did! I got him up in plenty of time and he ate and got dressed. Good thing the girls get themselves up or they probably would have been late since they leave lots earlier. Today is his Drive-in movie at school, so we made a cardboard 'car' this weekend...

We think it turned out pretty cute!

I drove him to school and went to take Gary's letter to the Post Office. I passed a power truck, police cars and fire truck on the way, not thinking anything of it. When I got there it was closed due to power outage. Of course. So I drove to Hyde Park and mailed it. Then went to the bookstore to buy book #2 of a series I've been waiting for since the first one came out in 2004!!! First one hardback, this one paperback, oh well. At least I have it now and can read it next week while I'm at Laguna Beach in California!!! On the way to the bookstore there was a cop directing traffic at the light on Main St down from the PO. I guess that outage is on the whole street.

Wrote Gary a letter on Dearelder.com (so he will get it today) telling him his copy of his shot record was on the way. Now blogging. Still have my 5 mile walk to go on, shower, help Andy and Leza move, pick Tanner up from school (because the car doesn't fit on the bus so well), get homework and chores done, make sure Morgan works on her fund raiser for color guard, take the kids swimming at the rec center tonight so I'll remember that the money is due today for Tanner's first 2 swimming lessons sessions. Sorry Tawnya, I really am going to get to that jacket, eventually!

Now I'm off for that walk...maybe...unless I get on Facebook first.

Moose-isms

Wednesday and Thursday night Tanner has been sleeping in Gary's bed because he misses him. And he says it's more comfortable than his! The first night Moose slept by himself on Tanners bed. The next night he came and got me, took me to Tanners room and showed me that Tanner wasn't in the bottom bunk where he usually sleeps. (When Drew is home, she sleeps in the bottom bunk and Tanner sleeps on the top bunk. Then I have to help Moose get up there so he can sleep with Tanner.)

Since Tanner wasn't on the bottom he kept looking up at the top bunk and meowing at me until I lifted him up there and showed him Tanner wasn't there. He jumped down and meowed pitifully until I carried him to Gary's room and showed him Tanner was in Gary's bed. He jumped out of my arms onto the floor and looked at the bed, then in Tanner's room and then at me, meowing the whole time. I went to Tanners room and got Mooses blanket to put on Gary's bed. He jumped up on to it and layed down to sleep with Tanner and left me alone the rest of the night.

As soon as Tanner got up, Moose went to Tanner's room to sleep, so I had to move the blanket. I heard much noise coming from Tanner's room and couldn't figure out what Moose was doing. I just figured he was playing with his toys that Tanner has in there for him. Then it got quiet. I had to look and then ran for my camera. This is what I found....

He had to work to get the blanket the way he wanted it!

A lot of good that blanket is doing keeping cat hair off the bed! His head was completely covered with just his legs sticking out before I got the camera. More often than not, this is how we find him sleeping.

Tonight I got a bigger blanket to cover the whole bed since Moose tends to move to where ever Tanner is. And I don't want to have to keep moving his little blanket.

Has It Been a Week Already???

I can't believe it is Thursday already. My last post was last Friday!!! What happened to this week? I guess I have so much to do and so little time to do it in. I don't seem to get much exercising in lately, and I was doing sooooo good before. But life hits in spurts, and when it hits there is no room for anything else it seems. Here is my today....

Note to self--Used to get up at 4:30-5:00 to exercise...need to start doing that again
6:00 Got up, got Tanner up, made sure the girls were up, finish waking up Tanner
6:30-6:45-ish making sure everybody is getting ready
Tanner finish waking up
Make Tanner breakfast
Girls leave for school
7:00 Make sure Tanner is eating
Get on computer to check messages on email and facebook (give myself a
time limit so I don't run late)
Answer messages
Check on Tanner
Throw a batch of laundry in
7:30 Make sure Tanner is done
Tell him to get brushed and flossed and clothes ready before 8:00...do this for
the next 1/2 hour
Put laundry in dryer, new batch in washer
8:00 Get in shower
8:15-8:50 check on Tanner
Eat my breakfast while getting dressed, make-up, hair etc
Check on Tanner
Take care of laundry
Hurry Tanner along
8:50 Leave for the school, (Tanners school and my work), 15 minutes later than I
wanted to be
9:00 Get to the school
1:00 realize Morgan has an ortho appt to add to everything else that is this
afternoon
1:30 leave the school
1:40 make lunch
1:50 Get on computer
Check and answer messages
Write on blog

What I still have left for today:

Tanners turn to take treats for soccer game, I still need to buy them
Take Lexie shopping for new capris if we can find some inexpensive enough, need them tomorrow.
4:00 Morgan ortho appt in Smithfield
4:45 Lexie soccer pictures in Hyde Park
5:00 Lexie warm up for soccer game-Hyde Park
5:30 Lexie soccer game in Hyde Park
Tanner soccer game in North Logan
before 8:00 need to sign kids up for swimming lessons in Smithfield before all
the sessions I need are filled up

And did I mention I need to balance the checkbook, write out lunch checks (and other checks), get ready for a food drive for AmeriCorps week at the school next week (Thank you Colleen for doing the collection box by yourself!!!! I SOOOOOO owe you) and not to mention....
Get ready to leave for SLC tomorrow morning to spend 2 days
---moving Drew to Kaysville
taking family pictures
Gary's missionary family dinner and day
Saturday, nephews wedding---all day

Better get off the computer. Lexie is here 3 minutes early and remember, we need to go to the stores.

A Boys Best Friend

Back when Tanner was just past 3, he was so ready to be out of diapers, but just wouldn't. I decided bribing was in order. I told him he could pick. He wanted a kitten, but not just ANY kitten, he wanted an orange kitten. I explained to him that we couldn't have a kitten because we lived in the city and so the kitty would have to be an inside part of the time (if not all the time) kitty and his daddy was allergic to cats. He insisted that that was all he wanted, an orange kitty. I told him he had to ask his dad. HIS DAD SAID YES!!!!! (I asked him if I had to remind him he was allergic?!) So it was agreed, he could get an orange kitty when he didn't wear diapers anymore.

So being a Sunday night, I said, "OK. You can wear a diaper to bed, but in the morning, you are going to the bathroom and then wearing big boy underwear all day. You aren't going to wear diapers during the day anymore. But you can wear one to bed if you want." He wore big boy underwear all day that whole week. He wore a diaper at night. The next Sunday night I told him, "You are done wearing diapers. This is the last night for a diaper. In the morning when you put on your underwear, you are wearing it all day AND wearing it to bed." That was the last diaper he ever wore. Now we had to find an orange kitty.

Now, normally there are orange kittens everywhere. I figured it would be no problem to find one for him. We looked for about 3-4 months, and not one orange kitten to be found. I thought, "Are you kidding me?" Every day Tanner asked when we were going to find his kitty. In July Gary saw an ad in the paper and called. No orange kittens. We went to look anyway since it was only a few blocks away. Tanner saw a white with gray patches one that he held and played with. We asked him if that was the one he wanted, and he said no, he wanted an orange one. So we left. About half way back to our house he started crying and said, "We need to go back and get my kitty." Me, "You said you wanted an orange one." "No! That one is my kitty! We have to go get him! " So we turned around and went back for his kitty. He named him Moose. I thought it was a strange name for such a tiny kitty, but it fits him.

Moose has never been allowed on the furniture or Wynn wouldn't be able to sit on it. (That doesn't mean he's never gotten on it!) He is allowed on Tanner's bed, we put a blanket on it that he can sleep on. When he was little he would crawl under the blankets and snuggle with Tanner. Sometimes I still find him doing that. He has a blanket on Morgans bed and occasionally on Gary's or Lexie's beds. He knows he can get on my ottoman in the family room to snuggle if there is a blanket on it, he leaves it alone if there isn't. He snuggles with the kids on their blankets on the floor...etc. He IS NOT allowed on our bed, period. And he doesn't get on there.

Moose downstairs with Tanner, on the blanket, on the couch.

(Notice him holding Mooses' tail so they are 'touching'?)

I swear this cat is 1/3 cat, 1/3 dog, and 1/3 human. He will come get you if there is something of yours that needs attention (he knows what belongs to who), everyone swears he says 'mom' instead of meow when he is wanting me, very human things of him to do. He can be very stand-offish and turn his back and ignore you if he is in cat mode and will let you know not to bother him.

Moose in cat mode...ignoring me.

He has become very attached to Tanner. If Tanner is crying, you can hear Moose start meowing and here he comes from where ever he was at a dead run to make sure Tanner is OK. It doesn't matter where Tanner or Moose are at the time, one inside, one outside, or both in or both out. He always asks Tanner for a head to head rub to show love. It is so cute.

In the living room for a love from Tanner

He can be very nurturing, loyal and attached like a dog. To show this, I took some pictures this morning. Tanner spent the night in my bed and bathroom last night because he was sick. Puking all night long. This is what Moose did about it this morning after I got up.....

On the bathroom floor

I walked in the room to check on Tanner. Since he wasn't there, I checked the bathroom. He was snuggled against Tanners tummy, but when I came back with the camera he had moved here. (Tanner put the pile of towels in front of the toilet so they would be soft to kneel on)

Then Tanner went back to my room and this what Moose did.

Yes. He is ON OUR BED!!! Remember, he is NOT allowed by Wynn. PERIOD!!!

(Wynn knew he was there and left him with Tanner! I put the blanket so it could be taken off and washed.)

Letting us know he isn't leaving Tanner.

Still on the bed when I got home from work. Where ever Tanner moved, Moose was right there....All day long!!!

(Wynn and Gary were both home with him)

So I don't think he cares now that his kitty isn't orange. I think he knew that day in the car that Moose is his kitty. You couldn't ask for a more loyal companion or best friend.