Friday, October 28, 2011

Miss A


Happy Birthday to my energetic Miss A.  Adrie has been counting down to her birthday for months!  She wanted a doll cake with balloons and thanks to a current obsession with watching Cake Boss while I run on the treadmill, I decided to attempt covering the cake with fondant.  It was easier than I thought, but we all quickly remembered that you don't eat fondant- it is nasty.

Adrie has so much energy for life.  She loves to play with friends and direct her younger siblings;-)  She has the most beautiful blue eyes.  We love our sweet A. 

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Tears


Revelations 7: 14-17 
"These are they which came out of great tribulation 
they shall hunger no more, 
neither thirst any more 
and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."
Allison, center in pink
It has been a year since my sweet niece died in an auto/bike accident.  It has been a year of tears. They catch me at unexpected times.  It has been a year of talking about things that you don't want to talk about (those sound like nice flowers for the cemetery, what are you going to do on her Birthday? etc). Because realistically, we would rather talk about how she is doing in school or how tall she is growing.  It has also been a year of tender mercies.  I feel even more strongly now than I did a year ago that even though our family is still hurting, Heavenly Father is aware of our pain and is blessing us through the love of family and friends.  

Revelation 21:4 4
"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; 
and there shall be no more death, 
neither sorrow, nor crying, 
neither shall there be any more pain"
 

Sunday, October 23, 2011

We Were Tired of Living in a House

So we packed a bag with sweaters
and socks, with mittens and earmuffs.
And we moved to a tree.








We were tired of living in a house.
So we packed our bags.
And we moved to a castle.




This weekend Paul and I were able to take a little anniversary trip to the Seattle area.  We discovered some really amazing places to stay and visit.  Some of the highlights of our trip included watching the salmon spawning near our tree house, visiting Chihuly's hot shop in the museum of glass, planting bulbs with my cousin in the rain, visiting the Market (without children!), and driving the Five Mile Drive in Point Defiance Park.


 


We had a few interesting/funny things happen on our trip.  Years ago I bought a tree house book for Paul for Christmas.  We have always loved this book.  When we arrived at our tree house we discovered that it was built by the same man that wrote our much loved tree house book!  The tree house was fabulous!  It was like staying in a little luxury cabin 20 feet in the air.  In the morning the branches outside our window had a little (and a not so little) bird hopping around.  It was a very magical place. 

We stayed in the castle on a Thursday night and were almost the only guests.  The caretakers told us that we could explore the whole castle and we did, twice.  It was amazing to see all the different rooms.  I felt like Mary Lennox.  In the morning we ate breakfast down in the grand dining room.  There was a big long table and the two of us.  It was like dining in a big old house in England minus the trip to England!  One of the best parts of the castle was when we walked by the grand piano and there was a LDS hymn book sitting on top.  It made us feel right at home. 

It was so fun to come home.  Nathan kept jumping up and down and yelling "My Daddy, my Daddy!" even though he was talking about me!  It was nice to have a break, but equally nice to return to the busyness of our house. 

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Possibly the cutest thing ever

I found this at the top of the stairs:

To Rebeca or Paul Seamons


Hogwarts

Yes, Paul and I just got our first owl.  The envelope had a very official Hogwarts seal.  The letter addressed the important issue of a Hermione costume for Skye.  How can I resist someone who asks so nicely?!  Now if I can figure out if I can get this owl to carry a howler to various children who may or may not have practiced their piano;-)



Thursday, October 13, 2011

Speaking of Food

Italian Nut Balls
I am really excited about a new project my family recently started!  For years my sisters have compiled a "Tanner Family Cookbook."  It has many of our heritage recipes as well as new favorites.  We edit the cookbook every couple of years and it just keeps getting better.  My sister Tiffany had a great idea to create a blog featuring all the recipes in our cookbook.  It has been so fun to cook all my normal foods and get to share them on a blog! 

Mandarin Sauce


A few weeks ago I was able to visit my parents for a weekend.  Several of my sisters were able to come and we had a great time talking talking talking, attending RS General Broadcast, laughing, cooking, sorting family pictures, and spending time together.  My family is spread out all over the United States and so I treasure any time we get to be together.  At one point I heard my Dad answer the phone and in response to someone asking what we were up to say something like "What do you think they are doing?  They have been talking about food for hours!"  We do love to cook and to talk about food.  Some of us are more gourmet than others, but we all can cook a mean pancake from scratch:-)  When my Grandma Beverly passed away several years ago, I was able to collect memories from all her Grandchildren.  I was amazing about how many memories centered around food.  Grandma was an amazing cook and I came to understand that her cooking was a reflection of her love and service to family.  So I feel talking about food is really an expression of love (besides being really fun!). 

Grandma Beverly 

Grandma made this Chocolate Mousse cake for a dinner she hosted the night before my wedding.  It not only tasted divine, but looked amazing.  She had painted chocolate on leaves to garnish the cake. 

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

New Friends

Meet Dimitri and Snow.  They are adding a lot of cheerful noise to our house.  They sing loudest when one of the kids is crying.  I worried they would escalate the noise level in our house, however I love the happy sound.  We are working on a different spot for their cage- this area is much to accessible to little hands (laugh laugh because Nathan can get to just about any area in our house that he sets his mind on). 

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Priesthood Session Choir

We were so excited last Sunday morning when we discovered that Priesthood session was available for viewing online.  Besides some really great talks we were able to watch the music from this session.  Paul made it on the camera (along with 350 close friends)!  The best part was picking out people we know from the choir.  When Paul pointed out one good friend it took me more than a minute to recognize him because he was missing his goatee! 

Monday, October 3, 2011

Bittersweet

I find that so much of my life if bittersweet (although I don't like that the word starts out with a negative word!).  It is the best word I know to describe my feelings of watching my life pass by.  I love to see my children grow, I don't mind getting older, and I like change (mostly).  However, sometimes I want to just pause and tell my kids to stop growing taller, to stop needing new shoe sizes, to stop going to Jr High.  It is such a mixture of joy in the moment and the little squeeze on my heart when I see my babies grow.  This one is growing much too fast, yet he is so pleased with himself I can't help but love watching him: