I didn't forget

I didn't forget that today was my father-in-law's birthday, but I hadn't remembered to post about it until now. Anyway, here he is pictured with my newborn Tanner.
We think you are a great Grandpa! Happy Birthday!

Stuff

Okay, so I admit that this isn't the most exciting picture, but it is recent so you have to give me credit for that! I am trying to do a Thanksgiving related activity or craft every week day of the month (starting yesterday...). Here they are working on Pilgrims and having a little snack. You can look at my other blog if you want to find out more about what we've done. Yesterday Vance wanted me to put that he was grateful for "Vance" and today he had me put "Panda Bear" which translates into the movie Kung Fu Panda. He and his Dad love that movie.
Vance is a great helper (when he isn't bullying Tanner). Last night I knocked a box of cereal on the floor and he helped me pick it up. He also helped Tanner unzip his jacket after we'd been somewhere yesterday. Just little things that are so nice.
Tanner loves singing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and pretty much any other song with actions. He is at a fun stage and is walking around really well now.

Fun With Food

5 Minutes for Mom is a fun blog I found recently. (Notice the Christmas Giveaway button on my sidebar.) They are doing a Fun With Food Photo Contest with a $500 grocery card as the prize. We all know how handy that would be. I had a really hard time picking a picture to enter but I finally decided on this one Vance (age 2) feeding his little brother, Tanner (age 11 months).

Trials and Turkeys

Okay, so the picture I am posting is old, but it makes me smile so that's what you get to see. This was taken in February I believe.
For those of you that have noticed my lack of posting, I apologize. I have only missed a few days, but it seems like a lot more to me. Hopefully no one else has noticed.
To sum it up October was a fairly crappy month for us and November hasn't been much better, but the month is not over so there is hope. I will spare you the details. Although I will say that the most recent trial (which is a trial that comes and goes) has been my back. Let's just say I've been in quite a bit of pain, but today has been better than I've felt in close to a week so hopefully I am on the road to feeling good again in that department.
I asked Stephen the other night if he felt like we were just going from one trial to the next. He does and so do I. Something he said though helped me feel a little better. He said, "We must be doing something right." I accept that reasoning for all the trials we've been having because it keeps me motivated to continue striving to do what is right despite all the frustrations that could bring us down. It also got me pondering. Trials can come to us for various reasons. However, I do believe that Heavenly Father gives us trials to test us, to humble us, to help us increase our faith, to be more grateful, along with many other reasons.
Heavenly Father is aware of all of our trials and our burdens. He knows that I have a 22 pound one year old I have to lift everday-even the days that I can hardly stand because of the physical pain I'm in. He knows I have a very active two year old who I have to run after all day long. He is very aware of our family so why does he give us these trials that at this point never seem to stop? It's simple, he loves us and he wants us to grow. Without trials we wouldn't grow and we wouldn't learn. So while some of the trials we are dealing with are big and some small, we've past the hurrdle of some, while others continue, and new ones seem to always becoming I plan on taking each one and learning from them. Hopefully I can learn and grow in a way pleasing to my Heavenly Father and my Savior. They see the big picture while our little family does not. We can't even comprehend the big picture. Line upon Line, precept upon precept I will continue to learn and grow from all of the things life gives me- good or bad. Even in the midst of trials I see my Heavenly Father blessing me abundantly and helping me become more grateful for all of these blessings.

On a less serious note we are doing a Turkey count down to Thanksgiving. You can check it out on my other blog. Vance is helping me name things he is grateful for each day. We didn't start on the first.
Here's is what he is grateful for so far:
1. Cars
2. Dad
3. Mom
4. Mouths
5. Tanner
6. Nursery
7. Trains

And yes, that is the order he has named them. Notice Mom wasn't named until day 3. What is up with that?

16 Candles

Happy Birthday to my little sister, Rosemary! Today she turns 16 years old. Wow. Rose is a friendly, outgoing person. She gets good grades and is very talented. She plays the piano and the bassoon-both very well. Rose is also playing the lead female part in the high school's fall play that is currently going on. Pretty impressive for a sophomore, don't you think? Anyway, we love you Rose and we hope you have a wonderful birthday!

Gross

You are probably wondering what about this picture is gross. Well, nothing. I just wanted to have a picture with my post.

Vance's potty chair has a lid that you lift out of the chair itself so that you can dump the contents into the toilet. Well, lately Vance has been trying to get away with dumping it after he uses it. A lot of times I catch him before he's left the bathroom and make him do it. This morning however, that did not happen. Vance used the potty, left it sitting there unbeknownst to me. In the meantime Tanner had noticed and being the observant and helpful boy he is decided he would do it himself. I walked into the bathroom to see what was going on to find Tanner with the potty lid in his hand and pee all over his clothes. Yes, in attempt to pour it into the toilet he managed to dump it all over himself. You can say it with me, "GROSS!" Funny, but gross.

I am picture all kinds of things in our future. Some include Vance bribing and/or threatening Tanner to do his chores or Tanner trying to suck up to his paernts by doing Vance's chores.

Oh dear. This just adds to the list of all the things that Tanner tries to do to be just like Vance. This isn't a good thing people, Vance is generally a very typical naughty two year old! So this is where my picture ties in. Tanner trying to be like Vance sitting up to the table like a big boy. I don't think I'll have a dull like for at least another 20 years or more.

Eric is cool

My brother, Eric is taking a class at BYU-Idaho called Visuals Media. One of the projects he had to do was with Photoshop. Maybe it is because he used a picture I took, maybe it is because he used one of the cutest subjects possible (my baby), or maybe it is because I think I have a talented brother, but I just love what he did and I wanted to share it with all of you.
He took this picture:

And turned it into this:

Pretty cool. So if you like it let me know and I will in turn let Eric know. I'm sure he'd appreciate some loving. :)