Tanner's Birthday

I can't believe that Tanner is 7 years old today! He is such a great kid. I love that he is a good friend to everyone and is very kind hearted. He never wants to hurt any one's feelings. He wants to be good and choose the right! He is very imaginative and has all kinds of fun ideas. His sisters love him and he loves them!
Barry and I wanted to surprise Tanner with the Star Wars Lego Wii game. We bought it for his birthday a few months ago. Yesterday Tanner discovered that he had enough money to buy himself the Star Wars Wii game and he really wanted to go to the store. Well, we couldn't think of a good excuse not to keep him from the store or not letting him buy the game so we decided to give it to him early. He was really happy and surprised!
Dick and Nancy invited us over for birthday dinner. Nancy let Tan pick the menu. He chose chicken fettuccine alfredo. It was a delicious meal!

Dick and Nancy are our neighbors and have taken us in. They are always so thoughtful, generous and kind. Nancy thought that Tanner needed a Wisconsin Badger's shirt. Now he'll really fit in!

Party Time!

Tanner wanted to have a Star Wars themed birthday party. Barry and I had a fun time decorating for it. We found a cool Star Wars sign at Goodwill, and then we collected other Star Wars themed accessories.

We had themed food: Padme's Pretzels, Wookie Cookies, Luke's Licorice, Vader's Vegetables and Yoda Soda.
We played Star Wars music while they decorated their light sabers made out of newspaper and duct tape.
Nine boys with light sabers is trouble!Barry took them through a Jedi training course. They had to hit balloons with their light sabers.
They threw darts at balloons. Everyone did very well and all hit balloons.

Barry then had them practice with their light sabers. Then they got to fight "Darth Vader," me with a mask on. As soon as I came out Barry said, "Attack!" All of them ran after me until Barry stopped them. They got to fight me individually. My depth perception was totally off with the mask on and I couldn't see very well. Barry was having a good time watching all of this take place. He was suppose to be protecting me a little more than he did. It was a fun party and Tanner loved having all of his friends around to celebrate. He really scored with lots of Star Wars gear, which he was so excited about.

Amazing Kara

Today Kara came home from school telling me that Owen from school is four and he knows how to tie his shoes. Kara ran to get one of Tanner's shoes with laces and Barry showed her how to tie them one time and she had it down. Now she is disappointed that she doesn't have any shoes that she has to tie. That girl can do anything!

Ice Cream

Last night we made ice cream! It was a real hit, although I'm not sure who enjoyed it more, Barry or the kids.

We had to have our hands protected because that ice was soooo cold. Socks seemed like the easiest gloves.

Barry's 1st Post

This last week the director of the residency program cornered me and asked me if I was still interested in starting residency early because he needed to make the schedule. I told him I was and he replied, good because you are already on the schedule. I'm scheduled to start Feb. 9 2009. It is exciting to finally have a real job and to almost be finished with school.

Determination

All of you who know Kara know that she is a very determined little girl. She has been begging us for a few weeks to take her training wheels off her bike. Barry and I have delayed it because we didn't want to deal with all the bumps and falls that happen when learning to ride a bike. We both thought that next Spring would be the perfect time for that. Kara didn't think so! She found a wrench on Friday and brought it to me to take the training wheels off. Barry got home at about that time and helped her get them off. He then explained to Kara that she was going to fall down a lot and it would be a lot of work and it might take a few days before she would be able to ride it on her own. He then ran behind her for about five minutes and then got a little winded so he needed a break. Kara asked me to help her, but I needed to talk to Barry, so I put her off for a few minutes. As Barry and I were talking she was trying it on her own. All of the sudden she shot past us riding her bike ALL BY HERSELF! We were shocked, and she was so proud of herself. She kept telling me that she knew how to ride a bike, but all of her friends couldn't.

She was so excited to go ride her bike yesterday that she got up and went right to her chores and had all of them completed before Tanner even began his. She was out riding her bike, and later Barry took her to the elementary school so she could ride on the playground. Today she found out that she can even ride Tanner's bike! She has improved a ton since these videos were taken on Friday.

Camera

We got a new camera! Our old one was sent in to get fixed and a couple weeks later we got a phone call saying that instead of fixing it, we could come in and get a new one. Our new camera is an upgrade from the one that broke because they no longer sell that model. Oh how fast technology changes!

Fishing

Barry took Tanner and Kara fishing yesterday. Here's what they had to say about that.

Kara:
"Tanner got his underwear wet. He got muddy feet because he goed in the water. Dad's fishing pole was stuck in the water with a lot of sea weed. Tanner went to get it. We didn't catch any fish. My favorite part was holding a worm and keeping it like a pet. No one else was there fishing."

Tanner:
"I got to go swimming in my underwear. Dad broke his pole. People were shooting ducks, but we didn't see them. I was just walking in the water and all of the sudden it got really deep."

As you can tell the highlight was Tanner getting to go in after the top of Barry's fishing pole. Barry ended up loosing the top of his pole because Tanner accidentally broke the line that held it all together and the pole ended up deep in the lake.

This Week at a Glance

We made it through the first week of school! Tanner thought the first day was sooo boring, but the next days were just fine, especially the day his teacher gave the class a goody bag full of pencils, erasers and other fun stuff. He brought home homework two of the days, but it was really easy and didn't take much time. One of his assignments this week was to trace the numbers on a calender...he couldn't believe that he had to do that in first grade (in his words it was baby stuff). He can't wait for this coming week when he gets to start his reading and math classes with some of his good friends.
Kara likes school and was thrilled when she got to bring home a book that she made. It was all about her favorite things and she read it to us. She has been reading it all weekend and says that she is doing her homework. Tanner gets a kick out of it, because she loves her "homework" so much. She loves telling me everything they did at school.
Kendra has been pretty happy at home. Everyday this past week she went to her room and dragged Kara's blanket and pillow to the living room and would lay down on the floor with it and get her babies and bears to lay down too. Friday she wasn't so easygoing. She wanted my attention all morning. We blew bubbles, did puzzles, painted with water, and colored. I haven't had to entertain a child so constantly since Tanner was little. Hopefully I can take her over to the library a day next week or swimming or something to keep her busy.
Barry has been filling out the application for Residency. We've been trying to remember dates of college graduations, service given and past jobs...luckily Barry had a semi recent resume saved to the computer. Barry took the kids to the park this week to play baseball. They all had fun and both Tanner and Kara could really hit the ball!
I'm staying busy too. This week I had Activity Days at my house....it was crazy. We divided into two groups and baked cupcakes, one group had the directions and one didn't and then we compared the experience and talked about how much easier life is when you have direction in it and when you follow the commandments, scriptures, prophet, etc. We also played the pictionary racing game. The girls had fun. I also started playing volleyball on a team at the YMCA again. We played against a team that only had two players this week and they beat us one of the three matches (we had six players), they were really good and we would have had no chance if any more of their team would have been there. Yesterday we had to clean the church, and I remembered after we already had Josh and Lily over to play so we took them with us too. The kids played fine for a while and then the fighting began. We didn't have time to do an extra clean job because we had plans that night and Barry is on call tonight so hopefully Sister Bratz doesn't chew us out. Next time it would be nice to have at least one other family there to help so it doesn't take so long. After cleaning the church Friday night, we went over to Sam and Amy's to play ultimate football. It was fun and a lot of people showed up, I think 11 couples. We have some fun friends here!
Sorry no pictures, the camera is still in the shop...hopefully we'll get it back next week sometime.

Farewell Kendy.....We're Off To School

Kara was so excited for her first day of Preschool. She kept saying, "I'm so excited." Tanner asked her if she was excited or just nervous, and she said she was so excited. Tanner on the other hand wasn't ready to start school, but he was excited to see all of his friends. Kendra was sad to see them go, but was just fine at home by herself for the 2 1/2 hours Kara was at school. It was so quiet at home with just Kendra...no fighting....no screaming...just peaceful.
Kara's 1st day of Preschool!Tanner's 1st day of 1st Grade!

NYC

Cameron and Angie watched the kids at their house so Barry and I could go to New York. They also let us borrow their camera (ours broke the day before at the beach, luckily Barry bought the extended warranty so we sent it in to be fixed). We drove into Liberty State Park in New Jersey and rode a ferry to Ellis Island. We watched a film about all the immigrants that came through and the sacrifices people made to come to America.
Next we caught another ferry over to Liberty Island to see the Statue of Liberty. It was amazing! We walked around the island and then decided to go to Manhattan.

The Ferry dropped us off at Battery Park, there were lots of people riding bikes, rollerblading and lots of children at the playgrounds. We walked over to Ground Zero and saw the monument there, and the hole in the ground where the towers used to be.

This monument was actually at the fire house that is right across the street from where the towers once stood.

We then looked for a place to eat and found a Chevy's Mexican restaurant. It was as good as I remember it being in California when we used to eat there all the time.

We took the Subway to Time Square. It was full of people, and lights. I couldn't believe all the huge T.V. screens and signs that were on the buildings. It was more impressive than we expected. We then took the Subway back to Battery Park, where we took a ferry back to Liberty State Park in New Jersey. The ferry ride was one of the best parts about our trip with a great view of all the city lights.
As the ferry docked we got off and fire works started going off at a restaurant for someones wedding with New York City as their back drop.

There was no way we would have been able to see so much of the city with the kids. They had a much better time playing all day with their cousins. Thanks Cameron and Angie!!!

New Jersey Beach

Friday we all headed to the Beach in New Jersey. It was a windy day so sometimes it was a little chilly, but that didn't stop us from getting in the water to boogie board.
Tanner loved jumping in the waves with his cousins. Kara and Kendra loved the sand, but both spent a little more time in the water than the beach in California. Cameron and Barry loved the boogie boards and caught quite a few waves. All along the beach were little jellyfish (that didn't sting). The kids collected them in a bucket. It's hard to see, but Tanner is holding one in his hand. Barry had to get a picture with one too! The girls loved the sand, making sand angels, castles, a giant foot, digging for treasure and of course burring each other.
Kara, Cassidy and Kaden
Afterwards we went and had pizza for dinner before heading home.

Cousins

As soon as we arrived to Cam and Angie's the cousins had an instant connection...maybe it was the force! Tanner and Dakota rambled on and on and on about Star Wars and had many light saber duels. The funny thing was that all the girls knew almost as much as their brothers about Jedi's, Sith's and the force.
We had a nice barbecue that night with them. It was fun to finally see them all again after about four years. Cassidy and Kendra, the babies of the two families liked sitting in the little chairs.