Tanner finally got a white season. He was jumping up and down this morning as he watched the snow falling. I love this time of year. Oh The kids don't have school tomorrow. Yeah!!!!!
Renee rolling around in the snow. She couldn't wait. The kids had so much fun.
Tinker Bell realized that she should have worn her jacket. She is so cold. Priceless face

This is the field that is by our house looking out to the hwy. It really was a nice day looking out at the snow.
Snow has an effect on getting the kids out to play.
Look at our sweet humble home. Covered in Snow. Check out the big tall Eucalyptus Tree to the left of the house. It is so tall and ugly. I can't wait to get it cut down. I'm really afraid that it might tumble over and hit our house.
Mary Short a friends daughter and neighbor joined in on the fun building a snow man.
Renee couldn't waite to make a snow angel. She has been talking about this for a few weeks.

Our First Snowman for the Season. It was hard to make as the snow was nice and fluffy. Good team work.

Our Family loves this time of year when we get to pick out our TREE! One of the benefits of living in the Northwest is that you can cut down your own Noble Fir and an 8 ft. tree only costs $30-. We got a very beautiful 71/2 ft. tree. It was the first one that Daddy saw. Oh Tanner's pick was a 9-12 tree and was Gynormous. That is Tanner for you.
It was a little bright. Sorry kids and George. This is our Tree!
Incase you are wondering why Curious George is in the picture. He is a class roaming project. Each of the kids in tanner's class get to take him home for the evening or weekend. It seems as though Tanner always gets him over the longggggggggggg weekends. They can read stories to George and all other fun stuff. But the project it to write in his journal and draw a picture of something he did with the student. Geogre went to cut down a tree. YIPEE!

Just a little instruction on how to saw down a tree and they will soon be doing it all on their own.


Tanner was eager to help with carrying the Tree this year. So daddy let him give it a try. Tanner says last night on the max train I'm a big boy now mom I can do that. So Since Tanner is such a big boy he did carry the tree up the hill and all the way to the car with Daddy. All the pictures with show you below.
What a moment. He was so very proud of him self. Although He kept saying Are we there yet.
Almost just a few steps and you can rest. Then a few more to the car. Great job buddy.
I couldn't believe my eyes. When I came around from the back of the car there was Tanner and Renee on top of the car. They figured that they wanted in all the action. Helping daddy is ever so much fun. Thank you kids the job is all yours. It is great that they love to do these things. I was able to just sit back and enjoy.
Check her out. All Renee kept saying was "what next Daddy"? Renee put the bungy cord in all by her self. Way to go little Princess!
I was so proud that of my kids and all of their help.
Renee and Cozy
We went to the Festival of Trees and Renee Doctored up her "Cozy" Bear.

close to my heart

I pushed some button and wouldn't you know it the title only was published. So as you all know 7 yrs ago my younger sister passed away. Well it was today that she passed on. I was touched by my son who thinks of his aunt often when he got sappy later this evening and said that he missed her. I thank Tanner every day for his sensitivity to life. His birthday is coming up and he is going to be seven. In Tanner's first grade class is a Girl whose name is Rebekah at age 3 she was diagnosed with a tumor in her lower chin area. Rebekah had to undergo Chemo at age 3 and has so far survived. Rebekah has lots of handicaps and limitations. Tanner tells me stories about her all the time. I know that my son is touched by her sweet spirit. I am mostly touched by my son who is so sweet and sensitive to even be her friend. Most kids wouldn't even think about it. In planning Tanner's birthday party I asked the normal question who do you want to come to your birthday? He started naming kids and Rebekah was on his top 5 ppl to attend. I was WOW'ed by this and even teared up that he would even think to invite her. I spoke with Rebekah's mom last night and Rebekah was so excited she was jumping up and down with joy. She dosen't get asked to parties. I could even hear her breath through her laugh. It was so cute. I just had a proud mommy moment and immediatly gave Tanner a big hug and kiss. I was just touched and I know that Rebekah's mom was too.

Thank you Tanner for the light you extend to others and the joy you are to me. I love you deeply. Mom-

Close to my heart.

Okay here goes the novel. I have been really feeling the push to have food storage and be prepared. So for the last 2 yrs I have canned and made freezer chunky applesauce. My family loves it besides Renee. My little Renee loves to be where ever I am but mostly she wants to cook and make whatever I am making. I love it! I borrowed the apple peeler, corer, slicer from a friend and well it is a lot easier than doing it on your own. But... Renee insisted on doing it her self. She put the apple on and cranked that thing. It was amazing to watch her peel 4 apples with out stopping. She is amazing. Renee is crazy when she puts her mind to it AMAZING things HAPPEN. Look at her go.
Wow! Thanks for the break we had 50 lbs of apples to go through. You are Awesome.
I just love her!
Gotcha! Thank you Renee for all your hard work. You really do help out the family in so many ways. We love you Princess.
Food storage.
Tanner off to school in is whole get up. The kids got to wear their costumes all day. Tanner was so excited to show all the kids his costume from Disneyland. He asked me in the morning if he could be in character with his personality? I was laughing as he really wanted to play his part well.
Buy daddy. Have a good day at work... I'll miss you
Pirates and a Princess. Can it get any better than that?
PIRATES YE BE WARNED!
The whole crowd. This was the first time to have the kids ralley on the stairs for a picture. Notice the big tall kid at the top. She has now surpassed me in height. Oh no not good.
Renee just might crack the camera with that smile. Yikes we just might see another "Tink" attitude. She was saying no more pictures.
Tanner and his team at Dairy Queen. You may notice Marissa in the back as well. What a great season we had. All the kids did great. Congrats!

Elder Parkinson. What a wonderful missionary and example to our family. He is a fine young man and has such a great spirit. Funny too! we were always laughing. The kids think he is like a brother to them. I loved that my son Tanner was able to ask him questions about being a missionary. We felt the spirit very strongly when he was in our home. We sure miss him.
Elder Parkinson, he is sitting next to Tanner. He is our favorite missionary. The kids loved him and we did too. He supprised us a week ago and came over in the evening to chat. It was so nice the kids shared stories about disneyland and had a great visit. Elder Parkinson informed us that he was being transfered to Aloha. He had been in our ward for 6 months. He is awesome. We were sad to see him move on. I hear that he is doing well. We have adopted him as apart of our family and wish him well.
Renee's pumpkin has her stamp of aproval. nice pumpkin.
Ox Bow Park. Since Jeramie had a three day weekend. He decided that he wanted to be out side. Enjoying nature. I call it being GREEN! Jeramie wanted to see the salmon run and the Salmon festival was going on. The pictures were taken at the Sandy River down from MT. Hood.

The kids were looking through glasses that helped them see the salmon. It was really cool. They also looked through the telescope and were in awe of all the salmon.

WE got to see some dear. Oh that was cool. Watching them eat. They were so close to us the kids were playing at the play ground and they were only a few feet away. The kids were amazed that they didn't run away. Tanner and Renee tried to get closer buy, mommy and daddy got nervous.
Slide races. If there is anything that they can do side by side there is always a race. Tanner won!
On Columbus Day we went to the Japaneese Gardens. We love to be out doors and enjoy what beauty we have in Portland. Renee had pre-school and was out at 12pm so we pulled Tanner out early and enjoyed the rest of the day as a family. Thank you to the libraries here they have cultural passes,so we checked one out and took off for the day.






Daddy was Renee's assistant coach. She really wanted to play this year. I was reluctant and Jeramie was all over it. She said she'd play so daddy signed her up. WOW! Great Job Renee, she scored lots of goals. I missed getting the picture of the actual goal the camera wasn't fast enough. Although I usually got the after math. Her excitement.
This is after one of her goals. Great Job Princess!
See there it is the famous smile and dance. Everyone said they always enjoyed your energy and spunk. We love it too!
Renee's first metal. Last year they got bobble head trophys. My kids didn't like them so Thank you to the head coach he got metals.
Fire Awareness Week.The local Fire Department was having an open house this last saturday. I went shopping and Jeramie took the kids. They got to wear the whole get up, and climb in the trucks, use the hose and crafts. Apparently this was one of those times when I thought I was getting away by my self and found that I missed a lot of fun.