Cardon's Special Day

This weekend I re-learned some important things:
- I am getting old and rounder by the day. :)
- I am blessed beyond what I will ever deserve.
- I have an awesome husband who respects the priesthood he holds.
- I have an amazing son who is an example of faith and goodness to his mother.
- Our family is loved and supported by wonderful and caring family and friends.

Thank you to all of our family and friends who came to support Cardon as he was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Thank you to those of you who sent your love through phone calls and emails and letters.
Here are some pictures (I wish I would have taken more).

Cardon's baptism was a special time. Maddy opened the meeting by singing a solo "Joseph Smith's First Prayer". I have to say - she did a great job singing by herself infront of 30+ people.

Cardon's two Grandma's gave talks about Baptism and the Holy Ghost. Cardon was baptized and confirmed by Ryan with uncles, Grandpa McEwen and friends standing in the circle.

Cardon had two GREAT Grandmother's present as well. I am still kicking myself for not getting a 4 generation picture. Cardon also had cousins and aunts and uncles who had made the 5 + hour drive from Colorado and Boise. Good friends from the neighborhood were also there.
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After the baptism we had a birthday luncheon afterwards with cinnamon rolls instead of birthday cake. MMMMM Aunt Rachel makes a mean cinnamon roll! Cardon's cousin Jaydn was thoughtful enough to bring a pinata full of candy and toys. It was a little nerve wracking trying to keep the kids away from a swinging metal bat but we all came out unscathed.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARDON and congrats on your decision to be baptized. We love you!

Halloweenies

This year I had my fill of Halloween.
According to my mom and dad it used to be one of my favorite holidays. Um, that couldn't have been true past the age of 8. Even in college I think I dressed up once - and I was a farmer with a flannel shirt and braids.
Well, this year was filled with THREE days of costumes and the gathering of more and more sweets. Thursday at school (because they had Friday out of school - joy of joys). Friday was the Omniture Halloween party complete with candy and real midgets dressed up as Smurfs. (I was a little nervous to take pics - is that politically correct to as a smurf midget for their picture?) Then on to the ward "Trunk or Treat". I personally think trunk or treat is a fabulous idea. You hit a bunch of people with in 50 yards and you are done. However, if not done on Halloween creates 2 dilemmas. Apparently for my kids - it didn't count as trick or treating because it WASNT on Halloween - and the second issue ofcourse - is all the kids that went around trunk or treat 2 or 3 times come to your door on Halloween too.
To remedy these 2 issues we went to Grandma's house and let the kids go around her neighborhood. Leaving our house dark and candyless - and luckily no tricks.
Here are some pics from our adventurous weekend! Bah Humbat!! ;)
Oh and incase you need descriptions:
Cardon age 7 (almost 8) as Anakin Skywalker
Maddy age 5 as Violet (NOT Elasti Girl)
Luke age 2 elephant with a big bum
"T" age 2 (cousin) Rudolph.

The Settlement

This was forwarded to me...
Whether or not the author is real - the content is what rings true to me.
I don't apologize for these thoughts - while some of them are filled with sarcasm.
It made me smile and maybe it will make you smile too.

American liberals, leftists, social progressives,
socialists, Marxists and Obama supporters, et al:

We have stuck together since the late 1950's, but the
results of this latest election process has made me realize
that I want a divorce... I know we tolerated each other for
many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly,
this relationship has run its course.

Our two ideological
sides of America cannot and will not ever agree on
what is right so let's just end it on friendly
terms. We can smile and chalk it up to irreconcilable
differences and go our own way.

Here is a model separation agreement:
Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by
landmass each taking a portion. That will be the
difficult part, but I am sure our two sides can come to a friendly
agreement. After that, it should be relatively easy!
Our respective representatives can effortlessly divide other assets
since both sides have such distinct and disparate
tastes.

We don't like redistributive taxes so you can keep
them. You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU.
Since you hate guns and war, we'll take our
firearms, the cops, the NRA and the military.

You can keep Oprah,
Michael Moore and Rosie O'Donnell (You
are, however, responsible for finding a bio-diesel
vehicle big enough to move all three of them).

We'll keep the capitalism, greedy corporations,
pharmaceutical companies, Wal-Mart and Wall Street. You can
have your beloved homeless, homeboys, hippies and illegal
aliens. We'll keep the hot
Alaskan hockey moms, greedy CEO's and rednecks.
We'll keep the Bibles and give you NBC and
Hollywood ..

You can make nice with Iran and Palestine and we'll
retain the right to invade and hammer places that threaten
us.. You can have the peaceniks and war protesters. When our
allies or our way of life are
under assault, we'll help provide them security.

We'll keep our Judeo-Christian values.. You are welcome
to Islam, Scientology, Humanism and Shirley McClain. You can
also have the U.N.. but we will no longer be paying the
bill.

We'll keep the SUVs, pickup trucks and oversized luxury
cars. You can take every Subaru station wagon you can
find.

You can give everyone healthcare if you can find any
practicing doctors. We'll continue to believe healthcare
is a luxury and not a
right. We'll keep The Battle Hymn of the Republic and
the National Anthem. I'm sure you'll be happy to
substitute Imagine, I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing,
Kum Ba Ya or We Are the World.

We'll practice trickle down economics and you can give
trickle up poverty your best shot. Since it often so offends
you, we'll keep our history, our name and our
flag.

Would you agree to this? If so, please pass it along to
other like minded liberal and conservative patriots and
if you do not agree, just hit delete. In the spirit of
friendly parting, I'll bet you Answer which one of us
will need whose help in 15 years.

Sincerely,
John J. Wall
Law Student and an American

Tanner's are Talented

The last couple weeks of school there are lots of events going on in 1st grade.
This was Cardon's class talent show - where Cardon decided to show his self taught break dancing skills. He was a little nervous at first and forgot some of his signature moves - but he "brought it" after he got over his stage fright. ;)
Go Cardon! Go Cardon Go GO GO Cardon!

TRI as I may....

Willpower, training, determination, blood, sweat, tears. All things required of a person to accomplish a goal. I my case it's just to keep this stinking blog current. In RYAN'S case - it's a TRIathlon!!

Early on the morning of June 20th Ryan competed is his first Triathlon Sprint. This includes a 1/2 mile swim followed by a 13 mile bike and finally a 5k run.
Ryan made this goal about a month before and it was amazing to watch as he persistently trained for it. I am so proud of him! He is in some the best shape ever and he inspires me to try harder.

If you ask Ryan how he did - he might hesitate. However, I think for his first - he should be doing cartwheels. He took 18th in his age division and 68th overall with a time of 1:29:47.65

Here are some pictures of the fun....

Slacker

Today I looked at my blog and realized it has been over a month since I posted last.
I have lots to catch up on....
I am working on it.... along with the rest of life.
While you are anxiously waiting to read up on the last month at the Tanner's (ha ha) here is something that as soon as I read it on Tia's blog. I thought - this is a must read...
Getting a little political again that's all...

Why socialism won't work.....

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had once failed an entire class.

That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism. All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B.

The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.

As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

Whether or not that story is true - I think it is a great illustration... Pass it on. :)

The Mouths of babes..

I hope all of you amazing women had a good Mother's Day!
I wanted to share a small part of Cardon's Mothers Day gift that he gave to me.
He was so excited that he came in nice and early that morning to share this with me.
It's actually really cute. All of the blue parts - are the places where he filled in the blanks. :)

"My Mother is the most wonderful mom in the whole world. She's as pretty as a butterfly. She weighs 50 pounds (he whispered - I wanted to you to feel good.) Her favorite food is Cafe Rio. My mom looks prettiest when she gets meryed. (That's married for those of you who are rusty on 1st grade spelling.)
When mom was little she used to only listin to church music. (I am not quite sure where he got that - maybe it's because Ryan always teases me that I learned all these weird songs from girls camp.)
I like being with my mother most when I'm sad. I go on roller coaster's.
I think my mom looks funny when she makes funny faces.
But I know she's really angry with me when she sees me playing with bug killer. (Don't ask.)
My favorite thing about my mother is she's nice, she helps me.
I wish my mom would let me play the wii 1000 hours every day.
I wouldn't trade my mom for the wii. (That is REALLY saying something).

Oh - Jack Handy is SO right. "The face of a child says SO much - especially the mouth part." :)