Weird Science

Ciera and Chloe entered their school science fair again this year. It looks like they are going to take after their Dad... science geeks. (As you may remember, they did "What Makes Yeast Grow?" last year.) This year's project looked at how gender affects card choice. They had a lot of fun doing it together. Tonight, we go for the awards ceremony. (Everyone gets a participation award... but if they had judges, my girls would definitely get 1st prize!)

We are so proud of them, and look forward, with much anticipation, to next year's science fair!

Sushi and Snow

A couple of weeks ago, our ward had a sushi class. One of the women in our ward has a son who is a sushi chef, and he came and taught us the art of sushi rolls. It was really fun. Yesterday, Dave and I tried to use the knowledge we learned to make sushi on our own. This is the result.
I think it turned out really great! It tasted great and looked really cool. I think, if we ever need a new profession...
We took our sushi over to a friend's house (who were not big sushi fans) for them to try, and they liked them! It was so fun to make, and even more fun to eat!
When we woke up this morning, we found our world covered in white. It is almost April... and we got about 6 inches of snow in a few hours this morning. Yesterday, our yard was free of snow, and it felt like spring. Today, it is winter.
I was reading an article in the newspaper yesterday about our town's 150th birthday (this May). It said that when the pioneers first settled in the Salt Lake Valley, they sent explorers to find other areas of Utah to settle. When they got to Cache Valley, they said it was not suitable for human habitation because it was too cold. Amen to that! (I am glad that they changed their minds though, because we love it here!!)

Midnight Visit

I was just commenting two days ago to a friend how lucky we have been this winter. Brooke has not had to go to the ER for croup at all (unlike all of her past years, where she has ended up there at least once each winter). I guess I jinxed us. Last night Brooke woke up having a really hard time breathing. I gave her some medicine (left over from last winter's croup) and took her outside into the cold night air. After 20 minutes or so, she was breathing better, so I put her back into bed. No more then 5 minutes later, she was gasping for air again. So, I loaded her into the car and made a run for the ER. Poor Brooke. The doctor and nurses that attended her were great, and she was such a brave girl. She even got a purple dinosaur face mask (her second one now), which she thought was pretty cool. I hope this was our last visit to the ER... but I won't jinx us again!

Autumn the artist

I had a friend watch Brooke and Autumn on Tuesday morning, and when I went to pick them up, she was very apologetic. Apparently they had come across a marker and had proceeded to write all over themselves. She tried to clean them up the best she could but there was still marker all over their clothes. I said to her that this was nothing new, and that I had to tell them that "we color only on paper" every week at least! EVERY time we get out markers to color, Autumn (and most of the time, Brooke too) ends up with marker all over her. Today was no exception. This is actually a really mild case... but I thought I would share. I don't know why, but for some reason she cannot keep the marker on the paper... I blame Dave.

Extreme Home Makeover... or Tanner Home Improvement

We, the Tanners, underwent some home renovations this past week (hence no blog posts). With some of our tax return this year, we decided to do some much needed improvements to our entry way and our upstairs bathroom. Since moving in to this house almost 1 year ago, we have needed to fix a few issues... and Dave's forced furlough week was the perfect opportunity! Project #1 was our entry way floor. The linoleum was peeling up in some areas, and just didn't look very good. So, we decided to put in a tile floor. It was our first time putting in tile, and it got pretty messy, but we are really happy with the finished product!

Another home renovation that we did, but we hadn't planned on doing, was making our bar narrower, so we can fit around our dining table more easily. We had been talking about how to solve our space issue, and whether or not we should get a new table. Then, we had our friends, the Hamblins, over for dinner. Their son, Tyler, was running full tilt to get outside with the rest of the kids, and he slammed right into the corner of our bar and cut his forehead open. This prompted immediate action. We decided to cut off about 8 inches of the bar. It is amazing how much more room we have now! Project #2 complete!
Project #3 was our biggest one! Our upstairs bathroom was in need of a new bathtub, and so we decided to take out the linoleum (which was peeling in spots) and shower walls, and replace them with tile. As we got into the project, we realized that it was a bigger project than we anticipated.
Dave did all of the tearing out, and that went pretty quickly until it came time to pull out the old bathtub.
The bathtub was fitted into the bathroom behind the sheetrock and subfloor boards. So, we had to cut out the walls to get it out. It was really amazing!
Dave had been working so hard on the repairs, that he took a little rest in the new bathtub before we installed it! Not really, but it was a fun picture!
We got the tile put in in one day... Dave did the bottom half of the walls, then I helped do most of the top half. After a short break we got to work on the floor. Dvae cut tile and I laid it down. It was hard work, but really fun too.
This is our finished bathroom. (Minus the new curtains, rugs & towels... but you get the picture!) It was a really tiring week, and we made a LOT of trips to Lowe's... but we are really happy with the changes that we made.
I think the best part of it all is that we did it together. We had ideas of what we wanted, and we went for it. I think it turned out to be a really great, fun week!

Ahhh, Chloe.

For family scripture study lately, we have been reading out of the Book of Mormon. In the past, we have read a little from the scriptures directly, but mostly used scripture story books and pictures to do our family study. This morning, Chloe said our family prayers before she and Ciera left for school. It was evident in her prayer that the language used in the scriptures is making an impact in her life.

This is a portion of her prayer...
"Please bless me and Ciera to be safe at school today. And please smite those people who try to touch us or wound us."
And then she went on.

Hopefully, the messages and meanings are getting across as well. And don't try to touch her... or you may be smitten.

We love our crazy Chloe.

8 things TAG

I've been tagged!
"8 things" tag rules are:
*post rules on your blog
*answer the six '8' items
*let each person know they are tagged by leaving them a 'comment' on their blog
here goes...

'8' favorite TV shows: (this is hard, because I don't watch much)
1. The Office
2. LOST
3. Dancing with the Stars (starts Monday again!)
4. Dirty Jobs
5. Iron Chef America (and Food Network Challenge too)
6. ?
7. ?
8. ?

'8' things I did yesterday:
1. Showered (a big accomplishment)
2. went to the grocery store
3. made chocolate chip cookies
4. read with my girls
5. picked Dave up early and went Home Improvement shopping
6. cleaned & folded laundry
7. watched LOST
8. read "Three Cups of Tea" until way too late

'8' things I am looking forward to:
1. spring
2. a permanent job for Dave
3. getting fit
4. having my children all in school (kind of)
5. Home Improvements to be completed
6. a vacation
7. Dave's field work to be done
8. fame and fortune (right!)

'8' favorite restaurants: (this one is hard too, cause we don't eat out regularly)
1. Olive Garden
2. Cafe Sabor
3. Kamin Thai
4. The Hamblin's house (LOL!)
5. that is pretty much everything we've had in Logan...
6. ?
7. ?
8. ?

'8' things on my wish list:
1. harsher penalties for parole violators... and world peace. (can you name the movie?)
2. air conditioning (during the summer of course)
3. happiness for my family
4. better figure... more fit body
5. for chocolate to be fat free and healthy for you, but still delicious
6. more shoes, clothes, and accessories... more room to put them... and all for FREE
7. for there to be no poor among us
8. to get a job in Logan so we don't have to move away

'8' people I tag
1. Kasie
2. Heather M.
3. Amy
4. Heather B.
5. Zanny
6. Cynthia
7. Sarah
8. Shana

Have fun!