MJ

I'll admit it, i was shocked by some celebrity deaths. I remember where I was and what I was doing when I heard Princess Diana died, and Anna Nicole Smith and Heath Ledger and Michael Jackson. All were shocking to me. I though MJ was eccentric and a weird human being, but as an artist, I found him fascinating. At some point in our lives, we bought a DVD with all of his videos on it. I don't know what prompted Cynjyn to dig it out the other night, but she did and soon had her brothers joining her as they mimicked MJ and the moves in his videos. Here they are doing Thriller.

I couldn't resist grabbing the camera and snapping away!! They are all good dancers and they were having an blast and we were all laughing and dancing the night away:)

The garage is coming right along:

Cynjyn had a blast playing in the little alcove. She wants to keep it empty for her "stage", but that isn't going to happen.

After ragball, Cynjyn and I went to the shoe store while Garry got the wood at Home Depot to start the half wall for the garage. We got matching shoes. Cynjyn was really excited about it. I was happy that they had them in wide width!!

In our cleaning out of the garage, we found the dehydrator. Cynjyn was dying to dry something, so Saturday we bought some bananas and they dried them. They were eaten and gone by Sunday night!!

All day Saturday, we spent on the garage. We started about 10:30 and were done by 9:00 that night!! Here's the work station.

The helpers

The main laborer

Cynjyn left about 1:00 to go to Becca's, Taz lasted until about 2:30 when Josh came over. Tanner slept until 3:30!! He said Friday night to NOT wake him up even if Hunter called because he hadn't been able to sleep in all month, so he wasn't much of a helper. He did help cut the dry wall, but Hunter was over, so I didn't get any pictures of him.

The frame is done, here comes the drywall.

Dry wall all screwed in.

The mudding begins.

All done inside view;

Outside view.

Poor Taz, he is attached to his "blankie" and his scooby-doo pillow. Well, they are both on their last legs. He was determined to sew them though. Last week in FHE, I had talked about how Pres. Hinkley had to fix the rips in his school socks. Taz had been wondering ever since then about hand sewing. So he was determined to fix his pillow by hand sewing. I showed him how and he sat there for over an hour while we were watching DVR's Lost episodes and fixed his pillow.

He did a great job and was very proud of himself when it was all done.

Life

So here's our week in pictures. I got a call from Tanner yesterday saying he split his chin open at practice. I talked to the trainer and he said it was borderline if he needed stitches or not. He said if it was his kid, he'd just super glue it. But he'd let me decided. Always wanting to avoid a trip to an urgent care, we opted for the butterfly band-aid thing. Tanner didn't want super glue. It's not that noticable a place if it scars, right!!

He also got the hip burn,

and the knee burn for his efforts.

Tomorrow is Garry's bday so I've been working on a little book for him.

I tried to pick manly colors and patterns.

I titled it: 45 reasons I love you! He's turning 45 so I thought that would be appropiate.

Taz earned his tenderfoot!!

Mowgli, as usual is always in the most precarious positions and loves every minute of it!!

Ragball started and Taz played last week. Cynjyn opted to sleep over at Becca's. But she went to practice this week and so she's going to play tomorrow.

We got the second half of the garage painted and the floor all done.

We will be moving all the stuff tonight after Tanner's vball game and then tomorrow, we'll start work on the half wall. It's all starting to come together, and we're all excited to get it done!

What a week!

Garry had to go to SLC for business. He left Sunday night and wouldn't return until Wed. evening. I didn't care because my mom and dad were coming up to surprise Tanner!! He had three volleyball games this week and they made a quick trip up to watch him. I had told Talon and Cynjyn, but they were able to surprise Tanner and Taz. Taz came home from school on Monday (Gma and Gpa got here about 10 min. before he came.) Grandma was hiding behind the door and when he walked in, she yelled "surprise!!" He ran and gave her a huge hug. It was touching to watch, he was so happy. Then we went to Tanner's game. He saw us come in and he said he about had a heart attack and was very nervous then to "play good" for them. He did great. I love how supportive my parents are to their grand kids and that they make an effort to travel for 14 hours just to come watch them in their activities!! Anyway, all that led up to a fun and busy week. Here is Tanner with the rest of his dress ups for spirit week.

Rock star day. Luckily, he had his Halloween costume to draw on for that one.

He also had the talent of Talon who gave him a tattoo. No, none of us, including Tanner, have any idea who Lexi is. We wanted a short name and he NEEDED it to be someone he isn't friends with.

Here he is for sports jersey day. He wore Garry's Max Hall jersey, but he ended up leaving the crazy BYU hat in the car as he lost his nerve to wear that all day.

Tanner had games on M, W and TH. In the midst of it all, on Tues. he had his Eagle Scout Board of Review. I took him to that clear down in Henderson while Grandma and Grandpa took Taz and Cynjyn to the movie "How to Train your Dragon" By the way, they ALL loved the movie and said it was really good.

I had never seen Tanner so nervous. He went into the interview and when he came out, he told me his legs and arms were shaking so bad, he thought he was going to pass out and throw up. But, he passed and he's now an official Eagle Scout!! Yahoo, two down, one to go;)

Granpa wanted to get the kids going on some more of their $.50 piece coin collection, so he helped Taz put his originals in his book.

A few days later, he bought 10 rolls of $.50 pieces and we all sat around the table happily finding and adding to the kids collection. They all had a helper who would look at their checklist as they read off the dates on their coins to see if they already had it or not. It was cool and fun to add to the collections!

After we were done, Cynjyn said she needed some meditating time. So she turned off the light in the living roof and lit some candles and put some cushions on the floor and her and he best friend Eeyore meditated.

Pretty soon Mowgli joined them. C got up for a minute and he'd stolen her cushion, so she decided to "train' Mowgli and Eeyore how to meditate. It was adorable to watch it all unfold. We had a great time with our company and were very sad that it all had to end so soon. They left today because they had to be back to Boise by tomorrow for a Family History seminar. Such a great week!

Super T

It is spirit week at Silverado High School and Tanner chose to dress up today. It is "Superhero" day. So, Tanner is Super T to the rescue!!

My hero!!

Tanner's Poem

Here is a poem Tanner wrote for English. He got 40/40 on it and it's about him and his cousin: His deep eyes twinkle
his hair is sprinkled
his soft fingers tickle.

His smile is hard to find
but his laugh is never far behind
the crooked smile
gives me peace of mind.

People say it reminds them
of someone who is here
I wonder who they speak of
I guess I'll wait to hear.

Oh, me!
his smile reminds them
of me
Oh sweet miniature me.

My baby cousin
my smile's
reflection
reminds me
of thee.

Activity Days

Last night at Activity Days Cynjyn made a cake. It came already baked with the white frosting on. She added the colored fondant and frosting. She was very proud of herself. After she showed everyone, she promptly ate all the extra frosting and fondant. (She doesn't like cake, only frosting!).