O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

He just keeps getting bigger and bigger! Tanner loves taking the decorations off the trees and placing them in lumps together. Christmas is sofun especially now that Tanner understands what's going on. Merry Christmas to all of you and we hope to see all of our friends this season!

UFAN and Pumpkins!

We got to go to the Utah Food Allergy Network's Trunk or Treat this year! It is meant for children with allergies. They get to keep everything they get because it isn't food!
Here is our fun sequence of events...

1. Not sure he really wants to do this...



2. Did you see that, Dad? They have toys!




3. Why is some lady giving me a balloon? It isn't a toy!

4. I got TOYS!

We got to go to the pumpkin patch and pick out a pumpkin!

Off to find the perfect one!




All the cousins on the tractor!

Just like dad!

This is how he really felt about the tractor!

Berg Family 2011

Witches

We went to see the witches at Gardner Village with our cousins! We have had so much fun teaching Tanner "Five little Pumpkins" and "I'm a Mean Old Witch" this year! He loves "Happy Ween!"

Tanner's Shoes

We will never be able to pass hand me down shoes to anyone...

Fall at the Cabin

We were fortunate enough to get some friends to come with us to the cabin this past weekend. We are not sure if they'll come back, but it was fun to have them with us! The Larsen's are a fun bunch! Thanks for coming and putting up with us! We took some great rides (eating a lot of dust), played games (I was not so good at that!), and ate some great food.

The fall leaves were amazing!

The view from the cabin....

Check Him Out!

We are not all the way there, but we are getting close! I can't believe it happened this early. He totally did it all himself. All I offered was stickers and praise. What an amazing kid I have!

I One Two

Tanner turned two yesterday! We can't believe it! We have been asking him how old he is and he says, "I one....two!" We had a great morning at the zoo. Did you know that Tanner shares his birthday with Zuri the elephant at Hogle Zoo? They are both two!


Later, we had cake and ice cream with all his favorite cousins. (They all came!) We are so lucky to have such a great family.


Tanner had a choo choo cake this year with cupcakes for the tracks.








Some things we love about Tanner at two:

• He is a patient, loving little guy.


• He won't take a toy from anyone.


• He talks about his cousins and friends all the time.


• He loves to go to to church and asks to go several times a week.


• He really likes his neighborhood guy friends and squeals when he sees them.


• He will not look at the camera for anything.


• When I was sick, he kissed me on the cheek and said, "okay mom."


• He eats well, but is constantly asking for "cooookies." (He even bakes them in his play kitchen.)


• He loves to read scriptures with us before bed. (We bought the ones with pictures...)

We love our little guy and can't believe we are so blessed to have him. We are so grateful that he was sent to our family. Happy Birthday Tanner!

Old MacDonald

I have been hearing far too many requests to sing, "ee oo." (which translated means Old MacDonald, ee ii ee ii oo) So we headed off to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point to experience the real thing. Luckily, Rachel and her guys got to come with us! (Tanner asks to play with Ty many times a day!)


Riding the tractors...


Dancing out of the dance hall...


The three little messpots in Jail!

Riding on the wagon ride!

Ty...

Shawn...

Rachel and cute baby Eli...

Here are some animal pictures... We concluded that the Peahen and Peacock needed some private time.

What a fun time we had! We have had many, many more requests to sing "ee oo," but I guess I brought that on myself!

Jr. High love story

So, Clayton's parents found a "poem" that Clayton wrote in 9th grade. Pretty sure I was crying by the end of it. Imagine a question mark on every line that starts with "My friend."

My Friend says you don't love her

And I say yes I do.

My friend says how do you know

And I say my hear tells me.

My friend says what heart

And I say the heart that holds all of my love for her.

My friend says for life you will love her

And I reply I hope for eternity.

My friend says what if someone better comes along

And I say no one is better

My friend says what if it ends

And I say there will always be a place in my heart for her.

My friend says hope you get her

And I reply I hope also.

My friend says congratulations

And I reply thanks for giving me confidence.

My friend says how's the wife

and I reply looking better than ever.

My friend says I'm sorry for the loss

And I say I will see her again.

My friend says goodbye

And I say thank you for everything.

Now the sad part is Clayton has no idea why he wrote this, he thinks it's to satisfy a english assignment (as you can see he probably failed) but we want to know what girl received this poem. Please tell us if you have ever seen this poem.
PS I hope if you ask Clayton "How's the wife?" he replies, "Looking better than ever!"

Summertime Snow Cones

Here is Tanner having his first snow cone ever...
(he's not allergic!)

We love summer!

Cabin Weekend

We went to the family cabin for Memorial Weekend.

We had a great walk...

There was so much spring run-off!

It is a good think Owen was such a good sport. Tanner could have pushed him around for hours! It was the highlight for Tanner!

Day Out with Thomas!

Tanner's Grandma and Grandpa were so nice to take him to Day Out with Thomas! He loved it and we have not heard anything else but, "CHOO CHOO" at our house since!

Riding on the train...


All the fun stuff to do...

Thomas!

Terrific Tanner

I have been so in awe of Tanner this week. He has taken his eye patch so well. He lets me put it on without a fight and only fights a little to take it off (it hurts!).

We have been calling his patch a sticker and I've given him his own stickers to play with and here is the result...

They keep him pretty entertained!
Here are some other tidbits that have just shown how wonderful he is...

• When I was so worried this eye problem would hold him back in things and make others look at him differently, he walked right up to another girl in the doctor's waiting room, gave her a hug, grabbed her hand, and took her to the toys.


• He stopped in the middle of the road to yell hi to a lady 30 feet away.


• If I give him a spoon or shovel, he is immediately stirring and saying "mmm, tasty" just like Grandma K taught him.


• He sings the hymns in church now!


• When he throws a tantrum, I tell him to go to time out, he obeys, the crying/screaming stops instantly, we hug and the whole thing is over.

We are so grateful for our little Tanner. He is such a good boy. We love him so much!

Again, Poor Tanner...

Last Thursday Michelle noticed that Tanner's left eye wouldn't look to the left. I thought she was seeing things, (motherly intuition). We left for Cedar City for the family reunion early morning Friday and I still didn't see anything. Friday afternoon it was obvious that Tanner had some type of issue going on with his eyes. We got an appointment with our awesome pediatrician Jeff Erickson for Monday at 9:00 A.M. He scheduled an appt with us for a pediatric opthamologist for Tuesday at 9:00 A.M. We met with Dr. Hoffman at Primary Childrens Center to see what was going on with Tanner. He told us it was most likely post viral palsy of the 6th nerve due to his recent pneumonia that he had in March. Dr. Hoffman wanted to rule out a growth so he scheduled a MRI for us at 12:30 that same day. Needless to say poor Tanner was sedated for the MRI and everything went really well.(the picture is of Tanner waiting to be sedated and only wanting to play with the pulse finder...) NO GROWTH. So now the poor little man has to wear a patch on his good eye until this viral palsy goes away. It could take as long as 6 months. Lessons learned: motherly intuition works, our pediatrician is amazing, (as well as every person who helped us at Primary Children's) High Deductible insurance is a CURSE & Tanner is a strong kid to go through all of this. So when you see us next, yes we do know that Tanner is not looking right at you, he's just looking at the 2nd you to your left.

Swimming!

I realized that the last time Tanner was in a pool was last summer. I haven't attempted swimming since then! So this week, we went swimming with Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Rachel and cousins, Ty, Shawn and Eli! It was a blast! (Please pardon the white legs)

Until we faceplanted in the water...

He got over it quick though...

we can't wait to go again!

The Big Yard Day

This month we have made a lot of progress on our yard. We have many "before" pictures and we are still working on getting the yard to the "after" pictures. Hopefully soon we will have it where we want it.

On this big yard day, we rented this machine (called a Dingo) and ripped out a corner of the yard, as well as hauled in a lot of bark and gravel. Thank you, thank you to all the family that helped us out. Especially Cale for cutting down a tree and a half and getting as a lot of firewood. (Less leaves for me to rake!) We'll keep working and get the "after" pictures taken and then invite our hard workers over for food.

On a side note, Tanner has pnuemonia now! He has been a very sad boy. We have him on antibiotics now so hopefully he will get better soon!

Pictures...

I got Tanner's pictures taken at Fotofly in Draper and I love them! His photographer did an amazing job making him smile. What a great experience. We will be going back!