Tanner Quote

Tanner came up to me cracking up and said,

"Mommy, spiders really do spin webs, but they come out of their BOTTOM!" 

This Spiderman phase is really something.

A Short Story, by Tanner

Tanner -
One time when I was at Grandma and Grandpas and I wanted a hot dog, so I took a corn dog and I took the stick off and I took the bread off, and I put ketchup on it and then I had a hot dog.  Can I have one now?

If you ever wonder how a 4 year old thinks, just talk to Tanner.  Its like you have a gateway into his brain.

Tanner Quotes

Tanner: Mom, when Daddy came out of your tummy did you name him Dad?
Me: No, Daddy didn't come out of my tummy.
Tanner: (confused) But he is a human.
Me: He came out of his mommy's tummy. Do you know who that is?
Tanner: (pointing at me)
Me: No sweetie, I am not Dad's mommy, but Grandma D is.



Me: Tanner, you are so cute that I want to take all of that cuteness and put it in a bottle and keep it forever.
Tanner: No Mom, that would take the Holy Ghost out of me. 

Tanner Quote

Dad, when I see horse, it makes me want to ride it and put on cowboy clothes!

Tanner Quote

Tanner is the funniest when it comes to movies.  He thinks about them.  I think he plays them in his head.  I often hear him repeating random funny quotes.  He says them dramatically and are silly coming out of his little mouth.

The kids went through a Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory phase last week(the old one).  They watched it several times.  We were in the kitchen making dinner the other night and Tanner randomly started saying to himself,

"The strawberries taste like strawberries, the snozberries taste like snozberries..." 

It was so funny that Peter and I started laughing, and Tanner of course got very offended that we were laughing at him.  He said it wasn't funny and ran away. Woops, sorry Tanner, definitely NOT funny.

Now Tanner like the movie "with Kevin when he gets lost." Can you guess?

Tanner Quote

Tanner: Do you like me the best mom? (He has been asking that a lot lately)
Me: You are my favorite 4 year old.
Tanner: (not satisfied at all) No, do you like me the best?
Me: You are the BEST 4 year old.
Tanner: (touching my face and wide eyed) But, but you didn't say it.
Me: I like you the best!
Tanner:(cutest smile ever) You said it.



Tanner: Mom, can we buy that Sunday?
Me: No, we don't spend money on Sunday.
Tanner: But I want to buy it Sunday.
Me: No, we are supposed to keep the Sabbath day holy so we don't shop on Sunday.
Tanner: Mom, you said we could buy it Sunday!
Me: (sudden realization)  Oh, you mean SOME DAY.  Yes Tanner, we can buy it some day.

Princesses and Water Polo

I overheard a couple of cute conversations between Tanner and Eden in the last few days:

I heard Eden say to Tanner:  "Lucy told me that all of the girls in the whole world are REAL princesses and all the boys are REAL princes.  That means that I am a princess and you are a prince."

Eden, if you read this when you are older, I want you to know, you are a REAL princess!




Then, the day after we went to Uncle Andy's water polo game I heard some confusion.
Eden: We weren't going to swim lessons, we went to Andy's WATER PILLOW game at the same place.
Tanner: Water pillow?
Eden: Yes, water pillow.
Tanner: Why is it water PILLOW?
Eden: I don't know, it just is.

Tanner asked me about it later, so I was able to clarify it for him.  I think I would like this water pillow, where do I sign up?

Tanner Quote

"Of all the animals, the boy is the most unmanageable."
-Plato

The other day I was sitting at the computer and Tanner came and stood next to me:

Tanner: Mom
Me: (looking next to me I find a completely naked boy with underwear on his head)
Tanner: (peering at me with one delighted eye through a leg hole)I have my undies on my head!
Me: I see that.  Now take them off and put your clothes back on silly boy!


Boys, boys boys...

Tanner Quote

It seems that once I start quoting Tanner, it is hard to stop, but this is a good one.

The other night when he climbed in our bed, I did not mention the 3 AM drama that happened.  I have had a very bad cold for a couple of weeks.  Once again I was only able to breathe through my mouth.  I woke up with my mouth so dry that it felt like sand paper.  I croaked to Peter and asked him to get me a drink of water (he has always been so sweet about that during the night).  He came back and as I began to sit up, he stumbled forward spilling half a cup of cold water on me.  My hand also hit the cup spilling some on Tanner and waking him up.  There is not much to be said for coordination at 3am.  The water somehow caused tanner to wet himself and his pull up did not do the job.  Because of his tender dry skin he began to cry that the skin on his belly hurt.  So Peter got up again and put Tanner in the shower for a few minutes.

As we rested on the bed waiting for the child to be thoroughly rinsed off all of the sudden we heard Tanner in a most cheerful voice call "Heidi" another minute later, "Heidi".  Then he started telling a story or joke maybe followed up with "An elephant made out of bacon! That's so funny."  Another minute later,  "An elephant made out of bacon!"   I asked him about it later and he said it was from a Veggie Tales movie. I am still wondering if it was a real movie or a dreamed up one.

All of the Sudden

I was starting to wonder when Carter was going to start really talking.  He has a lot of words, so I wasn't to worried, but it was not too clear.  Then very suddenly, he started speaking sentences, a lot!  It is more clear sounding too.  He wouldn't really repeat words for me before, but now he does it all the time. I don't recall having a child just start talking like that, but I am not too surprised with Carter because he seems so aware, as if he could already talk in his head before he could make it come out.  I love this phase, when they start talking all the time.

Best Friends

Tanner has fallen in love with a worm he found in the back yard. He has been enjoying carrying it around, and setting it down so that he can watch it wiggle. Daddy would not let him take it on the trampoline much against his wishes. He named it Peter Worm Dickinson. He keeps talking to it and playing imaginative like he would with a sibling. Then I heard him say, "Your my best friend!". Should I be worried?

Last night Eden and I were tired and the boys were downstairs watching a movie. So us girls went to lay down on my bed. We cuddled and chatted for a while and I said:
"Eden, can we be best friends forever?"
She said excitedly:"YES! Tomorrow morning I will go wish for that."
I thought about what she meant for a moment and asked "Do you mean on a wishing flower in the yard?"(you know the dandelion weeds)
She replied: "Yes."

Hot Air

Dallin came home from school the other day with some grand ideas in his head.  He started talking all about hot air balloons and how they work.  I knew where this was going and was right.  He fully intended to build one.  I was blow drying my hair and he came in and said, "Mom, can I borrow that?"  I said "Sure, why not?".  He showed me an empty plastic grocery bag that he was going to use as a balloon.  He got Eden all excited about it and I could hear them in the living room working on their new project.  Then after a few minutes I heard the blow dryer turn on and then off again.  They were obviously troubleshooting and I heard Eden say "Hmmm...maybe if we build this outside, we could use the hair dryer and the wind to get it to fly." 

I just had to check it out by then.  Dallin had turned their little table upside down and put a couch cushion on top of the legs and then a big basket.  The table legs had several of the plastic grocery bags hooked on.  Eden's little bean bag was up there too.  It was so cute.   I think they eventually gave up on making it float, but it was very imaginative for sure. 

Moments I Love

Here is a classic Tanner moment from Sunday dinner:
To Peter's 95 year old grandpa:
Tanner: What is your name?
Grandpa: Art
Tanner: (perplexed) What kind of art?
Grandpa got such a kick out of it, that he told everyone about it.

During our Easter program with the family, Dallin was being so cute.  First he did a show and tell magic trick.  He spoke loud and pulled it off perfectly.  Then during the program a couple of times he decided to add a couple of stories that weren't quite related to the Easter story.  Michelle was nice about it and let him interrupt so he could have his moment. After Michelle told about the Angel that came to the tomb when Jesus was ressurected, Dallin got up and told everyone quite articulately about how Laman and Lemuel were beating up Nephi and an angel appeared and said "Why are you doing this to your younger brother, Don't you know that he is your leader?"  Dallin uses a lot of hand gestures when he talks so it was cute.  Then he started thinking about his other favorite scripture story at the moment and recited a great rendition of Jonah and the whale.  Afterward everyone asked "So did he repent?"  Dallin said "I don't know!"  Apparently Peter told him the exiting parts of the story but forgot to tell him how it ends.  It was funny.  I am so proud of Dallin for his confidence and continually grateful for how far he has come.  He is so cool.

Easter Morning

As the kids were going through their Easter baskets yesterday, they were getting pretty excited.  Tanner said, "I LIKE the Easter Bunny!".   A few minutes later he was very concerned when he discovered what he thought was cement inside his malt ball easter eggs! Peter had to really convince him it was edible. 

Later that day, Dallin, Eden and Tanner were running around in their little pack and all of the sudden I heard Eden say "Look, He is alive!".  I looked over to realize that they were dramatizing the ressurection and Dallin was the Jesus in the story.

April Fools!

The kids got a big kick out of April Fools jokes today and made up new ones all day.  They called all their grandparents just to share them.  Here are some that I remember.

Eden: The moon turned into cheese! April Fools! The mouse turned into cheese! April Fools!

Tanner: The sky turned into a button! April Fools!  (what the?)

Dallin: Junk food is healthy!  April Fools!

At the Movies with Tanner

If you go to the movies with Tanner, don't expect a quiet experience.  He has no volume button and will make his comments really loud so everyone can here.  It is funny though.  We went to see the movie Shorts today.  It is a really funny movie for kids.  They got a big kick out of it.  At one point there are little alien space ships that clean the main little boy's room.  Tanner yelled "Hey, they could clean MY room!"  Then at another point a guy got turned into a huge Oscar Myer weiner and rolled down the street.  It was hilarious and I guess that got Tanner thinking about hot dogs.  Several minues later he yelled "Hot dogs are INSIDE corn dogs!!!" What an observation.  I really have to write all of these things down. I must.  I never want to forget Tanner as a 3 year old.  He is our funniest, yet least humored child.  He really doesn't think he is being funny, he is actually very serious.

Tanner Quotes

• As we drove into the Ikea parking lot I explained to the kids that we were going to eat lunch at the restaurant.  I asked them to tell me what the rules are when we eat at a restaurant:

Eden: Stay in you chair.
Dallin: No Yelling.
Tanner: And NO belly flops!

I guess that makes sense.

• I passed out our chewable dinosaur vitamins to all the kids. 

Tanner(to Peter): The dinosaur's butt is tasty!

I asked Tanner about it and he made sure to tell me its really just a vitamin(with a bite out of its butt!)

Tanner Quote

Tanner: What is that?
Me: Enchiladas, they are so yummy!
Tanner: I don't like them, they hurt my feelings.

These silly kids of mine!

Me: We are going to be late for church! Come on, eat people!!!
Tanner: We don't eat people!!!

Me: Dallin, your face is covered with chocolate. Go wash it.
Dallin: I like the chocolate on there. I think it looks FANCY!

(Spot, barking at Tanner who is trying to take her toy)
Peter: No barking!
Tanner: I'm not barking (repeat 10 times).

mmmmm

Tanner: Mom, that was tasty!

I am just finishing feeding Lily as I look up and see some yellowish remnants around his mouth

Me: What was tasty?

Tanner: Um, the butter, but I like it. I like butter.

He knows that we don't just eat butter, but apparently liking it makes it okay!