The Tanner Family Blog

The year is up since moving into our rental house in Lehi. This year hasbeen a crazy one and I am glad to see it go. There have been lots of fun time,but wow the stress that came from the passing of my mom, has been a littlehard. Being my brother Sam’s guardian for six months was a bit more challengingthan I imagined it would be. We were planning on keeping him until he turned18. But, as every hour that we had Sam put such a stress on our household, we decided to see if my mom’s family would be willing to take Sam. Sam is a great person and ultimately we decided if he was going to be successful and happy in
life, he needed to be with a family thatwas more stable. With David going to
work full time, and being salaried at that,meaning more than full time hours. He also goes to school year round. So, itwas like I was raising Sam as a single ‘mom’. We are so thankful for the Curtisand Korene Knight for taking Sam in. They have
seven children of their own and have been there done that through their kids’ teenage years. Curtis and Korene are wonderful people and we know they will be greatly blessed for helping Sam. I am grateful to my parentsalso for making it possible for Sam to live with the Knights. They have always been so nice and such great examples to our family.

There were some great times with having Sam live with us, and I am so glad that he got to spend so much time with Zoe. Zoe still lights up whenever she sees Sam, they are best buds. Chelsea has been great to live with, Zoe loves her to pieces and I am not sure what Zoe is going to do, when she doesn’t have Chelsea to run to when it’s time to get her dressed.

I have such a wonderful family and I am so proud of them. Mica is doing awesome with big dreams that she is quickly making reality. Zach is going to ‘conquer the world’, as
David puts it. He is an amazing person and is a wonderful example to our family, Zoe adores him. Seth and Alicia just welcomed baby Benjamin, he is a doll and we are so happy for his family. Alex is working on getting her CNA, and is so fun to be around when we have family gatherings. Chelsea is going to school at Utah State in the fall, has
been working hard all year at school and Trafalga. Sam is working on his eagle project, passed all his classes in 10th grade, and has already changed for the better. You can tell just by looking at him that is countenance is pure and the spirit is with him.

Davidand I are currently looking for a place to live. We have searched so many
apartments but just can’t seem to find one that fits in our price range and
feels right. We are currently working on changing our plans to not rent
anymore. We find out today if our offer was accepted or not.

I am so grateful for family and friends for giving their love and support, you are all amazing and we love you so much!

Little Strawberry Girl

Last April, David and I started a tradition in our family to make freezer  jam during each Spring Saturday session of General Conference. This year was our second year making it. My aunt Suzanne makes the best Strawberry Jam ever. So, we used her recipe. The recipe can be found on the  MCP Pectin in the yellow box. We wish we could make freezer jam without corn syrup, but for now it is the only way we can make and store our  jam. It is so tasty and the best and only way to eat jam!

My husband and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary pretty much all weekend long. We celebrated with our sweet little girl Zoe on Friday, by going to a nice hotel overnight. We took her swimming at the pool in the hotel and had some much needed R & R with our little family.

Yesterday was our actual anniversary. We had plans to go eat at my favorite restaurant, but plans fell through due to lack of babysitter during the time we were going to go have dinner.  Instead, we took Zoe to Granada Corena’s during the early afternoon to be watched, while David and I went to a movie. After the movie, we picked up Zoe and ended up going to eat dessert at  T.G.I. Fridays. We shared a brownie obsession, I know worlds worst mom for feeding Zoe something so sweet. I won’t make that mistake again, as much as Zoe enjoyed the sugar high, she did not sleep well at all last night.

Our anniversary this year wasn’t very romantic and how we would normally spend our anniversary, but we sure are blessed that we have Zoe and that she was able to spend it with us.

I love Tupperware. I was lucky enough to have a Tupperware party for one of my wedding showers almost 3 years ago. My family and I use these products everyday and it saves us tons of money. Tupperware are the finest kitchen plastics on the market.  The products are guaranteed for life, they seal and last much longer than what you can buy in the grocery store, and they hold just about anything. I have noticed that it is a bit hard to find people who sell Tupperware. David’s grandma is always asking if we know anyone who sells it. Therefore, I have decided to start selling it myself.

Selling Tupperware will give me the freedom to choose my own hours and days that I work, which is perfect for a stay at home mom. David won’t be graduating from BYU until Fall 2013, as an Electrical Engineer. So during this time, we have decided that we need to buckle down and save money. We will be paying cash for his schooling from here on out. Our goal is to become debt free by Fall 2013-or sooner.

To get  started, I need to find three people willing to be the host for my parties.  If you are one of the lucky three people, you will receive a couple host gifts -No purchase necessary. Just reply to this site, or through Facebook . This is going to be a lot of fun! For those that don’t want to be a host, let me know if you’d like me to send you a brochure for Tupperware.  You can either purchase Tupperware by calling me, or place your order online  at http://my2.tupperware.com/jessicatanner.   I hope to see you at my first Tupperware Party soon. Prizes for everyone who attends!

FPU-Check this out to see this great commercial.

I’d have to say that January is my least favorite month out of the year. That could be attributed to the fact that it is a drabby time of year, or that  it is freezing cold, or that my mom used to call the month of January, “January Blues”.  But, looking back on January, I’d say it was a pretty good month for us. It was a month of change for our family…

This year David and I decided to set some monthly goals. Our goal for January was to not eat out at restaurants. We did it for financial and healthy benefits. This worked pretty well, except with David’s grandparents and dad came to visit us.  We just couldn’t say no to a free meal at Outback Steakhouse.  They are always so nice in paying for our meals, when we got out with them. We had such a great time and they really are the nicest people.

I mentioned in my last post that for Christmas David and I gave each other, Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University. We started the class in January, we go every Wednesday and the class lasts for 2 hours. It is amazing! We are learning how to budget together, save money, and to eventually get out of debt. We had made some stupid purchases in the past on credit and have taken out student loans.  But, we have decided no more of that! We are  starting to pay off our student loans and will not be taking out anymore. We also cut up our credit cards and are working on paying them off.  ”We are going to live like no one else, so later we can live like no one else” We will pay cash for all of our purchases going forward

Our homework last week was to post items we own on KSL or EBay, so I came home and went to town on selling our crap. So far we have sold six items, with someone coming today to buy our seventh item up on KSL. Tonight I am also putting up our dumbest purchase of all our marriage. It’s our 2002 Mercedes ML 320 up for sale. David bought this SUV for me on my birthday July 2010.  It has been an awesome car to drive, but to get us out of debt sooner we have decided to sell it and buy a clunker with cash for under $2,000. After all, the 1996 Saturn I got in 2004 is still running smooth as ever and the only major repair on it was a new transmission.

David and I are “Gazelle Intense” about getting and staying out of debt, we can’t wait to see how our journey on becoming debt free takes us!

Christmas in 2010 was great. It was so nice to be around family and share each other’s love and company. We invited all of my siblings over for a Christmas Eve party. We ate tasty food and had  eggnog milk shakes. I hate eggnog, but these shakes are homemade and they are not very egg noggy, if that is a word.

It was sad not having my mom or dad to spend Christmas with, but my siblings and I got through it, as we spent the time together.  My mom had bought a cute little Corelle baby doll a few years back ‘for the grandchildren.’ Zoe was happy to get this doll from my mom for Christmas. It is one of her favorite toys and lovey to play with.

On Christmas day, David I and Zoe unwrapped Christmas prensents together. David and I gave each other, Financial Peace University by Dave Ramsey. ( Dave Ramsey is amazing and changing my life for the better. but I will blog about him another time). Anyway,  Zoe almost like the toys as much as the wrapping paper.

We then drove to Grandma Corena’s (David’s mom). She is such a sweet lady and Zoe loves her so much. Of course, she not only spoiled Zoe, but David and I as well. We thank her for the gifts.

After Grandma Corena’s, we drove up to Blackfoot, Idaho. To spend a few days with David’s side of the family. they are awesome people who are so generous and kind. Zoe loves her grandpa to pieces, and even said, grandpa for the first time up there. Zoe also took her first steps by herself while we were up there. Yay Zoe!

Our sweet baby girl turned one on November 27th. She is such a happy little girl and so much fun to be around. At Zoe’s 1-year checkup, she measures 29″ (48%) and is weighing in at 19lbs (20%). At her 9 month check up she was only in the 5th percentile for her weight, we are very pleased that she has been gaining weight.

A look at the past…

Today… Sorry babe, you still don’t have very much hair.

We had a birthday celebration for Zoe up in Idaho at her great-grandparents house.  It was so much fun to celebrate with the family, especially with Zoe’s grandpa. Here are some pictures of Zoe’s party in Idaho. Sorry, I didn’t get any pictures of the group.

We also had a birthday party for Zoe at Grandma Corena’s house. Driving home from Idaho that same day, made for a crazy time of trying to get things set up before Zoe would need her nap. But,  it was a fun party!  Zoe was so happy to see her grandma and her aunts and uncles. Thanks to everyone who celebrated Zoe’s birthday!

Zoe’s B-day Click this link to see live video of Zoe’s bday

We can’t believe it has almost been one year since our angelic, precious Zoe joined our family. She is the sweetest little girl ever! She loves to give kisses (with her mouth open) and hugs all day long. We are so blessed and lucky to have this little piece of heaven in our home. We love you Zoe!

Our family had a great time celebrating Halloween together. David helped me sew up Zoe’s costume this year. She was a giraffe. We made her a onesie and a pair of pajama pants. Along with a tutu and a headband, to give our little giraffe a girly look. I started making Zoe’s pants for her costume in September, so I would have plenty of time to fix any mistakes I knew I would make. Turns out, I sewed the pajama pants wrong and wow they looked so funny. So, my sweet husband, helped me every step pf the way to create the outfit for Zoe. Thanks sweetheart, you are the best husband in the world!



Since Halloween fell on a Sunday, we celebrated Halloween on Saturday. First we  went to my Grandma Christensen’s house to visit and eat her amazing wheat Chili. It’s been a tradition in our family for years that we go visit my grandma on Halloween and eat her Chili, it was a lot of fun.  This year was especially fun for me to visit my grandma, because my siblings were all there to visit when we arrived. (Except Zach, who is still in Uganda, we miss you Zach!) After visiting my grandma, we went to David’s mom’s house and visited with her over some tasty hot chocolate. When we got home, we tucked our little Giraffe baby into bed (yay for a halloween costume that also functions as pajamas),  and David and I enjoyed the rest of the evening to ourselves.

Happy Halloween 2010!