Tanner’s blog

Weather wise, it has been a crazy three weeks.  Three weeks ago it was pouring snow here (see winter wonderland pictures below) last week it was sunny and 85 degrees and this weekend it is cold and rainy.  Crazy March!  Here are pictures of Luke's first snow.

 

Just starting to snow

 

Really snowing now!

 

Bowden enjoying the snow

 

The fam in the snow

 

My sweet snow baby!

 

Chris, Laura, Faith, Blake and Libby--what a cute family!

 

Luke got his first haircut last week at 9 months old.  We went to Jelly Beans and had lots of fun.  His hair was over his ears and almost in his eyes!  He was such a big boy!  He actually sat in his cute little racecar and cooperated bravely. 

 

Luke recently turned 9months old!!  At his doctor's visit he weighed 19 lb 10 oz and was 28 1/2 in long!  Here are some recent pics of our growing boy!

 

Since we just had Valentine's Day, it seems appropriate that Walt and I have done several things that have focused on our marriage.  First, we watched the movie Fireproof last week.  I thought the movie was thought provoking and relevant.  Although the acting was not Oscar worthy (but I rarely l like the movies that win Oscars anyway), the movie was worth seeing.  It is about a fairly typical American couple who have "fallen out of love."  They both contribute to the problems in their marriage and they are on the verge of divorce.  The story is about redemption.  If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend renting or nexflixing.

 Then, over the weekend we went to a marriage retreat at Ridgecrest.  Shane and Shane were in concert and Erwin and Kim McManus spoke.  Some things I took away: we need to have adventure in our lives/marriage; we need to share our dreams with each other and encourage each other to pursue our dreams.  Risks are good when taken together.  Life should never be boring.  Walt and I had a good talk on the way home, and I am excited about the adventure that awaits us!

 

Okay, some recent pics of Luke:

 

Luke with his Lenny and Grandpa Jimmy celebrating Grandpa's birthday at Applebees.

 

Luke and Chloe were enjoying the view.

 

 

Luke enjoying his saltines.

Things have been great around the Tanner household recently.  Luke is still as precious and wonderful as ever!  It seems the older he gets the more fun he gets.  He now has his two top teeth, which are totally cute.  He is eating great.  He likes all his fruit and he is still learning to eat his veggies.  I have tried to get him to eat homemade broccoli and he will endure it for a couple bites, but not too much more.  He will eat green beans and peas, but he is not too happy about it.  He is not crawling yet even though he is 8 1/2 months old.  But, as someone said, I doubt I will have to carry him to 1st grade.  It will come and I will probably wish he weren't so mobile when he can get into everything.

I (Betsy) had a small outpatient surgery last week.  I am almost completely better--maybe running at 90%.  Although surgery is never fun, I did kinda enjoy not doing any dishes or cooking for a few days.  Walt, my mom, and Walt's mom helped me out tons!  Also, a couple people from our church brought dinner, which was delicious!

Capstone continues to grow and I believe to bring God glory.  We are entering our fourth week and we have kids coming out our ears!  We started with one room for babies-K5 and now we have to split that group into 3 groups.  Thankfully volunteers are stepping up!  We have already heard great stories about God changing people's lives.  The family we helped get a clean warm mobile home (see earlier post) started coming to Capstone and has invited friends.  It's Awesome! 

We had an amazing Sunday at Capstone!  After a year of praying, planning, and training Capstone finally launched this past Sunday.  I (Betsy) thought that things could not have gone any better.  From the nursery to the music to the sermon God was glorified!  In Pebble Beach (babies-5yr olds) we had about 25 kids and in Camp Rock (1st-5th grade) we had about 35 kids.  The "gym" looked great.  It was turned from a huge room to an intimate and worshipful setting.  Kelly Shealy and the band led us in music, which sounded great!  It was such a wonderful worshipful time.  The set up crew put out about 100 chairs hoping things not to look empty. Those chairs were filled, more were brought out, and then we had standing room only!  We had over 200 people (including kids)!!!  I am so amazed!  We are so grateful to everyone who has given their time and energy.  God is doing a great work!

 

Luke with Lenny

 

 

Christmas with the Sharpe side of the family.  Luke is meeting his cousin Adam for the first time.  Adam is about 2 months younger than Luke.

 

Luke and his cousin Lucy

 

 

Luke and his cousin Ellie

We had an exciting Saturday morning!  Capstone adopted a family for Christmas thinking that we could help provide a great Christmas for a family in our community.  We had been praying for this unknown family for months, so we were excited when we finally got their names and information.  They have three kids and needed everything from a tree to presents.  We quickly got on to spreading the Christmas cheer only to find out that the mobile home they were living in was not even habitable.  No heat, leaky roof, only four working outlets, etc.  It was a mess but the mom and dad were trying hard to give their kids a good life.  So, we started asking around, and come to find out, God was mightily at work!  Long story short, today we moved their stuff into a "new to them" mobile home.  God allowed Capstone to provide a new home for this deserving family.  The home may not be what you and I are used to, but it is clean, safe, dry, and warm.  We spread God's hope and learned again that God is at work.  He can do so much more through us than we can even imagine if we will only let him.  To God be all the glory!

 

Rear-ended on Haywood Road the week of Christmas

 

Side view of my poor Mazda

 

Going back a little--this was Luke on Thanksgiving.