The Taylors: 2010

Friday, December 17, 2010

Storms and Smiles

Last weekend we had a really bad storm and church was cancelled. So we spent the day doing fun stuff with the kids. We painted ornaments, baked cookies and listened to some Christmas music. We were having so much fun we decided to let the kids open a few presents and get Christmas started right.

Rugs was all smiles when we brought out the presents. Nice muscles dude!

Em thought Christmas presents early was the best idea ever.

Here is there reaction to their big gifts. Priceless.

Beans loves to sneak the Taylor DS's whenever she can.

I caught this cutie little girl today at our house. She has the brightest smile and she lights up the room. Isn't she just the cutest?

Saturday, December 11, 2010

The final program was yesterday and all the shows went really well. Here are the big stars.

Em's class was adorable. They had cute props and fun songs. He was smiley and fun to watch.

Rugby lost his last front tooth and whistled his way through the program. He was really hammin' it up-- it was awesome.

Breckyn remained serious and concentrated through the whole show. She thought it was very important to get everything just right.

Zoey was thrilled to see us at the show. She wouldn't stop waving and smiling. It was pretty cute.

Caleb was the resident cool guy at the program. He was calm and collected and played along with all of the silly songs he was forced to sing.

Z was in the happy hands club again this year. She lead a song in sign language and did a wonderful job. She also had a beautiful solo which we botched taping. Our camera was being tempermental but just so you know-- it was great.

Here are a few songs that the kids wanted to share with you.

Em was so cute with this cookie song. He's been singing it for weeks.

Rugs has some sweet moves in this song. I love the shoulder shimmies... priceless.

Breckyn is very serious about her part as you can see in this song.

This was the song that the kids couldn't get enough of. I've been hearing this around the house for months. Z tried to show me the moves one afternoon with a real cup of hot cocoa and realized why they didn't do the dance with cocoa actually in the mugs. It was a mess but hey, lesson learned-- right?

Thursday, December 09, 2010

Today is day two of the big program and here they are...

Em was not happy to be getting his picture taken.

Rugby was very happy to be getting his picture taken.

This guy changed his outfit three times to make sure it was just right. He wanted to be wearing a "tux." This was the closest I could come up with.

Emerson perked up a bit when Tim offered to bribe him with chocolate for one good picture.

B is starting to look so old. (sniff sniff)

Z was all about the sequence for her outfit. Wait until you see her tomorrow! She is going to sparkle like the star she is!

Tuesday, December 07, 2010

It's program time again.

Every year the kids' school puts on a huge Christmas program. The kids get really jazzed. They have to get dressed up for three days this week. Today was taping day and then Thursday and Friday are for the parents. That means I have to come up with outfits and hair-dos for three days. (that everyone is happy with)

The boys were very set on wearing their suits. Done.

The girls-- well, that's another story. We went rounds about hair and clothes and finally settled on this.

B wanted to make sure she had curls around her face.

Z wanted a fancy up-do...

So I had a little fun with it. It turned out really cute. She was so proud. There will be more pictures to come for the next few performances. Happy Program!

Saturday, December 04, 2010

Welcome to winter 2010!

This morning we woke up to a marshmallow world outside. The kids were giddy. So we headed out first thing today. Rugs is throwing snow balls for Flash. Flash is in heaven.

The kids got a trainer snowboard this winter and they are all over it. Breckyn has been practicing all day.

The snow doesn't agree with Scout quite as well as it agrees with Flash. Flash was a little damp and Scouty had to come inside to thaw the chunks out of his fur. I guess it's time to break out his coat.

Wednesday, December 01, 2010

Holes Turkeys and other things.

We have another hole!

Rugby's tooth has been loose for several days. It's been hanging by a tiny thread and he didn't want anyone to help him get it out. I kept telling him he was going to accidentally swallow it like his sister did but he didn't care. This morning he woke up and it was missing. So we searched his bed and there it was hidden in the sheets. It literally fell out in his sleep-- that's how loose it was!

He was so proud. This is him on the phone telling his best friend Max all about it.

Our little Emmy all ready for school and hamming it up as usual.

At Thanksgiving the kids all decided to dress up as Thanksgiving characters. We had a few Indians and this was our turkey. He had a head dress too but it got a little beat up because his brother kept telling everyone it was time to kill the turkey for dinner. They were yelling and running through the house chasing Em like crazy. Perhaps a bad choice of costume.

His number one fan was never far behind supporting him all the way.

Friday, November 19, 2010

It's Official...

Well, it's true, the 'rents are gone forever from Wisconsin. We packed them up on Wednesday and sent them off to Utah. This is Chloe in the back of the moving van. She was determined to help move stuff. She picked up random things and put them in all by herself. Thanks for all the help Bean. You are amazing.

Another major happening for the Taylor family has made this girl pretty happy. Breckyn got her first cell phone. She hasn't stopped smiling since yesterday. I think she would have slept with it if we hadn't pryed it from her little hands. She texted us a gazillion times just to "practice." One of her first texts was, "wow, I don't even have to walk anymore, I can just text you." She finished off the night by texting us, "good night guys." She may never speak words again.

Wednesday, November 03, 2010

A glimpse at real life around our house

Scouty graduated from his intermediate dog class. We are on our way to a trained household. Now if we could just do the same for the kids...

I love watching the boys be boys. These are my little men in action after school getting out all of their pent up energy.

This is Flash chasing shadows. It's one of his favorite things to do. He loves the laser pointer and any shiny reflection. You can forget about using a flashlight around him-- he goes nuts.

B raked up a HUGE leaf pile for the boys to jump in. Pretty sweet huh?

So that's us on your average afternoon. Stop by and see for yourself sometime.

Monday, November 01, 2010

More Halloween Fun

The kids had about seven million ideas about Halloween. They each changed what they wanted to be every two seconds. So on Sunday we were over at the Barlows and they went nuts trying on outfits.

Zoey sportin' a poodle skirt.

Rugs and Mads as Mario and Luigi-- my personal favorite.

Em and Max did a nod to Star Wars and Chloe wanted to be a monkey because Em likes monkeys.

We even had some action to make it more real.

Breckyn was in love with Jodi's Cleopatra outfit and pranced around in it all night.

Last but not least-- baby Hulk. Watch out, you won't like her when she's angry.

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Happy Halloween

We carved up our pumpkins and everyone was very excited. This year we let the kids cut out their own. They were each very specific about how theirs should look so we let them go at it with some safety knives. They were very proud of the results.

Can you guess who did what? Well, here's a little help. See those smilie faces? So proud.

Happy Halloween

Saturday, October 30, 2010

We finally found really good Mexican food in Wisconsin. The only problem was the burrito was as big as Tim's thigh. We have to go hungry for sure.

I thought you might enjoy a video of our little princess. She is getting so old-- she can even roll now! She is a smile machine and she loves to babble to her Mommy. We love you Libs.