Epps Family Blog

• Taylor is incredibly sweet and has the biggest heart!  
• She's a big helper and is always willing to get something or help us out
• Her hair is dark, almost black (just like her daddy), and it is very fine!  She has brown eyes.
• She is a great sleeper!  Even at 5 years old, she usually takes a 2-3 hour nap a day and sleeps from 8:45am-6:30am.  
• She is definitely the "rule follower" of the family and will rarely do anything that Mommy or Daddy said she can't.  She once went over to the Dorey's house and I told the big girls that I didn't want them to walk into their house and beg for food, so basically "don't eat".  Sarah and I then decided that the girls would have lunch over there but Taylor politely told her that "Mommy said we can't eat anything."
• She's very sensitive.  She'll cry every time her Nanny leaves town.  We can hurt her feelings pretty easily.
• She absolutely loves school and cried when she couldn't go for the snow days.
• She's starting to show a little "fondness" towards a few boys at Preschool.  
• She loves to play with her babies, play games on the IPhone, watch movies intently, and dress up in Princess outfits.
• She doesn't usually pick sides between Jason and I, but is usually stuck with me because Addie is such a daddy's girl.  When Addie is telling me that she wants daddy, Taylor will say "I'll stay with you Mommy"
• People say that Taylor looks just like Jason.
• She's kind of a sore loser and doesn't have a ton of drive to push through a tough game.  One time we were playing Connect 4 Launch Pad and she was on my team.  We had lost 3 games in a row and she started crying and said "I want to be on daddy's team because Mommy is a loser!"
• She LOVES gum!
• Will make her bed in the morning without us asking to.  Has a certain way she likes to organize her toys and clothes and doesn't like it when we mess that up.
• She's a very good eater.  She may cry over eating a salad here and there but generally will finish her food at dinner.

• Addie is also a little sweetie and has shown signs that she can be very sensitive as well.
• She loves to play with puzzles, play educational type games that requires her to match items or what not, and play with her babies.  However, she usually just wants to play with whatever Taylor is playing with.
• She is definitely a daddy's girl right now and is not afraid to tell me that she'd rather sit or cuddle with Daddy over Mommy.
• She's our jokester of the family.  When she sees that she's doing something that makes someone laugh, she will start doing it with more excitement and character!  She'll run around the house in her panties to make us laugh!
• Addie enjoys Preschool and is always sad when Taylor gets to go and she has to stay at home.
• She's also a very good eater.  We can usually get her to eat anything especially if we offer dessert to entice her.
• Two things that Addie does that we have to get onto her about is picking her lips and picking her boogers.  She will pick her lips so bad that they will start bleeding.  She also picks her boogers out in public (i.e. remember the booger picking Mary)!
• People say that Addie favors me more than any of the girls.
• She's a pretty good helper, especially for a 3 year old.
• She has good selling skills and usually convinces Taylor to make her bed for her in the mornings.
• She will watch a movie but doesn't always sit still through it and will lose her attention.  Her favorite movie to watch is Annie and Lilo & Stitch.
• Addie pretty much yells when she talks.  Getting her to whisper is nearly impossible
• Addie loves to pick up Camryn and is constantly getting in trouble for it because it irritates Camryn and she usually doesn't do it in the softest way possible.

Addie put Camryn on these without me knowing

Making some Muddies Buddies

Shaking it up

Yes, Addie usually runs around without a shirt

Eating homemade Muddy Buddies are the best!

They really are best friends!

We got Addie's arm checked again for the last time in December

Still isn't 100% straight but hopefully will straighten with time

Taylor reading to Addie

The babies at playgroup - Callie, Annalee & Camryn

Kraft Christmas Party at the Embassy

Zoe's birthday party at Aspire Gymnastics

With the birthday girl and Caeden

Playing at Chick Fil A

Chasing after her big sister

Being held and NOT liking it

Painting her own nails

Eating Greek Yogurt with Daddy

Dinner with the Calhouns and Paslays when the Paslays were in town!

Building Lincoln Logs

Psalm 56:3 - Sept 10, 2013

Genesis 1:1 - Sept 22, 2013

The next two months were focused on learning the books of the New Testament.  The catchy little tune that goes with these books really helped the kids to memorize this.  We just took it a few words a day, and they caught on pretty quickly!

First Half of the New Testament books of the Bible - Oct 10, 2013

Back Half of the New Testament books of the Bible - November 4, 2013

The final verse of the year was picked as a reminder of the true meaning of Christmas - Jesus!

Matthew 1:21 - December 13, 2013

Stairway to go upstairs

So festive

Tara had a stocking made for every member of the family

Our Elf on the Shelf was even in Chicago waiting for us when we arrived!

Spa day for the girls:
On Monday morning, Tara and I took the older girls to go get manicures and pedicures.  We had the whole salon to ourselves!

Addie and Taylor getting their manicures

Mommy even got a manicure and got to hang out with Paityn

Isa (Josh and Tara's au pair) also got a relaxing pedicure

Paityn's first manicure

We then had to bust out the suckers to bribe good behavior towards the end

Living the life right here!

Lunch with Adam:
Since we were close to Chicago, we made plans to meet up with our good friend Adam Zamorski at one of my favorite restaurants, The Cheesecake Factory.  The girls were hesitant with Adam at first but as soon as he showed them all the candy he had brought, they were buddies!  We really enjoyed catching up with Adam in person, even if it was only over lunch!

Our family with Adam

They were buddies!

Getting ready for Christmas:
There's a lot of preparation that goes into getting ready for Christmas!  Luckily, Tara had the smartest idea in the world and basically bribed her au pair to get a group of friends to wrap all the gifts that had been shipped to the house.  However, there were still a few gifts that had to be put together so we started to work on that at night once the kids had gone to sleep.

Night #1 at work

Night #2 - the boys at work

Tearing into the gifts

Busting out a pair of overalls

Group picture of the grand kids in the overalls

Camryn loved her name on her bootie!

Family Pictures:
We had a professional photographer come to the house on Christmas Eve so that we could have some pictures taken with the family.  She did a nice job!

Nana with her 5 grand kids

On Christmas Eve, we found a local church that had a Christmas Even family service so we packed up in the freezing weather and headed out to church.  One cool thing that the church had was a real nativity scene set up for you to walk through.  The girls thoroughly enjoyed this!

Nativity scene

Checking out the animals

Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus

Isa also joined us at church that evening

The big service

After church on Christmas Eve, the girls made cookies with Nana for Santa.

All dressed in their aprons and ready to go

Santa doesn't really need to eat ALL the cookies

working hard

Getting them ready for Santa

She didn't make cookies but enjoyed herself nonetheless

Putting out the cookies for Santa

We let the kids open one gift from Nana on Christmas Even which was their Christmas PJs to wear that night!

Nana had a red nightgown and Santa socks all ready for the occasion

The babies opening their presents

Giving Nana big hugs for their presents

PJ picture

Watching The Polar Express before heading to bed

Our girls on Christmas Eve

This is how Taylor takes a picture with Camryn

And this is how Addie takes a picture with Camryn

Poor little Camryn!

The tree and presents are ready

The girls are locked in their room

Everything is ready for Santa

The girls run to the stairway to see what Santa brought them

Santa had come and brought lots of goodies!

A cat, American Doll Bunk Bed and Big Wheels for the big girls

All the kids got Big Wheels from Santa