We went sledding!!

 

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As part of the “Festival of Angels”, a city nearby made a snow hill for the kids to sled on.  The festival is in the evening but Mark got an email from the city inviting us to enjoy the snow in the afternoon.  There were only two other families there and we played on the snow hill for over an hour.  It was about 78 degrees out which I think is perfect sledding weather.  I think we will have to make it a tradition.

Grandma and Grandpa are Coming for Christmas!

My kids are starting to get excited about Christmas. They are studying the toy catalogs that come in the mail and asking "how long until Christmas?" They are especially excited that Grandma and Grandpa Taylor are coming for Christmas. They other night, Olivia was saying her prayers. After she had blessed all of the regulars she said, "And Jesus, please tell Santa that Grandma and Grandpa will be at our house for Christmas." It was so sweet, I almost cried. I hope she keeps this innocence for as long as possible.

October Fun!

This year we bought season tickets to the Magik Theater, a children's theater downtown. The first play was "Petite Rouge", a Cajun version of "Little Red Riding Hood". It was hilarious and kids loved it!

Another weekend, we took the kids to a local pumpkin patch. There was a small hay bale maze that they had fun playing hide a seek in, we had our faces painted and I think the kids had the most fun on this hay fort they could climb on and leap from one side to the other.

For Halloween we were a Super Hero family. Luke was Batman, Olivia was Supergirl, Mark and I had super hero t-shirts. We went to a Trunk-or-Treat at the church then to a party at a friends house.

At the party, there was a small haunted house built in a tree house. At the end, my friend Teressa was dressed as a witch stirring a cauldron of homemade root beer. She was having fun telling the kids all of the gross things she put in her cauldron like lizard blood and rat tails and then she said that it tastes better with some spit in it. She told the kids to spit in it so it would taste better. We later found out that when she turned her head, Luke really did spit into the cauldron. Thankfully only one person saw him do it and everyone who drank it has survived. It makes a mom proud :)

Luke is very talented!

Last Sunday at church, Luke's Sunday School teacher was teaching a lesson about talents. She asked the kids if they had any talents. Luke raised his hand and said, "I have a talent, I can do the Luke." He then stood up and talked through each step in a dance move which is apparently called the Luke. What a ham! I think he should have raised his hand and said "I have a talent, I have charisma."

We had to see the Dinosaurs before they left

The Witte Museum has had a traveling exhibit with animated dinosaurs for the last few months.   I don’t know if I have mentioned this but I have been a little busy for the last few months.  Well this is the last weekend of the exhibit so we had to go and see the dinosaurs.  Luke is very into dinosaurs and can name about 25 different types.

   

One last picture with my sweetie.  Anyone who knows him knows that he is hard to catch on film.

 

One last for this post of me and my sweetie.  Anyone who knows him, knows that he is hard to catch in a picture.

First Day of School

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Luke and Olivia started school this week. Luke is in first grade and Olivia is in 4 year old preschool (a.k.a. pre-K). They were both so excited. Because I am working full-time this year, Mark took them to school. It was kind of hard not to be there for their first day of school but they didn’t seem to miss me.

A week in Waterton

We had an incredible week in Canada in the middle of July with Heather’s family. On the way up we stopped at Mark’s brother’s home in Helena, MT to play with the Hill cousins.

 

 

 

 

 

We spent the majority of the week in Waterton, the Canadian side of Glacier National Park. We saw deer, beautiful lakes, some amazing waterfalls, swarms of giant mosquitoes, incredible mountain scenery and even some bears.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Temperatures ranged from the 50s at night to the 80s on the hot days, and there were rain showers almost every night. Most of the families stayed at a “cabin”, which was really a nice vacation home in Waterton township with tons of bedrooms and plenty of space. Where we played with cousin shooting marshmallow arrows.

Then we went on all sorts of hikes with fishing and fun on the surrounding lakes in inflatable dinghies and kayaks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We even went biking around the township to site see and to get Tiger flavored ice cream. We squeezed 17 people into am 11 passenger van.

We also got to visit Magrath (where Heather’s dad was raised)for the Taylor reunion, and Lethbridge (where Heather was born), to see Great Grandma Low

It was a vacation to remember!

Summer Fun in Utah

We spent a few weeks in Utah this summer visiting a lot of family and having a lot of fun.  We went to Lagoon with the Taylor cousins.  Here is the little crew, they are ages 7,6,5,4 and 3.

     

We spent an afternoon with the Fajardo’s.  Spencer took Luke fishing.  He was so proud that he caught a fish; even if it was just 3” long.

 

Hiking to Bridal Veil Falls.  The water was so cold.

  

We went to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanks Giving Point.

 

   

I took the kids to BYU to the art museum and the bookstore.  Unfortunately, my camera’s battery died after this picture.

We had so much fun, we had to stop every once in a while to catch our breath.  But the best part of the trip was playing with all of the cousins and playing with Grandma.  I wish we lived closer to family so we could see them more than once a year.

Summer is Here

Well summer is officially here and we have been trying to squeeze in all of the fun we can. Here are a few of the things we have done so far. Or at least the ones that I remembered to take my camera with me. We took the kids to see Toy Story 3 in 3D with the Scotts. We hang out with then a lot. The Movie was cute but I don't see why we had to pay extra to see it in 3D. Olivia really got into it. She kept repeating the lines to me and laughing about everything and asking me "That was so funny, right?"

We went bowling for FHE with the Scotts. I don't know if this is blog worthy but, I cleaned up with a whopping 117 points.

And of course we are back in swim lessons. Olivia's teacher was Brandon but she was too shy to take a picture with him. Can't you tell how shy she is in this picture.



Here is Luke with he teacher Nicole. He is really doing well at swimming this year. He has gained a lot of confidence. It doesn't hurt that there was a very cute girl in his class that he followed around the whole time. He is quite the ladies man. He says, "The ladies like me for my smile." I think we are in big trouble.

The Butterfly Bush

We were playing in a friend's backyard this week. She is a fantastic gardener. She had planted a butterfly bush and some lantana, they both attract butterflies. Luke went up the the butterfly bush and got a butterfly to land on his finger. It was pretty amazing because this butterfly stayed on his finger for a good 5-10 min. He walked all around showing the other kids "his" butterfly. He was so proud of his butterfly. Then, there was a small white droplet on his hand under the butterfly. He said that it was a butterfly egg. Olivia, who has made it her mission in life to keep Luke humble, had to announce that it was butterfly poop. And, the arguing began...

Happy Birthday Olivia

 

Just like Luke, Olivia wanted to take doughnuts for her school treat.  She chose donuts with pink icing and sprinkles.  I think donuts are much better than cupcakes anyway.  She was especially excited that they came from Shipley’s, our favorite donut shop.

She picked out her rainbow cake from Costco.

 

The kids played in the wading pools, the slip and slide and the water balloons.

   

She is so excited to be 4.  She has been waiting for this day since Christmas.  She has asked me at least once a week since Christmas, “When is it going to be my birthday, so I can be 4?”