Our little getaway!

I have to give a big THANKS to my parents for sharing their time-share with us these past few days. We have enjoyed spending time with them, especially our kids. I hate that we live SO far away from them. My kids love to spend time with their Papa T & Grandma Randee. Here are a few things we did while in Park City....

The kids did crafts (painted ceramic pieces, made cards & tie-dyed shirts)

We had Dr. Mario tournaments. Needless to say... I'm the champ.

We did PLENTY of swimming. Malia wasn't too sure about the water so she only lasted about 10 minutes.

Malia pretty much spent most of her time on Papa's lap - her favorite spot!

The spirit of Halloween is here!

We took the kids to pick out their pumpkins. They had fun choosing their own. Then we came home and carved them. It was fun! Here are some of the quotes of the evening....

Ammon: "Eeww, this is really gross!"

Ammon: "You should never have to put your hand inside a pumpkin."

Taliana: "Why don't these pumpkins come already cleaned."

Ammon: "I can't handle this Mom"

Ammon was definitely more grossed out that Taliana. Taliana ended up cleaning out Ammon because he couldn't handle it.

Malia just laughed every time we pulled out more guts of the pumpkin. She was pretty entertained by it all.

All in all... it was a fun evening. Here are a few pics to prove it!

Malia - our little pumpkin!

Ammon and his pumpkin - sorry... I didn't clean off my dishes before the photoshoot. By the way... my pumpkin is the polka-dot one behind Ammon's.

Taliana designed her own pumpkin - if you can't tell... those are HEART eyes. (of course)

Grandma's funeral

My grandma passed away last week so we went down to St. George for her funeral. Although it was sad to say good-bye to her, we were all so happy for her reunion with my grandpa and our two Uncles (Jonny & Orvile).

Funerals = BIG family gatherings. I love when our whole family gathers together. It was fun reuniting with eachother and having our children play together. It's exactly what my grandma would have wanted.

The Taylor girls - I don't know why we chose to look directly into the sun. hahaha

My grandma's casket - isn't it beautiful?

Shelly & Robert

Jennifer & Troy - can you believe she had a baby 2 months ago?? You can't even tell.

Todd & Alesi & kiddos

Camille & my dad - sorry it's a little blurry.

My brother Travis - placing his flower on my grandma's casket.

We miss you grandma!

Sorry Sean & Sarah... I don't know why I didn't snap a picture of you guys.

Colors

I used to tease my cousin all the time when we were younger because her family would drive up from Las Vegas to "look at the colors". I just thought it was ODD that they named the drive as "looking at the colors". But now that I am older (and hopefully wiser) I now appreciate all the beautiful colors that we are blessed with at this time of year. I LOVE to drive around and "look at the colors". Jennifer was in town last week taking pictures for her step-daughter's wedding announcements, so we decided to tag along and have her take pictures of the kids in Provo Canyon. It was a hectic day. None of the kids matched - so there was NO group shot. Taliana refused to let me blow-dry her hair with a round brush. I was only able to straighten it with the flat iron. So... that is why her hair is SO flat! It wasn't a good day for Malia either. She refused to smile for Jennifer and would barely look at her while she was taking her pictures. But... there were a few good ones that Jennifer snapped and I do have to say that I really like the candid ones the best. And Ammon... he was happy just as long as he was wearing his JEANS! (this kid can't live without them. He wore them ALL summer long!)

Anyways... here are a few of the pictures....

By the end of the "photoshoot" Malia had had it! She refused to be a part of ANY picture! But Jennifer and I both decided that this was the best picture of ALL!

LEGOLAND

We surpised the kids and took them to LEGOLAND. We had so much fun. For those of you who have never been... everything is made out of LEGOS. Way cool! It was just a quick trip (less than 24 hours), but next time we will for sure stay longer and go to the beach. The kids had fun and it was a MUCH needed vacation!

Here are a few highlight pictures....

Malia is 10 months!

Malia has been very busy this past month. Here are few new things she has done...

* 4 new teeth. - All the top teeth came in in a 2 day span. She was brave though... hardly cried.

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* Crawling is for babies! - Malia has started walking. She is getting better every day and may be running in no time!

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* Loves to say "Shhh!" - She started this down in St. George when we were trying to keep her quiet during the dinner prayer and loves to do it every chance she gets.

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* Loves to unload anything and everything. - She acts like she is on a time limit. She tries to unload the diaper bag in record time everytime. She has just found out how to open the drawers and cupboards, so she likes to unload the baggies and pots and pans.

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* Loves to look at herself on the digital camera. - Here she is mad because I took the camera to take a picture of her. She likes to carry the camera around and look at herself and then gets mad when it turns off.

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Utah State Fair 2008!

We took the kids to the State fair on Saturday. It was my second time going, and I loved it.

My favorite things are....

Cotton candy

Funnel cakes

Carmel apples

Kettle corn

Enormously sized animals

The quilt show

People watching!

Here are a few pictures....

This is NO photoshop job! This is REAL! It was HUGE! While we were taking the picture a little girl (maybe 4 or 5) says, "Wow! They're going to get a lot of meat off that one!"

Ammon can get a little crazy when it's time to take pictures. I had to do a little editting of the gang signs. hahahah!

Visiting Grandma

While we were in St. George we were able to stop by my Grandma's and visit her. It is always so hard to go see her because I feel like every time I go, she seems to be a lot worse from the last time. She was in good spirits though. Although... she was really worried about us making too much noise for the other residents. Which is understandable.... 15 people can be pretty noisey.









When we were ready to leave, we had the kids sing a few songs for her and we were all pretty emotional by the end. My grandma always loves a "program" and I used to think it was silly, but now I realize how much music means to her and I hope my kids love it as much as I do.

We love you Grandma!

Ammon's first day of school

Ammon finally got to go to school. He has been waiting for this day since he turned 5. He thought that when he turned 5 he would automatically go into Kindergarten. So... the day after his 5th birthday he said goodbye to me in the car and said, "Okay, I'm going to go to Kindergarten now." He was pretty bummed that he had to stay in preschool a little longer.

Ammon is in all-day Kindergarten. I was a little nervous at first having him gone all day, but after yesterday... life is GREAT! He loves it. He said that he gets to "hang out" with 4th graders and eat lunch with them. He said he told them all about his xbox and he said that some of them wanted to come over and play with him. (Too bad we live so far from the school.)

Taliana's First Day of School

Today was Taliana's first day of school. She has been counting down since July. She was SO excited for today, she even had all her clothes and shoes laying out ready for school. I planned to wake up early and make her a yummy breakfast for her first day, however.... I woke up late. Our power went our yesterday, so I had to reset my clock and I accidently reset it to PM, not AM (or something like that). Anyways... our morning was crazy. I went into Taliana's room and said, "Taliana, wake up! We over slept, we need to hurry." Then I went back to my room to get dressed. Less than a minute later Taliana came in completely dressed, shoes and backpack on, and she says, "okay, I'm ready... Let's go!" I had to remind her that I had to do her hair, summer was over! (I hardly did her hair during the summer. I felt there really was no need, she was just going to mess it up in 5 minutes or less). Since she got her new hair cut (thanks Shelly) I hadn't blown it out with a round brush. I felt like we should have done a dress rehersal for the first day of school. I was frantically trying to blow dry her hair with a round brush like my sister did, and for those of you who know me - I'm not that talented working with such tools for hair. Anyways... it all came together in the end. Taliana insisted on packing a lunch for the first day of school and of course... that had yet to be made. We created a somewhat healthy lunch (thank goodness the teachers don't look to carefully at the nutrition value of what makes up a "sack lunch". But... she got hers and we were out the door. (However, we were able to make a little time for a "first day of school" photoshoot! I think she wants to be America's Next Top Model.)

Taliana wanted to make sure I took a picture of her new backpack and lunch bag.

Check out her hot pink shoes! I love them!

We arrived to school right as the first bell rang. I told Taliana, "There are too many people here, I don't know if I will be able to find a parking spot to walk you into class." And Taliana replies, "It's okay mom. Can you just drop me off in the front and I will walk in by myself?" WHAT?!?! My little girl is growing up too fast. Since when does a first grader not want her mom to walk her to class??

Ammon was pretty bummed that he couldn't go to school today. He didn't think it was fair that Taliana got to go and he had to stay home.




Taliana said her first day went well. She knew a few people in her class from last year, but she said she made 3 new friends and wants to make 4 more tomorrow. She is such a social butterfly (she gets that from her dad). I am so proud of what a good girl Taliana has grown up to be so far. She is such a great example to Ammon and Malia. Thank you Taliana for being YOU!