Christmas gift from my sister to my girls:

Parks are cool

We took our family pictures at this beautiful park in Rocklin (thanks, Cathi!! We love them). And afterwards we played at the playground, which has made it's way to my Super Fun Parks list. There was a fun balancing thing that I just couldn't stay away from :) While we were taking our pictures, a deer ran through the park, like 30 feet from us! It was huge, and sort of random to see a deer at the park. Anyway, here are some random pictures from the day...

Diapers are so last week...

So Taylen is officially potty trained! She pretty much did it herself...after a couple hours of me setting the timer and asking her every 20 minutes if she needed to go, I realized that I had forgotten the timer and it had been over 2 hours since she had gone. I was fully expecting to be on Potty Clean Up Duty, and when I went and asked her if she needed to go, she told me (quite matter of factly) that she had already gone. In the potty. Sure enough, the proof was in the pudding...er, the potty. She had gone all by herself, without even telling me! Way to go. I had been dreading this whole potty training thing for months, and it turned out to be super easy. Maybe that's because Taylen is like 20 already... ha ha. It seems like all her friends have been potty trained forever! Oh well, it was worth waiting for it to be so easy!!

P.S. For Julia: Taylen told me the other day that she wears big girl panties like Loraya :) Aw, remember when they used to be friends? We miss you guys!

Happy Holidays!

This is really funny. Go check it out.

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9558710167

Bearsy Girl 4 months

I'm It

Yes, I have been tagged. By like 5 different friends. And I just keep putting it off, but I'll join the throngs. Six things about me you might not know:

1. My daughter Taylen and I were born at the same hospital--Madison Memorial in Rexburg! My mom always told me horror stories about my birth and how horrible the hospital was. Who would have guessed that 23 years later I would be back there giving birth to my own baby girl! Luckily for me Rexburg has caught up with the times (at least as far as birthing babies is concerned) and I had a great experience there. We even got a steak dinner, complete with sparkling cider, as a congratulations from good old Madison County!

2. I have never had a cavity. That's right folks. I'm a little obsessive compulsive when it comes to brushing my teeth. In fact, a few years ago my dentist said that I brush too much and too hard and my gums were receding as a result of my oral cleanliness enthusiasm. I actually left the dentist's office with an order to NOT brush my teeth as much. Ha ha. Getting a filling is one life experience I would be happy to live without.

3. I love McDonald's. My husband is disgusted by this, but I am not ashamed. I'll shout it from the rooftops. My favorite thing is the little cheeseburgers. They remind me of going to the beach when I was younger...we used to always stop on the way home and get cheeseburgers and water :) Now that I'm older and more mature, I force my daughter to go to the playplace so I have an excuse to eat the food. "No honey, Taylen really wanted to go...I promise..."

4. I used to cheer at BYU. Not just in the stands...I was a BYU cheerleader. That's right, hard to believe, I know :). Some of you know this about me, but lots of you don't. It feels like a lifetime ago. It's weird that something that was such a big part of my life, and such an identity of mine, is now something that's tangible only in pictures. I am happy that we can move on in life, but sometimes I miss going to practice, learning new stunts, dropping things over and over until the one time you finally hit it, being in front of thousands of screaming people, and just how carefree and fun that whole life was. Ah, college. Now I wipe poopy bums, walk around with spit up on my clothes, and fall asleep trying to watch a 7 o'clock game on TV. ha ha. I love being a mom, and I'm so happy to be where I am, but sometimes I like to remember...

5. My favorite ice cream is Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia. Not much else to say about that...

6. I can sing with my mouth closed. As in, close my mouth, puff my cheeks up with air (which looks ridiculously cool, by the way :), and you can really understand actual words. For those of you who've been lucky enough to witness it personally, consider yourself blessed. For those of who haven't, your time may come. I'm not as loud and crazy as I used to be (for those of you who think I'm loud and crazy now, just think how I must have been in my wilder days :), so it takes a lot more persuading to get me to do it. But if you really want to experience the glory personally, a tub of Cherry Garcia just might do the trick...


And I want to tag Suzannie Bo Bannie, Requel, ScoSchro, Lonoser, Rachel Ruff Ruff (that's you, Mrs. Barker, in case you didn't get my code name), and Mike and Julie and anyone else who wants to participate. I don't think any of you guys have done it, yet...

Halloween

Taylen was a princess for our city's safe trick or treat the day before Halloween. She got to wear some makeup and everything! When we were on our way there she said, "I turned into a beautiful princess!" Apparently she's a beautiful princess with an awkward smile...

Halloween night Taylen was a bunny...with lots of teeth to show off :)

Ryah doesn't look too amused.

Emmalee's poodle skirt was tucked into her underwear, and I couldn't resist taking a picture before I rescued her bum from embarrassment.

Bishop's Pumpkin Patch

There is an awesome pumpkin patch 10 miles north of our house. It's got a petting zoo, pig races, a train ride, hay rides, food and crafts, and a couple playgrounds. Another fun fall day!

Taylen holding her pig, and standing by the pigs.

Sisters

Cool glasses, dude.

Feeding the goats

Apple Hill

We went to Apple Hill a week or so ago with the fam. Taylen got to ride a pony, goof off with Aunt Emmalee, and eat tons of apple goodies. The weather was perfect and it was a fun day!

Back to Sac

So, we're finally back in Sacramento! It was good to be in San Diego, but we are very happy to be home. Taylen has just been playing and playing with all her toys, and keeps saying how much she loves her bed :) I guess I didn't realize that even a 2 year old can miss her own house and stuff. Anyway, for those of you who are interested, my parents never had to evacuate. They live right near one of the evacuation centers, so they were lucky they didn't need to evacuate. One night we could see the fires from their front yard, but luckily those ones got put out pretty quickly. Anyway, I'm posting pictures from some things we did while we were there, sorry for the backup. I've got to get the old stuff posted to make room for Halloween pictures!! Happy Haunting, everyone :)

Starlets Solo

Taylen went to my mom's preschool singing group while
we were in San Diego. Once a week, 2 kids got to sing a solo
on the microphone and get a treat, and Taylen was SO excited
when it was finally her turn! I was worried she would chicken out,
because she just sat silently through each class while she was there.
She never did the motions or anything during the classes, and she was the youngest one there by a year, but when solo time came, she was a pro! I was a proud mom :)

P.S. Sorry the video is bouncy, I was holding a fussy 3 month old while I tried to video tape this.

Butterflies

So we went to a Monarch Exhibit in Encinitas, and it was so fun! We got to learn about all different kinds of butterflies, watch a video, draw the different parts of the butterfly, and then go feed them and hold them. It was lots of fun, and Taylen (and me and my sister Brooke) loved it. Did you know that San Diego is home to the smallest butterfly in the world? And that one of the state insects is called a Dogface butterfly, because the pattern on its wings looks like a dog? Anyway, here are the pictures...good times :)

Gangsta Paradise

HAHAHAHAH!!!

Disneyland!

We went to Disneyland on Monday with the Lindsays,and Taylen had tons of fun! It was a california holiday (which we weren't planning on) so it was crowded, but the weather was perfect and it was still a fun day at the happiest place on earth!

Blurry, sorry. Tay and Dad on the first ride of the day...

Mom and Tay on Dumbo (we waited like 40 minutes for this ride...ugh.

Tay with her cousins Breanna, Brett and Blake

Watching the parade (sorry it's small...)

More Disneyland Pictures...

Breanna and Taylen

Me and the Bug

Mom, Dad, and Ryah Bear

in Minnie's house.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Big Stories

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Beautiful San Diego!!

From my parent's front yard...

Taylen Bug

I took this picture in La Jolla a few days ago,

isn't it pretty??

Two Girls

My two girlies...

San Diego Update

So, some of you know that I've been in San Diego for the past month. My mom was recently diagnosed with cancer in her colon and is undergoing chemo and radiation, so I've been down here to help drive her to appoinments and clean the house and distract her with my two very busy children. She just finished her first round of chemo, and man that stuff is nasty! She felt pretty good the first couple of days, and then hit rock bottom pretty quickly. Throwing up, extremely tired, the skin on her tongue is practically peeling off...okay, maybe that was too much info, but I am just really feeling for her. She's not feeling the effects of the radiation yet, but it will start to hit her in the next week or so. Anyway, she's done with chemo now for three weeks, and then does another round of it. Those of you that know her, keep her in your thoughts and prayers...the worst is yet to come for her. Anyway, I'm not sure how long I'll be down here helping. Having 2 babies to take care of sort of limits my helpfulness, anyway, and once we become more of a pain than a help, we'll be heading back to Sacramento. So, there ya go. Sorry if I haven't been returning phone calls or emails...this whole experience has sort of made me antisocial. Anyway, that's the update for those of you who were wondering...

Annoying

So, I've got a bunch of cute pictures and a couple cute videos that I've been trying to post for a few days, but my USB ports on my laptop are not working. So frustrating! That means I can't charge or update my ipod, either! Grrr...I've reinstalled them a few times and rebooted my computer, and I've run out of things to do to fix it. If any of you have any suggestions, let me know...

Cute Kids