Wyatt

Wyatt has had an exciting month. He turned 6 and lost his first tooth! Well, "lost" is not the right word. He had it pulled, because he has shark teeth. He has a brand new set growing behind his baby teeth. Braces? I think, yes. The dentist thinks the others will wiggle out on their own, but he went ahead and pulled the first one. It had no chance of being pushed out since the new one is a mile back! Too CUTE!

Wyatt had an Iron Man party AGAIN this year. It was like deja vu all over again. I could just post the same pictures as last year's birthday party because it was the same party! We had the family over for dinner and swimming. AND I guess I need to post last year's pictures because I didn't take a single picture! This one is from the party we had with the Daniels on his actual birthday the week before. He is HAPPY to be six, but he is still wanting to catch up to Barret. Sorry Buddy!

Boulder Springs Is open for Business

Boulder Springs is the newest of the event centers that my family owns, builds, and operates. This one is even prettier than the last two (Texas Old Town and Amber Springs). It is solid rock! Check out the amazing doors, cool water features, and pretty woodwork. Matt, my youngest brother, was in charge of this one and it shows! He is a stickler for every tiny detail. It drove Nate and Dad crazy, but ya know, it seems to have paid off in the end. It is BEAUTIFUL!

Boulder Springs had their first event - Opry Night. We went and had a great time dancing the night away. The band was really good and played all the old stuff I like! The kids DANCED, caught frogs, and ate candy-what a life! The Chicken Dance...always fun!
Paul teaching Taylor the 2-step

(by the way, I married a cowboy! Why is he in shorts and flip-flops?)
Then, Grandpa stepped in for a dance.
Wyatt, Rylee, and Lexi cutting a rug. They had FUN!
Barret and I showing the crowd how it is done! yeah right!LOVE to see me parents dance

Matt, Dad, Danny and Nate

4 of the "5 Oaks" (Todd went home to shower.)

The guys who made all this possible... also the nicest boys you will ever meet. They are great fathers, brothers, uncles, and husbands. They are all so talented, creative, fun & hardworking (which happens to drive their wives CRAZY!) I am so blessed to have each of these guys in my life. What great examples of real men they are to my kids.

I'm Bragging and I don't Care!

Just in case I didn't know how lucky I was to have an amazing daughter, last week happened. The Chupacabras, Taylor's soccer team, won first place and moved on to district. They played two amazing games and Taylor scored the winning goal! So they were semi-finalists-this meant games on Sunday. Arggg! Taylor LOVES soccer and loves this team. They have been playing together for 5 seasons. Without even a thought, Taylor told us she wouldn't play on Sunday. It was so hard for Paul and I... But once again, she chose the right and decided to go to church instead. Who is this kid? The Chups won one and lost one putting them in 4th place!

Go Chupacabras! We've come a long way, baby!
THEN, Monday was her awards day at school. The girl raked them in! She got all A honor roll, student of the month for honesty and cooperation, the art award and the big dog of all awards....(drum roll) OUTSTANDING 6th grade girl. As she was getting the last award, all the other girls yelled out "and best dressed!" I think she liked the unofficial award the best.

I'm an Aunt again!

Who knew something so small and wonderful was in there! ha ha!
Michelle @ 38 weeks.

(Hey, note Mom's BEAUTIFUL new house in the background.

She is chomping at the bit to move in!) Bennett Taft German

May 6, 2010 @ 1:05 am

8 lbs 10 oz & 20 1/2"

cutest chubby cheeks ever!

Well, he made it! Bennett has been trying to come into this world too early for months now. Michelle has had to take medicine, shots once a week, ultrasounds every other week, and then the ultimate naughty word for all pregnant women...BED REST. It all worked, because Michelle made it to 39 weeks and was induced Wednesday. It was so fun! Mom, Kiley & I were able to witness Danny and Michelle add one more to their family. Amazing! Amazing! Amazing! We got there at five pm and he was in our arms at 1 am. It was so exciting. Michelle's epidural worked (third time is a charm) and she was able to relax. She was feeling pretty good, when all the sudden she cries, "It's not working anymore! It hurts!" The nurse came in and said it was time to push. Two HORRIFIC pushes and out pops chubby Bennett. Oh, I tear up thinking about it! He is so wonderful.

This is Luke asking, "Do you have another Bennett in there?" so nice to hear after giving birth!

Oh, and so nice of your sister to share this on her blog :o)

The German Family

Rylee brought mommy flowers and Luke brought Bennett two of his old, dirty blankets he carries around and a spiderman movie! So sweet...

Happy Birthday Taylor

Taylor is 12! I have a 12 year old? Impossible, obviously I am too young.

My sweet baby girl is growing up! Good-bye frilly dresses, matching bows, and littlest pet shop and hello high heels, mascara and cell phones. She is so excited to be 12 and to be in Young Women's at church. For her birthday, we went shopping at Charming Charlies to get a new outfit and accessories and then out to lunch. Instead of a party this year, she got a lap top. Wondering why a 12 year old needs a laptop? Here is what I have found: spider solitaire, signed up for face book, spider solitaire, checks email consisting of random pictures of cats making funny faces, and spider solitaire. Pretty exciting stuff! I now see why she begged her dad for so long and explained daily how badly she NEEDED it.

Clearly it was a need.

What would I do without this girl? She is so sweet and so beautiful. She has a contagious laugh and the cutest freckles. She is the kind of person I want to be. She is helpful, responsible, and loving. She is a little sneaky...she can push Barret's buttons so quietly that I almost think she didn't do anything to cause the wailing and gnashing of teeth in the back of the car. That takes skills! She is an A student and chooses the right daily. If I had every 12 year old in the world to pick from...I would choose Taylor Ann every time!

Family

My Uncle Ken passed away last month. He was a great guy. He fought cancer for a long time. He lived in California, but his funeral was here, in Texas. He was buried next to my grandpa and Ali. He was my dad's best friend. My dad was one of the speakers at his funeral and it was really sad to see how much he will miss him. He was a fun uncle, always up for card games (taught me everything I know about cards) he told the longest stories and made the best Oreo shakes. He was the only person allowed to call me Ginger Bread. He was a great dad, a nice husband, and fun grandpa. My aunt Sandy moved to Texas after he passed away and it will be nice to have her live close by. I am sure my mom will enjoy living close to her sister again. The funeral was just a couple days before Easter. So all the family stayed longer than they usually would. We had a full house, with lots of family to hang out with. We were able to see cousins we haven't seen in years and visit with them. Once again, I don't know what we would do without Texas Old Town. We had a giant Easter egg hunt with hundreds of eggs, cook outs and dinners all together. The kids had a great time playing, shopping, and spending time with all the cousins. This picture is missing a few kids that we couldn't round up! We also celebrated Grandma's 93rd birthday a little early. (Her birthday is April 15th.) She is an amazing woman. She is still in good health and the doctor tells her she has a heart of a 60 year old. She is getting hard of hearing and that is really frustrating for her because she likes to be in the middle of it. She is a wonderful example to me. She is loved! I am so grateful to have an amazing family and love spending time with them.

Captain Awesome in #2

How many times can a boy ask his dad to work on a pinewood derby car? You might be surprised by the answer. After weeks of begging, Paul finally borrowed Rick's saw (our farm was robbed and we went from owning every tool they sell, to owning one screwdriver) and started working on Barret's car. Production started Thursday and the race was Saturday. Well, it barely dried in time for the race, but we got it there. The ward inveseted in a new, fancy, digital track. It was high drama like usual and this year we were the cause of it. I guess we put the wrong wheels on and almost got eliminated. We had to put new wheels on right before the race. The race included 30 boys and Barret came in second! Car Name - Captain Awesome

The Tale of Two Spring Breaks

Spring Break #1

Paul and Taylor headed to the majestic Colorado Mountains to stay in a 5 star villa, sip hot chocolate and ski powdery slopes. I use the term "ski" very loosely. Paul and Taylor joined Rick, Lexi, Morgan, and their Uncle Scott and cousins, Tyson and Brittany in Winter Park, Colorado. This was Paul and Taylor's first time to ski. They said they fell A LOT but they had a great time. Taylor told me a funny story...She had got on a hill that she wasn't completely ready to tackle. She was so sick of falling that she decided, "OK, I am only going to fall one more time." So she got in position, pointed to the bottom and took off. Paul said she was going so fast it looked like a blue blur going by. She had a cartoon-like fall with skis and clothing scattering as she tumbled to a stop, but she made it to the bottom! The last day, Taylor and Paul left the seasoned skiers and went snow mobiling way up in the mountains. It was a negative 18 degrees! Too cold for my Texas baby girl! Everyone had a great time. I guess they really lived it up in the lap of luxury! The four girls shared the incredible master suite and Paul and Rick fought over who gets bottom bunk!

Spring Break #2

Now, where to go with the boys when their sisters are off skiing? Great Wolf Lodge, of course! The girls all bundled up and us in our swimming suits. (Not my favorite part of the trip) It was a fun place. The entire place was made for boys 5-10 years old in mind...they were in heaven. It has a indoor water park with a few big slides and then a wizard quest all around the hotel. Up and down the stairs we went waving our wands at anything that would stand still. Too bad Elena and I are worry warts and had to follow them. But wow did we get a leg workout! Such cute boys having the time of their life! Oddly enough, after all that, they talk about the breakfast at Cracker Barrel the most!

Cool-haired Wyatt

So if I am going to print this, I should add some posts or it is going to be a really short book!

A few days ago, Wyatt was walking around the house looking depressed. When I asked him why he was so sad he explained that his hair looked stupid. I told him he looked cute and that he reminded me of a missionary. He did NOT like that. I tried to ignore him, but just didn't have the heart to send him to school with "stupid hair". So I sat him on the counter and gave him his bro-hawk back. He is well known for his pointy spikes and people go out of their way to comment on his cool hair and touch it. But really, who knew a 5 year old could be so vain!

Wyatt is a funny kid. He brings a lot of life into this house. He is full of laughter and inappropriate words. He likes to dance on the wilder side of life and questions us constantly about our parenting style. He often will try to coax us to "live a little" but Barret quickly brings him back to the straight and narrow. There is NEVER a Sunday that Wyatt will not ask if we can go out to eat. I am not sure if he is hungry or wants to see how CRAZY he can make his brother with one simple question. He gets into a bit of trouble with his teachers at church and at school. Recently a list of "can nots" came home from school. They are no longer allowed to pretend fight. Which happens to be the only thing Wyatt knows how to play. The note had about 8 bullets of all the different pretend fighting that was outlawed but the last one said "no snobbing of the head or rolling of the eyes". As I read the list off to him, I realized why they added the last bullet. They could have just put Wyatt's disgusted face on bullet #8. Life would be a little boring without "W" around. I sure do love this little guy!

Newest Additions to the House

We have lived in this house for about a year and a half and I love it just as much as the day I moved in. It is so nice not to be under construction. At the old house, "projects" would include living with plastic walls for months on end or gutting the kitchen. In this house, "projects" include adding a new piece of furniture or painting a room. Nice change, if I do say so! Paul is equally happy with the change (or lack of nagging). So here are a few things that we have done this past month. First, finished (well, not finished) decorating the bedroom. It took me forever to find something that would fit in this "dead space" in our bedroom. I have yet to eat grapes on it. (but looks to me as if it should happen) And I finally ordered, after much persuasion on Michelle's part, a sacred groove picture. LOVE IT!

Second, put some color in Wyatt's "Hawaii" room. Michelle (while enduring braxton-hicks contractions) and Grandma (age 94) came over and we tackled this fun project. One would have to question my choice of help, but to that I say, BEST free help around! HA HA! I'm kidding. We made surf boards and painted the colored stripes on the wall. Michelle had a trick that was AMAZING for the textured walls & tape. We did not have to even touch up paint. We pulled the tape off and PERFECTION! This is exciting because most of our attempts at creativity...let's just say, FAIL. We even made note of that during the process. "Umm, something has got to go wrong, this is not like us, it is all working out." Pleasantly surprised, indeed. Oh and Wyatt really didn't care. Truth be told, wasn't really for him anyway!

Warm Fuzzies

Last Sunday, our Relief Society teacher reminded us of a talk that President Monson gave last November. He was being interviewed and when asked what he wanted for his birthday, he said he would like each of us to, "Find someone who is having a hard time or is ill or lonely, and do something for him or her." He then went on to tell how people from all over the world made his birthday wish come true. One group gave him a jar of "warm fuzzies". Children each week came to church and put pom poms into a jar for each good deed they did for someone else. Elena had a great idea to use this for Family Home Evening. So we started our warm fuzzy jar. We discussed different ways that we can earn warm fuzzies. When I went around to the kids, each could muster up at least one nice thing that they had done that day. When it was Paul's turn, he stated that he had the opportunity to punch someone and chose to refrain. Wow, great help Schoenrock! It may take a while to fill the jar! Today Wyatt and I were walking into Target and a lady with a sleeping little girl on her shoulder was loading her car. We went over and helped put the boxes in her trunk and took her cart. As we walked away, Wyatt said, "good job - we get a warm fuzzy." Nice to see a FHE lesson in action!

SNOW!

OK! This time I mean it...I have said that it has snowed two times this winter but, this time I'm serious! It really snowed...Idaho style! (reminded me of my winter at Ricks) What a beautiful day. I decided to set myself in front of a window and read a book and glance up and just watch the snow fall. It came in such beautiful, big, flakes. I dare say, breathtaking. The kids got out of school early. (benefit of living in a state where the world shuts down at the thought of snow) The first thing Barret did was test out the trampoline. Yep, FUN!

Of course, Wyatt threw the first snow ball!

Please note the poor Texas boy with no gloves! Without me knowing, he went inside and put hot water on them! :( He put gloves on after that.

We had to make 3 snowmen!

The only downside to the snow was that Paul missed it! He NEVER goes out of town and the week it decides to snow was the week he was in sunny Florida. He was SO sad that he missed out on the fun. Maybe next year.