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!