Goose on the Roof

The kids were super exctied to see this as they left for school this morning...

They made me come outside with the camera so Jim could take a picture.
Not sure if it's blog worthy...I just thought it was cute how excited everyone was about it.

Loosey Toothy

Paige's teacher Mrs. Davis tricked Paige into twisting her first loose tooth out the other day.  Mrs. Davis is lucky that Paige is the second child because I was a little annoyed she got to see Paige's look of surprise and shock and I missed it! I think if she had been my first, I may have been a little more than annoyed.  I asked her to re-create her look of surprise for the camera.  She's such a little actress...



They let her go down to the office and call home to tell us the exciting news and gave her this cute little tooth necklace to keep her tooth in.

I have a cute little tooth fairy pillow that you put your tooth in for the tooth fairy but I was too late.  Paige had already put the lone tooth under her pillow and somehow lost it in a matter of a few minutes.  We searched high and low with a flashlight but couldn't find it.  She was so upset and was worried the tooth fairy wouldn't come.  (I'm surprised she even believes in the tooth fair after the whole leprechaun, Easter Bunny and Santa Claus fiasco).  Her first idea was that she could smile in her sleep so the tooth fairy could see her lost tooth.  She quickly figured out that wasn't going to work.  Her next idea was to tape her mouth open...

She soon realized this wasn't going to work either.  We convinced her that she could leave a note for the tooth fairy and she might let her off just this once since it was her first lost tooth and she didn't really know how to handle such a small thing.  She finally agreed and went to bed.  The tooth fairy did cut her a break and left her 2 dollars!  What a nice tooth fairy.

Hailey's Baptism

Hailey was baptized on April 10th, 2010.  It was a beautiful spring morning.  Hailey was so excited and we were so proud of her.  She is an amazing girl.  Hailey is so kind.  She has an ability to sense other's needs and emotions.  She has always been so intuitive and sensitive, she uses her talents to try to make others happy.  She is conscientious in all that she does.  She wants to please, she wants to be good, she is a wonderful example to Paige and Crew (really all of us).  She is eager to learn and grow.  She is curious.  She is a wonderful daughter, granddaughter, sister and friend.  We love her so much.





Here we are leaving for the Stake Center.  Grandpa must've been deep in thought about his talk.  He gave a great message about baptism in the program.  He's always such a great speaker.



What Hailey didn't know is that she was about to be baptized in freezing cold water.  The hot water heater was broken.  Now that I think about it, I don't know why someone didn't think of boiling some big pots of water in the kitchen to at least make it tepid.  You could tell the instant she and Jim stepped into the water it took them a second to catch their breath.  She went through with it though, she's a tough girl.  In fact, the bishop said Jim complained more than Hailey did. 



This is after the confirmation.  Jim gave her a really nice blessing.  We both thought a lot about it and Jim did a wonderful job of articulating things that we both want for her in her life.


It was a really nice day (other than the freezing water which I guess makes it memorable).  We really appreciate everyone that was able to make it, it meant a lot to Hailey.

From left to right:  Judd Taylor, Anna Taylor, Becky Taylor, Jace Taylor, Marianna Blake Taylor, Red Taylor, Elisa Taylor, Hailey Taylor, Paige Taylor, Crew Taylor, Jim Taylor, Trey Taylor, Kaden Taylor, Josh Taylor, Bryn Haws, Luke Haws (Ron McKean was taking the picture)

Sun Valley 10th Anniversary Weekend

Jim and I went to Sun Valley for our 10th Anniversary, which is coming up in a couple of days, April 28th!  We decided to use the navigation system for some reason and learned that she's not always right.  She tried to take us on a "short cut" that took us about 3 hours out of the way.  We were actually only about 11 miles from Sun Valley when we discovered that the short cut road had not been plowed!  It makes me mad to even think about it.  I was so tired and cranky by the time we got to Stanley, I was ready to eat at a gas station.  Luckily, we found a little dive that happened to have pretty good pizza.  We finally made it to Sun Valley at about 11 pm.  Grrrr.

After sleeping in on Saturday morning (a VERY rare luxury), we got up, hopped on our bikes and had a nice 2 1/2 hour bike ride.  It was really fun even though it was snowy and muddy in some parts, I didn't mind getting dirty.  Jim's rear somehow got most of the mud.  I wish I had gotten more of his soaked back, we were working hard!


The ski hill, still snowy.



We ate at a really, really good little Italian place on Saturday night called Cosi.  It was the best pasta I have EVER had!  I can't wait to go back.  Sunday, we just took it easy, had brunch at the lodge and then headed home.  It was such a nice get-away and very much needed.  I was so thankful that Jim's parents are willing and able to take the kids for us.  It's not easy!

Just An Update

What's going on lately with each kid:

Hailey did really well in school on her report card.  Mostly A's, I think one B+.  She was really upset about the B+ (the perfectionist in her working overtime).  She seems to like school most of the time, says her teacher is "too nice" - seriously, I don't think I ever had this problem.  I think she may be comparing her teacher to me, and in that case, I guess she is too nice.  She started piano in February and has been doing quite well.  She's picking it up fast!  However, practicing has been a struggle.  Some days it goes well, others, it turns into a full blown tantrum, crying, screaming fighting match.  It's not just me either, it happens with Jim too so I know that I'm not the one who's causing them!  I really hope she sticks it out and wants to keep taking.  It's something I've always wished I would've done.  I guess there's still time.  A girl at school has been kind of bullying her lately.  It's kind of a long story but the girl has thrown a snowball (hard) at her head, teased her and been fairly rude to her.  I'm not sure why, it's hard to get the whole story out of Hailey.  Today as I was going into the school to volunteer in her class she was coming in from recess and ran up to me crying.  She told me this little girl had been snotty to her.  The girl happened to be coming up just after that.  The mother bear took over and I stopped this girl and asked her what was going on with her and Hailey.  I asked her if she had thrown a snowball at her.  She denied it.  I told her I thought she was lying and that she had better knock it off.  She ran off crying with another little girl who happens to be in my primary class (not the best example, whoops).  I felt bad afterward, I hadn't wanted her to cry.  It's been going on for a couple weeks and I was waiting for Hailey to take care of it on her own but it seemed that this girl was getting some sort of satisfaction out of taunting her.  Who knows whether it was the right thing to do or not.  I tried to call the school and explain the situation and try to get the student's phone number so I could call the mom and talk about it with her but they said they couldn't give out that information.  So, we'll see what happens!

Paige did well on her report card.  I have to say, she is the best reader in her class.  I would love to have her tested and see where she really falls on the reading scale.  Her teacher says that she can often be sloppy and has a hard time listening.  She said she wonders if she could possibly have ADD.  At first I was a little worried but the more I think about it, the more I think she is probably bored and not challenged enough in kindergarten.  Even though she is in all day, they still do really basic worksheets that she is WAY beyond.  She likes the social interaction, she has friends and enjoys PE, Music and recess.  I think she's just sick of cutting out letters and matching them to dumb little pictures.  I don't blame her!  She continues to amaze me with some of the stuff she comes up with.  Tonight we were trying to have family home evening and we were trying to get her to listen and sit still.  Jim read a scripture and I asked her what it meant.  She responded in a monotone, sing-song voice, "It means to be good, go to church and say your prayers."  She's already figured out that you can get away with these canned answers for most church questions.  She does not enjoy church and is always asking if we can skip sacrament or if I can pick her up early.  I hope it's a phase but I have a feeling it's not.  But honestly, no one really likes church, do they?  (see, I would've never said this when I knew certain people were going to be reading this).  I mean 1, even 2 hours is doable but 3 hours is a long time, especially for kids.  Anyway, back to Paige.  The other morning she was arguing with me about something, I can't remember what it was but I had my back turned and I was giving her a little lecture and turned around to find her flipping me the bird.  "Paige!  Where did you learn that?!?" I screamed.  "I don't know," she said.  I picked her up, marched her over to the time-out corner and told her if she EVER did that again she would be grounded for a week!  No friends, no TV, no computer, nothing!  She hasn't done it since but every now in then she'll put her fist up and ever so slightly raise that middle finger like it's going to flip up on it's own will.  Jim says she's taken to putting up her ring finger instead.  We still don't know exactly where she learned it.  It could've been on the bus, it could've been from someone at school, it could've been Jim's mom - she's been known to flip Red off occasionally.  Hopefully, another phase.

Crew has developed a phobia of bees and being outside ever since a bee stung him on the head about 10 days ago.  Sometimes you can distract him a little and he'll go outside but then if he sees any kind of bug, he freaks out and runs screaming inside.  I was beginning to wonder if this was going to last the entire spring into summer but tonight he played outside for quite a while.  Hopefully a phase (am I saying this a lot?).  He's no longer taking a nap and therefore, falls asleep in random places sometimes in the afternoon.  At the kitchen counter, on the couch, in the car.  It's really hard to wake him up when this happens. When he does get a nap in, he can't fall asleep until 10 or 11 at night.  It's really hard to make him go back to bed because he'll come stand at our bedroom door looking so cute telling us he can't sleep or he had a bad dream.  We'll let him come in and snuggle and he's amazingly mellow and will just lie there and watch the news or whatever is on at the moment.  The girls were never this calm and mellow at night so it was harder to let them hang out with us.  He's a fun buddy to have around during the day too.  I take him with me when I volunteer in Hailey's classroom and he usually plays quietly in the corner for the entire time!

So that's it for now.  Hopefully, I'll feel less inhibited knowing that this is for a very limited audience.