Punkin Carvin'!

Yesterday was pumpkin-carving day at our house.  Here are a few pictures.

 

This pumpkin is waaaay creepy...

Just ask Xander!

The lighting of the pumpkins.

The final display on the front porch.

Taylor Family Halloween Party

The Taylor Halloween Party was last week on the 15th. Before I went to the party, I went to my friend Michelle's book launch party. That was fun! I can't wait to have a launch party of my own. (Soon!)

She had it at this great little dessert place in Orem called The Chocolate. Mmmm. After that, I met up with the rest of the fam at Grandma's house for the party.

Sam went as Rusty. Hahahaha

Xander went as a pumpkin. Silly kid.

Camary was a cowgirl. Cute!

Finlay was a Jedi. Awesome. (And Tracy went as a photographer.)

I put on a witch hat for the occasion.

There were various activity stations for the kids:

My storytelling station was not all that popular.

We did the Monster Mash on the front porch.

We also had desserts and went trick-or-treating to Grandma Taylor inside. Very low-key compared to some Halloween parties past. We didn't have Rusty or Ryan with us, but it was still fun. It's nice to get together. It was a bit weird not to have Grandpa there telling us all to keep the door shut. ;)

More Birthday Fun

Finlay turned 11 on the 2nd. We had his party the Friday before.

We ate pizza!

And a slightly crooked birthday cake.

He opened presents. Candy!

After that we went to see Kung Fu Panda 2. Pretty cute. For some reason I don't have a picture of him opening his present from Tracy and I the next day--an Agent P watch.  A good time was had by all.

On the 11th, Xander turned four! I can hardly believe it.

His cake was also somewhat of a disaster. But it tasted good!

Blowin' out the candles.

He got a bubble Mater, since he loves all things Cars!

So, birthday month was pretty fun. Of course, we had Grandpa Bird's funeral in the middle of these two birthdays. Both my grandpas in six weeks! That's crazy. I will miss them, but I'm so grateful for the plan of salvation and for the atonement.


Now we are looking forward to Fall Break. Tracy will have to post some of the pictures he took of our breathtaking fall colors! Oh, and I'll have to post about the Taylor Halloween party too. Stay tuned...

Birthday Bash!

Birthday week began with me turning 40. I decided instead of being sad about it, I would celebrate all the wonderful things in my life. I really have so much to be grateful for. Forty is awesome!

I got a camera for my birthday! My very own little camera that I can carry around and take pictures with. Like at writing events and stuff. Awesome!

I celebrated at my favorite place on earth (Salem Pond), with some, but not nearly all, of my favorite people on earth.

My writing friend Alaina and my roommate from college, Julie

Julie and her husband,

Alaina gave me the awesome fedora. The necklaces came from my parents and my friend Shelly

I wish I had gotten pictures of more of the people there. Don't know what I was thinking. My friend Shelly came with her husband Steve, my cousin Michelle and her family (thanks for the forty sucks--tootsie pops), the Woolston clan, and my friend Danyelle and her cute family. I so appreciated everyone who was there. We had a good time! =)

That was Saturday. On Monday, we celebrated Camary's and Tracy's birthday because we had no time to celebrate on their actual birthdays due to soccer games and all of our other activities.

My mom made Camary this cute skirt!

Our little cowgirl. She loooooves horses.

Tracy got some movies and popcorn and root beer to go with them.

We had cherry cheesecake that night. Mmmmm.

Then the next Saturday, we had a party for Camary with her friends.

Here they are playing with the balloons

The cowgirl cake. (Note to self: Use wax paper on the cake next time. Yeah, I have awesome decorating skills.)

Sam drew horses on all the balloons...

...except for the special dragon balloon he drew for Xander.

Now we've got Finlay's birthday a week from today and Xander's just 9 days after that. Fun, fun times!

Backpack

On Xander's first day of preschool last Monday, he had a great time. But he kept on taking another boy's Lightning McQueen backpack and trying to claim it as his own. Xander loves Lightning McQueen and all things Cars related. I hadn't bought him a backpack at all, because really backpacks are preschool are pretty much useless. Still, to prevent further backpack theft, I figured I'd better go get him his own Lightning McQueen backpack.

We went to Walmart. There were no Lightning McQueen backpacks left. Of course. I flirted briefly with the idea of getting him a Lightning McQueen lunch bag, but it really wasn't the same as a backpack. Finally I found a small, plain black pack just the right size for Xander. I figured we'd stick some Cars stickers on it and call it good.

The stickers didn't work. First of all, Xander insisted on putting them on himself and they ended up in a big jumble in the middle. He loved it, but unfortunately, the stickers did not stick to vinyl well at all. The were falling off by the end of the next preschool class. I knew I needed a different solution.

I had a Lightning McQueen stocking cap that I bought for Xander one day to appease him when he wasn't getting the Lightning McQueen shoes he wanted. But he's never worn the hat. For one thing, it's way too big. Actually I think it would be too big for me even. Anyway, it had a great Lightning McQueen applique on it and I got the brilliant idea of cutting the applique off the hat and attaching it to the backpack. I used hot glue. Worked like a charm! Considering how totally non-crafty I am, I thought this was a major victory.

Cute, isn't it? You'll notice that one of the stickers remains. Now Xander has a snazzy one-of-a-kind Lightning McQueen backpack which he refuses to take to preschool! Ah, well. Maybe he'll decide to take it with him next week.

Some Summer Highlights

 Since I didn't post much this summer (sorry) here are a few of the highlights:

Sam turned 13!

 

 

 

He got a ukulele for his birthday.

We went to the zoo as part of our July 4th weekend.

We went to the balloon launch on the Fourth. There were Star Wars characters about!

The Darth Vader balloon. Unfortunately minutes after this, the wind kicked up and all the balloons deflated. It was fun while it lasted.

We enjoyed our favorite July 4th treat, firecracker strawberries. (I saw the same recipe in Family Fun this summer, but they had renamed them revolutionary berries. Whatever.)

Rusty playing in the Salem Days parade. We got an insane amount of candy at this parade.

 Of course, you've already heard about our trip to Wyoming. Other than that, we spent the summer swimming, picnicking, watching Phineas and Ferb, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Stargate SG1 (we love streaming Netflix!) and generally enjoying ourselves.

Everyone survived the first week of school. They love their new teachers and classes. I think Rusty will love Salem Hills. Xander starts preschool tomorrow and I'll officially have a child in every level from preschool through college.

It was another emotional week for me. There were lots of tears and worries and more than one sleepless night. I am adjusting, though. Ryan is doing great and loving Snow. He made section leader of the Wind Ensemble! I'll be enjoying the time to myself while Xander is at preschool. Life moves on and it's all good!

It's Been Quite a Week

My Grandpa Taylor passed away. I will miss him.

 

My parents and Tiffany came and stayed with us most of the week. It was good to have them here.

I got to see all of my family at Grandpa's viewing and funeral. The service was beautiful and I loved the Air Force Honor Guard at the cemetery. Very moving.

 

Our kitty, Alice, was hit by a car and killed. =( Darn it.

Saturday, we drove Ryan down to Ephraim and moved him into his dorm at Snow College. That was hard! I can't believe he doesn't live with us anymore. I sure hope he will make new friends and have a great time at college. I miss him already!

So, know I'm feeling tired and emotionally drained. School starts tomorrow, and although I love fall, the end of summer always makes me feel melancholy.

I am so thankful for the comfort of the Holy Ghost and the tender mercies of the Lord that have been with me all this week.

Madhouse 2011

Well, it finally happened again.  Almost as frequently as Orrin Hatch turns conservative, all nine of my siblings and I get together and terrorize some poor unsuspecting locale.  We originally plotted to invade Anchorage, but due to many unfortunate circumstances, it wasn't possible.  Instead, we picked a small town in southwest Wyoming, where my sister and her husband have procured several acres for their kids and horses to roam.

On our way up on Monday, July 18th, we took the scenic route through Provo Canyon and across the Mirror Lake Highway to Evanston.  I have no pictures because you have to buy a recreation pass to even park on the side of the road on the Mirror Lake Highway.  When did that happen?  I haven't been through there in a very long time, so that surprised me.  I was also surprised at the amount of snow that was still on the ground.  We jumped out of the car at the state line and got pictures of everyone below the welcome sign, then continued to our destination and pitched our tents.  The weather was generally nice, but we did get rained on at times for the first three days.

On  Tuesday, we hit the old Mormon Trail for a short handcart pull. 

The property owner of the Piedmont ghost town also took us on a tour of the charcoal kilns and some of the old buildings and told some stories about the town and some of her ancestors.

On Wednesday, after a scrumptious breakfast cooked on camp stoves, we headed for Flaming Gorge to raft the Green River.  We commandeered seven 8-man rafts for our group.

Finlay showing us how tough he is.  Unfortunately for him (and Sam), it clouded up and rained for the first half of the float and he about got hypothermia.

Camary, Angie and Xander - ready to hit the water.  I don't have any pictures from the actual float because I didn't want to risk my camera.  Which means I should have stayed close to my brother who has a water-proof camera.  Oh well.

On Thursday, we were supposed to visit some museums and possibly a water park, but no one really wanted to pack up the kids and drive somewhere.  So we basically just hung out at my sister's house and did various things.  We took our shotguns and rifles up and several of my brothers brought handguns, so we did some shooting.  The younger kids spent a lot of time on the trampoline.  Especially Xander.  I think he got in at least eight hours of jumping.

The kids also got to ride on a horse for the first time.  Camary was ecstatic.  We were planning on sticking around until Friday morning, but the old bodies decided it was time to sleep in a bed again.  So we came home Thursday night.

And that's enough for now.  I have a ton of pictures, but this will have to do.