happy 9th birthday tay-tay!

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl! Tay-tay is 9 today! 9 years ago I gave birth to this beautiful baby girl, who was always so sweet and good. She has always been such a good girl and we love having her part of our family. Here are 9 things about taylor!

1. She loves to eat at nice restaurants. She'll pick outback, olive garden, cafe rio, any day over fast food! Find by me. Her favorite food is Ribs from outback!
2. She participated in her first triathlon last summer and placed third in her age group, she can outrun any of us! I always say I need her to run with me to help pace me.
3. She loves to go to the dunes or mexico and ride her quad.
4. She loves her family, especially her sisters and she takes such good care of them.
5. She is very loyal and caring to her friends.
6. She strives to do well in everything she does. She has perfect handwriting and is such a good student.
7. She has won the outstanding citizenship award every year in school since kindergarten.
8. She loves to shop....her favorite thing to do is to go to the mall. Her favorite stores are Aeropostale, Justice, Dillards and Tilly's.
9. She hates to eat breakfast early, she prefers it about 10 a.m. in the morning.....therefore she hates to wake up early!

We love our Tay-tay and are so grateful she is part of our family. She has been such a blessing in our lives and we are so grateful to have her in our home. Thank you Taylor for always setting such a good example to your family and always choosing the right...we love you and hope you had a happy birthday.

I'll post pictures of all the birthday celebrations soon.....taylor got a digital camera for her birthday and she loves it and has taken TONS of pictures!

Travis earns his webelo

Travis and his good friend Colton

They had a guy come present Travis and Colton with their awards....they are awesome!

Brother Nelson presenting Travis with his craftsmanship pin.

YAY TRAVIS! Another scouting accomplishment for you! Last Thursday was our Blue and gold Banquet. Travis earned his webelo badge and we are so proud of him. Travis LOVES scouts and we are so fortunate he has had such incredible leaders. I hope the love for scouting continues on and he his eager and willing to earn his eagle quickly. Good job Travis, your mom and dad are proud of you!

~fyi...these don't flush well down the toilet!~

this is the culprit of how randy spent his Sunday night.......taking the toilet apart and digging one of these bottles out! Sunday morning our toilet was clogged and after trying numerous things to unclog it, Randy went a got the "snake" out to see what the heck was blocking the toilet! Well after taking the whole thing apart and probably gagging of the awful smell...he pulled one of these out! Yah....these don't flush well! Who knows which one of my "angel children" flushed it down the toilet, but one of them did! After Randy showed the kids what it was, Travis says....oh yah, I saw that in the toliet! I swear kid...do you have brains? When you see one of these in the toilet please pull it out!!! The good thing is our bathroom got a very thorough deep clean last night and it sparkles now!

We are BINKIE FREE!!!!!

Oh happy day! I can't tell you how excited I am that we don't have a binkie baby anymore! Anney LOVES her binkie and I HATE the thing! Don't get me wrong, I love that it soothes her, I love that she falls asleep really easy with it and i love to hear her say...I want my binkie! But I hate that she wakes up 3 and 4 times a night because she looses it or what......

So last Friday she comes in our bed around 3 a.m. which she does often since she can climb out of her crib....and she has NO BINKIE! I thought...hmmm this should be interesting and since I was too dang lazy to get out of my warm bed to go get the binkie I just laid her next to me and she fell right asleep! I figured okay this is my clue, get rid of the binkie! I knew if I was going to get rid of it, it would be a week from heck but it would be worth it in the end.

She never asked for it all day and then when it came nap time she was ticked at me! In fact she has been ticked at me all weekend. She only wants Randy and the best is, he has had to deal with her crying at night for the binkie, etc. I lay in my warm bed laughing while he is up rocking and soothing her trying to get her to stop crying and go to sleep! Well fast forward 4 days and last night she slept through the night in her own bed. She went to sleep at 8 and woke up at 7 this morning! That is record for her, of course I kept waking up all night thinking I can't believe she hasn't woke up. She is so happy this morning so let's hope this is the beginning of sleeping better and a good nights rest for mom and dad!

~happy birthday mom!~

Happy Birthday mom! Today is my mom's 57th birthday! I hope when I am 57 I can look 1/2 this good. We had a great time...we met at Ocean Blue (frozen yogurt) and ate yogurt and exchanged gifts. The kids had a great time sampling all the yogurt and giving my mom her presents. Here are 10 things I love about my mom....

1. She has always been a wonderful listener and great friend.
2. She has a strong testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
3. She loves her family
4. She can make up some hilarious songs, poems, etc. (my little sister bethany is giving her a good run for her money....she is hilarious also!)
5. She is an incredible baker
6. She keeps the cleanest house ever....I would have no problem eating dinner off her kitchen floor!
7. She loves to shop and is always up for a girls shopping trip
8. She is a great example of being healthy and active..
9. She was a wonderful mother to all of us.....I never remember coming home from school and her not being there!
10. She's my mom and I love her!



Rayder and Anney loved playing in the Freezer..they kept turning the freezer off and on!

Travis made my mom the cutest card that said I will love you no matter where in the world you are....my mom LOVED IT!

Oh grandpa......he lOVES the kids so much and they love him. He fed Anney so many samples of yogurt! Thanks grandpa, we didn't even have to buy her one!

Cutie Anney!

Rayder with his sample!

Reagan, Walker and Taylor

Megan eating her sample!

Everyone checking out the machines and flavors!

Bethany and mom!

Olivia and McKay

Isn't she adorable?

Hamburger Stew!

I have to post this recipe on my blog cause it was so yummy! I got this recipe from one of my favorite young women leader's blog! I made it today and everyone in my family loved it! I just served it with homemade rolls and the kids loved it! Enjoy!




Hamburger Stew:
1 1/2 lbs. ground beef, browned & drained. (can use canned hamburger)
1 medium onion, chopped (I often substitute dehydrated onion)
4-6 medium carrots, sliced
4-5 potatoes, diced
2-3 celery stalks, diced
1 15oz. can chopped tomatoes
1 can tomatoe soup
1 can beef consume (can use beef bouillon in 1 c. water)
1/2 c. catsup
1 t. A-1 sauce
1 t. Worchteshire sauce
4 cups water
1 1/2 t. salt
fresh ground pepper to taste
chopped parsley, optional

Brown hamburger with onion. Add remaining ingredients. Cover and cook (simmer) 1 hour or till vegetables are tender. This works great in a crockpot but it will take at least 6- 8 hours on high to get the veggies tender and you need to brown the meat first

London's Run

Saturday randy and I participated in London's Run. Randy ran his first half-marathon and I ran my first 10K .This run is in honor of a little girl named London who died of cancer. It was so sad & special to be there & see her sweet pictures. Throughout the running course they would have pictures of her posted and a caption underneath it. One that stuck with me is "Running is hard, but Cancer is harder." When I saw this sign I was at a point of my run were it was really tough. Besides physical, a big part of running is mental. When I read the words that cancer is hard, I all of a sudden thought you are right.....running is easier and i kept going. this is just one example of the signs and pictures. Before the race started they had an opening prayer, national anthem, a special musical number and London's mom talked about London and her family and other children that are struggling with child illnesses. Let's just say I was a MESS! I had tears running all down my face, etc. I thought I am in NO position to be running a race, but somehow I survived and did great. Every year they have this run & donate ALL the proceeds to a family going through this ordeal. It was so neat to be a part of such a great thing and I can't wait until next year!

I have to brag about randy.....He started running last April...he did a program called "couch potato to 5K" and after about 3 months he could run 3 miles. Well in November he did his first 10K (the turkey trot) and now two months later he does his first 1/2 marathon. He is a machine....he loves it and he has found a love for running! I would of never thought in a million years him and I would love running.......Good Job Babe..keep up the great work!

Anney is Addicted to Frozen Waffles!

This little girl LOVES frozen waffles! She eats them EVERY morning for breakfast and then a couple more times a day! The funny thing about this is she can open our Heavy freezer, get a waffle out, pull up a barstool to the toaster, put it in the toaster, get the syrup out and then put it in the microwave! I sat and watched her one day do this whole process. It is hilarious! All I have to do is break the waffle into pieces and pour the syrup over it. I need to take pictures of her doing the whole thing. It's 10:30 in the morning and she just made herself a waffle! Also you have to love "daddy's cup" that she is drinking out of. I'm sure it will all over the floor shortly!

So if you ever need someone to cook you a waffle....anney would love to!

Travis the "absent minded professor!"

Travis is not thrilled in this photo at all cause he knew I was going to put it on my blog....but this is so funny! His teacher has called him the "absent minded professor" since the first week of school. He always has a million things going on in his mind and can't seem to focus sometimes. His desk is a nightmare! She always tells me she has no clue how he finds anything! I am constantly on him about his room, backpack, you name it....he is a pack rat! I'm guessing his teacher had enough of his messy desk so she dumped his whole desk into this big black garbage sack! He walks in the door yesterday from school with this huge bag over his shoulder and I could tell it was really heavy. I said "what the heck is this?" He tells me what his teacher had done and I could of died of embarrassment! I was trying so hard not to crack up laughing cause I was trying to teach him that this is really embarrassing for him and me, and his teacher probably is sick of his desk etc. She told him to clean out the bag, throw all the junk and papers away, bring back her stuff and leave his books and junk at home! So Travis gets a garbage can and starts going through stuff. He has stuff in there from the first week of school and all kinds of garbage! I think we found about 22 pencils. The best was he found some assignments that weren't his and he said, "guess the kids in my class mistakenly thought my desk was the garbage!" He is so dang funny! I think he was happy how much he got cleaned out and I love his teacher and hope she does this often.....what a great idea and I think I'm going to start putting all of him room in a black garbage sack!

Knotts Berry farm!

While we were in california we took the kids to Knotts Berry farm. We have been many times but every time we go the kids absolutely love it! We missed Travis this time cause he had to leave early with my parents to get back to school for an ELP fieldtrip. In order for my parents to have room to bring him home we had to take someone out of their car, so we opted for Reagan....our babysitter and favorite aunt and sister! Thanks Reagan for all your help with the kids!

Anney loved the Huff and Puff!

I LOVED megan's face in this picture! The Noisy Trucks have always been a favorite! The kids drive them around a track and honk this obnoxious horn the entire time!

Megan and Randy on Joes Cool Skate!

Megan, Reagan and Taylor on the log ride

The Race Cars!

Train Ride!

Anney is fascinated by Choo Choo Trains!

Megan loves this ride cause it lifts you up in the air and then drops you down!

Cousin Colby's Missionary Homecoming!

My Cousin Colby returned home from the Canada Winnipeg mission the end of November. We took the kids over to Southern California the day after Thanksgiving to be with him and hear him speak in church. He was such a wonderful missionary that has a very strong testimony of the gospel and the people he served and taught. We love you Colby and thanks so much for being such a great example to my kids...they truly love you! We got some really fun and cute pictures of the kids and family while we were there!




Meg and Anney in their holiday dresses!

Cute Family!

Colby and his brother cameron!

Cameron, randy and Anney

We are all sitting in their living room updating Colby on what we have been doing the last two years.

Aunt LeAnn and Aunt Diane....two of the most incredible women you will ever meet!

Uncle Mel...my grandpa's brother....he is HILARIOUS!

Some of the gang eating Brunch

Daddy and his girls

Anney wasn't so sure about Aunt LeAnn's new cat, but as the day went on she loved her!