MEET IZZIE BELLE TAYLOR!

She is a Shih Tzu - which I find very convenient when she does something naughty like poop under my piano. I can get away with saying "You little ShihT zu", it takes away some of the irritation with the dog and gives me a little pleasure.;) If we can get past the fights over her & potty training - (she was trained until the kids played with her so often away from her potty pad she didn't know where it was and she got the comfy feel of pooping on the carpet) I might like her. Right now Lucy just wants to step on her and I do mean on purpose and Roxie is just annoyed by her. I might send her away to 'military school' for dogs & let them train her to be a good dog. Kelly (my friend with the 3 rat dogs) just admitted to me that she sent 2 of hers to 'military school' and that's why they are so well behaved. I'm having flashbacks of the nightmare potty training the twins & I just don't have the patience with a mammal I didn't give birth to. It's a darn good thing she has such a cute little face.

Disney Princess Overload

I'm so happy that my girls love Disney Princesses so much - but I think I've had my fill for awhile. We went and saw Disney Princesses on Ice with my friend Connie and her daughters Olivia & Ella. Ella is 3 and was singing all the songs & knew all the words - her mom said when she was pregnant with her little sister, she was so sick that all she could do was lay on the couch and let Disney Princesses babysit Ella. I didn't really believe her until now. The princesses were lip-syncing to the soundtracks of all the movies & Ari was SO impressed at how well they could all sing while skating.
I had a little epiphany about the princesses too. I think men were creating the earlier ones - like Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty - those ones are all so SWEET & DEMURE. Then came Belle, Ariel, Jasmine, Pocohantas - and they are all tough chicks - I wonder who had the most influence with their creation - changing the images of Disney Princesses. Just a thought.

Lelu Wins the Race - And Now I have to EAT MY WORDS!

This is Dead Horse Point outside of Moab. Becca would NOT like it! It's a small jutt of land between two huge canyons. Very cool to look at, but I was a nervous wreck with the kids running around. We like to do a little sightseeing while down there, having lived here 14 years and not appreciating the beauty is tragic!

Here is Lelu's trophy. 5 miles ran in 41 min 10 sec - and she doesn't even look like she's trying! Check out the guys behind her that she passed up and look at B - he looks like he's got a huge stride to keep up. Next year she may have to find a faster pacer?

Last year, B agreed to buy us all tickets to go to AZ if she broke 50 min. and we all know how that turned out. This year, she has been begging & pleading for me to let her have a puppy (a little rat dog puppy) for at least 6 months. I said "Never!" I do not like little rat dogs. My friend Kelly has 3, plus two golden retrievers outside and her house is spotless, so Lelu has been using that argument. Long story short, she ONLY wants a puppy - so I agreed, but she had to win 1st place for her age group. And of course she did! Does anyone know of a little dog that doesn't yap, bite, shed or pee/poop everywhere? Maybe one of those stuffed dogs? No, they yap. I am SO screwed.

A Poor 15 Year Old is Tortured by Attending a Concert with his Mom!

Jeff Taylor doesn't know it, but he has an alternate universe - rocking out as the bass player for MatchBox 20

I gave D ticket/s to Matchbox 20 & Alanis Morrisette (6th Row) for Christmas. Dave informed at the time that it was extremely cruel to force a 15 yr old boy to go to a concert with his Mom. But because I love Alanis and D is not yet old enough to take a date, or in my opinion has any friends who can appreciate the 6th row and I live in a fantasy world that I am the coolest mom, I chose to ignore Dave! Someday, D will tell his side of the story - when he will tell me how he really felt. The concert was last night and for now he loved the concert! He even took all the "couples"(if you know what I mean) around us in stride and we rocked out. Yes, we really were very close to the stage!

Alanis may not have the stage presence or marketing of Celine Dion - but if given the choice of who I'd like to sound like if I was a rockstar - Alanis wins hands down! She has the most unique & talented voice I've ever heard! D was bothered by the fact that although he doesn't like her or have anything of hers on his ipod - he knew most the words to most of the songs. It could be because I've been playing them in the car since he could talk? She hasn't put anything new out for a while.

A Summary of my Amazing Girl's Trip to Cabo San Lucas

That is Cherie & Christina, the brave ocean floaters! I did ride a wave runner out in the middle of the ocean, totally out of my comfort zone - I was surprised by how peaceful & exhilarating that was. (but I have to get photos of us from Cherie.......)

Yes, I did back into an 'invisible' post within 2 hours of arriving in Cabo! But I will not reveal who's finger that is ;) not mine! I only posted the pic, to show you how you should always pay for full insurance coverage on car rentals (which I did but have always complained that it is so expensive & we've never had to use it, until then) and how I did not let it even "dent" my trip.

I think I started dreamin only in green & brown, we ate so many chips with guacamole! Mmmmmmmmmm

We did Kareoke one night - this was "I love Rock n Roll" & we sang "Open Arms" which we all knew all of the words and experienced individual flashbacks of dancing to it in Jr. High! (for me it was with Craig St. Clair - he was a fox)

I will add pictures as I get them from Cherie & Christina - I'd swear Christina took over 100?

Ping pong was played after a day of relaxing by the pool/beach.

This year was the most fun & relaxing of all of our trips thus far (we've been on 6). Of course, we stayed a week this year as most of us have our kids in school all day. And the husbands - all of which are so cool they should be rockstars! - held down the fort. It helped a lot that my friend Kelly speaks fluent spanish and could translate all needs and desires and negotiations!

What a difference from Tijuana & Nogales! my previous Mexican experiences. I did spend an afternoon in Cancun on our honeymoon, but I don't count that as experiencing Mexico. We all laughed until we cried every day, played cards, ate authentic Mexican food (except Jodie who doesn't like it - she kept ordering a chicken sandwich:( ), stayed up late, slept in, read books, listened to ipods, chased whales on waverunners (there are photos) and ..........drumroll please..........WENT DANCING! If you want more details about that adventure - you'll have to ask me in person. It's PG-13 and this is a family blog. (except for that middle finger & the last paragraph)

If you are the least bit sensitive to racy terms, stop reading right now!

I was trying to come up with a word to explain how I felt lying in a hammock on a beautiful beach, with spinner dolphins putting on a show for us, blue blue water, 82 degrees, not a cloud in the sky, great friends all around, Coldplay in my ears ("We live in a beautiful world, yeah we do, yeah we do"), and a slight breeze.

The word that jumped into my mind was "Soulgasmic". I hope we all have those moments of when you just feel amazed at the perfection of that moment - I love this new term and I'm sticking with it. So sorry if you were offended, but I told you to stop reading!

"This post under construction - but I didn't want to forget it all before I could post more photos"

California Adventure with the cousins!

Just a few highlights to mention here - As we loaded onto California screaming - little "B Wyatt" (who has ridden this ride before) acted as if he was WAY to scared to go on it. Which the operator noticed as we were pulling away. So they stopped the entire ride before the big takeoff and walked around pulling up gates on the side of the rails and took him off the ride. All while there was a large audience watching what happened! Sorry Christina - but I thought it was hilarious - later in the day he went on it. Apparently they take forcing a child against his will onto a scary ride seriously!

Unless of course it's Pirates of the Caribbean, because we dragged Ari onto that one - after we told her that the Haunted House was the princess castle, she wasn't trusting us that it wasn't scary. I wonder why she didn't trust us? Mr. T was "just" tall enough to ride all the big ones and loved every minute of them, Lelu would only go on if Christina would go- and ventured on to Tower of Terror & Screaming. She's come a long way since going into convulsions when a feather blew by on the driveway and I am not exaggerating

I'd swear this was the real Alice in Wonderland!

Look at the height difference between Lelu and she was not crouching down!

THE GREAT AND TERRIFYING CAPTAIN HOOK!

I know this pic is already on here - I just wanted to show just how similar they are. Oh and now that I'm thinking about it - Ari may love Cinderella and look like her - but her personality is definitely more Tinkerbell. I don't think they ever have Tinkerbell at Disneyland??

Even Lelu was a bit frightened.

We got the biggest kick out of Captain Hook, because Ari would not come out from under the table at the restaurant where he was. We've made amazing progress with her. The last time we went to Disneyland, she was crying and under the table for the princesses. I kept saying he looks just like "buddy" did on Halloween but I wasn't convincing her.

ON TO DISNEYLAND!

Character autographs were the theme - and we got every princess but Ariel - which is a little bit ironic. Jasmine was the only princess D would pose with because he has a little "friend" named Jasmine that he likes to hang out with A LOT!

Believe it or not, but Cinderella is by far Ari's fav - and I think she sees herself in Cinderella. Maybe if she had red hair Ariel will be her fav - but strangely enough Ariel is Lelu's fav.

Mr. T is now taking after his big bro and keeping away from the characters - he tries to act likes he's way too cool - but he is 6 and would get a huge smile watching them. This is one of the very few he'd pose with and he was WAY too cool to pose with princesses.

Jesse was an exception to the anti princess rule - because she's NOT a princess.

VACATION VACATION VACATION!

The theme of February was GET OUT OF UTAH and have some fun! And believe me, some fun was had by all. (Isn't that the dumbest phrase when you think about it?) The kids Charter School has a brilliant policy of taking a week off in February. Parents had great imput in that decision. The adventure began on Sat. the 16th, heading off for Las Vegas. Where we treated the kids to "O" the Cirque de Soleil - which if you have not seen it, Ari summed it up by saying "Are they really doing those things or is that a computer making them do it?" And she has been inspired to want to "be one of the twirling girls". I didn't get any photos outside the show but this was a little ice cream stop before the show.

Next stop Newport Beach & Dana Point. That's D's leg trying to catch some rays. And there was a sea lion taking a little snooze on the rock over there.

I put this one in because it has the flowers that were everywhere. I love flowers - I miss flowers - I crave the little crocus' popping up. It's March, so it should be soon, and I filled up on flower reserve, as much as I could stop and admire them.