Famous Last Words "Don't try this at home, Landon"

Sad ending to our fun weekend with the Jeff family. B & Jeff took the five little kids skiing on Monday. On the last run, Ari located a "cool jump" that she pointed out to the King of Daredevils Wyatt (they are two peas in a pod). He wiped out the first try - so B told him "he got the best wipe out of the day" but "it's time to go." He decided to try it again and headed up the lift with Landon, as he went to take the jump again he says to Landon "Don't try this at home" and from the single eye witness report he tried to do some kind of twist flip but his board stuck into the snow and his leg kept going. He has a PAINFUL spiral fracture in his right femur bone, had surgery up at Primary Children's later that night ending up with a plate in his leg that will need to come out in a year. He's a tough little guy taking it all pretty well, considering. Bummer of an ending to a great visit. Although I have no doubt, he'll be up and running quicker than you can say "Football Season".

Where's Waldo?

On Sunday we headed into Arches and let the kids run wild around the rocks while being blown to and fro with gusts of dust filling our eyes, ears, noses and cars! We had this great plan to eat a picnic but by lunch time a storm blew in and I mean BLEW in! So we just ate in the car. Not nearly as fun! Can you find Jeff, Michelle, D, Ari, Mr. T, Lelu & Landon?

A Beautiful Running Day in Moab

Lelu took 1st place for her age group again, beating her time by a minute and a half. She ran 5 miles in 40:07! B thinks she would have been faster but she was waiting for him and he was struggling to keep up. He hasn't been running as much as he used to. D finished in 39:00, limping in at the end with a hurt foot, still making a great time in 9th place for the 16 to 19 yr olds. He hardly trained at all this year starting only 2 weeks ago. Think what he could do with more training! This year the weather was perfect 75 degrees. We usually freeze, so I was thrilled with the warmth. Also we had a bunch of supporters come watch! Mom & Dad happened to be coming back from Blanding Saturday morning and timed it to come watch. Michelle T. came with us and Jeff & Christina and the boys came over from CA. It was so much fun to have them with us. We've been going down there for 5 years and this year was my favorite year. Maybe next year Jeff, Christina, Landon, Michelle and I will run?? If I can heal my foot........(plantar fascitis) I will register to run too, maybe..........

My Uplifting Views!

Not having lived here through a spring - I had no idea what is planted but I am so excited because I have crocus coming up everywhere and bunches of bulbs that I assume to be tulips because daffodils have already bloomed. It doesn't matter that we are getting 4 more inches of snow today!

When we moved I was sad that I would lose my excellent view of the Temple off my back deck - but when the lights came on I realized that I have THIS VIEW out of my living room windows and my bedroom window. Isn't it awesome?

A Second Trip to the Temple

About a month ago we went up to the open house. It was a Friday, it was packed with crowds, the kids were hungry and worried they were going to miss their sleepover party with Aunt Michelle. Needless to say, the experience was not very peaceful & it took us 3 hours.

On Friday B signed up to do security for the open house. He felt like we needed to go re-experience it, so he woke us up Saturday morning & we all got ready and went again. It wasn't nearly as crowded (yet) & the feeling was much more peaceful & unhurried. We were all so glad he suggested a return trip. A good friend of mine & her family are getting sealed there in a couple weeks, their son is leaving on a mission next month. I'm excited to witness it, esp at our new temple. (We did take a photo outside but the WIND was blowing us off the mountainside & you can see in our faces that we WERE FREEZING so I'm not posting it)

A beautiful smile is worth ?? Time & Cash?? Pain & Embarassment??

Poor Lelu had to get 5 baby teeth pulled on Friday. Last week we went to see Dr. Orthodontist who said her permanent teeth were having trouble loosening 4 on top & 1 on the bottom & were intending to go crooked. So my good friend Amy's husband is an oral surgeon & THE nicest guy to take care of my "needle/pain phobic" child. And then the toothfairy had to cough up a bloody fortune for those bloody teeth (no pun intended:). She was put on the laughing gas that according to the notes she was writing to me on the way home "Laughing gas really makes you laugh! Everything they said to me made me laugh." According to Dr. Dave, they were all laughing back there with her. Now she's laughing all the way to the bank.

Dr. Ortho also said D needed braces BACK ON for a few months. He's not very happy either. Out of sympathy for the newly dating sixteen year old- they put on clear braces, so he just looks like he has a retainer in - which ironically had he worn when he was supposed to, he would NOT have had to put the braces back on.

A blog just to blog...

I just thought the cartoon was funny................


Also while in Cancun - they finally split our ward. We went from 650 to 420 people. So far it seems so much more manageable to start to recognize faces in the crowd. We also got new callings. Team teachers for the 10-11 yr olds. My first thought is "Why do they always stick me in primary?!?" I think I've had a primary calling for at least 17 years of adulthood. I do recognize how if I hadn't moved I would still be in Young Women's - but come on - Am I just typecast?? We've taught a couple weeks now & these kids are SO MUCH smarter than us. I guess I'll stay in primary until they aren't so much smarter than us?





I went to parent/teacher conferences last week for all the kids. The kids are all doing really well. D's drama teacher says he has amazing potential. Ari helps the other kids who struggle with reading. Mr. T asks deep questions & writes about how funny he thinks his dad is. Lelu was voted onto a committe to help stop gossip & bullying. She's nice to everyone. I did however embarass her because I asked the teachers if they had any recommendations for a mystery for her to read for her book report that wasn't scary in any way. Even Nancy Drew gives nightmares and then I told them I have to turn down the TV when watching Lost, Heroes or Medium because even the music gives her nightmares. She was none too happy with me, because one of her teachers is a big tease. My kids are so different - Aub LOVED Goosebumps in the 3rd grade. I can't see Lelu loving anything like that EVER! As long as she never likes rap.....

D's First Dance! (belated post)

The dance was the night I returned from Cancun so I missed seeing D & his date and all the cute little couples dressed & ready to go. B managed to get D to the suit rental place so he could look SO DAPER & D did manage to get Emilie's corsage ordered, all without me. I'm so proud of them!

The report I got was all of these kids met up at Emilie's house for dinner - What great sports her parents were for having all these kids over & feeding them, huh?! I guess the dances themselves don't ever vary from playing a bunch of stupid rap & hip hop music. D along with his group of friends don't really appreciate that genre of music. (THANK HEAVENS) Cherie's boys also agree that the music sucks. They don't ever play Coldplay, so therefore, the music must truly suck!

Another Trip - This time to Warmer Sunny AZ

I know, I know, I know I've traveled a ton lately. B has grounded me for awhile (I like to think he just misses me) But the little kids had a week off last week, so we decided to go see our new little buddy Christian, oh and also Taylor, Dave, Michele & the AZ family. It was a very relaxing week, sleeping in everyday. Our real reason for going was to see Obama come to AZ to talk about his mortgage stimulus plan - except that he just gave one of his typical speechs & didn't really talk about it in any detail - wait - has he talked about any of the 'stimulus plan' in detail? (I didn't really see him, I just read in their paper) Sorry, I'm losing my train of thought and getting sick to my stomach.......

We went hiking in the beautiful superstition area. It was surprisingly green. We just missed a rattle snake & a couple of scorpions on the trail. We might have had to carry Lelu out if she'd known (she was behind us with Taylor & didn't hear about it until after the hike). It was fun to see Mark & Liselotte, Simone, Cutie Hayden and darling Easton. We saw Jakob and also Justin who is looking very grown up and the spitting image of Jonathon. We got some visiting time in with Peg & Jen, as well as a nail biter of a movie "Taken". I finally caught up with Brecklyn & Dalton, having missed them up here. He looks as if he's inherited the height gene! He's a tall baby. We took a fun trip to the zoo. I hadn't been to the Phoenx zoo since Aub was a baby, so I took a little walk down memory lane & then drove the kids past my 'Tempe walk down memory lane'.............. I remembered the walk to school being pretty far - it was like 5 houses and Staci Howard's (my bff) house was miles away - it was like another 6 houses. The kids just thought it was pretty boring.

We also discovered AZ is the place to find & buy a subaru. Aub flew down & picked up "Helga" - an awesome find - on Saturday and drove her back up here on Monday. I named her Helga because I bought her from Bjorn, who's from Sweden. I don't even know if Helga is a swedish name or not? I'm now looking forward to seeing Febuary go and March maybe bringing us some spring. 5 days went by really fast.

Lelu & Ari went into their typical depression, tears & all, having to part from their beloved Aunt Michele. I did get the fun of Taylor wanting to ride in "Ant Kistin's car" every time we went anywhere. Thanks so much Dave & Shel for hosting us, we had a great time.

Girls Trip 2009 Cancun

Why do I live here? That's what I'm asking myself everyday I've been back! It's been raining or snowing and everything is dead and there isn't a single color around Utah right now that's pretty to look at.

Look at that water & sky! It was a feast for the eyes and spirit. Some of the highlights this year: taking a ferry over to Isla Mujeres and renting scooters to ride around; late night solving the world's problems, well at least trying to solve each others; tons of laughing; great food (cheap & excellent sushi); plenty of beach time where the sand is like powdered sugar; in room karaoke and 80's dancing. A lot of gratitude to our husbands for supporting us in going on these trips.

For me only: I got upgraded to first class on our return trip! Just for buying an item for a rushed flight attendant who couldn't wait in the unbelievably long line to buy. When I gave her the item on the plane, she asked if she could do anything for me and so I asked if she could switch me to an aisle seat if there was one open. I was in a window seat and I hate the window seat because I make numerous trips to the bathroom due to my 'anxious flying' tummy. She came back and got me and told me it was for my good karma that I was so willing to help her out. I think I got the better end of the deal! With a little guilt that my friends were all back in coach wondering where I'd gone. None of us were sitting together. I'm always glad to be home, missing B & the kids, but it sure is cold and ugly.

A Quick Health Update & Useless Info to Everyone Except Us

After talking with Drew, B decided to go back & have his cholesterol tested again after fasting. It came back one hundred points lower than the week before:) Although he's not sure if it's all due to fasting or taking the meds for a week or eating perfectly or a combination of the three. Cherie gave him a low cholesterol cookbook as a joke, but it came in very handy to me. I cooked out of it all week. We're waiting to hear what the Dr. thinks about whether to discontinue meds or if the meds work that fast or what. The kids are not too happy with the new menu and Mr. T asked if we were going to have to eat like that FOREVER? B says "Yes, if you want me to live a long time".

This blog is the only journal I've ever kept up on - so I need to record a few things here that we don't want to forget. Taylors are notorious nicknamers and we don't want to forget them, so I'm going to write them down on here.

Aub - Aubi cadabi; stinky sweetie (when she was a toddler)
D - Cadwalader; Dr. Doolittle; Olaf; Master D; Prince Fahad;The Great D Alexander The Great
Ay - Lelu; Tutalewski; Aydie
Ari - Pinky Blondie; Sassy Sue; Peanut; Toot-a-matic; Choo Choo; Scandihoovian or Scanda; Barnacle
Mr. T - Too Tall TT two tone; buddy; scarecrow; noodle boy; Oscar the grinch;

Lelu has her own little language of characters names; Fiffergoblin (could be feathers blowing across the ground or rustling leaves); Bumstoop; LionMore Weirdwig; one-eyed crockernickle; Lemperkin;

The Red Head is On the Roads...

I now have a 3rd driver! I've already sent him to the grocery store for me and to pick up the kids from school. The errands he can run for me are endless.......

But the birthday was about him so I better tell you all about how it was. The kids didn't have school on his birthday, but he got up early (even though he wasn't 16 yet, not until 3:45 pm) and went on his first date to Ihop, thanks Gma & Gpa for the $$ to pay for his date! She drove though.

He has been asking for about 2 years what kind of party he can have for his 16th birthday and I haven't been answering him. I am all too aware of how parties in high school can get overcrowded really quick with the ease of texting and was having nightmares about multitudes of teenagers showing up. SO we decided he and 9 of his closest friends would be picked up by a limo and taken ice skating & out to eat- returning for cake & ice cream. A few more showed up after they got back and they had a great time playing murder in the dark and scaring the girls to death. I listened to screams, music and noise until 11:45 pm when I called it quits. They all had a great time and thought their chaffeur was soo cool. We have no broken furniture and the kids are all really great kids he hangs out with. AND now I have a 3rd driver as we went to the DMV the very next day and got his license. It was a good week.

It sucks to get old!

Happy Birthday to Big B. Just in case turning 46 wasn't bad enough, he got the news from his doctor that his cholesterol is high enough to be on a prescription. He claims everything is downhill now that he has to take a prescription. Those darn genetics. He does everything right to have good heart health. He was so bummed out all he wanted for his birthday was tomato soup & spinach salad. Which I did make for him. I asked him what kind of cake he wanted and he said "whole wheat with no fat or sugar and frosted with wheat germ". Mmmmmm, while that sounds absolutely delicious, I thought we might as well live on the edge if we are just dying anyway. So he got ooey gooey yummy chocolate cake with ice cream.

We did go out to eat last night with some good friends. I found a list of the 10 best restaurants in Salt Lake and have decided we'll try a new one every month. This one was a sushi restaurant (that had an 1 1/2 hour wait), which in case you were wondering is VERY LOW in cholesterol. I've also decided that I really like sushi when I don't know what's in it. Ignorance is Bliss! Another New Year's change, is we are not eating fast food anymore (unless we are on vacation). That should help his health AND it helps us keep our sabbath day Holier since fast food seemed to always be on the menu for Sunday lunch. I even made that decision before the Cholesterol news, I guess I was inspired. (Really, I was just sick of it!)

He gets asked to his first dance!

I think I was as excited as he was, maybe even more. Emilie called me and asked if she could come decorate his room to ask him to go to Sweetheart dance Feb 7th. I let them in with D's bed looking like he slept in it which is basically like a tornado hitting. They covered his walls with stars and his floor with starbursts (which just so happens to be the twins favorite candy). We brainstormed ideas to answer her and came up with filling her car up with the same stars and some of the starbursts all with "yes" written on them. Her mom helped D get into her car in the garage (she's a few months older). Lelu had a great time helping him write all those yes's. The twins teeth have now rotted out of their mouth and are wearing dentures due to the remaining starbursts.;)

I think this is such a fun time for him being able to actually go on dates and drive.He has such a great group of friends to hang out with too.

Baptism of Barton Wyatt

Papa John and some of his crew. 4 of the kids and 9 of the grandkids. Wyatt's baptism didn't disappoint in reminding us of the basic principles of our beliefs. He was so excited and eager to listen to Big B & his other papa John give their talks. B did an awesome job especially since that is not in his comfort zone. It was worth the effort to be down there for this special occasion. I was impressed to see how many people came out to support his day. The whole relief society room was filled up just for him. This got the twins quite excited about their baptisms this year. D will be old enough to baptize one of them. He pointed that out to us and asked if he could baptize Mr. T. It was a very special day to spend with the ones we love.

Our Many Adventures in California!

Brett & Helen hosted us all for dinner Saturday night. The kids were having the time of their lives frightening everyone with a "scary video" on D's ipod. It was nice to visit & catch up with the Taylors. We just don't get to CA as a family as much anymore.

We went to the Hollywood walk of fame. (I'd never been there before) There are all kinds of people dressed as characters around. We saw "Marley & Me" in Mann's Chinese theatre. In pure Hollywood form, there was an altercation between a woman in the theatre with a man that decided to go ahead and take a cell phone call - in his totally normal voice. He got thrown out, but not without swearing (quite femmy too) walking back & forth in the aisle behind us. Lelu is cured from wanting to live in CA.

My little shell obsessed blondie.

Mr. T was the only one who braved getting himself wet and very sandy! It was quite chilly there on the beach. Lelu barely touched the water.

This is always our tradition straight from the airport. Mmmmmm, B has been eating here since the first year we were married. It was in his sales territory.

It's NOT spelled with a Y! Silly D.....

Even though this was Christmas eve 2008. I had to write about it because I found it so funny. This is D's cute "friend" who made a CD for him and brought it over to him for a Christmas gift. She even wrote and sang a couple of her own songs - She is quite talented and just so darn cute! Anyway, D came up with making this plaquard for her in her favorite colors - with music - laughter - friendship (she's always giggling and has the nicest friends too). So I printed it out with my vinyl machine (D painted the board). I put the words onto the board as D critiqued that I had torn a corner of the M. He wrapped it and then we went and delivered it. She acted very excited and told D she "just loved it". The next morning I'm out doing last minute errands and I get this frantic call from him "MOM, WE SPELLED HER NAME WRONG!" And he knew how to spell it, it's spelled correctly in his cell phone. Somehow he missed it - and she didn't say anything and wasn't planning to say anything. And then he dreamed about it being wrong. Needless to say - her parents also got quite a laugh out of it and took photos and videotaped his explanation too. He'd also called Emilie frantic "I misspelled your name! I am so sorry!" (I hadn't asked him how to spell it, but when I showed him the words he didn't say anything.... that's my disclaimer.)

It was a Very White Christmas Day

(I got a new camera for x-mas - this is the only photo I took because the battery had to charge for 14 hours, but there's the nativity scene on my piano. What says Christmas more than that?)

Let me paint you a picture because I was honestly too frightened to grab a camera.

For the last 14 years we've lived here, B with the help of D, and now Mr. T, has been shoveling snow. No snowblower for him because it is "good exercise". With the storms we've had lately and last year, I thought it was high time to get one. I hid the big machine in the laundry room under towels. (B never goes in there, esp when it looks like every towel in the house is dirty). I got up around 6:00 and pretended to go out and get a drink of water, but I dragged it into the family room. He was impressed with my sneakiness! So after breakfast, he, D and Mr. T went out with their new snow clearing equipment (D & T got their very own shovels too). Let's just say, the wind was blowing hard and the wrong direction while B was trying to snowblow and he came roaring into the kitchen COVERED in snow, with red eyes (picture the abomidable snowman from Rudolph) saying he doesn't like the snowblower. (this is when I wished I pulled out my camera) I think he figured it out & he didn't take it back, but me, Michelle & Aub got quite the laugh at his expense.

I printed copies of my blog for each of the kids. It's the closest thing I'm going to get as a journal/scrapbook for a while. It was fun for me to go back and reread. I'm not sure how much they liked it.

Later we went to Grandma's house for dinner. Thanks to Roma & Mom! Michelle T. got me this fun game of cards, called Tabletalk, that has all these good questions to get good conversations started. We had a lot of fun with a lot of new topics and didn't even really give much attention to "He Who Must Not Be Named", except giving him that new nickname. If you want to know who that is - send an e-mail to me, Becca or Dad (we liked it the most). Did you know that Roma would love to go into space? I didn't and I wouldn't!

I'm going to keep my christmas music up on here for a little while longer, hope there's no diehards reading that have something against it!

Our Version of The Polar Express

For our Christmas Eve tradition we build a train out of graham crackers & candy. That way, we can be sure that the kids are properly sugared up before bed! And this year was a doozy, as you can see by Ari's needing to be held for the photo. D surpassed his previous year's skill in building a half pipe for lego snowboarder. Mr. T didn't want to build a train car, so he built the train station, that you can't see behind D's half pipe. This year we also had more cars built because even Mom, Roma & Michelle built one. Dad was the hold out, as we have yet to get him to join the fun. One of these years maybe?

B & I were in bed by 11:00! That is quite a record for us, and then we had to wake up the kids at 7, because Aub needed to be to work at 10:30. (Benedryl is the antidote for sugar high, in case you were wondering)

Ward Santa Breakfast

Friday night, my friend Connie had tickets & invited me up to go to the Savior of the World at the Conference center theatre. The weather was horrid! So we took trax up there, went to dinner & were totally spiritually uplifted by this beautiful program. I need to take my kids to something like this. It was very much testimony reminding. I hope they do something in Primary today with the Nativity.

Yesterday morning, our ward had their like 25th annual Santa breakfast with a guy who lives to be Santa every year for this. Ari went & sat with Santa and when he asked her what she wanted for Christmas, she said "I want to pull your beard off!" He was a very good sport and just laughed. This after doing a little play for me & B, with Lelu & Mr. T about Santa putting her on the naughty list and she grabbed Lelu's shirt (who was playing Santa) and pulled her close to her face saying in her sassiest voice "Listen you old fat man, if you put me on the naughty list, I'm going to hurt you!" What do you do as a parent with that? You laugh or you cry......and we laughed until we cried. Merry Christmas to everyone!