Random Moments

If it fits, it ships

P. attemps to be the first person ever shipped by the US postal service.  Imagine receiving that package in the mail!?!



Clippy Head

Au.'s sisters go a little overboard while helping her style her hair for church.

Toothless Wonder

A. had three teeth fall out from her upper jaw all within a month.  That's in addition to the one she lost on the bottom jaw late last year.  While she reports that she's still eating solid foods just fine, she says she now has to brush her teeth in three sections:  the right, the left, and the bottom.

New Year's Day

It's 2013...

...and the new year greeted our family with a fine layer of frost on our lawn.  So we bundled our kids up and let them play in it, since that's as close as they'll ever get to having snow in the backyard.



Christmas 2012

I misplaced my camera...

...sometime shortly after A.'s birthday and didn't find it again until New Years so alas, I only have three pictures of our holiday season and zero pictures of Christmas day.  We did have a very nice Christmas though, even if we don't have the photographic evidence to prove it.

Au. gets into the yuletide spirit with a candy cane in one hand and a Christmas cookie in the other.

A.'s yearly letter to Santa Claus.

The Pinks all pitched in to help me make a batch of Grandma Taylor's delicious eggnog cookies.  We deliver a plate of goodies to our neighbors every year during the holidays.

Family Pictures

"Just one picture where we are all looking in the same direction, preferably smiling, but I'll take mildly disgruntled if that's all I can get."

Those were the instructions I gave to the photographer we hired to take this year's family picture.  Last year we went to a mall studio (which shall remain unnamed) and the results were disastrous.  So this year we tried something new and thanks to the extreme patience of our photographer we managed to take one single picture fitting the aforementioned description.  You've probably already seen it; we put it on this year's Christmas card.  Here, for your viewing pleasure, are some of the other photos taken before, after, and inbetween posing for the real thing.

And here's the good one, just in case your Christmas card got lost in the mail.

Happy Birthday, A!!

Lucky Number 7

Instead of a traditional birthday party, this year A. got to choose a special "Birthday Activity."  She opted to go to a local indoor trampoline/bounce house facility called Jumpstreet with her sisters and a friend from school.

Then we had a small family party with cake and presents.

Happy 7th Birthday, A.!!  We love you so much!

And a big thank you to all the friends and extended family who sent her birthday wishes, too.

Happy Turkey Day

The Pilgrim and the Turkey want to wish everyone a very

Happy Thanksgiving! 

(Baby Squanto was taking a nap when this picture was taken and is therefore not shown.)



We were lucky enough to get 2 Thanksgiving dinners this year.  The first one was made by moi and included such nontraditional menu items as NY strip steaks, orzo pilaf, Rocky Mountain Salad, watermelon (from our garden!), Strong family multi-layered jello, pumpkin chiffon pie and the always delicious Taylor family favorite, cranberry ice!  It took me two full days to make it but since I only do crazy cooking like this once a year, I didn't mind too much.

We even got out the fine china and crystal.  (When else are we going to use it?)

Then the next day we got to have Thanksgiving all over again with our wonderful friends in Tucson.  J. and C. spoiled us silly with a delicious traditional Thanksgiving feast.  Besides the mouth-watering turkey, the honey crusted ham, and the tangy-sweet baby back ribs, there were so many side dishes, it would take too much bandwidth to name them all.  We are so grateful for the Ross' gracious hospitality and for allowing us to share this wonderful holiday with them.



Soccer Season

This year, both Pinks 1 & 2 donned on some cleats and hit the pitch.

A.'s team was named the Sunflowers.  Here she is running after the ball with her fellow teammates and taking a water break at half time.

P.'s team decided to call themselves the Scorpions.  True to her team name, P. was a stinging success in her very first season of soccer.  She scored lots of goals--mostly for the other team.  We'll work on the concept of field direction next year.

School Projects

A.'s school recently held a "Fun Run" to raise funds.  Each kid was tasked to find "sponsors"--people who would donate a certain dollar amount for every lap they ran in the Fun Run.  The maximum number of laps the kids were allowed to run was 36.  A. was very excited about this Fun Run and on the big day, she totally blew away her parents' expectations by running the full 36 laps.  Way to go A.!!  And many, many thanks to all her sponors.

P.'s preschool recently held a "Crazy Hair Day" to help the students learn about the letter 'H'.  Needless to say, we had a lot of fun with the hairspray that morning.

A. had to make a miniature "Book Float" for a literature parade in her class.  She chose a book entitled A Snake Mistake as the theme for her float.  The story is about a snake that eats some light bulbs after mistaking them for chicken eggs.  We thought her float turned out pretty cute.

And Au. does her best to keep up with everyone and all their activities but every once in a while, it just gets to be a little too much.

 

Pink-Or-Treat

Happy Halloween from the Bumblebee, the Little Mermaid, and the Ballerina!

P. also appeared as a Fairy at several Halloween events.

Got to get a shot in of the jack-o-latern.  This year the girls opted to carve a spooky one.



New Wheels

"Aussie" the Outback has been my car since college.  My parents gave it to me and J. as a wedding gift and that car has come with us to Connecticut, California, and all the various cities in which we've resided here in Arizona.  It has been a wonderful car.  Back in the day it transported me and my roommates on all sorts of fun adventures while at BYU.  It got me safely to and from work during Connecticut's Nor'easter storms.  It brought our babies home from the hospital.  

Yesiree, Aussie has been a great car.  But now that we have three kids, three carseats, and carpool with more neighbors than Aussie has seatbelts for, the time has come to say goodbye to Aussie the Outback.  May she find her way to another good family who will depend on her the way we have.

Hello Mini-Van!!

If you had asked me 10 years ago how I felt about the eventually of getting a minivan, I probably would have been less than enthusiastic.  My, oh my how time changes things!  We are now the proud owners of a mini-van.  Yep, you read that right:  proud and ecstatic.  We have finally thrown off any and all pretenses of trying to be cool and have come to fully embrace our status as Mormon-American-Suburbanites.  Little 2005 Toyota Sienna with your two automatic sliding doors, dual passenger temperature control guages, and moon-roof that my kids love sticking their heads out of:  Welcome to the Taylor Family!!     

Fall Break

It seems like we've only just started school when the kids get out again for their annual two and a half week Fall Intersession.  Here's what we did while the classrooms were closed.

Hiking at Woods Canyon Lake

We needed a break from the heat so J. took a day off work and we drove up to the Mogollon Rim in central Arizona seeking cooler temperatures.  We found a beautiful lake up there with open views, places for picnicking and a hiking trail perfect for our little family.

Multi-family Trip to the Phoenix Zoo

The Pinks' hung out with their fellow "wild things" for the day.

Trip to Tucson

No vacation would be complete without a trip to Tucson to visit our favorite friends, the Ross's.  This time around we also went to visit the Evans family who are moving to Boston soon.  We're so grateful for their friendship and wish them the best of luck in their new home!

Here's a picture of C. Ross hanging out on the top of the Evans climbing dome.

Mulit-Family Picnic

On the last night of break we got together with friends for a picnic in the park complete with family competitions such as marshmallow relays, frisbee tosses, hula-hooping races and soccer kicking contests.