Casey and Missy

Kendall

2012-01-06T16:39:00.000-06:00

We love our little Kendall girl! I get a little sad knowing she is our last baby...I try to savor all the little moments with her because she is just growing up so fast! She is a happy girl and such a sweet baby. She loves Riley and her brothers, and loves watching them play. They can always get her to laugh!

Christmas Time!

2011-12-03T22:17:00.000-06:00

Our Christmas tree started off pretty sad looking this year. When I opened up the box of ornaments I discovered that most of them had broken during the move from Omaha. I was so sad! Then when we put up the tree only one section of the lights were working! It was the saddest looking tree ever!

We finally got the lights working and then we went out and bought a few ornaments and we got the tree looking pretty good! :) The kids were so excited to get all the tree, and all the other Christmas decorations out. They love Christmas!

Thanksgiving

2011-12-03T17:24:00.000-06:00

We had such a fun Thanksgiving. We had some yummy food and had such a great time with family. My favorite part was watching all the kids play football! They were so cute! I am so thankful for my wonderful family.

Turkey Bowl!

2011-12-02T22:02:00.000-06:00

My favorite part of Thanksgiving was watching the kids play football. They were so cute and they had a lot of fun!

Nap Time

2011-12-01T19:43:00.002-06:00

Cooper has been fighting me with his nap time for the past few months. He used to be pretty easy about going down for naps, but I think those days are gone! Once in a while he'll go the whole day without taking a nap, but he usually just falls asleep in the car when we go to pick up Riley from school. Sometimes he'll fall asleep before that, and since he won't let me put him in his bed anymore, I'll find him crashed on the couch, or even on the floor wrapped up in his blankie.

Fast asleep on the couch, snow boots and all. I love how his little tummy is showing :)

Snow

2011-11-20T15:46:00.002-06:00

During the first part of November we had a pretty good snow storm. The kids were so excited to go outside and play! They had a lot of fun throwing snowballs and making snow angels.

Cooper and Ryan making snow angels

Throwing snowballs at each other.

Riley has always liked playing in the snow!

Cooper had fun throwing snowballs at me.

Mabye next winter Kendall can join in the fun! :)

Halloween

2011-11-20T15:35:00.000-06:00

I wasn't sure what to expect for our first Halloween back in Utah, but everything turned out great. The weather was perfect and the kids had a fun time.
Riley was a black kitty, Ryan was Robin from Teen Titans, Cooper was a monkey, and Kendall was a skeleton.
Casey took Riley, Ryan, and Cooper trick-or-treating while I stayed home with Kendall and passed out candy.

I wanted to add these pics, too. These are from the Halloween party at Grandma's church.

Kitty Pumpkin!

2011-10-30T11:22:00.001-05:00

The day before Halloween we invited Grandma and Grandpa over and we carved our pumpkin. The kids wanted to do a kitty face. They were pretty excited about it. Ryan and Riley helped me scoop out some of the seeds, but Cooper didn't want to touch the pulp. He thought it was pretty gross, haha.

I love how excited Cooper was! I can never get him to smile this big for the camera!

Happy Birthday Riley!

2011-10-19T23:39:00.000-05:00

Riley had her 7th birthday on October 14th. I can't believe she is already 7 years old! We had a little birthday party at Grandma's and then a week later Casey took her to Lagoon. She had been begging us to take her to Lagoon ever since we moved to Utah, so we decided that it would be fun to take her there for her birthday. She loved it! Casey said that her favorite ride was the Bombora and that they rode it 10 times (she kept track). I can't wait to take her back next year!

Here are some pictures from her birthday party at Grandma's.

We Skyped with Mal...the kids had so much fun seeing Ethan and Isabelle.

Riley LOVES her present from Grandma. Riley loves to draw pictures and so my mom made her this awesome art set. Riley has been using it everyday!

Here's Bug giving me the evil-eye. She still doesn't like me!

Riley also got to spend a day with Grandma for birthday. They went to see the witches at Gardner Village and she rode Trax for the first time. She had so much fun!

Grandpa's Girls

2011-10-19T00:28:00.000-05:00

These pictures were taken on my birthday. I had such a nice 30th Birthday! We watched conference, ate some cheesecake, and spent some time with my family. We were able to Skype with Mal and so I was happy to be able to see her, too! I love my family!

I love these pictures of Grandpa with the girls. I just wish Isabelle was there, too!

Kendall's Blessing

2011-10-17T17:04:00.001-05:00

Kendall was blessed on October 9th in our ward. It was so great to have a lot of our family there. Casey's parents were able to come from Colorado, and Casey's brother Clay and his family were able to come too. It was so nice to see everyone. Kendall looked so cute in her blessing dress and she didn't cry when Casey gave her the blessing. I got kind of emotional as I listened to the words of the blessing. I felt really blessed that I have a husband who is worthy to hold the priesthood and give my children blessings. I love my family!

2 Months Old

2011-10-17T16:56:00.000-05:00

1 Month Old

2011-10-17T16:21:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite pics! She loves her daddy!

Big yawn :)

3 Weeks Old

2011-10-17T16:13:00.000-05:00

Life started getting back to normal when Kendall was around three weeks old. I was starting to feel a lot better and I wasn't in as much pain from my c-section. The doctor said it was okay for me to drive and so I was able to start taking Riley to school again. It was nice to get out of the house a little bit!

My cute little Kendall at 3 weeks old

When I was doing a little photo shoot with Kendall, the boys decided they wanted to be cute for the camera, too. Sometimes it's hard to get them to smile, but they were being really cute that day! :)

Ryan has always been so good with Kendall. He loves her so much.

2 Weeks old

2011-10-17T15:57:00.000-05:00

Kendall's First Week Home

2011-10-16T15:35:00.000-05:00

I just looked through my blog book that we had printed off a couple of years ago and I was reminded why it is so important to keep up the blog! So many fun memories! I'm going to try and update the blog as much as I can, and I have a lot of catching up to do!

Here are a few pictures from Kendall's first week home. In most of these pictures she was only a few days old. The kids were so excited when we brought her home from the hospital. Looking back at these pictures it crazy to see how tiny she was!

Hospital Pics

2011-08-29T11:40:00.000-05:00

I loved my doctor in Omaha. I had such good birth experiences there with both my boys and so I was a little nervous about leaving my doctor in Omaha and delivering in Utah. Luckily I was able to find a doctor who I really liked, and I had a really good experience with Riverton Hospital. I think the thing I liked the most was how Kendall never left my sight in the OR after she was born. I was able to see her the whole time as the doctors were finishing up my surgery. I was even able to hold her as they wheeled me back to the recovery room. This may not seem like a big deal, but with all my other kids I barely got a good look at them before they were sent to the nursery. And then I had to wait in the recovery room for over an hour before I was able to see or hold them.

Kendall holding Casey's finger just a few minutes after she was born.

Kendall and Daddy in the recovery room.

My favorite part about the hospital stay was when Riley, Ryan, and Cooper came to see Kendall. They came the day after she was born. I was so happy to see them and they were excited see Kendall.

I know Riley doesn't look very happy in this picture, but I promise she really was! For some reason she likes to make that little scowl when we're trying to take pictures of her.

Poor girl had to spend some time under the bili lights. She hated it!

Here she is on day 3. She is such a sweet (and feisty) baby! I love her so much!! :)

2011-08-13T21:04:00.000-05:00

Kendall Taylor was born on Thursday, August 4th 2011. She weighed 7 lbs 9 oz (our smallest baby!) and was 19 inches long. She is such a cutie and we are so glad she is finally here!

Here is the birth story. It's kinda long, but I wanted to make sure I wrote everything down before I forget!

My c-section was scheduled for 12:30 on August 4th. We took our time getting ready in the morning and left for the hospital around ten. We checked in and the nurse took us to our labor and delivery room to prep for surgery. I was a little nervous for the IV because when I had Cooper, the nurse had the hardest time getting the IV in and it was really painful...well I had no idea what I was in for! So the nurse starts to stick me with the needle and she can't get it in the vein, so she just started pulling the needle in and out of my arm repeatedly, and then all of a sudden I felt this blinding stab of pain shoot through my arm and hand. I can't even describe the pain. Luckily that initial pain only lasted a couple seconds because it was the worst pain I'd ever felt in my life. There was still a lot of pain in my hand, but it slowly got a little better. The nurse looked a little shaken and explained that she must have hit a nerve. She then decided to try to get the IV into my other arm. I was so scared, but luckily she was able to get the needle in without too much trouble. After that I told Casey that I never wanted another IV ever again!

After being hooked up the IV for a little while the anesthesiologist came in and explained a few things about the surgery and the spinal, and then it was almost time to head back to the operating room. It seemed like the time had come so fast and I was starting to get nervous! They walked me and Casey back to the operating room and they started prepping me for surgery. They sat me on the side of the bed so the anesthesiologist could put in my spinal block. I was so glad that Casey was there and I was able to hold his hand. The spinal really wasn't that bad! Then they laid me down on the table and started to get everything ready for the surgery. Dr Curtis came in and they started the surgery. This c-section was probably the most uncomfortable one I've had. I was only numb on the lower part of my stomach so when they started to push the baby out it felt like the nurse was breaking my ribs. I was holding Casey's hand the whole time and I think that helped me to stay calm.
Kendall was born at 12:44 pm. I cried when I heard her first little cry and I was able to see her during the rest of the surgery. She almost never left my sight...I even got to hold her as they wheeled me back to the recovery room. Overall, Kendall's birth was such a wonderful experience! I love her so much and I'm so glad she is a part of our family!

2011-08-02T21:45:00.001-05:00

So it looks like I will be having the baby on August 4th. I'm so ready to meet this little girl....just one more day of waiting!

Here are some pics from the past few days!

My cute boys.

looking for rollie-pollies

Cooper & cousin Isabelle

Back to School!

2011-07-31T14:45:00.000-05:00

Riley just finished her first week of school. She has been looking forward to this all summer. She was so excited to start 1st grade so she could be at school all day and eat in the cafeteria. She really likes her teacher, Miss Mortensen, and she said that all the kids in her class are really nice. I'm so glad she enjoyed her first week of school!

Taking Riley to school on her first day.

Ryan is excited to start school, too. He will start the first week in September. I took him to see the school last week and he loved it. I'm pretty excited about it too...I think he will have a great time and learn a lot!

Tomorrow I go in to the Dr's to schedule my c-section. It will be scheduled for either this Wednesday or Thursday. I'm so excited to see my baby girl!

Here are a couple of pictures of the kids on their last Sunday before they have a new baby sister.

4th of July

2011-07-20T10:05:00.000-05:00

We had such a fun 4th of July! Casey took the kids to the parade in the morning and then we all went to Grandma's house for the day. We had a BBQ and the kids had a lot of fun swimming with their cousins. After dinner we started some fireworks. The kids loved throwing the pops. I was a little worried that they would be afraid of the loud fireworks but they all did great. Everyone had a great time! It was so fun to be able to spend the 4th with our family.

Geary Reunion

2011-07-20T09:36:00.001-05:00

Last month Casey's Grandma came to Utah to visit and so his side got together for a reunion. We went to Timpanogos Park and the kids had a lot of fun playing with their cousins and climbing on the rocks. I still need to get some pictures of Grandma Geary so I can post them!

Here are some more pictures that Jeanine sent! :)

Swimming at Grandma's

2011-06-22T13:46:00.000-05:00

Veterans Memorial Park

2011-06-16T22:20:00.001-05:00

The kids have been wanting to go to the "castle" park for a while now, ever since Ryan saw it when he went to Casey's work. The weather was perfect last week and so we were finally able to go! They had a lot of fun!

Cooper liked throwing the wood chips. He is such a troublemaker.

Riley had fun on the tire swing with some friends she made at the park.

A view of Casey's work from the park.

Game #2!

2011-06-10T20:45:00.001-05:00

Riley, Ryan, and Ethan had their second Tee ball game on Thursday. This game went so much better! I think the kids felt much more relaxed, and they definitely had more fun! They all did a great job!

The classic Cooper look.

Ethan and Ryan getting ready to play!

Ryan played first base. He had fun catching the ball.

Ryan running to first base after hitting the ball.

I finally got Cooper to smile for the camera!

Riley had much more fun this game! She did a great job hitting the ball!

Throwing grass at Ethan. He is such a stinker.

Riley played 2nd base in the 3rd inning. She liked throwing the ball back to the coach.

This is what Cooper did to entertain himself during the last part of the game. This boy is going to give me lots of gray hairs.

Tee Ball!

2011-06-08T17:34:00.000-05:00

Riley, Ryan, and Ethan had their first Tee Ball game yesterday! It was a little chaotic at times, and there were a few tears, but I think everyone ended up having a fun time!

Cooper really wanted to play! He's going to be a tough little athlete someday!

Their team is called the Fireballs. They are so cute!

Here is Riley batting. She said that hitting the ball was her favorite part of the game.

Ryan up to bat. I think he will be a good little baseball player someday!

Riley, Ryan, and Ethan getting ready to field the ball...things got a little crazy when all the kids started going for the ball at the same time!

Cooper liked watching the game. He also kept himself entertained by putting grass in his hair.

Here's Riley after running the bases. After this she got upset because one of the boys kept on putting grass in her hair.

Here she is pouting while playing 3rd base. She also decided she was going to walk, not run, all the bases when it was her time to bat. She is stubborn like her Daddy :)

Here's Ethan showing off his awesome fielding skills :) He is so cute!

Cooper helped Daddy coach 3rd base for a little while.

Daddy teaching Ryan some awesome base running skills :)

Treat time after the game! Riley was still mad, but she cheered up soon after that and now she's excited for the next game!

Go Fireballs!! :)

Grizzly Park

2011-06-07T12:40:00.000-05:00

Last week I took the kids to Grizzly Park. It ended up being pretty chilly outside and so we didn't get to stay for very long, but I think they still had fun!

This slide kinda freaked me out a little bit! I was nervous they were going to fall over the sides, but Riley and Ryan loved it!

I like this slide a lot better!

Cooper's Bday Party!

2011-05-30T17:01:00.001-05:00

Thursday was Cooper's 2nd Birthday! We took the kids and all the cousins to Jump 'N Bounce for the first part of his party. They had so much fun! I'm sure they would have stayed there all day if they could. Cooper loved climbing on everything and going down the slides. After that we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for cake and ice cream. It was a lot of fun!

I love this picture will all the grandbabies with Grandpa!

Cooper's Bday Party!

2011-05-30T16:08:00.001-05:00

Pics

2011-05-23T23:50:00.001-05:00

These are just about all the pictures I've taken since being in our house. Nothing too exciting going on. We just signed Riley and Ryan up to play T-ball and so that will give me a great excuse to take some more pics! They start the first week in June. I'm excited see them play!

Finishing up breakfast.

I think Riley's favorite thing about being in our new house is that we finally have our kitties back. My mom's wonderful friend Karen took care of them while we were searching for a place to live. Riley missed them so much! Now that we are in our house, she can spend lots of time with Mei and Michiko.

I often find Mei laying on the bed in Riley's room. She loves being with Riley!

Riley told me that Mei was teaching her how to draw.

Cooper likes to cause lots of trouble around the house. He's already broken the screen door, wrote all over the walls, dumped out a whole bag a cat food and spread it into each room in the basement, dumped shampoo all over our carpet....he pretty much just dumps out any container he can get his chubby little hands on. He thinks he's hilarious...and it's hard to get mad at him when he looks at you with his cute little face.

Home

2011-05-23T00:41:00.001-05:00

So, I'm going to work hard on updating the blog more! We are finally getting settled in to our new home and things are starting to feel like normal again. I haven't taken very many pictures since we've been in Utah, but I do have a few that I wanted to put on the blog.

Me, Mal, and Becca! It's so fun to be due around the same time...I can't wait until all our babies get here :)

Cooper and Ethan.

Getting ready for the Easter egg hunt at Grandma's house. They had a fun time!

Our home! (our yard still needs lots of love, but it is starting to look a little better!)

We've been in our new house for about 3 weeks now. We still have some unpacking to do, but it's been so nice to finally have a place to call home. I do get a little sad when I think about Omaha. Things just happened so fast and so I really didn't have a lot of time to think about how much I was going to miss everything about our lives in Omaha. I'm glad we have lots of pictures to remember our time there, and I will treasure all the friendships we've made. I look forward to being able to go back and visit someday!

Hogle Zoo

2011-04-04T17:49:00.000-05:00

On Friday the weather was super nice and so we decided to take the kids to the Hogle Zoo. Unfortunately, just about everyone else in Utah also went to the zoo that day...it was soo busy! We had a fun time, but it really made me miss Omaha. It took us about 30-40 minutes to get there, compared to the 2 minutes it would take us to get to the zoo in Omaha. It was so nice in Omaha just to be able to go to the zoo whenever we wanted. Now that we're in Utah, we actually have to plan a big part of our day if we want to go. The Hogle Zoo was nice, but it just seems like there was so much more to see in Omaha. I really miss that place!

This is the face that Cooper makes when he's at a new place or if he doesn't know someone.

Cooper loved looking at the animals!

Ryan's favorite part was playing at the playground. He loved going down the big snake slide.

They all really liked the carousel ride.

I think this was the kids' favorite animal at the zoo!

Cooper had fun hanging on the bars.

His favorite part of the zoo was seeing the little animals in the small-mammal house.

cute baby elephant

Riley, Ryan, and Ethan. Riley and Ryan love spending time with their cousin!

Saying Goodbye to Riley's School

2011-03-20T22:47:00.000-05:00

I have so much I want to put on the blog! The past little while has been a little crazy. We've been in Utah for a couple of weeks now. We are glad to be back, but we are really missing Omaha. I think one of the hardest things about moving was that Riley wasn't able to finish out the rest of her school year at the Zoo Kindergarten.

It was was so hard for us to say goodbye to her wonderful teacher, Mrs. Callahan. I couldn't have asked for a better teacher for my little girl. She loves all the kids in her class so much and they love her, too. Riley has learned so much this past school year and has made so many good friends. It broke my heart to have to take her away from all of that. But I am grateful for all the experiences Riley was able to have while in that class.

A few days before we moved, my parents were able to come and see Riley's school and meet Mrs. Callahan. Riley showed them around the classroom and then she showed us all around the zoo. She was so cute! She had this one "crazy" duck she had to show us, and she told us the names of all the gorillas. I'm just so glad she was able to have such a great experience in the Zoo Kindergarten!

The kids with Grandma and Grandpa in front of Riley's school.

Riley was excited to show us around the zoo and tell us about all the animals

This picture makes me a little teary-eyed. I just love Mrs. Callahan! She is such a wonderful teacher!

Since being in Utah, Riley has started her new school at Jordan Hills Elementary. She really likes it, but she said she misses her Zoo class. It's been an adjustment for her since school here is only half a day. The kids in her class have been really kind to her, and she likes the playground they get to play on everyday. She actually is off track right now and so she won't have school again for another 3 weeks...I'm not sure I'm liking year-round school.

Overall things have been going well! I'll try to get some more posts on here soon :)

Ryan's 4th Birthday

2011-02-23T12:45:00.003-06:00

So this month has been CRAZY!! I haven't had much time to even think about blogging, but I wanted to get these pictures up from Ryan's birthday. He had his 4th birthday on February 5th. My Mom, Dad, Mal, Ethan, and Megan were able to come and visit us in Omaha and so we all had a lot of fun!

Riley was really excited about helping out with Ryan's birthday decorations. She made this birthday sign for him. It turned out really cute :)

We made different sports stations that everyone took turns playing at. There was bowling, golf, football, and basketball. I think the boys had a lot of fun! Cooper loved the golf station...he wanted to play there the whole time!

I just realized that this will be our last birthday party in Omaha. Kinda bittersweet! For those of you who don't know, we just found out a couple of weeks ago that Casey got a job in West Jordan and so we will be moving back to Utah this next week! Everything has been so crazy!! We are really excited to be going back to Utah, but we will really miss Omaha and all the wonderful people that we've met here. We've lived here for almost 7 years and so moving back to Utah will be a big change, but we are definitely ready for it!

Zoo

2011-01-28T19:37:00.000-06:00

I wanted to take advantage of the warmer weather we've been having here in Omaha and so me and the kids took a little trip to the zoo. I don't even remember the last time we went....it had been a long time! I wish the weather would stay like this, but I think it's going to get cold again next week :( I am so ready for Spring to be here!!

Riley, Skylynn, and Ryan in the Desert Dome.

Here's Cooper....this was the best picture I could get with all four of them. As soon as I took Cooper out of the stroller he couldn't hold still. He was so excited!

He was so happy to get out of the stroller.

Riley and Skylynn. They had a lot of fun!

We love the zoo!! :)

Merry Christmas!

2011-01-01T18:30:00.000-06:00

It was so fun to watch the kids on Christmas morning. They were so excited!

Cooper was happy to find some candy in his stocking.

Ryan got a Harry Potter wand from Santa

Opening the gifts they got each other

Cooper and Ryan LOVED the sword and shield they got from Grandma!

We had such a fun Christmas. We missed our family, but luckily we got to talk to them on Skype! It was fun to see everyone!

I hope you all had a merry Christmas!!

Christmas Eve

2010-12-25T20:03:00.000-06:00

Christmas Eve was so much fun! We relaxed and played in the morning, and then after lunch we took the kids to see "Tangled". The kids really liked it and Riley told us that she wants to have hair like Rapunzel. It was such a cute movie.

After the movie we came home and made some cookies for Santa. We decided to make him some graham cracker cookies with rainbow chip frosting.

Then after cookies, we ate dinner, gave the kids and bath, and then we had them open their Christmas jammies. It was such a great day!

Getting ready to make some yummy cookies

Cooper loved the frosting, and yes there was some double dipping going on, but Santa didn't mind :)

Yummy frosting

They were so excited to wear their new Christmas jammies

Santa

2010-12-25T18:51:00.000-06:00

After Riley's Christmas program, we took the kids to see Santa. Riley and Ryan were both excited to see him and tell him what they wanted for Christmas. Riley asked for an art set, and Ryan asked for a Harry Potter wand.

Cooper wasn't sure what to think of Santa

Riley and Ryan telling Santa what they wanted for Christmas

Hugs. He is the cutest Santa ever :)

Fun in the Snow!

2010-12-18T20:54:00.000-06:00

It snowed a little bit last week and so Casey took the kids outside to play. They love the snow! Casey pulled them around in the sled and then they found a snow pile to go sledding down. They had a fun time!

Riley's Christmas Program

2010-12-13T22:51:00.001-06:00

On Friday Riley had her Christmas program at school. The zoo kindergarten class got to spend the whole day at the elementary school. Riley was excited to stay at the "big school" all day.

Casey was able to get some time off work so he could come to the program. It was so fun to have our whole family there.

Riley and the other kindergartners did a good job. They are so cute!

All the kindergartners. Riley is in the front row on the far right. She was so cute!

When Riley finally found us in the crowd she got the biggest smile on her face! Here the kids are singing "It Must Be Santa."

This was after the program. It was kinda long...Ryan was worn out :)

Christmas Time!

2010-12-04T20:27:00.000-06:00

The kids are getting so excited for Christmas! It snowed this past week and so the kids were asking if it was Christmas Eve yet. On Tuesday we put up our Christmas tree. Putting up Christmas decorations is just so fun and it brings such a good feeling to the home.

Ryan was excited to try out his new boots in the snow.

My cute little boys!

Of course I had to include pictures of the kitties! They are just so cute. Mei is such a patient kitty. She is so good with the kids!

Michiko looks like a wild kitty in this picture.

Here are some pictures of Casey and the kids putting up the Christmas tree. They had a fun time!

Denver

2010-12-04T01:51:00.001-06:00

The day after Thanksgiving we drove to Denver so we could see Casey's sister go through the temple with her family. It was such a wonderful experience! I am so glad we were able to go.

It was a really fun trip...I just wish it could have lasted a little longer. The kids had fun seeing Grandma & Grandpa Taylor AND Grandma & Grandpa Wood. Lucky!

On the drive to Denver. The kids did really well in the car.

Cara and her family. They are so cute!

Casey and his brothers. It was fun to see everyone!

Thanksgiving

2010-12-01T10:25:00.001-06:00

This year we stayed in Omaha for Thanksgiving. I was really nervous about cooking the turkey, but everything turned out okay :)

The kids were excited about helping out. Ryan and Cooper helped Casey wash the potatoes and Riley helped set the table.

Here's Cooper "helping" with the pumpkin pie. He climbed up on the table when I was trying to get the turkey ready.

Finishing up dinner. I was so happy that everyone liked the food!

Mei and Michiko enjoying a good nap :)

Mei and Michiko

2010-11-20T17:57:00.002-06:00

Riley and Mei

Ryan was holding Mei and fell asleep. She is the sweetest kitty ever!

Michiko

Our little leopard kitty.

She is really sweet, too.

Best friends :)

Lily Puff Designs Giveaway!!

2010-11-09T11:06:00.000-06:00

My friend Crystal is hosting my VERY FIRST GIVEAWAY!! Check out her website Savvy Moms Save to find out how to enter!

Read With Me Challenge

2010-11-08T12:32:00.001-06:00

Go to Becca's blog to read the challenge!

I am starting today! Day One is 1 Nephi 1:1 thru 1 Nephi 5:11

Join us! :)

Halloween!

2010-11-03T15:07:00.002-05:00

Halloween is always so much fun! This year Riley dressed up as a kitty witch, Ryan was Link from the Legend of Zelda, and Cooper was a bat. They looked so cute! On the Wednesday before Halloween Cooper and Ryan had their Music Time Halloween party.

The kids getting ready to sing the Puppet Song. I loved seeing all the cute costumes!

Riley and Ryan both had Halloween parties at school, and then on Friday we went to the Trunk or Treat.

Riley and her friend Ruby. They are so cute!

Cooper wasn't sure what to think about Boba Fett.

On Saturday we went Trick or Treating. The weather was perfect and the kids had so much fun!

Here's Link and the Kitty Witch, with her real kitty of course, haha :)

They were all so excited for Halloween!

We told him to do his best Link pose, haha :)

Cooper Trick or Treating

Stealing some candy from our bowl, haha :)

That stinker loves candy!

Trick or Treating

Just Some Pics!

2010-11-03T01:49:00.000-05:00

We love Grandma and Grandpa!

Mei likes to take naps next to Cooper

Riley loves Mei

Birthday Party

2010-10-25T14:07:00.000-05:00

I am so glad that my parents were here to celebrate Riley's birthday with us! On the day of her birthday we took her out to dinner at Red Robin's. She liked it when the server's came to sing the birthday song to her, and all the kids loved getting balloons.

When we got home from dinner, she opened some of her gifts. Cooper and Ryan had fun helping her out. She got a Tinkerbell movie, and some cute clothes from Grandma, and Ryan gave her a Hello Kitty diary.

Here's Cooper with Mei. He loves to carry her around! She is so patient with him, haha. :)

On Friday we had Riley's birthday party at the clubhouse. The kids had fun decorating before the party started!

Riley wanted to draw kitty's on all the balloons. She spent about 20 minutes drawing pictures on as many balloons and she could. She did a great job!

Here's Cooper and Ryan "helping"

Riley and Rylee :) They are so cute. I love all of her friends!

Riley had a great time at her party! After the girls at some pizza they played Bingo. Then we brought out the cake and sang "Happy Birthday" to Riley. She was excited to blow out the candles. After everyone ate their cupcakes we played "kitty, kitty, dog". It's a game that Riley and my Mom made up...it's like "Duck, Duck, Goose", but cuter, haha :) I think this was the girls favorite part! They were all laughing and having fun. It was cute to watch. After that game Riley opened her gifts from her sweet friends and then we brought out a pinata. Riley had a little meltdown near the end of the party, but all in all I think she had a fun birthday!

Happy Birthday Riley!

2010-10-14T21:17:00.001-05:00

Happy Birthday to my sweet little girl! I love you so much and I feel so blessed to be your mommy. Thank you for making the past six years so wonderful!

Bike Parade

2010-10-03T12:47:00.002-05:00

Just a few pics from the bike parade a few weeks ago. The kids had a lot of fun!

*********************************************************

On Friday I had my 29th birthday. I had fun spending the day with the kids, and then Casey took me to PF Changs for dinner. It was so good! They had so many yummy looking vegetarian dishes, I want to go back so I can try them all! We got the vegetarian lettuce wraps for starters (soooo good!) and then Casey got the Mongolian Beef and I got the Ma Po Tofu. I think PF Changs is my new favorite place to eat! :)

For my gift, Casey got me the sweetest little bengal kitty named Mei. I love her (and so does Riley!). She is such a fun little kitty. I had such a great birthday!

Happy Birthday Casey!! :)

2010-09-22T05:12:00.001-05:00

We celebrated Casey's birthday this past weekend! The kids were so excited for his birthday. They had fun making cards and helping me pick out Daddy's gift. The day before we celebrated his birthday, I took Ryan with me to pick up Casey's gift. I told Ryan not to tell Daddy because it was going to be a surprise. Soon after Casey got home from work I heard Ryan say, "I got you a game for your birthday, but I can't tell you because it is a surprise!". It was really cute, haha :)

Happy Birthday Daddy!!

Later that day we took Casey out to lunch and then we just relaxed the rest of the day! Here are a few pics!

I love this one! :)

Preschool!

2010-09-06T01:11:00.001-05:00

Ryan had his first day of preschool on Thursday. He had so much fun! He is excited to go again on Tuesday.

Getting ready to walk down to his class.

Practicing writing his name.

After school he walked home with his friend Nahoa.

They are so cute! They both had such a fun time on their first day of school.

Cooper slept the whole time Ryan was at school and so I enjoyed a couple hours of quiet time. When Ryan got home he let Cooper wear his backpack for a little while.

I can't believe I have two kids in school! It's crazy how fast they grow up!

The Gardens

2010-08-28T21:04:00.000-05:00

A couple of days ago I took the boys to the Lauritzen Gardens while Riley was at school. Ryan and Cooper both had a fun time. Ryan really likes watching the trains, and Cooper had fun walking around and exploring.

It has been nice spending time with my boys during the day, but it's still kind of strange going places without Riley! I miss her, but I know she is having a great time at school.

Cooper and Riley

2010-08-22T20:48:00.000-05:00

Riley just finished her first week of Kindergarten and she is loving it! I think it's been a bigger adjustment for me than it is for her. I really miss her during the day! I thought she'd be tired after spending all day at school, but right when she gets home she starts asking me if she can go to her friends house to play. That girl has so much energy! I have some pictures from her first day of school that I'll put up soon. For now I wanted to post these pics of Riley and Cooper from the other day.

Cooper loves being outside!

My little sweetheart!

Cooper just makes me smile every time I look at him.

Swimming!

2010-08-15T20:55:00.004-05:00

Ok, so I am WAY behind on my blogging! I still have so many pictures I wanted to share from our Utah/Colorado trip last month but I have been super busy with my Lily Puff Designs blog. I have been doing a total makeover on that blog and it is taking up a lot of time! I finally finished my new header a few days ago. You should check it out and tell me what you think! I am going to start offering custom blog designs in September so I'm getting excited to get my little business going!

************

It was pretty hot in Utah and so the kids spent a lot of time swimming in my parent's backyard. I think Riley could have stayed out there all day if we let her! Ryan and Cooper had a really fun time, too.

Here's Cooper getting ready for some serious swim time :)

He didn't play as long as the other kids but he sure had a fun time!

They love playing with their cousins!

He liked playing with the cup but he kept on trying to drink the water, haha.

I love my little water babies!

Ginny

2010-08-15T00:04:00.004-05:00

This is Ginny. She was our first family pet. In May 2009 we received a letter from Village Green telling us that we could no longer keep her in our townhouse. For six months I tried to find a way to keep her, but we ended up having to find a new home for her. On January 1st of this year she left us to live with her new family. The couple seemed really nice and they sent me a text two weeks later saying that they were loving Ginny. Everything seemed okay. I sent a few emails over the months asking how she was doing, but I never got a response. Then last week I was thinking about Ginny and decided to send another email, hoping I would get a response.

Here is the email I sent:

Hello! I was just wondering how Ginny was doing! Do you think you'd be able to send any pics? If not that's okay. I hope she is loving her new home and thanks again for adopting her!

They didn't write back right away so I wasn't expecting to hear from them, but a few days later they sent me this response:

She got really sick about a month later and died.

That's it. That's all they said. No explanation, nothing. I couldn't believe what I was reading. How could a perfectly healthy kitty just die a month after they took her? I cried and cried. I felt so guilty for not trying harder to keep her. I still feel guilty. I wish I would have done more to keep her with our family. I'm really sad and heartbroken but I'm sure I'll start feeling better over time.

I was looking at some old pictures and videos, and this one made me smile. Ginny would always try to jump onto the ledge of the window but she never could. She couldn't even jump onto the couch, haha. And Ryan is pretty adorable in this video. He kept saying that "voldemort" was out in the forest and then he would get this scared look on his face. Anyways, here's the video:

Here's more of Ryan's scared look...it's pretty dang cute, haha:

Utah Birthdays

2010-08-07T23:33:00.000-05:00

Birthday boys!

I love this picture of Grandpa with all his grandbabies.

I need to write more about our Utah trip before I forget everything! This week has just been so crazy and I haven't had much time to do it. Tomorrow should be a good day to get some blogging done :)

Aunt Megan

2010-07-28T20:56:00.001-05:00

My kids loved playing with Megan and Preston while we were in Utah. They are so great with the kids! Riley and Ryan are always asking me when they can play with Aunt Megan again!

Megan made up a game called Blast Off :) They loved it!

3-2-1...

BLAST OFF!

Hehehe :) Riley loved it so much she even taught it to her new friend during Primary, lol.

We love you Aunt Megan! :)

A Few More Pics

2010-07-25T00:07:00.000-05:00

Here are a few more pics from Grandma Taylor's camera.

Here's a picture of the kids catching the chipmunk. They were all so excited!

Riley never got bored...she was always building something or playing games with her cousins.

Ryan felt a lot better after his long nap.

This was right before we left to drive to Utah. Riley and Ryan were sad to say goodbye to their cousins! They had a such a fun time playing with them!

Camping

2010-07-23T00:19:00.001-05:00

While we were visiting Grandma and Grandpa Taylor we got to go camping! Riley had so much fun. She loved it! I think one of the things she will remember most about camping is how she and her cousins set a trap to try and catch a chipmunk. They had the trap out all day and at the end of the day they finally caught a chipmunk! Poor thing...but don't worry they let him go and he wasn't hurt (besides being emotionally scarred for life, haha).

Here is our awesome tent that we slept in. It was actually pretty comfy!

Ryan wasn't feeling the best, but he still had a fun time!

Cooper liked playing around in the tent.

After we got settled in, Casey took the kids and showed them how to shoot the slingshot.

They had a lot of fun shooting rocks into the river!

Casey helped Riley and Ryan cook their hot dogs for dinner.

I think the kids would love to go camping again! It will take me a little more convincing, haha :) I'm glad the kids had a fun time!

This Morning

2010-07-21T10:31:00.001-05:00

This morning I woke up with possibly the worst headache I have ever had, and this is what my kids decided to do just after waking up:

Today might be a long day, haha!

Grandma Taylor's House

2010-07-18T19:24:00.010-05:00

We had so much fun on our trip to Colorado and Utah. For the first part of our trip we went to Colorado to visit Grandma and Grandpa Taylor. The kids had a great time playing at Grandma's house! Casey's brother Chris was also visiting and so Riley, Ryan, and Cooper had lots of cousins to play with.

This was the best picture I could get with all the kids together. Ryan wasn't too happy about getting his picture taken that day!

Here's Cooper "petting" the kitten. The kids loved playing with the kittens.

Here he is walking around looking for the kitten...

He found her! She learned to keep her distance from Cooper, haha! I love how Cooper points at everything now...it's one of my favorite things :)

My cute little Ryan buddy...he wasn't feeling well for most of the time we were at Grandma's house but he still had a good time playing with Chaz and his other cousins.

Here's Cooper pointing at the pond

Riley loved the trampoline but Ryan wouldn't go on it unless Casey was holding him. The first time he tried to jump on it he got bounced and landed right on his face and so he was scared to go on it after that.

Here's Riley doing some flips.

One of the days the kids got to play in the swimming pool.

Cooper had fun splashing in the water and getting wet!

Riley would swim all day if we let her! She loved Grandma's house...I don't think she ever got bored. There was always someone to play with, and she also loved playing with the kittens!

I have lots more pictures to post from our trip! I'll try to post some camping pics soon!

College World Series

2010-07-17T01:25:00.000-05:00

Fireflies

2010-06-26T15:01:00.000-05:00

Riley loves catching bugs. The fireflies have started to come out and so Riley had fun catching some the other night.

Here she is with a couple of the fireflies she caught. She's brave...I didn't want to touch them!

I gave both Ryan and Cooper a haircut a few days ago. They look so cute with their short hair. Ryan has been talking a lot about going to school. He is excited to start preschool in the fall!

Cooper loves to walk and he's getting pretty good at it. He also loves to climb the stairs, and now he likes opening the fridge! This little boy keeps me busy!

We are excited to visit Colorado and Utah soon. The kids are really excited to see both Grandma & Grandpa Taylor and also Grandma & Grandpa Wood. We get to go camping with Grandma & Grandpa Taylor. Riley and Ryan have been pretty excited about that. The last time we went camping was when Riley was a baby! I Can't wait to see everyone!

Coops

2010-06-25T13:35:00.002-05:00

Cooper just figured out how to open the fridge....

Nice one, Coops! :)

Nothing that some paper towels and quick bath can't fix, right? :)

Hmm, so what do I do now? I really don't want to buy a child-proof lock for the fridge!

Walking!

2010-06-21T18:33:00.004-05:00

He's gonna love Halloween :)

Almost Walking

2010-06-09T13:16:00.003-05:00

Cooper is such a fun little boy. He loves to play with Riley and Ryan. He is getting pretty close to walking. He can take quite a few steps, but he still prefers crawling. He will be happy when he gets better at walking so he can play with his brother and sister more!

Oh, and yesterday he figured out how the climb up the stairs, and he can actually go pretty fast. He gets mad when we put up the gates!

We sure miss Grandma and Grandpa! Here are some pictures from when we went to the zoo with Grandma:

We are glad we get the see Grandma and Grandpa again next week, even if it's only for a day. Then in July we get to see Grandma and Grandpa Wood AND Grandma and Grandpa Taylor! It will be so much fun! The kids are already excited to go camping with Grandma Taylor. They will love it!

Go Riley, Go!

2010-06-03T23:29:00.001-05:00

Riley has been learning to ride her bike without the training wheels. She has been doing really well, but she still needs help starting out...once she gets going she does great!
We have a helmet for her but it didn't fit on her head...that's why she's not wearing one in the pictures.

She was really excited to take the training wheels off her bike!

Ryan and Cooper had fun watching her go!

Sad face :( I can't even remember why he was mad...I just thought this picture was so cute!

Riley's Camera

2010-06-03T22:52:00.000-05:00

Riley got a cute little camera for her birthday last year and it's fun to see what kind of pictures I'll find when I upload them to the computer.

Riley's friend took some pictures of her. They are so funny!

Riley took a picture of our lesson from our home teachers.

Here are a couple of pictures from Winter Quarters. She had fun going there with Grandma and Grandpa.

Cooper's Birthday Party

2010-06-03T22:30:00.006-05:00

We had so much fun on Cooper's Birthday last week. My parent's flew in from Utah that day and so we were able to celebrate Cooper's birthday all together! We went to Red Robin and Cooper got to eat some yummy ice cream! He really liked it!

When we got home from Red Robin Riley and Ryan helped Cooper open all his presents.

All three of them loved the ball popper.

After Cooper opened his present we sang Happy Birthday to him and had cake and ice cream.

His cake was so yummy :)

Cooper was smiling so big when we sang Happy Birthday to him. It was really cute! When we finished singing Ryan blew out the candle for him.

Happy Birthday Cooper! We love you!

Happy Birthday Cooper!

2010-05-26T21:06:00.001-05:00

Happy Birthday Cooper! I can't believe it's already been one year!

Me and 35 weeks

With his big brother and sister. They were so excited to see him!

With Aunt Megan, about a month old.

3 months old

He had fun with all of his cousins last summer.

Cooper's first Halloween.

About 10 months old.

Cooper had a great 1st Birthday. We picked up Grandma and Grandpa from the airport and we had so much fun spending the day with them! Cooper had some yummy ice cream at Red Robin and then we opened some present at home. Riley and Ryan had fun helping him open all his gifts. I'll post some pictures of his birthday party soon!

Last Day of School

2010-05-23T16:58:00.004-05:00

Riley had her last day of school on Friday. Her class had a water day that day so everyone wore their swim suits to school. She had so much fun! She was kind of sad when it was time to leave. She will miss her friends and her teacher.

Riley and Miss Katie

Riley and her class. She will miss her friends from school, especially Reyna {she's the cute little girl second from the left}.

While Riley was at school I took Ryan to the store to get him a Zelda shield. The little pillow he was using as a shield just wasn't good enough for him anymore, haha.

Here he is with his new shield and sword. He loves his new Zelda gear!

Poor Cooper was sick most of the week but he's finally starting to feel better. It's so nice to see him smiling again!

My cute little happy boys

♥ ♥ ♥

Riley is learning how to ride her bike without the training wheels. She is doing pretty good! I'll post some pictures and video soon.

Rainy Days

2010-05-13T08:17:00.007-05:00

So there really hasn't been too much going on this past week. Everyday has been cold and rainy and so the kids haven't been able to play outside very much. When I picked Riley up from school yesterday she seemed sad and when we got into the car she started crying. I gave her a hug and asked her what was wrong and she said she was sad because it wouldn't stop raining! So sad! It looks like it might be a little nicer today so hopefully the kids will be able to play outside today.

Next week is Riley's last week of school. She really enjoys going to her preschool, but she is excited to start Kindergarten in the fall.

Riley's cute little school.

I haven't taken any pictures this week mainly because we've just been stuck inside all week. But here are some pictures from last month that I wanted to put on the blog.

Last month Riley and Ryan's friend had a "super hero" birthday party and everyone dressed up as their favorite super hero.

Ryan wanted to be "Zelda" (Link) and Riley told me she wanted to be a "pink diamond angel kitty". I'm not sure how she came up with that sweet name, but for her costume I just made her some kitty ears and a tail and she wore her kitty shirt.

They had such a fun time at the birthday party!

I took this picture of Ryan a couple weeks ago. I love it when I can get pictures of him smiling...he has such a cute smile!

I can't leave Cooper out of the post so here's a video of him rockin out to Taylor Swift:

He also loves dancing to this. I'll have to get a video of him dancing to it....it's really cute!

Zoo Kindergarten

2010-05-06T11:14:00.001-05:00

This picture of Cooper reminded me of this post I made about Riley when she was a baby.

Here's the kids having fun outside on Saturday. Cooper liked playing on the blanket {much better than sitting directly the grass, haha}. It was such a beautiful day!

We received some great news a little while ago. We found out that Riley was accepted to attend the kindergarten class that is held at the zoo. We are so excited! All of her friends from Village Green were also accepted so that is awesome! I wanted to show Riley where her new school would be and so I took her to the zoo last week.

Here is where Riley will be going to school in the fall. She is pretty excited about it...she keeps on asking me if it's time to go to the zoo kindergarten yet. I can't believe she will be in kindergarten! She will be at school for the full day {from 8:40-3:00}. I think she will love it, but it will be hard for me to have her gone all day!

Here are some more pics from that day:

Ryan is wearing his "Zelda" hat. He seriously wears that thing everyday, even if it is 80 degrees outside.

Brothers

2010-04-29T00:06:00.000-05:00

Tuesday Morning:

Ryan and Cooper watched Daddy as he left for work.

Ryan had fun showing Cooper how to play with his car garage toy.

It's fun to see Cooper and Ryan starting to play together more. They are so cute to watch! I think Ryan likes having a little buddy to play with. They will have even more fun as Cooper gets older. I hope that they will always be good buddies growing up!

Cooper

2010-04-23T19:51:00.002-05:00

Cooper is such a fun little boy. He loves to play with Riley and Ryan and he loves to be outside. One of his favorite things to do is ride in his buggy.

I love this picture...he's so cute even when he's mad.

So, this is what happens when Riley forgets to put her markers away:

He is such a little trouble maker, haha!

I love my happy little boy! Just looking at him makes me giggle because I think he's just so adorable. I can't believe he will be a year old next month! Crazy! I'm glad that Grandma and Grandpa will be here to celebrate his first birthday with us. It will be so much fun!

My Website

2010-04-21T14:19:00.001-05:00

Some of you may know that I have a blog design website called Lily Puff Designs. I started it because I couldn't find any Minima Stretch blog backgrounds to use on my family blog, so I just started making my own. I first began working on the website about four months ago, but until now I've been too chicken to put myself out there and make a post about it on my blog!
If you could check out Lily Puff Designs that would be awesome. I would love to hear what you think....comments, suggestions, questions, any kind of feedback would be great!

Thanks everyone!

Cars

2010-04-17T13:29:00.001-05:00

Riley and Ryan had fun playing with their remote control cars last night. The only problem was that the cars were on the same frequency and so one controller would make both cars move. They ended up having to take turns so the cars woudn't interfere with each other.

Ryan crashed his truck in the ditch

Here's Riley showing me her car

Cooper and Ryan had fun watching her race her car.

Riley and Ryan both had fun racing their cars off the steps

Riley was getting mad because Ryan was making her car move with his controller. I think he was doing it on purpose...he thought it was pretty funny!

Cooper is so funny. He will not look at me when I'm trying to take pictures of him! So this is what most of the pictures look like.

Here's some more pictures of Cooper playing in his buggy. He loves that thing! He had a fun time watching Riley and Ryan play with their cars!

Spring!

2010-04-13T16:22:00.001-05:00

I was so happy to see that the trees in front of our house have blossomed! I love Spring!

The kids have been loving the warmer weather. They have spent much of their time outside the past few days.

These are flowers from the little tree in front of our house.

Riley and Ryan had fun playing outside this morning. Riley was excited to wear her new dress that I found at a consignment sale {only $2, woohoo!}.

Cooper will be glad when he can walk so he can go outside and play with is brother and sister!

I saw these dandelions and I thought they were so cute for some reason, haha. They're buddies. :)

The Faster You Run...

2010-04-08T16:32:00.005-05:00

This picture was taken a couple hours after Riley had a pretty good wipeout. If you've seen her run you'd know that she loves to run as fast as she can. Well, this means that when she falls, she falls pretty hard.
She scraped up her knees, elbows, hands, nose, and forehead, and she had a bloody nose. I was actually really surprised at how much she was bleeding...she left a puddle of blood on the sidewalk where she fell. I never thought I'd have wash off a puddle of my child's blood from the sidewalk with a hose!
She was pretty shaken up, but she still wanted to play outside a little while after she fell.

Here's another picture of her nose. She's going to have a big scab on her nose for a while!

On Monday she had fun telling her teacher and friends at school about her wipeout.

A couple more pics from last week:

all the kids together

Riley and Grandma

Cooper sure loves his Grandpa!