Hermana's Taylor!

First time through the temple for Karlie and Shalie

The customary family picture-the last one all together for a 18 months, the boys think they are being tortured by having to participate, except for Asher--look how cute he is!

My two sweet beautiful sisters are in the Provo MTC right now, preparing to serve missions to Gaudaljara, Mexico (Karlie) and Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico (Shalie). It's been really hard to say goodbye to my two best babysitters, but I know they are going to be excellent missionaries.Way to go Karlie and Shalie!

Nate's Race!

My brother Nathan is on the Lone Peak mountain biking team, I so wish they would have had this when I was in Highschool--it looks like so much fun! Great job Nate!

Bar J Wranglers!

In September we went RV-ing with Dave and Shanna to see the Bar J Wranglers in Jackson, so fun! Ila danced her little heart out, Fae loved it too!

Summer

Birthday Bliss!

I may be 3 months late, but this blog is not dead yet! I'll get caught up before too long!

I think a picture is worth a thousand words on this one.....Ila and Fae throughouly enjoyed thier birthday!

Bear Lake

My Children definitely have their quirks, Fae hates sand, and Ila has an obsession with socks.

4th of July @ Bear Lake, good times.

Waterton!

This little guy was right next to the road!

In June we went to Waterton, so incredibly beautiful! We had an absolute blast!

The Last Elder Roper

Elder Roper: Santa Rosa California Mission

They look so inoccent, But their cousin Landen is in that basket!

Sunday Afternoons in the Barley-

 Dave informed us that Barley can be treacherous when you wearing hose, not sure how he knows that...hmmm

We had to have a little fun before we sent Leon off. He is going to be and great missionary! We'll miss you Leon, see you in two years!

Saint George

Kristina and I decided to tag along on a "spring break" trip to Saint George, it was lovely. My children are fish!

Lately I've been so glad that I started blogging, I guarantee that there would be a lot of stories I would have never written and pictures I would have never taken without such a convenient place to put them all. My sister Kristina gave me the brilliant idea of creating a family yearbook (basically everything on my blog plus a few more pictures)....so much easier than a scrapbook for each child. I use mixbook.com and so far it has been great! I forget so much from year to year. I love going back and remembering it all, we have been blessed so much, I'm glad we've got at least some of it recorded!

Easter

I love Ashers face : "are you sure this is a good idea?"

Easter this year was wonderful. I wanted to make it more Christ centered, so for the few weeks leading up to Easter we watched  bible videos before bed. I was surprised how much the girls loved them. Now they keep asking to watch the "Jesus Show" (all the videos are all really good, the only one I didn't like was Jesus casting out the devils--scary!)

Happy Birthday Ez!

Ezra is 30! Oh my old! jk------ He just gets better with age ( :

In honor of Ezra's Birthday I'm posting Ezra's newest obsession in music. We've listened to it so much  my girls go around singing "gone, gone, gone"------ all day long.

Raising Resilient Children

So I really just wanted to pin this in pinterest, but it wouldn't let me.  It's such a good article I had to put it in a place where I would be able to find it and remember to read it over and over again.

Here it is, enjoy!

Just Pork'in Around

Please People

Sweet Baby Asher, the newest addition to the Taylor clan. So excited to have another cousin! Isn't he adorable!

 Feeding the ducks. There is a cute park up the street from our house with a lovely duck pond, our favorite and most friendly pal Gus (pictured  on the right) is one of the first to greet us every time we go.

Our favorite "hat", Our favorite sister, Our favorite wagon

Ila and Fae love to "dip it"-- favorite dip--bananas in BBQ

We asked Fae her baby dolls name the other day and you know what she said: "Baby Ga Ga"........Say What?

When the girls come up to Ezra and say "fly" this is what they want, to be thrown on the love sac.

Me pretending to be in pain--Ezra and I got bored waiting in the ER

I broke my foot, and now my confidence in my stair maneuvering abilities have been shattered forever.

I fell down the most familiar stairs I have ever known. My parents set of three garage stairs, it  was the last one that got me, I'm sure it looked like something that could have won the grand prize on America's Funniest Home Videos. I was just glad I was able to catch Fae who I happened to be holding at the time. She got rebounded off the refrigerator.

I'm not very good at staying calm when I've been injured, so of course I thought the swelling that instantly appeared on my foot had to be my bone sticking out. I refused to look at it and commanded everyone around not to look at it. I was pretty close to passing out. 

Ezra gave me a piggy back into the ER. I told the nurse that my pain level was at a measly 3 and  thought, "man I hope this thing is broken, or I am going to feel like the worlds biggest wimp." 

It was.

Ezra got to play Mr. Mom for about a week while I was on crutches. He did a great job and actually kept everything running more smoothly than expected. Don't worry...I milked it for all it was worth and thoroughly enjoyed skipping out on poopy diapers and sleeping through midnight binki runs. 

Now I'm up and at it with a fashionable little bootie to wear, its lovely. I told them they should give two so I wouldn't feel so ridiculous with mismatching shoes......no luck.

The more I've thought about how this all came about, the more I've wished that I actually had a good story for how I broke my foot.

So please people, if your going to break something-- have it be doing a back flip off your roof. 

Earthly Father, Heavenly Father

Just watched this again. Love it.

* * *

Welcome Home Elder Taylor!

Karlie and Nathan made this glorious sculpture entitled "Patrick and Comp"

Patrick arrived home from his two year LDS mission to Colombia around midnight on Jan. 4th (taller and skinnier than when he left) It has been so fun to have him home! Ila and Fae were happy to finally meet their uncle, and have even put him to work as their baby sitter. Welcome Home Patrick!

Christmas!

Christmas hike to the tree

The preliminary photos

Talking to Patrick on Christmas

Party at Oma's

What a wonderful Christmas! Ila and Fae were really fun this year, Oma gave them Minnie dolls and they were a total hit, now I get asked about 17 times a day to draw minnie on their magna doodles!

We have been so blessed and were able to purchase our first house/town home/duplex in......
da da dah.....Orem. Okay so it's kind of a let down after China. Nonetheless,  we are thrilled to have our own place no matter how small or close to the freeway it may be. ( : Our proximity to Walmart is much too convenient to complain really. Just don't go after 10 pm. (that's probably a good rule of thumb for any Walmart- ha)

A note to all wives out there: if your husband wants to close on a house right before Christmas--Just say NO! It made for a pretty hectic holiday (still recovering)-- I forgot what a process it is to move--especially when the majority of your stuff has been stored away for nearly 5 years.

Well we always love visitors, so stop on by, or you could always just wave as you pass by on the 15.