Prayer Time

The other night when we were getting ready for family prayers, we said "prayer time" and Jacob ran over, knelt down and folded his little hands together. What a little sweetie! He's pretty awesome!

Family Pictures

We got our family picture taken for the year and some other fun shots. We went to JC Penney and they actually did an ok job. When we got there, though, they were way behind and we had to wait for about 45 minutes. Not fun with 4 kids and nothing to do. We made it work by playing hide and seek in the clothes racks. It was pretty fun for the kids, but maybe not for the employees. Oh well. Put a playplace in there or something for those that have to wait. Duh!

She's Here!

We had our baby! She decided to come 3 weeks and 2 days early! All of our children have decided 40 weeks is way too long to stay inside a belly. They can't wait to see the world and have to come out 3 weeks early to experience it! I don't mind one bit!

So, now for the labor story. This is mostly for my benefit so I don't forget, or maybe I do want to forget! Anyway, I started to have contractions at about 10:30 p.m. but figured it was too early for her to come. I mean, I didn't have a bag packed, her room was not finished, and it was time to go to bed! We counted contractions every 5-7 minutes for about an hour and then they stopped, so we went to bed. At about 1:30 a.m. they started up again, only this time they were a bit more intense. I woke up Michael and said we'd better get ready to go to the hospital. He said to just go back to sleep! I reminded him about last time and how I knew he didn't want to deliver this baby at home. So he called his parents and I frantically packed things while breathing through contractions.

His parents came and we left for the hospital. Thank goodness for family to help out, or my friends would've gotten a rude awakening! Anyway, we got to the hospital at about 2:15 a.m. and I knew I was pretty close. They wheeled me into the delivery room and I started throwing up, the tell-tale sign that I'm almost to 10 centimetres dilated. I hurried and got my gown on, hopped into bed and then they checked me. I was at a 9 1/2 and my water still hadn't broken. The contractions were pretty intense by then until they broke my water. Then all that pressure was released and I hardly felt the contractions after that. Then it was time to push. That's when it got ouchy. I pushed a couple of times and she was starting to come, then she got stuck. Her shoulders wouldn't come out. I pushed a couple more times and Michael said the doctor had to bear down and really yank on her head to get her out. He was scared because she was pulling so hard. When she came out, she wasn't moving her left arm. After about an hour or so, she was moving it and everything was fine.

She was born November 12, 2008 at 2:54 a.m. She was 6 pounds, 11 ounces and 20 inches long. After a day and a half, we named her Mia Rae Taylor. Mia is another form of Michael, and Rae is her grandma and aunt's middle name. She had hair on her ears, shoulders and back and was bruised from her nose down to her chin. Poor little thing. It's amazing they come out in one piece! What a little miracle! We feel so blessed and thankful that she got here safe and sound. Now let the fun begin!

Asia's Window Mouth

Asia had a loose tooth for about a month. About a week after her birthday I asked her to show me her loose tooth. She had been wiggling it for about a month and it was really starting to get loose. I asked her if she wanted me to pull it out. She was very nervous about that and didn't want me to do it. So I just continued to wiggle it for her and tried to pull it out gently. It almost came out, but Asia freaked out when she heard it come loose. I said we'd have to take her to the dentist and have it pulled if she didn't let me pull it. She remembered what Ethan had to go through with that whole process and decided to get me a tissue and let me pull it. I gave it one last tug and it was out! She could taste blood and could feel a hole and started to panic. I just made a big deal about how the tooth fairy was going to come now and how she would get money. Then she thought it was pretty cool. She put her tooth in the tooth fairy pillow and the next morning she found a whole quarter in the place of her tooth. Now she has a cute little window in her mouth to match her top tooth gap. She has fun sticking her whole tongue through the gap!

Asia's Birthday

Now that I've taken more than a month off, I figured I'd better start updating what's been going in our crazy lives! Asia did have a bithday. It seems like a million years ago! She turned 5 and was so excited to be the same age as her friend Mara. We had a family party with the Taylor's at Russ and Joy's house. We celebrated Russell, Logan and Asia's birthday since they are all within a week of each other. Then, on her real birthday, we celebrated with our little family. We ate what she wanted to eat; cheeseburgers and fries. We made burgers and red potato fries in the oven. Then we opened presents.


On Friday she had her friend party at Blast Off. She invited some of her friends from dance and preschool. It was a "blast" indeed! They played in the huge jungle gym thingy, played make-believe with dress-ups, had pizza and cake, opened more presents and played the video games for tickets and lame prizes! That was their favorite part!



I don't know what it is with kids and lame dollar store prizes! Anyway, then she got a chance to catch balloons and win prizes. She was a little unsure about it at first, but Ethan reassured her that it would be just fine. What a good big brother. She was able to catch 5 balloons and win free stuff to redeem there at Blast Off. I think she had a great day or week I should say!

A Fun, Crazy Halloween... Finally!

It seems like Halloween was months ago already! It also seemed like it would never end! It was a whole week of Halloween festivities that made the week go by very fast!
Halloween finally came and I was very busy watching 8 kids all under the age of 8 and 8 and a half months prego! I like the number 8 I guess! Anyway, I figured I would need to have some kind of plan for the day or else it would just be chaos. There was no school, hence all of the children at my house. I printed off a bunch of Halloween pictures to color so that interested some. It was a fairly nice morning so they all played outside for a while. Then they were getting bored so I had to pull out the big guns. I had bought little plastic pumpkins for them to decorate and many random things to decorate them with. That took up a good chunk of time. Then I made orange rice krispie treats and they shaped those into pumpkins and decorated those. They had fun being creative and being able to do whatever they wanted with their pumpkins. Then it was lunchtime and naptime. I had bought a Casper movie for them to watch and have some quiet time in the afternoon. 3 kids fell asleep, one went to a friends' house and the others watched the movie quietly while I caught up on cleaning up after them and laundry. It was a day that went by really fast, but we had a lot of fun in the process. Here are some of their projects for the day.



When all of the extra children left, we went to Mike's work to trick or treat. Mike went to work dressed as "white trash" and so I had to play the part of his trashy wife of course. I think it's fun to dress up and be someone different for a while. I get bored with myself I guess! The kids had fun trick or treating there and it was fun to see what Mike's co-workers had dressed up as. Here we are, the trashy couple of the year. Notice all of my babies plus the baby in my tummy! Ha!


Then it was time to have our pumpkin shaped pizza and get ready for trick or treating. Mike took the kiddos around while I handed out the candy. We actually got quite a few trick or treaters this year because it was such a nice night, until it started raining. I think we had our last one at about 9 p.m. The kids had a blast and they were able to go around with some friends also. Jacob trick or treated around the cul-de-sac, but then stayed with me the rest of the night and helped hand out candy. He was so cute! Whenever the doorbell rang he would run to the candy bucket, try to open the door and give the candy to the kids! He caught on to this whole Halloween thing real quick. He also figured out that he could go next door and get candy. He was always trying to escape and go with the trick or treaters that came to our door. Funny little guy. Here's Asia's third choice for costumes this year.



Here's their candy haul. Asia decided to sort them all out like I used to do. Ethan didn't really care to sort it, as long as it as all in the bucket, safe and sound!



We hope you all had a fun and safe Halloween, from the Taylor family!!

Trunk or Treat

We went to our neighborhood trunk or treat tonight. I made hamburger soup for the dinner which was first. There were a lot of people there and each family had brought a crockpot of soup. Needless to say there was a lot of soup leftover. I had broccoli cheese and it was so yummy. Anyway, then it was time to go trunk or treating. I decorated our trunk and won a candy bar for best decorated trunk. It was fun to do. I love decorating for holidays. I remember going trick or treating to people's houses and loving all of the decorations people did, especially the ones who went all out.





I think the trunk or treating lasted all of about 10 minutes, and then everyone was done. It went very quick which was nice because I was running out of candy and had to pull out the reserves that I was reserving for me! I gave out the stuff I didn't want first and saved the candy bars for me! Ha! I'm such a little piggie!

Boo at the Zoo

We decided to go to Boo at the Zoo again this year. I guess it's become a family tradition now. There were a ton of people there when we first arrived, but the crowds died down after 7:30 or so. Last year I think it was freezing cold and raining. This year was quite balmy. No wonder it was so busy.




Jacob was Kung Fu Panda. His favorite thing was watching the animals, especially if they moved! He would freak out and make the noise of that animal. Pretty cute. He also loved getting his own candy and trying to figure out how to open everything up all at once. He didn't like his panda bear hat so much, but I distracted him enough that he kept it on for most of the night.

Ethan was a ninja. His favorite part, of course, was getting candy and trying out his ninja moves. He did like making the crafts also. They had some craft booths there and at one of them they had some practical joke things. They had the snakes in a container that flew out when you opened the lid, and a box where a fake spider crawled out when you opened the lid. It scared Ethan even when he had opened it a few times! It was funny. He liked those tricks and was trying to figure out how to make such things at home.



Asia was a witch again this year. She can never make up her mind about what she wants to be for Halloween. I think she was a few different things last year too. For her preschool party she was a witch. For her dance party she was Little Red Riding Hood. Tomorrow for the "real" Halloween she wants to be a genie or Princess Jasmine. I guess this is partly my fault since I have all of these random costumes for her to pick from. She loves to dress up. She had fun making crafts at Boo at the Zoo and eating her candy. It was quite a sugar high night for everyone, and it's not even over yet!!! Yikes!

Pumpkin Carving

We carved pumpkins for FHE this week. We grew a bunch in our garden this year and each of the kids got to pick their own pumpkin to carve. Ethan and Asia both have their own "safe" knives so they got right to it on their own. Ethan wanted a scry face and Asia just started carving and cutting away without any real plans. Ethan wasn't too sure about the removal of the gutts. He didn't want to get his hands all slimy, but Asia went right for it. Jacob was a little unsure about the sliminess too. He just wanted to take all of the lids to the pumpkins and try to fit them where they belong, like solving a puzzle. He also wanted to eat the lids. They weren't so tasty! It was pretty fun and they turned out pretty interesting!





Here are our finished products...


There's mine first, then Ethan's, then the baby's, then Jacob's, then Asia's and Mike's is last. Ethan carved his own and his new baby sister's. What a cute little pumpkin family, eh.

Fun Weekend

Last weekend was a work weekend for us. It was a beautiful day outside so we decided it was time to clean up the yard and get ready for winter. We picked all of our pumpkins and squash, we cleaned up the garden and got our lawn ready for winter. Ethan decided he wanted to try mowing the lawn. He could barely push the mower by himself, but he insisted because he wanted to earn some money. Mike had to help him push and stay straight. It was pretty cute. Ethan was very proud of himself and was having fun doing it. I think I may have a lawn mower for next year! Yaaay! Finally the kids can earn their keep around here!! Ha!

It was such a beautiful day, the kids thought they would get their swimsuits on and run through the sprinklers! I think it was only in the 60's, but I guess that felt warm enough to them! So, while Mike was blowing out our sprinklers, the kids ran through them. Craziness! They also thought they would practice their cart wheels also.


After all of that outside fun, the kids wanted to get the Halloween stuff out, finally. They couldn't wait to get all of the costumes out and try them all on. Ethan found Asia's witch tights and couldn't resist putting those on first. Hilarious!! We laughed pretty hard at that one!

Then they found the clown costumes and some costumes from a few years ago. They love to dress up. It kept us all entertained for the rest of the evening! Jacob just watched all of the craziness and wondered why everything was so funny! He laughed along with us anyway!

Spirit Week!

Last week was Spirit Week at Ethan's school. It was a pretty fun week. Monday was inside-out day, Tuesday was wear red day for DARE, Wednesday was crazy hair day, Thursday was pyjama day and Muffins with Mom, and Friday was school shirt day. They had a book fair running all week and they had a Family Fun Night centered around books and reading. It was a Reading Safari. Some of the teachers had set up tents inside the school and all the kids were able to go to each tent and have a story read to them. It was pretty fun and Asia and Ethan loved it. They are both book lovers. Then they had smores and hot chocolate for us at the end. It was a pretty fun night. Here are some pics of crazy hair day and muffins with mom. Ethan wanted a mohawk again this year, but I decided to paint polka dots all over instead of just colors all over. It was cool!


Ethan wore his Ninja Turtle pj's and I wore my heart ones. It was fun to do something with just the two of us. I think he thought it was pretty special too.