Friday, January 30, 2009

More About Ethan

And as if you thought the birthday celebrations were over, here's one more to add to the list. Since Asia was able to go to Blast Off for her birthday, Ethan had to go there for his. He invited 6 friends from school and they all had a "BLAST". They played in the big jungle gym thingy, went rock climbing, and played lazer tag. I think Michael had the most fun playing lazer tag!





In between all of the playing we ate pizza, ate a Spiderman birthday cake, and opened presents. He even got a chance to go in the balloon blast and win prizes. After everyone left, Ethan and his dad got to play one more game of lazer tag and used his tokens to play the video games and win even more prizes. I think he had a pretty good time! Next year I think we'll have to scale down the parties a bit! Maybe just one for each kid. I think that will suffice! We did have some fun times though!





Thursday, January 29, 2009

Ethan is 7!!

On Ethan's real birthday, he had a basketball game which they won. What a nice present. I think he even actually got the ball a couple of times too! When we got home, he decided we would have chicken noodle soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner. Not the homemade yummy chicken noodle soup. Just the condensed kind that comes out of the can and you just have to add water. That's what he chose! Don't ask me why. He loves it and so does Asia! I can't complain, it was an easy meal to fix for him.




Then his cousins Weston and Kenna came over with their mom. We opened his presents and then we all had banana split sundaes for his chosen dessert. He loves chocolate sauce and caramel sauce on his sundaes. He even got to stay up an hour past his bedtime: 9:30 p.m.! What a party animal!



Thursday, January 22, 2009

Ethan's Special Day

We decided that this would be the year to start a new tradition. On our kids' birthdays, Mike and I are going to take them out with just mommy and daddy on a special date. They get to choose whatever they want to do (within reason). So, Ethan's birthday was coming up and he decided he wanted to go to Winger's and Gameworld. We went to Winger's and he ordered the penne noodles with alfredo sauce and root beer. He also got to have their ashpalt pie and they sang a little "Happy Birthday" ditty for him. He was so embarrassed! It was fun to see what Ethan would choose to eat and what he would like to talk about. He liked being able to talk about anything he wanted to without being interrupted by his sister. We talked about Karlie, the girl he likes, and when they would get married! He likes to learn about everything, so he asked a lot of questions that I can't remember. We also played tic-tac-toe on his kids menu. He couldn't figure out how I kept winning!




Then it was off to Gameworld. He LOVES to play video games, so he was in heaven! We started off by riding these bumper car thingys. They were pretty fun. Then Ethan wanted to play the video games. He loves the ones with the guns and the fighting games. Don't ask me why. He went around the whole place and scoped out the games that he wanted to play. Then he found the ones with the guns and the fighting! He and his dad had fun shooting wild game and fighting the bad guys.




We all had so much fun! Ethan can't wait for next year to have a date with us again. We may have to do it again for his 6-month birthday!

Friday, January 16, 2009

Sledding!

We were able to go sledding during Christmas break. James and Cynthia got to come with us too. We went to Freeman park and the snow was so packed down that it was pretty much ice! There was a playground at the end of the hill on one side and a big picnic shelter on the other. Since it was pretty icy, it made it very hard to steer. We all had some close calls with both road blocks! After this adventure we all had some yummy hot chocolate. We need another good snowfall to be able to go again. It was pretty fun!








We even ended the day with a beautiful sunset.


Mia's Blessing Day

We were able to bless Mia while my family was all visiting for Christmas. Her daddy gave her such a sweet blessing and she didn't even cry. She wore the dress that Asia wore when she was blessed. My mom made it for Asia out of some left-over fabric from my wedding dress. She also made it to look like my wedding dress. It is quite a treasure!




After the blessing we went to Mike's mom and dad's for a little luncheon of soup and sandwiches. Then it was family picture time. What a special day for a special little princess.





A Christmas Post... Finally!

I just wanted to document our Christmas happenings, even though they happened almost a month ago! My whole family came and stayed with us for Christmas. My mom and dad and Naomi and Christina slept downstairs, James and Cynthia were in Mia's room, and Mariko slept in Asia's room. It was a pretty tight fit, but we made it work. They all got here the day before Christmas Eve and all went to dinner at Craigo's. Very yummy. Then, Christmas Eve we let the kids open one present. They opened up their pajamas which were from their Grandma Yamada this year. They love new PJ's.



Here's all of the loot under/around the tree.





Christmas morning, the kids all slept in until about 8 a.m. The night before, we told them to come in our bedroom and wake us up before they went downstairs. They actually did as they were told! They couldn't believe all of the stuff that was under the tree! And they were so excited about what was in their stocking that we probably didn't even need to open any presents! They were fine with what was in their stocking. Ethan always gets a bag of white powdery cake doughnuts. I think Jacob like them even better than Ethan this year!




The two things Asia wanted for Christmas were make-up and lip gloss. She got the lip gloss in her stocking and the make-up was under the tree. She was in heaven!!





This was the first time for some of my family members to meet Mia. My dad hadn't even seen her yet. He loved to just put her on his chest and rub her back. They were so cute!



Check out my little gamers. Ethan got a DS so he let Asia play with his GBA for once!




That night we all went over to Mike's Mom and Dad's to have Christmas ham and funeral potatoes. The neices and nephews exchanged gifts and the adult couples also exchanged gifts. It was a fun time with great food and great company.





Thursday, January 15, 2009

Dancing Queens/Kings


The weekend before Christmas, Amy invited us to go to a fundraiser dance that Extreme was having. All of our children love to get their groove on so we all went. As soon as we got there, Jacob was all over the dance floor. I wish I videotaped it so you could get the full effect! He had so much fun! He didn't want anyone to carry him and mess up his groove!



Santa also made an appearance. It was Amy's dad so I was worried that the kids would recognize him. They didn't. I don't think they even looked him in the face because they were so shy! I forgot to have Jacob and Mia sit on Santa's lap. Whoops! We'll have to remember for next year! As Santa was coming in, Jacob ran to him and hugged his leg. I guess that will have to do for this year!





Thursday, January 8, 2009

T'was the Weeks Before Christmas Part Deux

Here are some more events that happened before Christmas. Asia missed a day of preschool and it just so happened to be the day they were making gingerbread houses. She was so sad, but, luckily, her teacher is her auntie and she brought over her undecorated gingerbread house for Asia to decorate. Then I had to make the rest of the kids one (including the kids I babysit) so they could all have fun decorating them together. I only got a picture of the 2 that were finished, though. It was fun seeing how each kids' mind worked. Asia is very particular and had to have patterns of candies on her house. Ethan just wanted to put all of the good candy on his house in whatever order. Ethan's had to have a door and windows though. That's the technical side of him.

Mia also turned 1 month old last month on the 12th. She's starting to be awake more and open her big blue eyes more. I can't wait for the little smiles and giggles to start. The kids love her to death. They always want to hold her and kiss her. Even Jacob likes his baby sister. Whenever I'm feeding her, he will come over and kiss her on the head so gently. Sometimes, especially if it's naptime, he will want to sit right next to me and have me read him a book. That's about all the jealousy he's showing so far. Here are some 1-month pics of Mia:






Ethan played basketball for the first time this winter. He had a lot of fun and actually scored a few baskets. This might be something he'll actually stick with and maybe be good at.

T'was the Weeks Before Christmas...

I need to update a few things that have been going on in the Taylor household. I find myself taking pictures just so I have something to put on my blog. Now I have all of these pictures that I've downloaded and I feel like I have to blog about all of them. I think that is why I stopped scrapbooking; I couldn't pick and choose which pictures to scrapbook and which ones to just put in an album. I didn't want someone to think that their picture was not "scrapbook worthy"! So I felt guilty and overwhelmed and that had to stop. I hope blogging doesn't become like that. I actually like to blog, when I have time! Lately I haven't had the time. I'm realizing now that if I don't keep up on it at least weekly, things pile up and it becomes overwhelming. I guess this would be one of my resolutions for the year: to not be overwhelmed, at least in the blogging aspect!

Anyway, enough of this mindless dribble. On to the stuff I need to "scrapbook." We took some cute pictures of the kids when it snowed for the first time this year. The kids had fun making snow angels and snow forts. I think this was Jacob's first encounter with snow. He had a blast and didn't want to come inside!




The kids burried him in the snow, then he was ready to come inside!!