This reminded me of many similar times I had with my sisters in the pool. We would attempt to get two or more of us on a tube without falling and it would always end up in spills and giggles. Good times, good times.
The kids -vs- the tube take 1
The kids -vs- the tube take 2
Tm picked out this book for himself as an early Father's Day present. It came in the mail the other day and he got right to work creating new mischief. This is Tim's latest passion. He keeps things interesting doesn't he....
....and it just keeps going.
He is so much fun... They were landing on the other side of the pond. He figured it went about 500 feet or so. SWEET!
I gave my little man a haircut and now he can rival Rex's fohawk.
I babysat Owen today and as you can see we had some technical difficulties. I forgot to calculate in the newly nesting geese in our backyard and Owen took a quick liking to them.
Dad, this picture is for you. I laid sod last Wednesday and it's sooooooo beautiful. ...and yes, I staggered the joints Dad. 
Thank you babe!I've been waging a mental battle with myself for a long time now. It's nothing earth shattering but it's been bugging me. Z's eyebrows are crazy and out of control. I've been debating whether it's too vain to shape a 7 year olds eyebrows because she's just a kid and that's how kids look. On the other hand I like to make sure my kids look well kept and groomed. I take great pride in shaping Mr. Taylor's eyebrows so he doesn't have the uni-brow but my little girl? Maybe that's going a bit too far.... The good thing about me is that I get bored with my own mental troubles and just take action. Tonight was the night....
Z's eyebrows before.... (and this picture doesn't even show how huge they had gotten)
Z's eyebrows after. She was quite pleased with the results and asked me to take a picture to blog her saga. She is very excited to show all of her friends her new eyebrows tomorrow at school. At Salon Leca-- I can do ANYTHING!!!
Here are our wonderful piano students. They worked so hard and endured much prodding from their mothers to make it this far. Some woke up early, some stayed up late and one even skipped lunch to make those lessons work. Nice job on one long year guys!
Even Yaya came to enjoy the show.
Beans sporting her own version of business casual. As usual, she pulls off this look nicely.
Afterwards we went out for ice cream. I think this alone will inspire the kids to do it again next year. Great job guys!I know you wanted a better look at some of my flowers so I took a few shots for you today.
Z picked out these because she thought they looked cool.
I liked the color of this one and it's been blossoming a lot of new flowers lately.
These are my favorite flower of the season. They spread out and make a blanket across the flower bed. I just love it.
B on her princess float...
Rugby and his super cool goggles.
Double trouble. These two couldn't be more opposite if they tried but they are still the best of friends.
Mads and Z finally made it on the tube together. Nice work ladies!
Em and his wonderpets cape saving the day outside.
Later in the day I found Em like this on his bike. Apparently he was done swimming and failed to follow through with the getting dressed part of the program. Nothing like hot cheeks on a cold bike!
Every year at the end of the school year the girl's school puts on a field day for the kids. They set up different kinds of relay races and games for the kids to do the last few hours of school. They separate them into classes and they are all assigned class colors to wear. The girls were pretty excited. They always like me to help them put their outfits over the top with some face paint. Here they are all ready to go this morning. Go West Side!
Little Miss Thing sportin' a new swim suit. She is ready for some action in the water!
Maddie was an awesome big sister today. She carted Chloe around in the water for a long time.
Em lovin' the goggles and the safety devices. (The funny thing is, he can totally touch so he doesn't really need any of it.)(It's just for looks ladies, just for looks!)
The whole gang gathered around the picnic table (hand crafted by Mr. Taylor).
The girlies got these snorkel sets for their birthdays. They were a real hit. Every kid had them on at some point. We had a few technical difficulties-- but they'll get the hang of it. Breckyn told me to tell her when her snorkel went under so she would know when to stop. I said, "I'm pretty sure you'll know when your end goes under...." Sure enough, two seconds later she was spitting water and wondering what happened.I think Tim enjoyed this first toss a little too much. The water is barely (and I mean barely) warmer than hose water. We just filled it a few days ago and it's been in the 30's and 40's at night. Today has been our warmest day yet and it was in the 70's. We tried to talk them out of swimming but you know how it goes. They wanted it real bad! We thought for sure they would get in and get right out but they didn't. We had to drag them out after a few hours to eat dinner.
Can't you just feel how cold it was?
Barlow was getting tired of chasing Chloe around, so he got creative...
Here is a quick tour of the famous back yard... If you like it, come for a visit! We love any excuse to have a party!
Last week in our ward they announced that this year's Fathers and Sons camp out would be on June 6th. This one single announcement has gotten Tim on a camping rampage. He has wanted to do this with the boys since they were born and this year is finally his year. He started with many many trips to the store to check out which supplies would need to be added to his list. We built a fire pit, he bought a dutch oven and he started going back to his roots...
As you can see, we are trying a dry run this weekend. (a very dry run)
Since we are a compilation of both Taylor and Magill we reached a middle ground with the camping business. Tim is a camper. I am NOT a camper. (Although, I will have you know that I got an "A" in a camping class in college! Remember that one Cheri?) So we compromised with a version that works for everyone. I like to call it "weenie camping."
I know that I've rubbed off on Timmy over the years so I went out and bought an inflatable mattress for the tent.(comfort first people) The girls thought that wasn't fair for their tent so I stole the couch cushions to make their tent a little more posh.
When this man gets an idea in his head he leaves no loose ends. I think he was getting very sentimental about his growing up years and we heard lots of the "good old days" stories. He even went so far as to buy Pinwheels and Pecan Swirls to make his nostalgia complete. He made all of the kids try both delicacies. So, one small kitchen fire, a charred dutch oven, a stinky fire ring and a few crusty snacks later Tim is ready to camp. Father and Sons-- here we come!This is the closest our kids have come to camping so far. They love to do all the activities that go along with camping just like me. But when it comes to sleeping on the cold hard ground and peeing in questionable places-- it's time to go home. We can do camp fires and sing Kumbiah with the best of them and then head in for the showers and the covers when it's over.
I woke up to this picture next to my bed this morning. When Z feels she has something important to tell me, I get it in the form of a note with illustrations. You'll notice that this illustration is rather graphic. It shows nasty things coming out each end of Zoey. ...and that's about how it happened too....
It all started earlier this week, Tuesday to be exact. I was visiting an older lady in our ward who enjoys seeing the kids when we visit. I'm smart enough to only take two kids-- max. I chose to take Rugby and Zoey because they were behaving the most that evening. When we arrived, things changed rather quickly. The two of them got the giggles and squirrelies and I spent most of my time shooting them nasty looks to settle them down. Then Rugby decides that he needs to use her bathroom. Zoey slips in with him and aces him out of the potty first. Thanks a lot Z! Rugby had the insta-poos and pooed all over the bathroom floor. Z comes out to tell me about the accident and locks the door to the bathroom behind her. (again, thanks alot Z!) Twenty minutes later, after much coaxing, I get him to unlock the door to get a better look. He has tried to clean it up himself-- not good. There is poo on the wall, the toilet, the garbage can, all over her white ceramic tile floor (with white grout) and all over him. He has already abandoned his clothes in a particularly large pile of poo along with his shoes and is standing mostly nudie with poop all over himself. I pause for some composure to come, it doesn't... ....Ahhhhhh, what the heck am I suppose to do now? I ask very cryptically for some paper towel, a few plastic bags and a lot of cleaners. I clean up the mess, wrap Rugs in a plastic bag, secure all of the evidence in another plastic bag and make a bee line for the van with Rugs neatly tucked under my arm. I quickly apologise and say my goodbyes. Just when you think your kids could not humble you any lower-- they out do themselves one more time. I am so never bringing them with again!!!!!
Fast forward a day and Emerson is in about the same boat at home (thankfully), minus the mess and add some barf. Now today Z is home with the same thing amplified a little more. She has a talent for doing everything in her sleep and not waking up for most of it. Tim got the brunt of that incident while I was out on my girls night. I have a feeling me and the nasties aren't done with our battle quite yet... Three down and one to go. Motherhood is so glamorous...
Since Breckyn was a small child she has been mesmerized by infomercials. She pauses the T.V. and makes me come and watch the latest and greatest thing that I can't live without. She was really hooked on this cake decorating one for a while because it would make my baking look so pretty and it was even on sale. Then she moved on to cleaning products and floam. The latest and most alluring one is for tupperware. It shows a cluttered house that is magically transformed by organizing the tupperware cupboard. She thought that was amazing and of course, it was on sale. She has made me watch the commercial a bazillion times and always gives me her sales pitch of why I have to have it. Well, I was at Target and they happened to have it in their "as shown on T.V." section. It was on clearance for $3 so I bought it. She played with it, set it up, read the directions and continued to tell me why it was a good idea that we bought it. It was so worth the $3. I can sleep well tonight knowing that I have this set of "can't live without" tupperware. Thanks Brecky!
Grandpa thought today was the day that Maddie needed to learn to drive the skid steer. This brought back a flood of memories when he taught me how to drive. You know cause every little girl needs to know how to drive a skid steer. It might come in handy some day!
Cass, this is for you. This is the bush you gave me many birthdays ago when we first moved in to this house. It's grown a lot this year and it looks perfect today. Can't you just smell it?
Dad also thought it was time for Maddie to drive the big go-cart today. She can officially reach the pedals. She was ecstatic!
She even talked her mom into riding with her-- scary!
Beans and her latest passion-- bike riding. It's a hoot!
Here he is with his new baby. We dug it out together and threw in a little sand and waaa laaa... we have a fire pit.
It's right out our back porch which is perfect for food transfer. This is the view from the back yard looking in the general direction of Yaya's house. As you can see all of the kids stuff is off the driveway garage area. We've got the go-cart action and Owen off to the left. (Farther left is my garden that I planted on Saturday) I'm going to say it again-- It's going to be a great summer!
The kids roasting marshmallows to make s'mores. They also roasted hot dogs and I made my first attempt at dutch oven potatoes (I'll keep working on that one).
It was goooood....
....really good!
Brecky and Daddy
Brecky before the big dunk...
This use to be my tiny little baby. She is growing up so fast...
The whole Taylor gang. I remembered everything to make this day great except my camera! So a special thank you to Dad for having his iphone glued to his waist. (I'll have to stop teasing him now that it's actually come in handy for me.)
Double trouble...
Big brother Caleb giving Chloe a ride-- so nice.We were very amused by Owen's reaction to the go-carts. I think it's going to be a long summer for him.
Mom and Dad brought these shoes back for Chloe from Utah. I think they are so cute. We can hear her coming and going. I'm sure you can tell, she gets a kick out of them too.
It's time to break in Chlo bean on the big machines. She was a natural-- well, almost. We'll keep working at it. By the end of the summer, she'll be a pro!
So, we are at the grocery store today and the boys are being super spazy! They are running circles around the cart and touching everything. I'm getting to the end of my fraying rope very quickly.... I pull my secret solution out and put both of the boys in the cart. One in the back and one in the front. I'm giving them the lecture about settling down and telling them all about how we need to work as a team. If we don't grocery shop then we won't have food in the house.... blah blah blah. Apparently I have some rather smart boys because as soon as I was done giving them the lecture it goes quiet. I resume my cart pushing.... pause pause pause... and they break into song.... "It's a hard knock life for us, it's a hard knock life for us. Instead of kisses we get kicks...." The song goes on and they are bellowing this from the cart as I'm going through the store getting many a glances from on lookers. Stinkin' smarty pants!
They gave the moms these framed poems with their hand prints. It was very cute. The dads got a cute letter that looked like a suit.
Here are the three chuckle heads. It's been a great year for them. Thank you teacher Sally!
"/> 