Life in Utah

Hello All!  We are finally settling in here in Utah.  It has been a constant flow of projects and little down time for the Taylor family.  We have hunkered down and tried to make this house our very own.  It's looking good and ready for visitors.

One of the first days we were here we took a little hike up the mountain.  We still need to get used to the majestic mountains instead of corn fields and cows-- weird.

Em had found his new favorite place to eat.  It's a pizza buffet place with lots of dessert pizza and free drink refills.  He is in heaven.  He asks to go there almost every night.

The girls decided they needed a new look for a new school.  So we headed off to the salon.  B didn't realize that beauty comes at a price.  Doesn't she look so happy?

Z was cheery and excited about her new look.  Now she has curls and a sassy do.

The back yard had a bit of a hole where the last owners removed the retaining wall for a trampoline.  I had some ideas and now we have...

...a pool.  A few days and a lot of sweat later, it's time to swim.

Wah la!  As you can see the fence is going up in back and was finished up yesterday.  Scout is loving it because he can now go out in the back yard unaccompanied.

Of course we had to make a stop at the BYU bookstore.  We are in cougar country now so we had to stock up on all the gear.

Rugs is ready to go cheer on the cougars at a few games.

B-- not so much.

Here is a glimpse at our front room.

A view from our new front yard. 

This is what the house looks out at.  We have a nice view of the valley and Utah Lake.

B our new babysitting star.

Rugs still full of attitude.

Z pink cheeked and happy faced.

Em.  Don't be fooled by this sweet face.  We call him Goob for a reason.

I lucked out with a small garden in back-- the dream lives on!!!

We love it here in Utah.  Come for a visit any time.

Updates

As many of you know, it's been a really busy month full of packing and planning for the big move.  No, I'm not giving up blogging.  It just seems like I haven't had a spare minute in quite a while.  So here is a quick run down of a few of our activities.

 This princess turned one.  She is on the move and into everything.  It's hard to get her to sit still for even a second.

 We've had to start saying some sad goodbyes.  The kids had their last play date with their favorite babysitter.  She started becoming part of our family when Em was three months.  We're really gonna miss her.

 Rugs turned the big 8 and got baptized.  These ham balls are two of a kind.

 I think he might be just a little like his Daddy.

 This picture clearly portrays their personalities right now.  Can you tell?

 Oh, my little baby-- 8!!  Seriously?  It's just sickening.

 The whole gang.

 Rugs and his very best friend Max.  They staged these pictures themselves-- spy style.

 There is the look of trouble.

Ms. Beans always up to something.  We just love her.

I know lots of you are curious about our big move so I'll keep the pictures coming.  I might be out of commission until we can get all set up, but I'll do my best.

We are moving on...

 We are moving.  I know it might come as a bit of a shock to some of you.  I know we are Elkhorn life-ers but it's time for the Taylor family to move on.  We have our house for sale and we are looking at homes in the Alpine/Highland, Utah area.  So if you know someone who wants to buy a house-- send them our way.

A little Taylor Fun

This week the kids had so much fun with the school dress up days.  My parents were here which meant that grandma was free to paint some faces before school everyday.  Rugby took special advantage of that and had my mom paint him a mustache to coordinate with his outfit everyday.

 This was career day.  Rugs is a salesman (selling X's and P's again-- just like Dad).  Zoey is a chef.  Breckyn is a dog trainer and Em is a professional athlete.

 They were each very excited about their choices.  Rugs even took some business cards and a name plate to school along with a brief case.  We'll see if he can sell any power supplies to his fellow 2nd graders.

 Here is just a small sample of grandma's work.  There are a few from "mix don't match" day and Rugs on the bottom is for crazy hair day. 

 The girl's with their crazy hair (and painted eyebrows for B).

This guy and his mustaches were crackin' me up.

Zoey got some new glasses.  She also entered the world of contacts!  She is super excited to be soooo old and sophisticated. 

This guy is amazing.  Little Cam is the perfect primary kid.  Here he is in all of his glory with a little help from his side kick Chloe.  These two little trouble makers had the best week together.  They  were the perfect little friends.

Happy Valentine's Day!

This week at school the kids have crazy dress up days.  Today was red and pink for Valentine's of course. 

 They all wanted Grandma to paint their faces.  Em refused but Rugs really got into it and requested a red mustache. 

 Coop came for a visit and this kid can eat.  He is covered in whatever it is he is eating.  It's like watching an artist at work.  It's mind boggling.

 These two are having so much fun teaching their younger cousins new tricks.  They are trouble-- that's for sure.  (especially together)

 Cam thinks his cousin Em is the funniest thing.  Em is enjoying having an audience that appreciates his farty humor.

Grandpa is catching a little Libby time here.  Both of them are all smiles enjoying the time together.

This one is for you Mingo.  Thanks for all the memories.  We love you.

Libs, Max and Snow

 Last week was Tim's birthday and we celebrated in Chicago.  It happened to be the day after a major blizzard so there was a ton of snow down town.  The valet at the restaurant got creative and made good use of the snow in his own way.  I thought it was pretty funny.

This big girl is getting pretty old.  She has recently gotten a mouth full of teeth. (OK, maybe more like 5 or so-- but still, that's major for little miss gums)  She is a crawling machine.  She no longer wants to be held.  She wants to be let down to explore anything and everything.  One of her favorites things to explore is Lulu's chew toys-- eeww.  She scootered her way over to the piano today and I caught her in action.  The best thing about Libs is her huge smiles.  She gives them out all day long.  It's adorable.

Here she is in action.

Jodi, Tim, Mads, Max, Caleb and I got a chance to go skiing a few weeks ago.  We had a blast.  Maddie picked up skiing for the first time like a pro.  Caleb rocks his snow board and as you can see here Max was getting the hang of his board too.  He was pretty proud of himself.

SNOW

We got snowed!

Here's Rugs standing on top of our summer spot.  It's a little snowy-- huh?!? 

 B all bundled up to start building a fort.

 Em sledding down our back hill.

Apparently the snow won in this fight...

Yes, my kids have goggles for every season.  You can never be too prepared.

We got slammed last night with a pretty bad blizzard.  We had to dig our way out of the house this morning because of all the drifting.  It was half way up our doors and caved in when we opened the door.  It was pretty awesome.

Disney Baby!

We spent the last week in the most magical place on earth-- Disney.  The kids were pretty jazzed to see everything.  We drove but surprisingly enough, the kids did really well.  In fact we might be a road trippin' family (emphasis on might if it's up to me).

We spent an evening at Medieval Times.  If you have never been, it's a lot of fun.  They assign you a knight to cheer for and you watch them joust and fight while you eat dinner.  The kids were in heaven.

We got them each a glowing wand/sword to cheer their knight on with.  They never stopped all night long.

We went to Down Town Disney and looked through all the shops.  We split up into boy and girl teams to look at stuff and we ended up doing the same thing.  I got the girls trying on hats and Tim got the boys.

 I was remembering THIS and laughing at how much our kids are like us.

Tim took the girlies to Universal were Zoey got her fill of Harry Potter and some Butter Beer (cream soda).  They had an amazing time while I stayed and watched a few sick boys.

Here they are all ready to go into the park on the tram.

Tim looks ready to spend the day on kiddie rides doesn't he?

When we got to the park B had to go potty.  When we came out to wash our hands she said, "Wow!  Even the soap here is magical!"  It was a pearly blue and she thought that was pretty awesome.

When the boys were feeling better they rallied for a swim in the pool.  What they really wanted was to wait around long enough to get slimed.

So we did...