Nicole comes to visit

had to get a pic with Zacky and Daddy's matching vests :) Sunday Christmas program....and Taylor's first day in Young Womens. Last week, church got cancelled due to all the snow so Taylor didn't get to go to YW. She was so mad! She is the last in her class to move up and has been dying to get out of Primary! I got to introduce her. It was so weird. Time is flying!!
Taylor wanted Oreo in a picture :)
the kids love to jump down through the hole in the wall :) I'm so happy I cut it out! Even though Bryan is still undecided ;)
Nicole and Jared came for a visit. We had spaghetti and dessert night...
Zacky is so sweet...he played chess with Noah :) such a good kid!
We played Rage, of course!
the boys got ALL the guns out!
Austin and Hudson came over to exchange Christmas gifts :) Taylor got color changing nail polish and Zacky a changing frisbee and we gave i tunes of course!
After, Bry took all 6 kids to the store to go shopping for me and Tiff. cute
While Dan and Kara were over watching a movie with us, the power went out for a while...so Bryan lit every candle in the house and we played uno :)
last indoor game of the session. The sparks took first and Zacky came in with the highest goals for the whole session. He had 42 and the next highest had 28. He's so fun to watch. This little team is so fun! We're just hoping that the Titans play in the next session ;)

December fun!

mop mop and pop pop sent money this year for Christmas. The kids were just a little excited when they opened their letters! They are thrilled to pick out 'whatever they want' as grandma said :)
Taylor's NOVA graduation...it was LONG

The elf told us to grab the Phillippi's and go sledding :) And it was Derek's birthday, so after we went over, had chili and played Bingo :)
Taylor decided to leave the snowboard at home?? She was so mad because Kara asked her to go snowboarding this week, but her school play was that day :(

Austy threw a major fit during Derek's birthday cake :)
Brittney was Marc Antony and did great and Taylor was not happy about her small part...but she did get to kill herself with a sword :) And the next day at their class cast party, she won 2nd place in the sword fighting competition!

The elf told Grandma to come and bake cookies with the kids :) Zacky didn't like any of the cookies (he's so weird, he's not really a cookie person??) and spent most of the evening chasing Taylor! So I, of course, ate most of them!

Taylor's Golden Birthday- she's 12!

So we started Taylor's 2 days of birthday with a trip to Justice right after school...she got gift cards from Grandma Martin and Michelle :) The boys were excited ; ) This is them sitting and doing their little head bobbing dance to the store music. Zacky was actually very patient and didn't even complain about the hour in the store.... (it did help that Taylor had some cream soda left over from her school birthday treat that we brought :)
The girls had a party and Taylor was so sweet and kept asking if she could share her card with Brittany so that she could get 2 shirts. They ended up with matching shirts and huge smiles! She managed to spend well beyond her cards :) and Mommy got put in time out by Daddy...Taylor is quite possibly the pickiest shopper ever and I don't handle it well... she passes up the cute outfits and goes for the same jeans and hoodies ; p! I miss our spinny dress days at Gymboree :)
Brittany got her matching earrings :) These girls are just too cute! I couldn't be happier that they have each other! I always tell Taylor how important it is to pick good friends, and she couldn't have done better :) We got lucky because Brittany almost couldn't come- she was supposed to go to her Dad's in Ogden....we put up a fight :) After shopping we went to Zacky's indoor soccer game and then to Olive Garden of course! Still Taylor's Fav!
Taylor was SOOO excited for this birthday because she can start wearing makeup. She has been DYING to for months :) We started 'beauty night' with eyebrow waxing. It looked like she had been shot down :) Entertaining!
Next, she wanted to shave her legs...Brittany was surprised when she got an okay from her mom too...it was quite the party...Kara and Noelle sat behind the glass and laughed! She's getting too old!!! No blood..it went well :)
We watched Sister's Keeper..Kimmy and I cried our eyes out...actual sobs :) Taylor had been dying to watch it???? Then the girls wanted to have a slumber party downstairs :)
Next morning, Taylor requested a big breakfast cooked by Daddy... she came downstairs to all gold :) 12 gold balloons, gold earrings, chocolate gold coins-her fav- (with messages from all of us-reasons we love her :), gold plates and forks, a gold shirt and a gold birthday crown :)

her favorite part was all the makeup she got!
I even found peanut butter cup hot chocolate :)
then we headed off to buy the rest of the makeup she wanted and came home and had makeup lessons :) they had a blast!
Then we were off to Provo Canyon for Laser Tag in the snow! Taylor originally wanted to have her party at boondocks for laser tag and go cart racing, but because of the weather, the race track was out and the laser tag there lasts 15 minutes...we were having quite the birthday party issues...I happened to find this traveling laser tag company and the kids couldn't have been happier! They got to combine laser tag and night games (their favorite!). They played for 2 1/2 hours in the huge park! I sat in the warm car while daddy ran around with them :)
...Taylor, Zacky, Daddy, Noelle, Brittany and Austin. She invited Tanner, but he couldn't come which I was sad about because I've been hearing so much about him....apparently he's got a crush on her and hugs her every day. (every day I ask the kids if anything interesting happened at school and she always says no...after Zacky told me about this tanner kid, I told her, this would be the interesting info I'm looking for!!!) The funniest part is how jealous Austin is...(the other day in the car, Taylor was laughing at something Austin did and I heard him say ' see I'm funnier than Tanner ') Brittany told me that Tanner walked up to Taylor in class and said ' you started global warming...you're so hot!" these kids are so funny! Taylor says, though, that she likes Brittany's cousin Michael now, but she didn't have the guts to invite him :) oh the drama!
and they're off...

for the last day of grandma gayle's 12 days of birthday, she brought one of my old Christmas sweaters...Taylor was not thrilled ;) She just told me to hurry and take the picture so that she could take it off! hee hee
The kids were exhausted! We headed home for spaghetti dinner with the whole family...grandma gayle had it all ready...and the crazy kids wanted spaghetti tacos! they're so weird!
Taylor picked lava cake and ice cream :) yum yum. The kids played rock band, watched a movie and played speed in the basement for the rest of the night! I swear this little group of kids could play all day, every day together and usually do! What a birthday!

It's December...time for the Elf to come visit :)

Not only has the elf arrived in town, but Grandma Gayle sent the birthday fairy too :) Taylor got '12 days of birthday'. She loved it! The first day she got a smore mug...she has hot chocolate in it every day! she got a scarf, a new shirt, a softie hat, a new era, rs peanut butter trees..... she was loving it!
We didn't make it to Gardner Village this year, but the elf did send us to shopko for new ornaments. Zacky picked out a 'corndog' ornament (he's still very sad about corndog and some nights I find him up in his bed, tears in his eyes, looking at the picture of him hugging the dog :) and Taylor couldn't find a 'makeup' ornament so she went with a smore that was baking (since she loves to bake cake and cookies!)
The elf told us to go see the lights at temple square after we picked Daddy up from the airport...it was the first day of FREEZING so we made a quick lap around. We missed the nativity performance, but no one noticed because it was too cold! (18 degrees!) We've had pretty mild weather so far, but winter has officially arrived!

the kids favorite ice skating music box brok :( we all said goodbye
the next night the elf told us to make hot chocolate, read Christmas stories and sleep by the tree :) that's still one of their favorites!
We finally got snow! our poor neighbor.......
so I finally took Zacky shopping...Daddy was in Moab with the boys for a race, Taylor was at Bailey Simmons birthday party at the gym so I dragged Zacky to the store. I told him it was officially time to lose the shorts (it's a fight every day now!) He was so ticked, but we found cool jeans (truly a Christmas miracle-he hates jeans because he says he can't move in them) and a plaid shirt to match Hudson's. Can you tell he feels cool :) Those boys are actually twins!
I told Zacky that since Daddy is gone, he's the man of the house, and that means he's in charge of shoveling the snow off the driveway! He was actually excited to do it! Hudson and Zacky (these two play EVERYDAY together!) tried to make a snow cave....
The elf brought gingerbread houses....the boys and girls had a competition...the boys ate theirs after the roof collapsed...
Brittany and Austin helped Taylor....
We went over to help Grandma Beebe set up her tree and lights on the porch...Zacky loves doing the man jobs :)
After, the kids and Kara had sit up competitions :)
We decided to do service as our gifts this year...we started with painting Kimmy's new bedroom...it was quite the party :) She got a new bed so she couldn't be happier!
Zacky and Taylor took a few branches off of Grandma Beebe's tree and made Charlie Brown trees :)