Taylor turns 6

This year Taylor's birthday celebration spanned over a few days. We ate Taylor's birthday dinner (homemade hamburgers and crinkle fries) a couple nights before her actual birthday.On her birthday morning she requested waffles with cool whip and blueberries.A friend of mine watched Natalie for me as Amanda and I brought McDonald's to Taylor for lunch. She even got a strawberry shake with her meal. She was in heaven.

Aftern lunch I went to the playground to watch Taylor play with some of her friends. I left before recess was over because Amanda was getting a little too much atttention from the kindergarten classes.I brought lofthouse sugar cookies in to Taylor's class for a treat. After school one of her classmates had his birthday party at Bounce-U so she got to spend a couple hours of her birthday playing hard with some friends.

That night we had a birthday party for family. Per Taylor's request we played some games like Pin the Tail on the Donkey.I love Taylor's smile of pure joy on her face as she watches her older cousin attempt to hit the mark.Taylor showing where her tail landed. Notice the clothespins on her shirt. Another game she requested involved clothespins that you take from someone if they say a certain word. Taylor chose the word "birthday" as the word to avoid. I was surprised at how well Natalie did with this game. Older kids would try to trick her and Natalie would say "I am not going to say that word."I actually made Taylor's birthday cake this year. It was a strawberry cake with strawberry frosting and star shaped sprinkles.

This was a card/mask that was in the costco bulk card box that was perfect for my panda bear loving girl.This picture really didn't turn out very bright but on the Saturday after Taylor's birthday Preston took her to Red Robin for a lunch date.

New Year's Weekend

For the long New Year's Weekend we headed to the snow in Eagar to visit family. On the first day Nathan and Preston attempted to snowboard while the girls and I met up with cousins to go sledding. I say the boys attempted because Nathan unfortunately had the a quick case of the flu bug hit him on the ski lift the second time up. Let's just say if anyone had been under the ski lift in that area would've had a horrible surprise. Nathan tried to rest in the lodge for a little bit so he could finish out his boarding day but he couldn't shake it. I went to pick him up at Sunrise and Preston decided to call it a day too. Nathan felt better soon after he got back to Eagar so it didn't ruin the whole weekend thank goodness. Here are some snapshots of our few hours of sledding.

Taylor and Ryan eating non yellow snow :-)

Amanda bundled up warm.

No trip to Eagar would be complete without some turns on the four wheeler. Thankfully no broken arms this time. :-)

I love how Taylor is holding so tightly to her big brother.

Preston helped shovel snow off the roof.

I brought one of my new Christmas puzzles with me. Many of the family took time working on it.

Natalie napping with Grandpa.

December 2011 Wrap up

The Sunday before Christmas we gathered at my brother's house and had a traditional mexican dinner a game and a nativity. Nathan was Joseph again, Taylor was a shepherd, Natalie the lone angel and Amanda Baby Jesus.

It proved to be quite an undertaking to get a picture of the whole nativity cast actually looking at the camera. This is the best I could get.

I caught Preston and Amanda napping the afternoon of Christmas Eve. After waking up Preston stated that was an early Christmas present for him. He LOVES napping with babies laying on his chest.

Christmas Eve the kids always get new pajamas. They are waiting to open their presents here.

Amanda with her new pajamas.

The older kids showing their's

Christmas morning prior to opening their presents.

Natalie and her Mickey Mouse learning laptop.

Santa brought the girls a play kitchen. Which they LOVE!!!!

Checking out the contents of their stockings.

Showing off their new pajamas.

Christmas morning

Amanda "opening" one of her presents.

Amanda and the playful pup that Taylor received from Santa.

Nathan came home from church and put his pajamas back on and spent most of the day playing with his transformers.

Taylor didn't bother taking the time to change her clothes after church and spent the majority of her day playing in her new kitchen.

Natalie received a Dora guitar that she was excited about.Natalie also didn't take the time to change clothes. This is the before picture.

After playing for a while.

Amanda in her Christmas dress.

Preston's hit the after Christmas clearance sales and picked up this decoration. He took it out to test if it worked because the box had been opened and discovered that it worked but it had been used. It was pretty dirty so he hosed it off and put it on top of the pool net to dry. Preston's comment "We may not have a chimney for Santa to come down but we do have a pool for him to land on." :-)

Snapshots of Amanda

I have a lot of random pictures of Amanda on my camera over the past couple months so I thought I would devote a blog post on them. The majority of them are of her sleeping and she looks adorable if I do say so myself.

Sherri and Amanda (wearing the onesie that Sherri gave her) It says "I Love my Aunt"Amanda getting her traditional first bite of ice-cream from her Nana.Relaxing with Nana and big sister Natalie.BeforeAfter: She is such a great baby. Often she will play and when she is tired she will either quietly go to sleep or whine for a little and then fall asleep.She LOVES the little toy activity bar she got for Christmas. She often will just sit and smile and coo/talk to the hanging toys. We call them her "friends". She now grabs at them and can pull on it to make music.

More sleeping snapshots.

More smiles at her "friends"Amanda officially found her thumb to suck on. She doesn't do it all the time and she sometimes will take a pacifier. We will see how it turns out.

Other memorable info about Amanda.

Laughed for the first time: January 12th.

Rolled from back to stomach: January 17th.

Cut her 2 bottom teeth: January 29th.