Let the Good Times Roll

Happy 60th Paul!

2011-12-30T20:14:00.000-08:00

Spencer's dad turned the big 6-0 on December 26th, and Jane threw him a big 60's themed surprise party. It was at a hotel downtown, and it was a ton of fun. There were tons of friends and family that came, the food was spectacular, we played games, kareoked, had a raffle with cool prizes, and enjoyed a comedy show from Quick Wits that was so funny! I swear Abi and I laughed more than anyone there! Note to self: Don't try kareoking to an upbeat song seconds after dancing to Love Shack while pregnant. I was seriously huffing and puffing the whole time!

Here is everyone getting ready to surprise him!

Paul was absolutely shocked!

Abi and Ammon dancing the night away!

Spence and I getting groovy!

The spread!

Dave and Mary looking good as always!

Happy Birthday Paul! I hope the 60's are the best yet! We love you!

The end of the baby bed!

2011-12-30T20:00:00.000-08:00

Since Tallie has been a huge climber since she was born, I couldn't believe that she hadn't figured out how to climb out of her crib! Well, alas the day happened on December 26. She was freaking out during her nap, and we went into her room and saw her stuck on top!

How sad does she look? She does not like naps at all! So we thought heck let's transform the crib into a big girls bed and see how she does!

Is that face any indication? She is OBSESSED with her big bed! She seriously is so happy and tells everyone about it!

Is that a look of contentment or what!

She has done so great. She has taken a couple naps in it and slept in it for about 5 days. The only problem is that it takes her quite a while to fall asleep, but she hasn't gotten out of her bed once I've put her down for the night.... we'll see how long that lasts!

My little sleeping beauty!

My mom has two twin beds I can trade her for Lance's queen bed, so Lance and Tallie can share a room when the baby comes. I was going to do that this week, but then I decided if I can still give them their own room for another 3-6 months, I would rather do that!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-30T19:48:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!

We had a lovely day! Tallie started off the day with a Diet Coke! I seriously don't feed my kids Diet Coke, but they always seem to find it at my parents house!

Lance was so excited about his presents this year, it was so fun!

Yes Tallie got coal... ok, it's chocolate, Santa wasn't that mean!

Tallie is obsessed with her "pee-bear" and now loves Pooh's buddy Piglet too!

Best part of my day: Lance opened up this gun, which literally cost me $2.50 and started jumping up and down and said "YES, I got what I wanted!!!!!!"

I gave Spence the August Rush DVD which I found at Walmart for $2. When we lived in Arizona, one weekend my parents came to visit and we rented this movie. Spencer and my dad literally watched it and then restarted it and watched it again. I was so annoyed cause they probably watched it 3x in 24 hours! I thought he would get a laugh out of it, and he did!

All Tallie wanted from Santa was her "Punzel" doll. The look on her face when she opened it was priceless. She was so happy, and she absolutely loves it!

JT & Kelli

Family Pic!

I loved having Christmas on Sunday. It was so nice to go to church and really focus on the Savior and the true meaning of Christmas. I wish we could go to church every Christmas. It was awesome, I loved it!

After church, we headed to my grandma's for a fun afternoon!

Some of the cousins.

My grandma made the little grand kids the coolest gift. This little church bag that fits a coloring book and then the crayons fit in little pockets on the front, so great. Tallie loved it!

Tallie and Ruby are a couple months apart, I wish we lived closer to them, so they could play! They did a pretty good job sharing the job of helping grandma open the present!

My grandma with her grandkids that live in Utah. We missed Ashley and Amber and their kiddos!

Family pic with my grandma who I just love and adore so much! And who - by the way - makes the most delicious cherry pie in the entire world!

I am so grateful for my family and for the wonderful Christmas we had. And most importantly for our Savior Jesus Christ, and that we could celebrate his birth, life, and sacrifice for us.

Christmas Eve

2011-12-30T19:29:00.000-08:00

We decided to act out the nativity Christmas eve morning! Tallie was supposed to be the Angel, hence dressed in white, but when she saw the ski pole, she wanted to be a Shepherd with Lance! So, here are my two Shepherds!

Quick costume change, and here are the three wiseman!

Delivering the gifts to Mary and Baby Jesus!

It was cute, Tallie kept wanting cake on Jesus's Birthday, lol!

Christmas Eve afternoon Spencer's parents came over to give Lance and Tallie a present!

We spent Christmas Eve at my parents. And we even decided to sleep over since we stay up late playing Bingo and watching movies. It was a really fun night! Lance totally made Christmas this year, he was so much fun and so excited about everything!

Here is my mom's beautiful table!

I think Lance ate like two bites of his roll, then went and sat on the couch because he was "waiting for Bingo to start!" He was so excited to play, he couldn't even eat!

My mom is such a great cook and always prepares the best meals!

My mom also does a nut in the pudding (creme brulet) and this year Lance got it. It is worth $35. Well, considering Lance gets a dollar for every 50 jobs he does, this kid was going nuts. He had never seen this much money. He was throwing it in the air, and dancing with it, it was the cutest thing ever!

A family Christmas picture. Yes, that's my big big belly at only 6 months pregnant. And no I am not fishing for compliments, so please don't leave a comment on how great I look, cause let's be honest, I'm huge, and I recognize that!

I look over and see Lance chugging two Diet Coke's. When I ask him what he's doing he's like "no one said I couldn't have them!"

Chilling out watching a movie. I love how Tallie just cuddles up!

Leaving cookies and milk for Santa!

And finally Lance's favorite part of the night - BINGO! He was so cute and had so much fun and won a bunch of prizes. For days after, he kept saying "mom, remember Bingo!" I seriously love that kid!

It seriously was such a magical Christmas Eve! Kids make it so much fun. I am grateful for my two little kiddos and can't believe next Christmas we'll have one more!

Market Street with the girls!

2011-12-30T18:59:00.000-08:00

I was able to go out to dinner on December 22 with all of my High School girlfriends. Since some of them live out of state, it has been a LONG time since we have gotten everyone together. Maybe the last time was Erica's wedding? Anyway, it was so fun to be with everyone! I love these girls and are grateful for all of our fun memories!

Temple Lights

2011-12-29T15:44:00.000-08:00

We have a tradition with Spencer's family that we go eat at Chuck-a-rama every year and then go and see the Temple lights. Although, judging from the gag gift in the last post, I am not a huge Chuck-a-rama fan, it is a great place for kids. We can be loud, and messy, and you can get anything you want to eat. So, once a year, I am a big fan.

Here were are waiting for a table.

Here are the kids seeing who can do the best splits... yes, on the floor of Chuck-a-rama!

Ah, the joy of Chuck-a-rama - you can have pizza a roll and a slurpee for dinner!

Spencer's dad is such a good sport, the last two years he has dressed up as Santa and brought the kids a piece of a nativity. It is so cute. They have no idea it is Papa, and are so excited to see Santa!

Then we ride on Trax down to the Temple.

I thought this was a great picture of the Brown Fam, it's hard to get all of them to look at the camera, so pretty impressive!

The kids loved the lights!

Lance still loves to balance on anything he can!

Tallie loved looking in the reflection pond.

And then heading home on the Trax!

It was a great night. Thanks Taggart's for a fun tradition!

Taggart Sib Party

2011-12-27T16:28:00.000-08:00

Every year we have a Christmas party with the Taggart Sibs and parents. It is on the 21 every year, and we do the same traditions which make it a lot of fun.

We start out with appetizers and a delicious dinner courtesy of Mama Taggart!

Her beautiful house and table!

Sam and Katie, who get married on February 10! We are excited to have another member join the fam, even if her name will be Katie Taggart the 2nd....

Em looking gorgeous as always!

Lorin is awfully excited about his dinner!

Abi & Ammon

Me and the Speen!

I was having a hard time cutting my meat, so don't mind me as I eat half the piece in one fell swoop!

After dinner comes the talent portion where we all do talents for Jane! Sophie, Em and I played the piano!

I definitely proved that I need to play more than one time a year, as I think every other note was a mistake, but its the thought that counts, right?

Abi and Ammon singing a nice duet!

Spence and Sam sang a few numbers while Katie played the drum!

Lorin and Kelli tried to do a parody and slightly make fun of a song that was sang at their wedding!

So everyone that wanted to see my baby bump, well here it is.... LARGE and in charge! (And sadly, only 6 months along!) Holy Moly I am ginormous! And I think that shirt is the most unflattering thing I have ever worn, so since the party that shirt has been shelved until after I have the baby and lose the pregnancy weight, lol!

Next we do our yearly "Gift to Jesus"

And then onto Secret Partners. We all try to guess who each person has, with A LOT of gag gifts thrown into the mix. Sam got some sexy DI lingerie!

I made Katie a beautiful picture of us in the "bridesmaid dresses." Total inside joke, but Abi thought it was quite funny!

Lorin made Ammon a wood putter.

Kelli, knowing how much I absolutely love Chuck A Rama (and with Love she means hate!) made me a $150 gift card that never expires there, lol!

Ammon showed us his talent of making dolls with heads made out of rotted apples!

Real gift: Sam made this adorable beanie for Em!

And finally we three girls wanted Toms, and so Lorin made us all our own special pair of Toms - mine had Tom Dickson on the front (the owner of BlendTec), Katie's had Tom and Jerry, and Emily's had Tom Cruise! They were so funny!

Definitely a wonderful night had by all!

Christmas Randomness part 2

2011-12-27T15:13:00.000-08:00

Here are a few more fun Christmas activities that kept us busy!

Our youth in the Ward take a little decorated trailer around the neighborhood and carol to all the neighbors. Since Spencer and I both serve with the youth, we took the kids with us. To say it was freezing was understatement.

They were happy for the first few minutes!

Lance ended up cuddled on the ground in a blanket under Spencer's legs!

Zoo Lights:

We went with the Walker's to the Zoo Lights! And we learned from the night before and dressed them super warm!

The night couldn't be complete with out a tantrum from Tallie!

Every night we talk about our nightly "gift to Jesus" which is something we want to work on the following day, and we write it down on a slip of paper and put it in the white stocking. One night I look over and I see Tallie grinning from ear to ear, and had to snap this pic, too cute!

Spencer and his brother Sam played and sang at my friend Lindsay's ward party. I thought they did great, and it was cute to see brothers having fun jamming together!

Lance had his preschool program, he has blossomed so much from last year. He even sings loudly this year, I love it!

We had our friends over for a movie night to watch "Elf!" Look at all these cute blondies!

Another fun tradition was looking for "Star" Elf every morning!

Christmas Randomness

2011-12-21T15:08:00.000-08:00

Here is a bunch of Christmas stuff we have been up to!

Decorating the house and tree the day after Thanksgiving!

"Santa" came and dropped off a book to both kids and then conveniently Spencer's mom and sister Soph stopped by 5 minutes later and were able to read the books to Lance and Tallie!

Look at Tallie cheesing it, too funny!

Spence and the kids made a gingerbread house!

Her facial expressions seriously crack me up!

The Elf dropped off some advent calendars and shirts for the kids!

Reading Christmas stories!

Looking all Christmas-y for Church!

I ended up making 180 pretzels by myself! My mom and I usually do it together, but she was out of town. And I made all big ones. It was fun, but it seriously took two full days and I was so exhausted afterwards!

Our ward had a wonderful Christmas Party and they did a live nativity. If you look close, you can see Tallie, a little angel on the bleachers and Lance was a cow in front!

We went to our friends annual sweater party!

Yes, Christian and I won best sweaters!

Speen took a day off and went skiing at Deer Valley and had a wonderful time!

And I made a cute snowman with Lance and Tallie, and just like the Thanksgiving turkey's, they were eaten in no time!

We are having a wonderful Christmas season so far!

Happy Thanksgiving 2011

2011-12-21T10:47:00.000-08:00

We had a great Thanksgiving! We made a little turkey craft that the kids loved and pretty much ate the second we finished making them!

We had Thanksgiving at my parents house this year with some of my cousins which was fun. My brother and his wife in their coordinating yellow outfits!

My grandma's sister and her husband came for the first time this year, and Lance really took a liking to Vic! He had never met him before, and seriously loved this guy! The played the Ipad together for a while!

Tallie wanted in on that dip!

My dad carving up the turkey!

My mom's beautiful table!

Lance and Tallie were eating at their little table until....

Lance insisted on sitting next to Vic, so Speen sat next to Tallie!

We could not get over how much Lance loved this guy, it was so sweet!

The only family picture I managed to get!

Mom and Dad!

Tallie with a rocking horse that one of my dad's patients made him.

And a little R&R after the feast!

Happy Thanksgiving! We are so grateful for all of the many blessings we enjoy!

Oh Baby!

2011-12-21T09:42:00.000-08:00

Well it looks like another baby GIRL will be joining the Tag Pad on or around April 4, 2012! We are getting super excited!

And so is she... here she is giving thumbs up!

Halloween!

2011-12-21T09:39:00.000-08:00

We started Halloween night off with some mummy hotdogs and Butternut Squash soup!

Then we went trick or treating around our neighborhood with our friends. Yes, Leslie can win mom of the year for her costume! It was so cute - she was Sleeping Beauty and her girls were Rapunzel and Cinderella!

All the kids loved running up to the doors and getting candy!

Spence dressed up as - - - Don? from Miami Vice! Apparently he looked a lot like him cause he won 2nd prize at his work costume contest!

Lance's loot! Yes, it was a little insane how much candy he got. We only did one loop around our neighborhood and he got that much candy. I think he got at least 3 pieces at each house!

Hot Air Balloon Ride!

2011-11-30T15:57:00.000-08:00

Ever since we got married, I have always wanted to go on a hot air balloon ride. Well, Spence was totally anti. He thought it sounded like the world's most boring thing to do.

Well, you might remember, last year Speen and I did the 12 Dates of Christmas, and each took 6 months and planned dates. Well, rewind to last December 25, we are opening the dates one at a time, and Spence is like "there better not be a hot air balloon ride in here!" AAAHHHAHAHAHA! C'mon it was the only way I could justify getting a balloon ride.

So, we ended up taking our ride the end of October. I thought it was going to be freezing, but it actually wasn't bad at all. Probably all the flames from the balloon keep you warm!

Here we are at the starting site getting the balloons pumped up!

If you look closely behind Speen, you will see the balloon captain walking around inside the balloon. That gives you perspective on just how huge these balloons are!

Getting ready to go! We fit 12 people in that little basket. It was fine, but there wasn't a ton of wiggle room!

The flame is hot and going, and off we go!

It literally felt like we were floating in the air. You can see another balloon right below us!

Beautiful view of Midway, Utah. We were going to go to Park City but it was too windy.

The funny thing about balloon rides is you can't control where you land, so there are trucks that follow you and pick you up where you land. We ended up landing in this residential neighborhood! If you look closely you can see the trucks.

After we landed, our captain did a little toast with Orange Juice or Champagne, and did a little Hot Air Balloon prayer and we all got certificates. It was cute.

Well guess what!?? Spence liked it! Thank you very much! It wasn't much of a thrill, but it was a really neat experience to be floating up in the air like that! Definitely a date to remember!

Preschool Program

2011-11-30T15:39:00.000-08:00

Lance did a great job at his preschool program this year!

Here is Ella and Tallie waiting for the program to start. These two little hams were wishing they were there performing as well!

Lance in the parade with his little class!

Last year Lance barely sang, and this year he was singing loud and clear, it was so fun!

Lance and Owen with their principal Miss Dee!

Wheeler Farm

2011-11-30T15:28:00.000-08:00

Was this not the best Fall ever? We were totally able to take advantage of it, and did so many fun fun things! One such thing was Wheeler Farm with a couple of my high school friends.

Lance and Kameron. They are only 2 months apart. I love this picture cause Kameron's mom was one of my best friends growing up and she was always a head or two taller than me! Too cute!

Have I mentioned how much I love my friend Jessica's girls? Seriously, the sweetest things ever. Ella is always hugging Lance!

Tallie feeding the duckies!

Lance trying out the tractor!

Playing in the Fall leaves!

And a group shot!

Thanks for a fun afternoon ladies!

Fall Leaves!

2011-11-22T20:18:00.000-08:00

I loved the Fall this year, the weather was so pleasant and the leaves were so beautiful!

Goofy Lance! But he is sitting on three pumpkins we GREW in our backyard! I was so proud!

We live right by a gully and they had some beautiful leaves so we went over after church one Sunday and took some pics!

LOVE Utah Fall, it's just the Winter I really have a problem with!

Little Haunts

2011-11-22T15:05:00.000-08:00

Spencer's parents bought a pass to This is the Place park, and so we were able to take the kids up to the Little Haunts Halloween fun.

You mention the word candy, and it bring a smile to Tallie's face!

They had a Witch's parade, and look who is front and center, yes that be Tallie! It is definitely different having a child that is more of a ham!

All the cousins!

The kids were able to play games and trick or treat at the different houses.

My little Ladybug cutie pants!

The petting zoo is always a hit!

CR2 GNO Sleepover

2011-11-08T11:58:00.000-08:00

In Mid-October we planned a ward girls night out sleepover for anyone in my ward that wanted to come. We went up to our friends cabin up in Woodsville. We had a blast; eating yummy food, chatting, playing games, and of course staying up late chatting and bonding.... oh and burning Alyson and Leslie's face with my microdermabrasion!

I love the girls in my ward and it was nice to spend an evening away from the hustle and bustle of home and with out cell phone service and just laugh and have fun!

Here is Leslie being our designated fire builder!

Brenda, me, Tori, and Irene!

Chatting by the fire!

Kelsie getting into the game we were playing!

We were taking a poll of how many people cuddle with their husbands all night, and it was about half and half. Here are the cuddlers!

And here are the non-cuddlers!

Super fun night ladies, let's do it again soon!

Gardner Village

2011-11-08T10:35:00.000-08:00

The weather this fall was just incredible, we were able to do a lot of fun things outside including a couple visits to Gardner Village to see the Witches. This time we went with our friends Ella and Vivi and had a blast!

Like I said, Tallie is a ham, here she is front and center dancing to the Witch's music!

Tallie at 2!

2011-11-08T10:02:00.000-08:00

Tallie turned 2 on October 7! I can't believe our little peanut is already 2!

A little about Tallie Jo Taggart:

Nickname: Tootles

Loves: "Yummies!" Seriously, this girl is obsessed with food! When my mom asked her what she wanted for her birthday, she said "8 nummies!" She is a great eater, and will pretty much eat anything we give her. I would probably say her favorite food is honey.

Stats: If I remember correctly, she is about 20 percent for height and weight.

Looks: Baby chub, blonde curly hair (very thin and whispy), blue eyes! She is very expressive with her eyes when she talks, it reminds me of my grandma!

Favorite Show: She does not have much of an attention span for tv or movies, but she will watch "Elmo's World" for a few minutes.

Favorite toys: She loves to play with her fake food, and will play with her little kitchen every day for quite a while. She will make dishes and then she will sit down at her table and pretend to eat them. She also loves her dolls. She will feed them and put them to bed and wrap them in blankets, it is so cute. She has such a big imagination, and LOVES to play in the play room.

Favorite Book: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Favorite things to sleep with: Alien from Toy Story and Pooh Bear which she affectionately calls "Pee Bear."

Personality: She is so much fun to be around. She is almost always happy, and will just start laughing for no reason. Every where we go she says "hi" to everyone and attracts attention. She is very outgoing and social. She also is dramatic and will have tantrums out of the blue and if she doesn't want to go she will just sit down in the middle of the street, mall, park, etc. When I say can you walk, she always says "no, I will run!" She is manipulative, which is a little scary at such a young age, and is great at teasing everyone from grandparents to Lance. She loves Lance, but also knows how to push his buttons. She wants to be apart of everything Lance does and looks up to her big brother.

Likes: She loves her dance class with Miss Kim and is great at following directions and hamming it up. She is definitely our little performer.

She is a good sleeper, although since her binky went in the garbage, naps and night time sleep are a bit less than they used to be. She is a great climber, and is quite daring. She is extremely independent and one of her favorite phrases is "don't help me." She insists on doing most things herself. She is a good talker and is getting better every day, although Spence and I understand what she is saying more than most people! She knows all of her colors, but we are still working on the alphabet!

Nightly tradition: We get the kids ready for bed and brush teeth, but most nights Tallie chucks her toothbrush on the ground because we didn't put enough toothpaste on her toothbrush for her liking. Then we go to Tallie's room and Lance and Tallie choose out a story in their kids scriptures to read about Jesus. We end with singing a little nightly song to Tallie. She also loves her soft pink/brown blankie.

Funny story: So, I wanted to get rid of her binky, but wasn't quite ready cause she sleeps so great with it. I kind of figured we would have a "bye bye binky party" like we did for Lance. Well a couple weeks ago, she was just annoying Lance and wouldn't stop. I kept telling her to apologize and she would stick her nose in the air, and say "no!" I tried everything to punish her and nothing was working so finally I said if you don't say sorry to Lance I will throw your binky in the garbage. And keep in mind she was quite attached to her binky. Well, long story short she wouldn't say sorry so the binky went in the garbage! That story cracks me up cause in true Tallie fashion she lost her binky because she was too stubborn!

Tallie truly is a joy to have in our family. She is busy, and dramatic, but also so sweet, loving and happy to have around. We love our Tallie Jo! Happy Birthday sweet girl!

Happy Birthday Tallie Girl!

2011-11-08T08:34:00.000-08:00

Wow, I can't believe Tallie is already two! It is so crazy! We had a small party at my parents house for our families. It turned out to a blast. Tallie is such a ham, and had so much fun with everyone.

Tallie with her cute shirt my friend Alyson made her!

She loved opening her presents. Like I said - she is a ham, such a performer. Ooing and Aaing at all her presents, it was so fun!

This is her "cheese" face!

Loving her new Tink Doll!

The Taggarts

She loved singing Happy Birthday and blowing out her candles!

Lovin her new stroller!

And a few days later we went to McDonald's with the cousins for these two princesses birthday, since their birthday's are only two days apart!

A trip to Wallsburg!

2011-11-06T19:39:00.000-08:00

My dad owns some property in Wallsburg and over conference weekend we decided to go up and visit the property. It was a lovely day and the kids had fun picking dandelions and finding sticks!

Yeah, I don't blame you Tallie a choke hold hug and a mouth full of sticks is not my idea of a nice hug!

Spence was away on business in Chicago, so we missed him, but still managed to have a beautiful and relaxing conference weekend up in Midway with my parents!

New York Baby!

2011-11-06T18:44:00.000-08:00

In September I went with Spence to New York to work the Mario Batalli celebrity golf tournament.

BlendTec sponsored a hole and we blended shakes to all the celebrities. One of the funniest parts of the day was watching Speen chat it up with Guy Fiari. I kid you not, I thought they had been friends for years, when in reality that was the first time Spence had ever met him. I love how outgoing Spence is, it cracks me up!

We flew in a few days early and spent time with our friend Pam.

First thing, she took us to a diner at 1am! It was a joke from our trip last year when I told her upon landing I just wanted to go to a New York diner! The next day when we finally got up, we went to an apple orchard to pick apples!

Sorry Pam - I just had to post this picture, cause Pam NEVER has her eyes open during pictures!

Here is Pam with her cute boyfriend Jeremy! They were both so nice to treat us to such a fun weekend!

Getting ready to fill up our bucket with apples.....

..... oh wait, there were no apples. I guess the hurricane that had come through a few weeks before had destroyed almost the entire apple crop, so sad. So majority of the apples were on the ground. I had to pose with the few apples the I found, yes I was the only one who found apples!

Next we headed over to a port City and I think that is CT behind us? There was a music festival going on and we walked around and had a blast. I even got photographed dancing for their city's paper. I forgot to look it up though!

Of course we had to find a pizzeria, mmm!

Next we went to Moneyball, and then ended the night with some midnight bowling!

The next day we went with Pam's dad to Mass where we ran into Susan Lucci and her hubby! Then Pam and her cute mom Trish took me to the beach by their house, how gorgeous is this beach? Oh it would be fun to have a beach nearby!

This picture was taken after the celebrity golf tournament from some New Jersey state park. Beautiful view of NYC.

The last three times we have gone to NYC I have always wanted to see the Statue of Liberty, so after the golf tournament we headed over to the park in New Jersey where you can get a ferry and there are no lines. Unfortunately we got here like 10 minutes after the last ferry had gone out. So I guess this is how close I will get!

It was fun to have this little getaway with Speen. It was fun to work with him and to spend time with Pam. It was busy, and exhausting, but fun as always!

Lance plays soccer!

2011-11-06T18:25:00.000-08:00

Lance started soccer the day after we got home from the beach. He was on the Tigers team!

He got to play on a team with Lincoln and Sally with their mom Sarah being the coach!

Lance warming up with Coach Sarah!

"GOOOOO #4!"

Lance's biggest fans!

Thanks for a great season Coach Sarah!

Disneyland!

2011-11-06T18:17:00.000-08:00

We picked the absolute perfect day to spend at Disneyland. The weather was great and there were no lines! It was so awesome! All the kids had so much fun together going on the rides, such a blast!

I had to document this picture cause we made about two dozen sandwiches about half of them being turkey and brought them in a cooler. Spence didn't want to put the mustard on in advance cause he thought they would get sogey, so he full on brought that bottle of mustard with us to D-land. So, every time someone got out a turkey sandwich there was Speen ready with the mustard. It was funny, and I must say the sandwiches turned out delicious!

This is Leslie and I on the Indiana Jones ride!

Seeing Pooh and Tigger. Tallie looks like she didn't like them but has become obsessed with "pee-bear" ever since Disneyland!

It's a Small World - always a great one! We went two times in a row, again with no lines! So great!

Waiting to see the princesses!

Lance really took a liking to Jasmine, sat right down on her and told her he saw her at Sea World in Florida!

By the end of the day we were pretty spent!

Yes, Speen made me go on all the windy rides with the kids!

So happy cousin Amy came and met us in the afternoon it was perfect. She directed us to all the best rides!

Such a fun, fun day for everyone!

Kids on the Beach!

2011-11-06T17:57:00.000-08:00

The morning we were checking out of our beach house, we ran over to the beach for about 15 minutes and snapped some cute pics of our kids on the sand! Here are some of my favorites!

Newport Part 2 - Beach Pictures!

2011-11-06T17:43:00.000-08:00

We had so much fun hanging out at the beach every day! It was heavenly because there was no one there, we practically felt like we were on a deserted island.

Spence tried skurfing!

Love these cute kiddos!

Boogie Boarding

Playing in the sand!

Taking a break!

Experiencing the waves!

Burying Speen in the sand!

Trying to feed the kids lunch on the sand included LOTS of sandy bites!

The beach babes~

Finding seashells!

Buddies!

Relaxation!

Dad of the year?

More boogie boarding!

Oh how sweet!

I love these pictures cause Tallie will just start randomly start dancing, this was her singing and dancing around on the beach!

Nothing like a mouthfull of sand!

Girlfriends!

I loved that this was the face we saw on all of our kids faces pretty much the whole week!

The joy and simplicity of playing in the sand!

Newport Part 1

2011-11-06T16:50:00.000-08:00

In September we took a trip down to Southern California and spent a week with some of our friends in a beach house in Newport. It was an awesome week and the weather was incredible!

I am definitely a sucker for an hour plane ride over 12 hours in the car!

Some of the things we did in Newport:

Fire pit one night with s'mores!

Took a ferry ride to Balboa Island!

Me and my little man!

"Health, happiness, & good fortune to all who sit here." - big fan of that!

I had to document - Tallie did not let that sippy cup out of her hand the entire trip it was so funny! Also he hair was so curly with the humidity, too cute!

We got to spend some time with Spencer's cousins who live in Newport Beach. It was great to see the Gneiting's, and they were so hospitable. They let us borrow their pack n' play and all of their beach stuff!

Walks and bike rides on the boardwalk were definitely higlights!

Look at these happy cute girls!

Lance and his buddy Owen on the pier!

We celebrated Ella's birthday one night at this awesome restaurant! They made balloon animals for all the kids and made a big production of her birthday, it was a blast!

Tallie and Ella all ready to go to church!

Um yes... Spence and Blake paid for a foot massage..... and if you were wondering that is a cup of ice cream clenched between Speen's fists!

We stayed in an incredible beach house that was stocked with everything you would need for fun including this tandum bike!

Tallie loved riding shot gun on the single bike, and in back was a bike carrier for two other kids!

Boating at Deer Creek!

2011-11-01T20:34:00.000-07:00

Our friends the Dyers took us boating in September and we had a blast! The kids LOVED it so much!

Here is Lance ready for a day on the lake!

Tallie with her shades!

Me and the kiddos - they were even good about wearing their life jackets the whole day, I was so impressed!

Cute Jenny with daring baby Josh!

Lance loved lounging on the front of the boat and occasionally being the flag holder!

Lance and Speen taking a dip!

Cute Alexis taking Lance for a ride!

Family boat shot!

Keith letting the kids take a turn driving the boat!

Learning how to surf!

Andrew was an amazing surfer, no rope!

Speen having a blast as well!

And he's out!

Hobble Creek Half

2011-11-01T20:05:00.000-07:00

Spence ran his first half marathon this year and did great. He and a coworker signed up to run the oh so beautiful Hobble Creek Half!

We headed down to Springville to cheer Spence on as he ran in. You certainly can't miss him in those shoes!

Lance running out to meet daddy!

The park had this amazing playground, and Lance had a blast hanging tight on this spinning thing!

Spence with his friend and co-worker Matt and Matt's wife Rayme.

Way to go Speen, so proud of you!

Spencer's Rock Party

2011-11-01T19:53:00.000-07:00

Spencer wanted to do another kareoke party for his birthday this year. We did a very toned down version this year, since it happened to be the night we got back from Trek. We were EXHAUSTED and covered in blisters, but it was still fun to get together with some friends and have a little party.

Sister Em dressed as "Taylor Swift."

Linds, looking gorgeous right after having a baby!

Jackson and Emily - the lovebirds picking out a song to sign!

Dave Maj - singing his signature Shaggy!

Spence rockin the dance floor with his oh so enjoyable dance moves!

Kristin aka "Amy Winehouse"

Ang getting down and busting out a move or two!

The girls busting out a Cyndi Lauper song!

Craft Club!

2011-10-05T14:38:00.000-07:00

I tried to start a craft club this summer, unfortunately it only lasted 2 weeks! Hopefully once the colder weather picks up, we can restart it!

For my week, I did a bug theme. I read the kids "The Hungry Caterpillar" and we made Bug Jars and collected bugs in the yard. Then we finished off with a snack of cup o' dirt!

Happy 31 Speener!

2011-10-05T14:30:00.000-07:00

Happy 31st Birthday to the most amazing dad and hubbie in the whole world! We LOVE you!

Happy 24th of July!

2011-10-05T14:26:00.000-07:00

We had a great 24th of July! Spence had to work, but he met us after, and we went on a little hike with the Taggart family!

I am loving Sophie's little pioneer outfit, too cute!

We finished the night off with some sparklers!

The Party!

2011-10-05T14:07:00.000-07:00

This definitely was my favorite day of the year! We had such a fun, fun birthday party for Lance's 4th birthday. Spencer's boss has this huge bounce house and let us use it for the party, it was so amazing. We also were surrounded with our family and friends which made the day absolutely perfect!

Some of the guests!

Cute Finley living it up in the bounce house!

These are the world's BEST NEIGHBORS! Love this family so much!

Some of my HS girl friends. It is fun that we all have kids the same ages.

All the kids lining up for the pinata!

My cute brother and his wife!

The singing of "Happy Birthday" and cutting of the cake!

Lance thanking cousin Addie for her cute gift!

Lance and my grandma!

Owen helping Lance with some gifts!

Naomi and I trying out the bounce house slide! The other great thing about a summer birthday is that it was so hot, that we whipped out the hose and totally made it a water bounce house! SO FUN!

Lance hitching a ride on Speen's back!

Tallie and Soph!

Lance playing around!

Cute Owen!

Leslie and I getting drenched!

Cute cousin Olivia going down the slide in style!

CJ and I spraying Speen as he came down the slide!

Opening more presents!

Spencer's mom made Lance this adorable game!

And should I even admit it - but we kicked all the kids off of the bounce house and the adults started having races!

Olivia and I!

Spence and Leslie!

Proof that Spence DID BEAT Leslie!

Ok I admit - that above race was the ONLY race that Leslie LOST the ENTIRE day! (And she probably raced like 15x! This woman is an animal!)

Our cute friends the Wagstaff's who just moved to Singapore! We love and miss you guys!

The cleanup took quite a while - but was definitely worth the fun. A HUGE THANKS to those who stayed to help clean up!

Love this picture of everyone pushing as hard as they could to get the bounce house up into the truck!

This is me saying, yay the party is over, but an even bigger yay that it was a great success!

Thanks to our friends and family for the love and support towards our Lance man! He seriously had the time of his life! Such a fun, fun, fun day!

Lance's 4th Birthday!!!

2011-10-05T13:12:00.000-07:00

Can I just say that I LOVE Lance's birthday! I think his birthday is probably my favorite day of the entire year. There is just something about having a middle of the summer birthday that just makes me happy! It is always sunny, it stays light until 9:30, I get to spoil my favorite little guy all day - what can I say - I LOVE july 15th!

July 14th Lance randomly started screaming about ear pain. Ironically he had his first ear infection ever! In the middle of the summer, the day before he turned 4. But luckily we got him on an antibiotic and he was good to go in a couple hours. Glad that didn't interfere with his big day! Spence's sister Sophie slept over and I went in to check on them and found them sleeping like this, lol!

Lance LOVES Soph, so it was a treat to get to spend his birthday eve and birthday morning with her!

Sophie stayed up late and helped us decorate the house for his birthday, he loved it!

Birthday waffles for breakfast!

Surprisingly I didn't take any pictures of our adventures during the day, but we went to Toys R' Us, where they do this little thing where they give the kid a balloon and a crown and announce to the whole store it's your birthday, and then you get to pick out like a $3 toy for free! Next we headed to the mall and he made a build a bear, and then of course stopped at McDonald's!

Later that night we had spaghetti for dinner and opened up presents!

Do you think we have enough balloons?

This was one of the greatest gifts. It was a rocket launcher and he would jump on it and that rocket would shoot up into the sky! It was wonderful... until it broke a few weeks later! But for the 3 weeks it worked, it was fantastic! ;)

My parents came over later that night and spoiled him with more presents!

Since we were having his big party the next day, we gave him a cupcake and let him blow out some candles.

Seriously is that the biggest balloon you've ever seen? My friend Les and her kids brought it over for Lance! He was obsessed he loved carrying it around all day!

Wow, what to say about Lance! He has always been my sweet, loving, easy-going child. He is amazing, and we are so grateful our little Lance man is part of our family! Happy Birthday Lance we love you!

Summer Randoms!

2011-10-03T20:25:00.000-07:00

We had a great summer! Here are some pictures of some random things we did!

We went and saw our neighbor Mamadou in his Capuera performance. He advanced to the next level and it was fun to be able to support him in this!

I thought Lance and Tallie looked so cute in their church outfits so I wanted a pic, too bad Lance was so goofy in the pic!

Lance said his first prayer in Primary. It was SO ADORABLE! We weren't sure if he would be shy and not say anything or what, but the exact opposite happened. He was going on and on and saying thanks for each kid individually by name, that eventually someone had step up and get him to wrap it up. Such a cute little guy!

The week before Lance turned 4, we went to Wheeler Farm with some friends!

I'm not so sure Tallie is a fan of the choke hug!

Seriously, what a stud!

Love this pic!

An attempt to take a picture of Lance's friends with their little siblings!

We had a "vogue night" for Young Women's one Tuesday, and I took pictures of all the girls, it was a blast! I love the girls in our ward, they are so amazing!

And I am so grateful I get to work with these fabulous ladies as well! (and the others that are missing!)

We blew up probably 50 balloons for Lance's birthday, he had fun for weeks after playing in his balloons!

Tallie had fun and so did Lance's friends who came over!

Best quote - I gave Lance a fruit by the foot and he pulls it off in one fell swoop and says, "wow, I couldn't do that when I was 3, but now I can do it now that I'm 4!"

Headed to the zoo one Saturday! Tallie liked watching Speen and Lance come around the carousel!

Maybe we forgot to mention to Lance that the dinosaurs were not real!??

Tallie LOVES her yummies! She can't even play on the playground with out her sandwich in hand!

Hmmm, did I mention, Tallie likes to eat! Don't mess with this girl and her yummies!

We met up with some of Spencer's friends he hadn't seen since High School up in Park City one afternoon. They had a good time catching up.

Loved our slurpees this summer! Especially the sugar free ones! I swear it had been 10 years since I had last had a slurpee!

Oh this girl cracks me up, such a fun and busy personality!

Went with our friends to a fun bounce house one day. It was a little strange. We went at 10am and the guy had it pitch black inside with neon lights. You could barely see a thing. He said it was his "party lights?" at 10am? on a Monday? A little creepy if you ask me... Well the kids still had fun.

Lance has never really liked playing with toys all that much, and Tallie has been the exact opposite which has been fun. As I mentioned, she loves her food, so naturally she loves her play food as well. She will play in the play room by herself and set up lots of meals on the table and then "eat them!" So funny to watch!

I love this handsome little man!

And here is the "diva" as we affectionately call her. She has a real attitude and opinion about what she wears every day and she's only 1! YIKES! She would not leave home with out her boots on!

Now onto catching up the months individually!

4th of July extravaganza!!!

2011-09-29T14:01:00.000-07:00

We had a busy 4th of July! We started the day with watching the Millcreek Parade!

Lance participated in the parade, it was cute to see him ride by!

We then headed to Evergreen Jr. High to play the games!

After the park, we had a BBQ with our friends the Walkers. It was raining on the 4th of July, and amazingly enough our carport came right in very handy!

Roasting some dogs!

After the BBQ, we were headed up the canyon to see Spence's family, but once we realized it would take us 2 hours, we headed to the outlets and shopped around. On our way home, we pulled over and took a few pics in the wild flowers.

Then we headed to my parents house for another delicious BBQ!

Lance loving his new cup!

My brother and his cute wife Kelli!

My parents!

The most divine cupcakes I've ever had!

Watching fireworks with my parents neighbors!

My friends little boy Tate, was so cute with the Tootles!

And finally the day ended with some sparklers at our own house and then Lance and I headed over and watched the fireworks at Sugarhouse Park!

Wow, that was exhausting just writing about it! Definitely a fun and memorable day!

July 2nd Festivities!

2011-09-20T20:07:00.000-07:00

I think we started a new 4th of July tradition this year, and that is going to see the fireworks up at some golf course up North. It was so fun! It was the Saturday before the 4th, and it was a happening place - food, and games, and a live band, and amazing fireworks!

Here we are jamming out to the music!

I have the cutest sister in laws in the world, seriously, they are so fun!

I participated in my first flash mob, which was a blast!

Em and I waiting for the fireworks to start!

This is how Tallie watched the fireworks, with her face away from them! Silly girl!

Such a great night, we will definitely be back next year!

BBQ with the Reams!

2011-09-04T09:35:00.000-07:00

I love summer BBQ's! We had our friends the Reams over for a fun BBQ and had a blast! We even whipped out the fire pit for some yummy S'mores. The kids were a big fan of that!

Tallie & Taylin riding some bikes!

Speen and Vic manning the fire!

Me & Linds relaxing!

July Happenings!

2011-09-04T08:54:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of some of the day to day stuff we did this summer!

I bought this awesome table for $15 off KSL! I love it! It was so fun to just send the kids outside to eat with out worrying about the messes!

We spent a ton of time playing with sprinklers and water toys, the best, jumping on the tramp with the water toys with friends!

Lance and Owen started a water fight with my neighbors Kadi & Ulekeya!

Lance & Owen have become really good buddies this past year!

Lance has never really been into playing with toys, so it made me happy that he was playing with all his cars during quiet time!

My handsome 3 year old - about a week away from turning 4!

Lance and Tallie are really starting to become good buddies, it is so great!

Of course the fountains at the Gateway!

Goofy picture before church!

Lance said his first prayer in Primary! I wasn't sure how it would go, you know would he be shy or what? And it was seriously awesome! He got up there, no help and said the longest prayer that the primary president had to get up and kind of get him to wrap it up. He started going around the room and praying for each kid individually, so awesome!

Oh my Tallie is THE biggest DIVA! She was having a tantrum as I got her out of the car, and so she laid down on the pavement and started her nap early!

Lance's favorite thing to do at the mall - ride the escalator with my mom over and over again!

I just had to post this, case one night Speen and I had so much fun just laughing at this balloon bounce out of our fan over and over again! Wow, we are losers!

And Lance & Owen at Cars 2. Such a fun little outing!

Happy 8th Anniversary!

2011-09-04T08:24:00.000-07:00

We celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary on June 28th! We went to La Caille and celebrated with Speen's parents! It was extremely overpriced, even with my $80 ksl voucher, but was still a fun experience and great company!

Here we are walking around the gardens before dinner!

Spence was pumped they had a golfing green and tee box!

There were roosters and hens just wondering all over the property!

First course - don't ask me, some randomness on a big spoon!

Spencer's dad ordered a crab cocktail that had about 1 ounce of crab and about 15 oz of ice!

This peacock wandered all around us during dinner, and at one point grabbed a piece of bread right out of my hand! Also, note the singer/guitar player in the background. It was wonderful to sit outside and enjoy the surroundings and the music!

Our meals came with a salad - this is my salad - crab, avacado, and grapefruit.

Spencer's was warm spinach and goat cheese. I don't think there is anything nastier than warm spinach, but whatever!

Spence ordered the rack of lamb. He was deciding between that and short ribs, so our waitress just brought him out a side or short ribs too, on the house!

I got scallops, and they were quite delicious!

We all split the dessert sampler, which was delicious.

It was definitely a fun night, and a memorable way to spend our 8th anniversary! I love you hunny!

Bees Game!

2011-09-04T07:55:00.000-07:00

Beginning of July we headed to the Bees Game. $5 night for admission and a hot dog, you can't beat that!

Here is Lance on his bike getting ready to go!

When did Tallie get so big!?

Lance lucked out. After we got our hot dog, a maintenance lady gave him a baseball she found while cleaning up!

Tallie like the ball too!

Lance and Weston getting a picture with the Bee!

Tallie loves Diet Coke! We are in trouble!

There is a free little train ride that takes kids on ride through the general admission area!

Tallie's cute little curls!

Definitely a fun family memory!

Hiking the Gully!

2011-07-22T21:05:00.000-07:00

We live right by a gully. It's cool, we can enter the gully at one end of our neighborhood, hike through out it, and leave out of another neighbor's backyard. It's pretty slick. It's fun to go and hike around after dinner~

Here I am with Tootles all ready to head out!

Spence getting Lance to move it!

Taking a break to throw rocks into the stream!

You can't tell by this picture, but it was a super steep and slippier slope. Lance climbed all the way up with limited help!

Lance was completely spent by the time we came out the other side, so this is how Speen carried the kids all the way home!

RAGNAR 2011

2011-07-12T14:20:00.000-07:00

My dad's neighbors run the SLC Ragnar every year, and this year at the last minute they needed a substitute. Enter = Spencer! Since Speen has been training for his half marathon next month, they thought he would be the perfect person to fill in. So with one day's notice, Spence ran the Ragnar, had a blast, and did great!

They had to wake up about 2am to head up to Logan for their early morning start time!

Here he is hanging out with his teammates!

I think he ran 4th? Just admit it - you love those skin tight running pants as much as I do! LOL!

Getting ready to start his first run!

Taking the baton from runner scott, and he's off!

Feeling good after his first run!

His car taking in some scenery!

Meeting up with most of the team at some interchange!

His night run!

Lance ran through the finish line with him!

Team Cargo Link!

Spence and my dad!

My kids eating the team's pizza!

Yay, so proud of you my lovey!

For a guy who never ran before a few months ago, he's off to a great start, way to go babe!

My little Bikers!

2011-07-05T15:04:00.000-07:00

Pretty sure my kids would ride their bikes all day if I would let them. Lance has never really been into riding anything with pedals, so we decided to get him a balance bike this year, and it has been the greatest thing ever! He has taken off. He goes so fast, and has totally gotten the hang of balancing.

And since Tallie's legs are too short to fit the tricycle, she loves riding the scooter, and that kid is FAST! She has no fear! She is always going after Lance as fast as her little legs will take her!

I am also extremely lucky that we live across the street from a huge church parking lot, that gives the kids tons of room to ride around in!

Even if Tallie can't get over a rock or a curb, she figures out a way to maneuver it!

And the best part of riding bikes is when dad surprises us in the parking lot of work!

Happy 30th Kristin!

2011-07-03T10:43:00.000-07:00

One of our dear neighborhood friends Kristin moved to Kansas this past month. Her hubby got a new job, so they had to relocate (BOOOOOOOOO!) But the day before they left, we had a surprise party for Kristin at our house. It turned out to be a ton of fun, and was a great last hurrah before they took off!

Here is the spread, I think it looked to cute, and was so yummy!

Everyone was hiding and jumped out when Kristin arrived. She was so shocked!

Kristin with her party planners! And yes, we made her wear that tacky green hat and necklace the entire night! Bwahhahahahah!

A picture of Speen and Blake taking it easy! You can see how cute the decorations looked in the tree!

Kristin blowing out her candles! I hope she wished that they could move back to Utah soon.... hahahaha!

I had to post this picture, cause Speen started a little random "golf bag business" this night. He sold like 4 golf bags I think.... lol!

The ladies!

We love you Kristin! We hope that you enjoy your new adventure in Kansas! Happy 30th Birthday!

Random June Happenings!

2011-07-03T10:25:00.000-07:00

Here are some random happenings of June!

We celebrated my mom's birthday with a sushi dinner, yum!

Tallie and Lance ready to get their swim on!

Lance rocked it at his Little Gym final performance! He LOVED Little Gym this year. I have never seen him so excited to go to anything in his life. He did a great job, and had awesome teachers!

We attended the Millcreek Festival this year, and they seriously went all out with tons of free activities and giveaways. It was so fun!

Lance and Tallie riding the train.

Tallie participating in the fitness challenge!

Little Cohen loving all the soccer balls!

So many blondies!

Pony Rides!

My friends Kristy and Marti (my London ladies) were in town. Man I WISH they lived closer. I love you ladies, and miss you like crazy!

Tallie at the Park! I love how fearless this girl is!

Tallie with her future husband, Brayden! Yep, wouldn't mind it at all....

These two kiddos are getting to the age where they are becoming good friends and are starting to play with each other, it is so fun! They could spend hours playing in the backyard!

I am so grateful for an awesome backyard that provides hours of entertainment!

Hope you are enjoying the summer as much as we are!

Zumba 80's style!

2011-07-02T18:07:00.000-07:00

I am in charge of planning a young women's activity once a month for our personal progress. Last month I decided to do a health and fitness activity. I hired a Zumba instructor to come and teach us Zumba for an hour and we all dressed up 80's. It turned out to be a lot of fun!

Leslie and I raided my mom's clothes from her days of teaching aerobics. Yes, she still has ALL of her clothes!

I was so pleased with the turnout and that the girls went all out with their outfits!

At one point, she had the ym come up and help her teach the class, and our young men were busting a move!

My cute sister in law Emily "Helga" came along for the party!

Big fan of my friends!

2011-07-02T17:58:00.000-07:00

I love that my girlfriends can act like they are 14 again with me! We may or may not have tried to toilet paper our friend Brenda one night.....

Ok, and we may or may not have gotten caught before we threw the first roll of toilet paper up into her tree....

So we may or may not have recruited her to come with us.....

And I may or may not have the best tree in the entire neighborhood to toilet paper, and they may have gotten me back quite good.....

Putting the kids to work cleaning up!

A magnificient night!

2011-06-25T11:33:00.000-07:00

I've never thought of myself as much of a U2 fan, but when they were coming to Utah, I decided to get Speen tickets for our May date - of our "12 dates of Christmas!" And I have to say, I seriously LOVED it! Could possibly be one of the best concerts I have ever been too! Plus, the company was pretty fun too!

We were walking to the stadium and somehow had to climb a fence, and yes I ripped my pants! :(

Leslie was a little more coordinated than me!

The guys getting ready to ROCK!

The Fray was the opening band, and they were really good!

Had to get our caffeine fix!

Singing a long and rockin' out to the music!

Although Lady Gaga was extremely entertaining, I loved that U2 is just a great band. They played tons of songs for a good 2 1/2 hours, and there was no drama, no swearing, nothing uncomfortable the entire performance. They are just a bunch of extremely talented musicians. I loved the night!

Hotdogs & S'mores!

2011-06-24T14:53:00.000-07:00

We had some friends over to roast hotdogs and s'mores in our new firepit! It was a lot of fun!

Chase and Tallie playing on the slide while the daddy's played darts in the back!

Mmmmm, smores!

I love that Tallie and Chase found a hole in the fence and had tons of fun putting rocks through it!

Speen entertained us with a few numbers on the guitar!

Love this - lock all the kids on the tramp and zip it up!

How cute is this little biking family?

Fun way to start out the summer... ok, well it still didn't warm up for another month, but it was still fun!

A trip to remember!

2011-06-02T17:37:00.000-07:00

So the idea was first hatched in March when Leslie had booked a non-refundable flight to AZ to visit some friends. Well, unfortunately her friends got a job transfer to Colorado, so Leslie had no one to go and visit in AZ, so she recruited some of our friends and we planned a little girls trip down to the valley of the Sun for Mid-May!

From the time we planned the trip, to the time it happened, one of our dearest friends found out that they were moving to Kansas, so this trip also ended up being a great way to have one last hurrah with Kristin!

Sadly, because of frequent flier miles, none of us were on the same flight going of coming! Leslie got in on time, but me and Kristin's flights were delayed due to lightening storms, so here is Leslie flipping us off when we arrived because she was starving to death and had waited for us for 90 minutes at the car rental place. JUST KIDDING, Leslie wouldn't do that! She was yelling "get me to a restuarant!" Love ya Les, and no your are NOT the grumpy one! ;)

Since it was about 11pm once we picked up Brenda at her posh hotel, I got on my trusty iphone (that I am pretty sure after this trip I have now convinced Kristin and Leslie to both get one), and looked for open restaurants. Well, it ended up being either "Chicken & Waffles" or this pizza joint. I have to admit, I am salivating at the mouth just thinking of the pizza I had here. I was either extremely hungry, or it was the best pizza I have ever eaten!

Well, friday morning we were lovingly awakened to the sound of a fire alarm! What are the chances? The first morning we didn't have to wake up to kids and had nothing to get up to, and our hotel has not one but two fire alarms! It was so dang funny, I could not stop laughing.

At least it made us get to the pool earlier for some sun! Hmmm, we must be friends, pink and white suits!??

We spent the day shopping at Fashion Square and of course the always reliable and enjoyable Last Chance, then off to a movie, Something Borrowed, which we all agreed was horrible! DEX IS A LOSER!

Here we are posing with our dope rental car - oh yeah baby, the cop car, the white Grand Marquis!

Dinner at the oh so fabulous Oreganos! Well everything was fabulous but that lettuce pizza.... j/k Kristin, love ya!

Here is my comment card to the hotel....

And for fun, here is the employee that didn't want his picture on facebook! LOL!

And then a late night soak in the hot tub! "It wasn't good for the baby!" ;)

Leslie sporting her snazzy ear plugs! Well, at least she got a good nights sleep!

Saturday morning we were up and at it - hiking Camelback Mountain, which is a fabulous hike!

We made it up to the top in 44 minutes, thanks to these two iron ladies! They are amazing.

Posing up top!

We had my iphone playing some lovely beats on the way up, and these Marines said they wanted to hike down with us because they liked our music. Whatever - we totally got off the trail on the way down, and we were grateful the Marines were with us! So naturally we had to take a picture with them!

After freshening up, we headed to ? some famous LA cupcake place. I have to say I am still dreaming about the cupcake I got there, it was fabulous!

We shopped till we dropped at the Arizon Mills outlet center! I love and miss that place! I swear this lady was high on helium (she was the balloon selling lady), but she was totally taking the picture side ways, it was weird, so I asked her to take another one, but 'even' this time. We could not stop laughing!

Aah, much better!

And just because we are cool that way, we liked to ride all three of us up front, oh yeah baby!

Dinner at some sushi joint! Where Leslie started to "feel numb!" LOL!

And yes Kristin, this picture is definitely cute enough for a fb profile!

Excuse me, would you like some asparagus with your sushi???????

I was talking to my aunt the other day about our girls trip, and she said that she went on one, and it was just not very fun, kind of uncomfortable, everyone liked to do different things, etc. I just have to say, wow, I love these girls so much. I thought it was the perfect trip, no drama, just pure fun, friendship, food, and non stop laughing the entire weekend! Love you girls, thanks for an incredible trip to remember!

An evening with the Wagstaff's!

2011-06-02T15:48:00.000-07:00

A month ago I took some family pictures for our friends the Wagstaff's. Ok, seriously they could be the most photogenic family ever! It was such a beautiful evening at Wheeler Farm!

We had to jump in and get a family picture with the beautiful backdrop!

Afterwards we went back to our house and had dinner and played outside. Lance LOVES playing outside, he was so excited we took out the sprinkler toy!

Love these friends. We are sad they are moving to Singapore in September, but are excited for them to have a fun adventure! Hopefully we will make it out for a visit! Or at least we are hoping to meet in Phuket....

Preschool Spring Sing!

2011-06-02T13:48:00.000-07:00

Lance had his preschool Spring Sing sometime the end of April. Out of all the performances they have had at his preschool this year, I would definitely say this was the best one!

Here is Lance's little fan club! I love how excited Spence is watching him sing!

Lance has never been a big singer, and he is a bit quiet in public places, but I must say he did a pretty good job participating!

In his costume for the last song!

Favorite part of the night - Lance and his class is performing, and Tallie decided she wants in on the action. She runs up to the front, right next to Lance and starts dancing around to the music. Tallie will be our little performer I guess!

I love how supportive my parents are. Lance is so lucky to have such great and supportive grandparents!

So funny story: Like I said, Lance is pretty quiet. During this performance they had him on the end, and he didn't sing very loud. Well, I guess they learned their lesson. I went to his carnival last week, and his class dressed up as elephants and sang a song. Well, they put Lance right in the middle, right next to Lucy - you know that girl, who sings louder than everyone combined? Well, I kid you not, Lance was trying to sing as loud as Lucy! His little face was bright red from trying to keep up with her, it was so funny. After they were done, I went up to Lance's teacher and said "so, I guess you figured out how to get Lance to sing loud, just put him next to Lucy!" And she said "during practices we would tell Lance she was beating him and he would need to sing louder!"

So classic, I loved it! Lance, I am proud of you buddy for doing great your first year of preschool! Love you my little Lance Goose!

Family Pics in the Red Rocks!

2011-06-02T13:27:00.000-07:00

One night Spencer's dad really wanted to get a big family picture, since we haven't had one for several years! So, after the Olympics and dinner, we headed up the canyons and had a very fast photo shoot! It was super windy, but made for some fun vogue pictures!

Em striking a pose!

Katie striking a pose!

Sam, Lindi, and Tootles!

Lorin and Allie!

The lovebirds - Sam and Katie B.

Daddy and Tootles!

Katie B. kindly taking a family picture! It was hard with all the kids and the wind and everything, but truthfully, heck if we can get everyone looking at the camera, I would say that's a success!

Had to have Katie B. jump in one of the pictures!

Trey was so cute, he kept asking me to take his picture!

Of course the one family picture in which the kids are looking AND smiling, who knows what I was doing!

This picture is such a typical Tallie picture, waving and saying "hi" to everyone!

We have a joke - but it's pretty much the truth - in the Taggart Family that Jane only likes pictures of her 'six kids!'

So for fun, we took one of the outlaws as well. I think we'll blow it up to like a 16x20 and give it to Jane for Christmas!!!!

Let the Games Begin!

2011-06-01T22:20:00.000-07:00

Speen's family LOVES games! One afternoon his mom organized a mini Olympics. Of course in the spirit of Jane, we always have to start our activities with 'the wave' and the Taggart Family Dance!

The Olympics were fun. Each family chose an activity and had a prize to go along with it!

Jane had a little baseball game! Isn't this such an awesome picture! Yes, thank you very much!

Even Tallie Jo wanted to get in on the action!

The adults were supposed to hit the ball blindfolded!

Next was a ball toss through the rings!

Our family's game was a dance contest, but only have video of that! I must say, Paul and little Soph definitely brought some good moves to the table!

And finally was the egg toss!

Sam and Katie B. came oh so close to winning....

But in the end it was Paul and Emily that could not be beat!

Tallie enjoying her prize!

Family Golf!

2011-06-01T22:08:00.000-07:00

One afternoon all the adults went on a golf outing! We had a blast! Thanks to Jane who stayed at home and watched all the little kiddies!

The couples!

Us girls even made up a little dance on the greens... 'we like to wash our balls off!' Oh my SIL's make me laugh!

Em really hit some great shots!

I really was actually quite bored and enjoyed taking pictures, making up dances, nagging Speen about using his putter for every shot on every hole, and finding balls more than I actually enjoyed golfing!

Such a fun afternoon!

Man, I love these peeps!

St. George Part 1

2011-06-01T21:52:00.000-07:00

We headed down to St. George the end of April for a long weekend with Spencer's entire family. It was a blast. The first time the family had been together in several years! It wasn't very warm while we were there, I think the high was 70, but since it was snowing up in Salt Lake that weekend, we were very pleased with 70!

The first couple days we were able to fit in some fun swimming time! Anything felt warm compared to the 40's and 50's we were used to!

Tallie getting her swim on!

The bathing beauties - Emily and Katie B.

Cute Lance loved the kid pool! He could have hung out there all day! Sad story, he was the only kid in the pool, and a bee flew right into the pool and stung him on the thumb. I had to pull the stinger out of his finger! But Mimi saved the day, by telling everyone that she gives one dollar to anyone that gets stung by a bee! Lance felt pretty cool... and rich with his dollar!

Cute cousin Allie and Lance's 'best cousin!'

Love all these blonde kids eating lunch!

Dive Time Baby!!!

Auntie Em getting in a good flip!

Uncle Sam with the "Peter Pan!"

Lindi, 7 - doing her split jump!

Lorin and his cannon ball!

Miss Tootles sunbathing in the kid pool~

Me soaking up some rays!

Finishing up Day 1 relaxing and getting ready for games!

The "besties" ending the night with some bubbles!

How cute are these two?

Swimming Day 2! We found a smaller pool, that was a lot easier to contain all the kids!

Tallie did not like being contained... lol!

How do you watch a movie during quiet time when your "mr. cool?" Well, with your shades on of course!

Artie's Orchard!

2011-05-30T14:03:00.000-07:00

My grandma's brother owns on orchard down in Pleasant Grove. So end of April, my friend Leslie and I headed down to get some pics of our kids!

It didn't quite go as I planned....

Tallie, my happy always looking good in pictures child - hated the orchard. And I mean, couldn't stand anything about it. She was as unhappy there as she was on the sand in Florida! The entire time, so unfortunately no good pictures of Tallie. But you get an idea of how beautiful the trees were!

This is Lance and his buddy Owen!

Lance and Ella running through the Orchard!

Tallie not happy that I put her down and was attempting to get her to smile!

Lance is in the sword and gun stage right now, so he loved finding big sticks to play with!

Plenty of trees to climb!

The boys could have spent hours running through the trees and grass and sticks!

Luckily Leslie swooped in during the last minute we were there, and somehow got Tallie to smile!

It was a super fun outing! I definitely wouldn't mind having acres and acres and acres to let the kids play in! However, minus the hundreds of bees would be ideal!

Easter Day!

2011-05-25T13:16:00.000-07:00

Easter was fabulous this year! We woke up and Speen made us some Easter EGGS and a shake, of course! We also had a little lesson about why the day was so special, and then attended an incredible counsins farewell.

The kids looked so cute in their Easter outfits!

Then they got to find their baskets, which was so fun!

I went a little over board on Lance's basket, but it was just so fun!

After church, we had dinner at my mom's house! Tallie was the first one up to the table to eat! You can always count on Tallie to eat!

My mom did an easter egg hunt in her backyard, and Speen found the gold egg!

Just had to document JT doing the dishes! ;)

My cute grandma and Tallie playing the piano!

We ended the night by going over to Speen's side of the family and hanging out for a while, it was a wonderful Easter!

Easter Festivities

2011-05-24T15:09:00.000-07:00

The friday before Easter we dyed Easter eggs. We left them to dry on the table, and Tallie kept climbing up onto the table grabbing (and smashing) the eggs and yelling "EGGS!"

Saturday morning we went to Spencer's Aunt Mary's house for a grandkid/great grandkid egg hunt. I love Speen's uncles. Everyone brought a million stuffed eggs, and the uncles were hiding fruit by the foots, and the entire back lawn was covered in suckers sticking out of the grass. The kids were in Heaven!

This is Aunt Mary reading the kids an Easter book while the eggs were being hidden.

And let the egg hunt begin!

Lance was obsessed. All of the other kids had given up, and Lance still wanted to keep searching for more eggs!

Well, Lance wanted more, and boy did he get it! On our way home from Aunt Mary's, my brother called to see if the kids wanted to come over to his house for an Easter Egg hunt!

They found about 20 eggs in the front yard, and I thought that was great, until JT mentioned they had hid eggs in the backyard too! I swear there were probably 80 or more eggs. Lance had to dump his basket I think at least 4x!

Here are the cuties that made it happen!

Messy Tallie!

Family pic with the loot!