Delaplane Strawberry Festival

Since moving to Virginia we have been attending some sort of strawberry festival each year. This year we headed off into the rolling hillside of Virginia. The Delaplane Strawberry Festival was held at a beautiful state park and was complete with old fashion games, wagon rides, bag pipers, a marionette puppet show, booths with trinkets for sale, 4-H animals, live music, cool cars, delicious food, the biggest yummiest fresh strawberries and strawberry desserts. I think we’ll be back next year!

Carter & the "mustache car", also known as a Mustang. He liked this car because of the color. Blue is currently his favorite color. It used to be green...Carter knows what he likes.

Of course, Tay needed a picture too! I love that her fire cracker hair is blowing in the wind.

End of the School Year

My preschool finally ended in May. Overall it was a good year and I am glad I taught out of our home. It gave our week routine, Carter enjoyed having his friends over for activities, and Tay loved having the younger kids over once a week. Thankfully, she took morning naps most days up until the year was over which made things much easier on me. I have to say though that between keeping toys clean, creating lesson plans, making calendars and projects ahead of time, and then cleaning up afterwards each day…it was a lot of work! All of the kids were great though. By the end of the year I really felt like I knew their little personalities well, especially the older kids.

Here is a picture of Carter and his buddies on our second to last field trip.

Carter also attended Freedom High preschool this year. It is a program where high school students teach the preschoolers simple lessons and activities, they get a snack, and play out side on the playground. Parents were invited for the last day of class. The high school students prepared a slide show of pictures taken throughout the year, the preschoolers were given awards (Carter got Most Athletic), they had a yummy spread of snack foods, and a clown performed magic tricks. Ms. Amanda was by far his favorite teacher. He was always happy when she was around.

Visitors

We had the chance to catch up with the Palmer family in May on their way to and from a family reunion. It was fun to watch our kids play together, attend Clay’s baby blessing, and stay up late chatting. You guys are the best!

Here's a picture of Carter & Tay warming up the hide-a-way bed for the Palmer kids. I still can't believe we fit a family of six in our basement!
We were also lucky to have Drew’s brother Kirk and his fiancee in town for Memorial Day weekend. Dave's honey Chandra later joined us for a weekend in June. Fun times! Carter got to have a camp out in our walk in closet while they borrowed his room. He thought it was a pretty nifty arrangement. We enjoyed getting to know them and the kids loved their company. Thanks for putting up with our disaster of a house, ladies!

Happy Birthday Taylor!

I can't believe our baby girl is two years old today! Tay has become quite the funny girl. She is learning new words every day and loves to do things by herself. I think my favorite new word of hers is flip flop which sounds like “wi wop”. She loves wearing her “wi wops” which are actually her little pink crocs. She loves her baby dolls and always has to have one sleep in the crib with her. Tay also LOVES to ride her “bi” (bike) with Carter. She also has a place in her heart for motorcycles, copying her brother, drinking her yogurt with a straw, and "tookies" (cookies). Her favorite thing in the world is when Daddy takes naps with her. When I lay down with her she just plays and gets silly but when Drew sleeps with her, she snuggles right into his chest and is out. And is if she wakes up before he does, she’ll just lay there and play quietly. It is very sweet.

Although she looks like a chunky girl to me, she is still not on the charts for weight but is now 4% for height. She is growing according to her own curve and is a smart little cookie so we're not worried. Some people just come smaller than others I suppose. This picture was taken just a couple of days before her birthday.

For her birthday, we kept the day very simple. I was feeling under the weather so Drew took care of everything. He made her pancakes with "wur up" (syrup) for breakfast, took her and Carter for a long walk, gave her tons of watermelon (another Tay favorite), and of course took a nap with her. Taylor is a lover if ice cream so instead of having cake and ice cream, we just put two candles in a big scoop of peanut butter cup ice cream and she was in heaven. Oh how we love our Tay!

Drumroll please ...

And the winner is:

Yes, this is a real live arial shot of Taylor (more pictures to be posted later).

Teeth ... Who Needs 'Em

As long as I can remember I've always been more than willing to have all my teeth removed and have fake ones put in ... you know, the kind you don't have to brush or floss every stinkin' day of your life. Seriously, doesn't anyone else ever get tired of having to do that 2-3 times a day every day (sorry Rob)?

So the other day I was going on and on about that to Corinne, and unbeknownst to either of us, Tay was listening in our conversation. And Tay, you see, is a daddy's girl. She wanted to make me proud and do for herself what I couldn't do for myself as a high schooler. And so it was, that with a twinkle in her eye and a graceful announcement of the feat she was about to perform ("uuuuh"), she hopped onto her TayMobile, revved her engines, and sped off so quickly that even Lightning McQueen would be proud - I swore I saw smoke coming off those little plastic wheels. Well right as she hit top speed, wouldn't ya' know it, that girl rode right off the front stairs and into the sunset of the wild blue yonder. It was like slow motion. Face plant. Right into her steering wheel.

Unfortunately, she didn't quite succeed like she had hoped. She only broke 1 of her teeth instead of all of them. Tay, it was a valiant effort. Very valiant indeed. Your cousin Daniel would be very proud.

Dentist says we can either put a crown on it and hope the tooth doesn't die altogether, or we can just pull it now & be done with it. I guess if we pull it, she might learn to speak with a little whistle in her words. That could be cool, right? Some kids don't learn how to whistle until they're like 10. Oh, and plus ... pluuuus ... it's one less tooth to brush at night - at least until she's 7 or 8, right?

So what'd'ya think? Crown it? Or pull it?



... and here's a cute one of her the day after:

Like Mother Like Son

If only I could get Corinne to stop teaching Carter how to make that "sound" with his armpit ...

Tay Goes to P-Town

... no, not Happy Valley ... sorry to disappoint.

Earlier in the week Tay gave us a good little scare when she had a 104.6 temperature. We were a little surprised when Kaiser's advice nurse told us we didn't need to bring her in because she didn't have any other symptoms besides the fever. I guess I always had heard that if a child's temperature hits 104, they should be brought to the ER. Oh well ... guess that's why I'm not a doctor.

So anyway, we gave her some Motrin and her temperature dropped down to 102. Wednesday evening, though, she started an innocent little stream of coughs. But that little stream of coughs kept going and going and going - all day Thursday, all day Friday, and all day Saturday. Between the fever and the cough, we started to think it might be something more than just the usual round of viruses going around, so we brought her in Saturday afternoon. A couple chest x-rays later, lo & behold ... Tay has pneumonia.

Because she's so young & small, they wanted to treat it aggressively by putting her onto IV antibiotics right away. And so, for the very first time in her life, Tay had a needle poked into her little body. She did absolutely fantastic. Sure, she cried ... but she didn't fight it a bit. The nurses kept commenting on how they'd never had a toddler who hadn't fought it. I think she did better than I did (for those who know me, you know I've blacked out on more than one occasion when needles were being waved around ... not to mention being blacklisted from ever donating plasma again for that same reason...this is Drew posting by the way).

Anyway, after all was said & done on Saturday, they decided to leave the heplock in her hand so they wouldn't have to re-poke her for a second round of antibiotics the next day. So Tay got to come home and spend the night with a nice little souvenier on her arm! We lovingly dubbed it her "mitten". We weren't sure how well she'd function around the house with it, but boy, she and Kohen Jensen must take their marching orders from the same person! It didn't slow her down a bit!

Well, so after a lot of pacifier sucking and a second round of IVs on Sunday, Tay was feeling a lot better. Cough gone, fever gone ... and hopefully, no more needles for a long, long time.

A Conversation with Taylor

The following is a conversation Taylor and I had this morning after she came upstairs.

Tay: Hi (also waving at me)
Mom: Did you eat breakfast?
Tay: Ya
Mom: What did you eat?
Tay: Mo mo
Mom: More of what?
Tay: Bo
Mom: Bowl? You ate breakfast?
Tay: Uh huh
Mom: Oh good
Tay: Daya wa wa
Mom: and Daddy got you a drink?
Tay: Ya

So there you have it...a typical conversation between Tay and I. She grunts. I interpret.

Our Easter Bunnies

Cute little Tay in the arms of her "dada".

These little faces make our hearts melt.

March: Spring Break

This year spring break actually felt like spring break. I am not sure if that is because I got a week off of preschool, birth work, etc. or if it was because we had family in town. Either way, it was great! Drew's brother Vince and his cute family as well as his Grandma and Grandpa Firl were all in town for spring break and Easter.

Our time together was fun filled. The kids decorated sugar cookies and easter eggs, rode bikes, played uncle Jeff's wii, hunted for easter eggs in the Hilton’s back yard, ate their easter treats, ran around the Air & Space Museum and just played together.

Other great memories from our time together included eating lots of yummy food (that I didn't have to prepare), a double date with Vince and Melissa, catching up with the Firl's, a wonderful easter concert on the resurrection of Christ, some guitar strumming by Steve and Vince, and an afternoon ride on rented motorcycles by Drew and Vince. Check out Vince & Melissa’s blog for fun pictures from their visit. Melissa took a really cute picture of Carter and Daniel sitting in the cock pit of an airplane as well as pictures of our boys on their bikes (and by boys I mean Drew and Vince)!

Below are some pictures from the week….

Daniel, Carter, Matthew, & Kaylee decorating cookies at our house.

Carter wearing Drew's motorcyle helmet. He woudn't take it off!

Drew on his rented bike.

Tay hunting for eggs.

Carter discovering that there is candy inside the eggs!

Taylor and cousin Ashely searching for eggs together. Aren't they adorable!

My Little "Fixer Boy"

Carter is such a funny little boy. He is always up to something. When he was smaller and Drew would get frustrated with him for getting into mischief I would find myself telling Drew "he's just curious". Now when Carter gets into trouble and I am scolding him he simply says, "Mom, I am just being curious...".

We have been finding ants in our master bathroom (which I totally don't understand because there isn't any food in there and it is on the third floor!). Anyway, I showed Carter how to squish ants and so he put himeself in charge of the situation. He came in my room this morning, wearing only his pajama bottoms- no shirt. I didn't even have time to inquire as to where his shirt went before he told me "some worker men don't wear shirts". He is right about that- on hot days the construction workers in our subdivision don't wear shirts. It is funny the things four year olds take note of. So there he was, no shirt, construction hat on, several tools tucked into his shorts around his waist, and tool box in hand. He told me that he needed to find out where the ants were coming from so he could "fix the problem." So he went about fixing the problem- whenever he saw an ant he would squish it with a tool. Oh brother- what a boy!

Here are some pictures from last week when he decided to fix our very unbroken sink. He took everything out of the cabinet and went to work. I think this time he was "fixing pipes".

Flash Back: Sledding Fun!

We only had one chance to go sledding this year. I was a little worried that Carter wouldn't get to use his sled that he got from Santa because we've had a pretty warm winter. Of course the day it finally snowed enough to sled, Tay had a cold....but we took her anyway. Some times getting out of the house when you're not feeling well is the best medicine!

We went to a small hill in our neighborhood. I didn't think Carter was going to be able to walk through the snow and up the hill but he was a trooper (not to mention very excited). It took a few runs to get the snow packed down enough to go fast. Carter loved it! It wasn't long before Tay was feeling left out and wanted to go down the hill as well. We took turns going with her but I think next year she'll insist on doing it her self.

While waiting her turn to sled, Tay enjoyed a delicious afternoon snack of freshly fallen snow. I love that she is wearing Carter's old snow gear (minus the purple hat and mittens of course).

Carter on his super disk!

Flash Back: Tay & the Naughty Step

At our house we have our kids sit on our steps when they need a time out. We lovingly refer to a certain step as the "naughty step". Tay had to sit on it for the first time in February. I love how in the first picture she is trying to convince me with a cute look that she doesn't need to sit there.

Now that she knows I am serious, she is giving me the "are you kidding me?" look. Luckily she hasn't had to sit there very often since but I am sure those days are coming.

Flash Back: Fun with an Empty Box

There is nothing like zooming around in an empty box when you're a kid.