Ballet again

Taylor had her second ballet class.  She loves it!  She asked me every day this week if she could go to ballet. 

 They did these new exercises.  They lay flat on the ground...

 and then go up on their hands and have their feet touch their heads.

 She is finally getting that she needs to get up on her tippy toes.  Isn't she the cutest?

 We brought her tap shoes and the girls loved stomping around and making a ton of noise.

 This time the teacher left the room door open so we were able to watch Taylor a lot better.

 Hayden made herself comfortable.

But then she was up to her old tricks of getting into everything. She found these lockers in the hallway and decided she should go in them.

 Such a silly girl!

Pioneer Day

Oh, Pioneer Days. 

 Why can't we celebrate this in April or September?  Every year we die at the ball field in 100+ temperatures, and this year was no exception.

 These pictures are from the Friday night dinner.  We always have fun trying to figure out how to get all the food from the serving area to our table.  We always arrive at things early because it is no fun pushing a wheelchair through crowds and we must have a table or things get pretty ugly :)

 This year I didn't even try to stop the kids from getting filthy in the sand I just asked them to wait until their food was done.  One small victory for Mom and happy kids too.

 This year I dressed the kids in their swim clothes and told them to go hog wild on the wet toys.  We did get a few weird stares from people but I didn't care :)

 Tyson honestly thinks he is the greatest swimmer so when he begged to go on the dunk tank I let him.  He took the whole thing very seriously, as you can tell by his face.

 This guy threw one ball and knocked him down.

 He said it was fun but when I asked if he would like to go again he said, "NO".

Tyson loved this slide and would have gone down all day if he could.  Taylor got to the front of this slide's line and chickened out over and over again.  After four times I pulled her out of line and let Tyson use her turns.  We had a fun time as always but I'm just saying we would have a super time if we also weren't sweating to death.  Seriously I don't think the pioneers would be offended if we celebrated them in a month other than July :)

Swim lessons

We just finished a round of swimming lessons at Silver Mesa Rec Center.

 I think Tyson could have done a level above what I put him in but I felt he didn't really have the basics down yet.  In his group they really focused on swim strokes and he really didn't know them. 

 Taylor loved her class but she is making a dejected face here because she was in the only class that didn't get popsicles.  We went out and got slurpees so she is fine now.

 Ryan was such a good sport being drug every day to sit by the pool.

 I don't have too many quality shots of the kids doing their swim lessons, thanks to this beast.  I had the lessons set up every 30 minutes and was going to end with a Mommy and Me class for Hayden but they cancelled the class for Hayden because not enough people signed up.  So because she couldn't go swim she caused trouble any way she could.  One day she actually picked up a kick board and went after another little girl who has spineabifida and has had multiple surgeries on her back.  I don't think I have ever jumped out of a chair so fast!  Oh Hayden, my little bully, I wondered why my hair was turning so gray!!

Isn't it so great seeing your kids learn things that they are going to use the rest of their lives?  Well here's hoping anyway :)  Our second set of swim lessons start next week, wish us luck!

Ballet

Taylor started a ballet/tap/tumbling class this week.

We didn't quite know what to expect since this is our first dance class ever.  They started on the floor doing stretches.  Taylor did very good listening and trying to follow the teacher.

Then they did some bar work.  You may notice from this picture that Taylor is the only student that spoke English which made class very interesting.  Good thing our teacher was bilingual :)  After about 20 minutes she came out and asked one mother if she should speak to her daughter in Spanish because she wasn't listening in English.  Good thing Taylor was wearing her Dora the Explorer lip gloss watch, I think it made her fit in, don't you?

Taylor didn't quite understand to point her toes, too funny!

I wonder what the teacher was saying to get this face from Taylor.  They had a weird set up where the parents weren't allowed in the room.  We had to all crowd around and watch through a window.

We skipped the tap portion because only half of us had brought tap shoes. They went straight to tumbling which was pretty intense according to me.  They did somersaults which is standard, Taylor didn't know how to do them independently but did learn by the end of the hour.  After somersaults the teacher went straight to cartwheels and this picture is Taylor doing a back flip!

I think it went pretty well and Taylor has asked to go back every day since, I just didn't know we would be doing so many advanced things in one class!

I just love this girl!  Isn't she such a doll?

McDonalds

We had a new McDonalds open up the other day near our house and were very excited to go and try it out.

Well it was totally lame and to make up for its lameness we had to get the kids ice cream!  I don't know what is going on but for some reason McDonald's is trying to be a fancy restaurant.  The kids area is sadly lacking.  It didn't even have a slide!!

 McDonalds is however introducing their new dipped cones which I loved!  I am a sucker for anything dipped in chocolate but chocolate dipped cones are my absolutely favorite thing ever!!

 I love Jason's face in this picture, it's a speaking look.  To me it says, "Do we really have to record trips to McDonalds?"  I say yes, so when the kids are older and say I never took them anywhere I can pull up this lovely post :)

The only good toy (according to the kids) that the new McDonalds had was this jumping thing.  But you can see what it did to Tyson so the kids aren't allowed on it :)  We will have to just be happy with our other McDonalds, Oh well.

Ryan is 2 months old!

Our baby is already two months old!!  Where has the time gone?  We attempted a photo shoot the other day and this was the best we could get.

 We tried all different poses just to hide the back rolls.  Gotta love chubby babies!

 Ryan always has her hands out of her blankets or up in the air.  I guess she's gotta have them ready for when she needs them.  Ya never know what's coming at you in this house!

By the end she was not a happy camper and let everyone know how she was feeling!

Ryan now weighs 12 lbs 6ozs which is in the 95%
Her height is 21 inches and that is in the 10%  (I know her pain)
The kids have nicknamed her: Ry-Ry and love her to pieces
Hayden still is a bit hesitant around the baby, which we are so grateful for!
Ryan finally figured nursing out and is almost on a schedule.
She still is not the best sleeper and spends 60% of her day in a swing
Ryan does well in the car and does well in public at all the things she is drug to.  At 2 months she has already been camping in Utah, to the circus, to a 51's ball game, and 10 movies!  What a trooper!!!
She is taking a pacifier, so maybe she'll be our first girl not to suck their thumb (here's hoping)
We are so lucky to have Ryan as part of our family!!!!!

Taylor is 4!!

My baby girl is 4!!!!  I can't believe it!  She has been talking about her birthday for months! She wanted to go to Chuck E Cheese and would not be talked out of it. Thank you very much to the 100 Chuck E Cheese commercials that are run during kids programs.

 I didn't mind too much, no set up, no clean up and no entertaining :) Here we are waiting for all the friends to come.

 This monster truck was a big hit with the kids :)

 Taylor and her friend Adam.

 Ryder and Sawyer hanging out.

 Taylor being a crazy on the carousel.

 Mya and Sarah in the carriage.

 Owen and Tyson being a couple of nuts.

 Hayden being a doll (a rare occurrence).

 Here we all are ready for the performance and cake.  Casen came with some seriously awesome hair!  This picture doesn't do his mohawk justice.

 The other side of the table.

 Turn a movie on and all kids must watch.  Talk about a captive audience :)  They had the kids watch a little video and then out came...

 CHUCK E CHEESE!!!!!!

 Half the kids were excited and half were scared to death.

 Taylor did really well blowing out her candles.  We got a cake from Costco and Taylor had to have chocolate!  I usually get white just because of the mess but she was very insistent so I obliged.  I think the conversation went something like this, "Hey Taylor let's get this white cake." "No, I want chocolate." "Oh, OK."  It was a fierce battle :)

She was so excited to get the blow up crown and the Chuck E Cheese medallion.  She tried to wear the medallion to church but we wouldn't let her.

 She was super excited to go into the ticket blaster and was told she was not allowed to pick anything off the ground, she had to catch the tickets in the air.

 The girl was such a nut and didn't catch one thing!!!!  Every time something would land on her she would just shake it off!  The guy who was our host  took two of the hundred tickets and said, "Oh wow they were in your hoodie!"  Super nice!!

She had a wonderful party and some amazing gifts!!  Every time some one asked what she wanted for a gift she told them makeup.  She is such a girly girl!!!  I don't know were she came from!

Quick facts about Taylor:
She is amazingly tall for her age (we don't know how this happened with us as her parents!)
She still sucks her thumb and plays with hair
She is so smart! She shocks me daily with all she knows.
She is a people person, if she meets you once she knows you forever.  She will remember your name and something about you.
She loves the color pink and would wear it head to toe if she was allowed
She adores her Grandpa and talks about him all the time. Her second favorite people are her Grandmas, she loves to cook and do crafts with them.
The girl is obsessed with chapstick! The other day while we were out she informed me that if I need any chapstick that she has strawberry, cherry, or bubble gum if I need it. Who carries 3 chapsticks on them at one time?
She is such a wonderful daughter and we are so lucky to have her in our family.  She has such a unique personality and we are always wondering what she will do next!
Happy Birthday Taylor!!!!!  We love you!!!!!