All Tucked In

Christmas Dress

It worked out good that we were unable to go to St. George because Tommie talked at church today and we would have not been able to spend much time with my fam because we would have been rushing back for his talk. Tommie did really well!!! I didn't realize he could give a talk for the whole meeting. I was very proud of him...he did a great job! For dinner we had one of Margo's home grown turkeys. It weighed 30+ plus pounds. It was delicious.

TaKara got to wear her new Christmas dress for the first time today also. She looked adorable like always :)
I love how she is holding her foot up in the bottom picture. Like she is striking a pose just like her mother as Dale would say HAHAHA

The Day After Christmas.

We were suppose to go to St. George today because my family (the Coates') have a tradition that they get together the Saturday after Christmas have fun and exchange gifts. The roads were pretty bad so we decided to stay home and enjoy the weather that changed our plans. On Friday TaKara was sleeping while we played in the snow for 4 hours so we went again on Saturday for a couple of hours. We had three 4-wheelers and went in the field behind Marcy & Phillip's house and pulled the little kids around in plastic sleds while the big kids snowboarded or boogie boarded behind the 4-wheelers. Then when we were all cold and wet we went back to Marcy's house and hung our wet clothes in their boiler room to dry and enjoyed some hot chocolate. So at least our weekend wasn't totally ruined :)

Left to Right: BreAnna Winters, TaKara Taylor, & Marcie Taylor

Christmas Day!

Christmas was way fun! TaKara opened most of her presents. She started getting bored though so we left about half a dozen until she was interested again. On Monday she finally opened the last one. This will probably be the only year that this happens because next year I doubt she will get bored.

How we found TaKara when we went to wake her up to open presents.

Dale & TaKara walking out of the bedroom to discover Santa Claus came while we were sleeping. Do you like the surprised look on her face? LOL

In TaKara's stocking there was hair things and an orange. You will notice the orange in most of the pictures. She thought it was a ball and kept throwing it wanting to play catch/fetch. When we opened it and started to eat what was left she thought that was way cool and thought you could eat any ball from there on.

TaKara got a lot of clothes for Christmas from us. She loved putting them under her chin and doing a fashion show for us.

TaKara finally ripped off a big piece. She would tear as far as her arm would reach then sit there wondering now what...it didn't come off.

Taking a break after a hard job of opening presents. Did you notice the one she is sitting on?

Standing on mom's box now while she is observing a present. Why do kids love boxes so much?

The toy she got from Santa. It is a lawnmower and the mouth moves and it says tons of different stuff. She loves to sit on it also. HAHAHA!

Standing in mom's strainer. Crazy Kid.

Sitting on dad's new toy roping steer.

So TaKara got clothes, a book, hair stuff, and a lawnmower. Dale got a toy roping steer, lots of pants, orange sticks, and ear muffs so he won't lose his hat while riding 4-wheelers. I, Marcie, got hiking boots, a strainer, gift certificate to Maurices. Both of us together got a cookbook from Takara that has the entire year planned for dinner. I am way excited to try it out!!!

The Taylor's came over around 8 a.m. to watch us open their presents. TaKara got a few toys of course; Dale got coveralls, and a gun cleaning kit; Marcie got a puzzle mat, mouse pad, and a gift card to Radio Shack.

Merry Christmas!

Whew!! I just finished putting our Christmas lights up.

If you need any help with yours, just call me.

Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Eve!

For Christmas Eve we went over to Marcy and Phillip's house. We read a left, right story of the Nativity Story and passed around white elephant gifts. Dale got a blinking binkie and a whoopie cushion. They were the perfect gifts for him even if they were suppose to be gag gifts because he has always wanted a binkie and who doesn't enjoy a whoopie cushion?

Dale and I displaying Dale's prize.

When we read the Christmas/Nativity Story out of the scriptures TaKara was a shepherd and stole the donkey then Baby Jesus. It was really cute having the kids act it out while we read.

The kids in their new Christmas pjs. Left to right: BreAnna, TaKara, Grandma Taylor, Brigette, and Adam.

A better angle of TaKara's pjs.

When we got home TaKara had to play with the new noise maker. She loved bum dropping on it. She is almost too light to push the air out so we had to help her. Her hairdo is what happens when she pulls her pig tails out.

Update

We all know the usual milestones...TaKara's so far...sit up 4 months, crawl 9 months, walk 14 months. Well 16 months for her has been very eventful. She can drink out of a normal cup all by herself, sit in a booster seat (no more high chair) and the most important...(drum roll please)...she can unzip her clothes and rezip them all by herself. Sorry about her hairdo we just woke up and that is what pig tails look like after a hard nights sleep. Don't you just love her pot gut HAHAHA Notice my glorious fire in the background LOL Also she said her first sentences this 16th month of her life.
1. There it is.
2. Thank you.
and the most impressive
3. I want a drink.
We think this is pretty exciting.

Well enough of her HEHEHE, last night we had a tithing settlement/appointment with the Bishop. We had a feeling that he was going to give us a calling since we asked to be released when TaKara was born and hadn't got a new one since and she is 16 months now. We were right! He called us to be Nursery Leaders. Dale has been debating this ever since Sunday. But he did say yes after finding out what all we would be doing. The part that was holding him back was he hates when kids scream and whine. But if that happens we can take them to their parents. I know he is going to have a blast playing with all of the kids/toys/snacks. I will keep you posted on how it goes! Merry Christmas!!!

Tommie's Home

Yesterday night at just before 9 p.m. Elder Thomas Pratt Taylor flew into Cedar City, Utah after serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints for the past two years. The original plan for Tom was to fly out of Louisville, Kentucky go to Cincinnati, Ohio then Salt Lake City, Utah and finally finish his air ride part of his trip home in Cedar. And then drive home with his fam to Loa, Utah. Well the weather had other plans. His first flight from Kentucky to Ohio was canceled. So I was on the phone on hold for over 40 minutes trying to find out what flight he was rescheduled to so we knew his new plan. Finally, I was able to talk to an Arabic representative and discovered he was waiting to go to Atlanta, Georgia then to Salt Lake.

The entire family (8 adults and 4 babies) drove to the tiny Cedar Airport to pick him up. The drive usually takes only 2 hours but it took us 3 hours each way because it was snowing and the roads were wet. When we got to Cedar though we thought we had plenty of time to eat so we decided to go to Denny's. They got our food out to us really fast considering how many of us there was but we only had 10 minutes to eat before we had to be to the airport. It all turned out okay though because we were there waiting for him.

Our family with Tom at the airport. It didn't turn out very good because the lighting was bad but at least we have a picture.

Ornament

Well I couldn't describe what my ornament looks like so I am putting a picture of it on here for all to see. It represents me starting my own home based business. My mom and dad brought it when they delivered our Christmas presents.

P.S. The raddle hanging in the background is the one TaKara broke then I fixed.

Early Christmas

Yesterday my mom and dad came and brought our Christmas presents. Dale & I got tons of food storage and a thing with all 50 state quarters in it. They have started a new tradition that the grandkids are allowed to open only the presents from grandma and grandpa while they are there so the kids will know who they are from. So we got the honor of watching TaKara last night. It was hilarious! She would rip off a tiny piece of paper about the size of a tootsie roll and either give it to grandma/grandpa to hold, put it in the box of papers to start fires, or throw it in the garbage. So you can only imagine how long it took her to open 2 presents LOL She got the book "The Monster at the End of the Book" and pajamas. If you have never read this book you have to find it and enjoy :) Thanks Mom & Dad!!! We had a great time while you were here.
Grandma's helping TaKara open her book.
TaKara playing clean up.
Reading time with Grandma and Grandpa Coates.
TaKara modeling off her pajamas that grandpa thought would be enormous on her. They are pink with snowflakes and monkeys on them. Way Cute!!!

Cute Hair

Sleep

So today after lunch TaKara was really tired because she didn't take a very long nap this morning so Dale went and laid her down. She cried and cried so he went and got her out and played her favorite game (Connect Four) with her for a minute before he had to go back to work. When he left she cried and cried and hugged the front door. Then she took my finger and took me into her room and wanted her blanket. The next thing I know she is laying by the front door like thisasleep. I tried to put her in her crib but she woke back up and screamed at me so I laid her back down and she instantly fell back asleep. Silly kids. The front door was having a breeze coming through it so I put a blanket under head to block the cold air. It was so adorable I had to share and I knew if I waited I never would post this. Thanks for listening and have a Very Merry Christmas!

I am editing this post and writing in a differnet color, because when TaKara woke up she sat by the door for about 30 or 40 minutes thinking any second Dad would be coming back home. When I tried to pick her up she wouldn't let me just wanted to stay right there. I didn't want to forget this so I am adding it so all can enjoy!

Sugar Cookies

Last night we made sugar cookies. TaKara had a blast. And we had a good time enjoying her fun. I know this is going to turn into a tradition even if it is a lot of work and makes a big mess :)

This is her using a cookie cutter. The cute thing is she would grunt and get her whole body into it.

This is TaKara rolling out the already cut cookies. I love the face.

Christmas Tag

This tag should be fun to do for the holidays!

"On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me..."
1 embarrassing moment: I don’t get embarrassed easily so I can’t think of one.

2 best friends: Dale and Margo

3 things you buy regularly: Orange juice, string cheese, and Pringles

4 places you want to go (and might actually REALLY go): to bed, St. George, Cedar on the 22^nd to get Tom from his mission, and the mountains

5 goals for the upcoming year (that you might actually do): eat healthy, gain a few pounds, stick to a budget, exercise, and enjoy life to its fullest

6 things most people don't know about you: I live in the second oldest house in Wayne County, I sell weight loss lollipops, I am very unorganized (since TaKara was born), I hate deciding what to have for dinner, I still have my rock & sticker collections from when I was a little kid, and I have a boy Christmas tree LOL

7 things you Would never say: I hate you, cats are my favorite animal, I ate a skunk, Spiders are my best friends, I sleep with mice, I hate Christmas, and I hate food

8 things you love about the Christmas season: egg nog, all the happy music/lights, the smell of Christmas trees, the true meaning of Christmas, ornaments, all other traditions, family time, and surprises

9 things you say to your kids: Yeah!, don’t get on the table, where’s your jacket, don’t stand on your chair, where’s your sippy, have a good nap, Daddy’s home, can you see the cow (or whatever animal is around), and there it is

10 things you do a lot: work/play on the computer, chores, play with TaKara, laugh, eat, sleep, relax with Dale, change diapers, go for rides in the mountains, and dance

11 things you would rather not live without: Dale, TaKara, the rest of my family, disposable diapers, hot water, electricity, good food, technology (phone/internet), heat, clothes, and soap

12 people to tag: Kaci, Katie, Kellee, Courtney, Lyndsey, Brittany, Brittani, Janell, Beth, Telsha, Marci, and anyone else that reads this whether you know me or not

Helping build the Fire

Dad's Kind Of Dancing

Tower