More kids club 200 7/20/13

Forgot to post these so I'll put them here. We love the free carousel ride!

Hair 201 7/21/13

This looked better before church but she allowed me to put 6 rubber bands in her hair. She enjoys getting dolled up. Oh, and something else worth mentioning that she says a lot is "silly Harlee". Glad I've trained her to tell herself that when she makes a mistake. She says it for me too. "silly mommy". It's so cute.

Traci Baby shower 199 7/19/13

My mom and I did a baby shower for Traci. It was a mustache theme. It was so cute and fun! Can't wait now to meet Gunner!

Kids club 198 7/18/13

The kids are sure enjoying kids club. I had almost forgotten about it.

Public pool time 197 7/17/13

Took the kids to Brimhall. This was their favorite part. Jaxon even did a flip. They were the smallest and most excited kids out there. It took about 3 or 4 jumps to get to the point that the life guard didn't have to explain the rules anymore. But they finally learned. Harlee and Mayzee were pleasant as well. It was a fun day.

Eiffle Tower cookies 196 7/16/13

Jaxon decided this was an awesome day for this one thing we did. Easy to please.

Family day 195 7/15/13

Had a fun family day at San Tan mall. Splash pads and Despicable Me 2.

Giggles 194 7/14/13

This is Mayzee's favorite game

Jaxon the BIG brother 193 7/13/13

I can't get him to stop picking her up. He even carries her up and down the stairs (eek). He just loves being the big brother and he is ever so sweet to this girl. He helps me out a lot.

Mayzee 8 months 192 7/12/13

Oh this girl! She's got two teeth. Scoots around. Not so good a napper. Sleeps decent from 8-4/5ish. Needs lot's of attention. Sitting up. Eating on her own. Loves to eat almost anything. Has the sweetest and softest giggle I have ever heard (when she actually gives the effort to giggle). Kicks wildly when excited (usually when I am coming to pick her up). Has an ear piercing scream. And boy I couldn't love her more. 

Fruit trees 191 7/11/13

Loving our fig and peach trees!!

Buddies 190 7/10/13

I have a feeling these two are going to be little buds. They are only a month apart.

Swimming 189 7/9/13

 I got some fantastic water pictures this day. The top picture is belly flops. They kept slapping down in the water. How does it not hurt them>?

Summer reading program 188 7/8/13

The kids were very excited to get their free books in the mail for the summer reading program. We read a lot of books to earn these! Grateful they love reading so much!

Ryker's talk 187 7/7/13

It shocks me how shy this boy can be. We only made it half way through his talk and he just wouldn't say anymore. It was hard not to feel embarrassed. But it was also a little my fault. We hadn't worked very hard on it. BUT also, he is always so excited to speak in primary. I was just a little surprised.

P!NK 186 7/6/13

I am a big fan of Pink as is Harlee. She is always singing this song. I love it!

Awkward 185 7/5/13

4th 184 7/4/13

Had a fun night with some friends. I am so happy we can do our own fireworks show. The kids look forward to the tents going up semiannually.

Happy time 183 7/3/13

This is when being a mom rocks. I don't know which kid is happier. Love hearing the giggles. Just the music my heart yearns for.

Pony 182 7/2/13

What's this on my head mama?

Crazies 181 7/1/13

Pandora 180 6/29/13

The kids are engrossed in "watching" Pandora play music. I guess they are desperate to watch anything. Ha ha!

Grandparents time 181 6/30/13

Kids enjoying some reading time with grandma and grandpa Taylor.

Water dogs 179 6/28/13

We have been pet free for a while now and the kids and Brian have just been tortured at the thought of having no animals. So he went and bought them water dogs. Apparently they are low maintenance and I don't have to clean their poop. We shall see. They turn into salamanders. It is the first thing Jaxon thinks about when we wakes up and the last thing he thinks about at bedtime. He has not been able to stop talking about them. It's hilarious and not annoying at all. :)

Argh. 178 6/27/13

This girl thought it clever to glue her art work to the wall. She kills me. Literally.

Monster Trap 177 6/26/13

The kids built a monster trap. You know, to catch the monsters. Little did they know they had already captured themselves.

Cousin sleep over 176 6/25/13

We had Klayton and Trey over. It was a fun time.

Play dough 175 6/24/13

They love when we make play dough.

Wrestle time! 174 6/23/13

They almost had him!

Mayze Face 172 6/21/23

Mayzee doing the plank 173 6/22/13

She is so strong. I love watching her trying to get around.

More swimming 171 6/20/13

Oh yes, Harlee can swim now. Glad I didn't fork out the money for swim lessons this year. However, she is horrible about jumping in at any and all given moments. She has no fear at all. Even when I've allowed her to get a little scared by not catching her right away. Crazy girl!

We love swimming days!

Kartchner Caverns 170 6/19/13

 We decided to take a day trip to an awesome cave in Tucson. It was fun but stressful. We were like 2 minutes late and it was a pretty big deal. We're lucky they allowed us to go on the tour still. Then it was a very controlled environment. Pretty dumb of us to bring 4 small kids. There were moments I was ready to find the exit but we made it work. Afterwards everyone complimented us on how well behaved our children were. Huh? did I miss something? I guess I'll just believe them and stop feeling embarrassed. This picture on top is of a truck, carrying a truck, carrying a truck. We drove by two of them-different trucks-same type of thing. Weird.

 We thought these were fake. Three lizards chilling on a rock.

Stopped at Brian's nostalgic Dairy Queen. 

Sun flowers 169 6/18/13

We grew sunflowers in our garden. They are so cool!

Father's day for Brian 168 6/17/13

 I had the kids answer questions about Brian. So cute!

Pop's day 167 6/16/13

Everyone says they have the best parents ever, but honestly, they don't. I literally have the best father in existence. I did a tribute for my mom a few years ago on Mother's day but I never did one for my dad. He absolutely deserves a spotlight on my blog. Without further adieu, top 10 reasons why I have the best pops everrrrrrrr:

1. He is frigg'n hilarious. He makes everyone laugh-me especially. Laughter has brought our family through a lot of struggles. I am so grateful we have our off the cuff, goofy, joking and sarcastic ways.
2. He works hard. I mean, DAMN hard. Harder than anyone you will meet. I heard stories as a youngster of how my dad worked 80 hour weeks. He did whatever it took to provide for his family and give us an awesome life. Dat he did.
3. He is honest. Sometimes it may seem that his integrity has done more harm than good. Being a business owner not having so much as a HS diploma, he worked his butt off and achieved success. But it was not without rising above the greed of others and complete sacrifice of time and money to stand up for what's right. There were times in court, it would have been easier and cheaper to settle (we had the union after us once-horrible organization!) but no matter what, he was not going to let them in. He believes he has been blessed in his life for these sacrifices for good he has done. What an example for us to have. Honesty is just as important in business as in our personal lives. You'd be surprised how many "good" people do not believe or follow this.
4. He is kind. He gets along with and is nice to everyone. He makes friends, literally, everywhere we go. Not saying he doesn't have enemies (but even they are treated better than I think they deserve). He is a good employer to his employees, to the waitress serving our dinner, and of course his wife and kids.
5. My dad is very protective of his family. You don't mess with us even a little. My dad has come to my rescue more times than I can remember. He is especially protective of my mother. Man, if you back talk to her or even roll an eye, expect to get his stern correction to remember that she is HIS wife and we better checkity check ourselves.
6. He was my personal inspirational speaker. It didn't matter the time of day or night or how long it took, if I needed his words of wisdom, he was there. We sometimes had talks that lasted until the wee hours of the morning. I am so grateful for how dedicated he was to helping us.
7. He is a teacher. And a good one. I am learning that not all dad's teach their kids things. Like how to clean, cook, drive a truck and trailer, fix things, yard work, how to paint, drive a boat, etc., etc., etc.! A lot of things I know, I learned from my dad.
8. My dad is one ambitious fellow. He is not satisfied with mediocrity. This can sometimes also be a curse known as perfectionism or OCD but I look at it on the positive side. He does everything to the best of his ability. He was told in HS by a coach or something that he would amount to nothing. Ha ha! They obviously knew very little about my dad.
 9. He is very spontaneous. It was so fun when my dad came home an announced one night to pack and get ready because we were off to Disney World the very next day. Many trips happened in that manner. My dad was full of surprises.
10. Lastly, my dad is extremely thoughtful. Something I have grown to appreciate even more about him. This is a small example and one of many but I will never forget being very well with my first child and being at their house. I think I briefly mentioned that I would need to leave and get my expedition filled up because I was running on empty. A little while later I left and headed toward the gas station. I looked down to see how I was doing on gas and it was completely full. Took me a minute to figure out how that could have happened. But sure enough, my sweet and amazing father filled her up for me. I felt so very blessed that night.

I am so proud of the father I was sent here to. I love and admire him so much. Thank you pops for being so friggn awesome!