In Between Dreams

The Texas Hill Country

2011-02-08T11:49:00.000-08:00

So since my Mom came out to visit we decided we better take the opportunity to take a weekend for ourselves. We drove out to the Texas hill country to a small little town called Wimberly. It was actually the first time we have ever left our children for more than a night, and although we missed them a ton, we had such a great time being alone!

For all you non-Texans, the Texas hill country is suppose to be where you go if you want to get away to the "mountains". Based on the picture above you can tell that we weren't really suffering from lack of oxygen because of the altitude. It was, however, a pretty scenic place to stay!

We booked a couple nights in this small little cabin called the "Caribbean Dream", it was somewhat secluded, so we didn't really have any real close neighbors. It was sort of like a Bed and Breakfast but without the Breakfast. Actually, one of the highlights from the trip was going to the local grocery store the first day to buy a few breakfast items. Some of the locals there rated pretty high on the Unintentional Comedy scale, and we almost wanted to go back before we left for some more people watching.

Here is another couple pictures from the inside....

The place had it's own small swimming pool, but it was pretty cold the two nights we stayed, so we didn't try to jump in the ice cold water.

We also had our own hot tub, and with it being so cold, it was great soaking in the hot tub at night.

We talked to a few locals to get recommendations on the best places to eat, and actually ate at a few really great places that had amazing food. This place was called Linda's Fine Foods, and it was so good, they had an old hippie couple there that night playing music that were actually pretty talented, and the highlight of the night was having Linda, herself, come and talk to us after dinner. Linda's husband was also there, hanging out all night, rock'n out with the band. Anyway, with Wimberly being such a small town we were surprised at how good we ate while we were there.

We saw these random signs along the way to our cabin, I guess they use these signs with people's last name instead of street signs.

We got a recommendation to go to this Italian restaurant that was located at a winery. It was about a 20 minute drive out there, but we decided we would go check it out. Unfortunately they were having a wedding or something, cause the place was packed, and it was like a 2 hour wait. So we decided it wasn't it worth it and went back into Wimberly for dinner. We did snap a few pictures though before we left.

We were happy to finally get away for some time alone! We had so much fun we are already trying to decide what our next trip will be!

My Mom's Visit

2011-02-08T11:03:00.000-08:00

My Mom came to visit back in January for a few days, it was the first time she has come to stay with us that didn't correspond with me having a baby. So it was good to be able to do lots of fun stuff that we have never been able to do with a brand new baby.

The kids absolutely love their Grandma Karr, she can get them riled up pretty fast, and they start acting crazy. It was kind of nice to have her around, because instead of stepping on my heels following me around the house, they would follow her around the house everywhere.

One of Desaray's friends was in the high school play, so me, my Mom, and Dez all went to go watch him. I'm not sure what was more entertaining, watching the play or watching the awkward teenagers try to interact socially with one another. My vote is still with the awkward teenagers. I'm almost 50% sure I wasn't like that when I was a teenager.

We roasted marshmallows and hung around the campfire one night. I got Nate this sweet fire pit for Christmas. The kids ate way to many smores and ran around the back yard for an hour straight.

Tayla insisted on wearing her sunglasses. She claimed they were to protect her eyes from the smoke.

We decided to go to Tangled one last time, and take my Mom to go see it. It doesn't matter what movie it is, the kids love going to the movie theater's...especially to see Tangled!

One of the days while Tayla was in school, we took Noah to the butterfly exhibit at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. We saw lots of interesting bugs and insects, and of course butterflies.

Noah loved the butterflies. He wasn't too interested in holding them though.

He decided to tough it out and try to touch one

But freaked out when he realized he had one on his shoulder, lol. This picture was right before he noticed it on him..seconds later he tried his hardest to get it off, while squealing.

They had a pirate exhibit there and he was really intrigued by all the pirate guys hangin about!

And of course we had to ride the train. Noah will never pass up a train ride. Or should I say, never stop jumping up and down saying train until he sits on it...then he's all serious.

He actually kicked my mom off his seat because he wanted to ride alone on his bench.

As much as he loves trains and makes such a fuss to ride them, he is always so serious as soon as he sits on the train and during the ride, lol.

It's Not a New Year's Resolution

2011-01-12T19:17:00.001-08:00

So I have been wanting to catch up on the blog for a long long time, and I finally got some time the last few days to post pictures from the last 6 months! Updating the blog has been on my "to-do-list" for a couple of months, so the massive catch up is not a result of any kind of New Year's resolution. Although being a better blogger probably should be. Anyway, all of the posts don't fit on one page so keep clicking older posts until you get sick of looking at pictures.

the bomb.com

2011-01-12T12:59:00.000-08:00

This year is sure to be a good one!! We have already scheduled a TON of fun things this year for the children AND Nate and I!! Here are some pictures we have taken after the New Year:)

He is VERY into looking silly and having me take his picture, lol. He is also very interested in the scriptures! What a good little boy:)

We got together with some friends and had a fun time using the new grill Di and I picked up for the boys on Black Friday:) It was even a bit chilly, which makes us get our fill of camping out in Utah!

Noah is just as obsessed with Tangled as Tayla is. He loves this picture and laughs at it every time he sees it. He loves to sing and dance to the Tangled soundtrack even acts out some of the parts:)

Our little Ham

Look what I saw the other day...DOUBLE RAINBOW ALL THE WAY!! (Well almost!) If any of you have not seen the YouTube video of the guy freaking out about the double rainbow, you should, it's hilarious!

We are headed to see Tangled in theaters...again!

The kiddos couldn't get enough of Daddy and was happy to see him home every morning when they woke up! They were able to go to breakfast lots! One of their favorite things to do with Daddy! (although this time mommy came along!)

Noah and his big boy bed! We switched his crib because he was starting to climb out and we thought he'd like it better. He does like it, but he is the sneakiest and most quite boy, that he will sneak out and start playing without us even knowing! He did good for the first few days until he realized all his new found freedom...and started to take advantage!!

Tayla had given the wig and dress as a gift to her friend for her bday, and she waited it SO VERY BAD!! She was so excited she received them both for Christmas!

Tayla and Addy had a make-over...and Noah happily joined in! He came out and his face looked like this:

He actually did most of it, but his hair was done by the girls:) Noah actually loves to put it on! It's to the point where Nate has taken his role as Dad and has forbidden him to put it on, lol. Dez and I just laugh at him while he is trying to set rules about Noah and makeup. Probably the only subject Nate gets fired up about, lol.

We enjoyed a date night to dinner and a movie during Nate's time off after Christmas! It was an awesome Christmas break because we had so much fun staying here and enjoying all Nate's time off, without having to stress about flying and traveling. (although we did miss our family over the holidays!)

Happy New Years!

2011-01-10T13:11:00.000-08:00

Happy New Years!! We enjoyed celebrating with friends this year. Here are some pictures! We ate lots of yummy food, played games, and had fun watching and playing with our own fireworks!

Noah wasn't interested AT ALL! He liked watching, but wasn't about to get close!!

Christmas Time!

2011-01-09T11:56:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!!!!!!

Hope everyone had fun during the holiday! We loved our holiday break! Here are some pics I took!!

Our card door! Thanks everyone for the Christmas cards! We love Christmas cards:)

On Christmas Day, we got together at a friends home and enjoyed a delicious dinner!

Noah, Tay and Addy!

Britt and Baby Kyler!

Tay and Addy changed 5 times while we were there and had a great time playing with new Christmas presents!

Dez striking a pose!

Nate was sick of taking pictures:)

Noah's had a fantastic Christmas! He was really into it this year! He loves Daddy's ping pong stuff, so we bought him his own paddle and ball.

Nate and Dez are radiating happiness in the background:)

Nate looks as happy as Ralphy on his Christmas shirt! We have been borrowing everyone elses ladder for 4 years; he was happy to get his own!

She couldn't be happier!

Tayla asked Santa for an American Girl Doll...well Santa is a smart shopper and got one for 100 dollars cheaper at Target:) She couldn't even tell the difference! Thank goodness!

Daddy put lots of work into this badboy! He did a great job making this cute puppet stand, that turns into a store, or whatever else the kiddos can think of! He actually made 2 of them!! One for us and one for our friends! He put it all together, and Diana and I worked lots sanding, painting, and making curtains! The kids LOOOOVE it!! We have puppet shows daily!

Nate reading the kiddos a Christmas story on Christmas Eve!

Each year, we have a scavenger hunt with clues left by our little Christmas elf named Mr. Jingles, to lead the children to their gifts...which are always Christmas jammies:) Mr. Jingles leaves jammies for everyone in the family! My favorite this year was Nate's sweet shirt I found with Ralphy's face from The Christmas Story!

Christmas Eve, we had people over for dinner, sugar cookies and to re-in act the nativity..well sort of! They got dressed and sat and ate a candy cane while we read the story from the scriptures:)

Cabe, Lyla and Di

Britt, Jeremy and Baby Ky

The missionaries hung out on Christmas and Christmas Eve too!

The children loved licking all that frosting...I mean, decorating sugar cookies with Addy and Max!

The kiddie table. They are so funny when they get together! They are all chatting away, having their own little social time just like the adults!

This year, we went to this puppet show hosted by another church. We had heard awesome things about it, and they do it each year, but still we were a little sceptical. We went and laughed so hard! It was VERY entertaining!! They had a bunch of youth singing and dancing, and a TON of different puppets and use very familiar pop songs to sing songs about the Christmas story! The adults liked it just as much as the children!

Tayla collected all the green confetti/string stuff from the puppet show!

Afterwards we went out to Pei Wei...my fav! And a hit for the boys...who of course, loved playing with the sticks!

Always on the go....

Tayla went to a Christmas breakfast the week of Christmas with some friends from school. I have become good friends with her friends parents from school so the 'Moms' had fun socializing and eating as well! Tay Noah and I all went and had a fun time!

Here are some of the children eating their yummy food.

Decorating reindeer cupcakes!

Here is Nate, working hard on the puppet stand for the children. He did such a good job!

My mom sent the family a fun gingerbread house to decorate together!

Noah had a hard time accepting that you don't eat all the candy. He had a breakdown at one point because he would put it on the house, then just take it off and eat it. The bad thing about the candy is that it's so hard we were afraid he was going to break his teeth! (He doesn't get sucking on candy yet, he just bites harder!)

Our cute little cottage!

We had fun dressing up (if you call gathering sheets together 10 minutes before leaving dressing up) to go to the ward Christmas party. It was a 'Night in Bethlehem' theme and was really fun to show the children what it was like when Jesus was born!

Tayla and I made some homemade sandals.

Nate taught a Hebrew School for children

We had fun making Christmas goodies to give out this year:) Tayla loved the penguin so much!

Tayla had her Christmas party at school. She's so fun to watch around her friends. She's such a sweet girl at school!

And she loves to let everyone know that Noah is her brother and she gets two of everything, one for her and one for her "Noee!"

Noah LOVES Tayla's parties at school because he knows very well what he gets!! Candy, cookies, cupcakes, and balloons!

It makes Tayla so happy to see Noah enjoying himself. She is such a sweet big sister to him.

We went to Chicfila for thier delish peppermint chocolate ice cream smoothie...our 3rd of of the season, lol.

And to our surprise, Santa was there!! Yay! It was awesome becuase it was free, there wasn't a 2 hour wait, and we could eat right after:) Noah and Tay both are in good terms with Santa, and they both did good this year. Last year, Noah was terrified!

The family loved seeing Tayla jam out at her school Christmas program! She had jingle bells on her hair bow, and she said to me after the program, "Mom, instead of singing some songs, I gave you the gift of jingles!" She was head banging and doing all the actions throughout the program. Needless to say, I had a lot of parents comment on her enthusiasm:)

She saw these blow-up things and wanted a picture with every single one of them. There were like 5 or 6 of them.

Max is a regular in our home. Noah and Max wouldn't have it any other way!

Noah's new past time. I swear it takes him 5 seconds to clog up a toilet. He puts the end of the paper in the toilet and then starts unrolling as fast as possible. I had mentioned it to a friend, and she was surprised her son would do that...nope, it ended up being Noah:)

Noah and Tayla had the best time getting to play in all the package peanuts from all our Christmas gifts that were sent!

Tay decorated her tree all by herself. She was really impressed with the way it turned out. Then she insisted on taking a picture with her babies by the tree.

Merry Christmas!

Family Pics!

2011-01-08T14:54:00.000-08:00

We had our family pictures taken FINALLY!!! We have been putting it off for ages now and decided to just do it! We need to do it more often, we had a fun time! My friend Christa took them! They turned out so bright and fun! Just what we were looking for! Here is her website: http://www.christaelyce.com/ Thanks Christa! Here are some of our favorites...well a lot of our favorites:)

Dez's turns 18!!!!

2011-01-08T14:45:00.000-08:00

My baby sister is 18!! Now that is something that makes me feel REALLY old!! She is such a fun girl to have around, and we love her to pieces! Everyone made her feel so special on her bday:) Here are some pictures we took!

She had someone leave a big sign on the door...and a gift too!
Surprise!!!! Nate and I took about 2 hours and shoved a bunch of cups in the fence so when Dez drove to school she would know how much we love her!

The next day we had to get a picture with her standing by it...we were really fond of our art work:)
She chose Cheesecake Factory to go to dinner and so we were all happy to make the drive to go. We LOVE CF!! We are not sure what she liked better, the Delicious cheesecake, or the scrumptious looking waiter whom she fell in love with, lol.

Nate and Tay getting ready to enjoy their meal! Our friend was kind enough to watch Noah so we could go out and not have Dez feel embarrassed to be out with the noisiest family in the restaurant:)
Sistafriends!

We took some pictures before eating...naturally:) I can't help myself!

What better than to say Happy Birthday with a cookie cake!! Made her happy:)

Darling Dez!

2011-01-08T14:44:00.000-08:00

On Thanksgiving Day, on our way home from eating dinner, we found some really fun buildings with bright fun colors, and I couldn't resist! Dez sure tried to resist, lol, but I made her! She matched perfectly:)

This is my favorite picture of Dez....why???...because this is what this girl looks like about 99.9 percent of her life. No, I'm not joking.

Thanksgiving 2010!

2011-01-08T14:43:00.001-08:00

We had such a great Thanksgiving! We opted for the nice relaxing dinner and had someone cook for us! Diana and I had to save all of our energy to leave Thanksgiving day and shop until the next morning on Black Friday! So we went to this really nice place down by the ship Chanel in Houston, and enjoyed our Thanksgiving dinner. Afterwards, we hung out at Diana's and had even more pie!

Tay and Addy

The Jones Family! We are so glad they were able to celebrate with us!

They had a LOT of options...Dez tried lobster for the first time and it took her like 30 minutes..or more...trying to get into it, lol

The highlight of Tayla's Thanksgiving Feast...Daddy! Nate took off the day to come to Tayla's school and join the family for some turkey dinner! She was so excited to have him there, as was I!!!! It's hard to do it myself with two rambunctious kiddos!

Our little Turkey

She sang cute little turkey songs, and loved the song that goes something like this, "I'm glad I'm not a turkey on Thanksgiving!" She was so cute! She is on the second row, middle to the left:)

She made her cute necklace and vest for the occasion and looked so festive!

We love her parties at school! And so does Noah...because he knows there are going to be goodies to eat!

Tayla was so happy she had a special visitor...Daddy!!

Tayla's Soccer Party!

2011-01-08T14:19:00.000-08:00

Tayla's soccer season came to an end, but not without a fun celebration!! Since I was the soccer mom, I had to put together the party. Fun, but happy it was over:) The girls had such a fun time, and that's all that matters!!

Displaying her trophy!

One last team cheer! Go Hearts!!!

Coach presenting Tayla with her trophy!

Team Mom...me...presenting Tayla with her goodie bag, lol

The cute Hearts Team! She had adorable girls on her team and we both made lots of new friends!

Coach was lucky enough to get to wear this awesome hat for the party. He was super excited. We had a fun time

Disney on Ice and Shtuff

2011-01-08T14:01:00.000-08:00

Strawberry Shortcake are a hit around this house these days!

Noah enjoying a cupcake at Brooke's party. He ate it like he hadn't eaten for 2 weeks.

So full of energy...always:)

Tay and Addy watching Rapunzel together! I loved it so much that we went back to see it again, and if we had the time, we would have seen it again:) Tayla is obsessed, and so am I:) And so is Noah...he likes singing to all the songs and will watch clips online with Tayla for hours!

This picture is showing Noah's love for watching himself on the video camera...or camera. It doesn't matter, if we take it, he wants to see it! And then he'll sit there and chuckle to himself!This picture makes me laugh because we had just taken out her braids and she takes one look in the mirror and gasps, "Mommy I look like Mother Gothel, Rapunzel's mom, in Tangled!!" I don't know if any of you have seen that movie (the best movie ever by the way) but she really did resemble her quite a bit, and it was very amusing to her. She looked in the mirror for about 2 hours after that.

Tayla gets a little too lovable sometimes...to the point that she looks crazy and he looks annoyed.

I love his little teeth. They are too cute! I am tickling him and he is laughing pretty hard.

Noah, or "Noee" as Tayla likes to call him these days! I don't know why, but she has given him that nickname and now all her friends call him that too.

I don't know why, but I think that everything that this little guy does is just the cutest! I love my sweet boy!!

Noah was totally cool with Chuck! Tayla on the other hand was terrified and ran away screaming....really loud....then hid.

What can I say, the kids love Chuck e Cheese!! We were there to celebrate Addy's birthday.

Noah discovered this big train that he can make go by himself and blew all his coins on it! He did it over and over and over!

I know you can't see in the picture, but she was excited to get "fairy dust" on her eyes...aka, eye shadow:)

Tay, Summer, Kylee, Macey, and Addy! Such sweet girls! This picture has been or screen saver on our computer and Tayla and Noah sit and talk about it every day!

Beauty and the Beast performing. I'll admit, I love going to disney on ice just as much as her.

Her and Addy were SO thrilled! Two fairy friends!

Tayla chose the Silvermist Fairy over a Princess....they practically run in the same family:)

Tayla and Mommy were SO excited to go see Disney Princesses on Ice together! Just the girls!!

The Latest Happenings

2011-01-08T13:15:00.000-08:00

Here are some recent pictures! Tayla was able to go to a dance camp and was as cute as can be as she performed her little routine at the end of the camp day! She had a blast and was in love with the girl that worked with her!

She is on the right standing on the yellow line on 3 point line?

She wanted to dance with her grown up partner, so she is helping her twirl here:)

She is the one with the big pink shirt on, two buns, and black tights.

She looked so little out there.

Noah thought it was all so awesome! Maybe it was all those girls:)

There she is with her fun instructor! All of the teachers were high school dancers that taught them a dance. It was only for one day, but she really enjoyed it and still talks about it!

So, some of you may have heard about Mother goose. It is a preschool program that you can do at home with your children, or in schools. Some people would compare it to a Joy School. Well anyway, I wanted to do something with the children at home, besides having Tay in pre-school Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I ordered it and have been doing it with the children! They love it and get so excited when I tell them it is time to do Mother goose! Noah does really well with it and they do learn a lot! It also gives me some time to see what they need to work on and have fun doing something with them that we all love!

The lesson was on Dads, so we made a little Johnny Appleseed and put pans on our heads like he did.

Then I dressed them up in Daddy's clothes! They especially loved that part of the lesson! It's amazing how little they look in his shirts!

I was doing the dishes and thought he was being a good boy and eating his jello...until I saw him throwing something...I went around to face him, and this is what I saw, lol. He is such a boy! He was literally throwing it super hard at his face. Of course, he wanted to see the picture as soon as I snapped it! He was pretty impressed with himself:)

We love hide and go seek! Noah is really good at it and usually can find Daddy faster than Tayla! He counts to ten too, which is darling to hear!

Just some close-ups of his sweet face.

We took a rode trip to Brenham just to visit the famous Blue Bell Factory! We took a tour and ate yummy ice cream for free at the end:) It was pretty interesting to see how they make and package ice cream products. They children had a lot of fun with the little hats they had there.

Free ice cream is really the only reason why we took the tour:) Noah say "cheese!"

Nathan turned 31 this year! Time sure does fly when you are having fun I guess:) Tayla was so excited to get him a baseball cake because she said he plays, so he must love it! Well, we love him and think he's the best ever!

Fun Fall and Halloween!!

2010-12-28T20:58:00.000-08:00

We had another great Halloween this year! It's so great to be in Texas for Halloween cuz the kids don't have to wear huge coats over their costumes when they go trick-or-treating like I had to growing up in Utah. It also seems like the kids get a lot of use out of their costumes, with all the activities going on there is always an excuse to put on their costumes. As you can see we decided to go for the Super Heroes theme this year! Noah looked awesome in his Superman costume with his cape, fake muscles, and his Clark Kent good looks! This was Noah and his buddy Max out trick-or-treating, starting the night off with a sucker to kick start the sugar rush. Looks like Max's high kicked in a little quicker than Noah's.

Tayla was Wonder Woman. She loved being able to put on bright red lipstick every time she put her costume on! Here she is with her friends Brooke and Campbell starting off the night!

The curl took plenty of hair gel and hair spray to get just perfect.

My favorite part of Tayla's costume were her fake boots, unfortunately when she would run around they would slide down to her ankles!

And here is the entire Super Hero family! Nate said he wasn't' going to dress up this year...but 2 hours before we went to a Halloween party, I put something together for us (thanks to some old yellow fabric and felt!) and Tayla made him wear it:) Unfortunately Dez didn't dress up with us this year, we couldn't convince her to wear a full body spandex Catwoman costume. Maybe next year.

Bad guys beware!

The classic skeleton PJ's, I wonder at what age they stop selling these for kids? (that's Nate talking, I love them!!)

Noah tore into this cup of Jello with reckless abandon and got more on the table and his face than in his mouth!

The kids were more interested in just eating the donut than actually trying to follow the rules and eat it with no hands.

This was at a friends house for a Halloween party. We had a great time and the kids had a blast chasing around with all the kids that were there!

She made such a cute Wonder Woman!!

She really was obsessed with red lipstick and made me put it in my purse for touch-ups.

We made caramel apples again this year, you can tell Noah is eyeing down this apple wondering how he is going to eat the caramel off the apple with out actually eating any of the apple!

Tay and I love to cook together so much, that I decided to make matching aprons for us!

A close up of Tayla's apron!

We made sure Noah ate the one he licked and mutilated:) He was so happy to help this year!

We went to Old McDonald's farm again this year. Of all the small little pumpkins on this table Noah and Mia had their eye on the exact same one, and neither was willing to give it up!

Tayla was kickin' it Texas style in her pink cowboy boots!

All the kiddos riding the train! Noah and Max waited all day to get a turn on the train and could hardly wait!! They loved it!

Little Turkeys! Or chicken, or hens, whatever these are suppose to be!

As soon as Max and Noah saw this peacock, they chased for what seemed like 20 minutes non-stop! We had to eventually get them and take them somewhere else so they would forget about it.

Noah found a hole in the fence, where he was trying to feed the donkey his chicken nuggets.

And he realized it was easier to feed the chicken nuggets here:)...little stinker!

Noah and Max screamed, jumped and chased after the train many many times. They couldn't get enough!

They loved these slides!

Tay and "Ad" as Tayla calls her:)

I really did get the best workout. Noah was running the ENTIRE time we were there! They ran down the tracks 50 times...well almost.

Tay's class...and Noah, sneaking off with the tail they were suppose to stick on the black cat, lol.

Getting into the scary Halloween spirit:)

She adores her teachers!

Playing games...hot pumpkin.

N made a new younger sibling friend at the party. They enjoyed playing in the container. I will be requsting them to set it out at the next party because he was having a blast (and I was not running after him, or keeping him out of trouble!)

Yes, cupcake and a cookie...just what they need.

Noah being silly before going inside for the party (yes I was parked in my car)

Here are some pictures of Halloween dressup at Gymnastics class!

He thought he was pretty awesome playing around in his costume. He must have thought he had special super hero powers because he was running faster and jumping higher...and staring at himself in the mirror to see!

Hopefully everyone had a fun frightful Halloween!!

Grammy and Papa come to visit!!

2010-12-28T20:37:00.000-08:00

We loved having Grammy and Papa Petersen come to visit us!! Tayla and Noah enjoyed every minute they were here and they are still talking about their visit still. Here are some things we did! We went and stayed in San Antonio and the kiddos had the best time. For some reason, they LOVE hotel rooms, lol.

Tayla was giving Papa lots of loves.

I can't help but adore the way Noah is so comfortably rested on Grammy, lol.

Here are the kiddos inside the Alamo

The one family shot we were able to get...Noah was not interested! This was also at the Alamo.

We went and walked along the Riverwalk in San Antonio. It's so pretty, especially at night when it is all lit up!

We decided to take a boat tour down the riverwalk and had a fun time learning interesting things about the riverwalk.

This is the one thing that Tayla wanted to buy on our trip...a crazy hat. One that I'm sure 500 people had tried on before we picked it up and bought it. O, well, she liked it and wore it for quite a while!

Since it had been a long day, we decided to take the kiddos back to the hotel and Karen and Dave went to dinner, than we switched. Nate and I went to dinner at a Mexican place and had some mexican guys play for us at our table...it was pretty awkward, but made us laugh!

Sea World San Antonio!! The children love Sea World!

We loved feeding the dolphins little fish! I love this picture because you can see Noah's little chubby hand and fingers grabbing the fish!

This is a picture from the show Azul...the dolphin/whale show. See the guy up in the air? He is our favorite guy that always acts crazy:)

This was our highlight! Noah's first time on a ride! He had such a fun time...just look at his face!

If you look closely, you can see Tayla and Noah up there in the middle at the front of the stage enjoying the Sesame Street show!

Here is one of our favorite shows...the sea lion and walrus??. He is huge and does sit ups and waves..it's pretty funny.

Tayla was extra excited to play soccer for Karen and Dave! She loved all the attention and the opportunity to show off!

Such a cute picture of Noah and Papa eating breakfast together!

Just the girls went to the Fall Festival in our community and Tay and I rode this fun train. I was almost tempted to have Nate wake Noah up from his nap so he could see and ride the train too...he would have loved seeing it and riding in it!

Dez's Senior Homecoming Dance!

2010-12-28T20:24:00.000-08:00

Dez looked gorgeous for her Senior Homecoming Dance!! She had such a fun time with her date Andy and their group. I am so lucky that I get to be here to help her get all ready and do her makeup!!! And it was so much fun taking lots of cute pictures of her as well.

I can't believe how grown up she is...she still seems like she should be 13 and playing with her pet rats, (whom she still talks about!)

So, her dress looked quite a bit different when we bought it. I altered it so it was longer, and put lace on the top and the bottom to make it even more modest, and we think it turned out perfect!! It fit her personality to the T!

Can't wait for the next dance so we can get all dolled up again:) She is so nice to like me to help, because I really do love it!

Noah Turns 2!!

2010-12-28T20:11:00.000-08:00

Our baby boy is 2!! Wow, that is so crazy...and a little sad...ok, a LOT sad. He still seems like my baby, except he is almost as big as Tayla!

He loves Toy Story, so we had a Toy Story theme party for him!

Mmmmmmm he says!

Taking a bite out of his cake...he dove in as soon as we finished singing! He'd been waiting for his cake (my very talented friend made just for him) ALL DAY and was so excited for his "woodie" cake!

Say Cheese!!!

He tried to steal a taste.

Here is our present for him...this has become our new live in babysitter!!! He is absolutely obsessed with his new train set and it is as if we didn't have to watch him at all because he is always just 2 feet away from it at all times! It has officially taken over as our coffee table in our house:)

His cute cake!

He also got lots of fun Toy Story toys and looks so cute playing with them!

Tayla The Soccer Star!

2010-12-28T19:47:00.000-08:00

Tayla started soccer! She wasn't sure at first about the whole thing because it was pretty hot at practices and she didn't like to get all sweaty, but after the second game, she started to get really good! The second game she played, she scored tons of goals and it helped boost her esteem. From then on, she was a hustler, lol. She loved to hear her coach say, "steal the ball!" and then all her aggression would come out on the field:) It's fun being the "soccer mom" and on top of that, I am also the team mom, lol

Noah also loved soccer because he would just run around and play. He is excited for his turn to play!

At the end of every game, we would all make a tunnel and they players would go through...she loved it!

It was a little hard to make the 8am games on Saturday...the only day we have to sleep in, but it was worth it! It's so fun to see her play and she loves it!!

Score!!!! Go number 6!!

Fun Happenings

2010-12-28T19:38:00.000-08:00

He is so much messier than Tayla ever was!

Max and Noah have a blast playing together at a place with bounce house sort of stuff, close to our home. They have mastered the stairs and love going down this slide!

The Jones' family took Tay on a little road trip because we couldn't go and so we just sent Tay. It was a fun place to go during the fall with lots of fun activities. She had a blast! Here are a few pics they took!

They are gold mining here...they found lots of treasures!

Thought I Gave Up Blogging?

2010-12-28T19:07:00.000-08:00

Nope, just really really behind. But I am catching up!!

Tayla and Addy being silly and enjoying a Popsicle!

What a ham!! Noah can't get enough suckers and sunglasses!

Tayla has been working on her last name....she is proudly displaying it! She said she wanted to have extra long letters:)

He had a blast putting these sticker foam things all over him, until he had to take them off

Dez got a job!!! Yay! She is now a Papa John's employee:) She hated it pretty bad at first, but is a champ at answering phones now, and we get a 50% discount on our orders....YES!!!

My cute boys!

Noah has Daddy's cute cheesy smile..except Noah hasn't figured out how to open his eyes and smile at the same time.

My boy is such a boy! This is what he does when I tell him to smile...but at least he is smiling!

Noah started Gymnastics class!! He loves loves loves it!! It is a Mother Tot class, so we get to play together! He will run and jump no-stop until he is all red in the face and sweaty, lol

He loves the drinking fountain as well and takes many water breaks:)

He is obsessed with the trampoline they have there and will jump..or run...down it over and over and over!

One of his favorite things is at the end, he will sit down and the teacher will put stickers on his feet, hands, and one on his nose! He loves the nose sticker and points to his nose and said "nose!" every time! Then gets up and yells, "tank yoo!!".

Tayla on her first day of school this year!! She was so excited to start another year of preschool, but was sad when we passed the new elementary school and said, "what? I thought I was going to the big school!"

These two boys are the best of friends. They are hilarious together and enjoy being friends. They are so much alike!!

Noah's being such a great friend

Noah and Max enjoying their favorite movie at the moment, Toy Story!!

Dez and Andy being geeks. But really, I love Andy, he's the best....just a friend of Dez's!

I started doing an activity/workbox for Tayla each day. It is a box that has 12 numbers on the outside that she takes off when she completes that corresponding number folder inside the box. Each folder has an activity or assignment in it. Each night I will put something to do in each folder, such as numbers, colors, letters, tracing, shapes, patterns, dot to dot, mazes, and all sorts of art projects. She LOOOOOVES THEM!! She will work on it for hours in a day and is soaking up all that info like a sponge! She has learned so much since starting and enjoys being surprised each day with all the different kind of activities there are:)

Gooooooaaaaaaalllllll! They yelled that reeeaaallly loud when our team scored a goal!

Nate and I went to our first professional soccer game and saw the Houston Dynamos! It was pretty hot, but luckily there was a breeze and we survived! We also enjoyed our time together!!

Daddy Noah and Tay swimming at a bbq!

I was able to see Wicked again, and loved that I could say almost every word from it (thanks to the soundtrack after watching it in NYC)!!

Loved getting out with my girls!!

He loves this hat!! He has two of them and still fights over them when his friend Max comes over...

The cutest cowboy ever!!!

He was so sad he was so messy, but was able to give me a little smile:)

Tayla wanted to play dress up with my Grandmother's old hats....so we had fun taking pictures too!

Annual Girls Trip 2010!!

2010-08-10T21:17:00.000-07:00

I had the BEST time, with my girlfriends this year on our girl's trip!!! We had so many awesome moments that make me smile just thinking about them, lol. I love these girls!! I love my family and children so much of course, but it is always nice to get away and have some time to myself!! Here are some pictures I took on our getaway!!

We did lots of shopping!

Went on a rollercoaster ride in the restaurant

Ate lots of yummy (and overprised) food!

Love me some fancy Nancy!

Took lots of awesome pictures:)

Out on the town

Alisha, Britt and Ang!

Kristi (who for the life of her could not take a serious picture that night), Nanc, and Me. Kristi, you know I love you:)

We were missing some of our girls this year, but we are hoping everyone can get together next year and we'll be heading to Las Vegas Baby!

I love girl's trips!!

Trip To Utah!!

2010-08-01T17:31:00.000-07:00

We loved our trip home to Utah this summer! It was filled with family and friends and AWESOME weather!! We could sit outside ALL day and not feel like we wanted to die:) Lots of pictures!

Uncle 'Mo', came to see us, which we were so excited about! We miss him...especially Dez!

Here we are playing music downstairs with my family. Tayla LOVED it so much! She had a blast with her cousin, whom she's only seen twice, dancing around!

Cousin Astrid, with Uncle Casey giving the girls a ride on Uncle Caleb's old wheelchair!

Here is Nate's side of the family during their big family get together for the fireworks! Lot's of fun!

My two sweeties!!

I love this picture because of the way Noah is sitting on the curb, lol. He looks like one of the big kids, just chillin!

Dave was doing some workout poses

Noah and Daddy standing by the Utah State Bull

I love my sweet boy!

Noah was having a blast with the airplanes

And he was really enjoying his cookie sandwich

Any kind of food makes this boy happy! (his poor face has mosquito bites all over it!)

Some more of the family at the party

We miss all the get togethers and fun stuff they do together as a family.

Ready for the fireworks!

The children loved playing with all my family's musical instruments...especially Noah on the drums! He was so comical to watch! He was so serious, then out of nowhere, he'd just start grinning like it was the best thing ever!!

Tayla and her cousin Astrid. They are only 3 months apart! This is the second time they have seen each other..the first time was when they were 6 months old! They had a blast!

Nate's sister and I went to see Eclipse:) We of course loved it and had a fun time getting out together for dinner and a movie:) Miss you Lisa!

Nate's mom came with us to go up to 3rd dam in Logan Canyon for a day. It was so beautiful out there! We loved it so much being in such fresh air and not an ounce of humidity! (at least that we could feel!)

Love this boy so much!

Noah almost fell asleep. Traveling is tough stuff for the babes! Even me:)

I had the chance to get together with some friends for a girls weekend trip and also to get the children together! Here are a few of us that were still in Logan at the same time (Ang was taking the picture) It was so fun to see everyone's kiddos!

They were soaked from the water fountain, but loved it

Aren't they all so cute!

Grandma Karr loving time with Tayla and Noah

We had the chance to go to Temple Square and spent the whole day there! We loved it and we were so happy to show Tayla everything, since she loves temples and is so excited to go there someday:)

YES!! This is a sconecutter scone! I was thrilled to see one and made Nate stop off and get three of them, hahaha. Scones here in Texas are dense, hard, and yucky..not like this warm, gooey, blissfulness. Anyway, this is for all my Utah friends now living in Texas who all miss REAL scones, lol

The Salt Lake Temple is so beautiful!

We were out and about for quite awhile, as you can see in her facial expression...and hair

This is Tay posing for a picture with a Joseph Smith sculpture. We loved loved the Joseph Smith movie they are showing right now. Tayla truly loves Joseph Smith and she is so interested by all the things he has accomplished and the trials he has gone through. She HAD to pose by him numerous times and have me get a picture of her.

Hanging off another Joseph Smith Statue:)

I love my children so much and hope to see them here (or any other temple) someday!

The Petersen Cousins...when they were together, there was NEVER a dull moment:)

Here is my Dad and his pet turkey, lol. The children and I (since Nate hadn't left TX yet) went to visit my Dad and Grandma in Wyoming.

The children loved all the animals!

Tayla was having the best time helping him water the horses and feed the turkeys!

My Grandma Marble and Noah...Noah sat up there all by himself and made himself comfortable.

On the way to Wyoming, we stopped off at Bear Lake, and ate while finding seashells. Tayla has been wanting to do this ever since her friend from school went to the beach and brought her back a pretty seashell:)

Noah didn't like the sand getting in his crocs until he figured out that he could dump the rocks there himself...after that he had a great time getting dirty!

We loved our time in Utah and miss it even more now we are back in hot humid texas! We miss our family so much, and hope to be closer someday. We love you all!

'Ducks Like Rain' Ballet Recital!!

2010-07-15T09:10:00.000-07:00

She was such a cute little ducky! Tayla practiced so hard for her dance to the song, Ducks Like Rain, and it was so cute!

They were such a cute little group of dancers, that they were able to perform for each show, and there were three shows in one day for the recital. They were so cute, when they walked on stage, the entire auditorium audience started laughing and they looked around like, what???

She was SO excited to get flowers!! Twice! Since she danced more than once. I wasn't going to give her flowers more than once, but she said, "Mommy, I'm so happy I get TWO flowers because I am performing twice! So I bought some there last minute, I couldn't help it:)

Here she is before the show. She was so excited! She really enjoyed putting bright lipstick on too, lol. It helped with the excitement:)

She made some cute friends in ballet class this year.

She is practicing her smiles for the recital.

Quach, quach quach quach quach...(that's part of the song)

she loves ballet, and practices her moves often!

I just love the back view, lol

We loved ballet! We are doing something different this year, and I am a little sad because it's so cute to see her dance and dress her up, hehe. But she will try soccer next and hopefully she'll want to do ballet again sometime:)

Tayla turns 4!!

2010-07-14T16:49:00.000-07:00

Tayla is 4...how crazy. Everyone says it, and it's because it's so hard to believe how quickly time passes and your babies grow up!

She had such a fun party this year. We did it at Kids In Action, where they do pretty much all the entertaining..for 2 hours! They played on all the gymnastic toys first, which included a fun little rollercoaster, which she loved! There was music, games, pizza, cupcakes, and lots of noise! We were so happy with everything. Tayla still talks about it and how much she loved it!

The pictures are not in order...

17 children running around was so entertaining to watch!

Say CHEESE!!

She loved helping me with her My Little Pony Party theme....from who to invite, picking everything out, to making the cupcakes...she was really into it this year!

Kelsey was nice enough to go under the parachute to take a few pics of the children...some of my favorite pictures!!

My little rockstar, lol.

She was a little nervous at first that she was the only one in the middle of the parachute...but then she was all crazy!

Noah had the time of his life...making up his own games!

He was being so stinkin cute!

She was extra smiley on her birthday party day!

Since her bday was on a Sunday, we had our own party at home! She got lots of fun stuff....but most of all she got a doll house for all her beloved barbies:)

2010-07-14T16:46:00.000-07:00

What a ham!

Noah's first full on painting! He got board fast.....not like Tay who could do this sort of stuff all day long!

Tayla was being such a goofball after she surprised me when she put on Nate's ping pong sweatbands, lol. She was making all sorts of silly faces and posing all crazy.

I'm number one!

My sweet boys!

He sure does love his Daddy!

There was one good thing about Nate being called to be he second counselor in the bishopric...Nate's Dad came to be here to ordain him a high priest:)

The children loved to have Papa all to themselves!

It meant a lot to Nate to have his Father here. We were sad to see him go so soon!

They played some pretty heated games of pong..

And we even went to the zoo before we drove him to the airport.

Funny how much they look like each other from behind, lol.

I had an awesome Mother's day..I'm so lucky to have such great kiddos and husband that treat me well. This is the dessert Nate made me!! It was yummy!

Tayla and her ballet teacher! She has loved ballet as much as I have loved watching her dance..it's just too cute!

Tayla and her ballet poses are so cute. She uses ballet a lot when she dances around the house.

Here are her little ballerina classmates practicing her their recital!

Tay had a blast at Eliza's circus birthday party! Look at her happy smile:)

She loved the clown Okie Dokie! I loved this pic with Eliza in front and Tayla lovingly wrapping her arms around her.

She made a ton of character balloons....one sweet talent I wish I had.

Noah is already to go out in the storm!

We went to the zoo (we are loving the zoo right now) and had a blast with some neighbor friends! As much as we go, it's too bad the zoo isn't a bit closer! But it's worth the drive!

Little Noah always trying to keep up with the big kids!

School's Out!!

2010-07-14T16:44:00.000-07:00

Daddy loved having Tayla and Noah visit him at work. Tayla kept saying, "Mommy, this is taking forever! Daddy's work is too far away!" Amen Tayla, amen. He actually just got a new position, so we were thinking it would be somewhere closer...but no luck, he still in the same location:(

Our sweet missionaries Elder Bauer and Elder Mathis! We miss them!

Tayla's best bud from school playing dressup. They have WAY too much fun together!

Tayla put 'makeup' on using chalk. She said, "Mom, do you recognize me??" funny girl!

We spend lots of days playing in the pool and with all the water toys! It is SO hot right now!!!!! Tayla gets in the car and says she can't breath, while not says HOT HOT HOT. Poor children.

We love our Noah so much. He ate probably 5 cupcakes during a get together with friends. Everytime I would see him he'd have another...picking up cupcakes that had been left unattended...but he was as happy as can be, lol.

We went to the zoo to see the new dinosaur exhibit! The children loved all the dinos, but kept their distance! They weren't sure about the mean looking ones! This one spits water out of his mouth.

They look so cute together..Tayla is telling him it's a dinosaur, and making sure he's not affraid (even though Noah was braver than her).

Tayla had a blast at her water day party the last day of school! She and Eliza did a good job covering every inch of their bodies with shaving cream, lol. They were being hilarious! They were loving it until they had to get hosed off.

She had such a great year at school! She loved all her classmates (a little too much sometimes...she was convinced she was going to marry Jackson until they got in a fight) and teachers so much! They were all great...but she is really for summer!

Dez's Prom Pics!!

2010-05-02T20:57:00.000-07:00

My sweet Dez is all grown up and going to proms!!! lol. Although, to Tayla, she was getting her princess dress on because she was going to the Royal Ball with her prince Miles, lol. She was excited for Dez to go to the Ball:)
She looked beautiful!!! Getting her ready for the prom was no small task. Miles' mom asked me how long it took her to get ready and although I wanted to say 3 weeks, I kindly said, only 2 days, lol. It was all worth it. She was the prettiest (and by far the most modest) girl ever:)

Dez and her Date...Miles.

These are a couple of pics I took before he picked her up...she was so nervous:) They were both nervous actually...it was so cute! (and funny)

I'm so lucky she is here close so I can help her with these kind of things...it really is so fun!! Love you Dez!

Texas Bluebonnets!!

2010-04-22T21:34:00.000-07:00

We are so lucky this time of year because we get to enjoy these beautiful flowers that only really bloom and stay pretty for a few weeks!!

So we made a small drive and I was able to get some pictures of Tayla in the flowers!! I had planned on getting Noah in there too, but didn't want to make it too hard on myself. I was lucky to get Tayla to cooperate:)
The children loved the flowers and had the best time just being outside around them!

We went to a few different locations, and I think they had the most beautiful bluebonnets I have ever seen! Tayla was pretty good about letting me take her pictures...although I had to bribe her numerous times:)

The Super Mega Post

2010-04-15T12:01:00.000-07:00

So, once again, a thousand pictures:) They are for all the family who never get to see our sweet children! So lots of pics so you can see what we have been up too!

Tayla at her V day party at school.

The teachers are so sweet to Noah. They let him join in all the fun. Noah decided it was his turn to be in the middle, so he jumped right in:)

I love how he just sits there with the other children waiting for further instruction! He loves going to Tayla's school parties! Loads of pizza, capri suns, cupcakes, and goodies...who wouldn't love them!

Noah loved decorating his own cookie...or rather eating his cookie with globs of frosting.

He even licked his bowl clean.

Tayla had Addy come and decorate with her..although they too were more into eating the frosting plain.

Tayla had a field trip to Duessan Park in Summerwood...15 minutes or so from school. They had a great time playing on all the equipment, playing games, seeing the buffalo, etc.

We arrived a bit early to meet everyone for the field trip, so Tayla, Noah and I fed the ducks some bread. It was the first time for Noah...he thought it was pretty sweet. He didn't even mind every time they nipped his finger to grab the bread. Noah got better at throwing it through the fence so by the time we were out of bread they didn't get his fingers:) He didn't stop saying "duck" all day after that!

Tayla wasn't to into putting cotton on her nose and jumping like she was a bunny...but still enjoyed all the other games that didn't involve petroleum jelly on her nose:)

So...we love our missionaries! We love to have them over and try to feed them often, or go out on visits with them often. It's great for Dez to have a good example of a good guy not too far away from her age!

Noah and his best bud Max! They are so cute together! They say each others names perfectly and get so excited to see each other! (that is milk coming out of his mouth..I know sick) I just love how Max is snuggling up to him!

Tayla is in the phase where she wants me to take pictures of her randomly all day. I love it because I love taking pictures, but sometimes they are really weird pics. This one isn't weird, but she really wanted me to take a picture of her braids in her hair...which you can't even see in the picture.

Tayla had her rodeo week at school and loved dressing up!

When she got to school, I couldn't help watching her with all her little friends. They all circled around each other and compared rodeo outfits! lol, it was super cute!

Noah and Nate! Nate has worked in Katy, which is quite a drive from home...usually an hour on a good day...and so after dropping Tayla off at school one day, we made the trip for the first time since he'd been working at that location, and surprised him for lunch! We had such a great time and Noah was so so excited to spend time with Daddy during the day. He was being so cute and kept saying, "Dadda Dadda!"

We love our Noah so much! He's so sweet. He is just so lovable and for the most part, pretty chill. He still loves food, and suckers...a lot! I need to have a post just on him...just for my records...so I can remember all the sweet, cute, and funny things he is doing right now so I don't forget.

I turned 27!!!! Wow, I'm old. I know I say that every year, but for some reason 27 just seems too close to 30! I had a great birthday and Nate and the children and my friends always make it so special for me:)

Such a curious boy! He's being a peeping tom and looking at the neighbors back yard at their puppy.

So..we got lucky and we were given free tickets to go see the Houston rodeo and watch a concert after!! Nate's boss invited us to go and join them in the Exxon Mobil suite!!! It sure was nice, lol! We had all the food, and goodies we wanted! We had such an awesome time!

Mutton Busting was Tayla's favorite!

Tayla was SOOO crazy that night. I don't know if it was the ice cream or what, but she was acting so silly! Here is a picture of her silliness.

And another..she was being wild! It was cracking us up!

We took another trip to Sea World San Antonio!! It was really last minute, but Nate has been working constantly and so he took off a few days and had a blast spending time as a family! I loved this picture because Tayla is being her crazy self and you can see Nate, myslef and Dez in the mirror:)

We stayed right on the riverwalk and loved walking around at night along the riverwalk.

We took some cool pictures:) Dez didn't plan coordinating with the wall.

At Sea World, Noah and Tayla loved this thing...you can't really see the entire thing in the picture, but there is this rope stuff everywhere and Noah was determined to climb it..although he couldn't do it himself, so I was nominated to help him. I am just glad he didn't insist on going through all the tubes...

The kiddos loved all the sea life exhibits!

One of our friends from church gave us tickets to go see a basketball game! The Rockets vs Utah Jazz!! It was fun to go root on our home team...although It was weird because we usually cheer for the Rockets because we live in TX, but I found myself getting bugged at people being mean to the Jazz players...not that I could even name ANY of them, but still.

These two are so cute when they play (most of the time!). Noah is at the age where he can play games with Tayla and of course copy anything she does, or says. It's pretty funny to see some of the things she gets him to do, lol. They are good friends, and it makes me happy! I am going to do all I can to make sure they like each other as they grow up.

We all love Dez! You can tell how much Tay loves her:) And it is so stinkin cute when Noah says, "Hi Dez" perfectly, lol.

We had a great Easter! It was a little different since we didn't go to church because of general conference, but it was still fun. We had the missionaries over for dinner so it was nice to have company over:) Tayla was mostly excited to finally get Princess and the Frog movie from the Easter bunny!! And band aids...which she uses about a box a week.

Dez was most excited about her itunes gift card..and all her sweets of course.

Noah's first time decorating eggs!! He loved it, and loved the fact that I let him hold eggs by himself...but he kept trying to eat them and had a fun time cracking them when he realized they cracked when smacked against the table.

Tayla loves doing anything crafty with her hands. She took decorating her eggs very seriously, lol.

Trip to Utah!

2010-03-01T12:09:00.000-08:00

The children and I took a trip to Utah at the end of Jan. for a couple of weeks! It was really hard actually...to travel with 2 little kiddos by myself, but it was fun and worth it! The flight home was the worst flight of my life though! Noah was sick and had an ear infection and screamed most of the way, and after almost 3 hours, the captain would get on and say we had to stay up in the air for longer because of weather in Texas. The 2.5 hour flight ended up being 4 hours. I didn't know whether to cry or laugh after the flight was over and we saw Nate. Stopping off for ice cream filled with chocolate helped a little on the drive home from the airport:)

This post is filled with pictures of family and friends we were able to see and visit during our trip! I couldn't fit all the pictures, so there are a lot of people we saw that I didn't post pictures of, but this post was getting a little long. I was so proud of myself for taking lots of pictures, but with all the pictures I took, it was hard to decide which ones to post! I overdid it, I know, but it's been awhile:) I love my camera so much I actually LOVE to take pictures!! I really did take it everywhere.

Nate's little sister Lisa left for Haiti the night after we flew in, so we visited with her before she flew out. She has the cutest little dogs ever and the children loved them. Noah was so cute with them...he was fearless and kept putting his finger up to their mouth so they would lick him.

Marci, Nate's sister and Tayla. Tayla and Noah adored Marci! She is so cute with children.

My step dad enjoyed Tay and Noah. I gave him and my mom babysitting duty more than once:) They loved it though!

It has been a long time since I'd seen my little brother Casey. We were able to visit with him quite a bit. Noah and Tayla really loved him. He taught Noah a little dance while beat boxing, lol. It was hilarious!

Tayla and my older brother Caleb!

The children with my mom....I don't know anyone else who acts crazier with my children than my mom. She is overly proud of her grandchildren (and she will tell you...a lot) They have a great time with Grandma Karr!

The first thing Tayla wanted to do as soon as we arrived in Utah was play in the snow. She asked everyday until we did it...and then asked everyday after! Since I was alone, it was hard to get out there by myself with Noah, so we had to wait for Papa Petersen.

She had the time of her life!

Noah came out with us, but didn't last very long. He went down the hill a few times and was done:)

Tayla making a snow angel. She was out there for quite a while. The only way we could get her to go in was by bribing her with hot cocoa and marshmallows.

Marci and Cedric played in the snow too!

Tayla and her cousin Hayden.

Noah was SO obsessed with the cats! He followed them around constantly and then would lay right on top of them and give them loves!

I think the cat was happy to see us leave.

I was able to see a couple of friends from high school I hadn't seen in years!! These are Tiffany's girls. They are adorable and the girls had lots of fun playing 'house'.

Those teeth, lol.

Hayden had a birthday while we were there, so all the Petersen cousins had fun together.

Noah thought this horse was pretty awesome!

Grammy Petersen helping Noah ride Hayden's new scooter.

Grammy and Tay! Tayla misses all of Grammies books and her sweet song she sings to Tayla.

Noah wasn't sure what to think about this big bear sitting on the floor of my Aunt Cheryl's house. He didn't seem to be scared and after a few minutes was giving it kisses..yuck.

Tayla loved holding the newborn pig! It was only a couple of days old! She did freak out when it started squealing though, lol. She didn't think that small little thing could make a noise like that I guess.

Here is Tayla out on the farm, looking at all the baby pigs and their mommas. They had quite a few! It was sad, but pretty funny, when Tayla saw a couple small pigs outside on the ground and she said, "Mommy, that pig looks really cold and sad." I couldn't help laughing because it was cold..it was very dead. I just agreed and picked up my pace so we could pass it faster. Poor pig.

She was able to see quite a few animals. It was worth the awful smell and having to take baths as soon as we were home to try to get the poop smell off...really it was SO bad.

Tayla with her second cousins Collin and Ashia. They were so crazy together! It was hard getting her calmed down to go back home and she was asleep as soon as I started driving.

Nate was sad to miss out on the Super Bowl party his family has every year! The kiddos had a fun time eating lots of junk food and drinking soda! Here is Cole and Tayla! I had WAY too much to eat that night.

Some of the children coloring...and Grandpa Walker in the left corner. I love going to Grandma's house on Sunday and parties because Nate has an awesome family. They are so fun to get together with and there are always LOTS of people there so it's always really loud and there is always a conversation going! We really miss them when we are gone!

Nate's grand parents live right next to the temple, so Tayla really wanted to get a picture with it. We talk a lot about the temple to Tayla and she is overly excited to get married in the temple. She said, "Mommy, is that where the prince lives?" And I told her that is where she can marry her prince! After I told her that mommy married her prince in there, and my prince is Daddy, she laughed and said, "Mommy...stop! That's silly."

Sea World and Schlitterbahn!

2010-01-08T19:31:00.000-08:00

I really do have a lot of pictures!! Oh well, I just couldn't help myself:) We had a blast going to Sea World again, and also we went to Schlitterbahn, which is usually a water park, but in the winter months they have lights, activities, fake snow, etc, which made it seem really wintery:) In the months before and right after Christmas, the Riverwalk in San Antonio is also lit up, so it makes it lots of fun to visit. Dez was nice enough to stay one night with Noah so we could go out and eat on the Riverwalk without wrestling with him!

We watched Polar Express in 4D at Sea World. Noah was looking pretty cute in his little glasses!

Tayla and Daddy making faces with the glasses while waiting for the show to begin.

We loved the sea lion show they had for Christmas! We were sitting right up front too, so we had a great view of the show! The kiddos loved it and Noah was so interested I don't think he blinked once during the entire show!

Here is the walrus they have come out at the end...she is SO BIG and they have her do funny things like sit-ups, and blow kisses.

Here are a few of us. Becca, Steve, Evan, Scott, Garrett, Dez and Noah. Nate is in the back hidden, sitting with Tayla. We were enjoying the Sesame Street show, where all the characters were dancing and singing.

I put Tayla's hood up so it added 3 more inches to her height, so she got away with riding the Shamu roller coaster:) She loved it and she was screaming most of the time!

All of the children love to stay in the same hotel room! The girls were thrilled to find out that they had the same jammies on! They were being so silly!

Aren't they so cute!

Noah fussed until we let him ride on the carousel, after watching Tayla ride it! He felt like such a big boy the entire trip and wanted to do everything the big kids was doing!

Tayla and Noah went ice skating for the first time! Tay really thought it was fun...although she did realize it wasn't as easy as Dora the Explorer makes it look!

Nate, Tay and Dez!

Here's the fam! We loved it because even though it didn't compare to the lights on temple square, it sure did remind us of them and we were missing home:(

Nate and Dez rode on the alpine slide!

She was cheesing it the entire time! The bobsledding was funner than the alpine slide, but they were both fun to do!

The children loved these two characters!

After three days of fun, all three of the kiddos were dead asleep after 5 minutes in the car!

Merry Christmas!

2010-01-08T07:05:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas! Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas break! We sure did..here is some pictures of our Christmas break!

We went to the theatre to watch Princess and the Frog and they loved seeing these big chipmunks! Tayla is actually dying to see the new movie with the girl chipmunks singing the Beyonce song, lol

Tayla was SO SO excited to see Princess and the Frog! I surprised her and bought her a Princess and the Frog shirt to wear when we went to see it! She was really happy, and I think she felt pretty special. She is pointing to it in the picture:) It was a really cute movie..we all loved it!

Got to have those pictures with Santa!

It seems as though he is going to get through meeting Santa without freaking out...

But he decided that Santa was scarier in person than he remembered. He looked at us like he was so hurt we would do something so mean! (although this Santa is by far the most unfriendly Santa ever!)

Tayla on the other hand, didn't freak out seeing Santa this year:) She was really happy to see him and when she came home she proudly said she didn't cry! She also said Santa forgot to ask her what she wanted for Christmas, and she didn't tell him she wanted a pink car...she was pretty bummed about that!

Tayla and some of her friends at school during their Christmas Party lunch. She had such a fun time with her friends.

After her party at school, we came home and went through all her goodies she received. She was pretty happy and kept sneaking chocolate in her mouth.

She really enjoyed sending off Santa's letter this year. She is putting the North Pole stamp on her envelope in the picture. She wanted to make sure that Santa knew she wanted a pink car for Christmas.

On Christmas Eve, we had a yummy dinner at our friends house, and then we managed to get the kiddos together to dress up for the nativity. Noah kept his head piece on for about 30 seconds, then he was done.

Noah was such a happy boy on Christmas morning. He really didn't know what was going on, but all he knew was he was getting lots of sweet new stuff (and special snacks) so he was over joyed!

Tayla on Christmas morning

The biggest wrapped present....it was pretty fun to see her open it.

Tayla and Noah were in heaven. Noah actually was obsessed with her car and had a hard time focusing on opening presents because he just wanted to sit in the car and listen to the radio (that really works)

Noah also got a little car from Santa. He was pretty happy..look at that smile, lol. He can drive it all by himself, all he has to do is push a button. He drives pretty crazy and he's constantly getting whip-lash.

Noah and Daddy. Noah was so happy to have lots of new balls! I think this picture is so funny because they both have the same little smile.

Here are the kiddos taking their first ride!

Tayla was perma grin the entire time. Noah was looking at her like she was a crazed woman. She was a really crazy driver and she was so enthralled with it driving when she pushed the gas pedal, that she forgot to steer. It was also funny to see her change gears from forward to backward, etc.

And since we bought Tay and Noah a car, we thought Dez would be pretty miserable if we didn't get her one too! We made her wait until all the presents were unwrapped and I gave her the last present to open. I knew she wanted boots, so I wrapped a boot box up, then put 4 different sized boxes wrapped within each other and then the final smallest box had a mini stocking in it. Inside the stocking was her set of keys!!! I wanted to put the picture of her face when she pulled out the keys, but she would be really mad at me if I did because it's a pretty funny picture of her, lol. We hid the car at a friends house until the morning of Christmas then we drove it over and so she was really surprised! It was really fun to keep it such a surprise...and we are both SO glad to be done with the entire car searching thing....it took us way too long to find something!

Hope everyone had an awesome Christmas!

Pre Christmas Fun

2009-12-16T12:10:00.001-08:00

Christmas is always busy for everyone and filled with lots of fun activities. Here is what we have been up to!

Tayla had her Christmas program at school. She did a pretty good job, but was really tired. She fell asleep on the way to the program and we only live like 8 minutes away.

I thought it was funny that all three girls had their hands in their mouths.

We had a fun time making sugar cookies and decorating them.

Tayla had her first ballet recital! I couldn't help post lots of pictures! It was the cutest thing! all the little ballerina's were SO cute! This is her little class right before she performed.

She danced to, "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas". It was darling! She's on the end...but not the little girl walking away from the group.

Skipping around her hippo.

I just love it!

Tada! They were the cutest little ballerinas ever!

Holding her flowers she got from us. She was really excited to get them and it made her feel really important and special.

We also decorated a gingerbread train. I iced it and she added the candy.

She came up with all the designs herself. She was getting pretty fancy on us!

We also thought it would be fun to decorate her...it's sort of drooping off her face, lol.

Nate and I went to a Tacky Christmas Sweater Party, and had a blast! Nate won something for his get-up! The hat, which lights up, is the same hat we received last year as a white elephant gift.

Us girls!

We went to The Nativity, which our stake does each year at Christmas time. Here we are all dressed up for the nativity scene.

Our little angel....

We can't wait til Christmas!

Texas Snow Baby!

2009-12-07T11:56:00.000-08:00

I just had to post this...I know I am from Utah, but I sure do LOVE it when it snows in Houston!!! Tender mercies, that's what I think! Who needs Utah when you have snow in Texas! Makes it seem more like Christmas when we get to see white, even if it was just for a day!

This is a pic of the first snowfall, so it wasn't sticking to the ground yet.

Tayla got her snowboots, hat and gloves before Christmas!

She was really happy! She kept saying, "Mommy, snow is really good, go ahead and try some!"

Noah liked eating it also. He didn't seem to mind the cold!

I know it's not a lot, but to us, it's a TON:)

Noah and Daddy! Noah's face is a bit scratched in the picture, but it looks a lot better than the day I tried to get picture of the children...he fell head first on the sidewalk and scrapped his face and hit his head. It blended well with the bruise that was already on his other cheek. He seriously is so accident prone! Poor boy! I'm surprised he survives each day.

Thanksgiving Week

2009-12-03T11:53:00.000-08:00

We had a great Thanksgiving week! Here are some pics!

Noah and Tayla with some pumpkins!

Here is Tayla at her school Thanksgiving Feast! Nate had to work and Brittany offered to take Noah, so it was just me and Tay! She sure didn't eat any feast, but had lots of treats, lol.

This year, we had Thanksgiving dinner with the Jones family. We had a delish turkey dinner and enjoyed our long weekend hanging out and playing ping pong, black Friday shopping, and putting up Christmas decor:) Di and I vow to NEVER again go to Walmart on black Friday, and instead stick with Target, where it's a bit more civilized, lol.

Tay and Addy at the little turkey table.

Dez turned 17!!! Yay for Dez! We had a lot of fun for her bday this year. It was her first birthday with us! We threw her a New Moon party, since she is obsessed (and maybe I am a little too), so it was extra fun:) We love her like our own, and we are so glad she gets to live with us. Happy Birthday girly!

Nate thought it would be funny to cut the mouth out of Edward's face...this is Tayla's tongue, lol.

This is Nate's teeth.

This is my lips. Ya, we did this for about 45 minutes and still laughed hard every time.

Tayla bought her salt and vinegar chips for her birthday. Dez has Tayla and Noah addicted to them now, so she opened two cans up...one half eaten by the children at walmart while riding in the cart, and the other one that wasn't opened.

She chose Zio's for her dinner out the day before her birthday.

Eating her birthday dessert (which was bigger and better than usual because the waiter thought she was cute, lol)
And here is Noah, eating off an entire bread loaf, smiling for the camera. He already has that fake, cheesy, 3 year old smile going on, lol.

Okay, it's official, I say 'lol' WAY too much, lol. I can't help it! I have turned into a teenager that says it even if what was just said was funny or not, lol. O Well, I live with a teenager, I can't help but to pick stuff up! (restricting myself and not putting lol)

Fun Stuff!

2009-11-22T20:15:00.000-08:00

These past couple of weeks have been lots of fun! I know I always post a bunch of pictures, but I guess that is what you have to do when you never see any of your family. So just get use to me posted 20 pictures for each post:)

We took these couple of pictures after we all went on a bike ride after dinner. Tayla fell asleep and Noah was being crazy.

We told him to say 'cheese' and he was giving us the cheesiest smiles ever, lol.

It's hard to see with the picture so small, but his smile is pretty cheesy.

Tayla loved Addy's 3rd birthday party! She was watching her open the present she gave her.

The kiddos had lots of fun!

We also had a fun time going to Disney On Ice! We have been wanting to take Tayla for a couple of years, and I think this was the perfect time! Addy and Tayla LOVED it! They were screaming, and everything! It was almost like they were at a concert and they were 13 or 14, just freaking out! lol, it was really cute!

The Jones Fam! We had the hardest time taking pictures of the girls because they were just too excited and wound up to look at the camera!

They looked so cute all dressed up like princesses! They were also being SO silly together!

Princess Tayla with Mommy.
The Princess with her Prince Charming

Tayla loved seeing all the Disney Characters. Every time a new one would come out and do performance of the movie, she would yell out who it was, while jumping in her seat, smiling really big.

This was Tayla's third birthday party of the month! Her little friend Brooke turned 3 and had a puppy and kitty party. It was a really cute party!

She was getting a puppy painted on her cheek.

And most importantly, Nathan turned 30!!! Wow, what a crazy number. I don't know why, but that is the number I am dreading the most. But no worries, he doesn't' look any older than the day I met him! (which was about 7 years ago!!) We are getting old:( ANYWAYS...Tayla was very excited to make him breakfast in bed, so we served him creme brulee french toast with butter syrup! Mmmmm!

Since his birthday was on Sunday, we surprised him with some company for dessert. He had a feeling we were going to have company because I was staling to cut the cake and also the house was remarkable clean for a sunday afternoon:)
Tayla doing bunny ears on him, lol
For Nate's birthday the children and I bought him a ping pong table! We had some problems getting it here, so it just came today (finally) so here he is working on setting it up. He'll be setting it up for the next 4 hours at the rate he is going, lol. We are excited! Nate gets pretty worked up when it comes to ping pong!

I guess there just wasn't enough pics of this sweet face, so here is a picture of Noah!

Too Cute to Spook!

2009-11-04T13:22:00.000-08:00

We had such a fun time this year for Halloween! Tayla had so much fun helping everyone make their costumes. She was so excited to see everyone dressed up all together. We took lots of pictures and I had a hard time deciding which ones to share:) So there are lots!

Noah's costume was my favorite....he just looked too cute in it! I actually knew I wanted Noah to have this costume first, then decided the only thing that goes with a lion is Wizard of Oz...

So here we are...off to see the Wizard. lol

Here's Dorothy clicking her heals together and saying "There's no place like home, there's no place like home." (seriously)

I played a pretty good wicked witch! I could be the next Elphaba!

Dez was a sweet looking scarecrow! She got lots of boys dressed up like this, lol.

Dez really wanted to do the whole Wizard of Oz dance and singing thing while all locking arms...just didn't happen. (looking good back there Britt! Nice!)

Dorothy and the Tin Man at the trunk r treat!

So I couldn't help put lots of pictures of the cowardly lion up....although it was hard to keep him still to take pictures in his costume! He even 'roared' every time we put his costume on!

Considering how big, fluffy, and hot his costume was, he really never tried to pull of his headpiece! That's not to say he was happy all the time it was on though, hahaha. What a good little sport!

Earlier in the week we went to the library and dressed up the children. I love that Noah is also sitting with the children while getting a book read to them. He is in the back on the left hand side, looking right at the camera.

As soon as Tayla walked into her classroom, she had all her little classmates, especially her best friend Eliza in the purple, come up to her and admire her costume. Eliza kept touching her wig and then asked her mom what happened to Tayla's hair.

She's waiting for her turn at pin the tail on the black cat. Eliza and her are inseparable! She's loyally sitting right next to Tay!

Finally she gets a turn and she even closed her eyes while she spun her around...I don't think she understood that you close them after spinning...it was fun to watch her. She was pretty excited!

Can you say sugar rush?? The cupcake she had at school had more bright orange frosting than an entire cake put together...just how she likes it!

This is right before we went with some friends trick r treating around our neighborhood!

Here are all the children getting ready to go trick r treating.

It was impossible to get them all sitting and looking:)

The girls were being silly

They were so funny to watch trick r treat. After knocking they would all press their faces up to the glass doors or windows by the door and try to look in, impatiently waiting for someone to open the door.

Noah was helping me put Halloween decorations up.

Such a sweet little face!

Tayla wanted me to take pictures of her cat shirt

Happy Halloween everyone!

San Antonio Trip!

2009-10-30T07:51:00.000-07:00

We decided to take a little mini vacation and go to San Antonio Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

We had SO much fun! We went to Sea World, and the Riverwalk in San Antonio one day, Natural Caverns and the San Marcos outlets...which are the best ever...the next day. We had so much fun!! We ended up getting passes for Sea World for a year, so we'll go back again for sure! We took lots of pictures, so here are a few!

Here is Tayla getting ready to explore the caverns, lol.

Here's part of us, heading into the cave.

Just some stalagmites!

and some "bacon"

This was some water..it was very wet inside the cavern!

And here are the stalactites!

I know this isn't the greatest picture, but it's the only family picture from the whole trip that we were all in together, except Dez, who took the camera for a few minutes from me to take a few pics:)

Tayla and Garrett were SO cute together. They were almost always holding hands with each other. I love the background of this picture. The picture just doesn't do it justice...it was really awesome!

I love this picture because Noah loved being one of the big kids. He loved every chance he had to walk with them, and play with them. When he could, he would copy everything they did!

I think Scott enjoyed this ride more than the children, lol

They had to ride this one like three times!

Noah was such a trooper. He took a little nap in his stroller, and when he woke up, he was so out of it. He was pretty good for such a long day!

Noah really liked Shamu! He was startled a few times because of the commotion, but he was content in watching the whales!

Had to have a pic of Shamu! Pictures are just not as cool as real life. He looks so small in this picture!

We paid almost 20 bucks for Tay to get her face painted:) It was worth it though, she was so excited and she knew exactly what she wanted...if you can't tell, she chose to be a mermaid, lol.

Here she is showing off her new look!

Here are the girls posing together, with their new faces. Riley chose a dolphin!

Noah was pretty fascinated by this penguin dressed up as a pumpkin! After a few minutes, he was giving it hugs!

Scott was trying to convince the girls it was ok to go in...this was the spooky part of Sea World, where they really decorated well for Halloween! This was suppose to be kid friendly, but Tay didn't like it too much.

After Sea World we went to the Riverwalk in San Antonio, by the Alamo, and had a delish dinner. Here are the two love birds strolling the streets, lol. This pic was referred to as the paparazzi shot!

We had so much fun with our friends. Tayla was in heaven being able to play non-stop, run around, scream, you know, all her favorite things! Sea World had lots of fun things to do for Halloween, so it was fun. She misses her little friends and on the next morning, she said she wanted to go back to our "old house", meaning the hotel we shared. She is already asking when we are going back to Sea World. Good thing we bought season tickets! I'm sure we will get good use out of them!

One Massive Post

2009-10-29T17:17:00.000-07:00

Ya, ya I know, this is a mega post. This one is for the family...lots of pictures:) We have been so busy, and having lots of fun. Here are some pictures of some of the things we have been up to..mostly the highlights of what we have been up to:) Tayla's best little buddy moved to Russia about a month ago and she has been so sad. They were good little friends and really did love each other. He is just too cute! She loves to drive by his old house just to see and she even wants to drop off treats to put on his doorstep, so when he comes home he can be surprised and find something special waiting for him.

She misses Preston, and I miss his mommy, Dung. We miss you Dung and Preston!!

Tayla has enjoyed Nate's baseball games on Friday (if they are early enough for her to go to).

Tayla had a 'bring a friend day' at ballet, and she chose to bring Addy to her class. They had a lot of fun...although she wasn't very obedient that day, lol. She was just too excited to have a friend!

Addy was a cute little ballerina! This is where they put on big pink tutu's and a crown and go to the 'ball' to dance.

Look at those eyelashes, seriously! Lucky little man.

Dez went to her first ever high school dance! She looked so beautiful! I loved helping her get ready, so thanks Dez for letting me help:)

Here is the group she went with to Homecoming!

Some of our friends who have canoes, invited us to go to a park and have some food and go out on the canoes with them! I'll be honest, I was scared of alligators the whole time I was out there in the water. I couldn't help think of what I would do if one attacked, lol. Tayla loved it though, and we all had a fun time outside in the 'cool for Houston' weather.

We also made smores, which Tay devoured. She also had such a fun time playing with our friend's dog! She loved throwing the ball and having the dog fetch it!

Of course, if any activity has to do with making something to eat, especially if it is sweat, Tayla loves it. Making caramel apples is so much fun for her.

She was getting pretty creative.

I know this is a random picture..but Noah LOVES to be outside and the other day it was raining and I happened to open the door for something, and he escaped! He was pantless, shoesless, but wanted so badly to play in the rain, so I let him. He LOVED it! He was soaked, but was the happiest little boy ever. Must be a boy thing? He cried hard when I made him come back in to take a bath. Poor boy!

This little guy loves loves loves bananas, or 'nanas'! He has one each day, and could eat 5 a day if I let him. Out of all the books we have, he will find all the pages with bananas on it and point them out, then shout "nana, nana, nana!" It's hilarious!

He's happy and content after eating his nana.

I couldn't resist trying on Tayla's boots from last year, on him. He walked around like he was pretty cool! Ok, Noah also really loves shoes. He carries Taylas princess shoes around the house, and when I say, "let's go bye bye," he finds his shoes, while saying, "shoosh". It's pretty funny.

This picture kills me! He is not going to be happy when he's older and knows I was purposely dressing him in girls stuff.