It's GREAT to be 8

How proud I am. Proud of a cute, adorable, hilarious, extremely talkative, friendly little girl. My little girl. TaYlOr! Taylor chose to be baptized a member of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints on Saturday, November 7, 2009. What a special day for a special girl.

Taylor was so excited at how special we made this day for her. A few months back we had a service auction for the YW to make some money for girls camp. One of the few things we purchased was a cake. We decided to cash in on the cake for her baptism. I could not believe at how beautiful the cake was. It was like a mini wedding cake. You can not really tell but it says "In whom I am well pleased" down the side of the cake.

Taylor of course had her family there to support her. I am so proud of her and the amazing example she is to all her siblings!

Taylor is quite the little missionary. She had no problem inviting many who were not members of the church. She invited friends, neighbors and teachers from school. This is a picture of her and her school Liberian...Ms. Heinike. We LOVE her and love that she wanted to share in this special day with Taylor!

In the middle is Taylor and her school teacher, Mrs. Shupe. On one end is Lauren and on the other is Mr. Shupe....Lauren's science teacher last year. Small world!

Taylor has been great friends with Lesly and Elliott since preschool. How special that they were able to come and celebrate this day with Tay. What great friends!

Taylor is very blessed to have two extremely supportive grandmas!!

Look at all the family Taylor had. Many drove hours to be here for her.

Thanks to all the friends and family that helped make this a day to never forget. Thanks for all your love and support. It's special times like this that you realize how much it means to be with those you care about!

CoNgRaTs TaY!! We are so very proud of you and the choice you made. We love you, LOVE YOU, love you!!

an un-BOO-lievable day...

Another Halloween has come and gone. I love this time of year. Halloween is one of my favorites! This year was all about recycling the costumes at our house. We are getting ready to on a vacation in a few weeks so I told the kids they had to find their costumes with stuff in our home already. Anika was a tacky tourist, Taylor a soccer player (I know very creative!), Lexi a cowgirl, Jackson a horse and Carter an alligator. I was very proud of the kids for coming up with their costumes and not pitching a fit over it. Our Halloween started out the day before with the kids parade and classroom parties. I had a doctors apt so I missed it but Jason did a great job capturing it all in pics for me. Here is Anika following the Principal and leading the pack in the parade:
Anika and her friend Shaylee:

Taylor:

Taylor's (our giant...she always is towering over her friends) class

Lexi in the parade:

Lexi enjoying her class party and Carter drooling over her cookie:

Halloween day started off with our ward activity. We had it out at the Walpoles home. They were so kind to let us use their land for our Par-Tay. So I am still trying to balance out being a mom and being in charge of these activities. I am totally bummed because I did a poor job on the mom side of things. I did not capture all the pics I would of loved to get of my kids. We had a lot of things planned. The highlight I think was a hay ride out to a pumpkin patch we put together. The kids could all pick out a pumpkin and then ride the hay ride back and paint their pumpkin. We also had cupcake decorating, a fire to roast smores, face painting, donuts on a string and a few games. Here is my horsey Jackson:

The kids getting ready for the hay ride:

Taylor attempting the donuts on the string:

Jason had convinced the high priest to give the donuts on a string a whirl. We threw James in their as well (far right). He dressed up as an old man so we figured he could pass as a high priest.

Lexi waiting for her turn at pumpkin golf:

Jackson had a blast painting his pumpkin :

We ended the party with a trunk-or-treat:

So after the party I was feeling guilty for not getting enough pictures of my kids so I made them pose on the porch before trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. As you can see Jackson is less then thrilled and Carter was not wanting to pay attention to me. Oh well, there is always next year, by this time I was exhausted! I tried! Overall though a great Halloween. My kids said it was the best day ever! That's all that matters, happy kids makes a happy mom!

Gotta love Colorado weather...

WE went from this........

Where's Taylor?

To this......in four days!!

It's only October and we have already had school closed for a day. LOVE these days! Nothing says great memories like being snowed in, hot chocolate, friends over, playing games and eating comfort food. Bring it on...I can't wait for this WiNtEr!

TO share....or NOT to share.....

Sharing. It is a tough concept to learn. It seems that as parents we all try to teach the value and importance of sharing as early on as we can. Let's face it though, kids do not like to share. I don't know about your house but at ours we hear constantly, "It's mine", "I had it first" etc. I have found though that there is one thing that my kids share SO well with each other. Now I know that I'm not suppose to boast or brag but it has been so hard not to shout for all to hear THAT MY KIDS ARE THE BEST SHARERS!! I'm such a proud momma. I have to admit though that lately I'm wanting them to slow down on the sharing, I've had enough. I'm sure it has been confusing for them to hear share share share and now keep it for yourself! I know what your all thinking right about now..."Summer let us in on your secret. How do you you do it? How do you get them to share so well?" Well it is really quite simple. I just have my kids drink from the same cup. Or wipe there goopy pink eye and then rub it on there sister or brother. Or my personal favorite, Cough in each others faces. Yep that's right I'm talking about icky sicky yucky germs. Oh they share them so well with each other!! In the last few weeks we have shared everything from pink eye, colds and our new personal favorite H1N1. You know it's bad when the highlight of the week is going to the doctors office, I so look forward to those visits to get me out the house for a few minutes. So the next time you see me if I'm sitting in the corner rocking at least you will know why. Silver lining... my kids are sharing among themselves. I guess I'm just not cool enough for them to share with me, and to be honest I'm OK with that!

Jackson Hole

I heart Jackson Hole!!

Jason and I got home on a Sunday evening and by Friday morning we had the car all packed up and headed out for a ten day trip with the family to Grand Teton National Park...A.K.A. Jackson Hole. Funny story about that. A month before we left I was telling Jackson that we were going to Jackson Hole on a trip. He looked at me and got so excited and put his hand on his chest and said "My hole. We are going to MY hole?!?" He could not remember going their the year before but apparently he was very excited and knew it must be a great place. We now just refer to it as Jackson's Hole. I love this place and do not get sick of going. It may have something to do with the company. We go with Aunts, Uncles, cousins...A big group of noisy fun people! Look how pretty! My cousin Emily is funny. She likes to shorten everything so she referred to the Teton mountains as the "Teets". Look how beautiful those teets are:

Ours days were spent having fun fun fun! Poor Jackson got so tired one afternoon he just feel asleep in his chair:

Carter had fun playing with his cousin Kate:

We went to Old Faithful one day. It was a perfect day to be out. We had lunch and then watched the geyser shot. After we walked the loop to look at the hot pots. On our way back Old Faithful was scheduled to go off again any minute. We stopped to take our picture in front of this sign right as it went off again. How was that for timing!?!

Jackson and Lexi were so cute! They did a great job walking but eventually got tired and needed a lift:

LOVE this picture! What great big sisters Lauren and Cailyn are!!

My little sis Jaclyn, Anika, Lauren and Lexi.

One afternoon a group went river rafting. Jason took Lauren, Cailyn, Anika and Taylor. I stayed in town with Lexi, Jackson, Carter, Kelly, Ryan, Kate, Jaclyn and my mom. Jaclyn and I took Kate, Lexi, Jackson and Cater on a stagecoach ride.

We met up with everyone after their float trip for dinner so we could hear all about their crazy adventure. The boat Jason and Taylor was on folded in half and threw Jason, my cousin Kim, my cousin Amanda and my Aunt Ginni off. Taylor was pretty shaken up watching her daddy go over board. I hope we can get her to go again sometime. Sorry I did not send the camera so no pictures.

One of the highlights of the trip is playing games! My kids always love spending time with my cousins. This is Taylor, Anika, Lexi and Jackson with my cousin Greg.

Greg with Taylor and Lexi.

My cousin Kim, Anika, Lexi and Jackson.

My cousin Jen with Taylor and Lexi.

Our family up at Hidden Falls. Easy hike for a beautiful view!

Kelly, Breckyn, Cailyn, Taylor, Jackson, Lauren, Anika, Jaclyn, Lexi and mom (Grandma)

Cailyn, Anika, Taylor, Javlyn and I went horseback riding. It had been years since I had done this and probably will be years before I do it again. The kids had a great time though....I'm just a big wimp when on something that big!

Jackson in his cute cowboy hat. What a handsome cowboy he is!

Lexi went on a horse ride while waiting for us to get back form our ride.

My aunt and uncles were kind enough to take us boating one day. So much fun. The kids love it!!

Best part of boating.........sleeping babies!

It was my birthday the last day we were there. It was going to be Anika's birthday the day after we got home so we had a joined little surprise party. After ten days of camping we were all excited to get home and take a shower and sleep in our own beds. I'm trying to decided if that's why Carter was so happy or if it had something to do with the chocolate covered pretzels I kept feeding him to keep him quiet.......hmmmmmm.