Life - Taylor Style: 2008

Friday, December 26, 2008

CHRISTMAS!!!!

Ok...here's the quick and easy wrap up, in as few pictures as possible. We told the kids that they couldn't wake up till 6:30am. They started the morning @ 6:32am. Such GOOD boys they are!!!

wahoo!!!

One ( I repeat ONE) of their MANY favorites!!

Dad in another mask

The special "fancy" Christmas morning breakfast. This is the first year of the fancy wine glasses. The kids thought they were pretty darn cool. Brandon kept saying "mom, I like my wine." One mark on the bad mom page for the morning.

The lego aftermath...

We had a WONDERFUL day, week, and whole month!! It was wonderful & I can't wait to see what 2009 brings!

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

oh...the joys of December

I love December. I love getting my Christmas decorations up, and EARLY. For a couple of reasons.

1. They are a PAIN, so might as well get to see them up for as long as possible.
2. The kids LOVE decorating. They remember EACH and EVERY thing we have stored up in the attic for 11 months, and love getting them out & putting them in the EXACT spot that they were in the year before.
3. I love my nativity that I got a couple of years ago. It's simple, even been broken a couple of times, but I love it.
4. Christmas lights are just beautiful!
5. It's a really cool tradition that our family has! And it's MY family!!
6. They are a pain, so might as well get to see them up for as long as possible. :)

This year it was BRANDON who was most excited about decorating!!

Camron was into his book, and not into the tree. For about 10 minutes.

Then it was the two of them...the whole time. Blake and I put on the lights, and that's about it!! (Yes, we still had to put lights on the tree. Old school. BUT, we did get a NEW tree on clearance that's pre-lit! Welcome to the 21st century Taylors.)

Boys...the whole time!

Where's Mom?? Cooking chicken fried backstrap in the kitchen (totally NOT healthy) making a HUGE mess. With sick-o Cowboy. Cowboy, GIT out of my kitchen!

Where are the boys? Under the tree of course!

We did find about 40% of the ornaments on the bottom branches. Think that was Brandon.

Then a couple days later, Cam got sick. When you don't have a bed tray, I improvise.

Hey...it worked! Ramen noodles, in bed. No mess.

Brandon was NOT happy about the situation. He wanted ramen in bed. With an ironing board. It just wasn't fair.

Then, it snowed. Not as much as our family in Houston, but it snowed.

The kids had their Christmas program. (Cam & his friend Logan. Who looks very tall in this picture)

Brandon and a bunch of kids I don't know. (He stood there with his arm like this the whole time. He didn't want his bell falling off.)

My boys.

Camron's Class Christmas Party (One of the perks of being one of the room mom's...you're @ every function!)

Then came CHRISTMAS EVE!! So fun, beautiful, and rewarding. We had our Church's Christmas Eve service @ Anhalt Hall again, our 4th year. We missed last year since we were in Colorado, which made this year that more special. I missed it!! Great job Brooke, on all your hard work putting it on...AGAIN!

Happy Family

The boys looked SO handsome, and had a great time. (Brandon's khaki pants didn't fit anymore, which we found out about 15 minutes before we left. The kid's growing like a weed!)

Then we get ready for Santa. We checked the Santa radar online, Camron designed the cookies, put them by the fireplace...

Went outside to throw the reindeer food so Santa could find our house...

Came back in, and LUCY, bad dog, had eaten Santa's cookies. We busted her. So, we put the non-designed ones out, and Camron decided to write a note.

Guess we'll go to sleep and see if he still comes. Even without his special cookies.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Still catching up...

The end of November is such a blur in our house. Brandon's kindergarten class had a huge Thanksgiving feast! They had so much fun decorating, eating, doing crafts, playing, and the best was the class picture! 21 kids, all standing in a row. "She touched me", "he's looking at me", "she's in my spot", "Mrs. Blevins-the sun's in my eyes!" and on and on. All I can say is that Brandon's teacher is amazing to do this EVERY day. I love her.

Here's the whole class

Sweet Brandon, with the sun in his eyes

Here he is with his sweet friend Madison.

Now on for our Turkey day, we got to spend it with the oh so sweet Dean/King family. They were so sweet to include us!!

Thanks Josh for doing the dreaded task of the family picture taking extravaganza!

I didn't get many pictures of he fun filled day, but here I am with my sweet friend Joanie! (The only other picture I got was of sweet Jamie asleep on the couch, and she'd KILL me if I posted that one!

Our friends, the Kleins, went out of town for Turkey day, so we got to babysit their dog Sugar for several days. So fun!! (that's her on the right)

THEN...from that last picture you might think, wow Cowboy looks sad. We he wasn't sad, but REALLY sick. After a visit to the vet the next day, we discovered that he had an intestinal blockage and had to have surgery! Poor guy. He was a trooper, and after them tellling us that he had a VERY slim chance that he'd pull through, HE DID!! Yeah Cowboy!! As soon as he came out of anesthesia, they were putting his IV in, and he was already wagging his tail. He just likes to be pet!

Here he is the day he came home, two days after his surgery. Surgery or not, the boy has to have his tennis balls around.

Then, he had to get the lamp shade. Poor guy. He was embarrased.

He's doing great now, and we just have to keep a really good eye on him, not let him run around too much, and keep giving him wet food for about a month so his insides can heal.

Then Bubba and Uncle Craig came for a quick visit/needed a place to crash for the night on their way to Iowa to go hunting.

Here Bubba is sporting his new hunting hat, which just so happened to match his sweet hunting mustache.

Christmas posts will be on the way soon!!!

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

November catch up...part 2

I am sorry, this entry should be named "Camron's birthday 2 weeks"

See, I was deprived of birthday parties when I was a kid. I had one. I think I was 12 or 13. I wasn't used to the whole "everyone look at me" thing, so my one birthday party was a bust. We had a water balloon fight, then I think I cried. Boo hoo. (Totally not to harass my parents. It wasn't their fault!) SO, to make up for that, I have made it a point thus far to always make a big deal out of birthdays for my kids. Well, Camron's birthday is and always will be either right before, on, or right after Thanksgiving. Which is hard to plan a birthday around. So, we used to have Birthday week, which has this year turned into birthday 2 weeks this year. Here's a few pictures of his big day (s).

First it was a celebration at Mamaw's and Papaw's in Houston the weekend before. She made a cake for both 8 year old Cam & my 11 year old nephew Colton.

Here's some of the grandkids! Missing 8!

Then came the traditional "Mom will make you anything you want for breakfast and Dad will decorate the pancake" tradition. And, you get to pick how you want your hair & pick out your own clothes. He, of course, decided on his pink shirt!

My boys!

Birthday lunch @ school. And, a good view of the favorite shirt. (This one's for you Mamaw!)

Then it's the birthday presents from the Aunts who are SO GOOD about being on TIME!! (Unlike me!!) Thank you Aunt Toni & Aunt Wendy!

Then...it's the you get to pick the restaurant for dinner. Chili's.

Then, I went a little crazy. Time for the birthday party. We started with finding the right cake. Found out, nobody makes Mario or Luigi cakes. Well, with out paying an arm & a leg. So, I found this picture on line, and in my crazy state, decided that I COULD DO THAT.

Here's their version.

One thing different with me, I have never made a cake, or I have never made anything but a 9x13 rectangle with icing and some figurines on it. So...lookie here! I did it!

Here's the Jen Taylor version!