Dancing!

During the week at the cabin, I realized we have a family full of dancing fools! The nice thing is that we aren't afraid to shake a little tail, when the occasion calls for it!
As I said earlier, I don't think I ever need to watch "Hairspray" again after the many times that kids kept playing it! But it does have a lot of catchy tunes, some better than others :) and the kiddos loved dancing to the up-beat rhythm of many of the songs. Combine that with a little ice cream, some root beer, m&m's, and licorish, then there's a full blown dance party going on. The kids went crazy and it was pretty funny watching each kid's own interpretation of what dance is!







Okay okay I lied....I will watch "Hairspray" again somedayand just not in the near future. For anyone that knows me, it's true I love my showtunes!

Then there was the Ho-down at the rodeo we went to! I forgot how much rodeo's can be, it has been a long time for me. After the rodeo where they did some amazing tricks on horses, roped cows, and did some bull riding, they served us some delicious food, steak and chicken, taters, beans, and cobbler! After all that food, it wasn't just the dj that was making music! :)
All the kids had fun dancing again with Grandma and Grandpa learning to line dance, and enjoying a good time. I think for me, it was the highlight of the week. It's nice when you can get together with your family and act crazy and dance all together! I am a little sad I lost a burp rag that went to soaking up Caden's blood-stained face. Thanks a lot Caden! :) side note: he is fine, just reckless!

The Cabin

How nice it was to spend just over a week up at the cabin this year! In all honesty I am a bit surprised I was able to even go, we weren't sure if we would make it. Unfortunately not all of us did. Dave could only stay for the wedding and had to boogey back to Oregon for work (including doing all the managing apartments stuff as well, which beginning of the month meant RENT!) fun for him. Natalie's hubby was not able to go either, because being a Secret Service agent he was probably guarding someone VERY important. And then of course we were missing our missionary sister Allison who is in Panama! She now has less than a year left! We didn't expect Ben and Hilary to be able to make it, but since his company didn't go on strike, they were able to be there too.

Since I have about a million of pictures from last week, I think I have to split up my blog posts so I can fit more pictures in.

Some things I learned from last weeks adventures...I love to get crafty with my sisters, I never knew beading was so much fun, and how relaxing embroidery can be oddly enough. A buzz lightyear can be a VERY hot commodity around kids, I HATE the windy stairs now that I have children, Sam is much more clumsy than I thought (hmmmm), Logan is the definition of a Boy, and he can't take a bad picture!(wait and see :) Natalie needs to stretch her legs more (pulled a hamstring while running after a steer!) Ethan was so close to walking, but I'm sure by now he is, I HATE whining even more than I did before, you think your sister Angie loves you and then flubs your attempt at "shooting the moon", Caden is out to get me :), The Playmill keeps getting better and better, there is absolutely no doubt who the FAVORITE aunt is now, ANGIE! Thanks a lot now I have to work even harder. There really is no competition to her. They all wanted to drive in her car through Yellowstone and on the way she taught them all the song "Home on the Range" or as Sam likes to call it, "the deer song!"....ya know... "where the DEER and the antelope play!" She now walks around the apartment all day singing it.....
A few other things...I still hate mosquitos, and sunburns, love 4th of July homemade chocolate ice cream and fireworks (courtesy of Ben and Hilary and ice cream by Nat), don't like 5 hour car rides with a 3 month old, wish Mack's Inn still had penny candy, annual cabin movies include "Last of the Mohicans" "Galaxy Quest" and "1776"....but where was "The Three Amigos" and "The Court Jester???!" Movies to take off the cabin list and don't think I ever need to watch again include "Monsters vs. Aliens" "Hairspray" and "Finding Nemo"...too many times little children. Love the excitement of a nighttime float in the dark from Big Springs to the cabin, without a flashlight you never know what is stomping in the trees on the banks of the river! Noticing the look of nastalgia cross my Dad's face over and over again, both my parents enjoying ALL their grandchildren together, and Mom's little tea parties every morning for breakfasts, savoring the tasty breakfasts at the cabin made by my Dad...bacon, and eggs, and pancakes, all being made with bacon grease....mmmmm.... Trying to always appreciate the beauty of being up there, being grateful to my Grandparents for providing it, and enjoying the wildlife and my family...both pretty much the same thing! :)


Just a few pictures...more to come!

Lara's Wedding!

A couple weeks ago was my beautiful cousin Lara's wedding! Dave and I were lucky to be able to go to the Temple to be at their sealing, and it was wonderful. The whole wedding was beautiful and I was so happy to be there with her. Growing up we always hung out during the summer vacations. We have always been close to the Taylor side of my family and have always enjoyed hanging out with all of them. I love Lara. Growing up I wanted to copy her in everything, clothing styles and hairstyles (I particulary loved the mushroom haircut!) :) We would pretend like we were twins all the time and even had a few matching outfits. I am so glad that she is married to a wonderful guy. They are a beautiful couple and I look forward to future double dates with them(if I ever get back to Utah). People know I am a homebody and I love when there are family get togethers. It's fun to catch up with family and see how they are doing. It helps that they are fun to be around as well. I love the Taylors (obviously enough that I named my second child after the family name!)



Dave and Scotty's missionary cutout. Dave has a love affair with him. He wants to be like Scotty when he grows up!

Strolling the Temple Grounds

I forget how beautiful the Salt Lake Temple is! Gorgeous

The Reception

My cousin Eric and his cute wife Jessica, whom Samantha attached herself to!

My friend Andy from High School and his (now) fiance Blair.

Our little surprised chubbo!

Angie and Me

Good Times

We have had waaaayyyy too much rain lately, it is depressing! The other day I went to a meeting and on the way there was this huge downpour and just running from the car to the house made me look like I had just gotten out of the shower! We have had 4 inches of rain in June, and the previous record was 1 inch! At least we have had a couple of good days, and on those days we have taken advantage by spending time outside. Like another parade! Two weeks in a row.
Dave went on a father's and sons campout last Friday night so Saturday morning I decided to venture to downtown Portland and take the 2 girls by myself to the Rose festival parade, and I'm so glad I did. They were both great, and when we got there, Sam instantly made friends by walking up to a group of kids and saying "can I play with you?" When the parade started she was asking for her "super hooray bag" but they didn't throw candy at this parade, which is just as well. The parade started with a couple of cross-dressers, Cher and Reba Mcintyre...I don't remember seeing any cross-dressers open for the Pioneer Days parade in Utah...I guess it's just a Portland thing :) We had a good time and it was so nice to be outside again.




Monday night we decided to go pick Strawberries at Sauvie Island. We love strawberry picking time, and so does Sam, because Strawberries are probably her favorite thing in the world. As we were picking them, I kept telling Sam to pick them and put them in the box. She would pick them, but they never made it to the box. I'm not quite sure exactly how many she ate total. Let's just say when we got home to eat dinner, she wasn't hungry.
That night of course we made our strawberry jam, ate more fresh strawberries, and then made yummy crepes the next night for dinner. That is definitely one thing I really enjoy about Oregon, going to pick your own fresh delicious fruit for really cheap!




Here are just some other random pics from the last month I have been meaning to post.


her 2 month old pic. Super Baby!


Happy Faces! She has a very big happy smile!

Finally a Break in the Rain

And what a perfect day to finally get some sunshine! The weather here has been absolutely dismal, but lucky for us, we had a very sunny day yesterday...and then of course today going to church, it was back to buckets of rain.
Friday night we drove down to Lebanon, Oregon with our good friends the Palomins to stay the night at Doreen's dad's house for the night. He is renting it out and it was empty so we slept on blow up mattresses for the night and there was no furniture, but we didn't need it. It is located in a very pretty part of Oregon up on the hill in Lebanon, and Sodaville, OR population: 303 In the mornings and evenings they have turkeys...that's right wild turkeys that walk through their yard up to the trees, and then back in the evening. A few came through in the early morning when we were there but I missed them because we were still sleeping.

We went to the Strawberry Festival down there, which included a huge parade in the morning of about 140 floats. Sam's favorite thing was collecting the fliers people would hand out and putting them in her "super hooray bag!" (she thought "parade" was "hooray") They also had the worlds largest strawberry shortcake there too, it was huge! And what's a festival without a carnival full of deep fried Snickers, popcorn, and a bunch of rides that Sam had so much fun riding.

We had a wonderful time with Robert, Doreen, and Jessica and hope that they still like us after spending and overnighter together! Good times!

Better than the Snuggie....if you catch my "Drift"!

I saw something on tv the other day, and I couldn't stop giggling about it, but then I thought, "ya know maybe this is a real problem in marriages!"


It's the problem that no one seems to talk about and yet it is the cause of many "ripples" in marriages. Do YOU have a problem of "beeping your horn" too much at night? , "floating an air biscuit too much", or "letting out the mating call of the barking spider" too often? Well this is the product for you! Apparently marriages are being torn apart by this very problem. Husbands subjecting their wives to a "covered wagon", or "bum jiggler" while sleeping! How has it taken so long to find the solution! I don't think the Snuggie contains any activated carbon fabric to supress the aroma of a "bum trumpet"!
If this is a problem in your household, never fear, just look HERE and your problems will be solved!
You'd think that instead of offering only white or beige colors, they could even further their selling power with a nice "chocolate brown"!

This is serious stuff people it actually "Contains the same type of fabric used by the military to protect against chemical weapons"!!......CHEMICAL WEAPONS!

So if you don't want to "puff your magic dragon", "step on a duck", or "let out a beefer" while in the blissfull stream of your REM cycle that MAY drive your spouse away, this product is the SOLUTION for YOU!

I don't want to "toot my own horn" here but I can honestly say I don't think we have this problem. Dave is so much the gentlemen that he can even "hold it in" at night while sleeping. He has NEVER, I repeat, NEVER let out a fluff in front of me. Such a nice guy.

THIS IS THE ONLY LITTLE STINKER IN OUR BED RIGHT NOW!

A Big Day!

Today was an exciting day because it was Taylor's blessing day and my birthday! I am starting to feel a bit old now with two kids, and closer to being 30 now than 20 years old. boo hoo.
Because we had Stake Conference today, obviously there was no church so we blessed her at the church at 5 p.m. and had a bunch of our friends and family come! It was awesome to see how many people support you when you have an important event or celebration in your family. And we had almost a full chapel with all the people that came! It started out going to be in the Bishop's office, then we moved to the Relief Society room, and then we went to the chapel since there were so many people. Dave of course did a great job with the blessing and we were happy to see family and friends help him out in the circle. After he was done, we went straight back to the gym and ate a bunch of food! It ended up working out perfectly. Originally the plan was to do it during church, but we didn't find out until after my parents booked their flights and my brother and his wife made their plans to drive up that we found out about Stake Conference. It worked out better ths way because we had so many people come there was no way we could have accommodated them in our tiny apartment, so it was convenient to have the church completely to ourselves where we could set up food and tables beforehand and then go straight to eating after the blessing, rather than wait for church to be over and for people to leave church to celebrate, or try cramming into our tiny apartment, it just wouldn't have worked. So...this time around I enjoyed the way it did work out and it worked very well. Thanks to everyone who came and supported our family.

It was very nice having my family in town, since I don't get to see them very often. Ben and his wife along with two kids drove all the way from Green River in the middle of the night to be here! And my parents flew in on Thursday to stay. How nice it has been to hang out with them for a few days and enjoy the sightseeing that Oregon has to offer including Cannon Beach, Lincoln City, Saturday's Market, the Children's Museum, and tomorrow 23rd Ave, Powell's Books, and of course Voodoo Doughnuts! It's been great having them here, and as always the time flies by too quickly. At least it will only be a couple of months until I get to go out to Utah....hopefully.