December Festivites

We had a very busy and festive month of December. Here are some of the fun things that we did.
We went to the Nutcracker in Logan. This was our second year in a row and the kids really love it every year. Notice I am wearing my glasses because I got Lasik Eye Surgery this month also! I had to wear my glasses for 2 weeks prior to the surgery, but now I can see perfectly with no glasses or contacts! It really is the most amazing thing in the world!

We went to Temple Square with the Alger family.



Attended Taggart's Tumbling Tigers Christmas performance.

We went to a couple Christmas Partys. Maddie and Parker were NOT fans of sitting on Santa's lap this year, weird for Maddie, not so weird for Parks. Here are Parks, Taggart, and I standing by the money tree from Grandma Richter.


Cam and I surprised Tag and Maddie for Christmas and painted his old bunkbeds and re-did their room and made a toy room. They had been begging us for bunkbeds and now they are happy!

Taggart and I both celebrated birthdays and got 1 year older! Taggart was very excited about this, me, not so much!! What a fun month it was for us!!

Christmas 2011

We had a great Christmas this year. We were able to spend a lot of time with both of our families and we really enjoyed each and every moment!
Here are the kids dressed up as our live Nativity. Little Maverick made the perfect Baby Jesus this year.

Here we are all dressed up on Christmas Eve in our Christmas jammies.

Taggart and Maddie got Pillow Pets from Santa. They were soo excited!

Parker loved Christmas this year!! He even enjoyed opening the presents.

Here we are at my Parent's house on Christmas Day.

Taggart and Maddie were so happy to have Ada and Boston here from California so they could have someone to play with!

We even had some fun at the Fun Park and celebrated the December birthdays. Maddie was sooo sad to see Ada go back to California:(


We had to take advantage of all of my family being together, so we finally got a picture with the whole family!

Overall, we had a great Christmas break. We got lots of presents, ate a lot of good food, and spent some quality time with our loved ones. Merry Christmas to you all!!

You've Had a Birthday Shout HOORAY!!

Taggart has been really looking forward to his birthday for months now! We were so happy that it finally came and he turned 7! He had his party at the Fun Park and he and his friends went bowling. It sure was crazy with all those boys!

Taggart loves bowling and all the kids had a ball!

He wanted a TRON cake this year. He got a ton of presents: legos, dagadar, beyblades and all the things a 7 yr old boy loves!

Here are just a few things about Tag Man at Age 7:

*He is such a smart boy! He is getting straight A's in school and does especially well in Math. He is a really good student and is great at following rules and listening to his teacher.
*He loves to build Legos and fix things. You can tell that he has his Dad's abilities when it comes to this and he can follow instructions and build almost anything, plus he loves it too!
*He is a pretty sweet boy (most of the time) He has been his entire life and still is pretty tender hearted and sensitive. We LOVE this about him! He is really sweet to comfort his brother and sister when they are sad... it is so cute!
*He talks with his hands a lot and is pretty animated when he does talk. I wonder where he gets this from?
*He is super skinny! Some people ask if he eats and he does, but again he just has his Dad's genes and bones poking out all over.
*He loves to play the Wii, ride his bike and scooter, swim, and is always happy to play with his buddies!


WE LOVE YOU TAGGART!!

This is Halloween....

I think Halloween just gets better and better every year as my kids get older. They get so excited to get out all the decorations and Maddie especially loves that she can pretty much live in a costume for a month long and it is acceptable! Maddie had a few different costumes, since we borrowed some from Grammy and friend and re used some from previous years, so she was a ladybug, Rio girl, Dorothy, and a witch this year! Taggart was Mario and loved every minute of it! Parker was a cute little monkey and he was so cute every time we put his costume on, he would just grin and chuckle and thought he was pretty darn cool! I feel like we went to parties and celebrated Halloween for an entire week before Halloween, when the day actually came, we were ready to be done dressing up! We went to Maddie's school carnival and Taggart said, " Mom do I have to dress up? I'm just so exhausted of dressing up!" I thought it was hilarious because that was exactly how I felt and Halloween was still 5 days away! We did have a fun one this year though. It was the second year that we went house to house trick or treating and Taggart sure did race from house to house. Maddie was a little slower since she insisted on wearing her Princess dress up shoes which are NOT the best for trick or treating. Parker just sat in his stroller the whole night having the time of his life while sucking on his suckers. It sure was a Happy Halloween for us!

Fall fun!

Autumn time in Logan is really one of my favorite things! It is beautiful and I just love to feel a little chill to the air! We always love to go out to American West Heritage Center and this year we had a lot of fun!
Parker loved the animals and the tractor. I just love these two boys!!


They had this huge slide set up and the kids loved it!

Taggart also played indoor Fall Soccer. He loved it and especially loved being the Goalie.



He had a great team with a couple of his good friends on it and he really loved every minute of it!

I Did It!

I have been wanting to run a half marathon for awhile now, but just needed it to be warm enough here for me to train outside in Logan. So I signed up for the Top of Utah Half at the end of August so that I could train all summer long. At times it was frustrating to have to go train when I was on vacation or out of town, but I really did learn to love running outside and I felt pretty ready when it was time for the race. I finished in an hr and 56 min and I felt really good about this time. The kids and Cam and the Smiths were at the finish line with posters, cheering me on ..it was awesome! It felt great and I learned how much I really do enjoy running, maybe not enough to do a full marathon, but I will probably do another half someday.

School Starts!

Well, Summer is officially over and it is time for school to start. I kinda have mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I am excited to have a little more structure and schedule to our life, but on the other hand, I'm sad to not be able to go play whenever we want to. Taggart is in first grade this year and Mrs. Jack is his teacher and Maddie is in her second year of Preschool. Here they are before their first day. Taggart is very excited about his lunchbox and that he gets to eat at school everyday. He was also very excited about his recesses after the first day. It sure is weird having him gone all day and Maddie sure misses him in the afternoon. She keeps saying, "Mom, when will Taggart be home?" It should be a fun year!!

Big Bear Ayotte Family Vacation

This year we all got together in Big Bear California for our annual family vacation. It was so much for everyone to be there this year! We spent an entire week hiking, swimming, fishing, biking, playing games, and just having fun! Taggart and Maddie were just thrilled to have Ada and Boston there to play with them! Maddie and Ada would just dissapear into a room for what seemed like forever and we would find them in there just playing Barbies or coloring. Here are some fun pics of some of the good times...
Here we are along the walking/biking path around the lake. This is the actual bridge that I turfed it on while on my morning run and ended up bloody!

We went on a few hikes and even took Taggart on this amazing hike where we had to hike up these huge rocks and we got an amazing view of the entire lake. He did such a great job and was always trying to get to the highest point (just like his Dad! , but we made it!




We spent a TON of time swimming and Parker just loved scooting around everywhere!




We played a lot outside on the grass behind out condo and we even had our own Survivor Olympics with our buffs!


Taggart was obsessed with fishing and had the time of his life fishing with his Dad. Just look at that face!! Oh, and the fish he is catching too!

It was so great to have everyone there together! We made some fun memories and had a great time! Until next year...