Seven

My sweetie pie turned 7 on the 15th!! We celebrated with a party with her friends at the local pottery painting hang out.  We had homemade pizzas, cake, ice cream, and lots and lots of high pitched screaming. It was fun and she even got to celebrate with some of her east coast family! 

Seven sure looks good on her!

Biker

I've neglected this blog as of late--lots going on with the Taylors. It's time to come back to life; spring is here and the snow is gone. This picture is the metaphor for our future--riding away from the old and toward the new. Time to look ahead and not backward. 

SIX

Happy 6th birthday to the sweetest little girl around. We love you!! xoxo

We visited our local wild animal park yesterday. The bears put on a nice show for us, and Addie made a new four-legged friend.

Seamstress

Now she can help when I lose a button!

The Lake

Moving here...

Boaters

 

We rented a pontoon boat for our friend's birthday. The weather was spectacular; the waters were calm, and the driving was impeccable. 

He ages like fine wine!

Toothless

Front tooth missing. She looks like Nanny McPhee. Google it

Summer

Just a little reminder of summer and one of the many reasons why I love it. Only 5 more months to go, but who's counting?

Babysitter!!

Addie helped me babysit our favorite 9 month old yesterday. She was a huge help until it came time to change a poopy diaper.

LOVE these girlies!

Addie finally lost her first tooth; that thing had been loose since August and she refused to wiggle it or let us touch it at all. That also meant that her tooth brush couldn't touch it either. Yes, that's right...those bottom teeth weren't brushed for a solid two months. EW!!! Anyway, it finally met its demise on Thanksgiving Day. The Tooth Fairy came. She left her $10. Clearly the recession hasn't hit the land of fairies yet! I've been wiggling my teeth ever since; I need Christmas money!!

Halloween is a big thing here in the Midwest; it's almost a month long process. We did two nights of trick or treating. On the first night Addie was a "girl riding a unicorn". She wanted this costume when she saw it on Target's website, but when she saw her friends wearing princess dresses, the unicorn got the boot. Needless to say, the following night, she was Cinderella and the unicorn went to bed hungry.

HANDSOME!

Yesterday I ran the Lakefront Marathon. It was another "didn't really train" marathon; I hate marathon training, but I love the marathon race itself.  My highest mileage was a half marathon at the end of August, and after that, it was a mere 8 miles on 9/30. Plus, with a new job, I really didn't have the time to train, so I really did have a legit excuse this year.

I won't say it wasn't difficult because it certainly was. Between mile 19 and 20 I was asking myself what the hell I was doing. Luckily, my cheering squad showed up (Scott and Addie) and I was passed off 600mg of ibuprofen. That got me through the last 6.2 miles...or should I say the last 6.69 miles because that's what my watch read: 26.69 miles....I ate an extra handful of Reeses Pieces for that.

One of the best things about this year's marathon was the medal. It is big and beefy, the best medal I've ever received. It's awesome.

I also have to mention that my nephew, Zach, ran this marathon as well. It was his first (hopefully not his last) and he finished with about the same amount of training as I had ....maybe even a little less.  He's a hurtin' unit today, I'm sure, but the pride of having finished always outweighs the pain.

The poor blog has been neglected for a month or so, but I wanted to at least post these pics...a couple of my favorites from the summer session with Abbie Morrison. There are many, many more!!

K5 2012

First day of ALL day Kindergarten. BIG girl now! :)

party

   Piñata instructions

   Notice the yawning...really?

 

   THE cake and the culprit

We celebrated Addie's birthday on Sunday! It was a drama filled event from the beginning:

-I fell off of the curb while carrying the cake out of the bakery (skinned knee and an unscathed cake)

- The pool portion of the party started at 1pm; as we pulled in the parking lot, it started to pour, thunder, and lightening

-It cleared briefly to have snacks and do the piñata

- BEES....a LOT of BEES

- The cake was cut and my friend thought she was choking on frosting and eventually left in the ambulance

_ The thunder and rain returned as Addie started to open gifts; we all huddled under two little canopies to avoid being drenched.

The bright side: Addie will always remember her 5th birthday, and although it was wet, the circumstances didn't put a damp-er on her fun!

Meet Jack

Meet Jack!

He's a black and tan furry little dude who will let you do almost anything with him. He goes for walks in purses and spends lots and lots of time being cuddled by a very proud 5 year old. He is the best "toy" to enter our house in a long, long time!