The Precious

Well we finally had to say goodbye to "The Precious" which in our house translates to the ever loving Binky. Now we didn't have to travel to the depths of Mordor to get rid of it, but it was in reality just about that traumatic. Mat convinced Riley that if he would throw away his Binky that he would purchase him a new truck that he wanted form the movie Cars. So Mat and Riley went to the store and bought the truck, came home and gathered the last two Binky's in the house and made Riley throw them away. As you can see in the picture he still is not sure about throwing "The Precious" into the garbage can.
After said Binky made it into said garbage can we quickly took the bag out to the big garbage can outside so the garbage man could pick them up post haste. Now all was well until bedtime (which is the only time Riley has had his Binky since he turned one.) Riley was all but crushed by the thoughts of the garbage man taking his Binky's away in the big brown truck never to be seen again. We tried to console him, but how do you console the inconsolable. We sang Twinkle Ry over 20 times I think, and finally just let him cry himself to sleep, which took about 2 minutes.(I think the dose of Motrin might have helped with that)
Well I am happy to report that "The Precious" was destroyed last Monday and after having only one meltdown on that initial night Riley has adjusted quite well to life without the Binky. What a big boy he is turning into.

Happy Birthday to Me

What a great 30Th Birthday party. Thanks Heather for the great of having a party with a Jimmy Buffett Theme. It was a good time

Look Kelly another picture of Brian where he isn't flipping off the camera!!

Lacy, Heather and Ryan....also notice all my blowups have blown up on the roof....funny
There was a fierce Volleyball game. The teams were

Lacy, Sharon, Kelly, Kayle and Scot

against

Mat, Nate, Kara, Shannon and Amy

Our team prevailed after 3 games which really was no thanks to me.

The MVP award would most definitely go to Sharon. That girl dived and fell more than any guy I ever saw. Not to mention at the after dark game played buy the men and Sharon,(they were short one guy so her and Kara were trading off) she took a blow to the nose that would have put most people to tears and she just jumped right up and said come on lets play. What a woman!!!

Lindsey & Kayle

My super cool new coconut glass compliments of Heather.

I also got a new blender form Lacy, a darling bracelet and necklace from Sharon, 2 new books from Kelly and a wine holder with 2 bottles of wine from Shannon. Thanks everyone for the awesome presents.

My BFF Kelly

Lacy & Angela










Kara & Sharon

Lacy and Nate
More of my BFF"S Heather, Lacy and Sharon

Here we all are (minus Kelly, not sure how she escaped this one)

Kara, Heather, Lindsey, Lacy, Sharon, Angela, Shannon and Amy

Thanks again to everyone for coming. It will be a Birthday to remember!! Love you all

New Family Pictures

My dear friend Maggi took some family photos of us with Mat's mom and dad and sister. They turned out cute and I wanted to share a few of my favorites. You can check out Maggi's other work at quackphoto.blogspot.com She really does a great job and she is good with kids, groups, you name it! She has taken all of our family photo's including my pregnancy pictures with Riley. This was probably our 9Th or 10Th session with her and she is awesome!!!

Art City Days Fun

Its that Magical time of year again when all the crazies come out and go to the Carnival in Springville....the Taylor Family included. I mean whats not to love about mobs of people, crazy Carni workers and long lines of screaming children. I was sure I had died and gone to carnival Hell. But Riley had a good time so that made the trip well worth it. Not to mention that you really can't beat a Scone a Texas Twister and a bag of Cotton Candy. Carni food really is the best Here is Riley and Mat on the first Merry-Go-Round Ride

Riley and me on the second Merry-Go-Round Ride. Riley did it all by himself this time

He was really excited about getting to ride the black horse on ride number two. I think Mat trampled a small heard of children to get the coveted horse

Riley on a train Ride

I Love the little girls face in this picture. I think she was really ticked off that she was forced to not only sit by a boy but a younger boy at that. No worries though, they were fast friends by the end of the ride. I mean really, who can resist Riley's charm

We did it Daddy Riding the roller coaster with Haley and Grace. Notice the death grip Riley has on the bar



Hopefully you can see the look of sheer terror on the poor kids face, but he never did cry. He would kind of relax on the parts that weren't so up and down. He will definitely have his mom and dads love of roller coasters.

And lastly driving a car, which thankfully he will not legally do for another 14 years.

Bye Bye Twenties.....Hello Thirties

So I reached the big 3-0 on Saturday. So far I am not freaking out. I figure like wine I am just getting better with age.

I had a really fun Birthday. I went with my two awesome sister-in-laws, Cordi and Allison, to the Rio women in the Outdoors, weekend getaway, up Spanish Fork Canyon that is hosted by the National Turkey Federation. Good times were had by all!!! I got to enjoy a horseback ride in the rain and an interesting dutch oven cooking class. Not to mention that they cooked all our meals. It was really cold on Saturday so Allison and I skipped our last two classes and had Nap Class and Sit in the Sun Class, which we hosted ourselves. Cordi and Allison made the day fun by giving my a crown with flashing lights. I think the other women were a little concerned about what a princess was doing in the outdoors, but anyone who knows me would think nothing of it.

I was glad to get home on Sunday. I had missed my two guys terribly. Mat gave me an awesome purse for my Birthday

And Riley colored me a really cute card. He even told me all about it before I opened it. I am really excited for the Jimmy Buffett party we are having in a few weeks with my friends to celebrate the big day. I think its going to turn into a party month....but hey there are no complaints from the Birthday Girl!!!

History In America

No matter what your political beliefs are, history was made in America last night with Senator Barack Obama winning the Democratic Nomination for President of the United States. What an awesome time in America to watch as the first African American man and the first woman ever ran for President. I am proud and exctied to live in this great country.

Class of 2008

My baby brother Colby just graduated from Springville High School. How awesome is that. And he graduated with honers. We had a fun afternoon with the family, attending the Graduation Ceremony, eating at LaCasita for dinner, and then heading up to Dads for cake and ice cream. We are so proud of Colby and all he has accomplished. He is a great brother and the best uncle ever!! We love you uncle Boby

Go David Cook

So can I just say how freaking happy I am that David Cook won American Idol. He has been one of my favorite contestants from the start. Mat made fun of me for two hours while I was busy dialing his number to cast as many votes as possible on Tuesday night. It's about time a rocker won and this was just the guy to do it!!! Way to go David Cook and way to go America for FINALLY getting it right.

Duck, Duck, Goose

Any one who knows me, knows I love ducks. If I could have a pond of ducks in my backyard I would. Lucky for me Riley also loves ducks. We drive past them most days and he talks to them, and sings a duck song (which is quite cute I might add). We asked Riley if he wanted to go feed the ducks and he said yes he would like to feed them a snamich (this is Riley's word for sandwich). The ducks swarmed to us before we even had Riley out of his car seat. There were a few geese among the ducks and they were brave enough to take the bread right out of our hands. They were as tall as Riley, and luckily friendly.

Riley was most content with taking an entire piece of bread and chucking it in the water and watching the ducks fight over it. He also like running towards the ducks and scaring them back in the water. He would laugh and say "Silly ducks, silly gooses." He probably would have jumped in the pond with the ducks if we would have let him. Luckily daddy saved the day and kept Prince Riley out of the water


All in all it was a fun afternoon, until we ran out of bread that is....but I'll save the tales of woe for another day

Happy Mothers Day

I think my brother Justin and I are two of the luckiest people alive and here's why. We have 2 moms and 2 dads. Now I realize divorce is never the optimal situation, but my mom and dad both remarried awesome people who loved us into their families like we had always been there. But for today I want to pay respect to the awesome moms in my life.

To my mom- Thank you for always letting me be me. For letting me have my own opinions, and make my own mistakes. I realize now how difficult that must have been at times. I know I gave you more than a few gray hairs over the years but I have always known how much you love me. Your strength and grace are beyond compare and I admire and look up to you more than you know. I am a lucky girl to have you as a mom. I love you to the moon and back.

To Teri- I couldn't ask for a better second mom. You have always treated me just like I was your own, and I can never express how much that means to me. You taught me a lot growing up about family and the things in life that are important. You always made an effort to spend time with Justin and I when we were with you and dad for the weekend, and for all the times I didn't say thank you I am saying it now. I am also so grateful to you for spending your one day off during the week with Riley. He is so lucky to get that time with you

To Diana-I honestly don't know how you do it all, but you do, and you even make it look easy. Thank you for bailing me out on more than one occasion, and giving up sleep to watch Riley. I always know I can count on you and that means more to me than you know.

To all my many Grandma's- Thanks for all the love over the years. I am really blessed to have all of you in my life. I have to give a special shout out to Grandma Colene....you are an amazing woman to chase my two year old around every week and he loves every minute of it.

And lastly to my dear friends (you know who you are)- Thank you for setting such a good example for me, for not laughing at my dumb questions, and for welcoming me into the club of motherhood with open arms. Who needs a manual when I have all of you.