Christmas Letter 2010

It's been a busy year! Mike and I have been going back to school. We both got our AA's recently. Mike continues to work full time at T-Mobile. I hold the house together, drive the kids to all of their activities, and sometimes get to take naps! Mike was just called to teach the nine year olds at church, and I have been leading the music in sacrament meeting since March.

Emily just turned 11 and is in the 6th grade, which is at the middle school in our district. She is very social and likes to spend time with her friends. She enjoys playing all sorts of sports, like volleyball, basketball, and softball.

Dustin just had his 8th birthday and was baptized. He is in the 2nd grade this year. He loves to learn and reads books that should be too hard for someone his age. He likes to ride his bike and play baseball. He tried football for the first time this year and decided that he didn't like it.

Alexis is now five. She started kindergarten this year. She loves her teacher and meeting new friends. She is learning to sound out words. She likes to dress up and wear jewelry. She wants to learn to ride her bike without training wheels, but I am still a little wary of her arm. The surgeon said that she could not have any trauma to it for a year.

We have all been good and healthy. We decided to skip the expense of buying and mailing Christmas cards this year, so we are going this way. We hope that everyone has a Merry Christmas and enjoys spending time with family and friends.

Love, Michael, Priscilla, Emily, Dustin, & Alexis

Now for November!

We spent Thanksgiving with Mike's family. The food was good, but it's always good when I don't have to cook it! The kids stayed up at the lake and Mike and I went home and did a little midnight shopping on "black Friday". We were home and in bed before most people left their houses. We drove by several stores on the way home just to laugh at the people who were camping out. Crazy people.

Anyhow... Dustin's birthday was that Saturday, so after I got the kids home, I made the cake and we celebrated after Mike got home from work. This was his eighth birthday, so he got new scriptures with a case, a CTR ring, and a CTR tie.

Looking at the pictures in his new scriptures.

Holding up the new tie.

Blowing out eight candles.

Dustin was baptised the next Saturday, (which was actually the first weekend in December, but it's still going here). We were happy to have some family and friends come to celebrate with us. We had a nice lunch at our home afterwards. It was nice and relaxing to sit and visit. The dog even behaved herself! I forgot to get the picture of the boys in their whites, but oh well! I took a picture of them after. Oh, I forgot, we also bought Dustin his first suit!

The boys were in their suits, I choose a black and white dress, I came out of my room and Emily was wearing a black and white dress, and Alexis was sporting bright yellows and pinks, so I changed her into a black and white dress also and decided to get some family pictures while we were all dressed up.
Unfortunatly, someone is making a face in every single one of them, except for this one. Alexis' hair is all messed up, but nothing I can do about it now. Everyone wanted out of their dressy clothes by this point, so they weren't cooperating very well.

That's what's been going on around here! The kids are eager for Christmas to get here (and vacation). Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!

Halloween

I know. That's all that needs to be said. The school had the annual, crazy, unorganized, Halloween parade again. The kids love it, so can't complain too much. Emily did not dress up for school. I don't know if it's because the middle school will not allow it, or if it's just because that's not cool!

Dustin wanted to be a mad scientist. His idea of that was to wear a lab coat and to have toxic green hair. So we made it happen.
Alexis got her pick of Emily's old costumes. She choose the "snow princess" one. This is the costume that Emily wore the year Alexis was born, so at about the same age.
Emily wanted to be a pirate, so we borrowed everything and she was happy. It was a beg, borrow, and steal kind of Halloween around here. Mike is dressed as a guy in a jersey. Saturday was super busy, a day full of parties.


We had to celebrate Emily's (and Eddie's) birthday, then rush over to rollerama for a skating, costume party. (Her orthodontist rented the place for all of his clients) I think I had more fun than the kids, they kept falling. As soon as that was done, we went straight to the church for our annual "trunk-or-treat". It was a busy day. Luckily Mike got the day off and was able to spend it with us.
Emily = 11.
Eddie = Emily + 30!

Alexis' baby teeth

Sunday, we were sitting in church waiting for sacrament meeting to start when I heard "Eeeewwwww! Gross!" from the pew behind me. I turned around and said "What?" I was then informed that Alexis was pushing her bottom front two teeth completely flat with her tongue. As we were getting dressed she had said that her teeth were loose, but I just brushed her off thinking she's too young to lose teeth. When we got home one of them was hanging there and she refused to eat, so Mike pushed it out.

There it is. Notice the other bottom tooth moved over into the empty space.

So, the other tooth hung on until Friday, when it was so loose that she wouldn't eat again. So, once again, Mike pushed it out.

Here she is all cute and toothless.

Braces

During the summer, I decided it was time to get Emily braces because she was entering middle school and I know how brutal those kids can be. Her teeth were/are terrible and I don't want her getting made fun of for them. She spent most of the summer in spacers and then moving her molars back. She finally got the braces put on last week and chose pink and green rubberbands. The ladies said that is a very popular choice right now (as I bit my tongue).

Award Day

Dustin got the first student of the month award this year (again). His teacher said it's because he always does his work queitly and on time. He is very helpful to her and his other classmates. He is very well behaved (at school). Above is our PTC president giving him the award.

Here he is modeling it and his brand new school shirt.

And this is him with his teacher.

First day of school 2010

Emily started in the sixth grade at our local middle school. She has to catch the bus at 7:30 every morning, so her picture was alone because the other two were no where near ready. I walked her to the bus stop the first day and quickly realized that it's not cool for mom to walk you to the bus stop.
Dustin was pretending to be mad about going to school. I knew he was really excited. He started second grade this year. Alexis could hardly wait to start kindergarten. She'd been asking me to go since her birthday. She didn't understand why she was five and not going to school.
My pictures are washed out because I was in a hurry and forgot to check the settings. I need to remember to do that.
So far they seem to be doing well at school. I haven't heard many complaints. Except from Emily. She keeps complaining that she is getting in trouble for talking in class. Really?

Alexis turns five

Five! My baby is five! I'm sad. Everybody keeps asking me what I am going to do when she goes to school and I just want to cry and yell I don't know! So, just don't ask me. It kind of ruins my whole day.

Her birthday landed on a Saturday this year. Mom and Pop have been serving at the temple every year so far on her birthday, so we decided to have a party. We rented a giant, inflatable water slide and invited a bunch of kids over. I had Carissa and Caitlyn here while Corinna was on vacation, and Jerry, Laurie, and their kids all showed up too! She had about nine kids from church show up, so it wasn't too big. (There are 30 kids her age). I made three cakes, and they all got eaten up! The main cake was this one. I am not taking credit for the decorating. I baked it, but about half an hour before the party started, none of the cakes were frosted, Mike had disappeared, and I was feeling desperate. I called my neighbor Jaime. I honestly don't know how I would ever survive without her. I just wanted it frosted, she went above that and it was beautiful! Thank you Jaime! Just remember, I owe you!

The kids all had a great time playing outside. We had no drama or crying so I am calling it a success! Here is the birthday girl with her presents.
And blowing out the candles!
I love the kool-aid mustache!

Legoland and Disneyland

This year we participated in Disney's "give a day, get a day" program. We were also able to get "buy an adult, get a kid free" tickets to Legoland, so we took a few days in May and went to both. We drove down to Los Angeles on Saturday morning. I spent the afternoon apartment shopping with Alena, while Mike and the kids went to a mall and walked around. We drove to our hotel that evening and walked around downtown Disney. We got to see the fireworks and we ate at the RainForest Cafe. I got a migraine and spent way too much on a bottle of pills, but it was worth it!

Sunday morning we woke up and drove to Carlsbad. We ate breakfast at a Denny's and went in to the park. It was kind of fun, but definitely not worth paying full price. Emily was a little bored. Dustin liked it. Alexis was scared of all the rides, but we dragged her on them anyway.

Emily ran into the curb and got stuck here. She's raising her hand to get the attention of an attendant.


Dustin cruising along.

Alexis on the little kids track.

See how much fun she was having? I think we made her get on this one. YeeHaw!

Alexis really liked it. It was nice and calm.

Dustin thought it was a little goofy too.

That night we drove back to our hotel only to discover that THE HOTTUB WAS NOT WORKING! I really needed a nice relaxing soak too. The kids swam in the freezing water anyway. That night we went to downtown Disney again and watched the fireworks again.

Monday was Disney day. We got up early and packed up the car then got to Disneyland just in time to... Wait in line! We had to redeem our tickets at a booth. It wasn't so bad. We got into the park about half an hour after they opened. I didn't take very many pictures because I was too busy having fun. This was my first ever trip (since being married) without a stroller. Kind of strange, but much easier to manuver. Emily got picked to do Jedi Training. She fought Darth Maul. I'm telling you, the people who work there must be dying in those costumes with all that makeup on. It was only the first weekend of May and it was pretty warm out.

In the teacups, waiting to go.

Dustin and Emily. They were not with us so that they could go fast.

I think we waited in line almost an hour for this two second picture.

Emily fighting Darth Maul.

The highlight of my day was running into one of my best friends from high school. Her parents moved her away between our junior and senior year. We wrote and talked to each other, but then she all of a sudden dissappeared! So I hadn't heard from her for about 12 years. It was so awesome! We met at about 7pm, and the park closed at 8pm, but we were in there until about 8:30, so we stayed together and talked as fast as we could! The kids crashed before we got onto the freeway, so it was a nice, quiet ride home.

And FYI, this is what happens to a Reeses when it gets lost in the bottom of a backpack for two days while walking around in the heat. Yummy!

Seattle

I went on my annual girl trip to Seattle this year. My friend got us $37 plane tickets (plus taxes and fees, but still super cheap!) It was kind of a last minute thing, but we had a great time. It was actually January that we went, but I took my super cheesy kodak easy share camera which I hardly ever use, and I just now downloaded the photos.

We poked around the city, we drove to Mount Rainier and saw lots of snow and waterfalls, we took a ferry across the bay and walked around, we went to the very first Starbucks, visited Pike Place Market, and I paid $17 to scare the crud out of myself. That's right. I went to the top of the Space Needle.

We were only there for an extended weekend, but we packed it full of activities. It is such a beautiful place. Everything is green and lush. (That's because it rains ALL THE TIME!) Here are a very few pictures because most of them did not come out very good! Enjoy!

Downtown Seattle from on top of the Space Needle. Mt. Rainier is in the background to the right.

The entrance to Mt. Rainier National Park. It started snowing on us not far up the road. It got heavy and scary real fast, so we turned around. It was so overcast that we couldn't see anything anyway.

I liked how this tree was growing out of the rocks. That is one tree split into many trunks. You can't tell, but they are all connected together at the bottom.

I loved how green everything was. Even in the winter when the trees are hibernating, they are covered with a green moss. This picture just doesn't do the beauty of it justice.

A lot of the trees also had ivy growing up them. I really like nature photos, can you tell?

The infamous Space Needle, from below. I was getting sick just looking up it. I don't know how Alena got me in the elevator. Oh, I forgot to mention, you are at the top in less than a minute. Ack!

Little Lies

Overheard by me during lunch:

(Alexis) "Open."

"C'mon. Open."

"It's okay applesauce. I won't eat you."

And now, deep thoughts, by Alexis Taylor

Alexis comes to me the other day and asks,
"If I cut my finger off, will it grow back?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"I don't know, they just don't grow back."
"Well, my arm got better, and my owies get better."

Ummmm, I could not think of a response for that. Why is it that we can injure ourselves horribly and our bones will heal and our skin will regrow. Our blood vessels can mend themselves, and our nerves regeneraete. But our limbs don't grow back? So I replied,

"I'm not sure why. It doesn't make any sense, does it?"

I guess that was enough for her because she didn't ask any more whys. I'm going to have to start reading some deep science books to answer this ones questions.

I'm still alive...

I kind of dropped off of the face of the Earth for a while. Alexis ended up having surgery on her elbow and it was like having a baby again. Even though it was her left arm, I had to help her to eat for a while, and I had to take her to the bathroom every time. (She couldn't get on and off the toilet by herself, couldn't balance once she was up there, couldn't wipe, and couldn't wash her hand.) I also had to help her get dressed. It was not fun trying to find clothes that I could fit over the huge cast. For a while she wore a tank top and a shawl. We just took a blanket with us everywhere to keep her warm.

For Christmas, Santa had already gotten her a scooter, so he had to scramble at the last minute to find something else. (He didn't think it would be very nice to give her something that she would not be able to use for a long time.)

She only had the cast on for three weeks. They had to put pins in to hold her elbow in place. The pins were sticking out of the skin, so they had to remove them before they got infected. After that she was in a sling for another three weeks. We have to take her in for x-rays every couple of months for a year to make sure the elbow stays in the right place. The way it broke, it went through her growth plate and if they had not fixed it, her arm would have either stopped growing or would have retarded growth.

Right now both Emily and Dustin are in baseball, so that is keeping me busy. It's kind of a pain on school nights.

For Spring Break we went to Portland, Oregon for my niece Amy's wedding. She is the oldest granddaughter (of my parents) and the first to get married. Alexis was the flower girl. Since I am smart and organized, I forgot my camera at the house we were staying in. All I have is a picture of her in the dress when I tried it on her.

I am hoping to be able to get some pictures from the bride and groom once they are settled in. We had a good time seeing the sights. The kids traveled well, which was very nice. This is the first time they have ever been in the car for more than three hours. I take them to the beach, to the mountains, and to L.A. and that is about it. They watched a lot of movies and played with the DS's. It kept them nicely busy.

On the way home we hit a huge snow storm over Mt. Shasta. There were a lot of people driving badly and sliding off of the road. We were scared that someone was going to slide into us, but decided to keep going. They closed the road right after we got over it. It took us an extra three hours to get over the summit. Here are a few pictures of it.

It was beautiful. If we were the only cars on the road it would have been okay. We just got really stressed about the other drivers.

Today was Alexis' last day of preschool. She got out early because her teacher (unexpectedly) got pregnant at the beginning of the school year. She has to have her babies by c-section, and they just bumped her date up to the Monday after next, so she decided she wanted a week off to prepare her self and her house. At the last minute (literally after school started today) she decided to have a little graduation. So once again, no camera. I took a few pictures after we got home.



They made cute little hats and diplomas.
And a few days ago they made these cute hand print stepping stones. We got to bring them home today. She had a great time in preschool and learned a lot. She is more than ready for kindergarten. Thanks Miss Michelle!

We recently made some blankets for Project Linus and donated them for Disney's "give a day, get a day" so up next an (almost) free Disney trip!