Some cute pics

Okay, here's a few random pictures from the last few weeks that I've been meaning to post.

All three kids have had fevers off and on for the past two weeks. I really, truly hate it when they're sick, but if I had to pick a sickness, this would be it. Luke would run a fever and just let me hold him and rock him. He was so mellow. And his cheeks would turn bright red.


I had a meeting after church a few weeks ago. When I came home, this is how I found my family. A Sunday nap with Daddy...it doesn't get any better than that!


This was Kallie after school the other day. Her teacher tells me that the boys really like it when she wears her hair like this.



The other day Shane took Luke out for their first (of MANY) father-son outings. They went to Chick-fil-a and to the mall playground. Aren't they cute?

How do you spell stir-crazy?

Three letters...F-L-U. We've been hit. Seth's about over it, Shane's right in the middle of it, and I think mine has just begun. (Kallie's words at dinner were, "Mommy you're not sick. Your eyes don't look like Daddy's.") Shane is pretty miserable. Luckily Kallie & Luke had their flu shots. Although I think they even had a touch of it, because they ran fevers off and on all week last week.

So the kids are now on day three of not leaving the house. Where-oh-where's a grandma when you need one? Oh yeah, in Florida, that's where. Boo-hoo. Okay, I promise I won't whine anymore.

Luke apparently decided the best way to deal with the boredom was to sleep the day away. He just woke up today at ONE-THIRTY. No, that is not a typo. I kept going in and checking on him, but he was just snoozing away. He was in bed before 9:00 last night too. This may seem odd, but if you know us well, you know we have all this "Taylor sleep gene" that is heaven-sent to a mom's sanity. (Shane doesn't have it, obviously, but it is rubbing off on him more and more.)

So here we are on Sunday afternoon, and not one of us were at church today. As far as I can remember this is the first time in the ten years we've been at our church that we haven't been there for sickness. I mean, I've stayed home with a sick child a few times, but if it's Shane or me, we just take our medicine, suck it up & go anyway. I assumed that's what we'd do today. Shane reminded me that would be pretty irresponsible considering how contagious this year's flu seems to be. I'd hate for some unsuspecting soul who takes the mic after me to be home in bed next week.

So we are home. There's a million things I could do, like laundry, sorting garage sale junk, etc, but my body is not cooperating. So back to bed I go. Today I am thankful for Mucinex, TLC, and a four-year-old who can play all day with my toddler who clearly will not be napping.

Our V-Day!

Seth, Kallie & Luke all had school on Valentine's Day...which, of course, meant lots of parties! And sugar. And more sugar. In fact, I picked Kallie up from school and she was literally bouncing up and down and in circles all over the classroom. Her teacher said she'd been that way all day. God bless her (the teacher, that is). Here's a few of her friends from school:

This is Mariana. She is so sweet and so quiet. Can you believe she & Kallie are in the same school grade?


This is Connor. Connor has professed his love for Kallie and says that she will be his wife (despite Samuel's objections). We've put a stop to the kissing, and Connor now says they will wait for that until they're 16. Connor is adorable.


Daddy met us at home right after school so that we could all exchange treats. Between all the stuff from us and all the stuff from school, there was a whole lotta stuff.


We always laugh at Kallie on holidays that revolve around candy. She consumes hers within just a few days. It probably would be hours if we'd allow it. Seth, on the other hand, keeps his for months, which would probably stretch into years if Kallie didn't sneak one piece at a time and very slowly deplete his supply.


This was the first year Seth could read his own cards. It was sweet. We still aren't used to hearing him read so well.


Luke loved his puppy, but he definitely loved his candy more. In fact, I may as well get this out in the open...he is a chocoholic. It has really become an issue lately. He stands in the middle of the kitchen and WAILS....Kau-ket!!!....Kau-ket!!!....Kau-ket!!!....all day long. Over and over. He cries and cries if I won't give it to him. He wants Hershey Kisses. And he knows we have them. Even if I give him 2 or 3 it never satisfies him. Needless to say he enjoyed his M&M's.


After we shared our treats, we got dressed to go to a friend's birthday party. It was a Jumping Party and the kids had a blast. But once we were dressed we still had about 20 minutes before it was time to leave, so the kids ran off some energy outside. They ran up and down the street over and over holding hands. Luke loved it.






This picture cracks me up! When it was finally time to go I told Kallie to grab Luke's hand and bring him to the car. Do you see her face? Do you think she took her job seriously? Yes. Do you think she was sassy about it? Yes. Do you think Luke was even a little compliant? No. Neither of these two are followers in any shape or form, so they frequently butt heads. You'd think the age and gender differences would keep them from fighting. Nope.


Happy Valentine's Day!

Scary is definitely relative.

Both Seth & Kallie have woken up in the middle of the night with bad dreams this week. Seth was first. He called for me and I (half-asleep) stumbled into his room and found my way under his covers. He was going on about some scary men or something...enough to creep me out & quickly tell him that it was all a dream and to go back to sleep.

Two nights later Kallie yelled for me, but she was a bit more hysterical (okay, alot more). I snuggled up with her, too, and asked what her bad dream was about. One word....Swiper! (That sneaky fox!) I giggled quietly to myself before falling asleep with her. The next morning I asked her why Swiper was so scary. She said that Swiper took her little lamb, and when she tried to yell, "Swiper no swiping!" her voice wouldn't work. Now that's a nightmare, don't you think?

This is a perfect example of the difference between Seth and Kallie. It's reality versus the-world-of-Kallie-make-believe-fantasyland. I hope she doesn't grow out of it for a long time. She has an innocence about her that Seth never really had, or not for long anyway. It is so cute and so sweet.

Luke's First Sentence!

Did you catch it? THAT'S COLD! He was shivering & his lips were turning purple. Why do kids think it's fun to be freezing? (On the blog there was a precious video of Luke standing at the outside faucet near the beach, and he was just in his diaper. He very clearly says his first little sentence, and Nana and Mommy were witnesses! So cute!)

What a bunch of beach bums...

What a perfect beach day this was! The kids had a total blast. It was warm enough for shorts, but chilly enough to need long sleeves. I assumed they'd probably end up all wet, and I was right. Nothing beats a day at the beach with Nana & Papa.

Luke was fascinated with the bubbles that surfaced when the little beach critters burrowed into the sand.

Kallie & Seth had so much fun with these ropes they found on the beach. Sometimes it's the simple things...

Bye-bye beach. See ya in the summer...

Santa's a-comin' !!!!

Christmas Eve Pajama Party!!!!

Every year my mom makes ALL OF US matching pajamas to wear on Christmas Eve. Just in case you can't picture what that would look like, here's a blast-from-the-past...

Okay, so this year she decided that was WAY too many pairs of pajama pants to sew, so every family was responsible for their own matching pajamas. And here's the end result...

We also began a new tradition this year ... we all participated in the THE FIRST ANNUAL TAYLOR CHRISTMAS EVE VARIETY SHOW! Every family had to perform, and let me tell you, we're not competetive AT ALL....nope, not at all!!

ACT I: Mom & Dad performed "The Bunny Hop" (to the actual Bunny Hop song, of course.) They did more laughing than hopping, I think. The judges decided that they will definitely need to step up their game next year, although they definitely scored high with bravery points alone. I mean, seriously, do you KNOW my dad? They pulled the kids up on "stage" to hop with them halfway through the song. This did not go over well with Hannah. I think it's because Papa was shaking her insides out. And Kallie never pulled the hat off of her eyes.

ACT II: Our family "adapted" a tooth fairy skit we saw some girls do at church. (Yes, that's my real hair. If you ask really nice I'll do your hair for you like that...)It ended up being pretty funny. The reactions from the audience speak for themselves. I would post the video here, but I don't want something like that getting loose online (or among the youth group)!

ACT III: Brian & Mary read an original poem. I would post it here but Mary would kill me. It definitely won the award for creativity & cleverness (is that a word?). They had us cracking up.ACT IV: Travis & Stephanie wowed us with some black magic. We weren't sure where they were going with it for a while, but in the end they definitely had our attention. I finally caved and looked up the solution on google. I think this is totally fair...I mean, come on, would a REAL magician use a trick that's on the internet? I think not.

Merry Christmas!

Papa retires!

While we were home for Christmas, my dad retired from about 31 years, I think, of working for the postal service! We decided to surprise him after church on Sunday with a limo that picked us up from Amelia Island and drove us to St. Augustine! My mom pretended that Mary forgot to put the Sunday roast in the oven, so while we were all "stressing" over what in the world we were going to eat for dinner (Papa was even stressing a bit...okay, alot) the limo pulled up in front of the house!

Here's Luke (a.k.a. The Crayola Walrus) at the restaurant...

We went to the coolest playground ever! If you're ever at Barnacle Bill's in St. Augustine be sure to check out the giant playground across the street. It was the best one we'd ever been to.

Looking back at all these pictures I think our newlyweds had more fun than the kids! Actually, they were SO good at helping with my kids & the kids loved the attention. They're going to make great parents someday.