Count your MANY blessings

Here's a picture of my four very favorite blessings. How lucky am I! Our little ones are growing up so fast. Today we were playing memory, the game, and I had to smile when I watched Taylor put her arm around Chase and encourage him to pick the right match. One of those special mom moments. Sometimes I think that Taylor's heart is so big it's going to burst! She has so much love to give. At her preschool, her teacher picks one of the kids to be the helper out of a jar each day. This truly is a big deal in her world. She loves to be the helper! But honestly, she loves maybe even more, when one of her friends gets to be the helper. Whenever I pick her up from school she says to me, "guess who was the helper today?" And when she tells me who it was, she is so sincerely happy for them. I love that she doesn't get envious, or wish it was her, instead she is genuinely excited for each of her friends. Love that about her! Chase's new thing is "I do it myself!" He now wants to say his prayers himself, (which is absolutely adorable and then some!) put on his shoes himself, etc. etc. You get the idea. Today we went to the store and ran into our cousins. Tannon his cute cousin, (who Chase is in awe of) tried to help Chase with something and I heard Chase tell him "i'll do it myself!" I swear, I see so much of my personality in him! Little Talan is still just the sweetest thing ever. We went and visited my dad at his office today, I was holding him when we walked in and the secratary just started laughing and she said "look at that smile!" He was grinning from ear to ear at her. He loves people and is so smiley to just about anyone. He did the same thing when we walked in my dad's office to him, just grinning away. It's so fun to watch them grow and learn new things. They truly make me want to be a better person. They teach me so much through their little examples. I love that I get to spend my days with them. I tell ya, it doesn't get better than that!

Spring Dance Recital

Taylor's dance recital was last Tuesday and Wednesday night and she did AMAZING!! She really gets into it; she's got some great moves, and she LOVES to dance! She performed three times. Her Jazz class did a cute little number called "King Tut" and then her ballet class did their little number and then there was her favorite performance of the night, the one she was looking forward to the most, the finale to High School Musicial's "It's Summertime". It was such a fun night! Good job Bug!
We love you!

Jazz Game

Cort took Chase to his first Jazz game last night and they went in style. Cort's good friend Brandon got them all seats in the suite, which has catered food and plenty of room for Chase to get up and move around and really enjoy himself. Cort said they had such a good time and that Chase was really getting into it. He is such a boy! Cort bought him a little jazz basketball too, that Chase slept with last night and has been carrying around all morning long. He loved going and spending time with his dad. Lucky kid. What a fun night for him. Thanks to Brandon for letting Chase tag along. He had such a good time. For those of you that really know Chase know that he can sometimes be a little reserved, but Cort said as soon as they got there he was running around like he owned the place. I guess he was in his element.

Random Part 2

Here's some more random shots of some of the stuff we have been up to lately.
Money Hunt
Ever since I was little my grandparents, who's parents did it for my dad, have done a money hunt where they hide quarters and we all run around racing to find them. Now they also do it for the great grandkids. Here's a picture of Chase getting a bit of a head start. I couldn't resist taking a picture, before I explained the rules to him. It is so much fun to watch how excited they get!! Not as excited though, as there 20 to 30 something year old parents do, when it's there turn to run around looking for dollars. Cort actually got a whooping $21 this year. WAHOO!!

Girls night out
Me and Taylor seriously have some of the best friends ever!! We are both so lucky. One of my favorite people threw a mommy and daughter late night about a week ago and we had so much fun. Taylor got to stay up til almost midnight! We played games, talked, ate, watched the orignal Parent Trap, and just enjoyed being together. A good time was had by all. Here's a picture of us all and here's a couple of Tay with two of her very, very good friends. The first one is one of them when they were only two. They have actually been friends since they were babies and it is so sweet to see them together. They always have so much fun whenever they are together; no matter what they are doing. And the other one is one of them at the girls night out.
Girlfriends are the best!!



Happy Birthday Brycie!!
It was my brother's 29th birthday about a week ago and we had him over for cake. Taylor and Chase were so excited. They absolutely love Bry and always get so excited whenever he is around. He is always so sweet and loving with them and I'm so glad that they have him in their lives, and that I do too. He seriously is one of my best friends. Happy Birthday B!!


Finally!!
Last week we actually had a taste of Spring. The kids couldn't get enough of the warmness and quite frankly neither could I. We stayed outside practically the whole day! We even pulled out the slip and slide. We are sooo ready for summer!!



Garden
I decided that I wanted to do a garden this year. And my sweet husband went out and got all the necessary material and set me up. We planted some peas the other day, which totally reminded me of going to my Grandpa Gord's when I was little and picking them straight out of his garden. Chase was so into it, he kept saying "I'm going to help dada." And that he did....love that kid!

Brothers
Ever since Talan was born, Taylor and Chase can't get enough of him. They just love him soooo much!! In fact, I don't recall either of them every showing any sign of jealously, nothing but love. Here's a couple pictures of the boys playing with one another. I love that they have one another.


Talan
I couldn't resist posting one of our sweet little Tally. He is now 7 and a half months. I can't believe it. He is still growling, and babbling a ton. And has now decided that he likes to sleep on his belly. He will still eat just about anything. I have not found anything so far that he doesn't like. But that's just how he is; so laid back and just go with the flow. He's also getting close to crawling. The other day I left the room for a second while he was sitting up and playing and when I came back I found him on all fours ready to go. Here's a picture of him in all his glory.

Obession
Taylor's new obession lately, among other things, is the monkey bars. She could do them over and over and over again. Here she is at the park. And Chase's new obession lately is his frisbee. He carries it around the house and wants to show it to everyone that comes over. He constantly is asking if we can go outside and play with it. His favorite thing about it is throwing it and then running over to it and right before he picks it up he'll turn around and say "come and get it." And then as soon as you start running for it, he picks it up and laughs and laughs.


Princesses
(This is for you Brit, I can't believe I didn't post this!) Better late then never right?! For Taylor's five year old birthday her Aunt Britany and friend Derek, took Taylor to see the Disney Princesses on ice. Taylor was sooo excited. She picked out one of her dress ups to wear and we got her all done up for the big event. She came home with all sorts of goodies and talked about it for days afterwards. In fact, just the other day we were printing pictures for her to color and she started telling me about when Prince Philip took on the dragon at Disney on ice and won. She had a great time. Here's a picture of them before they left. What a fun gift and memory. Thanks again Brit!

Random

Here's some random pictures:

My VERY big helper, Miss Taylor.
The other day we were in the car and we weren't going to be home for awhile and Talan was getting hungry and as a result FUSSY. Well, I knew I had a jar of food for him in the bag, but I was driving so I asked Tay if she thought she could feed him without making a huge mess. She did awesome!! And ever since then she loves to feed Talan. What a huge helper she is!! Thank goodness I have her.

"I'm a big boy now!"
No picture of this...but we are potty training Chasers! I have really been dreading this, but when he started to show so much interest I thought that I better buck up and give it a try. So far, so good! He is actually doing awesome! I keep telling him that he doesn't want to go potty on Lighting McQueen (on his undies) and it seems to be working, because today is actually the first day of us training and he keeps telling me when he needs to go.
Playing
This is Talan's new thing that he loves. We have a basket of toys that I will pull out for him and he will just sit there forever pulling stuff out and just play away. I swear he has the most easygoing and sweetest spirit about him. LOVE HIM!!

Painting
We are going to be starting a new job jar at our house where we all pick a stick telling us what our job is that day. I am hoping that it will help us all to stay more of top of things. Anyways, I let the kids paint the sticks that we are going to use, as well as finger paint a couple of pictures, and OH BOY!! Did they make a huge mess! Paint on the chairs, all of the counters, and of course all over themselves. As I was cleaning it, I thought to myself "What was I thinking?!" They sure had fun.

Feet
Talan is obsessed with two things lately his FEET and everything and anything that he can put in his MOUTH. We are pretty sure that he is teething, because he will grab onto things, and stick it straight into his mouth and just growl and gnaw on it. Especially if it's one of our fingers. He REALLY gets into it.


Balls
As I have mentioned before, Chase loves balls! Here's one he found and Grandpa's. I swear, he can sniff them out. Oh yeah, and the reason he doesn't look so happy is because I am pointing a camera at him. So, for the record he loves balls and HATES having his picture taken.

When I grow up
Taylor has always loved to sing, but the other day when she came home from preschool she told me that when she grows up, she wants to be a singer. She seems to really have a passion for it. She asked me if I could go out and get her some music papers to practice her singing.

I just love spending time with my amazing kids. We have so much fun. I am one lucky lady! I love being a mom, their mom.


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