November 2019

We started out November with the celebration of our anniversary.  Brian had the Friday before off so we celebrated with a fancy lunch at Cafe Rio.  We had Ava and Lyla so we opted to get it to go.  On our actual anniversary Sadie took it upon herself to make sure it was special.  She printed off pictures from our wedding and of each of the kids and decorated the kitchen wall.  The kids made us fun cards and we enjoyed dinner as a family.  As I thought about it, it really does make sense to celebrate as a family since this is the day our family began.  I can't believe it has been 13 years.  So much has happened in those 13 years and I am thankful for the family and life we are creating.  

Finn lost his 1st tooth! He was very good about wiggling it and it didn't take it long before it was ready to come out.  He came to show me how wiggly it was.  I gave it a wiggle and pulled it right out.  He was a bit surprised when I said "It is out!" He was excited for the tooth fairy to come.  I admit I felt a little sad about it.  I am going to miss that cute baby tooth "Finn grin".  

November brought us snow! The kids are always excited and I am always not excited.  It is fun to see how much fun they have though.  Lyla enjoyed about 10 minutes out in it.  She even followed Ava's example and lay down to make a snow angel.  

When she was done she enjoyed watching everyone else from inside the house.  

Sadie and her friend, Phoenix...

Sadie and her friend Victoria...

Finn and his friend, Benny....

Thanksgiving

We decided to do something different for Thanksgiving this year.  We had a small group that would be coming to Grandma Terry's this year. (Just our family and the Meldrums)  I suggested that maybe we do Pizza and a movie instead of the traditional Thanksgiving dinner.  Considering most of the children don't really care for the traditional foods anyway.  When I was growing up often times mom or others were away during Thanksgiving at a clogging convention, so Dad would do pizza and movies.  We call it a Bellevue Thanksgiving.  We did do the traditional Thanksgiving the Sunday before for Sunday dinner.  On Thanksgiving day, we went to Grandma's for pizza and then headed to the movie theater to see Frozen II.  It was a nice relaxing day.  

Sunday dinner...

Thanksgiving day...

Grandpa Bruce's Surprise 70th Birthday party

Grandpa Bruce celebrated his 70th Birthday this month.  His kids that live here in Utah planned a surprise party.  

We had pie night at our house and said we were going to the church to run around and play games.  Surprise it was actually a party!  

Random November

A Sunday afternoon fort

 I feel like the moments when everyone is getting along and playing nicely together are few and far between, so when those moments happen they must be documented.  The kids worked together to build a blanket fort and then they played nicely together in it for at least 30 minutes! (miracles) It didn't end well, but I am choosing to focus on the good. 

Bedtime snuggles and books

Lyla usually falls asleep on our way home from dropping Ava off at preschool.  She loves to have her books every where we go.

This is what it looks like when Finn unloads the dishwasher.  He can't reach the cupboards to put things away so he usually just stacks them on the counter and then I come and put them away.  I was quite impressed with this stack!

Ava is very into having her picture taken with things she creates.

Dinner helpers

Cute Lyla

The girls had 'bring your mom to dance day'.  It was fun to go and see what they do at dance and see their dances they are preparing for their performance next month.  (I only took video at Sadie's class, no picture)

Going through some papers and found this. 

Crazy girls playing with my phone...

Cheese...(or banana)

"Look mom, I recycled...your drink can for an engine"-Ava

Lyla LOVES the ipad.  It is one of her favorite words.  She loves it, but just gets frustrated when she tries to use it.  

Finn made this cute Mickey Mouse hat...

Finn disguised a turkey...

We got our house decorated and ready for Christmas.  It is hard to believe the year is almost done.  

We are looking forward to the Christmas Season and all it brings.

October 2019

Finn finished off the fall soccer season.  He was excited that cousin Adam, Uncle Jon and Grandma and Grandpa Taggart came to one of his games.  

Good thing the season is done.  That last game was pretty chilly!

(Grandma Terry and Ava)

We enjoyed general conference as usual.  This year Brian was able to get 2 tickets to the women's session.  Sadie and I had a fun trip downtown.  It was an amazing meeting.  They made many adjustments to the young women program including, a new YW theme, there are no longer classes of "Laurel, Mia maid and Laurel".  

I have always loved the yw theme.  I had no idea I could love it even more.  What an amzing testimony of who we are!

We went to schmidt's pumpkin patch for FHE one night.  We enjoyed playing in the play area, a hay ride and picking pumpkins.  The kids each wanted the biggest one they could find.  We ended up leaving with 80lbs of pumpkin!!

Ava had a field trip to the fire station with her preschool.  I totally went to the wrong station, but managed to get to the right one in time.  

Beck is in Miss Tammi's 3 year old preschool.  It was fun to get to hangout with cousins.  

(Ava, Lyla, Beck and Liv)

We went to the scarecrow festival at Thanksgiving point with Grandma and Grandpa Taggart and Todd and Julie and their family.  It was a beautiful fall day and we had so much fun.  

I think this was our kid's pick for favorite scarecrow...

This year we had an entire WEEK off from school for fall break.  We packed that week full of fun things...

We started off with the extended Child's family dinner Halloween party/dinner.  We had fun playing games and doing crafts.  

Grandpa Roger got attacked by all the crazy boys.

Monday morning we went to check out a new park by the library.  It was a bit chilly but the park was a hit.

On Monday night we went with the Ferrells to see the witches at Gardner village.  This tradition has been going on for more than a decade! We love it every year.

It's not a trip to the witches without seeing Witchy Poo. 

Caramel apples are probably the best part!

(Andrea)

(Anne)

(Adam)

(Nathan)

plus a bit of playing with cousins.

Tuesday we went to Grandma Terry's to make Halloween sugar cookies with Tiffany and her kids and Grandma.  

Wednesday we went to spend the day with Grandma Claudia and Grandpa Bruce. The kids LOVE to play with Grandma and Grandpa.

Checking out Grandma's new sewing machine...

On Thursday we went to Temple Square to visit Dad at work. 

Saturday night we had Jack O'lantern pizza for dinner and carved pumpkins.

all the cracks between the many activities were filled with playing we neighborhood friends.  The kids probably would have been happy to stay home and play with them all day, but I knew we would need to get out of the house!  It was nice to have a little break from school.  

Sunday we had our annual Taggart family Halloween party.  We had a blast playing games like Don't eat Pete, musical chairs and speak out.  We ate lots of yummy soup and desserts.  There is never a dull moment when we are all together.  

Ward Halloween party

Brian dressed up as Fix it Felix from Wreck it Ralph. Everyone at his work is always telling him he looks like him.

They had different carnival games set up around the church.  The Young women were in charge of the mummy wrap.

Benny G. and Finn

Sadie and Victoria G

HALLOWEEN

We had a busy Halloween day.  We started off with the school Halloween parade.

Brian took the day off so that he could help get Ava to school and see her Halloween parade while I was at Sadie's class party.  It was fun to have him home.

This year I some how ended up in charge of Sadie's class party.  That was a big job, but I think it turned out good. 

We made our stop to Grandma and Grandpa's to see cousins and G&G

Then off for trick or treating.  It was FREEZING this year.  Lyla and I stayed home to hand out candy while Dad and the big kids went around the the neighborhood.  

Lyla loved watching for the kids trick or treating and would wave at everyone out the window and say "Bye" when they were leaving.  

The candy loot!

Cute Halloween treats from Grandma Terry.  

3 cute girls all wearing the same ladybug costume.  

(Lyla left, Sadie top and Ava bottom)

Random October

School Pictures....

Crazy socks and hair day at school...

cute cousins at Grandma Terry's 

(Liv, Lyla and Ava)

Climbing Grandpa Roger's tree

(Beck Meldrum)

One afternoon Ava got locked in her bedroom.  Somehow the door knob got jammed and I couldn't get it open.  It cracked me up as I tried to free her and she made comments like "well I guess I live in here now" "I am really stuck".  I tried and tried and couldn't get it open.  I tried to talk her through opening her bedroom window, but it was too hard for her. So I sat outside the door and passed gold fish crackers through the open hole.  Luckily it was only about a half hour before Dad arrived home and rescued Ava.  

This was her room when we finally got in.  How did she manage to pull her mattress off of her bed?!

Ava Selfies

These kids were working really hard on their Saturday morning chores.

Did you know that cucumbers have crusts?  Ava will not eat the "crust" on anything including things like cookies, pancakes and cucumbers.  

We got boo'd and they gave us a cute cupcake kit. It was fun to make these creepy spiders. 

'

When there are no seats in the Costco eating area, you eat in the car.  

Cute sisters

bedtime books

Snuggles

Ava and Sadie were able to invite a friend to dance class the week of Halloween.  

Ava invited her friend Kora and Sadie invited Harlie.  I didn't get a picture of Sadie and Harlie.

I was scrolling through Instagram and saw this cute face at her dance class...

This girl had suddenly started struggling with separation anxiety.  We had a couple really hard days at preschool drop off. I mean Kicking, screaming, had to put her in the car hard. This week in our Come Follow me study we talked about the scripture Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."  I was able to remind Ava about this scripture and discussed how Jesus could help her to not feel sad/scared when she had to leave Mom.  We said a prayer before she left and she had a fabulous drop off.  Later we talked about it and I asked if she thought maybe that helped.  She said "yes, maybe we can do that every day!"  I am thankful for this program that is helping me to better teach and help my children.  We worked out a deal that she could earn a balloon from the party store if she went to preschool with no crying.  She did great and earned her prize!  Hopefully this anxiety will not stick around too long.  

Party store craziness...

Cutest little reader Lyla

I took this picture as Dad and I left the Temple this month. 

Cute kids at the library...

It has been a crazy busy month! I am thankful for the fun traditions we have and the memories they provide.