Time to Update the Blog!

A new Chuck E. Cheese restaurant opened up in Rochester. The first night my parents and my brother, Brigham, were in town for Christmas we went to eat and play. Everyone enjoyed it! Below is one of Andy's prizes from all the tickets he won! Unfortunately, his mouth is not big enough for him to comfortably wear them. But he looks cool anyway!

Nathan and Brigham had a competition going with this game. They both wanted to get the high score. When we left, Nathan's high score still stood.

Every year at our school, the Kindergartners make and decorate Gingerbread houses. Nate and Haley have done it, so it was Andy's turn this year. He had a lot of fun decorating it!

Costumes! I tried to save money this year by making costumes, it came back and bit me in the face! Nate and Andy are Gargoyles, a costume we found on Family Fun. They didn't turn out as expected, in fact they looked like Muppets. I spent twice as much money than I would have if I had bought them. Nathan said, "You're making memories, so it's okay." But then we ended up throwing away everything but the sweatsuits. Haley wanted to be an Angel and I found her costume for much cheaper than it would be if I made it, so she looks beautiful! Michael is wearing a hand-me-down costume from Andy. He's a dragon and he loved wearing it! When we went to the kid's school Halloween parade, people kept calling him a dinosaur. His reply? "I'm not a dinosaur, I'm a dragon!"

Daddy helped Andy with his.

Star Wars Clone Trooper


Carving of the Jack-O-Lanterns. Nate did his own this year.

Signs of Fall Part II

Another sign of Fall is our annual trip to Tweite's Pumpkin Patch. My mom and I took the kids while Nathan was in Russia. Again, it was a beautiful day and it even got a little warm, so the kids didn't need to wear jackets and were sweating. It was a wonderfully fun trip, as it always is.

Oh, my handsome Andy! Those blue eyes get me every time!

This slide was Michael's favorite because he'd go really fast and then biff it in the sand!

Michael eating sand after the fast slide.

When we've gone in past years, we've never taken time to feed the animals. Thanks to Grandma Bice who supplied the many quarters, the kids got to feed goats, bunnies, and chickens. They have these cool pipe things set up so all you have to do is drop the corn into the pipes and it goes to the animals. The chickens seemed especially hungry, so we spent most of our time with them. The kids really enjoyed doing this, thanks Grandma Bice!

Next to feeding the chickens, this was the other highlight of our trip. The pumpkin patch has these rubber ducks you can buy for $1.00 and then the kids can race them down this homemade water track as many times and they want. Michael absolutely loved it! He soaked himself from chin to knees. In fact he carried around his "bath duck" for days afterwards and eventually lost it.

On the wagon ride.

Every wooden stand or photo opportunity that we passed, Haley had to stop and get her picture taken. We have several shots of her, but I only chose a few.

The pumpkin patch has several sandboxes spread throughout, some are big and some are small. We had to tear Michael away from this huge sandbox because we had more to see before it closed. He LOVED the sandboxes! At one point he was doing "sand angels" in the sand!

These black slides are always a favorite. The pumpkin patch has these slides at several places in the patch. The family who owns it made these slides out of some big black tubes. These slides are very fast and the kids always enjoy them!

Signs of Fall

One thing that I love about Rochester is their love of Apple Orchards. We have several that are a short drive from our home. Every year the preschools and kindergartens get to go on a field trip to an orchard. This year I got to go with Andy's class. It was a beautiful day and we had a good time with his class. We got a full instruction of how they pick and sort the apples, how they make apple cider, what they do with the rotten apples, and where they keep them (in a huge room that they keep at 30 degrees - it's a huge refrigerator room). The kids got to pick an apple, a small pumpkin, and try a few blueberries (although, I'm sure they don't compare to yours Miriam!). I love this first picture. The apple orchard man was telling us how they make apple cider and I wanted to get a shot of Andy listening with his teacher, Mrs. Huddleston. Andy has this sixth sense when it comes to cameras and at the last second he turned and gave me this cheesy smile.

We went through a corn maze and Andy was gracious enough to stop and let me get his photo next to the stalks.
Out of all the pumpkins we saw, Andy chose a very dirty one!

This is us on the tractor trailer ride.

Andy with his Kindergarten class. He's in the back directly below the apple. You can barely see his face. Of course he had to be in the back because he's one of the tallest in his class.

The First Day of School

Okay, so I'm a little behind. The first day of school was almost of month ago. But enjoy nonetheless!

Nate. It was somewhat chilly so the kids had to wear jackets, gloves, and hats. Later that day it really warmed up, thank goodness!

Pretty Haley Baby!

For awhile, Nate was the only boy in his class line. I caught him here saying "I'm the ONLY boy!" He's so cute that I don't think the girls minded!

Haley's "I'm tired of getting my picture taken" smile.

Andy. Andy didn't start school until Sept. 9th, 2 days after Nate and Haley. Their school likes to have Kindergarteners ease into school. I tried to take a serious picture and this is what he did.

Success! A serious but sweet picture!

My baby's in Kindergarten! It's always hard that first day! It was raining so Andy had to line up inside. When I ask him what he did at school, his usual reply is what they had for snack and whether or not they played outside.

Michael had to get in on the action as well. All summer he said that he was going to be going to "Baby School". I'm not sure what that means.

Michaelism

I couldn't verify, but I swear I heard Michael say, "Yo, Nate, what you having for lunch?"

What kind of 3 year old says "yo"? Probably the same one who says "holy cow" and proudly announces when he passes gas at the dinner table.

Those Lying Aliens

On the way home from church today, Nate made the following observation:

"Dad," he mused, "isn't it weird how aliens always say 'we come in peace', but, like, ten minutes later they destroy your world?"

And this from someone who has never seen "Mars Attacks!"

Manners

A couple of Sundays ago, we were driving home from church. We pulled up to a stoplight and the missionaries pulled up next to us. The kids got excited to see the missionaries. Then I hear Haley from the backseat: "Mom, I thought missionaries were supposed to have manners. One of them is picking his nose!" She was totally grossed out!

The Big Reveal

Any guesses?

It's a Girl!!!! We are so excited, I thought about plastering the baby's bottom on our blog so that all could see, but I thought that might be a little inappropriate. Haley was so excited that she made this double sided sign. Girls are rare in the Taggart Family. Our baby girl will be John and Marilyn's 4th granddaughter, along with 12 grandsons (one to be born in December).

Nathan wanted to tell the kids in a creative way, so he bought these cupcakes. They have pink and purple frosting with princess tiara rings on each cupcake. He took them out of the fridge and asked the kids to guess what we were having by looking at the cupcakes. The kids just looked at the cupcakes and it took a few minutes to register. Nate finally said, "It's a girl." Then Nathan and I shouted, "It's a GIRL!"

The wonderful thing about bright colored frosting is that it makes quite a mess!

Michael had to get all the frosting out of every nook and cranny of his tiara ring. The results were this lovely face.

Michael said.....

Yesterday Michael and I were sitting across the living room from each other. I said to him, "I love my sweet boy, he brings me so much joy." Michael replied, "Mom, I'm not. I'm something else. I'm a vegetable!"

Quotable Quote

Haley, after finishing her dinner last night: "Mom is there a red Starburst and green Starburst on the top of the fridgerator? ...Oh, wait, that was just my dream. Darn it! I wish those things were real."

A Great Day for the birth of a Nathan

Okay, so I'm a little late posting this.... Nathan celebrated his 35th birthday on July 4th! He is such a wonderful man! He is loved everywhere he goes! Nathan requested a cake from Sam's Club and I was more than happy to oblige that request. He loves the frosting! I love Andy in the picture below. He was helping Nathan blow out the candles!

The Wonderful World of Baby Sickness

I've been really sick with this pregnancy. Today I was looking around and saw the results of an unkempt house.
Haley made this decoration one day to announce that she was the princess. It's been up at least 2 weeks on our living room window.

This is a welcome sign my mom made me when we first got married. You change the hanging picture every month. Obviously, I've been a little distracted, as this one has been up since April.

This is a drawing on our kitchen window made with window markers. Our kitchen window is at the front of our house. This drawing has been up since April as well. If you notice Haley's plant, it's also another victim of my sickness.

The layers of dust covering everything is quite embarrassing to admit! Poor Nathan has had to live in a untidy house for 13 weeks!

When I was first sick, Nathan would come home from an exhausting day at the hospital and he'd have to make dinner and clean the kitchen. I couldn't stand to be in there with all the different smells and the food that didn't sound good to me. I've gotten a little better and can make dinner most nights, but it's always something really healthy like Mac n' cheese, chicken nuggets, or Ramen. The kids love it, but Nathan's not too crazy about it. I still can't stand to do dishes because of all the smells, so poor Nathan has been on dish duty for a long time. He's been so patient with me, what a great husband and daddy! Love ya babe!

What!?!

The other day the kids and I were in Sam's Club having lunch. A man a couple of tables away, looked at me and said, "Are all of those kids yours?" I said, "Yes." Then he looked at me dead serious and asked, "What were you thinking?" I was so taken aback, I thought he was kidding, but no he was serious. I replied, "We love our kids." He said that he had 3 kids and then he mumbled something about patience. "It is a lesson in patience, having kids" I replied. Little did he know that I am expecting our fifth. I couldn't help wondering what he would think about that...