Update-O-Rama Part II

Hooray! We finally have our computer and I finally have a minute to continue updating the blog.

Sisters

Haley is my wing man (or girl in this case) when it comes to helping me with Alina. She always swoops in when Alina is fussy and I can't soothe her right then. Haley loves to play with her and keep her happy which makes me very happy.

Baby Boom

From May 2010 - May 2011 we had 16 babies born into our ward. Some of us were moving so we wanted to get a shot with all the Moms and Babes together. We put us in chronological order by birthdate. There are 3 babies missing.

School Memories

These pictures were taken on the last day of school. Andy finished Kindergarten. His teacher was Mrs. Herbers, who as it turns out, is our neighbor. She started out as the para in Andy's class and when his original teacher was diagnosed with cancer and had to leave school, Mrs. Herbers took over. She is a great teacher, neighbor, and friend. Andy said that she was the best artist that he knew!

We were truly blessed with teachers this year! Haley had Mr. Anderson for 3rd grade and he was a fabulous teacher!

Nate had Mr. Koerner who was also a great teacher. Nate learned a lot in his class and we were appreciative of all his hard work.

It's a Recognition, not a Graduation!

At Elton Hills Elementary, they have a 5th Grade Recognition to celebrate those 5th graders who are leaving the school and moving on to middle school. It was a great program. They had 5th graders share memories from each of the grades they completed while at Elton Hills, the 5th graders then sang "Firework" by Katy Perry (which gave me chills) and then they had a photo montage showing a picture of each of the kids as an infant or toddler and then as a 5th grader.

It was one of the hottest days in Rochester with high humidity and Elton Hills does not have air condtioning. Needless to say, we were very hot and sweaty by the end of the program.

This is Mylee. We'd like Nate to marry her some day. She happens to be Hallie's sister, who is the cute girl we'd like Michael to marry.

Happy 4th from San Fran!

We made it safely here to San Fran, but we've been camping out in our own house. The moving company still has our stuff on the road and won't be here until tomorrow (Tuesday). We got here on Thursday evening. Without a car, our options for entertainment and food shopping are limited, but the kids are getting really good at walking up steep hills! After a very loud and excited 5 second tour of our home, the kids were in agreement: this house is much better than our house in Rochester. After we got keys, we walked to a bakery for lunch. It was a little quaint place run by an Asian family. There was a friendly customer there who played his accordian for the kids, it was a lot of fun.

It's my Nathan's birthday today! Happy 36th birthday my love! I wish I had some cool pictures of the most wonderful man in the world, but I don't because they are all on our computer that's still on it's way here. Nathan has some great plans for his birthday: we are going to Golden Gate Park to listen to a band and then we will spend the afternoon and evening at Fisherman's Wharf with a fireworks show at the end of the day. We'll become pros at public transportation yet.

We'll post pics later. We get a lot of strange looks with our big family, but we love it!

Update-O-Rama Part I

There are a few reasons why I haven't posted anything for awhile. Among those reasons would be getting ready to move and that we bought a brand new, very expensive, very cool camera and we had to figure out how to get pictures from the camera to the computer.


Anyway, I will post from oldest to newest. On May 21st it was Nate's 11th birthday. For his birthday we went to the Kid's Lego Fest in Minneapolis. It was a lot of fun, even for Nathan and I. They had several life-size Lego statues and Haley wanted to get a picture with each statue. Here are a few sample pics.






They had this really cool area called "Creation Nation" where you could create anything and then these volunteers would place them somewhere on the floor in the massive United States figure. Kind of hard to explain, but here are some pictures and maybe you'll catch on. The first picture is of Andy's creation. It was put someplace in California.

Haley's creation. Her's was put by the Golden Gate Bridge. I think that the volunteers knew we would be moving to California soon.


Nathan created an igloo. He asked them to put it in Alaska, but they didn't have an Alaska, so he asked them to put it in North Carolina because Jim and his dad built an igloo when North Carolina was hit by a snow storm this past winter.

Here's a shot of the "West Coast".

In this shot you can kind of see the whole "Nation".

After the Lego Fest, we had dinner at the Paulen's house. They are really great friends and wanted to have us over for dinner before we moved. Sarah even baked a cake for Nate and we had cake and ice cream for dessert.

Tae - Kwon- DoJo

On May 16th, Nate tested for his red belt in Tae Kwon Do. He got to break two boards for the first time. He broke both!

I Left My Heart in Rochester, MN

The weekend of May 13th and 14th, Nathan, Alina, and I flew to San Fransisco to find a place for us to live for a year. It was a frustrating experience for many reasons, which I won't go in to. But, we found a house! It was the last one we looked at and we are happy with our choice.

It's on a hill (of course!)

Looking up our street...

and down our street.

Let's Play!
On May 7th, 4 days after Michael turned 4, he had his first birthday party. The kids got to have a snack and watch a movie while everyone arrived.


After the movie, we opened presents and had cake and ice cream, then the kids got to play, play, play. It was just a huge playdate.

This sweet little girl is named Hallie. We'd like Michael to marry her when they grow up.

Big Brothers are So Sweet!

Nate: "Mom, I'm missing a vital organ."
Mom: "You are?"
Nate:"Yeah, my heart because Alina took it from me."

4 months!

My baby girl is 4 months! Where is the pause button on her life? Tomorrow she'll probably be walking, riding a bike for the first time, having her first crush, going on her first date, graduating from high school and then college!

Here are the rest of my babies at 4 months.

Michael John

Andrew Charles

Haley Nikole

Nathaniel Hatch

Big Day

We had a big day in the Taggart House yesterday. We had two significant events happen: Michael turned 4 and Nate got his braces off.

This is Michael at one day old. I can't believe that my baby boy is 4! Where does the time go? Michael is such a sweet boy and is such a blessing to our family.

Nate's before picture....

his after picture!

At Nate's Orthodontist, when you get your braces off, you get to choose a bag of candy. Out of all the choices, Nate chose a bag of SpongeBob Crabby Patty gummies.

HAPPY EASTER!