Road Trip

Our youngest is just about the only child in our family willing to smile for the camera. Lucky for me the girls allowed me to snap ONE picture of them, but Taylor on the other hand hid behind a book every time he saw the camera. However, if I remember correctly it was Taylor's hand that controlled the dinosaur puppet that ate Robert's head (and bit his neck, clawed his ears, spilled his soda, poked his eye, pulled out several hairs, flung himself into his head, jumped into his bag of beef jerky which caused it to spill all over the floor, and finally... stretched his rubbery arm out and snapped it back like a rubber band hitting Robert in the face) and all of this while he drove the truck and RV. He's quite a guy! Oh and where is the dinosaur puppet now you ask? Try mile marker 165 on I-82.

Another blurry cell phone pic that I love.

My first born.

Happy Birthday Hudson.

It's hard to believe. Hudson is FIVE years old! He went to the dentist for the first time (I know it should have been done years ago, but he absolutely would NOT go.) and the dentist said he had perfect teeth. No cavities. When he got to choose a toy from the toy chest he decided on a red ring. Then he went back and traded for a blue one. Then he traded for a glider plane. A few minutes later he returned his broken glider and demanded a refund, "Heeeey this thiiing broke. I need anodder one, okay." So he decided on a pencil, but as soon as he figured out the fact that he couldn't use it since it wasn't sharpened he traded once AGAIN and decided on the red ring. Finally we sat in the waiting room waiting for the other kids to get finished. As we sat waiting, Hudson opened his special goody bag that the dentist had gave to him. He liked the toothbrush, but he went nuts over the mint flavored dental floss. By the time the other kids were finished, Hudson had managed to suck the flavor off of 25 ft of minty floss. Should I dare say that he once again returned his red ring and asked for more minty floss. The nurse quickly gave him a handful and pushed us out the door. Hudson's only concern is, "Mooooom. What if I runses out of the mental ploss?" I love you, Hudson.

Look Mom, I'm half way to Disneyland!

Can you guess what Hudson got for an early birthday present?

A. Quick sand
B. A book written by Saddam Hussein called, "How to hide in a hole."
C. A shovel

If you answered "shovel" then you have won... well nothing. Anyhow Hudson has been digging his hole for several hours (the shovel is no bigger then a gravy ladle) and after his older brother told him that he could dig himself to Disneyland, he's been digging much faster.

It really got exciting when Hudson began to scream, "I see him. I see him."
Who do you see? We asked.
"I see the mouse. Yep it's the mouse. It's him. It's Bickey. Hi Bickey Hi!" Hudson yelled.
Ah, Hudson who is Bickey?
"Duh Mom. DUH! You know Bickey Mouse. DUUUUUHHHH." Hudson says.
Then Hudson says in a matter of fact voice, "Hey, the duck is here too." (Donald duck)

Unfortunately all the fun ended when a certain Mommy ordered a very dirty little boy out of his hole and into the bath.

"But MOOOOM, I was almooooost there. Greeeaat, I didn't even get to ride any rides. ERRR!"

More blurry cell phone pics.

You tell me. How could I resist taking pictures of this adorable little boy? How could I NOT post them (blurry or not) on the blog? Isn't he yummy! It's hard to believe that this little guy (my baby) will be FIVE YEARS OLD in 4 days. YIKES! Please someone tell me how to make time stand still. What's even scarier is the fact that my oldest is almost 16 yrs old. I could be a grandma in the next 5 or 10 years. YIKES AGAIN!

Karate Kids & One helpless dog.

That poor dog. I have nothing else to say about that.

I somehow lost the pictures of Taylor at karate, but here are the girls. The bottom picture is of Savannah and her BFF Hannah doing push-ups after they failed to bow when leaving the dojo. I know how they feel because I got in the same type of trouble by their sensei when I was talking to another mother!

Mother/ Daughter Dinner~ Taylor serves!

The girls and I attended the Mother/ Daughter dinner at church and really enjoyed oinking~out on several types of cheesecake. The meal was yummy, but what we liked most was the cute server that was assigned to our table. He was such a handsome young man and very polite. He continued to smile even after being asked, "Sir, I need a new fork." "Sir, I need another napkin." "Sir, when you get home can you clean my room." It's not very often that Taylor would happily go along with this, ~so break out the camera I did! However, I informed the girls that the reason for their brothers good demeanor was probably not about them, but rather it was for another special girl at the table (S.B.). Thanks to this special girl we are all seeing a side of Taylor that we haven't seen before.

Missionary Conferences

Savannah got into the theme of things during the missionary conferences this last weekend. She and Robert helped to run the German foods booth. At the conference there was food from around the world to sample. We made 500 German meatballs in a sweet & sour sauce. They tasted great, but the real treat was the cute little German girl who served everyone.

This was a huge test for Taylor since he plans on doing mission work when he is a little older. We told him that he might as well sample some food from several countries and should he find a food that agrees with his finicky eating habits, well then BINGO.... We found a mission location! However, Taylor only eats about three or four kinds of food and McDonald's and Pizza Hut are two of them. The only food booth that he agreed to eat from was the American booth (cheeseburgers.) So I guess that means that Taylor will be spreading the gospel in Iowa or something. So much for an exciting adventure in a far away country.

Hudson on the other hand chowed down on cookies, ice-cream, and candy canes during the conference. He refused to eat anything else. So I guess Hudson will be headed to the North Pole for his mission.

It's been a very busy week and although we enjoyed visiting with all of the missionary families, we are glad to have things return to a slower pace.