May Happenings

Boy, time sue flies!  May has come and gone...school is out and summer is here.  I hope.  Weather permitting.  Well my last post told how we got May off to a roaring start and here's how it progressed from there.

May 21st
Marathon day!  Well it was supposed to be marathon day but ended up only being half marathon day.  What a tumultuous training season this time around.  Not only did I stress myself with fundraising $500 to run the marathon but I had a bought of tendonitis in my left knee, what I thought was a stress fracture along the top of my foot (which turned out to be just one of those random running pains) to finally I.T. band issues in my right knee.  The hardest part of all of this was that after raising the money, working through 2 solid months of tendonitis and all the other little aches and pains, I fought my way back.  I caught up on all the missed training and was finally feeling good when WHAM!  that stupid I.T band had to rear it's ugly head 3 weeks before race time. 

Just 3 weeks from marathon day and I came to the unavoidable realization that I wouldn't be able to run it.  I cried.  I know it sounds strange but I was literally heart broken.  It's a pretty big let down when you've worked so hard for something and then can't see it through.  Anyway, with a lot of encouragement from my running partner, Shanna (who also wasn't able to run the full marathon either due to injury) I made the most of it and Shanna and I finished the Ogden half marathon together. 

It was a bittersweet day for me but there is really no better feeling than crossing a finish line no matter how far you have run. 

Coming down the home stretch!

I'm on the left, Shanna on the right. 

Almost there!  The finish line is about 100 yards away.

Yeah we made it!

 

Running for HOPE!

 Huntsman Cancer Foundation...Thanks for the amazing experience!

My biggest fans!

After race day it was time to start thinking about wrapping up another school year.

There were school projects, reading minutes, programs, etc.

Ethan had been working hard the month of May on his Utah Counties report.  He was assigned Iron County and we learned a lot about that Southern Utah county.  Parowan is the county seat and the first southern Utah settlement sent by Brigham Young.  Cedar City is the largest city in Iron County and Cedar City is also the most visited place in the county thanks to the Utah Shakespearean Festival, the Utah Summer Games and SUU.  

It was named Iron County because of the iron deposits found there.

As part of his assignment, Ethan had to make a power point presentation, do an at home project and perform in the 4th grade Utah program.  I was pretty impressed with his power point presentation (maybe that's because I have never done one myself) and his at home project turned out great.  He wanted to make a float of the most exciting thing that he learned about Iron County.  Can you guess what he thought was most exciting?

That's right, the Utah Summer Games.

I won't be surprised if we attend the games someday and it will 

probably be because Ethan will be participating in some way. 

Here's Ethan at school during their County Fair where they got to show 

off their projects and power point presentations.

I didn't get any pictures of his program but it was really cute 

and Ethan sung his little heart out.

The girls also had an end of "school" program but it wasn't sponsored by the elementary school.  Rather it was their end of semester recital for their singing class.  A cute gal in our ward started a little singing group at the beginning of the year and my girls have had the funnest time learning show tunes with their friends.  They spotlighted songs from Annie and Suessical the Musical.  The best part about their recital was that this was the first time performing for most of these girls (not to mention that they are all 7 years old or younger) so there was a lot of uncertainty and bashful voices.  The good news...cute Miss Megan has access to a real recording studio so they made a recording of the girls and everyone came home with a CD.

*These are not the greatest of pictures but remember I have possibly the worst camera in the world and their dad was taking these (he doesn't always wait for the best shot).*

 "Anything's Possible"

 "It's a Hard Knock Life"

 "How Lucky You Are"

"You're Never Fully Dressed Without A Smile"

 "Green Eggs and Ham"

Told you Miss Megan was cute.  :)

It was a fun night.  I can't wait for these ladies to get a little more experience performing in front of people so they can gain confidence and really enjoy themselves.

What a Weekend!

We sure did pack a lot of fun into a few days this weekend. 

With Hannah's 6th birthday and Mother's Day falling within days of each other it was unavoidable.

I started on Wednesday to make this lovely creation for Hannah's birthday on Friday.

I had quite a bit of anxiety making this beauty.  I'm not much of a "fun cake" mom.  Around here it's usually, "What flavor of cake do you want?" and I make it in 13 x 9 pan, frost it, add a few sprinkles and if they are lucky they get a couple figurines on top.  I have never used fondant and was pretty nervous hoping I could make it work.  I was extremely impressed with the end result.  It's not perfect (I kind of obsess over the imperfections) but still pretty good.  I know the Barbie cake is not a new idea but Hannah had never seen one before and she is in love with Barbie and Polly Pocket right now so I thought this would blow her away and make her feel extra special.  I made this while Hannah was at school so it was a complete surprise.  She knew I was making a Barbie cake, but remember how I described my cake making skills, I'm pretty sure she thought it would be a rectangle cake with a picture of Barbie on it.

It's kind of become a unspoken tradition that birthdays start first thing in the morning.  I always decorate the kitchen after the kids go to bed so that when they wake up it's birthday time!  I always want them to know first thing that WE know it's their birthday.  I never want them to feel like we forgot or are unprepared for their special day.   That's why all birthday pictures are in the kitchen with my kids looking splendid after restful nights sleep.  :)

That's the cake under the birthday bag.  

The other reason I wanted the cake to be a surprise is that the 

Ariel barbie I used was one of her presents.

Hannah got lots of barbie/polly pocket/princess things.  We went from no Polly Pockets in our house to an explosion of Pollys.  We gave her some, Aunt Jana gave her some and Grandma Taggart did to.  Good thing we don't have very small children in this house or we would have some serious choking hazards with all those itty-bitty clothes and accessories.

At school, the kindergarten had a Mother's Day program. 

Lots of songs they had learned throughout the year.  Hannah couldn't be happier that her show landed on her special day.

Another fun thing that landed on Hannah's birthday was the school's family fun run and carnival.  Wow!  What's better than a run and carnival to celebrate turning 6?

Well how about winning the race for your age group! 

That's right, Hannah was the first kindergartener to cross the finish line of the 5k.

Yay for families!  Yay for races!

Now I know you all know that I like running but I did not pressure this clan into running on Hannah's birthday.  It was completely her idea.  She wanted to run the 5k (not the mile route that was also an option) with everyone for her birthday.  So we all signed up, got cool T-shirts, and Ethan and I even won a little prize in the drawing at the end.

After the race we headed to the back of the school for the carnival.  And when I say carnival I mean a bunch of blow-up bouncy things and food stands run by the teachers.  

Not super fun for parents but way super fun for kids.  They had a ball.

 The best part were the friends. These are just some of the many friends she 

got to play with at her "birthday party."

It was like I had planned this whole thing but I didn't have to, the school did it for me.

What's a carnival, or party for that matter, without FOOD.

Playing sure whips up an appetite.

 

This is JayDee's "don't even think about sneaking any of my nachos" face.

After the carnival, we headed back home to finish the day with cake and ice cream.

Grandma and Grandpa Taggart, BriAnne and Joey, Milan and Eden

and some friends came to wrap up the celebration.

Oh and there were a few more presents.

A Rapunzel tower complete with a glowing haired Rapunzel.

Fancy!

I won't go into detail about the rest of the weekend but as you know Mother's Day was Sunday.

I had a lovely day.  Again presents first thing in the morning. . .lots of sweet notes, a homemade bouquet of flowers from the yard, a bowl of Corn Pops for breakfast 

and two new outfits for church including a smokin' hot pair of shoes.  

JayDee hit it out of the park this time.  He hates shopping for me (without me) because he is just convinced that he can't shop for girls but he also knows that I love surprises.  So he sucked it up and headed out to conquer and he did!  His confidence is greatly boosted as is my wardrobe.  :)

I got to take a Sunday nap (which hasn't happened in forever) and then off to my parent's house for dinner.  Any day I don't have to make dinner is a good day but when my dad makes dinner it is a real treat.  I wish everyone I know could come have dinner when my dad cooks.  

It is always amazing! He missed his calling in life.  He should have been a chef.  Seriously.

I love being a mom.  It is the absolute most challenging experience and though it changes as the years go by it never gets easier, the challenges change too.  But when I have a weekend like this one, with good solid quality time with the people that I love and see those beautiful smiling faces I can't think of one thing I want to do more in life than be a good mother.  I fall short of that goal some days but I constantly rededicate myself to my job because my children deserve it!

The Worst Easter Ever!

Our Easter 2011 started out like any other Easter.  It was a lovely Sunday, the sun was shining (a miracle really considering our crazy wet/cold April), the kids were ready for church early and we headed outside for a few quick snapshots before church.
 

Just precious

 

Church was great.  The kids came home with almost as many treats as they got in their Easter baskets.  We decided to take a little stroll down the street after church to enjoy the lovely weather when we happened upon some neighbors outside.  We stopped to chat and that is when disaster struck!  Hannah skinned her knee.  It was terrible, her life hung in the balance and she was not to be calmed.  We had no choice but to go inside immediately to search for a band-aid.  No sooner had we administered the healing power of the band-aid when Ethan came running inside screaming that his head was bleeding.  Well it wasn't hard to see that he was right but it was hard to get him to tell us what happened.  You see, when Ethan is upset about anything he is just too traumatized to talk.  He can verbalize that he is bleeding, he can cry, he can even tell us that he can't talk but he can't actually say what happened.  Ironic isn't it?  

We finally got the story from Ryan, Ethan's friend.  He told us they had been messing around (as boys do) threatening each other that they would hit each other or push each other down, etc.  During this time Ethan had been inching his way backward and caught his foot on the edge of the window well and fell in backward head first.  Ouch!  The saddest part really was that we were all inside.  No one was really there to help him out.  So with his head split open and bleeding he had to hoist himself out and come and find us.  Poor guy.  

With one swift look I knew we'd be visiting the doctor's office.  Ethan's a fairly tough kid.  He got a shovel to the eyebrow 2 years ago and had to have stitches so this head wound wasn't going to be that bad.  He can handle stitches.  Little did he know that the doctor would decide that staples was the best form of treatment.  Staples?!  Metal, sharp objects, poked into his head?! That was not going to happen.  He got so worked up about the prospect of having staples in his head that the anticipation was worse than the real thing.  While we sat and waited for the doctor, waited for the numbing gel to kick in, waited for the nurse to come assist, he sat frozen, silently crying over the torture that would ensue and dubbed this day "The Worst Easter Ever!"  

 Here's my attempt at documenting the staples but you can't really see them under all the neosporin they slathered on.  Right at the top of the goop you can barely see the staples.

9 in all

 And yes, I did make him wear that shirt the rest of the day.

I don't think I could get him to take it off anyway, a little touchy about the owey.

Needless to say, he was happy when it was all over and couldn't wait to get out of there.  We were late for Easter dinner at Grandma's house and when we walked in Ethan became the center of attention, a place he does not like to be.  He was pretty shaken up and didn't eat anything the rest of the night and kind of kept to himself.  He did however join in the Easter egg hunt but he took it slow and was the last one to find all his eggs even though he was oldest hunter out there.

 

Oh and by the way, just look at that adorable Eden.  I may have taken a dozen pictures of just her.  Yes, I know she is not my child but do you blame me?  The dress she's wearing is the one I bought for Emma to wear at BriAnne and Joey's wedding (Eden's parents). So it's not just sentimental for me but for her too!  Awwww...

 This Easter was a combined celebration:  Easter, BriAnne's birthday, Eden's birthday and Hannah's birthday.  As is tradition in the Taggart family, the birthday people get to choose the menu for their birthday dinner.  BriAnne chose the meal and Hannah chose dessert.  Eden just had to live with the choices this year.  She'll get her say soon enough.  Hannah's choice?  Stawberry Shortcake.  Mmmmm... 

Grandpa Taggart always likes to add a little spice to our dining pleasure so we had the choice between regular shortcake and chocolate shortcake.  Delicious!

Here's our birthday girls!

I guess it's fair to say that this Easter probably won't be ranked as our best but it certainly didn't feel like a worst either.  We have so many blessings to be thankful for and now, as I am posting this, I can see them all so clearly.  What a marvelous gift life is, and family, and the gospel, and our Savior Jesus Christ who gave us the greatest of all gifts - eternal life, because of that I'd say this Easter and every Easter is the greatest!