happy birthday, grandma taylor

Sorry for the late birthday wishes. One child was being uncooperative. Luckily, the other one had no choice! We love you.

first day of ballet

Candace has been looking forward to this day for a while now. When she woke up, we got her dressed immediately in her ballet outfit. She's going to this class along with her friend, Rachelynn. Overall, they had a blast. But I learned somthing about Candace today that I didn't know before. She is shy. at least at times. That came as a shock. Candace is our non-stop talker around here. She loves to sing and show us everything she's learning. She loves to tell stories and is quite loud at times. I guess I've only seen her around family or friends that she knows. This was her first experience outside her known world with strange people. She was very timid and just watched before participating. Then she burst into tears whenever the teacher showed her individual attention, even though it was positive. I didn't really know what to do with this new side of Candace, but I'm hoping that she'll warm up to the teacher and the environment and have a lot of fun. She really enjoyed the dance they did with baby dolls and I included that video clip. When we picked up dad for dinner later today, she showed him the whole dance and made him pick up Joshua and do the dance as well with Joshua as his baby doll. The other pictures are from this afternoon at the playground. Joshua loves the car he is sitting in. He will sit in it for over an hour and press the horn, turn the wheel, suck on the wheel and look around. He's a very happy baby. I started taking video of him in the car when he was cooing at another baby at the playground. Make sure you see the picture where he's showing off his two bottom teeth!

guess who slept through the night?

That's right! Candace. After 6 months of trying everything we could think of and praying really hard, Candace had her first night of uninterrupted sleep from 7 to 7! It was great. I hope I have my good sleeper back.

A few funny things Candace has done lately: I left the room for a short while to grab a diaper for Joshua. While in the next room I called out to Candace, "How's Joshua doing?" She replied, "He's chillin' like a villian." How hilarious! Also yesterday while James was getting Candace out of time-out for disobeying, he was explaining why she had to be in time-out and how to avoid it in the future. She pipes in, "Dad, I have a good idea. How bout when I am naughty you and mom don't be mad at me?" She's a cute one.

He loves his watermelon.

Taken the first day of school. This is the picture that James keeps in his office at BYU.

At Walmart

Joshua and Candace playing "church." Kelly and Nick, the names she mentions in the video, are some of her devoted nursey leaders.

Joshua thinks he's the biggest guy for standing up in his crib. Not without help, of course.

This is a favorite game of Joshua's. He loves to copy Candace.

scenes by the wayside, tales of the sea

We got to go to Lagoon this past Monday. We didn't take many pictures, but this was Candace and I riding on the gondola.

Rockabye Baby!

Candace loves to pretend that Joshua is her baby. They play this all the time. Here she is singing to her baby.

Today while Candace was in Quiet Time she we heard her singing and playing on her toy piano. I hid around the corner and got some priceless video tape of her singing some of her favorite primary songs. These next two videos are kind of long though. In this first one she's singing , "Stories of Jesus, tales of the sea," over and over again. And in the second one those pioneer children apparently walked for a long long time. She continued singing for about 10 more minutes when I was done recording.

And then finally this is a cute video of my kids playing in one of the many forts we built today.

bathtime

Joshua's first bath by himself in the big bath!

family visits from virginia

my whole family

at "this is the place"

grandma and grandpa with their 3 grandkids

hilarious pictures of cousin Pierce

me and my sisters

my sweet candace

As I'm about to go to bed tonight, I scan the living room and kitchen. The card table is still up from where we were playing boggle earlier with the boggle game and papers strewn all over it. James left the guitar out again as well as his shoes. There is still a bottle of syrup, peanut butter and honey on the table from the crepes we had tonight. I'm exhausted, though, and ready to go to bed and clean up the mess tomorrow. But before I do, I look over at the sink. The sink is empty, but the draining board is full of dishes. Usually clean dishes belong here, but thanks to my beautiful daughter, it is packed full of dirty ones. She spent the last 15 minutes before bed time "washing the dishes." She loves to help and as I survey the mess, I'm so glad that I didn't interfere tonight. She was in heaven because she was in complete control of the "dishes" stituation. I know I have to wash them all again tomorrow, but when I look at the sink I can't help but smile.

Another story about Candace....Her closest friend in the ward/neighborhood is Brian Palmer. She loves him dearly and they play almost every day. There almost isn't a way to describe the bond they share. Only those of you who have heard her call him "Brian Palmer" (never just Brian) and have watched them play understand. His family is moving this week and Candace is distraught. She knows this has been coming for a while and talks about it frequently, but tonight as we sang primary songs as a family, she got very tearful and quickly became inconsolable. She was devastated that Brian Palmer was moving. This lasted for the next 30 minutes despite my attempts at diversions. Finally, I took her on a walk to visit her aunt Stephanie and she settled down. I grew up moving every 3-4 years my whole life. I know it's a painful experience to leave friends and have them leave you behind, but Candace is barely three years old. I did not expect this kind of reaction from her and I am totally unprepared with how to deal with it. I didn't think a three-year-old could get so emotional about this. Well, it just goes to show that there is no set pattern for kids. She continually surprises me.

Tyson vs Ali

Joshua and his cousin Pierce had a boxing match. Joshua only has one move....

Round One

Round Two

Round Three

Round Four

Pioneer Day Primary Activity

This was a excellent activity put on by the primary. They dressed up as pioneers, brought their three favorite possessions, ate watermelon, went on a trek, played games, made covered wagons and had a blast!

Candace's pioneer outfit complete with flip-flops.

Kimber made these adorable aprons for the girls!

Brian is saying here, "Make sure you come to church tomorrow." I thought that was cute.