What do you get...

when you cross


with and ?

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Cumorah's Birthday Cake

This is what happens when three people with entirely different ideas about what a gorilla cake should look like all work on one together. Per Cumorah's request, we gave this gorilla cake our best team effort. Maryann felt that the gorillas needed to be pink. I felt like the gorillas needed to look less like pigs and more like gorillas. And Cumorah, well, we're not sure what she was thinking but she sure did have a lot of fun.





As if the thing wasn't scary enough... we armed them with torches.



Here we are some three months later and I'm still having nightmares of ugly pink gorillas wearing toupees.



But watching my gorilla girl go bananas was well worth it.

the bird

Early this morning as I was laying in bed I heard a song bird. It was such an amazing sound and I was happy. I was just wondering the other day when would be the morning that I first heard a songbird this year. This is my third winter here in Iowa. Every year sometime in the very end of February or the beginning of March I hear a songbird in the morning instead of the ever present "Caw, caw" of the big black crow that I now associate with winter. You know, both of my girls have first responded with "caw, caw" when asked what a bird says. It's that crow.

Anyway, Spring is somewhere in the future. I'm sure of it now.

But in the midst of all my wonderment and joy Brian said, "He didn't get the memo."

"Huh?" says I.

"The memo that says the high on Wednesday is 14."

love from the Taylors

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

I imagine Sidon is saying to all who are paying attention..."Please, save me. I can't believe I'm related to these people."



I discovered double stick tape as a substitute for glue sticks as we were making a bunch of Valentine's this year. Absolutely so much better for a three year old and not yet two year old. They got to paint and stick stickers and use paper doilies and draw, A LOT. So I don't even feel the slightest bit bad that we don't do Christmas cards. I think Valentine's will be our family's traditional correspondence.

The girls were of course very excited about the prospect of another holiday. Especially one that included pink and red and strawberry marshmallow hearts. Brian made them pink chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast and gave them a little handmade valentine card.

We had a very busy morning and finally were just about out the door with Valentine's for Cumorah's sunbeam class including tiny cupcakes and a big cupcake for her teacher and the bishop when we got a call that church had been canceled on account of some lousy road conditions I guess. It had been snowing pretty good the night before and all morning. We were very surprised and disappointed, but oh well. Brian turned the car off which he had started right as my phone rang. I was rescheduled to sing in sacrament meeting next week instead of today. And we ate the tiny cupcakes. :)

We had our own mini-primary lesson for the girls and then we went out visiting neighbors for a short while. The girls were given their choice of little stuffed animals by Mac and Judy, which they absolutely adore. Cumorah picked a sparkly purple and pink puppy, while Rivers picked the gorilla. She changed her mind about the gorilla before we left but put up such a fuss at naptime that later Brian went and traded back for the gorrilla, silly fickle little toddler. Thank you for being so understanding Mac and Judy.

The missionaries came and joined us for our scrumptious and manly dinner including Marlboro Man sandwiches (from the Pioneer Woman) and these yummy homemade jumbo hostess cupcakes (from Not So Humble Pie). Mine didn't look anywhere near as pretty as Ms. Humble's, but they sure did taste good.

Here's hoping all of you had a lovely Valentine's Day. Sending our love to family and friends everywhere, and to all of our family members and friends out there in CA, we love you and sure are excited about seeing you soon.

bath splasher

I started letting Sidon lay in his bath without support recently. He went crazy. He loves it. The girls complain that he splashes them too much. They've been so good about not splashing him too much, it really isn't fair. I must admit, I think he splashes me too much as well. But he's so darn cute, I don't mind. I usually get soaked at bath time one way or another anyway.

As Grandmommy has been deprived of watching him do this in her kitchen sink as she has with all her other grandchildren, here's the best footage I have of him that is suitable for the internet.

attack

The Saturday before last Brian decided to do some studying on the couch.

It didn't go quite as he had planned.


In fact, he was attacked.


This is why he did all his studying in the basement first and second year.



It just got worse.





And even worse.





This wasn't much better for studying purposes.


But it was good Father and Son bonding time. Sort of.



The nose snatching and eating got a little out of control.





Rivers preferred snatching and running in order to devour her father's nose in the safety of her hideout corner.







This is when Mom decided it was time to roll Sidon into the bedroom for the remainder of his nap.











This is when things started to get a little intense.















And this, well, it wasn't pretty after this. I'll spare you the gory details. But this is when General Cumorah had gathered her forces together for one last charge. And charge they did. Brian didn't stand a chance.

what goes around, comes around

Cumorah has been rather obsessed with the idea of 'growing up' lately. She especially talks a great deal about it around her father because he makes a positively satisfying show of anguish and denial over the idea. "No, you're growing up too fast, you need to stop, you are my little baby girl....."

So Cumorah puts on a huge smile and enjoys torturing him with, "One of your babies is growing TOO MUCH. I'm going to grow up and get a husband, and my own house and chwildren."

Usually there is a lot of giggling involved as well. And Brian is able to get her to do some things for herself instead of asking him to do it by saying, "Oh yes, I will do this for you because you are just my little baby girl and I need to take care of you."

To which Cumorah stubbornly denies, "I am not your baby, I'm a BIG GIRL, I'm a SUNBEAM, and I am growing TOO FAST and I can do it myself." (Graduating from nursery and going to primary at church (the sunbeam class) is a huge contributing factor to her big girl status.)

So with this constant thinking of growing up in mind, the following conversation occurred this morning when Cumorah came and stood in the doorway of the kitchen while I was doing dishes or cooking or something:


Cumorah: "Mom, when I grow up and get my own house and a husband, I am going to take some of your things to my home."

"I'm going to take this movie."


Mom: "Excuse me??!!!??!??"

Cumorah: (appealing to my more compassionate side.) "Well, then my chwildren will watch it and they will like it. OK?"

Mom: "Oh, so it's for your chwildren?" (sometimes, I can't help myself, it is soooo cute when she says 'chwildren')

Cumorah: "Yah......................and it's for me." (Honesty wins out in the end.)




I'm pretty sure that this is something my mother can relate to. Ahem.... well you know, that pesky sister of mine is always wanting to take her stuff and, ummm, I think probably John, too, yep I'm pretty sure they're the reason she can relate. Well, OK, so I might have taken some of her stuff, but I always ASK first, politely of course, and I never just TELL her I'm taking it AND I'm pretty sure I didn't start planning these things when I was three.

we've come to the end...

of the nakey bum era. (or at least I think we have if I haven't jinxed myself by posting about it.)

Rivers has not only been wearing panties ALL day the past two days, but she has also been wearing PANTS the last two days. AND the super amazing thing is...she kept them dry. Hooray for Rivers! We are so proud and she is so happy and proud of herself, too. She still wears a diaper at night, of course. But if Brian takes her potty before he goes to bed, she more often than not will keep it dry.

Of course, as proud of her as I am, it still is work for me whenever she has to go potty. She's still too little to get herself on the big potty without help. (Cumorah on the other hand, now likes to show off every once in a while that not only does she not need her potty seat but she doesn't need the stool either, I said 'every once in a while'.) Auntie Amy said somebody back home (I can't remember who) said, "Rivers isn't potty-trained, she just goes pee in little buckets all over the house."

True, true. Oh so true.

I am the little-bucket-dumper. And I am here to tell you that she does more than just pee in them. But still I'd rather dump the buckets than change the diapers. And sometimes I set her on the big potty. It's just usually easier for me to help her with her panties and send her to the little potty.


Rivers is just a big girl all around... here she is climbing into her brand new big girl bed! (aka mattress on the floor)



Brian took all of our beds down during a week he had off a little bit ago, in preparation for our fast approaching move. I was apprehensive about Rivers' jump to a big bed. But so far, so good. (She is, of course, under the threat of Gunny Sack eating her toys if she gets out of bed to play with them.) And at naptime the girls are allowed to read books before they eventually fall asleep, which works great. She did fall asleep kneeling on the floor with her head on Cumorah's mattress that first naptime.



Look at her eyes. They are amazing to me. They're a shape all her own and they are so bright and full of all sorts of spirit and mischievousness. She makes the funniest faces. She is such a goof ball sometimes.



And her smile.



But really it's her eyes that get me. Look at those eyelashes, they're 3 miles long! Alas, she did not get those from me.

the babywearer

I love watching my girls be little mothers to their various baby dolls. I've seen Rivers rocking the small baby bunny doll of my childhood in her arms and singing "little one, little one" over and over. They like to feed the baby dolls bottles, but they don't have any bottles so they have to be innovative. And Cumorah has even been known to pump to refill her bottle when the baby drinks it all. I saw Cumorah giving her baby dolls baths this morning. She would hold the baby's head so carefully in one hand just like I do with Sidon in the bath. They pat and sooth and say things that I do to calm their babies. They put their babies to bed and close the bedroom door. And Cumorah loves to wear her baby in the little dolly front pack carrier she has when I'm wearing Sidon. When a friend of mine brought over various kinds of baby wraps and carriers for me to try out, Cumorah insisted that I tie her baby to her. And Rivers now asks daily to get on my back as a result of one of the other carriers.

Cumorah likes to cook in her kitchen the things that we've been cooking in the big kitchen. It's just so fun to see them play by mimicking our real life chores and actions. But it also makes you want to be really careful about what you do and what you say. These kids notice everything.

Cumorah really is turning into the little bossy mother-type older sister. She repeats things I say. The tones of her voice are so funny to me. She has tried to send Rivers to her room on several occasions. She also directs a lot of the play that she and Rivers do together. She's actually probably a lot like I was as a little girl with my younger siblings. Only I thinks she's going to have a harder time of it. She's trying to boss a little sister who is 16 1/2 months younger than herself. It's not going to go over so well when they're 1o and 9, much less so when they're 16 and 15. I bossed a little sister who is four months shy of eight years younger than me. It worked out pretty well for me at 10 and 2 and still at 16 and 8. Now at 31 and 23 it still works out pretty well. She's just a little more snippity.

tummy time

Tummy time for Sidon.


Hey. This isn't so bad. In fact, it's kind of fun.







Ummm...












Not so sure...











I'm getting kind of tired Mom.










OK, NOT FUN! This tummy time is OVER.