Gary and Daneene: 2009

Life's full of Laughs

On Sunday, Colin asked Jarom to do something and Jarom replied, "You are not the mother, Mom and Dad are the mother!" (4/4/12)

Early in the morning on his birthday, (like 4:30) Gary could hear talking coming out of the boy's room, so he went to check it out, expecting that they were chatting with each other. Colin was sound asleep but Jarom was chattering away to himself. When he saw Gary he said, "Hi Dad, I'm singing a song about Jesus making cupcakes. It's a silly song." Not sure that he hear correctly, Gary repeated, "A song about Jesus making cupcakes?" (4/4/12)

"Yea," Jarom replied, "Big ones!"
Then he rolled over and went back to sleep!
The other day we were going to have a picnic at the park. I was trying to find out if Colin would rather have a pbj or tuna. When I asked his preference he said, "I want soup." I explained that it was a picnic so we couldn't take soup. He replied, "Okay Mommy, just go make some spaghetti." Obviously he wasn't in a picnic food mood. (9-1-10)

This story is a little bit gross, but it was so funny I had to include it. At stake conference on Sunday Colin started picking his nose. I grabbed his hand and told him to stop, but as a result of his efforts he had a little bugger just above his lip. I reached over and swiped it off before it could go in his mouth, and Colin yelled out, "No Mom, that's MY goober!" How dare I try to steal his goober : ) Gary and I laughed until we cried. (3-7-10)

As we were sitting at the breakfast table, Jenzie (who is definitely a little Mommy) was explaining to Colin what a "weakness" was. "A weakness is like when you have to eat cough drops. A white cough drop gives you more weaknesses." Colin started to talk about something else and Jenzie said, "No Colin, talk about something important, like cough drops." (3-8-10)

Today as I opened the van door to get Colin out, he quickly removed his hand from him mouth and said, "I'm not biting my nails!" "Good," I replied, "that would not be a good choice." Then Jenzie chimed in, "And ESPECIALLY don't bite off your fingers." Great advice! (3-10)

For Valentine's Day the kids got some little boxes of Sugar Babies. They were both eating a box and I asked them if they would share one with Mommy. Jenzie promptly declined, but Colin said, "I'll share with you! I'll give you a Mommy one." Then he looked in the box and said, "Nope, there are no Mommy ones." I didn't get any Sugar Babies : ( but I got a good laugh :) (2-20-10)

Colin spent the morning at a friends house the other day. This friend happens to be about 7 months pregnant. She told me about a conversation she had with him. He looked at her for a long time and she could tell the wheels were turning in his head. Finally he asked, "Audrey, do you have a ball in your tummy?" She said, "No, I have a baby in my tummy." Again he looked at her as if thinking it out and replied, "Nope, it's a ball! I can't see a head." (2-10)

We were walking into the grocery store and I was carrying Colin and holding Jenzie's hand. Colin yelled out, "Mom I'm falling." So I hitched him up the way you do when you only have one arm to use. Then Colin said, "Wow Mom, you have big girl muscles." (2-10)

The other day Colin had a little bit of a diaper rash. When Gary was changing his diaper he tried to talk Colin into letting him put some cream on it. When Colin finally agreed and Gary put in on, Colin looked at Gary and said, "My sore bum likes it!" (1-10)

Yesterday we had some friends coming to dinner and I made a bundt cake decorated like a pumpkin. I was in the living room with Jarom and Jenzie came wandering in and said, "Mommy, I didn't put my finger in the cake." Guess what that really meant. :)

Gary is now driving a little pickup that we bought from his dad. The other day we followed him home from the store in our van. The kids were so concerned that I not let anyone get between us and Daddy in his "hiccup," as Colin calls it. "Daddy's getting into his hiccup," "Mommy I can't see Daddy's hiccup." (12-09)

We spent the better part of last week in Logan/Bear Lake for a family vacation. While there, we visited the American West Heritage Center with the kids. The environment there gave many opportunities for some "Laughs." (10-09)

While on vacation Jenzie was using the bathroom at my sister's house. She was causing quite a stink. She sniffed the air, turned up her nose, and said, "Megan needs to clean her toilet."

Jenzie and Colin were feeding the horses some alfalfa from a field next to the corral. Jenzie ran over to get another handful and needed help pulling it. As I came over to help she said, "Mom I have a hunch, a BIG hunch." (She meant a bunch).

Both kids had the opportunity to try milking a cow. After Colin tried, he immediately started crying and said, "The cow pooped on me." We explained that it wasn't poop or pee, it was milk. It must have sunk in because later that day it was evident he was ready to try again when he said, "I want to squeeze the cow's bum."

Gary and the kids found a piece of corn on the cob in a field and decided they should take it to the chickens. The kids loved watching a chicken and a turkey fight over the corn, until the turkey started walking right toward them. That's when Jenzie said, "No turkey, don't eat us . . . we live in a house."

We were watching the movie "The Sandlot" with the kids last night and Jenzie was pretty fascinated with the scene when the boys chew the tobacco. We explained that they were making a bad choice by chewing the tobacco and that it made them sick. Later we were brushing her teeth and Jenzie kept saying: "Those boys were eating Rebecca. We don't eat Rebecca, that's a bad choice." Then, when Gary and I started laughing she added, "Mommy, eating Rebecca is not a good choice, we don't laugh at that."

Last week we were staying at my aunt's house for the weekend. After Jenzie went to the bathroom, she looked down into the toilet and exclaimed, "Wow! Look at all that pee!" I guess she hadn't noticed all the water in the toilet before.

Jenzie has been having a lot of fun lately learning letters and finding them everywhere. She still struggles with spelling things though, as you'll see when you hear the latest story about her. This morning she was saying letters like she was doing a cheer, "J - U - T - Y - N - Z." Then she said, "Mommy guess what I spelled, . . . S U U!" We thought that was pretty ironic.

We've been having a hard time lately with Colin calling my brother "Aunt Jared." We remind him often that it's "UNCLE Jared." The other day when he was saying the prayer after one such reminder, he said, "Please bless Uncle Jared, and Uncle Julie and Uncle Chester" (that's Jared and Julie's dog).

A few weeks after Jarom was born, Jenzie explained to my mom, "When the baby was born he had lots of bruises on his head, so we named him Jarom 'Bruise' Taylor." (His middle name is Bruce after my dad.) : )

At our family reunion Jenzie asked me: "Mom, does Colin have sprinkles?" I said, "What are sprinkles?"
Jenzie: "You know, um, 'farkels'." (The name of a game we play.)
I finally figured out that she was asking if Colin has freckles.

One day we were reading the scriptures and Gary read something about the heavens being shut up. Jenzie looked at him and said, "Daddy, we don't say shut up."

The other day Gary dressed Colin in a Hawaiian print flowered shirt. When he was all dressed Gary said, "Colin you look like Magnum P.I." Jenzie came up and said, "Yeah, Colin, you do. . . . Daddy, who's Magami Pie?"

I was explaining to Jenzie and Colin that my mom was going to dye my hair. I explained that Grandma was going to make my hair a different color, and Colin exclaimed, "Is it GREEN?!," and then, "Is it ORANGE?!"

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Getting Ready for Halloween

As we were getting ready for Halloween activities, Jenzie kept going up to the mirror to admire her hair and makeup and saying things like: "I'm so beautiful," "You're falling in love with me?" "I can't marry you, I'm the princess."

Trick-or-Treating

Here's a picture of the kids trick-or-treating. Apparently Colin needed a little rest at this house. They had a great time!

What a cute little monkey!

Colin wasn't quite sure what "trick-or-treating" was, but he caught on quickly. Pretty soon he was exclaiming, "Let's go to the next house" and running ahead of the rest of us. Candy is so motivating.

What is every princess good at? Posing for a picture in the middle of whatever they're doing. Jenzie was a great princess.

Colin was having a hard time stopping long enough to get his picture taken, so it's a good thing we got some of him alone. This picture was taken at our neighbor's house (the Mangum's). We were having chili and caramel apples while we watched "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken." Sounds like the perfect Halloween.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Family Pictures

I've been wanting to get family pictures taken for a long time, and we finally found a night to do it while my sister was in town to help. (Thanks Megs and Lou.) With bribes and threats helping us along, I was pretty pleased with how they turned out. None of you probably care to see as many pictures of our family as I posted, but it's so hard to choose between cute pictures of your children.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

There's a little monster in all of us. . . or is that just at my house?

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Tuesday, October 13, 2009

The American West Heritage Center

On our family vacation to Logan and Bear Lake we spent one day at the American West Heritage Center in Wellsville. It's a 1820-1920 farm replica with all kinds of fun activities and animals. We had tons of fun, especially on the giant slide and with the gourd launcher. The kids loved feeding the horses and riding the ponies. It was well worth the $6 admission. We got to see goats, chickens, turkeys, peacocks, sheep, horses, donkeys, and buffalo, to name a few. They had a little train ride for the kids and all kinds of other things to do. This was definitely our favorite day on vacation. We especially loved having Aunt Megan there to have all the fun with us. The kids said lots of funny things while we were there, but they're all written under "Life's Full of Laughs." Be sure to check them out on the left of the screen.

When we got there it was really cold. Gary kept Jarom warm by bundling him up inside his coat, and trying to face him toward the sun as much as possible. Unfortunately, Jarom ended up with a sunburn, but apparently he was warm enough. He was a great kid the whole time, he never even peeped. I guess he just loves hanging out with his daddy.

There was a giant hay fort for the kids to play in. I was really excited for them to see it, but they weren't so excited once the hay started going down their pants and into their shoes.

Jenzie didn't seem to have any fear when it came to petting the animals. She let them all eat right out of her hand, even the big horses with the BIG TEETH! (I'm not so sure I'd be willing to do that.) These pygmy goats were really cute, just the right size for the kids to pet.

Even with the mother duck right there, Jenzie was brave enough to pet the ducklings. Then when the mother duck started toward her, she was smart enough to back off.

While Jenzie was busy petting all the animals, Colin took time for his favorite pastime. . . carrying a big stick all over the place. There's no doubt about it, he's all boy.

They had a huge gourd launcher set up for . . . launching gourds. We picked these pumpkins from a nearby field only to discover a wagon full of little gourds right next to the launcher when we walked back. Oops. We weren't very good at it (except Gary), but we had a blast.
The only hiccup came when Jenzie and I were stretching the sling as far as we could. Then Jenzie counted to 3 and I let go, but Jenzie didn't. She was launched a few feet forward and face-planted right in the dirt. Sorry Jenz.

There's more than one way to launch a gourd.
The giant sling shot wasn't working so well for me, so I improvised.

Here's Jenzie on her horse. Both kids got to ride the ponies twice.

Here's Colin riding a horse all by himself. Both kids were really brave around all the animals. Of course this is just about all they talk about these days. They loved it!

Friday, September 25, 2009

Here's Jarom!

I realized that I really haven't included very many pictures of Jarom in our blog. It's not because we don't love him, or even that we don't take pictures. It's mostly that his pictures don't really have a story to go with them. So anyway, here's a picture of our littlest family member. He's such a good baby, we're very thankful to have him. It's hard to believe he's almost 6 months old. Where does the time go?

What is that?

The other day I was sitting on my porch minding my own business when I felt a little tickling at the back of my neck. I thought it was my ponytail, so I reached up to brush it off . . . and SCREAMED. I looked down to see what creature I had brushed off my neck and found this fascinating insect.
Then we trapped it in a jar and had a little science lesson about how some bugs look like their surroundings to keep them safe from predators. The kids loved looking at it - from the safety of the jar. At one point it was climbing up the glass and then fell off, and Colin jumped and cried, "Mommy, the bug scared me." It was a pretty fun experience . . . once I got it off my neck. Later we put it in a bush and the kids really got to see how well their bug blended in to the leaves.

Here's Colin studying our find.

Can you see the hidden bug?

My finger is pointing at our "leaf bug," aka katydid.

Kid's Day at the Fair

Jenzie and Colin both got their faces painted at the Iron County Fair. I'm amazed that two kids who will hardly pause for three seconds would both sit still for a stranger to do this.
They had a lot of fun.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

The World's Fair!

Well, here we are that the Wayne County World's Fair! Gary and his family call it that because everyone in the county thinks it's the biggest thing to hit Utah since statehood was granted. We were really excited to take the kids to the rodeo because they love horses. Unfortunately I don't think they could see very well, and things were moving pretty slowly, so they weren't nearly as excited to be there as we thought they would be. The reason they're so happy in these pictures is probably because we finally told them we could go back to Grandma's house.

We couldn't believe that a parade in Wayne County had no horses, but we were excited to see the llamas. I don't think the kids have ever seen a llama this close before.

Here's a picture of Jenzie taking Ava for a walk. We had kind of a hard time keeping all the kids contained, but they had a lot of fun.

The Many Faces of Jenzie

A Happy Face.

A Silly Face.

An Angry Face.

Gary and Daneene

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