Disneyland December 6th-13th, 2009

For Christmas this year, Brian's parents took us to Disneyland! They do it about every 4 years or so, so the last time we went, Dallin was pretty small. The grand kids have been talking about this trip for an entire year, and I don't think any of them were disappointed! We had the best time. Even though the weather could have been warmer. It was a blast. (The pictures are in no particular order)

We waited in line for about 40 minutes to see the princesses. Tayah was excited! She saw Cinderella, Jasmine, and Sleeping Beauty. Even though she is still small, I think they were her favorite part!

Here they are with Handy Manny at California Adventure. The shows there were great. The kids loved Playhouse Disney and their Aladdin was awesome.

There is a play land with a lot of fun activities related to Brother Bear at California Adventure. Dallin loved this swing and the slides!

Tayah and Aurora! What a doll.

Here they are all dressed in their Christmas outfits with Chip. Brian's mom got them these cute clothes and all the cousins had matching ones.

Here we are just outside of Pirates, I think that is the ride we went on the most. Dallin loved it and wanted to go on it again and again! Tayah is still walking around singing "A Pirate's Life For Me!"

In their Mickey ears.

This shot was going to go on our Christmas card, but I didn't get around to it! So Merry Christmas! Love, the Olsen's. (pretend it came in the mail...)

Tayah wasn't shy at all, she gave all the characters hugs, and Dallin was obviously excited to see them all.

Good ol' Goofy!

This is on our first day at the park, it rained so hard! We wore ponchos all day and if you look close you can see that we are all wet from the knee down. But still ready to have fun. we were going into "Bugs Life."

We really had the best time and loved spending it with our family. It is so great to see pure joy in your children when they get to do something so fun. Thanks to Dell and Ruth for this great gift! Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving 2009

We had a great Thanksgiving day this year. It was our turn to eat with the Barker clan, and there are always a ton of people there, but we had a good time. We started the morning with the men going on their annual clay pigeon shoot. The kids and I hang out at my mom's while they do this and watch the parade. This is a tradition that goes back as long as I can remember.

My mom made these cute little turkey hats for the kids to wear, they were running around like crazy in them. They loved them.
Dallin in his hat. After the shoot we headed to Bear River and had a great dinner.

Dallin got to eat at the official kid's table. He loved it.

Tayah Ruth enjoying her dinner by daddy.

Brian and his sweet Grandma Barker.

Here is our little family after stuffing our faces with yummy food! After dinner we headed back over to my mom's for dessert. I didn't get the camera out there, but we had a great time relaxing and having pie!

We have so much to be thankful for and can't even begin to count all of our blessings. I love my husband and children so much and can't imagine how life would be without them. I love my extended family as well, they are so good to us.

What a great year so far! Now bring on Christmas...

Halloween 2009

The run down:

We had a great Halloween this year!

It was full of fun and family.

We started the Sunday before Halloween with a costume dinner party and cookie decorating at my mom's house. The all kids were so excited, needless to say, it was pure chaos. But they loved it and had a great time. And came home with tons of treats.

During the week we carved pumkins as a family, Dallin couldn't wait to see the finished product and Tayah was a little distracted, it was a little difficult, but worth it.

On Halloween afternoon we headed over to Brian's parents for some yummy soup and donuts. They got a whole trick or treat bag full of goods from Grandma and Grandpa O.

From there we headed over to our ward's Trick or Treat parade, which was really fun and we got to see a lot of the little neighbor kid's costumes.

We finished with a little trick or treating door to door. It was a great week!

Tayah: Our little Lady Bug!

Here she is enjoying the cookie she decorated at Grandma Deb's and Grandpa Blake's house.

The back view of her costume on Halloween night.
The front with her classic cheesy grin.

Dallin: The Knight

Eating up his cookies.
He loved his costume, and got to wear it to school for a party there. He and another boy broke the pinata at preschool. He was pumped!

My cute babies at my mom's house.

Family Pictures:

All the cousins on my side of the family. What a crowd.

Brian's side of the family on Halloween.

Trick or Treating Fun:

Brian was a good sport and dressed up as a knight too. Dallin was so excited for them to be twins. Here they are at the Trick or treat parade.

My cute Knights and ladybug again, during the trick or treat parade. They got enough candy to last the year!

What a great Halloween.

Big Girl Room

For Tayah's birthday, Brian and I decided to give her a big girl room and bed. She has done so well making the transition. She has been sleeping the same amount of time, and has only gotten out of her bed a few times, and it has always been as she was going to bed, not in the middle of the night. I can't believe she is so big.

I have seen these Tu-Tu balls a few times, and decided to add them to her room.
I think they turned out so cute!

Here is her new bed and bedding.

Another view.

In her nursery we had her name on the wall but in purple and in a different spot. When we made the switch, we added pink and orange polka dots to the walls and got her name in pink and put it above her dresser. I still need to redo her curtains and change out the pictures on the walls, but I think it turned out pretty cute, and she seems to love it, which is all that really matters!!

Party time!

For Tayah's 2nd Birthday party, she wanted to do a Minne-Daisy party. She kept telling us over and over. And, whenever you asked her anything about the party, or how old she was going to be, or even mentioned a birthday. She would respond with Minnie-Daisy. But she says it like it is one word with the cutest little voice!

A few weeks before the party, Aunt Katie was in California and got her these darling Minnie ears to wear to the party.
Here she is opening her presents. She got spoiled by everyone. She got a lot of cute clothes and some fun toys--that she has been playing with non-stop. She got this darling tu-tu and tights to wear with her Minnie ears from Aunt Tami and Aunt Katie. She got another fun tu-tu from Aunt Michelle. I think she looks so adorable in them!!

We can't go with out showing the amazing work my Mother-in-law does on cakes! She worked so hard to make this darling Minnie-Daisy cake for her "littlest princess" as they call her. I can't even imagine having talent like that.
She also made these darling cupcakes for the kids to enjoy. Again, such talent and a ton of work!! But they loved them.

She was so excited to blow out her candles! But ended up needing a little help from Dallin. He wasn't shy about helping out.

And here is our little 2 year old, munching on her cake and ice cream. What a joy and blessing this little diva is to us!

I took Tayah to her 2 year check up and she is a healthy little girl, but I am not surprised!

She was in the 90th percentile for her weight,

and 95th percentile for height. We may just have a 6 footer on our hands.

She is great at speaking, dancing, and she even sang a little for Dr. Kramer. It was darling.

Happy Birthday Tayah!

I can't believe that my sweet little princess is 2!

She is such a blessing to us and we can't get enough of her. I love this picture because it is so typical of her facial expressions! If she is not sure about you, you will receive the look of death. But if she is happy and happy with you, you for sure know it!

She is growing so fast and is so smart. She loves to dance, loves her babies and blankie. She loves Mickey, Minnie, and Dora.

She is all girl, she always wants her bracelets on and can't wait to show Daddy or Dallin how pretty she looks when she gets her hair done every day. She is caring and loves her brother. She likes to get her way and is starting to throw mini tantrums... Hopefully, they stay mini!

Tayah Ruth, we love you so much and are so happy you are ours!

Happy Birthday girl!

(Party post coming soon!)

One last time!

We took our last camping trip of the season a few weekends ago. I am so sad to see the summer go. Especially camping. It has been such a fun summer.

We went up to Memorial Park, with Brian's family and my family. It was probably the most relaxing trip of the summer. We had the best time.

Here are all the kids. After a long day of playing!
They had a lot of fun doing beads. Here are some of the girls. Tayah, Jamie (Bailey's friend), Sammy, and Berkley.

They also had fun going up to the cannon's to play. Here is Dallin right after enjoying a snow cone, nice blue lips!

They went on a little ride in Grandpa Blake's truck.

What a great experience, getting both of our families together. We all get along so well, and had an awesome time. Can't wait for next year.

E is for Elephant

At school Dallin's class has covered one letter per day so far. The other day they covered E and he came home with this. I thought it was so cute and he wanted me to take his picture in it.
Sister had to jump in one too!

On another note, we had our annual salsa canning day at my mom's house yesterday. We did 242 pints in a record 12 hours! Needless to say, I am still recovering--what a long day.

Preschool Begins!

Dallin started his second year of preschool yesterday. He is growing up so fast, we can't even believe it!

Here is my big boy, before we left for school. He couldn't wait to go to school. He wanted me to take a picture of his new shoes, that he was so pumped to wear!

These are his friends at preschool. Dallin, Brynn, Charley, Laney, and Korbin. Korbin is Dallin's cousin, and all the others are Korbin's cousins on the Garner side of his family. So he knows a lot of kids in his class.

Once he got into class, he had to find his name on the attendance board and move it over. He knew exactly where his name was. Then he got his name tag and was told to go find a seat and start coloring his picture. He was so excited, he looked at me and smiled, while making scribble marks on his picture and said, "Mom, take a picture of me coloring!"

Dallin and Korbin, in their seats doing their first assignment. Right after I took this, I said goodbye and he waved like crazy at me! I can't believe he is getting so big.

The Rest of Our Summer

I am sitting here after the first day of school, wondering where our summer went. I can't believe it is already over. We had such a fun time, took a few mini vacations, and relaxed a lot. There are a few things we did almost weekly. Here are some photos we took through out the summer:

Lagoon:

Dallin was a pro last year, and it carried right over. He loves every ride he can go on, except the scary ones. His favorites are Rattlesnake rapids, Odysea, Bat, and Dinosaur Drop. When I asked him his fav's, the list was like 5 minutes long!

Tayah was pretty shy at the first of the season. She didn't like hardly any rides, but now she loves them! Her favorites are the cars, the transformer ride, and scaliwags!

Swimming:

Both of my kids are little fish and love the water! We went to my Aunt Nona's pool once a week all summer long. We also made it to the public pool a few times!

Our little daredevil going off the diving board! He did this at least 10 times a day when we were at my Aunt's house!

Tayah loved to swim with Chloe and Berkley!

We had a great summer overall, and I am sad to see it go! Dallin starts his 2nd year of preschool on Wednesday, and I began my 7th year of teaching today! Wow, I am old. Happy New School Year,everyone!