Taylor is 3!

Taylor is growing up so quick and on April 3rd he turned 3! We decided because it was Easter, Conference weekend, and at the last minute Uncle Casey flew from Utah for a interview at Temple, in Philadelphia, we would go down to New Jersey and spend the birthday there.

Lightening McQueen was the theme for the year. Taylor absolutely loves the Cars movie. We have to watch it all the time and race around the home. Taylor is always McQueen and I am Chick Hicks and Dad is The King.

For the party the two things that he wanted to do was eat pizza and have a pinata (I guess our friend Chris had a pinata at his birthday party and Taylor thinks that is what you do). We added a few other games like "Duck, Duck, Goose" and "Red Light, Green Light." Oh yeah, the cake, he wanted a white cake with strawberries inside. Me being crazy and trying not to spend money decides we can make it. Well it turned out great but my husband was not happy about it because I made him do the decorating. He is the artist in the family. Sorry honey it was an amazing cake.

The pinata hitting was hilarious. No one could break Lightening McQueen. Each one of the kids hit him at least 20 times. Taylor could hardly swing anymore by the end. Finally we decided the big boys needed to take a turn. Dave hit it once and then Casey took the last hit. The candy came flying. Unfortunately when he hit candy over 100 times it breaks. The candy was all broken up into tiny shards of candy it was all over, what a mess. The kids did not care though, they picked it up and ate it.

Then we opened presents. Taylor got some great things, Lightening McQueen ball, beach towel, kite, Chick Hicks, a picnic table, Diego bubbles, Diego underoos, sunglasses, the "Bolt" movie, a golf game, a transformer, a pig shed for his train set, and a trampoline from us. Thanks everyone for the gifts. Taylor I hope you had a wonderful day.

Now that Taylor is 3 he only wears underwear, even to bed, he has his own chores and he is a big helper to mom. The 3's have brought along the serious tantrums which has spun me for loop but we are working through them. Taylor is such a sweetheart overall and he is a big helper. He loves to cuddle and hear stories from mom and dad. He loves to race around the house and play hide and go seek. He is great at building towers and working outside with dad. We love him very much.

Summary

I don't even know where to begin with life in Connecticut so I thought about doing a summary. I have been so bad about taking pictures that I don't have many to post. I am trying to get much better at that.

We moved into out home in New Milford, CT during the middle of January. I knew my parents were going to fly out here to help move us in and I can not tell you how excited I was to have them come. I was pretty worried about all it takes to move in and not be able to help much because of the children. To my surprise (with a little suspicion) my 4 sisters came to. It was a party! They arrived late Thursday night, we signed papers Friday morning and cleaned that afternoon. Saturday the movers showed up and brought everything in and my family unloaded boxes and put everything away, well almost everything. That night we went to the mall to H&M and dinner in Danbury. The next morning we went to our ward, Southbury, and then off to New York City. Most of my sisters had never been there and I didn't want them to fly out here and not have the opportunity. In the rain we saw the Statue of Liberty, some of Wall Street and Canal Street.

I have the best family. After they left I just could not believe how much had been done and how blessed I was to have such wonderful people that support me. Thank you so much, you will never know how much it meant to me. I need to also thank Dave's family. Dave's parents are really been there to help us with everything and help Taylor have fun and get out of the house. They have spent many hours driving back and forth. Thanks.

We started settling in to life in Connecticut. It is amazing how long it takes to get anything done with children. We had to get in drivers licenses so on a Saturday we loaded up and went in with all the kids. We were there for 3 hours! What fun!

A few things we have learned since we have been here:
*There is a never ending supply of ladybugs in Connecticut and they all like to come in and hang out. The twins have eaten a dozen or so.
*My favorite-there are a lot of ticks. I was horrified when we saw our first tick, inbedded in Drew's back. After that we have found 5, full of blood on Boogie, 1 on Dre, and one more on Drew's head. Oh yeah, Lana tried to eat one. That story goes: I saw Lana picking up something off the ground and thought I should go see what that is, it looked like a blueberry. By the time I got there she had squished it and there was a dark color on her hands. I was so grossed out when I realized it was a tick that was full of dog blood. NASTY!!!! Luckily it had not reached her mouth yet. Also those are only the ticks that we have found that attached themselves to someone or a dog. We have seen at least 10-15 more on our clothes.
*Our driveway is steep. Snow and ice make it hard to get up. Dave had to park his car at the bottom of the driveway a few times.

*Church is 25 minutes away. I can't just come home if I need to, you know for a diaper blowout or something like that. I have to pack a lot more when I leave.
*Traffic driving to New Jersey is ridiculous. Thanks to New York City.
*It is gorgeous here. I feel like I live in the mountains. We have a stream in our yard and so many trees. The homes are all different and many were built in the 1700s and 1800s.
*We have good sledding hills in our yard.

It is very different here and I am still trying to find my place but I am surrounded by 3 wonderful children, and an amazing husband that does a great job finding things for us to do. I know that right now I don't love this place but I love being with my family and we will grow to love it here one day at a time.

I am sure there is much more but I will end here. I will do more posts. One of Taylor's birthday, he is 3, one about twins and how great and trying they are, and one of Easter and maybe a few more.

Internet

After a long month and a half of talking with AT&T on the phone, I finally have internet. Yeeha!!! I have missed all of your internet selves and your blogs.

I have a lot to catch you up on but not today. I have a primary activity to prepare for. I am the second counselor in the primary presidency in our ward. Nothing like jumping right in and being busy. Love it!

Who wants to come visit???

Since we did tell everyone that they are more than welcome to come and stay with us anytime they want, we figured we had better give you an idea of how to plan a trip. Here are the airports that are most easily reached from our home town of New Milford, CT.

Hartford, CT- 54 miles....about 1 hour
JFK, NYC- 82 miles....about 1 hour and 20 min
LGA(Laguardia), NYC- about the same as JFK

Then there are a couple other airports around that you could also fly to but are a bit more of a drive...but if you come out...we will come get you, regardless of where you fly to!!

{So Kassidy all you need to do now is jump on expedia.com and you are on your way!!, (Kassidy is our niece who has threatened to come visit with or withour her parents)}

Christmas Day

Dave and Drew woke up at 7am and did their best to start waking everyone else up. First they woke up Lana and I and then they kept walking in and out of Taylors room to hopefully stir him. Once they got him moving Dave sent Taylor into Cindy's room. By 7:30 we were all up and heading down the stairs.

Taylor was very upset that we were videotaping and wanted it turned off. He wasn't sure what to expect but did seem a little excited.

Here are the children looking through stockings.

Taylor loved his Lightening McQueen Scooter from Santa and had to take it for a spin right away.

Drew loved his dog from Grandma and Grandpa Draper.

Lana was still trying to wake up.

Here is the train set that Taylor got after Dad spent some time putting it together.

We had a fun and relaxing day with family. We received so many great gifts for everyone and we appreciated all of them.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve began with driving to NJ, luckily it wasn't horrible. It was slower than we wanted but it was only about 3 hours. Taylor was so excited to be with his cousins and we were excited to be surrounded by family. That night we had a favorite foods dinner. Everyone brought their favorite food to eat. Dave got a WaWa Italian hoogie and Taylor and I took Dunkin' Donuts. The twins took, well they took me, they like what I provide for them to eat :)

After dinner we played a left and right game with little gifts that Cindy and MaryAnn picked out. Taylor had no idea which was right or left but he had fun just being a part of the circle and doing what everyone else was doing. The twins kept eating every gift that got in their hands. Taylor ended up with cotton candy, I ended up with yummy truffles, the twins got bibs (after some trading), and Dave got gumballs.

Then we decided to act out the ture story of Christmas. An adult was in charge of each child and helped them find costumes. This was so cute and so much fun. Taylor liked his costume for about 2 minutes and then wanted it off. I did get a picture before he refused to wear it any longer.

Taylor was a sheperd (golf club as a staff and big white bunny as a sheep)

Bentley was Joseph

Cecily was the Angel

Isabel was Mary (she is large with child, thanks to Dave)

Drew was baby Jesus (he was so good, he just laid there and watched).

Tim read the story and the kids did such a great job. I love the pic of Taylor kissing Drew on the head.

After everyone left Taylor put out cookies and milk for Santa and carrots and sugar for the reindeer.

We had such a wonderful Christmas Eve.

Some Fun Before Christmas

I know Christmas has already passed and I should post about that but that will have to wait. Instead I want to post about a few things we did before Christmas came.

Dave and Taylor spent some time making a minivan and a boat out of cardboard boxes, I did not get a picture of the boat. Taylor loves them (yes he loves the minivan). We have had so much fun riding them around the apartment, even Lana and Drew have had a good time in them.

Then we headed to G&G Bramhalls the weekend before Christmas for Bentley's birthday party

and to see Bob, Emily, Carter and Cindy because they were flying in from Utah.

We had a really good time at the Bentley's Wall-E birthday party, Taylor was being a little shy but warmed up by the end and was playing games with everyone. And the crew that was coming from Utah, well they didn't make it. It snowed and it snowed a lot. I loved it, I love th snow. It was so pretty. It snowed 24 inches in 2 days. Taylor went sledding with daddy when it first started snowing and later after the 24 inches fell we all went out in played in the front yard. We were sad that the Utah crew did not make it but it was a fun snowy weekend.