Dec 30, 2009

We rolled in to Grandpa and Grandma Dick's house at about 2 AM on the 23rd and stayed until Sunday morning (the 27th). Caelan and Ben and Megan have been playing with our little plastic Nativity set all month. On a couple of occasions they wanted to be the characters ("I'll be Mary," and "I want to be the Shepherd," etc). I mentioned something about acting out the Nativity story, and they just thought that was the greatest idea. Ben talked about it several times from that moment until Christmas Eve. So, we decided it would be fun to have all the little kids play the different parts in the Nativity. We were with all of Sean's family as well as his Grandma Dick and Uncle Garry and Aunt Jera. Jenny and I and Sean's mom pulled together some costumes and the kids acted out our very BRIEF version of the Nativity....and loved it. Caelan played Mary, Ben and Logan played the Wisemen, Megan and Hailey were angels, Corbin was a Shepherd, Brooklyn was the Star, and Nathy was supposed to be Joseph (but he pretty much wouldn't cooperate at all). It turned out really cute.

Christmas morning was full of all the wonder and chaos that a houseful brings. The rooms were filled with all the goods from Santa Claus as well as all the balloons on the floor. Megan was thrilled with her new little bike. She went right to town opening up anything that was packaged in a box, and emptying the contents of her entire stocking. The weather was warm and nice (very Arizona style) so the kids spent lots of time outside. We also went and saw "The Princess and the Frog" which was very cute.

Dec 18, 2009

We were making our traditional batch of fudge for Christmas. Meg had to be in on the action: she was a big help, as you can see.

Nov 8, 2009

Megan had her third birthday on Friday. She got two fun days of celebrating. Friday night was a high school choir fund raiser at Bob's Murrieta Pizza, so we supported that and then went home for cake and ice cream. Megan got some flip flops this summer that she calls "blip blops," so I made her a "blip blop" cake for her birthday. On Saturday we took a trip to the San Diego Zoo with Grandpa and Grandma Sorensen(and even though Megan had turned three and therefore was now should have cost $26 to get in the attendant taking the tickets just let her in for free because it was only "a day" - so nice). The kids all got their faces painted (which they thought was pretty great, especially since Grandpa Sorensen also got his face painted too) and we enjoyed all the animals (there was a lot of activity this time - most of the animals were awake and moving around). We went out to dinner on the way home where they brought Megan a little dish of ice cream for celebrating her birthday. She was pretty excited about "two birthday cakes." Funny girl.

Some fun things about Megan at three years old:
* She is a very independent spirit
* She is tough, but also very much a girl
* She loves to play with baby dolls, her little pony with a binkie, little character hand toys and almost anything else if the bigger kids are doing it
* She loves the bath, but doesn't care for swimming too much
* She wants to get herself dressed everyday, and puts her clothes on backwards almost EVERY time
* She loves salad (isn't that so weird for a kid?)
* She will go up to any person that is eating and sweetly get herself some of their grub (even is she just ate a huge meal) - it's just what she does.
* She likes to make up songs in the car, around the house, taking walks, etc.
* She can throw the fit of ALL time if she decides to
* She has the most expressive face - you never wonder what Megan thinks about something
* She likes to test her brother and sister (taking things from them and running away - oh goodness)
* She LOVES, LOVES, LOVES getting her finger and toe nails painted.
* She is totally and completely adorable....and she knows it and uses it (HE HE HE - we're in trouble).
* Life in the Dick home just wouldn't be as great without our Mega Moo. We love you tons!

Nov 1, 2009

Megan made a very cute Indian this year for Halloween. It was one of the costumes in Grandma Sorensen's Halloween bin. We had fun at the Ward Trunk-or Treat party (where Dad won the chili cook-off, by the way). On Halloween night Grandma Sorensen and I took the kids around to trick-or-treat. Megan was done about an hour in to it, but some of the older kids were still going strong. We managed to get a little more time out of her.

Oct 27, 2009

Even though we got our pumpkins about a week ago from a Nursery in town (the deal was $16 for as many pumpkins as you could hold: I held 7 and Caleb held 8 - not too shabby), we still wanted to have a pumpkin patch experience, so we headed over to Bates Nut Farm yesterday afternoon. We did the tractor ride on hay bales and the straw maze (where the kids had to find 8 different mailboxes and stamp their papers at each one - they loved it) and the petting zoo (Megan loved this part) and ended the trip with a stop in at the treat shop there where the kids picked 5 treats from the candy barrels. Very fun.
(We didn't want to have to drive two cars, so we did some fancy finagling in the back of the Excursion, and strapped down both Nathan and Megan's car seats). Megan thought it was pretty cool).

Oct 4, 2009

Yesterday we went to the Miramar Airshow. It's fun to get all sorts of food and blankets packed up and then go and spend the day on the base and watch the awesome airplanes do their tricks. Yesterdays trip wasn't as relaxing as other airshow events for the following reasons:
*It took almost 4 hours to get from our house to where we parked our car (it should usually take about an hour - the traffic was HORRIBLE)
*Both Caelan and Ben threw up
*Megan had an accident (and there are only port-a-pottys)
*Nathan spent the first few hours crying (he's been sick, and he was just exhausted but was fighting off the nap)

Despite how bad it sounds, it was actually a fairly fun day. The kids were mostly good and had fun (minus their couple of incidences), and the fun air stuff was awesome. We ate tasty homemade salsa and chips and other snacks. The Blue Angles were awesome - it's amazing how close together they fly. The firework show was great and the Wall of Fire is always an impressive sight. You can feel the heat from it all the way to our seats.

Oct 3, 2009

We went to Disneyland on Dad's birthday (their deal this year is that everyone can get in free on their birthday plus Megan is still two years old so she is free too). It was a perfect day to go (bad economy, weekday in October = very few crowds). The lines were so short. We got to go on everything we wanted and the kids had a blast. Caelan and Ben loved all the rides from the roller coasters to Peter Pan and the Carousel. Megan's favorite was the teacups. Megan was still too small to go on any of the real big ones, but she liked all the Fantasy Land rides. They have a great Halloween firework show, and the Haunted Mansion was all decked out "Nightmare Before Christmas" style. It was great. We had a blast and were thoroughly exhausted by the time we got home. Good day! Can't wait to do it again.

September 29, 2009

Once upon a time there was a car. There was also a boy. The boy loved the car and bought it from a friend (for a real steal - $350). The car was old (1962) but filled with personality. One day the boy met a girl and they struck up a conversation about the car. The boy married that girl. They drove that car all around the streets of their college town. A couple of years later they had a baby girl. They drove her home from the hospital in their old car. It went with them as they moved around within 4 states and as they added three more kids to the family. They had other cars during that time (lots of other cars, actually), but their '62 Ford was their old faithful, always there when the other cars broke down. Years passed and the boy and girl decided that is was time for the old car to find a new home. So, with sadness they passed their old faithful onto new owners to make great memories of their own.

Goodbye Ford Galaxie - you've been GREAT! We'll miss you.

August 26, 2009

Megan is not a fish! Caelan and Ben LOVE the water. We took another quick trip to AZ and Ben and Caelan were swimming maniacs the whole time (Caelan learned to dive and Ben learned to swim under water by himself), but Megan was pretty happy to stay on the steps. She wouldn't even come in when I was holding her; she would cling on for dear life and ask to be taken back to the side. She did get in a couple of times when Grandma was in and holding her, but even then she didn't like to get too far in. I'm sure she will grow out of it someday.
She also had her first experience with the dentist this week. She went in for a cleaning (Dad took her). She WOULD NOT open her mouth for the hygienist - no way, no how. Grandpa eventually came in just to see if he could have better luck and she would only open it for a moment for him. He just took a quick glance, saw that things were good and let her pick a prize from the "treasure box." That seemed to make the experience a little better. There was no way he was going to make this a miserable experience for her (especially as her Grandpa). He said she was young and we could just try again next time.

July 30, 2009

We have had a very eventful summer. Southern CA is a great place to be for fun things to do. So far this summer we have:
*Gone to the Del Mar Fair: rode rides, ate delicious food, saw shows
*Gone to an Angels Baseball game: the actual game part might not have thrilled Megan, but she liked the food and the singing and dancing and being outside
*Gone to the San Diego Zoo (a few times): when Grandpa and Grandma Dick were here they got us season passes. We've already gotten our moneys worth. Megan especially loves the petting zoo part and feeding the birds (she is not afraid one bit when they land right on her).
*Gone to an Air Force museum and walked around all the planes
*Gone to the Wild Animal Park (another big hit)
*And more....

July 23, 2009

Megan is potty trained. YAY! We have had several milestones the past couple of weeks for our family (crawling for Nathan, riding a two-wheeler bike for Caelan and potty training for Megan). She was my easiest - so far. We got her some new panties. We showed her the potty. We focused really good for about three days...and BAM - she had it. She still wears a pull-up to bed, but most mornings she is dry and goes potty first thing, so I don't think those will last very long. She wasn't very resistant to the idea at all (even from the beginning). She got it quick, and so far we've been doing really well (even when we aren't at home).
This photo is one day when she wanted to try and go potty before she took her "rest." I came into the bathroom within a couple of minutes and she was falling asleep on the toilet.

July 7, 2009

We went to a Park in Long Beach for the 4th of July (with the whole extended Taylor family). Megan got to try her strength at whacking a pinata for the first time. At first she wasn't quite sure what to do with it, but after some encouragement she got the hang of it. We had a yummy barbeque, the kids played on the playground, a family game of baseball commenced, we ate homemade ice cream, and just lounged around in the shade of the trees.

June 10, 2009

Aunt Jenny made this cute little dress for Megan (she gave it to us while we at Southern Utah over Memorial Day weekend). She admitted that she actually started it for Caelan, but by the time she finished it the size was right for Megan (that sounds like my kind of project...HE HE). So cute. Grandma Dick made a cute dress for Caelan and gave it to her for her birthday, so on Sunday I thought I would snap some pictures before church to show off the cuteness. Adorable little girls!! And Megan loved the idea of having a flower in her hair too - plus it goes perfectly with the dress.

May 6, 2009

I decided it was time to say good bye to the "binkie." Megan LOVES her binkie, so I was putting this off for as long as possible (she got to keep it much longer than Caelan or Ben). I'm not gonna lie - I was anticipating a real ordeal to get rid of it, but I knew it was time. When we got home for our Spring Break trip to CA I thought the time was right. I just threw them all away (cold turkey) and told Megan straight up that she was a big girl and didn't need a binkie anymore. Of course we still have binkies in the house for Nathan, so I thought that might cause a little tension. But she was totally and completely fine with the whole thing. There were a few time in the first 24 hours where she asked for it (especially during nap and bedtime), but I told her she didn't need one anymore and I got her cozy with her blanket and she was fine. There weren't tears or fits or hysterics. It's like she knew it was time too.
So, this is as close as she has come to having a binkie in her mouth for the past couple of weeks....HE HE HE.

April 21, 2009

We spent a fun-filled week in California during Spring Break. We went to the beach twice (Megan was not so fond of the water, but she did have lots of fun playing in the sand...and of course, finding a and loving on a dog nearby), played at a train museum (Megan climbed all over the trains), celebrated Ben's and Grandma's birthday, went to the park a couple of times, enjoyed Easter at Grandpa and Grandma Taylor's house, watched movies, and just enjoyed time together. We even managed to fit in the flu (yep - Megan, Nathan and I all got a good case of the throw-up flu). Megan is a good little sport when she is sick: lays around, gets sad for about 30 seconds, throws up, wants a drink, plays for a while and then wants to lay down again....and start the whole process over. At least it didn't last too long. But, overall it was a great week.

April 3, 2009

We totally wore Megan out today. She was sitting on the chair watching Caelan play on the computer and the next thing I know she was sound asleep.

March 23, 2009

We had a fun little getaway this weekend. I took the kids and met Dad in Joshua Tree. Grandpa Sorensen and Caleb and Corbin also came along (Brook and Grandma came out in the morning as well as Erin and David). We camped in some BLM land (no potties). We set up a tent which Caelan and Ben and Megan slept in. Sean and Nathan and I slept in the van (right next to the tent with the windows open)...actually Megan joined us late in the night as well. It was cool, but not cold and hardly any wind (perfect for the fire). We ate tinfoil dinners on Friday night and eggs, potatoes and sausage on Sat. morning. Then we spent the day climbing rocks, hiking and riding bikes (it was more like "coasting" downhill for 10 miles - very fun). Erin and David brought their new little, tiny dog. Megan loved her. We had a blast, and have a little sun-kissed skin to show for it. It made us realize that we need to camp much more often - so fun!

March 18, 2009

I totally forgot it was St. Patrick's Day until after I sent Caelan off to school (wearing no green, of course) and Ben was dressed, but we remedied the problem later that day. I managed to get Megan dressed in the appropriate attire though. We made some sugar cookies and decorated them with green frosting (a big hit with the kids). Then we had corned beef and potatoes for dinner - a tradition, and they all thought it was pretty yummy.

Feb 15, 2009

Megan has the BEST scowl, and I finally caught it on camera. She has the most expressive face - you never have to wonder what she is feeling. People have made comments lots of times about how animated her expressions are...and it's true. Today she was giving me a good scowl about something. I think I was attempting to take a picture of her cute hair buns, and then something happened (I can't even remember now) that caused her to give me this face. I love it.
We had some really beautiful weather last week and the kids thought it was time to bust out their swimsuits. Actually, they were pretending that the guest bed was a jacuzzi ("wakuji" as Ben calls it). What imaginations they have. This is Meg showing off her new talent - removing all her clothes. She didn't need a bathing suit - these little pantaloons were good enough.

Jan 30, 2009

Megan has always liked the hiking backpack. I put her in the other day to take a walk - we walked with Nathan and Ben in the stroller and Megan in the backpack. She fell right to sleep - totally zonked out.