Taylor happenings

I realized that the Taylor family has fallen off the face of the earth, at least in the blogging sense. If you're on Facebook, then you know that we're still alive and kicking. So much has happened in the past month, where to start??

Our membership to Port Discovery in Baltimore was going to expire, so we went one last time. We made the mistake of attending on a Saturday afternoon. I don't recommend that! We stayed less than 1 hour, because there were just TOO MANY PEOPLE!! I was so paranoid about our kids getting lost, that I hardly let them out of my sight to do anything. One cool thing the kids liked, was getting to see Curious George. Kids followed him around like he was a rock star. We had visited Port Discovery a couple of other times, so I think we got our moneys worth out of the place.

The month of March brought a week of WARM weather, with Saturday, March 20th being the hottest day of the month. Very fitting, seeing as how a friend and I were to run the National Marathon on that day. We had trained all winter long in cold weather, and sometimes downright blizzards! The morning dawned with 50-something degree temperature, and making it to 75 by the time we finished the marathon. Not something we were used to, but we adapted, and survived. This was my friend's first marathon, and I think she trained, and ran the 26.2 miles in excellent style. I'm so proud of her! I was more emotional at the finish line than she was. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that at the time, I was 17 weeks pregnant.

We had some friends travel from Georgia to participate in the marathon, and the whole family came along. Our kids had so much fun playing outside together and getting stinky and dirty. We visited the temple together, and of course, the weather had cooled off just a day after the race!! We showed them what we know of Washington DC, which isn't much. The traffic of course, always speaks for itself!

After they left, we all took a break from school, and had Spring Break! Most people travel somewhere, or go out somewhere interesting. Not us. It was a week dedicated to getting Zachary OUT of diapers!! I must give credit where credit is due. Beau is much better at the first day of potty training than I am. It takes perseverance! Poor Zachary. I felt so sorry for him, sitting on his Elmo potty all day long. And when I say all day, I mean ALL DAY! We watched movies to help him out, and after a few hours, I was sick of sitting, and I was sitting on something much more comfortable! I wanted to let him off, but Beau was insistent on keeping him there so he could know what everything felt like. It worked, because the next few days, Zachary had only a few accidents. He is so proud of himself, and we are certainly proud of him as well! One cute thing.....the first night after a successful day of going potty, I tried to put a diaper on him for bedtime, and he started crying. He said, "But I said bye-bye to diapers!" After I explained that's it's OK to wear a diaper at night for a while, he calmed right down. I didn't take any pictures of him working on his feat, because I know I sure wouldn't appreciate a picture of me doing my business! We got together with a few other homeschool friends and had an Easter Egg Hunt. I really need to work on reigning in my kids, namely, Abi. As soon as the go-ahead is given, Abi swoops in and is the first one to collect as many eggs as possible. At the Ward activity, I think she got the most eggs. I guess it's in her genes to be fast, and competitive. General Conference weekend was a lot of fun. We had snacks, Bingo, coloring pages, and our family tradition of having a Reverence Tent. Although, we had trouble with the "Reverence" aspect of it this time around. Zachary would jump on Beau, and that would earn him a spanking, because it was, after all, the Reverence tent! We need to jump and spank reverently. :)

My friend Jill convinced me to try my hand at sewing again. As long as I have a teacher like her, I'll do it! She told me exactly what to do every step of the way. It was great! After quite a few sessions, this is the finished product. Abi adores it. I hope so, because she will be wearing it until she starts dating!!

A friend of mine came to visit for a week in April, during her daughter's Spring Break. Once again, it was HOT, HOT, HOT! It was well into the 90's the days we went to Washington DC and visited Mt. Vernon. It didn't bother the kids too much. We made sure we had plenty of sunscreen and water. The kids were troopers, and were rewarded with a ride on the carousel. I came down with a stomach bug while we were at Mt. Vernon, and my friend Lisa had a worse bout with it later that night. At least the kids didn't get it. It's never fun to have sick kids!

I just got a kick out of this picture of Abi waiting in line at the Air and Space museum. She sure isn't happy!
Eliza looked like such a rag muffin by the end of the day, I just had to get a picture of the poor, dirty orphan child.
The boys have been wanting bikes, so this past weekend they got their wish. I found a Big Wheel for Zachary at a yard sale for $2! Can't beat that deal! He is quite excited. It might take him a while to get the hang of it, but he didn't get discouraged one bit. He would tell everyone that walked by him that he got a new bike. It was cute! Everett got a bigger bike, but NOT from a yard sale, unfortunately. He thinks he's such a big kid now. I'm sure in a few weeks he'll be speeding around the sidewalks. Beau thinks he definitely has my genes when it comes to riding a bike. Perhaps I should say, my lack of genes. I was never any good at riding a bike. Hopefully my kids inherit Beau's abilities in that department!

After running the marathon, I gave Beau permission to officially tell people that we are expecting another child. He had already let the news slip more than once to various people. I thought this man had some sort of clearance at work that proved he was able to keep a secret. I guess I should have done a more thorough background check on this man! I can't get too upset, he's just a proud Daddy. We found out at my 20 week ultrasound that we're having a baby girl! Yay! More girls. More estrogen. This baby will be making it's debut in August. If she arrives on or very close to her due date, I could be spending my 30th birthday in the hospital. Yum, hospital food! I just hope she arrives healthy and strong.