My B-day

With everything going on with my grandpa's funeral and family being in town I was really excited that Kenny through me a little b-day party on Friday afternoon. Not that I would have been forgotten, but it was nice that everyone made time to have some cake and ice cream with me!

My mom, Amithy, grandma and cousin Kenny

Me , Amithy, Grandma and Cousin Kenny

yummo ice cream cake!

All of us- Top- Little Kenny, Amithy, Monica, Barb, Sarah and Kenny

Bottom- Me, Grandma and mom

PS I got golf clubs, pink golf balls, a super cute pink and white hat and golf shirt! Now I just need time and money for a tee time!!

Visiting

Tuesday my cousin Kenny, his wife Monica and daughter Amithy came into town (from St. Louis MO). Amithy is 3 and just the cutest, smartest little girl I have ever met!

Here is Amithy with all of the stuffed animals my grandpa won out of those claw machines (I have a secret passion for those machines too!)

This kids was in pure bliss playing with all those stuffed animals!

One of the evenings my brother and the boys joined us (Me, Kenny, Little Kenny, Monica, Amithy,Little Jake and Kelly, Grandma and my mom) at Grandma's house. The little kids had so much fun playing with their cousins...

Here is Little Brian (5) and Amithy (3)... she actually picked him up which was hilarious! She also gave him a kiss on the cheek (coached by us) which was followed by a "ewww gross" by both children!

Amithy gave Jacob a big ol' hug.

I love this picture of the kids... Little Brian, Amithy and Jacob

Little Brian doing jumping jacks for the first time....

How confusing is our family with 3 Jacobs, 3 Brians and 3 Kennys! This picture is of Big Brian, Little Kenny, Little Brian and Jacob... haha

Little Brian, My mom and Amithy

This was the funniest thing I have ever seen in a LONG TIME... My cousin Kenny has taught his adorable, girly, smart little 3 year old girl to wrestle.... well my little nephews like to wrestle too! SO we matched em up... Amithy kicked both the boys butts...

Here is all of us... Top row Kenny and Monica Kruger, Brian Taylor, Kenny Kuhn

Second row: Me, Jacob Taylor, Scarlett Taylor, Amithy Rose, Brian Taylor Jr and my grandma

Grandpa

Last Saturday (02/27/10) my grandpa woke up with a severe headache. My grandma tried to help him by giving him some ice and headache medicine. She quickly realized something was terribly wrong and called Little Jake (my grandpa's son). They took him up to Baptist hospital. At this point we all thought he had suffered a stroke. Saturday afternoon he was transferred to Barrow's Neurological Institute at St Joseph's Hospital. It was there we learned my Grandpa had suffered an aneurysm. Sunday afternoon the entire family met with his doctors and the decision was made to take him off life support. The evening of Monday 03/01/10 my grandpa went home to be with the Lord.

Monday after work Kenny and I had come by the hospital for a quick visit. I held my grandpa's hand and tried to say my goodbyes. I tried to image what he might be thinking or what he would be seeing when he arrived in Heaven. A comforting thought that passed through my head was that there was probably such a line of people waiting to greet him when he got there Monday night! I bet people said things like "I am so happy you are finally here! I have a leaky faucet in my mansion... can you fix it? " My grandpa had SO many friends and family and was 1 of 11 children and I bet they were up all night talking and laughing.

Grandpa's Obituary

Retreat

Friday afternoon my mom, my buddy Jackie and I headed up to Prescott for a weekend Bible retreat. Jackie bought us dinner at Cracker barrel which was so fun and tasty. Then we went back to the cabins and got our bunks all set up and checked out camp.

The Friday night session was amazing and we learned about finding Refuge of Strength and read and studied through Psalm 18-

I love you, O Lord, my strength. Psalm 18:1

Friday night we stayed up late and talked and laughed like a bunch of teenage girls. I didn't take many pictures and I wish I did! It was just so beautiful up there and the weather was just great.

After the Saturday morning session I had this over whelming feeling I should check my phone before we went to lunch... that is when we found out my grandpa was in the hospital and had a stroke (which ended up being an aneurysm). So we packed up and headed straight to the hospital to be with my grandma.

Jackie was so supportive and sweet and I am thankful for the time we did get to spend up there and the new women we met. I will surely want to go again next year.

Spring Time Table Runner

A couple years ago I got this kit for my b-day to make this cute little table runner. Well, I finally got around to it and my friend Carol did this cute daisy quilting all over it...

just need to do my binding now

Suns Game!

Friday night Kenny and his Nana went to the Suns vs LA Clippers and had a blast! They got these amazing seats in the 7th row off the ticket exchange.

I just love Sarah she is always up for anything and ready to have some fun. Kenny was looking for something fun to do while I was gone at the retreat and decided the Suns game was perfect. He called up his Nana on Thursday night to go Friday night and she was game!

There happen to be A LOT of pictures of cheerleaders in the bunch.... but I just posted a few that they took... enjoy!

Sick Pup

Last night our poor Hopie looked like this-

She was throwing up, sad, wouldn't eat and was moaning... She is our "junk yard dog". She never gets sick... so for her to act so sad and down we KNEW something was just not right. We took her to the emergency animal hospital... They took X-rays and gave her an IV (don't you love the humps on her back from the hydration IV) and gave her some medications to take home... They think she ate something bad (a piece of tennis ball/toy or possibly even poison of some kind).

$425 later she is doing much better! This morning she ate a little and this afternoon she ran in the yard and played ball! We love our Hopie and are so glad she is okay!

Garden Update

I have been totally lazy with my garden this year... but with all the rain I have been SO lucky and got lots of broccoli, peas and lettuce. My tomatoes don't taste great and I am not sure why.

For my Spring Garden I wanted MORE SPACE so I planted a few things in pots! I used these hanging pots for the radishes. Hope it works out... I also planted garlic in a pot because I was told if you plant it next to another plant in the ground the other item will taste like garlic! Also, I planted the lettuce in containers so I can move them on the porch when it gets hot.

Creating a habit

Eating out is pretty much a habit for us... We eat 95% of our meals out (not including breakfast, because neither one of us really eat anything in the morning)... it is expensive and not always healthy. We are trying to develop a habit of eating dinner at home... I am sure you are probably thinking I have heard this before... yeah you probably have. We go through cycles.
Anyway, today Jack-in-the-box was giving away free a free sandwich with a purchase of a drink and IHOP was giving aways free pancakes... my oh my I wanted to give in and go out to eat!! But we didn't! We stayed home and made our own pancakes with fruit to top it off and they were delicious.

We haven't been eating big extravagant meals or anything, but we are eating at home and SAVING MONEY! We share in the preparation, cooking, dishes etc. We sit at the dinner table and turn off the TV and actually say a blessing before we eat (we normally just sit at the coffee table in front of the TV). It is nice to just sit and talk about our day.

Bird

Some parents get to brag about straight A's or a homerun or something of that nature... but we have 3 furbabies so the kind of news we like to share is this - Hope, our oldest, got a bird this weekend! Yes it is totally disgusting, but really a huge deal for her. She is always so proud when she kills one and at least this time she didn't bring it into the house. Our yard is super small so she really doesn't have that much hunting room and I believe this is the first one she has gotten at this house. Anyway... good job Miss Hopie!!