Seven Taylors: A year in review

Its pretty pathetic that its been almost a year since my last post. Im sticking with my excuse of 5 kids and amounts of homework that take up as much time as a full time job. Today presented me with a good opportunity for playing catch up, since its Sunday and church was cancelled due to the blizzard outside. Who knows when I will get this much free time again?
Continuing where I left of, starts us out on Easter. The bunny man did things a little different this year, and hid all the kids gifts. They were a little disappointed when they woke up to find empty Easter baskets, but they ended up enjoying hunting for their goodies.

The treasure has all been found! Of course, we had to divide it all up evenly, because fairness is VERY important in the Taylor house.

They clean up pretty well after treasure hunting. All dressed up in their Easter threads.

Next up, we had the color run again in May. Madi and her friend joined me this time, and we added tutu's to our outfits. We all had a blast, like usual. Here we are pre-race...

during...

and after...

(not sure why these picts are sideways)

Next up, in June, we had Madi's graduation from Middle School. She suddenly looks all grown up.

July was busy as usual.

To add to Madi's grown up look, she got her braces off...

Every July, for the past 12 years, we also get to celebrate the birth of this cookie dough lovin' girl...

She wanted to play minute to win it games for her party. They always make good photo opportunities. :)

Here is "Face the Cookie".

Somehow, the kids always end up out on the trampoline.

And we cant forget the birth of America. The kids always enjoy the candy parade, because of course...they get free candy. Brylee is especially drawn to this idea.

I think they get weirder as they get older.

Brylee also tested out her bike riding skills, with training wheels...

and with the help of her skilled big brother, without training wheels!

This will take a bit more time to master.

*Here we would insert our summer vacation, but I think this needs its own post, so refer to that above.*

Post summer vacation and its already time for school again. Here they are all excited for their first day.

Our Freshman in High School gets her own picture, since she now has to wake up before the sun and go to seminary.

And here are our goofy Kindergarten, 2nd Grade, 4th grade and 7th graders.

One week after school starts, we celebrate another birthday.

This 15 year old is making me feel old.

Since its her odd birth year, she gets to be tortured by celebrating with the family. She chose to go to Cheddars restaurant for dinner, then home for Reses Cake and presents.

Again, she got a bunch of stuff for her future basement room.

Soccer season gets back into full swing in the fall. This is when life gets even busier. We had 4 playing, Ryan coaching 2 of the teams, Madi refereeing, and I got to be the crazy cheerleader that ran from field to field trying to catch all the games. Basically, every Saturday we lived at the soccer complex.

Here is Ryan coaching Brylee's team, the Bobcats.

Brylee mostly participates by throwing in the ball. She hasnt gotten a hold of kicking it yet, at least not during the games.

And, her best friend is on her team, so they get a lot of chatting done.

Zack, on the other hand, works very hard to kick the ball. Its scoring goals he is trying to improve on.

Hey, that ref looks familiar! Madi got to Ref a couple of Brylee's games. She wasnt biased at all, promise.

Once soccer season finally dies down, it feels like it must be time for more birthday cake. Oh, lucky me, it is! Alissa hit double digits in October.

Our giraffe loving girl might have some competition holding onto this new prized gift.

For her party, Alissa chose to combine some Taylor parties of the past. She started with Minute to win it games. Again, Kodak moments are always created here.

Next, they decorated their own pillow cases.

We found this fun "Spin the bottle" nail painting game on Pinterest. The girls had to paint one nail each turn the color the spinner landed on. Whoever ended up with the most nails the same color, won. They had a lot of fun with this.

As if all that wasnt enough, Alissa also wanted a create your own ice cream sundae bar.

We had different ice creams to choose from, candy bar toppings, syrups, and sprinkles.

Oh, and cant forget the cake.

All the girls definitely got enough sugar for the evening.

Once they were all sugared up, we did what every crazy parent would do...had a slumber party.

To be fair, this was all kind of last minute and I didnt actually think all 9 girls (4) missing from this photo) Alissa invited would be able to come, let alone sleep over. I thought wrong. I think Alissa got sufficiently spoiled this year, and Im happy to report, we survived it all!

Luckily, we get another birthday and more sugar in October. But first, we cant leave out Zack and Brylee's wedding party debut. One of the boys that used to be in Ryans young men group got married and asked Zack and Brylee to be the ring bearer and flower girl. They loved being all dressed up fancy.

This same day, they dressed up again, this time not so fancy like. This time, it was for the ward Trunk or Treat.

With still a couple weeks to go before Halloween, we had to make a trip to the pumpkin farm. It wouldnt be complete without a debut to Frozen. Brylee went a little crazy when she saw this.