Growing Up

We left church early last week (Paige's Blessing) so this week was the kids first official week in their new classes.

Taylor Jane is CTR 6 (and the ONLY girl in her class.....)


And Parker T is out of Nursery as a Sunbeam.....


Both kids {love} their teachers (Parker has the same teacher Taylor had so I knew he would love her because she is so much fun and so good with those little kids.....)


Right before we headed out the door for 9:00 am church.

Only 16 months until Paige gets to go to Nursery :) LOL

Taylor's Sunbeam Teacher

Our Primary has a WONDERFUL Sunbeam teacher!

It is not just Taylor that ADORES her, but every child that this lady has comes away loving her. No joke.

She has lesson plans that put us all to shame and has such a fun way of teaching the children.
I just got an e-mail from her with some pictures that they have taken recently after their lessons.

Thankful for animals. They had a Safari hunt and went looking around the church for animals. She made each kid the cutest pair of binoculars.



This last Sunday I saw them walking around the church sporting these awesome glasses.

Thankful for eyes day.....



She is the type of teacher that kids always remember and LOVE coming to church because they know she will be there ready to teach!

I love that my daughter gets to experience her greatness!
Now if only we can keep her there for another two years until Parker goes through (maybe I have a little pull since I am in the Presidency?!?!??!) :)

Stink Eye

At church today the kids and I took our usual seat by our usual people.
Kind of.

There was one couple right in front of us that I have never seen before. They were probably in their late 50's-ish. Assumption.

Troy (as usual) was in the front of the chapel helping with the Sacrament.

Before I tell this story, I just want to say that today was a GOOD day at church. I thought my children were very well behaved and pretty quiet.
Good enough that I was actually able to listen to the speakers.

At one point Taylor was putting her feet up on the hymn books. I always tell her to get her feet down. Before I had a chance to tell her, this guy in front of us turns around and tells my daughter to get her feet off the books!

I was shocked!

During the remainder of the Sacrament when the kids would make a slightly loud noise he would turn and give my kids the stink eye over his shoulder.
Parker grabbed a piece of paper and barely crumpled it and he got 'the eye.'

It wasn't just me imagining that this man was doing this. The lady next to us and my good friend in the row behind us all saw his actions. Even Troy saw it.

I found the whole thing kind of comical that he was like that. It didn't offend me.....I actually wanted him to turn and say something else to my kids so I could tell him to stop being a parent to MY children. I know, not very LDS of me, but seriously. Any one with kids knows that little kids make noises, that there will be crying and that there just might be a crumple of paper.

It may not have offended me, but there just might be a day when he offends some one that it will be there first day attending church or on the fence of being inactive due to feelings getting hurt too many times.

Just had to get my morning experience off my chest.
I'm done now......

Sunbeam

Today was the day I was both excited for and dreading at the same time!

Our little Taylor Jane officially moved into Nursery!
The last few weeks of 2009 we would bring the "New Sunbeams" into closing exercises. Taylor was a mess, always wanting to sit by me and crying if I had to do something that didn't involve her sitting next to me.

I was worried that her being in the Primary Room the whole day was going to be exhausting!
She cried when it was time for class. I went in and sat for a few minutes with her. Her teacher is amazing and started class off with the story of Baby Moses. Then she pulled out a 'Baby Moses' for each kid. Huge hit with Taylor! I sneaked out right after that and she never looked back.

When it was time for Sharing/singing time she sat in her chair like a good girl and listened and tried to sing along.
Every once in a while giving me a thumbs up and smiling that she was having fun.
Thank goodness!

Now we will see how she does next week when it's my turn to do sharing time......

Dressed to Impress....Christmas Style

The two Sunday's before Christmas the kids went to church sporting their Christmas outfits.

I made Taylor's dress this year and quickly found out that I HATE putting in zippers! ;)


I just love how cute a little vest and tie makes our little Parker T. But should have bought the next size bigger....After one wash, the second time wearing it he was busting out of it! And we had to shoe horn his shoes on the second week! He is growing too fast!

Someone to Watch Over Me

As I arrived to church yesterday afternoon, I had to take a few minutes and just sit there. We were early so I had the time.

As I sit there, I try desperately to get my hands to stop shaking and gain my composure. As hard as I try I just couldn't keep the tears from falling.

You see, I just experienced a first for me and I hope to never have to experience it again. Ever.

A mile and 1/2 earlier:

As I was approaching an intersection there was a car coming from the opposite direction waiting for the car in front of me to pass so they could turn left.
If it were me waiting to turn, I was close enough behind that I would have waited for both of us to pass before turning.

Well, this old lady did not wait (or after it happened did not see me) She turned right in front of me as I was entering the intersection. I slammed on my brakes but I did not slow down.
After seeing the car pass me, my worry of her hitting the front of my car vanishes and all I can think about is now she is going to slam into Taylor. When I still didn't feel her hit us, I see the cement barricades that are placed on the side of the road and since I swerved a little to the right I am now going to hit the other side of my car into them. Slamming poor little Parker into it.

After going through the entire intersection and now past the barricades with my foot on the brake I am in a panic of unknown. But as soon as our entire car is safely past all harm, my car comes to a soft stop on the side of the road.

I turn and check the children and they sit peacefully in their seats.
Get out, car is fine, old lady (that needs her drivers license taken away) is fine (only now turned around and stopped in the middle of the road).

I assure her we are fine and she just continues to tell us she saw the car in front of me, but never saw me.
I was completely fine while chatting with her. As soon as I get in the car, Taylor is now hysterical and frightened. I assure her we are alright. As soon as I start to drive away, I can't stop my body from shaking and the tears start swelling. Now it's my 3 year old daughter that is concerned for me and keeps asking what is wrong and assuring me we are fine.

Of course it's fast and testimony meeting so I am just an emotional wreck and any little thing sets me off and the tears just flow.

I am pretty sure Troy thought I was crazy for being so upset over this almost accident, but the thought that my two precious little ones were sitting in the backseat and could have been harmed upsets me.
When we got home and I was telling Troy what happened he asked if there was a problem with the brakes for not working right away.

I am positive the brakes are fine, I just needed to keep my speed up to pass the crazy lady and the barricades. The car doesn't have a mind of it's own so I {know} who it was that stepped in to help me avoid the worse.

Never doubted in my mind who it was.
Never.

Dressed to Impress

{Introducing "Fluffy" the first stuffed animal Taylor named all by herself. It was purchased yesterday
after all the Craigslist items were picked up. She LOVED Build A Bear. We will stay away from there for now on.}

I took a little extra time this morning in doing Taylor' s hair.



Since cutting her hair into her cute little bob I haven't EVER pulled it back into pigtails! It's getting a little long, so today was a good day to do so. I forgot how much I {LOVE} little girls in pigtails! Especially MY little girl!!!!



I love her.

Reorganized

My recent calling at church for the last few years has been Primary Secretary.

I LOVED that calling. It worked great with the little munchkins (especially now nursing Parker) and it was wonderful to get to know the younger kids in the ward.

Today the Primary was reorganized. We knew our time was coming, but the process was pushed along a little faster due to the recent President and her family moving into another home/ward.

I remained in the Presidency though.

I am now the First Counselor and am scared to death having to teach sharing time! Up until now, I only had to teach it on the 5th Sunday (so every few months) and that was enough for me to sweat HUGE bullets!
Now I will either do it a whole month at a time or at least once a month (still undecided how the Presidency wants to do it).

It amazes me how I am in the 'same organization' but I have {completely} different responsibilities. I keep telling myself it will be a great learning experience. I hope so.

On another note: All of Taylor's friends from Nursery all met the deadline to move up to Sunbeams. I am sad that she missed it by just a couple weeks. Now she will be a few weeks shy of her 4th birthday before she can move out of Nursery.
Dang January Birthdays! :) But at least the first few months Parker is old enough to enter Nursery he will have his Big Sis in there to show him the ropes and (most likely) pick on him. :)