Happy Valentine's Day

I DJ'd a party on the night of the 13th, and Kylee left me a little present for when I got home... Some Valentine's Hearts on the back door. She's just too cute!


For Valentine's day, Shelly did Kylee's hair in a waaayyyy cute braid heart!


Shelly kept her "Best Mom Ever" title once more by decorating the kids' doors, leaving a trail of "kisses" and piling some candy and a gift on their beds...


Dylan got to experience it for the first time! He had a new T-Shirt waiting for him:


Rylan got a new "Rock Band" swimming suit.


Kylee also got a new swimming suit.


In the afternoon, we headed up to Trevor and Tiff's to have dinner and hang out.

(Now, since I haven't been a big fan of Valentine's Day in the past I don't normally get anything on Valentine's Day. Shelly had spent the better part of the last week beating me up over that fact.)

Last weekend, since I knew we would be headed up that way, I asked Trevor to pick me up some flowers to have waiting for Shelly when we arrived. Sunday morning I almost did the "Fine, here's your damn surprise present!" thing before church. But I took the verbal abuse for a little while longer, until we got to T&T's where she was truly surprised! Flowers and a gift certificate for a Manicure and Pedicure were waiting for her.


Trevor made a YUMMY home-made lasagna:

(No picture of the Lasagna, it disappeared too fast!)


Grandpa Barnes played with Noah:


The kids would "Dog Pile" on Dylan, and he was a great sport to play along:


Tara was playing funny photographer...


Wes was watching Noah while playing with his balls...


Shelly and Tiff broke out the gingerbread "Valentine's House" (leftover from December) and helped the kids make it.


Even Dylan got involved...


Mostly, it's just good to get together and celebrate being a family!

Another Fun Weekend

This weekend started early! Thursday evening the kids tested for belt advancement in Moo Shin Kwan. Both did very well, and I was sad that my camera stopped during the time Rylan was just starting his sparring, so there's none of that in the video.

Thursday night I went with my good friend Troy to see Star Trek at the IMAX in Salt Lake, WOW what a great movie that was!!!

Friday was the Webelo's camp with Rylan. One of the requirements that he had was to sleep in a tent that he helped pitch, and he did a bang-up job putting up his tent.

Rylan did a great job with his patrol, he was sort of took charge. I was very happy to watch him just get involved. We slept through a rather cold night, and started the next day doing classes so he could earn a few awards.

Rylan was the "Victim" in First Aid.

Learning to tie "Hitch" style knots.


Learning about leverage and then winning a "Tug-of-War" against 10 other scouts.


I think Rylan's favorite part was the "Engineering" station where he got to walk across a rope bridge.

My favorite part was seeing the smile on my cute little boy's face, and spending time together!

MOTHER's DAY
Sunday we celebrated Mother's Day by going to the Little America Brunch with Bruce and Lisa. It Pays to know the right people. Bruce had helped the Little America chef on Friday, so we go to bypass the 2 hour line and get right in. They put on a WONDERFUL spread. The kids stayed home with Boone and Sydney, so it was a nice treat to just be with grown ups!


When we got back we were going to visit visit my Mom and Dad, but before we could go Rylan made us watch this movie he had made in school. I was AMAZED!


When we finally got to my parents poor grandpa got run ragged by the kids, and Kylee talked him into driving the 4-wheeler. Grandma and Grandpa also got a new dog.
From there we headed up to Norm & Julie's. There the kids rode in the wagon and played with Jace and Brooklyn who showed up with Tiff & Trev.

A busy, but good, Mother's Day. I hope my beautiful wife someday truly understands just how much I love her, and what a wonderful mom she is to our children. She's a pillar of strength in our family and our children will be the best they can be because of her and what she has done for them!

Another Day...

Another Kylee Taylor Original! Shelly's New Hairdo.

Kylee was playing "Hairstylist" at the neighbor's house, and one of the little girls wouldn't let Kylee do her hair, of course this was a traumatic event in Kylee's life, so she came to mom all upset about it. Shelly, being the Best Mom in the World, told Kylee she could do her hair, and this was the result.

Apparently Rylan laughed so hard he could barely contain himself.

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We were also treated to Dylan cooking dinner tonight. Everybody cleaned their plates, so he must have done something right! Now we can have him do it more often!