Queen for a Day

My mom and her brother just threw a huge party for my Grandma's 80th birthday. It was so fun to be a part of it and celebrate the amazing woman she is!

Here's Grandma with Mom and her foster daughter Rose.

Grandma and the great-grand girls, posing by the beautiful cake!

My momma and sisters... missing Noelle, sad. There is that round belly of mine!

Here my Dad is talking to Grandma's best friend Ruth. They are travel buddies and have been on more trips across the world than you can count!

My mom worked so hard on this party. She and her brother collected all sorts of treasures from Grandma's house and from all the family: pictures, dresses, newspaper clippings, ribbons, scrapbooks, and quilts quilts quilts!

Mom made the neat sign-in book. The theme of the party was "Queen for a Day."


I found this cute pattern idea on etsy and Mom made her own. They were perfect!

Emily and Mom did the beautiful flowers. Some were even from Mom's own yard... spring at it's finest!


I loved all the old pictures and memories. Grandma grew up in small town Burley, Idaho and was in their newspaper a LOT! She was even Miss Burley and there are lots of smokin' pics of her in swimwear.

Here she is on her wedding day to my Grandpa, John LeRoy Taylor. He died of heart problems when my mom was only 4 so I have yet to meet him.

Her mother made her wedding dress. It's exquisite... and who ever heard of a size 24 waist?!?

Here are some other gorgeous dresses she made or modeled.

And these are more dresses she made... the two green ones were mine growing up!

Grandma is a quilt fanatic. She started a quilt club 25 years ago and has no idea how many she has made. The ducky one was Ella's baby gift and the airplane quilt was the latest finished--just a few nights ago--for our baby boy!

My wedding quilt was on display as well.

Grandma loves to paint too. This is one of my favorites that she has in her house.

I was able to do a little tribute/favor box for Grandma and the family to recognize her accomplishments.

It included seeds to represent her love of gardening, strawberry jam for her canning, a 4-H pin for her 16 years as a County Extension Agent teaching sewing and tailoring, a quilt square (underneath) for her quilting and sewing, a globe keychain for all her globe trotting, pictures of the temple and the Conference Center for her missions at the Family History Library and as a tour guide at the CC, and her famous cookies and peanut brittle. (I actually mastered the brittle, thanks to a candy thermometer!)

My Grandma is so talented and beautiful, and she passed it right on down to my mom. I can only hope I'm picking up some of it!

Thanks Salisbury Homes!

Our builder is awesome! We just won a $150 house decorating contest from them... our hard work paid off! Now we can put it toward another project... like getting the nursery finished in time for the baby!

They also made a YouTube video of the building of our house and just gave it to us. It's amazing how fast they build and this video shows just how quick things come together. We came by the house and took pictures almost every day, but I love how this documents the changes from the same vantage point. WOW! (Click on the title to see it in a bigger window.)

Easter Traditions

There are a few things you always have to do at Easter time.

Dye eggs

Go to the Unguren's Easter Party. Sorry if you haven't heard of it... you are missing out! You may have to make friends with them just to get on the invite list.

They have an enormous egg hunt-- 200 real eggs numbered for prizes and money, plus candy eggs! It's intense.

Maddie and Laney were connected at the hip and loved the tramp.

Ella met a new friend and connected with him like I've never seen her do! We're already lining up a date for sweet 16.


Speaking of buddies, Mike and Blake are two peas in a pod.

Discover treats from the Easter Bunny

Don't mind Maddie's Christmas attire. Who knows. Ella was so cute this year!

Attend church (in pretty dresses)

Mike attempted to get a good picture of the girls in their Easter dresses while I was cooking. I got a good laugh at their poses when I looked back.

Have a feast!

We got to host our first great big family gathering at the new house (32 people came!) and loved having all the space!

It was a Happy Easter.

Butterflies, Picnics, and Wheelbarrows

This week was spring break so we tried to do some springy things with our extra time.

One day we had a picnic on the Timp temple grounds. My girls have their mother's heart and love everything about spring. They were thrilled with the blooming trees, the colorful flowers, the robins hopping around, and the delicious sunshine.

We did a butterfly craft together to bring spring indoors. It has been awhile since we crafted together and they ate it up.

Another day we went to the Bean Museum at BYU with Dana and Daxton. Speaking of butterflies they have a gorgeous display of them! Ella was especially enthralled.


We had to hit up the BYU creamery while we were at it.

The week ended with a glorious Saturday. We spent 3 hours at Home Depot buying trees and flowers, paint, and household necessities--like a wheelbarrow. Every kid needs a wheelbarrow to ride around in right?

A Little Tour

To Mom, Noelle, Emily, and anyone else who hasn't seen it... here are a few pictures of the house! I still have a to-do list a mile long, but it's coming together. Mike hung the toilet paper holders last night and now I feel like we really live here. *Note: Mike just commented that all these pictures have a smudge. What can I say, Ella loves the camera. Sorry!*

When you open the front door the little living room is on the right. We put our bistro table in there for now because we had nowhere else to put it.

To the left is the entry table and teeeeeny tiny coat closet. It's kind of a laugh but Mike likes that he doesn't have to excavate for the vacuum.

Just past the closet are the stairs to the loft.

Straight ahead is the kitchen and gathering area. We just got our barstools put together so it feels more finished. They don't match our table but we're going to paint one or the other eventually.

More detail of the kitchen... I love it!

A closer up of the dining area... we love having room for the table to stay extended. The door on the right leads to the deck.

The living room gets awesome afternoon sun! I'm not a fan of the sectional here (I wanted it in the loft but we would need to recruit lots of muscles) but it's on loan from Mike's dad anyway, so we'll see how long it stays.

Oh, the TV and stand are on loan too. Aren't they great?

I love the nursery already. Sometimes I just go in there to sit and look and dream. We're going to add board and batten to the walls and I still need curtains and some finishing details, but it's about ready for a little boy to arrive in 8 weeks!

This weekend we have big plans to paint the girls' rooms and shop at IKEA for playroom organization and seating. Wish us luck!