Trip to Washington

So this post has lots of pictures, but we had lots of fun visiting in Washington! Another three months went by so fast and so we headed back to Seattle for a check-up. Taylee is doing great and is growing and gaining and has no signs of any problems for now so we were happy to get that out of the way so we could play the rest of the week!

Aaron could only stay like 2 days so he worked on Friday and Saturday we played at the Alldredge's and did a little late celebrating for his birthday. It was fun to get outside for a boat ride and for Taylee to play with cousins!

Monday we got to spend the day at Dan and Jenni's...

We went out to get Jacey off the bus and played outside till dinner... Taylee was in heaven to be outside and not freezing!

As you can guess, she thought she was pretty cool!

Playing with Broden...

This is Dan "teaching" Jacey to ride with out training wheels. She really just needed him for confidence cause she was doing it no problem!

And of course I got to hold my little neice Sadie! I was loving it and she is such a good baby girl!!

It was grandpa's birthday while we were there so we went out to celebrate his 62nd!

We spent Thursday with Alldredge cousins and we went to the Point Defiance Zoo. The animals were pretty active so we got lots of good shows...

Checking out the elephants...

I think there were monkeys in here...

Taylee and Mommy

Because of the peacock at grama Sillito's, Taylee has no fear. But hey, she got it to open its feathers!

Taylee and Gram

Isaac, Makay and Addi

Taylee and Addi on the slides

Isaac, Ammon, Taylee and Addi
Rachel and Ammon

Taylee reading books with grama the night before we left. Thanks for having us mom it was nice to spend some time at home.

Shots

It was time to start getting caught up on immunizations today and I have been dreading it and dreading it. Hasn't my poor little girl been poked enough in her short life? But we are going to Washington this week-end for another check-up and I know her doctor there will ask if we have started her immunizations again and I do want to be honest so we went today. It was awful...

They barely even came in the room and Taylee started screaming and crying and her face was bright red and I just felt like the worst mom ever... they poked her skinny little legs six times...

I tried to make up for it by taking her to McDonalds and letting her pick out a new movie, but I feel bad that we have more doctor visits this week-end and more immunizations next month...

Make-a-Wish!!

Most of you know that Taylee was eligible for a wish from the Make-a-Wish foundation because she had a life threatening illness. We have been in touch with them off and on for months and they finally came to meet Taylee last Thursday!

This morning I got a phone call telling us that we would be going to Disney World from May 1st to May 7th!! We are so excited to get to do this and really celebrate that Tay is done with all this cancer business! Make-a-Wish is so amazing and so generous to these kids and really do so much to make them feel so special and happy. They are providing us with airline tickets to Orlando, a rental car, a really cool hotel called "Give Kids the World" where each family gets their own apartment like place and the entire place is geared toward kids. They have train rides, carousels, 24 hr pizza and ice cream. They leave presents on Taylee's bed every night and provide all meals too. The ladies that came over said there is so much to do there you could just not leave the hotel! Then they give you tickets to Disney World for 5 days and spending money... we are still waiting to hear cause they might also provide a day at Sea World! They also give you special hats to wear so you can go to the front of every line... it is overwhelming and amazing, all the stuff they do for these kids and Aaron and I are so excited that we can be a part of it too and watch how much fun Taylee is going to have!

Preschool

So Taylee started preschool in January, but was not in the mood to take pictures the first couple of times so when she finally warmed up to it we took some "first day of preschool" pictures.

Cheesy

Crazy

She still is a little nervous at the beginning of each day... she makes me go with her to hang her coat up, put her nametag on and then walk her to the sinks to wash her hands before I can go. After that, she does just fine. She is going to the preschool at BYU-I that I went through for my degree so it is kind of fun to go and watch! She goes M W and F and is gone long enough for me to go work out and get a shower before it is time to pick her up. She is having a great time!

I just have to post it...

Ok when you get a picture as adorable as this... sorry I just had to post it!

I am so glad Taylee has such a great dad!

Random Posts from January

Wow, January has come and gone already.... I just have a couple random things to blog about. First, Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Andy came to visit earlier this month and we had lots of fun with them. Well, we were being lazy one morning and Tay was just playing off by herself. I got up from our couch and was walking to the kitchen and this is what I saw...

This would normally be a pretty scary sight to find in your house... a noose with a chair under it, but I called Andy and Bonnie over and we had a good laugh, took some pictures and then quickly took down the suicide scene.Taylee, inocent as can be, was just playing and has been very interested in tying things. I should have been watching better because earlier she had tried to tie herself to that rope so she could swing. Crazy girl!!A couple weeks later Tay's Gram came to visit and I am bummed I didn't get any pictures of them together. They had such a good time playing and of course her Gram spoiled her with a present every day! A couple days later Aaron's brother Nathan and his family joined us and it is always so fun to have an excuse to go play. We went shotgun shooting and sledding and out to dinner. Above is Taylee playing with her cousin Ammom.

Then this last week Taylee and Aaron and myself have all been sick with colds. The kind that make you feel just wiped out so one night Tiffany was so sweet to me and brought a totally yummy dinner- complete with things that feel good on your throat... mashed potatoes, ice cream and of course, JELLO!! Thanks again for doing that Tiff, and as you can see the Jello was thoroughly enjoyed!

Isn't this what dad's do... teach their kids all the cool tricks they know! I watched in disgust, but had to take a picture!

Christmas

We had such a great Christmas this year. We stayed in Rexburg which was a big change for me in lots of ways. I really did miss my brother's and their families... I don't think I have spent a Christmas without Dan since he was on a mission so it didn't feel exactly right, but I did get to be with both my sisters and my parents. We were sad to not spend any time with the Alldredge's this year, but hope that will make them miss us and want to come visit here!!

Christmas Eve my parent's arrived and that afternoon we went caroling at an assisted living center. If you know the Sillito's, you know our singing ability is limited, but I think they enjoyed us anyway. It was nice to bring some happiness and Christmas spirit to others and it really helped me get into it too.

Later that evening we went to the Nielson's for lots of good food, singing and of course a reinactment of the Nativity...

All of the girls in their matching clothes... aren't they so cute!And the boys... aren't they so cheesy!?!!!

Grandpa is getting pretty good on that guitar... the kids can shout out a song and grandpa plays it for them. They had fun being silly and dancing... you should have seen Taylee shake her booty!

Tiff, Todd and Holland

Grandpa playing Christmas songs...

Tay and Ellie dancing... have you noticed the PONYTAIL?! I'm so excited about that!

After the dancing it was time for the Nativity...
We had Quinton -angel, Weiland -Joseph, Taylee -cow, Conner-shepard, Ellie -Mary, and Ryker-baby Jesus

We called Conner the ninja shepard

I asked Taylee if she wanted to be Mary or the angel and she said no, she wanted to be a cow. She did some great "lowing" and admiring of baby Jesus!!

After some convincing we had Ellie be Mary...

Don't they look so humble and sweet looking at Ryker (baby Jesus)?
Ryker just insisted he be baby Jesus- it is hard not to laugh when all the kids look so cool!

And this is after Santa showed up Christmas Eve... and too bad this was the last picture that was taken.

We had a great Christmas morning. Taylee slept in till like 9 which is nuts for her, but Aaron and I were fine with it! We took our time opening presents and Taylee was thrilled with everything. What she really wanted this year was "Baby Alive" so every time we would hand her a present she would ask, "Is this my Baby Alive?" She got so much fun stuff her gramas both spoiled her rotten and it is hard with one kid to not do a little spoiling too.

Aaron also got pretty spoiled this year too with a new shot gun and all the accesories... it is so fun to have a good surprise under the tree. It would have been even better if he hadn't figured it out!!

I told my mom I never realized how much work doing Christmas is. I usually show up at her house and enjoy all her hard work, but this year I learned how exhausting it all is, but still so worth it. (That is probably why I didn't take anymore pictures) We had a yummy Christmas dinner and played and ate all evening. We hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas as much as we did!

Once there was a snowman small, small, small...

I haven't bee feeling great this week and I promised Taylee that when I felt better we could go out and build a snowman... little did I know that Idaho has awful snow for building a snowman! It just falls apart and wouldn't stay together until I brought out a pitcher of water to make ice balls and this is as good as I could get...

Taylee's comment, "uh he's small..."

I never thought I would miss Washington snow full of leaves and dirt, but at least when you roll a snowball there you can count on it getting bigger...
We did have fun playing in the snow though and Taylee keeps wishing her snowman could talk... I just tell her we don't have the "magic hat" -I just love this girl!

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a good Thanksgiving this year. For the first time in five years, we traveled to Washington for Thanksgiving. It worked out well that Taylee's check-up, Uncle Andy's homecoming from his mission, Uncle Sam's farewell and Thanksgiving could all happen in the same week.

We started out at Grandma Sillito's... it was nice to spend a few days with grama and grampa all to ourselves. Here is Taylee and grama making turkeys.

Taylee had her check-up the day before Thanksgiving and everything went well. No new news which is good news!

While we were home, we also got to celebrate Lily's birthday party. She is turning four in December, but with so many cousins around they decided to celebrate early.

Lily, Jacey and Taylee at the Children's museum in Olympia... what a cool place!

It took forever to convince Tay and Ellie to leave the kitchen/store/house part of the museum and check out what else they had... they LOVED it!

Taylee and Lily playing at the water table...

The cutest birthday girl ever....

Later that week we went and stayed in Maple Valley to be closer to all the Alldredge festivities...
(Thank you Danny and Makay for letting us stay... we had such a good time!)

It has been a while since all 7 Alldredge brother's were together. They sang the musical number at Andy and Sam's homecoming/farewell. It is pretty powerful to see all of them together knowing they all served or are about to serve missions... so cool!

Sam really belting it out....! :)

Cute cousins... Ammon, Addi and Taylee

Isaac and Bonnie

We waited to have Thanksgiving until Sunday when all the family and friends were around. I think they were expecting like 50 people for dinner. We had it at the Anderson's Barn and there was lots of room to play. Taylee and Addi playing the piano...

And of course when all of the family is actually together, we must have family pictures.
This is all the Alldredge girls...

All the Alldredge boys.... (we are getting totally out numbered)
There are more, but didn't get taken with my camera or didn't turn out well. Good thing I wasn't the main photographer...

And of course when we got home there was snow... we had great roads, but all the next day it snowed and snowed.

I must add too that our newest Sillito baby came while we were home too. Dan and Jenni had little Sadie on Thanksgiving and it was so nice to meet her!