Happy 6th Birthday Taylor!!!

So the theme for the day was "spiders". Taylor wanted a spider party and we delivered. Check out the spider cake below.



Kim made a spider web in Taylor's room and then the boys got to each take a piece of the web and trace it through the room to find a prize at the end. It was pretty creative on her part and they thought it was fun.


Taylor's friend are Andrew King and Nick Jackson.



Daddy is looking forward to pounding Taylor in Battleship. Taylor also got a remote control tarantula. Grandma Jolene is pumped about that I am sure.

Emery's First Haircut

Autumn and Taylor's New Fun Way To Swing on the Swings

Taylor's book

Taylor is learning about the components of a book (ie author, illustrator, table of contents, etc) at Oak Grove. Today during our home day, he wrote his first book. He told me the story while I wrote it down and then he illustrated the book. Here it is...

Title Page: "The Owls and the 4 Story Coconut" by Taylor Nielsen

Page 1: "Once upon a time, there was an owl. He lived in a coconut. He had a basketball hoop in his yard. And his basketball hoop went up to 20 feet tall."

Page 2: "And then there was another owl and she lived in the same coconut. And they both played basketball with a 2 foot ball and inside they had 10 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms. And then they had 3 master bathrooms." (maybe watching a bit too much HGTV with mom :))

Page 3: "Their house was a 4 story house. One story was a whole living room where they played tennis. And they played soccer too. They made art too. They had 5 maps on each wall. And there was 10 walls." (see his interest in math in the illustration-he wanted to make sure he had the correct number--50maps in his drawing )
Page 4: (finally the plot thickens and then is quickly over ;)) "And then they almost get eaten by a hawk. And he ate owls. But, they almost got eaten. They flew into their house to escape and they locked the doors. So the hawk flew away to find some more food. The End"
Back cover : another picture of the 4 story coconut with the basketball hoop and pond (must not be in NM :))

Hope you enjoyed the story!

Wisdom

Today was one of our "home-school" days (our school, Oak Grove is a University-model school which means the kids go to Oak Grove 2 days a week and then are at home the other 3). We were reviewing the memory verse, Eph 6:1, "Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right." Autumn was joking around and saying, "children don't obey" and laughing like it was the funniest joke ever. Here is Taylor's response,

Taylor: "You won't be wise if you don't obey your parents, Autumn. Being wise is good. You can tell other people about Jesus. That's wise. "

He turns to me and says, "like daddy, right?!" (Zach's been talking about building relationships through jazz gives him the opportunity to tell others about Jesus)

Taylor to Autumn again: "Maybe when your 5 you'll be wise...well, wiser."

Priceless!

And So it Begins...

It's official now. Today we sent in our initial adoption application to All God's Children International. We had to wait a bit to send it in because the initial application fee was a little steep. We move forward by faith not know what we are getting ourselves into, but trusting in Him who holds all things together for our good. Hopefully we'll be able to add another picture to these three below in about 18-24 months. We'll keep you posted as the journey progresses.

How Taylor And I Have Been Spending Our Time Recently

First Day of School!

You can read about Oak Grove Classical Academy by clicking here.

Emery Talking

Emery has started talking more. His main words are Da-Da (YES!) and Uh-Oh. We keep trying to get him to say, Ma-Ma, but when we do he insists on saying Uh-Oh instead. Taylor and Autumn think that is hilariously funny.

Taylor Took A Spill

Last Sunday night when I was in St. Louis, I got a call from Kim that she and Taylor were at the ER. Here is what happened:

Kim was outside with the kids playing and Taylor was down the street playing with some neighbor kids. He was riding on a push scooter. He few minutes later he came home to Kim and had a huge knot on his forehead. Kim asked him what had happened. He said he didn't know and didn't remember anything happening.

Not good.

He had a concussion. Kim brought him inside and asked him more questions. He couldn't remember his last name or what we did after supper. Kim called the peds doc and they said we should take him to the ER. He wasn't really acting like himself. He couldn't count and was rather drousy.

They did a cat scan and everything came back normal. While they were at the ER he started acting more like himself and they sent them home with instructions to always wear a helmet from now on and to stay off his bike for a least a week.

Taylor Shooting Hoops - Age 5.5

Taylor and I have been working on his basketball skills. He seems to be getting the hang of it.

The Phone Call You Never Want To Get

Kim called me on Wednesday afternoon and for about 20 seconds I experienced fear and adrenaline that I'm not sure I have felt before. She told me that she could not find our 5-year-old son. She had been in another room with our middle daughter and when she came out Taylor was not there. He was supposed to be in his "Quiet Time" (an hour of alone time to do whatever he wants), but he was nowhere to be found. She called and called for him, but no response. She looked all over the house, but he was still missing. Then she called me in a panic. I walked her through some questions. I told her to check with the neighbors. Maybe he went over there. My heart was racing and immediately all the worse case scenarios came to mind.

While we were still on the phone she called for him one more time and then heard his little voice say, "Mommy?"

Relief.

Sometimes the kids like to build "forts". This is usually a huge mess of blankets, pillows, couches and endtables placed strategically together to construct a suitable domain for a 5 and 3- year-old. Well, on this day, Taylor decided to build a much smaller one. One that just looked like a unorganized pile of blankets and pillows on the end of the couch. He then proceeded to crawl in there and fall asleep. When this boy falls asleep, he sleeps hard, thus he couldn't hear Kim calling for him.

Moral of the story: Check the pillow piles.

4th of July Pics

Taylor Reading

Pics Of Our 10th Anniversary Trip To Durango, CO

Emery Likes The Swing

Taylor's Interesting Definition of "Fun"

A snippet of this morning's breakfast conversation:

Kim:  Taylor I think we need to get you some better, more fun puzzles.

Taylor:  You mean ones with stuff like fire and NASCAR?  

Kim and I's union has given rise to a pyro-hillbilly.  Great.  

Emery and the Goggles

The kids have been very excited to go to the neighborhood pool this year. We got them goggles that they are excited about as well. Today Emery (with the help of Taylor) got to try them on. He wasn't quite sure what to make of them.

Bathtime Video

Bathtime with cousin Juliana