Taylor decided today she would give HERSELF a haircut!!!  She took the scissors and cut her left side of her hair very, very short.  So that act forced me to give her an extremely (for her) short haircut to blend in the problem area and make her look “normal” again.  I admit I had to laugh, it reminds me of when I was 5 years old and in Kindergarten when me and a couple of girls decided to play “Barber” and we proceeded to cut chunks of our hair to our scalp!!  Anyway, here are some pictures of Taylor’s “new” hairdo.  She likes it and so do I, hopefully I did an okay job on her cut??  As you can see, Taylor had fun posing.  I asked her if I could take her picture and she started doing all these poses, a natural model, or maybe it is the new short HAIRDO!

In April Scott and I took a trip to NYC while Grandpa and Grandma Skare took care of the kids.  It was nice to get away by ourselves (we haven’t done that since we had the kids) and do some sightseeing.  We went to a taping of the Late Show with David Letterman, went to a Broadway Show (The Lion King), went to the top of the Empire State Building, visited the Statue of Liberty, went to the Today Show, ran and hung out in Central Park including a carriage ride, went out to dinner a lot, and I managed to get some shopping time in as well.  We had fun but missed the kids a lot.  Here are some pictures from our trip.

Our day in DC (in March) with grandpa and grandma. Here we are in front of the fountain at the World War II Memorial.

At the end of March we visited Williamsburg with Grandma and Grandpa (pictured above). We had a sort of mini family reunion. My uncle Larry arranged for a rental house nearby Williamsburg so we could all stay together–10 adults and 5 kids, it was cozy. We had a great time. The first day we walked through Colonial Williamsburg as seen in the above picture (taking a rest on a bench). The following two days we spent at Busch Gardens. The weather was absolutely beautiful. The kids had a blast going on a bunch of rides and I managed to sneak off for a couple of hours each day to go on some “big stomach” rides (as Taylor calls it) thanks to my Mom and my Aunts who watched the kids. On Friday my Aunt and Uncle watched the kids all day so that myself, my Mom and Dad, could go off and explore. We had another gorgeous day! We met up with Aunt Kathy and her friend and had lunch at the Williamsburg Winery and enjoyed a couple of bottles of wine on the patio! Fabulous food and wine and company. We left on Saturday to head back home. We spent the day in DC on Sunday looking around. We went from 70 degree weather to 30 degree weather, quite the adjustment. We had a great visit with all the family that I hadn’t seen in quite some time.

We have been bringing the kids swimming at our gym the last 2 weeks to get Taylor ready to start her first swimming lessons in April.  We went yesterday and the kids had a blast.  We were taking turns with the kids dunking them, getting them used to putting their face in the water, and kicking their feet.  Taylor asked for goggles so she could see in the water.  So, Scott got out of the pool and went and bought goggles for all 3 kids at the front desk.  Here is Taylor and Christian modeling their goggles (Luke doesn’t like to wear his yet).  As many of you know, we are still attempting to potty train Christian.  To give him incentive to sit or stand at the potty Scott told him he would wear his goggles when he goes potty.  I have to tell you it is the funniest sight, Christian standing naked at the potty with his swimming goggles on.  He can see himself in the mirror so he makes faces at himself, anything to make the time pass faster I guess!

Taylor, Christian and Luke miss their friends Aleksia and Bryn.  Here is a special video they made for them.  We miss you!  See you soon!

 Love,

Taylor, Christian, and Luke

Yesterday with visited the Manassas National Battlefield Park which is only a couple of miles from where we live. It was a beautiful day with a high of about 65 but it was a little windy out. The park has a lot of trails to walk and is beautiful. We decided to walk the Henry Hill Loop Trail which is 1.2 miles. We saw a statue of Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson which you see the kids pictured walking towards. We also walked by Henry House and read about the history of the battles that took place there. We then came up on the cannons. The kids really liked looking at these and playing with them. The kids walked the entire 1.2 mile loop, Christian and Taylor ran parts of it. Luke even walked about half of the loop with his little legs. Needless to say, the kids were tired by the time we were done. There is so much more to see at this park and we plan on visiting it many more times while we are here.

We visited my Uncle Larry and Aunt Joan this last weekend.  It was nice to visit with them and for the kids to meet them finally.  When I told Taylor about how Uncle Larry is Grandpa Steve’s brother Taylor started calling him “ankle” Larry even though she calls her Uncle Steve, “uncle”.  The kids had a lot of fun meeting and playing with their two dogs, Buffy and Sissy.  Another highlight was the kids got to take a ride in ankle Larry’s “red car” as the kids called it.  When Uncle Larry told Christian he could ride in the red car on the way to church, Christian had a huge grin from ear to ear that I believe was pasted on his face throughout the entire ride.  Taylor got to ride home from church in the red car with the top down.  We briefly got to meet cousin Mark and hopefully we will be able to visit with him more another time.  Needless to say, we had a great time visiting with Uncle Larry, Aunt Joan, Buffy, and Sissy.  We look forward to many more visits while we are here. 

Taylor and Christian playing ladder golf with Aunt Joan

I gave Taylor the video camera and told her to give everyone a tour of our Virginia apartment.  She really enjoyed doing this and was particularly interested in showing everyone the smoke detectors (which she was fascinated with in Idaho) and her new fascination with the sprinklers in our apartment.  All video is shot from her perspective and she is holding the camera (I did help her zoom in on certain things; (ie. the sprinklers).  At the end of the video Christian takes a turn with the video camera and shows off a little of the apartment as well (I hope no one gets motion sickness from Christian’s shots).  Anyway, I thought it would be nice for everyone to see our new surroundings and the kids enjoyed making this video because they were the photographers for a change. 

Taylor and Christian recorded these videos on Grandma Georgia’s Birthday on February 1st (as you can see we are in our house in Idaho) but due to the move and packing and shipping our computer I was not able to get this video posted in a timely manner.  The second video is of Taylor singing with Christian as usual just listening but the first video shows Christian enthusiastically singing Happy Birthday.  Unfortunately while I was recording the second video I ran out of memory and I could not get them (or Christian) to sing again.  We hope Grandma had a wonderful birthday and we look forward to seeing you soon!