VanSickle Family: A Half A Year in Review (October 31- April 22)

It's been so long since I've blogged it took me an hour to remember my log-in information. Not a good start.

The real Halloween. Taylee, Stan, and I met Grandpa Jim and Grandma Carol at the mall for our yearly trick-or-treating.

Taylee plays games at the UGF carnival---also a yearly Halloween event for us.

Why is it that the most beautiful days this winter were also the coldest? Here's my little trooper freezing away at the park so I can take a Christmas picture.

Brrr!!!

Completely over-developed, but still kind of cool looking. I'm still learning manual control on my camera. Bright, white days are hard to contend with using my very limited skills. As is the darker sunset below. If I could only have been about an hour earlier taking these pictures...

Taylee's Christmas program at school.

Christmas Day- Taylee gets her very much wished for DSi.

Taylee's first of 3 pillow pets. Yes, three--turns out Kami has an affinity for soft pillowy pets that smell like Taylee. I can't even remember what this one's name is. The next two were named True Love.

Bella enjoys her first and last minutes with her own Christmas toys because....

Kami destroys all 14 of the new toys within ten minutes. Merry Christmas.

Taylee and some of her new Christmas clothes..and a Christmas kiss.

New Years. We didn't go anywhere this Christmas or New Years (we usually go to Oregon). We thought we would go midnight ice skating again but the rink wasn't open this year. We ended up making up a cheese and cracker tray, buying some sparkling peach juice and brining in the New Year in our basement watching Dick Clark/Ryan Seacrest. Pretty fun New Year. Poor Stan is up past his bedtime or something.

Taylee's birthday morning. She got the puppy shirt she is wearing, some black high-heeled shoes, a My Little Pony scrapbook, and two of these Daffodil books by Emily Jenkins (Taylee's favorite book since she was 2ish). Later that night we went to Macaroni Grill (of course) and Taylee was serenaded in Italian by one of the waitresses. As usual Taylee ordered the macaroni and cheese. Notice it looks like Taylee is camped out on a couch. She is. That is currently and has been her bed since the beginning of January. Her bedroom is now a very beautiful bathroom.

Yay for Grandma Carol and Granpa Jim! They let us have Taylee's 6th birthday party at their house the following Saturday. Nine little girls, including Taylee, were at the party. Needless to say, Grandpa Jim made himself scarce during most of the festivities. It was a ton of fun though. Each little girl got a skirt and pink feather boa. We made crowns and bracelets and played games and then had cake and ice cream and punch and then opened presents. I LOVED it. It was my favorite of Taylee's birthdays so far.

Taylee's stylish hat and sequin scarf from the Gambles (thank you Andrea). She wears the scarf to school regularly.

Taylee and Daityn's sleep over (mom included). These girls have so much fun together.

Taylee posing for a picture dealing with her Science fair project. I'm also noticing how tall she is getting in this picture. She is now 46" tall.

Bella listens with rapt attention as Taylee goes over her shpeel.

Taylee at the science fair. She is a little nervous.

I love this picture. She is explaining her project to the judge. Pulling her hair behind her ears I can almost hear her saying, "Well, you see, what my project is about...."

Showing pictures and some of her research.

What blog would be complete without some house pictures? Here is our enormous hole. Taylee and I would go down and play in there every day after school. We have some very cool clay soil that is just like red play-do. Very cool until it is tracked into my house by all 2-legged and 4-legged creatures for over a month.