Kaden's First Birthday!

Tagg's first experience with Chuck E Cheese rides wasn't too happy--

He practically launched himself off of this thing trying to dismount while it was still going!

But it got better once he was introduced to Mighty Mouse,

And he loved this truck! He is such a boy!

ACTIVITY DAYS!

I am in charge of "Activity Days," which is where all the 8-11 year old girls get together twice a month and do fun stuff together! They're working on earning their Faith in God award, so most of our activities are centered on that!

We took a field trip last night! We went to the library and watched ballerinas (which were mostly the girls' age!) perform! It was so much fun!

Here are half of the girls waiting for the performance to begin! Rachel is the girl in the crown--it was her birthday, and she wanted to spend it with us!!!!
From left to right: Serena, Rachel, Samantha, Alyssa, Graci & Laurel!

This is what the performance was like! Fun!

One of the girls, Sonya, had the nicest idea! She asked two of the ballerinas if they would take a picture with the birthday girl!

Here we are being crazy wanna-be ballerinas after the show!

Here we are being just plain crazy!

I brought Rachel to and from the activity (as well as three other girls), so I decorated the Jeep like a birthday party!

This is Laurel & Serena!

Here's Laurel, Samantha & Serena!

I love these girls! They are so much fun!

Hello?

On a random cuteness note, Taggert has learned how to use a cell phone... sort of. If you say "Hello?" he puts the cell phone somewhere around his neck/shoulder area :)

I am fascinated by how much he's learning!

Finally... I'm Proud to be a Glendalian!

So I needed to blog this very night about how wonderful today was!!!!

(But apparently I didn't need to actually post the blog until 2 days later! ;)

To start it off, I got to start off my morning cuddling with my sweet Jed! --Although that seems like an everyday indulgence, I have gained a new level of appreciation for it as I have a sinus infection and have been so congested for the last 3 days that sometimes I can't even blow my nose! (As a side note, I also haven't tasted anything since Wednesday... it's really weird, but at the moment I'm taking advantage of it by eating salad that's on the very brink of being too brown to eat--and without any dressing! Never again will such a dangerous feat be attempted :) Anyway, apparently such a condition leads to snoring. So in order to avoid keeping Jed awake with my nasal musical stylings (and in hopes of stealing a nocturnal breath or two through my nose by propping myself up on lots of pillows against the arm of the couch), I have spent the last two nights on the couch in the family room. I still can't breathe through my nose, but we got tired (pardon--no, enjoy! the pun! :) of these separate sleeping arrangements and took a crazy chance--I slept in our bedroom last night! :) It was so refreshing to fall asleep next to the love of my life, and to wake up next to him, too!

So after such a glorious start to my day, I enjoyed being super productive--I organized two areas of the house that have been on my to do list for like a month! I laughed a ton with Taggert! I got to hear fun soccer stories when Jed came home from his game this morning! I got an unsolicited kiss from my baby boy for giving him juice when he woke up!

And then Tagg and I took a bike ride over to Park West, a really classy outdoor mall about 2 miles from our house. It was such a nice ride--great sidewalks and courteous drivers all the way! We went there because, one Saturday a month, they have "Momma's Market," where they close off lots of the streets and a bunch of interesting vendors set up their wares! It was very well done, and there were so many fun things to see! My favorite parts, I, of course, got on film :)

So here they are!

He just kept running up and down and up and down this little slightly inclined ramp! I kept thinking he was going to get distracted by stuff, but nope! Nothing was as great as that ramp!

...Until... he discovered the fountain! You may notice that his sleeves are rolled up. I did that so he wouldn't get his shirt wet--we were going to be riding our bike home, and even on a real nice day, the breeze gets pretty strong and cool on a bike. Well... as you can see, sleeves were the least of my concerns! Ha! Thank goodness it took Jed about 4 minutes to drive a change of clothes over to us. And especially thank goodness he so happily does little favors like that for us all the time! Love you, Daddy!

At around 4:30, Tagg and I headed out to Glendale's Glitter and Glow, which is a block party held in cute little midwestern-looking historic downtown Glendale every year! It's our last hoo-rah before they take down the thousands of Christmas lights adorning the trees in the historic shopping district (that's the Glitter).

The coolest part is that they have lots of hot air balloons that they tether down in the middle of the blocked-off streets and inflate at sundown! They wait till then because of how awesome it looks in the dark to see them blow that fire into the balloon to keep it inflated (and that's the Glow)!

We watched as they actually inflated the balloon! It was so HUGE and kind of rolled into the crowd as it was rising! We were both amazed!

They have lots of vendors in the main park area as well, but I really enjoyed all the bands they had scattered throughout the neighborhood! Strolling through downtown Glendale, as soon as we got too far away to hear one band's style of music, we got in earshot of another band's style! We heard swing, oldies, reggae and rock n roll! It was great!

They were projecting "Horton Hears a Who" in this outdoor theater area, they had a lot of space set aside for carnival rides, and in another area they had two colorful clowns on stilts making balloon animals!

Now, you most of you know that I have previously expressed a ...lack of appreciation... for Arizona. Sometimes it's the plethera of rocks, sometimes it's the insane heat, sometimes it's the lack of extended family and/or trees and/or grass that drives my lack of appreciation, but as I walked around downtown Glendale tonight, I loved the fact that so many people turn out for this wonderful event. I loved the fact that the powers that be in Glendale's government take the time to come up with all these interesting things to do and see during Glitter and Glow. I loved the fact that this event is indicative of how many creative things there are to do all the time in Glendale. I loved the fact that so many people are willing to offer their services and their smiling faces to twist balloons into animals, to set up their hot-air balloons, to patrol the area, to perform in bands... And I loved the fact that I am a member of this community. I love the fact that this is my home. I am a Glendalian, and I am so proud to say it!

I pledge never to wait this long to let myself bloom no matter where I am planted!

To top off such a spledid day, Taggert laughed his head off the entire way home, and when we arrived, I entered the kitchen only to find Jed taking dinner out of the oven-- the dinner that he had made as a perfectly-timed :) surprise for me! Sigh. Life is so good!

So, since you've allowed me to get on my soap box and share my epiphany, I'll reward you with some adorable pictures of the star of this blog...

Three reasons why it was so much fun to stand there and listen to a 50's band with little Tagg:

Taggert's main course at dinner tonight after Glitter & Glow was popcorn! He tipped me off to that good idea when I looked down at the festival to see him eating a piece of popcorn off the ground! Mmmm...

Family Weekend!!

My Mom (Grandma Kim) and our Grandparents Klaiss :) came to visit for about 20 hours last weekend! It was wonderful to see them!

Grandma and Grandpa generously took us out to a delicious dinner!
Of course, "delicious" referred to the crayons ;)


The next couple of pictures are of Taggert loving having Grandpa Klaiss sitting next to him!

I think this looks like a mirror image, don't you?!

We had a stellar waitress :) She was so cute with Taggert!

Grandma or Great Grandma took this picture after we got home :)

And this one :)

This is my brilliant (?) tactic for getting Taggert to be less trepidacious about the snot ball. I know he once again looks dubious, but it's actually pretty darn effective!

It's also pretty darn effective for getting a few laughs!

He actually puts it into his own nose sometimes! Wow!

The little guy really enjoyed being with our family--I think it's safe to say he loves his Great Grandpa!

For those of you who know our family... how appropriate it is that Grandma Klaiss took a picture of Tagg with his eyes closed!
I couldn't resist! One time, Grandma drew eyes on her closed eyelids in a picture, so I had to do my own hack job on this one! My attempt at eyeballs was really creepy, so I opted for the ever-popular indoor sunglasses!

G&G gave us this cute little basting brush character with suction cup feet! And obviously, I'm not the only one who adores it!

We took a trip out to a spot of Jed's land that he picked out especially for this visit. These are pictures I took on the drive back.

I have to admit, this kind of desert is beautiful.

We love you three! Thank you for visiting us, we treasure the moments we get to spend together!

Footie!

We surprised Daddy (I'm trying to call Jed "Daddy" when Taggert's around, cuz Tagg's starting to say something that sounds eerily like "Jed" to get his Daddy's attention...) by showing up at his soccer game on Friday the 2nd! We were there for over an hour, and Tagg stayed on my lap for part of the time, but most of the time he was standing up on a backwards chair, holding on to the back of it and cheering his little heart out! Usually he wants to run around all over the place, but he was totally watching the game! He would get much more vocal when Je--Daddy :) was playing!

Here's Daddy--okay, Tagg's not in this picture ;)-- Here's Jed ;) and Elder Sweeney (the Scottish missionary who served in our ward for 9 glorious months--he really carved out a place in so many Sun Valley Ward hearts!) running after the ball. Elder Sweeney has cool words for lots of things, and he occasionally refers to soccer* as "footie" (most of the rest of the world calls it football, for obvious reasons :)

I love it that Jed is so enthusiastic about the things he loves! He even loves it that we sneak in to watch his games sometimes! :) I love getting involved in the things he loves!
Another Sweeney/McClure action shot!
This is another missionary in our area. He and Taggert took advantage of his sitting-out time to play with the spare ball.

I am convinced that the world is just full of good--no, wonderful--people who really make a happy difference for those they interact with. This Elder and Taggert are two of those people!
Yes! Taggert is being affectionate with a soccer ball! This is a good sign :)

On another soccer outing, Tagg and I played in the leaves (yes, trees are changing color and leaves are beginning to fall here--autumn in January! ... I guess we have multiple seasons, after all!) in the Churchyard while Daddy played soccer with the missionaries inside.

After a while, we ventured in and enjoyed watching the guys play--Tagg has an amazing attention span when it comes to live soccer!

*Supposed origins of the word "soccer": In 1863, the "Football Association" was formed by existing football (soccer) clubs in England, marking the beginning of formalized rules for the sport. "Soccer" appears to have arisen as an abbreviation for the "Association," and when the game gained some popularity in the United States, the abbreviation that never took off in Europe caught on here since "football" already referred to another popular sport.