The Daddy

There are lots of reasons why Taggert loves the Daddy! It has been more than amazing to have you home all the time, Jed. You are such an important, huge part of both my life and Tagg's. We love you!

Gettin a back rub from Daddy... Oh, the sweetness!

Having your beloved Daddy teach you to dip your beloved Oreos in milk... Oh, the sweetness! ;)

Jed, our resident ping pong master, taught Taggert how to hit the ball (occasionally, at least) with the paddle. Jed's enthusiasm for teaching our son new skills is so fun to watch!

Speaking of new skills... Taggert is picking up on Daddy's skills of a magician... in the picture above, he's helping Daddy with a magic trick by putting something or other down his shirt and looking for it again. He's gotten pretty good at trying to imitate Jed's tricks: He even uses the same fingers Jed does to stuff things into his fist... I think the next step is actually making them disappear instead of telling me where they are :)

This boy is a water baby! He jumps off things almost as tall as he is into the pool (well, I catch him, but still!) with almost no hesitation. He also likes chillin in the water with his favorite guy!

Star Wars stuff never gets old around here :) In fact, it only gets "cool"er!"

Same with soccer :)

Hmm... looks like Tagg's soccer skills have eclipsed my own. (Yes, I was actually trying in that video. I know that's hard to believe.)

I love how he acts like he's upset as a joke :)

Listen for Tagg's manly laugh... He only did that for a while, but man was it funny!

Oh, the things you can learn from such a suave daddy! Ooh la la!

Tagg & I practiced this "Daddy Song" one day and sang it for the song's namesake at bedtime that night. If two versions of it are a bit too much for you :) we recommend watching the first one. But for the sake of Grandparents and our little family in the future, we just gotta have them both!

The Soccer Team

On July 4th, Jed brought Taggert and I along to a soccer game! We had a great time! We drove about twenty minutes west so he could play with Elders Sweeney and Tallman, missionaries who used to serve in our ward. It was a pretty hot morning, but there was a playground right next to the field that had a great water feature, which just about every single one of us took advantage of! I brought Taggert's throne of a carseat out and we shared it as a chair while we were watching the game (see top-right picture of Taggert). Tagg (who finds it just a bit hard to stay on the sidelines during the game now) even got a little ball action with Elder Sweeney after the game!

Here are the star player's highlights... the picture that's second from the right on the top row is our favorite!

This is a collage I made for Osvaldo, Jed's soccer friend that came along.

...and one for Elder Sweeney.

Speaking of missionaries, we have really had some great ones in our area. Jed's calling as a ward missionary has really been a good chance for us to get to know the missionaries better, and I would like to record the fact that the Elders (yeah, all of them :) come over all the time just to learn things from my wonderful Jed. They listen to him expound the scriptures for hours! And, on the side, they think Tagg is cool and want pictures with him before they get transferred. :) I've really chosen/created some stinkin great men!