Easter

Easter was fun this year with Taisley.

 She can say "egg" and had a blast finding eggs to put in her basket. Our ward had a little Easter party the day before Easter and she ate more chocolate that one night than she has her whole life. She now thinks that whenever you open an egg there will always be a candy surprise inside. 

We hid some eggs in the front yard on Easter morning and she was so excited to go find them.

She got some stickers and some alphabet fridge magnets in her basket :)

She loves playing with the magnets on the fridge! 

We love this sweet girl so much! She is such a joy to have around. 

Boston and More...

JD and Becky came out the end of March because Trav's school was on break for Passover. We packed in a lot of fun for the week. It was so nice for Travis to have a little time off. He has been very busy with school .

 We went into Manhattan one day:

Grand Central Station

Rockefeller Plaza

They still had the ice rink up...it was a very windy cold day.

 The Manhattan Temple

 We walked along the Brooklyn Bridge!!

The highlight of JD and Becky's trip this time (besides seeing Taisley) was going to Boston!! Travis served his mission in Boston and he LOVES that place so much! It was such a blast being there with his parents. 

We went to the New England Aquarium while we were there. 

Here is Taisley being entertained by the stingrays.

We got to do the Boston Duck Tour which was really fun! It's a really good tour of Boston that goes in and out of the water.

 This is when we were in the water on the duck tour. Our tour guide was very fun! 

Taisley found the ducks again in the Boston Garden. She hopped right on and said "yee-haw". 

It just so happens that the Boston Celtics were playing the New York Knicks at the TD Garden so we decided to go to the game. It was sooo fun! Taisley sat through the entire game and loved every second of it!

The highlight of Trav's trip to Boston was touring FENWAY PARK, home of the BOSTON RED SOX! It was really awesome! Fenway is the oldest running ballpark in baseball. It is much smaller than the huge baseball stadiums I had seen before. For this reason, Fenway is known for it's intimacy and coziness. The fans become family. 

 This is the view from the Green Monster seats.

 This is the view from the press box. 

You can see Boston in the background.

 Taisley holding on while riding the subway in Boston

 The Boston Temple

We had such a great time with Trav's parents. We always look forward to their fun trips! 

Trip to AZ.....Picture Overload

Taisley and I were able to fly to AZ the end of January because Kenric came home from his mission!!! He served the Mississippi Jackson Mission for 2 years. I was so excited because he had never met Taisley before. My sister, Melissa, and I were both pregnant when he left so he was able to meet Taisley and Kamden for the 1st time.

Here are the kids waiting at the airport for Elder Westbrook to arrive!

My mom made it very clear she was getting the 1st hug :)

 Taisley meeting Kenric for the 1st time

Taisley had no trouble warming up to Kenric. This was on the way home from the airport :) 

My dad wanted to get some pictures of all the kids together again. 

It was fun and just like old times.

Oldest to youngest...

Tallest to shortest...

It was so fun to see Taisley and Kamden play together this trip. 

This was their hug goodbye. So cute!!

 All the grandkids together.

 Taisley with Melissa's kids: Brylie, Easton and Kamden. 

It was so good to see Grandma Westbrook

 Papa Ken being his funny self :)

 We made it to the Phoenix Zoo with Grandma Ria, Melissa and the kids. 

It was Taisley's 1st time.

 The goats were probably Taisley's favorite because she could touch them. I was trying to get a picture of her but she was busy running from goat to goat touching every single one. It was hilarious! She smelt like a goat the rest of the day.

This never happens...Taisley falling asleep on the couch. I think this vacation wore her out pretty good.

I was so happy we were able to meet Denver and Jessica's baby girl, Kloee. 

She was born in Mesa while we were in town. She is adorable! Taisley wouldn't let me hold Kloee too long but she did really good with her. She wanted to see her and touch her head a lot. 

 Taisley and I got to spend some time in Thatcher too!!! It was so nice to see Trav's family and spend time with them! Taisley spent most of the time running and playing outside...she loved it! Papi took her on a tractor ride and she literally could not control her excitement. 

 Taisley, Ellie and McCoy

Taisley and Lorin. All the kids had so much fun together.

 Grandpa Delbert and Grandma Karen...it's always so nice to see these two :)

Taisley is slightly obsessed with 2 movies right now: Despicable Me and Tangled. One of her favorite things to do this vacation was to snuggle up with her Papi and Papa and watch Tangled. If you know Taisley you know she is not a cuddly baby at all...she has no time for that. So these 2 guys are pretty special to her :)

(Papi in Thatcher)

(Papa Ken in Mesa)

I was able to catch up with some very missed friends of mine! Love them!

Taisley was so lucky to see her Grandma and Grandpa Storment...they are very special to us :)

 Unfortunately, Travis was unable to come with us because of his busy school schedule and everyone missed him dearly. I owed him about 30 hugs from everyone by the time I made it back home. We enjoyed the mostly sunny, warm beautiful AZ weather and left him to freeze in this:

 If you follow the news you know that the east coast was hit with a pretty bad winter storm. It hit right about the time Taisley and I were supposed to be flying home to NY which made the trip home a bit of a nightmare. Our original flight for Saturday, Feb 9th was canceled and rescheduled to Sunday morning. Our flight was from Phoenix to Baltimore and then a connecting flight from Baltimore to Islip, NY. The storm was over by Saturday afternoon and the major issue was if the airport in Islip was going to open or not. To make a long story short, I was on the phone with Southwest airlines all day Saturday and Sunday morning before I left and every person I talked to to said everything was scheduled to go out on time and that Islip was up and running as of Sunday morning. So we got the o.k. to board our 1st flight. We land safely in Baltimore and about 30 minutes after we land they cancel every single flight going to Islip, NY for the rest of the day and then they tell me that flights are booked until Tuesday! So here I am stuck in Baltimore with an 18 month old with no luggage whatsoever because it is on the connecting flight to Islip and I basically just started to bawl. Taisley was oblivious to anything that was going on because she was strapped into the stroller watching Despicable Me, eating french fries and was as happy as can be. She was such a good girl! I called Travis and as soon as he heard what was going on he said I'm getting in the car and i'll be there in about 4 hours to get you. Travis to the rescue! What a wonderful guy he is! I know everyone, including myself, was so worried about him getting there safely with the road conditions but thankfully the roads were very well taken care of and clear and dry. He got to Baltimore about 6:30 Sunday and boy was I relieved to see him! We got in the car and turned around and drove home. We got home about 11:30 that night and I was so glad to be home safe and sound. Our luggage didn't arrive until Tuesday afternoon. Even though the trip home was a nightmare, we had such a blast in AZ and I treasure the time we were able to spend with our families. 

There was still plenty of snow left when we got home so Taisley got to play in it the next morning. She loved every second of it. She kept taking handfuls of snow and eating it and then she just started sticking her face in the snow and taking bites. It was so funny.