Crazy Quilt

I know why they called this a crazy quilt now. Because I just may have been crazy for attempting to make it for a Christmas gift for my awesome mother in law. It was way too late in the season when I started it for one thing. (Had the fabric since July-chose December to get it done), and it was a first attempt at such a thing for me- I know, crazy! I have been a sewer since 7th grade (how can a girl who grew up in Utah valley, get through the public school system, and not learn how to sew?). But a quilt is a precise and sometimes (as I found out) tricky business. Here are some pictures of Gma T with her gift- I thought I'd throw one in of Grandpa here since he looks so thrilled to be holding it up. Now that it's over I kinda miss my midnight project. The back ache is still with me however. I guess my next obsessive fix is Big GIrl's 5th birthday party. It's a Cinderella theme and promises to be quite fabulous!

Where have I been?

Well I will tell you where... Knee deep in the throws of having 3 sick kids (and one adult if you include myself). It was less than perfect timing since Troy had to leave for Utah for the weekend. I was one busy Mama! Poor Audrey lost her cookies 16 times. It was worrisome. But not as bad as poor Eliza who would not get better for a stretch of 8 days and 8 horrible nights. We are now on day 3 of being over it and I am starting to feel like a normal person again. Lack of sleep does weird things to a person- It makes me cranky! (OK, I know that's normal, but it still sucks!), We seem to have avoided starting an IV for fluids on our one year old dolly. She stopped nursing for 10 hours and was like a limp noodle. Thanks to some friends who brought in groceries and much needed Pedialyte. Then when the heat in the house also went out, a neighbor brought those easy-light logs for my fireplace. God does really love me to send me such good people to take care of me. Here are some nice pictures I took this morning of our recovered child with a cherished hat hand knitted for her as a newborn by my friend Kathryn Tripp. I have been telling her I would prove to her that it still fits and goes well with multiple outfits- proof in color photos! Incidentally she is doing the sign for hat for you Kathryn....

Christmas follow up

Santa gave the boys itunes music gift cards for their ipods. It took some time for them to figure out what they were. "Did we get our own credit cards Mom?!" Note the sun is not quite in the sky yet outside. I just read my niece's blog where she says they had to wake their kids at 8:00am to start Christmas. This really steams me. I like my sleep in case you can't tell.

Audrey is excited to have her own pack of gum! How did Santa know that whenever I offer her a stick of gum she asks can she have the entire pack?

Evan is excited for some skate action on his new wave board. You can really see it on his face don't 'cha think?

Well we are still coming down from our Christmas high. There's always so much anticipation leading up to Christmas that when it's all over there is a bit of 'so what now?' going on in the house. With everyone home for winter break though, there is not much time to ponder our state of being. The boys have kept things exciting with their new Heelys (someone shoulda called those hellys), I"M KIDDING! They are just awfully loud inside the house and when you have that clompy sound at an early hour when you are trying to sleep. It doesn't help that they are all competing for the same strip of hallway in the house- right under our bedroom. There was a sad realization at the mall when I took the boys for haircuts, that they are banned from using their skate-shoes there. Perhaps that is why when we wheeled our way through Dillards department store the gray-haired man shook his head disapprovingly at us. I wanted to say to him- "Hey grandpa, you try and keep 5 kids happy over 2 weeks at home with bitter cold weather like this in Iowa!" But I held my tongue. Anyways here are some more pictures of our fun on that blessed morning of over indulgence. Next year-less presents! I swear...

Where's the baby?

Somewhere in here there's a diaper that needs to be opened... The presents may be more fun to open than the diaper I'm guessing.

Muscle Man II

Well each time we move we seem to misplace something important. Last move it was 'Lue Lanky' (a cherished green blanket made by my deceased mother. Before Evan had his colors straight he named it blue blanky. And before he could pronounce his b's it was named lue lanky- got it?). We never could replace lue lank, but when muscle man (a smalled stuffed dog that had been through about 6 years of adventures with Nathan) went missing I thought maybe he could be replaced this Christmas. After a lot of time on the internet and placing a 'want it now' add on ebay, some British woman heard my plea and sold me a new Russ floppy dog who's first name was apparently Milo. Here we see Nathan opening nesting boxes to get to his new friend. We were teary eyed at his reaction. It was priceless!

Merry Christmas

Oh the Stress of Christmas

Well My husband lovingly said to me this morning that 'Christmas is about having happy kids, not a clean house.' This could be due to the fact that after cleaning furiously all day (not regular cleaning, but we-are-having-guests-soon cleaning) I got a bit testy when he and Big Boy walked in the door and they BOTH plopped their belongings on the floor for some super maid who lives here to take care of at her convenience. So I swooped down on my broomstick (I was in witch mode), picked up their things, and placed them in their hands while they were in the middle of something very important like reading comics, or was it a crossword puzzle? Now part of me feels guilt over this action, I mean yes, they were enjoying some good father-son time, and that is important. However, I think I have the right to feel bugged when people keep thwarting my housekeeping efforts. I constantly am quoting a line from Pee Wee Herman's Big Adventure "I feel like I am unraveling a giant sweater that someone keeps on knitting, and knitting, AND KNITTING!"

Family Photo

We had some nice family photos done this year for both a Christmas card and for ourselves. I really enjoyed the session where I got to pick them out. This is a trusted photographer I have used before. However when I picked up the final product I was horrified with the puffiness under my eyes. I asked if I had been touched up and she said no, that she had done the artistry herself and no touch ups were done to my face. It must have been the lighting. I paid her and took my large 16 by 20 home with me. I kept looking at it, and at myself in the rear view mirror. It's pretty sad when the rear view mirror is more flattering than a high priced photo. So I called her on it and emailed her with my complaint. Troy even noticed something looked weird with my eyes without any prompting from me. Luckily she has admitted her mistake and is redoing the print. Now I beg of you, dear readers, to look at the results and tell me what your opinion is. Maybe I am just bias because I know what I look like. But I think the natural contours of one's lower eyelid should be present. Let me know your thoughts. There is also a family shot with the untouched faces look. Think I should remove the hair from my face?

The First Letter-(for the blog only)

This just in- December 2007

Well it’s that time of year again to write and tell you what the Taggs have been doing. The new goal for this year’s letter being ‘if it’s more than one page- it’s too much information.’ So, the answer to what we’ve been doing this year is, ‘quite a lot!’ For instance, since you last heard from us, we gave birth to the latest Tagg- Eliza Bryn Tagg was born on New Years Eve 2006. I say ‘we’ because as Troy so lovingly put it, I pitched and he caught. We were so proud of Eliza’s thrifty decision to earn a 2006 tax break for her parents by being born before the end of the year. Eliza has been a huge blessing in our lives and we are so glad to have her here.

Chronologically speaking of our life over the past year, the next big thing for us was to go on vacation for spring break-to Tokyo, Japan. (Doesn’t everyone go there?) We had the best time! We went to Mt Fuji and Tokyo Disney. We were amazed at the cultural differences between the Koreans and the Japanese. Who’d a thought? Even riding the subway there was a totally different experience.

The following summer found us moving back to the United States after 2 years in Seoul, Korea. It was bitter sweet, but maybe a bit more on the sweet side as we can now understand people, drive anywhere we want with ease, plus there’s that bonus of not smelling raw sewage when walking down the street. There are times in Iowa when one can smell cow manure being plowed into the farmland. It fondly reminds us of our Asian stay. We (and by that I mean especially I) feel much skinnier when not compared to our stick-like Korean friends. It’s a good thing. We will certainly miss the hard-working friendly people of Seoul. It was a great experience to have lived there. We especially miss the friends we made there. We are now in Iowa City, Iowa and really loving it! Troy is doing a one-year fellowship in neuroopthamology at the University of Iowa. We’ll keep you posted as to where the army chooses to send us next.

As you can see from our picture, our kids have continued to grow. We find that feeding them and then waiting for a while will do that. They are great kids with all the normal things to please and annoy. We are so grateful to be their parents. We hope all is well with you this Season. If there is one thing we are truly blessed in, it has been the wonderful people we have met in the process of living life. Thank you for your friendship and love.

Love the Tagg Family: Troy, Kelly, Nathan, Evan, Drew, Audrey, & Eliza!

Baby Girl's first Christmas

Well we got our Christmas tree up and spent the better part of Saturday decorating the house. It's a lot of work for mom! Eliza had some fun with our beads. I decided this year to leave them off the tree- they are a little too plastic and too much of a hassle to untangle, so I let her have her fun. We are wondering how to keep her away from the tree and ornaments- let alone the presents this year. She is so close to walking now and has taken her first few steps. Adorable!

A Nice Day in Nauvoo

We recently took the kids on an overnight stay in Nauvoo. The youth in our church were doing baptisms in the Nauvoo Temple. T and I were able to attend as well. Since we stayed overnight it was nice and relaxing not to have to get up early and drive the 90 minute drive to be there by 8:00am.

Here are some photos of our day there.