Without "Wisdom"

Dowlin had his wisdom teeth out today - Man, all these rights of passage into adulthood - Sucks, lol!
He is out cold where I suspect he will be for several days - poor guy.
He did really well, no crazy delusional thoughts or speeches (Dang)
I did take a picture or 2 just to document the drooling and silly talking - but all in all - just a lot of pain -
Milkshake got away from him - dang loose lips

His Friend Taylynn brought him a Happy Bucket with all kinds of activities in it to keep him busy - also doubles as a puke bucket - LOL Tay, you think of everything!

Spring Training

Not just a myth! Despite believed by some - they do spring train and not just show up opening day fresh off their bouncer, taxi driver, cafe waiter jobs! LOL - The KC Royals and Texas Rangers have their spring training facility just 5 minutes from our house - we had tickets for opening game - Feb 25 - so we headed over to the stadium to watch some baseball and soak up some 85 degree sun! We were just 4 rows up, just behind 3rd base...it was fun - Did I get sunburned? Ummm, DUH! lol - just a little though ;-)




After watching, eating, riding the carousel...we cheered for the Royals - but alas...they were behind by 6 when we left in the top of the 8th inning. We will try to motivate them all you KC fans - but no promises - I love the name "Coco Crisp" - I think he's #9 - left fielder - anyway the crowd loves him, and he was super patient signing autographs for the "Spring Training Stalkers" lol (No, not us)

Surprise Pride Day - Service Project

Each year the City of Surprise has this service project where local churched and all residents can join together and help a small part of the city. This year, The Surprise AZ Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint was the only Church group to participate. There were also many other community members.

Each Ward in our Stake was given 2 houses, all were in the same neighborhood - I think total we had about 20+ houses... We weeded, cleaned up trash, painted, planted, and lifted the spirits of the comunity there.
Although I forgot to take "Before" photos - here are a bunch during the project...
"Lots to Do Dah Day!"

Jared Makes an Appearance

Last night we were happy to have Dean's little brother Jared out here even if it was just for the evening! Jared works for Knight Transportation and ws in PHX for some meetings. Just like last year, Dean picked him up at the hotel and we enjoyed the evening visiting and catching up! Although there was no rug wrestling - it was so good to see him and wish it could have been longer and that Amanda and the girls could have come too! Love you Jared

Dowlin Takes the Title!

As I mentioned February is Family Month around here! We have had our 2nd group of visitors! Scott & Abby & Connor came to visit over Presidents Day weekend. We went to Kyle and Kara's house Saturday for some visiting and family fun & food at the park! We played Wiffle ball and obvioulsy "The Winners" team won! lol On Sunday, they all headed to Surprise to join us for Sacrament Meeting & another enjoyable day of visiting, food & napping. You know what they say, a family that naps together... IDK, it just sounded funny. There were bodies everywhere - Before dinner, just like kids will do, we were looking for something fun to "DO". Finally Scott came up with an idea - Indian leg Wrestling! This was a little gem we used to do when we were younger. Kyle always winning because he was so much bigger than me! IDK - maybe he just cried more so I let him win, lol. Anyway, on this day, Scott challenged Kraig...won. Feeling confident Scott challenged Kyle...lost! Although I have to say it was so funny to watch. Kyle was King of leg wrestling! Well, Being a Taylor - and not wanting to be out done, I did what anyone would do... I sacrificed my first born. Ha ha ha! He looked at me like I had just grown a 2nd head when I suggested he wrestle Kyle. See, just a couple of weeks before in FHE - Dowlin and I had Indian Leg Wrestled and despite my crying wolf 1X when I thought I was going to snap my neck - I flipped Dowlin a time or 2! Anyway Dowlin lined up next to Kyle...the room was thick with anticipation! "One...Two...Three" The legs locked there was a moment when both guys were doing the spits in mid air - then SNAP - the champion flipped over! the crowd went WILD! Kyle, stunned, crawled over to Dowlin and said 1 word... "Again" - Now if you don't know my brother, let me tell you he can be intimidating! He was a police officer for 20 yrs and has the "Go ahead... make my day" look down to perfection! lol. They lined up for round two... "One...Two...Three" splits, flip! DOWLIN IS THE NEW WILSON FAMILY INDIAN LEG WRESTLING CHAMPION OF THE WORLD! It was so much fun to see Scott, Abby & Connor again! And although we live only 1.5 hours from Kyle - we don't see them enough either! What a wonderful weekend! I'll post more pictures as I get them. Love you boys! Enjoy the video!

Arizona Snow! Happy Valentine's Day

Does it snow in Arizona? Well yes it does! At least if you drive far enough North and reach the mountains! We decided to call a Family Fun Day - we pulled the kids out of school and headed to Strawberry for a little snow tubing! What a blast! despite a little whining, and totally awesome wipe outs - fun was had by all! Here are some pictures and a video to show the fun! Dowlin loves the snow - this is his normal - "Stud" pose. He's gonna see plenty of the white stuff in Rexburg, ID!


Mercedes was king of the tube for the day - no matter who she went down with she always stayed in the tube! Although she did say her pants were loaded with snow!


Brittney was looking good on the hill - She couldn't keep her hat on though - funniest run of the day for Brittney was with Mercedes - they were almost at the bottom of the hill and Brittney's hat popped off, she turned to find it and next thing you know she was tumbling like one of Grandpa Ross's rock tumblers!

Zachery had the most fun playing on the smaller hill, and eating snow with Olivia! He just doesn't have enough flubber on him to keep warm for long, lol


This is one of the first steps out of the Van. The snow was pretty deep here and it's a little freaky to sink up to your knees. Olivia wanted to be carried! Mercedes was the sucker, lol


Late in the day, Dowlin and Mercedes decided to carve their own path! They hiked in belly deep snow across the peak to start their own trail. Dowlin said Mercedes kept saying, "Just go on without me, Just let me die here" It took several trips down this new path before they got this run out of it!


After hiking to the top off the hill, nearly having a heart attack, I decided it was my turn to go down... Dowlin and I got on our tube, linked arms and held on for dear life! All was going well until about mid way down...the tube hit a bump or something and spun us around, then we were going down backwards! Before we knew what hit us - there was nothing but white! I think I know what an avalanche feels like! I'm not sure how many back flips over and over we did, but as we were tumbling both Dowlin and I thought about my hip, and how I certainly broke my 90degree restriction! Dowlin says his exact thoughts were as follows - "OH crap! Mom's hip, Mom's hip!" "Hmmm, I wonder if the Ambulance will be able to reach me on this mountain?" "Crap, Mom's hip!" When we stopped - We were both sprawled out over the hill dead still for IDK how long! I had to claw at my eyes and blow my nose to clear the snow away! Then I couldn't stop laughing! I looked up to see Dowlin about 10 feet from me, glasses kiddywampas, trying to decide if he was going to be paralyzed for life or if he should move! I crawled over to him and tried to turn him as his head was down hill - we finally decided we were ok - I looked up the hill to see Dean coming down as fast as he could to check on us! He stopped about halfway! We got up and our tube was at the bottom of the hill - as I began to climb away - I noticed my sunglasses about 5 feet from where I had landed. Thankfully we were both ok - it was Hilarious!


Here we are Recovering

This is Olivia's big run of the day! She was much happier playing with the beach toys in the snow - lol. After the terror left her eyes she was fine! Enjoy the video!

February is Family Month!

What a month! We have lots of family visiting during this month and we couldn't be more excited!

Kurtis, Michelle, Seth and Regan kicked us off! They arrived Wed the 4th and were here until Sunday morning! Michelle had a jewelry show in Tuscan and we totally benefited from it! We played Guitar Hero World Tour for hours on end every day! We even took them to hike in the White Tank Mountains near our house to see our "waterless Waterfall". No laughing, the trail is supposed to have a great waterfall when it does rain, which it did Saturday after our hike.:-) The rain has continued still today! It's a bit chilly! LOL Kurt and Seth even took in a game of golf!




We LOVED having them here and hope they come back again soon! In years past they have been our vacation location in the winter months - We were glad we had the chance to give them a break from the Utah cold!
Thanks for coming Gilberts!




Open invitation to you all! 3 years in the desert - we are really missing family!
We are looking forward to a quick visit with Scott and Abby & Connor this weekend, 13-16. And hoping we can catch Jared for his evening in PHX on the 18! Then as previously mentioned Dean's parents are on their way home from Africa and will arrive in KC o the 14th. They will stop here to see us about the 25th!
Told you - it's going to be a AWESOME month!

Happy Valentines Day!

This Morning Olivia and I sat down to write her Valentines cards for her pre-school class party Thursday - She has been working all year long and had perfected the "Ol" part of her name. As a matter of fact it was all "OlOlOlOl" but very cute!
I was dazzled as she concentrated and just like a pro wrote her whole name by herself! (With a little prompting from me - ""k, now write an "a" - that's the circle with a tail")
So I thought I would share Valentine wishes to anyone who reads this!