Jackson's 7th Birthday

 I'm a little late blogging Jackson's birthday.  It was June 18th.  Jackson's birthday was kinda crazy too.  Bo was in China so we had to do things differently.  He said he wanted to wait open presents until Sunday when Bo got back.  Above he is opening his one present.  Later that day he and two friends went to Squealers.   They had a lot of fun.  Jack didn't love the go carts, but he had fun golfing and just hanging out with his friends.

After Squealers Jack changed his mind and decided he wanted to open his presents.  Here he is opening them.  He chose to have Reeses peanut butter Chocolate cupcakes that night.  We decided to have another party on Sunday when Bo got back, but Jackson was really sick with the flu that day so we had to move the party to Tuesday.  He had a baseball game and we had cake and ice cream.  My parents came that night too.  It was fun.  

We love you Jack!

At Seven Jackson Loves:

• Pokemon Cards
• Riding bikes
• Baseball
• Caleb (a little too much ) :)
• RZR Riding
• Hamburgers
• Pancakes and waffles with peanut butter

We Love:

• How sweet Jack can be with his younger brothers
• His personality
• Watching his grow and learn
• His cute freckles
• How he likes to help out and please people
• How great he is in school

WE FOUND A PLACE!

Relief doesn't begin to explain how we feel.  We finally found a place to rent in Hawaii! We've been looking for a place for months.  A couple of places have come up in nearby towns but nothing has come up in Laie and nobody would let us fill out an application until we saw the place in person.

But, at the family reunion in boise we were talking to a cousins wife, Marilyn.  She said she had some friends who moved to Laie to teach at BYUH and thought maybe they could help.  She gave them our number and Betsy gave me a call.  We had a great talk and she gave me some phone numbers and Facebook pages to post in.  We had done this earlier with no luck but she gave me a couple of others pages to post in so I decided to try again. We were in luck!

Katy, who is living in the house at the moment messaged me and said we could rent the place they're in but we'd need to buy their furnishings.  I was like. Sure!  How nice would that be to not have to furnish when we get there.  Laie is a very small place.  You can't buy anything like that there.  She then messaged Choon, the landlord.

Choon already had a couple of people interested.  But since it helped Katy and us she chose us.  It took a couple of days but she let us fill out an application. This all happened about a week ago and we just found out today we are good to go and get to sign the contact in the next few days!

I know the Lord had his hand in all this.  The timing of everything was too perfect and this house better than anything we have been looking at and is in the town we were wanting!  It was in his own time for sure.   But I am so grateful for his hand in our lives and getting an answer to our many prayers. 

Hailey's Idaho History Project for 4th Grade

I was going through pictures and realized I never posted Hailey's Idaho History Project.  She worked very hard on this and had to write a report too.  She decided she wanted to do a map of Idaho with the county license plate numbers on it.  It turned out pretty cool and she had a fun time making the map.

We went to the school to see the projects the kids worked on and they put on a program for us.  It fun to hear all of the songs they've been working on in their class.  They all looked really cute in their white shirts with bandannas too.

Right as we walked outside to go home a bird flew by and pooped right on her project.  Really!!??  I forgot to take pictures before she took it to school so I got to wash the poop off after too.  If you look close I didn't have it washed of in this picture.  I had to have a record of it. :)

She looks very tired in this picture.  That's because she is.  They did their singing program three different times that day and it wore her out.

Grandma (Helen) Taylor's 100th Birthday Party/Reunion

Last Wednesday we drove to Boise to spend time with the Taylor side of the family (Bo's Mom Gini's side).  Bo's Grandma is 99 but they decided to do a party this summer since her birthday is in February.  We had a great time swimming and visiting with everyone.

Saturday night was the celebration.  They had each of her children give a memory and introduce their kids and grand kids.  Then the grand kids had a chance tell a memory of grandma.  It took awhile but the kids sat and listened and I had a great time listening to the stories.  It was also nice to see where every person fit in the family.  It's so big that I don't know everyone.

There were about 110 people who made it to the reunion at some point.  There are roughly 150 people who were born or have come together because of one couples love and devotion to one another.  It is pretty amazing to think about.  We can really influence a large group of people in 100 years.  And that's only family.  If you think of all the people she's come across in her life, that's a huge number.

Bo's memory of Grandma was pretty recent.  He talked about how last Christmas he sat and talked with Grandma for quite awhile and learned she knew President Benson when he was young.  He was often at her house.  They called him Ezra T.  Bo had asked her in all the years she's been alive what her favorite invention was.  He was sure cars or airplanes would be the answer.  But, her answer was electricity.  He then realized how old Grandma was.  Haha.

Grandma is always so sweet to let us stay in her house every time we go to Boise.  We are a rambunctious group so we really appreciate it.  Grandma has macular degeneration and has a very hard time seeing but she takes the time to get up close to the kids every visit to see how much they've grown and ask them how they are doing.  She always says how cute they are and holds the babies. With the help of Gini we always get a birthday card which is quite a feat.  There are many grandchildren and great grandchildren.  Thank you for your example Grandma and Happy Birthday!

I forgot my camera so I borrowed these pictures from Myles.  Thanks Myles!!!

Dallin, Gloria, John, Gini
Grandma's 6 children (not pictured was Mark who is on a mission and Reed who wasn't able to make it.)

Many of the grand kids (24 total)

Here are just a few of the Great's (65, I think)

This cake turned out really cool with many of the highlights from Grandma's life

Whew! And it Begins. ...

Today we had an unsuccessful open house.  Bummer!  But while that was going on we were at the warehouse clearing out the shipping container we'll be storing our things in while we are gone.

I can't believe how dirty we were when we got home! The kids had fun at times and whined too but overall we had success and got it totally cleared out.  That is so nice to have it done!

Oh and we leave July 19 from Boise. :) 

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