The BIG 4-0

I guess it was bound to happen. I found myself out of my 30's and turning 40 years old. My office was very kind and gave me 40 lollipops with a sign that said "40 sucks" on the outside, a cake, flowers, balloons, signs, the works. It was really nice of them to go all out, made the day and realization I'm officially old a little easier to swallow.

Swimming without the fishes

Trace is still enjoying his weekly swimming lessons. He is becoming quite a good swimmer and will soon pass up Mom and Dad in his abilities. A couple of his classmates earned their next ribbons, so we used the opportunity to get a picture with the whole group. His teacher is named Ariel and she is really great with all the kids, especially Trace.

Wrestling with Wrestling

Kevin's little brother, Scott teaches auto shop and coaches the softball team at the High School closest to our home, Hillcrest High. He mentioned to us that the junior wrestling group would be starting up soon and we thought that Trace may want to try wrestling to see if he likes it as much as his Daddy did. They had three practices a week and meets every week for 6 weeks. We ended up only being able to attend 5 meets and each time, it was not too fun for poor little Trace. He would end up crying most of the time and even after the three matches he won, he was still upset. I think having no siblings to wrestle with on a daily basis, simply did not prepare him for the trauma of meeting another child and immediately trying to beat them into the ground.


He ended up liking the practices because he made a couple of friends and during practice there was not as much intensity as there was at the matches, but the meets became sort of miserable for the poor kid. During practice, they would also play "sharks and minnows" where everyone must line up on one side of the mat facing the same way and crawl as fast as they can and try not to get "attacked" by the coaches that were facing the other way and trying to "eat" as many minnows as possible and convert them to sharks.


Overall, it was a pretty good experience, but I think we'll be waiting a couple of years before we try it again.

The kid in the pink shirt is "Payton". He and Trace became pretty good buddies.

Playing the "sharks and minnows" game

One of the things he liked to do the most was clean up after practice. He'd help them roll up the mats afterward and thought it was really fun.

6 year old photos

I can't tell you what happened this year, but I neglected to get Trace's annual photos professionally taken until January! I really was a slacker and the only good to come of it was that I tried a new photography studio that had an amazing discount/sale in January. Even though they are 5 months late, the little fella just keeps getting cuter and cuter!



The sunglasses were HIS idea! I was at the store and he saw them and begged to get them in order to wear them for his photos. That is one cool kid!

Taylor Christmas

Since Tamara and Adam were in Atlanta this year for Christmas with Adam's family, we decided to celebrate with those in Utah on the first of January before everyone heads back to work. I know some people get a little upset that they don't get to see Tamara and Adam on Christmas day, but I don't mind when they spend Christmas with the Heller family. It is nice for Tamara to see her in-laws, nice for Adam to see his parents and I actually like having the celebrations here on the 1st. It's nice to celebrate Christmas with just my little family and visit Kevin's without pressure to make it to see all in my family. It's just a great way to end the holiday season, I think.


We decided to gather at Rob and Ivannas house so that little Liam would be able to play with his toys while we opened gifts. Trace was so cute and helped Liam with his gifts. Both opening them and playing with them. Such a good older cousin!

This is Rob's dog, Winnie. She's such a good girl!

She looks a little apprehensive....

New soft blankie from San Diego Zoo for Liam from Trace

Trace loved feeding Liam!!

Even Papa likes the new baby toys!

Playing with his new transformer from Nana.