Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Today is my Grandma Taylor's 80th Birthday!

She is one of the coolest women you'll meet (so cool, in fact, that my parents gave me her name, Amelia, as my middle name). I'm going to tell you some of the things that make her cool. I'd include pictures, but my current facebook lockout keeps me from getting to the good ones. 

She was born and raised in Los Angeles, went to BYU, and lived in Mexico for the first few years of her marriage before settling in the LA suburb she lives in now.

She is an excellent gardener, and speaks fluent Spanish. She and my grandpa served a mission at the Santo Domingo Dominican Republic Temple. She learned to paint while on her mission and paintings she did of the temple and local landscapes hang in her living room.

She's giving and funny and tells great stories about her life, family, and the people she's interacted with over the years. She remembers everyone and has something nice to say about them.

Need modest clothing for any occasion? She's a master seamstress and will help you out. She's made most of my dresses and skirts, and altered many more so that I won't have to get a whole new wardrobe when I'm endowed.

She takes no crap.She grew up during the depression and WWII, made no promises to wait for Grandpa during his mission unless she had a ring, and raised six kids (five of them boys, and one of those boys an absolute terror--sorry, Dad, it's true).

 She lives on the same property as my aunt Martha, uncle Brian, and their four boys, and as far as I know, she still mows her own lawn.

She prays every day for her six children (and their spouses), her twenty-five grandchildren (and seven grandchildren-in-law), and eight great-grandchildren by name without missing anyone.

Some additional commentary from family:

"She makes everyone feel at home--I felt like part of the family the first time I met her." -My mom

"She taught me the right thing to do and continues to teach me the right thing to do." -My dad

"[I love] her oatmeal raisin cookies and greasy tacos. And the awesome dresses she makes for everyone." -my cousin Chris

[More quotes will be added as more relatives answer my text...come on guys!]

Anyway, Grandma is awesome. I'm proud to be in her family and have her name.

I Love Thursdays.

Thursday is when I usually put my life back together. After a crazy week, I finally have a little time to clean and organize and breathe. It was especially so today because I've been sick and needed to catch up on homework and wash my hair for the first time in a few days.

The moon was full and gorgeous tonight. Noelle dubbed it a love-moon because it's not harvest time and it's my celebrity boyfriend's birthday.

I'm still not feeling great, but it's been a great day. 

Crap. I still have school tomorrow. Arrrgh.

I know you're all just terribly excited to see what I've done with my hair. Because I am just so awesome and everything I do is important. I have no good pictures of it yet. But I will tell you that I completely disregarded the overwhelming majority of you and went blonde. And I like it. I was blonde as a child and it still works.

The sad thing is that I put that before the news of my birthday! I turned 19 last Thursday. I didn't too anything too big--worked all day, then had dinner and cupcakes with my family after.

Uhhh, that's all. Bye.

HAPPY BIRFDAY, JOHNNY!

Saturday my brother John turned 15.

He has an awesome sense of humor.

He is serious about his hobbies.

 He's grown up a lot in the past few years! (And so has Kevin)

He wears the shirts I buy him.

HAPPY BIRFDAY!

Dallin's Birthday Tribute

He's my best friend. 

He does what he wants.

He's 17.

Huzzah.

I am the Queen of Day-After Birthday Tributes.

Yesterday my sister-brother Chris turned 18!

 He's one of the most stylish guys I know.

 He goes to great lengths to maintain his vegetarianism. (It's been two years now, right?)

He's a BiF, a wonderful shopping buddy, and an honest friend.

He's going to be valedictorian at UHS this year. This is his bracket for picking the college he'll go to next year. He applied to many, many other excellent schools and they all wanted him (except Tulane. How backwards is Louisiana?)

Happy Birthday, Chris!

Happy Birthday, Jared!

Yesterday my brother Jared turned 11. You should know that he's got a wicked sense of humor. He says the most hilarious things. You don't remember them later--all you can remember is that you almost died laughing.

He's interested in everything and is really, really smart. As a young child, he wouldn't say "That's mine!" He would say "That belongs to me!" 

He's very fashionable.

See?

He's my golden boy. Love you, Jared!

The Old Man

Here are some Fun Facts about my dad.

He's an amazing teacher and he jumps through all kinds of dumb hoops so that the state will let him stay there. He did graduate work at APU and spent a whole summer or two doing online classes because he had to be certified in things he was already good at.

He works harder than almost anyone I know. 

He adores his children. (P.S. He built that fort they're sitting on.)

He teaches band, orchestra, choir, and yearbook; he's second counselor in the bishopric, and he puts 110% in to absolutely everything he does. This is a more comment sight than you'd expect.

And yesterday he turned 43. Happy Birthday, Dad!