New Years

December 31, 2008
this year we invited the garff's over to celebrate new years with us. rachael was even kind enough to make dinner and a yummy dessert! i helped...isn't watching helping? that's what my family always told me when i was younger and wanted to help make cookies, "watching is helping janie".
it was fun having them over and their little boy quintin, who tolerated elizabeth taking all his toys away from him all night. we are still working on sharing.
we played the wii and even broke out the board games! i love surrounding my family with good friends and it was fun celebrating the new year with them!
i can't believe that a whole year has come and gone! i'm so excited for 2009 and look forward to seeing all the adventures that take place in our lives. i'm excited to watch elizabeth progress even further and look forward to learning from her this coming year!

Penaten Cream...maybe we should get rid of it.

December 28, 2008
elizabeth loves lotion...or anything she thinks would be fun to put on her face. we have this german penaten cream, it's used for bad diaper rashes.
elizabeth can't seem to get enough of it.
our reactions to her getting into this cream:
first time getting into it...cute
second time getting into it...funny
third time getting into it...elizabeth jeanne! you are in big trouble!
yeah, that third time was a mess, not only was it in her hair, it was all over her room, bed, toys, clothes, walls, doors, and the carpet. it's nice having a doctor as a brother, so i gave him a ring and he looked it up for me. he said "oh i found something that will get it out...shaving cream and a razor". adam can be so funny... we did find something though. we ended up having to use vinegar and a good dish soap...why dish soap you ask, because it breaks down grease and oil. she had gray hair for a couple days till it all came out.
now i know your asking yourself, 'what kind of parents are the rodgers, not even watching their daughter'. i wil tell you this...when it doubt blame it on your spouse :) no really though, i was sleeping, and ryan was distracted playing his guitar hero...all i have to say is, you can't win them all.

Christmas Day

December 25, 2008
i think when you have a child, christmas is even more exciting because you get to see the excitement in their eyes on christmas morning. it was incredibly entertaining to watch elizabeth open presents and sad at the same time that she didn't even want our help. she's growing so quickly right before our eyes and there is nothing i can do but embrace it.
it was nice that she enjoyed everything she got, even though the majority was clothes, she still giggled and clapped her hands. i have a theory that toys breed, so we only got her one big present, and it was a baby doll set. she was very pleased with it, she pushed her baby around in the stroller all morning!
ryan spoiled me with my favorite..books. he also got me a beautiful jewelery box, which will come in handy, as my family calls me a jewelery hoard because i have so much, i'm excited to now have somewhere to put it all!
i have to say that elizabeth and i spoiled ryan with guitar hero for his wii. i think having it will also help improve luring my siblings over to babysit :)
after we were able to tear ourselves away from all our fun toys we went over to ryan's aunt roxcie's and gave our gifts out to all the little kids and visited a while. i had the pleasure of holding his cousins 3 month old baby girl addison, i forgot how tiny newborns are!
then he headed over to my parents to meet up with the turners, and my dear grandma chalmers.
i say this so much, but it's true! my favorite thing is spending time with my family and i had a blast being with them on christmas! we had a great time exchanging gifts and i have to mention a couple of my favorite gifts. my parents gave the coolest gift. my mom is incredibly talented and made each family a wonder box. if you don't know what a wonder box is, google it because they are so cool! it's for emergency preparedness, but you could use them camping too. then scott and holly have to be the most generous people we know. we are in great need of a new car, ryan's jeep is dying on us (which i'm grateful it's lasted this long), the turners gave us their old camry. it's in great shape and a huge blessing! i do my best to try and help others, but scott and holly are incredible inspiration.
with the big snow storm heading our way, we went home, jumped into our p.j.'s and relaxed the rest of the night. my dad and younger siblings did stop by a little later to play guitar hero and say their goodbyes, as they were going to milwaukee for lovely lucie's baby blessing.
i do love this season and how so much centers around christ. i can't wait to continue to teach elizabeth all the resemblances between santa claus and our savior.
i hope you all had a merry christmas!

Christmas Eve

December 24, 2008
elizabeth is at such a fun age and since she is super smart we taught her all about santa. she has been saying 'santa' over and over again :)
this year for christmas eve, ryan's sweet aunt roxcie invited us over for dinner. it was nice being with his family. his cousins spoiled elizabeth with some neat toys that she loves.
afterwards we headed over to my parents where every year we read about christ's birth and all the grand kids dress up and act it all out.
it was weird because the taintor's are in milwaukee, which they have been gone since the summer. it wasn't till tonight that it really hit me that they wouldn't be here for the holidays. my sister holly called them on i chat and adam held up their new baby girl, lovely lucie as i like to call her. right at that moment it just hit me they weren't here with the family and i was so sad i just started sobbing, i miss you guys so much!!
after i regained my composure i was able to enjoy the rest of the evening with my family. it's not difficult to laugh till your cry when your around my sister holly, she is so fun to be around!
we even had the pleasure of having my sweet niece and nephew katiann and william over, whom we don't see as much.
towards the end of the evening my mom gave out her christmas eve gifts. which is always my favorite, our p.j's! she makes the majority of them, with our family growing so rapidly i wouldn't expect her to keep up!
then ryan and i took elizabeth home to open her christmas eve gift. she loves us reading to her so we gave her a christmas book about the birth of christ and she loved it.

Olive Fingers

December 23, 2008
one of elizabeth's favorite things to eat are olives. she thinks it's so funny when i put them on her fingers, that she will just look at them and giggle. she takes her sweet time eating them too because she so enjoys waving her hands around with them on her fingers.

This Girl Loves To Dance

December 20, 2008
when elizabeth is two years old we are going to put her into dance, because she LOVES to dance! anywhere, anytime that she hears a beat she gets into the groove!

Caring Child

December 19, 2008
elizabeth is such a little care giver. i'm constantly finding dolls, stuffed animals, my little ponies, anything really placed at random places around the house either with a blanket tucked around them, or on a pillow. even most of her stuffed animals have diapers on them and she's always bringing them to me with a new diaper to change them, she's so smart :) she has one little baby doll and she takes extra care of her, it's very sweet to watch her be so caring, ryan and i must be doing something right.

It's a start...

December 6, 2008
we finally started putting up our christmas decoration! we still have quite a bit to do till it feels like christmas is around the corner...even though i'm well aware that it's coming and quickly! elizabeth was a big help but her favorite part was putting up the tree. after it was all done, ryan, her and sugar all took a nap. for those of you asking what the heck is on my cute dog sugar, yes i'm one of those people that like to put clothes on their dog :)

Ward Christmas Party

December 4, 2008
ryan had to work, but elizabeth and i went to our ward christmas party. i love our ward, it's full of so many amazing people. since i'm in the primary i have a pretty big fan base. the kids in the primary love to come up to me and say 'hi my singing teacher' and i get a lot of hugs. it's great, in my opinion, little children are the best way to learn about the gospel.
the kids were so excited when santa showed up, elizabeth didn't realize what was going on. i took her over to see him and she waited patiently, but when i put her on his lap she got very scared. her and i took a picture together to make it more comfortable for her. i love the spirit of christmas.

Thanksgiving Day

November 27 & 28, 2008
my parents realized a few years back if they celebrated thanksgiving on friday they wouldn't have to share their married children with the in-laws. ryan's family isn't to involved with us, so the taintor side gets more of our time.
my aunt barbara, my dad's youngest sister invited us to her home. it was so fun to see the taintor side. my cousin kalliann showed up with her new baby and my funny cousin steven made us laugh. we even broke the ping pong table out after dinner, and yeah i played and pretty good i might add. it was fun visiting with my grandma taintor and her sweetheart of a boyfriend keith, who is such a big part of our family.
afterwards, we headed over to our good friends the cleverly's and enjoyed some great pie. mary is a good little baker...she used the pumpkins that were on her porch. i'm just glad enjoying the pie didn't require me to bake anything, because yes everyone knows i'm not one that loves cookin' in the kitchen.

then on friday we stuffed ourselves with my dad and mom's wonderful cooking. i'm not kidding, i seriously had to ask holly to take my plate away from me cause otherwise i'd keep eating! we even invited the next door neighbors over that just moved in and it was fun getting to know them and their cute kids. they thought our family was quite interesting. although we missed adam, danielle and the kids, we knew they were having a good thanksgiving.
after visiting and laughing we ate pie and all relaxed while watching kungfu panda. i love making memories with my family we always manage to have a blast!

stair slide

umm...sometime in november :)
elizabeth has realized how fun the stairs can be. she loves going down my parents stairs the best though cause it has a runner down it so she goes really fast and she just giggles the whole time.

It's all about Family

May 10, 2008
we were able to get family pictures taken before the taintor's moved to milwaukee. my favorite thing to do by far is spend time with my family. i have an incredible family and i am so grateful that i have them in my life. each one of them are such an inspiration to me. i am so happy that i get to be a part of all the memories we share together. i love all of you so much!

11 grandchildren-turners:hayley,jaden,mariah,isabella,gabe taintors:kennedy,seth,caleb
taintor-west:katiann,william
rodgers: elizabeth

the original taintor family

what a good looking family

Generations

September 6, 2008
yes, i know i'm 3 months late with this blog. i have a few that i just have to post cause they are so important.
my friend mary took some generations pictures of myself, my little princess, my mom, and my dear sweet grandma joanne. the pictures turned of perfect and we all had a wonderful time listening to all the cute stories and comments that my grandma shared with us.
mary also took some family pictures, i love this picture of ellie, she is my little sunshine baby!

Trick or Treat

October 31, 2008
ryan and i weren't really planning on taking elizabeth trick or treating, because i thought she might still be to young to understand the concept. we were so wrong! she had such a great time! we took her through our neighborhood and then my parents and she was loving the fact that her purse was filling up with candy. she wouldn't let anyone hold her purse and when we did she'd say "my candy". she has always had a very wise and old spirit, but on Halloween it was even more apparent to me.
after we took her trick or treating we went and partied with our friends. we had such a good time! we went to the cleverly's home and then the garff's met us there as well. i got some cute pictures of quintin, brighton and ellie all together.
the kids had fun getting into all the candy. while the adults playing a lot of wii, which i learned how good at golf i truly am. it was a great Halloween!

Falling Leafs

October 31, 2008
our tree has been loosing some of it's leafs lately and elizabeth loves the leafs. every time she is out in the yard she brings a handful of them into the house with her. well this morning we went to take our dog out and most of the leafs on our trees had filled our yard during the night, elizabeth got so excited! she ran into the yard and stared throwing the leafs in the air. we all had a good time playing in the leafs together!

My Friend Sugar And I

October 28, 2008
i could blog over and over about how much elizabeth loves sugar! she loves this dog! she is always trying to hug and kiss sugar, elizabeth laughs the most during the day when sugar chases her around the house, elizabeth just giggles like crazy. they sure love each other!

soñando con la abuela Alba

el 7 de octubre
Elizabeth duerme con su osito de peluche todas las noches.
i mostrar sus fotos de todos ustedes todos los días y en ella los puntos y sonrisas.
Estoy aprendiendo mucho en mi clase de español. la parte difícil que es recordar.
mi corazón se abrumado cuando pienso en cuánto tiempo he soñado que aquí Alba a mi casa y compartir mi vida con usted!
te quiero! todos ustedes en mi corazón.
no vamos a perder la esperanza, sé que nuestros sueños se harán realidad!
abrazos y besos

for those who don't know, i am currently in the process of bringing my birth mom alba here to the united states for a visit. she was denied her visa early september and we have high hopes that in january when we re-apply we will get our wish.
ryan, my dad and i are currently enrolled in a spanish class and i feel totally out of my comfort zone and feel like...i'm learning another language :)
haha..it's been fun though, we all laugh a lot during class cause when our teacher makes us talk to each other we tease that we sound like were stuck in a spanish prison and we don't know what the heck we are saying!
the teddy bear that ellie is sleeping with alba gave me as a gift when i went to costa rica when i was 18.
anyway for those who will go crazy if they don't know what i wrote, this translation is for you.
elizabeth sleeps with this teddy bear every night.
i show her pictures to her of all of you everyday and she points at them and smiles.
i'm learning much in my spanish class, the hard part is remembering it.
my heart gets overwhelmed when i think of how long i have dreamt to bring you here alba to my home and share my life with you.
i love you! you are all in my heart.
let us not loose hope, i know our dreams will come true.
hugs and kisses.

Yes, I know I'm a Princess

October 3, 2008
ryan went and bought ellie this dress and she loves it! when she isn't wearing it, she brings me her teddy bear and has me put it on her bear to wear. although she doesn't need a dress to know that she's our princess.

speech festival

September 28, 2008
in the spring of 1842, the prophet joseph smith sent a letter to john wentworth, who was editor of a newspaper called the chicago democrat. this letter contained an account of many of the events of the early church history, the documents also contained thirteen statements outlining latter-day saint beliefs. these have come to be known as the articles of faith.

every year the youth in the stake have the opportunity to participate in what is known as the speech festival. the whole stake is giving a topic for the youth to pick from. each ward gets to send a speaker to the stake speech festival. this year the youth was given the topic of the 13 articles of faith. there were a lot of kids from the ward that spoke and they all did an wonderful job. it was amazing to listen to the youth of the ward and hear their testimonies!
jonathan spoke on the 13th article of faith and focused on honesty. mystery spoke on the 1st article of faith and talked about the holy ghost. faith was chosen last year from the ward to represent at the stake. she did a great job this year too. she spoke on both the 11th and 13th article of faith and spoke about love, tolerance and charity. they all did a wonderful job and we are so proud of them!
this year ashley lovell represent the ward and her speech was incredible! she received 3rd place at the stake speech festival. i can't wait till next year to hear our youth speakers again!

Hoogle Zoo

September 25, 2008
we were able to spend the afternoon with the turners at the hoogle zoo and we all had a great time. elizabeth LOVES seeing all the different animals. it was just really fun to spend the day as a family.

Dog Sitting

September 24, 2008
for the past 3 weeks i have been watching two cute dogs for a family while they are at work. they are so fun. boston is about a year old i think, and then the puppy bootah is only 11 weeks old and still has puppy breath. sugar has enjoyed having more dogs in the house. ellie loves the dogs! she chases them around and they chase her and she is always laughing. it's great, i get paid to play with two more cute puppies!

Let's Party It Up

Sept 19,2008
i am starting to feel old, yes i know i'm only 25! it just seems like time goes by so quickly! i'm so grateful for all the friends and family that i have that i was able to celebrate with! i went out with my family to my favorite restaurant the shanghai cafe for dinner, we have gone there every year for my birthday since i can remember! i was missing a very important part of my family, the taintor's. i sure miss them, but there were there in heart.
after dinner we had a party at my parents and it was such a blast visiting with so many great friends! i just love my friends and truly treasure them!
we had some good laughs too! two of my favorite laughs of the night were: when my dear friend mary asked me to open her gift first just in case someone had gotten me the same gift she wouldn't be embarrassed, so she set the gift on my lap. my sister holly was sitting next to me and peeked in mary's gift bag and while laughing grabbed marys gift and said 'no open my gift first'...it was so funny, they had gotten me the same gift, which is my favorite book 'A Thousand Splendid Suns'.
then my best friend elizabeth leavitt gave me a stuffed animal lobster and had sewed ryan's name on it's claw. when we were younger we watched the t.v. show 'friends' and phoebe would talk about how lobsters have one partner for life and so liz would always tell me that we'd find our lobsters, so it was a very sweet gift. it was funny though, cause my sweet grandma joanne said,"oh my bobby(my grandpa) would always say 'love me and love my lobster', and i never knew what that meant". then my mom said,"i think that was personal and meant something different mom". of course most of you know my mom. my grandma starting blushing and giggling and everyone else got a good laugh :)
i can't skip the high-light of the night though, since my friend elizabeth was there (who speaks spanish) i thought it would be nice to call alba, my birth mom. oh how it made her day. they all sang happy birthday over the phone and it was just a joy to talk to them and to hear their voices. alba has the most sincere voice and laugh that i have heard in a long time, her laugh is just so lovely. while talking to her it made me think of how 25 years ago she made such a unselfish sacrifice to let me have such an incredible life that i have led, by giving me up. i've had incredible opportunities in my life and made so many life long friends and have such a supportive close knit family and it just made me feel so much gratitude towards her!

Beautiful Blondie

September 18, 2008
ryan and i have wanted to get a bird since last christmas because ellie just loves them and gets so excited when she see them, but we just haven't gotten one yet. well my sweet grandma joanne has a beautiful bird that she has named blondie. lately my grandma hasn't been able to take care of her like she has wanted. and for an early birthday present she has given blondie to me to love and of course sing to! we only got her yesterday but ellie just sits and stares at the cage and giggles. plus, it's nice that blondie hasn't even fazed our dog sugar! blondie is a wonderful addition to the rodgers home! thank you grandma!


Sept 18, 2008

KC, Stacey & Elizabeth

September 14, 2008
two of our good friends moved to hawaii almost 3 years ago and we have missed them ever since! stacey is the sister to my friend cory, and when i met stacey years ago i just had an instant bond with her! she is one of the most genuine women i know! i just love her dearly and think that we were strong friends in the pre-existence. then there is our dear friends kc. he is ryan's best friend and ryan always says that he'll never find another friend like kc and that kc will never find another friend like ryan. kc actually surprised ryan cause we had no idea that he'd moved back! and of course it makes plenty of sense that kc and stacey are together! they are some of the sweetest people that I'm sure we will know in our lifetime. we are so glad that are back to stay! plus ellie just warmed up to them so quickly!

Ready to Party

September 14, 2008
ellie found some old party hats, so daddy helped her put them on and she thought it was funny.

Canyon Fun

September 13, 2008
we enjoyed an evening up in the canyon cooking tin foil dinner and roasting marshmallows with are good friends the cleverly's, and also are new friends from our ward nate and tiffany jones. we had a blast with them all and can't wait to do it again!

Cuddle Bug

September 12, 2008
my younger sister's faith and mystery slept over whom adore elizabeth and whom elizabeth adores as well. we stayed up all night playing the wii, but mystery fell asleep on the couch and elizabeth just climbed right up next to her and sugar and fell asleep.

More of Ellie & Papa

September 12, 2008
here is more proof that ellie adores her papa. she is starting to call him 'papa' all the time now! her giggling gets out of control when papa throws her in the air.

Ellie & Papa

Sept 8, 2008
we went to the turners for gabe's 2nd birthday party. i can't believe that he is already 2 years old! it's scary because elizabeth is only 6 months younger and to think that she'll be 2 years old...it's like, where did the time go?
anyway, elizabeth found a play dress right when we got to the party and fought me to take it off when we left, she looked so cute! she's a total princess and she knows it, but something more important that she knows as well as the rest of us, is that she LOVES her papa!

Labor Day Weekend

August 29-30, 2008
i love labor day, because it means we have another chance to go enjoy the cabin with the family! we had such a good time! although the river was way to cold to get into...well not for my niece bella though, she was the only brave one to get in. we still took advantage of our time up there. we spent a lot of time relaxing and playing different games with all the kids. grandmerry helped all the girls make jewelery, and papa took the kids on a bunch of different hikes. scott tried to show us how to build a fire, but eventually we had to break out the matches. i was able to read and finish stephenie meyers twilight series. elizabeth had a blast chasing the dogs around and playing with her cousins.
holly is right about one thing though, it's times like these that a huge part of our family is missing! i can't wait till adam, danielle, kennedy, seth and caleb will be back up making memories at the cabin with us! we sure miss you guys!

Play Date

August 28, 2008
i've come to realize that mom's need to have play dates to keep their sanity. it's good for the kids, but in reality it's mostly for the mothers. i love having my girlfriends over with their sweet kids! mary and her daughter brigton came over. brighton is taking her time to walk but teased us by standing by herself and smiling. then rachael came with her adorable son quintin who has the most beautiful blue eyes! rachael also brought her sweet little niece berkeley who had a blast playing with the babies! i'm so glad i have such great girlfriends!