stud rel

(another spring flash back.)

in the midst of the pimpernel chaos, taylor ran - for office that is.

he has been part of student body activities since he was a sophomore and loved it so much, that ever since then he knew he wanted to be an officer his senior year. he ran for vice president and made it to the final election but lost to an awesome girl. so, we worked all spring break on a big portfolio so he could apply for one of the remaining six appointed positions. i should've taken a photo of the portfolio, it was pretty and i hope we get it back some day. he tried not to hold his breath with so many great kids applying and only six spots, he knew it would be tough to get in.

then EARLY one saturday morning in may, like, uh, 2am early, a group of this year's officers kidnapped taylor out of his bed. they took him in pajamas, bare-footed, blind-folded and duct-taped his hands behind his back and through him into a van playing extremely loud salsa music only to arrive at denny's for breakfast to congratulate him on making office!  miss america banners with their specific appointed office were awarded to all - i love this photo.

if it wasn't 2 in the morning i would've maybe thought about taking a photo of him and his kidnappers - but did i mention it was 2am? instead i got a photo the next day after he was showered and dressed.

he is excited to be the student relations officer because that happens to be the committee that he has been on since he was a sophomore and now he's in charge of it. he has a lot of responsibilities this year, it's going to be tough to juggle everything, but he will be great and i think it will be an amazing experience for him with a lot of learning and growth. i also love the idea that the student body officers are designed specifically for service - they spend the whole year doing things for other people, fellow students, as well as the community, very cool. plus, what a fun way to spend your senior year! we will miss having him around the house, i've heard from past officer parents that it's good prep for college (for mom) because they are hardly ever home. its already started, it's been a busy summer for him with lots of meetings to plan the upcoming year.

the sweater came, he was pretty pumped, but in true busy officer fashion, i can't seem to catch him long enough to model it for me, so here is the officer sweater without the officer in it.

we've heard that by the end of the year, they're pretty gross from all the wear and tear. my favorite part of the sweater is that "student relations" is too long, so instead it's abbreviated, "stud. rel.". i love that he has a sweater that says "stud" on it. so appropriate, because i totally think he is one. (sorry about the bad blurry photo).

i can't believe this boy is going to be a senior. i'm not really old enough for this am i?

just for fun, i am going to paste the first part of his portfolio when asked to very briefly introduce himself. i'm always interested in how the kids see themselves, and i think it's such a funny little insight into his personality.


My name is Taylor Moore; I am sixteen years old and the oldest (and favorite) of four children.  I’m a Davis County native, and even though I really like this area, I hope to someday travel farther east than Vernal.  It would be a lot easier for me to name the foods I don’t like rather than choose a favorite one. I have an intense fear of getting my hand stuck in the garbage disposal and a strong affinity for dark chocolate and cool ties.   I love to golf, play ping-pong, sing and play my guitar.  I am easy to get along with and very hard working.


i also love that during his sbo interview, they asked, "what disney character would you want as a roommate in college?" taylor said that it was the only silly question they asked and since it was also the last one, it kind of caught him off guard. he said he thought about it and answered, " the genie" because he's so funny and who doesn't want three wishes?"

so funny.

it's going to be a great year.

crashin' through the corn - a spring flash back

as part of a re-occurring series on my blog, i will be having a spring flashback periodically to try and document a little of the spring we lost to busy-ness and lame computer woes. this is the first installment.

we have a favorite musical at my house, one that we've been listening to the sound track of since my kids were in their respective wombs. our favorite part is of the musical is at the end, when the whole cast sings
O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A OKLAHOOOOOOOO-MA! YA!
it gives me goose bumps.
truly.
all that talk of belonging to the land and a farmer with his brand new wife, the whole thing just makes me happy. all of us actually.
i love that it makes my kids happy too.
plus who doesn't love a musical title that ends with an exclamation point?
oklahoma!
you see the title on the front of your play bill and you just know you're going to have a good time.

lucky for us, it was the jr.high music theater production which meant spencer and allie got to be a part of all the fun this year. spencer was especially excited that there were so many kissing opportunities, too bad for him, he didn't get any of those roles.

however, spencer did play the most handsome cowboy ever, i especially loved his authentic chaps on loan from patsy's son brian. it was especially fun to see spencer dance - i loved the kansas city number the best when all the cowboy boots were making so much noise and all the boys were so out of their element but having a great time any way.

unfortunately, i didn't get too many live shots of allie - because of her heavy dance schedule, she was primarily teacher's assistant but did manage to weasel her way into a couple of dance numbers and she was great! and grandma saved the day for us with a beautiful dress that she made special just for allie.

it wasn't just the kids having hectic rehearsal schedule, i also stayed plenty busy with this production with a big job of my own. i was in charge of costumes. ok, stop laughing, really, i can sew a straight line!  ok no, not really. but i DO know how to gather and organize and make a million trips to good will, which i did, and it was hard. and it took a ton of time, but it all turned out so great (the whole production, not just my costumes), that it was worth it and it made me feel proud to have been part of  such an awesome production.

and you know, where i am, ethan is also, so oklahoma became a big part of his daily life as well. he loved this production and the cast loved him right back, he was always the hit of every rehearsal, even the director declared him her "favorite moore".  he sat completely enthralled at all but one of the performances with me. i think his favorite part was kansas city too because he loved the cowboys, and took to wearing his red boots around all over the place for a few weeks. but his favorite song which you can even still now here him singing, is "oh the farmer and the cowman should be friends..." which is so precious.

he also loved that my van was full of different costume pieces here and there for about three months and took advantage of these things often. once with cousins when we were playing a the park.

there's something so great about little boys in giant cowboy boots.

after every performance, he was subjected to the girls leaving their heavily lipsticked kisses on his cheeks, but he didn't seem to mind this too much.

over all i would say it was a great experience for everyone and a really fantastic show.
now with pimpernel over for taylor, and oklahoma! over for the jr. high, i'm excited to take a music theater break for a while, until next year....

as a side note, a funny oklahoma related story....
several years ago while on a long road trip to arizona, oklahoma! the movie was playing in the DVD player and everyone was singing along. my SIL april starts singing, "oooook-lahoma where the wind comes crashin' through the corn!"  of course, we all busted out laughing because those are definitely not the words, but now, in our family, they sort of are because we sing apey's version of it all the time.

i love that apey girl.

hard but good

our house has been kind of quiet the last few days.
wednesday, the teenagers left to go with our old stake on pioneer trek.
it's been so strange not having all three of them home at the same time.
ethan and i have tried to stay busy to fill the void.
until today, when i drove to wyoming to cheer and hug and welcome home three really dirty, stinky, pooped-out, smelly, grubby, sunburned, (did i mention smelly?) pioneers, er, i mean teenagers.

we got to welcome the wagon companies in as they came over the hill.

i don't think i've ever cheered so loud, taylor said he knew i was there before he saw me, because he heard me hollering. heehee.
just thinking about how neat it was to cheer them in gives me goosebumps.
it was awesome.
the kids were so excited to see their parents that they started running full speed with their wagons to get to the finish line. do you see spencer?

they were so dirty and sunburned that at first, i didn't recognize any of them.
and they smelled so bad that after i hugged them, i had to change MY shirt too because the stink had spread to my clothes too.
seriously.
eeew.

so they survived, and they say, it was hard, but also great.
here's the proof...

(allie was less than thrilled that i wanted to photograph her "ugly moment" - her words.)

right now, they're doing rock paper scissors over who gets the shower first, so i guess i'll have to wait to hear all the inspirational stories until later.
and right now, i am very grateful, for leaders who loved and cared for my kids so exceptionally while they were gone.

the moore kids can do hard things!
oh ya.

p.s. spencer says that they've been on such a spiritual high for the last few days that he would like to take the next couple weeks off of church. nice try dude.

the big green monster dream

eight or so years ago when rich and i took a little trip to florida without our children, i rode the best roller coaster i have ever ridden in my life - and i'm a seasoned rider so you can trust my judgement. in fact i rode it several times just to be sure, and yes, i was right, it was awesome. from then on i started dreaming my kids being little adrenaline junkies tall enough for any coaster. and about some day bringing my tall adrenaline junkies to florida to ride this big green monster. cheesey? ya, i know. but i'm a simple girl, so leave me my joy.
well, of course, it finally happened, why else would i be typing up this story?
there we are on the front row - we waited extra long to ride in the front, it was worth it.

even better, is that it's still as awesome as i remember, and the kids agree. best. coaster. ever.
however, this photo doesn't possibly do justice to the pure awesomeness of this ride - check out this video and try not to get sick.



seriously, tell me that doesn't look like a blast and half.
everyone, needs this on their bucket list.
lucky for me, i have one more little guy to day dream about taking him here some day.

tons more stuff to post about florida, and all the great stuff that happened spring while my dang computer was down and out. but for now, the hulk is enough.

what a ride!

last night was closing night for scarlet pimpernel.

over all we are excited to have our lives return to normal (whatever that means), but sad since it has been such an awesome show and great experience for taylor....

it was especially fun seeing friends and family after the show - even though i didn't take photos of half of the people who came?

thanks to everyone who came!

 i saw the show EIGHT times, yup, all eight shows. it was crazy, but worth it. i didn't want to regret not going and seeing taylor, so i went. (thank you rich for holding down the fort while i was gone). i kept waiting for it to get old, but it never did. part of the reason was that the show was always amazing, the level of talent in this little pocket of davis county is seriously astounding. i especially enjoyed the charachter chauvelin sing "the girl" and "falcon in the dive". check out these videos of him, you will be amazed at his talent, and  i DARE you not to swoon!!

falcon-

amazing right? ya.

the cast party was also last night and the mom in charge had a GENIUS idea to bring in a couple of hair dressers to cut hair all night long since most of the boys were DYING to get it chopped after the show. taylor was no different.

BEFORE

AFTER

 no more pony tails for this kid any time soon.

 ahhhhhh. deep breath and gearing up for the next week, including: tons of costuming for the jr.high production of oklahoma, some big school projects AND election finals since taylor made it passed the primary elections. wish him luck!

seven for sunday

a few random bits...

1. there are times that i feel like i'm living my whole life in the car. i put almost three thousand miles on my van in january alone. the main reason is all the back and forth from our previous city (where the kids go to school and dance, etc.) to our new one. its only a few miles away, but the back and forth several times a day apparently adds up to a lot! one positive thing about it, is that i get to listen to the conference cds in the van while i drive. i love our general authorities!

2. to save me from the looney bin, we broke down and bought a third car for taylor to help with all of the running around. its nothing fancy, but it's not a "beater" either, somewhere in the middle.

i don't really care what it is, i'm just happy for it because it will help cut down on my driving everyone everywhere immensely. that is, as soon as he masters the stick shift. :)

3. taylor hasn't had any time to master the stick shift (although he does fairly well with it), because his high school production of the scarlet pimpernel has taken over his life. opening night was friday, and it was absolutely amazing!!!

if you're local and haven't bought tickets yet, i say GO GO GO, you will laugh your head off and be blown away by the talent! it has been a great experience for him, i'm so glad he's had this opportunity.

4. taylor getting into hair and make up for pimpernel isn't getting any less strange for me. doing pony tails and eyeliner for my son is just plain weird. i can't say that i ever dreamed about that for him when he was a baby. spencer claims he can't even look at him with the make up on because it trips him out too much.

i have to admit, it is pretty funny how different he looks with make-up, not like our regular taylor at all. 
and i have to add, that this boy, who usually wears his hair a little on the long side, can't wait to cut his hair when the show is over! apparently it's crossed the threshold that he can tolerate. 

5. i have been so happy to have some beautiful sunshine spring-like weather lately. its been a wonderful excuse for ethan and i to drop everything and go play at the park, which we've done twice in the past couple of days. absolutely lovely.

 6. we have the world's nicest neighbors. kristie, the christmas tree decorator, is also a hair dresser and agreed to curl allie's hair for dance pictures last week. this is a big deal since allie's stick straight hair is a mile long and weighs about ten pounds. i have no idea how she did it, but she managed to curl every last piece of hair into spiral perfection.

allie was beyond giddy and kept stopping in front of the mirror to giggle. thanks (again) kristie!

7. cutest friends EVER. taylor has been super busy with the musical, some big school projects and also, running for student government! a couple of his friends knew he was a little overwhelmed and showed up to celebrate his half birthday. "half" of a cake included.

 unfortunately, he was at play practice, but late that night when he finally made it to bed, it made his day to see these treats sitting there.  it makes me so happy to know that my kids are surrounded by so much love.

we're bracing ourselves for another week of the musical and campaign week!
wish us luck!
spencer wants me to tell everyone that he was here too. :)

fashion statement

while i was sick this weekend
i was grateful for my sweet husband who ran the household
while i slept
and coughed
and slept
and puked

and slept some more.

at one point i emerged from my bedroom to look for the heaven-sent ibuprophen

and on my way to the kitchen, i came upon this bold fashion statement:

the top half of his ensemble says, "ride like the wind bullseye!"

the bottom half says, "i like monkeys"

and the footwear says, "my mother is sick and i have no supervision today".

in other words,

one more reason i hope i don't die prematurely.

or at least until ethan knows how to put together a decent outfit.

or at least until he knows how to match his socks.

perfection or nothing

this girl...

is lovely

caring

delightful

bubbly

beautiful

friendly

talented

curious

hard working

SMART

did i mention lovely?

and i adore her

but she is also

a perfectionist

which can be kind of rough

because she has a very full schedule

there's just not enough TIME during the week

to devote to cleaning her room the way she wants it to be clean

on saturdays when she does clean it, it can take HOURS - for real.

because every little thing has to be organized and reorganized to death

during the week, there's no time for such details

which means she doesn't clean it at all

so usually looks something like this...

sort of a "perfection or nothing" approach

saturdays are perfection,

weekdays are nothing

and when i said being a perfectionist can be kind of rough -

i meant rough on ME

because in this house, her room is what i see across the hall

every time i leave my room

and it makes me completely insane to see this mess

all

the

time.

but really, i've mostly tried to make peace with it

because if that's the worst thing, i'll take it

so i try not to nag her too much about the room

i said try

because i know it's just not that important in the grand scheme of things

and she's so lovely, i'll take her perfectionist or nothing room

especially over, you know, piercings and drugs and worse.

with that said,

a few weeks ago, i learned something new about my girl...

this girl

this darling, beautiful, lovely, talented, perfectionist with a messy room....

will do

ANYTHING

including cleaning her room in the middle of the week

WITHOUT BEING ASKED

for a chance...

to drive

and if you think i'm not taking advantage of this, you're wrong.

three things

lately ethan says, "mom, three things", holding up three fingers and then proceeds to tell me four to five random things. it usually goes something like: "one. why do we have green bananas?" "two. can i play playhouse disney on the computer?" " three. where are my mittens?" "and four. can i have gum?"

there is never the same amount of questions or tidbits as he originally tells me there's going to be, they are listed one right after the other without letting me answer them one at a time, and there is always a varried sampling of information.

his lists of random things always makes me giggle. i usually answer him back the same way.

so today i'm posting "three" random things, ethan style.

one. saturday ethan took the best bubble bath in the history of bubble baths. we poured the normal amount of bubbles in but this time we turned on the jets which made the bubbles go crazy. he was pretty excited when the level of bubbles kept rising and rising. when taylor and spencer saw what he was up to, they were super jealous and vowed to take a bubble bath like this one soon.

two. i don't know what came over me during the hair styling routine this morning. but today, i curled a throw back to the late seventies with a little bit of feathering and everything. i loved it and felt a little connection with farrah all day long. just kidding, but i did like it.

three. i think taylor is super handsome. i'm always surprised when i see him walk in the door from school. he is so grown up! tall and handsome and kind. i love this guy.

four. teenagers like texting. our phone bill is pages and pages long. luckily our fee is just a flat rate for our whole family (that the teenagers help pay each month). at first i wasn't sure how i felt about texting, especially since the number of texts per month are in like the 4,000 range (for real) PER KID,  but now i've decided that it's no different than all the hours i spent tying up my family's phone line when i was a teenager. plus, i LOVE being able to get ahold of them during the day. scenes like this make me laugh. what i should've done was zoom out to show that they're in the middle of people talking all around them, but also in their own little world.