Top Reasons I Love This Lady (aka my mommy)

When I was little she would drive me 30 minutes both ways to my ballet classes, which were every single day.

She is almost always happy and cheerful.

Every Halloween we would go to the fabric store and look through patterns, I would pick what I wanted and then she would sew it from scratch.

She loves Christmas and every year our house looks like a Christmas Shop.

She used to get up early every morning before school to do my fancy hair-dos. I was very picky and it caused a ton of fights but she always did it!

Even though I'm sure it was hard sometimes she stayed home with me and my brother and sisters. I'm sure there were times she wanted to be something other than a mom but you would have never known it.

She runs fast and she runs FAR!!!

She's a really great cook, and she cooks healthy too.

We always had a beautiful home. We moved into a house that was 100 years old when I was 12. My mom did nothing for over a year except work and work and work to whip that house into shape.

We always had a beautiful garden.

We moved 9 times by the time I was 12 and my mom never complained. She always told me you have to bloom where you're planted. Even though it was always hard to leave behind great friends and the life we had known I learned to make the best of it thanks to her.

She is beautiful! She just gets better with age: )

Reasons I Love This Girl

She was the president of the French Club in high school and can sing the entire French National Anthem.

She convinced her husband, as a joke, that she was going to sing a solo at their wedding. He totally bought it and the cute part was the he was totally supportive.

Before he passed away she used to call her Grandpa Vance every night before she went to bed.

She introduced me to Litzas Pizza.....yum!!!

She's one of the few people besides posh herself who could pull of the Victoria Beckham haircut and on that note she's never afraid to try crazy things with her hair...but she always looks great!

She went through a phase where even when it was a Sunday afternoon at Nancy and Heinz's place she would always look like a 1950's pinup/Marilyn Monroe. Curled blonde hair, red lipstick the whole nine yards!

She's great to her pets, Minnie and Lady!

All her kitchen appliances are pink....even her Kitchen aid.

She wears like 8 inch heels to work....crazy!!!

She's generous to everyone she loves.

She's been with me through the hardest times of my life and the happiest.

She has a huge heart. I've seen her chase after dogs in the traffic, stand up for abandoned family members, and try to save an injured pigeon for goodness sake!

Chicago Weather

I forgot how GOD-AWFUL the weather in Chicago is. It's only when I come home that it all comes back to me. I remember getting out of the car in my high school parking lot and thinking I wasn't going to make it to the school doors! I remember coming out of ballet and steam would rise from my head!!! When our plane landed in Chicago the pilot said "I'm not going to lie to you the weather in Chicago could really not be worse, there are severe winds and freezing ice pellets!" It was then that I knew that I was really home : )

After two years of waiting, missing, crying etc. My little brother is finally home! It's weird, we got used to him not being around but as soon as he was back our family felt whole again. I'm so proud of him. My biggest worry was that he would be really really different and he has changed but he's still the funny, sarcastic sweet kid that he always was! Here are a few of the moments from the day that Elder Billingsley finally came home.

Today this little beauty is 18! WOW! I still remember the day she was born. It was the last day of school before Christmas break. My mom was going to be induced and she still made me go to school arrgh! I was so excited I couldn't concentrate on making my sled ornament out of popsicle sticks and glitter (a project that I normally would have been thrilled about!!) Well I remember literally pacing the classroom when my dad finally came to pick me up. I grabbed my backpack and me and my sister and dad were off to the hospital! We talked and waited in the hospital room with my mom for what seemed like two weeks. We didn't know if Taylor was a boy or a girl so we made bets on what we thought she was going to be. I wanted a baby sister SO BAD! When the big moment finally arrived we were asked to leave the room (my mom is not one of THOSE moms who is cool with her kids seeing her give birth and thank goodness!!) When we came back into the room we had a brand new baby sister! I was thrilled! She was so cute and tiny. She had these perfect little fingernails. She made the cutest little noises! She kept trying to touch her face. So in honor of this special day here are my favorite Taylor moments!

One Thanksgiving when she was just a baby we were all playing in the living room having just finished our delicious meal! Taylor had just learned to walk and was still getting her sea legs but she came walking into the room FAST and started projectile vomiting (like 2 feet) all over my moms white carpet. The funniest part was she just kept walking!! My mom was soooo mad at me and Amanda because we were laughing but she didn't see it!!

When she used to poop in her diaper she would walk like she was doing a plie' in second position and when we would try and catch her and she would run and hide under my moms bed!

The time Cody dragged her down the driveway by her underwear. She was about 10 when that happened and she was sooo mad at me because I could not stop laughing! But she was so skinny and looked like Mowgli from the Jungle Book. She was no match for our 100 plb. dog.

She use to lay in a laundry basket with a baby blanket and pretend to be the baby Jesus. Now that is cheap fun!

She used to wear her Belle costume to preschool and my mom would let her! My mom never would have let us do that but I think by then she had learned to pick her battles.

She used to have a Ken doll that didn't have any pants. This apparently did not sit well with her because she put a little pink sock around him. That sock was on that Ken doll for years!

Above all she has always been a good sport. We loved her but we made her life hard with our teasing! I guess that's what happens when you're the youngest!

Well thank goodness this little human came into the world! Our family would be incomplete without her!

The best boyfriend in the world!

So my mom and dad gave me a set pearl earrings from Saudi Arabia for my 24th birthday and they are one of my favorite things that I own. I wear them all the time. But the other day I noticed that one of them was missing. My heart was broken. I assumed that one of them had fallen on the floor and then been vacuumed up. We have one of those central vacuums but we also have two pets that shed a ton so I assumed they were gone forever. Well I came home from my moms house today and found Jonny in his work clothes in the basement going through all the gross dog hair and dust looking for my earring. I don't know what I did to deserve this man but it must have been something good!

P.S. I looked under the bed and found my other earring about 5 minutes after Jonny gave up! OOPS!!