Taylor History Picture's

For my family reunion we met in Kansas City and were able to see a lot of Church History sights, and all of the Taylor's old stomping grounds.

I did not get picture's while we were in Gallatin, Missouri- but I only lived there while I was 2-3 years old, don't remember much. We lived in a house with a spiral staircase, I fell down them when I was 2 and broke my collar bone. From what I was told, my family was having family prayer when I fell down them.

I also picked ALL of our neighbors tulips, I really liked them- and funny enough they are still my favorite flower!

We briefly moved back to Mesa for a few years, then moved back to Missouri. We lived in Lee's Summit for 5 years. We lived in a duplex on Banner Drive for a while.

I was 6, so again my memory is not the greatest. I remember having a friend live a few duplexes down, her name was Brandi- and I went to church with her once. I thought it was so cool because her church had a bus come pick you up. We spent a lot of time at a park up the road, it had a forest behind it and if you went far enough there was a little creek.

We got into lot's of trouble, but had lot's of fun while living there. I couldn't remember our Duplex number, so picture of where I used to live... I also remember a boy named Noah England had a crush on me. He used to chase me at school. One day he found out where we lived and just showed up- he had to live somewhat close, no 6-7 year olds are stalker right?!? Anyway, of course I ran from him again to my friend Brandi's house. Her older sister was laying out in the back yard, so Brandi and I ran to her to help us. Noah I guess just didn't know how to express how much he liked me, so he decided to drop his pants in front of all of us and pee! Ya, I was traumatized!

While living there we all went to Hazel Grove Elementary. We were the only LDS kids there, and we thought it was crazy that no one knew what a Mormon was. My Mom worked at the school as a Recess Monitor, then became the school nurse. We loved that school! I have vague and more random memories, but again- I was young so most are unimportant!

We moved to a new house when I was in 2 or 3 grade. We LOVED our new house! It had a LAUNDRY CHUTE! It also had an intercom system, it didn't work but it was fun anyway. Our backyard was huge, we had a dog named Duchess. We had many good friends in that neighborhood, and also a few enemies. My best friend Nova (I wish I could find out what happened to her!) lived across from us. Also down the street was a family, the Tuckers- they had 7 sons. They all pretty much matched up with us, but I wouldn't dare play with Stephen Tucker because he was a boy! My sister Larae was a year older and LOVED Matt Tucker- I remember thinking it was so gross! There was a big field behind our house with an old barn on it. We decided to paint the inside and make it our clubhouse. While doing that we came upon an entire carton of cigarettes. It took us only minutes to break each and every cigarette. Turns out it was one of the Tucker's older brothers- and he didn't appreciate our way of telling him it was a nasty habit.

This house looked terrible- it made me so sad! I swear hoarders live in it right now!

We also had another park close to us, we would catch crawdads in the creek- well I'd watch everyone catch them cause they grossed me out. There was a broken down bus, and all kinds of junk we'd find over there and have so much fun.

We also had a family move down the street we didn't like. I don't know why we didn't like them, but for some reason us Taylor's and the Tucker's were so mean to them. I remember throwing my nephew's dirty diapers in their back yard, some of the kids threw tomatoes at the shed.... We were TERRIBLE! We got in huge trouble when we were caught though- my parents were gone and my sister- in law was watching all of us. She made us go sit alone and read our scriptures until my parents got home, she was so mad at us! She didn't know what to do with us!

I also have a vivid memory of one of the first times I felt the Holy Ghost whisper to me. My friend Nova had run to her house to get something, I was sitting on the road waiting for her. While waiting I had a thought cross my mind of her running across the street without looking for cars. It kind of freaked me out- it wasn't just a thought, it was an image in my mind of her getting run over. I had the strongest feeling to tell her to watch out when she came out of her house. I looked up and she was coming, I yelled for her to stop. She stopped and a car turned down the street really fast and did not stop slow down at all. If she would not have stopped she would have been in the middle of the road when that car came. I remember starting to cry and trying to explain to her how I knew she needed to stop. She just could not understand how I knew to tell her to stop, I don't think I fully understood either until I got older.

Living in Missouri was only a small part of my childhood. I haven't ever had a great memory, so it makes me sad to know there are so many more memories I just don't remember. We were in a great Branch there. I don't know how my parents did it- Dad was the Branch President, so Mom had all us kids to deal with each week. We learned to try and sit far enough away from her so she couldn't reach and pull the hair on the nape of our necks to tell us to be quiet. This is also the Branch when my Dad was conducting and announced the hymn, "Tis Sweet To Sing The MATTRESS Love, instead of Tis Sweet to Sing the Matchless Love!" Coming from a man who had 11 children- funny funny!

It was fun to show my kids where I used to play when I was their age- it's so hard for them to imagine me as a little girl, but they love the stories of all the crazy stuff we used to do. They love to hear about me being scared through my first thunderstorm and yelling, "The tomatoes are coming!" Meaning I thought there was a tornado coming. We had some scary storms while living there- ugg I hate tornadoes!! I think their favorite stories are of me getting into trouble though-