The Braithwaites

Changes

2010-10-24T07:53:00.000-07:00

We've been in Utah for almost 3 months now and so much has happened.

Scott started working and really loves his new job. I am so glad that after all this time in school he loves what he does. It's also nice having a paycheck for the first time EVER! BYU treats Scott really well, not to mention all of the LDS celebrities he gets to meet. He was trained on Thursday by the General Sunday School President of the church. On Friday he had lunch with President Samuelson of the Seventy. Isn't that awesome?

Besides his new job, we are having a baby in about two weeks. We still don't know the gender and I don't feel prepared at all (we don't even have names yet!). We are still living with Scott's parents but are in the process of closing on a house in Springville. It is taking so much longer than I want it to; funnily enough, it looks like we'll close on my due date. I guess I need to learn patience.

We are so excited about moving into our first home and actually staying put for a while! Since we've been married, we've always been the family that is about to move, just moved in or is moving out soon. It will be so nice to start to live life without having to plan for another move. Once we get the house, I'll post some pictures and send out our new address.

We've been enjoying Fall in Utah. We're used to the south where Fall is just an extension of summer (with football). Here the leaves are in full bloom, the mornings and evenings are perfect and cool, but during the days I still think it's too hot. Scott says that's only because I'm a walking incubator with one of our huge babies inside me. Isn't he a charmer?

Long Overdue...

2010-08-19T08:56:00.001-07:00

It's been so long since I've posted, but I guess it's better to start again now then never. It's been a crazy couple of months since the last time I posted. Just in case you haven't heard Scott did get the job at BYU and we have already moved to Utah! It took us a week to drive here while doing some vacationing along the way. We've been here for 3 weeks now and are just now getting settled into our new life. We had family in town and did a lot of playing before Scott had to start work. Last Monday was his first day of work, which was exciting, but we've missed him because we got used to being with him all the time.

Here are some details of our trip here and pictures to go along with it.

We moved on a Thursday. We picked Scott up from his last day of work (internship) at MUSC...said goodbye to some great friends and the beautiful city of Charleston, ate at one more cool restaurant we hadn't tried yet (Taco Boy) and were on our way. It felt so strange to be leaving for good. We had to keep explaining to Taylor that we were actually moving not just going on a trip. He was very mixed about everything, he didn't like leaving his home, friends and everything familiar. We distracted him with movies and road trip food, which he thought was pretty awesome. Then a day later we got to stay with our great friends the Hobson's which made us feel like we were at home again. It was so great to see them and see where they lived now. We got to see their new home and city. Our pictures from this part of the trip are on our other computer...

After the Hobson's we drove to Nauvoo, IL to see the church history sites there. From what we saw of it, with two LOUD kids distracting everyone, it was really cool. We thought of it as a scan of what we will see when we come back.

Elle loved putting the bonnets on

Nauvoo temple

After Nauvoo, we decided to go to Independence MO and see the sites there...we saw the Liberty Jail and the visitors center that went into detail about what happened there. Luckily they had a mini pioneer playground for the kids. They loved it!

This is the RLDS temple, now it's called Community of Christ. They let us tour it and see everything.

Scott found this hole in the wall BBQ restaurant (Oklahoma Joe's) in Kansas, right on our way out. Apparently it is one of Anthony Bourdain's top 12 places you must eat before you die. It is so authentic it is literally in a gas station.

Once we finally made it out of Kansas we passed through Denver and stayed up in the mountains in a little city on the outskirts of Veil, CO. It was actually cold at night and it was so beautiful! We made it to the hotel in time to swim then take a little drive and see the city. This also meant checking out how good their Taco Bell was...it was awesome!

The luggage cart was definitely the highlight of the hotel stay

I am still in shock that this happened. There was no way I couldn't take a picture of this priceless moment.

Elle turned two on our journey, so we stopped at California Pizza Kitchen for lunch and let her open some presents we grabbed at Walmart the night before.

Her favorite part was the M&M's on top of her sundae

That night we got her a big cupcake and all shared it. She ate all the icing off first.

Then we finally made it to Grandma and Grandpa's house. The first thing Taylor and Elle did was check out the back yard. They found nasty snails and let the snails crawl all over them. Gross!

A couple days later we celebrated Taylor and Elle's birthday with all of their cousins and aunts and uncles. We had a water slide, pinata and pizza.

We took a few trips to BYU to check everything out. Taylor thought it was so cool to actually be there since we had talked about it so much. He kept singing the fight song really loud.

For Scott's birthday we got him a mountain bike...while he was shopping I was trying to keep the kids entertained. Thank goodness school wasn't in session yet.

Scott turned 31...he got a bike, bag for his bike and sunglasses. A few days later he would get to start work.

Finally, 2 1/2 weeks after we got here our stuff arrived.

The Shoemakers (Scott's sister's family) came to visit and stayed with us at Grandma and Grandpa's house for a little over a week. We did a lot of fun things, but the best was taking the kids camping for the first time. They loved being outside, getting dirty, exploring, roasting things, doing all that camping stuff. We thought we could make it overnight for at least one night, but Elle started screaming at 2 AM (I think she was cold) and was waking everyone up so we left and went home then. I wasn't disappointed at all...if I could have cried to go home and get in a bed at 7 months pregnant I would have too.

Now we are getting out of vacation mode and getting into real life mode again. We will be staying with Scott's parents until we find our house. We're excited to be here and for everyone to come visit! Keep in touch!

Scott's BYU Interview

2010-03-03T12:04:00.000-08:00

We have been waiting for this day for a LONG time. Way back in October Scott applied to work at BYU...we didn't hear back from them for so long that we gave up all hope of him getting a chance to work at BYU. We thought it just wasn't our time yet. Then in January he got the call...he had been asked to come out for an interview. That was so exciting...probably more exciting than if he actually gets the job! We were shocked! That call was in January and his interview wasn't until March. Last Sunday he finally left to interview for his dream job...no pressure.

I haven't seen him yet, or gotten all the details, but so far it sounds like he's gotten some really good feedback. Now, it's just more waiting. They told us not to expect to hear anything until after April. They take so long because the church leaders have to review his application, and with General Conference coming up they won't get to it until conference is over. So, here we go...one more long wait!

I went a little picture happy, trying to capture every moment before he left. Here is Scott packing his laptop...

Here he is right before he left.

Saying goodbye... (Elle has missed him so much, she cries herself to sleep saying "Daddy!" so sad)

Scott has worked SO hard and we are so proud of him. I can't wait for tomorrow night at 6 when I get to go pick him up...5 days away is WAY too long!

Snow in South Carolina

2010-02-15T16:40:00.000-08:00

It started snowing on Friday night

This is what it looked like in the morning

We found sea shells to decorate him with

Bizzy didn't know what to think

By noon the snow was almost all gone

Apparently it only snows here about once every 10 years. We not only got to be here the year it snowed, but this was a record for the most snow Charleston has EVER seen. How cool is that!

Never Again

2010-02-10T13:04:00.000-08:00

On Sunday...Superbowl Sunday...we let our kids stay up...late. I don't know why, it just seemed okay. They stayed up until around 11:00. We kept thinking, "We don't need to put them to bed, we'll leave soon." But we ended up staying the whole time. Everything was great at the time, Elle fell asleep on my lap, Taylor and Lilly were upstairs playing really well together and having so much fun. Why would we take them away from something they were enjoying so much. We were enjoying it too! We were having so much fun, we weren't thinking of the consequences at all.

This is why...the ENTIRE next week is ruined!

Monday: Elle didn't stop crying and clinging to my leg. If I put her down to do something, she would scream until I picked her back up or gave in and gave her some sort of sugar.

Tuesday: We went to Moe's and the kids were screaming the whole time. Elle wouldn't eat, she just threw her food and Taylor was being super sensitive about everything. He couldn't decide if he wanted a highchair, booster, or nothing. If I pushed him to decide he would have broken down. He was on the constant verge of meltdown.

Wednesday: We went to the post office to mail our valentines. When we got into the car Taylor started freaking out about his paper being bent and demanding that I turn the car around and get him another piece of paper. Of course I didn't, but that was enough to set him off the rest of the morning. We got into the post office and he didn't stop screaming. I was trying to calm him down, while Elle was tugging on the chains almost knocking them over. The more I tried to calm him down the louder he got. I felt everyone looking at me...not that I really cared, but I knew they were like "shut them up!" They even let me cut in line so I could get out of there faster.

It's only Wednesday, and I hope our sleep will be caught up tonight. PLEASE!!!

I managed to snap one picture at the post office during all of the craziness.

You've Gotta Love The South

2010-01-22T20:27:00.001-08:00

I opened one of Taylor's books today, that apparently we haden't opened for a while, and found a lovely surprise. It was so disgusting I screamed! I think I touched it when I was trying to figure out why the pages were stuck together.

She's Talking...kind of

2010-01-15T11:09:00.000-08:00

It seems like when Taylor was Elle's age I was so aware of everything he knew...all the words he could say, what colors he knew, etc. I honestly haven't even had the thought that Elle should be talking by now, let alone what colors she knows. The past month she's just started to pick up some words and every time she say's one I am so amazed! I just forget that she's growing up!

Here are some words she's learned out of self defense...

NO!
MINE!! (I really hate this one)
STOP!

These are the words we hear most of the day.

She likes to tell me what she wants to eat...(I have to use all caps and exclamation points to express her emotion).

JUICE!
MILK!
CANDY!
MORE!!!
CHEESE!

She also like to tell me what she wants to wear...

SHOES!

She likes to tell me when to change her diaper...

EWW GROSS! and points to her diaper while handing me a fresh one

Scott taught her the words to the Single Ladies song and she demands we sing it on a regular basis, she sings...

uh uh oh, uh uh oh over and over again. So cute!

She is also very spiritual, every time we see a picture of an old man with a beard or someone wearing dated clothes she says...

Jesus!

I love this girl to death, she makes me laugh all the time and has the cutest smile and expressions I've ever seen. I don't want her to grow up!

Christmas!

2010-01-08T11:08:00.000-08:00

The process of taking our family picture.... A lot of this....

Kim, "Quick! Give her a candy cane, she loves sugar, that will make her happy!"

Why won't they hold still for 2 seconds?!

So cute! If only the rest of us could have made it in the picture!Our final product!
If you notice we are all wearing different clothes, this took us a couple of tries.

Christmas Eve! I think I like this day even better than Christmas...the build up is so exciting!

They each opened one present (of course PJ's!) We set out the cookies, watched our family movie, told the Christmas story and got the kids to bed. Then it was our turn to have fun! Here's what it looked like after we set up the presents.

We decided to start a new family tradition. We opened the presents gradually throughout the day. They got Santa's presents and played with them, then we had breakfast. They played some more then we opened another present ( I think a movie) then we watched watched it. Then it was time for lunch and after that they opened another present. We didn't get to stockings until right before bed. It was definitely different then anything I've ever done, but I think it was so fun to stretch opening presents out all day.

I got the idea a couple of years ago when Taylor opened one present, then when I gave him another one to open he said, "Can we eat breakfast first?" and didn't want to stop playing with the present he had just opened.

The bike was the hit of Christmas. It rained all day long but there was no way he wasn't going to ride it.

Halloween in Charleston...

2009-11-11T08:04:00.000-08:00

Happy Halloween!

There are probably enough picutures in here to cover 5 blog posts but this is the best I've got for now. Here is a quick rundown of our Halloween festivities...It all started when Cindy was here and we made a gingerbread Halloween house...the beginning of a new Halloween tradition...

Pumpkin Patch...

Carving Pumpkins...

spooky spider pumpkin

Ward Halloween Party...

Playgroup Halloween Party...

Halloween Night...

Peter Pan
Tinker Bell

So Far Charleston Is...

2009-09-24T09:57:00.000-07:00

pretty amazing. I have to say I really love this city. There is so much to do here with the kids and it's so beautiful. The one thing I don't like is the incredible amount of bugs...it puts Tallahassee to shame. Aside from the bugs we love it here and feel really lucky to be in such a cool city. We've done a lot in the past month and a half... I'll just let the pictures show you.

The first couple of weeks here were absolutely crazy! The house was a wreck for days while I was trying to unpack with the babies. To make it even worse, we had ants in our kitchen for the first week or so and so I refused to put any of our food away in the cupboards...so it looked like this for a while.

Yes...that is 30 candles!

He was being dramatic because he knew I wanted a real shot of him blowing out his candles.

One of our new favorite toys!

We went to the ocean for Scott's birthday. It was great, it only took us 15 minutes to drive and park. We could be home in time for naps.

We got to go on a date for his birthday too. One of his friends in the internship was so nice and offered to babysit so we could celebrate. We had no idea where to go eat since it was still our first week here so we decided to go to the nicest place we could find that had a coupon. When we got there we were a little worried because we were the youngest people there by about 30 years! We didn't care though, all we wanted was some time to not worry about unpacking and to finally be able to talk. I don't know if it was the fact that we were so happy to be on a date or if it was awesome food, but we really liked it.

We have a backyard! This might be my favorite part of our new house.

Scott's birthday continued a few day's later when my parents sent him a new blackberry and matching belts for him and Taylor. I don't think I've ever seen Scott so excited about a present! We are still finding these little "ghost poops" every wehere.

I think my favorite thing about Charleston so far are the amazing parks here. There are so many places to go and take the kids. We go to a new park weekly and usually bring a picnic.

Diana came to visit us over Memorial Day! We hadn't seen each other in over a year so it was great to catch up and get to know each others kids. Thomas is absolutely adorable and we kept teasing that he and Elle are going to get married.

Diana also introduced me into the world of couponing. Fiber One was on sale so I came home with about a million boxes of it and got $30 back in gift cards to Target.

Nana, I thought you wold like this...we took the kids to a birthday party at a gymnastics gym. They loved it so much I almost signed them up for lessons.

This is the Pirate Ship Park

Papa this is for you...it is proof that we are using the golf clubs, even Elle! I think this park is my favorite place to go in Charleston. The park is under a huge bridge that connects Mt. Pleasant(where we live) to downtown Charleston. It is so perfect for the kids because there is a huge field to play games on with a playground right next to it. You can also walk up a little ways and you'll be on a pier that overlooks the harbor where huge ships come in to drop off cargo onto trains. People are always out fishing too. It is amazing!

Goodbye Tallahassee-We Love You!

2009-08-28T11:20:00.000-07:00

It was harder than I thought to say goodbye to everyone. I got a little choked up every time I had to say another goodbye. We felt so at home in Tallahassee, we lived there for four years and made some of our best friends. Tallahassee will always be a place we look back on with so many of our favorite memories. It is the place where we turned into parents and had our two babies. It is the place we learned to love the Seminoles and eat boiled peanuts. It was our home... we miss all of you more than you know. We can't wait to see you again for Scott's graduation in May!

You know Tallahassee is a little less than 6 hours away from Charleston...if you'd like to visit us, you are more than welcome.

One last picture in our empty apartment...I was not sad to leave that place :)

Uhhh....Taylor, were you a little neglected? Sorry son!

Saying goodbye to the Rodet's...they were so sweet and brought us pizza our last night! We miss you !

This is the only picture I had of Melanie and the rest of the Rhodes clan. They visited us one last time and brought Taylor and Elle birthday presents...so sweet!

Mindi and Nate...They popped over one last time to say goodbye. They were so sweet, Mindi even spent her day off work to help me pack.

We spent a day at the park with the kids...Amelia, Gabrielle, Taylor, Benjamin and Elle for one last play date.

Even though the Coleman's were new, they took great care of us and had us over for dinner a few nights before the move. Jen made this amazing CD with Jefferson's favorite songs on it. The Lion King songs got Taylor through the Honda experience...seriously...thank you Jen!

Taylor LOVES his nursery friends. He still talks about them and asks when he can play with them. I never know how to tell him we probably won't see them again. So sad!

One last goodbye with the Raines! Our kids were the perfect ages for each other and Taylor and Amelia already loved each other and Benjamin and Elle were just starting to bond.

We miss you TLH!

The Move

2009-08-25T10:23:00.000-07:00

I don't think we will ever forget this move...ever! We had no idea what we were in for. The day we actually left for Charleston we were exhausted from the constant moving, packing and cleaning we had done the previous couple days. We thought the drive to Charleston would be a break from all of the hard labor we had been doing...so not true!

We had been driving for about an hour and a half when Taylor insisted we pull over so he could go to the bathroom...again. He had just gone 30 minutes before. Scott was in the van in front of me. As I pulled into the parking spot I noticed red lights in the dashboard flashing. The engine light went on and I saw smoke coming out of the hood. I wasn't freaking out yet...then I pulled into the parking spot and the car completely died. Then I was freaking out! Scott told me later that Taylor never even went to the bathroom. It was a huge blessing that it died at a rest stop and not on the freeway.

We spent the next 5 hours in the heat trying to figure out if we could fix the car or what we should do. We were pulling off at every exit to put in more water and oil...nothing was working. Finally we took it to a car repair shop and the guy told us it would cost a lot more to fix it than the car was worth. It was a hard decision but we decided to say goodbye to our Honda. We left it there at the shop and agreed that the man who owned the shop would sell it and give us half. We thought that was at least a better deal than paying to get it towed somewhere.

It was a sad moment. I think I cried...not just because we left the car, but because of the whole experience. It was so hot, the kids were screaming, and we had to leave a lot of stuff behind in the car. We stuffed everything we could into the van, but there was only so much room. On the upside, we got to drive the rest of the way together as a family, that was nice. We finally got to Charleston...we had never been so happy to get anywhere. We checked into our hotel (our house wasn't ready for a couple more days) and Scott had to get everything together to start school the next day. It was hard, but we made it.

Turning One While Moving

2009-08-13T06:01:00.000-07:00

Oh Elle, I'm so glad you don't have any expectations for your first birthday because if you did we would have seriously let you down. Your birthday was an extremely busy, stressful, tiring day.

We spent the morning packing our last minute boxes, then around 5:30 the Elders Quorum came over to help us move our furniture to the trailer. We thought it would take 30 minutes tops, but it took and hour and a half. We had way more stuff that I thought we did. Thankfully we had all of that help moving our stuff...I don't know how we would've done it on our own. We barley squeezed everything into the trailer and the back of Steve's truck. Thank you Steve! One of our friends in the ward, Steve, offered to drive all of our stuff up to Charleston for us because he had a trailer and was from Charleston. It saved us so much money and time. I don't even think we realize what a huge blessing that was.

We finally finished packing the truck around 7:30 ish which is the kids bedtime, but we hadn't even eaten dinner yet. So we went to Moe's for a "special birthday dinner"! Then we went to Publix and each picked out a special treat to celebrate her birthday. We got Elle a little cupcake and let her dig into it. We can't lose the tradition!

We finally got the kids to bed close to 9:30ish...just in time for me to catch the finale of "The Bachelorette" which was the best part of the day.

On a more postitve note I want Elle to know a little bit about who she is right now. She is our little ray of sunshine. She is so happy and is constantly making us laugh. She is such a sweet baby and is always giving us loves and snuggling with us. She loves to see people and say hi to them, whether we at the grocery store or at church. She's not scared to go up to someone and pat them on the knee, even if she doesn't know them.

I am writing this a few weeks after her actual birthday, but right now she is constantly trying to talk. She is making lots of sounds and I think these are the words she's trying to say.

1. Milk
2. Mama
3. Dada
4. All Done
5. That

Elle, we love you so much and love what you've added to our family. You make all of us so happy! Taylor tries to wake you up because he hates being awake while you are still sleeping. We feel so lucky to have you as our baby girl. Happy Birthday little sweetheart!

Taylor is Three!

2009-07-19T11:03:00.000-07:00

Our baby boy turned 3 years old! His birthday is very special for all of us because Taylor's birth marked the beginning of a new chapter of our life. We celebrated this change the night before his birthday by watching the video of his birth. Although Scott and I were swept up in the movie to the point of tears, Taylor quickly became bored and suggested we watch The Lion King instead.

The next morning, we began our birthday celebrations with a special breakfast... Taylor got his first pop tart. Scott and I try not to let our kids eat too many really sweet things (trust me this kid doesn't need any extra reinforcements...let's just say he's a little crazy even without sugar!) but hey, at least it was a Fiber One pop tart and I gave him a few blueberries to balance it out!

After breakfast, we went with some friends to tour the local fire station. We saw the whole station, a huge fire truck, what Taylor called the "firedog" (which was only a stuffed animal), and real fire fighters. It was so cool! The fire fighters were really nice and let the kids crawl all over the truck; they drove it, climbed the ladders, tried on the hats and boots, everything! I highly recommend this activity if you need something cool (and free) to do with your kids.

After nap time we ate at "Welcome to Moe's," as Taylor likes to call it. We love Moe's, especially on Monday's when kids eat for free! After dinner we went home to eat cake and open Taylor's last two presents (you can see in the background of the pictures that we are packing up for our move). Taylor had 3 or 4 presents and opened them throughout the day. We do this at Christmas and on birthdays to help the fun last as long as possible I love doing this because Taylor will open a present and play with it as though it is the greatest thing that ever existed, and then this gets repeated two or three more times that day.

Happy birthday Baby Boy!

Elle even got to open an early birthday present from Nana and Papa...
as you can see, she loved it!

We upgraded Elle to a forward facing car seat and Taylor got a new booster...this close set up just looks a little too inviting for Taylor to torment his sister.

The highlight of his day...a toothbrush!

Happy Birthday Taylor and Elle!

2009-07-11T16:47:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Taylor's 3rd birthday and Elle's 1st birthday last Thursday. We had a pool party with our friends and their kids at my "Tallahassee Mom's" house. I guess it was a little bit like a going away party too.

This year I decided to be super simple...no games, no fluff...just hot dogs, chips, watermelon and cake. I didn't buy a single decoration...Gina's house is pretty awesome, so I figured I didn't need to worry about balloons and tablecloths. In my head I was really okay with no decorations but things kept working out anyway. For example, Gina had extra birthday tablecloths from previous party's at her house. Publix just happened to have a buy one get one free sale on hot dogs AND chips this week. Also, Gina had watermelon left over from her 4th of July party so I didn't even have to buy that. I had plates and forks left over from last year so I just used those. I made one cake from scratch and used a box for the other. I'm not kidding, we probably spent $15 on food for about 40-50 people. How awesome is that!

Taylor and Elle even had a great time with out the games (I actually think everyone had a better time with out them)

I HATE Poop!

2009-06-14T17:56:00.000-07:00

Ok, I haven't blogged in way too long...I'm not going to try and catch up I'm just going to start where I am. I am here...with poop!

Here are the reasons I hate poop:

1. For some reason Taylor has active bowels in the middle of the night. He regularly wakes up at 3, 4, or 5 AM to poop. I'm a little relieved when it's 3 am because then I'm 80% sure he will go back to sleep. When he gets up at 4 am he goes back to sleep about 50% of the time. When he gets up at 5 or later he goes back to sleep about 10% of the time. This means that not only is Taylor awake at these hours but we all are.

To shed a little more light into this situation here's how it usually plays out...he gets out of his bed to go to the bathroom, he turns on the light and leaves both the bedroom and bathroom doors open. The light wakes up Elle. Thankfully she is easy to put back to sleep. Once I get her back to sleep and wipe Taylor and put him back to bed on the couch, Scott and I lay in bed trying so hard to pretend it's not really happening and that we can go back to sleep. Just as we start to drift off Taylor will ever so quietly come in our room and put an unopened yogurt in one of our hands and say "Mom, can you please open my yogurt and turn on a show?" It goes on and on until we decide to give in and finally get up!

2. I don't know what is worse, the first reason or this one... I walked in to get Elle up from her nap to find her entire body and the crib smothered in poop! I then saw her completely clean and dry diaper thrown out of her crib and on to the floor. It was one of those moments I didn't even know where to start. Do I clean her first or get the blankets out first and wash them...what do I do?

I HATE poop!
Just kidding! These are beans!

Taylorisms 5/18/09

2009-05-18T06:41:00.000-07:00

Saturnight: (n) Saturday night (when we make pizza and watch a movie). Ex. "It's Saturnight!"

Lasterday: (n) Some time prior to the present. Ex. "We went to Publix lasterday."

Really Much: (v) in great amounts; a large number. Ex. "Guess what, Mom. I love you really much!"

Easter

2009-04-26T17:44:00.000-07:00

Yeah, spring is here! We always know when spring is here because the geese that live outside our apartment have little baby geese. They are so cute! Taylor has LOVED them this year. He asks, "Can we go feed them some bread?" about every five minutes. He goes out on the balcony to see them and gets so excited when they are out there. He yells, "MOM! The baby ducks are outside!" Just as enthusiastically as if it were Christmas morning.

Happy Easter!

Elle preferred the grass to anything else

This is Elle's basket. Why didn't we just get her grass?

Here's Taylor's basket. I know there is a flower on it, I put it there--I couldn't resist!
The only thing Taylor really liked was finding the eggs. He liked us to "hide" them on the carpet right in front of him so he could find them and put them all in his basket.

He did get a set of games including Candyland and Shoots and Ladders. I thought it would be so fun to play with him. I have to say I was wrong. It's one of the most frustrating things I've ever done!

Kim's 29th!

2009-04-12T11:48:00.000-07:00

I am in the last year of my 20's! I am SO old!! I've been trying to console myself by saying, "Well I have 2 kids and I've been married for 6 1/2 years so I should be this old." It still feels weird though. I have to say, I had an awesome birthday to celebrate this final year of my youth...

It all started with a huge surprise!

We were in Orlando at an Elders Quorum temple trip when my parents showed up and surprised me!

Scott told me he had ordered room service, which was very, very unlike him. He said since it was my birthday he did something unexpected. The "room service" took a long time so he had to keep making up excuses like, "they are bringing something special for your birthday" and "they are going to sing for your birthday..." Finally the "room service" showed up. I heard the knock at the door, then I heard a voice that sounded a lot like my mom's voice say, "housekeeping!" I quickly opened the door and their stood my parents. SURPRISE!!! They couldn't stop laughing at my mom getting so nervous she said "housekeeping" instead of "room service"! I was so surprised, I couldn't believe they pulled this off.

That wasn't the end of the surprise. My parents told me we were going to stay in Orlando and go to Disney World and Sea World. It was amazing, so so fun.

Sea World was the first day... We fed dolphins!

Taylor's favorite was Shamoo. In the Shamoo show we did a cheer "Right, Left, Shamoo, Shamoo!" He loved it and got really into it at the show. Then Papa gave him a little shamoo and he walked around with it the whole day saying "shamoo, shamoo!" He wouldn't sit in his stroller or put shamoo in his stroller...he walked and threw it over his shoulder the entire day.

A part of me really, really wants this job...how cool would it be to stand on Shamoo!

I remember my parents doing this with me when I was little...One, Two, Three, WEEEEE!

You can't tell at all from this picture how incredibly cool this is. This is at a restaurant called "Shark" in Sea World. This is a huge shark aquarium that completely surrounded the restaurant. We ate watching sharks swim all around us. The little shadow is Taylor touching the glass trying to get as close as he can to the sharks. Where does this kid come from?

Disney World

The next day was Disney Wold--Magic Kingdom. We don't have many pictures because we were running around the whole day trying not to miss anything. It went by way to fast.

Taylor's favorite was Dumbo and Pirates of the Caribbean. And of course the parade and fireworks at the end of the day. He was in absolute heaven.
Thanks to my parents Scott and I could be in absolute heaven too. My dad got us fast passes while we waited in line with Taylor. From about 6:00 on Scott and I literally ran across the park going on as many rides as we could while my parents entertained the kids. AWESOME!

Thanks Mom and Dad for the best birthday EVER!! Love you!!

Bizzy Izzy

2009-03-31T11:09:00.000-07:00

BizzyIzzy is our nickname for Elle because she is constantly on the go. She is always pulling or clawing her way through to see what's going on. She is growing up so fast and is just so stinking cute. She has changed a lot lately. She is scooting everywhere, eating food and putting everything she can find in her mouth. Having two kids is way more difficult than when there was just one at home. With Taylor around it's like their already in this little club to see how much they can get away with before I lose it. Taylor likes to push her buttons to make her cry, pull her around by her arms and legs and give her things to put in her mouth and laugh at her. Most of the time she thinks it's the greatest thing that ever happened to her.

In spite of their little club to make me crazy, she and Taylor are so cute to watch. I think one of my favorite things about having two kids is watching them play with each other and make each other laugh. As frustrating and demanding as they can be...like Taylor waking up every morning at 4 a.m. to poop (that's another blog post)... which wakes all of us up, including Elle because he's starts yelling for me to wipe his bum... their cuteness still makes up for it all. Thank goodness for those times when I walk into their bedroom and he is playing peek-a-boo with Elle through her crib. I see her laughing and laughing at him. The more she laughs the more he is encouraged to keep playing with her. It's those small moments when it really hits me how much I love them and that this time in their life will be over too fast.
--

We're Moving To...

2009-02-23T17:40:00.001-08:00

Are you ready? We've been waiting for this moment for so long, and today we finally found out! We were really shocked!

Scott matched with the Behavioral Medicine program at Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston!

We were pretty sure we were going to end up at BYU (MUSC was our second choice site), so when we opened the email and saw South Carolina, we were surprised. Don't get me wrong, though, we couldn't be more happy about it. We feel like this is going to be an amazing place to do an internship and spend a year of our lives. So if any one wants to take a trip next year to a really cool city come visit us.

P.S. I am so proud of my amazing husband for working so hard and making this all happen. In the past few years our life has become more demanding with kids and the sheer amount of church and school work. Scott seems to never let anything phase him, he just always does a great job at whatever he's doing and rolls with whatever is added onto his plate. I know I couldn't do what he does and I am thankful everyday for such a hard working and inspiring husband.

Two Fun Stories

2009-02-22T14:18:00.000-08:00

We'll I haven't blogged for like 2 months, so I don't know if anyone is even going to read this but here I go. I'm not going to try and catch up I'm just going to start blogging with this weekend's events. It was an eventful weekend, we have two funny stories.

1. We found out after waiting for over a month that Scott matched with an internship site!! Yay! We can all calm down now and know that our life will go on. The best part of it is that we are a step closer to having an actual income, so that is exciting!

2. Today at church -- why does it always happen at church -- Taylor was eating a tic-tac. Scott get's him little treats and gives them to him when he does something good (probably because he's a psychologist :)) I was outside in the foyer with Elle, completely unaware of anything when Scott and Taylor come out. Scott was half laughing but looked a little worried. Taylor said, with great pride,
"Mom, I put a tic-tac up my nose!"
We tried to get it out but couldn't. One of our friends is a physicians assistant, and she happened to be the foyer as well. She suggested that we go to the E.R., but before we did, we pulled an E.R. doctor in our ward out of scarament meeting to take a look. At this point, Taylor realized that having a tic-tac up his nose wasn't so cool and got pretty freaked out (as he normally does when strangers demand he show them the inside of his nose). Matt, the doctor, said we didnt' need to go the E.R., but that we should take him to his house where he had better equipment. Taylor didn't like this idea at all, so Scott said to him,
"Taylor, I know you don't want the doctor to look in your nose, so if you blow your nose really hard maybe he won't have to." So Taylor BLEW his nose really hard and, thankfully, the tic-tac came out! Scott was so excited about this that his celebrating stopped him from grabbing the snotty tic-tac before Taylor snatched it and popped it in his mouth.

Free Pictures

2009-01-23T12:12:00.000-08:00

My friend Carrie Stroud took our family Christmas pictures last year. She is an amazing photographer and I would love for her to ALWAYS take our pictures. She is having a free drawing right now for anyone to win a free session. It's too good of a deal not to spread the word! All you have to do is leave a comment on her blog and she'll put your name into a drawing for a chance to win a free photo session. So go and do it! If you scroll down her blog you'll see some spicy pictures of Scott and I too!

Christmas

2009-01-14T14:22:00.000-08:00

We had a great Christmas this year and were able to see so many people we love. I feel like we've been so lucky to be able to spend such a long time with our family--almost a month! We've seen all of Scott's familly almost all of my family and lots of friends we haven't seen in years.

We are taking a month long trip so Scott can interview for his internship next year. January is the interview month for most graduate students. Instead of flying in and out of Tallahassee we decided to make Utah our home base for the month since most of his interviews were in the West. We'll find out where we'll be moving in about a month. So far Scott likes BYU, South Carolina and a site in Seattle at UW the best. We'll see!!

It was a long trip from Tallahassee to Utah, but we made it. Our day began with our drive from Tallahassee to Orlando. Then we waited at the airport for a couple hours and then took our 4 hour flight to Salt Lake. The kids did much better than I expected. The plane ride was definitely the hardest because we couldn't move around at all.

Taylor loved being in the airport and watching the planes take off and land.

Taylor was determined to pull his own luggage and wouldn't have it any other way.

Elle got a picture with the captain for her first airplane ride.

Once we were in Utah, we made a stop at the Walters. Ryan is not shy!

Adam and Elle are 3 months apart, he is her cousin that is closest in age. Elle is 5 months and Adam is 2 months.

Christmas Eve!

We stayed at Grandma and Grandpa's house with the Shoemakers. It was so so fun! Taylor thought he was in heaven. There were kids constantly around him, we made sugar cookies and he got to play in the snow and ride on the four-wheeler. He really had the time of his life.

Daddy took him out in the snow for hours! Luckily the grandparents had plenty of snow clothes for us.

That evening we went to the Kendall's house and partied! Then we came home and we all opened one present--PJ's of course!

Don't tell Taylor, but his PJ's were one's that he already had. I just wrapped them and called them his Christmas PJ's. He never knew the difference. I love two year old's!

Christmas Morning

It snowed on Christmas...how perfect!

We played games for Suzanne's birthday (the day after Christmas)...

The men lost had had to dress up and sing, it was very entertaining! Thanks Dan!!

Later that week we reunited with some of my Ricks College/Oklahoma friends. A lot of us have kids now, it's so weird!! Here is Angie's adorable little girl Miley--She is only two weeks older than Elle.

Taylor didn't want to miss out on the fun!

Kristen, Sarah and Cassie

Elle's always going for what she wants...but really, someone's got to teach this girl how to play hard to get!

At least she picks cute ones!!

I wish we looked a like, but I think she's all daddy!

We were able so see some of our favorite cousins Micah, Mishawn and Brock. We ate dinner at our FAVORITE place, Magleby's Fresh. It was awesome!

We let Taylor and Brock run around the restaurant so we could talk. That must have been some serious male bonding, because they were the best of friends by the time we left. They were so cute to watch.

Happy "late" Halloween!

2008-11-26T19:14:00.000-08:00

Happy Halloween! It feels like forever ago, but I am finally getting to our pictures.

We had a really fun playgroup where Taylor got to paint a pumpkin and a witch. He was so careful to stay clean. I don't know where he gets that from, Scott and I walk away from dinner with more spills than he does!

Bonnie must have been a very engaging reader because Taylor didn't move while she was reading. He begged her to keep reading more and more. Good job Bonnie!

Here is my homemade costume! I was a lopsided flower and Elle was a bee. It was really fun to make, and it took forever so there was no way I wasn't going to wear it, even if I was lopsided. I think I'm converted to making costumes instead of buying them. It was SO fun!

Taylor was a skunk, and poor Scott didn't have a costume.
I don't think he cared.

These pictures of Scott crack me up because you can actually see how tired he is in his bloodshot eyes. I snapped them while he was having a conversation with someone. I've never seen him as busy as he is now. He's trying to get his dissertation finished, apply for internships, do his regular school work and take care of his church work and family. Even though I stay home with the kids and have a lot to do, I still feel a little guilty I'm not doing more when I see what he is trying to juggle. I'm so glad I don't have to do it.

Inside the Mind of a Two Year Old

2008-10-19T15:16:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things about Taylor listening to him talk; it gives me a little window into his mind. He say's the most random, funny things that take me off guard sometimes. I am always saying that I need to write down some of the funny things he says because I don't want to forget his cuteness. Here are a few of my recent conversations with Taylor.

What are you going to be for Halloween? "A Witch!" Witches are girls. "I'm going to be a big boy witch!"

"I have a robot in my pocket mom" Oh cool! Where did he go? (he looked a little confused, then confidently said...) "He flew away."

Taylor's Prayers: "Thank you for mom and dad and the soup and thank you for the chips and thank you for the cheese and for baby Elle."

"Elle is my brother-sister mom!" I think she's just your sister. "No, she's my brother-sister!"

My hair looks super-awesome!

Last weekend we took Taylor to the Dollar movies to see Wall-E. Yesterday he must have been thinking about it because out of the blue he said, "We TOTALLY went to the movies!"

Taylor, thanks for making me laugh! You are the best.

The Best Weekend Ever

2008-10-02T12:24:00.001-07:00

Last weekend my parents came to Tallahassee for Elle's blessing. It turned out the be the best weekend ever!

On Friday, my parents flew into Jacksonville in the late afternoon and arrived at our house later in the evening. We surprised my mom with Key Lime pie to celebrate her birthday. Key Lime pie is my mom's favorite dessert and we live in one of the few places where you can actually get fresh Key Limes, can you imagine!

Saturday morning the girls and the guys split up. The guys (Scott, my dad, and Taylor) went golfing on the FSU course. They had a great time; in fact, my dad had so much with Taylor that he bought him a little set of golf clubs!

My mom and I (and Elle) spent the day getting our hair cut and shopping at the mall. My mom wanted to get me something to wear to the blessing. Really, could this be any better... I got to spend the day with my mom, get my hair cut AND get new clothes!

Later that afternoon we met up at the Red Elephant to watch the Seminoles play Colorado. Not only did we eat cheese fries and elephant ears, but the Seminoles won! Needless to say, by the end of the day we were all in really good moods!

Fist Bump!

Proud Papa!

Most of the people in the circle of Elle's blessing

Proud Nana!

I think this is my favorite picture... Scott's face is classic!

Elle in her pretty dress

Elle's Grandma Sharon made her this beautiful blessing blanket.

Scott really is amazing. He made this day perfect-Not only did he give Elle a beautiful blessing he came home and made dinner too--seriously! I guess the secret's out now, he can cook! It was awesome!

My Grandma Carol gave us these fall table decorations a few years ago when we hosted a Thanksgiving. So, she was apart of the day too!

On Monday we took a trip to Wakulla Springs to see the alligators. We took a little boat ride in the wild and saw lots of native Florida animals.

Here's our alligator!

I love this picture of Nana's face...she was so worried that Taylor was going to fall or jump in. I remember getting this look a lot when I was little too!

SNAP!

My parents left Tuesday afternoon and we were so sad, especially Taylor. We couldn't have planned or asked for a better trip. Thanks mom and dad! Love you!

Our Baby Girl is Two Months Old

2008-09-30T12:55:00.001-07:00

Photo Shoot

2008-09-20T19:50:00.000-07:00

When Elle was born we were bombarded with coupons in the mail for baby stuff. I was most excited to use our coupon for a free photo shoot at J C Penny because I've never had my kids picture taken professionally.

On Friday, I finally went to the store and had Elle's picture taken in her blessing dress. The whole time she was getting her picture taken I kept thinking that it would be really fun to make my own prop at home and try this myself.

Feeling ambitious, I took the black blankets off the couch and made my own back drop. Then I pretended to know what I was doing and took pictures of Taylor with different props (toys). Elle was a little harder to take pictures of, she kept crying. Even though I have no clue what I'm doing, it was so much fun to pretend. Here are a few of my masterpieces! (Don't Laugh!)

I gave Taylor a sucker to make him happy, this made his teeth blue in all the pictures!

Go Cougars!

2008-09-14T19:08:00.001-07:00

Here's Taylor with some of his friends. If you look closely, you'll see that Taylor was having so much fun, he forgot to do something very important. We didn't realize this until we looked at the preview of the picture.

Goooooooo Cougars!

"Baby Elle, you're supposed to say, Goooooooo Cougars!"

Here's what happened before the BYU party:

Sunday: I woke up in the middle of the night alternating between the chills and sweating. Scott says it's the flu, I'm convinced I have the black plague.

Monday: I got the beginning of the never-ending-headache-from-hell. We watched the Lion King for the first time. Taylor seemed to like it. A lot.

Tuesday: My headache still hadn't gone away. Taylor watched The Lion King again while I ignored him and laid on the couch in agony.

Wednesday: I woke up feeling better and decided to go to play group. I felt compelled to go because at this point I had kept Taylor inside for two days and he had now watched The Lion King four, maybe five times.

Playgroup was the worst idea ever (we went swimming!). That evening my black plague headache came back, continued to get worse and didn't leave my head for two more days! Because of this Taylor was mad at me and kept saying in an exasperated voice,

"Mommy's not sick anymore!"

That night, around 2 A.M., just as I was about to doze off people start playing basketball on the court which happens to be right outside our bedroom window! Seriously!? Come on people!!

Thursday: Taylor demanded to watch the Lion King again. He also starts thanking Heavenly Father in his prayers for Simba and Scar. I demand that Scott find a place to keep Taylor while he is at school. He made arrangments for our friends to watch him -- Taylor had so much fun that he didn't want to come home when Scott picked him up. Poor kid.

Friday: Finally, 6 Lion King's later, some relief

Saturday: Go Cougars! 59 - 0!

Elle is 6 weeks

2008-09-07T18:52:00.000-07:00

We've finally made it to the magical 6 week mark -- this is the time when Elle should be sleeping longer stretches and crying less, right?! To be honest, I can't complain about the sleeping, especially because she actually slept through the night last night! We'll see if it was just a tease or if this is a sign of things to come. My theory is that she sleeps so well because she already weighs 12 lbs. The crying, on the other hand, is a different story. She has a fussy time in the evenings that we just can't figure out. During this time, it's not like she's inconsolable, but she just seems uncomfortable and fussy and we can't seem to do anything about it. Luckily we were introduced to a new bouncy seat by one of our friends here in TLH and this bouncy seat may be the solution to our problems. For whatever reason, she just loves it so far -- best $30 we've ever spent if it keeps working.

He looks like a boy, not a baby. I feel like it just happened over night.

Scott thinks she is smiling in this picture.

This is the crying I'm talking about and us trying to find something that works. No luck here!

...Another try

The vibrating chair that didn't work

Our First Week with Elle

2008-08-04T13:43:00.000-07:00

I know I've been a major slacker with my blog, it's already been three weeks! Hopefully now that we are getting into the swing of things, kind of, I will post more. We appreciate all of your love and support while we've been adjusting. Love you all!

Here are some pictures from our first week home with Elle.

Our first picture of the four of us as we were leaving the hospital!

While at the hospital, we had to distract Taylor with popsicle's so he wouldn't terrorize our room or pounce on Elle!

He kisses her and loves her sooo much! If she grunts or makes any noise at all he laughs so hard because he thinks he made her talk.

Notice her dark hair and long toes.

Scott and I celebrated our anniversary a couple days after we got home from the hospital. My mom stayed home with the babies.

Taylor instantly took to my mom "Nana". She was smart to come so well equipped and pull out presents first thing. She gave him a mitt and baseball, then took him out every day and taught him how to throw and catch. It was like a dream come true for Taylor, he got tons of attention.

I think the only time they had apart was in the morning when she would go to the gym and work out. He's so sad now that she's gone, so we have to talk about where Nana is a lot. Yesterday I asked Taylor "Where is Nana" he said, "She's working out".

This is a video we took as we were driving home from the hospital. Elle was crying so Taylor decided to sing her a song...

Baby Elle is Here!!

2008-07-29T12:38:00.000-07:00

Elle was born last Sunday at 4:20 a.m. The delivery was very painful, but short. By the time I got to the hospital I was already dilated 6 cm, and by the time I got my epidural I was almost 9 cm. I thought I was going to die. After the epidural kicked in everything went extremely smoothly. I pushed her out in about 5 min and there were no complications.

She is absolutely beautiful and perfect. It has been so fun to watch Taylor love her. He is such a good big brother. On the way home from the hospital today she started crying and Taylor leaned over and said "It's okay baby Elle", and patted her head. Then he started singing Ba Ba Black Sheep and ABC's. I don't think I've ever seen anyting cuter. We feel so blessed.

Happy 2nd Birthday Taylor!

2008-07-14T19:33:00.000-07:00

We spent the weekend celebrating Taylor's birthday.

Saturday was Taylor's birthday party with his little friends and their families. One of our good friends offered their house for the party which made the party awesome.

The original idea for Taylor's party was a "ball" themed party. I really liked this idea because it was simple and Taylor LOVES baseballs, basketballs, footballs... anything that is round and can be thrown. I got really excited about this and drafted a magnificent "Evite" invitation that perfectly incorporated my theme. Just as I finished, Scott walked in the room and asked,
"What are you working on?"
"Come over and look, I just finished the invitation for Taylor's party." He walked over to the computer, rasied his eyebrows and said,
"A ball party?" Scott snickered, "Kim, the invitation says 'Come to Taylor's Ball Party,' doesn't that send the wrong message? Like Taylor is going through puberty or something?"

I am married to a 7th grader.

In any case, I conceded that it was probably a better idea to change the theme to a "Sports Party". It turned out to be really fun. At the party, we played different ball sports like T-ball, golf, bowling, bubbles, fishing (over a blanket) and a water balloon toss. Even though we had all these games set up, at the beginning of the party nobody wanted to do anything but swim because it was SO hot. I'm so glad there was a pool or we wouldn't have survived.

This is Taylor's Austin Powers impression.

Taylor's birthday was actually on Sunday. Because of how busy we were on Saturday, we didn't think to hold off opening one of his presents so he could have one for his real birthday. Luckily, there was a present from one of our friends that he didn't open (because as Taylor's party was ending, the sky split open and poured down rain and lightning sending all of us scattering). So he got to open this leftover present and the little golf set that we used at one of the stations at his party -- we wrapped it up and acted like there was nothing weird about giving him a present he'd already been playing with. He couldn't have cared less.

We brought cupcakes for his friends in the nursery at church. Taylor thought this was really cool. His friend Tommy who is sitting by him decided to stick his finger in the icing then wipe it on Taylors face. Taylor thought this was really funny, so Tommy continued to do it until Taylor had an icing beard. It was pretty funny to watch.

Pregnant at the Park

2008-07-09T20:02:00.000-07:00

This little boy loves baseball. I don't think he gets what the point of the game is, but he loves everything about it: the orange dirt, the look and feel of the bases, the bats... everything!

We finally ripped him away from the baseball diamond to go and climb on the monkey-ropes.

This pretty much sums up how Kim feels right now.

Florida is oppressively hot and, between the months of June and September, makes me lose a little bit of my will to live. It also makes me sweat which, when it's been too long since I've had a haircut, makes me look like I'm wearing a really bad toupee. I think the heat got to Taylor too; here he appears to be channeling Captain Jack Sparrow. "Arrrrrr!"

Big Boy Bed

2008-06-23T10:46:00.001-07:00

We decided to move Taylor from his crib into a big boy bed. We put the whole thing together ourselves and were so proud. I think it turned out pretty cute!

Taylor, loved it once we put the tent on top. The great thing about it is he won't climb down from the top, he just sits and waits for us to get him.

Hopefully he won't feel like we're pushing him too much. I guess with the new baby coming I've been wanting to make him grow up fast. We are potty training him, taking his crib away and I already find myself telling him that he is a big boy not a baby. The thing is he IS a baby! I guess he's adjusting pretty well, I just don't want to make him grow up too fast.

Memorial Day Party!

2008-06-02T19:41:00.000-07:00

Some of my favorite memories of summer usually include going to different swimming and BBQ party's. Memorial Day is always the start to summer for me, so I always hope there is a party to go to. We were lucky enough to have great friends who threw the party this year, so thanks to them I now feel like summer has officially started!

Taylor went off the diving board for the first time at the party. He climbed up on his own, then walked to the edge of the board and got a little freaked out (thankfully). Scott and I were right beneath him ready for him to jump to us. He tried for a really long time to get up the nerve to jump, but at the last minute decided to sit and slide in. Probably a little more painful than jumping, but he did it and thought it was cool.

Taylor is Talking!

2008-05-27T20:49:00.001-07:00

Taylor is officially a toddler! I love this stage, but also feel like I'm getting my feet pulled out from under me a little bit. There is no amount of reading that could prepare me for some of the things he's doing--good and bad!

My favorite part of this stage is that he loves talking and singing. He is so funny and loves to make us laugh. The part of this stage that has shocked me is the "rough and tumble play" which is a nice way to put hitting and pushing other kids. Don't get me wrong, he is not trying to be mean, unless provoked, he just thinks it is really, really fun to play rough. This does make play groups a little bit harder then they used to be. I'm learning that I not only have to teach him not to hit and push, but I have to stand up for him when other mom's try to discipline him. I will never understand why some people think it's okay to yell at my child when I am right there taking care of the problem. I'm realizing that I need to toughen up and stand up for Taylor.

Hitting and all, it's hard to think of him as less than perfect. It's amazing how much I want to give him the benefit of the doubt, no matter what he does. I secretly think it's cute when he goes up to a smaller child and says, with a huge smile on his face, "I've gotta push him!". At least I know what he's thinking and can stop him before he does it, right?! Along with saying that he also says other really cute things. I want to remember them because they are going to change so soon. Here are some of my favorites...

I love you mama! (Probably my favorite!)

Where daddy go? (Taylor) I don't know, where did daddy go? (mom) He's working (Taylor) -- We go over this one about a hundred times a day.

I wanna see baby Elle - (he lifts up my shirt) I love you baby Elle! Ok, shut it (pulls down my shirt)

I hit...whatever friend he thinks of in that moment. This is a problem right now, we're working on it.

I hungry mommy, I want freshist (breakfast)

trip mama! - this is a new one after going to Orlando for Memorial Day weekend.

Daddy's cooking dinner (Taylor) No, mommy's cooking (Mom) Mommy's helping (Taylor)

Sit down right here, I watch the cars (every time we walk up our stairs to go to our apt.)
I not poopy, I go in toilet (when I get him up from a nap)
I had a good sleep mama (also when I get him up from a nap)

It's so fun to see what he is thinking. One of the best times is when he wakes up or is going to sleep in his crib. I don't know if he's talking to himself or to his animals but he goes on and on. He'll start singing all the nursery rhymes he knows and even make up songs.

When we were in Orlando last weekend we had to sleep in the same room as him. We accidentally woke him up when we went to bed, and realized right then and there why we could never sleep in the same room as him again. He proceeded to talk and sing for 3 hours! I'm not joking! On one hand we were miserable knowing we wouldn't get any sleep that night, but on the other hand it was so fun to here the things come out of his mouth. He sang so many songs that we didn't know he knew. He even made up a song about the mirror he could see next to him and whatever else was around. He even pulled out "August 2nd!" That's my due date, I must say it a lot for him to pick that up, but I had no clue he could say that. It was an interesting night to say the least.

I feel like the past couple of months have given me a glimpse into what year 2 will be like. This is all so new to me, but I have to admit I really love it.

Happy Mothers Day!

2008-05-11T09:30:00.001-07:00

To the mothers in my life...

There are so many things that I LOVE about all of you! It was so hard to choose, but I wanted to pick a favorite memory that I had with each of you that in some way represents the influence you've had on my life. I love you all so much!

MY MOM (aka Nana K)

You are the best mom in the whole world! I am thankful every day that I have you in my life. One part of your personality that has lastingly influenced me -- and this might sound funny, but I really mean it -- is your ability to have fun.

I will never forget the time when we went shopping for my wedding dress. We were shopping, just the two of us, because Scott and Dad were golfing at Hobble Creek. You didn't know that I was engaged and it was so hard for me to keep it a secret because as we were speaking, Scott was asking for Dad's blessing out on the golf course. When we got to the mall, you turned to me and said, "I know you're not engaged yet, but you probably will be soon. So, let's go look at wedding dresses!"

I remember going in to the store with you and we were like kids in a candy store! It was so funny because I told all of the girls that were helping us that I was engaged, but I swore them to secrecy since we planned on breaking the news to you that night at dinner. I remember putting that first dress on and coming out of the dressing room to show you. You looked at me and put your hands over your mouth and we both started to cry. We both knew that this dress was the one. It was perfect! Even though you didn't know I was engaged, you were so excited that you marched up to the front of the store and put the dress on layaway. I love that about you! I love that we got to do that together and that it wasn't stressful or angry or something that we had to check off of a list. You are so good at having fun and as a result, you made that moment one of the happiest memories associated with my wedding.

Look how pretty you are, even with your braces!

I love that you love being a grandma so much!

I love that you have traditions like going to Barnacle Bill's every time you go to the Oregon Coast since you and dad ate their on your honeymoon.

Nana

I love that Nana is such a good listener. She is the most thoughtful person I know. I think she has always been the first person to call me and wish me a "Happy Birthday" or a "Merry Christmas" ever since I was born!

In addition to being thoughtful, she is one of the most fashionable people I know. Nana always looks cute and stylish from her hair and make up all the way down to her shoes. I will never forget getting presents or cards from Nana when I was a little girl and they were always sealed with a kiss, literally.

I remember a story that illustrates both of these unique qualities. It was when I was pregnant with Taylor; Nana, Mom and I were shopping for maternity clothes. There was this really cute, really trendy, and really impractical, short jean jacket. I loved it and I really wanted it. My mom really liked a bunch of other things (which, in fairness, were far more practical). As the three of us talked about our options, Nana, in her quiet, effective way persuaded my mom to go with the jean jacket. Amazingly, she not only changed my mom's mind, but did it in such a way that my mom was really happy about it (and I think she thought it was her idea)!

Grandma Carol

Grandma is the most generous person I know. She is always thinking of others and how she can make their lives better -- and she knows all of us so well that she pinpoints exactly what we need and finds a way of giving it to us!

If I were to take someone on a tour around my house, they would see that all of the things that we use the most and that enrich our lives daily, were gifts from Grandma. She's always sending us cookware and cookbooks or flying across the country to be with us and help us. There are so many examples I could give of Grandma's generosity, but there is one that stands out in my mind.

It was our first year in graduate school and our first year living away from any of our families. Scott and I had been married for two years, so he was still relatively new to the family. Because of how hectic life is and the fact that we lived so far away, Scott hadn't had much time to get to know the Sorenson side of my family. More than anything, I wanted Scott to feel like he was a part of my family, but it was difficult since we lived away from everyone. One day, we got a package in the mail. There was no reason for us to be receiving a package, it wasn't a holiday, it wasn't either of our birthdays, or anything else. The package was addressed to Scott -- not me, Scott -- and the return address was my Grandma Carol's. When Scott opened it up, it was a present specifically for him. In the note, Grandma said that she had just been thinking about him and how hard he works at school and being a good husband and she felt like letting him know how much she appreciated him. The fact that Grandma sent a present to him that he really liked (a Hickory Farms gift basket) meant so much to both of us.

One of our favorite memories was getting a "Beef on Weck" at Wegmans. Nobody appreciated those sandwiches like grandma.

Grandma Sharon

My mother-in-law, who we call Grandma Sharon, is another women who I look up to and who has influenced my life. When I first met her, I was a little intimidated by the fact that she was so talented and knowledgeable. Especially since she excelled in many areas that I was clueless about (for heaven's sake, she can sew, grow her own fruit and vegetables and even lose weight!).

One of the things that is so great about her, is that she not only shares those talents with me, her dedication motivates me to learn and develop those talents for myself.
When Scott and I were first married, we had a really dumpy apartment. In our "living room", we had a wall of windows that had no blinds or curtains. She noticed that the room could use some TLC and offered to make cute curtains to go over the windows, since I had no idea what to do or how to do it. She happily sewed curtains for us and this made such a difference in the aesthetics of our little tree-house-like apartment. But on top of this, she also offered to help me learn how to do stuff like that so I could do it in the future. Honestly, I haven't yet learned how to sew, but her ability to do virtually anything and her willingness to teach me has increased my desire to learn these things and develop these talents to become like her.

Grandma Sharon (and Grandpa Ron) drove all the way to the airport to see us for 10 minutes on our layover. Taylor was not very accommodating, though

They were here for Taylors blessing. She made this beautiful blanket especially for it.

Happy Mother's Day to all the special mothers in my life!

Finally!

2008-05-07T17:38:00.000-07:00

We just found out it's a.....GIRL!

Boy or Girl?

2008-04-17T20:32:00.001-07:00

It probably seems like we're being very secretive about the sex of our baby, but the truth is WE still don't know.! I saw an ultrasound tech at 15 weeks and she predicted a girl, but said it was too early to tell for sure. Then, I saw Dr. Hall at 19 weeks and after he looked at the ultrasound he said he would give me a 50% chance that it was a girl. I said, "did you really need to look to give me those odds?" Then our other doctor, Dr. Morales, looked at 23 weeks and said he couldn't tell for sure either. He gave me a 75% chance that it was a girl, but said there was a good chance he could be wrong. We're going again in a couple of weeks. Any advice on how to get the baby in the right position?

In my head it's totally a girl, but Scott still thinks there is a reasonable chance it's a boy. We might not find out for sure until the baby is born. Deep down, I don't think I really care what the sex is, which is weird for me. I'll be happy regardless. If it is a boy, Taylor will have a brother close to him in age, which is cool. On the other hand, if it's a girl then I will get a baby shower:).

Whether it is a boy or a girl, I think I'm still just adjusting to the fact that I'm pregnant! It feels like everything is going so fast and I'm not keeping up. I really can't imagine what it will be like with two kids. I even have a few worries that I wasn't prepared for. For instance, I feel sad to take time away from Taylor when the baby is born. He gets all of me right now and we both love it. In my head I know it will be better for him to have a sibling and I can't think of anything better than having lots of kids, but at the same time I can't help feeling a little sad to share him. The other scary feeling I have is, "Can I love this baby as much as I love Taylor?" I'm sure I will, but it's weird how I worried I am about it. So for anyone who has two kids, do you love the second one as much as the first or does it take time? That sounds horrible, but it's how I feel.

My 28th Birthday!

2008-04-11T12:43:00.000-07:00

Let me start by giving a little background on birthdays. Scott and I are party people. We love this kind of stuff. When Scott and I were dating, we went ALL OUT for birthdays and anniversaries. We even celebrated monthly anniversaries. When we talked about the future, we decided that we wanted to make birthdays special for each other and our kids. At the same time, we didn't ever want birthdays and other special events to be stressful or overwhelming (they are parties, after all).

I have to admit, it has gotten harder to make birthdays fun since we've been in graduate school. Not because we've lost our will to party, but because we have to be creative instead of using money. Poor Scott has gotten shafted nearly every birthday since we've been married because we always seem to be moving or having babies on or around his birthday. It looks like it will be the same this year too. Even though I have been neglectful of his birthday, he always makes my birthday fun. I am so fortunate to have a husband who tries so hard to make my birthdays memorable even though we don't have money. It's one of my favorite things because I get to see him use his creativity all for me.

My birthday this year was no exception. It was on a Monday -- which is like the worst day to party, but whatever. Scott had to work during the day, but he wanted to be with me, so he took his laptop to Target and worked in the Starbucks while I shopped. We had been holding on to a $25 gift card to Target until we found something we really needed, but Scott told me to take it and spend it on myself. I cannot lie, this was a dream come true. The only problem was that I didn't know what to get; there were too many things to choose from!

That night when we went to dinner, I could have gone anywhere, but my choice was to first go to Moe's and then to get ice cream at Marble Slab. We NEVER get ice cream, so that was definitely a treat. Scott even gave me a present that was wrapped (he once made the mistake of giving me a present that was not wrapped; he has since repented). His present was a workout outfit because, he said, I had mentioned how cool it would be to have a maternity work out outfit. Since he couldn't find any actual maternity workout outfits, he decided to wing it and get XXL versions of regular work out clothes. This was a great present in theory, but it didn't even come close to fitting! That was fine, because it gave me the chance to return his thoughtful gift for something I actually wanted (a new set of Tae Bo DVDs -- Thanks, Honey!).

After dinner -- this is my favorite part -- we went home and put Taylor to bed and Scott gave me a pedicure while I watched The Bachelor: London Calling. This was a sacrifice for him on a number of different levels. Scott said that he knew I really wanted a day at the spa, but because we couldn't afford that, he was going to bring the spa to me. I was laughing the whole time watching him try to figure out what to do with the pumice stone and the nail brush. He never did quite figure it out, but I loved it anyway.

My friends and family spoiled me too. Thank you to each of you for being so thoughtful and making me feel so special.

Taylor had a good time too...

I got this shirt and bag at Target with the gift card.

Easter

2008-04-11T12:12:00.000-07:00

Easter!

This is the funnest Easter I can remember because of Taylor. He was so excited to hunt for easter eggs and eat the candy he found inside. Earlier this month, the Easter Bunny was at the mall (like Santa). Taylor was pretty curious, but his curiosity quickly turned to terror. When we took Taylor up to meet the Easter Bunny, Taylor was freaked out (I was a little freaked out too!). When he finally worked up the courage to sit on the Easter Bunny's lap, Taylor could only muster the word, "Scary!".

We decided to use Easter to gain a strategic advantage in potty training. We explained to Taylor that the Easter Bunny was going to bring Taylor some super cool underwear and give Taylor's yucky diapers to the baby bunnies. While Taylor enjoyed the story and still says "Easter Bunny!" when we put his underwear on, I don't think it quite provided the strategic edge we hoped for.

The videos at the bottom will tell it all.

Taylor's cute shorts turned out to be manpris! Oops!

Here we are outside our apartment.

Mom, I feel so cheesy, but I took this picture for you because I know you've been wanting to see my belly. Is this really normal for someone who is only 22 weeks pregnant? I feel so huge! Scott doesn't really help either, all he does is laugh and say "You don't remember how big you got with Taylor, this is nothing!"

This is why I need to take a photography class! This picture could've been so cute.

WARNING: if you are not a grandparent these videos will not be very entertaining!

Baby Brock

2008-03-27T12:09:00.001-07:00

We went to Miami last week to visit my cousin Mishawn and her husband Micah and their little baby Brock. We were so excited to meet little Brock -- he was soooo cute!

Ever since we went to Miami last week Taylor hasn't forgotten his new little cousin baby Brock. He often brings him up out of the blue just because he's thinking of him. It makes me happy to know he likes babies!

Our New VAN!!!!

2008-03-27T12:05:00.000-07:00

We NEVER thought this day would come! We own a mini van!! (It's a 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan to be exact). We got it from the missionaries, apparently they can only drive a car 50,000 miles and then they have to replace it. The mission then sells the cars for extremely good deals. That's why even Scott couldn't pass this up.

This totally proves what I said in my previous post about how we are getting old and growing up--who knew how excited we would be to own a VAN! I am happy to say we've made the crossover and are joyfully entering the world of minivans.

We thought our Honda would be the car to get us through school, and figured we would just put up with it's weird quarks for a couple more years. Like how the back right window won't roll up all the way, or how the air only works when you are going fast and my favorite is how it squeaks so loud people always know that we have arrived long before we get there. No, this is my favorite, the front passenger seat somehow broke and we had to prop it up by putting Taylor's pack and play in the back just so the front passenger doesn't fall into the back seat. Quarks and all it has been a GREAT car and we've been through so much with it. Here is the new beauty!

Getting in the van is a feeling I can't explain. Even Taylor seemed to glow when he got in it.

The Rest Of Valentines Day

2008-03-20T12:59:00.000-07:00

As I was looking at my pictures I realized I hadn't posted some of my Valentines Day pictures. So, even thought this is a month late I still have to write about it!

Scott was so cute! He woke up early, and very quietly got out of bed and made Taylor and I a special breakfast--it consisted of heart shaped pancakes and all! When I woke up I caught him in the act focusing very intently on a huge pancake and figuring out exactly how many little hearts he could get out of it. I loved it!To make it even better he gave us the hearts and saved the "leftovers" for himself.

Taylor and I didn't want Scott to feel left out so we decided to make him a huge heart-shaped cookie cake. We had absolutely no clue how to do this, but the process was fun anyway.

I let Taylor get as dirty as he wanted. It was his first time to help make cookies.

He was a little confused
Getting the hang of it...

There we go, that's what I'm talking about... he takes after his mom (Scott about died when he saw that he was eating cookie dough with raw eggs...oops)

Our final product, I'd like to think it tasted better than it looked. At least Taylor liked it!

I <3 the Magic Eraser

2008-03-10T19:56:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, Scott and I realized how close we were to being finished with graduate school. I think this kind of freaked Scott out and motivated him to work extra hard over the next year. I wanted to help him stay motivated, so I've been trying to help him wake up early, which means I have to wake up early too.

I figured I should be productive, so I made these early morning hours my cleaning time. The sooner in the day I can get cleaning over with, the better! I made a great cleaning schedule with monthly and weekly cleaning charts. I try to do one item from each list every morning, which usually takes about an hour. I cannot believe what a difference waking up early has made -- now I understand why my Grandma always woke up at 4:30 a.m. to get stuff done. I have to admit, 6:30 is still a bit of a stretch for me, but with all this uninterrupted cleaning time, I have been much more efficient. I have pulled out cleaning tools that I've had for over a year and have never used!

My favorite tool is the Magic Eraser! I've heard about this but I've never used it. On our walls, there were black marks from Scott's bike and crayon marks from Taylor that I didn't think I could get out (and, to be honest, I didn't care too much because... hey, we live in an apartment). But the Magic Eraser truly was magical -- it totally worked! I was so excited that I started using it on everything in the house. I was magically erasing the baseboards, the window sills, everything!

The other magical tool I discovered is a starch called "Magic Sizing". I don't know if it's using the Magic Sizing or the fact that I'm ironing my clothes for the first time in my life, but it is unbelievable how much better my clothes look!

So for all of you expert cleaners out there, what else should I use?

Here is one cleaning problem I'm facing right now. I left Taylor's stroller outside and, of course, it rained. Now there is mold on the fabric. I have washed it with ammonia and Biz but I think the mildew has permanently stained it. My second cleaning problem is that our carpet is nasty and has stains all over it (another blessing of apartment living). I've used carpet cleaning stuff from Walmart and a few other things, but nothing has really worked. Let's face it, some of these stains may be as old as I am, but I want them gone! There has to be a way to fix these things and I bet one of you knows how it can be done. Show me the way domestic goddesses (or Matt)!

Video of Taylor Singing and Talking

2008-03-04T10:44:00.000-08:00

Taylor is starting to talk and sing. It is so stinking cute! Here is our attempt to video him doing it.

We're Growing Up

2008-02-24T08:08:00.000-08:00

Let me describe what I mean by the title of this post. I think last night is an excellent example.

We went to dinner with some friends and their one year old. We sat down to eat and started talking but kept being interrupted by one of our little ones wanting more attention. So we get bits and pieces of a conversation out while intermittently, handing Taylor globs of ketchup to keep him occupied. Each glob would buy us 3 minutes at which point he made it clear that he was finished he demanded another one. We ended promptly at 7 to be sure to get home in time to get our little ones to bed.

On our way home we planned to make a quick stop at the store to get our groceries. While at the store we split up to get things done twice as fast. When we went to the check out we gave the cashier our HUGE Ikea bag and told the bagger to put EVERYTHING in it. We always get some sort of comment and strange look when we pull out that bag. So I explained to them, "well, we live upstairs in an apartment and we absolutely hate going back and forth to get the groceries so we try to do it in one trip." The other day Scott did, as he says "one of the greatest accomplishments of my life!" He carried two huge Ikea bags packed to the brim AND Taylor up the stairs. He had to hold Taylor then squat down like he was going to do squats and pick up the bags (not exaggerating, must have weighed 80 lbs. each) and wrap them around his biceps. When he finally was able to pick everything up, including our child, he realized that he wouldn't fit up the stairs frontwards because he was too wide. So he turns to the side and walks up, bags and baby, sideways. He hasn't stopped talking about his accomplishment for days. In fact, last night he told the casher and bagger about the whole thing. After we left the store I said to him, very sincerely, "That was so fun to do together, we should make it a tradition to go shopping every Saturday night!" Scott gave me a look like, "You are crazy, woman."

Then we get home around 8:00, about 30 minutes past Taylors bedtime. We hurried as fast as we could to get him a bath and let him go potty (he always attempts to stretch this task out as long as possible) and do the bedtime routine. Finally around 8:45 he is in bed!

Then Scott and I separate and try as fast as we can to get everything done for Sunday so we can have a few minutes together to chill and watch TV before we are so tired that we can't keep our eyes open any more. Scott prepares his Elders Quorum stuff, and practices playing the organ (because they asked him last minute to play at the stake priesthood meeting the next day). I finish the dishes in the sink then get out the ironing board to iron our stuff for Sunday. Finally around 10:30 we are finished! We run to the couches and are thrilled because a special Paula's Party and Throwdown with Bobby Flay were on TV (cooking shows). We made it through about 30 minutes before I heard snoring from the other couch. It was 11:00 on a Saturday night and apparently time for bed. I drag Scott to bed and we both crash.

Last night I had this realization, I think it was when I was ironing, that we were totally growing up. I don't know how to explain the feeling, I think it is kind of a scary feeling to realize because you are like... when did my Saturday night turn in to shopping and Paula Dean?! Seriously, how did this happen?? But, at the same time it's cool to think that you are making a house run and raising a child. I was trying to picture myself, even a couple of years ago, before kids, and what I would have thought if I knew what my Saturday nights were going to turn into. It makes me laugh!

What We've Been Up To...

2008-02-16T12:18:00.000-08:00

Our trip to the "O-Shit" as Taylor likes to call the ocean. He wouldn't stop saying it the whole time we were there. We tried so hard not to laugh because that only encouraged him, but it really was too funny. When we left he would cry and repeat over and over (O-@#$%)!

We had a blast in Destin. We got to see my Aunt Sandy for the weekend and she took such good care of us. It was awesome to reconnect with her and catch up again.

Taylor looking stylish as ever in his new church clothes he got for Christmas!

Cutting Taylors hair is one of the most awful things I've ever had to do. We were so sacred of cutting him the only thing we could think to do was to put him in a head lock position while Scott hurried as fast as he could to cut his hair. We did it out on our porch so everyone around could hear Taylor screaming.

We had an awesome super bowl party! The Rodets were nice enough to come. Scott saw Bobby Flay make different kinds of tacos on his show, so he was determined to do the same thing. It actually turned out awesome, we had pork tacos and different dips. Scott is becoming quite the cook.

We got to see our close friends Chuck and Desiree who recently left us in Tallahassee to go to Law School in Virginia. We had fun watching our kids reconnect.

We got tot take Taylor to his first concert ever ... Mr. Stinky Feet! This was actually the highlight of our weekend. We went with Mark and Jessica and got to watch poor Mark go on stage to sing and dance. Mark HATES the gators (Univ. of Florida) and was forced while on stage to do a gator chop..it was so funny!

I thought this was classic. I was trying to get Taylor to wear this sign for pictures to put in Valentines for the grandparents. I had to take about 30 pictures to get one half way decent one. This is what most of them looked like.

Santa Baby!

2008-01-22T11:25:00.000-08:00

We had a fabulous Christmas this year! Aside from the fact that that hearing Christmas songs made me nauseous and I couldn't fully enjoy eating at our favorite restaurants in Utah it was great. I don't recommend getting pregnant around the Holiday's, it kind of takes some of the magic away.

On that bright note, we really did have a great time seeing our family and friends. It worked out perfectly because we got to spend time with my family for a few days also. They flew into Utah to spend time with us before heading to Arizona for Christmas. I think Taylor learned a lot being around my parents...like how to get exactly what he wants from life. He learned how to call my mom Nana and give her kisses. I think I caught her sneaking him candy and treats when I wasn't looking because she couldn't resist!

We stayed with Scott's parents the rest of the time and had a great time with his family. His 5 sisters all made such an effort to see us and make us feel special. Suzanne even drove down from San Diego the day after Christmas, which also happened to be her birthday to spend time with us...I guess she wanted to see the rest of the family too!

This was Christmas morning. Taylor woke up at 8:30 and had no clue what was going on and why everyone was acting so weird. We kept saying "Santa came to see you" and he would say "ho ho ho" just out of habit from hearing the word Santa. He finally got upstairs and saw his tent with his presents inside. We got him many wonderful things we thought he would enjoy; like a stool for the potty, and plastic plates and bowls.

I have to say my favorite part of Christmas morning was watching the way Taylor opened his presents. He opened one, it was a puzzle. He wanted us to open the plastic so he could play with it. After playing with it
for a while we started to prompt him to open more presents. His response was.. "food?" like ok, this was great and all but can we eat breakfast now. So we took a break after only opening a few presents to make breakfast. It was so great. It hit me how pure Taylor still is. He didn't have a care in the world for the rest of his presents. He was totally happy with one, and it was almost a chore to get him to open the rest. I hope he is always so sweet!

A few of the fun things we did for Christmas were:

1. Going to see Savior of the World at the Conference center. My Grandma gave us her tickets since she wouldn't be able to be there. When it was over I kept thinking that I should read the New Testament again, because all of the stories in the play were so interesting.

2. Sledding!! Taylor had a love/hate relationship with it. His favorite parts of Christmas involved snow of some kind, like a snowman...but when Scott took him sledding he started screaming cold, cold, cold. He hated it.

3. Preforming a musical duet with Scott. Yes, I actually played an instrument! Apparently I have a talent for the bells! Scott was asked to play the piano in a house that was being displayed in the parade of homes. For playing he got free tickets to see the homes. So naturally I asked if I could play with him and also get free tickets too. They said I could play the bells. All I had to do was keep rhythm. Turns out I can't keep rhythm because when we stated playing Scott kept telling me to sit out this song, because I was distracting him so much! Oh well we got to see the houses.

4. Of course we LOVED seeing everyone!

Our Big News!

2008-01-16T10:20:00.001-08:00

Well it's official...we are going to have another baby! I'm about 12 weeks along right now and just had my first doctors appointment last week. My due date is August 2nd, so we are going to have another summer baby here in Florida. I think we are absolutely insane! Their birthday's will be exactly two years apart. As long as this baby doesn't come on July 31st we will be just fine, that is our anniversary.

So I have to say this pregnancy hasn't been very easy so far. I feel like I have experienced every pregnant symptom that I swore people were exaggerating when I was pregnant with Taylor. Now I feel very differently--it's awful! Thankfully the nausea and extreme tiredness is going away and I'm starting to feel like my old self again. People keep saying that I must be having a girl because I feel so different this time, so we'll see if they're right.

We had a great Christmas and I will get those pictures up soon! I'll use pregnancy as an excuse for now because I can.

Thanksgiving Madness

2007-11-28T12:54:00.000-08:00

Our Thanksgiving was really great this year although totally crazy. I liked being busy, it reminds me of what it's like being home with my family. Here's what we did...

8:00 Turkey Trot

We've made the Turkey Trot an annual tradition since we've lived in Tallahassee. So far I had raced in the 5k and 10k so this year I decided to train for the 15k. I beat the time I was going for, so I was very happy. Every year Scott makes a deal that he will go watch me as long as we go to McDonald's afterwards. I probably ate back all the calories I burned. Oh well, it was totally worth it!

It's still a little early for him, he's trying to figure out what's going on

2:00 Thanksgiving with the Austins

The Austin family is always taking care of us. Two years ago they had us over for Thanksgiving and they had us again this year. There were tons of people there, I think they had at least 5 tables set up filing up almost every room in their house. It was very laid back and fun.

Another new thing: He wipes everything off his tray really fast and watches it fall on the floor, he thinks it's hilarious.
4:00 Plantation Wedding

We stayed at the Austins for just over an hour, then ran off to a wedding for a couple in our ward. They got married on a southern plantation in Georgia. The reception was actually in the same room where they showed the premier of "Gone with the Wind".

Taylor is at the age where all he wants to do is run and pull things down. This was especially scary because the decorations involved big, flowy tablecloths with about 10 candles as a centerpiece on each table. I am seriously surprised we made it with out burning anything down. All I can say is I'm so glad we brought his high chair and I will never go anywhere that requires eating with out it.

Taylor with his ladies

Attempting to take a family Christmas picture

Attempting again

He just wants to climb

And run

Attempt to take a picture with my good friend Desiree and her little girl Natalie

And play in ditches

We finally found something that he liked...hot cider! He drank an entire cup without coming up for air
Sorry Taylor, you're still a little short for the kid table

8:00 We were finally home for the night

The following Sunday we decided to have our own mini-Thanksgiving and invited some friends over. We really just wanted the leftovers. Here is how Taylor enjoyed his leftovers.
He dipped his turkey with gravy into his water cup, then drank it. It didn't phase him a bit.

Blessings

2007-11-23T11:05:00.000-08:00

I was asked to give a talk this upcoming Sunday on blessings and being thankful. I decided to base my talk on Elder Eyring's last conference talk "O Remember, Remember". One of the main points of his talk is that we need to write down our blessings in order to see and remember the hand of God in our lives. Since I am going to ask the congregation do to this, I figured I better do it too. So I am writing down a story from our lives that I want my family to remember. Here it goes...

In the summer of 2003 Scott and I were newly married, newly graduated from BYU and on the verge of making a big change in our lives. We had plans to move somewhere totally new to begin graduate school, but we didn't know where just yet. Scott knew that the route he had chosen was not an easy one because acceptance rates for good Clinical Psychology programs are between 1 and 2%, so needless to say getting accepted the first time you apply was pretty rare. He knew his grades and G.R.E. scores had to be virtually perfect and he needed to have enough research experience as an undergraduate to catch the eye of one of the professors he wanted to study under. At this point, however, he had not taken the G.R.E. and he didn't have enough research experience or output, but his grades were great.

Scott was working at Los Hermanos (the restaurant where we met) as a server. But Scott was not just a server, he was a Rockstar server -- not long after being hired he was quickly made a lead server which made both his income and his ego much bigger. At this point, he had been working at Los Hermanos for nearly 3 years and had a perfect track record, that is until one fateful night in June.

It was a weekend night and Scott was the floor manager (which meant that he managed the entire service staff in addition to taking a full section of his own tables). Scott was having an off night and in the busy-ness of it all, he failed to charge three of his table for the guacamole they ordered as appetizers. This was a mistake on Scott's part, but Scott's boss, who had secretly observed him that night didn't see it that way. Late that night (at about 1am) after the restaurant closed and was nearly ready to be locked up, the owner of Los Hermanos walked in and asked Scott if they could have a chat.
"Claudia said she was watching you tonight and that you had a couple of tables that you didn't charge for their guacamole," he said.
Scott was apologetic and assured him that he would be more careful in the future. But the owner continued, "Claudia doesn't think this was an accident. She said you were schmoozing your tables to get better tips."
"Well, Craig, I always schmooze my tables," Scott said, "But I would never intentionally give them things for free to get better tips!"
"Well, Claudia said it was pretty obvious that you were stealing guacamole, so we're going to have to let you go. We can't tolerate stealing."

They were accusing Scott (the same person who wouldn't take even a sip or a bite of any food that he didn't pay for even if it was going to be thrown away, and even though everyone else did it) of stealing. It wasn't funny at the time, but when you think about it, Scott was fired for stealing guacamole. That's funny.

In the meantime we had been praying to know what do to about graduate school. We felt really strongly that we needed stay in Provo one more year so Scott could build up his resume. But when he got fired we couldn't figure out how this fit with the impression we had received. Why was this was happening when we felt impressed to stay put? Only after a few days of job hunting did we receive the answer. It hit us that maybe he got fired for a reason! Maybe he wasn't supposed to be working and he was too dense to get that answer any other way. Fortunately, I had a good job that allowed us to live off of just my salary for the next year so Scott could devote his full efforts to building up his resume and studying for the GRE.

So that's what we did, and in the end Scott aced the G.R.E., got in a solid number of research hours and conference presentations and great letters of recommendation. He ended up getting accepted to work with one of the top 25 psychologists in the world who we followed here to Florida State where we have been blessed with so many opportunities that we otherwise may have missed out on.

In hindsight, we feel so so grateful that he was fired, as funny as that sounds. Now I can see that the hand of God was at work in our life because if we were left to our own devices, Scott would have tried to juggle all that he did while still working working full time, and I honestly don't think we would have experienced the blessings we have received.

Spoon

2007-11-11T14:13:00.000-08:00

A few nights ago we went to a Spoon concert. Scott really likes them and they happened to be coming to Tallahassee to play so we had to go. Scott says that he is trying to make me cooler by exposing me to new music, like this...

Pre Concerrt: I'm thinking: "We are going out so I better look really cute, I'll wear my new pink shirt and jeans." Maybe the fact that that was the main thing on my mind is where I went wrong...

Post Concert: I'm thinking: "What the heck was I thinking! Trying to look "cute" was totally the wrong move, I looked like the oldest person there, and definitely the ONLY person in pink! I haven't been to a concert in 5 years, since we got married, so I have a little excuse. It was just really clear to me that I was so much older than college students...it's weird I don't know how to explain it. All I know is that I should have been wearing black, not pink and Scott and I both should have had WAY tighter and more tapered jeans on! In a way it did feel like a little 7th grade flashback, but whatever.

So, the concert was very cool. I liked the 2 songs I knew a lot, I also liked the fact that we were super close and could see the band perfectly, and the lead singer's voice was pretty amazing. The only thing is that some of it was really loud and kind of weird. So Scott, did I fail or am I cooler now that I went, even though I didn't like everything???

Cool Spoon Song

He's Growing Up - Taylor's 14th and 15th Month

2007-11-11T14:11:00.000-08:00

I LOVE this age! When I say that everyones tone implies, enjoy it now because once they turn 2 it's pretty much downhill. So, just in case they are right, I can't forget the things I love about this stage.

One of my favorites is his new words. Here are a few:

nana = banana
ba = bath
ee ya = see ya - this one came out of the blue, I guess we say it a lot
buh bye
boo = blanket - I have no idea
his elephant sound - he has no expression, he lifts up his arm and goes uhhh...I guess that's how I taught him.
dog = cat, horse whatever it's a dog
bu ball = basket ball or foot ball (he's been obsessed with both ever since we took him to the game)
neigh = his new favorite game, when he says neigh he wants to get on my back and ride around only he's too scared to stay on my back once I start moving so it's basically him just getting up and down over and over again.
eye = he sticks his finger really hard in our or his own eye every time we ask where his eye is.
da done = all done
go, go, go, go = green, when we're in the car I try to teach him that green means go and red means stop when we see the lights. That night he was eating with a green spoon and kept saying "go,go,go,go!"

Another thing I love is his dancing and singing. If anyone hears him sing, he'll give away the fact that I listen to Hot 104.9...ahh! The other day I was driving and day dreaming about something when I realized that Taylor was in the back seat singing "ella, ella, ella" over and over again. You know the Rehanna song "Under my Umbrella". It was so funny. Another of his favorites is the song Solder Boy because he does the background OHHHH, right along with them. The other one he sings to is any Justin Timberlake song that says OW. He'll do it right along Justin with the right intonation and everything. The funniest part of it is that he's so serious when he does it. We just laugh at him and he has no clue why. He also loves to dance, he'll stand in front of the radio and bounce up and down as a way of getting me to turn it on. When the music starts, he gets really happy and bounces around the room for a while. He seriously has more rhythm than I do, all of this must come from his dad.

One More...This is the first time he's ever shown affection, like kisses and hugs. I can even say "love mama" and he'll give me a hug and lay his head on my shoulder. I seriously never thought this day would come. I'm sure it won't last long so I am going to take advantage as much as possible. He likes to kiss too, I think it's cute but Scott thinks it's kind of gross.

Halloween, Halloween, Halloween!

2007-11-02T11:54:00.000-07:00

our little cow

Halloween 2006 and Halloween 2007...Taylor is still wearing the same shirt!

Here is our Halloween rundown

Oct. 27th Trunk or Treat

Oct.27th How to Host A Murder

Oct.29th F.H.E. Carving Pumpkins

Oct.31st Halloween Night

A Couple of Firsts

2007-11-02T10:27:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure why, but this week I decided that it's time I learn how to do a couple of things most people know how to do already and I don't. First of all... cutting my husband's hair! Scott is always begging me to learn how to cut his hair and I am always saying I'm too scared to do it. Finally he said, you can just cut it really short and all the same length, which I guess is a very easy hair cut, so I decided to do it. Of course he had to go back and touch up the parts I didn't cut right though. When we finished I freaked out a little bit because I've never seen him this short. But now I really, really like it... he looks like a hotter Justin Timberlake!

Before

After

I know it doesn't even look that different, but I guess that's a good thing.

The other thing didn't turn out so well. I decided to make bread. I'm 27 and I've never made bread before. It sounded like a fun fally thing to do and I figured it couldn't be that hard. I found a recipe online and did it. It did NOT turn out like it said it would. Let me tell you it looks WAY better than it tasted! Scott couldn't even eat it. NASTY! If anyone has a good bread recipe, send it along, please!

2007-10-30T21:25:00.001-07:00

For all of you who missed Taylor's first birthday party!

It was a duck themed party, with a duck cake. We underestimated the amount of cake we needed and had to use Taylor's smash cake to feed the guests. Scott got creative and cut off the head of the duck from his cake and let him smash into that. Kind of morbid.

New Diet

2007-10-20T20:17:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I feel kind of weird talking about diets for some reason, like I'm not supposed to or something, but I'm going to do it anyway. Last year Scott and I set a goal to be at a certain weight by the end of the year. Well that time is coming and we both have about 15 lbs. to go, and I am in need of some serious motivation! If you know me very well you will know that I am constantly trying to find an "easy" way to diet, or at least a way that I can actually make it work. I'm usually not very successful. I've tried so many different things. The only thing that has worked for me is counting my calories and exercising EVERY single day. The only problem with this is that I often lack motivation and consequently I've been stuck at the same weight that I've been at since I've gotten married. The other day a new plan just came to me--I think I may have just come up with the diet to end all diets, at least for people without any money! It's so simple and it totally motivates me.

Here it is...when I get a craving to eat in any of these instances
(a) when I'm not hungry
(b) when I'm feeling emotional in any way
(c) when there is good food in the house and I think what's the difference if I just eat it all now or spread it out over a few days, it's the same amount of calories either way
(d) Scott's eating so I want to eat too...I could probably go on but it's basically just when I'm being impulsive

Here is what I do...I pay myself a certain amount of money NOT to eat. It's not even very much money, but for some reason it totally works. For example, the other morning Taylor was finished with his eggo and had only eaten a quarter of it. Normally I would have finished it without thinking twice about it. Now I say, would I rather finish that or get rid of it and give myself a quarter to add to my fund! Whatever amount of money will motivate me to stop eating is what I give myself.

So far, nobody is on board with me and this diet, people don't think it will work. I am determined to prove everyone wrong. This will be the answer to me losing the next 10 lbs! I figure it can't hurt to write it down and make me accountable to everyone too, right?

Pumpkin Patch

2007-10-18T17:12:00.000-07:00

Ever since having a child Halloween has been way more fun. Pumpkin patches are suddenly exciting, we all get to wear costumes more than once and I have this great desire to make really elaborate Halloween desserts. Here is the first of our Halloween festivities, the pumpkin patch!

Ketchup... YUM!

2007-10-15T09:46:00.000-07:00

Taylor has found a new passion...ketchup! At Harrison's birthday party I let him sit at a little kid table and eat for the first time. When I went to check on him I caught him reaching across the table and taking handful's of the other kid's ketchup and sticking it all in his mouth. It was really, really funny. He is definitely like his daddy in this way, Scott has always talked passionately about his love for ketchup and it looks like Taylor feels the same way.