The Quest

So my sister-in-law posted her "Project du Jour" up today about a very nice necklace that she made, which looks awesome and is just as nice as the original, but better because it cost her 90% less to make. So I decided to let you all in on a project I myself decided to do last week. (Well I decided to do it last week, but then thinking about it made me stressed out, but I've decided that I still want to go through with it.) It all started when my momma-in-law, Linda, offered to buy unborn baby James a "Pack N Play." She saw a really cute one, but waited to get it in case I already had a theme going for baby's nursery. I told her I hadn't picked a theme because 1.) at that time we were still planning on moving to Las Vegas and getting a one-bedroom apartment (meaning the baby wouldn't have his own room, and I really didn't want our own room to be taken over by sailboats or baseballs, or however they decorate baby boy's rooms.) and 2.) I honestly just hadn't thought about it. So I told her to go ahead and get the one she had her eye on...and here it is...



The Graco Pack N Play Tango in the Tongo...(which, as you can see, has hippos, elephants, rhinos, lions, the works)
So a little over a week ago we realized that us going to Las Vegas wasn't going to work, hence the reason why Stephen got a job here in Provo. This means we'll be staying in our current two-bedroom apartment and James can have a nursery after all. So then I started thinking about themes... Well we had recently joined this group on-line called Freecycle, where people give away their stuff for free because they just don't want to deal with having to sell it. So I put up a wanted post for a baby carseat/base/stroller. Someone replied and we went and picked it up last Saturday and guess what? It too had rhinos, lions, elephants, giraffes, the works on the carseat and the stroller. So as you might have guessed it, the theme is "the jungle" or "safari." So here's the "my project" part of it, I decided to make a quilt. My sister Megan made a quilt for her first daughter (funny because her first child was a boy, and then she had a girl) for her final Young Women's project. It had bunnies and carrots on it. So I thought that it would be sweet to make a quilt for my baby boy, a jungle quilt. (That's why I was hesitant, I've helped my mom make quilts when I was little, but never done it on my own) So I looked on-line for some ideas on how I wanted the quilt to look for my little Tarzan-man, and here are some that I found...







I like the first two a lot, but they seem just a bit beyond my sewing abilities, so I think I'll go with making my quilt look like this last one. So I better get started...anyone have any jungle/safari quilt patterns? :)

I told my mom about my little project idea last week and so when she came up for my baby shower on Saturday she brought with her this huge box full of quilting scraps and quilt patterns. For those of you who don't know, my mom is a huge fan of quilting, and has made many a quilt in her day(s). So lucky me, going through her fabric scraps I found plenty to use that I might not even have to buy any fabric at all. Not just for the quilt, but for yet another nursery project I have in mind. As I was going through her huge box of scraps and quilt patterns I came across these...







Patterns to make stuffed jungle animals. Aren't they cute? They're called "Rumpled Quilt Skins." My mom bought them long ago to make for grandkids, but then she never got around to using them. So I asked her if I could try, and she said "yes" but warned me they were a bit difficult, so if I needed her help (aka just ask her to finish them for me) she could "help." I'm really excited and scared, especially since my sewing projects in the past have had a tendency to be left undone. But this time I'm determined to see it through, especially since I'm home all day with not a lot to do. The great thing about these things is that by making them for him there is more sentimental value to it. By the time baby James has his own kids, or grandkids, he can pass them on and say, "Did you know Grandma Melinda Taylor made these for me when I was a baby?" I just hope I can finish all four in time before August 1st, so...everyone keep your fingers crossed.

The Birthday Boy!...(I mean Man!!)

Yeah!!!! WOOOHOOO!!! Today is Stephen's birthday, and I would like to thank my Heavenly Father for sending him to me, or me to him, since he was born first!!



Stephen is such a wonderful husband/almost father. I know he'll be a great dad! One of the reasons is because (and forgive me Stephen for telling this but...), last month when we watched "HOOK" he cried (not a lot, but enough to make me go, "awww...your so sensitive! I mean sweet, in a masculine way!") when Peter Pan/Robin Williams told his son Jack that he was his happy thought. Stephen is so thoughtful! He still opens the door for me, and waits for me to be seated first so he can push my chair in. Even on his birthday he asks me where I want to eat (even I wouldn't do that on my own birthday). He always says "ladies first" and he helps me so much with my pregnancy demands and grumblings. He tells me I'm beautiful even when I'm not wearing makeup, have just worked out, or really do look horrifying. He tells me that being pregnant (despite the fact that I've already gained... uh-hmph 27 pounds at 6 months, aghhh, I can't believe I admitted that) just makes me look more beautiful to him, especially the fact that I'm carrying his child. And I want everyone to know how especially proud I am of him, because today he just got a new job!!!! Woohoo!! Thanks to Megan's fabulous twin sister Katie!!! (Megan's my sista-in-law) Katie works at the place that he got hired and highly recommended him to her boss. He starts tomorrow at Pro Pay. (For those of you wondering, Stephen is still in the process of applying for the CHP, but since it's such a long process with a lengthy background check we need something pronto to support us, and obviously pay for this baby's birthin' in the mean time.) Speaking of the CHP, (and since today is Stephen's special day, I, as his wife, have bragging privileges) Stephen got the results from the CHP for the QAP, questions appraisal panel, and he scored really high, he got a 90! Woohoo! That's my man! I love you always forever Stephen love of my life, shade of my heart, father of my children,.... And I hope you have a spectacular wonderful sensational HAPPY BIRTHDAY FROM YOUR LOVING WIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



P.S. Sorry that I haven't posted things in a while, we lost our camera, which makes it difficult, BUT as soon as I get e-mails containing pictures from our graduation (last Friday) and my baby shower (last Saturday) I'll post the two events.

Easter Weekend (Again)

I know that it was last week, but because our camera is still in CA I had to wait for my sister to send these pixes. So...here they are. My fun Easter weekend getting to catch up with my sister Sarah (who, unfortunately, I only get to see about once a year.) We stayed at my Uncle Jim's new house in Draper. They were out of town so we had the whole place to ourselves! Like our own little rental, without having to pay rent! Not bad, huh?



This first one is of all of us having dinner together.



Now it's time for just the girls! During which Jeff took Stephen to see "The Castle" next door. I wished we'd taken a picture of it, the house was huge! (Man, my mom has such dark olive colored skin. I don't know where she gets it from!



There is an amazing view of the Draper Temple (which was just dedicated like, three weeks ago.) from the balcony which is right outside the Kitchen/Dining area.



Here's a picture of it during the daytime.



Here's Stephen holding Scarlett as we open the gifts from Sarah. I LOVE seeing Stephen holding kids and taking pictures of him with them. It helps me to visualize what the next several months/years will look like.



Here Stephen is holding the shoe up next to his foot to help us visualize how small baby's feet are. Even though these aren't the smallest of the small, 'cause they're 18-24 months.


Here Uncle Jeff is teaching Scarlett how to play pool. :)



Also, downstairs in my uncle's house there's a little play area/kitchen thing under the stairs that Scarlett discovered. Here she's asking us what we want to eat. :)



While we were staying at my uncle's his daughter/my cousin Veronica, (who is gorgeous! She's half Argentine, and has that exotic look!) came to see us. This is her daughter in the picture. Poor girl has 4 older brothers and has had to learn to stick up for herself. In fact, she demonstrated how she doesn't take crap from anyone by giving Scarlett the fist and shaking it at her. :) HA! Little kids...ahhh...



One of the main reasons Sarah came to the area though was to see my Grandma Jeanne Dean. She fell and hurt her hip badly, and her health has been pretty bad this last year.



This was the first time Scarlett got to meet her Great-Grandmother.



This was actually taken in St. George at an outdoor water fountain thing made for kids to play in. As you can see, she loves it! (But not as much as Uncle Jeff!)



Some down time with Gpa.



So that's the end of my Easter Weekend last week.
:)

Child Labor Laws. HA!

My sister just posted this picture on Facebook. Isn't this sweet? Her daughter Scarlett, helping her do the dishes at my parents house. Just what I say! Start them YOUNG doing chores! Now, if you could only get them to change their own diaper...(I guess that's called potty training, right?) I guess the best way to get them enthused about doing chores is to buy toys that prep them for it. Like those toy vacuum cleaners that have the balls that pop/fly when you push them. INGENIOUS!

Mr. "Front Sight"

Stephen has gone down to his Disneyland this weekend to finish his Firearm Training at Front Sight, and has left me all alone, again. But I'll survive (hopefully). For those of you who don't know, Stephen applied for a job at a Firearms Training School outside of Las Vegas, NV at the beginning of January this year to be one of their Firearms instructors.

There were lots of people that applied, and Stephen was one of two out of everyone else there (there were a total of 38) that has never had any sort of professional training. Everyone else applying have been in either a Police Department/Patrol, the Marines, SWAT Team, etc.

Each day they tested the different people applying, and each day they eliminated a certain number of people. Kind of like a lot of these reality T.V. shows there are. Each day I waited to hear back from him to see if he had been eliminated. Well Stephen passed with flying colors! And for many of you who know Stephen, I mean really know him, this isn't a huge surprise since he loves going shooting and goes almost any chance he can get. Unfortunately it would be more of a part time job, and so they wouldn't work him enough for us to actually move there permanently. So he's finishing his training there and will go down to work there occasionally. Although the pay isn't that great, we think that this would look good on his resume to a lot of the other places that he is currently applying to, like the CHP. It's a highly respected school where a lot of police departments send their officers to get additional firearms training, but anyone can go there to get trained.

He wants me to go there and get trained, but I told him there's no way I'm running around holding a gun with my preggar belly. So, that'll have to wait...

CHECKED OFF

This is where you can comment what you got, if you want. Like I said, I won't check the comments.

P.S. you need a gmail account to do it.
P.P.S. The actual Baby Wishlist is below. :)

The Baby Checklist

I've had several people ask me where I'm registered for baby things. I signed up at Target, but as I was looking for things to register I realized everything seemed so ridiculously expensive (I never realized how expensive babies are). So I came up with the idea to post things that I think I'll need, and you can buy them where ever you want, or you can make them. Several things I know I could make for one-third the cost that they're selling for, and if you think you could too, feel free(These items have little stars by them * )! Then there were other things that I'm sure people might already have that they don't need anymore that are still in great condition. Again, if this is the case feel free. Plus, they always have great deals on craigslist.com for things that are still in excellent condition. So go ahead and get them where ever, or make them. (If you have any suggestions for things that I might need and are not on the list below, PLEASE let me know by leaving a comment, I'm still figuring out what babies need. P.S. RIGHT AFTER THIS POST I'LL HAVE ANOTHER POST WHERE YOU CAN COMMENT WHAT YOU GOT SO NO ONE ELSE GETS THE SAME THING, AND I SWEAR NOT TO LOOK AT THE POST. This way I don't end up with, for example, two changing tables. But there are several items that are great to have more than one, like clothes, right? So if this is the case, then don't worry about leaving a comment, but like I said, not on THIS POST, BUT THE NEXT ONE THAT SAYS "CHECKED OFF")

BABY CHECKLIST
-Nursing Cover* (for breastfeeding)

-Baby Sling/Wrap* (I'm not sure if there's a technical term for this, but I do prefer the one that has two straps for each shoulder instead of one, to avoid back aches)

-Changing Table
-Changing Pad
-Toys/Rattlers
-Teethers
-Pacifiers
-Receiving Blankets*
-Baby Boy Clothes & Shoes* (Be careful buying infant sized shoes, I'm told that Taylor babies have big feet, so aim a little bigger.)
-Blankets*
-Nursing Pillow* (I saw this and it seemed like a good thing to have for those late night feedings.)

-Bottles & Nipples
-Bibs*
-Burp Cloths*
-Bouncer/ExerSaucer
-Swing
-Baby Monitor
-Baby Gate
-Diaper Genie
-Baby Bathtub

Things I already have:
Graco Pack N Play With Bassinet
Car Seat & Stroller
Few Baby Clothes
1 size 18 months baby shoes
Baby Memory Book/Album
What to Expect the First Year (book)
3 Bibs

By the way...

Speaking of oh so cute nieces, this picture was posted by my sister-in-law, Megan, on her blog the day that we told them we were having a boy. I was going to wait to put it on ours until baby came, but I just can't wait...plus i'm afraid I'll forget later.


Isn't she cute?! I hope all the cousin babes will be BFF, minus the biting of noses. Teehee. Preston will have to be the temporary big brother to look out for his little cuzes.

I don't know 'bout you, but he looks pretty tough to me. (Taking his new haircut like a little man.)
Note: For friends viewing my blog these are the babes, I mean big kids, on the Taylor side. (Just wanted to clarify which Megan, and side, there are so many sharing of names for both of our families it can get confusing.)

P.S. This post will make more sense if you read the one right below it first!

Baby Attack

This is my niece Scarlett. (She came with my sister last weekend for Easter)


This is Scarlett when her BFF decides to bite off her cute little button nose.


Lesson learned: Always watch babies very very carefully when they play together, especially if one of them has a vicious jealous streak. :] Poor Scarlett. I love you!

Panic Attack

Saturday...where to begin. As I mentioned yesterday my family was in town, so we stayed at my uncle's place up in Draper with my family. On Saturday had a lot of things going on though. For one, it was my old roomate's baby shower (she's expecting a girl), and then later the Easter Dinner at Uncle Stephen and Tracy's place. Well, before we left our place for Draper the day before I forgot to look up directions to where the baby shower was at, so I ended up calling my friend's mother-in-law, who, bless her heart, didn't give very good/clear directions. I hate to be harsh against my own sex, but whenever women (older women) give me directions they (for the most part) seem very unclear. She didn't even know the exit number from the freeway to get to her own house, and she didn't give me any street numbers. All the directions consisted of were "go east, on the third right turn right, then on the second stop sign turn left, then the fourth right..." etc. You get the picture? So we were lost for a half hour, then we had to call her sister-in-law for better directions. BUT before calling her sister I started to have a panic attack, probably like the third I've had in my life, and they always seem to happen in cars when being lost. I started crying hysterically and couldn't stop. Finally we found the place, but I was so emotionally distraught that I sat alone the whole time, pouting. Then about two hours later we all went to Easter Dinner (my family too) at the Taylor's. It was a lot of fun, but a bit of a learning experience for some members of my family since we never really debate with each other or talk about politics, etc. But it was a lot of fun. As usual, I over ate. Oh well. Happy Late Easter. (I'll have to post pictures of Easter weekend later when my sis e-mails me the pictures)

Pre-shower Showering

My sister Sarah came to visit this weekend for Easter and it was a lot of fun! She brought some baby shower gifts with her (that are super cute) since she can't make it to my baby shower in a couple weeks, so she decided to pre-shower us. (our camera is currently in CA so I found these pix on-line)She got baby a cute Winnie the Pooh, "Days with Pooh" memory album book...


...these cute shoes called Robeez...


...and for Stephen she got this interactive CD thing called "The Goodfather."

It has everything that dads-to-be need to know, and he's already spent almost 2 hours on it today. It has information covering all the basics, and non-basics, from things like "different kinds of baby poop", to baby names, etc. It even has a thing to make your own announcements for when the baby's born. He even taught me something new called "Kangaroo Care" where you hold the naked baby against your bare skin to reduce the baby's stress, normalize its' heartbeat, increase its' oxygen, and the baby sleeps better, etc. He's gonna be such a great dad! (Stephen also brought some great gifts back with him from CA, that Linda and Becky had picked out, but because our camera is in CA I'll have to post the pictures a little later.)

California Highway Patrol

So, as many of you know Stephen is applying for the California Highway Patrol, like Nathan (his brother) and Micheal (brother-in-law). This means that he is in California this weekend, again, and I am missing him. I just want to take this moment to say that despite the fact that he missed his flight on Friday, had to wait at the airport for three hours, didn't get to mama and papa Taylor's until 12-ish, and only got approximately 3-4 hours of sleep, he still did excellent on his Physical Fitness Exam. In fact, he ran the fastest in his group. YEAH, WOOHOO! That's my man! And because he wore his Boy Scouts of America Troop shirt at the Physical Fitness Exam they asked him if he was an eagle scout. They were very impressed when he said "yes", and they told him to mention that on Monday during his follow-up interview. See, getting your eagle scout does look good, people do care. I love my honey and am so proud of him!

24 Night

For the past two months or so Stephen and I have been watching the show 24 with some very good friends of ours: Chris and Valerie Harmon, and Cory and Charisse Stephens. Call it our FHE group. Every Monday we meet at the Harmon's have dinner, dessert, and watch the show 24. The best part is all the funny commentaries that we make during the show. We all make some side remarks so no one tells the other to shut up, none of us really take it that seriously, but it is a lot of fun spending time with friends. Here are some pictures that Stephen took of the last two "24" nights.


(Valerie:Hey is it picture taking time? Melinda: YES, this is my fourth serving!!!)


(Melinda: That's right Stephen take a picture of my backside, becuase right now it looks better than the front. Cory: Oh, I wanted to pose but Stephen already pressed the button)


(Melinda: Ahh...Celery. Wait, what...? Another picture?) NOTE: Megan your "um...ew" self portrait sunday pix doesn't hold anything to this beautiful pix of me!


(Melinda: "Quick Valerie, block my belly! ah-hah! Now I'm ready!)