The Christmas Card Post

I promised myself this year Stephen and I would send out Christmas cards. It is now December 29th and I haven't done it yet, and don't know if I will. So I decided to take my mother-in-law's advice and just post it instead. (For those of you who follow our blog regularly some of the following things will be repeats, but for the rest of you, I will do my best to bring you up to date in a concise manner.)

Earlier this year I (Melinda) was finishing my last semester of my Graduate TESOL program to get my TESOL certificate. From January until April I was doing my student teaching as well as taking my own classes. I taught two classes here at the ELC in Provo. In April I graduated and received my certificate. After a very hell-ish pregnancy I gave birth to a very heavenly baby boy. It was a C-section unfortunately. Since then I have been busy being a stay at home mom, and love (almost) every minute of it.

Stephen was hired earlier this year as a part-time fire-arms instructor at Front-Sight, which is outside of Las Vegas, NV. He was looking for a full time job so... we're still here in Provo. He finished up with his schooling (for the most part with the exception of one independent study class that he finally turned in his last assignment on December 17th, hooray!!) in April as well and we walked together. He will soon get his BA diploma in History with a minor in Spanish. After finishing school in April he got a full-time job at Pro-pay which is located next to Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, UT. Stephen has been very busy between his full-time job, finishing his I.S. class, taking care of me during my very sick pregnancy and then C-section recovery, taking care of his new son, being the Sunday School first counselor, as well as helping his brother Nathan doing some projects around the house (i.e. painting, fixing the sink upstairs as well as the door, the locks, the dryer, etc.) He has also been busy applying to the CHP, as well as other places to which we are still waiting to here back from.

James Madison Taylor was born July 23rd 2009 at 1:55 a.m. He is now about 17 and 1/2-18 pounds and is 5 months.
He loves playing with his hands, grabbing his toes, being read to, but mostly he loves being held. He has discovered the joy of his vocal cords; which has it's ups and downs. He hasn't yet mastered crawling, but is getting better at sitting up. We just love him and are very glad he chose to be a part of our family.

We stayed here in Provo, UT for Christmas and spent it with Stephen's brother Karl and his family. (Go here to see more pictures.) We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and that everyone will have a Happy New Year.



Love the Taylors,
Stephen, Melinda and James
(To stay up to date with our going ons feel free to check out our blog regularly.)
P.S. There are three people I never sent Thank-you cards to for sending a baby gift/gifts to James. So I would like to say Thank-you soooo much to Aaron and Lydia, Megan and Rod, and Aunt Leslie. Thank-you soo much for the baby gifts, we love them, and I'm sorry this is late.

I Know Someone Famous!!

So, having been a theatre major before I got my BA in Linguistics I see a lot of people from those days in movies. All (admittedly) in LDS movies. That is...up until yesterday. For example, the dad of Sam in the movie "Charly" was an old drama teacher of mine at UVSC (now UVU), the dad of that same actor in the "Testaments" was also a teacher at UVSC, he was never my teacher, but his son was in "Alladin" with me at the Hari Khrishna Temple in Spanish Fork. There are others as well...but I want to get onto the big kill. Yesterday Stephen and I went out to dinner with some good friends of ours that we hadn't seen in a while because they moved to Texas. After dinner we went to see a movie. The movie was called "All About Steve." We didn't expect much of the movie, but it turned out being really funny. Anyway, we were sitting there watching it and suddenly I saw a guy sitting next to Sandra Bullock at the three legged baby protest that looked like a guy that I was in a play with in High School. Then suddenly there was no doubt. "Oh my gosh...that's Jordan Morris!" "Who?" "Jordin Morris! We were in a play together in high school! He asked me for my phone number once." If you do happen to see the movie, he's in two scenes: the three legged baby protest at the hospital, and at the very end right behind her in the crowd. He's short, white, and has a big curly afro. (He looks like a hippie.)

The Reason For The Season

Don't forget to read this before Christmas is over. (We just read it tonight, and Stephen and I were both crying like babies.)

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST LUKE
CHAPTER 2
Angelic ministrants herald the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem—He is circumcised, and Simeon and Anna prophesy of his mission—At twelve years he is about his Father’s business.
1 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.
2 (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)
3 And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.
4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)
5 To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.
6 And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
7 And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.
12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Laughs

So I got a mysterious call from my sister Megan on Saturday asking me if I'd checked my e-mail. With our parents in town (both mine and Stephen's) we'd been a little busy so I told her I would. She then giggled and said to make sure that I did. My sister Megan is very much (or was growing up) the prankster. You know the "pull-my-finger" type. So I got an e-mail from her titled "elfyourself" with a link. I went there and laughed so hard I think I scared James. Please go here to encounter your on pants-wetting experience. :D it's a video on the right, so you'll have to play it. Hilarious!!!

(BTW: if your wondering who those two people are, they're my parents.)

Pre-baby projects

This is a little belated, but some of you will recall all the projects I had going before James was born. I wanted to post pictures after I was completely done, but since I haven't been able to sew a lot since his birth, I thought I would just show alla y'all how far I'd gotten before he was born.
Here is the quilt I had talked about. I still need to finish sewing it around the edges/finish it off.

(BTW the whole quilt was made from my mom's scraps; everything but the zebra, the giraffe, the cheetah, and the batting)
Here are some close up shots of the animals.


Here's a blanket I made, and I still need to put a back on it.)


I made a zebra boppy cover. (note:please ignore this hideous picture of me and look only at the boppy.)

Notice the Jungle themed nursery? Although now he is still sleeping in our room, and in bed with me once Stephen gets up at 5:30 to go to work everyday. He sleeps 5 hours straight just fine in his pack n play (although last night he slept 7 and 1/2 hours. Ahhh...heaven) but once he walks up after that 5 hours he will NOT go back to sleep in it, he only will fall asleep with me. Tres bizarre!?
The tie onesie...

This was pretty much the only thing I've made for him since he's been born. You can tell how much he loves it.

I wouldn't want to be seen in it either. I saw Lydia, Stephen's cousin, had made a really cute one. (see here) This is what happens when you try to crochet something after not crocheting for about 15? 16? years.
I made them all for this little guy.

The Christmas Work Party Skirt

(I've decided to start naming my sewing accomplishments) Last Saturday Stephen had his Christmas work party at Thanksgiving Point. It was pretty nice I was impressed. Unfortunately we forgot the camera; anyway for the party I wanted to wear something nice and new. But we don't really have money right now so I decided to sew something. Stephen had given me a gift card to Jo-anns for my b-day. All of the clearance fabric had an extra 50% off, so I got some nice stuff for pretty cheap. I made a skirt from one of the fabrics...

...like it? It has a shimmer in it that makes it look almost wet.


I love the fabric. But the black stretchy fabric underneath was really hard to sew because it kept slipping, I should have used a stabilizer, but it was my first time sewing with this kind of fabric. Plus I was trying to do it so fast to wear to the party that the top looks a little sloppy, so I had to pull my shirt over the top part, but no one could tell, well...not that I knew of. I had started making a shirt too from an old skirt that I never wear, but didn't finish it in time for the party. In fact, I still need to finish, but I made a royal mistake that I don't know is fixable or not. I'll post it if I finish it. I actually made a mistake on the skirt as well. The underpart was a bit too long. It made it seem like I had a slip showing so I tried not to stand too much at the party. His work gift was a $50 dollar gift certificate to "The Honey Baked Ham Company" which we hear has really good cheesecake. On top of that Stephen got a $10 dollar Turkey voucher, and he was the only one in his department to get one. They only gave them to the salary paid people, but had one left over on accident. The head boss asked Stephen's boss Theresa who they should give it to, and she said Stephen. I'm so proud of him!

New Stats

James had his 4 month appointment yesterday, but he couldn't get his shots because they accidentally scheduled his shots to soon to when he had his last ones. We were still able to do the rest of his checkup though. It's always fun to see how fast your baby's growing; however, I was a little sad. At his last check-up he was in the 90% and 80% percentile. This time it was less, and I guess I was sad because I'm worried that he'll have the short Brinton genes from my side. (oh please oh please don't let him be a hobbit like me.:D) Anyway, here they are: 17 lbs (65% percentile for weight, well technically he was .5 ounces less than 17, so I rounded up. Side note, his cousin Scarlett weighed 16 pounds when she was 10 months, so by the time he's one they might be the same size and perfect little playmates), 26 inches (75% percentile for height), and 44cm. for his head (75% percentile). What's he doing now? He is seriously on the verge of crawling. Lately he's been lifting his bum high in the air and then letting it down whilst kicking his legs furiously), he grabs on to things a lot, he laughs a lot, he sticks his hand in my mouth because I pretend that I'm eating it and that makes him laugh, he is also on the verge of rolling over, he's gotten much better at sitting up, he blows spit bubbles, does lots of trills/raspberries with his lips, still goes "mamamama" (not like a toddler saying mom, he's just experimenting with a new sound he's discovered, plus he only does this when he's really upset 'cause he knows it gets our attention.) and he's wearing 6-9 month clothing. Hope that's everything, here he is at 4 months:

Stop trying to impress the lady-babies with your unbuttoned footie pajamas!

The cutest baby boy in the world! (and yes I can say that...I'm his mother!)



For some reason James reminds me of the turtle from "The Neverending Story" in this picture...

Diamonds are girls best...

If diamonds are a girls best friend, than what are emeralds? Good friends?

And topaz? Maybe... acquaintances?
For thanksgiving Stephen and I went down to St. George to spend it with my parents and my brother Jeff. My sister Mindy and her family were going to come, but she had an opportunity to get her knee surgery earlier and decided to take it. So we were a rather small party, but still a fun one.

We left Thanksgiving day early in the morning because we didn't want to have to leave after Steve got off of work and drive at night the night before. It was our first car trip with James; I know, St. George is only 4 hours away, but we still weren't sure what to expect. Luckily going down he only started getting fussy when we were 15 minutes away from home, but the trip back is another story. While we were there my brother Jeff showed us his jewels... wait don't freak out, I'm talking about the picture posted above. My dad and brother went mining at a place called Topaz Mountain here in Utah for fun. They sent what they found to Thailand to get cut. Most of them are Topaz, but one is an emerald, or is it ruby? Anyways, that's the red one, but the quality isn't that great. Still he could get a couple hundred for it. So, I told Stephen to go down there and get me one, too. (Maybe some day :D) The day after Thanksgiving Stephen went with my dad and brother hiking...

while us girls went Christmas sHoPPiNg. Mainly for James, I had already got Stephen his presents online, but I wanted to get James' presents without Stephen so that at least one of us could be surprised, especially since James is still too little. The trip was a lot of fun, my parents were excited to see James, and us too. However, we were glad to get home. James didn't sleep very well while we were there. It might just have been because it was a new place...


I don't know, but he was up every three hours, 2 out of the 3 nights we were there. It was like he was 4/5 weeks old all over again. So, that was our Thanksgiving.
BUT...I'm not finished yet! I have so many things that I'm grateful for this year, that I wanted to mention them. Ahem.

I'm grateful: that James was born healthy and strong and that my C-section went smoothly, that I have a husband that still finds me beautiful and tells me so despite the 30 pounds I have remaining from being preggers, that I have a wonderful husband that has the priesthood and a strong testimony of the gospel, that my mother and bonus-mother came and stayed with/helped after James was born, for an understanding and patient brother-in-law/landlord for not kicking us out for being unable to pay a few months rent (well we started paying in September again, but we still have catching up to do on the months before that. We love you Nathan!), that Stephen has a job (despite the fact that it pays a couple dollars less than the job he quit last year), for the church, for good family and friends, for food in the fridge and a roof over our heads, for a loving Heavenly Father and his beloved son, Jesus Christ. Happy Late Thanksgiving to all and to all a goodnight. opps...afternoon that is.