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.