He hears me...

I do not mean this to sound self-righteous, conceited, or arrogant, (because if you really truly stop and think about it, I bet you'll find that it is the same for you), but Heavenly Father hears me. I can't think of a single thing I've asked for that he hasn't given me. I'm not talking about praying to ace a test I didn't study for, because come on now, that doesn't really count. Now it might have happened 5 years after I asked for it, or it might have come/happened in a different way that I wanted it to, but it still happened. (Even if someone dies, like my best friend Jackie when I was 16. You pray for it not to be true because if they're dead that means you can't see them. BUT you will see them again someday when you die, so the real prayer is for God to allow you to see them, which will happen someday if you're patient. Sorry about the tagent...anyway...) The real reason I'm bringing this up is because as some of you will recall last year Stephen had applied for the CHP (California Highway Patrol). We have been praying for a very long time, and had heard nothing. We had begun to lose hope, especially since his older brother Nathan applied several months before him, scored higher, and still wasn't in the academy yet. It had gotten to the point where we were praying just to at least know whether he had gotten in or not. Well... about a month ago the head of CHP recruiting (I hope I got that right) moved into Stephen's parents home ward. Stephen's dad, being the action taking/initiative person that he is, approached the guy and explained to him the situation. The man then asked for Stephen's info and said he would check things out. Three days later his background investigator called him. Unfortunately, it was while he was at work so he couldn't pick up. Again for several days he tried calling him back, but with no success. On Sunday Stephen remembered he'd forgotten to pay tithing the last paycheck, so he did and VOILA! The very next day he gets in touch with him. Hurray! Finally after 6 months of not hearing a word. My brother in law asked me, "So what? Are you saying that Heavenly Father wants Stephen to be in the CHP?" No, not necessarily. What I'm saying is we'd been praying to hear back at least something, and that prayer was answered. I'm not sure if he'll get in, but when he talked to his Background Investigator, he said that Stephen was in the top 5 out of the 30-some odd in his group. WOOHOO! At the same time we had gotten used to the idea of looking for jobs in other places. For example, at the beginning of the month Stephen turned in an application for a police job that opened up in Coeur D'Alene, ID, the same city that my parents are moving to next month. To be honest I had looked forward to that. I thought it would be nice to live near my parents, and three of my siblings live relatively close. Plus, it's supposed to be beautiful there, not like the rest of Idaho which doesn't totally appeal to us. Here are some pictures of it.


It's a popular summer resort city. We have lots of family in California as well, so either way we're good. My only beef is I really don't want to live around L.A. or San Francisco. Almost anywhere else, except for Contra Costa County is good with me. But preferably I'd to live in one of these areas: Roseville area, San Diego, Pleasanton, Orange County, or Riverside County. (I've lived in 4 of those places already and like them.) We'll keep ya'll updated if he gets in!

Special Uncle Birthday Weekend

What's this that you're giving me mommy? A sign? Well what does it say?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE CALEB AND UNCLE NATHAN!?

Oh my goodness! What should I do with it? Should I eat it!

Should I shake it furiously so they know how excited I am about their birthdays?

Or...maybe I'll just hold it still so they can read it and look at how cute I am.

Yesterday, January 16th, was Uncle Caleb's birthday!

(Sorry this is a day late, we're all sick with a cold at the Taylor household.) Caleb is the 5th child, well now adult, in the Brinton family, HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE CALEB!
Today is Uncle Nathan's birthday. Nathan is the 2nd in the Taylor family. HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE NATHAN!

HOPE YOU GUYS HAVE A GREAT BIRTHDAY WEEKEND! WE LOVE YOU GUYS!

Musical Lover

There are very very few musicals that I have either never heard at least one song from, or not heard of it, the musical, all together. With Valentine's Day coming I thought I would put some of my favorite love/marriage/heartache/happy ending songs from musicals up on a new love list, which will be playing on my blog. The songs already on it aren't even a fourth of my favorites. Some I couldn't find, and some I still need to put up, but with a baby it will take time. Be patient, and enjoy!

Feeding Time

James has just started eating cereal, to be more technical he started about 3 weeks ago. Just cereal though, you're suppose to wait on everything else until six months. I asked his pediatrician when we could start him on solids and she said we could start just the cereals at 5 months. So we did in hopes that he would start sleeping longer, but no dice. He still sleeps about 5 to 5and 1/2 hours straight, but I'd hoped for better. Maybe he'll have better luck with the other solids. So, here he is with cereal all over his mouth.

Dessert is his hands. He loves his hands, and his toes. Funny thing happened, I saw him cooing/jabbering to his hand before he furiously stuck it in his mouth. It's almost like he was saying "Prepare to meet your doom."


Good News...he has started taking real naps again. Somewhere around 2 months he stopped taking hour long naps and would just cat nap all day. Which made it so hard to get anything done. But starting about 3 weeks ago he started taking three 1 hour long naps a day. Hooray! Which gives me some time to myself.

Other news, Stephen and I have seriously started to try and lose weight...again. Well I had started exercising and in 1 and 1/2 months I lost 7 pounds, but somewhere between Thanksgiving and Christmas I gained it all back. Probably because between that time I didn't exercise at all, it's hard with family in town before and after Christmas, not to mention all the good food. We started going to the track after Christmas, but have had some obstacles. This is the second time I'm sick, actually I think my cold just went into recession. So I'm waiting to get better again so we can go. We were going for a good week, two miles a day. Not to mention some major vegetable eating for dinner, not quite vegetarian since we like our meat and it is winter, but our fridge is full of vegetables, not to mention the 7 pounds of carrots we've already eaten. My goal is to lose one pound a week. If I can do that, then I'll arrive at my pre-pregnancy weight by the time James is 1. Then after that my next goal will be to get to how much I weighed when I married Stephen, which was about 128. But I'm just going for the pre-pregnancy goal for now so I don't overwhelm myself.

The Forest Nymph Dress

I made this dress for Christmas, and had the intention of wearing it to the Taylor Christmas party for when Linda came out, but I didn't finish it in time. However, I did finish it in time for Christmas Day, so I wore it at Karl and Megan's. I had tried it on to see what alterations it still needed, and at the the same time I was thinking of a name for it; "Smoked Mistletoe" no no...hmmm...just then Stephen walked in and said, "Hey you look like a forest nymph in that dress." So... voila, that's how I named it. (However, I personally think I look like a walrus that stole the dress in an attempt to impersonate a forest nymph.) Do you like? I wore it to church and got a nice complement. When I told the girl I made it she said it looked like I had bought it from Gap. Here I am wearing it with James' spit up on the sleeve.

Here's another. Please ignore the tummy bulg. I would have taken better pix of me in the dress, but I'm sick, again, and am not in the mood to play model.


On a different note December was a good month. Despite the fact that we stayed here, we still got to see lots of family. My parents and Stephen's came out the week before Christmas. We spent Christmas Day with Karl and Megan, as well as the next day. The day after Christmas Sarah, Micheal, and Colin came out, so we spent a lot of time with them having fun, eating dinner, and playing games. And then my sister Megan came out with her family to see us for a couple hours. So we didn't really feel all that alone. Stephen took some pictures of the Taylor Christmas Dinner. Here we are eating too much and getting fat. :D Enjoy.




This one is actually of Christmas day. *tsk*tsk* Megan! Getting plastered...on Martinellis.

I love this one of the little cuzes.