A Wink and a Smile

Met his Match

2011-11-18T07:07:00.000-08:00

James is known for having an ear-piercing, glass shattering high pitched scream that would scare even the demons back into their fiery holes. His scream is unparalleled. Until recently. We have some neighbors that live below us, and within the last few months I've noticed that their little boy has started screaming, AND he screams alll the time JUST LIKE JAMES. In fact we've even heard them screaming back and forth to ech other through the floor. One screams, and then the other would scream back. Thei daughetr screams too, pretty high and loud, but the boys have a higher pitch. Well, unfortunately they are moving, and as they were moving their stuff last night I offered to watch their kids and discover that their little boy actually screams slightly higher than James. In fact, there were some moments fighting over toys last night when they would scream at each other.

James was startled to have some other kid scream at him, and higher and louder too. I felt like saying to him, "See how I feel." Although he wouldn't really understand even if I did. We are really going to miss our neighbors the Westovers. Not to mention we share the internet with them, so now we will be without it for awhile, again. They leave today, and I offered to watch their kids again this morning. Can't wait for James to throw another fit, especially if Gavin, the boy, even thinks about touching his precious Buzz Lightyear, or his guns. Toy guns that is. He threw this huge fit last night when he tried to play with his Buzz last night, as you can see here.

I gave Gavin the fake Buzz, a toy I got at a yard sale for $1.

James is not fooled by fake Buzz. This is probably my last post for who knows how long, 'til we get internet. Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Stocking Love

2011-11-16T12:10:00.000-08:00

I have never really thought that much about stockings. It's just something you put fun little things in the night before Christmas and then they go back in storage, right? Well, my sister-in-law is big on having these handmade special stockings that she makes. So, this year I thought, they might be kind of fun to do for our family. I went online and found these beauties!!!!!!!

Aren't they adorable? The train, the fairy, the manger. I love them all. But they are so pricey. Who wants to spend $20-30 on a stocking for heavens sake? Do you think if I got one after Christmas for next year they'd be discounted. Gosh I'm cheap, aren't I?

Bright and Early

2011-11-15T07:33:00.000-08:00

On Saturday we were invited to join Stephen's brother Karl and company to go see a mini Santa parade at the mall, and get free breakfast that they were dishing out. Free Breakfast?! So, naturally we went. Although whoever heard of eating "Chick Fillet" for breakfast? Whatever, it was free food.

James loved the parade, he is big on parades. Despite the fact that the parade only had some guys in kilts playing bagpipes, and Santa coming in on a firetruck with all the local sports mascots greeting the kids. The minute they came in sight James started clapping and waving frantically. He wasn't a huge fan of Santa as you can see here in this pic he's trying to escape from his grasp. (How do you like the reindeer hat I got him from Micheals for the occasion?)

James was however a huge fun of the mascots. Especially the Bumble Bee the Baseball mascot. Here he is with the football mascot, and as you might be able to see he is trying to get the lion's attention.

I think he wanted the mascot to hold him. We actually know this guy he"s in our ward/church. He and Stephen serve in the Elders Quarum together and so we were able to get him to come over and take a picture with James. When we passed the Bumble Bee he said "HUG" with his arms out, but the guy was busy taking a picture with someone else and I didn't want to interupt.
On Friday night we went to Chuck E. Cheeses which James loved. Stephen got almost 300 tickets playing the games. When we left James threw this huge fit, screaming etc. I got so sick of it I turned around and shouted "shut up!" Yes, I know, I'm a terrible mother. Well, guess who shouted it back to me 2 minutes later? Yep, and then Stephen started humming the hymn "Let us all speak kind words to each other." Grrrrr...
Well, I'm officially done getting James his Christmas presents, and I'm glad I did it early, a couple of the DVD's didn't work and I had to send them back. Beware cheap DVD's on Amazon. Also, beware getting cheap toys from China on Ebay. I got James some toys that ended up being about half the size I expected them to. Oh well... I'm still surprised at how far I made his Christmas money stretch getting everything on Ebay and Amazon. Although I had intended to get him some board books for Christmas (used of course, board books can be pricey) but before I knew I'd spent his money on other presents. There's always the library I guess, right?
(By the way the pictures were taken by Megan, my sister-in-law, to see more from Saturday go here )

The Oh So Fall Blouse

2011-11-07T20:12:00.000-08:00

I made item number two on my fall fashion 2011. Actually that fall fashion 2011 I've kind of pooped out on. I had 6 things I planned on doing and I've only completed 2, and by the time I'm done with number 3 it will be December/Winter. Whatever, here is the blouse. My mother-in-law gave me the fabric, and I had the thread leftover from James' costume, so I literally spent $0 on this. How awesome is that? Totally.

On Saturday/Sunday I was totally bratting out(aka I was PMS-ing), so Stephen put up the Christmas decor early to cheer me up. The only slightly funny thing is the Thanksgiving decor is still up. Fall orange lights, pumpkins, etc., and ... a Christmas tree. Tada! Does it clash? Don't care. I'm leaving them both up.

Super sweet, he also made me choco chip cookies that were super good, despite the fact that he accidently used whole wheat flour instead of white. Unfortunately, he forgot to put them in tupperwear before they got just a little bit hard. Not as gooey, but still good. I'm pretty close to my weight lose goal, I think I'll make my pre-James weight by mid-December, but we still don't know if we can afford another kid by then. We might wait until the Army thing is done, and he's in. Which means our kids will be so far apart in age, that with the next ones we won't need a babysitter like, ever! We can just get James to tend them. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Baffled

2011-11-04T08:30:00.001-07:00

I was on the computer, reading news at drudgereport.com as I usually do in the morning when I came across this headline "FOX's GLEE to show gay teen sex for the first time." and then the article read "Gleeks you MUST tune in for next week’s episode of Glee, called “The First Time.” It’s without a doubt one of Glee‘s best installments ever and features two popular couples on the show having sex for the first time." One of the teenage couples is heterosexual, and one homosexual, and this episode is suppose to show both of them losing their virginity. Is any one else infuriated at this? This is a show that is highly popular amoung teenagers, and it's encouraging teenage sex. This makes me soooooo mad. I hate the approach that so many people have with teenagers and the whole sex thing. "It's going to happen, so we might as well just teach them how to do it in a safe way." WHATEVER!!! When I was in high school, surprisingly their weren't that many teens that were sexually active. Their were some, but not as many as I think some adults thought. I think the ones that were active in that way in high school are the ones saying that that is just what teens are doing. Who knows, maybe it really has changed alot since I was in high school, which was 10 years ago. Most of the ones that were sexually active, at least the girls, ended up having to deal with emotions that they weren't ready for yet. They would get attached, and most of the guys were not. People never want to show the consequences of these kind of actions. Not just possible STD's, which I will talk about in a minute, but emotional problems as well. I remember watching this news report about teenage girls in Chicago a few years ago and the percentage of STD's amoung them, and that was starting amoung teenage girls at the age of 14! I was shocked. And then another news report I saw a couple years ago talked about how 1 in every 4 New Yorkers is supposed to have some form of Herpes. The percentage numbers of STD's are at a scary high, all types, not just herpes but AIDS, etc. as well. And then there is the possibility of pregnancy, which if I can barely handle parenthood as an adult, I don't think a teenage couple can handle a baby. Most of the time when they do keep the child there is a cycle that starts, they're a teenage parent, and then their kids become teenage parents, too. I saw that happen soooo often amoung kids in my Junior High and High School in Northern CA. They can't go to college with kids, so they can't get better jobs, so they live in poverty, and then their kids think, "You had sex when you were my age, so if you tell me not to, that makes you a hypocrite." And then the cycle starts. Then the people that do decide to give up their kid for adoption a lot of the time wonder if they made the right choice, they have feelings of extreme sadness, guilt, and sometimes depression even if they think or know they made the right choice it's totally and completely normal to want your child, and feel sad about the circumstances in how things turned out. Sorry about my rantings, I just hate the whole encouragement of teenage sex, and how they make it seem so natural, and how we just need to accept it. Agh! Come on people, encourage teenagers to wait until thier older. There are so many high emotions amoung teenagers, they don't need sex added to it! It really is a big deal. Sheesh. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. (I just checked out this website that said there are 12 million cases of STD's a year in the US, and there are 300 million people living in the US, so what is that 25%? and then 25% of that 12 million are teenagers. Google it.)

Halloween Night 2011

2011-11-01T18:26:00.000-07:00

We went trick-or-treating on Halloween night with Karl, Megan, Camryn, and Tamsin. It's probably the last time, but hopefully not, that James will get to go with his cousins. We only went to about 10 houses, but it was just the right amount for us. Here are some pics that I stole from their blog, (sorry, just want the Brinton side to see them) which is why the pics turned out so well.

Hope it was great for you too.

Hallows'Eve Fiesta

2011-10-30T12:25:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we had a Halloween Party, but we forgot to call some people and some people's kids got sick at the last minute, so not that many people showed up, but we still had a lot of fun. And to say the very least our house got pretty darn clean, minus James' toys spread everywhere, but toys don't count, right?

As you can see we had a plethora of desserts I was frantically trying to make everyone take home, we don't need that many sweets.
We're having the leftover Chili from the party for dinner tonight, which makes the 4th night in a row we've eaten beans. But we've invited some friends of ours to help us finish our food tonight, thankgoodness, because we don't want to have to eat all the chili ourselves until it's gone. Beans=stinky gas=nobody likes you.

Trunck-or-Treat

2011-10-30T12:00:00.000-07:00

On Friday our church had a trunk-or-treat/Chili cookoff. Where I grew up trunk-or-treats did not happen every year. It started when Halloween fell on a Sunday, our church would have a trunk-or-treat at the church where you handed out candy from the back of your trunk and you could decorate it, etc. that way kids could still dress up and go get candy on Friday or Saturday night and still keep the sabbath day holy. But, I think now they just have them every year, at least in Utah they do. Which is fun to spend time with people you know and not have to worry about the candy they are getting being poisined by some crazy person. Here are some pictures. Uncle Karl, Aunt Megan and the kiddies came, and later the Taylor Grandparents showed up as well. All in all it was a pretty fun Friday.

I know you're probably wondering what I am. Well, James is a dragon, and I'm a dragon charmer.

Halloween Prequel

2011-10-28T10:45:00.000-07:00

This has always been my most favorite time of te year ever since I was little, it seemed like fall had something fun waiting around every corner. September-my birthday, and now anniversary too, October-Halloween, November-Thanksgiving, with Christmas just around the corner! So, speaking of our anniversary last month; I don't know if you recall that for the occasion Stephen bought some Provo Halloween River Cruise tickets, and we finally went on the cruise Wednesday night. We dropped the little one at the Gparents, and then we went out to dinner and then the cruise. It was so much fun, and it was pretty cold waiting because there was a long line, but we brought blankets and enjoyed a nice hot cup of chocolate as we waited. They had a kind of bonfire going, and the wonderful smell of woodsmoke was in the air. It was a magical evening.
There were lights strung up, they played scary music, had carved pumpkins, there was a pirate, and on the way back they told the story of Ichabod Crane.

On Monday I finished James' Halloween costume, and he loves it. The minute I put it on him he started snuggling into it and laid down on the ground.

One of these days I have to make James a cute trick or treat bag.
One more pic for good measure. James is following his cousin Camryn around trying to give her a hug. Earlier he tried to kiss her. :)

Fall Changes

2011-10-17T13:56:00.000-07:00

While we were on vacation in SoCal we brought James' Pack'n'play to sleep in. And every time we put him in it he climbed out, and I would think, "Well, at least he hasn't learned to do that in his crib at home yet." Which is also higher, and harder to climb out of. Well, the first day we got back, we went to put him down for a nap and guess what? He climbed out! I was so nervous James is the type of kid who can't sit still for 2 minutes, and I know that people say, "Oh that's all kids at that age." Um...no really I will bet $5 that my child is a more restless 2 year old than yours. Anyway, so we put in the day bed...

and surprisingly he still takes naps, and goes down to bed at night. The only problem is he has learned how to open the childproof doorknobs; we put one on the inside of his door in case he wakes up super early in the morning. He isn't able to do it all the time, but about 20% of the time he is able to open it. And he knows how to unlock the front door. So, we have to bolt the door with a chair at night, just to be extra safe that he doesn't escape.

Saturday we went to the Wheeler Farm again with the Taylor Von Trapps. I love that farm, we can't get enough of it.

Note, I'm wearing one of the Fall Fashion 2011 things I made. I really like it, except it's more flowy than I intended to make it, hence it makes me look pregnant. We also carved some pumpkins, can you tell what they are?

Than last night we went to this Barnyard Boo for a combined FHE with some friends of ours, we got in 1/2 off 'cause we were their guests, and they had a Thanksgiving Point annual pass. It was fun for kids and James did a pony ride for $2 which he loved and it was totally worth it. I had my hand on his back to make sure he wouldn't fall off but he kept pushing my hand away as if to say, "I'm a big boy, and I can do it myself!" They had a baby calf there and it kept licking us like crazy it was so cute.

Then yesterday some PJ's arrived via post for James. I got them cheap on ebay. Can you tell he loves them, he kept pushing the buttons to shoot the lazer and saying "BUZZ!"

Disneyland Vacation 4

2011-10-13T14:26:00.000-07:00

Wow, posting all this stuff is really taking a long time. Maybe I give too much detail. This is probably the last vacation post. So, Friday was our last day at Disneyland, and we started out that day at California Adventureland with the Taylor Von Trapps.

Went on some rides there. They had this rocket ride, similar to the one at Disneyland, except it goes higher. I think James got used to it, because this time he wasn't scared like the last time. James really liked this Redwoods Boyscout type area that they had there. He spent a lot of time there exploring and being a boy. We headed back over to Disneyland to try and catch some rides we missed the first two days. Like the Mark Twain Riverboat. Stephen really wanted to go on that one.

James really loved the parade. I was amazed at how chill and mezmorized he was during the whole thing. Just watching and waving at the different floats and people that passed by. Funny thing, when the princess float passed by, he was waving bothe hands at them. Stephen cracked a joke about how if James could talk, really talk, he'd be asking them if they wanted to hold him, while pointing out at how cute he is.

After going on "It's a Small World" one last time we headed back to California Adventureland for the Water show which is amazing. Our tickets were actually for the 10 pm show, but we couldn't wait that long, we were all getting tired, and grumpy. So, we found a good spot to stand and watched it next to a weinie roast.

While we were watching the show James' started doing this crazy thing. While he was spinning his Buzz Lightyear toy he would stick his tongue out and let the spinny part swish by his tongue. Kids are so weird.

Well, we drove home Saturday, but with all the kiddies needing breaks, we spent the night at a motel, and then arrived home on Sunday. Which I'm so glad we did, I had a cold coming on and needed to sleep. In a bed. When we came home our apartment was freezing. Yep, our late summer is officially gone. And that's the end of the vacation. It was alot of fun, and we want to thank Grandpa and Grandma Taylor for treating us to such a wonderful vacation!!! THANK-YOU THANK-YOU THANK-YOU!!!!

Disneyland Vacation 3

2011-10-13T13:52:00.001-07:00

Thursday was actually my favorite day there. (probably because I planned the whole day ahead of time) Plus, the fact that they had FastPasses and Single Riders available at Disneyland was a huge help. Not to mention the fact that we bought James a spinny light-up Buzz Lightyear toy that kept him destracted most of the day. It was only $13.99, and it was definately worth it, it kept him happy, so we were happy. (I had wanted to do that the first day, but Stephen didn't want to spend any money, finally got him to give in. hehehe)
Funny thing, most of the rides that James was tall enough to go on, i.e. all the rides in Fantasy Land, are kind of dark and scary. Snow White, Pinocchio, and Mr. Toad, actually we only took him on the Mr. Toad Ride, we waited in line for Pinocchio but just as we were about to get on the ride broke down. Oh well, he was scared on the Mr. Toad ride, so it's probably just as well that it didn't work out.

Then we ran into Gma Taylor and went on It's a Small World together.

I think that ride was James' all time favorite at Disneyland.

Stephen saw this while passing through the castle and had to take a picture of it. I thought it was funny because a few years ago I took this Facebook quiz that tells you which Disney Prince your man is, and when I took it, it said that my man was Prince Phillip, which is totally true of Stephen. And as you can see, that's Prince Phillip fighting the dragon. The thing is he took the picture because of the quote underneath, again, totally Stephen! (I think if I had to pick a Disney character that best fit my personality, or that I closely resembled as far as personality went it would be a toss up between Tangled's Repunzel, and Tinker Bell.)

Stephen and I took some turns going on rides and watching James. We did that while one of us stayed with James in Toon Town where he could, again, run around and have fun. When it was my turn I stood in line for 30 min. to take a picture with Mickey. James got a little restless, but luckily Mickey's House is so interesting that he stayed occupied by looking at all the stuff. Then when he saw Mickey he was in awe. Not because he knew who he was, but because he loves seeing giant animal people.

We returned to the motel for dinner and then left James to be watched by Gpa Taylor while Stephen and I returned to Disneyland for some late night rides. Although it ended up being more stressful because more people seemed to be there at night than during the day, or at least it was just as crowded. The minute we sat down to go on the Indiana Jones ride it broke down. We waited hoping that it would start working soon, and it did, but while we were waiting the nice lady in charge of the ride took a picture of us, and let me wear her Indiana Jones hat.

Not to mention the Matterhorn also broke down the minute we sat down, and it was 12 so we had to get off. I think for waiting in line they should have given us a "next time you get in line go to the very front so you don't have to wait again" card, but they didn't. Oh well...

Stephen took a picture of me falling asleep on the Mickey Mouse Tram.

Disneyland Vacation 2

2011-10-13T12:45:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday it rained so hard that we decided to wait to go to Disneyland, and we went to the L.A. Museum of Natural History instead. Stephen loves stuff like this. I like it, too. James liked it okay, as long as he could run around sans parents.

While we were driving there we saw this truck on the freeway. Check out the spikes on the wheels!

When we got back Wednesday all the parents got to go out to dinner at Mimi's Cafe, whilst the little'ns spent time with Gma and Gpa.
After that I planned our whole day out for Thursday at Disneyland so that we wouldn't be standing still trying James' patience, and so that we could maximize our time there and go on as many rides as possible. It was a complete success!

Disneyland Vacation 1

2011-10-13T11:53:00.000-07:00

We are back, and my cold seems gone, so I'm finally able to show everyone how our vacation to Southern California went last week. We went down just a little bit early to spend some time visiting/staying with my sister Mindy and her family and visiting with my brother Caleb as well. We had fun just chilling with them at their house and we also went to the beach where a pigeon took a dump on my head. No joke, I had my hat on so only a little bit got on my back. Note: I totally forgot that the ocean is not warm anymore in October, but we still had fun splashing around. I honestly think James' favorite thing is water, for playing in not drinking, he cannot get enough of it!
On Tuesday was our first day at Disneyland. FYI, I LOVE DISNEYLAND. I first went when I was 8, and then in High School my family moved down to Orange County so we had year passes and I went all the time. I was obsessed. Having said that, if you too love Disneyland then I suggest waiting to take your kids there until they are a little bit older. If your child screams all the time/nonstop and cannot sit still for thirty seconds unless everyother second they are bribed with dumdums and/or fruit snacks then just wait to take them. If not then they will ruin it for you. Okay, so maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit, but James did make having fun a little bit difficult for us. The first day it rained despite the fact that I checked the weather out before packing and it was supposed to be sunny all week long. Luckily it only rained the first part of the day, not all day. The first ride he went on was the Buzz Lightyear ride in Tomorrowland. He was totally confused, like "what is this place? where are we? what's going on?" It was cute. Then we took him on this rocketride that scared him just a little. The main problem with James and Disneyland was 1.) waiting in line when he had no idea why 2.) there were so many things there to look at he wanted to run off and go and explore them all at once 3.) sitting still in his stroller, if the stroller wasn't constantly moving then he would start screaming the problem is it's hard to decide where you want to go, rides, etc. if you can't stand still for 2 minutes to look at the map and decide. Having said that, we didn't go on a whole lot of rides the first day. (In fact, I was soooo tempted that first day to call my sister and offer to pay her to watch James just so that Stephen and I could enjoy one day there, but I didn't call her.) Here are some pictures of the first day

When James was really bad we took him to the Mark Twain Pirate Island so he could run around. Suddenly he had a poopy diaper and the bathrooms there had no changing station. I was afraid to wait because I didn't want him to poop through, so, we found a spot where we thought no one would really pass by, and started to change his diaper there on the ground when suddenly right when we opened his diaper all these people passed by, some laughed, and some looked upset. Oh well...

After that we went on the riverboat cruise ride and James fell asleep. It was nice to finally have some peace and quiet, even though he only slept for like 45 min.

Then we watched this Star Wars show where they called up children from the audience to get trained as Jedis. It was so cute! One kid was scared of Darth Vader, so the master Jedi told him to use the force, and so the kid lifted up his arm and Darth Vader flew to the ground (good actor right?) and suddenly the kid wasn't scared anymore.

After Disneyland closed we headed over to California Adventureland with Jeff and went on the Monster's Inc. ride, which James loved, and then to A Bug's Life (land?) and he loved the rides there, too.

He was so tired at the end of the day! By the way this video was taken right before we went inside that day.

James' Potty Update

2011-10-09T17:14:00.000-07:00

I know all of y'all are wondering about Disneyland, and how our vacation went last weekend, but I'm sick right now and I don't feel like typing up all the info and uploading all the pix because that would take forever! Plus, I'm sick and we just got back today, so I'll do it later this week. But... James had a potty breakthrough today! Stephen and I were in the bathroom when James walks in picks up his potty seat and sets it on the potty. So, Stephen asks him if he needs to go pee pee. He says "yeah." So he helps him take off his diaper and sit up on the potty. With a little fatherly guidance as to where to aim, James then goes pee pee!!! AND he was the one to initiate the whole thing. There have been times in the past, usually around bathtime, when I set James on the potty. Usually when I see him start to go in the bathtub, and I put him on the toilet seat in time to pee in the potty. But him wanting to go on his own, huge breakthrough! I guess it's time to buy pullups now.

Harvest Time

2011-09-29T14:03:00.000-07:00

Stephen and I took a long walk to Thanksgiving Point (which for those of you who don't know, it's this amazing place about 2 miles away that has amazing gardens, that we actually went to last week click here to check it out PLEASE, and it has boutiques, a theater, dinosaur museum, restaurants and other activities, classes and entertainment) and got some small ice cream cones. Well surrounding the barn on all sides at Thanksgiving Point there are rows and rows and rows, you get the picture, of grape vines that are ripe NOW, AND you can pick them for free. We saw tons of people there with bags stuffing there sacks with as many as they could. Well, we hadn't brought any bags 'cause we didn't know, but we had James' stroller. And here is the result, it's literally packed anywhere we could put grapes we did.

We were trying to decide what to do with them all though because we're going out of town soon. (Sorry internet predators, I'm not saying when or how long, though only friends and family know where we live anyway I'm sure) So we decided to juice them, and then freeze the juice, and drink it when we get back.

Although we've already had quite a bit, and unfortunately we only have one bathroom. Sorry Stephen, honey, but the mop bucket is in the laundry room, help yourself.
The juice is amazing by the way, these are Concord grapes! And if your curious when we left there were still tons of grapes, you just have to go in a bit further, don't where nice clothes FYI, and I hope bees don't bother you.

Other News, that job I mentioned earlier, well...Stephen didn't get it. BUT he had a job interview yesterday, yes on our anniversary, it's been an amazing 2 years, followed by 2 stressful we have a baby/toddler, but it's still totally worth it years, making a total of 4. I love you Stephen honey Happy Anniversary. We went out to dinner in Provo after Stephen's interview which was in Orem. Grandpa Jeff Taylor watched James so we could have us time. Thank-you thank-you thank-you! Stephen had bought 2 online tickets for the Provo River Halloween Cruise, which he hadn't realized at the time doesn't start until October, but he put the tickets in my card to prove that he had had something planned. So, back to the interview he had yesterday, they called him an hour ago and told him he got the job! WOOHOO, and he can start when we get back from vacation, double woohoo!!!! This is actually perfect timing because I was hoping he would finish all his Army stuff before finding a new job, and he has, well almost. He has his last and final test, THE ARMY PHYSICAL TEST tomorrow at 6:00 a.m. Please please please keep him in your prayers that he will pass all three requirements, and don't call him to wish him good luck after 8:30 tonight, or tomorrow morning he needs all the rest he can get before the big day, anytime before that feel free. If you're wondering about the new job he got it's perfect, because 1. it's a temp job for the next 4-5 months, which he doesn't need anything longer than that because by then we're assuming he'll be in Army basic training. 2. the pay is good, more than his last job, but with no benefits, so with that it actually ends up being about the same as his last job. 3. we don't have to move. The company is called Dimicron, and was actually started by his dad I believe, although his dad did not hire him. His dad, Jeff, heard that they needed a temporary person to work the machines, and Stephen has experience doing that, so he gave Stephen's resume to the other head guys. They decided to interview him, Jeff didn't, and in fact had no say in him getting hired, in order to avoid nepotism. He starts there October 13th. Sayanara, we'll let you know when we get back from vacation how he does on his Army test. We're going to Disneyland!!!!!!!!! The funnest place on earth.

P.S. Please pray for Stephen to pass his test tomorrow! Thank-You!!!

Decisions, decisions...

2011-09-21T12:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Stephen had a job interview at this place called Discovery House, which is a drug rehab type place in Orem, UT. A bit of a funny story, the last job Stephen got was thanks to my sister-in-law's twin Katie, and if Stephen gets this job it'll be thanks to Katie's husband. They had 18 people that applied for the job, and out of that they interviewed 5. Then yesterday 3 out of the 5 got called back for a 2nd interview for today, and Stephen was one of them, he said it went well so we're saying our prayers and keeping our fingers crossed. He's still going to apply to the one other place today, which has better pay then his last job, but I'm not going to hold my breath for that job. Unfortunately the job that he had the interview for yesterday and today pays less than his last job. In fact, if he gets the job we will probably have to move to Orem. First off, I hate moving!!! Especially with kids, but with the decrease in income I doubt we could afford to stay here. Plus, we live like 12 minutes away from Stephen's brother and his family, and we see them at least every other week, sometimes once a week. I like living close to them. And I really love our ward, I mean I really love it. And I actually like the quietness of Lehi, despite the fact that you have to drive 10 minutes to get to anything, literally. But if we moved to Orem not only would we save money on rent, but also on gas. Whatever happens I just hope we get a job soon. If Stephen does get this job we technically won't have gotten any unemployment money, which is fine by Stephen since he hates the idea of getting money from the government anyways. I'm indifferent to the idea, as long as it's not for a long time, know what I mean? Any volunteers to help us move? :D

Air Show

2011-09-19T12:59:00.000-07:00

This last weekend the Taylor Clan (that's our family) along with the Taylor Von Trapps (Stephen's brother, Karl's family) and some friends all went to an Air Force base above Salt Lake to see this Air Force museum. It was actually free, as long as you donated some cans, which were perfect because I bought these pickled beets from Walmart that tasted nasty, which I actually like pickled beets as long as they are done right. But these were gross, but I'm sure they can, and now will, find a nice home... with some homeless person. Anyway, they had all these retired war planes along with some veterans next to them telling all their war stories, it was quite fun. Here are some pictures

BTW those shorts I'm wearing I actually made. I had some jean material leftover from these trouser pants I made almost 2 years ago. I didn't think I had enough to make anything else with the material, but I kept it anyway. Good thing I did. That's my third time making bottoms, not skirts, and I think I'm finally getting the hang of it.
On Sunday we went to a mission farewell given by Stephen's Aunt Diane and Uncle Chuck for his other Aunt and Uncle, Bob and Barbara, that are going on a mission to Albania. I'm so excited for them. I wish I took more pictures, but the only I took from Sunday were of the cousins on the swing here with Aunt Megan. Oh well, goodluck Bob and Barbara, see ya in 2 years!

The Baby Itch

2011-09-16T14:03:00.000-07:00

I know people have probably been wondering "hey, i wonder when stephen and melinda are going to have more kids." Especially since in LDS culture it's very common to have your kids spaced about 2 years apart. In my family, all 7 of us are spaced about 2 years apart, give or take a few months. But when the time came to start the baby making process in order for child #2 to be 2 years apart from James, I just didn't feel ready. And there were a number of reasons, 1.) around that time James started to be very difficult for me to handle. He's just a screamy little boy that likes to bang and break things. I love him, but I wasn't ready to add a baby to him, as a toddler, especially since I can't do much when I'm pregnant(in fact I've fantasized about hiring a maid to take care of me for the first 4 months of pregnancy. You know, take the trash out every time I throw up, and change James' diaper so I throw up less, just things like that. But instead of a maid I'd just like to have a pregnancy like so many other woman I know who never throw up, and gain a normal amount of weight 30-40 pounds) 2.) I was still (and am) trying to lose weight. Originally I wanted to get down to how much I weighed when I got pregnant with James, which was 138. Now I think I'll just aim for getting past being overweight, or inside my healthy weight range, which I'm only 2-3 pounds away from, depending on whom you ask what a healthy weight range is. I go off of this book my doctor gave me when I was pregnant. Overall though I hadn't felt that itch or feeling like everyone else gets when "it's time." But I had felt pressured to have a baby. I know at least 5 people that were pregnant at the same time I was who all have already either had there second baby, or are very close to having them. Which has made me start to think, should we start trying? Am I waiting too long? And then whenever I'd wonder if we should start, I'd have mini panic attacks thinking "NOOOO!!! I'm not ready!!!" And now that Stephen is unemployed, it's probably a good thing we waited. But this last Sunday at church suddenly, and completely out of the blue, I was aware of every baby in the room, and totally tuned out the speakers. And every baby I wanted to coddle and hold and rock. The last time this happened to me, this magnifying of babies was almost 3 years ago right before we went to Ecuador. I would just go up to Stephen and say "baby" and he would say it back. But we had to wait until we got back from Ecuador, because we were given Malaria pills, and I didn't want to be pregnant while down there, etc. So, from the time I had developed "The Baby Itch" to the time we actually started trying, or should I say stopped trying to prevent a baby from happening 4 months passed. Now I have it again, "The Baby Itch". The only problem, the only 2 things standing in the way of us and getting pregnant is 3 pounds, and Stephen needing to get a job first. Which actually might not be to far away hopefully he has a job interview Tuesday morning, so we'll be praying for things to work out. I'm hoping by the end of November, but probably more like December we might be trying for baby #2. It's hit me so fast, I found myself going through all of James' baby clothes this afternoon, and thinking back to when James was a baby. He was such a cute baby.

Less than 2 months

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

Almost 6 months
I just hope that baby #2 is as easy a baby as James was. I know I complain about James, but honestly I would rather have a difficult toddler than a difficult baby.

Fall Fashion Line 2011

2011-09-04T12:06:00.000-07:00

There's this one sewing blog that I follow where the girl will show fabric that she's bought, what she wants to make it into, and then pictures of the final product. She's a very talented seamstress, her things turn out looking very professional, butI never like her fabric choices. The colors/shades/prints, etc. just look really ugly to me. Not everything is ugly, but most of it, in my opinion is. Whenever I look at her blog I can't help but think what a terrible waste of money, time, and talent. Having said that, I too have spent money, time and talent making things that I thought were cute, or just okay originally but after I was done changed my mind. Not because I sewed it wrong, but that I just decided I didn't like it. (Although I guess that happens to all of us, we buy something we think is cute and then decide, after we've worn it unfortunately, eh...not so much). But I feel like I've grown/learned something, and at least the fabric that I got was so cheap, that I didn't waste any money really, and it was good practice to develope my skills so that now when I do pick something out I really do like, and sewing it, it turns out looking good, because of the things I've practiced with. I have a bunch of fabric in my stash, and seeing as we're short on money, any new clothes will have to come from this stash. But, I'm really excited to sew the things, because, and I know this sounds arrogant, but...I picked out some really awesome fabric. And I know showing it to you it might be hard to visualize just how awesome it will look, but I'm super excited. It's like when my sister-in-law Megan picks out something to decorate her apartment with, and tells me what she's going to do to it to make it look awesome, I can't visualize the aswesomeness, and am like "Sure, okay." And then she does it and you're like, "hey, that really is awesome." That's me, but with fabric, not decorating. Now If I could get the decorating thing down, maybe my apartment would look as awesome as hers. Anyway, here are the fabrics.

These first two are really sheer.

And here is what I want to make the left one into...

and the right one.
Here are the next two.

The top one I was debating either to make into something like this

but have it button up since it's not very stretchy. Or something like this

with a cute Peter Pan collar. Which do you prefer?
And then the bottom plaid fabric I would either make something like this

Or sleeveless with a scoop neck and wear button up shirts underneath.

And the last two fabrics are my favorites. A Plaid suiting fabric, and a light weight purple jersey knit.

For the suiting on the left I wanted to do something 60's-ish, like Christina Hendricks on Mad Men.

I've never seen the show, but I've seen lots of pictures because she's really popular right now, and her wardrobe is awesome! And here is what I want to do with the one on the right.

So That's what I'll be doing the next three months, not to mention doing surgery on some clothes I own, and making a pair of jean shorts. I'll post pictures of my fall line, assuming they all turn out good. (hahaha like how I said my fall line, right like I'm a designer, well I am gosh darnit! I design Melinda clothes.)

The Birthday Frock

2011-09-04T11:36:00.000-07:00

I don't know what it is but I love the word frock, it just makes dress sound more dainty. Anyways I made this dress last week from material I had bought over a year ago at Jo-Anns. It was not on the 50% clearance which is my one weakness. Shoot it wasn't even on clearance but I did have a 50% off coupon so I spent $15 for 3 yards, and I only needed a little more than two for the frock. I still have enough left over to make a cute blouse. I had been waiting to use the fabric because I really liked it, but I wasn't sure what style would fit it. Hence the reason I waited over a year to use it. When we went to Stephen's parents house for Christmas this last year I saw my sister-in-law wearing this reddish-orange dress and I thought that's it!! Then this last visit back to California she was going to let me borrow it for church, it was a little tight, and too short, but I had an oppurtunity to examine it closely to see how I could make one just like it and Voila, here it is.

The only difference is I made it longer, I wanted it to look like one of those Maxi dresses I see everyone at church wearing. Bu, those usually go to the ankles, and since my first attempt at the top portion of the dress I made a huge boo-boo, I had to settle with it going down to my lower calf region. But it's really cute the pictures don't do it justice. I'm also crocheting this really pretty black belt with a pink ribbon that runs through it to go with it, I'll take pictures of it when I'm finished. James is sick again, I think he has the flu bug. I had a couple of diaper "accidents" on Friday, which I thought were caused by something he ate, like the ice cream we had at Thanksgiving Point. But then when he woke up from his nap yesterday he had two more, and today he had two major blowouts again. He stayed home from church today, and Stephen stayed with him, which meant I only had myself to get ready and I went all out (except for my hair, it's me one vice) coordinating my earings, necklace, ring, and makeup to go with my dress. It reminded me of when was in college. I usually don't wear a lot of jewelry on a daily basis but I use to go all out on Sundays back then. It was my dress up day. Standing in front of a mirror getting ready with all my roommates, trying to catch a man. Since having James I haven't felt this feminine in a long time. It felt good. I finished this dress just in time to have something new and cute to wear for when Stephen takes me out to dinner for my birthday Tuesday. Ahem, you do have something planned, right... honey? :)

Speaking of Stephen he's pretty much finished his Army application process, all he has left to do is the physical test, it's scheduled for some time at the end of this month. But besides being busy with Army stuff, he's also been keeping himself pretty busy earning a little bit of extra cash this last month, which definately helps. He's worked for his Uncle Stephen on some home projects, he's currently helping his brother Nathan with the flooring of his home in Provo (see pictures below), and now his dad and again Uncle Stephen have a couple of more projects lined up. We're just trying to make our money stretch until Stephen can get a temporary job while waiting to get into the Army. So, if anyone has any house remodeling that needs to be done, let us know!

James' 1st Boy Girl Party

2011-08-26T19:41:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday a gal in my ward had a birthday party for her little girl that just turned three. (BTW Stephen and I babysat this little girl last year so that her parents could go to the temple and I was super impressed with her speech. She had just turned two and seemed to be already talking in sentences. When her parents came to pick her up the mom, Hollie said, don't feel bad, my husband and I are both speech specialists/pathologists. No wonder she was so advanced. In fact they have a website called "Home Speech Home" I think. I've been meaning to check it out since James is just a wee bit behind in that department, but I know that's common among boys.) Anywho, her daughter Gracie just turned three and they had a fun dance party. Here are some pix.

The birthday girl.

Kids having a breakdance competition complete with prizes.

James trying to breakdance like all the other big boys. (He's the one in the brown shirt.)

These are Gracie's parents teaching all the kids how to dance to things like "Hey Macarina" and "Jump on it".

And more party fun.

Switching topics, I found a little boy last week. I was out doing my daily wogging. (Wogging is walking with little spurts of me trying to jog and then deciding to walk again. This happens many times hence the reason it's called wogging. Jalking is when you go jogging but keep taking little walking breaks from the jog. Just in case you were wondering.) Whilst I was out I saw this little boy walking across the street by himself. At first I wasn't sure because I wasn't very close, and my eyes aren't that great (yeah I need to get glasses). When I first saw him I hoped it was just a shorter than average midget because he was by himself with no parents in sight, in what looked like an oversized dress. Plus, he was walking away from the residential area towards where they/Lehi city are doing building/construction by this business area across from where we live. I started to jog up to see if it really was a little boy when a car stopped right next to him. At first I thought maybe it was just this little kid's parents looking for him. Then this fear struck me, what if it wasn't this kids parents. A couple of months ago Draper, UT, which is just 10 mintues north of us had several reports of a man in a white van trying to abduct little girls on a number of different occasions, all were unsuccessful thank goodness, but they never caught him. At least I haven't heard of them catching him yet. So, I started to go faster and as I came around the bend I see this woman talking to him and then she points at me and then asks "Is this your little boy?" I said "no, but I saw him cross the street from that direction as I came around the bend." She didn't have her cell phone on her, and neither did I, so I said I had a friend that lived in an apartment close by. I think we were both looking at each other kind of suspiciously, not really wanting to leave him alone with the other, it's unfortunate but that's the world we live in. We tried asking him questions but he was too scared. He just said he was looking for his mom. So we went to my friends house, but she wasn't there. (Becca Bell why weren't you home last Thursday at 9:00 in the morning hmmm?) We were about to call the police, unsure what we should do, still not seeing any parents in sight looking for him (He seemed to me to be about 3 and 1/2) when we asked him again what his last name was and his mom's name and finally he felt comfortable enough around us to tell us. I guess this woman recognized the name and said she was pretty sure who the kids mom was and where they lived. I think they might have been in the same ward. At that point she took over and took him home. BTW he wasn't wearing a dress, he was just wearing his PJ's whichwas an oversized shirt.(I think about 80-90% of Lehi, UT is Mormon. So, if you're in Utah minus Salt Lake City and come across an unaccompanied child, just locate the local Primary President and she'll point you in the right direction.) But, all jokes aside, I was soooo fuming about this little incident. This little boy was wondering in the street, right where big trucks go by. He could very easily have gotten hit by a vehicle, or abducted. I just hope that the mom was out looking for him, maybe she'd just gone looking for him in the opposite direction. I do get pretty angry though when parents are not very attentive to their small children. That's the end of my story. Good night!

2011 Swimsuit Edition #2

2011-08-26T19:13:00.000-07:00

Remember that swimsuit I made and modeled a couple of months ago? I had mentioned that I had also bought some more swimsuit fabric to make another swimsuit, which also cost me just $4.50 to make. Well...here it is.

I know summer is over, but hey, it looks like it's going to be a warm fall. And, our apartment complex just put in a pool. The only thing is this one doesn't support "the girls" that great either. How the heck do they do that? Make good support on smimsuits I mean.

Last Summer Vacation

2011-08-18T12:39:00.000-07:00

Hopefully this was our last summer vacation. I'm a little tired of traveling for now. Stephen and I just got back from going on a campout trip with his family and their ward/Stephen's childhood ward. We had a great time, especially Stephen, he loves camping and we haven't gone since the summer of 2008. I was a little freaked out because the lady in charge of the campground said they had about 6-7 bears that roamed around. Luckily we didn't see any, but their was a gunshot someone said they heard one night, with dogs barking, and then the next morning a garbage can close by our camp was turned over. Probably looking for food, whatever it was. I'm hoping that it wasn't a bear. Needless to say I didn't get a whole lot of sleep until we weren't in a tent anymore. We had a lot of fun swimming in the lake and roasting marshmellows. James had a lot of fun, although I almost went crazy trying to keep him close by. He did have lots of fun playing with his cousin Preston and having water gun fights with the boys. James especially liked his Uncle Micheal. Micheal seems to have a knack for animals and small children. After the campout we spent some time in Loomis, Ca with the Taylors before coming back. It was nice seeing everyone.

The hard thing about visiting family though is, after we go see my family we think how nice it would be to live closer to them, and then when we visit Stephen's family we feel the same. So, either we have to get them to move to the same city, hahaha yeah right, or just settle somewhere in the middle. Hello Eastern Oregon, or Western Idaho. Hmmm...I'll still have to think about that one.

James' First Buzz

2011-08-18T11:56:00.000-07:00

Buzz haircut that is. I finally got tired of trying to cut James' hair just to have him screaming and moving around so much that the final result is anything but laughable. So, my friend Becca Bell came over and buzzed James' hair for me, since we don't have clippers. Yeah he wasn't exactly thrilled. But, at least his hair is even.

SLC Waterland

2011-08-18T11:48:00.000-07:00

This post is slightly belated, like 2-3 weeks, but that's ok. We went with Karl and Megan via trax to SLC The Gateway and brought a picnic while the kiddies ran around in the outdoor waterfountain thingy that they have. It took James awhile but he got used to it.

Sad News

2011-08-06T10:20:00.000-07:00

Stephen and I got a phone call from one of his best friends, Chris Harmon. Many of you are familiar with Chris and his wife Valerie, both of which are very good friends of ours. (Not to mention his wife is pregnant with their second child due in September) Well, Chris called us and told us that his mother, who's an incredibly sweet person, just got diagnosed with cancer. It's spread out throughtout her body, especially around her lungs. She's never smoked but he said that her mom, his grandmother, was a chained smoker and smoked around her when she was growing up. She's at stage 4 (which I believe is the last stage of cancer, the more serious stage) and has been given 6-9 months to live. Please keep their family in your prayers.

Hot Off The Press

2011-08-03T13:48:00.000-07:00

For those of you wondering how Stephen did on his ASVAB test h just got home, so here are the results: He got a 135, which is supposed to be very good, he got ranked at the 96th percentile out of 99, so he is in the top 4% percent meaning because his score was so good, he pretty much gets to pick whatever he would want to do in the army. His top choice is to become a helicopter pilot, but for that you usually have to have pilot experience, which Stephen doesn't, but hopefully he can find a way to make it work. Now we just have to get his reference letters, transcripts, etc. turned in. Plus, he has to pass the physical test and you have to be able to do a minimum of 39 push-ups, and run 2 miles in 17 minutes. So, he's working on the physical requirements right now as well. So, keep your fingers crossed.

Hooked

2011-08-03T12:45:00.000-07:00

If you want to know something about me, know this: I love murder mysteries. Maybe that makes me sound like a gruesome type of person, but I do. I don't really like to watch the part when they get murdered, usually I just wait for the actual killing part to pass quickly. What I love is the who done it, and why. With that said I should probably say that becasue I am such a mystery fan I love Hitchcock movies (except for The Birds because there is no mystery and nothing get resolved, which I hate it when that happens in movies or books) and Agatha Christie. I know that is so cliche because she is the queen of crime...blah blah blah. I have read most of the Miss Marple books, and quite a few of her Poirot books as well. Just in the last 10 years they have redone the Miss Marple series. (T.V. series that is.) Back in the 80's they did a whole series of them which are good, but you have to check out the new series. (You might want to pase the playlist of music on the side before watching the video.)
http://
After a couple seasons the woman playing Miss Marple retired and they got someone else to finish her charachter out for the rest of the season. I like the first lady better, but they're still pretty good. My favorite's are "The Moving Finger" "4:50 from Paddington" "Murder at the Vicarage" and "A Murder is Announced". Oh, and "Towards Zero". They are really good, although they tend to have more sexuality, and other things than originally intended in the actual books. (Ordeal by Innocence is actually kind of creepy, I would avoid that one)
I tried to find a preview for Poirot to embed also but had some difficulty, but you can check it out here.

Summer Vacation Prequel

2011-08-03T08:45:00.000-07:00

I know this is coming way after the fact, like a month late, but I wanted everyone to see our first vacation of the summer. At the beginning of July Stephen, James and I went to Couer D'Alene Idaho for over a week to spend time with my family. We actually refer to this summertime gathering as "Cousins Camp". We got the phrase from my sister Megan's in-laws. Once a year her husbands side of the family have a week where all the grand-kids ages 5 and up go to their Aunt's house and spend a week with just the cousins, no other adults but the one's that are hosting it. Well, even though at my families we do include all of the adults, we still call it cousin's camp because the purpose of the get together is to do fun things that the kids want to do and give them a chance to see and get to know their cousins. In fact, my mom has a little plaque thing that says "Grandma's House: A place where cousins become best friends." While there we went to a water park/amusement park called Silverwood, and it was a blast. It took James awhile to warm up to the idea of playing where water is shooting out all over the place. We had a lot of fun. We also spent a lot of time in my parents backyard playing water games on teams, and we had a talent show. Here are some pictures:

It was at Cousin's camp that James discovered his love for water guns. Also, there was a point where all the kids were having a huge fight with the wet noodles and James had so much fun hitting other kids with these giant objects, that unfortunatley now he has brought this home and has started hitting other children with any object he comes across thinking that they are having fun, when in fact he just hurts them and makes them cry. Sorry again, cousin Tamsin!!!

Prayer Time

2011-08-02T09:49:00.000-07:00

Stephen goes in today to take the ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery) Test for the Army. After which he has to spend the night in a motel and have some medical exams tomorrow. Please keep him in your prayers that all will go well. Thanks!

To Men of All Ages

2011-07-29T12:44:00.000-07:00

Take note most women(ok so hopefully I'ts not just me that is like this)like things put in certain places. Plates on a certain shelf, toys in order, etc. We don't like things all scaddywompus. If you see something out on the countertop, don't just put it in the nearest drawer or shelf that you happen to come across, put it where it usually goes. If you are unsure, ask your wife. Don't just go sticking the diaper rash ointment in the drawer where the toothpaste, floss, and toothbrushes go. Chances are she might just accidently use it as toothpaste...like me...yesterday morning. Yep, still trying to get that taste out of my mouth.

Vacation Month

2011-07-26T16:22:00.000-07:00

This last month has felt like such a vacation. We were gone for the first week and a half of July visiting my family in Idaho(post still pending), and then we just got back very late last night, or should I say very early this morning from another one. We just went down to Southern California to go to a Taylor family reunion. It was so much fun and really quick, we flew down on Friday. Friday night we spent the night at my sister Mindy's house and she had a little surprise birthday party waiting for James, who turned two on Saturday. Here are some pictures

We put two candles on some mini brownies with blue frosting, sang Happy Birthday, and tried to get him in close to blow out the candles, but he started freaking out. I don't know if it was the candles or everyone singing to him, or the lights being out, I think it was the candles because you can see him trying to push away from them in that last picture.
While at their house he came across this, and it was love at first sight. I guess I know what I'm getting James for Christmas. Some Toy Story action figures, and probably Toy Story 3.

The next day we went down to the beach in Encinitas for the big Taylor family reunion. It was a lot of fun, it reminded me of how much I totally miss the beach. The good thing about the beach is that it's free and everyone loves it. Well we did, and James had a blast.

Here's a Where's Waldo for ya, try and find Uncle Stephen and Aunt Tracy...

On Sunday we went down to Balboa Park to here some professional Organist and then we walked around a bit.

And on Monday we went to Knott's Berry Farm, unfortunatly we couldn't stay too long because we had to catch a flight. I'm one of those people that could spend all day at an amusement park and not get bored.

Some funny things that happened Monday, funny now that everything turned out ok, not so funny in the moment. When Linda tried to check us in on Monday she couldn't, or at least Jet Blue didn't let her because according to the information we gave them when we bought our plane tickets James was to old to sit on our laps on the returning flight because he turned two during our trip, which made me super angry at the time because when we bought the tickets they didn't say then that we needed to get him a ticket for the returning flight. So we started freaking out, especially because 1. our flight coming out was full and what if there were no empty spots, and 2. we couldn't come out on a later flight because Stephen had to take the ASVAB test the next day as part of his application process to get into the army. Jeff tried talking to some people online but they were unreasonable, so we decided to just go and if they wouldn't let us on the plane then we would get him a ticket. Well, we used the kiosk to check in and get our tickets, and we were able to get them just fine without having to get James a seat. Phew. Although I think maybe they didn't make us buy him one because that flight was full and it would be easier to make him sit on our lap then have to bump someone. They are lame. But at least now we know. Second drama that happened at the airport, I'm going through the scanner and the guy said I had to go through again because the alarm went off, realizing I had left my belt on I took it off thinking then there would be no problem, but the alarm went off again. Then I thought, ok, they will take one of their hand held metal detectors and see that I'm good. Actually they swipped my hands and James' with some kind of wet wipe and then put it through the scanner. It started flashing warning explosive chemical detected. They called over security personel and I'm thinking come on, I'm just a mommy with a two year old. They went through all of my stuff and then had Stephen watch it while they pat me down. It wasn't as bad as I had imagined, but it was just embarrassing feeling like everyone was looking at me like I was some kind of threat. (Although actually they didn't because they seemed confused when they saw me and my son, and I think that they were thinking that it was just some kind of mistake) After they pat me down one asked me if I had been using some kind of lotion or sunblock. I said sunblock, and she said sometimes that can set it off. Sounds like great equipment that they have, right? Plus, it didn't help that Stephen was wearing his Front Sight hat while he was with me, they started asking us all sorts of questions. The minute they were done checking me they started boarding our plane. second phew of that day. Note to self, wash hands thoroughly after applying sunblock and before flying.

Early Birthday Presies!

2011-07-14T07:55:00.000-07:00

I know James' birthday technically is like...what, 8 days away? But next week we're going out of town so I have to show you now some of the cool things he got for his birthday. First he got this sweet little outfit from Grandma Taylor (minus the hat). My favorite part are the shoes. They are so cute!

BTW, he's crying because I won't let him have the camera.
Secondly is this outfit from Grandma Brinton. Actually I kind of picked it out. I came across it at a used children's store in Coeur D'Alene Idaho whilst visiting my family last week (pictures of vacation pending). The kids store is called "Babies and Beyond". When I saw it I knew I had to get it, and asked my mom if she wanted to get it for James as his birthday present.

It's used, so we got it for a pretty good price, but it looks brand new. A four piece suit! He's gonna be the most snazzy looking toddler at church. Watch out ladies! Actually it doesn't quite fit him yet, but it will in about 4-6 months. The bottoms look like shorts in the picture but they are pants.
And the following two are from Stephen and myself. We also got these at the same used kid store.

Unfortunatly James is taller than I thought so this church outfit won't fit him for very long. Maybe 2 months...hopefully.
And for the grand finale, the piece de resistance...TA DA!!!

Isn't it awesome. We got it for $9.98 and it retails on Amazon for $241.99! I don't think they make them anymore. Can you believe it? It comes with a retractable anchor, canons below deck, a plank, sails, and a pirate. I added the rest of the crew from James toy stash. The funny thing about that used kids place was that there were a lot of used toys that were in really great condition at really low cost, but a lot of the used clothes, not all but it seemed like most, weren't really that great of a bargain used. A lot of the stuff seemed like it would be the same price, possibly even cheaper brand new, but on clearance. Anyways, he got some sweet stuff. Originally I wanted to get him these for his birthday from Ikea to decorate his room and make it look more jungle-y.

The net comes in green, too. I'll have to get them for Christmas instead.

Dear Family and Friends

2011-07-12T12:41:00.000-07:00

Not too long ago I put up a post about how Stephen and I were deciding what future would be best for us. It came down to two things that Stephen wanted to do. (I say Stephen because as long as what he does is enough to support us financially and makes him happy, I'll support him.) The choices were either to join a police force or join the military. We have since made the decision to join the military. I think I need to specify to anyone reading that this is a choice we made. This wasn't made out of desperation of not knowing what to do, or that we didn't have any other choice so we chose this one. Stephen has actually wanted to do this for a very long time. But, in the past when he had mentioned the idea he was met with opposition. I admit when he first told me I was strongly opposed to the idea as well. If he wanted to join a police force, despite his lack of CA or Washington state license (which were the two states we were leaning towards), we could have made it happen. It might have taken some work but we could have made it happen. My sister just moved into a rather large house with an apartment downstairs in Washington and has offered the downstairs to us temporarily if we needed it. Hypothetically we could have moved in, soon after got a WA license and started applying to police departments up there. Or we could have done the same thing in CA because we have family there, one has already offered to let us stay with them as well for awhile if needs be. We looked at those options, and I asked Stephen "Do you want to do that, and work as a police officer? Or do you want to join the military?" He said he wanted to join the military. He had a few options and he chose that one. As I mentioned earlier, when he first told me about how he was interested in joining the military I was strongly opposed to the idea. The idea of him going to war and my becoming possibly a young widow with a child was not appealing. But the more I thought about it, all those feelings of anxiety have gone away, and I don't feel scared anymore. (And anyone who really knows me knows that is not normal Melinda behavior, and I'm actually a rather paranoid person.) We've thought about it, and have prayed about it, and we feel good about it. We feel a pull that that's where we are supposed to be. If we like it, then we'll stay, if we don't then after 8 years we'll leave. But, as for now we both feel strongly that that's where we're supposed to be. We are telling people that is our decision and I'm begging people to respect it. Please please please don't try and talk us out of it, and if you have anything negative to say, please keep it to yourself. We are adults now, and we have our own family, and we are making our own decisions. When we decide something we council with each other and the Lord. Three's company four is a crowd. So, please be supportive, and keep us in your prayers that everything will go well, and if Stephen ever does get deployed that he will be safe and protected and come back home to the family and friends waiting for him. And please, don't give us some big spiel about how you heard about a guy in the military that went A-wall and killed some innocent Arab woman and her child, because honestly there are psychos and corrupt people in every occupation and it's a little insulting to the thousands of good people there are that serve or who have served our country in the military. It's unfortunate that a lot of them get a bad rep just because of a few nut jobs. Besides that, Stephen would never do something like that. We know the risk, and we know what we're getting ourselves into. So, don't be surprised if you tell me why we shouldn't join the army and I bite your head off 'cause... I will. I'm sure we have all known people that were in the military and hated it. My dad was one of them, but that kind of life wasn't his thing. Plus, he was drafted. Anyone who knows Stephen can see how this is something that he was meant to do. He loves war movies, (i.e. Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line, The Patriot, Independence Day, etc) and not because of the violence. Because he likes to see good conquering evil. He has always idolized war heroes, and could spend hours, and has, talking to war veterans. Hearing the good and the bad. He likes the idea of fighting for freedom and for something you believe in. He likes honor, freedom, and he loves America.

On Monday we went and talked to a recruiter about Stephen becoming an officer, and we are currently getting together all the necessary paperwork to turn in as soon as possible. They give them a practice test to take just to give them an idea on how they would do on the real test. Stephen scored an 82 on the practice test, which the recruiter said was very good. There were 4 sections, 2 were math related and 2 were more literary type stuff. On the 2 literary sections Stephen got 100%, it was just the math that he has to brush up on. We checked out the ASVAB (The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery) book from the library to help prepare him for the real test. I think once he's practiced he could score really high on the real test. The recruiter said that people that practice with the book before the real test usually improve their score anywhere from 5-50 points. The highest score is 99, which means he'd need to improve by 17 points to get 100%. So, that's what we're in the middle of doing right now, and I hope you all can keep us in your prayers that everything will go alright. Thanks!

Summer Lovin'

2011-06-28T12:09:00.000-07:00

Okay, I know the title of this blog is so cliche, but it's true. I'm so glad that summer is finally here. Last week we had Stephen's parents visit us, and Linda watched James for us so we could go on a date. I can't remember the last time we went out to a restaurant sans bebe. It was fun, my only major beef was the fact that it took 45 minutes to get our food, which is pretty lame considering there were only a total of 6 of us at the restaurant. Technically I would vow to never eat there again, except the food was sooooo good. But, anyone that knows me knows I love ethnic food. (The restaurant is called Cedars of Lebanon. I think I would recommend just calling in an order an hour before you are going to eat and just picking it up, because like I said, the food was excellent!) Then Saturday my dad came to town. We went to the Veterans Water Park in Provo. It's only $4 per person so not a bad deal.

I was super excited to take James, but he ended up being really scared of it. Funny because usually he is a little dare devil. It took a really long time for he to warm up to it, and by the time he did it was time to go. He spent most of his time sitting on his towel watching all the other kids having fun.

Oh, by the way funny story. So, Stephen was watching James so I could swim a bit in the adult pool with my dad. Well, we were talking and treading water and I didn't see the guy behind me. My big two accidentally slid over his bum and his shorts got momentarily caught between my toes. I swear I totally was not trying to pinch his bum with my toes. That's weird. HAHAHAHA!
Then yesterday I went up American Fork Canyon with James and my dad. We didn't hike very far, but it was fun; poor Stephen had work and couldn't come.

My dad left this morning, but tomorrow we're all going up to northern Idaho to have a big 4th of July reunion at my parents. We'll be there about a week. I'm super excited, I haven't seen any of my siblings since last years summer rendezvous. BTW, Happy early 4th of July everyone!!!!!

I SO HEART THIS BLOG

2011-06-16T11:51:00.000-07:00

Ok, I know I usually only post once a week, but I wanted to show everyone this blog I absolutely love. This chic takes super cute immodest clothes, and makes them modest. Yes, she's mormon if your wondering, so that explains it. Something super helpful to someone like me who wants something that isn't so modest. (Not that I want it because it's immodest, but most cute things in stores realistically aren't very modest, at least according to LDS standards.) Here are some clothes she's performed massive surgery on, their before and after pictures...

What she usually does is buy bigger sizes on clearance and then makes them smaller leaving plenty on leftover fabric to make sleeves, or add length or whatever it is that needs to be done. Of course, if you are like a size 2 I'm sure it's easy to find bigger sizes on clearance than if you were someone bigger like me. But, I still love her blog.
Here is her blog. Check it out.

Ready for Summer

2011-06-13T13:08:00.000-07:00

About three weeks ago Jo-anns had one of there frequent 50% off clearance sales. I am a total junkie for those sales. While there I came across some really cool swimsuit fabric, two actually and I bought them both. Here is the first one that I made. It didn't turn out exactly how I had hoped, but it was my first time making a swimsuit, I didn't have a pattern, so considering those things I'm pretty happy with it. The support in the front isn't that great, I'm still deciding how I'm going to fix it. Plus there's a smal stain on it, I had meant to cut the top part around it, but forgot and then cut out the fabric. The stain is right on my chest. Maybe some bleach can take care of that.

I wanted a sort of tankini because one peices drive me nuts. I always have to go to the bathroom for some reason the minute I get in the pool. Taking a wet one peice off is a pain in the butt. I wanted the bottm to be shorts because I always wear shorts when I go swimming anyways. I'm hoping that the next one will work out a little better. It cost me a total of $4.50 to make this swimsuit. I really like it, although it does admittedly kind of remind me of this...

hahaha...ahem, I still like it.
And here are some pixs of James with an olive on his finger.

Little Mr. Sunshine

2011-06-06T12:21:00.001-07:00

On Sunday I was making dinner and chopping up onions when my eyes started burning, so I asked Stephen if I could use a pair of his glasses to sheild my eyes. Like his range glasses, because they offer really good protection. When James saw me wearing them he threw a fit because apparently he wanted them, so when I was done I put them on him, and he loved them. Doesn't he look so cute? Nerdy cute, like he's going to play basketball and needs these to sheild his eyes.
On Friday we babysat for this couple in our ward, because they babysat James back in December. The little girl is 4 and the little boy is almost two. Their Names are Taylor and Joshua. They are super cute. well, James is a screamer, he screams when he's happy, sad, gasey, etc. you get the picture, he's a screamer. Well, he started screaming at them, but because he was happy they were there and playing with him. They looked startled, ad I told them not to worry that was just his way of expressing himself. So I asked the little girl if her brother ever screams. "No, he never screams. But sometimes he hits me or pulls my hair." James does those, too. But I was more than a little envious at how mild these children were, and I sat there imagining how happy my life would be if James never screamed. James is an incredibly spirited little boy. Here they are playing on the treadmill, which I wasn't crazy about but if someone over 200 pounds can run on it, I figure that they really can't do any damage.

Also, while they were there Taylor used the potty several times because she's 4 and potty trained. James would come into the bathroom and look at her like, huh so kids sit on that thing too. It sparked an interest and the next day he wanted to sit on the potty. I was more than thrilled because I want to start potty training him around 2. So I sat him on it, and he was laughing, but nothing was really happening, then he was not into it any more and wanted to get off. As soon as he got off he squatted and peed on the ground. Ah! Why couldn't he have just done it in the potty? I don't think he understood what he was supposed to do. What he really needs is to watch another male go potty to get it. But Stephen won't let James watch because he says it just seems creepy. So, now what do I do, go up to some random lady with a little boy and say, "Oh hey your little boy is P.T. I see can we watch?" What's a mom to do? Any tips?

Door One Or Door Two

2011-05-31T13:45:00.000-07:00

Do you ever feel like you're doing everything you should be doing and somehow life still doesn't seem to be working out for you? That's how I've kind of felt this last year. I feel like saying "Okay Heavenly Father what am I doing wrong? What do you want me to do?" Just a little FYI Stephen is pretty much on the verge of losing his job. He works hard but things aren't exactly working out with him in Sales (he's just not a desk jockey) and so they are thinking about moving him back to Customer Service which is a pretty substantial pay cut, at least for us since we are kind of living paycheck to paycheck already. Last year when he worked in CS it wasn't so bad because we were living in my brother-in-laws basement apartment paying $255 less rent than we are now. But with higher rent, food and gas prices rising we are looking to what our other options are. For those of you who knew that Stephen had tried to get into the California Highway Patrol, that is pretty much out of the picture now. Which makes me really really mad because last year when his brother Nathan was in the CHP academy they told him they weren't really going to be hiring this year. But when we talked to Stephen's background investigator we asked if that was true and if there was any point in spending money for him to keep coming out to finish his testing if they weren't hiring. Well, Stephen's background investigator who took 2 years to complete Stephen's application process said those were untrue rumors, blah blah blah. Well, they were true. What a waste of two years. So, I've been looking into other Police Departments in different states that we might be interested in living. We looked in Oregon, they aren't really hiring right now, Washington you absolutely have to have a WA driver's license, and the same for almost every single police department in California as well you need a CA drivers license. (We also looked in Idaho but the pay is really bad, except for Boise, and Utah only had one opening where the pay was acceptable, but Stephen doesn't want to live in Utah anymore, he really hates snow) I could only find 3 in CA that accepts out of state applicants (not including L.A. but I really really don't want to live to L.A.) those 3 are Marina, CA, Simi Valley, CA, and San Diego, CA. The first two are very expensive areas to live, and compared to those first two San Diego isn't so bad. Plus look how pretty it is.

I lived in San Diego when I was really little and Stephen loves palm trees. I talked to a recruiter today who said he could take the first test in June and if he passed with all flying colors he could be in an academy as soon as this upcoming October. So that's door #1. Here's door #2...the military. Anyone who knows Stephen, and I mean really really knows Stephen is like "Oh yeah, I could totally see him in the military." At first we thought the Air Force because he has a friend in the Air Force who told us all about it and it seemed like a good idea, the only problem is if he were to apply now, the soonest he could get into the Air Force as an officer would be 2 years from now, and we don't have that much time, at least not anymore. (He's too old to go in as an enlisted) So then we started looking at the Army. They said that if he were to start at the next local board/test in July and passed he could get in as soon as September. The military has excellent benefits, but the three types of training that he'd have to go through alone is about 10 months of us not getting to see each other at all, except for at two of his training graduations. Not to mention if he were to get deployed right away...but at least to apply to the army he doesn't have to fly anywhere or take time off from work to take tests like he would have to applying to the San Diego Police Department. But in the Army we have no control over where we live, I don't necessarily have a problem with moving because I moved so much growing up, but not being able to pick where we had to move is more difficult. However, Stephen and I have talked about how cool it would be if he got stationed in Germany, or Italy. So, those are our options right now. If anyone has any suggestions as to other job openings they know of that Stephen would like, I'm all ears.

Say Cheese!! SAY IT!!!

2011-05-31T12:10:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday James had his pictures taken, professionally (well... semi-professionally, it was at walmart) for the first time. At first he was okay for about five minutes so we got some good shots in, but then he started freaking out. I don't know if it was because the woman taking the pictures was kind of over the top bubbly and doing the baby talk (where's the bear? the bear is on my head googly goo!! say cheese) but he was not happy. She took a total of like 20 pictures, and only about 8 I found acceptable. I think next time I'll just ask my sis-n-law Megan to do it. James is familiar with her and she has an amazing camera. But you know how it is, for me it was always exciting to go and get our pictures taken. Although I hated to when I was a teenager because I hated how I looked. Anyways...here are some of the good ones that turned out. (yes, it's from the walmart website)

Ok so we chose the flag background because his birthday's in July and his name is historically patriotic, but when I went to go get James off the drop when we were done I noticed that it totally smelled like pee, and it wasn't James. I couldn't help but think "do they ever wash these things? especially with little kids sitting on it you never know when someones had an accident. I was too shy to tell the lady but after we pick up the pictures in 2 weeks I'm going to send a nice e-mail letting them know.

Other note, last week Stephen's parents were in town (sorry no pictures, I'm so bad at remembering to take them, I'll bring the camera, and then forget to use it.) They were nice enough to watch James so Stephen and I could go to the temple. I asked Linda if she would mind taking James to get a shot that he needed. Apparently when she took him to get his shot he was really good, which doesn't surprise me since he has only cried once in the last 2 years when he's gotten his shots taken, but what did surprise me was that after they gave him the shot he turned and said "thank-you." The nurse said that has never happened before. I was so proud because we've been working really hard making sure he always says please and thank-you. It's nice to know the hard work has paid off.

Take Me Out To The Ball Game...

2011-05-23T12:03:00.000-07:00

On Saturday Stephen's work had their Summer Party a little early this year, and decided to have it a Salt Lake Bee's Baseball game. It was such a blast, despite the fact that I am not a sports person. First, we had a barbecue in the center field, then watched the game, and then there were fireworks. No matter how old I get summer barbecues and fireworks never get old. Every year they have a kind of raffle, and everyone in the office gets 2 tickets, well somehow Stephen did something nice in the office that got him 4 tickets, and so I thought, hey that will totally increase our odds. We only had 2 out of the 4 picked, and we were like the very last ones, so everything was kind of picked over. BTW, they do the raffle in such a way that everyone pretty much gets something. Out of like 64 tickets that were handed out like 58 were picked, so, anyway ...it was still fun.

We ran into the SL Bee's mascot and James loved him. In fact, when I went to take him back after the picture was taken he was upset, he wanted to be held by the bee. He was the same way at Easter he took a picture with the Easter bunny, but afterwards he didn't want to leave to give the other kids a turn. Most kids are afraid of Santa, the Easter Bunny, Clowns, etc, until they are like 4. James, however loves seeing people dressed up as giant stuffed animals, or insects.

These are some good friends of ours, Mike and Becca Bell. Stephen works with Mike and works out with him, and I go walking with Becca in the mornings.

I was really excited for James to see the firworks but when they started he wouldn't even look at them he was so scared he just held onto Stephen for dear life until they ended. Hopefully he'll be better for the 4th of July.

SILHOUETTE MACHINE GIVEAWAY!!!!

2011-05-19T08:31:00.000-07:00

SILHOUETTE MACHINE GIVEAWAY!!!!

There's nothing as sweet as a...

2011-05-15T12:31:00.000-07:00

toe-suckers toe? Yuck!

Don't ask me why, but lately James has taken to sucking on his big toe. He's never sucked on his thumb, and the most he's ever taken a pacifier was for one month at 7 or 8 months old when he started teething. But toes? Crazy!
Anyway, guess what? We got James a new changing table. Out with the old...

(two shelves broken, one missing, and the top starting to go as well) and in with the new.

I really love this changing table. And even though James soon will be past the diaper wearing age, we do plan on having more kids, so this was a good investment. We found it used on KSL. Paid a little more than I had wanted to. People in Utah tend to ask too much for used things. But it was still cheaper than a brand new one and still looks practically new to me. A few scuffs/marks but nothing too noticeable. The only thing is it doesn't really match his crib,

or his rocking chair.

Oh, well. Not to mention the dresser, but I plan on getting rid of the one he has asap, and getting something a little better. Maybe if I ever get enthusiastic enough about his room looking a little more professionally interior decorated I might try to stain the crib and rocking chair to match. But...we'll see...
I know you are all just sitting at the edge of your seats wondering what I sewed this week. (Yeah, right, like I'm Miss grosgrainfabulous. Ha, I wish!) Well, I haven't sewed anything this week, I'm actually trying my hand at crocheting. My mom taught me when I was young and I've kind of been fibbing at it the last couple of years. Stephen got me this book for Christmas over a year ago called Crochet Adorned.

When I first tried it I got so frustrated that I gave up Now I'm trying it again. Starting out small. This is what I attempted to make...

and this is what I made.

I'm not sure where I went wrong, as you can see the real image has four picot fans, and mine only has three. I even counted out every individual one. Oh, well. Maybe some day I'll be so good at it I'll make something like these. If only...

Being a mommy sure has awoken all these mommy homemaker desires I never knew I had.

Mother I love you!

2011-05-09T13:33:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone had a Happy Mother's Day. Stephen was sick, and James is at the end of whatever it is that he had, but they still managed to make it memorable. Well Stephen did, James was just his regular stinkery self. During sacrament the primary kids sang to us a song about mothers. It was sad actually because during one of the practices for the song that they sang yesterday for mother's day one of our students started crying. Stephen asked him if he was okay, but he just hid his face. I know he's in a step family but I don't know what the situation is, if his parents got divorced, or if his mother passed away. It pulled at my heart though and I almost started to cry with him. Anyway...Because I was the only one not sick I had to teach by myself yesterday. Stephen and I teach the 5-6 year olds at church. Word to the wise, if you ever get assigned to teach junior primary treats work. That is the only way to get them to behave. I know they discourage it. But, it's the only way to keep sane and it works. We have 9 students, but we usually have about 5-7 kids show up every Sunday. Treats work. Our system is that for every 3 questions that they answer they get a dum dum. And the dum dums are so small I don't feel guilty giving them out. The maximum dum dums any given child will ever get during class is 3, but usually it's two. It keeps our kids in their seats and paying attention. Mostly. It's funny though. They are so desperate to get candy that they will just shout out gospel answers that have nothing to do with the lesson. For example: "Okay class, how old are we when we get baptised?" "Heavenly Father!" "Uh, Joseph Smith" "Pray and read your scriptures!" We have one little boy in our class who is autistic and every 5 minutes he gets up to ask me how many points he has. "Well, Brennen remember you have to answer a question to get a point." "But I asked a question. Don't I get a point." "Um...that's not how it works." But they're a fun class. Two of them are wanna be boyfriend and girlfriend and we have to remind them to sit in their own chairs, no kissing in class. Last Christmas before we got our classes rotated here is how one of our lessons went. (Yes I wrote it down, Stephen was teaching and it was just to hilarious not to.)
Stephen: Does everyone believe in Jesus?
Student: Some people don't believe in Santa!
Stephen: Well, some people don't believe in Jesus!
Student:Yeah like people in China, people in China don't believe in Jesus.
Stephen: Well...some do, but most don't.
Student: Yeah, like this one guy, he's Chinese, but lives in Japan. Do Japan people believe in Jesus?
***
Student: Jesus was resurrected on Easter?
Me: Well, His Resurrection is what made Easter. When He was born, that made Christmas. When He was resurrected that made Easter.
Student: Well, then what made Halloween?
Student: Maybe candy made Halloween!
Student: So, today we're learning about resurrections?
***
Me: Who wants a sucker? Ladies first, ladies first.
Student: Ahh man!

With all the funny things that go on in our class I've debated actually recording them and making a kind of comic book, like "Family Circus" but the kids are our students and not our actual children. Maybe we could call it "CTR Circus". Our class is CTR (Choose the Right) 5A.

Here's a picture of the two sickies.

Here's a shirt I made this last week. I look really frumpy in this picture. Hopefully I don't always look like this.

But the shirt really is cute. It only cost $1.50 for the fabric. Stephen and I went to the Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum. Tons of fun, sorry no pics, but I totally recommend it. James is getting his first pictures taken this Saturday and I'm super excited. Have a good week!

Birthday Week

2011-05-01T09:41:00.000-07:00

I believe that a birthday is not just one day, but a whole week. People have to be nice to you the whole week. Well, hopefully people are nice just because it's good to be nice. But, for the the birthday week we have to be especially nice. That's what I use to say as a kid anyways. Being the youngest of 7 you can get teased a lot. So, I would use that as a way for my siblings to remember as a kid. "Hey be nice, it's my birthday week." It worked for the most part. So, having said that, if you didn't get a chance to call Stephen on his birthday, or e-mail him, or facebook, whichever it's not too late to tell him you love him and Happy Birthday!! For his Birthday I got him "Sherlock Holmes" the movie, and "Iron Man 2" and he loves them. We had a small party yesterday, not much, the usual: pizza, soda, cake, some fruit and veggies. Our friend Valerie who is about 4 or 5 months pregnant did something very pregnant and spread the hummus dip on her pizza. hmmm... i usually use it for sugar snap peas, but I'll have to try putting it on pizza. We had a good turnout, a total of 12-13 people (not including ourselves) that came. Luckily they all came in stages (because our apartment isn't huge) from 3:30-ish, and the last people left at like 8. Sorry, I forgot to take pictures, too busy socializing. Before the party Stephen and some friends went to a Utah Defensive League Pistol Match and had a blast. By the way it snowed yesterday. (These are pictures from our apartment window)

*sigh* That's one thing I hate about Utah. Winter and Summer tend to hog the other seasons. I'm the type of person that likes 4 very distinct seasons. I like them to start on time and end on time. Each season should get 3 months. Period. But what can ya do. James was sick again this last week. The usual, runny nose, sneezing, and coughing. Now I'm starting to feel a little tickle in my nasal passage as well. grrr. James learned some new words this week: hot, two, and okay. I'm glad he's starting to understand "hot" so that now I can use it to refer to something that can hurt him or is dangerous. "No" has pretty much lost meaning for him. BTW I made myself a spring skirt. See.

Have a good week!

Cartoon Boy

2011-04-24T12:49:00.000-07:00

I have been told on a number of occasions that James looks like a little cartoon boy. Some say he looks like Dennis the Menace,

some say Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes.

Personally I definitely think he has a disposition similar to both of them.
At the beginning of this week I cut my hair again.

I think I will forever have a mom haircut. The mom haircut is neither too long nor too short. It always hits at about the shoulders. It can be with or without bangs. Short hair on me looks like I'm trying to be trendy and long hair on me makes me look like a kid. I think I have had a mommy haircut since I was like 12 or 13. I hate hair, in fact if I had the face for it, I would chop off all my hair. But That's the reason I have a mommy haircut, because I don't have the face for anything else.

(Hey I made this shirt. Me likes it, do you likes it?)
We had a lot of thunderstorms this last week, and as a result lots of dogs were out and about. They had somehow managed to get out of their backyard, or off their leash. In fact one dog chased us down the block and finally gave up, the second the came after me I just pepper sprayed. I know I'm heartless. The next day this dog came up to us, and at first I freaked out because I didn't even see him, and suddenly he was right there. But then I realized he was nice, and was kind of shaking. I don't know if he was hungry or what but I saw a sign for a lost dog, so I thought what the heck I'll take it to the address and see if it's theirs. It wasn't and eventually the dog ran off but during the time it was following us James was shrieking with laughter and excitement. Which made me start to wish we had a dog. And for those of you that know me I am not a dog person. I don't hate them, but most of them tend to get on my nerves. So me wanting a dog is huge. But I don't want it for me, it's just them James loves them, animals in general but especially dogs. When we are at the park and we see a dog he could care less about playing, he just wants to follow the dog around. Plus, guess what his favorite movie is? Babe. Seriously!

I tried putting a Winnie the Pooh cartoon on and he watched it for like 5 minutes. But the first time he watched Babe the whole time he was shrieking with laughter. And during Christmas time Stephen and I checked out Marley and Me from the library, and he watched practically the whole thing with us. If Marley wasn't in a scene he'd play with his toys but the minute he would come back on, he was glued to the T.V. That's why I've been flirting with the idea of having a dog lately. Something small but older, so we wouldn't have to potty train it. Like these

But every time I start thinking about it Stephen talks me out of it. Oh well it's probably a good thing. James has just learned two new words this week. Happy and shoe. At first he pronounced shoe as sooj. hahaha. Yesterday James went on an amazing Easter egg hunt with his cousins Camryn and Tamsin. Here are some pictures.

But if you want to see more professionally done pictures of the event, check out my sister-in-law's blog here
Yesterday I had a day out with an old mission companion which was fun. I miss hanging out with other girls sans bebe. I forgot to take pix, maybe next time. Last night my father-in-law took us out to dinner to Ruby River Steakhouse for Stephen's birthday which is this upcoming week.
BTW, I made this cute dress just in time for Easter. I think it turned out rather well considering I totally ruined it originally and then had to do a massive reconstruction on it. Sewing linings on things is not easy for me to do.

Christ Lives!!!

2011-04-24T12:09:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter Everyone!!! This is an amazing time of the year to think about our Savior and everything he has done for us. Stephen and I teach a Primary class at church (basically Sunday School for children) to the 5-6 year olds. As I was preparing my lesson I realized that I haven't thought a whole lot about the resurrection this month. This guy during church gave a talk and during the talk he retold a story by President Thomas S. Monson. President Monson told this story about 2 years ago during General Conference about this boy who struggled with cancer (I believe) and had undergone several different treatments. Well the last treatment he underwent he was laying in the hospital bed exhausted, and his dad thought he was sleeping. So, he says to him basically how bad he feels that he has had such a rough life, but that he hoped despite all his hardships that he hadn't lost his faith in Jesus Christ. At that instant the boy bolted up in his bed with a very stern look on his face and said "NEVER!" Not so long after that the boy passed away. I hope I can be like that. No matter what hardships come in my life and/or trials that I will always remain strong and firm in my testimony of Jesus Christ. I know he lives and I love him.

Look How Big He Is

2011-04-17T16:00:00.000-07:00

James finally had his 18 month check up at 20.5 months. I waited to take him to get his shots because this last winter he kept getting sick on and off. It all started when started going to nursery. (Come on people, it's okay if you stay home with your sick kids. No one is going to freak out and think you're going inactive.) Tons of kids playing in one room with the same toys, putting things in their mouths. It's bound to happen. Sorry...tangent...anyway he had his check-up. Latest news is he is allergic to strawberries. Nothing too serious, but he does develop a slight rash around the yahoos when he eats them. He also has allergies in general, and has been wheezing a tiny bit lately. Unfortunately that started after his check up, but if he keeps on doing it we'll have to take him back. At 20.5 months James weighs 28.4 pounds (76% percentile) is 35 inches tall (95% percentile) and his head is 49 cm. (85% percentile). The doctor told me by now he should be saying 20-30 words. Now that freaked me out because I only recall like 5 words he says on a regular basis. I had to sit down and write a list of all the words I've heard him say. Here they are: NO, STOP-IT, DON'T, THAT, YES/YEAH, THANK-YOU, HELLO/HI, BYE-BYE, MOM, DAD/DADDY, UP, CUP, WOW, UH-OH, LOVE-YOU (one rare ocassion I heard him say it, but that was the only time). He also makes some sound effects that the doctor said is more common for boys to say first instead of words. They are: POW-POW, KNOCK-KNOCK, MOO, and LA. Then there are a lot of other things he understands but just can't say yet. We're still working on it though. Oh, and by the way...James loves his Daddy!!

Not a whole lot going on. We had a Relief Society Church Activity making Fun Bags for little kids at the Children's Hospital in SLC on Thursday. While we were making it some gals in our ward brought pizza and so here I was trying to be good and eating one piece of pizza and one breadstick. Well at my table there were these two gals, (about my age, my height) who looked like they were both about a size 0. One of them had gobbled up 4 pieces and two breadsticks and the other had eaten 3 pieces and 2 breadsticks. Where do they put it, seriously?!?! So then I thought, these girls must be runners. But then we got on the topic of running because there's this gal in our church that has cancer and another gal at my table was going to do a cancer run to support her. Then they (all the ladies at my table) started taking about how out of shape they were and how they need to work out BLAH BLAH BLAH. I was the biggest person at my table. I'm a size 10. How do these people stay so skinny if they don't work out. I'm not saying I want to be a size 0, which I think actually looks kind of scary, but I'm pretty happy between size 6-8. JEEZ! Anyway, enough of me ranting about how unfair it is that some people just have naturally fast metabolisms. I should be happy because...drumroll please. I have lost 20 pounds in the last year starting from the time I started working out everyday (except Sundays and some Saturdays) and eating healthier to now. Everyday for one year I've worked out, even through the crappy winter weather and when I've been sick I've still walked slowly on the treadmill. Anywhere from 2-4 miles a day, plus 45 minutes of crunches, push-ups (girl style), lifting weights, etc. I'm hoping I can reach my goal by October. I have about 15 pounds left. I'm sure a couple of you have also been wondering what I've sewn lately. Here are just a few things. I haven't sewn as much in the past 3 months, but here's what I have made. (Heads up, I look silly in these pix because Stephen got tired of me wanting to look at every single pix after he took it, so he took a bunch of candid shots of me goofing off and I had to pick from amoung them, and let me tell you they were slim pickings. Admittedly I'm not very photogenic.)

P.P.P.S.

2011-04-11T14:18:00.000-07:00

Ha! One more thing. James loves to DANCE. Which mainly consists of him spinning around and around and around in circles. I'm seriously thinking of enrolling him in toddler ballroom dance classes when he's 3 or 4. Assuming he still loves dancing by that time.

Good News

2011-04-10T15:14:00.000-07:00

Guess what? After 2 years of not being able to wear my wedding ring, starting around my 5th month of pregnancy, I've finally lost enough weight to wear it again. Okay so it's not a huge deal for you all, but it's a big deal to me. I really like the wedding ring Stephen got me, and admittedly I've been kind of sick of wearing the expandable one I got for like $3. TA DA! Here it is.

Other news? Well you might have guessed we have internet again. Woohoo!!! 9 long months, and believe me we have felt it. Well, at least I have. Stephen had the internet at work so for him it wasn't as much of a deal not to have it as it was for me. We're splitting internet with our neighbor and paying half the cost. So, it's a two-way benefit. But I'm sure you guys don't care about that stuff, you're probably all wondering how James is. He's good, and difficult as ever. I've finally come up with a solution to his picky eating problem. Let me introduce you to "the time-out corner." (Okay so I'm too lazy to take a picture, but imagine a short hallway with a gate that has two doors behind it. The doors are childproofed, so...when he's put intime out, he's pretty much stuck there. No worries, it's only for about 2 minutes.)When he refuses to eat his food, he gets put in time out. Sound harsh? Well it's working! He's almost two, and I'm not going to have a kid that only eats PB&J sandwiches and string cheese, which is what his diet has mainly consisted of for the last few months. Now he eats at least half of the new foods we put in front of him. He might cry while he's eating it, but he still eats it. We're still working on vegetables. Next James news is that he has become a very kissy boy. He kisses all his stuffed animals, and kids in his books. Even if it's just a drawing of a kid and not a real picture of one. Here he is kissing his beloved doggy.

Lately is into shooting everything. He picks up this black tube that is part of the vacuum cleaner and runs around the house shouting "POW POW POW!" That's when I told Stephen we need to start being really careful about what we watch around him.

That's all the latest news I can think of. (Just an FYI, I'll only be updating my blog, as well as checking other peoples once a week on Sundays. I'm trying not to get back into the bad habit of wasting hours on the internet everyday.) Have a good week!

(p.s. I love this hat on James. It makes him look like a WWI pilot. teehee)
(p.p.s For any of you wondering about Stephen and the CHP application process, he finished everything up in March, FINALLY, and now we're waiting. So...who knows, but hopefully something will work out.)

Madder Than Heck...

2011-04-08T11:27:00.000-07:00

Anyone else out their as upset as me about what's going on in the government right now?!?! It's ridiculous!!! I know this is very political and sensitive topic, and I will probably get a lot of angry comments from the left...but I really don't care. What I don't get is why democrats would rather continue funding woman out their that want to get an abortion (aka: kill an innocent unborn child) rather than fund people in the military that are risking their lives, despite the fact that they have thier own families at home to support. Wives, husbands, children, etc. praying for them every day so that they can get home soemday safely. These men and women risk their lives for us, and in return they are just getting slapped in the face and told "Hey, sorry, but we'd rather give money to irresponsible woman (who couldn't use protection for heaven sake, or practice some self-restraint/abstinence) who don't want to take any responsibility for their actions, (and can only think of themselves and use the easy way out) rather than woman and men who are dying for this country." It's sick. Why don't people who want abortions for once in their selfish lives think about someone other than themselves, save an unborn child, and find the child a nice home to go to, a home where a couple has been waiting years and years for that child to be a part of their family. You know what, being pregnant isn't easy, or fun, but when you look at your life and think how short 9 months is, is it really that long to sacrifice for that child. If you say "yes" than you are a selfish person and a contributor to why this country is falling apart. (One of the reasons this country is falling apart is because people can only think about themselves, and what they want.) It seems to me that the democrats pushing for funding abortions in "Planned Parenthood" would rather see unborn children aborted, and children of parents in the military go hungry than do what's best for everyone all around. It's sick, it's upsetting. Does anyone else find this as ridiculous as me? (Note: I don't think all democrats are bad, just the ones that are pushing for "Planned Parenthood" funding abortions rather than those people that are in the military.)

Reviewing

2010-12-26T21:00:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm in California at my In-Laws finally able to catch up on my blog a little. The trouble is I'm trying to remember what I've done the last four months that is so terribly interesting or important. So... to recap what's happened here is a small list: Our 3 year wedding anniversary on September 28th, 2010, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. For our three year wedding anniversary we went out to an Indian restaurant, and hardly spent any money (thanks to Karl and Megan's coupon, thanks guys!!!!). We thought it wouldn't be as great having to take James out, especially since the last four months James has been very screamy. (Is that a word?) Luckily, James loves Indian food, like his mommy, and was quiet as long as we stuffed his mouth with food. Next, Halloween. For Halloween I made James a cute lion costume, to which I added horns, but nobody noticed them and everyone thought he was just a lion, but he was actually supposed to be the Beast from Beauty and the Beast. I was Belle, and Stephen was going to be Gaston, BUT he wasn't because he started acting like a punk like every single year he does and decides (literally days before Halloween) that he wants to do his own thing. I was able to persuade him to try and do something at least Beauty and the Beast related, so he went as Cogsworth, which nobody got. Whatever, I'm more hopeful for Halloween next year, especially since I told him he could pick the Costume theme. We went to Stephen's Halloween work party Friday during lunch, then that night we went to our ward's Trunck or Treat, which was fun fun fun!! Have I mentioned I love our ward. It's not that I haven't liked our last ward's, but Provo ward's that have mostly newly married students can be very difficult to make friends in. Our new ward is full of young families done with school and staring out in life. There are tons of kids in our ward, so for Halloween I tried to make sure we had tons of treats. I made two batches of brownies, and decided that that might not be enough, and then made a cake as well. There was a total of 110 slices total of the three different batches. We also brought some traditional Halloween candy. By the end of the night we had one brownie left and half a bag of candy. Then Sunday we had a Halloween dinner at Karl and Megan's, but by that time I had already worn my costume twice and was done, so only dressed up James, but here are some cute pictures of us at the work party on Friday.
For Thanksgiving the plan was to go out to Coeur d'Alene, ID and spend the holiday with my family, but there was a big storm, literally the day before we wanted to go. So, because the roads were icy and unsafe we had to stay in Utah. Ugh! But, we went to Uncle Stephen and Aunt Tracy's and still had a lot of fun. Here we are at their place These next two were the day after Thanksgiving.

These next pictures were taken a couple of weeks ago. We had gone to Temple Square to see the lights, and let me tell you Saturday was a bad day to go because it was sooooo crowded!

These were also taken a couple weeks ago James was opening his presents from Uncle Karl and Aunt Megan. Thank-You!
>
And here we are at the rest home my Grandma Jeanne is at. We originally were going to use this picture to send out with Christmas cards, but that didn't go so well. We didn't have internet so it was difficult to get everyone's addresses so...again, maybe next year.

Currently we are still in Loomis, CA and haven't finished our Christmas/New Year Holidays yet, and will post it later. Stay Tuned...And Late Merry Christmas!! AND a Happy New Year!!!

The Taylors Clanning Around

2010-08-17T18:34:00.000-07:00

This is late I know, we don't have the internet still so I'm updating my blog at Mcdees. Thank goodness they offer free WiFi. About a week and a half ago Stephen's mom, dad, sister and her husband came out and we had a lot of fun. It's funny how when you live near family we all seem to get on each others' nerves, but then when we all live far about we realize how much we miss, and really do, love them. At least that's how I feel. Am I the only one? Wish I had more pictures of us all spending time together but the only pictures I got were at the Taylor Reunion on Saturday. Here they are: The house where we had the reunion was soo beautiful!

And here we are eating ice creams at Mcdees

Ahhh my computer is about to die!

First Cut and First Steps

2010-08-06T17:33:00.000-07:00

Update: I gave James his first haircut, and it's a little too short. Yep, kind of scary.

Also, James took his first steps last Friday!!! Woohoo! Then Thursday he took 4 steps, so he's moving on up. Other news, Stephen came back on Tuesday from his business trip to Dallas and then Las Vegas, so I am super happy. That's all.

P.S. I'm still trying to figure out how to download pix and videos from my phone, because I do not want to pay the money to send them to my e-mail.

Cousins Camp 2010

2010-07-22T19:01:00.000-07:00

What is Cousin’s Camp? Basically it’s a family reunion on my side of the family that we do once a year to see everyone, have fun, spend quality time together, and allow the cousin’s time to spend together. It was such a blast this year, but then again it was a blast the last time we went, which was 2 years ago. (Last year we couldn’t go because I was to close to my due date.) We left Tuesday evening, stayed the night in Idaho Falls, and then continued the drive on Wednesday, arriving around 5 at my parents. The drive isn’t too bad; it was about 10 hrs, not including stops. We were the second ones to arrive. Mindy had already arrived with her kids a few days before us. Megan had come to drop off her kids and then return later on Thursday. Aaron and company arrived Wednesday night late, with my brother Jeff from Seattle. Wednesday we had fun in the backyard, which is huge (my parents have never had a backyard this big) setting up a slip n’ slide, having waterballons, etc. My parents also bought this huge playground thing for the kids to play on. Everyone else arrived Thursday in time to go to dinner at a pizza place for Charlotte’s Birthday. She turned 4! Happy Birthday!!! Then we went back home for presents, cake and ice cream. Friday was crazy! We went to this amusement/water park 15 minutes away called Silverwood; so much fun! We (the Heaths and Taylors) camped next to the toddler pool with our toddlers and switched off watching the kids and going down slides. We all got a little burned; I thought we’d put lots of sunblock on. The problem was we forgot to reapply. Opps. Then we went to the buffet. Yum-yum. You did not see me eating salads. Nope, it’s all about the pulled pork my friends. After dinner we went to the rides part of the park. Stephen took Haley and Brinton on all the rides us sane people with full stomachs wouldn’t go on. All in all it was a fantabulous day. Saturday we all kind of lounged about. We were so exhausted from the day before. Plus, I got James’ cold, so I actually woke up sick. Then we had an early birthday party for James Saturday evening. KFC and cupcakes; which I totally thought he would chow down, but he mostly poked at it taking a few bites here and there. I tell you this kid does not like to eat. All I have to say is… he didn’t get it from me. Then that night we had a campfire and roasted marshmallows around this campfire pit my parents had made in their backyard. Sunday we came home, and very reluctantly I might add. I cried on Monday and told Stephen that I wanted to go back to Cousin’s Camp; despite that fact that there were 26 of us in a 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom home. It might sound crowded and a bit overwhelming, but we (all of my siblings) have very much grown up and are past our petty years. There were a few squabbles among the grandkids, but all in all a great time. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Brinton!!!! We love you!!!

P.S. When James opened up this tiny fire truck that we got him his cousin, Elly kept trying to say fire truck, but instead was saying fire sucks. haha! Indeed it does. Then when we tried to record her saying it, she said it right. :D

P.P.S. More pics of James Birthday Party to come as well as videos, I just have to figure out how to get them from my phone to my computer. Any suggestions.

Fourth of July Weekend

2010-07-22T18:44:00.000-07:00

This is really late, but I really wanted to post what we did because we had a lot of fun and we took some great pictures. Because the fourth of July was on a Sunday they split the festivities between Saturday and Monday. Friday night, as mentioned in the last post, we moved, but because our house was a mess in Lehi, it was late, and all the fourth of July festivities are in Provo, we ended up staying at Stephen’s parents house in Provo. On Saturday we went to the Freedom Festival on Center Street in Provo. It’s basically like a giant Farmer’s market with lots of booths set up with handmade crafts and great food, etc. Last year they had some rides to, but I didn’t see any. It also could have been because we didn’t go all the way down to the end. We got tired and it as time for the babes to take a nap. Plus, we had a BBQ to go to at Uncle Stephen and Aunt Tracy’s and we didn’t want to be late; especially since they always have great food. Tracy is an awesome cook! We skipped James nap and went straight there, but he ended up taking a nap on there floor. Isn’t he cute? If you think you see lumps in his diaper then you’re correct, but I didn’t want to wake him, so we just let him sleep like that. Then we set off some fireworks that we’d gotten. We took some really cool pictures, so go here to see them. Sunday we went and saw my Grandma Jeanne Dean. Then Monday we went to the Fourth of July parade (again) in Provo. James peed through his two outfits that weren’t packed up, so we got him a baby tee at the dollar store. He went around with no pants on and daddy’s hat from Ecuador. Finally Monday night we went to our new home, and spent our first night there. Ahhh…home sweet home. P.S. I’m still unpacking. P.P.S. Did I mention that we don’t have internet?

Crazy Weekend and More...

2010-07-15T15:20:00.000-07:00

We moved on July 2nd a Friday with, thankfully, a lot of help from the members in our ward, and they were able to do it all in 1 hour and 15 minutes. Funny, I told Stephen on Sunday to tell them that we would be feeding them pizza for their help (don't you hate it when you work hard with absolutely no reward, not even a cool glass of lemonade? I do.), so about 6 people volunteered; but when the pizza eating time came after packing I had to threaten people to eat it. Gee wiz, doesn't anyone like pizza anymore? Maybe because it was $5 buck pizza and not Papa Murphey's. Oh well. When we went to pick up our U-haul truck they accidentally overbooked the 14' truck, so they gave us the the 17' upgrade for free. Which was really nice by the way, I don't think that we would have been able to fit it all in the 14' truck. I forget to include the washer and dryer and love seat when reserving the truck size. So we were blessed. (Tangent Note: we actually had to leave our other/old loveseat behind because when we took it out of the garage where we had been keeping it in storage for the last almost two years we discovered that mice had been using the loveseat as their latrine. yuck!) One of the guys/ward movers even complimented me and said that out of all the moves he has ever done our was the most organized. Thank-you! I had packed pretty much the whole house by myself, and had felt a little bitter about it, but then when moving the actual boxes came in to play I didn't lift a finger. Mostly because I had to hold James, so Stephen did his part loading and unloading everything. Plus, I had put signs up everywhere trying to make things easier for them. Now I'm just trying to still finish all the unpacking. Man we have a lot of stuff! I'm trying my best to downsize, and still working at it. It's hard because we have a lot of family preparedness stuff that takes up room, and we can't obviously downsize those things.
So, we're pretty much all moved in and we love our new ward. We already have friends. Stephen has a friend from work, an old mission buddy, and a second cousin (one of the Stratfords) in our ward, and they all are married/have families. It's great. Our last ward was so hard to make friends because all the younger couples were moving so frequently, and/or they were busy with school or work. Not to mention being newly married they are very much into each other. But this ward seems more stable, in the sense that in four months a third of the ward won't be full of new people. I'm very excited, just trying to get used to the idea of not being near anything. I think that these new friends will fill that spot though...

(again sorry it's been awhile, we don't have internet anymore, since July 1st to be exact . Once I figure out where the Lehi library is hopefully I'll keep this more up to date.) (July 4th festivities' post coming soon...)

Moving Woes...

2010-06-25T08:38:00.000-07:00

I sooo wish we had a truck. With moving Stephen and I have decided to get some real things for the apartment. Not that the things we have are fake, but they are old, ugly, and shabby. We decided that we want to get a newer couch, a newer bed (including bed frame, mattress, box spring etc., plus we need these because we've spent the last almost three years sleeping in a full sized bed. note: we are not thin. Plus, Taylors sleep funny with their elbows flying all over the place, a queen bed is badly needed), a baby dresser (instead of just piling James' clothes on his changing table), and we'll need a washer and dryer as well. (We were going to get James a new crib, but with all these other things we need I think we'll just stick with the one we got on freecycle.) I say newer, because we couldn't afford brand new things, so they we're looking for gently used. The problem is we don't have a truck. So, I have been looking on KSL and Craig's list to time it right so that when we rent the moving truck we can pick things up with it and then come back home and pack the rest of the stuff in. The problem is that nice gently used things are limited in the first place. Secondly (is that a word?) everything that we want is far away. Finally I had found a nice couch located in North Orem. Not as close as I'd like, 15 minute drive, but closer than most. We set up an appointment to go look at it and guess what? When we get there she's like "oh sorry, we just sold it." hmmm....thanks brat face. You could have called and let us know so we could save 30 minutes of our day! Not a big deal you say. Well, we've already spent so much time driving around to several different places to look at couches realizing when we get there that they looked a lot better in the pictures than they do in person. Another woe, we're moving 4th of July weekend, meaning we won't get to celebrate the holiday as much and, not as many people will be able to help because it's a holiday. I can't wait for this month to end.

Time Flies

2010-06-24T10:15:00.000-07:00

I came across this video in our camera. I didn't even know Stephen had taken it. It was taken about a week after James was born. Time flies, and now he's almost one. Agh!

Change topics, I cut my own hair. Two weeks ago I did, and it looked like this.

Then I decided two days ago my bangs weren't short enough, now they are halfway up my forehead. I look like Jim Carey on Dumb and Dumber. yep, it's pretty bad. BTW, I'm holding a sppon because I'm an Amelie wanna be. That's who I was trying to cut my hair like.

What's new?

2010-06-24T08:58:00.000-07:00

Hurray!! Finally. James is a crawler!!! He crawled , like a real crawl, once at 9 months, but after that he didn't do it again. We kept working on it and finally the day before his 10 month mark he did it and stuck with it, and he's been a speed demon ever since. Here he is:

Other tidbits of information: The Sunday that James turned 10 months was my last day of pumping. Hurray! I had originally wanted to go to 12 months, (because that's how long I had planned on breastfeeding him before he was born) but the more James become mobile the more difficult it became, plus the cruise kind of threw off my schedule; plus, I wanted to really start losing weight. I don't know why, but for some reason the woman in my family cannot diet when we're producing milk. To be honest, I used to think that was just something my sisters said as an excuse to eat what they wanted without feeling guilty. Then I tried it (dieting) somewhere after Thanksgiving and before Christmas, and my supply went way down. I started drinking more water, but still nothing. Then when I was in the mother's lounge at church I overheard this one woman that was nursing her baby complain about how she couldn't diet, or even eat reasonably healthy because her milk would dry up really fast and her baby would be so fussy and hungry. So, I stopped trying to diet, and just ate what I wanted, when I was hungry, and it went up again. Plus, because I pumped it was soo much easier to see the visible difference between when I would eat small/normal portions, or even a salad, and when I would eat a good lumber-mill-man-sized portions. That's how much I would have to eat. It was so crazy, especially since there are lots of woman that can just eat normally when they are breastfeeding. After eating Ice Cream I was like the Dairy Queen.
Other news, we're moving. Ever since Stephen's work moved him to Sales and gave him Salary instead of hourly he was working from 8-5. Right when traffic is at it's peak. He would spend 1-1.5 hours on the road everyday, plus he would have to workout every day for over an hour to try and prepare himself for if he makes the CHP. Finally, I got fed up with never seeing him, so we decided to start looking at places closer to his work. Despite the fact that he gets Salary, it's still not a whole lot of money. Lucky for us we found a place less than a mile from his work called Mayflower Harbor. It's one of those limited income housing complexes. In other words, it's one of the projects. But it looks really nice and safe, and the first month's rent is free and it has a kiddy playground. Not to mention a big playground across the street. The best part is that we'll get to spend more time together, and even eat lunch together everyday. Another plus is that we'll live closer to Karl and Megan and company. The downside is, THERE IS NOTHING IN LEHI, UTAH. Literally. American Fork is close enough, and it has lots of restaurants, etc, it's only 5 minutes away. But still... there's nothing in Lehi. Except Thanksgiving Point and Cabella's. Stephen is way exicted about that, that's a man's candyland. But I'll be further from Joanns. SAD FACE. :( The closest one is in Draper. But... since we are so close to Stephen's work, he's going to ride his bike and I can have the car. Everyday. A luxury I've never had, and which will be especially nice in the winter time. Originally we were going to move at the end of July, but Stephen's work is sending him to Dallas, TX for a week. I'll be alone. Then the day after he gets back they're sending him to Las Vegas, NV, and I think one other place later in the summer. SAD SAD FACE!! With him being gone so much I'm still trying to decide when to have James' Birthday Party, since the weekend before we're going to Idaho/Washingon for the Brinton Reunion. hmmmm...
Other news, we have a treadmill. Hurray! My papa-in-law found it for $15 at a garage sale, after my gripping that he always found the things I wanted for way cheap, sometimes free. Now I can have a way to keep my excerising up during the wintertime. Last month I forgot to mention that my neice Emma Rose Brinton turned 8 on May 7th, and I forgot to wish her a Happy Birthday. (She's the oldest, w/ the red hat) She got baptized on her birthday as well, HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMMA, and CONGRATULATIONS!!! Also, this month my was my neice Camryn Karen Taylor's birthday. If you're on the Taylor side you already know, but here are some pictures and video's we took at that happy event. Happy Birthday again. This is the dress I made her, though you can't see it very well in the pix.

Here's the kiddies playing together. It's kind of funny. Camryn is sharing her blocks, picking which ones she wants James to play with and which ones she'd like to keep for her to play with. Ironically enough James wants the ones she has, and not the ones she's giving him. hehehe.
So, sorry this blog was so long. Just wanted to catch up on everything.

The Flutter Frock

2010-05-30T19:22:00.000-07:00

...and no, this isn't a give away. I had to post some pictures of this cute cute dress I wore to church today and got no less than 3 compliments.

(Note: No one complimented me when I wore my rock candy dress to church. *sigh* c'est la vie.) First off I cannot take credit for this dress, because I didn't make it, my sister-in-law Becky did, but I did put the cute butterflies on it. It was an attempt to make it look like this blue skirt

from Boden (gosh oh gee I love their clothes!!!). She made it just a little too big. Ok...that's an understatement. When she made this I think she was a size 4, I am between a 12 and a 14 now and it fits me perfectly. I've had that problem myself, but you can't help it when you measure your body correctly and the measurements of the pattern envelope are so ridiculously off. I remember when I was thinner I measured myself to make this dress and it said I was a size 18. I was mortified. Especially since I wore a size 8 at the time. But I decided to do it like it said because the last thing I sewed was a skirt, and I didn't believe I was the size they said so I did it smaller. Needless to say I couldn't wear it until I had lost some weight. Anyways, back to the dress; I brought it to my ward sewing group, and was about to start sewing it together when the lady said I really should try it on first. Surprise, it was huge, she helped me get it down to wear it should be which was between 6 and 8. BTW, if anyone is wondering yes I cute my hair, and no I don't like it. In fact, I have to keep it in a ponytail because it looks like I have a female mullet. Yuck!

Taylors Breed Big

2010-05-12T11:10:00.000-07:00

This is very true. All of Stephen's siblings are fairly tall, some more than others, and his dad is tall, too. I am not tall. Luckily, James got more Taylor genes when it comes to height. When I was pregnant with James I signed up to get one of those Gerber Baby Newsletters, the kind that tell you where your baby should be at each month, except mine come two months in advanced. For example, I got "Your Baby at 11 months" when James was 9 months. It gave where your baby should be at, including height and weight, etc. At 11 months 30 and 1/4 inches is considered to be in the 90% percentile for height. So, I was staring at James thinking, "Wow, my baby's pretty tall, I wonder where he's at now." So, I measured him, at 9 months, and he was 31 inches. I thought that maybe I hadn't marked it correctly, but yesterday James had his doctors appointment and he was 31 and 1/4 inches tall (which is actually like the 100% in height for a 11 or 12 month old), 21 lbs. (60% percentile for weight), and for his head circumference he's in the 95% percentile. Yep, tall...big head, he's definitely a Taylor. If he'd taken after me he'd be in the 50-60% for height, and 70-90% for weight.

James was developing a mild diaper rash yesterday, so I'd had some diaper rash ointment I'd left on the coffee table, look who found it.

Not too happy that we confiscated it.

Happy Mother's Day

2010-05-09T11:54:00.000-07:00

Mother - that was the bank where we deposited all our hurts and worries. ~T. DeWitt Talmage

First, I would like to say Happy Birthday to Grandma Linda Taylor today. Second, Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there. And thanks to this little guy, for giving me a reason to be grateful I'm a mommy.

James reminds me of Schroeder from Peanuts in this pictures, he loves his little piano.
I made myself a Mother's Day Dress...TADA! I call it "The Rock Candy Dress."

I wish I had some actual rock candy so I could take a picture like this

But holding these, instead of cherry pop.

Ahhh...Happy Mother's Day to me. :D

CHP Update, and more...

2010-05-06T08:49:00.000-07:00

Last Weekend Stephen went to California, again, for his CHP testing. We thought that this would be the last visit, but there's still two more tests that hopefully can both be done in the next visit, sometime I think at the end of this month or the beginning of June. The sooner the better. I just want it all to be done. It was so stressful taking care of this little guy without Stephen. He's so needy lately, I think because he's teething, so he want to be held all the time. Agh! It was nice having a car though, I feel so trapped sometimes without a car, especially during the winter time. Anyway...even if the CHP doesn't pan out, Stephen has been moved to the Sales department at his current job. Hurray! they gave him a slight pay increase, and said that if he can keep up the ggod work they'd like to give him a salary pay, instead of hourly. So, at least we have something on the back burner in case it doesn't work out. While he was gone last week James and I stayed with Valerie and Leighton out in Spanish Fork. Ironically enough Chris went out of town the exact same time as Stephen to apply for a job in Alabama. He was offered the job on the spot. Lucky Dawg!!! So they'll be moving in a few weeks. Sad Face. :( Here are some pictures of James' first official sleepover.

Can you tell they just woke up?
Here are some more of James after finishing one of those biter biscuits.

He's a mess. Guess what? His two top teeth are just starting to break through. Pictures Pending.

Happy Birthday Honey-Bun!!

2010-04-28T10:48:00.000-07:00

Today is Stephen's birthday. Happy Birthday my love my love my eternal love!!

Whuitwhuiyu! (That's supposed to be a whistle sound) Isn't he a hottie? I LOVE YOU Stephen!!!
We went out to dinner last Saturday to Pirate Island, but me being the bad wife forgot to take pictures of everyone and only took pictures of James and Layton trying to hold each others hand.

James Hearts Mommy

2010-04-26T12:40:00.000-07:00

My momma-in-law got us one of those baby food making grinder things about a month ago. Don't get too impressed, because I still buy baby food sometimes to have on hand for days that I'm tired or we're going somewhere and I need something to grab quickly to feed him later. Other than that I'm trying to mash up his own food, the nice thing about it is you can give your baby more variety. There are a lot of fruits and vegetables they don't have as baby food. So...we bought this huge watermelon, and I tried that in the grinder. I expected it to be watery, but it turned out being more like juice. I can't think of a more suitable name given to a fruit. Anyway, I was feeding it to him and the juice would spill out of his mouth onto his chin, and oddly enough it made a heart shape. HA! I tried to hurry and take a picture of it before the drool washed it away. Here's the best pix I could take of it.

Swing Swing Swing

2010-04-20T12:42:00.000-07:00

James is learning that he likes Summer, because we go to the park and swing.

Plus, yesterday we had our second play date with 2 other moms in our ward and their little baby boys. It was cute. There were lots of tears and confusion as every little one had the belief that everything belonged to them. hehehe. I love bebes.

Easter Extravaganza

2010-04-14T18:18:00.000-07:00

Easter weekend was packed with fun, which is a good thing since we were thoroughly disappointed that Stephen couldn't get the days off he needed that week to fly up to Couer D'Alene for his police officer testing stuff. We are still doing the CHP application, but it's always good not to put all your eggs in one basket. Oh, well. Let's just hope something works out. The place that Stephen is working now is trying hard to keep him, so their putting him in Sales, and are giving him a raise, but we're not sure how much it will be yet. So, back to Easter Weekend; first Linda and Jeff came out, dinner with them on Wednesday, and again on Thursday joined by the Taylor Von Trapps. Friday we went to Stephen's mission reunion, which was the last reunion he had to see his mission president. (His president is from Chile and for the past three years his church calling brought him here for April Conference, but he was supposed to get released so...sad face here.)

James meet his BFF again, Layton Micheal Harmon who is now over 4 months.

Saturday we breakfasted with Karl, Megan, and Camryn while watching conference, then we went to Stephen's Aunt's house (Diane) for dinner, an Easter egg hunt, socializing, etc. Too bad Priesthood session was the same time as the egg hunt, Stephen didn't get to see his son's first egg hunt. :( Sad face. Well, there's always next year.
Here everyone is waiting to go outside. Karl was especially eager. hehehe.

The egg hunt really consisted of Grandma Taylor carrying James around and picking up eggs, and then me eating the candy inside. :)

BTW Diane has the cutest dog, and I'm not a dog person in general.

Sunday, Easter, we watched conference and then had an Easter dinner at Stephen and Tracy's. I made a superb Russian salad...that nobody ate. They didn't even try it. Everyone passed it. It was really good. I think it's because it had beets in it. I usually am not a fan, but when they're pickled...yumyumyum. Stephen didn't even get any, but I told him he better go back to get some. Here it is.

And then Tuesday Linda babysat so we could go to the temple. We haven't gone in almost a year, yikes. Thanks Linda!!! Well, that was our Easter, hope yours was good.

P.S. Sorry I haven't blogged in forever, we don't have the Internet anymore. VERY SAD FACE.

No Longer Toothless

2010-03-30T08:30:00.000-07:00

James got his first two bottom teeth about March 12th. We would have put pictures up sooner, but it was so hard to get a good one. So, I finally pinned him down and took some here they are:

He always gives me this suspicious look.

Here are some more pictures for good measure:

There's that look again.

Hurray he's almost holding the bottle sans help.

Time With Daddy

2010-03-22T09:56:00.000-07:00

This is how you clean the house when you have a baby. And here is a fun video we took; Stephen is teaching James how to be a fighter.

Happy Birthday March Babies

2010-03-14T19:48:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to all Taylor's and Brinton's, and descendants. This months a real doozy...

Grandma Brinton March 1st

Uncle Rod March 9th

Aunt Sarah Bragonje March 12th

Uncle Jeff March 16th

Cousin Roxanne March 17th

Aunt Becky March 19th

Cousin Clara March 21st

Aunt Megan Winn March 22nd

Grandpa Taylor March 26th

Cousin Anna March 31st

We love you guys!!!!!!!