SHE HAS ARRIVED!!!

I owe many apologies for not having blogged. I know many of you have been eagerly awaiting pictures of the new addition to our small family. For now I'm just posting pictures, I'll give details of the birth later. She was born on April Fool's Day, April 1st, at 12:35 pm. She was about 7 lbs. 10 oz. and was about 21 inches. (I say "about" because she was just a hair within both of these measurements.) Her due date was the 6th, so about 5 days before due date.

Life in the Fast Lane

Sorry, I know I've been a pathetic blogger. I have about 11 more weeks until this baby will be born, until then, don't expect frequent posts, but after that, expect lots of baby pictures! I should say 11 more weeks if she is born on time. James was 3 weeks early, and I can't hope that she will bake a little bit faster in the oven as well so that I only have to suffer for 2 more months instead of 3. If you know me, then you know I hate being pregnant. I love kids, and really want this baby, but I hate being pregnant. And yes I did say "she." If you aren't family,or don't go on facebook often then the news is... IT'S A GIRL. I was going to post some pictures but my camera is dead, so I'll do it later. It's funny, but I felt so unsurprised when we found out. Stephen was convinced we were having a girl. He knew James was a boy, and he knew this one was a girl. I didn't know either way, but because he felt so sure, it started to convince me as well. At first I felt indifferent as to what I wanted. If it was a girl, then great, I don't have one of those yet; or if it was a boy, great, because James would have a brother. Every boy needs a brother, and every girl needs a sister in my opinion. As a kid I loved having sisters, and now as an adult they are my best friends. I know Stephen loved, and still does having brothers, so either way would have been great. Then the morning sickness hit. I thought if this time goes a lot better, then maybe my dreams will come true of having a big family. There are 7 kids in my family, and I have always wanted 4-6 kids. Though I haven't thrown up quite as much this time around as with James(don't get me wrong it was still plenty too much for me), the rest of the symptoms have not been a great improvement, if any at all. Some are worse, like the heartburn this time around is way worse. Still feeling sick at 29 weeks is ridiculous. In fact with James my first trimester was more intense than this one, but my 2nd trimester was not as bad as this one. This time around it's still lingering. Which means that this will be my last pregnancy. It does make me sad, like I said I always wanted a big family. But I'm doing my best to stay optimistic. I've always considered Foster Care, and now I feel more strongly about, so I'm sure something will work out. The big news in our lives now, the reason why our life is in the fast lane is because in 3 weeks from today...drum roll please... Stephen will graduate!! We are so excited!!! So excited to be done, so excited to live together under one roof like a family again, and have our own place again. He was assigned to Los Angeles, the ritzy area. Basically he will be dealing with people like Lindsey Lohan on a regular basis. hehehe. We have 3 weeks to find an overpriced apartment, a new doctor and hospital to have the baby, and a new school for James, not to mention moving all our stuff...again. Hurray! Actually I'm not excited about having 3 weeks to do those things. In fact, I feel overwhelmed and somewhat depressed about it. Which makes me want to not think about, hence the reason we are moving in 3 weeks and still don't have a place. Actually I have been looking, but everything that is good that comes up gets taken fast, and I feel slightly unsteady about signing a contract to an apartment without having seen it or the area, especially since it is in L.A. But, if that's where Heavenly Father wants us to be, then I guess we will have to do a leap of faith. Besides living in L.A. will be an adventure, not to mention we will be minutes from the beach! Lots of window shopping considering that I doubt they have good clearance racks on Rodeo Drive. Here's our new home.

Overwhelming isn't it? Well at least it has one of these. :)

Playing Copycat for a Post

My sister-in-law Megan will on occasion put up posts on her blog titled, Conversations at the Taylor Home. They usually consist of really funny off the wall things that her daughters have said. Well, a couple of weeks ago we had one of those here at the Taylor house. The other Taylor house, my in-laws house, I'm still living here. Except it was from the adults not James. I was in the kitchen with my mother-in-law Linda, my sister-in-law Sarah, and her husband Michael. James comes into the kitchen, and as some of you know, James loves to give raspberries. He comes up behind me and tries to give me a raspberry on my butt, no worries I have excercise pants on. I exclaim, "Stop that James, I don't exactly like the feeling of hot air blowing on my bum!" Michael then says, "I love the feeling of hot air blowing on my bum." Linda and I quickly look over at Sarah wondering how she's going to explain that. She then says rather matter of factly, "You do? Well that's why we keep dogs around the house." Just thought that was funny.

The Post You've Been Waiting For...

I know that many of you have givin up on my actually posting anything, ever. Since I posted a couple of weeks ago I haven't had a chance to post again things have been a little crazy for us. As I mentioned last time, the long awaited career oppurtunity for Stephen finally arrived and he has been very busy with that, and I have been able to see him on the weekends, thank goodness, not to mention last wednesday and tomorrow evening which are rareties, and not to be expected to happen often in the future. Wednesday visits that is, not the weekends. I've been busy too, although my busy has been more passive, and not anything really active. If you are wondering what the heck I'm talking about I'll tell you, I'M PREGNANT. After 6 months it's finally happened, although when I think about it, it was really meant to happen when it did. I can't imagine being further along in the pregnancy when we moved, it would have been very difficult. The last 2.5 weeks have been a little hellish, but I haven't thrown-up for 2 days and I'm feeling well enough to at least post about it so...there ya go. Other than my trying to take it easy I've also been dealing with taking care of James. Some of you know and some of you don't, James has had some delays in different developemental areas and for several months was getting help from Kids on the Move which is a center in Utah that helps kids with delays catch up to where they are suppose to be developementally. We, or I should say I, had some minor concerns with James having some possible signs of Autism, but they, KOTM, told me they didn't think he had it, and that he had other things that they could help him with. They work with children until the age of 3 and then they transfer them over to the local school district, which at that time was the Alpine School District. I went to the tests not sure if he would qualify. Not only did he qualify, but with the four different series of tests offered by different people in different rooms each group said they saw some sure signs of Autism. They recomended that I get an official diagnosis from a professional, which I haven't had the oppurtunity to do so yet. Hopefully my morning sickness in this pregnancy will be shorter so I can get the mountain of things done that I need to. With the move to California we are currently in the process of trying to see if we qualify out here for the special preschool, which I really hope we do, especially since he completely qualified for it out in Utah. But, we had to move, and I'm glad we did for the job oppurtunity, but I've heard that CA is a lot more bureaucratic so we'll see how it goes. That's kind of a quick description of our life the past couple of months. I had a friend tell me that she's missed my sewing posts, and wonders if I do it anymore. Before getting pregnant I was very busy sewing, as usual. Here is something I made two months ago, fabulous blue pants and the top was a long tank that I cut and used the bottom for sleeves, and there are lots more from months ago that I need to show pics of, so hopefully I will get around to posting them soon.

The Latest

I know I haven't posted anything on my blog in months, so I don't even know if anyone will see this, but here is what's going on with us now. I mentioned a few months ago that Stephen was contacted again by the CHP, but that I wasn't holding my breath since it had been years that we have been in the process. Well, about a month ago Stephen got his letter that he has been accepted into the next CHP academy class starting Aug. 6th. So, we have since moved out to California in the last week or so, and are in the Sacramento area. That's a very brief summary of what we are up to. I will go into further details later as far as what we've been up to in the last 5 months, and what the next 6 months will be like for us. I now have internet again so I will resume my regular blogging schedule...stay tuned.

part two

okay, sorry but that last post erased about 90% of what i wrote after i downloaded the pix. blogging on phones really doesnt work that great. the pix in the last post showed james eating a qeusadilla that i sneaked spinach into. my weak attempts to get him to eat veggies. he ate about 30% before he realized it tasted differently and that he didn't like it. i recently started drinking smoothies again for breakfast, james likes those alot, and i always put spinach in them, so he is getting some veggies. what i really want or need is this cookbook called the sneaky chef. but the problem is not just veggies but most ffod in general. i have to bribe him with mnms half the time just to eat dinner. sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. any tips.

learning to be a sneaky chef

i think most moms have difficulty getting thier kids to eat what they want them to, like veggies.