The Fall

My mom sent me this CD for Christmas and I absolutely love it! I highly recommend looking it up if you get a chance.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Hello everyone,
Christmas has come and gone and we're now getting ready to ring in the new year. I can't believe how fast time really does fly...even if it seems to stop entirely at times. We spent Christmas here in Roseville where we had a family get together at Taylor's parents house Christmas eve. The next morning Taylor and I had our own little Christmas opening presents from under our tree, where we got a bunch of fun stuff from my Ukrainian family like baby outfits, chocolate, hats, etc. Our main present for ourselves this year was a nice little video camera which we were SO excited for! We figured it would be a great idea especially with the baby coming in February. A little later we went back over to the Nelsons where we did Christmas with them. We spent the whole morning opening presents and eating candy. :) It was so fun! I also got to talk to Jord (brother serving a mish. in Chile) for about 15 minutes and it was great to hear his voice! He already seems more grown up. *Tear* Later that night we went over to Aunt Shelly's (the Ferrells) home and had a family get together. That pretty much sums up our Christmas. I wish we got some pictures but we were too preoccupied with our video camera that we forgot to snap some photos. Maybe I can figure out how to put some little video clips on here. Anyway, now the Christmas decorations are coming down and I'm almost anxious to get on with the new year. I'm sure the baby coming the second month of the new year has SOMETHING to do with that. As soon as we're in January we'll be able to say "The baby will be here next month!!!" Wow I almost can't believe it. Still so much to do! I can't even describe how excited we are...though I'm sure all you parents out there know exactly what we're feeling. So here we are ready to see what the new year has to bring. We hope everyone has had a good Christmas, and hopes for a wonderful new year!

Manly Man's Pizza

Okay guys, this is Taylor, my first post on this. Last night I was really wanting some pizza. Just that thought made me feel bad. It would be 13 dollars for one large cheese and pepperoni pizza... dripping with grease and who knows what else. What was I to do? I really really wanted it. Then I remembered, "Hey, we have a kitchen, we have ingredients." So I just made myself a pizza. Basically all it had was flour, baking powder, and water. This is what I did.
----Mix the flour, salt, baking powder and water together. Knead the dough on on a flour covered counter until it is spreadable and workable. Spread out your crust to the shape you want. Use extra virgin olive oil to spread on top of that. This makes it so the tomato sauce doesn't seep into the dough. Put on your tomato sauce, sprinkle Italian seasoning, put on your chopped vegetables (in this case onions and green and yellow bell peppers). Then put the cheese on top of the vegetables and instead of peperoni's, I strategically placed thinly sliced tomatoes all over. Baked it at 425 for 20 minutes and out came heaven on a thin crust! No, grease, just yum.

Neglected Broccoli

So sometimes I go to the store and buy lots of produce thinking "Yeah I'll make something good with that!" or "That will be nice to have when I want it on the spot." Well sometimes some of those things I buy go unnoticed in our fridge until one day I open the fridge door and think, "Oh my goodness what is that awful thing growing in that bag!" In this case it is Broccoli. I really do like Broccoli though, it's not like I avoid it purposfully. Yesterday I finally pulled it out of the fridge before it lost all hope and set it out on the counter along side a knife and cuttingboard. And somehow after walking away I never returned. Last night I came home from work and saw it sitting there on the counter, all alone, as if looking at me longingly thinking, "Please eat me." Again, I turned my back on it, throwing something quick together to eat before my visiting teachers came. More hours passed, the time grew late and Taylor and I went to bed. Meanwhile the broccoli lay there on the counter, all alone. This morning I woke up and did a few things and when I walked into the kitchen and saw the lonesome little green trees my heart softened and I grabbed the knife and chopped off their stems. I filled a pot with water and put it on the burner and at last threw the broccoli inside. I think I could hear them crying for joy.

And now here I am eating the yummy broccoli, lightly salted and buttered. We're all happy.

Saturday morning

Today was my day off from work this week and as I wondered what I wanted to do today I started to make a list of the things I need to get done, as usual. However, I'm feeling tired and am beginning to think I need to give myself a rest for a little while. I keep reading that it's definately okay to rest, especially when this pregnant body starts telling me to do so. SO, here I am, sitting at the computer in my pajamas and hoodie, thinking about all of the relaxing things I'd like to do. Lay on the couch, curl up in bed, write in my journal, watch a disney movie, read, paint, sleep, etc. I'll clean the house and go grocery shopping later. I love Saturdays. :)

Doesn't this bed look relaxing? Unfortunately this picture wasn't taken today and our room doesn't look this nice. It's also not raining like it shows here, although I wish it was. I love the rain.Isn't this a wonderful sight? Looking at all those tubes of paint is like starting at gold. :)This is something I'm working on right now. Not too sure where I'm going with it yet though. Just lots of color.

This isn't a Disney movie I don't think but it is by far a girly classic. I think no matter how old I get I'll always love this movie.

Baby's on the brain

It seems like the day we found out what we are having, time has stopped. I guess it really hasn't because that was October 1st and it's now November 12th, but I mean come on... Three long months to go!?

The baby's room is a work in progress. Which basically means right now we've got the crib and the lazy boy in there and then a bunch of boxes and books that we still need to find a place for. But every time I walk past the door and glance in at the crib I can't help but dream about the day when our little girl will be asleep there. Eeek! Hanging on the crib is the quilt I made. I've gotta go back to JOANN'S fabric and try and find the same fabrics so I can finish with the crib set. We'll see how that goes down.

So almost every night I get onto the computer and surf all of my favorite baby website and ogle at every cute outfit I see. Yesterday was Veteran's Day and because it's a federal holiday the bank was closed and I got the day off. After spending so many hours at the computer I decided, "I'm gonna go buy a few things!" Here are the items I bought along with a few others.

Can't get enough of those "one-sies."

We're getting close to having this baby but sometimes I think we're just two kids who like to goof off all the time. What will our daughter ever do with us?

I love this face.

AND OF COURSE, we can't forget the baby bump pictures. Actually, it's starting to feel less like a baby "bump" and more like a baby "mountain." As some people frequently tell me, I'm getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. Do I really still have three whole months to go?

And there you have it! We can't wait to be parents.

Hello again

What's new in our lives? A lot of things! I haven't really written much on our blog so I thought now would be a good time to catch up on some of the events going on here in the life of Taylor and Mackenzie.

During the summer Tammy and Galen (Taylor's parents) were so kind and generous and let us stay with them to save money for a little while. At the end of September we moved into some brand-spankin'-new apartments that we heard about from someone in our ward. It's a two bedroom, two bathroom apartment with new appliances, big windows and a beautiful view our of the master bedroom. I feel so blessed that we were able to get it, especially because there were only a few left in the whole complex and the application process was just grueling. We love our new place!

As you've seen from previous posts we're expecting a baby girl in February and couldn't be more excited. I've been having THE FUNNEST time going through baby clothes and things that we've gotten so far and can't help feeling like February is an eternity away. However I'm sure time is going to fly by, and with that in mind I feel pressed to get things ready as much as I can up to this point. We've got pretty much everything unpacked and I'm getting ready to set up the baby room in the second bedroom. For now, my stomach is increasing in size daily and I can't believe I still have 4 months of growth to go. I feel our little girl kicking every day and Taylor finally felt her kicking for the first time last week. It was so fun to see his face light up when he did! We can't wait to meet her.

It's finally starting to cool off here in Northern CA and I'm getting extremely excited for the Christmas season. Especially since our Christmas decor' is still all new and I've only used it once so far!

For now Taylor and I are both working and he is going to Sierra College full time. Life is just great and we're so thankful for all our blessings, family especially.

The first photo is our kitchen. The second is me goofing off in our new kitchen. The third is our livingroom and balcony. The forth is the baby's room/office/storage and the fifth is our bedroom, plus Thomas. The last two are just of Taylor and I and my ever-growing baby bump.