The latest

Monday Taylor's parents took all of us on a mini vacation to Disneyland! We were gone for just two nights but it was just what we all needed!
This was a few hours into our 8 hour drive. We were already very tired of the car but unlimited LOST episodes kept us sane!This was the next morning at our hotel. Mercedes was very excited for Disneyland!
Tammy, Hannah and I painted our nails in preparation. Notice the little Mickey heads on a few of them.
Here's our group (minus Galen who was taking the photo). We were able to get a wheel chair for Taylor so that he could make it through the day. I'm so glad he was able to sit through most of it, and plus we got to get on a bunch of the rides quicker than we would have without a wheel chair.
Mercedes had a lot of fun controlling the vehicle on the Toy Story ride.
Here she was anxiously awaiting the flying rockets. I was actually surprised at how brave she was while we were on them.

Here the three of us are waiting for take-off.

And here we are in the air! We're on the far left.
We ran into our good friends the Kirkhams while we were there. You never know who you might run into at Disneyland.
The gang on our trek.
Here are Taylor, Jonathan and BJ waiting for a ride.
Baby and her daddy! They love each other so much.
We went back to our hotel for lunch (which was right across the street from the main entrance, so nice!) and rested for a while. It was much needed.
Getting ready to go back, Mercedes could not wait!

Family photo.

Here's a full shot of us and the castle.

Here were a few more rides we took Mercedes on:


Mercedes absolutely LOVED the Teacups! So Taylor and I thought we would take her on them and barely spin them at all, you know... to go easy on the kid. WELL, we got on the ride and Mercedes was having so much fun spinning that we decided to go faster and faster. She laughed and screamed the whole time. So did we. I couldn't stop laughing the entire ride.
See us in the pink teacup? You can barely see Mercedes' face but she is having a great time.
In this photo you can barely see Mercedes face in the teacup on the top left. It looks like she's crying but she was actually laughing. That was what she looked like the whole time. Totally a highlight of the whole trip.

The next day before heading home we stopped at Huntington beach!

As terrible as it is, it was actually Mercedes' first time going to the beach. Things have been a little crazy the last year or so.
She was in love, to say the least.

I literally had to hold her back from running straight into the ocean. She had no fear, and because of that I had oh so much.



It was so fun to see her run as fast as she could across the wet sand.
Just look at that face of hers.
She finally ran so fast she tripped. And then she discovered sand.


We built a sand castle, or mound...or something. She lost it when the tide touched her castle. Then we built a wall and a mote to ease her pain.

Taylor's brother Thomas had a lot of fun running through the birds.
The lovely parents! They're awesome, by the way.
By the end of the 3 day trip we were pretty exhausted. Thanks Tammy and Galen for the awesome and fun trip! We love you guys!

This one's for Lacey

Okay so I told someone I would blog very soon, and so here I am!

We gave our apartments a 30 day notice to be out by January 1st and so we had a busy week preparing/moving after our trip to Utah. We left the apartment behind and moved in with Taylor's parents so that this next year he can focus on plowing through school and also getting well again. His family has been so wonderfully amazing about all of this! They even built a new room connecting to ours so that Mercedes could have her own little room. This family is amazing, let me just tell you.

It has been just wonderful so far and Mercedes is especially loving it. She gets a lot of time with Rosie the chocolate lab and Auntie Hannah whom she adores.

Last night we celebrated Taylor's youngest brother Thomas's 18th birthday. Taylor's parents took all of us to Buca Di Beppo's.
This is some of the group on our way there.

"Aw, face cake!" That commercial ya know? Have you seen it? Well it was mine and Hannah's inspiration for his birthday cake. It turned out very colorful and bright.
We got to eat in the Pope room. It was pretty awesome. And oh the food was delish.

It was a very fun night. Happy birthday Thomas!

Christmas in Utah

We quickly got better from our flu bug, (Taylor never caught it, THANK GOODNESS!) and off we went to Utah!

Mercedes was VERY excited for the flight. I kind of enjoy flights also. At least the short ones.

My sweet husband.

My youngest brother Slade was kind enough to give up his room for a week so that Taylor and I could stay in it.

Mercedes loved his toys.

Mercedes had her first experience with snow! Actually, this was about all we got this Christmas. A very light dusting. At least she got to see it falling through the air.

Taylor did A LOT of r&r, which was definitely needed.

This human being here is my brother Jordan. He just returned from serving a full-time mission in Chile. Ladies he is single.

As always I got to get together with my life-long best friend Lacey. Can you believe these two little creatures are our children??

We were just eight years old when Lacey moved into the house right across the street. We were best friends almost instantly. This photo of us was taken when we were maybe ten.

Now in just a handful of years our kids will be that age.

After the babies were in bed us and our hubbies got together to watch movies.

(Christmas day)

Preparing for dinner on Christmas Eve.

Christmas eve dinner.
Christmas morning was so strange because we had to get up for Church which was at 9 a.m! When we got back home we changed back into our PJ's and did the presents.
Mercedes got quite spoiled.
Here's my dad, mom and brother Morgan. (Also single, but preparing for a mission).
And here are my brothers Slade and Jordan. Unfortunately my brother Addison, sister-in-law Ana and their two boys were sick the whole time we were in Utah and so we didn't get to see them. :( Next trip guys!
It was a very fun Christmas! We took more photos but they are on our Ipad and I haven't removed them yet. These will just have to do for now.

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas, and also a Happy New Year!

QUARANTINE

Thursday afternoon I walked in to get Mercedes up from her nap and found her throwing up. We were about to leave for an important doctors appointment for Taylor. Plans changed, Taylor's mom went with him while I stayed with sick baby.

Friday night was the last time she threw up. I was relieved when she made it through the night and the next day she was feeling better. Happy day!

My dad was in town for MTC work, I had been looking forward to the visit for weeks, but because Mercedes got sick we had to cancel. I hated knowing he was only 25 minutes away at my grandparents. Saturday night I sanitized everything and we planned to meet my dad at church the next day, where we would be able to spend part of the day with him before his flight home to Provo.

Sunday, 2:00 a.m. I'm in the bathroom, and I'm sick. So bummed, disappointed, frustrated, worried, etc. I texted my dad in the morning and told him we wouldn't be able to meet him. We'd just have to wait to see him for a couple of more days when we fly to Utah for our Christmas visit. I was still bummed though.

Now worry set in that we would maybe not make our flight early Tuesday morning. But more than that I was worried for my husband, who has a weakened immune system and just spent 5 days in the hospital.

I quarantined myself in the bathroom. Taylor's sister Hannah who had just gotten into town the night before came to take Mercedes with her to church so that Taylor could rest. We are so grateful for her and for the rest of our family.

For the next 24 hours I stayed in the bathroom. I realized something, and that is that you could actually survive in a bathroom for practically forever if you had to...as long as someone brings you food.

I began to see the humor in the situation. Every so often as I lay on my makeshift bed on the floor of the bathroom, my husband would bring me a snack, with face mask and all. We weren't taking any chances. If it weren't for the Ipad and the never-ending abundance of online streaming Netflix movies, I don't know if I would have been able to do it and stay sane.

My body was getting quite sore from laying on the floor, but I didn't want to bother sanitizing any kind of air mattress/bed that was being offered. All of the blankets I had would be thrown in the wash after I was done.

By late afternoon Sunday (yesterday) I was feeling much better. I decided to stay until the next morning, just as an extra precaution. This morning I woke up and noticed how comfortable the floor felt. "Hmm, that's strange." I thought. "Maybe this is how people all around the world are able to sleep on floors their whole lives." The day before I had been thinking about it and wondered how people in third-world countries and other places sleep on hard surfaces. Maybe their bodies always ache, I don't know?

I woke this morning, stuffed all of my blankets, pillow cases, dirty clothes, etc. into a plastic bag, I sanitized the bathroom, bathed, put on clean clothes and happy days I left the bathroom for the first time in about 30 hours. I felt like a new woman. Mercedes came into the hall and it was so wonderful to see her beautiful face!

I HATE hate HATE the stomach flu but one of the worst parts about this whole experience was listening to my husband and daughter the whole time from the inside of the bathroom and not being able to see them. Every so often Mercedes would knock or pound on the bathroom door and yell, probably wondering "why in the world is mommy staying in the bathroom?".

One of the sweetest moments during this experience was last night while I heard Taylor getting Mercedes ready for bed. I stopped my movie to listen. I could hear them on our bed, as Taylor read the scriptures to Mercedes and then had family prayer with her. My heart melted. I am so grateful for my husband, and I love him so much.

Today we are trying to get some rest and also prepare for our early departure for Utah tomorrow. We're supposed to fly out of Reno at 9:55 in the morning which means we're leaving our apartment at about 6:00 a.m. I keep praying that Taylor will stay well, both before we leave and after.

All I can say is, what a ride it has been!