Some recent photos

I have just a few minutes but I wanted to do a quick post before I have to take Taylor to school. Unfortunately I have no idea where my frustrating albeit semi-functional camera is and haven't seen it since the move, so I haven't taken any pictures for a while. However, we do have some photos taken with our Ipad and so I will try to post a few of those.

This is just going to be random, by the way. But here is a little bit of what goes on at the house on a normal day.

Taylor reading to Mercedes on the rocking chair in her room. (You can't see her but she's sitting on his lap).

Here we are hanging out in the family room visiting with family.

And here is Mercedes playing on our bed. She must have just woken up or something...

Wow, well that's about all I have right now! I need to get on that picture taking.

Have a good day.

My love

I am so grateful for my husband.

I am grateful every day that Heavenly Father sent him to me 4 years ago.

I am grateful that Heavenly Father let me keep him here to stay with me when he could have gone, on those darkest days at the hospital and at home. I know we were given miracles.

I think about it every day, and I almost can't believe how much I have been blessed.

I am grateful for how much he loves me too, because I am just crazy about him.

Taylor is such an amazing man.

Monday monday mONDAY

It's been a weird day, I tell you.

As Taylor and I woke up this morning I focused my eyes on the clock. It was 10:00 a.m. What!? We turned on the monitor and heard Mercedes breathing away in her sleep.

WOW, we slept until 10, because SHE slept until 10! She didn't actually wake up until almost 10:30, which I came to find out later that it was probably because she had a fever and has not been feeling well since. But she got 15 hours of sleep last night. Sheesh. I'm a happy mom.

Mercedes has had a cold for the last week or two but now it's moved to her lungs and she's been coughing like crazy. And the thing with Mercedes is that she has one of the most sensitive gag reflexes of anyone I know. A couple of times today her coughing has ended in a big mess to clean up. Yes, it's becoming one of those days.

Thank you Taylor for cleaning up the mess on Mercedes' floor for me while I cleaned up Mercedes.

Thank you Tammy and Hannah for getting me a clean shirt, and for cleaning the mess on the kitchen floor while I stripped Mercedes down and put her in the tub.

I hope and pray that it doesn't have to happen again. It's just not the funnest.

Mercedes is napping now and I really need to get myself cleaned up.

I'm looking forward to Tuesday!

(An old photo from last September)

Where is it?

*Sigh* Oh where is my motivation to run?

I planned all day to put Mercedes down for a nap and then go running.

Mercedes has been in bed for 30 minutes now, and I'm still sitting here in front of you, my computer.

I would love to just climb into bed and take a nap with Taylor who is also napping.

But I only ran once this week, and today is Saturday. I know if I don't go I will feel bad.

Do I want to feel bad?

No.

I must go.

New hair do

Okay so I've been debating growing my hair out a few inches and trying a new style, and tonight I came across a photo and fell in love!

This is the cut.

It will be interesting trying to grow out my short pixie right now but that's the beauty of short hair! I have so many options!

Anyway, have a good night!

Just some thoughts

All I really have to post right now are random thoughts and little updates, but I will do it anyway because I need to be a (somewhat) loyal blogger. Right?

Taylor started school last week! Yay! It's actually a bit weird for me because I've grown so attached to him being home with us 24/7. His last day of work was 5 and a half months ago. I can't believe it's been that long since his first hospital visit. Taylor's been feeling much better although we are still trying to get him even better than he is. With doctors visits here and there and medication adjustments, etc., he's slowly but surely making progress. I just hope it continues that way with minimal speed-bumps. He was actually very excited to start school and as tired as he is he only has classes 3 days a week and only one of those days is a long one. The rest of the week he is home resting, recuperating and doing homework.

Mercedes is doing great. From her stripping down before bath time and dancing to Chasing Pirates by Nora Jones (yes that is her preferred song of choice) to funny faces and silly attitudes she keeps us laughing constantly. She is also very strong willed and determined. There are more difficult days here and there when I think "why does my child seem so frustrated and unhappy!? Am I doing something wrong??" and then I remember that she will be two in just a few weeks and I feel relief. But despite the fact that she will be in "the two's" soon she is still wonderfully sweet and happy most of the time.

I'm loving being home to take care of Mercedes (and Taylor when he's home) and it has been really fun so far living with Taylor's family. I think it has gone so well so far because of the way we have things set up. I still need to take pictures of our rooms and post them, by the way. I just love being a mom more than ever and I can't wait to have lots more little critters running around. (As tiring as that sounds). And let's not even mention the baby hunger.

Over all, life is good. We're just moving forward and looking forward to this year. Hopefully it brings lots of good things!

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!