Valentine's day and beyond

I believe I last posted on Valentine's Day, but not about Valentine's Day.

Valentine's Day was a nice day. Taylor and I had originally planned to spend a night in Napa but we post-pone'd it for a week. That night Taylor and his dad walked in and surprised all of us girls with flowers. Thank you sweetie for such beautiful flowers!

These are a week old and the picture is blurry but they were beautiful!

The highlight of Valentine's Day for me had to be the next morning when I got on my Facebook page and saw that Taylor had made a bunch of comments on some photos and on my wall. I went on to read them and I began to assume that someone had hacked his account. The things that were said were all very sweet, but didn't sound like Taylor at all! This person was spilling his whole soul to me in public over facebook. When Taylor woke up that morning I asked him if he had been on facebook at 1:30 in the morning making comments on my profile. He was a little confused but then remembered that he had. He had taken some medicine to help him sleep (to help counteract some of the sleep deprivation other medications he's taking cause) and then while he was all woozy he hopped onto Facebook and began telling me how much he loved me, etc. I about died it was so funny! He is such a sweet heart!

Sunday we celebrated Mercedes 2nd birthday!

I can't believe she's two.

I went a little crazy on decorating and preparing, but it was SO FUN! I couldn't have done it without the help of my sister-in-law Hannah. Here are some photos.

Thank you everyone for coming to the party and for the gifts you gave her! We were so glad you could all be there!

Tuesday night Taylor and I took our little one night get-away and drove to Napa. We went out to dinner at a restaurant called The Siena (which was at a hotel, but not at the one we stayed at). I had the most delicious Tomato Basil soup on the planet, I'm pretty sure. We ate yummy food, and got to sit at two different tables. (Thanks to my clumsiness of knocking over a glass which shattered everywhere, cut my finger and spilled all over the place).

We stayed at the River Terrace Inn and it was super nice! The next morning we ate restaurant cold pizza and then headed back home just around noon. It was a quick little getaway and just what we needed! By the end we were so excited to get back and see our little girl.

When we got back to the house, we walked in and the first face I saw was that of my little brother Slade. My brain could NOT process what I was seeing because for all I knew, Slade was in Provo at that moment. Then when we walked in and closed the door my mom popped out from behind the door! They came to surprise me! Apparently almost everyone knew including my In-laws, except for Taylor and I. I had just been telling Taylor that morning how much I was missing my family.

We spent the day yesterday running around and visiting and it was so much fun. They will be here for the next few days and I am just loving it!

Now for some randoms thoughts. Did you know that Mercedes is one of the girliest little girls I know? Yes. And guess what? She loves the mall. I'm not kidding, LOVES it. I don't know where she gets it, seriously. I wasn't that crazy about the mall if I can remember correctly. But every time we drive past it on the freeway she screams and points and wants to go there! She'll even pass up the fountains shopping center with actual fountains, and a little train ride just to go there. It probably partly has to do with the fact that it's a tradition we've made to always get see's candy while we're there. Oh yes, and that girl LOVES chocolate.

She loves new clothes, she loves jewelry, she always wants to paint her nails. She LOVES shoes, and especially new ones. She always wants to put on my makeup. She's even very willing to let me do her hair, which I guess I wasn't when I was her age.

She loves dogs and goes crazy when she see's them. Funny thing is they also annoy her really bad when they come to her without her wanting it.

Her little bunny is still a part of her. Seriously, always. And so is her binkey.

She LOVES her aunt Hannah.

She keeps us so busy and entertained. Little toddlers are just the best!

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!