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!

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!