McKay's 1st Birthday

So McKay is a darling tank of a boy! Just solid. He was 31” and 23.8 lbs for his 12m check up. He’s got 5 lil’ teeth. Top two, bottom two, and the extra guy on the right top. Don’t know where his pair is, but it hasn’t hindered McKay’s ADORABLE smile! He’s really quite the charmer. I rarely make it in and out of a store without someone saying something to him and him just beaming back. They then always comment on what a happy smiley baby he is. 

He just recently (2 weeks) has convinced himself that spitting is humorous.  I’ll be holding him, and he’ll lean in spurt his lips on my shoulder, lean back admire his wet spot work, look at me for approval with a chuckle, and go to do it again.

He is walking more and more throughout the day. He’s got the cute Frankenstein stance...hands out in front for balance.  The only thing holding him back is he has yet to master standing up by himself in the middle of the floor.  So every time he falls he crawls the rest of his journey till he can use furniture to get him on his feet again.  He’s got the spirit...just still seeking the balance.

He doesn’t use any words yet, but I’m not thrown off by that. I have done very little sign language with him...so mostly he grunts, sometimes points, but mostly cries, until mommy guesses what he needs. He does do an adorable “Uuuuuuhhhhh” sound when he throws back his head...and he knows now it’s pretty much a game to have Daddy do the sound, and then he mimics it. We’ve got some GOOD videos.

He’s a rascal too...no fear. We’ll say “Go get em” McKay...Ephraim and Emeri will scream and run away, and off he’ll crawl at lightening speed to tackle them. He’ll hold his own too in a wrestle/roll match. He weighs almost as much as Emeri, and Ephraim is really good about playing with him gently.  The kids love him, and he follows their every move.  I’m confident they’ll have their bouts, but I’m very hopeful that they will be a tight lil’ group of friends growing up.

With all the “chasing” McKay has also picked up and mastered the tiger growl. And he knows exactly what it means too. J So cute!

He’ll also laugh quite a bit, especially when he’s tired. He’ll crack himself up!  Overall he’s just too adorable. But truth be stated, he is SOOO needy. I honestly put him as the most demanding, fickle child yet. He’s a permanent hip ornament. He loves the toilet, and he always gets into the cabinets...such that he broke our glass cuisinart blender.  It was just the motivation we needed to put child catch latches on all the doors.  J He is sleeping through the night just great, but is waking up often around 6-6:30...which is rough. This morning It was 5:30...Adam tried for 15 min, but he refused to go back to bed. So I took over so Adam wouldn’t be a zombie at work. By 7:30 I was shot. So I put him down and tanked myself for an hour. J Thank goodness for PBS kids!
One last thing different with McKay was he had a real reaction to his chicken pox virus which neither of the other two did. There's a pic below. But he would flare up with red spots all over every time he napped. He'd wake up super rashy, and then it would slowly fade, until another nap rolled around. My guess is his body temp rising during sleep caused the rash to be more prevalent. Anyhow it only lasted 3-4 days and he never seemed unhappy or irritated by the rash, so that was a huge blessing.

Sure do ADORE this baby, even if he does DEMAND muchos muchos attention!!

His aggressive attack on a can of root beer. 

Just the most darling smile

His birthday party invites...He chose not to pose with the hat.

Got out the new slip n' slide for some birthday adventure. Had to show the kids how it was done.

Emeri helping him get excited about a carrot cake elmo cup cake. Thanks for the sweet idea Meredith...but I've now learned twice, that no matter how good cream cheese frosting tastes...it is NOT for decorating...

My splotchy man just after waking up.

And his ADORABLE curls I still can't bring myself to cut.

FIRST Home Improvement Project

So our first MUCH needed improvement to our home was to change out the lighting in our kitchen. It was horrific...there were two of the ancient golden cymbal hanging and we went for a pendant and chandelier. It turned out to be a rough project considering we bought one of each, returned one because an essential piece was missing, then returned the other because the electrical chord was clipped...both issues you'd like to know before assembling and mounting the thing...but alas. The finished result was well worth the three trips to Home Depot. 

 The rest is just some more pics for Grandma Taylor to enjoy. 

I LOVE Being a MAMA!

So for Mother's day I thought it appropriate to post some lovely videos of my darling rugrats who gave me the blessed title of MOTHER. Plus GRANDMOTHER hasn't got to see hardly any of their growing the past year and although a little long and boring to some, these videos capture some of the fun quirky nature of my children 

Ephraim and Emeri playing Alligators down a hotel hallway. The perfect way to unleash after driving in the car all day.



So McKay does this eye roll thing that is CLASSIC! If he gets bumped unexpectedly or something surprises him...he freezes and rolls his eyes back in utter disbelief of what has happened. Its so adorable and unique. We thank him for all the entertainment he affords us, and his patient subjection to our insatiable teasing. :)

The ladder video is when Daddy was up hanging out new light fixtures. McKay also has a unique trademark or looking up and grunting. He now will do it on cue...and his Daddy LOVES it! :)

Last of all our lil' rascal beginning to get the feel for walking. With only 2 weeks till the big birthday he's getting pretty steady and shouldn't be far behind big brother if not ahead of him.

It has been a wonderful Mother's day and a perfect 28th Birthday. We had another family over to enjoy some DELIGHTFUL Indian food. Adam made some dangerous German chocolate cupcakes....so light and delicious you could eat five with out blinking....and I'm not a cake girl.

But back to mother's day...Adam and I both spoke in church today and it was stressful preparing, but ultimately a great blessing to ponder on the beautiful truths we know about mothers because of the restored gospel.  I've included just a couple of wonderful quotes we found.

Heber J Grant: "Motherhood is near to divinity. It is the highest, holiest service to be assumed by mankind. It places her who honors its holy calling and service next to the angels. To you mothers in Israel we say God bless and protect you, and give you the strength and courage, the faith and knowledge, the holy love and consecration to duty, that shall enable you to fill to the fullest measure the sacred calling which is yours. To you mothers and mothers-to-be we say: Be chaste, keep pure, live righteously, that your posterity to the last generation may call you blessed."

Joseph F. Smilth: "As a rule the mothers in Zion, the mothers of Israel, are the very best women that live in the world, the best that can be found anywhere. … The good influence that a good mother exercises over her children is like leaven cast into the measure of meal, that will leaven the whole lump; and as far as her influence extends, not only to her own children, but to the associates of her children, it is felt, and good is the result accomplished by it."

It is my testimony that Motherhood IS a DIVINE calling. Especially in those moments when it feels anything but divine and glorious because you've given your all, you're spent physically, mentally, emotionally and yet demand for more still barks loudly in the voice of a neglected hungry 11 month old.  Its in those moments when there is nothing left to give, that the Lord will help us stretch to give more. The enabling power of the atonement is REAL! We just must have the faith to seek after it and use it in our lives. All my love to the mothers of the world giving their all to raise a righteous generation.

We made it!

Mercy!

I'm sitting in my front room lightly perspirating, as I enjoy the beginnings of an Oklahoma summer... 82 today.  I know I was stoked for sunshine and warmth, so I won't complain one bit. But let it be known, once mommy gets the house "in order" there will be little else you'll find us doing than playing with the water guns and kiddy pool in the back yard.

So we're here! I like our home a lot...but even more I'm finding I like our location and neighborhood.  Here's a quick run down for ya!
2min from brand new library
6 min from saweet YMCA with killer indoor pool and kiddy area
5 min from Stake center....and our ward
6 min from lovely park with fishing, walking trail and nice playground
Highly spoken of elementary school  just next door with trail connected to our sub-division (also a nice playground)
8 minutes from Wal-Mart, Aldi, Dollar store, Home Depot, Khol's, Ross, JcPenny etc....
14 min from Adam's work

I can't complain! Location is PRIME.

My children actually did quite well with the driving trip. Especially cause we swam the last two nights, and travel was 9 hrs the first day with a stop to see my Grandma and Grandpa Taylor in SLC.  7 hrs the second day, and 5 hrs the last day. It wasn't bad at ALL. Did I mention we also found pretty dang good Indian food just 8 min from our home...? I thought of that cause our only BAD night was when we went to get food after swimming, the kids were tanked, and slept for 10 min in the car and then wouldn't go to sleep till 10:30. Which meant Adam and I ate our Indian food on the floor in the hotel with only the light of the cracked bathroom door. Only to have our kids crawl out of bed and harass us some more! :) Gotta love them!

First week in our ward the YW president came and found me and made it pretty clear that she was desperate for me, and had prayed me here. So the next week I received the call as 1st counselor. Mia-maids...woo woo. I've been the Beehive adviser for the past 3 yrs so I feel like I'm moving up. :)

We've been blessed to meet a nice family on our street with two little boys just Ephraim and McKay's age. Nice thing here in OK is that there are a LOT more stay at home moms. And there is a culture here just for them. For example there are places called Mom's day out....they are like part time day care, where you drop off your kid once or twice a week to have your "day off" Funny huh? & kinda tempting... :)

I also met a nice lady in our ward Angela who runs a momma fit group. They meet at a park twice a week in the morning and work out while they're kids play on the playground. Its pretty cute a bunch of moms lapping around the play set area, stopping, doing crunches and lunges and then jogging again. Cool idea huh?

There is no doubt this Oklahoma change is hardest on Adam. He is Mr. Manager now and was thrown head first into full control of a 200k job. Its intense. And his boss doesn't seem to be the friendliest person. Just kinda cold, to the point, and no joking around. So I try to be a bright bubbly exciting part of his day.

Well all in all we are EXTREMELY BLESSED! We are happy & healthy...(I just conquered a week long beast of a cold) and Ephraim is battling his ear infection well. And all the stress of moving and buying a home was comforted little by little along the way by a merciful Lord!  We're stoked to grab Oklahoma by its hillbilly horns (yes almost everyone has a lil' twang in their voice) and make it our OWN! :)

OOOOOklahoma....de de dum dum de de de dum...

What better time to blog than while waiting in the car with a sleeping baby while daddy and the kids play at he park. Thank you technology for making good use of my free time so easy!

So news news news.... We'll see how well my lil thumbs can tap it all out.

Adam and I returned this week from Oklahoma City where we house hunted for 3 days and had a wild ride of this first time homebuyer stuff.

To back up just a tad... Adam got a second offer within the month of February from his company PSI. Once we declined the Cleveland offer we figured it's be a lil while before another opening came up. But out of he blue they mentioned Oklahoma City, flew him out, we accepted the following Monday and a week later they flew us out to search for homes.

So I spent 2+ weeks web shopping for a house. Filtered through over 200 homes in our price range and waddled it down to roughly 20 to see on our trip. There were 3-4 that I had hopes for and the rest were just backup.

Well my #1 was a SORE disappointment! The washer dryer hookups were under the stairs and access was from the living room. How sweet is that? Yeah after the whole trip Adam and I agreed that that home was not only our biggest disappointment but also the WORST home we saw.
So we had two favorites after the first day, and the second day we found a replacement for the # 2 slot, but we're still torn between a Bank owned home that needed some help in a neighborhood with lots of kids, and an older but super nice home with a huge yard in a neighborhood with only 80yr olds. Tough tradeoffs. So I called our bishop to be for any inside perspective on our two options. When I told him of our two options he said "You should come live in my neighborhood. There are tons of kids that live here. And it's right in your price range." So although we were at the end of our time line we decided to act in faith and go drive around his neighborhood looking for homes for sale Thursday morning.

Adam and I were in our fearless missionary mode as we went knocking on doors asking owners we found home if we could take a tour.

I'm sure we looked like idiotic kids who didn't understand the concept of a realtor and scheduling viewings, but we were determined to give our best effort to try and follow the words of a priesthood leader. Believing that in return we would find a new home, or feel guided by the Lord in deciding between our top two.

Well we were close to the end of our available time that morning and had seen 3 or so homes, but nothing screamed our name. We only had about two streets left, and we stopped at a older home with a for sale sign. Adam said "What do ya think? You wanna try it?" I scrunched my nose and

said "Naahhh" And honestly the picture makes it look better than in real life. Just something about the brick color with cream siding and camel trim...not appealing. But Adam said "Lets just go see."

So we got out and realized the truck in the driveway was actually on, and the owner just happened to be in it. So we approached and gave our pathetic schpeel and asked to take a quick look inside. Trey...(super cool African American in his 40-50's) was super nice and took us on a personal tour of his home.

We both felt a click with the home. It was a TOTALLY different layout than anything we'd seen. Which to me was nice, cause I'm not a big fan of having a cookie cutter home. It was a 4 bedroom, 1757sqft home with a decent patio, and back yard. It didn't have all the lil' things that I was hoping for, but for its price and location it was hard to ignore. And besides all that, we were trying to do all we could to just act in faith and trust that the Lord knew where we would fit best in Oklahoma City. So although we saw this home only briefly, and we didn't get the chance to interview neighbors etc...we made an offer on it that afternoon. And by Saturday there was a signed contract. :)

I'm sure there will be things I'll discover about the home/neighbors that may be unpleasant surprises. but I will regardless feel at peace about the home we chose. The other two had their perks, and drawbacks, but ultimately I was uneasy about each. This home we just saw it, and ran with it, with out ever looking back. And for someone who has tried to approach this -buying a home thing- with meticulous detail, it is no small miracle the peace of mind and heart Adam and I had in purchasing this home. So even with all the unknowns I have full faith that we will be very happy in this home, and that we will be blessed with great opportunities for service, and missionary work in our surrounding community. :)

Looks like we'll be out of Portland in a week and a half, so if there aren't any blog updates for the next decade, you'll know why... But I hope not to be absent too long. In the mean time pray that we all stay sain through packing, closing on a home, and driving 2000 miles with three little kids. :)

2 Year Old Princess

So no Valentine's post here. In fact Valentines for me this year was day 3 of partying...and frankly I was a little burnt out. I guess I better buck up cause its gonna be that way for every year to come, for a very long time. I think from now on I'm going to delegate FULL Valentine responsibility to my Hubby since Mommy will have birthday duty.

Speaking of birthday duty, lil' Emeri turned two on Feb 13th. I was a little rushed in preparations since I was anticipating packing boxes, and moving my family across the country right about now. So although I was GREATLY tempted to order a cake from the store with all the decorative flare that a 2yr old deserves, Adam forbid it. He said he'd make the cake. Which isn't a punch line to a joke. My boy can cook! But a cake wasn't sufficient. This girl needed a CAKE. One that spoke louder to the eye than to the mouth. And frankly Adam would have ZERO time to decorate a cake for her. So I googled "princess cake" and let Emeri pick the one she wanted. Well lucky for me it wasn't anything TOO extravagant. Just a cake doll stuck in a bowl cake decorated as a dress. I can do that....

Well as you can see I DID do that, but the journey was one of serious frustration, and utter fashion faux pas for my "princess" Lets just say she started out a horrific hot pink, then a pretty teal, but I ran out of frosting, so there were droopy teal stripes over hot pink...(it was cream cheese frosting, and the cake was still a bit warm). Anyhow luckily it ended with a dress bearable to look at, just a tinge of hot pink/lavender peeking through, which my Mom said just looked like Sleeping Beauty when the fairies fought over what color her dress should be. :)

So the cake looked nice 2 minutes before defacing it with a knife. But it was all worth it for the joy of my little girl. If you didn't notice, I tried to make the dress match her shirt a bit. Teal is my favorite color on her cause of her bright blue eyes.

Lastly I included a video of my questionnaire for Emeri. She participated pretty well...took some bribery, but the best things usually do! :)

Adam my Love

Today is Adam's 27th birthday. It consisted of attending church without me and the kids. (He was out at another building doing stake audits) Frankly i'd say that was the highlight of his day. Not that he doesn't love going to church with his family. But hello, our three little ones are exhausting at church. Especially cause Emeri won't stay in nursery, and McKay desperately wants a nap by the end of the block.
But besides that he got a nice Sunday nap, a jar of pickles from the kids, (He loves pickles) and a stellar meal from mommy. I made ginger honey tilapia with a yogurt lime sauce. Quite delish. But since we're doing a cake for Emeri tomorrow mommy just made daddy some special ice cream. Nutella banana ice cream. Yeah.... I know. Why didn't YOU think of that before? Trust me, you'll wonder even more once you taste it. Found the recipe online. I improvised a bit... Some on accident, but here's the goodness:

2cups half and half
1 cup nutella
3 ripe bananas
1 tablespoon coco powder

Mix it in a blender first till smooth then freeze it into delish-ish-nous!

So I adore my Adam! He is the best daddy and an even better husband always taking impeccable care of his family, and keeping mommy sain like no body's business. More than sain, i'm the happiest stay at home mom around, and I owe it in LARGE part to him.

His beautiful eye shot is to show that although yesterday Ephraim caused a severe laceration from the pupil down, with his finger nail, Adam still has the most beautiful piercing blue eyes. And thanks to a FORCED doctor visit by me, he should heal ok with no vision loss. Not only that but after 5+ hours of excruciating pain, my poor Adam got relief and our birthday weekend was SAVED! Don't worry it was an accident, and Adam was a TRUE saint in his reaction to Ephraim's "playful" attack.

Oh and the other shot is the kids hiding behind a beautiful tree, playing hide and go seek with their dad.

P.s. sorry for the weird cropping of my pics. It does that when I post from my phone. I'll have to figure out how to fix it.