A Very Merry Christmas!!

This year we spent Christmas up at a cabin that my parents rented. It was definitely crazy at times knowing that the kids outnumbered the adults, but we loved being all together for Christmas! It was so much fun being up in the mountains surrounded by snow, eating yummy food and having fun together (especially in our striped pajamas).

All the parents waiting to capture the moment of kids running down the stairs.

Marli loved her new bike and would only open the rest of her presents if she was sitting on the bike.

The whole fam - every Christmas Eve we all wear these striped pj's that my mom has made for us. This tradition all started back when my parents were dating and my mom made one of these nightgowns for my dad kind of as a joke. Well, the joke stuck and here we are 37+ years later.

I have not been very good at taking pictures, but our family has experienced a few milestones over the past month.

1. Reno and I both had birthdays, getting one year older and closer to the big 3-0.

2. Marli decided that she no longer likes sleeping in a crib and so has now graduated to a big girl bed. I'm not sure if this is a step forward or a step back seeing that we now get up about every three hours in the night to put her back in that big girl bed. When did she forget how to sleep through the night?????

This must just be good preparation for our third milestone which is...

3. We found out this past week that Marli will be getting a baby sister! We are excited to have another baby girl joining our family in May!

Halloween

I feel like Halloween dragged on for a whole week this year. But I can't complain! We went to some fun parties and Marli loved dressing up as Minnie Mouse and getting more candy than she could dream of. It all started Monday with my mom's party for the grandkids. My mom is amazing at coming up with fun games and activities to entertain 18 of her 22 grandkids!!

Friday was the Taylor's annual Halloween party and, as always, it was fabulous! Natalie was in town but Craig couldn't come so we had to be creative in coming up with a costume that included her. This polygamist idea was just too funny to pass up. Craig's sister did our hair, and we borrowed pioneer clothes from my mom.

And finally, Saturday we visited the carnival at the Highland Farms and did some trick-or-treating.

Road Trip!!

The first week of October Candace and I and our kids joined my mom for quite the adventurous road trip to California to watch my little brother Cory play soccer. Even with hours in the car, speeding tickets, running out of gas, and a bunch of sick kids this trip was actually a lot of fun. We got to visit my sister Cami who we don't see very often and play with her kids, cheer on Cory in 3 of his games, and visit with some cousins that I hadn't seen in ten years.

This was the greatest sight of our 13 hour drive

Cory the goalie

Poor Marli had ear infections the first few days of the trip and did not feel good at all!! A big thanks to my dad, he got those all cleared up by the end of the trip and she felt great.

Marli and Addison

Marli finally likes swings!!

Home Sweet Home

We have loved being home and enjoying all the wonderful Utah things we took for granted - fresh water straight from the tap! Macey's and any other grocery store right down the street, the beautiful mountains and all our friends and family. As you can tell by all the cheesy smiles Marli has been giving lately, she is pretty happy to be home too!

Bye Bye Chicago!!

Our summer of selling is finally over and to celebrate we spent a few days in the windy city before we came back to Utah. I think we did as much as possible in two days - bike tours and boat tours, shopping, baseball game, Sear's tower, museums, etc. But the best part of our whole trip was having Reno all to ourselves!! I am so happy that he is finished selling so that we can spend time together as a family

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Riding the train into town - we became pros at public transportation

Us and Sue, the largest T-rex

Cubs game and Wrigley field. As always, we were there about two hours early.

This bike tour was one of the highlights of our trip. You ride bikes through all the different neighborhoods of Chicago. Chicago seriously has it all, we felt like we went through 5 different cities on this tour. It has the big city feel, quiet quaint neighborhoods with the cutest townhouses, nice parks, and beaches!! I felt like I was in a movie half of the time. Marli of course loved the ride. She made herself quite comfortable resting her legs on Reno's seat so he had a hard time sitting down most of the ride. She even took a nap along the way.

Beautiful Chicago skyline

Another highlight of the trip was the American Girl store. I don't know who was more excited to be there - me or Marli. Marli loved looking at all the dolls, especially when we got to the Bitty Baby section. We probably spent an hour in there watching Marli try to maneuver both strollers. Lucky for her Santa is bringing her her very own doll this Christmas:)

Here we are standing out on the Sear's Tower Skydeck!!

We loved all the fun experiences we had in Chicago this summer and hope we can come back to visit again soon!!

3 of Marli's Favorite Things

Sitting in her carseat when it's not in the car.

Being Naked while sitting in her carseat when it's not in the car.

Eating chocolate chip cookies when she's being naked while sitting in her carseat when it's not in the car.

It doesn't get much better than that!

good read

Have you ever read the Nie Nie Dialogues? I am a little late to hear about it I know, but I had never heard of this blog until some of my friends were talking about it a couple of weeks ago. To get the full story you need to go to her archive and start from August 2008. I hope you have a lot of time because if you are like me you will be hooked reading this amazing story for like the next three days! I love her insights to the simplest things in life and her incredible strength as she has been recovering from a traumatic plane crash. Just reading her blog has made me want to be a better wife and mom. If you have never read it, you should check out this blog I promise you will love it!!

Wedding Day!!

Cory and Lyndsey got married last Friday and it was a beautiful, fun, and exhausting day. Marli did not feel like cooperating in pictures so she is crying in almost every picture we took. This first pic is her reaction when she saw the temple - she thought it was so great! But it was all down hill from there. The yellow skirts turned out adorable and so were the little girls wearing them.

The beautiful bride and her faithful flower girls. I don't think they let her dress touch the ground all day.

I got too carried away taking pictures of yellow skirts that this is the only picture I have of the handsome groom. (With my sweet grandma)

Marli and Macie

Carsyn, Sabrina, Cate and Jocelyn

All the girls

My whole family (minus Reno). It is a miracle that we even got a picture this good.

Besides all the wedding festivities, Marli had fun playing with cousins, riding bikes, and playing at the new splash park. We loved our trip home to Utah and cannot wait til we can move back for good!!

This month has gone by crazy fast!! I have not posted for long time so here are some pics of what we have been up to. Marli is seriously getting so big and so old!! She passed the 19 month mark last week! I feel like I have a little shadow and echo walking around with me at all times. She is so observant and picks up on everything I do, it is kind of scary! She is also talking so much and tries to copy everything I say. Some of her new favorite words are "gross", "banana" (which actually sounds more like balalala), "ball", "shoes" and "elmo". Her favorite foods are "rolls" - any kind of bread, sandwich or muffin is a "roll", baked beans, and bananas. She definitely keeps me entertained and there is no one I would rather be 'stuck' with 24/7! (except for maybe her dad:))

One day when Marli was finished eating she gathered up everything on her tray and handed it to me and said "all done". She had even put the crusts from her bread in the yogurt cup. Thats a step up from the usual throw-everything-onto-the-floor that she normally does.

The other day I was fixing dinner and I could hear Marli playing, but I couldn't see her. Well, she had found a new hiding place - inside the dryer!! This was after she had dug through my bag of flour like it was a pile of sand.The reason I haven't posted in a month is because every spare minute of my day I have been doing this:10 hours a day, 70 yards of chiffon, and 5 trillion ruffles = The cutest skirts ever!! I have been sewing pettiskirts for all my nieces for Cory's wedding. They turned out so cute, but I would not be sad if I never had to sew another ruffle in my life.

My little copy cat