M.I.A... Update!

Ahhh! So I was checking out my sister-in-law's blog...she is so crafty and talented!! and noticed that my blog hasn't been updated for four months! I really hate that. This number five has really slowed me down and I've noticed I've had to drop a few balls just to keep my mommy ones up...(ok, maybe a lot of balls)!
Anyways, I turned 30 and have to say I actually feel older with this birthday. (or it could be that I've only been to the gym a handful of times since Jaxon was born). I still pull the "I just had a baby" card even though it's been 8 months.

The girls are doing great in school. Addie has her old kindergarten teacher and we put the twins in the Dual language program. It's been so good for them, they are said to be fluent in Spanish by 5th grade. Troy and I really enjoy all the words Brookie "span-ifies". She just adds a little twang to any word, i.e, car-o for car. It's really funny. Gracie continues to do whatever the big girls are doing and anything naughty they are not doing. She's so great- I just love her (and the 500 outfits she wears a day). She thinks she owns the place (and the neighbor's places, and my sister's house, and the gym...substitute any place she's ever been) She LOVES Jaxon and wants to hold him all the time. He's very patient with her and I am not. (Hence one of the balls that got dropped with #5! But I'm working on it...in fact, now the kids are back in school, I have even stopped using my "summertime" voice).
Jaxon is everywhere! He loves to stand up, so he pretty much crawls just to find a place to stand. He has the cutest little smile and has discovered his Dad! Now I see how little boys start out thinking their Dad's are superhero's. (Jaxon's dad really is a superhero!) He studies everything he does when he is in the room, and watches his every move- it's pretty cute. Troy's got a big job, but Jaxon couldn't have a better role model!
Ok, so like I said, I turned 30. Troy did a really great job celebrating my big 3-0. He got with my friends and family and planned a surprise Girl's Night Out Party. It was really fun and so great to visit with all of my friends (I have really great friends)... but we'll leave all the details of the night off the world wide web, right ladies? My mom made all of my favorite foods, and Sara got my favorite cake, I was in heaven!
After the party he informed me I was getting a really great birthday present. So, I began thinking, what would be a really great birthday present??? Hmmm...the new rug for the living room I want, a weekend away, new bedroom furniture, a visit from my best friend from college I haven't seen for 2 years!! Well, sure enough, he pulled it off and surprised me with Dacy!! I was totally surprised!! She and Zia got to come visit me, it was the best birthday ever! We had a great weekend and Troy won husband of the year again!!
In closing to my novel about my 4 month hiatus, Stacey tagged me on her blog and I'm supposed to write ten honest things about myself...so here it goes..

I still look pregnant.
I make my bed every day.
I love mexican food, I think I might be part Mexican.
I love the smell of my babies' breath and smell it every time they yawn.
I love to snuggle with my kids.
Sometimes I feel guilty that my husband does so much for me.
I like bath and shower water scalding hot.
I still get butterflies in my toes when I kiss my husband.
I find no pleasure in actually making a craft or sewing, only in the finished project.
I have never read a fiction book for fun or entertainment (weird huh?)

Anyways, here's Jaxon's six month picture and a few random ones from the last four months!
More pictures to come...someday!

Chubby baby!

Ok, life is so crazy right now and I know I’m a bad friend, Aunt, daughter and sister-in-law, Mom, etc. for not sending pictures of Jaxon! As most of you know, I love me some chubby baby legs, and he's by far my chubbiest one-who really looks like his Daddy when he smiles! So, here’s a glimpse. The studio pictures are a month ago, but the ones at the top are new. I promise to update next week when school gets out- I have a great new video of Gracie...so here goes a tale of our days via quotes!

“Look mom, I can pee in my eye ball and up my nose while you wipe my bum!” ~Jaxon
And you thought you had a talented kid...

“Mom! I peed on your floor, come see!” ~Gracie
Awesome. I'd love to.

“Dear mom, will you practice being nice? Its not fun being bossed around. cercol yes or no. Love, Addison”
I'll circle your yes or no.

“Mom, the tooth fairy didn’t come get my tooth last night…” ~Addison.
Crap.

“Mom, I just need to go to my room and chillax.” ~Addison
What???

“I didn’t steal the crayons from the art teacher, I was just taking them.” –anonymous
Awesome. Good thing those FHE lessons are paying off.

“Oh look honey…he fell asleep with his hand on his pacie. No, wait…there’s no pacie, it’s his thumb!”
Crap. It's so cute when they're babies, not so much when they turn 6.

“Mmmoooommmm (that’s in that really winey tattle voice), Gracie took my…. (substitute anything the girls have…candy, shoes, lipstick, gum, pen, book, chips, jewelery) and she ran away.I tried to catch her but I can't!”
I know that feeling. Just accept it, she's faster than me too. You've got to take out her legs.

“Oh, yes, I do think it’s cool that the dentist has whoopee cushions to take home and you all three got one! Thanks Dentist”
I secretly still think it's funny on occasion.


“Look, all I have to do is take Bailey’s toy and push Easton and they start crying!” ~Gracie
Awesome.Let's invite some more friends over.

“No, honey, it’s Jaxon that wants to watch all 800 NBA play-off games, not me- I’m just sitting here with him because he really likes it.” ~???
I love it that all the teams Troy follows go to 7 every round. That's like basketball every night! I hope it never ends.

"Wow, five kids...don't you know how that happens?" ~Perfect
stranger
ummm..did you seriuosly just ask me about you-know-what? I have so many answers going in my head that would make you feel really uncomfortable, but I would just rather sit giving you the awkward stare. "No, my mom didn't let me watch that video in highschool."

Our little man is 8 weeks old today! This newborn thing goes by way to fast for me- especially since the rest of my life doesn’t stop! He is sure one loved little boy! (although in the middle of the night my subconscious mind kicks in and I still refer to him as a girl… I’m working on that! )
Here’s some pictures of our last five weeks and the run down… I know it’s a lot, but maybe if I didn’t wait two months to update it, it wouldn’t take so long!
-Jaxon’s two-week-old pictures we took for announcements
-Grandma and Grandpa Taylor came down for Spring Break and Aunt Soni and Ethan (LOVE him) even got to come for a couple of days.
-We were able to bless Jaxon while everyone was here, it was great- blessing days are my favorite mommy days!
-Chelsea’s baby Kennedy is here and adorable- she is only 6 days younger than Jaxon so I call the twin cousins. It’s so cute to see them doing the same thing.
-Sara also had her baby last week, and so he gets another precious girl cousin to play with. I’ll have to say they are the cutest little babies (not that I’m biased).

Nope, I’m not worried at all about Jaxon being surrounded by so many girls…especially when Daddy came in the other day whistling the theme song from The Little Mermaid!!!

The twins turned 6 last week…that’s crazy to me. For their birthday, they wanted to invite their kindergarten teachers over for dinner and go to Libby Lu to get makeovers- they say they’re sure they didn’t want a big party...I didn’t push that one.
It didn’t go as planned as Jaxon and I had to go to California for my grandpa’s funeral- but I’ll get their birthday blog up soon!

Our Baby boy turned one week old on Thursday- so here’s some pics of our first week with blue in the house! I’ll have to say, I love the boy thing- he is so sweet! Well, I don’t love all of the boy stuff…the circumcision really threw me for a loop- that part is awful- but other than that, things are great. He’s eating really well and way more than all the girls. He weighed in at 9lbs and 14oz at one week! He gained almost a half a pound from his birth weight. Other than missing all the cute newborn outfits I have, I love my chubby baby! This week was eventful for him, he had to get his biliruben checked three times (so sad), and then the “boy” issue and a couple checks- but everything is normal now. This past week has been so great as Troy had the week off, and handled everything around the house, so all I had to do was hold my baby. With this being the last of the Taylor babies, this has been the best gift I’ve ever received- I haven’t missed a second. I honestly have the best husband in the world, I hope Jaxon is just like him!! The girls LOVE him and want to hold him every second. Gracie is actually doing really great with him- she is so soft and sweet with Jaxon, then she’ll turn around and put the smack down with the rest of us. She is especially naughty when I feed him, because she knows it will take me a few to catch her.
Ok, so every picture I take makes him look really huge...he is big and has chubby cheeks, but doesn’t look quite this big in real life!

Baby Jaxon is here!!!

He’s here!!! What a difference a day makes…Wednesday we spent the day getting ready for the induction, and Thursday we went from 4 to 5 kids- just like that! I know I’ve done this a few times, but the miracle is just as great on the fifth one. That whole little living being was inside of me two days ago- crazy! Our precious little guy came at 9:04am- just two hours after the Doctor broke my water. I started hurting about 7:30 and only had to endure an hour and a half…way better than the last delivery! Other than not having an epidural, I couldn’t have asked for a better delivery. Troy was a champ (as always) and my mom and sisters were there, as well as two awesome doulas (the hospital staff let us bend the rules on the number in the room) . Everything went great, and as you can imagine when I was looking at his cute little face my first question was “Is it a boy?” Sure enough- still a boy and a very big boy- he was 9 lbs and 8 oz and 21.5 inches long. After hearing his weight, I felt very validated that I couldn’t walk for those last few weeks! He’s the sweetest little cuddly baby and the girls are so thrilled to have a brother! Here’s some pictures of the big day, and hopefully, I’ll get around to updating things again soon!

Jaxon Troy Taylor

A "boy" room!!

We finally got the upstairs done…it’s so weird to have a “boy” room up there! We’re about 9 days away from the due date, and two weeks from induction, so this is my last chance to get the pictures up! I could just post the pics, but I’ll explain them in too!

Thanks to my sister-in-law and all her vinyl, we finished the playroom (well, all the rooms)! I love decorating, not that I’m great at it, but I really LOVE doing things myself and creating the rooms as inexpensively as possible (since the decorating budget is limited :D) Sometimes I pretend I’m on Trading Spaces- except my carpenter is way hotter than Ty Pennington!!! Decorating has become the only activity my right brain gets these days. Anyways, I found this Amy Butler fabric a long time ago and loved it, so that became the inspiration for the room. I picked my very talented friend’s brain last year on furniture placement, and she gave me some of the ideas…thanks Leslie!! We hit Ikea to get all the accessories- which happened to be the perfect color scheme! Troy and his Dad built the art desk and metal display board, hung the lights, and hung the swing on their last visit...so it’s officially done! If you can’t see from the picture, the quote above the board says, “It took me four years to paint like Rafael, and a lifetime to paint like a child. –Picasso”. The girls love the room!!






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So, we debated on the baby’s room for a while. I love all of the trendy boy stuff, but then became really sensitive to the fact he’s going to have to grow up in the pink dress-up world with 4 sisters…so, I wanted it to be all boy- I even looked into camo, guns, and dead animals for the walls! After slaving on the big girl’s nurseries and turning around in two years to re-decorate a big girl room- I decided this one would start as a big kid room with a crib, and in a few years, I’d just have to take down the crib and add a train table. We ended up with “vintage” sports (since that’s all his Daddy is really into)… “vintage” just meant I didn’t like the primary colored “sports” look- so we made do with the darker colors (the flash makes the walls look different in every picture- but it's really the more navy color). I called Troy’s old lacrosse coach from BYU (actually his wife Megan…. thanks again Megan!!) and got his jersey from the National Championship in 2000. My girlfriend made the matching baby jersey and our good friends gave us the old lockers they were getting rid of. They were taken out of a high school years ago… we painted them and added all of the boy cousin’s names to the front- it turned out cute. Then, I got this idea for Troy to make a goal over the twin bed in the room, but I wasn’t sold it would look good- and didn’t want to waste the money if I didn’t like it, so we found the goal at academy we could return (exactly like what I had in my head) and ended up really liking it. I found some awesome vintage sports pics online at a really expensive baby boutique- I was trying to budget for them when my friend called and found these pics at a tent sale for 10$ each. (way better then 110$) My hot carpenter popped off the stars on top, painted them brown, and Cara made the vinyl words- and the other lettering on the walls. Then, we took some vintage golf clubs Troy had and hung the curtains and topped them with a handmade baby gift with his name on it my friend made us. We just need to add his pictures when he comes!

Now, my next project is the upstairs bath, I think it’s only fair we bail with the big chenille flowers and lady bugs and go with something more masculine- but Troy reminded me he won’t even use it for a couple of years. Any body got any suggestions for a neutral bathroom?

Ok, there it is, thanks again to all involved in the group effort…especially to Troy, after two long months of late night projects, he can finally get some rest! Well… maybe only for 9 more days!

Oh, and here's a pic of the Eifel tower Trent and Cara made for the twins room too- it turned out perfect!

January Update...

We just had our first little boy shower!! My sisters threw a party at my mom's and here's a few pics from that..the camera didn't exactly make it around that night, so I didn't have too many! It was really fun, and I love my friend's who came in all the way from Houston (AmySue and Brie)! I am especially proud of the pic of Sara, Brie and I because for the first time in 8 years, I am not the only one pregnant in the picture- we all are!! It was so weird to open blue stuff and boy clothes, but really fun! (Since my brothers are worried, I promise my hair won't get any shorter)!! We're getting ready for our little guy, and I'll post one more time before he comes, since I promised to put pics up of the room!

Here's a few pics to update the last couple of months...I wish I was better at this, but since I wait so long in between the task gets bigger and bigger! Maybe when the baby comes, I'll keep up on it (yeah right).

Gracie turned two!! She’s fabulous. I know, her personality is challenging, but she’s really funny! So, this year, I had this bright idea of a “traveling party”. Instead of a crazy, chaotic party at my house where Gracie doesn’t get to see anyone, we would take our kiddos and a mini party to our families individual houses. This way, she could spend a few minutes with all of her favorite people. I baked a ton of cupcakes (my kids had to have mini sized since they would have 6) and hats and balloons, and off we went. I was very surprised how well the scheduling worked out with 6 stops and my busy family. So at 8:30 we started @ Grandma Connie’s (her great-grandma’s) retirement community. (Those people really love kids, it’s always a treat to go there and be reminded of how blessed we are and how quickly our kids will grow up). Anyways, we had a cupcake, sang Happy Birthday, and opened a present at each home. Then to Mama and Papa’s, to Aunt Shellee’s, to Aunt Wendy’s, to Aunt Chelsea’s, grabbed lunch, and ended at Aunt Sara’s. (Aunt Stacey just had a baby, so we thought it would be best to leave them off the schedule!) My little idea really wore us out completely and we didn’t get home until 2pm exhausted and full of cupcakes. But Gracie loved it and it was nice to spend a few minutes with everyone. So, here’s some of that fun!

Addie’s run in with the sidewalk. So, she comes inside - not crying - just to tell me something was really wrong. Then she moved her hand, and I almost threw up. You can’t really get the full impact from these pictures, but it was awful- Massive Headwound Harry. She was out on her bike jumping the ramp with the boys and fell over. Troy was kind of proud that she was taking the jumps- and wanted me to know she did it 5 times before she fell off.
After the drama wore off, she wanted to go do it again. And no, she wasn’t wearing a helmet…nice I know.

Copie and Brookie were inducted into the Hall of Fame at school. Their teachers decided they deserved their own day, so they did them a week apart. Thanks to Mama and Papa for the early morning trips- they were so excited! They are loving school and have done really well in their own classes, I’m really glad we made the decision to separate them. So here’s Copie’s quote from the week…Brookie was throwing a fit the other day, and a really good one-crying, screaming, the whole nine yards. After I sent her to her room, Copie looked at me with a serious, concerned voice said, “Mom, I think I know what’s wrong with Brookie.” “Oh, really, what is it?” I said. “I think she’s special needs.”

Christmas was great- the girls were very spoiled by all of their grandparents! We stayed around here and were able to get lots of things done around the house, well, Troy was able to get lots of things done around the house :0). He sure loves me! Or he’s unwilling to pay anyone else to do anything he can do. Love that guy! Troy’s parents came down at the beginning of the month and he and his Dad yet again tackled some great projects. They made an art desk in the playroom, a big metal display board, and I even convinced my father-in-law it was a good idea to hang a swing from Ikea to the rafters of our playroom. (Still don’t think he thinks it’s a great idea, but he did a great job anyway)! Thanks mom and Dad for all your help- we love you!! I’ll post those pics when it’s done.
And the quote for this week…comes again from Copie, concerning the new Wii games they got for Christmas..
Copie: “Mom, Addie called me a name..”
Addie: “No I didn’t”
Copie: “Yes, you did. You called me ‘I win, you lose, now you got a big bruise’”