Sam's First Few Weeks in Primary

I am the Primary chorister at church. Sam is now old enough to be a brand new sunbeam in Primary. I knew it wasn't going to be any easy transition since he used to climb all over me while trying to do music time with the nursery classes. Take away all the toys, and make a large group of three year olds sit still through 50 minutes in one place is very difficult. Now add to that the fact that one of those three year old's moms is sitting up front, and he's not allowed to sit with her, climb all over her, and have her hold him... Yeah, it's not easy.

Sam's first week was awful. Chris was home sick, so I had to wrestle with him all by myself. He refused to sit with his class, so after lots of lip quivering, clinging, and crying I let him sit with me, until I had to start doing music time. While I try to teach jr. primary their new song, Sam and his little partners in crime decide to try jumping off of the chairs making shooting noises as they fight with their pretend finger guns. They are loud, and running all over the place. Our primary has 20 new sunbeams on the rolls--about 14 that come regularly, split between two classes. The first Sunday of the year is always chaotic, but knowing my kid was one who was causing some of the chaos was stressful. At class time, he left ok, but was later brought back to me sobbing his little heart out--right when it was my turn to do singing time with the senior primary. He refused to sit next to me, but insisted that I hold him. Holding a whimpering little boy while trying to teach a song was practically impossible.

Chris has had to sit with him during parts of opening exercises and class time but each week since then has progressively gotten better. This week was the first time he didn't need Chris at all. He was still loud and disruptive with his partner in crime, but he didn't have any emotional breakdowns at any time. I think we're headed in the right direction!

Here is a picture of Sam with his two teachers, Sis. Music and Sis. Shurtz.

Belated Christmas Celebration

Chris' family came to visit the week after Christmas, so we decided to postpone having our Christmas morning until they arrived. We had our Christmas Eve on New Year's Eve, and our Christmas morning on New Year's morning. Sam had no idea. We made a little Christmas count-down paper chain, and we just adjusted it to count down to the adjusted date. When we'd be out running errands after December 25th, people would ask Sam if Santa had come to visit him, and he'd say no, not yet. We got a few weird looks, so I would have to explain.

Anyway, we had such a good Christmas and were so happy that the Taylors could come celebrate with us. Here are a couple videos from our Christmas and visit with Chris' family.

This first clip is of our Christmas Eve which we celebrated December 31st. Chris was sick during the whole time his family was here (he gets sick at this time every year from exhaustion and lack of sleep). This also shows Sam decorating cookies for Santa.


This second clip is of our Christmas morning which we celebrated on January 1st.


This last video is of an afternoon we spent in Seattle. We ate at a Crab Pot, then Sam rode on a little carousel. While the rest of us went to Pike Market Place, Chris' dad and Sam went to the aquarium. We spent the evening swimming at the hotel and eating Great Harvest sandwiches.


Here are some more pictures of the fun we had during Chris' family's visit.

The Holidays

From the week of Thanksgiving through the end of December, we at the Taylor home worked our little tails off. Both Chris and I were each working 60-80 hour weeks between my full time job in the leasing office, his regular work hours at the bakery, and both of us working at our little kiosk at the mall. Chris has worked every holiday season like since 2004, but this was a first for me. Blegh! We were so happy for Christmas to come and be over with!

Here is a picture of our kiosk we had at the mall for the holiday season


A friend of ours asked if some people from his single's ward could use our bakery to make a gingerbread house. Apparently there was a competition between the Elder's Quorum and the Relief Society, or something. In any case, some people came, and Chris helped them bake TONS of gingerbread. They later brought the finished product back to our bakery to display (and yes, they won).


We put up our little Christmas tree at the bakery (my favorite was the cute little loaves of bread tied up in ribbons and bows under the tree), and then picked it up Christmas Day and took it back home for our Christmas celebration which started later than most people's. I'll talk more about our Christmas/New Year's in my next post.

Happy Birthday, Christopher!

Today Christopher turns old! So I wanted to dedicate two songs to the birthday boy. The first I would consider "our song" and it really explains well my feelings for Chris. The second is our runner up song (though not quite so romantic), it goes along with conversations we have from time to time and makes me smile:

Me: I love you!

Chris: Good thing, 'cause you're stuck!

Enjoy!

Pray for Haiti

My heart hurts every time I watch the news about the earthquake in Haiti. It is already such a poor country with so many problems. This is such a terrible tragedy.

Every time I see the images of the destruction, I think of an elder I knew in the MTC. His name was Elder Jean Louis and was from Haiti. He, along with three other missionaries from various francophone countries (Reunion, Tahiti, and France) joined my MTC district part way through my stay there before leaving for their missions in Quebec.

In the picture above, Elder Jean Louis is the second one from the left--he was about as tall as me, and had a great sense of humor. I remember one specific meal at the cafeteria we were all joking around as best we could in French (he didn't speak any English at that time), and he started laughing so hard that food came spewing out of his mouth. When my dad had his heart attack while I was in the MTC, both he and Elder Durand (who was from France) provided a lot of comfort and empathy.

This picture makes me smile. Many of our elders had a tendency to fall asleep during class time. Elder Jean Louis came up with this bright idea: if you draw a pair of eyes on paper and put them behind your glasses, it "looks" like you're awake, and you can sleep all you want!

I lost contact with Elder Jean Louis after the mission. I hope that he and his family are ok. I have absolutely no way of knowing. So when I see information about the death, damage, and destruction, I think of his gigantic smile and happy demeanor, and know there are so many other Haitians like him who have lost their homes, friends, and families.

Please pray for Haiti.