Summer Recap

Time for another catch-up post.  Here is how we spent our summer:

Our one and only vacation was going to Electric City, Washington for our friend Jody's wedding (which I already blogged about here).  Before the trip, we had a fun tea party/bridal shower where we all got to wear fun and exciting hats!

 Here's a couple more wedding pictures I missed from the original post.

 We did two farmers markets in Lake Stevens and Granite Falls all summer long.  Sam made some really good friends with the other vendor's kids. 

 When we could make it, Sam played soccer with his friends once or twice a week. 

 And in our free time, we'd go to the beach!

 We also had some visitors in August, but that will get a whole post of its own.

Sam Learning French

Here is a short video of Sam singing I am a Child of God in French (for those who get my posts in your email, you will probably need to go directly to camillataylor.blogspot.com to watch it):



He has started babbling in French which we find adorable! He knows many words and phrases, and he is now trying to put things together, but it doesn't always make sense. The other night I was putting him to bed, and he was "speaking" in French to me: "Comment ca va, comment? Moi, moi, comment. Oui ou non? C'est bon." Our French neighbor across the hall from us loves to talk to Sam in French, and loves it when he responds in French--usually it's just a bonjour or au revoir, but it still melts her heart.

Since the very beginning of our marriage, Christopher and I have always sung French hymns as part of our Family Home Evening. Now that Sam is around, we sing French Primary songs instead. Our current favorite is the Popcorn Popping song in French. Sam sings it pretty well. I'll try to get it on video one of these days.

Silly Sam

Sam has been waking up the past few nights with bad dreams. Here are a few of them:

• Cell phones were falling into his bed.
• His hand got caught in a spider web, and a spider bit him.
• Someone took his scone and threw it into the water.
• The vacuum was trying to slurp him up.

Last night I had a scary dream: I was a contestant on America's Next Top Model. Yikes!

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The other day, Sam was playing with his toy police man and fire man.

Sam: Quick! There's an emergency!

Me: Oh no! What is it? Is something on fire?

Sam: No, Mom. It's an emergency dance party! (Police Man and Fire Man begin to dance)


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Sam: Did you used to be a little girl?

Me: Yep, a long time ago.

Sam: Like 100 years ago?

Closing the Bakery

Last night we had a staff meeting with our employees to tell them that our bakery will be closing next month. We have been dreading this for the past six months or so. Our employees are like family to us, and we hate to leave them jobless in this bad economy where employment is so scarce. But for those who know the whole situation, of all the options we had, closing our business was the only logical one, and fortunately our employees were very understanding.

We're missing one employee in this picture.

Our last day open will be October 19th--exactly four weeks from today. The end of the October we will take a quick trip to Utah to visit family and to celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary. Then it's back to work. I will continue working as a leasing consultant here in Everett, and Chris has agreed to help a new Great Harvest owner open his store in Olympia which they are planning to open the beginning of November. Chris has agreed to a three month trial period managing this new store, and then we will decide whether to stay in Everett or move to Olympia.

We're full of mixed emotions. It'll be a huge relief to not have to stress about everything, but so sad to not see our regular customers and employees every day. I just keep telling myself that it is a new chapter in our life, and that we will enjoy new experiences and opportunities with this change.

What Can I Bring for Dinner?

Awhile back, we invited our friend Jesica over for Sunday dinner.

Jesica: Camilla, what can I bring over for dinner?

Sam jumping in before I could answer: A Super-Soaker!!

Well, we had Jesica over for dinner again sometime after Sam's birthday, and guess what she brought over...

She gave Sam this super-soaker for his birthday. Since we don't have a yard, he has mostly used it outside on our balcony or in the bathtub. The other day, Sam told a little fib to Chris saying he hadn't had a bath that morning like he usually does and said that he was very dirty and needed to get clean. I stopped by the apartment mid-afternoon for a quick break from work and found Sam taking another bath--he just wanted to play with the super-soaker again. Sneaky little boy!

Thank you, Jesica! Sam loves his present!

Sam Turns Four!

This post is only two months late! Better late than never, I guess.

We celebrated the morning of Sam's birthday in Electric City were we had been for our friend's wedding. He had been so excited for this day for months and months! We opened a couple of his presents in our little motel room, and then opened the rest when we got back home late that afternoon. He was so excited about his train set as well as his first bike--presents from both sets of grandparents. I think he had a good birthday! I just can't believe he's already four and that he'll be starting kindergarten in a year!

Our little Sam is such a sweet boy. He is the friendliest kid I know and wants to talk to everyone. He is far from shy. Because he spends so much time with us in the bakery, in his mind all strangers are customers, and he has to ask everyone how they're doing. He goes up to random people in grocery stores to say hello. At parks, he'll go up to random adults and sit down next to them to ask how their day is going. He makes friends incredibly quickly and will play with anyone who happens to be at the park or beach with him--it doesn't matter to him if they're two, 12, or 52!

His favorite foods are mac 'n cheese, hot dogs, corn dogs, and yogurt. He still has a hard time sitting still long enough for meals because he just wants to play. His favorite color is red. He loves to read stories and play Mario games on the Wii. His favorite toys are the millions of cars, trucks, and trains that he has collected. He can't really carry a tune yet, but we love it when he sings songs for us.

We are so happy Sam is part of our family and we love him more than we can express.

A Letter to Myself from 1998

I was doing a lot of organizing yesterday (and let me tell you how good it feels to have everything in its place!) and I came across a sealed envelope that said "Do not open until May 2008." It was from 1998 when I was in the 10th grade, and I probably wrote this as an assignment for either Seminary or English--I'm not sure. Here is what I had to say to myself 12 years ago.

Dear Camilla,
When you read this letter, you will be 26 almost 27! By this time, I expect you to have gone to Europe, gone on a mission, gotten married, started to raise a family, still been active in the church, gone to college, and remained a happy, healthy person!

Just for fun, I want to tell you what you were like as a 16 year old. Right now, these are my favorite things:

Hobbies: music, guitar, piano, singing
Color: green
TV show: Mad About You
Music groups: The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel
Book: Jane Eyre
Movie: Help!, Titanic, Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Favorite actor: Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise
What I want to be when I grow up: teacher, architect (nothing medical)
Current popular brand names: Gap, Lucky, Dr. Martins

I hope you've had fun reading this. I'll see you in ten years!

Love,
Camilla Cleverly

Well, I was two years late in opening this, so now I'm 29. I have accomplished everything I listed in this letter--I lived in Europe while on a mission, I got married and had a son, I graduated from college and became a teacher. I'm still active in church, and I'd consider myself a happy and healthy person. My favorite things have changed since then to an extent.

It was an interesting read. I wonder where I'll be ten years from now. Maybe I should write myself another letter.

Jody's Wedding

Our friend and former employee Jody got married last weekend in Electric City, Washington, and she asked Sam to be her ring bearer for the ceremony. The four hour drive there was beautiful! We got there early afternoon, soaked up some sun, went swimming, took a nap, and then got ready for the wedding that evening. It was a hot day, but luckily there was a nice breeze. The wedding took place outdoors just off of Banks Lake which is in Eastern Washington just east of the Grand Coulee Dam. Jody had asked Glen, the previous owner of Great Harvest, to perform the ceremony, so he got ordained online to make it official. Our friend Lisa is also ordained to perform weddings, and has done 30 or so ceremonies, so she was able to help Glen prepare for this. He did a great job!

I was a little nervous that Sam would not cooperate during the ceremony, but he really surprised us! He took his job very seriously and did a fantastic job! He walked down the stairs holding his special pillow, continued down the aisle, and then walked over to his spot by the groomsmen. When it was time to exchange rings, he walked right over to the couple and then back to his spot like a pro! The poor little flower girl he walked down the aisle with forgot her flowers, but other than that, it was perfect.

For months we told Sam that he was going to help Jody get married and that he had a very important job to do. As it got closer, he kept asking about when he was going to get married to Jody. He was a little confused, but still happy to help out. He may have done so well because we bribed him with an early birthday present if he would do his ring bearer duties just like we had practiced.

Afterwords Chris, Sam, and I were walking hand in hand with Sam in the middle. He was so happy that we were happy with how well he did as well as being happy that he could open one birthday present a day early. This cute little boy was bursting with excitement and took my hand to give me a sweet little kiss, and then took Chris' hand and gave him a sweet little kiss too. It was the perfect little moment. I love our little family!

The wedding was very relaxed and fun--just like Jody and TJ. The food was great and we enjoyed sitting right by the water as the sun set with some people that mean so much to us.

While the dancing got started, we snuck off to go see the laser show that is projected nightly onto the Coulee Dam. Sam fell asleep during the 40 minute show, but Chris and I enjoyed it.

Sam's birthday was the next day, so we opened a couple presents in our little motel room. We hung out for awhile, checked out of our room, and then made the trip back home. It was a short little trip, but I'm so glad we were able to go.

Here are pictures of the bridesmaids
and the groomsmen (and TJ, the groom, in white)
and Sam matching the groomsmen with his cool shades.

A Few Sam Quotes

"I love you more than garbage trucks!"
Which is very sweet considering how much he loves garbage trucks!

"My toots were pretending to be fireworks."
Said on July 4th after coming home from watching fireworks.

"Mom, look at him. He's huge! Look how huge his tummy is!"
Pointing and talking really loud as a fellow ward member is walking up to the stand to bear his testimony in church. How embarrassing!

"Ok, let's play a game. It's called Mommy cleans up my bedroom and I watch."
That one did not go as he had hoped. Tricky boy!

"I'm a little grown-up because I'm almost 4 years old, so you'd better listen to me when I talk to you!"
Hmmm...Maybe he spends too much time around adults.

Random Update: March-June

March 2010
After watching Julie and Julia, Chris decided he wanted to try making a fancy meal. So he cooked and slaved all day over Beef Bourguignon a la Julia Child. We had several courses and tried to make it a traditional French meal. It made a lot, so we invited some friends over.

April 2010
This video is from Easter morning with Sam finding his Easter basket.



May 2010
Chris' parents went on a cruise and brought back a couple gifts. I filmed this video meaning to email it to them, but never did. So here you go, Brett and Valerie. Thanks for the souvenirs!



June 2010
It was the first warm day we had had all year, so Chris and Sam decided to go to the beach. Chris put sunscreen on Sam, but not on himself. After staying for four hours, Chris came home looking like a lobster and was in pain for about a week.

Random Update: January-February

Going through our pictures and videos, I realized that there was a bunch of stuff we never blogged about. This post is mostly for the grandparents and other family members who live far away who want to see Sam. Enjoy!

January 2010

Assuming Sam still fits it, this astronaut suit will be his Halloween costume. I'm all for the easy, use-what-we-already-have costumes! I don't have the energy to be more creative!

February 2010
Sam took swimming lessons. He loved going swimming twice a week, but finished his lessons still afraid to put his head all the way under the water.
For Sam's Christmas present, we got him a year-pass to the Everett Children's Museum. We go frequently and think it's a great place to go when it's rainy and cold.

This video shows his little head injury from jumping on our bed and falling off. It wasn't really bad at all, but Sam got to wear a nice bandage to keep it covered overnight.

And these are some pictures of Sam writing a letter to Gram and Grandpa Allen (so sorry it never got sent!! I can't remember where we put them!).

Dedicated to My Sister Becca

The other day we were listening to some classical music on TV, and Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture came on. If I remember correctly, this is the song my sister Becca wants played at her funeral, real cannons and all. I don't know how well cannons would work in a church, so I thought something like this would be better.



(For the best part, skip forward to the 5 minute marker on the video when the cannons start flying!)

Sam's First Scripture in Primary

Sam was assigned to give the scripture in Primary today. He practiced all week long and knew it all by heart. As Sunday got closer I would ask him if he would do it all by himself, and said that he wouldn't--grownups are supposed to whisper what to say in kids' ears. That totally brought me back to my cute sister's post about her daughter's Primary talk experience. Sam is far from being shy. He has just been conditioned in the 5 1/2 months he's been in Primary that parents are supposed to whisper kids' talks and scriptures to them.

We got to church early so he could practice saying it in the microphone--something he has been dying to do forever! He said it fine without our help.


But as soon as it was time to do it, he insisted I whisper the words in his ear. He still did great, even though I had to help him. I just wish everyone could have seen this instead (the following video was taken before church in an empty Primary room):

Oh, and if you couldn't understand the scripture reference, he recited Moroni 10:5.

Memorial Day 2010

As I mentioned in the previous post, we decided to not work at our bakery on Memorial Day. We work hard, and decided to give ourselves a break. We wanted to have a nice getaway, but everywhere we thought about going, the forecast said it would rain--north of us, south of us, east of the mountains--everywhere! I really wanted to go camping, but I didn't want to be cold and wet the whole time. So in the end, we took two day trips.

The first day we explored Olympia. The second day, we went to Seattle. We had a year pass to the Seattle Aquarium that expired May 31st, so we went one last time. We started with a yummy breakfast at IHOP, and then caught the bus down to the aquarium (parking downtown is expensive! Plus, Sam really likes taking the bus!).

(For those of you who get my blog posts in your email, to see the following video, I think you have to go to our actual blog at camillataylor.blogspot.com)

Each time we visit the aquarium, we always walk through Pike Market Place, and then have lunch at Subway. Sam just expects it, so we couldn't disappoint.

When we got back home, the rain had stopped and a bit of blue sky was finally starting to peek out, so we decided to try having a BBQ. Though in the end, we only had a little bit of charcoal which was pretty old, so it didn't really work very well at all. We ended up taking our BBQ dinner back up to our apartment and made our hamburgers there. It was still yummy!

Even though our plans didn't go as we had hoped with the rainy weather, we still had a really nice weekend away from responsibility and had a great time being together as a family!

I am our Mailman's Adopted Daughter

Somehow I think I have been adopted as our mailman's daughter he never had. Working at our apartment complex's office, I interact with our mailman just about five days a week. And to top it off, he is also our neighbor and regular customer at the bakery. He enjoys talking to me about his days in the military, about the beaurocratic problems in the United States Postal Service, and about his photography excursions chasing wild animals.

For Christmas, he gave Chris, Sam, and me photographs he had taken--war planes for the boys, and flowers for me (and we gave him a loaf of bread, quite the original present, huh!), he has offered to do a family portrait for us one of these days, though we have never taken him up on the offer.

He frequently tells me that we work too hard and deserve a vacation. He then continues on to list all the cities we could day-trip to and the restaurants we should eat at. When Chris and I were debating what to do with our store for Memorial Day, our mailman encouraged us to not work it and do something fun.

When we decided to follow his advice and actually take a break away from our store for Memorial Day, I told him were thinking about going camping (though in the end we did day trips to Olympia and then to Seattle instead of camping), and he freaked out on me afraid that something bad would happen to us.

Him: Do you know the difference between a Black Bear and a Grizzly Bear?

Me: No.

So he drew me a picture of each kind and explained how to handle each situation if we happened to run into one.

He also went over the basics of snake bites, spider bites, what to do if we run into other types of potentially dangerous wildlife, where to store our food, etc. He asked if we had a good enough camping equipment and knew the basics of camping. Yes, Mr. Mailman, we have been camping before. We're not totally ignorant! He probably repeated the phrases, "Just be safe" and "Just be careful out there" five or six times!

It was kind of funny and sweet that he cares about our safety. I just wish he would care less about our mail--he can get pretty nosey sometimes!

(and in case you were wondering the difference between a black bear and a grizzly bear, here is a little lesson for you in case the pictures don't give you enough information. Black bears are smaller and have bigger ears. Grizzly bears have a shoulder hump and have smaller ears. They also have different profiles as you can see in the sketches.)

Sam Learns About Prayer

A few weeks ago, Sam and I were going through our bedtime routine of stories, brushing teeth, and saying our prayers. As I was tucking him, he was saying how he was scared that he would have bad dreams, so I told him that we could say another pray to Heavenly Father for help to have good dreams and not be afraid. Our little prayer went something like this:

"Heavenly Father, Sam needs help. Please help him to have good dreams and to sleep well all night long. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

I finished tucking him in and went in the other room. About 45 minutes later, Sam came running out of the room with a huge grin on his face.

"It worked, Mom! The prayer worked! I had a good dream about Team GeoTrax (a movie and toy that he has)!

Prayer works! And Sam knows it too!

Happy 10 Year Anniversary Class of 2000

Major life changes since high school:

• Went to Southern Virginia College for a year and a half
• Went on a mission to Switzerland, France, and Luxembourg
• Married Chris
• Gave birth to our cute Sam
• Graduated from the University of Utah
• Taught one year of middle school French
• Became a small business owner
  

Here's to 10 more years of adventures!

(and I think Chris and I look pretty much the same...maybe we need makeovers!)

Recipe Notebook

This is a post for all Cleverlys and Taylors. I am working on putting together a 3-ring binder (with protective page covers! You know how much I love office supplies!) of recipes that we grew up with so they are all in one place and easy to find. I think I have called my mom probably four or five times for the Chicken and Broccoli Casserole because I misplace the random paper I scribble the recipe on. Anyway, so Christopher and I have compiled a list of dinners that are regular meals with our families as well as some recipes we have discovered and make frequently at our own house. What I need from you are any dishes that should be on these lists if you can think of any. Here is what we have so far:

Cleverly Recipes

Chicken and Broccoli Casserole

Lasagna

Hawaiian Haystacks

Ebelskivers

Sarah Salad

Shelly Salad

Chicken Every Sunday

Chicken Breast Implants

Yams and Apples

Sloppy Joes

Taco Soup

Frog-Eyed Salad

Spam Casserole

Rice Krispie Treats

Lemonade Pie

Homemade Ice Cream

Taylor Recipes

Pulled Pork

Spinach, Feta, Pecan, Strawberry Salad

Italian Sausage Breakfast Casserole

Buttermilk Chicken

Cabbage Salad with Crunchy Ramen Noodles

Brisket

Corned Beef

Turkey Breast with Cream of Chicken

Ham and Pineapple

Pork Roast

Breakfast Tacos

Green Bean Casserole

Pigs in a Blanket

24-Hour Salad

Treasure Filled Coffee Rings

Caramel Apple Pie

Peanut Butter Chocolate Cheesecake

Chris and Camilla Recipes

Crepes

Cavetelli

Thai Peanut Chicken

Stew (crock pot)

Quiche

Spinach Quiche

Okay, family. Now it's your turn to list any we may have missed that were regular meals growing up. And if you're feeling really ambitious, we will need most of these recipes, so you can email them to us if you'd like (otherwise we will just bug you later!). Merci beaucoup!