Everybody Poops

The happy day has arrived! Sam is pretty close to being all the way potty-trained, and we're thrilled! We decided that we we're tired of buying so many diapers and pull-ups, so we tried keeping him in underwear anytime we were just hanging out at home. He has had a few accidents, but mostly waits to do his business on the potty. He used to not sit on the potty long enough to poop at all, but we tried books and movies on our portable DVD player, and now at last he gets those poops in the potty. It's been a few days since the last big accident, so we're knocking on wood and hoping that it sticks. He still uses a pull-up for nap time and sleeping, but we're hoping to retire those as well in the near future. Today he went to church for the first time in underwear, and he didn't have any accidents!
Here is a picture of the little man in action.

Jesus Banks at Wells Fargo

The other day Sam and I were at the bank doing a deposit for work, and a man with long brown hair and a beard walked by. While we were still in the car, Sam pointed at him and said, "Mom! Jesus! That's Jesus!" Sometimes Sam will put my brown headbands around his chin and call himself Jesus too. I guess it's a good thing that Jesus is in his thoughts throughout the day. I guess the next step is to teach him that Jesus wants him to be good (and not to do "jell-o body" and throw fits in the store when he wants a toy truck he sees!).

Phone Change

Just to let you all know, we decided to get rid of one of our cell phones since we really don't need both (we're either at work where there's a phone or together). So now if you need to get a hold of either Chris or me, just call my regular number since Chris' number is no longer in service (and if you don't know that number, leave a comment with your email address and I'll send it to you). There is a possibility that we may change our number to a local Washington number once our contract is up the end of February; but if that happens, I'll let you all know. I think I'll send out a mass email with this update, so sorry if you hear about this twice.

Taylor Christmas Greeting

Last year was the first time and only time we have ever sent out Christmas cards. We had good intentions of sending some out this year, but unfortunately we just never found the time. So this simple blog Christmas greeting will have to do for now even though many of you reading this who are regular readers already have a general idea of what's been going on in our lives.

We can't believe another year has passed so quickly. And so much has happened and changed in our lives. Here's a quick update about our family from this past year.


Christopher completely changed direction as far as his career choice. He decided to leave behind his past ambition of working in the medical field, and decided to combine his other interests of business and baking. Last December we began looking into purchasing a Great Harvest bakery, which included a major move for our little family to Washington state. I remember when Chris made the first phone call to the owner inquiring about the bakery, I knew then and there that it would soon be ours. Although we knew it would not be easy, we have felt good about our decision since that day. We feel completely at home here in this beautiful state. Chris spent a couple weeks in Montana for training, and then spent about two months apart from Sam and me getting our business started while I finished teaching French for the rest of the school year. Being apart for so long was hard for all of us, but living in my parent's basement for that time and being able to enjoy their company made it easier for Sam and me. With our current work situation, we have so much more time for each other as a family. And since moving away from our families, we have grown closer to each other and depend and trust each other more than we ever have before.

Like I mentioned before, I finished teaching my first year of school. I loved teaching and I loved my kids, and I plan on eventually going back to teaching when the time is right. While I was finishing my degree, Chris sacrificed so much to support me in my goal to graduate: he postponed his education and worked horribly long days between his part-time and full-time jobs while still taking a couple classes each semester. Since I have graduated, it is my turn to sacrifice for him to reach his goals and dreams, and I am so happy to do it. Chris and I make a good team and luckily we work well together as small-business owners. I have learned so much about bread in the past few months. Maybe one of these days I'll actually get around to baking some myself (isn't that awful--I own a bakery, and I have never baked anything more than banana bread in my life! Shameful, I know! :) But baking is Chris' department--I just sell it!). I have recently taken on a full-time job as a leasing consultant at our apartment complex, but I am still very much involved in our bakery. In our ward up here, I am the primary chorister, and Chris is a scout leader for the 11 year olds.

Sam is now almost 2 1/2. He is still such a sweet and happy little guy. His laugh is so contagious and he is friendly to everyone including random strangers. In the past year his vocabulary has grown immensely including several words and phrases in French. Some of his interests include cars, trucks, construction vehicles, airplanes, motorcycles--basically anything with wheels. His favorite movie by far is Cars. He loves animals, books, and going to nursery. He is in the process of potty-training, but we haven't gotten too serious about it yet. He has adjusted well to our move up here and has made many new friends.

We completely feel the Lord's hand in our lives and are continually grateful for his direction and guidance. We are grateful for this time of year to focus on the our Savior's humble entrance into this world and feel so blessed to have the peace and confidence the gospel brings to our lives. We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas season and happy new year!

Santa and Sam

This was Sam last year meeting Santa for the first time.

This is Sam yesterday with Santa.

To say the least, this encounter was much more amicable. He walked right up to him, shook his hand, jumped on to his lap and jabbered his ear off. Unfortunately we missed the free Santa at the ward Christmas party, and had to pay a pretty penny for this picture at the mall.

I also wanted to include some of the cute things Sam says these days.

• He knows that his full name is Samuel Christopher Taylor. He calls Chris Daddy Christopher Taylor, and me Mommy Christopher Taylor. To him it makes sense. He also will yell my real first name when I'm not paying enough attention to him.
• Whenever we say the words "guess what" he immediately answers, "I love you so much!"
  
• When he wants something really bad that I'm not letting him have, he'll say "please!" and when I continue to say no he says "nice word, mom. Nice word!" meaning that since he said the nice word please, he can have whatever he wants.
• He doesn't fully understand the word "promise." He thinks it means that he wants something really bad. For example, at the store if he sees a toy he wants, you'll often hear him say, "Promise to take it mom! Promise!"

Oh, what a funny little guy! I love this age!

A Bit of This and That

This part of the country doesn't usually get a whole lot of snow, but we got some over the weekend. In fact, it was so much that they canceled part of church. Everyone was contacted and told that we would be having Sacrament meeting, but the rest was canceled, and if we didn't feel safe driving to church to just stay home. Well, it really didn't snow that much--we think people up here are wimps. Though I guess if they're not used to driving in this stuff it could get scary. In any case, we went to church. I heard by the end of the meeting, about 75 people showed up, several of whom were investigators. My primary kids were supposed to sing a special musical number for sacrament meeting, but under the circumstances, their song was indefinitely postponed (which is totally fine because they didn't know all the verses to the song--I was given one week's notice to teach it to them).

Later that day we ventured outside to play in the snow. As a kid I used to be fine playing outside in the cold for a long time, but I've somehow turned into a wimp and hate being cold. We tried to make a snowman, but it was too powdery. We decided to call up some friends who live down the road and invite them to have some hot coco at our store. We had a good time. They are moving to Texas next month, and we will miss them.Last week we hired and had to fire the same guy. He was from Nepal, and during his interview his English was great. However, in front of customers he froze up, and it just wasn't going to work out. So we have since hired back an old employee who left us for Subway and then decided she wanted to come back. We'll have two other girls leaving us the end of January, so if anyone out there wants a job, let us know!

As for my new job (leasing consultant), it's going well. Our apartment complex is relatively small, so we don't get a lot of traffic. I've shown apartments a handful of times, and then the rest of the time I do paperwork, marketing stuff, and help current residents. It's pretty easy, and the perks are great! We get $255 off our rent each month, we don't have to pay water/sewer/garbage at all, I eventually get medical, dental, and vision insurance, and we get a really good deal on internet and cable (we didn't really want cable, but they had to come together. It's weird having so many stations! We've really grown to love PBS in the past four years of marriage since we have never had cable before now). It's so convenient just being downstairs of our apartment, and so I can pop upstairs and see Chris and Sam pretty easily during breaks. I'm learning to balance all the aspects of my life: mom, wife, business owner, and full-time employee. Chris has been great and has been doing most of the cleaning and cooking. Chris has arranged his schedule so that on the days I start work at 9am, he gets off at 9am, so Sam doesn't have to be watched by anyone else.

Anyway, that's a general update for us. We hope you all have a great Christmas! We'll see some of you very soon!

Civic Duty

So Camilla said I could take over her blog since it's been so long since I logged into mine I can't remember the password.
Coming away from the last election I wondered how many people really know how their country works and a little bit about how it was founded. Fortunately, I found a little quiz that will test your civic and historical knowledge of our great country, the US of A. How did you fare? Camilla and I both scored above average, 64% for Camilla and 85% for me, but that really was not too difficult considering the average was a 49% for Joe Shmoe and 55%!! for our college educators. It did help a little bit that we have been watching the HBO series John Adams (would recommend it to everyone). Well, good luck and happy test taking.
Chris

A Few Things

• We had another fun game night with our employees. We played Trivial Pursuit, 90s edition. The boys won. Chris and I decided that we'd do much better if it had been about the years 1995-2005. We were still pretty young to remember things that happened when we were only 10 years old.
  

• We had the missionaries over for dinner the other night, and Sam had so much fun showing them all his cars. They were good sports and played with them. We have them over once a month, but this was the first time for this set of elders. It's too bad there are not any sisters in our area, because I would love to go teach with them!
  

• Wednesday (the day before Thanksgiving) was the busiest day we've ever had at the bakery. Chris went in Tuesday and Wednesday at 2am to have everything ready for everyone's special orders. We just wish we could have days like that more frequently. We're preparing for a good December.
  

• We had a good Thanksgiving--our first as a family away from our families. We spent it with two other young families who are also away from their families. As far as dinner went, our job was easy: rolls and pies. The food was great! We played a game of Disney Seen-It (and the girls totally whipped the boys) and Sam and his friend Kaylee had fun running around all afternoon. He didn't get a nap, but he went to bed around 7pm.
  

• Before and after Thanksgiving dinner we were at the bakery getting ready for Black Friday. Chris didn't go to bed at all and went to start the bake at 11pm. We decided that since we are right near a mall and other big stores that we'd open early like everyone else. We pulled out all our Christmas decorations and put up new posters.

• So Chris stayed up a total of 26ish hours, and I basically got 3 hours of sleep. I stayed up with Chris till 11pm when he left for work, and then Sam woke up at 11:45pm. He used all his excuses on me: he was hungry, poopy, needed his green blanket, etc. After feeding him cheerios, reading stories, snuggling, etc. I fell asleep while he watched some cartoons on TV and then we woke up again at 3:40am (well, I woke up--Sam had been awake this whole time).
  

• Sam and I went to the bakery at 4am. He fell asleep in his playpen, and I went around to all the people standing in lines at Toys R Us, Target, the mall, Best Buy, etc. and passed out free cookies and hot drinks. It was kind of fun, and we think it brought some new faces into our store.

• In other news. I have accepted a new job. I am now a Leasing Consultant at our apartment complex. We weren't really looking for a new job, but this one kind of came up. This means I can't work at the bakery during our regular hours, but I'll continue to do the bookkeeping and help out with marketing and everything else. I'm sad I won't be in the store as much, but with this job we'll get a 30% discount on our rent, plus free water and sewer and medical, dental, and vision benefits. I'll start training December 9th.

• And one more thing I'm not sure I've ever mentioned, but last October Chris "volunteered" (or felt a little pressured to volunteer) to be our neighborhood association's chairman to fill up some of his "spare time". The October meeting was the first we'd ever gone to, and they happened to be choosing a new chairman, so Chris rose his hand at the last second after a very long silence. It's actually not too big of a job. He just has to plan the agenda for our monthly meetings, find guest speakers, and arrange refreshments (which is the easiest part--we just bring our leftover sweets). Any of you reading this who live in Cascade View Neighborhood, you should all come! I really do like that they have something like this. Do all cities have these and I just have never known about them? Anyway, we've met some nice people who live in our area.

Well, we hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! And for those of you in Utah, in case you haven't heard, we're coming the 25th till the 29th! We are excited to see you all!

We'll Make it There Soon!

We've been here for awhile now, and still haven't made it to the Seattle temple yet. We had good intentions of going while Kierstin was living with us since she was a built-in babysitter, but never took advantage of the situation as we still felt overwhelmed with all that goes with owning and running our own business the first few months.
Our next attempt of going to the temple was for our anniversary date. We had some friends watching Sam for us, so it should have been easy. We had to pick up some things down in Seattle from another Great Harvest, so we thought we'd do that and go to the temple. But what we didn't realize was that the temple and the bakery actually aren't very close, and getting through traffic was getting bad, so we didn't end up going.

We decided to try again this week. Again we had someone to watch Sam, and we both had the afternoon off. Nothing was going to get in our way this time; we were determined. We got all dressed, printed maps to get to the temple, printed Chris' lesson for Sunday so I could read it to him while we drove, woke Sam up early from his nap, and headed for the car. I happened to pull out my recommend and noticed that it had expired a month and a half ago. So basically if we had even tried going for our anniversary date, we wouldn't have gotten in. Luckily we found out before the 45 minute drive down to the temple. Grrrr... We'll get our recommends renewed and try again as soon as we can!

Sam Counts in French

You might need to turn up your sound to hear this one well. He left out a couple numbers, but otherwise, his French is pretty good!

Halloween

Here are a few highlights from our Halloween.

First we went to our ward's Halloween carnival and Trunk or Treat. When Sam realized that he could go from car to car and get candy, there was no stopping him.
Then we had a Halloween party with his friends. They played pin the nose on the jack-o-lantern, decorated sugar cookies, and had lunch. It was so fun!

Halloween night was pretty uneventful. Sam had spent the entire day in his costume, but by the end of the day, we were too tired to party anymore, so all three of us were in bed fast asleep by 8pm.

Who are you voting for?

We asked 2 year-old Sam who he will be voting for.

I guess he is still an undecided voter.

Don't forget to go vote! Though really, how could you forget to vote. That's all anyone is talking about in the papers, online, or on TV. I guess I should say go make the effort to vote, even if that means standing in line forever. We here at the Taylor residence have already done our civic duty.

I Love This Man!

Isn't he cute? Four years ago today he became mine.

Who is Christopher?

He is the boss man.
He is a baker.
He is a scout leader.
He is the Cascade View Neighborhood Chairman.
He is going bald.
He is a great cook.
He is the hardest worker I know.
He is a fantastic dad.
He is a loyal husband.
He is psychic and often knows exactly what I'm thinking or what I'm going to say.
He is the person who knows me best.
He is my best friend.

Happy anniversary!

PS Happy birthday to this cute girl!
I can't believe you're now 12!

Time for a Tag

I must be popular or something. I was tagged twice in one day! The first one I've already done, but I guess I'll give the "I" tag a try.

I... speak French fluently
I am... a small-business owner
I think... I spend too much time on the internet
I know... lots of things. I'm a college grad! I have a piece of paper to prove it!
I want... to have more will power
I wish... we had no debt and that our bakery was all the way paid off
I had... a pet bird for less than two weeks before we found him dead for no apparent reason
I hate... spiders with a passion! I try to keep my cool around Sam so he doesn't inherit my arachnophobia
I miss... French cheeses and breads
I fear... our government's future
I feel... sore. My random neck pain from last week has moved down to my right shoulder/back area
I hear... Sam asking me to come snuggle with him, so I'll be back to finish later...
...Later... I smell... nothing in particular. Just our apartment's regular smell
I crave... sugar all the time. Especially GH's Savannah Bars, cookie dough, and cake batter
I search... for great deals
I wonder... if we'll ever be able to afford a house of our own
I regret... not reaching out to different groups of people during high school. I feel like I missed out on some really valuable friendships
I love... my hubby and my little Sam-a-lama-ding-dong
I care... about other people's happiness
I always... have been an early riser
I am not... very creative or crafty; however, whenever I enter a craft store, I feel like giving craftiness a try
I believe... I can fly, I believe I can touch the sky, think about it every night and day, spread my wings and fly away...
I could... run a marathon like my sisters if I really wanted to, but I don't want to, so I won't
I dance... only with Sam. It causes me HUGE anxiety to dance and usually it brings me to tears if you try to force me. It comes from my insecure self from high school that still haunts me at times
I sing... in front of Primary kids every Sunday. Sometimes I feel like I'm singing solos every week
I don't always... exercise like I should
I write... better French than Chris does, though I think he speaks better than I do
I win... some boardgames
I lose... chess when playing with Chris (or just about anyone really)
I play... the piano to relieve stress
I never... eat seafood
I never listen to... rap
I can usually be found... at home or at the bakery
I am scared of... spiders. Oh wait, I've already reveled that! But it's a feeling so strong to deserve two mentions
I need... a massage
I am happy about... living in Washington (however I do miss our families!)

I don't tag anyone in particular because so many of you have already done it. So go for it if you want to.

Random Week in Review

Last Sunday we decided to pick some blackberries around our apartment complex since the season is almost over. Sam helped and turned a little purple.
We like to eat the berries with ice cream and decided to share with some friends.

Later in the week we had these same friends' kids over while they went on their anniversary date, and Sam had so much fun. They have a boy close to Sam's age and a little baby girl that Sam is fascinated with (I was a little worried about the baby's safety with Sam on the loose). One day he'll be a great big brother (but not anytime in the super near future). The past couple nights in his prayers he says over and over, "Thank you for Nathan. Bless the baby."

It must be an epidemic because now I have a crinked neck too! It randomly started hurting two nights ago before I went to bed (so it's not like I just slept on it funny). I can't turn my head too far right! Grrr...

And is anyone else out there sick of the election commercials. I enjoy watching the debates and everything, but when they just bash each other on every other commercial, it gets really old. It's especially bad up here with the race for Washington's governor. I just keep telling myself we only have a few weeks left.

Chris found this website where we can earn more Delta Skymiles for playing games. Only 4,033 tickets to go until we can get a plane ticket to Utah!

Tomorrow we're having game night with all our employees. We miss playing games on Sunday nights with our families, but our employees are like our family up here.

(And mom, if you read this before I call you, I need the recipe for your taco soup!)

Heads Up for Free Baby and Kid Stuff

I found this cool website yesterday called Freepeats. It's a place to find used baby and kid clothing and gear, and the best part of it is that it's completely free! It's kind of like Craigslist where you can post things you want to get rid of, or things that you are looking for, and then people in your area can respond. To register with the forum it normally costs a one time fee of $4.95, but if you do it within the next couple days, it's completely free! I thought this might be good for some of my sisters--both the ones who know they are done having kids and want to get rid of some things, and those who are planning on more. Check it out! You could score some really nice free things!

Conference Weekend with Grandma and Grandpa

Dad did a pretty good job at summing up their quick visit with us last weekend, but I needed to post some pictures. We had so much fun with them here, and we hope next time they can stay longer. We kept the Taylor tradition of breakfast burritos for Sunday Conference morning. And here is a picture of Sam with Grandma and Grandpa right before we took them to the airport.
Conference was great as usual (though a little frustrating with our internet connection). And Chris was happy to spend the entire day in his pajamas!

Sam's Costume and Verbal Skills

I hate spending money on Halloween costumes, so we were originally planning on Sam being a tourist for Halloween. He got this great Hawaiian outfit from Chris' parent's cruise. I thought he could just add a toy camera and some sunglasses and he'd be set.

We recently checked out a cute book from the library called "I Love My Pirate Papa." Sam loves it and calls Chris Pirate Papa, and calls himself a Pirate Boy. So while we were wandering around Toys R Us with Chris' mom, we found a pirate costume and had to get it. So here he is in his Halloween costume.

And in other news, I am sad that Sam is growing up so quickly; his language skills have improved quite a bit in the last little while. Recently he has learned the correct way to say the words motorcycle (which used to be wan-gun-gun) and snuggle (which used to be snuggan). I'm going to miss his little Sam-isms. He is very polite and always says please, thank you, and excuse me, and he says bless you in French every time I sneeze. He can count to ten in French. I wish I could get this all on video, but every time I pull out the camera, he just wants to watch the video. I'll need to do some hidden camera work to document it all.

Fun with the Two Grandmas

We had Chris' mom and grandma come for a quick visit this past week. They got here last Sunday afternoon and left yesterday morning. Sam was a little confused when kept telling him that grandma and grandma were coming. We had little conversations like this:

Us: Sam who's coming? Grandma and...?
Sam: Grandma and Grandpa!
Us: No, they're coming next week. Grandma and...?
Sam: Zoe!
Us: No, Grandma and...?
Sam: Dave!....Lara!

When they got here, he finally got it. He now calls them Grandma and Other-One-Grandma. We had so much fun with them here. We went down to Pike Market Place on Monday. We ate at a restaurant overlooking the water. I guess it's famous because part of Sleepless in Seattle was filmed there. Sam enjoyed the music, two giant dogs that we met, a sculpture of a pig, and the doughnuts. We left a little too late, however, for his patience to last long enough to allow us to go to the Space Needle or to the aquarium. He gets soooo cranky if he doesn't get his nap! That evening we had a really yummy dinner at a local restaurant overlooking Sam's favorite lake (it's where we always go on our picnics and where we feed the ducks).

Tuesday the two grandmas spent the day in the Tacoma area where Other-One Grandma (Grandma Brannock) grew up. They were able to visit with old friends and attend a memorial service for someone they knew.

We had so much fun together. I don't know when we'll see them next--especially his grandma since she lives in Texas. Thanks for the visit! Anyone else looking for a little vacation is welcome anytime!

Vote for Angie!

My friend Angie is in a "baby bump" photo contest for a radio station. If she wins, she gets a dream nursery for their baby boy.


Just go to this link and vote for #59. Be sure to verify your vote through the email they send you to make your vote count. Hurry! Voting ends September 26th!