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!

That's about it from our trip. Here are just a few more pictures.

I got to go to the temple with some of my family members,

and got to have breakfast with some dear friends.

Here's another picture of Sam on the FrontRunner.

And here is Sam and Peter saying goodbye. Who knows when we'll get to see them again since they live across the country. Major sad dance.Our trip was lots of fun. It was good to be with family and to see my sister and her cute family who we hadn't seen since June 2008. A big thank you to my grandpa whose Christmas present to us was money to help pay for our trip! We had a great time! It was really hard going back to real life!

Girls Night Out

During our trip, we had a girls night out with my mom and all of my sisters but one (who was planning on coming from out of state, but last minute had sick kids and had to postpone the trip. We missed you, Sis!). We went to Ikea, had dinner, and shopped.

This little tennis ball looking dessert turned out to be quite tasty!

Here are some more pictures of my girlies!
Look how tall she is! We knew this day would happen. Only 5 1/2 years ago Chris and I were married on her 8th birthday! She's getting so grown up!

And while I'm on the topic of the some of my favorite ladies, can I just say how lucky I am to have the Taylor women in my life! I couldn't have hand picked better in-laws!

Front Runner

My dad wanted to take all the grandkids on a train ride on FrontRunner. Sam and I (and other family members) rode FrontRunner the first day it was running back in 2008, but this was the first time for Chris. Here are some pictures of our adventure.

We rode from Bountiful to Ogden, and then had some of our nieces and nephews join us in Layton and ended up in Bountiful again. If I counted right, we started with 8 adults and 5 kids, and then picked up 1 more adult and 8 more kids.

Frites and Waffles

A huge thanks to my cute sisters for sharing some of their pictures from our Utah trip. We took our camera, and didn't get many pictures. Oops! The next few posts will be about our trip to Utah we took in March. (And just so you know, we had a ton of fun with the Taylor side too, but no one got any pictures other than our family pictures).

We went to a little frite shop that's owned by a guy from Belgium for some authentic Belgian fries and waffles. Yum!
Chris and my brother-in-law Paul both served in the Belgium, Brussels mission, so they really enjoyed this. My mission (Switzerland, Geneva mission) included a tiny corner of Belgium. My companion and I took a train there one afternoon on a preparation day when I was serving in Luxembourg just to say that I had been there.

Here's my proof! See the flag?

Anyway, we got lots of tasty frites and wafflesAnd for those of you who know Belgium, you'll recognize this, Manneken Pis (I like the little University of Utah hat that was put on him! Go Utes!):

Family Pictures

During our short trip to Utah, we took family pictures with the Taylors. The last time we took family pictures with them, I was just a couple weeks pregnant with Sam--over four years ago. There have been a few changes in the family since then, so it was time for an updated picture.

It was super cold and windy outside, plus Sam was tired, so I'm really impressed our photographer was able to get a couple good shots. Thanks Amanda!