Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Here is the Christmas Card we sent out in December...

Wanted to post this sooner. I am SO behind.

Dear Family and Friends,

It’s Christmas time again! Wow. Time flies, that’s for sure. Our family has been so blessed this year. On September 29^th, our little Anya Corinne was born. Just two months old, she has started to smile a lot and show her personality little by little. We just love our sweet angel. Of course, Claire loves her…in the form of at least one daily body slam.

This year, Jordan has worked really hard—both at his job and as a daddy. Just a few weeks ago, after 2.5 years of graveyard shift he FINALLY was switched to days! It has been so much fun having him awake when we are awake on his days off! This past year he has also decided to return to school full-time next fall to pursue a BS in Computer Engineering with an eventual Masters in Electrical Engineering. He has chosen to attend the University of Utah and is really excited to be a student again.

Janessa has been pretty busy with the girls! A mother of one is…challenging, but a mother of two…well, let’s just say that some days she just wants to check herself into the nearest mental institution (However, this year, she was mostly pregnant, and ANYTHING is better than that!) She’s also been working at ridding herself of the bowl full of jelly that has replaced her abdomen. Besides giving birth to Anya, the main event/milestone this year has been the dreaded and unavoidable 3-0!! That’s right, she is OLD. But still happy. She’s always got some craft or art project in the works, and loves connecting with friends and family.

Now for the fun part of the letter: Claire. She is hilarious. So fun. And so wild and crazy, we just want to pull our hair out sometimes, but it’s all worth it. She is quite the talker! Every day, we are astounded by the words she learns. Her two recent favorites are “discombobulate” and “constellation.” She repeats everything and loves to get a reaction! Mommy and Daddy’s favorite is her constant “I lub you…so much!” She says this all the time, many times just out of the blue. It just makes us melt. She can also say prayers and thanks Heavenly Father for her family and also for elephants and monkeys. Recently, we took her to the theater for the first time (yeah, not that great at sitting through a movie yet…) to see Tangled. She called it the “Flying Barbie” movie. She loves animals and her favorite cartoon is “Diego” (he rescues animals), but she is starting to really be interested in princesses, Barbies, and fairies. A girl for sure!

As 2010 comes to a close, the following verse comes to mind:

Joy to the world, the Lord is come!

Let earth receive her King;

Let every heart prepare Him room…

This Christmas season, we make a renewed effort to prepare room in our hearts for the Savior. He was born for us. He died for us. He atoned for our sins. He is our perfect example. And, most importantly, He loves us infinitely and desires to welcome us into His presence again. And as we invite Him into our hearts, He will bring us peace, love, and joy this season and in the coming year.

Merry Christmas with love,

The Taylor Family

Too Many Kids in this Tub

There's too many kids in this tub
There's too many elbows to scrub
I just washed a behind that I'm sure wasn't mine
There's too many kids in this tub.

-Shel Silverstein

We had the Taylor Family Party last week and it was...fun...to say the least! But the best part was when my sister-in-law, Jen, decided to see how many kids she could fit in the tub...I mean, scratch that...,kitchen SINK!! That's right. She said her max was 3, I think, but this time, she got 4 in there. I told her she's a REALLY good mom because I could never allow my kids to make that kind of a mess. She replied with: "We're at Grandma's house!" Sadly, Claire truly does make the biggest messes at Grandma Taylor's house...but she allows it, let's be honest :)

The Lights.

This year, Jordan decided it wasn't too cold to see the lights on Temple Square. Generally we just do Thanksgiving Point to stay in the warm car :) It was super fun to go with The Fotheringhams and Heather and Jay!




This is a picture of me, Jordan, Claire, and the blanket (aka Anya)

Yep, with Claire's customary "Chucky" smile...

Shaunie and I doing what we do best--talk :)


Brett, Jeff, Trina & Xander, Tiara, Josh, and Shaunie

Trina & Xander. What a CUTIE!!


Heather & Jay with their kids, Quinn and Lauren

All Claire and Lauren wanted to do was play in every fountain they came across. Literally.

Shaunie & her daughter, Tiara. They are just cuties.

Thanks for a fun time!!

To the Mall to See Santa--Not That That Happened

So on Friday we went to the Southtown Mall to see Santa. Well, when we got there, it was just waaaaay too crowded, and we figured it would be really anticlimactic when Claire freaked out on Santa's lap after waiting in line for an hour. SO, we just rode the train instead! I'm sure she liked that much more anyway, considering she played on the train for a while afterward too.

And, little did we know, at 3pm on Fridays at the mall (during December), all of these restaurants come in to dish out free samples. That was our lunch :) And THEN, this lady that works for the mall came by and gave us a $20 GC to Chilli's just for shopping there! Too bad for her, we only spent a total of $9.45 at the mall that day.

Then onto Forever21 because I had like $7 left of a GC there. I'm never shopping for jewelry anywhere else...it's all the same cheapness as far as quality, but way less pricey at Forever21. Claire thoroughly enjoyed shopping for jewelry as you can see:

Jordan did tell me that she spent a lot of time putting jewelry on him, actually. He said he had a ring on each of his fingers at one point, and a lot of bracelets. I'm sure you looked SOOOOO cute honey :)

Very fun day!

Recent Claireisms

Claire is just too funny.

She is just getting SO BIG!! I can't believe how much she's grown and how much she says. It's so fun.

Here are some things she's doing and/or saying right now:

She "sings" (in quotes, bc she's TOTALLY off-key/tone deaf at this point) the following songs: Twinkle twinkle, Reverently, Quietly, and Lullaby and Goodnight. It's so funny bc sometimes she'll just break out into song.

Sometimes says "The End" at the end of a prayer. The other night she also said, "How 'bout prayers?" to me when we were finishing up the "bedtime routine."

She can say a whole prayer by herself. I'll start the prayer out and she'll repeat everything I say, and then I'll say "Thank thee for....what else?" and then Claire will say "Mama!" "Dada!" "Grandma," "Jesus!" and on and on.... it's so cute. She gets really into it.

I love it when she says "I love you...soooo much!" Or just a simple, "I love you, Mama." It's the sweetest thing-melts my heart!

Claire, when she wants things, will say "I neeeeeeeed it!" or "Mines!!!!!" I hate that word. I thinks he puts the 's' on the end because we'll say, "No, Claire, it's Mommy's."

Speaking of that. Let's keep it real here. She throws tantrums ALL THE TIME. I swear she's like a mental patient. Some days she throws tantrums 20 times, no joke. Other days, not as many, but she is still a terrible 2. :) AH!!!! I now know why parents get gray hairs so easily... but I guess they say it's worse when they're teenagers. Oh boy.

Recently, when told why Daddy works (to make money), and asked what do we spend money on, she said "COSTCO!" It was hilarious. She has also, when asked where we get ice cream, said Costco. Funny that we don't get ice cream there that often. She needs to say "Polish Dogs" next time lol.

Um, she STILL eats Crayons. STILL. Gross. I find Crayon pieces in her diaper too--digested. Yeah, I know you wanted to know that... It's like multicolored confetti in there.

Claire likes telling me "hold 2 babies" when I am already holding Anya and she wants to be picked up too. I said it like one time, and it's stuck in her mind!

Check this out...when we went to Park City for the weekend because Jordan's brother, Ben, came into town:

Claire's most recent swearing episode derives from her attempt to say: "water park." It sounds like "What the......" :) Jordan really likes to ask her to say "water park."

We usually try to teach the correct terms for the male and female anatomy to Claire (except we still say "front bum" to her for the "V" word, lol...just because her cousin, Sydney said it like that and we think it's hilarious) Anyway, Jordan recently taught her the name for the male anatomy. She calls it a "peanut" now. Jordan recently corrected her, and she started singing "not a peanut, not a peanut, not a peanut..."

Claire now nods her head instead of saying 'yes.' Mainly when she's busy watching TV. What a little couch potato!

Claire now actually says "yes" sometimes instead of just repeating what you just asked her! It's so exciting! Sometimes people will say, "um, she just repeated that, does that mean she wants it?" I say, "You'll KNOW IT if she doesn't want it...she has never had a problem with saying 'no' :)"

Claire now enjoys Barbies (Bobbies). She likes to put shoes on them mainly. That's tough since finding an actual pair is near impossible. Grandma Taylor has a few Barbies and she really likes to play with them, and now thinks that any pretty animated character, drawing of a princess, or pretty doll is a Barbie.

Which is why, when we went to see "Tangled," Claire called it the "Flying Barbie" movie.

Claire also loves going "potty." She totally doesn't get the concept of waiting to go in the potty instead of her diaper, but the other day she went NUMERO 2 in the potty. I was very proud :) Jordan and I then got her some "potty treats" for that occasion. She now asks for potty treats all the time. We say, "first you have to go poop in the potty, and you can have potty treats." She responds with "Want potty treats!" She doesn't get it.

Claire likes to play with markers. Don't worry, she only plays with the SUPER WASHABLE...especially since she'll be sitting in her high chair...the paper won't last long...pretty soon that's dumped onto the floor....she still has markers...still coloring...still coloring...and then it's bath time!

That is a mischievous grin if I ever saw one. Btw. looks JUST LIKE Kaylin to me in this pic--Bec?

Never happier than when she has marker all over her body. Check out her shirt though--totally clean! Go figure.

So here's a 3 minute video of her latest antics:

Anya: The 2-Monther...

OK! Here are the stats:

Weight: 11.6 lbs., 73rd percentile
Length: 23 inches, 76th percentile
Head: 15.4 inches, 59th percentile

I don't know why I neeeed to write down this stuff, but maybe Anya will want to know one day? Well she's definitely bigger than Claire!

Check out those cheeks!

It's been fun to see her smile now and react to a few things! She also holds her head up like a champ! Only sad thing right now is that she has a cold :( I have to suck our her nose with the bulb every time she feeds. She of course hates it.

But she is our little angel! We just love our little Anya. But I have to confess. I guess I've done the super-girly-always-wears-a-bow-and-outfit thing with Claire. I mean, I'm still doing that! But with Anya--yeah, she mostly wears jammies to church (seriously, dresses are so annoying at this age anyway!) and everywhere else . She's just too young for me to care--sad! Second child syndrome in every way! I'll do her hair and put her in outfits soon...hair is pretty thick already, so I should be able to fix it soon!

What's Happening with...the Adults

Yes, Jordan and I are "the adults." Sometimes, at least. But since I seem to mainly post about my kids (Claire...Anya is still too little to make too many waves...it's not that she's the second...ah! I'm one of those mom's!!!) thought I'd post about what Jordan and I are doing!


First, Jordan. BIG NEWS. FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY, after waiting 2+ years, he is, as of this morning, on DAY SHIFT!! Yay! Goodbye to graves! I'm so excited that on his days off, I'll see him all day, instead of him sleeping all day to "keep his schedule." We're going to have so much fun, and hopefully Jordan won't get sick as much with a good consistent sleep schedule :)


Second, Jordan is also gearing up to begin school FULL-TIME next year. Yep. He is going to study Computer Engineering at the U. Right now, he's studying for some clep tests to be able to test out of some classes, like Calculus. Yuck. I'm glad I'm not the one in school!


Jordan has also gained 5 lbs. (since he went to the doctor last). Momentous. :)


Now onto me. No BIG NEWS like for Jordan, but I'll try to think of something interesting... Let's see. I am adjusting to having 2 KIDS. It is TOUGH! But at least now that Jordan's on days, I won't have to put Claire to bed with Anya in-my-arms-or-she'll-scream-the-whole-time and I can do the necessary bedtime "snuggles."


My house has been cleaner than EVER. Seriously. But with the two kids, you have to stay on top of things even more, and I think I've done that to the extreme in order to keep my sanity. SOMETHING has to be in order, right?


My goal has been to lose the baby weight MUCH faster this time. Last time It took me like 10 months to get it all off. So far, I've lost 31 lbs. 19 to go. Yes, I know that means I gained 50 LBS. Pathetic!! Oh well!! Losing it has been good, until Thanksgiving rolled around. I think I'm going to take a hiatis until January...let's be honest...who wants to diet during the holidays? Not I, said the lover-of-food. But I'm totally motivated for a January restart by the fact that I have nothing to wear.


Still teaching Gospel Doctrine. Love it. I hope I keep this calling for even more years. It's the best. One day I'll start "Soap Box Sunday" again. Too many demands!


Just finished Mockingjay (it took me SO LONG it was 2 weeks overdue at the library) and WHAT A DISSAPPOINTMENT. The whole book I was either bored or a little grossed out or depressed about the gory details. Happy about who Katniss ends up with at the end, but it was like one page long.... pathetic. If/when they do the movie, they really need to manipulate this last book a little--spend a little more time on the romance, a little less on the gory details of the war, and definitely less time on Katniss' pathetic and weak thoughts. OK, I could go on forever. It sucked.


OK, well that's what's going on! Now the next 5 posts will be about the kids again :)

Finally. Pictures of Anya.

Jordan finally had a minute to take some pictures of Anya--and we waited this long because she had/has dermititis--I guess it goes beyond baby acne? Anyway, but (thank you Chanda!)Hydrocortizone cream is a lifesaver, and she's cleared up a lot... not that there weren't plenty of blemishes I had to edit out of each and every one of these pictures...ahhh...but they're done!




Love her little smile!!

Pretty sure her eyes will stay blue...

At this point, Anya had had enough. In went the binkie... (tacky? I don't know, but pretty cute anyway)





And promptly fell asleep...









Love her little squishy face and the rolls on her back!! She definitely is a little chunkier than Claire was!

And then we TRIED to take pictures of Anya with Claire...yeah, didn't work work out too well, so this is ALL we got, and they're not even very good, oh well! I think she went to her room for throwing a tantrum after this, haha.

Well, nothing fancy or "professional," but it was fun (and free :) to snap our new little angel... just on the bed works great!

Happy Halloweeeeeen!!!

This Halloween was pretty fun, because now, Claire knows the meaning of C-A-N-D-Y. And she dressed up like a COW, and definitely knows the meaning of that!

But first, I must showcase Jordan's exceptional pumpkin-carving skills :)



And, as I said, Claire was a cow. Her cousin, Lauren was a cow last year, so we just carried on the tradition (well, tradition of FREE costume too!). I also figured it would be maybe the only year that my daughter would be excited about dressing as a cow. Next year I bet it will be a fairy or a princess or something frilly like that.

Here she is getting her "makeup" on! Auntie Katie (aka, "Sexy Vampire") was the artist :)

And here she is, all ready to go!!



And here we are trick or treating together! (Let's be honest, it was cold and rainy. We went to a handful of houses...)



Then, we went back to Grandma and Grandpa Taylor's house and Claire did what she does best: maul "baby sister."



By the way, isn't she cute? (yeah, she survived the mauling)



Poor Anya... she was really gassy that night...so Grandma Taylor had me make a pact with her to cut out soda and chocolate (my pediatrician said chocolate is a culprit? Who knows...) out of my diet, and she would do the same. The soda is really hard for her and the chocolate (surprise surprise) is really hard for ME!! Since that day, 3 days ago, I have lost 2 more pounds. LOL.

Started my diet again (took a short hiatis for Halloween)...need to fit back into my wardrobe or I'll be in PJ's all winter long! AH!

Anyway, was a fun Halloween!!

Once there was a Snowman!

It snowed the other morning. And like a good Daddy Jordan is, he took Claire out, bundled up in snow gear (thanks Annie!) and played in the powdery white. Claire thoroughly enjoyed herself of course :) But so did Daddy :) He made a GIANT snowman, and when I remarked how big it was, he said "You know it would've been bigger if I had more snow..." What a freak. All of the snow in our yard, front, back, and side, was used though!

And, yes, once there WAS a snowman, because by midday, it was gone!

Life With TWO

Here goes...

* I don't have enough hands, arms, and laps.
* Claire is driving me INSANE. Good thing she's so freaking cute, or I would have thrown her out the window a few weeks ago.
* No more naps for Mommy, less sleep than ever (who told Claire SHE is now supposed to wake up in the middle of the night? And at the SAME EXACT TIME as Anya, yeah...)
*In order to not become entirely insane, I just can't STOP for a second. It's go go go or my whole home will fall apart...
*Remember in college when you and your roommates' menstrual cycles fell into sync? That's how Anya and Claire's crying schedules are. Who do you run to first??
*I used to be late to things. Now, I'm EXCEPTIONALLY, EXCEEDINGLY, UNDOUBTEDLY late to things.
* How 'bout Claire deciding to NOT NAP anymore??? Yeah, I just lock her in her room for an hour while she doesn't go to sleep like she's supposed to and sits there playing, crying, whining, etc. HELP! (Although that night, she's a little angel to get to bed because she's so tired.)
* Who knew a toddler could be so dangerous around the house?
* Who knew a toddler, unattended, could naively threaten a baby's mortality 50 times a day? ("I love you, baby sister!" *smother,* *suffocate,* *squish*)
* This mom used to pride herself in the fact that she didn't unnecessarily raise her voice at her toddler very often. Ha ha haaaaaaaa..... yeah, that's a pathetic laugh. NOW, a good day is when I only yell at Claire a handful of times. It's really sad. (today, I only yelled at her ONCE...an accomplishment to be sure!!)
* I am on the verge of a breakdown almost every day.
* I can't even imagine having any kind of "job" with two kids at home.
* "Getting stuff done" is really based on the luck of the draw... I can't plan to do things and expect that 100% of the time, I will be able to accomplish the task. There are now too many unexpected variables, like kids waking up, not going to sleep, or my tiredness getting the best of me.
* Going out by myself with two kids. HA. Not my cup of tea, that's for sure. The amount of stops I can make is cut in half--like before, with Claire I could make two. Now, just one :) jk. Maybe a couple more, but really depends on my energy level. I can't even FATHOM having these two kids and being pregnant. Deadbeat mommy for sure!
* I now know why the verb "juggle" is used when talking about taking care of kids.

I should probably say a few "GOOD" things about it though:

* Two little cuties to cuddle instead of one.
* Seeing Claire with Anya is so fun. She is such a good big sister (when she's not trying to kill her on accident)
* I just love my kids, what can I say??

OK, so maybe I can't think of many amazing, easy, fun things about having two kids yet...or today... when things were so hard. Just keeping it real though. Any ADVICE would be entirely welcome!!

Pumpkin Pickin' Time

A week ago (or so) we went to the pumpkin patch with Jordan's family. It was so fun! My first time! There were a lot more people there than in these pictures, but what can I say? We are obsessed parents that only take pictures of Claire (and Anya will be getting more pictures soon).