Merry Christmas 2011

Here is our Christmas letter and card from this year:

 Dear Family and Friends, You know, my friends all make fun of me for writing a Christmas Letter every year. They say, "That's what my 80-year old Grandma does!" Well, I'm pushing 32, so I figure I'm practically a grandma, so, I'm just going to keep on writing these... This year has been a busy one but a great one as well. Jordan is currently working full-time still at ICU Medical. He is also going to school. He has a math class. That means I'm a single parent. Good thing for foreign language taking the place of my math requirements in college! The homework is insane! But he has done really well because unlike me, he has a left brain that actually works. Jordan is enjoying what he is learning and it's great that he is on his way to doing something he is really passionate about (Computer Engineering). Jordan also loves taking pictures with his fancy camera, and we have done quite a bit of that this year--pictures of friends' families, our kids, and our extended family. He is so good at it. We make a good team because he snaps and I Photoshop. Jordan is also teaching Sunday School to the youth and has a great group of kids.

I'm just going to write about myself in the first person. I've decided to be not-so-formal this year (maybe because I really don't want to sound like a "grandma" yet?), and let's be honest--you know it's the wife doing the Christmas letter. If it were up to my husband, there wouldn't even be a card. So when it comes to writing about myself, I am always stumped. Um, I change diapers, try to keep my kids happy, do laundry and clean the house all day. Throw in some Chick-fil-a and a trip to Walmart and you have my life. But I guess I also keep my sanity with doing all the homemakerish things like crafts, sewing, and i have also been doing some graphic design work for friends. I finished my fourth year of teaching Gospel Doctrine, and keep telling the Bishop I never want to be released. So far, it's working! It really is the best calling in the world. 

OK let's talk about the crazies now. Claire will be 3 in January, and is such a cutie. She talks a blue streak and it's hilarious to hear what she comes up with. she is obsessed with "sparkly" nail polish, lip gloss, clippies for her hair, and princesses. Help. She's also starting to wanting to do everything herself. Double help. But she sure is a sweetheart. We just love all of antics and the comic relief she can provide to any situation! Claire has also proven to be extremely accident prone. She has now gotten stitches 4 times in her life, including 2 times just this year within weeks of each other. She now sports scars in: The palm of her hand, BOTH eyebrows, and the side of her head. I seriously have PTSD every time she falls or hits her head...I automatically dread seeming some kind of ER-appropriate welt. But she takes it in stride and even says she wants to "be a doctor to help fix people and kids" one day.

 Anya (a.k.a, "Baby Sister") is now 15 months and very very busy! I can't get anything done while she's awake--at least not without her sticking her hands in the toilet, unrolling the toilet paper roll, taking ornaments off the tree, or emptying bookcases. Good thing she's cute. She loves doing everything Claire does but definitely has her own personality--and a strong one! Anya says Mama, Dada, story, and Dora. Yeah, sounds like we watch a lot of a certain TV show around here. In fact, one time Anya called out both Mama and Dada after a nap...and when we didn't come, she started calling for Dora. She is just a little cutie an dis happiest when she has a bottle of chocolate milk in her mouth and when she and Claire play the "slamming doors" game (yikes!)

 Well, that concludes the news! Thank you so much for your love and friendship. We appreciate you and wish you the best this coming year. May the birth of our Savior be at the forefront of this season as we strive to learn of Him and live His teachings.

 Merry Christmas,
 Jordan, Janessa, Claire, & Anya Taylor

New Family Pics

It has been so long!!! I've been busy. But not too busy to document our life in pictures, right??? The incredible Jodi, from A Yummy Life Photography did a session with us, and the pictures are perfect!! (but if only Anya would smile!! Good thing we've gotten some nice pics of her in the past...smiling) Claire on the other hand was a total HAM :) Thanks Jodi!

Halloween 2011

So... a quick post about Halloween.  Claire was a Fairy Princess.  It took her a while to realize that, sometimes saying she was Tinkerbell, sometimes, a ballerina.  At any rate, she had a tutu and wings already, so that's what happened :)

We went to the ward party.  Claire walked in the little parade.  I had her hold hands with Marshall...her super cute friend.  It was so cute :)

Katie and Lenore

Me and the Kiddos.  Jordan was working, so....  Cute little kitty cat, Anya :)

And now for Trick-or-Treating.

And the worst-taken pictures known to man. They of course wouldn't hold still, and I wasn't very into taking pictures, so this is all we got...

My sister, Heather, and her husband Jay, kids, Lauren and Quinn came down to Trick or Treat. It was so fun!!  Lolo was the CUTEST Minnie Mouse ever!!!  And Quinn was a cow--recognize the costume from last year...when Claire was a cow?? Thing I realized later was the fact that Quinn is a boy, and cows are...well, female...so it's a little weird, right?  Bull next time, Heathe!

Afterward, we went to Grandma and Grandpa Taylor's for dinner.  Lenore made "Dinner in the Pumpkin." It was SO GOOD!!

And she made brownies with chocolate skeletons on them.  It was really cool, especially since no one in their house even likes brownies :)  Haha

Claire definitely enjoyed her Halloween candy, and also all of the fun toys.  She was wearing vampire teeth all night!!

Anya is walking like crazy!!  Yep I suck at trying to take pictures of the kids haha

Are you Freaking KIDDING ME??

It was 11:30 p.m.

I was downstairs.

Doing what I always do at night...clean up all the crap we got out during the day.

When I hear a loud thud.

I knew what it was.  

This has happened before (click here to see how it happened before!)

So I know that sound well.

Then there is the scream.

I race up the stairs to find Claire on the floor next to the bed.

I do a quick scan of her head (sadly, I always immediately perform this step...too often I find blood).

And there it is...

Her right eyebrow split wide open.

Just a few months ago, she split her left one open (click here to see how her left one split open!)

Called Jordan.

Called my father-in-law. (to sit at the house while Anya slept.)

Went to the ER.

AGAIN.

(Except this time, our insurance is worse, so it cost $50 more...)

*LOOOOOONNNNNGGGG SIGH*

Here is is, pre-stitches.  YIKES!!!  (Like the wad of gum in her cheek?  We were running out of ideas on keeping ourselves entertained.  She LOVED watching us blow bubbles and especially when Jordan popped one on his face, all over his "scratchies!" (whiskers).  She just laughed and laughed).

The upside is:  Claire was an absolute angel.

The downside is:  It was so bad, a plastic surgeon had to be called.

The upside is:  Claire was really brave.

The downside is:  She had to have like 6 shots of the numbing solution in her "owie"

The upside is:  She was very numb.

The downside is:  We were there for 5 hours.

The upside is:  HOLY COW.  I'm always calling the plastic surgeon.  He was amazing!!  He did a running stitch including some dissolvable stitches inside and an amazing blind stitch on the outside. (I asked him if he'd blind stitch my quilt bindings from now on)

The downside is:  Stitches will be in for 3 weeks or more.  We have family pictures in two.  Good thing for Photoshop!!
The upside is:  Claire held so still, closing her eyes, she was acting more like she was getting a spa treatment done than getting stitches applied.
The downside is:  Claire was wearing cow PJ's that are like 10 sizes too small and her hair looked like a grease pit since she'd put lotion in it earlier.
The upside is:  Nobody cared.  (except for me lol)

The downside is:  We felt like really horrible parents throughout.  STUPID nightstand!!!

The upside is:  They didn't call in Child Protective Services to handcuff and haul us away...

The downside is:  The nurse actually ASKED if we had given her some kind of sedative, she was so calm! LOL! (might have to do with this being her 4th time getting stitches...it's old hat around here)

The upside is:  They were stitching up her eyebrow...not her eyeBALL.  This could all have been worse.

All in all, a very eventful evening.  She was a trooper, and has since had fun pretend stitching up her cousin, Lauren, and Mommy and Daddy too, of course.

Some more pictures from Jordan's phone:

With the numbing stuff on it.  She was pretty happy :)

And was excited to have a bracelet on her leg!

A little blurry.  She was moving waaay too much.  The plastic surgeon put Iodine all over that side of her face, but then removed it after he was done.  But he put some on her nose so that when she'd look in the mirror for the first time, she'd look at that and not be too shocked over the stitches (let's be honest, this girl wouldn't be...).  Thought that was cute!  He was an old man that was so amazing at his job.  It is impeccable!  The steri strips are above her eyebrow because they are holding the dissolvable and the regular stitch ends so that he wouldn't pull the skin by tying them.

The doctor had me tell her a couple of princess stories while he did the stitching.  The nurse was so funny.  She was like, "You need to publish those!"  I was like, seriously.  Dumbest "plots" known to man.  Haha! I'm no JK Rowling!  But I guess good enough for a 2 year old.  The doctor actually did tell us that he could tell that we are very good parents and that we are very very good with her.  I thought that was nice.  Much to our expecting-to-be-chastened surprise that night :)

Ooops she did it again.

But at least it was during "normal business hours" and we got to go to the Instacare instead of the ER!!

So, Jordan gets these disposable scalpels at his work.  We have a bunch around the house.  They are SO USEFUL.  Claire has never really paid attention to them, much less tried to use them.  Until last Wednesday.

I was upstairs getting Anya from her crib and I hear Claire screaming and crying.  I run to the top of the stairs and Claire is covered in blood!!  It was so sad!!!  And terrifying!!  She had gotten a hold of a disposable scalpel (it's like a super sharp exacto knife) and cut her palm...deeply with it.

Anyway, off we went to the Instacare.  She was very calm and...normal. I thought she'd be more light-headed and lethargic, to be honest.

So, the cut coagulated pretty fast, so that was good, and the nurse (we totally know him from all of our Instacare visits in the past, actually...Anya mostly) put some numbing gel on it and then we waited half an hr. to be seen.

Once we were seen, another nurse flushed the cut, and Claire did great.  She just said it felt cold, but didn't hurt.  Then, the doctor came in.  I tried to have Claire just look at me and not at the cut as they started stitching her up.  But once they started, Claire began screaming because it wasn't numb enough.  So that required a shot.  NOT fun, but she was brave and believed me when I told her that after the shot was over, it wouldn't hurt any more.

And it didn't.  At that point, I had her singing her ABC's to me and Twinkle Twinkle while the doctor began stitching.  But then I started feeling light-headed and needed to put my head between my legs.  At that point, Claire started watching them stitch her hand together!!  She was TOTALLY OK with it too!!  Hey, once it stopped hurting, she was all about watching what was going on.  The doctor was even like, "So Claire, do you want to be a doctor someday and help people?" And Claire said, "Yeah, just like you!"

Now Claire keeps saying that when she "grows big and strong" she will be a "doctor, and fix little people and baby Anya."  I hope she's not eluding to any future injuries she may cause her sister, lol!

She was so adorable for the doctor and nurse. (btw Dr. was female, nurse was male lol)  They were eating it UP!  She was so brave too, holy cow!  I love my little monkey.  This was by far the worst Mom moment for me though.  The other two ER experiences I felt were out of my hands.  This time, I was the one who had left the scalpel out (it had a sheath on it, but still!) after cutting a tag off a teddy bear for Claire... so I feel pretty responsible.  *sigh*...

Well, I guess that's just life. She's now at 2 staples in the head, 5 stitches in the head, and 5 stitches in her hand.  And she's only 2.5 yrs. old.  Crazy!

Birthday Girl

So, we celebrated Anya's First on Sunday (It was officially on Thursday). And, I of course wanted to take some pictures of her, and so we did! But we just did it in my in-laws' back yard with a random chair from my house (since she doesn't yet stand by herself) etc. etc. so nothing fancy, but I played a lot with some new Photoshop actions :)
So of course, Claire wanted in on the action. Here she is in her favorite "outfit." Yeah...
And here's the CAKE!!! It was a snickerdoodle cake with brown sugar buttercream. Yum :) It would have been so cute pink and all, but I selfishly wanted to try out this cake I found on Pinterest, of course ;)
Did you see the SIDES of the cake???? Natalie taught me a trick using a spray bottle...and she brought her roatating cake thing and taught me how to frost like a PRO!!

Cutest Family EVER!!!!

Jordan took some pictures of my sister, Heather's family this past weekend.  We were going to take them up at the cabin, but a power outage threw a wrench in our plans, so we just took them at Daybreak!  Thanks to Lindsey (check out her photography blog here) for letting me know of pretty much the ONLY place to shoot in the shade there! Turns out I LOVE this place! I'm really into industrial type settings...it's under a bridge :)



Ps. I switched a face.  Betcha can't tell!!  (I learned an easy way of doing it in a "switch Jennifer Aniston's face for Tom Cruise's" tutorial on YouTube.  Gotta love YouTube!

Is this not the CUTEST PICTURE YOU'VE EVER SEEN???????  And I totally made Heather be OK with Lauren wearing a gigantic flower in her hair.  I kept telling her "Don't worry. It'll look good in the photo.  Not in real life, but in the photo it'll look awesome."  And it does.



Such a cutie :)

OK CAN'T get over this one!!  Such a HAM!

Poor little Quinn. He was SO not feeling good!!  He came down with a fever later :(  Found out later he had an ear infection...another one.

No wait, THIS one is my favorite.  It's so hard to choose!!

Cuties.

There are more pictures, but I'm tired!!  OK family.  Let Heather know how HOT she looks! :)  And how cute the kiddos are.