Happy Birthday Jay!

Happy Birthday Jay! What better day to have a birthday than Father's day?? I am sure appreciative of the way you raised Taylor--how you taught him the importance of tithing, the importance of keeping the Sabbath day holy, and the importance of the gospel. I am grateful for the memories Taylor has of you kneeling in prayer with his mom, playing games as a family, and camping/hiking trips. Thank you for teaching Taylor these things, because I know he will teach our children these things as well. Happy Birthday!

I am the luckiest girl in the world...

Because I am married to this man...

And today is his 25th birthday!!! It's official, he is a quarter of a century old. (I really like referring to his birthday like that for some reason...!)

Oh my, where do I start with paying special tribute to the man I love the most?? Well, I should at least point out that his birthday's can only go up from the first one we spent together. This is the fourth birthday of his that we have known each other/been together. The first birthday, his 22nd, I had broken up with him two days prior. He never lets me live this one down. And to my defense, I still gave him a birthday present. :-) And this birthday...well, I will update that later.

Taylor is such a wonderful, wonderful man. I love how he just lives life to its fullest. He is never scared to try something new and just does all that he does and cares to do, to his fullest abilities. He truly has so much potential because of this ability. He is a man of many talents.

Taylor allows me to be me...I hope that makes sense...because it is something that makes our marriage even stronger. He makes me the happiest girl in the world-- he knows how to make me laugh and smile--which is something I cherish. I just love being with him, he is my best friend.
He is a teacher by nature. He teaches all who come in contact with him about the light of the gospel, the happiness we can find and have in this life, and all things that are important. This characteristic has not only blessed me, but I KNOW it will bless our children, which will bless others, and so on and so on... he is a man that will live and leave a great legacy.
He is an amazing dad. Isaac ADORES him. Something I have noticed recently, is how I will walk up our stairs with Isaac in my arms after picking him up after work, and by the second or third stair from the top, Isaac will get this grin on his face and straighten up to see his dad as soon as possible. It is the cutest thing ever. Taylor has embraced the role of being a father...he is so amazing, so patient, so loving, so genuine, just so simply wonderful.
Taylor...I love you. I can't even put what my heart feels on a daily basis when I am around you, or when I think about you, into words. You are my best friend. You bring me strength. You teach me. I picture my life with you, and am grateful for the knowledge we have that we can be together forever, because you are my eternal companion. Thank you for loving me, thank you for accepting me for me, and thank you for always being there. I LOVE YOU!! Happy Birthday babe!

So Funny!

This is Isaac after his bath...he has this foam football that he plays with in the bath tub, and for some reason, this was making him laugh so hard! It was so cute!!

John's Funeral in Utah

Our weekend started on Thursday when both Taylor and I were able to leave work early to drive down to Utah. I must insert...it started off with a call from Taylor at work, he started the conversation like this..."I locked the keys to the car in the truck, and the truck keys are locked in the house...I'm locked out." GREAT. It really wasn't a big deal, just a comical way to start off our mini trip. Luckily, we loaded up the Camry at lunch, and I put the diaper bag in the car where I have an extra key for the house. It only delayed our trip by 15 minutes or so.

However, we were booking it down to Utah. There was a visitation on Thursday night, from 6-8. See, we had a bit of a vested interest to get there right at 6, so it was pretty imperative that we get on the road no later than 4. Last week, Taylor called Elder L. Tom Perry, long story short, he called to see if he would come to the funeral. (Taylor's mom is cousin's with Elder Perry's wife). Elder and Sister Perry were not able to come to the funeral, but they wanted to come to the visitation and said they would be there close to 6. This was just something Taylor felt like he could do for the family, and it really turned out to be a tender mercy for all. We happened to be standing by the side door that Elder and Sister Perry came in through, so we ended up going through the "line" with them. I believe they said several things that brought a lot of comfort to the family, so it was really neat.

Emily had incredible composure at the visitation. Don't get me wrong, it was still hard. But in comparison, for me, Friday was much harder for me than Thursday. We stayed at the visitation for an hour or so, and then my parents, sister and I went to The Gateway for dinner. Taylor and I parked the car and as we were walking to the restaurant, we ran into his mom, Suzanne, on a DATE! It was the most random, cool thing ever! :-)

Friday morning we drove back to Bountiful for the funeral. Oh what a hard morning. The service was incredible. You know when you can't even find the strength or composure to sing the opening song that it was going to be a wet and emotional service! My dad had the great privilege of giving the "Plan of Salvation" talk and he did a remarkable job.

Following the service, the Hill AFB did a fly-by. These were pictures taken of Isaac while we were waiting for the fly-by. Papa was swinging him and he loved it. (Look how cute he looks in his first bow-tie!)


Then we proceeded to the grave site--definitely the hardest part for me.

It was a full military funeral...forgive me if I do not have all the correct terminology....they did a 21 gun salute, folded the flag and gave it to Emily and said something like "On behalf of the President of the United States we present this flag...." something....and then they also gave one to John's mom. It was just very, very, very hard. The whole morning was hard...BUT...we are EXTREMELY grateful and blessed to KNOW that we will see John again, that the sealing power that has been performed on earth, will remain sealed in heaven. This brings us great COMFORT and great HOPE. While we feel a great loss, we are comforted with the knowledge we have of the Plan of Salvation.

Following the burial, we were able to go back to the church for the family luncheon. Then, my mom wanted to get all of the cadets and their wives together, along with other close friends of John at our hotel. The purpose of doing this was to just talk about all of our fun memories of John. The turnout was unbelievable. I can't even count how many cadets were there, but a few of them have married some pretty special people to me that I knew before, so it's extra fun for me to see them! An even cooler part of this little get together, was that John's sister and brother in law came, and John's wife Emily came. I was just so touched by this--we figured they would have so much going on that they wouldn't be able to come, but they did!! So it was really neat.

All in all, the funeral was hard, and it was hard because we really care for John, Emily, and their families. But we are comforted in the knowledge we have of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

On Saturday, my parents had to fly home in the afternoon, so we grabbed a quick lunch at the Little America. Isaac was on one, because he was F-U-N-N-Y!!!! He was just patting away at the table, babbling, sticking out his tongue, making his old man face, and the list goes on!

Here's my interpretation, "Uh-huh...you aint getting that food in me!"
As we walked back to the Grand America, Taylor and my mom decided it would be funny to grab the flags and wave them as we crossed the street.
Here's my mom doing some sort of can-can...haha!!
And then we put Isaac on the grass...he wasn't too thrilled!

"Get me off of this prickly stuff!"

Lots of new posts...

so enjoy!

My NEWEST hobby!

Believe it or not...I have started planting my own flowers!!!! Taylor has said he thought he would never live to see the day that I would want to do this! :-) I don't know what it was, but all of a sudden I wanted to start. So, this is my flower box on our balcony...sorry, it was dark, so it's not very bright.
Here's a view from the front.
And here is another pot of flowers I bought. I bought this one, and the cute stand, already planted. But I recently bought another pot, and planted my own flowers how I wanted. I have found that my love for decorating our home has influenced my flower arranging...I like to plan how I want to plant them and how I want them to grow, and how the colors go together, etc., etc. I love it! (I didn't take a picture of the pot I planted because I did it after these and don't want to upload any more pictures!)

Random post on Isaac

Isaac is seriously the joy of our lives!! He brings us so much happiness everyday. And it is so fun to watch him grow and learn new things...and he is definitely a character! His personality is developing and it's so fun!

Here is Isaac's "old man" face, it's so funny!

He's so close to crawling on his hands and knees instead of his army crawl! He gets up like this all the time but then doesn't quite know how to move...

But he has discovered how to open drawers....uh oh!!!
"Try to feed me now, Mom!"
"Ha ha, look whose in control now!"
Isaac has been teething like crazy lately, and one of the signs of that is refusing food/loss of appetite...and this is what he does when I try to feed him...he has been better lately, though, he has actually taken more than just a few bites!

Weekend Recap

We had a great weekend last week...we drove down to Utah for Lindsey and Josh's wedding! We were able to attend their sealing and then their reception following that. I must say, I was the worried mother because I didn't know who would watch Isaac while we were in the sealing. I knew Lindsey's younger brother and sister would be waiting, but I didn't know if they would be at the temple for that and I knew they would be watching their nephews, so needless to say, I worried. But, it all worked out--Kathryn Hart--from Colorado was there and watched him! We were very grateful for her!

Here are some ADORABLE pictures of Isaac while we were waiting for Lindsey and Josh to get dressed and come out...

Ok, I know this is a sad picture, but look, you can see his bottom two teeth! :-) I think it is funny because I am trying to "capture" the many faces of Isaac, so this definitely is one of them. I have no idea why he was crying, but it lasted for two seconds.
Because then he moved on to his newest thing: sticking his tongue out.

Dad trying to push his tongue back in...
And, the happy couple!!!! Lindsey looked GORGEOUS!

I captured Dad holding Isaac while I was off taking pictures...

I love this picture of the two of them dancing at their reception!
It was a beautiful day with the beautiful couple! We were so grateful for the opportunity to share in their special day.

Then on Saturday, we were at Taylor's house in Sandy and Isaac slept in this funny position...look at his legs crossed!
That afternoon we went to Provo to have lunch with Taylor's family to celebrate Brett's birthday. Here are all the grandkids! Isaac is the youngest and number 9!

Happy Birthday Brett!

Today is Brett's birthday! Brett is my brother-in-law....married to Taylor's one and only sister...that makes him pretty special! Well, I have had the PLEASURE of getting to know Brett more over the past few years, because he was kind enough to open his home up to Taylor and I last year before we moved to Idaho.

That act alone should tell everyone what a kind and generous person Brett is. One of the many things I like about Brett is how we can joke around and be sarcastic. Yes, the jokes may usually be about me, and I usually rebuttal with a not-so-funny joke (which, I, myself think it is funny....but no one else...) but it's something I love.

Brett is a very caring person, it is very obvious that he loves his three darling little girls and always treats Heather like a queen. He has been a wonderful role model to both Taylor and I--we really were sponges to their parenting while we lived with them. Brett and Heather are a wonderful example of how a marriage should work: communication, love, teamwork, parenting, support, compliments, etc. Both Brett and Heather have influenced Taylor and I for good. So, happy birthday Brett! We sure love you!

(PS, and yes, I am on the other computer so I don't have any other pictures to upload....sorry...)