Vacation Surprises

I felt this deserved a post of its own... Mat and I had a long, long layover in Salt Lake on our way back from Thanksgiving so on a whim we got to see his parents and sister! We had lots of fun seeing them and it got us really excited to see them at Christmas!

Then, after flight delays, etc, when we got in at three in the morning, to my surprise my husband had painted our downstairs without me knowing. It is absolutely beautiful and was an amazing surprise. Love you Mat!

Thanksgiving

Mat and I were lucky enough to be with family for Thanksgiving this year. I flew out a week ahead of Mat to spend time with my family, then he flew out right before Thanksgiving. It was a blast for all of us. Here are a few of the adventures we had:

Cam and I went swimming with his cousins. Camden could not stop laughing at the other kids splashing... needless to say bathtime is now a sopping adventure for both Mat and I.

I had a girl's night with my sisters, mom, and my nieces, which was a blast. It is tradition for

girl's nights to involve cheesecake pudding so we watched a movie and dipped graham crackers,

bananas and strawberries in it...the pudding, not the movie, that is.

Some of my nephews participated in a turkey trot, where a child from every grade is put together onto a team and then they run about 400 meters and are ranked by speed. the team with the lowest combined score wins. My sister has four boys who they let all be on the same team and they and their two teammates won! It was pretty cool to watch. Normally, they let each winner take home a gift certificate for a 20 lb. turkey, so my sister, who ended up with 4 of them, donated them to different causes. It was a cool experience. Here they are:

And here's an interesting picture. This is a horrible pic of me, but I thought it was interesting. Upon taking this, my mother said, "Hey cool! My oldest with her youngest, and my youngest with her oldest!" (Ok, maybe not as cool as I thought it was at the time. But indulge me. If not,

enjoy a horrible cross-eyed picture of me.)

My bro-in-law took us all to a WSU volleyball game and we had a blast there. More to come in a later post about that.

Thanksgiving day was fun, involving lots of food, family, fun, and babies. We had, throughout the day, 4 children ages one and under.

Riley, my cousin's child, got a little hyped up on the excitement and accidently puked on the back of Camden's head. Ooops! Cam hardly noticed.

We had lots of fun cousin time. My mom took some good pictures of her youngest three grandchildren together.

We also went Black Friday shopping (wow, that was crazy... I'm not sure I'll ever do that again),

watched tons of football, the men played basketball, the women made pies, we ate, and ate, and ate until we couldn't fit in our pants, and had to wear sweats. :) Just kidding, Mat.

Happy belated Thanksgiving to all!

Thankful

As Thanksgiving has come and gone, I find myself taking a moment to think of the things that I am thankful for (doesn't everyone do this a little?). Here are a few of the things that I have been grateful for recently.

My loving husband, who is the most amazing person I've ever met; who gets up in the night with our little son if ever he wakes; who treats me like a princess even when I don't deserve it; who works hard every day, every hour, to be the best person he can; who loves and serves everyone around him unconditionally; and who makes me laugh constantly.

My little son, who is perfect in every way, and really is the best baby ever. He is my life, and my pride and joy.

My family, who put up with my shenanigans and is so patient with me. They make me laugh and smile and I love being with them, and love them each dearly.

My In-laws, who are some of the funnest, funniest, most genuine people you'll ever meet. I absolutely love every one of them.

My religion, that is the guiding light in my life, and helps me to be a better person every day. It is my reason for being who I am.

The United States of America. I really do take for granted all that it has to offer--all the freedoms that I have because of the inspiration the founding fathers had. I'm so grateful to be free to think as I wish, and be what I want to be, to worship as I wish.

Good food. Not only do I appreciate having food to eat every day, but I am grateful to have healthy food (and some not so healthy food, like the mint cookies I made yesterday...so... darn...good...)

Funny people. I love a good laugh here and there... ok, pretty much any time.

Cribs, baby monitors, baby bjorns, keltis, exersaucers, baby swings, bouncers, bumbos, high chairs, etc, etc. it makes it so much easier to have a child... and to get a two minute break... :)

Skype.

Online shopping. (So... incredibly...easy...wait, maybe not such a good thing.)

Enchiladas... really, any Mexican food.

My sewing machine.

Books.

The babysitters at the YMCA who tend Camden for an hour while I work out.

The list goes on...

What are you thankful for this year?

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween all! Ours was very uneventful, but I'm taking advantage of that while I can before Camden really knows what Halloween is. I'm almost positive his understanding of Halloween so far is "a holiday where Mom dresses me up uncomfortably any way she pleasesto show off to others." Let's be honest, he's mostly right.

This was our backup costume...

But fortunately Aunt Tiffy provided this years costume for Cam. (Drum roll please...)

We thought it fitting since he's a little veggie baby anyways. :) Our ward had a Halloween party a few days before which was a lot of fun. Cam and I decorated cookies together,

His dad did tricks with him,

And we just played and enjoyed he overall splendor that is Halloween.

Then, on Halloween, Mat and I heard through the grapevine (thank you Online Coupon Ladies) that Chipotle, one of Mat's FAVORITE restaurants, was giving out 2$ burritos to all those who came in dressed like anything that had to do with a farm. We couldn't pass it up. Mat dressed as a farmer, I dressed as a cow, and Camden was, again, a peapod. What's more farm than a farmer, cow and crop, right?

It is a good day in the Taylor home when Dad gets a burrito and Mom finds a bargain.

Just as a side note, my birthday was great. My loving husband and little boy got me some beautiful flowers. Thank you to all who helped me celebrate it. :)

Saturday Night Date Night, plus one

Despite having a permanent tag-a-long, Mat and I have been trying to still go on dates together. We usually do something that we think is great, but I'm sure the rest of the world would consider boring. Actually I know the rest of the world is less enthusiastic because Mat usually tells his classmates and, bless their hearts, they usually give a "Oh, that's nice." None-the-less, we had a blast this last weekend carving pumpkins and watching a movie. Here's some of the pumpkin carving:

Then we let Cam in on the action:

We thought it would be fun to show him this when he's 16 and see if he could get in a pumpkin then. Just a thought.

5 Months and Counting

I was looking back through my pictures and got a little nostalgic at how much Camden has grown in his short little life. (I apologize that Camden has eaten my blog... actually no I don't. He's my life. Get used to it.)

Birth

1 month

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

Its fun to see them grow so fast!

On your Mark, Get Set... Go!

Last weekend we went to Keeneland, and for those of you who don't "habla Kentuckian", its one of the top three biggest/most famous horse-race tracks in the country. I must admit, i'm not a horse person per-say, but these horses were truly elite animals. They were absolutely beautiful. We went on raceday to watch them practice in the morning.

Camden was so confused and interested. He couldn't quite figure out what these beasts were doing...

and why his daddy was around (for the first time in a while...)

He sure loves his daddy!

It was great to spend some time as a family.

This guy walked in with us and talked our ear off about horse racing. I felt like he was speaking a different language. Definitely going to have to learn about horses before trying to convince someone were from here. (And work on the accent! Ha ha... some lady said to me yesterday, "Well, honey, you are CLEARLY not from 'round here." She, CLEARLY, was.

A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words, Part Two

Just when we thought it couldn't get worse, exhibit B (2 days later, I might add):

The picture doesn't do it justice. It was chunky. Outside of his diaper. Did I mention that the last three times I have taken him to the YMCA he's had a blow-out? Serious bowel issues...

A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words

Mat and I had an interesting experience today. I took a picture of it:

Take a closer look:

Even closer:

That's right, ladies and gents. That's poo. A big pile of baby poo. While hanging out in the exersaucer, Camden pooed the world's most memorable poo--so big, that it went through the diaper and puddled onto the floor of the exersaucer. I have to honestly admit, I burst out laughing when I saw it. I had no other reaction than to break out in fits. There he was, giggling and laughing, literally playing in his own poo. Mat didn't share my sentiments. He obviously doesn't change enough diapers.

First Adventures in Lexington

Since we've been here, we've tried to take the time to discover lexington a little. Here's a little of what we've done:

Went swimming with some friends (Cam's first time swimming... he wasn't too sure about it...)

We discovered this weird bird sculpture (I guess its supposed to be artistic?) in a nearby Arboretum that is awesome! (the arboretum, not the sculpture)

We've located 99.9% of the Mexican restaurants, per Mat's request... and taste-tested a few.

We've found some good bocci fields...

...guess who lost?

I found a bunch of fun places to walk to, from and through.

And our most recent adventure: Boyd's Orchard!

We taught Cam how to pick apples...

Ooops! There he is.

We showed him what pumpkins look like...

...And what horses look like.

He loved the pumpkins the most!

We have really enjoyed discovering Lexington -- We love it here!