Space Jam

Brookers cut her very first tooth yesterday!  On the bottom and in the front :) She wasn't sleeping very well for a few nights but she is back to her happy calm beautiful self.  



We had a Superbowl party (yay, Ravens!!) balloons, food, streamers, food, friends, family, and lots of food.  Christian brought a friend and we got to meet her for the first time.  She made Oreo cupcakes and "he" made jalapeno poppers... ;) I tried this new brownie recipe and they were hit!  

Sooooo yummy!!

The kids are having so much fun opening their countdown to Valentine's Day stuff.  Harley keeps saying, "Ohhh Mom, I love Mama K" .  After they "check their mailbox" they get to choose where they want to hang up the heart.  Our kitchen is getting heart attacked with lots of love from up North.

This guys gets pretty excited to find out what each day's V-day surprise holds.

 And we totally got spoiled with family visits from Kaylyn, Brett, and Brynlee and then Kels and Tanner (Miss Jo's favorite guy to snuggle with) and then the Farnsworth clan coming down President's Day weekend. 

Dear Kelsey... 110% approval from the CCTG (Cedar City Taylor Gang lol) We all really like him and you seem very happy!  

 

 

No worries... but we had six earthquakes the past two days!  They were progressively getting worse (no one could feel the first three) and the most recent one (last night) was 4.1 on the Richter scale.  We haven't felt one today, so far, but we were gently reminded to get Renter's Insurance ASAP.  

 Cade has been working out real hard every day and he is loving it.  He is getting stronger, more flexible, and slowly getting rid of the Taylor pooch.  We found this motivational Youtube clip called, "How Bad Do You Want It? (Success)" It is only about five minutes in length and he watches it every day.  I made him a page full of Self Affirmations and he reads those out loud each day... his dedication and desire for success is getting stronger as time progresses.  I am grateful for the opportunities he has, the experiences and trials he is blessed with, and for the man he is learning to become.  Being able to go to school, pursue all our dreams, and having direction and goals in our lives has been a tremendous blessing to our family.  We want to be in a position where we can improve the lives of others and inspire greatness; change the world; inspire.  Chrish showed us this amazingly cute and inspirational pep talk (which I love to watch often, myself) 

   

   "What will your Space Jam be?" What is your passion...  
        YOU can change the world... be who want to be... do what you want to do...

"Where there's a will, there's a way" and with that, and Heavenly Father, and your family... what else could you possibly need.

My Pseudobulbar Affect ... minus the stroke.

I think I might have a problem... and it's progressively getting worse.

One time at an elderly care facility..... um, never mind.  When my cousin's dog died she..... scratch that.  A couple months ago, my bobble-head-proportioned son was running way too fast down a hill and.....    

Uhhh.... it seems I am having a difficult time picking a story depicting my problem without sounding like a complete ass, so I'll just put it out there - I laugh at completely inappropriate times.

And it's not that small involuntary grin you can hide with a turn of the head or a couple "HA HA"s that could easily be disguised as a bad cough attack.  I full on laugh to where I need to excuse myself from the room.  It use to be an occasional thing but lately I have noticed it happens more frequently.  What could this be?  Some kind of social anxiety?  I don't know what, but it has got to stop; at least the inopportune laughter that people around me won't appreciate.  I don't mind the random laughter bursts, like when I was grocery shopping last weekend and walked past a giant box of cereal called Crunchy Nut hahahahahaha I don't even know.  Yes I was alone and Yes I was laughing uncontrollably.

The other day my good friend told me, "Chels, if I fell down these escalator stairs right now and broke my legs you are the type of friend that would run to help me up after you finished laughing your eye balls out."  Pshh, whatever.

Taylor Gang 4 Lyfff, YO!

Straight up, dawg.

Last Fall we were getting ready to take family pictures with Cade's parents and their fam. Instead of using a traditional color theme or the humdrum white tees and jeans, Kelsey thought of this cute idea to wear matching black hoodies with Taylor Gang printed across the front - made total sense at the time being that our last names are all Taylor and we are pretty much a gang... well, minus the organized crime.  So, doing an awesome job as usual, Dave whipped us all up these comfy matching sweatshirts.  Our fam got one for Cade, one for me, and the kids each got their own zip ups.  I loved we all had matching jackets that look pretty cool and are way soft inside :)

  So for the following four or five months, we wore them everywhere, especially the kiddos.  Store park church errands family parties... if it was chilly and the hoodies were clean, they were usually the first pick for a coat.

Sometime late Winter/early Spring, I spent a day at the mall and afterwards stopped by Mom's to visit Chrish and Kyla.  I was wearing my hoodie and as soon as he saw it, he stared for a few seconds and asked, "Did you seriously wear that around Provo all day?"  Bewildered, I replied, "Ya, so what?  Jo was with me wearing hers too."  He laughed and told me to go home and google the phrase on my 2 year old's jacket...

Taylor Gang:  A Lifestyle that contains getting high off Marijuana, Drunk off Alcohol, and Getting Money.  T.G.O.D. (Taylor Gang Or Die!!!!!)

Epic, fail.

Hahahaha this suddenly explained all the strange looks we ever got when our kids were rockin their hoodies.  Here I thought they were so neat.  I never thought twice when I threw them over Jo and Hagen's church clothes or when they went to the sitter's.  Not gonna lie though, we all still wear them all the time.  But... that awkward moment when your Bishop surprisingly stops by to see how you're doing and he holds his hand out to shake but you've got both your arms wrapped around the graphics "Taylor Gang" on the front of your hoodie....  

But in reality, we are Taylor Gang - we're the Taylor Family Gang where we got each others back.  I absolutely love being a Taylor and I couldn't have married into a better family!

 And all good looking too! ;)

 I am so blessed to have such amazing in-laws, especially Grandma and Grandpa Taylor (rest in peace, Grandpa!)

The kids love and look forward to their weekly Papa and Mama K dates! (this means so much to Cade and I)

Auntie Kels is the best aunt and little sis - gosh, she is going to be such an amazing mother and wife someday!

Uncle E is a lil bodyguard and is so stoked to be an Uncle - at age 7 he proudly said, "You can now call me 'Uncle E'!" :)

T.G.O.D. - and proud of it! ;)   

    

      

Cell Phone Catastrophes

If I had a dollar for every time I jacked up my cell phone, I would be filthy rich.  ... well, more like nine or ten bucks, but come on - that is definitely an excessive amount of jacked up phones during a six year period.

My glorious morning began with walking into Hagen's room to find he had ripped off his diaper and threw it against the wall.  Being the third consecutive morning of this happening, I wasn't exactly thrilled... but his tiny four tooth smile asking for "Brrreafast?!" made it difficult to be upset!  (Although, he may or may not be in bed right now with shipping tape wrapped around his diaper straps.)  So, after dress clothes hair shoes prayer breakfast ...it was on the way to Sheryl's house.   Long story short, I left my darn phone on the hood of my car and it blew off somewhere along State Street right into early morning traffic.  Tragic, I know.  But thank you Asurion - I'll be back on the grid by noon tomorrow!

So today's phone palooza got me thinkin about all the phones I've gone through.  I've lost a couple, sat on one, slipped one out of my frozen hands on the ski lift, drowned a few in the bubble bath, one fell out of the shopping cart (and I guess a whole whooping three feet to the ground was too much for that bad boy to handle), I've even dropped one in a parking lot and of all the hundred square feet of asphalt it could have landed on - it decided to bounce into the sewer drain.  I think it's time to take better care of my electronic devices.

My replacement is probably having nightmares in its' little white box in the back of some UPS truck right about now ;) 

What are some of your cell phone catastrophes?  If any!  Cade still has his phone we originally bought when we signed up with T-Mobile!  And I don't know how he does it.  You go Babe!! ;)

Master Cleanse

Okay.  So when I'm not pregnant, I decided I have Obesophobia which is the fear of gaining weight.  Yes, self diagnosed, but still.  I didn't gain unhealthy weight during my pregnancies, but I figured I would cut myself some slack when I stepped on the scale because I had a baby cookin.  For the past three years, I spent 28 months of it prego so I often found myself excusing the "occasional" fast food run and major chocolate binges with, "Eh, I'm pregnant".  Luckily, I can go back to eating whatever, whenever because we're expecting our fourth child in March 2013!! Yayy! 

...gotchyaaa!  Three is perfect plenty for the next four or five years.

So since I can't blame my kids anymore, food junkie girl has gotta go!  Brooklyn is barely 2 months old so luckily I haven't had too much time to get lazy with my diet.  After I received my "OB okay", I compiled a fitness plan which starts out with The Master Cleanse.  Ever heard of it?  It is a 10 day lemonade and tea detox.  I am on Day 3 right now and it has been surprisingly easier than I anticipated.  I wanted to start off this fitness plan of mine with a natural and organic detox, so I researched it quite a bit... well not really, that's a lie... but I read enough on it to where I figured I might as well try it out and see what happens.  For my experience so far, the only difficult side effect has been cheating on my food.  I love food and it loves me.  I haven't felt hunger, but I occasionally find myself zoning out when my eyes lock on the Berry Almond Chicken Salad picture plastered on Wendy's windows.  I am eating twenty of those when this crazy cleanse is up.

This is my current detox diet -

- 2 TB fresh squeezed lemons
- 2 TB Grade B maple syrup
- 1/10 tsp cayane pepper
- 10 ounces purified water

I drink at least 60 ounces of this lemonade each day and then a laxative tea 2x daily, one in the morning and one before bed.

Drastic, right?  My mom thinks so, but I feel like it depends on the intentions of using the cleanse.  Some people use it solely for the major weight lose in the short amount of time but then go straight back to their previous diets before the cleanse.  These guys are the ones that gain it all back - and then some!  Yes, the ten to twenty pounds shed in less than two weeks is an awesome benefit.  Most of it is compound fecal matter that has built up over the years, water weight, and a few pounds of fat.  Personally, I am using it to cleanse my body on the inside and prepare it for what's next to come in my fitness plan! (P90x babyyyy!)  However, the true weight loss comes when you finish the Master Cleanse.  In the long run, it actually promotes craving control!  The Master Cleanse requires much discipline in the first place and since that's what resisting cravings are all about, strengthening your self control over food is something that will carry on even when you aren't on the Master Cleanse.

Like I said... it's much easier than I thought it would be, but don't get me wrong - I still shed a tear when the kids are chowing on juicy BBQ grilled chicken, fresh steamed green beans and onions, and Uncle Gene's ambrosial garlic mashed potatoes..... uggh :_( okay, I'm done.