Valentine's Day and more...

When I woke up on Valentine's Day, I walked into the living room, and the armoire doors were closed. We normally keep them open because the TV is in there. So, I was thinking, "Why the heck did Jared close these doors?" I opened it up, and there was a big note that said Happy Valentine's Day and a cute little bag full of Fudgey Nut stuff- a double chocolate brownie, white chocolate covered pretzels, snack mix, and two bags of Fudgey-O's (my favorite!). Yum! It was a very nice surprise!



Later that day, my mom brought us candy and brought Taylor some toys. Taylor thoroughly enjoyed all of her presents- as you can tell from the video. She has chocolate all over her mouth, and she couldn't stop dancing to the cow music.

Jared and I celebrated Valentine's Day the next day on Friday. We were not aware that places were taking reservations. We had planned on eating at P.F. Chang's, but when he called, they said they were booked up until Sunday! He asked what would happen if we just showed up, and they said it could be a two hour wait. Well, he got off work early on Friday and went ahead to P.F. Chang's to put our name in. They told him it would be a 30 minute wait but ended up calling him back after about 15 minutes. I wasn't there yet and had to wait for my mom to come watch Taylor. He told them it would be a while before I got there, so they ended up telling him to just come back when I got there, and they would get us seated. I got there around 5:00pm, and we were seated shortly afterwards. We got lucky with that one! The food was so awesome! We had spring rolls, won ton soup, sweet & sour chicken, and beef & broccoli. Every bit of it was good. That just might be my new favorite restaurant! I've been wanting a good Chinese restaurant to go to ever since Formosa closed down.

After dinner, we were going to see a movie, but it didn't start until 8:00pm, so we had a couple of hours to kill. We went and bought some roses for my mom- because she has been so great lately babysitting Taylor so much, and we really appreciate everything!- and Misty because she was sick, and hey, every girl deserves some flowers every now and then ;-)

We went to Monaco to watch the movie. It was our first time there. We wanted to see Jumper, and they were only having a VIP showing, so we had to buy the expensive tickets. The theater is definitely nice. The seats were leather, and they reclined and were very comfy and spacious, but honestly, I'd rather get cheaper tickets... haha.. Jared is wearing off on me! The movie was pretty good. We weren't thrilled about the ending, but we still enjoyed ourselves and had a great night.

When we got home, around 10:30pm, Taylor was still awake. She was more interested in playing with Grandma than going to sleep. My mom said, "She's had a bath and everything." I said, "Oh really? Did you eat a sucker?" and Taylor quickly responded, "YEAH!" (She likes to say yeah now, and even though I don't know if she really understands it yet, she definitely has some perfectly timed responses). So, Taylor told on Grandma. I knew she had gotten a bath because she had gotten candy all over her. Mom said she was good, though, and only gave her one sucker all night ;-)

Taylor has really developed such a cute personality, and she can often be a drama queen. On Sunday, she was really showing off, so we got a few videos so you can see what she's really like and some of the cute things that she does. *Please excuse the shakiness of the videos because I was laughing at her while I was videotaping* In the first video, she is really loud and talkative (if only we knew what she was saying!), and at the end, you can see this thing that she has started doing where she squints and blinks her eyes and has this really cheesy grin. At least I hope you can see it through all the shaking because it's hilarious! In the second video, she's showing off her bye-bye and peek-a-boo skills; and in the third one, about halfway through, she does this thing where she just opens her mouth up really wide for no reason, and then at the end, you can see her shaking her head "no no no."

Taylor has also learned to "Gimme 5!" and she has been giving out lots of kisses, so if you haven't seen her lately, you are really missing out!

North Carolina

First of all, I want to let everyone know that our house is officially on the market!! I haven't posted about my trip to North Carolina before now because we have desperately been trying to get our house in decent shape so it would be presentable enough for potential buyers to come look at it. We listed it and put up the For Sale sign on Tuesday, and we're already having our first couple come to look at it tomorrow morning! We're not going to get our hopes up or anything, but it's nice to have such a quick response! Here is the link to the listing of our house: http://www.valleymls.com/(1itkzju4jso3kfjr2lmkuv45)/propertyDetails.aspx?mls=265479&category=1

So, about my trip to North Carolina... One of my old college roommates and very best friends, Rochelle, got married in December, and she and her husband had their reception on February 9th. (She's currently going to grad school at NC State). We couldn't afford for Jared and I to both fly out to NC, and I was one of Rochelle's bridesmaids, so I knew that I wouldn't be able to keep up with Taylor the whole time, so Jared was stuck with baby duty all weekend (although it kind of turned out that my mom had baby duty all weekend... thanks, Mom!) I booked a flight out of Nashville, so Jared, Taylor, and I drove up to Nashville Thursday night and spent the night. We ate dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, and Taylor absolutely loved it! She was dancing all night to the music. Unfortunately, I don't have any good videos of her dancing. I took a cab to the airport Friday morning because I had to be there early and didn't want to have to wake the baby up so Jared could drive me. Normally, if I leave Taylor with Jared or a babysitter for a couple of hours, I'm completely fine, but because I knew I wouldn't see her for a couple of days, I pretty much started going through baby withdrawals immediately since it was my first time spending the night away from her.

As soon as I got to the Nashville airport, this thought crossed my mind- oh yeah, I have a connecting flight in Chicago. I hope they don't have any bad delays because of snow... Well, we boarded our plane on schedule. My flight was supposed to leave at 8:20am. At 8:15am, the captain comes over the intercom system and says that they have delayed the flights coming into Chicago because of snow and that our departure time was now delayed until 9:00am. Luckily I had a good book to read. Finally, 9:00am rolls around, and we start taxiing away from the gate. Then, we stop, and again, the captain comes over the intercom system and says a "distinguished visitor" was arriving at the airport so they were stopping all flights until that person had arrived. I was sitting on the left side of the plane, but to the right of us, in the far distance, I could see Air Force One. After the military helicopters that had escorted him left, we finally took off around 9:30am. My main concern at this point was that I was going to miss my connecting flight, but I was just hoping that flight would be delayed a little bit as well. Well, lucky for me, it turns out that the same plane I was on was the one that was flying from Chicago to Raleigh so that wasn't a problem.


Landing in Chicago

When I arrived in Chicago, Rochelle picked me up from the airport and very graciously brought me some lunch. We then went Trader Joe's, a grocery store, and bought several bouquets of flowers. We then went to the home of the sister who was planning Rochelle's reception, and she helped us take apart the bouquets and rearrange them for table centerpieces. That night, Rochelle's family and Joel's parents came to their apartment, and we all ate dinner together. Afterwards, Rochelle and I took the roses she had bought and made the bridesmaids' bouquets. I had never done this before, and I must say they turned out pretty well. I was definitely better at the bouquets than the centerpieces. I was so tired after all of that and was in bed by, I think, 10:30pm which would have been 9:30pm Alabama time.

Saturday morning, we got up, got dressed, and went to the Tucker House where the reception was held. It was one of those old Southern homes with big white columns, and it was just beautiful. We took some pictures beforehand and then enjoyed all the yummy food. Rochelle's sister made the cake, and it was awesome! One of Rochelle's other bridesmaids, Vian, was her freshman/sophomore year roommate from the University of Miami, and all the other bridesmaids, except Rochelle's sister, were from NC, so Vian and I stuck to each other the whole time because we had that whole "hey, I don't really know anybody here" bond going on... haha

A couple of hours after the reception and clean up, we went out to eat with Rochelle and Joel's families. We all had a really good time, and I could definitely tell that I was having baby withdrawals because I took tons of pictures of Rochelle's niece and nephew.. haha Her nephew's big eyes and facial expressions kept reminding me of Taylor.

My flight out of NC was at 10:25 the next morning. My connecting flight was in Chicago again, and as we were about to land, they told us that the temperature there was 4 degrees and the wind chill was -20 degrees!! I had about a two hour layover this time, and the airport was so cold where they would have to open the gates to board the plane. Luckily, Rochelle packed me a lunch from all the leftover reception food, so I had enough money with me to buy some hot chocolate to warm me up! I finally made it to Nashville, and I finished my book, "The Choice" by Nicholas Sparks (which is really good) just as Jared was arriving to the airport to pick me up. I was so excited to head home, but then, for some reason, Jared and I could not find each other. He says he followed the signs for Arriving flights, but when he drove through, we never saw each other. He circled around a couple of times and then ended up trying Departure flights which definitely was not the right place. I don't know what the problem was. I think there were three levels, but somehow he never made it to the baggage claim area. I stood out in the cold for like 30 minutes as he circled the airport several times... haha (it wasn't funny at the time!) I finally ended up going to the flight departure area, and we finally found each other.

My mom was watching Taylor at our house, and I was very anxious to see how Taylor would react when she saw me. When I walked in the door, she smiled and crawled to me but didn't act all that excited at first. She then proceeded to slap me in the face a couple of times as if to say, "Don't you ever leave me again!" ;-) After that, she just laid her head on my shoulder and cuddled with me for a bit. Even though I missed my family, it was great getting to see Rochelle and spend time with her and share such an important time in her life with her.

Miscellaneous

I just wanted to give some updates on Taylor and how much she is growing. She thoroughly enjoys the BIG bathtub. She loves splashing around and trying to drink the water (gross!)



Nice mohawk, huh?

Jared filmed this video when he gave her a bath in the big tub for the first time.

Taylor has started this really goofy laugh that you just can't help but start laughing at yourself when you hear it. You can hear a little bit of it at the beginning of the video below. In this video, I just finished feeding her some cereal, and now she's drinking the milk with a spoon.

I entered this picture into Live with Regis and Kelly's Beautiful Baby Search. The picture could not be a professional one, and it had to have been taken within the last month of sending in the picture. Well, the most recent pictures that we had at the time were her Christmas and 1st birthday pics which were gorgeous but could not be used because they were professional, and we didn't have any other really great ones taken within the last month before the deadline. I realized when the deadline was the day before the deadline, so that night, Jared and I did a big photoshoot and took tons of pictures. I really don't know how the people who choose the finalists in the competition can decide who the most beautiful baby is by ONE picture. Anyways, the finalists were supposed to be notified this week sometime, and we haven't heard anything yet :-( but maybe we will see her picture on TV next week if nothing else.

Taylor got her two bottom front teeth back in October, and she is now finally getting her third tooth. It's on the top, but it's not in the front, so she's going to have a little snaggletooth! She'll be 14 months in a couple of weeks, and she isn't walking yet. A couple of times last week, she would take one step and then either fall over or just sit down. Well, last night, she finally took several steps in a row about two different times. It was very cute. The first time, she just kind of stepped forward with her left foot and then would drag her right foot forward, then step with her left, and drag her right one forward... haha She also really loves to clap. If we clap about something, she will clap, or if she sees people on TV clapping, she will clap. She has started to wave bye-bye (even though it is usually backwards like she's waving to herself or saying "come here"), sometimes she uses both hands to wave, and she even tries to say bye-bye. She can also say mama (it was her first word even though she doesn't say it much anymore unless she's whiney), dada, no (she'll even wave her finger and say no, no, no, no), and uh-oh (it's more like uh, uh, uh-ohhhh). Even though she is tiny, she actually usually eats a lot. Anytime Jared and I are eating something, she has to have some of it. She can be picky at times, and we get frustrated when she keeps throwing her food on the floor. Of course, I don't know if it is necessarily that she is picky or if she just knows how to push our buttons! ;-) (She loves pushing buttons- whether it's the TV, a remote control, a toy, a phone, whatever). She loves getting into drawers and pulling everything out of them. She loves to wrestle and play, and if we are lying down on the floor, she likes to crawl on top of us, sit on our head, and bounce up and down. She mostly does it to Jared, and it is pretty hilarious! She also really loves to play peek-a-boo. She's loved it for a long time, but she's gotten good at covering and uncovering her own eyes. Sometimes she will even take our hands, make us cover her eyes, and then pull our hands off.

All in all, she is a very fun and happy baby, and we are so very blessed to be her parents!

In Memory of President Gordon B. Hinckley

On Sunday, January 27, 2008, Gordon B. Hinckley, Prophet and President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, passed away at the age of 97.

For those of you who are not members of our Church, let me explain a little. We believe that there is a prophet and there are apostles living on the Earth today. Just as there were prophets and apostles in the days of the Bible, there are prophets and apostles today who receive revelation from our Heavenly Father and testify of Jesus Christ. We believe that after the crucifixion of Christ and after all the apostles were killed, the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the authority to preach His gospel and administer ordinances (baptism, etc.) were lost. In Amos 8:11-12, it says, "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it." http://www.mormon.org/mormonorg/eng/basic-beliefs/the-restoration-of-truth/the-great-apostasy

Many years later in 1820, a young Joseph Smith was trying to decide which church he should join. There were so many, and they all interpreted the Bible differently, so how was he to know which one was right? He read in James 1:5, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." So, Joseph Smith took that challenge. He prayed to ask Heavenly Father which church was true and which he should join. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ Themselves appeared to Joseph Smith. He was told that none of the churches contained the fullness of the gospel and that he should join none of them. He was then called as a Prophet to restore the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to organize His Church as it was organized in the days that Jesus Christ lived on the Earth. (To read more about Joseph Smith's First Vision, go to http://scriptures.lds.org/en/js_h/1)

Amos 3:7 says, "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets." We believe that God has not left us alone to figure out everything on our own. There is a prophet TODAY who can give us guidance and lead us in the right direction. Of course, we are taught that we should take that same challenge from James and ASK Heavenly Father if the things that we are taught are true or not.

With that being said, I joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 2001, and Gordon B. Hinckley is the only prophet that I have known. I may have never met him in person, but I have seen him on TV when he gave conference talks for the Church, and I have heard him speak. He was an amazing person and leader, and the Church has grown so much under his direction. To read about how he dedicated his life to the work and service of the Lord, here are some good articles.

http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/feature-story-president-gordon-b-hinckley


http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2008/01/gordon_b_hinckley_19102008.html

I will miss his smile. I will miss his humor, and I will certainly miss all of the love that he had for everyone all over the world. He will be greatly rewarded in Heaven.

To read some of the teachings of President Hinckley, you can go to www.lds.org, or go to www.mormon.org to learn more about our church. http://scriptures.lds.org/en/a_of_f/1
A couple of great talks by President Hinckley are http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=f318118dd536c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=a57e8fbe352fe010VgnVCM100000176f620a____&hideNav=1 and http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-690-30,00.html If you are interested to find out how the new prophet will receive his calling, go to http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/succession-in-the-presidency-of-the-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints

(I know this is a lot of information, so if you have questions, just ask) :-)

I would like to end by sharing President Hinckley's testimony:
"I hope that all of you will remember that on this Sabbath day you heard me bear my witness that this is God's holy work. The vision given the Prophet Joseph in the grove of Palmyra was not an imaginary thing. It was real. It occurred in the broad light of day. Both the Father and the Son spoke to the boy. He saw Them standing in the air above him. He heard Their voices. He gave heed to Their instruction.
"It was the resurrected Lord who was introduced by His Father, the great God of the universe. For the first time in recorded history, both the Father and the Son appeared together to part the curtains and open this, the last and final dispensation, the dispensation of the fullness of times.
"The Book of Mormon is all that it purports to be—a work recorded by prophets who lived anciently and whose words have come forth "to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations" (Book of Mormon title page).
"The priesthood has been restored under the hands of John the Baptist and Peter, James, and John. All the keys and authority pertaining to eternal life are exercised in this Church.
"Joseph Smith was and is a prophet, the great Prophet of this dispensation. This Church, which carries the name of the Redeemer, is true.
"I leave you my testimony, my witness, and my love for each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."
President Gordon B. Hinckley
April 1, 2006, Sunday morning session of the 176th Annual World General Conference