Ukrainian Mother's Day Feast!

mmmmm!Does that look amazing or what?

Mother's Day just gets better and better! OK, I really did used to love the homemade cards and paper flowers, but UKRAINIAN FOOD? NOT HAVING TO COOK? What more can I say!

Thanks to Austin and Laura for a gourmet Ukrainian feast complete with Borsche, Pierogies and Chicken Kiev. Thanks to the rest of the family for the phone calls, the wonderful gifts that Jenna left, the shopping trip with Breanna and the cool new digital photo frame from Scott.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY. I LOVE being a Mom!

SOMETHING'S MISSING

YUP, Something is definitely missing around here! We keep finding reminders that our little Carter was here, and the house is just WAY TOO QUIET NOW! So looking forward to our Christmas in Arizona with a house full of little ones! HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to LAURA AND JENNA! THANK YOU FOR THE WONDERFUL GIFT OF THESE PRECIOUS LITTLE ONES! WE ARE SO EXCITED TO SEE OUR FAMILY GROW!

Visit from the NJ Jensens

Somebody has us wrapped around his little finger...Hmmm, let me think... Grandpa got to enjoy lots of basketball time and computer time watching cool Elmo videos with Carter!Oh, yeah, that would be grandbaby #1, Carter Jensen visiting from New Jersey before the big mission begins! And I thought motherhood was a mission! Grandmotherhood is even better! And, it gets to last longer than three years...Yay!
We had a ZOO DAY while they were visiting, let Braden play hookie from school and grabbed Breanna as well and had a day up in Salt Lake! It was chilly, but awesome!
The eensey, weency, spider got Carter in the web!
Jenna and Carter joined me on my class field trip to BYU via UTA bus!
Carter was pretty excited to ride the BIG BUS! The wheels on the bus do go round and round...we know that for sure now! THANKS JENNA AND CARTER FOR A WONDERFUL VISIT, and TY FOR LETTING THEM COME!!!

Freaky Meika

Our cats have some really strange tendencies...Addie licks plastic bags and licks the toilet paper on the roll or the tissues coming out of the box...she hangs around the bathroom faucet just waiting for someone to come turn it on for her. She is really quirky.

But then there is Meika.

Meika is on a constant mission. Not "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man"...but TO BRING TO US THE SOCKS AND GLOVES OF MAN (or women).
Yup, several times a day, we hear her meowing constantly as she brings up her latest conquest... in the above photo it was a pair of socks from Breanna's "sock kitty" stash. In the photo below it is a garden glove from the yard sale room...from the bag of gloves down there.
Like clockwork, when I come home, I can count on finding a new sock or glove at the top of the stairs, under the sofa table, or, even on one of the kitchen chairs. She is getting more creative. I can always tell when Braden needs to pick up his dirty laundry, because I get his dirty socks instead of clean ones! Yes, if he does not put away his clean laundry, she will get into the basket and take out the folded pairs of clean socks and bring those up for me as well.

Thanks Meika, we don't know what we would do without you...good luck Austin, Laura and Breanna with our freaky cats!

The New Meaning of Overbooked

Scott and I have a new definition of "overbooked." You thought it was just for airline flights, well think again. These two piles of books are just the books for our Spanish tutoring which I have three times a week and Scott has twice. Oh yeah. And they want me to do two hours of homework daily...Hmmm. I beg to protest.

I really like my tutor, she is so great, but oh, that rusty Spanish eludes me. Yet she has me teaching an "investigator" on Friday...or should I say Viernes? Wish us luck and order out the Chinese...we have our fill of Spanish :)

The Laundry Room

So, what is wrong with this picture...Hmmm, where do we begin? Is it the dated floral wallpaper? Could it be the jam-packed shelves full of laundry detergent above the washer and dryer? No place to store the ironingboard? The list goes on and on.

Well, our mission call has inspired us to leave the place better than it is now for Austin and Laura to live. This room was on my list to redo for this coming summer anyways, so the project got bumped up. Jenna suggested some cool tracks to slide fabric panels back and forth from IKEA...so after an inspiring trip to IKEA to make plans with Breanna, here is what we came up with.
The new look! Crisp and clean gray and white fabric panels on tracks that hide the laundry detergent etc. that are still on those shelves. Deep pantry size shelves above the floor cabinets to hold lots of laundry baskets for any use. A cute coordinating valance, chair pad and new blind
All the ductwork was painted white to make it blend in. Bins and white painted sewing table to make the sewing area really cute and functional too... The longer fabric panels on tracks hide the water heater but leave access as needed.
And what you can't see in the picture is a gray cotton rug and a wall rack to hold the iron and ironing board by the door into the storeroom. It looks great and makes me happy any time I go to this room. The girls think I should submit it to a magazine...what do you think?

Surrounded by Greatness

This is my wonderful group of Relief Society Presidency members and spouses. We are all different ages and backgrounds...well, they are all from California at some point in their lives...but what a fun group of women I get to associate with! We finally got together for a much needed night out to have Marci's amazing Cafe Rio knockoff food! We had a wonderful time together.In this photo is Sharon and Bruce Emero, Marci and Aaron Gustafson, Flora and Ken Clark and my own Scott.

I have enjoyed so much getting to know these special ladies...one more thing I will truly miss when we move this summer...but one more support that I know I will have as we do!

I am surrounded by greatness!

The Call

This was the moment we had been waiting for...for about 2 months...

We got a phone call from Elder Bednar's office to go meet with him the first week of December where he posed the question as to whether we could make it work if we were called to serve with Scott as a LDS Mission President. Talk about humbling.

Then it was "Don't call us, we will call you...maybe. If not by the end of January, then next year." We could not tell anyone about the possibility of leaving...so I started mourning the loss of my friends here, of my preschool children that I was planning to teach the next three years, the babies that I will not be here to see born, and the loss of my comfort zone. And I had to do it almost alone, with only our kids aware of what might be happening.

So we waited until the third week of January, and just when we were thinking it was pretty close to being a "next year" kind of thing and happy about it, the phone rang yet again with a call from Elder Eyring's office asking us to come up. Yet another humbling experience as we accepted a call to serve a "Spanish Speaking Mission President Assignment."

We will never see Elder Bednar or President Eyring the same again. They will always seem like friends.

Next we were told we would get our mission assignment by March, so the waiting began again. Yet, the connections Scott has through the Church News told us that it would be sooner than we thought. It is hard to be planning ahead and packing up your house not knowing where you are going!

Alfter one false alarm on dates that the assignments would be published in the Church News, we figured it would be the week of or the week after Braden's birthday. On February 10, the FedEx truck stopped at our house and with some quick arrangements, we got Breanna home, Scott home, Austin and Laura over, and Jenna and Ty on Skype so we could open the letter.
This was an incredible and exciting moment for us...and after Scott tried to entertain us with the idea of serving in Haiti, which we knew was not an open mission, he read the words ARIZONA PHOENIX MISSION!! We were all so thrilled, I don't know who was more happy, because it was just the right thing for our family!

Don't get me wrong, we were ready to go wherever the Lord wanted us, as far away as needed. But since we get to go to about the closest Spanish Speaking mission that there is to Provo...it is OK with us! We look forward to learning about this area and serving with the wonderful Arizona saints and missionaries! We appreciate the support of all our extended family and our friends as we have accepted this calling...especially our kids. Braden is giving up his last two years at the high school he always wanted to graduate from, and has more faith than I do. Austin and Laura have agreed to move into our house to be with Breanna and to care for it while we are gone. Jenna has been gracious about the fact that I will not be able to be there for their next child's birth.

All in all, our kids are delighted because they actually may be able to save up to come visit us on occasion, and they will not need a passport or visa. Braden is excited about playing football for a new team and adding to his group of friends...and he has one waiting in the area already.

Oh, and it is a pretty good deal that I don't have to worry about a three year supply of Ziploc bags and ranch dressing mix!

PHOENIX HERE WE COME---July 1, 2011

A Carter Christmas

Haul out the holly...Carter was here for Christmas! And what fun it was for all of us!This little guy always had at least one ball in hand and everyone needed to be ready to play catch in an instant! He would go up to the Christmas tree and say "Ho, Ho, Ho" when he saw all our Hershey Elves...so cute!
For FHE we went to the Bean Museum to see the ANIMALS! Carter really liked it, especially the huge elephant! He was all over the place!
Carter learned to say "Chalk" or "Gauk" as he pronounced it. We wrote on paper and on the front of the fridge...probably much to his Grandma Jensen's dismay:)
We got a bunch of snow and Carter really loved going out and shoveling with uncle Braden!
We loved having Austin and Laura over for a sleep-over during holiday break, and they got some snuggle time with Carter too!
Carter started a little habit of kissing people when they were asleep...or pretending to be asleep. It was all good for a kiss!
One of Grandpa Taylor's favorite activities was having Carter join him in some "back-resting time" in our room on the bed watching Elmo videos!

We had a very wonderful holiday with our family all together! We treasure the times that we have and are always looking forward to the next visit!

BYU INDOOR TAILGATE

OK, so I didn't get pictures of the people...but I got pictures of the food. We look forward to the BYU-Utah football rivalry game each year and the chance to celebrate with a meal and some good game-watching. We scored with the blue and white tortilla chips and blue and white york minis...(the red salsa was pushing it a bit)We scored with our numerous decorating items...
But we did not score quite as much as we hoped in the actual game. We thought BYU could pull off a win, but they did not quite make it. Here's for celebrating anyways!!

THANKFUL FOR YOU!

We were reminded once more of so many reasons we have to be thankful in all things.We love hosting Thanksgiving dinner at our house...this year it was more necessary than other years to have dinner at our house because Scott can only sit up for about 40 minutes at a time. We were thankful to have family and friends join us for a wonderful afternoon and evening.
We love to decorate the tables for our big dinner...and Breanna was a big help this year in creating some beautiful centerpieces.
We had 17 people at our meal this year and all helped bring parts of the meal...SO TASTY and so much easier that way!
After dinner we had games and Bingo and added more leaves to our "thankful tree."

We have so much to be thankful for this year.

We are thankful for good friends and for good health and that Scott's surgery has gone so well.

We are thankful that we have jobs and a means to care for ourselves.

But FAMILY tops the list. We are grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ that makes our love of family even more meaningful. HAPPY HOLIDAYS to you all! We love you!

How To Host a Football Team Party

Well...the answer is pretty much PIZZA and lots of it!If you are counting boxes you will find 14 to be exact. For how many boys? Oh, about 18-20.
Well, we had about 8 parents to help out, so not too bad! What a great group of guys!
Scott put together the photos that he and the Allens took this season into a 25 minute DVD set to music and the boys loved it! The room was so loud with cheers the whole time they were watching it that it was just fun to be there and see how happy they were.
Here is to more parties at the Taylors!!! We really love to have the kids over and have missed that for a while! Congratulations to Braden and his team on an overall winning season and especially for just being fine young men! GO PROVO BULLDOGS!

Ladies Night Fall 2010

Another Ladies Night has come and gone...

But not without some serious "girl stuff" happening! Breanna helped set the stage...and took a hit from the exploding ranch dressing when we set up!

We had some new faces this year...this is Courtney and Emily; Larlee's roommates...

We had Julie Martin...I missed getting her picture, darn! And we had Anteres Barton bring her niece Jessica, also a BYU student. WELCOME FRIENDS!

Our projects this year were super-cute CHARM NECKLACES, as you see Larlee's modeled here...

Anteres and Jessica model our ongoing project of eating lots of chocolate...yes and some fruit and veggies as well!

More charm necklaces...

Larlee, Emily and Courtney wearing their works of art.

And we made some fun cards.

It was a LOT OF FUN.

Keep April on your calendar ladies!!!

Any anniversary ideas for 2011?

Scott needs your help! Now! And how!

In August 2007, we (Cheryl, Scott and Braden) went to New Jersey and New York - one reason was to visit Jenna and Tyrel; another was to pick up Austin from his internship in Manhattan. The four of us flew home on Aug. 18 — our 26th anniversary. Here's now the day went:

• Had a delicious breakfast in New Jersey with the Jensens.
• Drove to Philadelphia, saw the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, had pizza and Philly cheesesteak sandwiches on Philadelphia's South Street.
• Caught our Southwest flight from Philadelphia to Chicago.
• In Chicago, the flight was overbooked and they were looking for volunteers to bump. We offered - and got $50 in food vouchers for the Chicago airport, reimbursement for our $99 Philly-SLC flights that day, a free flight later from Chicago to Denver, a free overnight stay at an Embassy Suites near the Denver airport, free breakfast the next morning, a free flight from Denver to Salt Lake and — get this — more than $1,300 in Southwest flight vouchers good for flights over the next year.

I told Cheryl there was no way I could top that anniversary day/present — breakfast in New Jersey, lunch in Philadelphia, dinner in Chicago, spending the night in Denver ... and $1,300 in flight credits.

Well, I may have topped it this year. On Aug. 18 — our 29th anniversary — we arrived by overnight flight to Frankfurt, Germany, then continued on to Dresden. We spent the day in Dresden, seeing the sights and kicking off our trip that included stops in Freiberg, Germany; Prague, Czech Republic; Vienna, Austra; Budapest, Hungary; Warsaw, Poland; Kyiv, Ukraine; and Moscow, Russia.

Sooooo, next year is Anniversary No. 30 — one of those noteworthy years. The traditional 30th anniversary gift is pearls; the modern 30th anniversary gift is diamond jewelry. The overload 30th anniversary gift probably is pearl and diamond jewelry. I've looked online and the suggestions for the 30th include:

• Pearl jewelry — necklace pendant, earrings, bracelet, ring or brooch. In addition to classic white pearls, consider black tahitian pearls or delicate pink pearls (or why not just all three?)
• An exotic travel location with pearling in its history, such as tropical Broome, Australia.
• Handmade fine English Bone China, commemorative ware designed specifically for "the Pearl Anniversary"
• A 30th anniversary wine box, filled with champagne or wine to make it a special occasion
• An oyster dinner
• An elegant wooden box containing 30 French chocolates
• A digital camera
• An iPod
• A cell phone
• A mother-of-pearl mosaic frame
• A second honeymoon — after 30 years of togetherness, you want to give a 30th anniversary gift that is out of this world. And what could be better than a second honeymoon. Travel to the same places you traveled on your first honeymoon, but really go first class (they have "first class" at Bear Lake, Utah, and Grand Island, Nebraska?). If your first honeymoon wasn't that great or you don't want to return to the same location, then pick a destination you've been dreaming of and head off there.
• A luxury car — has your wife always dreamed of a luxury car but never had one? What better time to buy her one than for her 30th anniversary gift. By this stage in a marriage, most of the children are out of the house and on their own and so there's a little more cash flow.

Hmmmm, and I was thinking more along the lines of an all-you-can-eat outing at Chuck-A-Rama or maybe 30 Happy Meals. Or maybe a football jersey with the number "30" on it — pearl-colored, of course.

Any ideas?