TRUNK OR TREAT

We decided that we have been conditioned to Utah Trunk or Treat parties...we know how to decorate a trunk!! The AZ people mostly sit on camp chairs near their trunk and hand out candy...the invite did say to decorate the trunk, so I just followed directions, and it was pretty cool! The old silver sunshade was reflective and looked great with the orange lights.We wore our Halloween costumes...guess what we were? Yup, missionaries!

Scott did have a strange desire to borrow kids hats though...and we got pictures of him in a few.

President Vader

President Mouse/Sorceror

President Ernie

And last but not least...what he really feels like doing much of the time...

President SCREAM!!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN ALL!!!

THE FIELD IS WHITE

We have been waiting all summer for the cotton to ripen...I guess that is what it does?

We were waiting to do this.

These are Braden's "The field is white all ready to harvest" pictures.

Pretty sweet huh?

Yes, there are things that thrive and grow in Arizona...

Cotton and Braden!

Sunrise Mountain Hike

Saturday Oct. 15 we went on a hike with the APs in preparation for Zone Leader Council later this month. It was a beautiful sunny day in AZ. Braden has been joking around about "Sunrise Mountain ever since we moved here...he calls it Sunrise Hill. Coincidentally, his high school is named after this "mountain" very near our home.It was a good hike, not too strenuous at all, and some pretty scenery on the way.
Great views from the top of Sunrise Mountain. Braden at the top.

Braden, President Taylor, Elder Falconer and Elder Perkins.

The Taylor Family at the top.

We look forward to hiking more areas of Phoenix. This will be a place we enjoy with our missionaries and family when they come to visit for sure!

Quick Trip to Utah...Many Meetings

We had not planned on my visiting either of the new grandbabies, but with a little rough delivery of baby Brooklyn, it was great to be able to go up and help after Grandma Self had to leave.

We went up into the canyon for a photo op...see Austin's blog for more pics of that.

We introduced Brooklyn to her little 2nd cousins??? Not sure the relationship there.

Daniel on the left and Nathan on the right. SO CUTE!!!

We introduced her to Grandma Olsen and to Aunt Lori...and through webcam to Jenna, Ty, Carter and Bennett.

I spent one more night playing with Nathan and Daniel up at their place and it was so wonderful.

Breanna had a darling nap with baby Brooklyn. It was good to do a little shopping and a lot of talking with Breanna while I was there. I really miss that!

I happened to be there when my dear friend Amy Torgersen

had her sweet little Elizabeth after 6 months of bed rest. She was a miracle.

We also had a visit from one of our first APs, Jason Brase. It was great to visit with him, although embarrassing that I was on the roof taking down Christmas lights when he came.

He had great advice for how to survive after a mission.

It was a wonderful visit to Utah, to see how devoted Laura and Austin are as parents...we knew they would be, but it was just awesome to see it in person. Good visit, and good to be back "home" now in Arizona.

WELCOME BROOKLYN TAYLOR

The Austin and Laura Taylor family is proud to announce the birth of baby

Brooklyn Diane Taylor

September 29, 2011 5:44 AM

6 Lb. 2 oz

19 inches

This is the wall banner that I made during my trip up to meet her from Arizona.

Look at her! She is a perfect little princess!

And she has the most adorable parents ever!

Austin and Laura did a great job! I cannot imagine them without her already!

Welcome Brooklyn, our family is more complete with you in it!

NEW PHOTO WALL!

I am super excited about my new photo wall. I had been wanting a place to be able to display photos, wedding invites etc. as we expect to have many of both of these while we are serving here in Phoenix.
I looked online for ideas but really did not come up with anything that quite fit what I was thinking of...so, in talking with Jenna and Breanna, this is what I came up with.
It is a regular curtain rod, but hung on hooks closer to the wall(I would even like them to keep the rod closer to the wall if possible). I sewed grosgrain ribbon in long strips to hang from the rod and then used drapery hooks to hang the frames where I wanted to. I ordered 1 1/4 inch wide bulldog clips and sprayed them bronze, then sewed them to the ribbon about 7 1/2 inches apart. I tied ribbon through the hole in the front and around the grosgrain above the frames after I hung them.

Can you see how handy this will be when we have 400 returned missionaries out there hunting companions!

All I need now are some more pictures HINT HINT!!
I am already trying to decide where I would create one of these in our home in Provo...not enough wall space there...but we shall see!

A NAME GAME

We realized the other day that there is a pattern in the

names of our grandchildren so far.

First we have Carter Jensen.

Well, serving in the Arizona Phoenix Mission we have an Elder Carter...yes, he IS RELATED TO US...and we have an Elder Jensen. No relation that we know.

Then, baby Bennett came along and YES, we do have an Elder Bennett...and we still have Elder Jensen. This makes two for two.

Realizing that grandbaby #3 is a girl may pose a problem for Austin and Laura in keeping this tradition alive, so I have a very small list of possibilities from the last names of currently serving missionaries.

So here goes:

How about Adona, Allred or Alvarez(Allie?), Bird, Briggs, Carroll(now that is also a family name), Cherry (almost Cheryl), Dahl, Falke, Gerber(that is a baby name, right?), Halligan(Halli), Harline, Jeanfreau, Kamissoko(Kami for short), Keele or Keelin, Kelley(yet another family name), Lynn, Moody(OK maybe not Moody, don't want that predisposition), Swallow (to go with Bird), Wren (to also go with Bird), or you can always choose one of the Z names like Zayas, Zeledon, Zollinger or Zollweg.

Oh, if you could only name her Taylor...it is the most likely of all the last names to be a first.

Now if you were having a boy...the list would be almost endless!

Good luck with naming baby! We can't wait to meet her whoever she is!

FIRST NEIGHBORS FROM HOME!

It made our day to have dear friends stop by Sunday night! Our neighbor Denise Simpson has been out here in the area visiting her daughter Lindsee and granddaughter Kassenya.
Lindsee and her husband Trevor recently had another baby girl who has heart problems and has had multiple surgeries over the past month. We are hoping she comes home from the hospital this week.
It made us so happy to have familiar faces cross our threshold! We are so glad that Lindsee and her sweet family will be here to visit...and Lindsee can even cut our hair! Plus, we are pretty sure that Mark and Denise will be back down to visit them so we may see them again as well.

SOFTBALL ACTIVITY

We joined the W. Maricopa zone for a softball activity today. I think they enjoy not having sisters to worry about including... so I kept my distance behind a camera! Some of you may have thought it was hot today, but it was only 95 and believe it or not, that feels much cooler than it used to!
President Taylor started as pitcher, and Braden got some good hits and fielding.

President Taylor got some pretty good power in his hits too...I think he will be sore tomorrow!

We had a great time being out to the ballgame!

Thanks W. Maricopa zone for a fun P-day activity for our family!
I look at this picture and realize I know all these missionaries by name now...I loved them from the start, but having a name and a personality to put with those faces is just so rewarding!
WE HAVE THE BEST AND WE HAVE JUST BEGUN!!

Fun & Guns with Elder Rasband

President and Sister Taylor participated in a four-day mission presidents seminar for the 18 president/sister couples from the church's Southwest Area (Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas). The seminar was held in Tempe, so we just commuted back and forth each day and stayed at home with Braden.

The visiting LDS Church authorities were Elder Ronald Rasband, senior member of the Presidency of the Seventy; Elder Tad Callister of the Presidency of the Seventy (and our area supervisor); and Elders Stan Ellis and Larry Wilson of the Second Quorum of the Seventy.

When Elder Rasband learned that we had Braden here in Phoenix, he said he wanted him to join all the couples for the Friday night cowboy dinner/music show at the Rocking R. Ranch in Mesa.

Elder Rasband also invited Braden to try their hand at shooting authentic Colt .45 pistols. You can find a complete recap of the event on our mission blog (see links below). Here's a photo from the shooting experience:

Click here for a link to the post about Braden's hot-as-a-pistol shooting escapades with Elder Rasband.

And click here to go to Sister Taylor's mission blog for all sorts of posts on seminars, transfers, arrivals, departures, conferences and meetings.

WELCOME BENNETT SCOTT JENSEN

We are pleased to welcome Bennett Scott Jensen into the family!

9/1/11
True to form, Bennett came two weeks early.
Born September 1, 2011
7 pounds 3 ounces
20 inches long

Daddy Tyrel with little Bennett

Sleeping Bennett

Yet more sleeping Bennett
Big brother Carter...looks a little unsure about all of this. It will be fun to watch the change.
Bennett looks a lot like Mommy in this picture...but time will tell. I think he will look more like Carter when he gets a little older. We are thrilled to have two grandbabies now! And looking forward to Laura and Austins addition in about 3-4 weeks now!

Salsa Festival

Click on this line for all photos and video of this event.

Last Saturday as part of our "Family P-day" we had

Hermana Yolanda Calderon over to the mission

home for some serious salsa lessons!

She was a master teacher and it was delightful to try to

speak Spanish with her for a couple of hours while we

worked. Cooking terms were not a big part of my Spanish

tutoring, so this was really interesting.
You can see what we enjoyed the most...Braden is modeling

EATING the delicious salsas.
We had Hermana Alvarez chopping her little heart out.

Hermana Okeson was scribe, writing down all the ingredients

we used for each recipe so we can try to type them up to share

with each other. Go to the link at the top of this post to see

video of how to remove an avocado pit!
It is therapeutic to cook...and after a long week, this was

just what I personally needed.
Here are the salsas that we made: Blended red salsa/ salsa

verde(green)/ Salsa con aguacate(avocado)/salsa rostada (roasted)/

and pico de gallo. They were all exelente! My favorite was the

roasted red salsa, President liked the avocado or the roasted,

and Braden loved the green muy picosa (very hot) salsa.

!Gracias Hermana Calderon por una noche de aprender, probar,

y compartir!

ARIZONA SALSA TIME

Who would have thought I would be blessed with the goodness of fresh produce to actually do any canning while I was here in Phoenix? Not me. In fact, I did not bring my canner down here.

But,thanks to a wonderful donation of produce to our missionaries, and a huge surplus of tomatoes and onions, I brought home two boxes of tomatoes and more onions than you could imagine...we had to take a huge cooler full of onions to the ward here on Sunday to try to give away to ward members.
I bought a new water bath canner...I like it. I can do 9 bottles at a time. It was easier to use than I thought...and I could not find a steam canner anywhere!
We are grateful to have home bottled salsa so we feel we can have it more often. I brought a couple of cases down with us and now I have 27 more bottles to make us feel a little more at home. Later this fall, I want to try to grow some tomatoes here at the house. We will see how that goes!