Our First Transfer Group

SURPRISE! We sent home our first group of 13 missionaries this week. It was a wonderful, bittersweet experience! I was overwhelmed with how much I had come to love these missionaries that I had met only a couple of times for most of them.

And then equally amazed at how immediately I was in love with the new group of 15 that we welcomed into our home the very next morning.

Aren't they a sharp looking group? They come prepared and excited to serve and we are really looking forward to knowing this group as our first to come be with us their entire mission.

Part of the schedule of the day was "naptime" and it was very important! I was able to leave them resting and take Braden over to get registered at the high school. Amazing how that worked out!

The next morning, we all went over for the new missionaries to meet their trainers and to join us in our transfer meeting with all the transfers in the mission...it was quite a group!

We were exhausted when we were done...and we celebrated by taking Braden to see Harry Potter that night since we had been so crazy busy for the past week.

YAY! we survived our first of about 26 transfers while we are here :)

BROTHER TAYLOR

We have had so much fun with Braden and his name tag...

They asked us in the office if we wanted one for him and we said "Sure!"

So, he has worn it a few times and it was really fun at the airport when we went to pick up missionaries. We met two returned missionaries on that same trip that both assumed Braden was one of our current missionaries...he is looking old enough to be one and that scares me!

Austin...do you recognize his suit? You should.

He made the day of these two Elders from North Carolina at their zone activity...this is what we try to go to each Preparation Day for Braden to play with the missionaries.

This young man has been AMAZING with being dragged from his friends and home to a very new and sometimes uncomfortable lifestyle.

Keep us in your prayers. This is not an easy thing for any of us, but especially a sacrifice for Braden. We love our "Brother Taylor!"

SOME NEW HOUSE THINGS

We have moved into a beautiful home here in Peoria, Arizona. It is really a showplace, that we are trying to make into a "home" for Braden. This home has not had children living here, so it will take a little bit to make it comfortable for him.I started with the kitchen...my new motto is "LAUGH" every day! This could save my life!
Jenna, here is the tray you gave me, with some summer fruits for decoration...pretty cute in a red kitchen!
And more homey touchs with the quilted flag and the quilted potholders for the 4th of July that Jenna made for me. It makes me happy to have some things from home around me!
The next few photos are of the master bathroom. We had decided that the room needed some "pop" with adding a dark teal blue color to blend in the blue master bedroom attached. The print in the little toilet room was the inspiration for the color and looks so cute.
The James Audobon prints matted in the same blue look fantastic...this picture does not do it justice at all.
My shelf from home also was a perfect touch in there to show off the extra towels. I will post Braden's neat BYU theme room another day and other parts as I have time.

We have been without AC in 1/2 the house for the past 4 days as temperatures have soared to 117 with significant humidity. But, we are doing fine. Utah is a good preparation for desert climate.

FIRST "Family P-DAY"

We received some timely counsel from the apostles at our New Mission President Seminar about how to conduct ourselves on our Preparation days and specifically when we go out as a family or on dates. We were told to "blend in with the crowd" so we did just that.We first drove past the temple site for the Phoenix temple that is just beginning construction, and then over to Mesa to the beautiful temple there. This was the hottest day of the summer so far...about 117 degrees, but the temple was just beautiful and we really enjoyed it.
We are so grateful to have Braden with us on this mission! He has been a really good sport to go with us on all our preparations and to dinners with ward members and area leaders. What an amazing young man to "go and do the things the Lord commands" at such a young age!

We were excited to see a couple of our missionaries over at the visitor center with some new members...they looked sharp and had no idea who we were in our street clothes...pretty exciting to see them in action! (Elders Whitlock and Anhder)

Arizona Phoenix Mission / Taylors: PROVO MISSIONARY TRAINING CENTER

Arizona Phoenix Mission / Taylors: PROVO MISSIONARY TRAINING CENTER:

CLICK ON THE TITLE TO GO TO OUR MISSION BLOG TO SEE THIS POST

"PHOENIX...HERE WE COME! We could not resist the traditional photo in front of 'the map' in the MTC. President Taylor and I entered the MTC ..."

MOVING OUT AND MOVING IN

We have a lot of STUFF! And if you don't believe it, I will show you the invoice from the movers that came last week. They actually labeled a lot of our box contents as "stuff" and rightfully so.
Last to go in, after the "stuff" were the bikes. Yup, we could take sort of whatever we wanted up to a weight limit...and we are crossing our fingers that we did not have too much! Sadly, our house does not look like we even took anything out of it...in fact, it looks better! Yes, this says that we had TOO MUCH STUFF! But we have been living out of suitcases for a week now and we are surviving just fine.
The great thing about moving things out was that now we had room to MOVE THINGS IN...important things like BABY CRIBS! For FHE last week we put together baby ??? crib in the new and improved preschool room.
Laura had chosen the cutest fabric for her baby quilt and curtain and dust ruffle and now it looks like a really cute room. We will have them post pictures once they get their boxes put away and have it looking like they want. We are so grateful to them for coming into our house to care for it and be there for Breanna so she does not have to be alone! We can't wait for this sweet baby to join our family and are so glad she will have this sweet room to call home.

SET APART TO SERVE!

Wow! Here we go! June 14 we were set apart by President Boyd K. Packer and Elder Costa of the Seventy. They were personable and encouraging. President Packer has background in the Park Valley/ Grouse Creek/ Almo/ Malta area so there were some fun conversations and memories of that area. He shared with us his experience of helping with one of the presidential elections in that area where they actually used HOMING PIDGEONS to send in the poll results from these little ranch towns! It was a wonderful experience to meet with these faithful men.

The Taylor family headed to Phoenix!

Presidente and Hermana Taylor

John and Carole Olsen

Lori Taylor

Syd and Carolyn James

Breanna and Braden

Austin and Laura Taylor

Thanks to Austin for being our photographer...and for all the family for coming with us and for your support over the years! WE LOVE YOU!

Birthday for Scottie!

Does this photo tell you what we did for Scott's birthday! Yes, we ATE A TON of homemade Cafe Rio pork dinner salads! YUM!I love this photo that Austin took I think...or Laura? But I love it.
We had an intimate dinner and present opening and game night and then dessert...Yup, it is great to get old when you have family to celebrate with! We invite you all to come to Phoenix next June 13 to celebrate with us! We will take earlier or later visits as well...it will all seem like a party!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SCOTT!

THINKING BLUE AND PINK!

One of the great blessings of growing older is getting MORE GRANDBABIES! We have anxiously awaited the news of the two little ones that are coming to join our family before the end of the year. We learned a couple of weeks ago that Carter will be joined by a BABY BROTHER! How fun will that be to have two busy boys! We can't wait!Laura and Austin got to go for her ultrasound last week and came over for dinner that Monday to tell us the good news. We had Scott in Florida on his cell phone...and Jenna on Skype in New Jersey. They had a gift bag with baby clothing for the new little one and it was a pretty quick call when PINK CAME OUT that we are getting a granddaughter in September as well!

WE LOVE THINKING BOTH PINK AND BLUE! CONGRATULATIONS!!

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?