Happpy Halloween!

Arrrrggghhh!!

Matthew eating his sword


One pooped out pirate

More Info on Mark Schultz

Hey all-
I just thought I'd add this link to an interview with Mark Schultz who wrote the song above. Have kleenex handy....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z61zdZJ9uZc

Everything To Us

Scott and I were driving home from church today and heard a song on the radio by Mark Schultz titled "Everything To Me". Needless to say, neither of us had a dry eye by the end of the song. These are the lyrics....


"I must have felt your tears
When they took me from your arms
I’m sure I must have heard you say goodbye
Lonely and afraid had you made a big mistake
Could an ocean even hold the tears you cried
But you had dreams for me
You wanted the best for me
And you made the only choice you could that night
You gave life to me
A brand new world to see
Like playing baseball in the yard with dad at night
Mom reading Goodnight Moon
And praying in my room
So if you worry if your choice was right
You gave me up but you gave everything to me
And if I saw you on the street
Would you know that it was me
And would your eyes be blue or green like mine
Would we share a warm embrace
Would you know me in your heart
Or would you smile and let me walk on by
Knowing you had dreams for me
You wanted the best for me
And I hope that you’d be proud of who I am
You gave life to me
A chance to find my dreams
And a chance to fall in love
You should have seen her shining face
On our wedding day
Oh is this the dream you had in mind
When you gave me up
You gave everything to me
And when I see you there
Watching from heaven’s gates
Into your arms I’m gonna run
And when you look in my eyes
You can see my whole life
See who I was And who I’ve become"


I can't help but think of our birthmother and what a tremendous gift she gave Matthew and us. She gave us everything. When I look at that toothless grin my heart just fills with feelings of gratitude and love for her. So please, pray for her and other birth moms who have such incredible love for their babies, that they not only chose life, but make an enormous sacrifice so that their children can have everything.

(couldn't leave without posting a pic of the boy wonder)

First Swimming Lesson

Hey everyone. Sorry it's been a while since we did a post. Matthew's social calendar is pretty busy. He's definately a baby on the go.

Scott's father and stepmother were just here for a few days and we all enjoyed their visit. We were pretty busy with all the usual tourist activities. We went to Seattle for a day and enjoyed Pike's Place Market and the rest of the city. We also drove out to the Northwest Trek which is a wildlife park that has bears, wolves, elk, buffalo, cougars and a lot more. Definately worth a return trip. The big news is that Scott and I got to go out to dinner ALONE while they were here. Of course we talked about Matthew most of the time, but it was still nice to get dressed up, go out and act like adults again. I think it's worth pursuing "date night" a few times a month.

Matthew continues to be a joy. He's now in baby boot camp with me twice a week and just started swimming lessons today.



Yes, that's actually him under the water and going thru the hoop (on his first lesson!!). Amazing. After both activities today, he was totally ready for a BIG nap when he got home. Who knows? Maybe this will be the ticket to getting him to sleep thru the night ; )
Well got to run for now. More later.
Cheryl

Ahhh, the Proof We Needed

So, Scott has always joked that Matthew is a secret agent baby sent to kill us with sleep deprivation. Now we have the proof......

Red Sky in the Morning, Sailors Take Warning

So this was our greeting from God this morning. Not too shabby, huh? We woke up with Matthew around 6am and the sky was just on fire. So we loaded up the baby and some coffee and went to the park at the mouth of the harbor and took some absolutely stunning shots of the mountain and the water. If you're interested, I'm going to load them into snapfish, so email me (CherylTaylorNNP@hotmail.com) and I will send you the album.

Yesterday, we went to the salmon hatchery in Issaquah. It was really interesting. They have two huge holding tanks with about a thousand Coho and Chinook salmon that should start spawning any day now. Matthew was mesmerized while watching all the fish in the tank. Here's kind of a neat shot of it....


The creek that runs through the hatchery has a big waterfall that the salmon were trying to jump to head upstream. It was fascinating to watch. There must have been hundreds of salmon in the creek, some at least 30 pounds (definitely bigger than Matthew). It was an experience I would recommend for anyone visiting Washington in the fall.


This past weekend we loaded up Matthew and went to the coast for the night. We stayed in Ocean Shores, WA. Unfortunately, we got into to town after dark and when we woke up the next morning it was raining like crazy and the wind was really blowing. So we drove onto the beach for a while, but decided that it looked like the tide was coming in, so we should probably head out. So not much time spent at the ocean, but still a good trip. We got home in the afternoon and were in the middle of unpacking when we heard what we thought was thunder and then had a power surge. We heard another burst of thunder after that. We both looked outside and found it funny that the sky was absolutely clear. So at that point we just chalked it up to the cats chasing each other around the house. However, after we turned on the TV a few hours later, we found out that it was a propane tank that had exploded at the foundry in Tacoma. I guess it was pretty dramatic with debris flying onto the freeway (they had to close WA16 and US5). Amazing that we heard the explosions all the way in Gig Harbor.


Matthew continues to be a joy. He started rice cereal last week and the jury is still out on his response.


Other exciting events in his life include, attending the Puyallup Fair....


and hanging out with his new friend Tia...

So life is busy for Mr. Matthew. (and his parents) Well, that's all for now. I hope all is well. Take care.

Cheryl

Aren't I Still Your Baby Too??

Hey everyone. We're back in business with a new hard drive and now we're faster than every (very exciting). But I'm a little short on time now, so I will post more later. In the meantime, I thought you'd all enjoy this pic of Cleo.
Cheryl