Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We hope that you all enjoyed your holiday. We sure did, but as usual, it was way too short. Scott had to work this year, so that certainly made things a little more complicated, but it was still wonderful. Matthew had a great day and was thrilled with all of his gifts because I think just about every one had wheels or something to do with trains, trucks or cars. The past few days he has just wanted to stay home and play rather than go out.

We had fun tracking Santa on NORAD Christmas Eve and left him the usual cookies and milk as a snack for his big trip.


We also threw out a few carrots and some magic reindeer food on the front lawn. Matthew was particularly impressed with the bite marks on the carrots the next morning.


Then he spent the rest of the day playing and playing and playing and playing...

Santa also brought some treats for the kitties...

The other toy that Matthew really liked was his new weed whacker. He decided that the tree needed a little trimming. He then moved on to mommy and daddy's hair. Thank goodness it's a toy : )

Well I must run for now, but we wanted to share some of our Christmas memories and wish you all a Happy 2011!!

Love,

Scott, Cheryl and Matthew

Taylor Elf Family

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

Santa Pics

Vancouver and Winter Snow

Happy Advent! We hope that this post finds everyone enjoying their preparations for Christmas. I've been a bit behind on the blogging our new pics, so I hope to catch up a little this month.
We went to Vancouver a few weeks ago and had a wonderful time. I have to say that I love Amtrak! It was so easy to take the train and not have to stop several times between here and there and Matthew loves trains, so he was thrilled. We found a Thomas the Train at one of the hotels and of course he had to mug for the camera.



It's funny how travel is different when you have children. When it was just the two of us, we enjoyed trying out new restaurants, checking out the night life and basically trying to hit all of the destinations highlights in a few days. No longer. Now we just hang out with Matthew and enjoy whatever it is that he likes to do. This, of course, led to us spending several hours at the playground in Vancouver. Scott got to be a kid and join in the fun as well.

It was a great time and we look forward to our next visit north. Here's a few more pics from the park...

Also, a little something that we just decided to pick up while we were there ; )

The big news in our lives has been the weather. We had a pretty good wind storm a couple of weeks ago that knocked out our power overnight and made quite a mess of the yard. That was followed by a pretty big (big by Seattle area standards) snow storm. We lost our power for 24+ hours with that storm. I think a generator just moved up the priority list a bit. Matthew loved the snow and got to make a snowman, go sledding down the hill at the side of the house and play snow baseball.

The snow was gone a few days later, but I hear that we will likely be getting more this winter.

Well that's all for now. Stay tuned for Santa pics and all of our Christmas happenings.

Matthew's Version of Jingle Bells

Feline Comparisons

Fierce killer-


Or-

That's our Cleo, a.k.a. "the dog cat"....

Halloween 2010

Per usual, it's been a busy time in the Taylor household. I'm having a tough time keeping up with our blog. I have so many new pics, but I think for now I'll just stick with the happenings in the past few weeks.

Matthew has outgrown his toddler bed, so we bought him a twin, "big boy" bed a few weeks ago. He was thrilled, especially since he got to pick out his new sheets. Here he is watching them take a spin in the washer. He looks like he's pondering something.

We took a very belated birthday trip in October. Matthew was suppose to go to Great Wolf Lodge for his birthday, but was ill, so we took a rain check and went with his friends Jonas and Ronin. The boys had a blast. Even with a huge water park at his finger tips, Matthew said he favorite thing was "playing trains with Jonas at the hotel room".

I love this pic. It looks like Ronin is trying to get some cash from the ATM while Matthew is on the look out and Jonas is supervising. Those mischievous boys!

We made our annual trip to Scholtz Farms for our pumpkin this year. It was a beautiful day and we all had a great time.

Taking the tractor for a ride. Or so he thinks.

Woo hoo! We got one!

"Am I suppose to eat this?"

Matthew got to party hardy with his swim buddies Halloween weekend. His friend Brodi had a wonderful party and the kids had a blast making candy haunted houses, decorating pumpkins and just running around trying to burn up their sugar buzz.

Then there was the main event- Halloween! Matthew was so excited about painting his face green for his froggie costume. He wanted to paint his whole body, but we managed to talk him out of it.

We met some friends for pizza, to insure that the kids ate something that was somewhat healthy, before the big candy-fest. Then it was on to trick or treating in the harbor. It was a little crazy trying to keep track of 9 kids in the crowd, but it all worked out and they got some great loot.

Matthew Videos

I know it's been a while since I've posted. So I thought I'd post of few videos of Matthew's latest antics.

Puyallup Fair 2010 and Family Pics Preview

It seems so quiet around our house these days since we said goodbye to our last guest just a couple of weeks ago. I think that poor Uncle Doug is going to need a vacation from his vacation after chasing Matthew around for a few days. Although I do have to say, I was wondering who was having more fun as I watched them put together Hot Wheels tracks and race cars around- Matthew or Doug?

We made a trip to the market with Doug and our friend Irina. Matthew decided that he wanted to buy mommy some flowers (with a little help from daddy). They were beautiful. Thank you Matthew (and daddy)!

The big news in town the past few weeks has been the Puyallup Fair. We ended up going twice and Matthew and I are heading there tomorrow with our friends the Sobbas for round #3. Matthew had a blast on the rides, of course. He still continues to look longingly at the "big boy" rides and points to all the rides saying "I wanna go on that". He did, however, take a trip on The Scrambler this year, much to my dismay. But I think his favorite was the giant slide, which he must have gone on at least a half a dozen times. He decided to try his hand at some games this year, but mommy and daddy quickly put a stop to that as he started throwing the wooden balls from skee ball all over the place. We were trying to avoid him taking out a spectator or two.

With the busy summer coming to a close, we decided to get our family portraits taken. Unfortunately, with all of the unseasonably rainy weather we've had lately, we had to cancel our location shoot and went to our photographers studio instead. The pics turned out great though and we have some especially cute ones of Matthew. Here's a little preview....

The Ham

Welcome to the Hotel Taylor

Well I feel like we should install a revolving door in our house after this summer. Since May, we have had company all but two weeks when Scott has not been working. When I tell people this, they say that it must be so busy, but actually we've loved it and had a great time. The only problem is that we've become very attached to our video camera and have lots of video of this summer's visits, but not many pictures. And we have no clue how to download any of our video yet. So stayed tuned for when we figure it out and can post some funny videos.
Our latest guests were my mom and dad and Scott's father and stepmother. I think I mentioned in my last post that my parents were here in mid-August for my triathlon. Actually they were here to see Matthew and just happen to come that same weekend ; ) Anyhow, Matthew had a blast and loved building things with Gramps and having squirt gun fights. He also did some crafts with Grammy. His favorite was making sock puppets.

We took a little trip to the Oregon coast when Grampa Mike and Gram Karen visited. Astoria and Cannon Beach were beautiful. Matthew got to see the Pacific Ocean and fortunately did not try to take off running into the water with daddy in hot pursuit like last year. He also loved the Portland Children's Museum and spent two and half hours there trying EVERYTHING out.

Our next visitor is our friend, Doug, from Michigan. We can't wait to head to the market again to get more smoked salmon, dried strawberries and fresh fruit. If only Matthew would expand his palate a little. Instead he chooses his carbs and the occasional Playdoh sandwich...