Happy Birthday Matthew!

Who knew that one phone call could change your life forever? Not us. It has been four years since that fateful day in May. We never imagined that we could love someone so much and that our lives could be so rich. We love you Matthew. Happy Birthday Big Boy!!

My parents were able to visit for Matthew's birthday this year. It was perfect timing since my dad's birthday was on the day of Matthew's party with all of his friends. So we had two birthday cakes this year- Cars and Star Wars. We had a wonderful time and Matthew could be hear several times a day saying "Come play with me Gramps". They spent a lot of time playing with Matthew's new favorite toy, Legos. I think Gramps was tired out by the end of the trip. Matthew also learned very quickly to check Grammy's bag every day for a new surprise. We all had a great time and look forward to seeing Grammy and Gramps again soon.

Matthew's party was a blast. We had it at Jump in Gig Harbor. It's basically a warehouse full of bouncy houses. Lots of fun for both kids and adults. I'm just glad no one had a camera handy when I got in the bounce house with the kids : ) Matthew had a great time with all of his favorite friends all in one room together.

Jump!!

A Weekend of Firsts

It's been an exciting weekend for Matthew. He had a couple of big "firsts".

(I just thought this was a cute shot of Matthew)

On Friday, we visited our friends The Guys and had a sleep over with Matthew's friend, Jonas. The boys had a ball and loved swimming in the pool, but mostly just wanted to play with toys in the hotel room. We have run into this before when we've gone to the Great Wolf Lodge with Jonas and his family. It's funny that you go through all this time, effort and expense to drive down to GWL to entertain them and they're just happy hanging out and playing cars and trucks. Although I have to say that I think that their favorite wheeled object this time around was the luggage cart.

Last nights big adventure was Matthew's first camping trip. We chose a very exotic location- our back yard. I'm still waiting to making a final judgement on the success of this one (the boys are still sleeping as I write). We made a fire (after multiple attempts) and roasted marshmallows. And then we read bedtime stories by flashlight. One thing I learned is that you never realize how noisy your back yard is at night.

(Sorry this pic is a little blurry, but it's from the iphone)

Well got to run for now. I'm sure I'll be getting a call from the boys in the wilderness for breakfast soon.

Happy Belated Mother's Day to all!

Bunny pics 2011

I pulled out Matthew's bunny pictures from last year and looking at him thought that he really hasn't changed much since last year. I think we're past the point of any big physical changes from year to year. So I honestly expected this year's pics not to look much different. However, it's amazing how much change there really is when you compare them side-by-side. He really has lost all of his "babyness" and is turning into quite a boy.

Matthew's Latest Adventure

I'm posting this one for the grandparents....

Snoqualmie Snow

Hey all. Not much new to post, but I thought I'd share some pics from our recent trip to the mountains. We had initially planned on doing a little sledding, which was fun, but decided that the tubing was the way to go. Sorry, no shots of the action since we were busy playing rather than taking pics. It was so beautiful in the mountains and we had LOTS of snow to throw around and pretty much that's all Matthew wanted to do about 75% of the time. It was lots of fun and we will definately be back next year, maybe for some skiing/snowboarding???

Don't eat the yellow snow!!!!

Here's a few videos....

This one ended up being a two parter....

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy Belated Birthday Daddy and Blasts from the Past

Happy birthday to the best daddy and husband in the whole wide world. Glad you had a little help blowing out all those candles this year ; )

I recently found a folder on our computer with pics from Scott's iphone. There are so many cute ones of Matthew. I can't believe how much he's grown up. I wish he could stay my baby boy forever.



At the Mariners game. Can you believe that blonde, blonde hair?

So tiny.

In Hawaii

No teeth.

Snow Day

Growing up in Michigan, I am accustomed to winter weather, especially the snow. Someone recently posted this on Facebook that really sums it up for Michiganders...







It has been a bit of a change for me going from "life goes on despite the snow" vs. snowmageddon when two snowflakes fall here in Washington. Hence, the great Pemco commercial...








All that being said, this last storm in February was a pretty good one.

Yep, that's snow, not fog. For those of you who have been to our house, normally you can see Puget Sound out our back door, instead of this. Matthew, however, was in heaven. We spent most of the day outside making snow angels, throwing snowballs and sledding down our side hill and freezing our little tootsies off. Unfortunately, it only lasted about 48 hours. So anytime it starts to rain now, he says "maybe it will snow again". I think he's out of luck. So it looks like we might be heading to the mountains in the next few weeks so he can get another fix of the white stuff. In the meantime, he's some clips from our "snow day"...

New Routines

Well it's been an interesting few weeks for us as we try to get back into the swing of things after all of the Christmas/New Year hustle and bustle. Matthew has had a change in his routine as he has started a new swimming class and now ice skating classes and we had a bit of a rough go of it. He cried almost all the way through his new swim class and then about 5-10 minutes of his first ice skating class. I sometimes feel like I'm torturing the poor kid, but I guess he has to learn to stretch his wings a bit. Things are getting better though. We figured out that he was cold during his swimming class. The Kinderswimmer pool was 88 degrees and the pool at the YMCA is much cooler and for the first class, they sit on the side rather than stay in the water and hold the wall. But we now have him dressed for success for that class...

He loves his new swim cap and suit and if he had his way would wear it all day, everyday. So that has certainly helped things. We also have a new swim teacher since his first class and she is really good with him.

Ice skating was also a bit of a challenge. He loves to go with Scott and I, but was not thrilled (to say the least) about getting on the ice without us. But by the end of class, he was taking a few steps on his own, was very close to getting back up after falling on his own and asked "can I keep skating?". So I think the next class should go better. Here's a clip from one of the times we went skating with him...

Well that's about all that's new in our world right now. Hope everyone is staying warm and out of the snow back east. Take care!

Daddy's a Star

This is the commerical for the opening of the new Good Samaritan Hospital. Pay close attention to the physician examining the little boy. I think that you might recognize him...

Happy 2011!!

Happy 2011!! This will be a short post, unfortunately, because I really don't have many pics to share. We got a new lens for our camera and all our recent pics have a terrible case of red eye. So basically, it looks like we're all possessed. I will spare you the fright until I figure out how to fix this.

We had a busy week between Christmas and New Years. It seems like we had something planned everyday with friends. There was the train show with the Sobbas, Zoolights with the Guys, the firing range with some of Scott's co-workers, New Year's Eve with Jacques and Irina- just to mention a few of the highlights. After the New Year, we took Matthew ice skating for the first time. He seemed to enjoy it and would only take a 1-2 minute break before there was a request to "Let's skate some more". However, I think that we were way more sore than he was the next day from trying to keep him up on his two feet. But it was fun and we look forward to more "Taylors on Ice".

Well that's all for now. Stay tuned for some more snow pics. Looks like we might be in for a big one next week, still waiting to see. Matthew's very excited to build another snowman, especially since he now knows how to sing Frosty the Snowman : )

Take care.

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.