Christmas!

OK, so hopefully this post will wrap up the Christmas posts and get me back on track. 

Christmas Eve, Rachel M. and I hosted, what has morphed from our families’ Christmas Eve celebration into a Christmas Eve open house of sorts.  I love love love to bake between Thanksgiving and Christmas, so I bake up a storm and Rachel typically contributes the savory finger foods (and some sweets too).  We invite anyone who doesn’t have anything to do on Christmas Eve.  We always think not many people will come, but it ends up being 6 or 7 families and just the right number.

Of course, we work around the awesome Christmas Eve service at the church. 

I’ll tell ya, the service is one I look forward to every year.  It’s not long and it’s all family, so I wasn’t sure how Kylie would do.  But as expected (since we went to the 2:00 service), she fell asleep and slept right through the best part…

It’s an awesome quiet time right before the mass chaos of Christmas.

Christmas Eve, we let Jenna open up one gift and traditionally, it’s always pajamas…usually Christmas themed.  This year, there was a little twist and it was a big hit!

Footies!  And to top off the excitement of the day, right before we left for service, Jenna comes in with this…

Good thing the tooth fairy and Santa know each other! 

Christmas morning, Jenna managed to sleep until about 7:30 or 7:45.  I woke up before her, of course, and got presentable.  When everyone was up, we traipsed downstairs.

This little scooter thing was Jenna’s gift to Kylie.  She saw it somewhere (on tv, online?) and paid for it herself.  It is like a 360 ride on toy and so it’s very easy to maneuver and Kylie LOVES it.

I love this but still haven’t found time to put photos in it.  In time though…in time.

Jenna took money and bought both of us stuff and she is getting really good at picking out thoughtful gifts.  For instance, because Steve volunteers at the gun range, she picked him out a Wii paintball game.  But the biggest “Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle” gift this year was for Jenna.

So Jenna reads the riddle (there were numbers underneath but for privacy, I cropped them out) and she’s trying to figure out what it means when the box starts vibrating.

Now before I catch heck about giving my 11 1/2 year old a cell phone, an iPhone no less, let me explain…this is my old iPhone 4 (part of our early Christmas to each other was that Steve and I upgraded to 5s) and because of our shared minutes plan, it only cost me $10 more to put Jenna on the plan AND I am under no contract and dropped our $30/month mifi, so still saved $20.  Anyway, we wanted to see how responsible she would be while we have little to lose and lots of control.  In this day of instant contact, I like being able to reach Jenna when she’s at a friend’s house or across the street/outside playing.  Anyway, it has been a good thing for us (the best way to get her to listen is threaten to take away the phone!) and the phone did come with a list of rules that she had to agree to before accepting the phone.

Anddddd…that’s her reading them.    But all in all, she’s been good with it and I loved her excitement.

Later in the afternoon, we went for the Taylor family Christmas and how wonderful it was!

My niece Alex and her family weren’t able to make it in town but this is the rest of the crew.  I love these folks.

After that, we went home and exchanged with the big kids which I always enjoyable.

This is Steve with his gift from Chase.  I can assure you, he didn’t smile like this for ANY gift I got him  Humph.

We bought Gage a Wii which was his big surprise.  He didn’t really get too excited over it here, but Micah says they play it all the time so I know he is glad to have it.

It was a good Christmas.  Not too chaotic…I wished the weather had been colder.  I’m a fan of white Christmases, but that definitely wasn’t in the cards this year.  Maybe next…

And that concludes the Taylor Family Christmas of 2012.  Thanks for hanging in there with me!

Family Photos!!!

A few weeks ago, we met my good friend Samantha at Samantha Byers Photography, for some long overdue family photos.

The best thing about these photos is that they had my BIGS in them!!!  I love my big kids like nuts.  They were 10 and 6 (almost 7) when I met Steve and so I've been privileged to be part of their lives for a very long time.  5ish years ago, Micah gave birth to a son, Gage, and made me a "Mimi" at 33.

Now that they are grown, we don't see Micah and Chase as much and I miss them.  This is the first time Micah had even met Kylie and as I suspected, she took right to her.  So without further ado...the photos that will soon be hanging in my foyer...

 My handsome big boy, Chase.  He's gonna be a catch for the right girl.  He's motivated and a super hard worker.  And yeah, likely already makes 3x the salary I do.  I hope he remembers me when it's time to pick out my nursing home.  :)

Kylie is at the age where it's a big difficult to photography her because her attention span is about 2.534 seconds.  She really liked this chair though and was showing us how to say her prayers...and then saying "cheeeessseeee" at the same time.

Micah and Gage.  I know, right?  She can't deny him for sure.  And she is so pretty...always has been. I love this girl.  She is the best mom EVER.  She never ceases to amaze me.  And lemme tell you, both my bigs love Jenna to bits and pieces.  And Jenna is crazy about them both too.  To her, and now to Kylie, they are Sissy and Chasey.

Gage and Jenna.  I think he might like her a little.  This girl is the BEST with children.  She's gonna make a heck of a Mama some day.

She looks 15 here.  I don't wanna talk about it.  At first I was really frustrated with her hair and how it looked unkempt and not all smooth like how it looks best.  But you know, I decided I wanted to remember her just as she was at this age (which is ELEVEN, not 15!) and so I just let her be her.  I think she does a pretty good job of it.

There just aren't words to say how much I adore this photo.  LOVE LOVE LOVE.  I have been blessed with some dang good lookin kids...only one of which I can take biological credit for!

Sigh.

 

So if you are local and you want to capture your family like I did, click away on Samantha's link above and tell her I sent you.  Also, remember these?

Yep, that was Samantha too.  She has a special for adoptive families, so if you are local and adopting, click on because these homecoming photos are more valuable than almost anything I have for Kylie.



My Girl(s)

Something happened recently that I cannot wait to share with you all in great detail.  But until I can do that, I'm going to share with as much detail as I can.

Ever since Kylie has been home, I have had the intention of getting our family together for a family photo. 

And when I say "family", I mean our whole immediate family.  Which includes our two Bigs and my one Grand.  The last whole family photo we had was probably when Jenna was little.  When they both agreed, I was ecstatic!!

I set the date months in advance, but then we ran into snags because the sun is going down sooner now and we had to move the time up which created a problem with the Bigs getting off work in time to get ready and get all the way across town.  But thanks to our fabulous photographer (more on her in a later post), we worked out a new location closer to them.

Here's a sneak peak while I was getting ready...

Kylie has a thing about chairs and so when our photographer pulled on out, it was good times...

This was, believe it or not, my Big Girl's first time to meet Kylie.  I wasn't sure how she'd react to Micah, but as you can see, it didn't make any difference.  This girl has pointed at Micah's photo in our foyer for 7 months now, so she took right to her.

 

I can't wait to see the pictures of my Bigs.  CAN'T WAIT.  Micah is about as gorgeous as you can get and she takes a mean picture.  Chase is so good looking and I can't wait to post all the pictures here.  There are 3 16x20s of each of them, plus Jenna, hanging in our foyer.  Chase's is his Marine graduation (um, OLD) and Micah's is of her high school graduation (she's been out of there for nearly 10 years), so it's HIGH time I get those replaced.

 

Can you tell these two girls are related???



Happy Birthday!

I know I have been super delinquent in posting but I could not let this day go by without wishing my beautiful stepdaughter, Micah, a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

I'm not sure if she'd mind for me telling her age to the world, so I won't, but she's still in her 20s and is a great mom and young woman!

So, a shout out Happy Birthday wish to Micah!!!  I love you and hope this day was the best yet!


And for everyone else...please, please, please come back tomorrow because I promise I'll have a blog up and that I'll do better going forward...

Happy Birthday!

Today, my first ever "baby girl" turns 27.  Yes, you read that right...27.

Isn't she so pretty?

I met Micah when she was 10, the same age Jenna is now.  It was through her that I met Steve.  She wasn't necessarily trying to fix her dad up but that's just the way God used her to orchestrate it.

Micah and I have always been very close, but as she grown up and become a mom herself, we've grown apart as sometimes happens in life.

But my love for her has never changed.  She'll always be my brown-eyed girl.  My first ever "baby girl".  My first daughter.  The one who taught me how to be a parent (a step-mom).

Happy birthday Micah!  I love you!

5th Day of Christmas-Micah

Not to leave out any of my children, today is Micah's day!  I said a few words about her yesterday, but I wanted to say more about what she means to me.

Micah is the reason that Steve and I are together.  Many years ago when she was just a little girl, not much older than Jenna is now, she walked into my Sunday School class with her cousin Beth.  Because I had been at this church my entire life, I knew every child and each of their parents.  But Micah was new and I was instantly drawn to her.  Those of you who are teachers by trade or have ever taught a Sunday School or VBS class probably know what I'm talking about.  It's the kid that for some reason, you just have an instant connection to.  Now, I know that connection to Micah was divinely ordained.  Then, I had NO idea.

At any rate, Micah and I became very close.  VERY close.  Like I said earlier, she used to say, "I wish you could be my stepmother"...Micah was always very protective of Steve and I think she very much needed someone to watch out for him.  She is STILL very protective of Steve which makes her an excellent mother.

A couple years ago, Micah rocked our world (not the first time!) when she announced she was pregnant.  As most parents, we had concerns because while she wasn't a teen, she was still young (in our minds) and we didn't know how she would handle being a mother.

But can I tell you how she has blown our minds in what she's done?  First of all, she carried our sweet grandson, Gage, with little or no complaint.  She went through labor, had him and went home where she cared for him.  She didn't stay with us or her mom for weeks at a time.  She jumped right in and has turned out to be an excellent mother!  Not to mention while she was pregnant with Gage, she lost her job, but when he was about 2 months old, she decided to go get an education.  Now, she's a medical assistant at a peds office, no less.  She works full time and takes care of her boy.  Ask me how could a parent be any prouder?

She lives about an hour away from us, but we still see them fairly frequently and I cannot WAIT to see them on Christmas!  It's by far, my favorite time of year to be with them.  Gage is getting old enough now to understand Santa and gifts and it's going to be really fun.

And to Micah, I say...I love you.  You are the first "baby girl" I had and I've never gotten over the bond we forged when you were just a mere 10 years old.  I cannot WAIT to see what God has in store for you!