Happy Taylor Blog!

Tober and Isis 2010

2011-09-18T20:58:00.000-07:00

Photos of Isis 2010

2011-09-18T20:41:00.000-07:00

All I can say about these shots of our daughter is...you're welcome.

Heather had to work hard to get this shot with the mini guitar. Three chords and the truth, baby!
Last year's Halloween costume. We dressed Tober up as Miss Piggy ;)

Heather's mom's sister made this combo for Isis:

What a doll.

Photos of October 2010

2011-09-18T20:24:00.001-07:00

I'm trying to get caught up, so here are some random shots of our firstborn from last year:

Eclipse in Hong Kong

2011-08-07T13:37:00.000-07:00

I KNOW, I KNOW!!! My last post was in October! I've become a horrible blogger! Well, in an attempt to break out the paddles and try to bring the Happy Taylor Blog back to life I'm going to...pick up where I left off. I had some other pictures from our Hong Kong trip that were supposed to go after the ones I already posted, so I figured I might as well put them up. Better late than never, right? Right? Is anyone still out there???

Well, for the benefit of anyone who may be reading, I left off talking about Eclipse's performances in Hong Kong and how well we were received, but let me tell you, if you think the people in Hong Kong liked Eclipse, we were nothing compared to...
...our 4 month old daughter, Isis. I kid you not, carrying her around in the above-pictured baby backpack made me feel like I was wearing a Buzz Lightyear costume at Disneyworld! When we were walking the streets with the other members of Eclipse and their wives, the people would swarm us because we didn't have just one American baby, we had THREE!!
Paul & Becca's daughter is a month older than Isis and Jake & Ann's son is a month younger.
Everyone wanted to touch the babies and take pictures with the babies. It was crazy:
Hong Kong is just plain amazing. Skyscrapers as far as the eye can see. Here we are at the top of Victoria Peak, which is the best vantage point:
And here we are in front of the Skyline at night. They have lights on the outside of many of the buildings that are automated and each night they do an incredible light show where they flash the buildings on and off, choreographed to music:
The festival arranged for us to have escorts each day to help with transportation, translation, etc. Basically, they were supposed to keep us on schedule and out of trouble. Our main two "chaperones" were named Snowie and Sophia:
The Taylor fam with Sophie:
And with Snowie:
Whenever we go to Asia, our hosts take us out to at least one meal at a fancy restaurant so we can have a cultural experience by sampling some of the culinary delicacies of the region. First off, I would not really describe myself (or Heather) as an adventurous eater. Secondly, I am not really a fan of most seafood. That said, I particularly dislike seafood when it's staring at me:
No joke, when they served us the above-pictured fish, the locals at our table were telling us which parts of the eyeball were the tastiest. Here is the shrimp they served:
Finally they brought out some fried chicken and we thought our prayers had been answered until we realized they hadn't exactly prepared it "Kentucky Style." Instead, they had cooked it whole and then just chopped it in slices an put in on a plate...
...head and all:

I think part of it is a cultural difference where Asian people feel that they don't want food to go to waste. I am an American. I am of the strong opinion that certain parts of the animals we eat should be cut off and THROWN AWAY. Also, Chinese food vendors have very different ideas when it comes to things like, say, refrigeration. My food handlers permit may not be current, but I spent enough years working in restaurants to be just a little put off by the street market system of marketing food--particularly raw meat:That said, they feed a lot more people in China than we do here, so who am I to judge? It works for them and that's great. Overall, I have to say that Hong Kong is an amazing place. If you ever get the chance to go, do it! Hong Kong rules!!!

Eclipse Returns to China!

2010-10-02T13:46:00.000-07:00

So, the reason for Eclipse's trip to Hong Kong was to perform at the 2010 International A Cappella Festival. They brought over two groups from the US (Eclipse & Noteworthy), as well as groups from Sweden, Singapore, Japan and, of course, Hong Kong:

Our main performance was at the opening concert, called the "A Cappella Extravaganza," which was attended by about 4000 people:

The crowd was amazing! So enthusiastic and LOUD! They really made us feel like rock stars:

Here's a taste of what it was like from our wives' perspective (though, the video doesn't do justice to how loud it was):

The festival was put on by an organization called the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups.
Since 1960, they have been providing opportunities and facilities for social, educational, cultural, and physical development of young people. The a cappella festival is one of many events and activities they put on each year. In fact, last year their combined attendance at all of their activities was over five million!

In addition to our performances, they set up workshops and masterclasses for us throughout the week we were there. Here we are working with a men's choir at one of the local high schools:

Paul teaching them the "Hoook" breathing exercise:

We were very impressed when we found out that they showed up even though school was not being held that day:

Here we are performing a mini-concert at an all girls school:

Here we are at the entrance of Ocean Park with Riltons Vanner (one of the groups from Sweden) and a few of the members of the Hong Kong Melody Makers (a choir sponsored by the Federation of Youth Groups):

Ocean Park is part amusement park and part zoo. The biggest attractions on the zoo side are the dolphin shows and the panda exhibit:
Until this trip, I didn't know there two different types of pandas. As it turns out, the black & white variety that most people are familiar with is called the Giant Panda:

The other type, which we got to see up close, is the much smaller Red Panda (closer to the size of a koala bear):

Next up: Eclipse takes in the sights of Hong Kong

Shayne, Heather, & Isis in Hong Kong!

2010-10-02T13:43:00.001-07:00

So, we got back to Hong Kong and had a few days to play before the rest of the group arrived. if you've never been to Hong Kong before, you just cannot believe how many skyscrapers there are.
The day after we got there we got the chance to spend the evening with Emily Liu--a girl we met three years ago when we went to Shanghai. Proselyting is not allowed in China, so we had never mentioned the church while we were there. She found out about the church on the internet after we left and visited the Hong Kong Temple in June 2007. Long story short: She joined the church in August 2008 and received a mission call to Vancouver, Canada in 2009. When we met with her in Hong Kong she had already had her visa application denied twice and was waiting to hear back on her third attempt. We found out later that her visa was denied again, but in the meantime she had met an RM from Taiwan and when it became clear she was not going to be able to go on her mission he proposed! They were married in September 2010 in the Hong Kong Temple. Emily is an amazing girl and we were so glad we were able to see her again.

One of the excursions we took was to the Po Lin monastery, which boasts the world's largest seated bronze Buddha:

In order to get there, we took a cable car over a bay and a mountain. Even though it was overcast, the views were absolutely beautiful.

Here we are in front of the Hong Kong temple:

In addition to the floors that serve as the temple, the building houses a stake center and the mission offices for the China Hong Kong mission, which is where this picture was taken. My uncle, Brent Hardy, was the president of the mission from 1968-1971. He later served as the Hong Kong temple president from 1998-2001:

Next up, Eclipse arrives!

Shayne, Heather, & Isis in Singapore!

2010-10-02T10:02:00.001-07:00

Well, it's only taken six months to post pictures from our trip to Hong Kong and Singapore. Eclipse had been asked to perform in Hong Kong during the last week of March. Heather and I decided that if we were going to be that close, we might as well try to visit Heather's brother, Eric, and his family in Singapore. We left a week before the rest of the group, stayed overnight in Hong Kong, then caught a flight to Singapore (which is about 1500 miles from HK).

Isis was 4 months old the day we left and she was a trooper. We were able to get special seats in front of the bulkhead on the main flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong. They have small bassinets that attach to the bulkhead wall, which is a great blessing when the alternative is holding your baby for 14 hours straight. The above photo is Isis waiting patiently in the baby backback while we were waiting to get off the much smaller plane that took us to Singapore.

Eric met us at the airport with his 4 daughters: Kierica, Kasia, Kosette, and Kalista.

His wife, Keesha, then joined us and they took us out to eat and showed us around downtown Singapore.

Kalista is 9 months older than Isis.

The McPhersons were wonderful hosts. It worked out perfectly because the girls were on a break from school and Eric had some time off work. We got there on a Friday and left the following Tuesday. They gave us a whirlwind tour of the island (which is a country that consists of a single city). Some of the highlights included:

--The Singapore Flyer: This is a 165-meter-high observation wheel that takes 30 minutes to make one rotation and gives amazing views and an audio tour of the entire island.

--Ferry boat tour on Clarke Quay
--Ski-360: Wakeboarding by being pulled by a cable system around a man-made lake
--Sentosa Island theme park: This included an attraction that gave a history of Singapore and an amazing show on the beach that had a live cast as well as a laser light show with animated characters projected on sprays of water, choreographed water jets (like Bellagio fountains in Vegas) flame bursts, and pyrotechnics. Here's us at the Ski-360 park:
And here are some video clips:

We also got to go to the mall that has advertisements that feature a picture of the 3 older girls. It was a great time! Thanks McPhersons!

Next up, Hong Kong!

Awesome photoshoot with Marci

2010-08-19T12:33:00.001-07:00

Heather's sister, Marci, is a genius. Here is a photoshoot we did at Union Station in June:

October & Isis: Jan-Apr 2010

2010-08-10T17:43:00.000-07:00

Here are some random photos of the kids during the first part of this year (when Isis was 2-6 months old):

Tober really likes his little sister, but he's not always as gentle with her as we would like him to be:

Isis, however, is not completely defenseless:

We are constantly telling October not to step on Isis or climb on top of her or knock her over or hit her with things he's holding accidentally (or on purpose):

In spite of the abuse she takes on a daily basis, Isis ADORES October. It is so cute to watch her watch him and laugh at things he does. It is also cute to see October trying to make her laugh. Also, when we get her out of bed in the morning, he usually exclaims (in a high, sing-songy voice), "Good morning, baby Isis!"

We may be biased, but we think they are both pretty darn adorable:

Here are some examples of how October likes to involve his sister in playtime:

And, here are some more shots of the kids together:

Cakes, cakes, and more cakes!

2010-08-07T22:59:00.000-07:00

So, we got on a cake making kick for Tober's 2nd birthday. His birthday was in February, by the way--which is some indication of how dedicated I've been to this blog of late. Aaaanyway, these first two shots are of the awesome Lightning McQueen cake Heather made for the party on the McPherson side. I helped a little, but I can't take much credit. Needless to say, October was EXTREMELY pleased with the result:

We ended up having the Taylor birthday party a couple of weeks later and combined it with Tober's cousin, Riley, and his aunt, Trisha. Apparently Heather forgot how late we'd been up making the cars cake and volunteered to make three cakes--one for each birthday boy or girl. Tober's was a dumptruck--because nothing is yummier to me than the thought of a truck filled with garbage or debris:

Trisha's was a basket of fries--toasted sticks of pound cake with red frosting for ketchup (modeled below by her daughter, Taylor). Trying to make Lightning McQueen's 'paint' frosting and this 'ketchup' frosting taught us that you need a pantload of food coloring to even get CLOSE to red:

Riley's cake was a pink purse with flowers made of slices of marshmallow and a handle made of tootsie roll. We found out at 2am that even if you cut off the top and bottom of 2 round cakes and frost them together, they still don't like to stand on their sides. With my well-honed MacGuyver skills, I threw together a stand by filling a cardboard box with foam insulation and inserting a dozen or so shiskabob skewers into it. I then delicately slid the cake onto the skewers and it was good to go. After it was frosted and decorated, Heather wanted to protect it from a certain 2 year old we know, so she put it in the turned off oven. When we got home from church, we were gathering stuff up and Heather forgot and turned on the oven to broil in order to toast the 'fries' and broiled the top of the purse cake. Doh! She salvaged it the best she could and I thought it still looked great.

Go team.

Cars, Cars, and More Cars!

2010-07-04T23:33:00.000-07:00

Our son is obsessed with cars:

He likes to move them throughout the house and line them up on things:

It was not a surprise when he fell in love with the Disney movie, Cars. So, for his birthday we bought him some of the Cars characters, which he was EXTREMELY excited about:

He started lining the new cars up as well:

Before we left to Hong Kong, we got him some Cars pajamas and Cars shoes to help him be excited about going to stay with his grandparents for two weeks.

While we were in Hong Kong, we found him a Cars backpack, Cars shirt, and Cars crocks. Then my dad went to a garage sale and bought him a Cars bedspread, Cars pillow case, Cars nightlight, and Cars table & chairs.

It's a little ridiculous how much we've fed the addiction, but it's kind of hard to resist when he's so into it:

Next comes the Toy Story phase...

Beautiful Baby Isis

2010-04-18T22:18:00.000-07:00

So, I've been slammed since the first of the year and haven't been blogging. This is unfortunate because our daughter, Isis, is ridiculously cute and her photos need to be shared! I have some October and October/Isis posts in the works but, for now, I'm going to start with this random smattering of Isis photos. Enjoy!

A repost for Jana

2010-01-30T15:58:00.000-08:00

Jana wanted to see this one so I'm posting it for her benefit.

Happy Birthday, Jase!

2010-01-30T15:50:00.001-08:00

The second installment in a series of Birthday tributes set to music. Enjoy.

Tober & Isis Comparison Photos

2009-12-27T17:57:00.001-08:00

For those of you just tuning in, Heather's sister had identical twin girls in August. Here they are:

If you take a picture of Isis from a similar angle or with a similar facial expression as one of Tober's baby pictures, they really do look like twins. Check out these photos and decide for yourself. In each photo, Tober is on the left or the top:

Random shots of Isis

2009-12-14T01:34:00.000-08:00

Wow! This month has flown by and I have not found the time to post more pictures of Isis until now. This will just be a quick post to show you how cute she is, even though the pictures don't do her justice ;) Enjoy!

with mommy

with Tober

with the twins

Tober's Big Bonk

2009-11-23T00:00:00.000-08:00

Well, when brought Isis home last Thursday we thought our hospital adventures were over. We were wrong. Tober had been staying with Heather's parents while we were gone and they came up with a new game to help keep him occupied:

As you can see in the video, the walker kept him from falling down when he'd run into stuff and he loved the game. So, Heather and I decided to stay with her folks for a few days rather than going straight home from the hospital. On Friday evening (the day after we got there) her parents went to concert, so it was just us and the two kids. I had just finished feeding October and putting him in his pajamas. I went to the kitchen to get him a sippy cup, and in those 15 seconds he found the walker, climbed into it, and fell down the stairs. Here is the account that Heather wrote for her family newsletter:

...Shayne and I (who were the only people home) didn’t see the fall, but we heard the back of his head hit the floor at the bottom of the stairs. He was crying hard (good sign), bleeding from his mouth (bad sign), and his left eye was immediately sealed shut and swelling fast (uh oh). We very quickly realized this was an ER visit. I was grabbing stuff for me and the baby, too, but Shayne wanted to just take him and go—then we realized the blood from his mouth was thick and gooey (we thought it maybe included some tissue), so I decided I didn’t want him to have an airway problem while strapped in the back seat with Shayne up front (plus I was worried about a spinal fracture), so I called 911 and requested an ambulance (the EMT told me I made a good call). They put a C collar on him and strapped him down to a board. He was obviously hurting, crying, and probably scared, but he tried hard to be cooperative with the multiple strangers (he did really well). Shayne rode in the back of the ambulance while I rode up front. Amy Hess (Mom’s neighbor) came over and drove our car with 3-day-old Isis in the back seat. (We didn’t want to bring her into the germ-filled ER [in fact, once there, they told her “No way is that baby coming inside here.”], but I didn’t want to stay home [especially since Toby was crying, “Mom, Mom” when I walked out of his field of vision], so Amy stayed in the car with the baby and called me whenever she needed a feeding.) At McKay-Dee, a CAT scan was done to assess spine, mouth, and eye bones. There is a displaced fracture in the orbital bone above his left eye, but no fracture to mouth or neck. Unfortunately, he had to keep the C collar on as a precaution (he hated it). After a while, they transferred us (via ambulance for October, with Shayne) to Primary Children’s Hospital for assessment of the eye and possible surgery. Mom and I drove separately; Dad drove Sister Hess home and got a load of supplies, clothes, etc. from home that Shauna had kindly gathered up for us.

We (Dad, Mom and I, and Shayne with October) got to Primary’s ER around 11:30pm (the accident happened around 7:30 or 8). They looked at the CAT scan and got him seen by an ophthalmologist. He said the eye looks uninjured (though the assessment was a bit hindered by the significant swelling), but the fracture’s displaced bone can touch and affect the muscle above his eye. They told us that surgery was a definite; it’s just a matter of who would perform it (either ENT or neurosurgery). They admitted him to a room with a crib (and a pull-out cot for Shayne). The staff was awesome with Tober.

(Shayne again:) Something is weird with the fonts in this post and it won't let me save my changes so, whatever. Anyway, we decided that I would stay over with Tober and that Heather would go home with Mom and Dad so she could take care of Isis. We finally were able to go to sleep around 2am, and Tober had to sleep in his C collar because, due to his being on morphine, they hadn’t been able to assess his ligaments for whiplash. They woke him up at 4am to check his vitals, then came in at 7:30 to draw blood. He woke up around 9am and they were able to clear him to remove the C collar, which helped morale a great deal. They also cleared him to eat since we were not doing surgery immediately. I ordered him some food, but started feeding him crackers while we waited. Not surprisingly, he was starving, so he was pounding the Goldfish (“More fish?!”) and Teddy Grahams (“More bears?!”) as fast as he could shove them into his little mouth.

He was checked out by ENT and neurosurgery and they both agreed that, based on the size and location of the fracture, surgery was not justified at this point unless his eye functioning was being affected. So, they had the ophthalmologist come back and dilate his eye to do a thorough assessment. Everything looked good, so we will not be doing surgery unless problems arise in the future. We have to follow up with them in 10 days to reassess his eye function.

Other than getting assessed by the 3 specialists, the only thing they were keeping us in the hospital for was to make sure he was not showing signs of concussion: vomiting, hypersomnia, seizures, loss of balance, change in behavior/appetite, etc. The good news was that he was acting completely normal. The bad news was that normal for him is super busy and getting into everything, which is a problem when you are confined to a small room filled with expensive medical and electronic equipment. The staff brought him a bunch of toys and balls and that helped, but by the afternoon I was struggling to keep him occupied. When I tried to put him down for a nap I laid him down and left the room for about 20 minutes. When I came back to check on him he was standing up and reaching over the bars to play with the IV and computer.

Overall, the main thing we learned is that Tober is a CHAMP! He was a total trooper with the pain, the fear, the multiple doctors, etc. Any time they asked him to do something (look here or there, open mouth, hold still for CAT scan, get an IV, etc.), he would do it easily—even when he wasn’t on pain meds. He also charmed every one of the medical workers who came in with his sign language and words and personality. When they were working on our discharge paperwork, I took a load of stuff down to the car and left him with our nurse. Our room was near the main desk, so he was out there playing with all the staff. When I came back the nurse said, “We have a problem. Everyone thinks he’s so cute that we don’t want him to leave.” We finally got released around 8:30pm and I was exhausted. He has been doing just great since then and we expect that he'll make a full recovery.

Introducing Isis Lora Taylor!

2009-11-17T09:36:00.000-08:00

Well, folks, here she is! Weighing in at 6 lbs 13 ounces and measuring 19 inches, Isis Lora entered the world at 6:09am after 20 hours of painful and exhausting labor. We think she is amazing:

Due to the swine flu epidemic, McKay Dee Hospital instituted a 'two wristbands per patient' rule, which means that only myself and one other person are allowed into the maternity wing. This restriction includes labor, delivery, and post-partum, and the wristbands are non-transferable. At the last minute they upped the limit from two to three, so both grandmas were able to come:

It is amazing to me that Heather can look so beautiful after going through such an ordeal:

Like Tober, I think Isis is going to take after her mommy, which is fantastic:

At 21 months old, we're not sure how October is going to react when he meets his new sister but, for now, we are enjoying our time with the wee lass:

Speaking of October, here are a couple of photo comparisons that highlight the sibling resemblance:

October

Isis

October

Isis

These are just a couple of shots I had on my laptop. I'll find some better ones when we get home. Heather is sleeping now and I am ready to join her...

Happy Birthday, Isis!

A few of Tober's favorite things

2009-10-04T11:20:00.000-07:00

This will be a fairly random post. These are some recent photos and videos, in no particular order, that show different things that our son is a fan of. Starting with...

Basketball! He is actually a fan of any type of ball, but when he first gets up in the morning his first words are usually, "Ball? Hoot?" He puts a T on the end of words that end in P, like hoop and poop. (When we find that he needs a diaper change, he'll point at his diaper and say, "Poot.") Anyway, this footage is kind of crappy because we inadvertently changed the settings on our camera and didn't realize it until we dumped the footage onto our computer. You'll see in the video that Tober's grandpa McPherson helps feed his addiction. You'll also see that he's a pretty good shot for a little dude.

Dancing! This is Tober showing off his sweet dance moves at a party with his cousins.

Binkies! Tober has been a "binkiphiliac" from the very beginning, and we are now try wean him off of them. Even so, this video of him doubling up is too cute not to share:

Videos! We only let him watch "Signing Time" and "Your Baby Can Read" DVDs, but even with these limited choices he is hooked.

Cheese! He's like a big mouse. In this picture he is eating cheese while watching a video. Can life get better? I submit that it cannot!

Making messes! He wreaks havoc throughout our house getting into things and, given the chance, he will smear food all over himself:

Cars! In both signing and speaking, 'car' was one of his first words. Again, grandpa McPherson is partly to blame for his fixation. Since Tober was tall enough to stand, his grandpa would let him play in the driver seat of his car while he read books in the passenger seat.

Climbing on things and into things! He is strong, coordinated, and fearless. When he can't get to where he wants, he will pull objects over to use as a stepping stool.
This is him after he climbed on my parents' table and found my mom's glasses:
In addition to climbing into things, he likes to take small objects and insert them into holes, crevices, etc. The cupholders in this cooler lid were just screaming out for his toothbrush and a couple of our measuring spoons.

Shoes! If he isn't wearing shoes, he takes one of two courses of action. The first is to repeatedly sign and say the word shoes until we put shoes on him. The second is to try on mom and dad's shoes:
We know it's probably not appropriate to put this video on our blog but, holy crap, it is cute.

Putting things on his head or hanging them around his neck! We call this first video "Easter Feedbag."

We saved the best for last. We love his unconventional use of our clothes hampers and his beach bucket, but it was his behavior while wearing the bucket that really cracked us up. Enjoy!

Hazards of an Active Lifestyle

2009-09-20T08:15:00.000-07:00

So, I'm not really sure while I've decided to share these photos, but there have been a few mishaps at the Taylor household in the last little while and I thought I would document them. Tober is a big fan of the car pictured below, and his cousins love to push him around in it.

We learned quickly that it is not a good idea to let them push him if he doesn't have shoes on, for reasons pictured below:

Speaking of toe injuries, when we were in North Carolina I was playing football with Heather's family on the beach and broke my little toe by kicking Heather's brother in the ankle going for a pass:

It swelled up and turned even darker than the picture above--it looked like a grape. It wouldn't have been so bad, except for the fact that I kept re-injuring it by walking into things around the house. When you stub your already broken toe on the leg of a chair, it is not a happy experience. Heather's mom, bless her heart, came up with a solution by fashioning a square sandal of sorts out of a cereal box in order to protect me from me:

It helped a lot. Plus, it was terribly comfortable. I think everyone is going to be wearing these in the future ;)

Tober runs into stuff and falls down a lot, but doesn't usually get much more than minor cuts or scrapes. A couple of weeks ago, however, he tripped in our front room and hit his head on the corner of the cold air return grate. We didn't see the impact and didn't know why he was crying from such a minor fall, then I picked him up and he had blood running down his face from a goose egg that looked like a marble had been inserted under the skin on his forehead. Here's what it looked like after we stopped the bleeding:

He calmed down quickly--he's a pretty tough kid. Even so, I am working on creating some sort of helmet for him out of a Froot Loops box ;)

The Taylor Family: Summer 2009

2009-08-24T23:26:00.000-07:00

Here we are on the beach in North Carolina:

Look at these two beautiful faces!

Speaking of beautiful: This photo won't do it justice, but for Heather's birthday her mom commissioned Marci to draw this amazing portrait of October. Amazing.

Haircuts and Fancy Desserts

2009-08-24T23:03:00.000-07:00

We recently gave Tober a much-needed haircut, and Heather put him in my "Haircut Umbrella" which, on a toddler, looks more like a futuristic dress of some sort:

While we're on the subject of haircuts, Heather donated another Lock of Love in March. Here's the before and after:

Heather is very good at growing hair quickly to donate to chemo patients, but she is AMAZING at making fancy desserts. A couple of weeks ago we had a combined birthday party for her sister, Marci, and Marci's husband Dan. Heather had never made cream puffs before, but she decided to give it a shot. Even though it was her first attempt, she decided to step it up a notch or ten and we were treated to cream puff swans filled with custard and vanilla bean ice cream (and swimming in a chocolate sauce pond):

She used the leftovers to make a little family of swans for our little family:

Signing Time with October Taylor

2009-08-24T22:23:00.000-07:00

So, we have had the first 6 videos in the "Signing Time" series since October was about 12 months old. We have found them extremely helpful in that they help him express himself and tell us what he wants even though he can't say the words yet. His spoken vocabulary is growing quickly (the second video was taken right after he started saying banana out loud), but he still uses signs for a lot of things.

Swimming at Shayne's birthday party

2009-08-23T22:02:00.000-07:00

So, Tober has become quite a fan of swimming this summer. Here are some photos and video clips from my birthday party. You'll see that he's pretty adventurous and daring, but doesn't quite have the motor skills to back it up.

Photos from Mom's 60th

2009-08-23T21:32:00.000-07:00

Mom's party was a luau, and Karissa made this amazing cake:

RAAAAARGH!!!

Dance photo with Heather:

Dance photo with Jason:

Aloooo-ha!

Mom's 60th Birthday tribute

2009-07-13T09:47:00.000-07:00

Here is a little medley we put together to honor all of our mother's lovable little quirks on her 60th birthday.

Birthdays!

2009-07-07T21:04:00.000-07:00

Okay, so we've been blogging slackers for a while now. Hopefully we'll get back on track soon but, for now, this video of Tober's 1st birthday will have to suffice. We tried to recreate the cake from Shayne's first birthday--the first part of this clip is us showing the footage to Heather's family. The recreation didn't work out that well, but that's okay.

And, while we're on the subject of birthdays, some of you may not know that we have another birthday coming up sometime in November--that of Tober's baby sister!
We just found out yesterday that we're having a girl! Pretty darn exciting if you ask us. We really didn't have a strong preference either way, but Heather's sister, Marci, is pregnant with identical twin girls that will only be 2-3 months older than our daughter, so that will be fun. The only downside is that October will remain the only boy cousin on the McPherson side. With these 3 newest ones it will bring the total to nine girls and one boy. The Taylor side is much more boy-heavy, so they were excited to add another girl to the mix (the new total will be five girls and ten boys).

Taking care of Busyness 2

2009-04-12T08:44:00.000-07:00

So, Tober is now14 months old and busier than ever.

He still loves the dishwasher...

And the fridge...

And any garbage can he can get to. We found out a little too late that he likes to gather items from around the house and put them in the kitchen garbage. Before we caught on, we're pretty sure that our DVD remote and all of his baby utensils ended up at the dump.

Tober is definitely one of those kids you have to watch constantly. If you leave him alone for a minute you are likely to find him doing something like this:

This last video shows how energetic he is, but it's also a little embarrassing. You might be a redneck if . . . your baby gate consists of an ironing board propped up by two vacuum cleaners! I know it's about as white trash as you can get, but that's exactly what we used for several months while we tried to find a baby gate that would work. The problem we had was that the post for our railing did not line up with the end of the wall on the other side, so a traditional baby gate wouldn't work because it would be mounted on an angle. I finally found a curved gate and it works great, but this footage remains.

The new gate:

Bath time

2009-04-05T20:34:00.000-07:00

Tober LOVES to take baths. He'd stay in there all day if we let him.

Before we get to the video footage, I'd like to prove, once again, that he is his mother's son. We took the picture below to try and recreate a photo we found at Heather's grandma's house:

This is Heather with her sister Lora when she was approximately the same age. I don't care who you are--that's a striking resemblance right there!

Here are a couple of other random shots:
Tober's Uncle Jared and Aunt Chrissa think this last one makes him look like Elroy from the Jetsons. Not only do they look alike, but they are both geniuses!

And now for the good stuff. The first part of this video is what happens when he hears the bath running. The second part is what happens when we let him play with the soap:

None of these are these do justice to the actual experience, but hopefully they give you a glimpse at how much he loves bath time.

Tober's first snow experience

2009-04-05T15:29:00.000-07:00

I found this snow suit at Kid-to-Kid and had to get it even though it has the wrong NFL logo. How sweet would it have been if this was a Bears outfit? Anyway, these photos were taken in January--Tober was 11 months old and this was his first real experience playing in the snow.

It didn't go quite as well as we'd hoped. We'll let the video below speak for itself.

Christmas and New Year's 2008

2009-02-21T10:02:00.000-08:00

We had a happy Christmas.

The Eclipse Christmas concerts at the Grand Theatre were a big success.

Jenny Jordan Frogley performed with us as a guest artist. She brought along her husband, Scott, and also Daniel Beck to perform duets with her. She also sang Silent Night with Eclipse. She's freaking awesome.

On Christmas we acted out the nativity with Heather's family. Tober played the part of baby Jesus. Somehow I can't imagine the Christ child crawling out of his manger and trying to escape, but that's the character choice he made, so we just went with it.

My mom traditionally buys new pajamas for each of her grandkids at Christmas, but she ended up giving Tober a really cute Santa costume instead. Here he is with his aunt Marci:

Opening his presents:

Christmas morning:

Here he is with the other Taylor grandkids in their new PJs. We like how he's holding his binky like a stogey in this shot.

Eclipse had been asked to sing on New Year's Eve at Sun Valley Resort.

In addition to our booking fee, they provided us with a 4-day ski vacation, which was sweet. We got free lift tickets, stayed in a 5-star hotel, and could eat at any restaurant or ski lodge for free.

Here's Tober lounging in our bed at the Sun Valley Inn.

The other cool thing was that we got to hang out with the Sun Valley Carolers. The guys in Eclipse were part of this group when we were at Utah State.

For those of you not familiar with Sun Valley, let me provide some background. Sun Valley is a resort in the middle of Idaho that caters to rich people and celebrities. There are a bunch of famous people (Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, etc.) who have homes there. The resort is owned by Earl Holding, who also owns Sinclair Oil, Little/Grand America Hotels, and Snowbasin. The two main hotels have outdoor swimming pools that are heated to the temperature of a hot tub during the winter months, which feels amazing after a long day of snowboarding.

The resort goes to great lengths to create a magical, Christmasy atmosphere during the holidays. At the heart of this effort is the Sun Valley Carolers. This is a group of 12 singers (6 guys, 6 girls) that go around the village each evening dressed in Dickens-era costumes and sing Christmas songs for people. They carry handbells, which they use to accompany themselves on many of their songs. They stop at each of the Sun Valley restaurants and Santa Claus goes with them to interact with the kids at each stop. People love it!

The carolers are there for 2 weeks, from the middle of December until New Year's Day. This year they added a second set of carolers, so they could be in more places, visit the restaurants multiple times each evening, etc. Here they are warming up before going out to carol:

Here was my basic schedule when I was a Sun Valley Caroler:
Step 1--get up, put on snowboarding clothes
Step 2--eat free breakfast
Step 3--go snowboarding
Step 4--eat free lunch
Step 5--swim in pool that doubles as a massive hot tub
Step 6--take a nap
Step 7--eat free dinner
Step 8--get dressed in Dickens costume
Step 9--warm up and devotional with the carolers
Step 10--go caroling
Step 11--go swimming again or watch a movie or play games
Step 12--go to sleep
--repeat the above steps the next day...

Not a bad way to live for a couple of weeks, huh? Eclipse was there for 4 days in this case, but we're not young, single, college students anymore, so adjustments had to be made. We traded off watching each other's kids so that everyone got a chance to hit the slopes. The guys with older kids were able to take them to Dollar Mountain (the kids slope) to try out skiing or snowboarding, which was cool. On the last day, the wives and kids went to brunch together so the guys could go snowboarding together. It was just like old times! Here are some shots of us on the slopes:

James, Dan, Jake, Kevin, and me:

The view from the top of the lift:

One of our favorite jumps. The first time I didn't get enough momentum going into it:

The second time was much better:

Thanksgiving 2008

2009-02-01T06:16:00.000-08:00

For Thanksgiving, we went down to Vegas to visit family. We stayed at my brother Jason's house:

While we were there, a dark wizard attacked October and tried to kill him. He escaped unscathed, except for a scar on his forehead:

The event reminded us of another boy who had a similar experience:

The real story is that he scratched his forehead on the post of someone's earring. The same photoshop magic that allowed us to create October's very realistic Harry Potter costume also made it possible to remove the scar:

There is a park near my brother's house, and the Tobmeister was able to frolick with his cousins to his heart's content:

Abra-Cadabra!

I'll end with a couple of video clips. After church on Sunday, we spent some time frolicking in the grass:

Our son hates the feeling of grass on his neck and ears. Here's his reaction when we lay him down:

Family photoshoot: Fall 2008

2009-01-11T21:01:00.000-08:00

This was a quick, semi-impromptu photoshoot with Heather's sister, Marci, that turned out great, especially considering we were racing against the setting sun. Well, that and the fact that October isn't exactly one for holding still.

Taking Care of Busyness

2009-01-10T22:18:00.000-08:00

If I had to describe October Taylor in two words, those words would be CUTE and BUSY. Let's start with the cute photos:

And now, the busy photos:

He LOVES the dishwasher and, especially, the fridge. His favorite feature of the fridge? The little button that turns the light off when you push it. The fastest you will ever see him move is when we open the fridge door when he's on the other side of the room. If we close the door before he gets there, he cries as if we just slapped him in the face.

He became mobile earlier than we were expecting and I hadn't gotten around to putting child locks on the cabinets. Tober was nice enough to remind me on a daily basis until I got it done:

Even though he wreaks havoc on our house, his active personality is actually very endearing.

And, at the end of a busy day of mischief, he sometimes just passes out before he has a chance to lie down.

Adventures in baby feeding

2008-12-22T19:29:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I haven't blogged for a while, so there are going to be multiple posts in a row. Here are some photos and video of Tober getting started with the wide world of solid foods.

Here he is at 6 months old trying to figure out how to swallow rice cereal:

Shortly after this video was taken, he went through a phase where he decided he didn't really want to swallow solid food. He would just hold his mouth open and stare at us. Not upset, but not swallowing either:

Okay, in this video he's a little upset:

He finally got things figured out and eats pretty well now. We finally figured out that he eats much better if we give him a toy or something to play with while he's eating. He's now 10 months old and is a big fan of finger foods. The problem is, he seems to enjoy smearing food on himself just as much as he enjoys eating it. Take, for example, his first experience with Spaghettios:

And here are a few more mealtime shots:

Halloween for the undecided

2008-11-10T21:23:00.000-08:00

If your name is October, your first Halloween is a big deal. We couldn't decide what costume he should wear, so we tried a few different options. This first one isn't really a costume, per se--
just a cute halloweeny outfit:

This Tigger outfit was given to us by a nice lady in our ward. And the wonderful thing about Toby is that he's the only one.
He's . . . the only one!

Heather couldn't resist dressing him up as a rugby player, especially since she could accent his ensemble with a mini New Zealand All-Blacks ball (a gift from her brother, Eric):

Out of season, we know, but he won't fit in this "Santa's Little Helper" outfit come Christmas:

This costume is either "hunter" or "military" (note the dog tag) and came from another nice lady in the ward. Yes, the Crocs are camouflage as well:

If only we had a mini-Harley to go with this outfit:

In the end, the costume we chose to go with was the one we borrowed from Shayne's sister, Karissa. October looked extremely cute in it, but we had to wake him up from a nap to go to our family parties. This is clearly written on his face:

He looks a little happier in this family shot:

For the occasion, Heather decided to get all Betty Crocker and created these amazing mini-pizzas and cupcakes:

Awesome pictures from Marci

2008-10-05T13:49:00.000-07:00

Heather's sister, Marci, is amazingly talented and somehow is able to almost capture how cute October actually is:

We love this one because is shows how he likes to rotate his tongue in his mouth:

This is a common expression when he is excited about something:

And this is a commone expression when he's just chillin':

This one shows off his chubby little fingers:

And this one shows off his flair for fashion:

September

2008-09-28T21:02:00.001-07:00

Just when you think your son can't get any cuter, you end up with photos like these:

We are entering the wild world of solid foods, and the results are a little hit and miss (more on that later):

Shayne has been having a ton-o-fun performing in "Forever Plaid"

Shayne volunteered Heather to make some of the props used in the show, and she ended up taking on the role of 'props mistress.' They even listed her as the props person in the show's program. Here is one of the record covers that Smudge uses during his monologue:

Heather's mom helped us with the huge project of making these arm bands for the Calypso number...

...and here's the finished product. Heather got my fruit hat from the person who threw Emily Seamons' baby shower:

This is an in-progress shot of making the gold records...

...and what they look like on stage:

In addition to Forever Plaid, Eclipse had a few shows in September. This is us after a concert at the Spanish Fork Arts Festival. October's shirt says, "I'm with the band." His face, on the other hand, says, "It's way past my bedtime."

The day after the concert in Spanish Fork, we did a fireside at the Assembly Hall on Temple Square, which was pretty darn cool:

Here's Toby with a couple of other kids from our ward:

And here he is watching a Bears game with his dad:

And, finally, a video of Toby frolicking with his dad's hat:

August

2008-09-02T13:24:00.001-07:00

Apparently we caught October by surprise when we snapped this photo.

His pack-n-play has a bar that has little elephant heads hanging from it. It's a little creepy if you ask me, but he seems to enjoy it. They are velcroed on, so he reaches up until he can get a good hold and then...

...he rips off the severed, shrunken elephant head.

And that makes him happy.

Look at that cute little naked baby!

Kevin & Joni Huff (the same people that blessed all of our lives with Toby's awesome, powder blue suit) sent him this onesie when he was born.

We think he's the cutest baby in the whole ward.

If you've looked at our other posts, you'll know we're big fans of re-creating shots of October from when he was really little. Here's another example:

videos

2008-08-31T22:53:00.000-07:00

July

2008-08-31T22:19:00.000-07:00

In case you missed it, Toby looks like Heather:

For the Taylor family vacation, we went down to St. George and then to my brother Jason's new home in Las Vegas. This is us trying out his new pool:

October has gotten some new stuff this summer, courtesy of ksl.com, including this "exer-saucer"...

...And this swing. (We quickly learned that we couldn't let him nap in the swing without buckling him in.)

He got this shirt from his Uncle Jared and Aunt Chrissa. (He also got a larger version from Paul and Becca [Eclipse]--and it will be just as true a year from now.)

He got this suit from our friends, Kevin and Joni. It is lined and has pockets and even little shoulder pads (to make him look more manly). It has pants that match the jacket, but they are too long at the moment. Check out that bowtie!

We don't know where this bat came from, but Heather couldn't resist the photo op...

...and Tober couldn't resist trying to eat it.

And here he is at his first rodeo:

"We are a happy fam-a-leee"

Bear Lake with the McPhersons

2008-07-06T18:47:00.000-07:00

For this year's family vacation, Heather's family chose to rent a cabin right next to the very beautiful and very cold Bear Lake:

If you're going to go to Bear Lake, there are two things you must do. First, you need to visit one of the several ice cream shake joints (i.e. a raspberry shake at La Beau's) and, second, you need to see a show at the Pickleville Playhouse (www.picklevilleplayhouse.com). On this trip, we enjoyed a melodrama that was written by former Eclipse man, TJ Davis:

Here we are with TJ and his wife, Erin, after the show. For those of you who don't already know, Shayne will be performing with TJ in a production of "Forever Plaid" this fall. Should be fun! It opens Sept. 11 and goes through Oct. 4 in Logan. I imagine ticket information will be available on the website above in the next little while.

The trip gave Tober a chance to hang with his aunt Shauna:

And aunt Marci:

And grandma McPherson:

The ingenious use of the golf umbrella attached to the baby backpack was Heather's idea:

On this trip, Toby went on his first 4-wheeler ride:

And for his first "swim"--in a lake no less!

We kept him in the shallow part that was reasonably warm and he really seemed to enjoy himself:

And we thought he looked especially cute in his "baby speedo."

Here's Toby frolicking in the lake:

And here he is on his 4-wheeling adventure:

Father's Day in Portland

2008-07-06T16:48:00.000-07:00

Eclipse was in Portland over Father's Day weekend. They had a concert on Saturday night and then stayed over to do a fireside on Sunday night:

One of my best friends from high school, Shane Malan, came to the concert with his wife, Jessica. We were able to visit them and their two little boys after the fireside on Sunday. Also, Heather's cousin, Alyssa, had just barely moved to Portland so her husband, Robbie, can go to PA school. They have two cute little girls and we got to stay at their house Saturday night and go to church with them on Sunday. Here is Heather and Alyssa with Toby and their oldest daughter, Emily:

And here's Toby with their younger daughter, Madeline, who is a few weeks his senior:

Heather is a fan of all things miniature, so she couldn't pass up the opportunity to take photos of Tobe on Alyssa's doll furniture:

Here's us on Father's day at the home of the nice family that made dinner for Eclipse:

And here is the group in front of the Portland Temple after the fireside:

Shayne's first Father's Day:

I think October's onesie says it all

3 months old already

2008-07-06T14:38:00.000-07:00

Okay, so he's actually FOUR months old now, but here are some shots we took a month ago...

You never realize how much sleep means to you until you have children:

We don't know why, but October prefers a very weird sleeping position:

It doesn't matter what position we lay him down in, he will eventually end up looking like this:

He's really been growing, and we have these next few photos to prove it. Here he is on his boppy at 1 month old:

And again at 3 months old:

His bouncer at 1 month:

And at 3 months:

We'll end this post with a couple of really cute videos. This first one is of the Tobester giving his mom some great giggles:

And this one is but a glimpse of the ever active legs of October Shayne Taylor:

Costumes and Hairdos

2008-05-18T22:05:00.000-07:00

Oh, man, this kid is cute.

And now, for your enjoyment, we present some of the more notable outfits and hairdos of the past month or so, starting with...
the Faux-Hawk:

The Dwight K. Schrute look:

The first swim party:

And, finally, commando clothing compliments of Kristy Schroeder:

See! I told you he was cute!

Photo shoot #2 with Marci

2008-05-18T21:54:00.001-07:00

Marci is awesome...

video

2008-05-16T00:02:00.000-07:00

Ladies and Gentlemen, we present to you our first video clip of October. Our son is a very wiggly young man. Heather is just glad that
"Kicky Kickerson" is no longer inside her. She'd much rather
watch it than feel it ;)

October in April

2008-05-15T21:54:00.000-07:00

Here are a selection of shots we took of October last month.

He's getting bigger and more responsive, which is super-fun.

Being a mother is like having 3 full-time jobs. What's that you say? Three 8-hour shifts in a day add up to 24 hours? Exactly.

Aerial view of Toby in his Snuggly.

Side view of Toby helping his dad with the accounting.

There are no words for cuteness of this magnitude:

Toby Taylor.
Combover hairdo.
Zoolander "Blue Steel" expression.
Priceless.

Big kid outfit #1:

Big kid outfit #2:

This is one of Heather's favorite onesies. We got a TON of clothes given to us from a neighbor. They are done having kids, so it was sort of a "going out of business" thing. Accessories provided by Heather's friend, Chandra.

Photo shoot #1 with Marci

2008-05-15T20:58:00.001-07:00

So, we haven't posted for a while and we have a lot of catching up to do. The photos in this first post are from Tober's 1st official photo shoot with Heather's sister, Marci, who is a professional photographer:

It wasn't the most successful photoshoot for two reasons. First, Tob was dealing with a little baby acne (which has since cleared up).

Second, he was sort of having a rough day and didn't quite appreciate having his personal space violated.

Despite these obstacles, Marci was able to get some pretty cute shots,
including this one of him in his boppy.

And this one of his little feet.

And this one of his little back.
(Who knew back wrinkles could be so cute?)

He'd better enjoy it now, because they
won't be considered cute later in life.

We did another photo shoot about a week later, but the pics are on

Marci's computer. I'll get them up as soon as I can because

I know there are some gems to be had.

Blessing Day

2008-04-08T00:31:00.000-07:00

We blessed October on Easter Sunday. This was a little sooner than we would have normally done it (he was 4 weeks old) but my out-of-state siblings were in town for the baptism of my oldest nephew. The blessing went really well, and after church Heather's sister, Marci, agreed to do a mini photo shoot:

This outfit was a gift from Heather's family.

Marci chose it, and Lora went in on it, which made it extra special:

Oh, what a handsome lad. Look at that tiny bowtie:

This is a documented infant reflex called the "fencing pose." En guard!

The Taylor Family:

This bonnet came with the outfit and I wasn't really a fan.

Then Marci took this picture and I had to admit that it was darn cute.

And, one last shot with the bunny slippers, in honor of Easter.

Bath Time, Tummy Time, and Nap Time

2008-04-07T23:50:00.000-07:00

Oh, boy, do we have some good ones for you today. Sort of a

"Day in the Life of October Taylor" collection. We'll start with bath time:

We love this first one because he looks like we walked in on him

and took him by surprise:

He won't be able to bathe in the sink for very much longer:

We started out taking very tasteful pictures,
where the bubbles helped us to be discreet:

But, pretty soon the bubbles weren't doing their job very well...

...and all of a sudden it was like, "PEEKABOO!"
(We apologize for sharing these uncensored pictures and hope that this blog won't be around when Tobe is old enough to be completely traumatized by this little "wardrobe malfunction.")

Let's move on to photos that are a little less revealing, shall we?
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you...tummy time:

We think October is a shoo-in for this year's

"Most Kissable Cheeks" award.

We will conclude our little tour with nap time. Our son doesn't like to sleep on his back very much, which is unfortunate since this is generally considered to be the safest sleeping position. We do what we can at night, but for his naps he sleeps best if we let him use his Boppy.

This leads to some adorable sleeping positions, like this one:

And this one:

And, especially, this one. I know it looks like we took great pains to pose him just right, but this position was all Toby.

I'm tellin' ya, life is pretty good when you get to hang out

with a kid as cool as October.

I know he's only six weeks old but, even so, he's the man.

Catching up with October

2008-04-07T23:04:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since we put up pictures on this blog, but that doesn't mean we haven't been taking any! He is growing fast and, we think, getting more and more cute. Here is a selection of some of our favorite photos:

Heather is secretly hoping that Tober grows up to be a rugby player like his mom. Here he is with a mini version of a New Zealand All-Blacks ball:

A shot of him in the buff after a bath:

Man, that's a cute kid!

This onesie isn't going to fit him come Halloween,
so we decided to get our use out of it now:

Also, being named October sort of gives you free reign to dress
like it's halloween all year long, right?

Don't you just want to nibble those little toes?

Honestly, there's nothing better than him looking up at you

while he's in his carseat:

This is me weighing him again on our postal scale.

He was up to about 9 1/2 pounds:

We showed the full-size laundry basket in a previous post,

but not with him in it.

Even though he's put on a couple of pounds, he's still just a little guy:

Since the very beginning, he's always given us lots of eye contact...

...and smiles:

His hair has thinned somewhat, but it's beginning to grow back:

Heather bought these bunny slippers long before we even got pregnant. She would have put him in them even if it wasn't Easter:

Heather is all about Toby in just a onesie and his bunny slippers:

I think he'd be adorable in whatever we put him in--

a paper sack...anything:

What a sweetie.

Conner Turns Eight!

2008-03-15T13:30:00.001-07:00

Okay. Exactly how did Conner go from this...

...to this so quickly?!

Cherish those newborn moments with Carter and October, gang!

Of course, you can always have more babies, right? Now that Jayci's too big to call the baby, guess we'll have to wait 'til August for this little guy (or gal) to join our expanding family. Favorite names so far are "Oliver Boliver Butt" (see Dr. Suess) and "August" -- Conner's votes -- and "Skin Face" -- Dawson's Vote. "Carnage" is no longer in vogue. What do you say?

Adventures in Parenting

2008-03-09T21:07:00.000-07:00

When you have a boy baby, you learn quickly that you need to cover up his junk while you're changing him. Despite our efforts to do so, October still finds ways to catch us by surprise:

Everything about his little body is just so cute:

I've often thought that boy babies have a lot of similarities to little old men. Most notable are his hair, his hunched over posture, and especially the hair on his back:

Tobe had his first doctor appointment this last week. Our pediatrician said that all babies lose weight after birth and that healthy babies should be back to their birth weight by two weeks. He was 12 days old at this appointment and was already 11 ounces over his birth weight.

He didn't get any shots at this appointment, but they did do the second half of his PKU test, which involves drawing blood from his little foot. They wrapped his foot in a warm diaper to make it

easier and less painful:

They have to get enough blood to completely cover seven circles on their little paper, and they ended up having to poke him twice! We gave him a shot of whiskey to take the edge off. Just kidding! I held him and he was actually very brave:

Here he is trying out his new bouncer for the first time:

He's so little that the safety belt comes up to his armpits:

Most of the photos we've taken of the boy don't actually do justice to how cute he is in person. This one comes pretty close:

Here are a few more shots from this week, just for fun. This is a cute one of him sleeping:

This "Popeye, the Sailor Man" shot cracked us up:

And, lastly, an Eskimo kiss from his mom.

Who does he look like?

2008-02-29T20:29:00.000-08:00

How could you not love a face like this?

We have officially figured out which of us October looks most like.
And the winner is...Heather!

If you weren't convinced by that last shot, I present to you Exhibit A:

a photo of Heather as a baby:

When compared to this shot of me and Toby, I think the
resemblance is hard to deny:

MY baby picture, however, bears a striking resemblance

to a young John Malkovich:

We may be wrong, but we think that our boy, October, smiles more than the average newborn (dozens of times per day). Here's one we captured as he was dozing off after a meal:

We hope he is as happy a child as these smiles seem to indicate because, unfortunately, he's going to have to put up with a lot of stuff in his life based on his parents' desires to get cute pictures. This comb-over shot is one example:

This mini-laundry basket shot is another:

We put him in this basket so we could weigh him easier, but he was so cute it turned into a photo shoot. By the way, he now weighs 7 lbs 11 oz--12 oz more than his birthweight (assuming our postal scale is accurate).

And here's a shot to show the size compared to a regular laundry basket:

I'll end with a shot of the Tob-meister chillin' with his mom:

Our kid is cool.

Take care!

Bringing home baby

2008-02-26T20:22:00.000-08:00

The last post featured shots of October in the hospital. Let's take a look at the boy we took home on Saturday, shall we? We get a short period of time each day when he is awake and doesn't need something. At those times, he looks like this:

Other than that, he eats, poops, and sleeps:

He's very little and cute:

With all of this world's technological advances, why can't they design bracelets that don't have sharp edges that dig into your baby's legs and feet? Here is our family of bracelets:

Okay, so this is what October looked like when we took him home from the hospital:

And here's what he looked like if you were standing up:

While we're showing him in perspective, here is a close-up shot of him in his bassinette:

And the same shot in size perspective:

In all, life is good. He's doing great and Heather is hanging in there. We couldn't ask for a more good-natured kid--he is just awesome:

October Shayne Taylor

2008-02-22T16:03:00.000-08:00

Here he is! Arriving very punctually on his very due date, we are pleased to introduce you to October Shayne Taylor!

This was right after he was born:

This was after he came back from his bath:

This was day 1--shortly after birth:

And again on day 2--we think he's cuter half-naked:

Look at all that hair!

Close up with eyes open:

This shot shows his daddy's hand to put his size in perspective:

We think he was trying to say, "Go Bears!" but he can't quite talk yet:

Close up with eyes closed:

This photo was taken within minutes of birth.
Heather is hiding her pain and exhaustion VERY well:

The ever-popular "Simba" pose:

A first look at his Grandpa Taylor:

Hanging out with his Grandpa McPherson:

Almost there

2008-02-15T07:46:00.001-08:00

Well, folks, we're getting down to the home stretch. Since I haven't really blogged before now I am doing this as a test to make sure I know how to put up pictures when the baby comes.

On Valentine's day, we decided our date would be to go to Heather's Dr. appointment and then to the Olive Garden for lunch. Heather had been holding steady at 0 dilation and 50% effacement for the last two weeks, but this week she moved to a 1 and 75% effaced. This doesn't give much of a clue as to the time frame, but at least a little progress is being made.

KC Chief fans, Dawson's b-day, More lederhosen

2007-11-07T15:08:00.000-08:00

Jayci's new bed, Oktoberfest, Primary Program

2007-11-07T14:56:00.000-08:00

Grandma's visit, New dining set

2007-11-07T14:49:00.000-08:00

Shayne & Heather in Shanghai

2007-05-07T07:57:00.000-07:00

1- Here is us on stage at the festival. Notice how the backdrop is covered in pictures of the bands performing at the festival and Eclipse is front and center (they gave us top billing on all of the advertizing).

2&3- More examples of the ads I'm talking about. The lightpost ones line the main boulevard leading up to the park.

4- This is the stage view from behind to show the audience area. The people are so warm and receptive here. They don't understand a word we're singing but they are totally into it. They love Kevin's drum solo, the little kids love dancing to the rap, and when we sing the Chinese song we learned they just go nuts. Apparently, the song we learned was the song that the winner of last year's Chinese version of American Idol sang on the finale and released as his first single.

5- This is us outside on of the entrances to Century Park, where the festival is held. The park is huge and very beautiful. In this photo I'm wearing a shirt that I bought here and Heather is on day 4 of wearing the pants she traveled here in because our checked bag ended up in Paris, France. We arrived on a Saturday and didn't receive our bag until the following Thursday. (At least it came, though!)

6- Last night the festival people took us on a river cruise and I got this shot of 'The Bund.' This is probably the most recognizable skyline in the city--the space needle-type building, in particular, is one of the icons associated with Shanghai.

Greetings from Missouri!

2007-04-23T10:42:00.000-07:00

A family blog! What a great idea! We need to take some new pics of our recently finished basement (Thank you, Dan and Trisha!) and the kids. Meanwhile, here's a shot of graduation in Dallas from way back in January. It's great to not have school hanging over my head anymore!

The second pic is a bit random, but a good reminder why we all should wear personal protective gear (i.e. glasses, ear plugs, steel-toe shoes, etc.) when working in the yard or in construction. A guy at work caught a nail in his glasses from a nailer (Passlode) that he was using. Would have blinded him!

I do have a couple recent pics of Jayci on my work computer that are worth sharing. "Cheese" just doesn't look the same with a mouth full of crackers. Ta ta!

3 cheers for Melinda!

2007-04-15T09:06:00.000-07:00

Melinda, you rock! Thanks for keeping the Taylor family on the cutting edge.

Welcome to the Taylor family blog!

2007-04-14T17:41:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the new Taylor Family Blog! We decided to be cool and trendy by creating a site for the fam. Please share your experiences and photos here so we can better keep in touch. Here are some new pics from the Arizona Taylors (soon to be "Vegans!")

Born to be wild! The boys' constant attempts to ride their toys inside the house.

Jack loves holding his new baby brother. Today Melinda caught him after he had picked Cam up out of his swing and was carrying him across the tile flooor!

Easter Sunday at the Taylors.
Dallin kept trying to crack the hard boiled eggs on the table. He went through a fair number before we could stop him.

Jack and Dallin with the Easter baskets Grandma sent. Jack ran out and had a marshmallow peep stuffed in his mouth within 2 seconds! (still present in the picture)

Cameron has become a smiler and occasionally a giggler.