Fall is in the air

Last weekend was filled with lots of Halloween fun. Friday night we had a neighborhood progressive dinner. As you can see we were the Flintstones family. We had such a great time celebrating with our great new friends. Jude loved running around with his bat as Bam Bam. The following night we went to an adult only party, and had fun until 130am playing mafia, singing karaoke, and eating. It was a lot of fun. We are having a lot of fun here in Kansas City.

The weather has been beautiful. The other day John had the kids outside playing in the leaves, and he snapped a few shots.

Happy Fall to everyone!

Flying by at 4 weeks old.

Well, I must say little miss Olive is growing so big day by day. A lot has been going on since her birth. She is now 4 weeks old. After she was born Grandma Jones came in to visit, and she was kind enough to take Jude back to AZ, so we were able to enjoy some Olive alone time. She brought Jude back and I have been on my own for a week now. Things have been going much smoother, after the first day of having a "2 kids alone breakdown". We have been trying to keep busy- I have been bad at taking pictures. We have enjoyed the beautiful weather spending time at the parks, going on walks to story time at the nearby library and open gym at the gymnastic place. We have ventured out to the pumpkin farm, and have enjoyed time together as our family grows. Olive is a nice surprise, being a pretty easy baby. She sleeps so well- 5-6 hours a night, she is already on a little routine, which is nice so I can plan activities accordingly.

Here are a few pictures:

We had a few newborn shots taken when she was just a few days old.

Here she is after her first bath here at home.

We are so glad Grandma Jones came to visit.

2 week old photo shoot outside. Making a funny face :)

The other night for FHE we talked about Nephi and of course dressed up. Here is Jude as Nephi.

And of course our little Olive soaking everything in. She sure loves her big brother. He always entertains her. Here she is bright eyed as "Nephi" runs around her with a sword!

I need to post about our fun Halloween weekend! With a fun costume pic too!

She has Arrived!!

Our baby girl arrived on Friday night, it was a beautiful healthy delivery and we are all doing well.

I went in early Friday afternoon because I was having severe abdominal cramping, I did not know what the heck was going on. After arriving at the hospital, my cramping stopped, but my contractions continued. Our little baby decided to give us a little scare and her heart rate dropped for about 7 minutes. Luckily she recovered well and we did not need any interventions. I was having contractions every 2 minutes, however they were not very strong, and I was not dilating. But were not letting me leave the hospital pregnant. So. . . we just kinda hung out hoping that my contractions would become stronger, and I would dilate and have this baby on my own. John and I walked the halls, and I even got to enjoy a few shows on food network before the fun began. At about 5:30pm my contractions began to become stronger, this is what I wanted... right. Yes of course. The nurse checked me, only 3 cm dilated, what the heck! I was still doing OK, as they became stronger, I had to turn the TV off, and breath through them and start to focus and relax. John and I did a few laps in the halls- that was a quick walk, because with each contraction, I had to stop and hold on to John. I began to sweat, and feel "out of it." I knew then that it was time. We went back to our room, and I told John to call the nurse in. She came in and checked me, Yup! I was ready to push with a bulging bag. However, no midwife yet, we quickly called her in. She broke my water and out came flying our beautiful baby girl!! We are so glad that everything went smoothly. We are glad baby is healthy and well.

Our first family picture. She was born at 7:32pm Friday night.

Here is my wonderful nurse and midwife.

Surprised right! I did not think I could have babies this small after Jude. She is just perfect!

Her first bath.

On Saturday morning, John brought Jude in to see his new baby sister. He was so excited. He loved to hold her, and point out her nose, mouth and eyes. He was smiling the whole time. He loves her already. It is so cute to sit and watch him.

Here we are as a family. Our first family photo as we get ready to leave the hospital.

Jude is so happy with his new little sister: Olive Marie Taylor.

Labor Day in Omaha!

Over the Labor Day weekend we were able to take a quick weekend getaway to Omaha. It is only a 3 hour drive. We spent some time visiting the Winter Quarter's visitors center and temple, and also went to the Omaha zoo. We had such a great time. It was a nice last minute family trip before the new addition arrives.

Here we are at the temple. This is "our" temple while living here in Kansas City.

Jude loved playing on the temple grounds, we love this picture as he is peeking out from behind a corner!

Jude loved the Zoo. He is obsessed with animals, so it was so fun to see him looking at all the animals and making their sounds.

Here is daddy and Jude. They had this huge indoor rain forest. Not only with plants but with some crazy animals. Here they are crossing a bridge!

Jude's favorite was the aquarium. It was a huge tunnel, with sharks, huge fish, turtles, stingrays etc. He loved staring at the animals. He keep saying more, more, more. He also loved to chase the penguins at their exhibit.

Of course, the monkeys/gorillas are always entertaining to see.

It was quite a jump for me to get up on the gorilla and pose with Jude.

There was this bird exhibit that you could feed the birds. Jude was a little hesitant, but daddy helped and Jude loved to have the bird so close as he nibbled on his stick.

We had such a great weekend at the Zoo. Now it is time for this baby to come!! A few more weeks!

New England Trip, and move to Kansas City!!

Wow. I can not believe that it has been a few months since I have updated the blog. I have a few excuses: been busy with the move, and getting settled into our new house in Kansas City, having way too much fun with new friends and being very pregnant.

So lets back track a little. . . before we left Buffalo, we took a nice road trip up through some new England states. We visited Sharon Vermont, went up to Maine, and then to Boston and Cape cod. It was a great trip, a little too much driving for Jude, but we had a great time. John's mom and best friend Loren joined us for the trip! Here are a few highlights:

We took a whale watching cruise from Cape cod, which was amazing. Like the coolest thing I have ever seen, these pictures are real, the whales were so close to us!!! Yes, that is the boat we are in, and the whale swam right up to it, and dove down!

Another highlight of the trip in Boston was this little splash park, we were enjoying the freedom trail, until Jude found some water and so we took a break! He had such a great time, we loved watching him splash around!!

Here we are with our POD, and all of our belongings loaded. I am glad packing is done! Just another 2 years before I have to do it again!

John made his way to Kansas city, and Jude and I went to Arizona. I finished my school clinical's, and John waited for our town home to be ready to be moved into. While we were apart, he also tackled a huge project! We have a 3 bedroom town home, with a basement, I asked John to finish the basement so we could use it as a playroom. Well, he did an awesome job! Jude and I were so excited to see it when we came home.

Here are a few pics to document the many hours of hard work:

before and during:
Wall up:

A few moments worth celebrating. John and his friend Ben worked together on the job, neither having any experience.

After: (behind the blue curtains, hides all the toys.)

Since arriving in Kansas City, we have enjoyed our family time. John is loving his new residency program, we love where we live, and are making great friends. We were able to attend a hospital family picnic day a few weeks back and had a great time. Jude is obsessed with bonce houses- he spent most of the day bouncing around. He loves to jump and go down the slides.

Jude loving the snow cone.

Jude and daddy on a train ride. We could not all squeeze into one seat, so I am a few rows ahead and snapped this shot.

Jude breaking the rules, need I say more!

Cotton Candy Anyone??

A family picture at the end of the day. You can tell how tired Jude is, he had such a great time, and crashed in the car!

John celebrated a Birthday on the 22nd of August, what a better way to celebrate Daddy's birthday than with a cupcake at breakfast!

And of course a few pics of the ever growing belly:

35 weeks

37 weeks

The month of May!!!

Wow! What a month May was. This post will include a lot of pictures and a quick summary of all of the happenings in our lives.

First of all, John graduated. I can not believe four years has gone by here in Buffalo and he is a doctor. We are all so proud of him. He is so excited to begin his pediatric residency in KC.

A picture of the family after John graduated.

Jude is so proud of his daddy.

After graduation, we left our home in Buffalo for a few weeks. We journeyed to Arizona and Hawaii.

Here we are with my family just after arriving in Hawaii, this was the best graduation gift ever. Thank you mom and dad! We spent 10 days in Hawaii relaxing our days away while our boys played at home. We took a cruise around the islands, and stopped on 4 beautiful islands.

Here is the view of the Napali Coastline one evening on the ship. We enjoyed it from our ocean view balcony. It was so beautiful.

We enjoyed many fun trips and tours in Hawaii. Here we are kayaking down the Wailua river in Kauai. After kayaking we enjoyed a hike to a secret waterfall and went swimming.

Us girls were able to sneak away and go on a scenic helicopter tour over the island of Kauai. I think Kauai is the most beautiful island ever, and we enjoyed views that took my breath away. The best part of the trip!!

We had a blast learning more about the Polynesian islands, and enjoyed a luau and a fire dancing show at the Polynesian Cultural Center.

One night on the cruise ship, we cruised past one of the world's most active volcano's, Kilauea. It has been erupting since 1983. It was crazy to see the lava coming down and going into the ocean. ( the picture does not do it justice).

We were able to see one of the temples in Hawaii, on the big island.

Another highlight of our trip was our scuba/snorkel trip to Molokini Crater off the coast of Maui. The boys scuba dove while the girls snorkeled. All of the fish and sea turtles were amazing.

The boys had a blast. They saw lots of different types of sea life. Including several sharks!!!! Also, sea turtles, octopus, lobster, and beautiful coral arches.

Here we are showing off our matching bellies on the boat before snorkeling.

John and Nick were very adventurous and jumped off numerous waterfalls, and cliffs, including a random bridge jump in the beautiful rain forest.

We had a great time on the cruise. Then it was back to AZ for some more fun and sunshine.

My dad was involved in the ALS awareness day at the diamondback game again this year. He read the Lou Gerhrig retirement speech, so we are all able to support him down on the field and celebrate with him in a nice suite.

There he is on the jumbo tron, reciting the speech.

After Hawaii, we attempted to get some cute family pictures of the grand kids in their cute coordinating Hawaiian outfits.

We were in Arizona, when John's younger brother graduated High school. Way to go Jordan.

And now we are back in Buffalo, trying to enjoy every day we have left. In a week we are off on a little road trip up to Maine, and Cape cod, and then Kansas city here we come!! It is crazy to think our time in Buffalo is coming to a close.

Two of Jude's favorite things: being outside and the water.

Jude loves the water, so we is loving every minute of our days at Crystal Beach.

So, here we are in June. We are busy packing and anticipating the next step in our journey.