WHAT IS THAT!?

This is what flew out of Taj's dirty pajamas when I picked them up off the bed this afternoon. I did change a dirty diaper this morning, but I do not remember something like this. I don't know how this one got away, but unfortunately it is a common occurance at our house. The first words out of my mouth when I saw this terd fly: "Holy mackeral! What was that!? Gross!" The good thing is that it was not on my side of the bed:)

First run in the backyard

Taj's wobbly foot prints in the snow...it was the first time he walked by himself in the snow. For some reason he's really intimidated by it, but he does like the "crunch" noise it makes.

Taj had a little help the first time through the snow in our backyard.

Can anyone else see the face in our walnut tree? How cool is that!

I take no responsibility for this outfit. This is what happens when daddy gets him ready: Black coat, navy blue pants, and brown snow boots.

More Before & After Pics

My favorite doorknob in the house...

authentic crystal, so cool!

This is the lightswitch cover in our bedroom. I chose to leave it because it's so vintage. Never mind the dust you can see, that just adds to the authenticity right?

Entry way before

Entry way after....

This was the "blue room." Everything was blue: the door, the baseboards, the walls, the ceiling and even the blinds were spray painted blue. It was like standing in an aquarium.

Office after...the next thing to go is that ugly red chair

Taj's room was blue room #2. It wasn't as overpowering as the office, but I think that's just because this room is smaller.

I like this color so much better than the blue. I know the light fixture looks like it has tentacles, but they're really crystals. Yeah, I know, a little girly for a boy's room, but Taj doesn't know the difference and I'm sure it won't threaten his boyhood.

Even our bedroom had wallpaper in it, so glad to see that gone!

I know this looks really green. It was supposed to be a sage green, but turned out to be "safari" green. Boy were we surprised. Bran was freaking out more about it than I was. He didn't want to paint our bedroom this color; he tried to pawn it off on Taj's room. I like bold colors though, and it's really not so bad, kinda grows on you. That light fixture will also be coming down, as soon as we recover from the costs of this paint job!

Music Lover

Last night after we fed Taj dinner and let him run free, Brannon and I were sitting at the table eating when we heard Bonjovi "Cause I'm a cowboy. On a steel horse I ride. I'm wanted, dead or alive" blaring from our computer in the office. We ran back there thinking he had somehow climbed up on the swivel office chair that even I sometimes have a hard time staying in. I was sure that he would fall and break an arm or something worse, and to our relief, he had not climbed up the chair, but just reached his grimy little fingers up on the desk and starting hitting buttons on the computer. He know he is not supposed to play with the computer, so if left unattended that boy makes our computer emit sounds I've never heard before.

Tonight I was skimming over blogs when I heard country music literally pulsating from our bedroom, it was so loud. I went in to find this: Taj on the floor jamming out to Randy Travis. He was even doing some head banging and shimmying. (Pretend you don't see the unmade bed and dirty sock on the floor. I'm not perfect.) P.S. Notice the stenciling on the hardwood floor? That too is Betty style. I don't like it, Brannon said just the opposite when he first saw it. He thinks it adds to the vintage accents in our home (old doors, creaky floors, really old 1950s linoleum, etc.)

Finished at Last! Well for now anyway.

The paint crew finally finished painting our house almost two weeks ago. They said it would take them two days, but it ended up being five days, profuse amounts of dust everywhere, paint chips on the bottoms of our feet, and camping out in the basement with Taj for days on end, not to mention that I had to cover and re-cover our furniture with plastic a bazillion times. I thought I would go crazy. Renovating a house is a lot more work than one would think. It's mentally and physically taxing. It's also taxing on a marriage--that's why we hired someone, otherwise we probably would've been divorced by now. I've only posted a couple "after" pics since Taj is taking a nap and I have to take advantage of my precious opportunity to blog. More pics will surface soon of the rest of the house. We are finally starting to feel like it is ours and it doesn't smell like "Dennis and Betty" (as Brannon would say) anymore. We feel so blessed to be able to have a home to call our own and to live in a fabulous neighborhood. I can't wait to let Taj play outside in our backyard. I know there are some good times ahead of us in our little home on Larkin Lane.

This is the flavor of "Dennis & Betty,"....the smell: stale cigarette smoke, but that too is gone now!

I tried moving this pic down, but failed many times, so here it is, right in the middle. Taj loves to push the cushions up on these chairs and then he climbs up and sits there like he's a stud because he's sitting all by himself. Taj is seriously out of control wild now. See the corner shelf in this pic, right behind the chair? Last night he pulled it down on top of himself. I freaked out, Brannon said I swore, but I don't remember that. I just remember hearing my baby cry and not seeing him because he was pinned underneath this thing. He got a pretty good goosegg from the whole ordeal, thank goodness that was it. Next, he pulled the wood molding off the wall, the whole strip! He's already dinged the new paint on our walls too. Good thing we don't have nice stuff because it's going to be trashed by this kid!

Some things about Taj (for memories' sake): His favorite words are "No!" and "Don't!". He says this whenever we try to get him out of the bath, make him eat, change his diaper, etc. Yes, we already have a disobedient child. He also says "doggie," "cracker," "uh-oh," and a certain grunt that means he wants something. If you take the time, he'll sit down and tell you his life story. All you have to do is knod and say "yes." I swear, he's just like his dad. He loves to be pushed around on his Radio Flyer, in his Cozy Coupe, and in his over-sized toy dump truck. He loves to play with cars and his boat and he makes the noises to go with it. His favorite book right now is "Doggies," which is way cute. He likes to watch Super Why in the mornings and his favorite show right now has to be Matilda, the kid is enthralled with it. It's the only movie he'll actually sit down and watch for at least 45 min. straight. He also gives real kisses now because he tries to pucker his lips (the only bad thing is that he won't give me any, just his daddy-we'll have to work on that).
I broke down yesterday and bought Taj a leash. It looks like a doggie backpack, but it's really a harness with a leash on it. I'll have to post a pic soon; it's sooo cute. Some of you may think it's child abuse, but you don't know my kid. He's half my size and he loves to cruze in all the wrong places. It's nearly impossible for me to contain him when he wants to get down and run, so now he can run, just not too far!

We are so thankful to have our little guy in our family. He really is the light of our lives and we feel so lucky to be his parents. He's teaching two people who thought they knew it all, that they don't know anything at all. We love him so much! Being parents is the best!

Wedding, Christmas, New Year, New House

Poor Taj...in this shot his lower back is covered in hives because after falling and hitting his head on the coffee table, he got up and stumbled into the real blue spruce christmas tree, and yes he was naked. Poor guy, looks like he's going to take after his dad. I've never seen so much crack in my life:)

Taj is obsessed with Alivia's carseart. I don't know why because he always screams when he has to get in his own.

Taj and Livy are good buddies. Taj already knows to be gentle with her.

Our little niece Alivia, so sweet:) So fun to have a girl in the family!

Taj trying out his brand spankin new Radio Flyer from Grandpa Clint. He can't reach the peddles yet, but he's mastered crashing it already. He mostly resorts to pushing it around now.

These are my lovely young women who I had to sadly leave because we moved. I've never cried when I left a calling until now. They were so much fun and so inspiring...sigh, I'll miss them so much!

Taj loves his great uncle McClain...I don't know, but I think it may be the hat.

These are the best little boys to travel with ever!

Taj's new cousin, who is so cute by the way and twice as big as Taj even though Taj is older. We're going to have to increase the whole milk uptake with Taj.

Clint and Tad, Brannon's dad's new wife, who we love. We are so happy for the both of them. I thought meshing families would be hard, but I found that it wasn't hard, just new and a bit awkward. I'm sure we'll all adjust as time goes on.

I know that this post is a long time coming, but things have seriously been out of control the last three weeks. We kicked it off by closing on our home on Dec. 23rd, which afterwards we booked it to Tropic because his dad Clint got married on Christmas Eve. It was so nice to be able to go and be a part of that special day for his dad. Christmas was a busy day too. We woke up early to open presents, sure that Taj was going to love it, but he just ended up crying through nearly the entire experience...fun times. We really were spoiled this year by our families, thanks you guys, but seriously, next year we're going to do home-made gifts:) When we got back home, we started packing like crazy (the same day we signed on our house, a young couple came and decided to rent our apartment, seriously a huge blessing for us) We had one week to get all our stuff packed and moved and have our apartment cleaned. We moved New Year's Day and it literally took us two weeks to get everything put away. We moved up to Kaysville, which we really like so far. We went to the wrong ward again on Sunday, but next Sunday, we'll get the right one for sure, we hope:) Kaysville kinda feels like Cedar City, but shopping is only 15 min. away! Our home was built in 1959, so yeah it's old, but we love it. It is a cute brick home with original hardwood floors throughout the top and the only carpet is in the basement. It does need some upgrades to say the least, but those will come in time. We are going to paint the entire house though starting this weekend. I will post pics as soon as I can. Hope you all are doing well and that you enjoyed the holidays and time spent with family.

p.s. Brannon turned 27 last week. I can't believe that he is almost 30! He always tells me he is "wayyy" older than me; this year I am starting to believe it. I feel bad because I didn't really spend time planning his birthday because our house looked like a construction zone. Next year will be better babe, I promise!

Diaper R'us

I was slaving over the stove tonight when I heard a wicked little giggle coming from the living room. I figured Taj was entertaining himself; he was happy, so why bother him? That wicked little laugh rolled on and I knew that none of his toys made him laugh for so long, so I went to take a look and this is what I found: an entire jumbo box of diapers strung out all over the floor. How could I be mad at a boy with a face like this?