It's a small world after all

Last week we went on vacation with Ryan's family. We spent the week in California going to the beach, Disneyland, California Adventure, Soak city, and pirate dinner theater (similar top Medieval Times). We had a great time! We stayed in a nice little condo and Ryan and I got to sleep in bunk beds. During this short week I came to realize how small this world really is. I Disneyland I ran into my friend Kevin (Marisa's little bro). I also happened to park my tush on the same bench of the family that I sat by on the airplane, crazy! And last of all my in-laws ran into a family from church.

This was my first time back to Disneyland since California Adventure opened up, my over all impression was that it was a lot like Lagoon (still fun but nothing new). I really liked The tower of Terror and Soaring over California rides. Another great feature was the "switch pass". This pass allowed me or whoever sat out during the ride with Micah to go straight onto the ride with out any wait, it was either faster than the fast pass or just as quick as the fast past. I recommend this switch pass to anyone going to Disneyland with babies.

MICAH UPDATES

Micah is getting so big, he is in a really fun stage right now. He loves to play games and read books, "Goodnight moon" and "Polar bear polar bear what do you hear?" are two of his favorites. He also loves to roll across the room, in Ryan's words he is no longer immobile. He loves to get into everything that is within arms reach. We have started him on solids now too; so far he has eaten oatmeal cereal, green beans (which he really likes) and carrots; Ryan has slipped him a taste of a snow cone and cheese but since he isn't suppose to have those I don't count them. And best of all he is doing much better with bedtime and naps.

"Sisters, sisters..."

GABRIELLE AKA GABBY

Don't let this post deceive you, Gabby is as shy as they come.

My brothers and sister all got the talent genes not to mention the good looks. Gabrielle was lucky enough to take after my mom who strongly resembles Katherine Zeta Jones (at least I think so). These days however, my sister looks more like Demi Moore from her role as GI Jane. Yes , My little sis buzzed her head and she looks gorgeous!

How close are you to your sweetie?

Ryan sent this video to me about a very close couple. Ryan suggested that we give this "close" concept a try, this is a challenge I can accept. If your up to it give it a try, let us know what you think.

Homecomings, Birthday's and Scrabble

Last weekend was full of family fun. On Friday my brother-in-law Eric returned home from his Mission in Omaha, Nebraska. Welcome home Eric, It's great to have you back! I was really excited for Micah to be able to meet him, they hit it off really well.


Saturday was my mother-in-laws birthday. For her Birthday she wanted the whole family to spend the day together. We spent the day in Kaysville at my Sister and Brother-in-law's home. They really know how to put on a party, we spent the day swimming, playing games in their club house and pigging out. We planned on roasting marshmallows in the fire pit but we were so stuffed, we had to forgo that plan. Happy Birthday Liz!



As part of the festivities on Saturday, we had a Scrabble Tournament. We started off with two boards and eight players. We were having a lot of fun but not to complain too much my groups board was awful, no one could lay down long words with out sacrificing points and some of us had a hard time finding a place to lay down any word at all then we noticed something really interesting my group had two X's and two Z's and the other group had two J's! We came to realize that somehow during our games our bags of letters got switched. Needless to say, we stopped the game and moved on to other activities.

Eco-Nerd

Since before I can remember I have been a big recycler, my parents were the first to teach me about the this way of life. They never actually sat the family down and dedicated Family nights to educating us about the three R's (reduce, reuse, recycle), they mainly taught by example. I have always felt very pleased with myself in regards to how good I was at recycling. Then a few years ago I came to realize that my efforts, no matter how noble I thought they were, was just scratching the surface. I remember that when Ryan and I were just newly married I was cutting up a tomato and I got to the little stumpy part that nobody wants to eat, and I kid you not, I started to cry historically because I didn't want to throw it away. I was devastated that we didn't have a compost pile! Going on walks was and still remains to be a nightmare too. I can hardly take a few steps outside before finding trash on the ground, and I feel an incredible guilt build up inside of me when I just leave it, so I collect it and discard it at the end of my walk. I have also tried to take the same discretion with my body, if there is a natural way to take care of my illness, that's the route to recovery I prefer.

Ryan has been so supportive with my new efforts to save the planet, by helping me replace our light bulbs for florescent ones, unplugging appliances when we aren't using them, walking to our destinations when it is reasonable to do so, and using reusable totes for our shopping trips. For Mothers Day this year I received a book called Gorgeously Green by Sophie Ulliano. I cannot begin to express how excited I was to receive this book. It is all about living an Earth friendly life and it offers advice for Beauty, home, fitness, style, etc, etc. I have to admit though sometime I get a little too carried away, I went so far I purchased flushable diapers for Micah(http://gdiapers.com/).

Graduation...more to come.

It has been a whole month since Ryan's graduation, he received his Bachelors in Communications with an emphasis in Print Journalism. He is currently working for "Utah Business Magazine" as a graphic designer, explain that one to me. In any case We are very proud of him! We didn't take too much time to celebrate this grand occasion because we had a lot of work to do. Just a few hours after his convocation we were packed up and on moving to West Jordan. This round of moving was a breeze because of all the help we received.

I would like to sincerely thank the following people for all of there help we couldn't have done it with out you.

Liz and Randy for helping clean and load trucks and buying brunch, Katie for watching Micah, Heather and Jeff for getting the job done and letting me use your phone, BYU 34h ward, Marci and Evan, Justin, Mom and Dad of course, my handsome brother Alex, Bobby who is a helpful stranger, Neerings pluming heating and air, and to anyone else I may be missing.

The Eighth World Wonder

Can we officially claim the Internet to be the eighth world wonder? It's true when they say (whoever 'they' are), that you don't know what you've got 'till it's gone. After almost a month of the stone ages, Ryan and I finally have our Internet set up. So much has happened since our last post, however updates will have to wait a little longer. Micah had his 4 month immunizations today and has been a fussy little guy ever since; he refuses to sleep.

Taylor Look-alike Meter

This is a fun website we found tonight, and I think it confirms that Micah is a good mixture of both me and Ryan. We'll try again when he is a little older. Go ahead and vote for who you think Micah most resembles.

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

Cooking Chaos

For weeks I have been wanting to make chocolate chip cookies, but who has the time with an infant attached to your arm? Finally last weekend Micah fell asleep at a reasonable hour (7:00) so I quickly got all my ingredients together for the cookies. the recipe I was using called for 1/2 or 1/4 a cup of shortening, I don't remember ever using shortening in a cookie recipe but I went ahead and added the shortening. It is important to mention that I have had this shortening in my pantry since I've been married (Nov 2005). It had funky smell but I thought to myself that is just what shortening smells like. I finished adding the ingredients and as they were baking I ran out to run an errand. I was excited to come home thinking I would enter my apartment with the sweet aroma of chocolate chip cookies. Oh no, when I walked in all I could smell was the stench of funky shortening filling my apartment; it was awful! So in light of this devastating experience I want to know, can shortening go bad? I thought it had an endless shelf life.

Fiasco #2 Who likes really, really ripe bananas? I know the Taylor's don't at all. When bananas get too ripe in our home we make Banana Pancakes. Ryan took over this project as he has done several times before. He is a very good cook when he applies himself. On this occasion however he got a little out of hand. Ryan was using the blender to mix all of the ingredients and as it was running he went to add the eggs, he not only included the egg whites and the yoke he let the shell slip right out of his fingers. OOPS! Needless to say we started all over and finally enjoyed a decent treat over the weekend.

7 things you didn't know about Lindsay

I have been tagged by one of my best friends in all of the world, Marisa Jean Larsen, to make a list of 7 things that you didn't know about me. I feel as though I am an open book and there is nothing mysterious about myself. However, I have thought of a few things to share; I hope it will help you get to know me a little better.

1. I have never eaten Beef Jerky. between 4th grade and my freshman year in college I was a vegetarian. I had no moral or dietary reason for my decision, I simply wanted to see if I could discipline myself not to eat any meat. Ryan thinks that I haven't had beef jerky so that I can tell people I have never had beef jerky, he's kind of right.

2. I love National Public Radio (NPR). There are so many wonderful programs on NPR such as "Fresh Air", "Talk of the Nation", "Car Talk" and my all time favorite "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell me-the npr news quiz". This gives me a way to stay up to date on current events and I really like that it simply makes me think.

3. I got my hair cut. I have been trying to get my hair cut for weeks now, I have been collecting referrals from friends and family that I trust. They all must go to really great hair dressers because it was impossible to get into see any of them. So on Friday afternoon I was feeling brave and bold so I went over to Kellie and Company and let the stylist have her way with my hair. I have no regrets, thanks Amy!

4. I have a rock in my head. I have this funny bump on my head that I can trace back to about 2nd grade. I remember doing a superman trick on the Mary-go-round, flying off and landing in rubble. I gashed my head open when I was and I have had an odd bump ever since.

5. I ran into Edward James Olmos. Mr. Olmos is an actor, I only know him from "Stand and Deliver". When I was in Disneyland years ago I literally walked into him.

6. I can play the accordion. I actually don't play well at all, but I use to take lessons. I was really into it but I got the impression it was a nerdy instrument so I lost my desire to continue on with the lessons.

7. One of my goals in life is to be in a musical production. It doesn't have to be a big production, I would be very happy becoming involved in community theater or maybe joining a drama club.

I hope that you all feel as though you got to know me a little better. I am going to go ahead and follow Marisa's great idea and invite those of you who read my blog to create your own list of 7 things nobody knows about you. I hope to find this list on your blogs.