Crazy Updates from Our Busy Lives

Life has been very busy for us lately.  Mainly, I feel busy because I started an online BSN program October 19th and have lost all of my free time to schoolwork.  To illustrate this best, I have not completed a book since school started.  After having read 40+ books prior to school, I'd say that is a pretty significant change.  It also does not help that there has been never-ending road construction to the roads right around the library so getting there is now a big pain.

What have we been doing?

I have been writing lots of papers and doing lots of awful busy work. Yay.

Brad just finished his third clinical rotation in General Surgery.  I'm not sure which he dislikes more, pysch or general surgery.  But he did get to help with a parathyroid tumor removal and that sounded pretty awesome.

Tacy loves to try on my heels and walk around

Brad's parents came out to visit us 10/22-10/28.  It was fun having them here and Tacy loved seeing Papa and Mema.  We went to museums, restaurants, and some hunting stores for the boys.  Brad and his Dad did go bow hunting, but they did not get any deer.

Dry ice fun with Daddy on Halloween

Brad has actually gone hunting a couple different weekends.  One of our good friends from Brad's program, has family with a lot of land.  They have all told Brad that they would love his help with the deer.  Hunting here is different than Utah because you do not draw out for an area.  You either hunt on public or private land with your license.  Brad has not yet gotten a deer, but he did lose an arrow to a deer.  Tracking in the woods here is just difficult.

For Halloween, the plan had been that Tacy would be Tinkerbell and Brad and I would be pirates (based on Tinkerbell and the Pirate Fairy).  At the last second she changed her mind and demanded that she be Ariel.  

Brad and I were given some free tickets to a UNC Men's Basketball game.  I have always wanted to go to one, so we went and had a lot of fun.  We also celebrated our 8th anniversary!  Crazy, right?

We went up to Brad's Aunt Karen and Uncle Mike's house in Virginia for Thanksgiving.  It was fun to have a little break and spend time with family.  Karen's family all lives close to each other and they are always so nice and welcoming to us.  We had fun playing games and doing a scavenger hunt in Alexandria (George Washington's home town).  We did visit Cafe Rio while there and it was delicious!  Tacy loved going to Frying Pan Farm with Karen where she got to chase chickens, pet cows and pigs, see piglets, milk a cow, sit on tractors and play on a playground.  It was an awesome FREE place.

Tacy is still a busy bee and makes us laugh.  She can officially spell and write out her name.  When people ask her her name she announces, "Tacy Taylor!".  Aurora is her current favorite Disney princess and her little Aurora doll goes everywhere with us.  She has asked for a second Aurora doll for Christmas, and she made sure that I understood she wanted an additional Aurora to add to her current doll.  Silly girl.   

Tacy loves to pretend to be a dog or a baby.  When she is a dog she crawls around on her hands and knees and barks.  For the past week she has requested that she eat her cereal like a dog, which means dry cereal in a bowl on the floor or her stool so she can eat it with her face.  When she is a baby she cries and refuses to walk.  We then tell her that babies cannot watch tv or have to wear diapers.  This usually stops the baby act.  She enjoys too many big kid activities.

Tacy has lately been asking that Brad pick her up every day and can be pretty upset if I do.  She still has her mommy moments, but she is having more Daddy moments.

Finally, Tacy loves to now tell me that she wants a baby brother AND a baby sister (at the same time).  I told her babies only come one at a time.  She told me, "No Mom!  I want a baby brother AND a baby sister.  You can hold baby brother and I can hold baby sister.  Ok?"  She says that last phrase about holding the babies very sweet.  How do kids learn these skills so young?  Anyways, I just tell her "one day" and leave it at that.  We are not pregnant by the way.

Letters with bobby pins while Mommy gets ready

I hope everyone has a happy holidays!  As soon as I can figure out where I can put a tree, then get a tree and decorate it, I will feel ready for Christmas.  I am excited for the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional this Sunday!

Autumn Happiness

Fall is my favorite season and has been since Kindergarten.  I can say that because I was the odd child in Kindergarten who picked fall to draw on a picture instead of winter or summer.  I love the cooler temperatures, pumpkin, apple and all the beautiful colors from the leaves.  I also love my fall decorations and put them up Labor Day weekend :)  My glitter leaves garland still looks beautiful this year, even though it was a bit of a pain to untangle and get hanging up again.  

I believe Fall starts with Labor Day weekend/September because the start of school always feels like the start of Fall.  Speaking of school, Brad is now a PA 2 (2nd year) and is in his second clinical rotation.  Each rotation is 5 weeks with a test at the end of each rotation on the subject of their rotation (ie: Pediatric rotation means you take a pediatric test).  Every few rotations they have a week off that is supposed to be used to make up for any tests that they did not pass (sorry the phrase has left my mind).  So we are busy, but he's hanging in there and most days is still able to have a great sense of humor.  His first rotation was at a pediatric clinic in a more country area.  He did enjoy this and passed his test.  Now he is doing a rotation at an outpatient pysch (not sure if it's pyschiatry or pyschology) office.  Brad has told me that if he had a song for each rotation his first rotation would have been "Home on the Range" because most of the patients were so country and for this pysch rotation he has picked "Basket Case" by Green Day.  See, he still has his sense of humor despite the long days and continued studying.  

Tacy has not started preschool like every other 3 year old.  I still feel bad about this, especially since she asks me fairly often if she can go to school.  At this moment, with my current work schedule, I have no idea how I would arrange for her to go to preschool (and afford it).  So for the mean time, I'm trying to teach her the alphabet at home.  I used lovely pinterest and found all sorts of activities/worksheets and for 2 weeks we were pretty good, but not any more.  The hard part is that since I work 8:30-5, I only have time in the evenings to try to go over things with her.  Tacy and I are both a little tired and edgy by the time we get home at 5:30-6pm and I'm usually rushing to make dinner and get Tacy in bed.  I can also understand why when I do try to discuss letters with Tacy, why she has no attention span/doesn't try to get it right.  I got her these ABC flash cards and the first time I used them with her she was good at repeating.  But the next day she only got through one card and now she never wants to do it.  Teaching is hard at the end of the day.  Luckily, my friend who watches her is also trying to help Tacy with learning.  Brad reminds me that Tacy is fine, she is ahead developmentally for her age, she can count to 20 in english and to 7 in spanish and she does know how to spell her name (except for the times she omits the A, I'm not sure what she has against that letter).  Plus, I have read that the alphabet just takes a lot of time/repetition.  So we read stories every night and Brad and I try to ask Tacy about letters.

Goofy girl with her rock collection from our Girl's Night Out campout

I just have to keep reminding myself that I'm not perfect and that I should not compare myself/my life to everyone else.  I'm doing the best I can and I need to work on being happy with that.  To help with this, I have started reading the scriptures daily and this has been a blessing.  It amazes me how many times the stories I have recently read in the scriptures are used elsewhere in life - talking with the missionaries, in general conference, visiting teaching, or in Ensign articles.  

I am so happy to see all the leaves starting to change colors, to enjoy this cooler weather, to eat pumpkin cookies and lots of apples.  I'm also so excited and ready for General Conference this weekend!  I absolutely love the General Women's Session last Saturday.  I truly felt like every talk was for me or directly answered my prayers.  If you are interested you can watch the Women's Session here

I hope to always remember to look for the joy in life today and that my divine nature is not determined by what happens in my life, it was given to me by a loving Heavenly Father.  I am grateful for all the wonderful messages and reminders to be positive, encouragement to try harder, and find happiness/joy in the journey today.   

Princess Tacy Turns 3

My sweet little Tacy turned 3 this past week!  It is so crazy when I just look at pictures from a year ago to see how much she has changed.  We moved to North Carolina a week before Tacy's birthday last year so this year in general has been a lot of change.  I have decided that 3 is one a child is no longer a baby and is officially a kid.  This past year Tacy's hair has gotten so LONG.  Her talk is getting so much better, with fewer instances of trying to translate what she is saying.  Tacy has very definite favorites now.  Here is a list of Tacy favorites as of right now:

Color: Orange

Princess: Ariel

Food: pancakes, strawberries, peanut butter, ranch

Outfits: Dresses

Shows: Diego, Dora, and Daniel Tiger

Movies: Tinkerbell or any disney princess (Ariel, Tiana, cinderella are the big ones right now)

When asked what princess she is: Ariel

Mom is always Prince Eric

Dad is usually Prince Phillip

Sometimes Mom or Dad are "Ursula the Sea Witch" 

Tacy has a very avid imagination.  She can play by herself really well by talking with her Barbies, Princesses, etc.  When Dad or Mom are asked to play with her, Tacy usually tells us what to do or just takes over completely (she just got some Disney Princess figurines and will give us one and then usually within 5 minutes she has reclaimed the one we were supposed to play with and will play with all 7 by herself).  

Due to her imagination, Tacy got several dresses to play dress-up in for her birthday.  She loves them.

Tacy's favorite song to sing: I Am a Child of God (but she still loves Taylor Swift and Shake it Off)

When driving Tacy loves to tell the driver to turn songs up (the ones she likes like Taylor Swift, Maroon 5's Sugar, and then just random ones).  She also is always telling me to stop singing (I sing in the car to music all the time).  Haha she can be bossy.  

Tacy is very observant.  She loves to point out all buses, motorcycles, airplanes, and big trucks.  She also can tell you how to get to her friend's house who watches her every day and knows when we are within 5 minutes from home.  

Tacy is shy when there are a lot of little kids around and is clingy.  Once she warms up she is okay, but she really is best with smaller groups of kids (the warm up process is only minutes then instead of days).  Yes, this trait did come from her shy mom.  Tacy is not so shy with adults and has more adult friends than kid friends.  No worries though, she is still shy to strangers.

Tacy loves swimming (unless there are "snakes" aka waves).  She also loves parks.

Tacy loves to read books and loves the library just as much as her mother.  She also loves to help Daddy play his video games (she will sit right by him and tell him what to do or get a controller and sit next to him).  There are always bad guys that need to be fought - whether we are talking real life, a video game, a movie/story, or just pretend.  The good guy/bad guy concept is really making sense for her.

Tacy loves to imitate animals, particularly frogs and dogs.  Sometimes she insists of hoping to the car like a frog.  She also likes to say that she is baby and then makes her imitation baby sounds.  

Tacy loves to pick out clothes for the whole family and likes to help with meal planning.  Her ideas do get veto'd a lot otherwise we would always be eating pancakes, pasta, PB&J sandwiches, and pizza for dinner.

Tacy does still suck her thumb.  She loves to be a big kid and so she is going to be sleeping in a big kid bed now (goodbye to Toddler bed and more room in her room).  Tacy still has tantrums and loves to put off bed by not getting jammies on and "one book" quickly turns into requests to read every book on the book shelf "just one more book Mom".  She loves to bargain.  We love our little miss.  Yesterday she was wearing her princess backpack and told me that she wanted to go to school.  "please Mom, can I go to school?" Brad told her we needed to record her saying that and show it to her in 10 years when she does not want to go to school.

Adventures in Drought Land

Tacy has been very excited to fly on an airplane so she was pretty ecstatic about our trip to California to see my family.  Our flights were all red-eyes so I was really worried about her getting sleep.  Tacy was fascinated by the airport(s), seeing the airplanes and she loved being on the plane(s).  The first flight she was awake for and it was only an hour.  As soon as we sat down she was jumping around talking about how we were flying.  She was really excited about take-off and when we landed she looked and me and said "Mom, can we do it again?!"  Flying to California was the hardest because the seats had monitors and the row in front of us did not turn any of their screens off while they slept, so the glaring light from the screens bothered all of us.  Tacy struggled with falling asleep and only managed to sleep maybe 2 hours.  But we made it.

Time zone changes are hard, and it's even worse when you fly all night so you are already behind on sleep and your body tells you shortly after landing and finally getting into bed, that it's time to wake up.  But we managed to all get clean and take family pictures.  All my siblings were in town and together for the first time in 2 years.  I was so glad that family pictures only took maybe 30 minutes.  The photographer just focused on what my mom wanted and got the pictures with the little kids done fast (Tacy was itching to go play on the playground).  I'm also glad that Tacy and Kayleigh (my niece) could meet a few hours before pictures.  They bonded pretty fast and Kayleigh loved to watch and follow Tacy.

Friday we all drove up to Lake Tahoe were we stayed in a cabin/house.  Lake Tahoe had great weather for July!  The highs were never above 74.  This was wonderful, but not great for swimming.  So we waded into Tahoe, we went on a hike in a meadow, and we played mini golf.  Every night the adults played games while the young ones slept.  I lost Settlers of Catan every game, but I still managed to have fun even if Mark did a great job and ruining whatever I tried to do.

We went back to Rocklin on Sunday and went to church which is always fun to see my old ward and talk with people I have not seen in years.  It was nice because Brad's dad happened to be in Northern California for work, so he came by to see us and go to Sacrament Meeting with us.  Tacy was a little shy and did not want to hug him but we were glad we could see him.  My aunt and her 3 boys came to Rocklin that day to spend time with my parents for a few weeks, so Tacy was pretty funny coming to get Brad and I and saying that she was shy around her friends and needed me there until she was comfortable enough to play with them.  My aunt's twins are only 6 weeks older than Tacy, and after warming up to them, Tacy had fun bossing the twins around and playing with them.

We did go to Fairytale Town on Monday to give the kids all something to do.  While it was a little boring for us adults, Tacy loved it!  There were lots of slides and things to climb on, animals, and a pirate ship.  Tacy loved spent a lot of time on one slide (I think because she was the only kid for the majority of the time) and a lot of time at the pirate ship.  She loved steering, looking for treasure, and locking Robyn, Brad, and I up in turn.  I just love her imagination.

Brad and I had a couple of food places we had to visit: Jamba Juice, In-n-out, Don Quixotes, and BJs Brewery.  We went to Jamba Juice 3 times, In-n-out twice and the others once.  We also took advantage of having a Shane Co close to my parents to get my ring cleaned and re-plated (there is no Shane Co within 6 hours of where we live).

These two are just so cute together!

It was nice to see family, swim in my parents pool, and get to finally meet our cute niece Kayleigh.  We had a little birthday celebration in Tahoe for all the August birthdays in my family: Steven (8/3), Kayleigh (8/7), Tacy (8/8) and my Mom (8/11). 

 

   

   

Our Beach Escape

It's summer and the weather has decided to really feel like summer, which means it's hot and humid and not so fun.  Lucky for us, Brad has some good friends/classmates with beach houses.  So when they had last friday off from school, Jill invited our family to have a weekend with her at her beach house.  Tacy and I picked up Brad from school Thursday evening, then we followed Jill (who drove her own car) to Oak Island, NC.  Tacy was a champ and was happy (and awake) for the entire 2.5 hour drive.  We had to stop to eat dinner (Tacy gets excited every time she sees the golden arches of McDonald's and shouts "French Fries!"  I swear we hardly ever go there).  Then we had to take a pit stop at the side of the road to let her go potty.  She told us she could not make it to a potty, so we had a fun road potty stop.  But all was good and we had no accidents.  Just the fun of traveling with immature toddler bladders.

Friday morning we went out to breakfast, then we went to Food Lion to buy food for our weekend.  After this we finally went to the beach.  Tacy was very excited and happy.  That girl loves water, sand, seashells, birds, dogs, etc.  She ran down to the water with Brad, but then when I went down with her later, she got scared and told me a "snake was coming".  I later put 2 and 2 together and realized that she was calling the rolling in waves snakes and was scared of them.  All she would do was run away as soon as a wave started to come in.  I have no idea where that fear came from.  But Tacy managed to have lots of fun picking up sea shells, building a sand castle with Daddy, and running along the beach.  

After 2 hours, we went back to the beach house for lunch.  Then Brad and I went to the little Oak Island theatre to see Jurassic World.  I'm a jumpy person, so seeing this movie in a little theatre really had me worried.  But I survived, I did jump and had my arms wrapped around my legs by the end of the movie.  But the acting was great.  Brad liked it to (it was his pick afterall, he's been looking forward to this movie all year).  

Brad did insist on buying sea food from one of the little markets/shops.  So he got shrimp and some crab for dinner.  Along with the shrimp and crap legs, we had red beans and rice, and lots of fruit.  Tacy would have nothing to do with the shrimp or crab (this girl can be so funny, because has eaten and liked both before).  

Saturday morning we went to the beach again.  Tacy had fun again playing in the sand and running away from "snakes".  It's so nice to go to the beach when you have a beach house, because it is so convienent for toddler schedules so you can play, then go home and eat/nap, then go play some more.  After Tacy's nap we went to an inlet where there were no waves.  Tacy was so happy and ran to the water "Mommy there's no snakes!"  Too bad I forgot her floaty to the inlet so she still had to stay close to me because that girl wanted to go swim on her own.  I seriously considered swimming out deep into the inlet (I hate waves too, so I really don't swim in the ocean) but I decided against it because I did not want to meet a shark or any jelly fish.  Yes, after our trip we heard the news about the two shark attacks in Oak Island.  If I had heard while there I would not have gone anywhere near the water.  But anyways, we had fun swimming and playing in the water.  One of Brad's other classmates drove down that evening and met us at the inlet.  Tacy loved digging in the sand with Brad and Angela while Jill and I watched.  Granted Tacy had the most fun putting more "sugar" (aka sand) in the holes Daddy was digging and climbing into the holes for a better look.  She's a funny girl.

After the beach, we showered/bathed, and then went to a seafood restaurant in Southpoint.  Brad got a sea food plate, I got chicken strips and fries to share with Tacy.  Tacy really loved the hushpuppies and had fun eating these (they were really yummy).  

Tacy and Jill eating hush puppies.  Tacy LOVES Jill

Sunday morning, Jill and Angela cleaned the beach house, Brad vacuumed out our car, and Tacy and I stayed out of the way and found some little frogs outside.  Then we all drove back to our homes.

We had a lot of fun and it was nice to enjoy the ocean breeze/wind and Atlantic ocean.  After so many years on the West coast, I forgot how windy the East coast beaches are, but at least you do not get hot as easy.  Plus, the water is so much warmer than the Pacific.

Spring Adventures and Happenings

Other than potty training, we have managed to have some fun this spring.  I love Spring in North Carolina!  It is so beautiful here and we had a great few weeks of nice mild 60-70 degree temperature with breezes.  I LOVE it!  I have been walking around my work building during work, because after sitting at a desk it is nice to move, and the weather has been so perfect.  I would love to stay outside all day!

One weekend, Brad and I had talked about going to the beach, but with a potty training toddler we decided to stay close to home and went to Jordan Lake.  It was nice because we were able to run errands, let Tacy nap and then we went and spent 2 hours at the lake (granted we did not wear swimsuits much to Tacy's dismay).  Tacy kept trying to walk right into the lake to swim, needless to say even with me holding both her arms, she managed to drench her shorts by jumping and squatting.  Oh well, she loved it.  

The bathrooms at the lake were in a building that kind of looked like a barn, at least to Tacy anyways.  She got excited and started saying "Mom, I wanna see e-i-e-i-o"  I was getting so confused and asked if she wanted to sing Old McDonald, but she said no and pointed to the bathrooms and said "e-i-e-i-o" again.  I laughed and we walked over.  She was so excited and then so disappointed to find only bathrooms in the building.  She kept asking where the animals were.  But we did find a pay phone and she had a lot of fun with that.

April and May have a lot of birthdays in them (7 to exact).  With all the birthdays, Tacy would get confused and say it was her birthday.  So we have kept telling her that her birthday is in a few months.  Tacy still gets very excited about birthdays, but at least is better at saying it isn't her birthday anymore.  My mom sent me a package for my birthday and she told me that she put a present in there for Tacy...yup she is spoiled.  

My birthday was exciting because one of Brad's friends watched Tacy for us so we could go out!  We went to this resturaunt in Raleigh called Cowfish.  They have the biggest (as in a LOT of items) menu I have ever seen and it took our waitor like 5-10 minutes to explain.  Basically they have burgers, sushi, bento boxes that have both, and their own creations called hamushi or something.  Well I got a boursin bacon burger (seriously the boursin cheese was delicious!) and Brad got a bento box so he could have sushi and a little burger.  It was all very yummy.  Then we ran across the street to go see Avengers: Age of Ultron.  I was very excited for this movie and we both really liked it.  In preparation we spent the previous weeks watching Iron Man 3 and The Avengers (I really wanted some good RDJ humor).  We had a fun childfree evening.

For Mother's day, we bought a grill.  I'm not the easiest person to shop for because I want clothes, but I'm picky.  So Brad suggested a grill.  Yes, this is normally more of a gift for a man, but you see, I love when Brad BBQs.  So if having a grill meant that I would get hamburgers, hot dogs, ka-bobs, etc. I was all for it.  Brad made a meat sushi for mother's day dinner (bacon as the seaweed with marinated hamburger and cheese rolled up inside).  It was delicious and we all loved it.  I got him to try grilling a banana (they grill plantains so why not a banana) and it was so yummy!  The banana gets a little watery but it becomes so sweet it's like eating candy (except it's gooey banana).  I can't wait for peach season so we can try grilling those!

the meat sushi!

On Saturday, May 16th, I went to go see Pitch Perfect 2 with Jill and Tiana (2 girls from Brad's PA class who we have done stuff with).  It was fun to have some girl time and get to watch a movie.  Tiana and Jill had bought so much food it was ridiculous.  But we laughed and had a good time.  I like the first movie better, but this new one was still fun (I could have done with less Fat Amy humor and more singing and more Jesse/Beca times but oh well).  

Mother's Day

Memorial Day we had over Jason, the other mormon guy in Brad's PA class, and his family and did a BBQ.  Jason has 2 little girls that Tacy loved playing with (once she warmed up to them and stopped being shy) but she did struggle with sharing her toys with them.  We even managed to play a card (by putting Little mermaid on for the girls).  It was fun.

Tacy counting out all of her strawberries

That's been our lives.  Brad only has 2 months left of summer semester which is exciting.  He has been doing short little 2-3 hours rotations (I think they have to do 7-8 this semester) to help get them all ready for their real clinical rotations to start in August.  Life will be really crazy then, but we almost have the first year done so it's exciting!

Climbing by herself at the playground

One little cute story, so Tacy went 3 weeks with no runny nose (a record for us since moving here) and then she got one and has had a cough.  Well she would tell us that she was sick and needed medicine (before she had much of a runny nose or cough) so I would say "No".  Brad then told Tacy that he is practically a doctor and that he would listen to her.  So he got out his stethoscope, and made her cough while he listened to her lungs (she never let me doing this during nursing school because she was scared of stethoscopes then).  He then told her she was better.  So she got excited and told me that she saw a doctor and was better. Adorable!  A few days later Tacy had coughed and starting digging through Brad's bag.  He asked her what she was doing when she pulled out his stethoscope.  Haha so he listened to her again and she coughed without him asking.  She is a funny girl.