Our First Official Family Vacation!

We took off on our first official family vacation at the beginning of June and we had so much fun!  Our first stop was to one of our favorite places... Taggart's Grill.

Our next stop was Heber City/Midway and we had so much fun staying in Mark's sister's condo.  Thanks Jan for letting us hang out with your sweet family and enjoy beautiful Midway. 

Beck got to hang out with one of his favorite cousins... Shiloh!  They had so much fun together and we loved our time with Jan and Jimmy.

Our condo had a big jetted tub and Beck was in heaven!  He loved taking a bath with lots of bubbles and enjoying some splash time.

These two had so much fun swimming together.  I wanted to get in with them so bad, but this pregnant belly of mine doesn't have a swimsuit :)

Mark's sister Jan and Shiloh... she is such a wonderful person!

I can't get enough of these two rascals.  I am so thankful for the amazing man I am married to!  He is definitely the best decision I have ever made and I am so thankful for the way that he loves Beckam and me.  He truly is amazing!

Beck learning some swimming skills from his cute Dad.

Beck loved the chance to swim in the pool and then dip his feet into the hot tub which has natural hot spring water. 

The view from our condo... beautiful!

We had to find a park and "play toys" as Beck calls it.  It is so fun to watch him try new things and discover his many abilities.  We are so blessed to have such a cute little munchkin with one on the way!

He is such a stud :)  This is how we found him after he was out of the bath.  Just chillin like a villain!

Our condo had the coolest spiral staircase and loft.  Beck loved going up and down, up and down.

Just my sweetie showing off his best side :)

Up and down, up and down!  He thought the loft was his territory and he was pretty thrilled to be sleeping in a new house.

Such a fun place to vacation.  Here we are our cute family of three soon to be four.  This is me and the babe at 29 weeks.

Oh how we love our Lexe!  She is truly a rockstar and we are so thankful for her strength and example.  She was diagnosed with AML (Acute Myleoid Leukemia) on April 20th.  She had so many exciting things right around the corner, her 18th birthday, graduation from Alta High, and she had signed with University of Arizona to play soccer with them starting in July.  She is now fighting for her life and just finished her second round of chemo.  She is one of the most amazing girls I know and I am so thankful for her amazing attitude and perspective.  Beckam thinks she is the greatest and LOVED his time playing ball and jumping with Lexe. 

We love you Lex and are praying for you!  You will kick Leukemia!

Beck also got to see and spend time with his Grandma and Grandpa.  He loves these two so much and they are such great examples to us.  They are serving a mission for the church at the Church Office Building.  Mom is the medical screener for all senior couples and Dad is the office manager.  They just started at the first of June and Beck loves going to see them.  He often says, "Grandma and Grandpa live by the temple and Follow the Prophet."  Thanks Mom and Dad for your wonderful example and for being such an amazing support to our family.  We love you!

City Creek is such a fun place to visit!  We definitely need to spend more time there, we were kind of at the end of our rope I was swelling up like a balloon and Beck was tired beyond belief.  That must mean we had a great time on our first official family vacation! 

"My Daddy"

This is a phrase I hear often at our house. These days everything belongs to Beckam... So rightfully so it is "his Daddy"! I am so thankful for the wonderful man I am blessed to be married to! Mark is truly the greatest thing that as ever happened to me. It seems like every struggle we have or trial we endure it solidifies my love and deep appreciation for the amazing man that he is! I love watching the way Beck idolizes his Dad. He wants to be just like him and loves playing "ball", soccer, riding the horsey, and just chillin on the couch with him. What a joy and sweet blessing it is to have these two almost three wonderful boys in my life. Thank you Mark for being such a stellar example of a what a wonderful father is... Beckam s so lucky! As Mark and I sat in sacrament meeting today I had the distinct realization that in a very short time we will be cradling a newborn in our arms! I obviously know this is coming, seeing as how I am becoming quite miserable and very large and in charge, but I love those sweet moments that bring clarity. I am so excited to meet this sweet little angel the Lord is sending to us. We are so very blessed! Happy Father's Day to my sweetheart! You are my sunshine!

I just love this little rascal!

We took Aunt Chelsee to dinner for her birthday way back in January and Beck loved the singing, sombrero hat, and fried ice cream.  Mostly he just wanted to eat the whipping cream on top of the ice cream.

One of his favorite things to do... try on Mommy and Daddy's shoes and take a stroll around the house :)

Go Aggies!

That cute little rooster lip is his signature move to get what he wants.  I sure do love everything about this boy!

He LOVES my warm fuzzy socks!

We have finally mastered potty training!  Yahoo!  What a long process it was... thanks to Mark's sweet mom we were able to help Beckam figure out how to go number 2 in the toilet.  That was quite the traumatic and frightening experience.  This was such a funny day... we were outside and I was grilling some chicken for dinner.  All of the sudden I heard what I thought was running water and I turned around and saw this.  Yep, totally whipped it out and took care of business right on the back patio.  What a fun adventure it is to be a mother of little boys!  I feel so blessed :)

A rare moment to snuggle with my little angel!

Ha ha ha!  Love Beck's face!

Helping Daddy fix the sink.  He loves to do whatever Dad is doing... he is Daddy's little helper!

It's a.....

You wouldn't believe it, but this is the first of April in Logan!  We went to our 20 week ultrasound this morning and it felt like winter outside.  Mark has always claimed that he knows we will have two boys, a girl, and then a boy, in that order.  So as we have talked about what the gender of this baby might be, he has been insistent from the beginning that it is a boy.  However, I really never know what to think... I definitely don't feel the mother's intuition when it comes to the gender of our babies.  We always just hope we have healthy children, so with that said we went into the ultrasound and came out ready to welcome at little BOY!  We are so excited and feel so thankful for this wonderful blessing!  We celebrated by going to a new little restaurant on Canyon Road called Herm's Inn and it was delish!  They serve breakfast and lunch and we thoroughly enjoyed  it.  My favorite part (I know I am amazed by simple and silly things) was the hand dryer.  It was a Dyson that you stick your hands into and it dries them within seconds.... all I can say is AMAZING!  :)

"Superman!"

Oh how I love these two together! We are so thankful for our friends the Hall's and for the chance these two have to be pals. Beck often says "Superman!" followed by "Koy's Superman too!"

This photo was taken from Sherrie's blog along with this explanation:

They stopped running around and stared out the window.

Then Koy said, "It's dangerous out there Beck."

And Beck said, "Uh huh."

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE these two little rascals :)

Angels Among Us

I hope to never relive the experience we had on March 23rd! Mark called me after school around 3:40 and told me that everything was okay and I needed to remain calm... I immediately thought "ya right!" what happened!!!!

Beckam had gone out to get the mail with Grandma and was following her back into the house. Once they got to the porch, Mom walked in and put the mail down, and as when she went back out to find out where Beck was, he was gone. She searched the house, the yard, and couldn't find him anywhere. At that moment she realized that he could have wandered off so she called Dad to find out what to do next (he was golfing with Jon). At that same moment Dad felt like he should call her and told her to then call 911. On his way home, Dad called Mark at Bear River Middle School to let him know that he needed to call them right away. Mark called them right after school was out and immediately left and drove to their house to begin searching. He was distraught and felt so helpless. When he got to Mom and Dad's there were four police officers along with lots of neighbors looking for Beck.

Dad had gone out on his four wheeler and thought that the logical thing would be to go down the middle road (next to the canal - thank goodness it was empty), but he felt like he should go down to the lower road. Thank goodness he followed this prompting, because it in turn saved Beck's life! He drove down to the Norr Dairy (Beck had visited the cows with Grandma here the day before) and then cut up on a side road to the middle canal road. As soon as he approached the canal road he saw Beck's little head bobbing up and down and Beck was headed north farther down the road. As soon as he heard Grandpa coming, he turned around and looked very worried, but relieved to see Grandpa. Grandpa picked him up and drove him home on the four wheeler, and Mark and Mom were SO RELIEVED to see him! He seemed a little aloof to what happened until he saw Grandma extremely upset and then I think it began to sink in what had happened.

I can't even begin to describe the extreme fear I felt as Mark recounted what happened. I have never felt so frightened, helpless, and thankful that Beck was found safe and sound. There were so many awful things that could have happened... he could have been hit by a car on the highway or lower road, fell into the steep canal, been taken by someone, or worse if he would have traveled 30 more yards down the road there are vicious dogs that would have attacked him. I believe I have always felt very thankful for the blessing that Beckam and Mark are in my life, but this experience has given me a renewed sense of gratitude and humility for all that I have - especially my sweet baby boy.

As Mark and I continue to reflect on this experience, we are grateful beyond words that Beckam is safe and with us today. We are also very thankful that Dad Taylor was in tune with the Spirit and followed the promptings he received that day. We have felt and know that there were angels watching over our sweet baby boy and that he is supposed to still be with us today.

Happy Birthday Beckam!

 Happy 3rd Birthday Beckam!  You got your first bouqet of balloons and were SO excited!  You ran around with them the whole day swishing them back and forth.  We love your excitement for life and the joy you bring to us each day!

 You weren't so sure about the bowling idea.  You loved to push the ball down with Dad, but you thought that all of the balls were yours and that the game took too long!

 Dad helping you get ready to BOWL! 

 You must have knocked down quite a few... look at that face!

 Dad is set and ready to go :)

 Aunt Chelsee came up for your big day!  We loved having her here to celebrate with us!

 We decided that Daddy was better at helping you than Mommy :)

 I sure do love you!

 Cool shoes DUDE!

 You have brought us more happiness in the last three years than we even knew was possible.  We love every second we get to snuggle, tease, laugh, play, and teach you.  You are our little rascal :)

 Trying out the arcades at the Fun Park!

 You loved opening your presents...

 You got a "McQueen" folding chair and "Flynn McMissile" and lots of other good stuff!

 We are so grateful Grandma and Grandpa would come and spend your birthday with us.  While Daddy has been student teaching you get to spend everyday with Grandma and Grandpa and you have LOVED it!  We are so thankful for their examples and positive influence in our lives.  One of your favorite things to do is to read with Grandma :)

 You got a cool Cars racecar track!

 Your very first Thomas the Train track too!

 Happy Birthday Buddy!  We LOVE you so much!

 Our happy family of three!  We will be welcoming your baby brother in August!

My little Buddy!

Mark began student teaching this semester at Bear River Middle School and loves it! It Has been so exciting to watch him naturally fall into his role as "Mr. Taylor". They love him over there and I am so proud of my sweetheart!

We are so blessed to have Mark's parents watching Beck this semester. They are some of the kindest, generous, and loving people I have ever known! I am so thankful Beck gets to spend this time with his grandparents. He loves getting all of their attention! While it has been hard to have my boys so far away from me, I am thankful everyday for how things have worked out. We are so blessed!

Beckam brings us so much happiness and laughter each day! He is halfway potty trained, but REFUSES to poop on the potty. This process has been so frustrating, funny, and full of stories.

When he was at Grandma's house one day he pooped in his pants and Grandma showed him how to take his poop and drop it from his undies into the potty. She put him down for his nap later that day and noticed he was out of bed. She went to check on him and realized that he had pooped, taken off his clothes, and unsuccessfully tried to get it into the toilet. Needless to say it was an absolutely awful mess.

Side note: Beckam always cheers after he goes potty... We always say, "Yay, Beckam you went potty on the toilet! Yahoo!" One day Grandma and Grandpa took Beck to the grocery store and took a potty stop during their shopping adventure. Grandma took Beck to the bathroom and Grandpa did his business at the same time. Grandma and Beck got done a little early and waited for Grandpa. Once Grandpa came out of the bathroom Beckam cheers for everyone to hear, "Yay, Grandpa potty on the toilet!"

Some of my favorite phrases from Beckam as of late:

Mommy, help you?

"Geckam's" turn

Mommy's turn

Sweet Dreams

Sleep tight

Whenever he bursts out into song, lately his songs of choice are:

Reverently, Quietly

Party Rock by LMFAO

The Scotsman (with all of the actions:)

USU's fight song - Hail the Utah Aggies...

Dance?

Hold you?

Daddy, where you go?

Daddy's at work

Mommy you're pretty (this melts my heart)

So polite (he is so good at saying please and thank you)

Every night when we put him to bed he has to have his ridiculous mound of blankets and his two bears. For Christmas he got a book called "Mommy and Me," along with two bears, he has since named the bigger bear, "Mommy" and the baby bear, "Geckam". He cannot go to sleep without them. We often find him snuggling Mommy as he sleeps, I think he is the sweetest thing! I just LOVE him!

Taylor Tot #2

Yahoo! We are having a baby and are so excited! Our new little bundle of joy is set to arrive on August 20th. We went to our first ultrasound (10 weeks) and so far everything looks good. Our little peanut has good measurements and the heartbeat was a rapid 171... which the doctor says is right on target. We feel so grateful and excited for this wonderful blessing in our lives. It took us a little longer than we anticipated and we feel so thankful that the Lord has given us such wonderful gift!

Update!

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