"I'm too sexy"

No your eyes are not playing tricks on you... well maybe they are but not here. Yes Taylor is modeling!!! After much begging and pleading I finally let Taylor accept a modeling job. Yeah right!!!! All the begging and pleading was done on my part. Our agent called and said that they needed a "dad" for this Disney Baby Clothing shoot. Taylor refused to be involved. I had to use my "wife" tactics to persuade him to do it. Just so you know, it went great!! In the shoot, they gave him a new wife and two new kids. He liked having a wife who doesn't beg him to do photo shoots, he he he. So here are the pics I took of him showing off is studly self. ENJOY!!!!

Totally Random

So today I decided to work on our blog... only I have nothing exciting to say and we have not done anything very cool this month. So I am adding some really random pictures of us. Some are of Jack being a total mess (not all that unusual). Some are of a new night market we checked out finally. It is called "Snake Alley" and for good reason. We did watch a snake be disemboweled right in front of us. Then the "surgeon" drank the blood and offered it to the crowd for a large some of money. I literally had to turn my head. But I couldn't help but take a peek at the whole process. It was gross but still morbidly interesting. There are a few pics of the subway and of our skyline, which I will miss terribly.
This is Taylor's last week until the Chinese New Year. We are so excited he gets off two weeks for the holiday (with pay). We have a HUGE list of all the tourist places we want to see. I am sure that blog entry will be really cool. Apparently the whole city shuts down and it is really quiet. I can't imagine what that would sound like... Quiet in this city? I can not even talk on my cell phone and stand on the side walk. It is too loud to hear anything. We are really looking forward to the holiday. I have mailed out Chinese New Year cards. I just found out yesterday that I may have the wrong postage on some of them. If you do not receive one.... well, sorry. One of the disadvantages of not learning this language very well. The teller told me "Ar Shr San" ($23) I heard "Shr San" ($13)... oops. So, oh well.

Announcement!!!

After much debate. We have decided to move back to the States in April. We could not be more torn. We absolutely love Taiwan. We love living Taipei. We have met some amazing people here who will be hard to leave. We have really found new strength in our testimonies. Our life and journey here will forever be missed and longed for. HOWEVER, we are so excited to see our families again. I can't wait for Jack to play with his cousins and aunts and uncles. Both Taylor and I are anxious to start our life and hopefully say goodbye to appartment living forever!!! See you soon

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Ok I admit it... it did get cold here last week. Right after we returned home from our really warm Vacation the temp dropped. We now have winter in Taiwan... a freezing 59 degrees. It was a cold front that came in for about a week... now however the weather is back up to 70 and all is well. Happy New Year to you!!!! We did get involved in the New Year fun here in Taipei. We, amongst 3 million other people, went to the Taipei 101 building to ring in the new year. We not only felt like sardines, we literally could pick up our feet and not drop to the pavement. There were so many people out on the streets that the radio was giving advice on what to do in a stampeed. The city shut down all the surrounding streets of the 101 Building. We live about five blocks away and our streets where filled with people. It was a fun way to spend our last minutes of 07. The 101 building is Taiwan's pride and joy. Up until the last couple of months it was the tallest building in the world. This is the last year (supposidly) for the firework show. We just had to be there. That night the Subway system here set a record of moving 1.6 million passangers to that location just in the hour leading up to and after the celebration. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!! LOVE TAY BEAN AND JACK.

Merry Christmas

So, Our Christmas here was a bit different. We spent Christmas Eve with some good friends of ours. They were gracious enough to invite all the small families and single people in our ward over for the holiday. We ate Mongolian BBQ while the weebees acted out the Nativity. It was so cute. Then we exchanged white elephant gifts. We thank Hugh and Courtney for a wonderful night.
The next day, Christmas, we started our Christmas Vacation. We circled the whole island of Taiwan. I already did a post of Green Island so I will skip that part (even though it was the best part). We started in Taipei (duh). We took a train down the East coast. It is an amazing view and the train ride is literally on the beach the whole way.
We reached Taitung that afternoon and we spent the night there. Not much to do in this sleepy town. We have some pics of it for you... old run down houses, broken couches on the beach. The old guys house in the pics is literally facing the ocean. We had a hard time figuring out how someone with beach front property could live that way... actually all of Taitung was like that. Oh well.
Then the next morning we hopped a boat to Liudau. That was amazing, but you will have to read about it below. We spent three days there. After Liudau, we took another train to the other side of Taiwan to Kaohsiung. This city is huge and has one of the largest ports in the world. We watched tankers and battle ships and all kinds of ships do what ships do.... not much. It was fun though because Tay loved it and Jack loved it more.
We then took the High Speed Rail (bullet train) and sped back to Taipei at about 180 m.p.h.. our whole trip was just five days. We are planning to return to Liudau soon. Well, that is our Christmas in a nutshell. These pics are all over the place so I am sorry about that. I hope they are not too confusing, take a look.

Liudau (green island)

So I have to admit. Going into Christmas this year we were quite home sick. It is just not the same without family around. The spirit of Christmas is just not the same here. We went on vacation for the holiday though and found more Christmas decor and Christmas trees down toward south of the island. That helped a bit. We took a boat over to Liudau (Green Island). The ride was so fun. Really rough waters though and I am woman enough to admit that I did get sea sick. However, I still loved it. Then we reached our destination....... The cooliest island I have ever seen. No offense but, we lost all home sickness when we arrived. No Christmas to be found there but our hearts were warmed by the hot sunshine and beautiful coral reefs. Our lungs didn't know what to do with all the fresh air. We spent our days riding around on a scooter and playing in the water looking for hermit crabs, star fish and tropical fish. We gathered large pieces of coral and shells from the beach. We spent our nights enjoying HBO (big deal for us) and listining to the waves crash outside our window. We awoke early one morning and found a cliffs edge to watch the sun rise over the Pacific ocean. Our whole lives we have only seen the sun set over the Pacific. We thought it would be neat switch. The whole island has only a 8 mile circumfrence and is only about two mile across. We circled it many times on our scooter. (Don't turn us in for child abuse. Yes, all three of us squeezed our little butt cheeks onto our cool ride and felt the wind in our hair). Liudau also has one of only three salt water hotsprings in the world. We had a blast!!!!!!!! The rest of our trip will be continued on my next entry. These pics are all of Liudau.

December

First things first. I love the weather here in the winter. I think 75 degrees and Palm trees in december is the way to go!!! Well, I don't really know what to say about this month. Taylor works and works. Jack and I are always on the go. I have picked up teaching English just a bit and Jack models here and there. We also have a play group we try to attend once a week. We try to fit in the park a few days a week for him. He loves the swings. There is a shortage of swings sets here in Taipei. I just happen to live one block from a park with one. Jack goes higher than any of the Taiwanese kids and it really freaks out their nannies (grandparents)!! I think its funny.
We did have the Nativity a week ago. you can read about that down below here.
We have the missionaries over for lunch once a month. They have mostly all been from the western United States. So that has been fun to talk to them. These last few have all been from Idaho. We have a good time filling them up on American breakfast and Mexican food.
We have Christmas break coming up. Taylor has a week of paid vacation for Christmas. We are going to take a trip around the whole island. Including a stop for a few days at Liudau (Green Island). It is only a couple of miles across. I have heard a lot about this island and Taylor has been there before. I am really excited to snorkle and lay on the beach for Christmas.
We do miss Christmas in the States though. It is not the same here. The malls all have Christmas sales and we see lights up and trees in businesses. The spirit of the season and the spirit of the event, is just not there. They don't even know why they do it, oh well. One of Taylor's students gave him a Christmas globe with a bear in it. It plays "We wish you a Merry Christmas". That is about as festive as it gets for us. Don't think of it as sad... its all part of the adventure. We miss you all at this time of year and wish you a Merry Christmas!!!!

(for all the old people out there ( you know who you are) click play twice to see this video)

Jack pays rent

"I'm a ma model you know what I mean". Jack has picked up modeling again. He actually really likes it now and does really well. They are good about allowing him to play while they snap shots. He now pays rent... here are a few pics of the last shooting.

NATIVITY

Wow, what can I say about this? It was really a lot of work, but worth it. This truely involved every member of our ward. We had a total of four shows. Two on Saturday and two on Sunday. It was a neat thing to be involved in though. here are a few pics.

So HAPPY THANKSGIVING for all you Americans out there. Our anniversary this year fell on T-day. So, we decided to celebrate that instead. So no Turkey for us, just sushi and soft-shell crab.... yum yum!!! Our month has been stuffed full of busy busy!!! Tay has been working non stop and I have taken up teaching an English class on Saturday mornings. I have twelve twelve year olds. I have a blast with them. Last week I taught them how to say... "that chick is smokin hot" and "that car is phat". They didn't really get it but I laughed!!! So, between our church callings and our busy life we barely have time to sleep (but we fit it in).

We are getting ready for the live Nativity our ward puts on for Taipei. It is a big deal and we are excited to be a part of it. I am in the choir. Not because I can sing, really I have no talent in that area, I just felt like I should help out. Now I can see where they need people in other areas. I am committed though, so I will belt out the wrong notes for all four performances. Tay is going to be a Wise Man... he is wise so this fits him. Plus, he has a beard! Jack is going to be at the nursery. Not too much involvement for baby J.

The weather here is something I will miss. It is December and I think our lows are 60-65 degrees. I love watching the people here wearing big puffy coats and scarfs. We point and laugh (only because we are sick of being pointed at ourselves). It does rain often which makes it feel colder than it is, but not too bad.

Christmas is upon us now and I must say, maybe it is the fact that I am surrounded by Buddhists or that I am so far from home, it does not feel like Christmas at all. We are still trying to figure out what we should do the big day. We are trying to get out of town... we'll see.

We love you all... T. T. F. N.