Eva

Introducing our little Eva Jocelyn. She was born November 1st at 7:42pm. At 7lbs 14oz, she is the most beautiful little person we have ever seen. She is healthy and happy, and we are blessed to be parents again. Jack is getting used to being a big brother of a person he can't play with. We keep telling him that when she is big she will play with him, but for now all she does is sit and sleep. He thinks that sucks. He loves her though and is excited for her to get big. We are savoring the short time we have while she is small and sleeps on our shoulder. Welcome to this world EVA!!!!!!

Baby Baby Baby

This is not an announcement... sorry to disappoint!! I am still with child for the next two weeks (or less). I just thought I would post the few baby belly pics we took. If you are not ready to expose your eyes to a bare baby bump... look away.
We have been trying to prep Jack for the up coming event. He does not fully understand what is going to happen to him (how could he) but we are trying anyhow. He knows that his baby sister will come out of mommy's tummy soon and that she with take baths with him and she will not play with his toys. He told me that we need to get baby sister her own boat for the tub (he has made his own plans with his sister). He has his own baby doll which he only takes care of when I remind him that it is there. I think that he feels the anticipation though and is excited for something to happen. Taylor and I are also excited. I am at the annoyed stage though where all my Doctor visits are a disappointment. I expect him to tell me that I am going to give birth at any moment and we should head to the hospital... NOT WHAT HE IS SAYING. Oh well, she is happy to stay put for now. I will let you all know when she arrives.

Back for more

So I am re-entering the blogging world after a small disconnect. Life has been going by so fast these last few months. We are finally all moved in and our Internet is connected. Taylor takes the lap top to work with him so if I don't remember to use the Internet when he gets home (which I don't) then blogging does not happen. But now I am committed and Back for more!!!
I am so excited about the up coming season. I love fall and the holidays in it. This cute little number is hanging on our front door. Everyone in our neighborhood decorates their front doors and I was feeling a bit left out. However, I am HUGE and not really feeling like doing the actual work to make it happen. So I found this cute little number at TJ Maxx and we are now part of the Halloween club in the neighborhood. Trick or Treat!!!!!

Aug update

We have been so busy these last few weeks. We just moved to a little house in Washington city UT (just outside St. George). Life is going by so fast. I will do a real update soon with pics. For now we still have to get our Internet connected... be patient with us.

July

I forgot all about this part of pregnancy!!! Last night I woke up with the worst pain in my hips followed by a charlie horse in my calf. I looked over at my husband who was sleeping soundly... I was pissed. Oh well, what can ya do? I am not sick often and I feel really good and healthy so I'll take the small bumps to compensate for the blessings.
So our month has been great. We spent the 4th of July with my Mom's family.They are so much fun! Jack loved swimming, BBQ and of course, fireworks. He met new cousins and loved playing with their toys. We were so happy to celebrate the birth of our country on American soil. We are very patriotic if you can't tell. The small town of Logandale, NV put on a great firework show. Thanks for the great memories Sherry.
This month Jack has been learning his ABC's and making up his own songs. We have a neighbor girl who is in the third grade whom Jack is in love with. He made up two songs all on his own about her name. One is just her name over and over and over again. The other is Her name plugged into 'Mary had a little lamb'. The words now say 'Mikelle had a little lamb'. So cute!!!!

Summer Time and The Livin's Easy

I am proud to say that Jack is no longer pasty white. His little body is covered in spf 50 but it only makes him tan. We have had a fun and hot summer so far. I forgot how HOT summers are in Southern Utah. I must say though that when people say "at least it is a dry heat"... THAT IS REAL. After a very humid summer in Taiwan last year, this is hot but better. We go to the splash pads all the time. Jack even has a plastic pool in the yard to keep him cool. We do hit up any pool we can find.
Our In-Laws took us to the Lake a couple weeks ago. Wake boarding is just as much fun as we remembered. We drug Jack and Taylor behind the boat on a knee board. Jack had a blast and I think a new water sport athlete was born that day.

Tay is in the process of starting a business here so it looks like we will be living here for a while. It will be nice to live near family. We really never have since we've been married. I know Jack loves being near his uncles, aunts and cousins. I could go to the lake more often so that will be great. >

It's a Girl!!!!

We are happy to say that we are expecting a girl come this Fall. We are excited in different ways. Taylor is over the moon to have a "daddy's little girl". I am excited to shop in the other part of the store. Girls clothes are just so much more fun. Jack is excited too but he doesn't know why. We have tried to tell him that mommy has a baby in her tummy. He tells us that he has a baby monkey in his tummy. I know girls bring lots of drama. I know I am really in for it because I was such a pain to my parents.. Oh well, bring on the Pink.

Mexico

OK, I have a question for you. What do you do when you are homeless, jobless and pregnant? You go to Mexico of course, or so we thought. We have been on "vacation" since we moved back from Taiwan and thought that a "real vacation" sounded like a good idea. Turns out we were right. We had a blast in Rocky Point Mexico. Sunshine, deep sea fishing, sunshine, tacos, sunshine, skim boarding, sunshine, mangoes and of course more sunshine. We all came back with a tan and after living in the land of porcelain skin (Asia), we decided we like this look better.
Jack now is sporting a new do. A little Mohawk now sits on his cute little white head. His tan has helped him not look so sickly. He now has a healthy glow and its about time.
I feel pregnant as ever. Apparently I am not showing to anyone but myself, but almost 18 weeks in and 10 pounds later, I can sure see it. We find out what we are having in a couple of weeks. Any predictions?
Taylor is on the hunt for jobs (if you hear of anything, let us know). St. George is not as "international business friendly" as we would like. Not too many Chinese speaking jobs in southern Utah (big surprise). But there are a few things here we are looking at. Life is fun and we are optimistic.

Welcome to the United States

As soon as we landed on American soil in L.A. we knew we were back in the USA!!! Immediately we were treated like crap and not one person stopped us to touch our baby and tell us how amazing he is. Home sweet home!!

The first week we dedicated a lot of time to recovering from Jet Lag and catching up with family. We had two nieces and a nephew we got to meet for the first time. So much changes in just a year.

We attended the Southern Utah Kite festival. Much different than festivals in Taiwan. Jack got to ride in a 55 gallon berral cut in half and pulled buy a tractor. He hated it. He did like seeing all the kites in the sky though. We decided it was time to leave when a huge dust devil kicked up and was heading right for the festivities

Jack loves playing outside and riding his bike down the sidewalk. He also loves running through the sprinklers and playing with cousins. He likes playing so much that he was running at his cousins birthday party last week fell and split open his eyebrow. Three stitches later with NO insurance yet... life is good.

So here we are dwelling among the beautiful red rocks of Southern Utah looking for our next adventure!!!

Forever Made in Taiwan

The title if this entry is fitting for two reasons. I hope to explain...
Ending our journey in Taiwan was not easy. I cried all the way to the airport. We were so busy getting ready to move and Taylor's parents and brother came to visit our last week as well. We were too busy to think much about leaving. Now reflecting on our time there I feel like we were "made in Taiwan". We were only there a year but our lives will be forever touched and changed because of it.
Our testimonies were strengthened greatly. We really learned what we are made of and how much the Lord loves us. We are forever inspired by the wonderful ward members who dedicate so much to the church. We will always remember the examples they are and hope to keep those friendships alive. We truly felt the love of a Heavenly family in Taipei and we want to pass that on to our friends and family here. We thank the Taipei English ward from the bottom of our hearts.
When we did come to the difficult decision of leaving we also felt inspired to extend our family. Perfect timing? We thought so. Our Doctor told us that it would take us months to get pregnant after an IUD (ask your mom, if you don't know what that is). Well, it actually only took a couple of weeks. Today we are 14 weeks along and doing great. So our little souvenir will be born around November 5th. We feel so blessed.
Our adventure in Taiwan has ended for now but we hope to return "home" someday.
Zaijian 再見

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACK

I can't believe my baby is two years old. It is TRUE what they say. "terrible twos" do exist!!! I can't believe how much he has changed in just the past few months. We are battling tantrums, "NO" (his new favorite word), "carry me","I do it" and standing up in every taxi. What is that all about? I do love him though and I do carry him all over, even though I shouldn't.
We have had a crazy start to our week and I didn't know if we would be able to celebrate. I returned home from Hong Kong on Sunday to a kid with a 102.5 degree fever. I spent the following two days laying in bed with him watching Nemo over and over and over and over (I am Nemo sick). His fever broke on Tuesday and I still took him into the doctor just to be sure. We have no insurance so our cost was more than it had to be. We paid a total of $450 Taiwanese dollars. That is roughly $13 US dollars. So I am basically out a lunch. Because He was finally feeling better by Wednesday (his B-day), we went to playgroup to see his friends. We played for a few hours in the sun and then grabbed a mango smoothie and went home. We had a little birthday party here at our house for him. He received a race car track set thing... I picked up in Hong Kong. He blew out his candles on his Birthday cake ate it with his hands and then we all went to bed. All in all it was a nice day.

Hong Kong

I was blessed to travel to Hong Kong this last weekend to the Asia Womens Conference. I have to admit that I was mostly excited for the shopping that I have heard so much about. However, when I arrived at the first session Thursday night, I became just excited to be there at all. Over the three days of the conference, we heard from the Asia Area Presidency and all their wives. We also heard from the Hong Kong Mission President, the Hong Kong Temple President and their wives. I also attended a couple of classes from amazing women with stories that I know were just for me. It was neat to meet people who are living abroad from the States and Canada. They live in Tailand, China, Phillipines, Taiwan, Malaysia. It was three days full of the spirit nad I totally needed a refill.
We did get in a half a day of shopping and some fun dinners. Then we just walked around the city. Hong Kong is a beautiful city. I could really see the European influence there. It reaminded me of San Francisco a bit. If we could afford to live there, I would in a heartbeat. Heres my show..... by the way, we call these "Chinese fingers"

More Fun

I know I know another chinese new year post... Sorry to bore you yet again. I found all the pictures of the rest of the stuff we did over our break. We went to the National Palace Museum. It was full of lots of old stuff. My personal favorite was the Neolithic display. We saw pottery from 4000 BC. I was told I should be impressed by the jade that looked like a piece of pork or the jade carved to look like a cabbage. I have to say that this was not my personal high light of the museum. However they were old and it is impressive that someone has not tried to cook them yet. Since we were not allowed to take pics inside the museum, our pictures are of the grounds, which were beautiful. So, have you ever been shrimp fishing? Some of you may have but it was new to us. Ever since we moved here we have heard that we needed to go. We finally made it. It really is fun. Taylor is a die-hard fisherman, however, this was not professional by anymeans. Just a warehouse complete with three cement ponds. Two for shrimp fishing and one for fish fishing (that sounds weird). Jack loved holding the pole. It is not complicated or stratiegic at all. Just throw on a piece of chicken liver and you are set. We also took a ride up the Maokong Gondola. This was really beautiful. It was so rainey though we did not stay at the top for long. Just long enough to buy my sister Janelle some tea leaves. Maokong Mountian is known for its tea. At the top are loads of tea houses and a HUGE temple. The ride and view were both amazing.

Over Chinese New Year we did recieve some gifts from Taylor's students and work. It is customary here to buy these large boxes of giant fruit as gifts. Ours had "World Apples" and Korean Pears. As you can see they are gianormous!! We loved them. We also received a few boxes of chocolates but they were gone before I could take a picture. We are now in the middle of the Lantern Festival here. I am sure my next post will cover that really well for your viewing pleasure.... TTFN.

Jack Jack

OK, I know that Jack may be a bit young for this but he tells us when he is going pooh so we decided to start potty training. He is so cute with his new potty seat I just had to snap a shot. He has gone 3 times now. I am so proud. He is getting big so fast. He will kill me for this one day but I just couldn't resist.


Across the street is the biggest mall I have ever been in. On rainy days like we have had lately it proves to be a lifesaver. The whole 5th and 7th floor are dedicated to kids. The 10th and 11th floors are restaurants... also a lifesaver. anyway, they have a great ball pit obviously. I thought these pics were so cute... what a great kid. I love him so much.

The sun came out!!! (for one day)

We have had a lot of fun thise Chinese New Year. We just did a lot of sight seeing around Taipei and we cought up on movies. I found a great bootleg guy who gets all the good movies... shhhhhh dont tell.
The weather here has been terrible. It rained 34 days strait.... yup we are rained out. The sun finally came out on Saturday and we went out all day. It was so nice to walk down the street without an unbrella. We went to the Childrens Rec. Center. This is a place that has old school Chinese activities. It shows the old artwork and way of life. It also has the old style toys and food. It is hands on so it really is fun. It also has an amusement park so we spent all day. This slide show is of that day.

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!!!!!

Welcome to the year of the Rat and it is an Earth year as well. Jack was born in the year of the dog and Taylor is the monkey. I just learned that because I was born in January I am actually born in a different year than I thought. My whole life I thought I was born in the year of the monkey. (thats what I get for trusting the placemat at J.J. Hunan Chinese Restaurant). I am actually born in the year of the Ram.
Looking back at our two week vacation, we are having a hard time remembering what we did. We just relaxed a lot and saw some sights. I was waiting for a parade or something but nothing happened. Just a lot of crazy fire crackers going off every 20 minutes. Finally today a parade came down our road. I have been dieing to see dancing dragons. Today my Chinese dream came true. This slide show is the parade.