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.

"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.