Taylor Family Through the Years

Daniel and I were married 13 years ago today.  We haven't been the best at taking pictures of our family, but I managed to find a picture or two of the family as it has evolved over the past 13 years.  I included the location the picture was taken, just for fun.

We normally celebrate the 'birthday' of our family with a cake, but since I need to avoid all sugars right now, we are celebrating a little bit differently this year.

I am very happy that I married Daniel.  He is a very good husband and I love him very much.  Sometimes I feel like I completely lucky because he married me.  Daniel says that luck is one of his skills, so perhaps we both found good luck when we found each other! 

I decided to try on my wedding dress and I was able to get it on!  It didn't fit the same as it did 13 years ago, but I am still very happy with my body, so all is good! 

So here is a snapshot of my family over the past 13 years! 

1998 (Silver Lake, Utah) (our engagement picture)

 

1999 (SLC Utah)

2000 (SLC Utah)

2001-Spring (Vernal, Utah- in front of Daniel's childhood home)

2001-Winter (Murray, Utah)

2002-Spring (Murray, Utah in front of my childhood home)

2002-Fall  I include this picture, not because it a stellar photo of any of us as it was the end of moving day, but because David (Daniel's brother) was living with us and he was part of our family (and those Halloween costumes I made were adorable! Paul made the cutest Eeyore ever!)

2003 (Grand Junction, Colorado)

2004 (South Jordan, Utah) (I am 8 months pregnant with Seth)

2005 (Sandy, Utah)

2006 (Stone Mountain, Georgia)

2007 (Jackson Hole, Wyoming)

2008  (Riverton, Utah) This is the only picture I can find of our family this year.  Yuki was here with us for just a few weeks during the summer.  (but if I cut him out, Mark winds up having a hand on his shoulder- and that looks weird!)

2009 (South Jordan, Utah)

2010 (Riverton, Utah)

2011 (Draper, Utah)

Here's to many more photos to come!

The Same, Yet Different

I wanted to be back at my pre-pregnancy weight nine months after Jane was born.  When I realized that that wasn't going to be happening, I gave myself nine more months.  I am so happy to say that I am there!  I am at my pre-pregnancy weight!  Not just pre-Jane, but pre-Mark weight!  Right now I weigh the same as I did thirteen years ago!  The strange thing is that even though the number on the scale is the same, my body sure doesn't look the same!  Things have shifted and scarred and enlarged, but I still love my body. 

I realize that I probably won't ever get rid of the little pouch of skin on my tummy.  The scars from the many (MANY) stretchmarks won't go away, but I love that they are my physical reminders that I had the wonderful opportunity to have life grow inside of me.  I have chosen to let those silvery scars represent love and life, not disgust and discouragement.  I am so grateful to be a mother. 

Throughout my journey of loosing weight, Daniel has always made me feel beautiful- even if I didn't think that I was.  His encouragement helped me to have the patience I needed to make this journey. Thank you Daniel, for always finding me to be beautiful in your eyes. 

My wedding dress is sitting in my cedar chest and I have an itch to try it on.  I'm not so sure if it is a good idea or not.  I'm afraid that I won't be able to zip it up over my hips.  They are definitely wider.  My ribcage is wider, too.  My 13th anniversary coming up next week, so I think that it is why I'm thinking about it.  What do you think?  Should I pull it out and try it, or leave it alone? 

Finished! x2!

Last December (2010) I made  a small wall quilt that was Christmas themed.  Paul wanted to learn how to sew, so I started to think about what would be a good first project to make.  A pillowcase? A really simple quilt top?  I wasn't sure what to have him do, but he had that all planned out for me.  He brought me a drawing of what he wanted to make and even included the size! 

Although this wasn't the easiest project to do for a first-time sewer, I thought that since he had a project in mind, that he would have more fun doing it than some boring pillowcase!

We went shopping together and he picked out his fabrics.  I was present for each step of the quilt, but Paul did the work.  He cut out all of the fabric, sewed 95% of the seams (the circles were really hard for him- curves are tricky even for me!) and did most of the ironing.  He did a great job and was a patient learner. 

We worked on the quilt quite diligently for several weeks, and then, well, we stopped working on it.  During the spring we finished the top and pieced the back. First of the summer found us basting and quilting the quilt.  So all we had left was to bind the quilt.  Binding is not my favorite part of quilting (truth be told, making the quilt top is my favorite part, so everything else is a labor of love to get my top in a usable condition!)

This December, I decided that we just needed to get it done!  So, we got it done!  Instead of hand-binding, I taught him how to machine bind.  It was much easier and quicker!  

Another Finish!

A long time ago, Paul learned how to knit using a round loom.  He picked out the yarn and went to town making his hat.  Well, he finished it and needed me to teach him how to take it off of the loom.  But by that time I was pregnant with Jane (see, I told you it was a long time ago!) and sick and I couldn't remember how to take it off, so it got stashed in the closet. 

The week before Christmas, my niece asked if she could borrow my loom.  I decided that it was a good time to get that hat finished!  I must have been feeling really sick when I couldn't figure out how to take the hat off, because it was a quick two minute project.  Poor Paul, he is learning the hard way that I don't always finish what I start in a timely manner!  He was very patient with me!

This is his hat.  He pulled it over his face to wear these silly glasses.  He looked like this when I picked him up from school the first day that he wore his hat.  What a fun kid! 

Paul said that the kids in his class didn't believe him that he made the hat.  He told them that they finally believed him when he showed them that there isn't a tag on the inside!