The house hunt is off....

Sorry I haven't posted anything in so long. I've been really bad at emailing and everything so I am sorry if I still haven't emailed you back yet either! Well, we found a house and put an offer on it. They rejected it. We put in another offer (in the back of my mind I was hoping it would be rejected too) but they accepted it. So, we had a contract. But after we went to the bank (the interest rate had risen a little) and we went over our finances (for the 10th time) and just kept feeling not very good about buying this house. So, we got out of the contract and have decided to just rent an apartment for a while longer. We don't know how long we'll be here. Tom could be promoted in as little as 2 or so years, so we'll just see what happens. But, for now we'll just take a nice long break from house hunting (it has not been the most fun, exciting experience) and we've found a 3 bedroom apartment for quite a bit less than if we'd bought a house and half of our utilities are covered so we are hoping to save some money and buy a house someday when we feel like the time is right. We're glad that we didn't get into this home though, b/c there was a lot of work that needed to be done and it would've really stretched us thin. Probably too thin. We are moving into our apartment on Friday and are really looking forward to finally unpacking and having more room.

Of course I have to dote on my little lady while I am writing...Taylor is doing great and is as sweet and cute as ever! She is very good at walking while holding onto something, but only takes a few steps on her own. I just know she'll be walking all the time soon so I've come to grips with it. (I've been in no hurry for her to walk) She LOVES waving and saying hi to people. It is so cute and funny and I love it when people say hi back. She also loves to recline on Maddie (our dog). Maddie is frequently found laying on her side and Taylor will go over to her and lean back against her belly with her arms resting on Maddie's legs. And one of our favorite things she does...she gives us kisses. We usually have to kiss each other to clue her in and then she'll lean to one of us, kiss us and then (very fairly) lean to the other and kiss them. And, sometimes she'll do this 3-4 times in a row.

Other news? Tom has been really busy with scouts. The fall is they're most busy time b/c they go to lots of meetings for recruitment. Some nights he has 2 or 3 meetings. I'm just glad it only last for a couple of months and consider all the other great aspects of his job like the fact that he enjoys it and it's very flexible and he has great bosses. So, some evenings Taylor and I go along and grocery shop or walk around the mall so Taylor can tell people hi. Our anniversary is coming up next month and we're excited to celebrate it and Tom has a big training in Texas the first of October and we're all going with him. That's really all of our news. Not too exciting, but we're happy and doing well. I hope you are as well! Have a great rest of your week!

I don't want to let you down Misti! :-)

My good friend from Texas just "tagged" me so I'm supposed to post 7 random facts about me:

1: I enjoy watching black and white classic movies while cuddling with my husband.

2: I am a really good window shopper! I talk myself out of 99% of things I think about buying.

3: I used to travel across the country (by plane) all the time presenting leadership conferences for FFA, but now I don't really like to fly/travel anywhere.

4: I love the thought of Italy: jazzy, romantic music, the language ( I own a "learn Italian in your car" cd series), the food, the architecture and the Italian countryside ( I don't think I'll ever have the guts to fly there) but it's great in my dreams!

5: Speaking of Italy, I lived and worked with girls from Italy, Croatia, Australia and Tonga on my mission in SLC.

6: I have six brothers and 9 brother in laws and 31 nieces and nephews....that's all!

7: My Dad is a Nuclear Medicine doctor and my Father in law is a Rocket Scientist...and both Tom and I are not very good test takers! Where did those genes go! :-)

So, there you go Misti! :-) And, now I am tagging Michelle, Kristen and Marion "Mathew Buckley" Jensen!

The festivities begin...

Sorry it's taken me so long to get the rest of the pictures up! And, sorry about ALL the pictures! I am a camera-happy mom and I just can't help myself! So, for Taylor's birthday we had so much fun. On the Saturday before her birthday we took her out to eat at Chili's-I wanted to go somewhere where they would sing to her and give her a treat. It was great! Our server was really sweet and announced to the whole restaurant that Taylor was there celebrating her first birthday and then about 15 servers sang to her. After they sang and everybody clapped Taylor turned to us with big tears in her eyes and a look of panic, but that only lasted a few seconds until we let her dig in to the chocolate shake they brought her. She loved that! Then on Sunday, her actual birthday we had a couple couples over to eat cake and open presents with us. It was a lot of fun. I can't believe how fast this year has gone by! Well, enjoy the rest of her birthday pictures! I hope everybody is doing great! Dinner at Chili's!
"Get this thing off me!!!"
This was right after they sang to her and she first tasted her shake. We don't have pictures of them singing because we were videorecording it. Does anyone know if you can post video on a blog?

licking off the cherry...

It got pretty messy, but it was fun to not worry about her sugar intake too much for a couple days and let her enjoy herself. We love our little birthday girl!!!