Pictures

My sister took some pictures for us a couple weeks ago. These are some of my favorites. I love them. I think she did such a good job!!
We are telling Zach to kiss Grace on her forehead.



Zach and his Cousin Trenton



I love this picture

My sisters, Mom and Me

My sisters and Mom are my best friends. We get a little crazy and wild when we get together. It seems like we always end up doing silly things and start laughing so hard our stomachs hurt.

I was looking through some of our old photos and found these....I couldn't resist posting them. They gave me a pretty good laugh.

More Pix

Birth Story

I know people are dieing to hear my birth story (a little sarcastic there, but i'm sure there are some out there who want to know) so here it goes...

Early Tuesday morning, around 3:30am, I woke up a little wet. I wasn't drenched so i wasn't sure that my water broke but after going to the bathroom about 10 times i was almost certain that it was broken. I was also getting a few cramps so I was sure that Labor had hit. I called some of our friends to come watch Zach while we went to the hospital (Thanks Jeremy and Giselle). We got to the hospital around 4:15. They put me on a monitor but didn't check me for an hour. After about 2 hours they checked and I was only dilated to a 2, which is about what i was 2 1/2 weeks ago. they then did a test to see if my water had really broken. The test came out neither positive nor negative. They did a second test and it was a definite positive. So once again i was left on the monitor in bed. I wasn't really having contractions at all. maybe one ever 20 or 30 minutes. Nothing regular though. At about 7am the dr. came in and checked me and I was a 4 but still hardly any contractions. He wanted to start me on petocin but decided to let me take a walk and wait to see if I started progressing at all. I had to stay in bed for a little while longer while I was giving some medicine for Beta Strep. At 7:30 the nurse came in and said that I needed to get up and walk for an hour to see if things would get going. Mark and I walked around for about 40 minutes before I couldn't handle it any more. My contractions got so bad and where really close together after walking. We got back to our room around 8:15 and I asked for an epidural. The dr. came in and checked me again and I was a 7! which meant No epidural. The nurse said that I could still get an intrathecal (no idea how to spell), but things started happening way to fast. I was starting to go crazy at this point and Mark said that I kept pushing him out the door to ask the nurse when I could get medicine for the pain. at one point I heard him and the nurse talking and that things were happening to fast and that I wouldn't be able to get anything. All the the anesthesiologists were occupied so they couldn't come give me anything. I seriously lost it at that point. It was horrible!! All of a sudden I felt the baby coming and started yelling at Mark that the baby was coming and within seconds there were about 7 people busy in the room. about 5 or so minutes later Grace was born. It was one of the most miserable experiences I have ever had. I have a lot of respect for those who give birth naturally because there is nothing pleasant about it. Afterwards I was so shaky I felt awful. it took me awhile to get over all of the trauma but the recovery has been really good. Well, that is basically what happened. All I know is that what contractions started things happened extremely fast. I was really glad my water broke and at least I was at the hospital. If It hadn't and I had waited until my contractions were about 5 minuets apart I might not have made it to the hospital. Anyway, this is a really long and lengthy story...

Grace is doing well, she has lost a lot of weight so we have to take her back to get checked out tomorrow, but she is a great baby, nurses really well ( I don't know why she isn't gaining), and is pretty good at night. I hope it keeps up.

Baby Grace

Just wanted to let everyone know that Tiffany had our baby this morning. She was born at 8:57 am, 19 and 3/4 inches long, 7lbs 15 oz. Both Tiffany and the baby are doing well. I'll let Tiffany tell the whole story later, but we wanted to show off our beautiful little girl, named Grace Valentine Taylor.



More pictures to come ...

Weekend

We had a really fun weekend. Mark's sister Becca came to visit us. Zach loved having someone else to talk to and give him their full attention. Saturday was a little rainy but still wanted to show Becca Shoshone falls and Twin falls and then that afternoon we went to the soccer complex and flew Mark's stunt kite. Above is a picture of Zach playing in a little sand spot we found on the soccer field.
Becca flying the kite.


Below is a picture of Twin falls. We hadn't seen it before so were excited to see it. We were a little disappointed to find that one of the "twin" falls was dammed up.
Shoshone falls. I love the big rainbow in the background.
This picture is so everyone can see how big I am. (less than two weeks to go) Zach is also throwing a big fit because he wants to walk. I wouldn't let him because there was a big hole by the fence and I was too paranoid that he would slip and fall under the hole and off the Canyon.

Shoshone Falls

On Tuesday I had the day off of work, we heard rumors that Shoshone Falls was really roaring so we went to see it and it was really cool.





The falls were impressive, but Zach was most interested in people's dogs, which is what he's pointing at.


The falls were at maximum flow levels. It's hard to really capture that, but we tried.

Afterwards we had a little picnic with some strawberries. Zach loves strawberries.

Which resulted in a very happy day.

Easter

We had quite the Easter morning. Zach woke up an absolute beast!!! I got up a little early to make breakfast before Zach woke up so that we could eat a good breakfast before letting Zach get into his basket and eat candy. It didn't go over so well. Zach woke up early too and we could not get him to stop crying. Soon after we got him to calm down a little bit he saw the easter eggs that I had put around our apartment he started crying again because i made him sit and eat breakfast first. After fighting him for a little while we finally let him get all the eggs and find his Easter basket. He seemed much happier after a few pieces of candy.


I put candy in some of the eggs and stickers in some. Zach would shake the eggs before opening and if he didn't hear any candy he would throw it back down on the ground and move to the next egg. Zach does love stickers but i guess not as much as candy...
All of Zachs goodies.

Fun Post

I got this post from one of my friends blog and thought it was really cute. Plus I'm curious to see who all looks at my blog. (although I imagine people won't comment if they don't want to do it themselves...)

{The Rules}

1. Be one of the first THREE bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me - something crafty or yummy, who knows?!

2. Winners must post this challenge on your blog, meaning that you will Pay It Forward, creating a handmade gift -anything!- for the first THREE bloggers who leave a comment on YOUR post about this giveaway!

3. The gift that you send to your 3 Friends can be from any price range and you have 90 days to make/ship your item. And, remember: It’s the Spirit and the Thought That Count!

4. When you receive your gift, please feel free to blog about it! If you are not one of the Top Three Commenters on this post, you can still play along. Go ahead and start your own Pay It Forward chain, and encourage your blogging friends to do the same!

Fun weekend

I had such a fun weekend. My friends in our appartment complex gave me a baby shower on Friday. It was so much fun. The decorations were so CUTE and the food was great. It is so fun having so many close friends and friends that are really excited for me to have a little girl. Mom, Kelsey and Jami also came up for the shower (along with the little kids, Luke, Trenton, Raegan, and Sadie)Thanks to everyone for all the cute and fun gifts!! It was such a fun party.

Mark babysat all 5 of the little kids while we were at the shower (2 or more hours!!) The TV helped occupy the little boys.