2010

I feel like it was Taylor's birthday and then I blinked and then it was January. These last few months flew by so fast! I now completely understand why people say enjoy every minute with Taylor because before you know it, the time will have passed. I think that I have said this before, but I am definitely not a newborn mom. I love newborns, but Taylor has been soooo much fun these last few months that it doesn't even compare.

The red headed personality that I always heard people talk about (and I never really believed) is true and it has arrived. Taylor can be the sweetest thing one minute and before you know it she is throwing herself on the floor in a full blown temper tantrum. Seriously??? She's 16 months! I thought I had until she was 2... ha ha ha to all of the moms laughing at me right now.

As always, I did a horrible job of taking pictures, but here are a few with some of my fam that came into town to visit...

The best sister in the whole world! If any of you watched Castle on Monday night, you may have seen her in the background towards the beginning of the episode...

Ash and Tay - Ashley always has a lemon water in hand.... Taylor couldn't ask for a better aunt


Of course I didn't get a picture of Tay with her Grandma, so I had to get her with the sweet puppy that we were helping out with...

This is the first of Taylor's new hobby of getting into things whether it's her old car seat...

the bottom drawer of her dresser (after she threw out a few of the clothes of course)

or the crate for the puppy. Only a few of the many places she crawls into.

You can call her mischievous or just comment on my poor parenting skills as she sits in her chair (from Santa )after she got into a tube of my lipstick. The picture is small, but I must say she did a pretty good job for her first time :) And she loves the chair so much that if you try to sit in it, she will push you out. I dare you to try next time you come over.

The next few pictures were taken by my dad's wife, Cary. Tay and her poodle from Grandma Ann

This tent from Grandma TT has brought her more joy than we could have imagined!

The cutest and sweetest puppy in the whole wide world!

Taylor, her Grandpa and Cary

Awwwww!

So we played host to my mom and sis for a couple of weeks over Christmas and New Year's and then my dad and his wife, Cary came into town for a weekend. So a big shout out to my hubby for being such a good host! Things have been busy and Dustin has been travelling a bunch over the past month, but here is what Tay has been up to.

• She is officially walking. After taking her first steps, it only took her 6 WEEKS to start walking on her own. I thought she was never going to walk.
• She's not talking, but thank goodness for those Baby Signing Videos from my mom. She says "more", "milk" and "all done". At least we're starting to communicate. I'm sure when I get my first "I hate you Mom" I look back fondly on the days when she didn't talk, but right now, she and I are both ready to communicate! The story of the rest of our lives... I know.
• She is fearless! Dustin loves taking her on Merry Go Rounds and she even went on this mini roller coaster. I just about had a heart attack, but she was just fine and loved it. Seriously, how many 16 months old can pretty much ride the carousel all by themselves?
• I'm pretty sure she knows a bunch of her body parts even though she ignores me half of the time I ask, but if you ask about her belly button, even with a onsie on she will try and show you.
• She says "Hi" to everyone wherever we go. Most of the time it's to people not even looking at her, but she loves to wave hi or bye.
• She loves reading her books. I should have clarified before; she does talk, just not in a language that I understand. She will just open up her book and start jabbering away. Actually she pretty much jabbers all day long!
• She LOVES Quique and actually any dog for that matter. The little dogs make her laugh, but she will just lay on top of Quique and give her loves and kisses when Quique is laying down. The other night she even swung her leg over Q like she was going to ride her.

I could go on and on, but I won't bore you will all of the details. One thing is for sure. Dustin and I are falling more in love with this fiery little redhead every single day. I can't even begin to imagine my life without her!

Thanksgiving

So sorry to those few people who read our blog. The holidays came upon us and we had a hard time managing our time and keeping up on the blog.

Where to begin?

Thanksgiving! What a great holiday! It's kind of a secret, but Dustin's favorite holiday is actually Thanksgiving. We say it's kind of a secret, because he doesn't want to be known as a 'bah-humbug' because he likes Thanksgiving better than Christmas. But he's pretty convincing when he tries to defend this as his favorite: 'it's about family, food, and football'. No presents. Not nearly as much stress. It's just a relaxing two days to spend with family and eat well.

We spent this past Thanksgiving, just like last year, at Dustin's family cabin nearly Manti, Utah - a small town about two hours south. It's a lot of fun to spend it there. It's big enough, so all of the siblings and nephews and nieces were there. And the day after Thanksgiving, there's a Christmas parade in town to kick off the holiday season - with Santa and all. And it's so small town. You feel like you're back in the 1940s. Taylor loved watching - because there was plenty of music, lots of colorful lights, and people clapping and waving. She obviously hasn't grasped on to the Santa concept yet, but she was sure fascinated by his colorful coat, white beard, and loud laugh. We're really excited about when she'll have that little-kid anxiety and excitement for Christmas.

Here are a few pictures from our Thanksgiving weekend at the cabin:

We needed a family pic with Tay and Quique. It seems like there's never a good time for a pic, but that weekend was as good as any. We ended up using this picture as our Christmas card picture.

Taylor with her two little cousins, Mia (center) and Ally (far left). Hanging out on the porch at the cabin.

Save The Federal Adoption Tax Credit

Many who read our blog already know about our wonderful journey of adoption. Through this journey, we've become more passionate about adoption and everything that goes into making miracles like ours take place.

Many people don't realize that in 2001, as part of the Tax Relief Reconciliation Act, a federal tax credit for adoption was introduced. This tax credit has become such a relief for families who wish to adopt. In fact, it has helped increase legal adoption in the United States (for both international and domestic) by a considerable amount over the past decade. It has come to our attention that the Adoption Tax Credit (HR 213) is scheduled to expire at the end of 2010.

Most may not be aware, but the costs of adoption are staggering. Whether its international adoption or domestic, the costs range anywhere from $10,000 to $40,000 (and the average cost is right around $20,000). The Adoption Tax Credit will give adoptive parents a credit up to $12,100. There are so many wonderful families and couples who can provide loving homes for children, but need this financial assistance. Chances are that we will find ourselves in this position of adoptiong again.

If anybody is willing, we are asking you to write to your representative in Congress to save this federal tax credit from expiring. Below, we've included a letter that we wrote and you can feel free to include any parts of our letter in your own letter. We're sure that many of your lives have been blessed by adoption. For us, it has been a miracle that has blessed our lives, our child's life, her birth mother's life, as well as our extended family's lives. There are 150,000 - 200,000 adoptions each year in the U.S., each, as ours did, with impact that touches many more lives.

If you are not sure how best to contact your representative, you can click on the link below and type in your state and zip code to access a mailing address or even send an e-mail directly.

https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

Dear Congressman Matheson,



We are writing as a family to encourage you to vote
for the adoption Tax Guarantee Act of 2009, HR 213. As you are already well
aware, this bill is a pending legislative effort to prevent the expiration of
the Federal Adoption Tax Credit. As a young family whose lives were recently
touched by the blessing of adoption, we feel strongly that this is an initiative
that our government should continue to support, which encourages the growth of
strong and loving families. As you may or may not be aware, the costs associated
with adoption are staggering and continue to rise. After years of dealing with
the heartache of unexplained infertility, we spent a substantial portion of our
savings on infertility treatments, including two rounds of In Vitro
Fertilization. We always thought that we would eventually conceive through these
innovative procedures, but after a miscarriage and a many failed attempts, our
eyes were opened that the only way to start a family was through adoption. With
this tax credit (that we will be receiving next year), it helped to make this
adoption in our family possible.

Without going into too many details of our adoption
journey, in short, it was a miracle felt by us, a financially distressed mother
who at the last minute realized that adoption was the only way to give her child
and herself a better life and a miracle which blessed the life of our daughter,
Taylor, who has two loving parents who are able to provide her with all of her
needs. Our story is only one example of the 200,000 adoptions or so that take
place every year. We do not know if you have been involved with adoption in your
own family, but as any of our family members or friends can attest, it is one of
the most beautiful and special experiences that can take place in a lifetime. We
hope to adopt another child if not more as we grow our family. With adoptions
that cost an average of $25,000 per adoption, this Federal Tax Credit is just
one step in helping to make these adoptions financially possible.

We appreciate you representing the needs of your constituents and we love living in
this state where family values are so important. We are very hopeful that you
will represent those values as you vote for this bill. We love sharing our story
and if there is any way that could help with the passing of this bill, please
let us know.

Sincerely,

Dustin and Jamie

Taylor's Walking!

So, Tay's walking! Kind of. You'll love this video footage of her taking her first few steps. We get so excited that we scare her.

House Sold!

Well, today is a very good day because, after seven months of aggressively trying to sell our rental property, we closed the sale today!!

Most who read this know that this was our first home - and it happens to be just right across the street from our current house. We bought our current house three years ago, and it was a sudden move, as we really had no plans to move. But it was a house we always liked and we moved fast. As such, we didn't have our house up for sale when we bought it - so we decided to rent that house out.

It's been an adventure. Three years ago, the market was hot. So who would have thought that, by waiting three years, it would be one of the worst times to sell??? Being a landlord was a great learning experience. We had some nightmare tenants to start with (unless you think it's cool to have the police come over because they were shooting birds out of the neighbors trees), followed by some of the best tenants you could ever ask for.

So why did we sell now? Well, we'd have to pay capital gains tax on the house unless we sold it by the end of November. With the uncertainty of where property values will go from here - and the desire to not have a hefty tax bill - we decided it would be best to sell now. And for the last seven months, it was a major stress - and it's a HUGE relief to not have an extra mortgage now.

But even though we're so excited that it's sold, now's the time where we're reflecting on all of the memories from our first house. So, I'm going to take you down memory lane with us. So, now's the time where we get all reflective. Start playing the sappy music that Clark Griswold listened to while watching old home videos in the attic . . .

When you see these photos, you'll probably think the same thing we're thinking when we look back at the house when we bought it - which is "what we're we thinking???" I really don't know WHY we would have bought the house, seeing how it looked then. Well, a few excuses: (1) we were wide-eyed, not-yet-married, and just excited to be getting something of our own. (2) we bought the home for the great area. My sister moved in the month before, and it was a convenient location, a good value, and we liked the large trees. (3) we saw potential. Our goal was to make it into a home we loved over the few years that we'd live there. This house was livable, but also had plenty to improve upon, which was something we liked. And I think we ended up doing a decent job of improving it.

Seriously. This is the photo from the flyer from when we bought the house. Notice the beautiful foilage in front of our house. Yes, that is the front of our house behind the overgrown fetzer and junipers.

The very day that we closed on the house, our good friend, Gordon, came over and helped us cut down those junipers that were blocking our front door and front of our house (as you can see in the photo below):

And what about this beautiful stone-work? The funny thing is, I actually liked the stone work when we first bought it. And trust me, the pictures do no justice with how bad the "stone work" was. It was really bad. It took me two years to realize what a meager job it was, until one day, Jamie came home and found me ripping it all off with a crow bar and sledge hammer. With no warning, I had enough.

Well, here's what the front of our house looked like as of now:

Backyard when we bought it:

Backyard when we sold it:

Our beautiful kitchen. I loved the color scheme in the house when we bought it: white. The whole house was just spray-painted white. We later found out why - it was covering up a much worse paint job.


Kitchen now:

Our family room:

The same view of our family room a few years later:

The main bathroom at time of purchase:

The main bathroom seven years later:

So, good-bye, first house. We hope you can provide as many valuable memories for the new owners as you did for us. And at least you're not going anywhere - we'll be seeing you often whether we'd like to or not.