round here

Five days now.  It started out with a severe headache, morphed into a cactus throat, and now I spend my days voiceless and my nights up coughing.  I don't get sick often, but when I do, its bad.  The worst part is, my little buddy has it too, albeit a much milder version (thank heaven).

Chase is watching a movie about "Pistol Pete", so I brewed up some hot honey-lemon water and decided to take the plunge.  Into the blog that is.  I'm so far behind, but I'll make an attempt. 

It sounds cliche, but my my we have been blessed.  Chase accepted a job offer at Orbit Medical.  It is a much better fit for him than his old job.  He's been there for almost a month and loves it already.  The only downside is that if/WHEN he has been successful for a few months, there is a good chance they will promote him and ask us to relocate to somewhere like Spokane, Portland, or Pheonix.  While the adventure sounds great for a couple of years, I haven't come to terms with the fact that we'd be moving away from family.  I guess we'll just cross that bridge when we come to it. 

We had a magical holiday season.   It sounds cheesey, but coming from me its not that weird, right?

Christmas in B-Town

Every part of Christmas was more fun with a little man to enjoy it with us. 

Jalene and Lincoln organized a temple lights date with us and Kyle and Jade.

 Next year we'll remember that it closes at 9:00 so we'll be sure to get there earlier.  ;)

gotta love cousins in matching Pj's. 

We spent Christmas in Boise with some of our favorite people

Reindeer fighting? no, just "Minute to Win it" Christmas Eve Party.  My mom plans the best parties!

Happy first Christmas to these newlyweds!

Tayler was at the perfect age for the magic of Christmas. 

We had lots of fun watching her get so excited with each present.

The first thing we do on Christmas morning is admire baby Jesus in his manger. 
One of our favorite Christmas gifts this year was our own manger to begin our Christmas good deed tradition. 

This little guy didn't really know the difference between a present and wrapping paper,
 but he sure loves this hat that Mimi made him!

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New Years in the field

The older siblings hopped on a plane to join the rest of the fam in Oklahoma City for New Years. 
It was great to reconnect with them and see what their missionary life is like. 

Beck was definetely the favorite person all week. 

I loved that he got to spend some quality time with his Grandma and Grandpa.

One of my favorite memories of the trip was the day we spent exploring Oklahoma University's campus. 

We spent literally HOURS taking pictures of the silliest things. 

We laughed our heads off taking these jumping pictures over and over and over again.

This is what the Taylor boys call "Tackling for loss of Yardage"

Every night we would stay up until wee hours of the morn. 

 It was like we just wanted to soak in every min we had with these guys. 

has it been three years yet?

This is the very picture taken moments after Beck officially said "BALL!!"  He got such a reaction from us that he repeated the word over and over again. 

He definitely understood the concept of throwing the ball and chasing after it

-and Chase could not be more proud

We couldn't have asked for a better Christmas season! 

Now if only I could get over this blasted cough!