Justin's Race

We just got back from Justin competing in a triathlon in Rigby. We are so proud of him, he just kept going and going, and placed 8th out of 104 people, for his very first triathlon. The triathlon was a sprint triathlon, so it was a 1/2 mile swim, 12.7 mile bike ride, and a 3.2 mile run, he finished in 1 hour and 23 minutes. He has been really looking forward to this competition, but when we woke up this morning, it was cold and rainy. By the time he finished the competition, it was only 46 degrees outside, and the swim was freezing! I felt so bad for all the swimmers.

Here is a picture of him getting out of the water, next was the bike race, and then the run.

By the end of the race, he was pale and crampy, but so happy to be done! Good job honey!

April Highlights

April has been a fun month, starting with Easter. We went to Pocatello and spent it with some of Justin's family. I love putting together Lexi's easter egg basket and watching her trying to figure out what she is looking for in the morning. Here she is displaying her chocolate mouth (which she ges from me) and her new barbie sing along from grammy which she loves! We also finished (except for a few touch ups) our bathroom downstairs, and it looks amazing!! I would put up before pictures but they are on the other computer, and Im lazy, but think, pink sink, pink tiled shower, exposed pipes in the ceiling and blue carpet just to name a few. We wanted to remodel our downstairs before our upstairs so when we remodel our upstairs bathroom we can just use the downstairs one without being grossed out, because it was originally pretty gross. The other exciting thing we did this month was buy a new to us car. Its a chevy tahoe, and its awesome. Our Honda accord was getting to be pretty old, and we wanted to sell it before we couldn't get any money out of it. The Tahoe is pretty big its an 8 seater, and I really wish I had more kids to fill it up with, it seems pretty empty right now. Ive never driven such a big car, so its going to take some getting used to. Another fun thing we did this month is go to Oregon. I love my family, and Im looking forward to our family vacation this summer where we can all be together. Following our some pictures from Oregon, and my new nephew Henry that I met, he is sooo cute! Finally last weekend, Justins sister Corinne graduated from BYU. Yay Corinne!

Oh and there is a video of Lexi at the bottom from my nephews birthday party, I just like it, because she makes me smile!

Henry

I am an Aunt again. I officially have 4 neices and 6 nephews. The newest addition to the Taylor family is Henry Randon Taylor. He weighed in at 8lbs, and 9 oz on February 18th! I have yet to meet him but I have heard he is very calm like his daddy, and I think he looks like the Taylor side because he actually looks a lot like Lexi did when he was first born:) I love him already! Rebecca and JD are so thrilled to have him, and they are doing great.

Miss Lexis 2nd birthday

2 years old!
1 years old!
just a few hours old:)

Happy Birthday Lexi! We love you like crazy!

My two favorite dinners (not including eating out)

I have really tried to not stick to the same old cooking stuff lately, and I have wanted to try some new things, so in the past few months, we keep coming back to these two recipes, which have quickly become some of our favorite family dinners, so I thought I would share the recipes.

First off is Taco Soup. Justin's sister gave me this recipe like a year ago, but it really didn't sound that good, so i never made it, but I was wrong, it's my favorite dinner! (pictured above, it tastes better than it looks:)

Ingredients:
1/2 lb-1lb ground beef or ground turkey (I use a whole pound, but the original recipe calls for 1/2 lb)
1/4 cup onions(optional) or 1 Tablespoon onion flakes
1 can light red kidney beans with liquid
1 can corn with liquid
1 can petite diced tomatoes with liquid (14.5 oz)
1 can tomato sauce plus 1 can of water
1 packet of taco seasoning
Toppings: Sour cream, cheese, Juanita tortilla chips (the best you will never go back! Available at Albertsons and Winco)

Use a large sauce pan (spray with non stick spray beforehand) to brown ground beef with onions, drain fat. Add the rest of the ingredients except for toppings. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 15 minutes, then top with toppings.

Second is called crock pot fiesta chicken, I love this one it is so easy!

Ingredients:
8 chicken tenders
1 can black beans drained
1 can corn drained
1 jar of salsa
Toppings (Cheese, juanita chips again, and sour cream)
cooked rice

Throw all the ingredients in the crock pot except for the toppings and rice, cook until chicken falls apart, then shred chicken, mix all crock pot ingredients together and serve over rice, then top with toppings. Easy and cheap if you are feeding a group.

In other news Miss Lexi will be 2 on Saturday. Justin will be at a gymnastics competition, so we will celebrate on Sunday with some family. Lexi is a busy body, but she is so much fun, and so cute. I put her hair in curlers the other day, and she loved it, I also painted her toe nails and finger nails, and she sat still for both. Im not a prissy girl, i can't remember the last time I painted my finger nails, maybe 5th grade? But she loves that kind of thing. Also her favorite color is pink (naturally) we didn't even teach her that color, but somehow she knows that color, and never fails to point out something pink. We tried a trial run of potty training the other day, but its a no go, Justin thought she was ready so we gave it a shot, but three poopy underwears later, I was done...maybe in a few months will go at it again. Its just not going to happen when she clearly doesn't mind sitting in her own feces. Lexi loves to sing and dance, read books, play with barbies, and her one ken, and watch movies "starring" Barbie:) I love her tons. It is hard for me to be patient with her sometimes, but obviously it's something I need to learn. Here are some cute pictures of the past few weeks:)
































Lexi in her valentines present
curlers!

Warning: BORING post...read only if you are bored

Yea the inevitable Christmas/New Years post, because I'm sure everyone was wondering what I did for the Holiday season right? Well you are in luck, because here is a nice long post for you...oh and I even included pictures as an added bonus. You know how some peoples blogs you are just dying to read because it seems like every post is interesting/funny/exciting? Im sorry Im not one of those bloggers, but here goes:
This was the first year in our marriage that Christmas day was not spent on a plane, or a long drive in the car. Our first 4 Christmases we had been traveling on Christmas day to make it to both of our families house for Christmas, and as nice as it was to see all our family on Christmas, we learned last year that its just too crazy. Last year I went to Portland a week before Christmas to have some extra time with my family, and Justin was going to fly in a few days after me. Turns out he never made it, (since Oregon doesn't know what to do when it snows) and spent Christmas eve day traveling back to Utah to be with his family, and i stayed in Oregon. Anyway, he missed Lexi's first Christmas, and it was just sad. So this year we decided to have Christmas eve at our house and invited my brother and his family over, we ate delicious food and played games. Lexi, Dom, and Gabe watched the Grinch, we had a great time. We woke up early on Christmas morning, and opened presents together as a family, Lexi really loved her presents, and it was so fun this year to see her actually get excited about the present, and not just the paper. When we finished opening our gifts we headed over to Justin's parents house to have more Christmas, AND to talk to Justin's brother who is on a mission, which was wonderful. We also ate a lovely Christmas dinner of Turkey! YUM. We spent the rest of the day lounging and enjoying not traveling. On the 26th we headed to Boise then flew to Portland to see my family. We arrived around seven to more great food, and presents. We had such a relaxing week in Oregon, and we even brought the snow with us! It snowed for about 6 hours, heavy snow, which isn't typical of Oregon. They don't even plow the roads there because they never get enough. It took my dad 2.5 hours to get home from work when it usually take 1/2 hour. People do not know how to drive in snow, some even left their cars and walked home, or had a 4 wheel drive vehicle pick them up, it was hilarious! Justin went skiing with our brother in law Jeff, and I did some shopping, but mostly we just enjoyed being far away from work, and life, sometimes its just nice to have a break. I also had the opportunity to meet up with some old friends for lunch which is always fun.
In anticipation for a new nephew in February my sister was going to throw a shower for our sister in law, but no one could make it because of the bad weather, but we still opened gifts for the baby (Lexi opened most of them) and baby boy Taylor has some fun stuff waiting for him. For New years Eve we went to my sisters house and ate of course, and played games, and talked with my sister and her family, and my other brother and his family. All in all we had a great holiday, Im sad that it's over, I miss my family, but Im just glad that we had such a great couple of weeks.

Out with the old and in with the new!

I just wanted to post a few things that we have been working on lately. As if our lives aren't hectic enough with a toddler, and the gym, we are constantly working on and remodeling our house that was built in the 1950s. We bought our house in may, and moved in in August of this year. There were a few things that needed to be done right away, that I just couldn't live with. Our house is 5 bedrooms, 2 baths. 3 beds up, 2 beds down, 1 bath up, and 1 bath down, and a little over 1000 sq feet on each level, on a quarter acre. The first time we looked at our house, I was like no way, not doing it, too much work, no. After looking for a few more days, our realtor suggested our house again. So we went and looked at it again, and I warmed up a little, but still wasn't really sure. This was Friday, and on Saturday night, I turned to Justin and I was like we need to make an offer on that park st house. He was like really? So we talked about it for a while, and decided why not? Lets just see what happens. So Monday rolled around, we made an offer, and it turns out there was already 2 other offers on it as well. After a few counters, and waiting we got the house, and we love it! Im so glad that everything worked out with it. The house was just so old, and hadn't been remodeled in so long, that I couldn't see the potential. Lucky for me, someone else had better insight and helped me to realize that it was perfect for our family. Anyway, I just wanted to post a few pictures of what we have been working on We took pictures of the house during the inspection last april, and then have been taking them as we remodel. We have done all of the remodeling by ourselves because Justin is so talented. The only thing we hired out was new carpet downstairs. The first two pictures are the stair well going downstairs. Before it had some hideous wood walls, so justin tore it all off, sheetrocked, and repainted. It turned out nice. There was also a wood stove surrounded by bricks at the bottom of the stairs, so we tore that out, because it was dangerous, and so ugly. The next two pictures are of the downstairs family room. Again more wood paneling, ugly light fixtures, etc. We aren't finished with the family room yet, we need to cut in a window, cover up a funky light fixyture, and replace doors, but it has come along way. The last two pictures is of the upstairs living room before and after. The living room is my favorite. We went to put in pergo, and new carpet throughout the upstairs right after we moved in, and discovered beautiful wood floors in every room but the kitchen and bathroom. The floors were in excellent condition, but looked like a basketball gym floor, so we sanded, and restained the floors, and decided to keep the wood floor throughout the upstairs, which we love! Anyway, the living room is the only room in the house that is completely finished, and we love it. We have been so blessed with a great house in this cold Rexburg weather (-5 degrees right now) and we are so grateful.