Taylor

To our Dear Family and Friends. . . Merry Christmas.

I will spare you the mundane stiff details of our year except to highlight a few random memories more for my mothering enjoyment than anything else.

As for Travis: Come July he will be unemployed.  How's that for a bang beginning to our happy life.  We are separating from the Navy and in lieu of such a separation are searching, nay: fiercely hunting for employment.  Never fear, we will not be daunted by the market, the economy, nor the overwhelmingly good offer's out east.  We are of the Western heart and hope to be reunited once again.  Best of luck to all of those sharing our situation and may we all find someone who wants to pay us money in trade for Optometry skills.

As for Corbyn: he still likes to say "Hot Dog" to every question you ask.  Funny at first. But, he is diligent in his course to go where no child has gone before and say Hot Dog as many times as possible in one day.  He is studious with his homework making sure to take many breaks (we call them distractions) throughout. One night during homework time I knew that he had done something fishy when he handed me his homework and immediately thereafter layed his head in his hands and commenced the silent "this is so funny I may com-bust" laugh.  Sure enough at the bottom of the page I found it: 6-7=1,000,000.  I laughed, and we left it as an experiment.  Would the teacher laugh.....or pull out the dreaded red pen.  We got red penned.  Come on. . . not even a half point for creativity or humor quality?

As for Ty: what can I really say about Ty.  He is our sunshine on a cloudy day.....when it's cold outside, he is our month of May.  If you say please go get dressed, he comes back dressed.  If you say, please go brush your teeth, he brushes them.  I am thankful everyday that he wasn't my first baby.  If so I would think there was something considerable amiss with my other kids. Ty loves gum.  A lot. Every time we get in the car he wants a squirt of my girly lotion for his hands and a piece of gum.  He likes to sing while he goes potty.  If there is music playing he will shake his booty.  He loves when we miss his gym class because we go to the make up class which is filled with: girls.  He loves girls.  Yes, when he is in the teenage years this will concern me.  I am working on an invisible fence I could slip into their purses to keep him away until 21.  

Jay Bear is Mr. Destructive.  I came downstairs today to see him happily ripping pages out of my Book Of Mormon.  Bless his little ripping heart.  My level of happiness went up by 50 % when Travis installed my cupboard latches.  He has a passionate love for Jamba Juice which we discovered yesterday.  You take it away: he has a passionate dislike for you.  You give it back he shook (yes literally shook all over) with excitement.  He is a walking man blazing his own trails.  He understands the language of wrestle.  If anyone is on the ground he will come and belly flop across your body laughing and rolling until you dump him off.  Boys just have wrestle hardwired I think.  

Me, I am surrounded by men who adore me (eh...sometimes).  I find great joy in causing other people large amounts of pain at the gym.  It is some strange defect I have. I spend my days wondering how my Father in Heaven thought I could gracefully raise three beautiful boys.  There is nothing graceful about my mothering lately. . . I look at other's with 4+kids and feel baffled that -that sort of thing is even feasible.  I have embraced the mini van which we have affectionately named, "pic."  Short for "black pickle."  I still laugh at Travis's unending whit and still laugh until I cry when he sings the parumpumpumpum song with his own parumpumpumpum on my bum lyrics.  Try it if your a grump.  I give it a 20% chance of helping.

I played my drum for {on my bum}

Then he smiled at me parumpumpumpum

and my bum.    

You don't even want to hear our other altered Christmas melodies.

On that appropriate note Merry Christmas to you and your wonderful families.

We hope the best for you, we pray for you when things for you are hard and your too far for our hands to help, we are especially grateful for your beautiful examples of charity, patience, love, and service.  Know that we are watching your goodness and it is influencing our decisions and our lives. Thank you for your love and your friendship.  

We need you.

Much love!

The Taylor Clan