Holidays For Everyday... a blogging mini- series! Part 2

See previous post for background on "Holidays for Everyday" and a great website resource. I'm on a roll with food; here is a recipe in celebration of "National Cookie Month"!

Last week my sister Marissa came to my house and brought with her some cookie dough she had made. We baked the dough, and I enjoyed the best home-made cookies I have had in a long time! I asked her for the recipe, and she said that she just used the recipe from the JIF peanut butter canister. Here is the awesome recipe:

Irresistable JIF Peanut Butter Cookies
¾ cup Creamy PB
½ cup Crisco All- vegetable shortening
1- ¼ cups firmly packed light brown sugar
3 TBSP milk
1 TBSP vanilla
1 egg
1- ¾ cups All- purpose flour
¾ tsp salt
¾ tsp baking soda

1. Heat oven to 375*F. Place sheets of foil on countertop for cooling cookies.
2. Combine PB, Crisco, brown sugar, milk, and vanilla in large bowl. Beat at med. speed with mixer until well- blended. Add egg and beat just until blended.
3. Combine flour, salt, and baking soda. Add to creamed mixture at low speed. Mix just until blended. Drop heaping teaspoonfuls of dough 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheet. Flatten slightly in crisscross pattern with tines of fork.
4. Bake at 375*F for 7-8 min. or until set and just beginning to brown. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheet then move to foil to cool completely.

Marissa actually used crunchy PB, and although I’m not usually a fan, I really liked it in this recipe. She also put in chocolate chips- a girl after my own heart. Seriously the best PB (and choc. chip!) cookies ever! I think I’m going to make them again tonight!

Also, in response to the request for more pictures of Gabe, I will make sure to post more photos as we take them. I actually have some that were taken last week and a couple from this week and today. Here they are:

Holidays For Everyday... a blogging mini- series! Part 1

One of my favorite websites that I check periodically is www.holidaysforeveryday.com. It is actually a website created by a preschool teacher and is a compilation of interesting and unusual holidays. There are many holidays to choose from each day, and it is a great resource if ever you would like a reason to celebrate or learn about something. I noticed that this month, October, is the National Month for_____ (like 80 different things- I’m not exaggerating!) Some of the things were just downright strange, but others were really interesting and exciting to me. So I chose the best ones (to me of course) and decided to share them with you, along with my two cents on each topic.

National Pizza Month
My two cents on pizza:
Pizza pizza pizza! I love pizza! There are so many great options for yummy pizza. If you live in Utah, you may have tried Pier 49 Pizza… a higher end sourdough pizza restaurant. This restaurant is a personal favorite of BJ’s and mine. In fact, we bought a pizza there this evening, and enjoyed it very much! We love their Barbeque Chicken pizza, their Alfredo pizza, and their Little Italy pizza. The pizzas are a little pricey, so we enjoy them as often as we can, otherwise, we occasionally go for a greasy $5 Little Caesar’s pizza, or we try other local pizza places, such as Two Jack Pizza, or the classic Brick Oven Restaurant, which has much more to offer than just pizza.
We also enjoy putting together our own pizzas. One very easy and quick option is to use slices of sourdough English muffins, topped with tomato paste, garlic salt, oregano, grated cheese, and your choice of pepperoni, ham, pineapple, or anything really. We put them in our toaster oven or on a cookie sheet in the regular oven, and they are ready to eat in just minutes!
We love homemade pizza, although we don’t make it often. Here’s a link to a great healthy-cooking-on-a-budget blog a friend of mine writes, which has a pizza dough recipe. Home- baked pizza has a great texture and gets baked so evenly if you bake it on a pizza stone. We got one for our wedding from Pampered Chef, and we love it!
I ate a lot of pizza in Argentina. The “pizza experience” there is so different from here… it is all about aesthetics- meaning the pizzas are works of art, with everything arranged just so! Also, they put very different things on their pizzas. I actually had one very tasty pizza that had nothing but grilled vegetables on it (including squash and carrots), and another that was just a cheese and garlic pizza (bad for the breath, but great for the taste buds)!

Muy Fantástico

This weekend we celebrated me. ;-) And it was muy fantástico. Rochelle really went all out to make me feel special and loved, and she did a splendid job of it. A quick summary of events includes the following:

• A book which many of you took part in, that spoke of memories of me, and was filled with photos, beautifully put together in a scrapbook style
• A berry cake that was both a work of art as well as delicious (Marissa also needs thanking for this)
• A slide show put to music of pictures of me
• And a delicious dinner

It has been a great time, and I have enjoyed myself thoroughly. I can think of few times that I have felt so loved, not only by Rochelle, but by everyone around me. Thank you all for helping Rochelle put that book together. I really enjoyed it, and I love you all. And a special thanks to my dear wife who put so many hours and so much love into that gift. There is really not much that can compare to a gift like that. But there is one other gift I should mention here that also brought me special delight. Gabe laughed for the first time. And it was adorable. Never has such a small noise brought me such emotion before. I both laughed until I cried at the sight and sound, all the while my heart burst with pride for our little boy. We put him in one of those door frame jumpers, and while he really wasn't big enough to do it, I held him up and bounced it a little for him, and his face was just full of wonder, fear, and elation. It wasn't too long before a laugh escaped his lips. And then another, and another, and another. It was wonderful. We loved it. Rochelle caught a little on camera at the end, but we are hoping to catch more of it on camera soon. I can't tell you how much it pleased us to hear it.

From Laughing

Picture Update

The past couple of weeks have been pretty busy and fun for us. We went to Oregon for Marissa's wedding, and a week later, my family came down here to bring Marissa's stuff, be there for Gabriel's blessing, and take Tayler to college at BYU-I on the way back. We are now back to work, and trying to get into our routine again. Here are some albums that show what we've been up to.

Family Picture

We recently had some family photos with Gabe taken. We were pleased with the results and got several pictures we really like. Thanks to Ron for taking the photos!

Family Pictures!

Gabe's Blessing

Just a reminder to those who are planning on coming to Gabe's blessing:

We will be blessing him on Sunday August 31st. Our church starts at 9:00 AM. Call us or email us if you need directions to our church. We will be having a brunch afterwards at Mom & Dad Taylor's house. We'll see you there!

I love this baby!

He is starting to smile and laugh a little. Thanks to Rochelle for getting out the camera at a very choice moment.

Smiley Baby

This is Gabe snuggling with his Daddy in the morning. He hasn't smiled a ton except for when he is half asleep, but each week he is smiling (big, dimpled grins!) more. He is also trying to figure out how to laugh, but he isn't quite there yet (he is ticklish!)- I read somewhere that babies learn how to laugh anywhere between 2 and 6 months of age. They aren't born with a sense of humor per se, but they are always watching those around them, and they learn to mimic what they see. I can't wait to catch some more of Gabe's grins and eventually some giggles on camera!

I passed!

I'm an official Registered Nurse! I took my board exams on Thursday and found out this morning that I passed them! Yay! What a relief!

Four weeks old... tomorrow

So, does four weeks make a month? Or to call him a month old, do I need to wait until the 7th (since he was born on the 7th of last month)?

He is one month old, and he is thriving. I tell Rochelle that he is eating us out of house and home, but that doesn't really make any sense in this context I suppose. He has been a delight though. We have had a lot of fun with him. He is finally bigger than he was when he was born. He lost a pound in weight shortly after he was born. Although losing weight is normal, a pound was a bit much. We hypothesize that he was storing some water on him just like mommy was, and after he was born, he lost the excess. And for a little while, he didn't quite having the eating thing down. He wasn't quite sure how to get all of that going, and although he wasn't starving, he didn't gain quite a quickly as we would have hoped initially. However, as I said before, he is now thriving. He is gaining an ounce a day, and by my rough estimates, he is drinking a pound of milk a day. Rochelle feels at times that she barely finishes one feeding by the time he is ready for the next. But he sure is cute. We love him to bits. And it's a good thing too, because in our relative sleep deprived state we are in, who knows how we would take all the feedings, diapers, and the inexplicable way he seems to wake up every time we start to drift off. ;-) I don't think Rochelle and I have any complaints. He is a normal baby doing normal things, and yet we somehow feel like we have been blessed with the best baby there ever was. In short, we are proud and happy parents.

Coming home

Well, this has been an exciting week for sure. We are glad to be back in the comfort of our own home, and are excited to have baby Gabe. Let me fill you in on some of the details of the past week.

Rochelle has had pregnancy induced hypertension for the last few weeks. About a week before she had the baby, it was bad enough that they put her on strict bed rest, but not bad enough that they felt that they needed to do an emergency induction. That said, they planned an induction for Monday the 7th, and had her continue on bed rest. Rochelle was not wanting to be induced. We were hoping to go natural (using hypno-birthing), and being induced makes that very difficult. So we hoped that she would go into labor on her own before that time, but it was not to be. Sunday night she had a bit of a false labor, but come Monday morning, we were on our way to the hospital for the induction.

We arrived there around 7:40 in the morning, and she was hooked up to the pitocin by 8:30. For a while she continued to do the hypnobirthing techniques that we had learned, but as the contractions got stronger, she started to feel sharp pains in her back. The baby was turned, which caused Rochelle some heavy back labor. After about five hours of trying to relax and breathe, we decided that it was time for the epidural. The midwife was recommending the epidural on the account of Rochelle's high blood pressure, and the back labor was beginning to be unendurable. Rochelle was restricted to laying on her left or right sides, and was forbidden (again because of her blood pressure) from using other positions that might help reposition the baby and increase her comfort. So she got the epidural, and pretty soon was able to relax again. Hours came and went and Rochelle slowly progressed to completion. At times it seemed that she all but stopped progressing, but the doctor and midwife were patient and thankfully were not too anxious to do a c-section. It was determined that the baby was pretty nearly stuck- with his head turned sideways, a position more difficult to get out than if the baby were posterior (facing up) So around 11:30 at night they decided that it was finally time to get this baby out. He wasn't coming from pushing alone, and so it was going to be forceps or a c-section. The The doctor we had is very good with forceps, and decided that it was worth a go. He was able to turn the baby's head just enough that he thought that a c-section wouldn't be necessary. So everyone gathered around, and with some heaving pushing by Rochelle, and heavy pulling by the doctor, they finally got the baby out. Once out, we could see that the baby was fairly large, 8 lbs. 6 oz. We were grateful that the doctor was able to get him out with just forceps, even though the birth itself was far from what we had planned.

The baby was healthy from the start. He had quite a big cone head, but within a couple of hours, it was barely noticeable. He also had some bruising from the forceps around his right eye and his left ear. Otherwise, he was a happy and healthy baby.

Rochelle was also a bit battered and bruised from the forceps, but the doctor and midwife were more concerned about her high blood pressure that didn't seem to be reducing at all, which should have happened within a day of giving birth. So they had her stay an extra night at the hospital. She has been quite sore, but has been recovering steadily. We are all home now, and doing well.

Thursday afternoon Rochelle's mom came down from Portland and has been staying with us ever since. She's staying for a total of 10 days with us. We are grateful for her company as well as the advice and help she has given us already. We're glad she'll be here a while longer.

Below are some pictures. I'm sorry they took so long to get here, but we have had much to do, and are adjusting to our new lack of sleep. ;-) Thanks for your well wishes everybody. We are grateful for your support.

Welcome baby Gabe

8 lb 6 oz, 20 in.
7/7/08

Update on The Baby and lots of pictures

Ok, so it has been a while since we posted an update on The State of The Baby Situation. I have spent some time at the hospital on a few different days this week because of borderline preeclampsia (or toxemia). This means that I am retaining water like crazy, my blood pressure is shooting up, and a host of other things that put me at risk for developing complications such as seizures (though unlikely at this point). This is a progressive condition, which means it just gets worse until the baby is born. Luckily, I haven't had to deal with this for most of my pregnancy, and the baby is doing fabulously. However, because of the changes they have detected in my bloodwork etc., if I don't go into labor on my own this week, I will be induced bright and early Monday morning. Many of you know that this is not exactly how I had hoped for things to go, but at the moment, I just feel ready for this baby to come, so I will take what I can get! I am hoping, however, that I will go into labor this weekend, thus precluding any need to be artificially induced on Monday. There isn't much I can do though... I am on strict bedrest (with bathroom and meal "privileges") to keep my blood pressure down. BJ has been very supportive during this whole thing, doing laundry, dishes, cooking, cleaning etc. while I can't get out of bed. The bedrest situation has been really difficult for me... obviously it is boring, and there are tons of things I would rather be doing, working on stuff to get ready for the baby etc. But after being chastised by the doctor, I am following the instructions more closely...
Here are some pictures of Baby Gabe's progression!


Here are a few other albums that I meant to put up earlier, but am just now uploading from my camera!

Place your bets!

We want to know when you think the baby will come, and how much the baby will weigh, and how tall the little tyke will be.

Just so no one will have any advantages in information here, the baby is due July 13th according to the original dates, but last time Rochelle was in to the doctors, she measured two weeks early. However, they were also thinking that Rochelle might have extra fluids in her, and that could be the cause of the discrepancy.

So, write it in the comments, when, how much, and how tall.

Well, I have been meaning to post for some time now. We still don't have internet access at our place, but it was high time to post an update! So much has happened, so I guess I will just give a concise summary of events:

-I graduated. :D My parents flew out here to attend the graduation ceremonies and stay with us for a few days. I officially have my bachelor's degree. I am a nurse, although I won't be a registered nurse (RN) until I pass my board exam. That will (hopefully) take place at the beginning of July.

-We moved. I think BJ's posts about covered this one. We really like our condo, and we are mostly unpacked, although there are still some boxes to work on and we're still deliberating about where to hang our pictures.

-I went to Oregon to spend a week with my family. I attended the VPA (Voices for the Performing Arts) concert (this is my mother's non-profit organization brainchild). She is the artistic director for the foundation, and she directs the audition-choirs: an adult choir and a children's choir. My sister Cara sang in the adult choir, and Anna sang in the children's choir. Collin accompanied the children's choir on the piano, and Tayler manned the sound and light booth. My dad took pictures. Just about everyone was involved. They did a great job with their Broadway themed concert! It was great to have a little vacation and spend some fun time with my family. We all wished BJ could have come, but I am glad that he thought of the trip.

-BJ and I are teaching the 3-4 year olds (Sunbeams) class at church. They are quite energetic, and cute, and well, it is going to be quite an adventure.

-I started my first day of work at the health department today. I work in the well-child and birth control clinic on one day, and the cancer prevention clinic on the second day. I will be just doing training, observing, and practicing under supervision until I pass boards and get my license. It is going to be a lot of information to remember, but I think I will really like working there. We do physicals, and a bunch of other things. Lots of teaching.

-We are attending hypnobirthing prenatal classes. I know lots of people think it's a weird, cosmic, hippie idea, but I have found it to be mostly a very well grounded, logical, and scientific method. It is the method I am most confident in in helping me through natural childbirth. I will post a little bit later about what the method is all about and how it works. And I will let you know how it all goes afterwards.

That's all for now. I will post some pictures, and post about some other stuff, hopefully soon.