Thanksgiving Pictures!

Hey everyone!! A week from tomorrow and we'll be flying on the airplane to come home for Christmas!! We're so excited that we can't stand it! Here's some pictures from Thanksgiving. We had quite to group over. It was a lot of fun!

The missionaries came and Elder Bagley is from Huntington, Utah and his Stake President is Kiersten's (Brian's sister) father-in-law. (What a small world!!) We had so much fun. Our friends, the Claridge's, came and brought the most delicious turkey and sides.


Alivia helped me make pumpkin pies and she did a great job!! We had great food and great company. The only thing that would have made it better would have been YOU being there!

Here's the table


Here's part of the crew


Here's the other part of the crew.


I LOVE this "My Dad Rocks" shirt.



Alivis likes to "play" XBOX with Daddy. This is Brian's way to get his mind free from thinking about law cases!!

She also loves to wear Daddy's hats!


Alivia & I had SO MUCH FUN making these gingerbread houses. She put every piece of candy on and was so concentrated on what she was doing. We made these at a local community event.


One Sunday after church we made this count down 'til Utah paper chain. It was fun and Alivia likes to tear the links off everyday!



I think this smile is so cute. The only problem is that she keeps looking older! She is growing so quickly! Alivia can say "Gorgeous."

We went to the Festival of Trees here. It's a tradition of ours. The one here was MUCH SMALLER but still a lot of fun!!!

Here's a few of our friends that we hang out with here. Alivia has a few boyfriends!

Alivia LOVES Santa Clause!! She's been begging me to taker her back to see him!!



Here's Alivia in TIME OUT!!!

~~ It's Little Orphan Annie ~~

Look, it's Little Orphan Annie!

Actually, it's Alivia on Halloween.
"Annie" is one of Alivia's favorite movies and can sing the chorus to the song, "Tomorrow!!
I bought this little dress off Ebay from a lady who sews them herself. She did an excellent job!! My Mom, sister Lindsey, and first nephew on the Jackson side, Jett came to visit us a few weeks ago. My mom knew that Alivia was going to be Annie and so she found this wig.
It took Brian trying it on and wearing it to get Alivia to decide to wear it herself. She LOVED wearing her "Annie Dress!"Our ward had a trunk-or-treat and had some activities before hand. The JRC (LDS Law group) also had a Halloween party with a chili cook-off. It was so fun to have multiple reasons for Alivia to dress up.
Here is a picture of her with her two twin friends.They absolutely ADORE Alivia and run up to her at church to say hi. Her older sister has watched Alivia for me a few different times while I've gone to work. They are TOO cute with her!!


Here is Alivia with her "Daddy More Bucks!"
(Except for he's not bald, he's not a billionaire and he's trying to grow a Santa Clause beard.)


These are a few pictures from a get together where we invited some of Alivia's friends over to play.Here is Jacob, Ben & Alivia. (Ben is in my primary class.) They are both cute, cute boys.


Alivia has also enjoyed coloring with her sidewalk chalk outside.The only problem is that it's starting to get cold. One day she decided the house needed to be colored with chalk (she got it on the siding). Thank goodness it wasn't spray paint!

FYI: Alivia can sing the alphabet song now, has gone both #1 and #2 in her little potty (in case you were wondering), says "hi" to everyone at the store, can take off her clothes, can put her pants on, LOVES to tease as much as her mom and dad do and so much more!!

I will have TONS more pictures to put up here but I thought I'd start with Halloween since I'm so far behind. I'll tell you more about my mom, Lindsey & Jett coming to visit in the next entry.

FYI, Brian's midterms went well. We have great news!!!
HE GOT THE TOP SCORE ON HIS BIG PAPER IN HIS WRITING CLASS FOR HIS MIDTERM.
Their final grade in that class with be their perfected version of this paper which he is currently working to improve it even more. Keep up the great work babe!

We miss you all and are counting down until the middle of December. That's just next month!!

Love you all,
The Taylors

Daddy's Law "Swool"

We're BAAAAAACK!!

Alivia and I decided to check out exactly where Daddy was spending most of his time. As Alivia calls it, "Swool." We took Brian dinner and he showed us a little bit of his school.

Outside the school.
They allow access to the law school for the students 24/7. They just have to swipe their student ID's, put in a PIN number and they can spend as much time there as they'd like.

Brian studying in the "PIT." Notice how busy it is!!! Actually, this is a Saturday evening. Most students choose to study in the morning on Saturday's but Brian tends to spend mornings with us and then he studies in the evening.



Alivia taking a seat inside one of Brian's classrooms. It was really good for Alivia and I to go and actually see where Brian is. I'll ask Alivia if she remembers Daddy's school and she says "ya" and that we "ate pizzas." (We took pizza to him for dinner to share.)



The law library (this is not open 24/7)
The law library is staffed with only experienced attorney's and so the students have access to great resources.


I started a different job. The nursing agency wasn't working here for me. They wanted me to drive long distances and they only had contracts in nursing homes. I now work at the largest local hospital, Stormont-Vail Hospital. It is the largest in NE Kansas and I have been quite impressed with their dedication to patient care. I will be working as needed 2-3 shifts a week on their Oncology (cancer)/ Medical floor. They have quite an extensive orientation process and so that has been keeping me quite busy. There is another couple in our ward that are in their first year of law school. They have a 1.5 year old daughter named "Nona." Ina, the mom, was hoping to earn a little extra $$ babysitting and so this has worked out perfectly!! Alivia goes to "Nona's House" to be babysat. Ina is very sweet and patient with Alivia and I am very grateful for her and her friendship.


We're sad to announce that Worlds of Fun is not longer open during the weekdays. However, Alivia and I squeezed in a trip during the last week they were open on weekdays. We decided we needed a "Girls Day" so we went on rides while Brian was in "Swool!"



A fun activity for kids of all ages!



I think this is one of Alivia's favorite rides. She calls it the "Up Down" ride. It's basically like a mini Big Shot (the ride on top of the Stratosphere in Las Vegas.) She giggles on this ride like crazy. We were basically the only ones at Worlds of Fun. She was the only one on this ride and rode it 5+ times.

Alivia is learning to say her own prayers and she'll even name things she's grateful for. One of the things she says most of the time is "rides" in her prayers (and NO I did not teacher her that... as hard as it is to believe!!!).



I purchased this bike at a garage sale and she loves to ride it on our back patio! What a deal!



Here's a Glamor shot of me working in the yard! I guess the paparazzi finally got one of me!



Alivia being a helper in the yard.
These pictures aren't from Labor Day but this is very much what we looked like on Labor Day! Brian mowed and edged the lawn while I worked on pulling weeds. Man... did we have it easy weed wise in Utah!!! Everything here grows so fast... like weeds!! ha ha ha



The fruits of our labor!

Alivia LOVES it when Daddy is around. She'll climb up onto his lap and talk right in his face. I caught her walking in his shoes!!

Alivia loves this towel that Grandma Taylor made for her. She has been using if for a long time but especially likes to walk around in it more lately.






We got some exciting news this last week. Lindsey and Baby Jett are going to be coming to visit us in October and I told my mom that Lindsey will "need help" with Jett on the airplane and so she's coming to visit too. We're so excited... it can't come fast enough!