Christmas Eve

I have so many great picture to share with everyone I have decided that I am going to have to break up each blog by event (or day really). These few pictures are from Christmas Eve. In the Cupps household we would always open up one gift each on Christmas Eve (which has recently been pajamas). Rhaegan was so excited to just be opening a present. She didn't care what was inside. Her PJ's were adorable. And I have to say ours (the adults) were great too. Rhaegan helped play Santa by passing out the presents to each person. She didn't get a little shy when it was time to take Jeff (Denise's brother) his package. We had to give her a little hand with that one. Rhaegan waiting patiently for my mom to give her another present to pass out.

The carrots were for the reindeer and the cookies were for Santa. She was so excited about leaving special little treats for the "night-time visitors." Those are the pajamas she got from Grandma and Grandpa. She is the cutest cupcake out there I must say.

Opening up her Christmas Eve present. I think she was probably saying to herself, "come on, Mom, just let me open it. Enough with the photo shoot."

We also had special visitors come on the Monday before Christmas. Our closest family friends, the Nobles, came over for a pre-Christmas dinner. Rhaegan warmed right up to Colleen. Who would though? She is so sweet and read to Rhaegan.


More pictures to come.......

Miracle At Texas Roadhouse

Tonight I experienced a true miracle. We decided to go out to a steak dinner for our last night it Ohio. So Shae, Rhaegan and I piled into my mom's car and off we went to good old Texas Roadhouse. Of course there was a 20 minute wait so we took a seat amongst all the peanuts and patiently waited for our number to show up on the screen. My hands were super dry so I asked my mom for some lotion. I hate getting lotion in my ring so I took it off and must have set it in my lap (I know, stupid move). I got distracted somehow (having a 3 year old can do that) and when our number was called I stood up and walked to our table. After our dinner we left the restaurant and started driving home when I realized the empty finger on my left hand. I immediately started rummaging through my purse, my pants pockets, everywhere I could think to look. I got that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach and said, "Shae I can't find my ring." My dad quickly turned the car around and headed back to the restaurant. I just knew it wouldn't be there. In our economic state a nice diamond ring could offer quite a bit of assistance to someone in need. When we pulled into the parking lot my mom and I jumped out and ran in, my mom heading up to the reception desk and I made my way to the waiting area. We looked all over but found nothing. The girls at the desk said no one had turned in a ring so it seemed like all hope was lost. Then one of the managers came over and said, "what are you looking for?" I told her and after describing the ring to her she said, "wait here, I'll go get it for you." It took everything I had to hold back the tears. She returned with my ring and a business card of the amazing man who found it and turned it in. I cried my eyes out the minute a stepped out the doors. My guardian angel goes by the name of Mr. Palmer. I owe him so much and will forever be thankful for his honesty and kindness.

(Update: I have contacted Mr. Palmer and he responded back saying he's very happy he was able to help and hopes Shae and I have safe flight back home. What a great guy!!)

Taylor Family Christmas Card

This year our Christmas card is going to be sent via blogspot in order to save some time and money. For some reason I couldn't seem to get my life together in time to get a tangible Christmas card sent out. Hopefully this is makes it to everyone on my mailing list and more.

This year has been quite the whirlwind of years. We have been through a lot as a family (good and some not so good) but we have weathered all of our storms and are still standing strong. The "good" has definitely out-weighed the bad (luckily), though.
Shae is now working with some new people on some new and exciting projects. He is quite the entrepreneur and works very hard at what he does. He is a wonderful father and loves his daddy-daughter time. Rhaegan and Shae are like two peas in a pod. I'm hoping there some room left in his heart for the new addition joining our family early next year.

Rhaegan is a intelligent, active three year old. She loves to read books and would spend ALL day doing so if I let her. I just think interaction with other kids is important too. She loves princesses which is a change from last years Spiderman and Transformer phase. Her smile is infectious and helps us get through each day with a smile on our faces. Rhaegan is already a fantastic little mother. She is very helpful around the house and we know that once our baby arrives she will being willing and able to do whatever we need her to.

I am enjoying being a mom and can't wait to not be pregnant anymore. Being a mother of two is still a little bit scary to think about but I have great helpers in my house so everything should be okay. We were able to do quite a bit of traveling this past year and had some wonderful visits from friends and family.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone.

Over the river and through the woods...

...to grandmother's house we go. Shae, Rhaegan and I arrived safely to my parent's house last night and are preparing to have a great Christmas together as a family. Rhaegan is unfortunately the only grandkid here this year so she is going to experience a lot of adult (as in boring) time. She definitely misses her cousins and wishes they were her to play with. I will blog again once I have some fun pictures to share. MERRY CHRISTMAS to EVERYONE!!!

Cake, Presents and a PARTY!!

Birthday Highlights!!

Rhaegan's "day" started out with her birthday breakfast. She wanted french toast and scrambled eggs. She thought that having a candle in her food was by far the coolest thing ever.

Sorry these aren't in order of occurrence:

We had a little party for her at McDonald's Playplace (her favorite place) with several of her closest friends. They all had so much fun eating and running around. What more do little kids want to do anyway?
Rhaegan was a total pro at blowing out her candles. I know there were only three but still. She of course wanted a Tinkerbell cake so I did my best to put one together.

Opening presents was probably her favorite part (of course). She got a ton of princess stuff which made everything that much better. Remember when Rhaegan only liked Spiderman and Transformers? I guess she figured out she was actually a girl and not one of the boys. It only took 3 years.

More wonderful presents to show-off.

The Cake!

(I wish I had a better angle of it. It was pretty cute)

After she ate her birthday breakfast she opened our gifts to her; an Ariel pillow and a HUGE Scooby Doo coloring book. She saw the coloring book in the store and had been asking for it for about 2 weeks. I guess she still has a little "boy" in her.

Thanks everyone who helped make Rhaegan's birthday special.

We love you, Rhaegan!

Happy Birthday, Rhaegan!!

Well, it's official...Rhaegan is 3 years old! I can't believe how fast the time has gone. We started off her day with some fun surprise decorations. Rhaegan was so excited (as you can see from her face) to see all the balloons and her big sign. Her day was only beginning at that point. We had so many fun activities planned for her (I will post the rest of the pictures of her day tomorrow).

We love you, Rhaegan and we hope you had a great day. Thank you to everyone who made her day that much more special.

Happy Birthday!!

An unforgettable night

I got a wonderful surprise last week when I opened up an email from Shae and this is what it said:

"Dear Kendall,

As part of your birthday gift I am sending you and your BFF (he was referring to Ashly) to The Forgotten Carols on Wednesday night. So I want you to get all dressed up and have a great time. I Love You! Happy Birthday!"

I was so excited and surprised. I can usually guess at Shae's little "surprises" and I'm rarely ever literally surprised but this time I had no idea he was going to do this. The show was amazing. Thank you, Shae for such a wonderful birthday surprise. You're the best!!

Thanksgiving in Sun Valley

I know what you're all thinking...weren't we just in Sun Valley for a family trip? And the answer to that question is "yes we were." This past June we had the annual Taylor Reunion there. I'm still not quite sure why we had the reunion there when we all knew it was the year for Thanksgiving to be there. It turned out to be just fine, though. Rhaegan loves Sun Valley and loved the fact that you can ice skate in the summer and in the winter. That was her favorite part. We had about 50 family members for Thanksgiving dinner (which in my opinion is way too many), we all ate a lot of great food and the kids all enjoyed jumping on the unoccupied beds up in the loft area. It was a good holiday for us and hopefully for everyone else. Rhaegan got to open her birthday and Christmas presents from Grandma and Grandpa Taylor since they weren't going to be able to be with her on the actual days. Of course she loved them! Thanks Reed and Jackie!!
The ice skating was Rhaegan's highlight of the trip. She loved going around and around the rink. It was, however, a little bit straining on the backs of Shae and Reed having to bend over for so long. What troopers!

The skates were the cutest things ever. They were so little. I didn't go skating because lets face it, I hate being cold and pretty much any winter sport. I did love watching Shae and Rhaegan having so much fun together.

We then had a great time bowling. The bowling shoes were adorable there as well. Rhaegan found a Scooby Doo ball so she was trilled about the whole thing. 10 rounds of bowling with 8 little kids took about 2 hours though which was not so fun.

We had a great time. Thanks again Reed and Jackie for everything.

Farewell to the Pacifier!

The Binky finally gone. After almost three years Rhaegan has finally parted with her favorite little friend. I have to defend myself and Rhaegan is saying that for the past 18 months she has only use a pacifier for sleeping. We never took it anywhere. It just stayed in her bed and was her little comfort. I admit that the transition from Binky to no Binky was harder for me than Rhaegan. She was still my little baby when I would see her with it in her mouth. Now it's gone and she is officially a "big girl." She's had it since day one and has loved it dearly.

We will miss the "baby Rhaegan" but we're glad she's growing up so nicely.

Farewell "Dalpy!"
(that is what she called it when she was little)

The most unlikely occurence...

Yep, I did it...
I went to the FIRST showing of the movie "Twilight." It was Friday morning at 12:02am and I was in line making my way through the enormous crowd that had accumulated over the past 12 hours. Yes, you read right...12 hours people stood in lines across the Utah valley in hopes of getting the best seat in the house. My friend Heather and I didn't really care where we ended up seating just as long as we sat together. Of course only getting there an hour early guaranteed us the front row of seats. The movie was very good but only because I had read the book so I could feel and understand the connection of the characters. If you haven't read the series then I don't think you will like the movie as much. However, if you're between the ages of 12 and 17 then that probably won't stand true. I have never heard so much high pitched screaming before in my life. It was a fun experience though. I'm glad I went and I would definitely recommend the movie to all you Twilight lovers. Thanks Heather for a fun night.

Mysterious Leg Pain

Ok...this picture has nothing to do with my post but I just love it and wanted to include something instead of just text. This was my little Rhaegan the day she was born. My good friend Stefanie took it and I love it. Okay, moving on...

So growing up my dad had to rub my legs every night because of those so called "growing pains." I still get them and I know I'm not getting any taller (wider maybe but not taller). So I truly believe that they are something else but that's beside the point. I unfortunately passed this wonderful pain on the my daughter. Last night Rhaegan wakes up crying so I go in to see what's wrong and all she can say is "my leg, my leg." I start to rub it and immediately her eyes close and she starts to fall back to sleep. Once I stopped, though, she was up and complaining again. I know that it was the first episode but I still can now sort of imagine what my dad went through for my comfort. Thanks, Dad!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SUZI!!!

Happy Birthday, Suzi!

We love you and hope you have a great day. Wish we could be celebrating this special day with you. Know that we're thinking of you always.

Love Kendall, Shae & Rhaegan

When Grandma comes to town...

My mom arrived in Utah on Thursday and everyday since then has been filled with fun and surprises. Her parents (Oma and Opa Plumb) celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary last month so all the kids decided to throw them a surprise party. My mom and her sisters arrived on Wednesday and Thursday and then it was off to preparing the special event. Friday we shopped and shopped and, oh yeah, shopped some more. Along with the food and decorations for the party our purchases included a new big girl bed for Rhaegan!!! She has still been in her crib and I figured since there is another child on the way it was probably about time to promote Rhaegan to a big bed. She loves it (well jumping on it at least).I loved this picture because it shows everyone how long her hair is. I just can't bring myself to cut it yet.
The big SURPRISE... my brother and his family decided last minute to make the long drive up to the party without telling my mom. The look on her face when they walked through my front door was priceless. I think the words "oh my crap" came out of her month at least 4 times. It was so much fun.

Then it was off to cooking. Well my mom did the cooking and I did the cleaning up. She made two salads that were both amazing. I will post the recipes later.


And of course Rhaegan was so excited to see her cousins. We hadn't seen Paige since she could walk so that was an extra treat for us.

Trick or Treat

We had a lot of fun this year on Halloween. Rhaegan is finally old enough to understand the whole trick or treating concept. She was so excited to show off her costume and to be able to trick or treat with her cousins. I was a little afraid that Rhaegan wouldn't go up a knock on the doors much less say "trick of treat." I was completely wrong (thank goodness). She walked right up to each door, opened her bag and patiently waited for her turn to receive her candy. It was so fun to watch. I can't believe how big and independent she's getting. We hope you all had a great Halloween. This was an amazing feat for Rhaegan to walk through this entrance. She really wanted the candy though so she put on her brave face and walked right up to the door. Getting her to stop directly underneath for a picture was a little harder though.
A little stop for a mommy/daughter picture.

As you can tell Rhaegan was a butterfly. She wanted to be Ticker Bell but the costume was too expensive and not warm enough so she decided to settle on the butterfly. She loved the wings and was always wanting me to take pictures of them.

Rhaegan and her cousin Atalya preparing to head out on the town.

...and it's going to be a.......

Well the verdict is in and I thought Rhaegan should be the one to tell everyone. She's the one who's inheriting a new brother or sister. I have to say though that we are all really excited and can't wait for his....or her arrival.

Rhaegan's new favorite thing...

Rhaegan has a new crush....it's Michael Phelps. When we were at Costco the other day we were picking out cereals and as we approached the Frosted Flakes we hear Rhaegan say, "It's Michael Phelps." What did you just say was my first thought. The Olympics have been over for 2 months but Michael's lasting impression will apparently last a lifetime. Of course we purchased the cereal and thought that that was the last we'd hear of Rhaegan's crush. However, this morning as Rhaegan and I were eating our breakfast she couldn't concentrate on anything else but the Frosted Flake cereal box. Luckily I had my camera right there and was able to capture this video. I honestly didn't tell her what to say. This is all a little two year old suffering from an adorable crush.

Hiking the "Y"

A couple of weekends ago, Shae, Rhaegan and I decided it was the perfect time to introduce Rhaegan to what most BYU alumni and students call "hiking the Y." I use to hike up to the "Y" at least 3 times a week with my cousin Natasha before I got married and I am here to tell you ladies, there is no better workout for your hind quarters. We really should have had a backpack of some sort to carry Rhaegan in but we didn't and we still made it work (Shae carried her on his shoulders, bless his heart). We actually had a lot of fun and the view, as you can kind of see from the pictures was beautiful. There was a storm rolling in across the valley and from way up of the mountain you could see it in its entirety. Rhaegan had a fun time and still asks us when we can "climb the Y again."
I had to get a picture from the top. Well we weren't quite there but it's all the same.

My New Favorite Thing

My new favorite thing (which I was suppose to post Saturday but forgot) is Royal Chocolate Cheesecake. I made it several days ago and oh my goodness, it was to die for.


I am also loving all of the fun Halloween treats I've been seeing on the cooking channel, on the Internet, in magazines. The only "Fall" treat I've made were pumpkin cookies with a vanilla icing. I think Rhaegan and I are going to try this fun treat this week.

I hope everyone is doing well. Have a great week!

It's snow time...

We had our first snowfall this past Sunday. All the kids were so excited to get all their winter gear on and head on outside. Rhaegan was so excited to wear her snow boots (which are too small now). Her snowsuit still fits which is nice but we had to go buy her new gloves and a new hat. I hate how fast she's growing. She was having so much fun running around...

sitting around....
and sliding around. Rhaegan loves the snow which isn't the greatest development for me because I'm not the biggest fan. Shae may have to so a lot of the sledding and snowman making this year.

Cougar homecoming...

No...I'm still not a BYU fan but when my husband is and all of our friends are it's just easier to be a part of the crowd instead of against it. On Saturday BYU had their homecoming game against New Mexico so Shae, Rhaegan and I decided to have a little party with are good friends Bart and Crystal. We had some great food and Rhaegan was completely set with books, her own movie, puzzles; you name it, she had it (I didn't think she would sit for 2 hours and watch a football game. I had to prepare myself). Of course Shae thought we all needed to sport the appropriate attire so we pulled out Rhaegan's BYU shirt from last year, I wore one of Shae's old shirts because lets face it, Utah is the logo found on the majority of my T-shirts, and Shae wore a BYU track shirt. Rhaegan brought along "Cougar" (Cosmo is their mascots name but she thought cougar was more fitting) and we all enjoyed some game time together. I of course had to introduce our friends to Skyline Chili Dip!!!!! I brought several cans of Skyline back from my trip to Ohio so I made the dip. Bart thought it's okay, but Crystal loved it. It's an acquired taste I must admit but I love it. puzzle time
Family photo in all of our BYU gear
Bart having a little nibble while cooking our hamburgers. It was 39 degrees yesterday so thanks Bart and Shae for standing outside to make us food.
Rhaegan and Nacho. They are seriously best friends.

My New Favorite Thing

I've decided that each week I'm going to blog about "my new favorite thing" for that week. This entry may seem a little weird to some people but if you are a parent and if you believe in flu shots for your kids then you will appreciate (or understand) this particular "favorite" of mine.
Yesterday I made an appointment for Rhaegan to get her flu shot. We prepared her for the little pinch and the awesome Band Aid she would get afterward. She was totally okay with the whole concept (well, she probably had no clue what was really going to happen). We get to the doctor's office and they say, "do you want the nasal spray or the shot?" "There's a nasal spray?" I said. Well shoot, lets do the spray. It lasts an entire year (the shot only last 6-8 months) and it doesn't hurt. Rhaegan was so good. She just sat there and let them squirt the mist up each nostril. That is why this week my new favorite thing in FluMist!

(I know, this picture is weird and creepy all rolled into one but it's the only one I could find.)

We're back!!

Rhaegan and I have been home for about a week now and are finally back into the swing of things. Our house was absolutely spotless when we arrived thanks to my wonderful husband. When I say spotless I am not exaggerating at all!! It was cleaner than it's ever been. It's always great to come home after a long trip and not have to clean ANYTHING. Thanks, Shae.

Here are the last of the pictures. We were lucky enough to get to go to King's Island again and this time we went with everyone (Nick, Denise, Nils, Krista, Grandma and Grandpa). It was so much fun and Rhaegan of course had a blast. She discovered the bumper cars this time and was completely obsessed with them. Thanks Mom and Dad for a great trip. We love you guys! Rhaegan wanted to ride this helicopter ride the first time we come to King's Island but the line was so long. Luckily there was no one in line for it when we arrived. And of course she had to have the pink one.
Rhaegan and Aunt Krista in line for yet another ride.
The Blue's Clues ride was also another popular one with all the kids. We were again lucky we got there early; no line for this one either.
The famous bumper cars!! She was a pro and loved crashing her car into the wall.

Papa and Rhaegan in line for the roller coaster.

All in all it was a great trip. I can't wait until next year. We are definitely coming back.