So...
here's Mr. Greyson as of the other day. He's still growing at an alarming rate, yes. The following is Geoff's brother, Andy (Greyson Andrew...see?) with Geoff's mom, Sandy...aka "grandma magnet...due to the tshirt I purchased Reagan which somehow thinks that's somehow her new name)..and of course, Reagan.
The bottom photo is Margo (yes, she's available..tell your single doctor friends :) We miss you Taylors of Montana!! Thanks fer coming!

Visit from the Montana Taylors

Visit from the Montana Taylors

Here's a few little pictures of the visit we had with Aunt Margo, Uncle Andy, and Grandma "Magnet". (I bought Reagan a shirt with that on it...'grandma magnet, durrh :) and she thought that was Geoff's mom's new name or something)

update on stuff

So...Christmas was wonderful. Ok...not perfect cause I missed my Montana peops...but nearly! We had tons of snow (by the way...if I"m missing any "d's"...it's because something's going on with my 'd"..an I have to push it super har for some reason...grr!
Geoff's family (mom, Margo, an Andy) will be here tonight! wooopp whoop! The kids are soo anxious! Geoff's been on nights..but it's been the greatest because for some reason they haven't been doing much cases in the night...so he basically goes there to sleep! (I just jinxed it, huh?) Greyson's FIVE months old! He's a champ! He works over the exersaucer pretty good..and LOVES Brooks. I'll be posting some pics soon, I hope! Hooray for cable internet!!

birthday shots

here's those chiddrins on their birthday...

Brookser is SEVEN! Reago is FOUR

Wow....Seven.....I'm a mother of a seven year old. Surreal.
My sweet Brooks turned seven yesterday...and Reagan...four today. I could go on and on about how impossible this seems...but I'll spare us.
I so love these kiddos. Brooks had his good buddy, Dawson over after school on Monday..and then we went to Chuck E.Cheese's in Cedar Rapids. I found myself laughing out loud at the seven year old conversations going on in the back of the van...here's a few quotes:

Dawson," Brooks, if you want to have a girlfriend...I can catch one for you." "I'll even train her for you!"

Brooks, "I wish we weren't so good looking so the girls at recess wouldn't chase us!"

Brooks: "I stink. I smell like a bunch of rotten old strawberries"

What???
Strange. That's all I can say...

Reagan's day wasn't quite as exciting. She had great plans for "sharing" at preschool....made some cookies for her classmates..and it was to be her special day. ICE STORM! NO preschool today..bummer! They do this awesome little interview of the kids as they bring something from home to talk about and answer questions about. (I've learned the other kids just really keep asking them differing renditions of the same question...."where'd you get that?? who gave it to you?? where'd you buy it? who bought that for you? where'd you buy that?") cute...nonetheless.

Reagan....a little sick today..runny nose still getting the best of her. What a blessing that she's not "sick sick" though.
Love those kids! Wish I could download pics so you could love em, too!

Thanksgiving with Friends

So...this past week our dear friends from med school visited the Taylor Fam. They drove from Detroit, MI..and arrived Monday morning. The kids had SUCH a blast hanging out with each other, eating too much, watching too many movies, playing too many video games, playing outside in the too cold of weather, and staying up too late. It was soo great to see them again! We just cherish them so much and their friendship has meant so much to us over the years. We love you Hollands! I'd sure post the awesome pictures we took IF I COULD GET THEM TO LOAD!! Grrr...sorry!
Anyways....we're shoveling out the house today and getting caught up on things that went undone all week. Back to reality, eating better, and running, I guess. Sad!

The Tag Thing...

I've been tagged. Here goes:

Name Five Things You were doing Ten years ago:

1. Living in Ft.Collins, Colorado
2. doing home health care
3. went to Cayman Islands with my sisters, Bev and Renee (thanks, Bev!)
4. driving a leased '97 Nissan Altima (another one of our dumb financial decisions)
5. hanging out with Anne, Crystal, and Eric most of the time.

Name Five Things you were doing FIVE years ago:

1. living in West Des Moines, Iowa
2. getting excited for my parents to come help celebrate Brooks' TWO year birthday!
3. living in Sun Prairie Apts. (ick)
4. working part-time at Mercy Hospital in the PACU
5. driving a 95 Honda Passport that we bought from Geoff's mom (notice it's five years later..and we're driving a car SEVEN years old..we're learning!)

Name Five things you were doing ONE year ago:

1. Just finding out I was pregnant with Greyson.
2. pondering ways to break it to the fam!
3. getting excited for my parents to come celebrate Brooks' SIX year, and Reagan's THREE year birthdays from Montana.
4. volunteering in Brooks' kindergarten class
5. painting my kitchen for the fourth time

Name five jobs you've held:

1. Very first job was at TCBY (we got one free small yogurt per shift...yummy White Chocolate Mousse!)
2. worked as a dietary aid in a nursing home with my highschool buddies
3. Parkview Nursing home as an activities assistant for the Alzheimer's patients in their locked unit....interesting.
4. ER and PACU tech
5. massage therapist

Name Five of your favorite snacks:

1. Baked Cheetos
2. 94% fat free microwave popcorn....100 cal bags
3. fat free vanilla pudding snacks
4. bananas
5. Diet A&W Rootbeer (we're both addicts as of late...it's a sickness around here...don't get started on it!)

Name Five things you did yesterday:

1. went to a mom's prayer thingy for the kids/staff at Brooks' school.
2. ran (more like trotted) 3 miles on the trail in the cool air a through some leaves
3. bought groceries at Fareway
4. two loads of laundry.....grr...
5. talked on the phone to friends/(and Bev, and my mom)

Name Five things you'd do with a million dollars:

1. pay off student loans/medical school loans
2. buy a house for my mom and dad..and pay Geoff's mom's house off.
3. do some serious upgrades to the sorry wardrobes of Geoff and I (the kids get all the cool stuff around here)
4. take a vacation with just Geoff and I sans kids (never been done)
5. bless random strangers with buying their dinner, paying for their groceries/gas...stuff like that...

Name Five things I hate doing:

1. when I don't control my tongue and give in to gossiping/complaining.
2. loosing my temper with my kids
3. moving
4. emptying the dishwasher
5. waking up in the night and not be able to fall back asleep

Name Five shows I like:

1. The Office
2. Grey's Anatomy (now on at the same time as the Office...conspiracy!)
3. almost anything on HGTV
4. Oprah..usually
5. When Beth Moore comes on Wednesday mornings

Name Five of the Biggest joys of my life:

1. being married to Geoffrey...it just keeps getting better and better...really!
2. being close to God
3. being a mom to Brooks, Reagan, and Greyson...and being able to stay home with them full-time
4. decorating the house
5. shopping/getting my hair done/massages/getting my nails done/being DONE with exercise for the day/eating out/my great girlfriends.....I could go on!

Name Five People to "Tag"

1. Christie Wall
2. Rebecca Cannon
3. Athena Grady
4. Laura McCarragher
5. Corey Ward

Greyson just hanging out...
Reagan wanted to sneak into the picture..
Greyson's favorite entertainment

Ode to MARGO!

happy birthday, Margo...

Here's just some of the reasons why we love ya...

1. You're soo real....no fakey stuff there
2. You have the best hair of anyone I know.
3. You're genuine.
4. You are one of the funniest people I know.
5. You send great/thoughtful packages to the kids...even when you can't afford it because you know how much it means to them.
6. You give the best "force hugs"
7. You know how to have fun and relax.
8. You work hard.
9. You're humble..but not a push-over.
10. You speak your mind.
11. You can type really really fast.
12. You can figure most anything out about a computer.
13. You like animals.
14. If you feel prompted to give/help someone else...you just DO it....you don't overanalyze it..you just do it.
15. You said I was "cool" on the back of the school picture you gave me when I started dating your brother...(and you were in the fifth grade)
16. you're beautiful (although we'd still like you even if you weren't)
17. You would stick up for me when Geoff and I would argue and try to help me prove my point :)
18. You love my kids to pieces.
19. You're one of my husband's favorite people....well, mine too, for that matter
20. You're up front.
21. You can remember the lines to movies like nobody's business.
22. You like to laugh.
23. You love your family
24. You'd drop everything for a trip to Target or a great coffee drink
25. I can turn to you for fashion advice.
26. You're not afraid to get dirty.
27. You're not afraid to dress all up!
28. You're willing to be transparent.
29. <----your age today:)

Happy Birthday, Margo! We love you soo soo much!

Health Check...

Yes, in case you were wondering...Greyson and Reagan are STILL coughing! Grrr....
Poor little muffins! I think we're on the mend though...(feeling a little puney myself). Geoff's been working an awesome schedule this month (I LOVE you ambulatory surgery!) Brooks is learning how to tell time, add/subtract/count by fives,tens, twos..etc. First grade is fun..and fast-paced! Reagan got lost in Target on Saturday...amongst the entire town of Iowa City. She was a "Code Yellow" and everything. A lady found her and brought her to a Target workerperson. Yesterday, I was in TJMaxx with a friend...(in Cedar Rapids, mind you...twenty minutes from my house) and a lady came up to Reagan and said, "aren't you Reagan?" I didn't recognize this woman at all..and she told me she had found Reagan in Target on Saturday! I got the details of the ordeal of her "lostness"...and was glad to be able to tell this woman that we had always trained our children to find a "pretty lady" if they ever found themselves lost. She liked that :) Long story short...Reago was lost for about five minutes....which is a sicknin' amount of time, actually. I'm soo thankful that she was found and safe...now you can be, too.
Greyson...Greyson's forgoing sleeping through the night due to his cough/cold. Ya kinda have to throw all the rules out the window when they're sick...so I've spent the past four nights on the couch....next to Greyson....plunking my finger in his mouth whenever he wakes up sad/screaming/furious/coughing. (no...still won't take the pacifier....despite enormous effort). I guess that about wraps up life around the Taylor household these past couple of days.

Halloween Tidings...

Happy Halloween. We have one sick dragon (Reagan) today. icky. She's got "the" (big D)...a runny nose..and nasty cough. Greyson's thinking of having a cough, too. Here's a couple of pics of the other week when Cody and Sydney (their cousins...Renee's kiddos) were here! Hopefully there will be a little trick or treating later on tonight...hopefully!

3 Months old!!

That's right....Greyson's three months old already. He's getting a better personality! :) He went through an ultra-crabby phase..and now he's fairly content..which is cool. He smiles alot, too...which is fun...and seems to be really ticklish. We went to Des Moines over the weekend. It was soo nice to catch up with some old friends (thanks for your awesome hospitality...and togo coffee drinks, Tows!) We had a great time. The kids got to eat licorice in bed..which was cool, swim, eat Coldstone...play the NASCAR game at Jordan Creek..and play in the play area. I will still say that the highlight was visiting our old church, Valley...oh..how we miss that church and its people! Anyways...here are a couple pictures of the growing lad and kiddos.

Busy, Busy, Busy...

I think I might be having a mid-life crisis. Is this possible at 34?? And does that mean...I'll live to be 68?? I mean, it feels like this is all going by SOOO fast! I blame Greyson. I've felt this way since he's been born. Before I know it we'll be putting on pjs, brushing teeth, reading stories, praying, and tucking in for the night (after a quick rendition of "Old MacDonald" for Reagan..it's non-negotiable). Where do the days go??? They should do a study....

Jaguar VICTORY!

Just had to share that Brooks' football team won their first game this afternoon! First one out of four..so it's a big deal over here! woohoo! Been lots of fun watching these boys improve on their game!

What is >97%????

That would be......Greyson's height and weight on the growth chart. Ok...my weight probably is too...ya got me on that one. Hey...and sometimes when Greyson's fussy...I let him suck on my finger. The other day, Reagan told me that she wished milk would come out of her finger, too! (milk doesn't actually come out of my finger, silly!...she just thought that cause, well...never mind) It's the weekend!!! Geoff's working a 24 hour...and then off tomorrow...kinda, except that he'll have to sleep. But gorsh...I sure do like him!
It was 88 today. Does that feel like fall to me? No! Furthermore...my mom's in Bozeman (montana..for those of you who don't know)...and it SNOWED there this morning! I guess I"m kinda homesick today cause my cousin got married tonight..and guess what? I'm not there! maybe someday??? I'm blithering.
I think I need to go to bed..

Two Month old Tankster

Here's some recents of the big boy. He's growing out of control. Nice to not have to worry that he's getting enough (thanks be to JC) He's our joy.

New Fall MakeOver...

if you know me...which you do, or else you wouldn't be here...you're not a bit surprised that I've changed the colors on my blog for fall. surprising that it's stayed the same colors as long as it had. Happy fall to the 6 people that actually look at this thing.

Soccer Girl!

Reagan was thrilled to start soccer on Monday. She's excited to be on the green team with lots of friends from preschool and church. She stood like a statue for the first few plays...but finally got the hang of going after the ball. What fun to watch!

Flag Football-Go Jaguars!!

Brooks started football this past week. Boy...was he ever excited! He was a bit dismayed that it wasn't tackle football..but still is having a complete blast!

Even better than that....

10pm until 5am!!! Life is good! I've even showered...and it's not even 7 AM! It's the little things.......

Greyson progress...

My dearest Greyson slept until 3:45 am last night! yes....that means I slept from 10p..clear til 3:45. This was revolutionary for me. Woohoo! Let's hope we're on a roll.

Reagan Tidbit...

So...my dear Brooks has a interesting habit of going overboard when he gets frustrated. (often when he's in trouble) If we tell him he needs to spend some time in his room for punishment...and we say he'll have to be in there for a few minutes....he usually counters by saying something like, "I'm just going to stay in there ALL day...and never, ever come out for one hundred hours." Reagan's been hearing this song and dance enough that the other day when I told her she needed to spend some good ol' quality time in her room, SHE countered with..."I'll never, ever get to come out......never in the hundred acre wood?" Interesting crossover there. Still makes me laugh.

Six Weeks , one day old....