Tasty Cakes -- My "Brag" moment

SO i have a sister, my little sissy pants Devan. Hopefully you'll all remember her from my earlier post about the "Love Coasters" here.  She is just a beautiful, fun, amazing and talented young lady that has a real passion and love for baking. I know, i know, one day i'm going to be 700lbs because her "passion" is my weakness... ugh. Any excuse i get i have her make me cupcakes!!  Recently Pyper and I hosted a bachelorette party for our friend Mo. PERFECT DESSERT IS CUPCAKES, right?   

I had Devan make the desserts of course.. and she the turned out just fab!

We had a very naughy theme since the bachelorrette is relatively young and naive.  She had never even owned any lingerie!!  So of course i went past my regular limits to push into her comfort zone... and she loved every minute of it!

She put a condom on each one and a little lube. They were so cute and it was so much fun for each of the girls!  The Bachelorette Party was so much fun... Mo loved it all.

We did a couple fun games, and we had a good turn out.

Devan does cupcakes for anyone local that needs some for whatever occassion!! 

What a find i have found...

As i posted yesterday... my library bookcases are finally complete. Now all that i need is the furniture. You know, the expensive parts.  It's important to note that i have had my bookcases done for a few months now, since March actually, and have been on the prowl ever since.  I have found a few things that i liked here and there.... however.... yesterday while cruising amazon i found a beaut!! 

Isn't she gorgeous!?? I love her legs.. i love her tufts... i love that she has arms but that she's not overbearing and gigantic. Just a skinny little pleasure that would fit PERFECTLY.  Black and grey and white accents?? Yes please... i could even add a little teal.... like say maybe this little treasure??

My sister, the doll that she is, made a trip to the local DI in WVC yesterday and found this bad boy... obviously he's gonna need a little TLC. Definately some new skin... but maybe a teal? an off white? Something bolder?!   To top it off... my sister also found this little lady (yes my new projects are all either "he's"or "she's")

Oh the things i can do with this gorgeous curvy, leggy, crowned little number. I'm thinking something sexy... maybe a pretty white, a pretty silver?!  BOLD B&W STRIPES?!  Mm.... or even a dainty super soft pale pink??  

Best part?? Each chair was only $20. A bit pricey considering i'm gonna tear them both down. But it's the price i pay living in Utah with all the crafty-est nifty-est awesome-est women in the country i'm sure.

TO THE FABRIC STORE WE GO!!

My Newly Acquired Paradise

Since we moved in last April there is one room we have absolutely NOT TOUCHED. It's been hard because this room is just RIGHT there when you walk in the front door, off to the right. But even before we signed on the dotted lines I knew EXACTLY what i wanted to do with it.

LIBRARY!!!

I have acquired a vast collection of books in the last 7-8 years. And in the old house they were just in piles all over the place -- or in closets -- or in boxes -- some in shelves. Just chaos!! (here in the new house they all live in boxes upon boxes) So when there was an empty and available room i knew i needed it for a library. Now... i didn't want just regular old bookselves, i wanted the ENTIRE WALL to be bookshelves. And i wanted them beautiful. And i wanted them built in. After having a company give me a bid, i realized that they were going to be a pretty penny to build. Soooo to pinterest i went -- hoping to find something cheap and easy me and Brian could do ourselves (never EVER tell my husband i got a professional bid, he'd kill me. Brian thinks he can build or do anything i could possibly need -- and he proves himself right alllllll the time).


I found this idea -- it used some Ikea shelves and crannied them together and looked nice. At about $400.00 i thought that wasn't that bad. 

But after much thought and consideration Brian came up with a brilliant plan... and here's how they turned out.


With about $250 worth of supplies we have an entire wall of built in shelves. But not just shelves, he also made a display center for a photo, artwork, sculpture or whatever.

Because they were so inexpensive and SO PROFESSIONAL LOOKING AND GORGEOUS  i figured i'd pass along the info in case someone else wanted a little mental sancuary from the job, the kids, the animals, you know.. the GRIND.


First things first, take off the trim and cut back the carpet. NOTE: Save the trim, you'll want to put it back on the front of the unit to make it look truly a part of the house.


The shelves are all 12" apart -- 9 ft" tall -- and 12" wide. To make this the most stable and aesteically pleasing we used some corner trim as our shelf stablizers. We used just cheap wood because i wanted to paint them instead of stain them. I am painting them the same high gloss white as the mantle as you can see here and the trim and accents of my whole house. I figured it would look that much more natural if it was all uniform.

After we got it all up (after HOURS of leveling, cutting, leveling, nailing, screwing, and the like) we had to fill in all the holes and gaps to make everything even and smooth. Using the woodfiller/mud Brian slapped it on and smoothed it out...


Then to the primer.... and then paint. Easy peasy.  Took us about a FULL weekend and VOILA!!  We have this.... I still need to get some bookends so that they are not so symetrically placed along the edges.  Any ideas??

It was so much fun going through all my books, seeing what i have in hardcover and paper. My favorites are J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series, Christine Feehan's Dark series Ghostwalker series, and recently i've fallen in love with Gena Showalter's Lord of the Underworld series....

Happy Anniversary to Us!

On May 24th Brian and I celebrated 4 years of wonderful togetherness. We were married 4 years ago in a gorgeous wedding that i can barely remember because all i could think of that day was that Brian was going to be mine forever and ever. After being together 4 years, 3 of which we were "living in sin" it all just seemed so surreal and perfect.

2 years after we were married -- in August, we had our beautiful son. Our lives have never been the same and have only gotten better and better.

This year Brian was out of town for our anniversary -- although i was sad he was gone i wasn't too terribly hear broken since it was on a Wednesday and I  have an amazing California trip planned for us this month in celebration.  To me this was a GREAT way to celebrate 4 years to total perfect-ness. Ha.

Brian as usual has to 1 up me and had a special delivery made.... and Upgrade if you will...

Boy oh boy was i floored by this beauty!!  I love the vintage classic feel to it with the modern white gold and holy cow does this baby sparkle!!!   I must say he is one special man and i'm very lucky to be saddled with him till death do us part. I don't know what i would do without him.  

Along with the ring -- which is totally OFF THE WALL AMAZING -- i also was delivered flowers and an iPhone 4s.   I must say, i was quite spoiled this year. How do i even top that or come close??   The man baffles me..

Valentines -- A Day of Love

(we really do love each other)

On Valentines it's always been kind of a drag of a holiday for me. DOn't get me wrong, i love my husband and i think it's fun to go on a date and he ALWAYS gets me something wonderful (usually jewelry) but i just think it's a very blah holiday...

But for some reason this year i have an extra special reason to love my husband and Valentines day. I have watched alot of close ppl have to deal with some serious relationship struggles in the last few years. Couples who haven't been as lucky as Brian and I and have not been able to work it out. I've seen some friends go through serious heart break, and even my own mom is only barely starting to get back to a level ground after her divorce. My sister and her fiance moved their wedding date... friends broke up... it's just been hard to watch them all struggle with "LOVE" when i've been blessed to have it so readily given to me by Brian.

Brian is the most amazing husband i could have asked for -- i thank his mom and dad for it every chance i get. Now, he isn't perfect, he still drives me crazy about little things he can't seem to "remember" (like putting his shoes away, or leaving glasses on the counter, or by falling asleep while watching Trey) but outside of the normal craziness we have he is amazing. He always listens. When he hurts my feelings it really hurts him to know he did -- and let me tell you, him hurting my feelings is a RARITY. He tries everyday to make me happy. He makes an effort to come home every day with a hug and kiss for me and spends every minute of the night with me and Trey. We have a friend that has told us, "you're lucky". And although we're lucky to have found each other, luck isn't at all what plays part into our wonderful marriage. Selflessness. It's not one person or the other -- it's both. BOth of us respect one another and our relationship enough to know when to stop pushing, to open up, to BE WHAT THE OTHER NEEDS and WANTS. We love each other enough that we know what the other can and cannot live with and we don't push those boundaries.

(Cruise 2007, Ride to Canada 2008, Wedding, Dunes 2006)

For all these reasons i love my husband. I love that he knows what i need and lets me do it. I love that he comes home and kisses me the MINUTE he walks in the door. I love that he lets me pick what we watch when we go to sleep, or that he doesn't complain when all i want to do is read.  I love that he picks me up after a bad day, and tells me that i'm a good mom and wife even when i feel like i'm not. I love that he puts up with my dogs that he didn't want, and that he lets his son play with them whenever he wants to. I just love HIM. I love his smile, and his heart and his bod! :-)  I love to look at him and i love to just be with him. I love our life and everything he's worked for and sacrificed to make sure i have what i wanted (i.e. my house, my baby, my car, me everything). 

For me life is all about meticulous planning and replanning and i'm always so stressed -- Brian balances all of that out for me.

Brian is Brian. And he's perfect for me. He may not be perfect for everyone -- but to me love is about feeling equal to him and feeling like our life together and our happiness is more important than ANYTHING else. And i do, i feel that everyday. I never have to question him - i know where i stand - and that's at the top. That's how you should be loved. Fully. Wholy. Undeniably. Like i love him, like he loves me.

SO with all that (musy musy mushy i know, sorry) i want to say Happy Valentines Day to my love. And i hope that this Valentines brings love to all of those who are near and dear to us.

The Big Empty

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Years!  Brian and I were busy busy... and our Christmas started early.  Over the weekend of the 17th we got to go to one of my dad's in Kansas for his birthday. He lives on a huge ranch and i haven't been there since i was 15 -- Brian has NEVER been. So it was a really nice trip. Not to mention, Trey LOVES his Grandpa Joe and Gigi (my dads wife).

The ranch is on like 42 acres and they just remodeled the entire house. They have a heard of dogs.. a creek... and land land and more land! The town is Lenora -- and there's literally 300 ppl population (if that)... i guess 303 when us Taylor's get there. There's not a single stop light, and only 1 stop sign in the whole town. No schools. No walmart. No grocery stores. It's PERFECT for a getaway!

Because we don't get to make it out there very often the family made a big to-do about it. My grandparents drove in from Grove, OK. Melanie, Gavin & the kids came in from Hutch, KS. And we came from Utah (duh!). My dad was GLOWING the whole weekend. A minute to brag, Trey has only been on a plane 3 other times, and this time we had to change planes, layovers, and the second plane from Denver to Hays is this tiny tiny little plane and he still did AMAZING!  I have such a little trooper. And he was sooo sweet and friendly in KS. As usual, the world is wrapped around his fingers.

KS is usually the coldest most awful place ever in the winter. But we were lucky and it was pretty nice!  Sun shining, no snow.. just beautiful! So we went out trapshooting one afternoon -- Madigan and Mason were having a ball pushing the "pull" button for the pigeons. They thought that was great.  It was fun watching all the guys shoot -- Brian, my dad and Grandpa are all amazing shots. I don't think either one missed a pigeon all afternoon!  Then i was up -- please bear in mind i do not shoot those kinds of guns and have NEVER shot a pigeon like that. Anyways, not to toot my own horn, but i'm apparently amazing! Haha. I missed the first because i forgot to turn off my safety (oops) but the next two i hit and i was stoked!  i stopped while i was ahead. haha. Trey loved it. He just sat in my lap (or Gigi's) and had a great time. They have an OLD swingset, so while we shot we let him play. It was cute.

The kids each got 1 present the first night, they were super excited!

I could go on for days about how great the whole trip was, but it's like that out there. There is no cell service, there's just you and the family and a whole weekend of catching up and forgetting about life. I loved that were were able to spend that time with everyone and that Trey is so loved by so many. His cousins were so happy to finally meet him -- my grandparens (his great grands) were happy to spend time with him without chaos of the summertime vacation to KS -- and my dad and Jess were in heaven to have him there.

We did an early Christmas for all of us and we all opened gifts... everyone got great things but the kids were the best to watch. Sooo... that's it. Our trip to the big empty. We've decided to make this trip an annual run for my dads birthday.

Trey's 15 months!

(Forgive my tardiness, i drafted this 2 weeks ago but forgot to publish)

Quick lil update on my little dude Trey -- he just hit 15 months on November 16th and i can hardly believe how fast the time if flying by!  We took him in to the doc (or rather Brian did) and he got some shots which he took like a champ. He was more upset about being held down than getting the shots!  Of course a sucker followed the prick and all was cured with a rush of sugar....

Trey continues to be just perfect, at least to his mom and dad!!  He's 25.8lbs, 90% in height, 60% in weight and 50% for his head. PERFECT! Now he's been walking for a while now and talking up a storm.. but now we've got DIRECTIONS from him. Like "ny ny"... he will walk you to his crib and tell you "ny ny" when he wants his nap. Or if you say "One...." he smiles and says ".... TWO", and then a weird sound that must be -three- and claps. He likes to play tag, and he's just so much fun! Peek a boo is still a blast, especially now that he's the BOO-er instead of the PEEK-er. He loves his puppy's and is just such a ball to be around. He is so friendly and just overall a super happy baby.

Custest moment of the weekend:  I was working on Sunday afternoon -- but i can hear Trey down the hallway just laughing! Not hehe...hehe... but belly laughing, the kind that usually makes him fall over. So i go down to investigate my little giggling monster and i look in his room and what i saw made my heart melt!  My little Harley dog (who doesn't much care forTrey) had apparently gone in his room and was napping on the rocking chair. Trey was laughing because it is a RIOT apparently to push the chair while the dog is on it....  Harley was not a happy girl, she was just staring at the ceiling and trying to sneak away but Trey was right in front of her and wouldn't let her down. He probably did that for a good 5 minutes straight before i finally had to save Harley.  Afterall, she was my first baby and i love her dearly --- just after letting her suffer for Trey's cuteness for a few minutes.

Anyhoo --- he's getting all grown up and i just can't even stand how fast it's flying by! My little monster... so big.