A Quick Health Update & Useless Info to Everyone Except Us

After talking with Drew, B decided to go back & have his cholesterol tested again after fasting. It came back one hundred points lower than the week before:) Although he's not sure if it's all due to fasting or taking the meds for a week or eating perfectly or a combination of the three. Cherie gave him a low cholesterol cookbook as a joke, but it came in very handy to me. I cooked out of it all week. We're waiting to hear what the Dr. thinks about whether to discontinue meds or if the meds work that fast or what. The kids are not too happy with the new menu and Mr. T asked if we were going to have to eat like that FOREVER? B says "Yes, if you want me to live a long time".

This blog is the only journal I've ever kept up on - so I need to record a few things here that we don't want to forget. Taylors are notorious nicknamers and we don't want to forget them, so I'm going to write them down on here.

Aub - Aubi cadabi; stinky sweetie (when she was a toddler)
D - Cadwalader; Dr. Doolittle; Olaf; Master D; Prince Fahad;The Great D Alexander The Great
Ay - Lelu; Tutalewski; Aydie
Ari - Pinky Blondie; Sassy Sue; Peanut; Toot-a-matic; Choo Choo; Scandihoovian or Scanda; Barnacle
Mr. T - Too Tall TT two tone; buddy; scarecrow; noodle boy; Oscar the grinch;

Lelu has her own little language of characters names; Fiffergoblin (could be feathers blowing across the ground or rustling leaves); Bumstoop; LionMore Weirdwig; one-eyed crockernickle; Lemperkin;

The Red Head is On the Roads...

I now have a 3rd driver! I've already sent him to the grocery store for me and to pick up the kids from school. The errands he can run for me are endless.......

But the birthday was about him so I better tell you all about how it was. The kids didn't have school on his birthday, but he got up early (even though he wasn't 16 yet, not until 3:45 pm) and went on his first date to Ihop, thanks Gma & Gpa for the $$ to pay for his date! She drove though.

He has been asking for about 2 years what kind of party he can have for his 16th birthday and I haven't been answering him. I am all too aware of how parties in high school can get overcrowded really quick with the ease of texting and was having nightmares about multitudes of teenagers showing up. SO we decided he and 9 of his closest friends would be picked up by a limo and taken ice skating & out to eat- returning for cake & ice cream. A few more showed up after they got back and they had a great time playing murder in the dark and scaring the girls to death. I listened to screams, music and noise until 11:45 pm when I called it quits. They all had a great time and thought their chaffeur was soo cool. We have no broken furniture and the kids are all really great kids he hangs out with. AND now I have a 3rd driver as we went to the DMV the very next day and got his license. It was a good week.

It sucks to get old!

Happy Birthday to Big B. Just in case turning 46 wasn't bad enough, he got the news from his doctor that his cholesterol is high enough to be on a prescription. He claims everything is downhill now that he has to take a prescription. Those darn genetics. He does everything right to have good heart health. He was so bummed out all he wanted for his birthday was tomato soup & spinach salad. Which I did make for him. I asked him what kind of cake he wanted and he said "whole wheat with no fat or sugar and frosted with wheat germ". Mmmmmm, while that sounds absolutely delicious, I thought we might as well live on the edge if we are just dying anyway. So he got ooey gooey yummy chocolate cake with ice cream.

We did go out to eat last night with some good friends. I found a list of the 10 best restaurants in Salt Lake and have decided we'll try a new one every month. This one was a sushi restaurant (that had an 1 1/2 hour wait), which in case you were wondering is VERY LOW in cholesterol. I've also decided that I really like sushi when I don't know what's in it. Ignorance is Bliss! Another New Year's change, is we are not eating fast food anymore (unless we are on vacation). That should help his health AND it helps us keep our sabbath day Holier since fast food seemed to always be on the menu for Sunday lunch. I even made that decision before the Cholesterol news, I guess I was inspired. (Really, I was just sick of it!)

He gets asked to his first dance!

I think I was as excited as he was, maybe even more. Emilie called me and asked if she could come decorate his room to ask him to go to Sweetheart dance Feb 7th. I let them in with D's bed looking like he slept in it which is basically like a tornado hitting. They covered his walls with stars and his floor with starbursts (which just so happens to be the twins favorite candy). We brainstormed ideas to answer her and came up with filling her car up with the same stars and some of the starbursts all with "yes" written on them. Her mom helped D get into her car in the garage (she's a few months older). Lelu had a great time helping him write all those yes's. The twins teeth have now rotted out of their mouth and are wearing dentures due to the remaining starbursts.;)

I think this is such a fun time for him being able to actually go on dates and drive.He has such a great group of friends to hang out with too.

Baptism of Barton Wyatt

Papa John and some of his crew. 4 of the kids and 9 of the grandkids. Wyatt's baptism didn't disappoint in reminding us of the basic principles of our beliefs. He was so excited and eager to listen to Big B & his other papa John give their talks. B did an awesome job especially since that is not in his comfort zone. It was worth the effort to be down there for this special occasion. I was impressed to see how many people came out to support his day. The whole relief society room was filled up just for him. This got the twins quite excited about their baptisms this year. D will be old enough to baptize one of them. He pointed that out to us and asked if he could baptize Mr. T. It was a very special day to spend with the ones we love.

Our Many Adventures in California!

Brett & Helen hosted us all for dinner Saturday night. The kids were having the time of their lives frightening everyone with a "scary video" on D's ipod. It was nice to visit & catch up with the Taylors. We just don't get to CA as a family as much anymore.

We went to the Hollywood walk of fame. (I'd never been there before) There are all kinds of people dressed as characters around. We saw "Marley & Me" in Mann's Chinese theatre. In pure Hollywood form, there was an altercation between a woman in the theatre with a man that decided to go ahead and take a cell phone call - in his totally normal voice. He got thrown out, but not without swearing (quite femmy too) walking back & forth in the aisle behind us. Lelu is cured from wanting to live in CA.

My little shell obsessed blondie.

Mr. T was the only one who braved getting himself wet and very sandy! It was quite chilly there on the beach. Lelu barely touched the water.

This is always our tradition straight from the airport. Mmmmmm, B has been eating here since the first year we were married. It was in his sales territory.

It's NOT spelled with a Y! Silly D.....

Even though this was Christmas eve 2008. I had to write about it because I found it so funny. This is D's cute "friend" who made a CD for him and brought it over to him for a Christmas gift. She even wrote and sang a couple of her own songs - She is quite talented and just so darn cute! Anyway, D came up with making this plaquard for her in her favorite colors - with music - laughter - friendship (she's always giggling and has the nicest friends too). So I printed it out with my vinyl machine (D painted the board). I put the words onto the board as D critiqued that I had torn a corner of the M. He wrapped it and then we went and delivered it. She acted very excited and told D she "just loved it". The next morning I'm out doing last minute errands and I get this frantic call from him "MOM, WE SPELLED HER NAME WRONG!" And he knew how to spell it, it's spelled correctly in his cell phone. Somehow he missed it - and she didn't say anything and wasn't planning to say anything. And then he dreamed about it being wrong. Needless to say - her parents also got quite a laugh out of it and took photos and videotaped his explanation too. He'd also called Emilie frantic "I misspelled your name! I am so sorry!" (I hadn't asked him how to spell it, but when I showed him the words he didn't say anything.... that's my disclaimer.)