We are back!

Yes, we are still alive. I know it has been over a year now since I have updated and there is no way I am catching up. So just a quick summary of our current life.

We just moved from Kansas city Missouri where John finished his pediatric dental residency, and moved to Arizona about 1 month ago. We hope to buy a house soon, and get settled while John begins his first real job!!

 It was so sad to leave KC, we had made some great friends!

Here is Jude with some of his favorite buddies. He still talks about them like he is going to see them again soon. :(

 My mother helped me out on the long drive across the country with the kids. 

We were all so happy to have arrived in Arizona.

 Having fun on the slip n slide. Just an update, Jude is 3 1/2.

 

 Here is our little Princess, Olive who will be 2 in September.

So haply to be at Grandmas house! Trying on mommy's sunglasses.

Fourth of July was not quite the same as in riverside Mo, but the kids still had 

plenty of fun with their fireworks.

2 days after 4th of July and shortly after our arrival in Arizona, John and I left the kids and headed out on a 2 week African safari vacation!! It is impossible to describe how amazing this vacation was. I did not know what to expect, but it far exceeded my expectations. The animals, the accommodations, the people and culture were all amazing. Truly a trip of a lifetime.

 We were able to see so many animals up close and personal. 

Yes, we even were lucky enough to view a lion mating session.

 Our days were spent on safari,  

we even spent a morning flying high above the plains on a hot air balloon.

 My wonderful family. John and I, my mother, and my sister Jessika and her husband Nick.

 John getting kissed by a giraffe.

 We were welcomed with open arms by several villagers.

 We were surprised by all we saw; elephants fighting, 

and 2 lioness' just cruising right toward our vehicle.

 In case you could not tell in the photos above, my belly is growing by the minute. 

We will welcome a new baby boy December 3!!

 

Taylor Family in JUNE

Unfortunately for half of the month of June, myself and the kids were having fun in Arizona and California, while John was stuck in Kansas City. He is not allowed any time off in June or July, so he had several days without us here with him.

We had a lot of fun in Arizona. We spent time at the Children's museum, learning how to train your dragon, spending lots of time with cousins, and playing outside and in the pool.

Here is Grandma Jones with 4 of her grandsons.

The 2 babies were sleeping. All of the boys were smiling, that is amazing!

Jude loved to swim in the tub. Him and his cousins spent hours outside playing in the water!

And little O, she just hung out, watching all of her crazy cousins play!

Here we are hanging out, after a day at the pool.
Olive is showing off her cute swim suit from Grandma Taylor!

Jude loved playing with his bubble gun and catching all the bubbles!

Here is the group of boys! They were inseparable. Jude could not get enough of them.
Here they are enjoying some pizza on the patio!

Our little girl is on the go, she is loving to crawl around and pull herself up! She can even stand for a few seconds all by herself! She thinks she is pretty cool.

After a week in Arizona, we left to San Diego for a fun week of hanging out on the beach and relaxing, well, as much as we could with the kids anyway!

Jude could spend all day playing in the water and sand.
It was nice, our beach house was right on the bay.

Every night bath time was quite the circus. All the kids were filthy and they would all love to play and splash in the tub! The picture of Olive above, reminds me of Jude. And the picture below is of all the boys ( minus little Alex), it was awesome that we were able to get the older boys to all sit still for a minute.

We spent some time at Belmont park, and here are Jude and Jacob riding the carousel.

One of the boys' favorite activity: to get buried in the sand!

Little Olive loved the sand, she loved to crawl all around in it!
We tried to contain her on a blanket, but she did what made her happy!

Here is mommy and girl on one of our morning walks on the beach!

The boys all loved to run in and out with the waves, they would try and jump over the waves! Jude was in heaven! He loved the beach!

Here he is sporting his sun glasses.

After a hard day on the beach, Jude passed out in my arms.

So he enjoyed a nice relaxing nap under the shade on the sand.

We had such a fun time, as always it was nice to spend time with family.
But it is also nice to come home, and see John and be home.

Much needed update for May

Yes, we are still alive and doing well. I have been a HUGE slacker.
So I will be doing a few posts to update you.
May-June- and July.
So let's get started!

Hope everyone had a great Cinco De Mayo, we sure did. We had a Cinco de "Mustache" party. We enjoyed yummy Mexican food, a pinata, friends and of course mustache's!

John took Jude on his first father and son camp out with the stake!
It was a little cold, but they still had lots of fun!

Mid May Grandma Jones came to visit. We had so much fun playing together. We loved spending the day at Deanna Rose, watching Jude Fish, feed the goats and ride a pony!

And here is cute little Olive, she is loving to stand up!
She is always happy hanging out with the family!

We were lucky enough to leave my mother (grandma Jones) home with the kids while John and I enjoyed a get a way to New york city. A pediatric dental convention brought us to the big apple, but we ended up playing together a lot more than he spent at the convention. We had such a wonderful time playing, while unfortunately my mom spent the weekend caring for sick kids. :(

We spent one night on an air craft carrier on the Hudson River.
At dusk, we watched Top gun while enjoying beautiful views of the city!

A few days before we left, I was looking for things to do in NYC for the weekend we were there, and I found that Lady Gaga would be in central park performing for Good Morning America while we were there. Why Not?! So we gathered in central park with hundreds of other crazy monsters to watch several performances!

Here she is, Lady Gaga rehearsing before she goes live.

While we were in New York, we went to eat at several famous and delicious bakeries, and deli's. Here I am with some treats from Magnolia Bakery. We enjoyed them before heading into our Broadway show that night- 'Catch me if you can'.

After NYC, my mom went home and brought Jude back with her. She would take him and her other grand sons to Aspen Grove- a family camp in Utah. So my sister and her baby came out and spent a week here with us and Olive. We had so much fun. We ate, did some crafts, shopped, we relaxed and we even went camping with some friends!

We had fun camping with our friends, the camping spot was awesome, and allowed all the kids to run around and have fun! Here is the group of girls!

And here are the men!

Alex ( my sister's youngest) and Olive hanging out in the tent
after their first experience camping. They both did well.

So that is it with May.

Stay tuned for June- fun in Arizona and San Diego!