Bryce's 1st Week Home

I love this photo. Chase giving his baby brother a kiss on his head.
Totally random - So Chase just came up to me while I was nursing Bryce and held out his hands. I thought he wanted to take me somewhere, but he was holding out both arms cause he wanted to hold Bryce. So then we had Chase sit on the couch and he said he still wanted to hold Bryce. So here is Chase holding Bryce for the first time. And they are both looking at each other. Love this photo.

My mamasan (Mako) brought these beautiful flowers over to me, which was so sweet. She said her friend put together this arrangement. So cool.

Photo below if of Bryce taking his first sponge bath. Not in love with the sponge bath thing yet, but he liked being bundled up. Bryce loves to swaddled, and is not really a fan of being naked yet. Too much freedom for him. I am sure that will change.

Merry Christmas

Chase is saying "It's Hot".
Chase loving his train set from Santa.


Cole gagged me this year with a blow up turkey. I had some major issues this past Thanksgiving with buying a turkey that was too big, then selling it, then buying a turkey that I thought was too small. So he thought it would be funny to gag me with the blow up turkey so I am covered for next year. Ha Ha.
Cole with his new snowboarding helmet on and his Utah steering wheel.
Since Bryce came early, I didn't have a christmas outfit for him. The only thing red he had to wear was this Utah beanie. Love this baby, and love that he is sleeping peacefully in the mamaroo that my parents got us for christmas. Merry Christmas, so glad Bryce was able to join us.

Bryce Gary Taylor

So Sweet. Bryce Gary Taylor was born on 12/22/2010 weighing 6 lbs. 13 oz and was 19 in. long. Apparently, Bryce didn't want to wait to 2011, and wanted to be here for his first Christmas. We are so glad he is here and healthy. He has been such an easy baby so far and we are just loving him more everyday. He is our little Japanese baby being born here in Japan.
Here is our first family shot about 20 minutes after Bryce was born. It was a great delivery. I only had to push for 15 minutes or so, and then Bryce was born on the 22nd at 2:26 am.
Here I am with my o.b. doctor, Dr. Ball. I must have the epidural in me, cause I am smiling here. So I went into labor the night of the 21st around 9:00 p.m. I had a check up that morning and was only a 3, so I still was thinking Bryce wasn't coming for a couple more weeks. But my doc. said to watch out cause there was a lunar eclipse that night and women tend to go into labor when there are eclipse. I thought she was joking, but apparently she was right. Tig was working the UCC that night and I had just finished posting the previous entry to my blog when I started having my first contractions at 5 min. apart. So after about an hour when I finally realized I was having contractions and not stomach cramps, I called my friend Tami who came and took me to the hospital and took Chase for the night.
My three boys. We had a hard time getting Chase near the baby at the hospital. But now he likes to give Bryce baby kisses on his forehead, which tears me up everytime.
Bryce in his going home outfit from the hospital. We left the hospital the night of the 23rd.


First ride in his car seat.
My two neighbors, Claire and Julie, brought me some beautiful roses and tulips to the hospital. And Liz and Erin brought me some pretty flowers as well once I was home.

チェイス at Hiyoko School

Chase(チェイス) with one of his Sensei's Chiho. She seems so nice and she seems to really get excited when Chase comes. Chase has been going to Hiyoko about once a week for the past several months. He seems to really like it now, and he just goes right in and waves goodbye to me. I usually drop him off around 8:30 and pick him up after lunch at 12:15. He has stayed a couple of times till 2:30 and they said he took an hour nap with the other kids. But he was so tired the rest of the day cause he is used to 2 to 3 hour naps.
So when Chase first gets to school, they put on his smock and put on his white Japanese shoes. And place his backpack and lunch box in a cubby, and towels if he is staying for a nap.


Sorry this picture is not very clear, but I was trying to be sneaky so Chase wouldn't see me. The kids are all sitting down eating lunch. He actually ate his lunch today, cause it was spaghetti, yogurt, and fruit that they served. But the menu is usually a lot more Japanese. He has done really good when they have served Curry, Udon noodles, Yakitori, and he loves plain white rice now. But the Sensei's have told me that the days they have served the seaweed, tofu, and seafood meals he will only eat his white rice. Can't say I blame him.
This is his classroom.
So this is what he takes with him to Hiyoko when he stays for lunch. A bento box is what they serve them their lunch in. Some days they ask us to send white rice in the bento box cause they will add curry and soups to it. Fork, spoon, cups, towel, lunch bag, shoes, backpack, and everything has to be labeled with his name on it - チェイス.
This is not at school, but I took Chase to this fun play area in the mall this past week. Chase's friends Becca and Marie also came with us. They had this little room that blows air to allow balloons to float around. Chase was loving it.

'Tis the Season

To Party!!! We have been going to so many Christmas parties this year. This picture was taken at Cole's Med Group Christmas Party, where Santa gave Chase a present. It was the blue Dinoco car from "Cars" that Chase has yet to put down, except when we take it from him when he goes to bed. Chase actually did pretty good with Santa, he wasn't really scared. But their were too many kids in line to get a real good shot with Santa. We also went to our Branch Christmas Party this past Saturday, and last week was our Neighborhood party which was a blast. We rotated homes around the neighborhood for the different courses and picked names for gifts for the kids and adults. Chase just has a blast now when other kids come over to our place. Wish I had taken some pictures that night cause all the neighborhood kids looked so cute in their Christmas outfits. We had the appetizer portion at our place, and I made a artichoke dip that turned out really good. And our sweet Japanese neighbors, The Tuckers, gave us two Japanese paintings to put on our walls, that are really cool and very Japanese.

Chase having fun coloring while skyping with his Grandma Dawn.
Chase enjoys opening his 12 days of Christmas presents that his Grandma Dawn sends him. Can't go wrong with a car or truck gift this year.
Countdown to Christmas has begun for Chase as well as the countdown to becoming a Big Brother. (Although, he still doesn't get either one.) But the other day I was getting the infant car seat out and ready, and Chase tried to crawl in. And I told him it was for his baby brother in mom's tummy. And he came right over and kissed my belly. So maybe he does know.
Chase helping his Dad put ornaments on the tree. Cole picked out a good looking tree this year.

Baby Shower for Baby Brother

So my girlfriend Liz threw me an awesome baby shower this past Tuesday night. Forgot to bring out the camera at the shower, but here is a photo of all the fun things I got. It was a Christmas theme shower(hopefully the baby waits to come till after Xmas) and Liz had gone all out with the food, decorations, and Christmas baby shower games. It was a fun night to hang out with my friends and celebrate this little bundle of joy that will soon arrive. Liz had two bowls on the table, one labeled 2010 and one labeled 2011, and people were suppose to put a hershey kiss into the bowl of when they thought the baby would arrive. The bowls were about even. Cole thinks 2010, I think 2011. What do you think???

Thanksgiving and Football

So I haven't been very good about pulling out the camera lately. So I didn't capture our big Thanksgiving feast we hosted at our place this year with about 14 adults and 4 kids. We had a great time. Cole and I did the turkey, mashed potatoes, and dutch apple pies. And then everyone helped bring everything else. We had so much food, but we had a great time. It was a success and our turkey turned out perfect this year, with plenty of leftovers. And after all that stressing about what size of turkey to purchase with a large group of people seems kind of comical now. Here are a few pics of my boys the day after Thanksgiving.

Go Utes, like Father like Son. At least while he is young and doesn't know any better. But the shirts brought the Utes good luck since they barely beat BYU. "Sorry mom mom"(what Chase likes to tell me all the time).
Dad taught Chase the stiff arm pose.

Shimoda Salmon Festival

A week ago we attended the Shimoda Salmon Festival, which was only about 15 minutes from our house. They hold it every year, but last year they didn't have one because the Salmon were sick. So we were glad they were able to have one this year, we had a great time.
They had a little baby pool of salmon for the kids to come up and touch. Chase was loving it.

So the main attraction of the festival is the catch. The Japanese had created a huge pool filled with lots of salmon, and everyone who bought a ticket is given 10 minutes to grab a salmon with their hands. So about 100 people or so are in this pool trying to catch a Salmon, it was pretty comical. Plus we had to watch this long drawn out demonstration before they were allowed to start of the proper way to catch a Salmon by some Japanese professionals. Cole and Brad, pictured above, are in the search for the perfect Salmon. If don't catch one in 10 minutes they still give you a Salmon, but I don't think they were as big as the ones in the pool.
Great Catch. Cole looked for a big Salmon and grabbed it within two minutes of searching. I think he was nervous that he wasn't going to catch one, so he moved fast.
Wow. Hold on to it Cole. You are bigger than the Salmon.

Chase talking to the Salmon his dad caught.
This was the cleaning station. The Japanese charged a couple hundred yen to clean and gut the Salmon. Cole caught a huge Salmon that we grilled up the next night. It was pretty good, but Cole and I love the Salmon we buy weekly at the Japanese grocery store. It is so cheap and just melts in your mouth. This Salmon must be more of a local Salmon, so the meat was white and more steak like. We will have to make a good salsa for it next time, since we have plenty left over in the freezer.
Salmon races below.