Taylor-Made Family

Aiden's birthday party was so much fun, and I wanted to share some pictures from his party (over two weeks ago now, but better late than never, right?!)  It was a great time with family and friends and we have much to be thankful for.  We had a backyard BBQ, cake inside, and then headed back outside for Aiden to open gifts.  The Birthday Boy and his cake table!! I did a "Very Hungry Caterpillar" theme because he loves books, and this is a book that's been very special to me.  The favours were gummy worms in bags that said: "Thanks for 'inching' your way to my party, Love, Aiden".  I got the idea for the caterpillar cupcake cake online, along with several other ideas, and loved how it turned out.  I covered cardboard with white butcher paper and painted "Happy 1st Birthday Aiden" on it for the cake board.  I used Red and Leaf Green Icing Color (rather than regular food coloring) to get the rich color, and piped the icing on with a i...

It's hard to believe that this time last year we had just found out that Aiden was going to pull through ok.  We didn't know at the time, but the mortality rate for newborns with Bacterial Meningitis is about 30% worldwide.  We praise God for healing our little boy, and we see every day we have with him as a gift from God.  This is the rest of his story (word-for-word from my journal during this time last year): Saturday, June 13, 2009: Aiden is 11 days old now.  He's such a cutey and every time I hold him I can hardly believe God has given him to us.  Brandon is such a good daddy already, and he loves to snuggle with him after I feed him.  Aiden has been in the NICU for one week now.  He came in last Saturday very weak and lethargic and not feeding at all.  Brandon and I stayed overnight in one of the "Care By Parent" rooms for the first 3 nights until Tuesday, and then we started sleeping at home.  Wednesday morning (June 10)...

(This comes word-for-word from the journal I kept during this time last year) Monday, June 8, 2009: Aiden James Taylor, our beautiful baby boy, was born on Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 at 12:16pm.  He has his daddy's eyes I think, and a full head of brown hair with blonde highlights.  He's 6lbs, 8 oz.  What a week this has been.  We started noticing that he seemed very tired and was not waking up to feed/showing no interest in feeding even when we were still in the hospital after his birth.  ( After breast-feeding for 5 mins right after birth, he was unable to breastfeed like that again). His billy ruben was a bit high (jaundice), so an appointment was made for us to come back in to the hospital on Friday morning, June 5, for follow-up blood work.  We were discharged from the hospital originally on Thursday, June 4, in the evening, so were only home with Aiden for about 14 hours before being back in the hospital. (Brandon and I were pretty much up alm...

Aiden James Taylor was born on Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 at 12:16pm.  He weighed 6 lbs, 8 oz. at birth and was 18 1/2 in. long.  It was love at first sight!  During the last couple weeks of my pregnancy, I had begun having high blood pressure along with swelling in my feet.  My doctor took me off work on May 8th, and I began the eager waiting process.  I had to check my blood pressure 3 times a day, and overall it was only a little high, until I'd go to my OB and then I'd have white-coat syndrome, get nervous, and my blood pressure would go up.  On Monday, June 1st, I went in for my last weekly OB appt, and my blood pressure was very high (I'm not sure exactly but it was definitely over 140/90), so my doctor said that they were going to induce me before it got any higher.  My appointment was at 2pm at her office, and she asked me to meet her at the hospital at 4pm.  At the hospital, Brandon met me, and they inserted a foley catheter which is sup...

Brandon and I found out that we were pregnant on Saturday, September 27, 2008.   I can still remember that day now.... it was only about 5:30 or 6AM, and I'd just taken a pregnancy test.  I came back into our bedroom where Brandon was, and I was crying tears of joy, asking Brandon if he actually saw the second line on the test too.... I thought maybe I was imagining things.  We were so excited from day 1, and thankful to God for this new gift of life!  It's hard to imagine life without our sweet boy now, but at this time all we knew was that we were having a baby and he or she was exactly the child that God had planned for us all along! We enjoyed keeping our secret to ourselves for a couple weeks (amazingly!), and then told both our parents together when my parents came up for a visit in October.  Our first ultrasound of Aiden (though we didn't know it was a boy!) in November 2008 at about 12 weeks: It was love at first sigh...

My baby boy's turning 1!!  My mommy heart couldn't be more full of joy and praise to God for his little life. Here he is doing two things he loves to do lately:  pull to standing and scoot around using the furniture, and play with the phone if we'll let him (he gained this fascination for the phone from his "talks" on the phone with daddy on the days Brandon has to stay late at church!) Last week I started a few projects for his party.  The theme will be The Very Hungry Caterpillar (based on the book by Eric Carle), although mainly we're just going to have a laidback bbq with family and friends and celebrate his first year of life.  We can't wait to get together with family!! Here's a glimpse at the banner I painted.... It took awhile to make as I'm not artistic, but it was worth it.  I also got the ingredients and items I need to make a caterpillar cake along the lines of this.. (this isn't mine, but just an example of the type...