2010

I feel like it was Taylor's birthday and then I blinked and then it was January. These last few months flew by so fast! I now completely understand why people say enjoy every minute with Taylor because before you know it, the time will have passed. I think that I have said this before, but I am definitely not a newborn mom. I love newborns, but Taylor has been soooo much fun these last few months that it doesn't even compare.

The red headed personality that I always heard people talk about (and I never really believed) is true and it has arrived. Taylor can be the sweetest thing one minute and before you know it she is throwing herself on the floor in a full blown temper tantrum. Seriously??? She's 16 months! I thought I had until she was 2... ha ha ha to all of the moms laughing at me right now.

As always, I did a horrible job of taking pictures, but here are a few with some of my fam that came into town to visit...

The best sister in the whole world! If any of you watched Castle on Monday night, you may have seen her in the background towards the beginning of the episode...

Ash and Tay - Ashley always has a lemon water in hand.... Taylor couldn't ask for a better aunt


Of course I didn't get a picture of Tay with her Grandma, so I had to get her with the sweet puppy that we were helping out with...

This is the first of Taylor's new hobby of getting into things whether it's her old car seat...

the bottom drawer of her dresser (after she threw out a few of the clothes of course)

or the crate for the puppy. Only a few of the many places she crawls into.

You can call her mischievous or just comment on my poor parenting skills as she sits in her chair (from Santa )after she got into a tube of my lipstick. The picture is small, but I must say she did a pretty good job for her first time :) And she loves the chair so much that if you try to sit in it, she will push you out. I dare you to try next time you come over.

The next few pictures were taken by my dad's wife, Cary. Tay and her poodle from Grandma Ann

This tent from Grandma TT has brought her more joy than we could have imagined!

The cutest and sweetest puppy in the whole wide world!

Taylor, her Grandpa and Cary

Awwwww!

So we played host to my mom and sis for a couple of weeks over Christmas and New Year's and then my dad and his wife, Cary came into town for a weekend. So a big shout out to my hubby for being such a good host! Things have been busy and Dustin has been travelling a bunch over the past month, but here is what Tay has been up to.

• She is officially walking. After taking her first steps, it only took her 6 WEEKS to start walking on her own. I thought she was never going to walk.
• She's not talking, but thank goodness for those Baby Signing Videos from my mom. She says "more", "milk" and "all done". At least we're starting to communicate. I'm sure when I get my first "I hate you Mom" I look back fondly on the days when she didn't talk, but right now, she and I are both ready to communicate! The story of the rest of our lives... I know.
• She is fearless! Dustin loves taking her on Merry Go Rounds and she even went on this mini roller coaster. I just about had a heart attack, but she was just fine and loved it. Seriously, how many 16 months old can pretty much ride the carousel all by themselves?
• I'm pretty sure she knows a bunch of her body parts even though she ignores me half of the time I ask, but if you ask about her belly button, even with a onsie on she will try and show you.
• She says "Hi" to everyone wherever we go. Most of the time it's to people not even looking at her, but she loves to wave hi or bye.
• She loves reading her books. I should have clarified before; she does talk, just not in a language that I understand. She will just open up her book and start jabbering away. Actually she pretty much jabbers all day long!
• She LOVES Quique and actually any dog for that matter. The little dogs make her laugh, but she will just lay on top of Quique and give her loves and kisses when Quique is laying down. The other night she even swung her leg over Q like she was going to ride her.

I could go on and on, but I won't bore you will all of the details. One thing is for sure. Dustin and I are falling more in love with this fiery little redhead every single day. I can't even begin to imagine my life without her!

Thanksgiving

So sorry to those few people who read our blog. The holidays came upon us and we had a hard time managing our time and keeping up on the blog.

Where to begin?

Thanksgiving! What a great holiday! It's kind of a secret, but Dustin's favorite holiday is actually Thanksgiving. We say it's kind of a secret, because he doesn't want to be known as a 'bah-humbug' because he likes Thanksgiving better than Christmas. But he's pretty convincing when he tries to defend this as his favorite: 'it's about family, food, and football'. No presents. Not nearly as much stress. It's just a relaxing two days to spend with family and eat well.

We spent this past Thanksgiving, just like last year, at Dustin's family cabin nearly Manti, Utah - a small town about two hours south. It's a lot of fun to spend it there. It's big enough, so all of the siblings and nephews and nieces were there. And the day after Thanksgiving, there's a Christmas parade in town to kick off the holiday season - with Santa and all. And it's so small town. You feel like you're back in the 1940s. Taylor loved watching - because there was plenty of music, lots of colorful lights, and people clapping and waving. She obviously hasn't grasped on to the Santa concept yet, but she was sure fascinated by his colorful coat, white beard, and loud laugh. We're really excited about when she'll have that little-kid anxiety and excitement for Christmas.

Here are a few pictures from our Thanksgiving weekend at the cabin:

We needed a family pic with Tay and Quique. It seems like there's never a good time for a pic, but that weekend was as good as any. We ended up using this picture as our Christmas card picture.

Taylor with her two little cousins, Mia (center) and Ally (far left). Hanging out on the porch at the cabin.