Egg Hunt

The kids had fun hunting eggs.

Mmmmm cake!

After the party I realized that all of the pictures I had of Taylor she was either in her high chair or asleep. She promptly fell asleep on Yaya after a cleanup from her cupcakeShe wore her polka dots! Thanks Jessi!




This was Aiden's way of telling me he was done with her and wanted his own cupcake. So much for using words, right?
Taylor loves her brother!

Par-tay Take one

Taylor's party came and went and added to the "excitement" of our lives at this time. It was a nice time to put aside all the craziness and hang out with our wonderful friends and celebrate our sweet Taylor. I can't wait to share the pics but I am afraid due to time constraints I will put them up when I can. Here are just a few to start.

I went with a Ladybug theme and tested my creativity with a ladybug cake and baby ladybug cookies. Here's what I came up with.

Baby Girl is One!

A year ago today, precious Taylor entered our world at 6:35 p.m. Our lives have never been the same since. She has brought us so much joy and continues to amaze me each day. She is our angel, our sunshine, our little explorer, our little piece of heaven. I remember being so worried that I would never be able to love this little girl like I loved our first. Boy was I worried for nothing. It amazes me how much love a heart can feel. I thank God each day that I am her mommy and I cannot wait to see what this little girl accomplishes. It will be great things!

I would like to thank all of our friends and family who have been there for our family and our sweet Taylor and helped us "survive" this first year. It has flown by and we could not have done it without your constant, love, support, prayers, and hugs. We love you!

Happy Birthday Taylor Grace!

Spring Picture Day

Things never work quite like I expect them to. Maybe this is just because I always seem to have high expectations, maybe it is because we cannot control everything and life is just...well... life. I took the kids to the park with Amy to take some fun spring pics last weekend. Taylor was sweet, Aiden was a big grump. I got maybe one acceptable picture, but this is how most of the morning looked...I just wanted a picture of the two of them , being as loving as I know that they can. Aiden is crying because he did NOT want to be there. Taylor was crying because she wanted a hug from Aiden and clearly that was NOT happening. Where was my sweet Aiden? We did get a few good ones, but I felt like I ran a marathon afterwards. Wow!

Chaos

I am living in chaos.  That's all there is to it.

In order to have a better chance of selling we decided to refinish and paint all of our 500( not really) kitchen cabinets.

Yes, we may be crazy.

We embarked on this adventure on Sunday.  We began with the cleaning, sanding, and painting of a small section.  We got through sanding,  and priming and successfully keeping the little ones out of all of this mess on Sunday evening.  

So Monday morning we woke up, finished painting the few cabinets left of the first SMALL section, and began sanding the next section.  Well, all was going well until...

I walked into the laundry room trying to keep some sort of order and water was, not running, but GUSHING out of the water heater and water was several inches deep on the laundry room floor.  So we quickly switched gears to the water heater and left the cabinets behind.

All I have to say is thank you for the shop vac and thank you God that we were home and caught the water before it got far.  We pulled out the washer,dryer, deep freezer, and the water heater.  Then, because all of those items were too heavy to deal with before I then decided that while

 Mark went and bought a new water heater to install that I would paint the laundry room.  Yes, I understand how crazy this all seems.  It seemed just as crazy while it was taking place.  

Neither one of the kids thought it was a good idea to nap this day, so while I hid away painting, Taylor was reluctantly playing in her pack- n play and Aiden enjoyed some good ole Dora!  After a while of listening to the whining coming from the pac n play, I went to investigate and of course found a poop covered Taylor, and Aiden stark naked playing cars, watching Dora.

At this time I am accepting nominations for Mom of the Year.

Well... the laundry room got painted, thanks to my wonderful husband we now have a new hot water heater and even got hot showers last night.  We are right back where we started.  Mark decided that he would hang the new cabinets with the new hardware.  Wouldn't you know... they do not fit.  Figures.

WWF

Lately, Aiden loves to wrestle.  He will run right at me and tell me to get on the floor where he proceeds to crawl ALL over me and tickle me.  Yeah, it get annoying rather quickly but we are having fun together and that matters most, right?  Well, the other day I caught him standing over Taylor with that look in his eye like he was going to body crush ( I don't know correct 
wrestling terms) her.  I ran and before I could get there he was already on top of her. She quickly surrendered.  There have been other instances of this.  Its hard to correct a behavior when the other kid (Taylor) thinks that it is so funny. Rotten kids...

DROOL

I am catching up on some blogging...

CHECK OUT THE DROOL!  GROSS! Yes, that is my phone she is holding!

It was the best of times, It was the worst of times

Its been so long since I have blogged.  I thought for sure that I would have a chance once school was out for the holidays, but quite honestly the holidays were such a whirlwind I am sad to say that I just didn't have time.  You know it might be easier if we didn't live in the boonies where the thought of high speed is just a dream.  Uploading photos without it usually takes all day, and no I am not exaggerating.

The holidays were fun, frustrating, exhilarating, exhausting, magical, and heart breaking. 

 The Saturday after I got out of school I started potty training boot camp and somehow m

anaged to potty train Aiden.  He did such an amazing job.  Once we got the

 job done at home, I was a little hesitant in taking him in the car because we have such a long drive both ways.  He was 

such a little champ.  The first time we pulled over quite a few times and were successful each time.  Now we have not had any other problems with this.

We made sure to visit Dorothy Oven to view

 the lights and play at the park.  Aiden loved this and of course Taylor enjoyed some stroller walking.  His descriptions are so sweet and so innocent.  We heard things like "wow, its so beautiful!"  all through the park. 

 Over the break I brought home the movie "Olive the other Reindeer" for Aiden to watch, and if you have not seen this I highly recommend it. It is about a dog named Olive who thinks that Santa needs her help for Christmas.  So, whenever Aiden saw a reindeer figure over the break he

 called them all Olive. Several ti

mes a day we got re

quests to "watch Olive please."  It quickly became my least favorite movie. 

We spent Christmas Eve with my parents 

and then Christmas morning at our house and lunch with my family later.  I made a yummy dinner and even pulled out the china.  Aiden tore through presents and was so excited with each

 and gift big or small.  I swear I could probably wrap up some of his toys that I have put away and play with later, and that would have been fine with him.  He got pretty carried away with tearing through paper and I had to re-wrap some gifts we had not given out.

For my birthday day Mark and I took the kids to Ms. Amanda's house and enjoyed the day running around together.  It was so quiet.  It was so nice.

Mark's parents came right before New Years and played and we all had a nice time.

New Years Eve we were going to take advantage of some free babysitting, and go hang out with some friends.  Before we were to go out that evening, our dog Coletrane ran away.  Mark and his dad took off looking for him, and after a while I went looking as well.  Unfortunately we found him right after he had gotten hit by a car.  He was still alive, but only hung on for a short time.  

We have been devastated.  The death of our Coletrane has really rocked our world.  We spent many days just simply depressed not really knowing what to do with ourselves. We are slowly feeling better but when Aiden asks about him it stirs everything up again.  We think that he was the best worst  dog ever.  We miss him a lot.  Words cannot really describe feelings but the whole thing shook us hard!

After new years some of my girlfriends got together and had a birthday hangout night for me.  It was nice to be away and to catch up with such sweet friends.  I had a really nice time and a wonderful desert.  Thanks Michelle!

Mark and I celebrated 7 years of marriage this past Monday.  We had a wonderful time together.  I am so lucky to have such a great man to be my husband.  He is my rock and my best friend.  I love you Mark-o (yeah right like he really read this..haha!)  

So Christmas holiday was wonderful and horrible all at the same time.  I know that I have wonderful irreplaceable family and friends.  I love you all! 

Happy New Year!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

 

The Jumpy Thing

Taylor has started to jump in her doorway jumpy thing.  She loves it.  The other day I was piddling (is that a real word?) around the house cleaning (yeah right, more like moving piles around) and I could hear Taylor jumping away.  After a while I noticed that I did not hear the "jumpy thing" anymore (I promise I supervise my children) I went over to investigate and this is how I found sweet little peapod.  She jumped herself out.

Halloween and there after...

Here are a few more pictures that I couldn't help but post.  This is Aiden's very first trip to the door Trick or Treating.  He would shout "Trick or Treat please!"  I was pretty surprised considering how quiet he usually is.  I guess if you stick some candy in front of the kid he will talk to anyone.

The game that we played with the kids was hanging doughnuts on a string and trying to eat it- hands free!  After the older kids ran off ready for the next activity the toddlers were left to eat the remains.  They had three down each before I figured it out and told Mark to stop hanging doughnuts. Maybe that is why Aiden ran from

 door to door like he did. Hmmm... For the rest of the weekend Aiden walked around in his sunglasses refusing to take them off.  I think he got a little too into character.  In the bath?  Really Aiden?

Halloween 08

Every year for a while now, we get together with our friends and do fun, festive things. This year was no different. It was complete with pushy little neighborhood kids that entered the house when the door was not answered quickly enough. Taylor sat and looked cute, while Aiden loved every minute of it, from the 2 dozen doughnuts he ate (ok, it was more like 3) to running up to the doors saying "Trick or treat please!" The group picture was taken prior to dinner and we all know what happens when you stand between a boy and his food...