Trunk or Treat

Friday night, we had our ward Trunk or Treat. It was a really fun night, and I was glad that my sister-in-law Sarah and my nephews Bryson and Rylan were able to come! I got to dress Taylor up and give her her first pigtails (which wasn't so much fun for her, but it was for me!) She wasn't in the best of moods (she has been in some kind of funk all week), but she warmed up a little as the night went on (not literally because it was cold outside!) We had some yummy chili and cornbread for dinner followed by some games and then trunk or treating.


She's not usually a cuddle bug. I think Jared was enjoying the cuddling even if she wasn't in a great mood.


"Flying around"

Taylor with Noah dressed as Harry Potter; our decorated trunk



Chris and Cari's decorated trunk; our friends Robbie and Kami and their baby, Logan





I think the award for best adult costume should go to Kansas Cavanaugh. She looked awesome. She even had someone paint little vines on her face. She was one of the very few adults who had the courage to dress up.

It Was Bound to Happen

Many times Taylor has crawled into the bathroom, and she usually heads straight for the bath tub, the garbage, or the toilet... all of the best places. She LOVES paper, so I always see her eyeing the toilet paper, and you just know those wheels are turning.

Today, I was in the living room folding clothes, and Taylor crawled into her bedroom and started pulling out all of her toys and pulling things off of the diaper table shelves. I was okay with this because usually when she is around me folding laundry she tends to UNFOLD everything, so I just let her play and would go check on her every few minutes. Well, I noticed that she was suddenly very quiet, so I went to check on her, and she wasn't in her room. Then, I heard her in the bathroom, and this is what I found.




Busted!



Notice the toilet paper stuck to her mouth.



Then, she just sat down and played in it. That must have been a dream come true for her. Lucky for me there wasn't more toilet paper on the roll. I knew it was bound to happen one of these days!

There Is Sunshine In My Soul

Taylor is 10 months old today. My love for her has grown more and more each day. I have thought she was the cutest baby I have ever seen ever since she was born, but things got so much more interesting around 8 months when her personality really started to shine through. I was playing with her today and got sentimental for a moment. There are so many little things that she does right now that I just LOVE, and I know things will change as she gets older. They will probably be replaced by new things that I love about her, but I still wish that I could somehow capture every facial expression, every smile, every new discovery, EVERYTHING, and remember it forever!

I love her smile! She has such a big smile, and her toothless grin is so precious. Now she's starting to get teeth, but I'm sure her "toothy" smile will have its own cuteness. I love her laugh! I love that I can make her laugh. Granted, the fact that she is ticklish always helps, but sometimes she is amused by the most ridiculous things that I do. I love how she likes to mimic her dad and me. Jared will "growl" at her, she will growl right back at him, and they will keep doing that back and forth. Today, she and I had a contest to see who could have the most high-pitched scream. I think she may have won that one :-) I love when she gets all excited while I'm holding her, and she bounces up and down (as if she were riding a horse) or she kicks her legs and waves her arms. I love when she just babbles and babbles and carries on her own conversation. It is especially cute when she does it after waking up. We hear the cutest noises coming from her room, and we just know that she slept well. I love when she raises her arms in the air and opens and closes her hands as if she were waving. I love when she chases me down the hallway and she looks like an alligator as she crawls. I love when she tries to eat my face and suck on my chin. Okay, so I don't love the slobber so much, but she just thinks it's hilarious!(Jared helped me remember the last two). I love all of her facial expressions- and she has so many! I love that sometimes when I'm changing her diaper (those few times when she's not going crazy and trying to roll over!) she will reach over, grab my shirt, and rub my stomach. I love how sweet she looks when she is sleeping and how sometimes she puckers her lips as if she's sucking on her pacifer even after it has already fallen out of her mouth. I LOVE when she sleeps through the night (HA!) I love when she falls asleep in her daddy's arms. There is just something so sweet and secure about being in daddy's arms. I love how she makes cute noises while she eats as if she is savoring every bite. I love her fingers and toes, her eyes, hair, and nose. I love everything about her!

She's getting two teeth and getting into everything she can get her hands on (and stick in her mouth!). She's starting to feed herself little finger foods. She's crawling all over the place and pulling up on furniture (or ME!). She has even gotten brave several times, let go, and stood on her own for a few seconds. She is getting so big (well, in the sense that she seems to be getting older so quickly... she is definitely not literally big because she's only 16 lbs at 10 months!), and in only a couple of months, she will be a year old!! I can't believe it! Time has flown by, and I definitely look forward to all of the joy, adventures, and new "loves" that the future will bring!

I'm Just Trying to Protect You

This morning, when Taylor and I woke up, we sat down and started watching TV, and I heard a loud buzzing noise in the kitchen. It surprised me how loud it was, but I assumed it was just a housefly. Well, I walked into the kitchen a little bit later and saw a yellow jacket flying around our back door. I grabbed our fly swatter and killed it, and then I looked over and saw two more yellow jackets. Taylor was playing in the floor, and I was scared because I was thinking, "If I swat at these things and MISS, then they are going to come flying right at me... or Taylor." Lucky for me (or maybe the Lord was on my side!), I was having good aim and killed them with the first swat. After killing the first three (or maybe four), I looked at the back door and noticed that there were MORE, and they were coming in through a crack at the side of the door. At this point, I grabbed Taylor, put her in her room, and shut the door. I knew she would be so mad at me, but I wanted to get her out of harm's way while I tried to figure out how to get rid of these yellow jackets and keep them from coming in.

By this point, there were about three more already in the house, so I killed them, and then walked out the front door and went around back. I couldn't see a nest anywhere, but there were several buzzing around the door. I went back inside, and then I noticed that the door wasn't shut all the way. It looked like the dead bolt was locked, but actually, the door wasn't shut all the way, so it wasn't locked. So, I shut the door all the way, locked it, and was just praying that there wouldn't be enough room for them to squeeze through the crack now that the door was shut all the way. So far, so good.

At first, Taylor just banged on her door a little bit, but by the time I was through, she was crying and screaming her head off. While I was trying to get rid of the yellow jackets, I just kept thinking, "I'm sorry, baby, but I'm just trying to protect you." That's when it hit me that there will probably be many times in her life that I have to tell her no or not let her do something, and she may get mad at me and not like me very much, but it will only be because I am trying to protect her. I know there were many times while I was growing up that my mom wouldn't let me do something, and I thought it was so unfair and that she was way too overprotective. I have definitely come to appreciate her now and all she did for me, and I can only imagine that I will be even more overprotective of my kids, but I know that it will be because I love them and want what's best for them!

Chew on This!

(Well, I keep getting error messages when I try to add pictures to my posts, so I guess I will have to post about our trip to Destin later.)

The week before we left for vacation, Taylor was really fussy and would wake up during the night, and it would take us hours to get her to go back to sleep. We assumed she was teething, but then she did better for a couple of days. Saturday, our first night at the beach, she woke up during the night and was a terror. By Sunday night, I noticed a little white spot on her bottom gum, and by Monday, we could feel the tooth poking through the gum!! Then, yesterday, I felt her gums, and she has another tooth coming in right next to the first one!

Lucky for me, we have recently had more luck in getting her to take bottles, so it will soon be time for me to start weaning her because the thought of getting bitten is just not appealing!

Ava Brielle

We're leaving tomorrow to go to Destin, (Woo hoo!) but I thought I would make an announcement first.

Congratulations to James and Sarah on baby #3! My niece was born Wednesday night (October 3, 2007)! Her name is Ava Brielle Mayfield. She was 6 lbs 13 oz and 19 inches long. I think Ava looks a lot like Georgia. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a picture of the two of them together because Georgia was with her Aunt Mimi when I went up to the hospital. Alisha got an amazing picture of them though (you can check out her blog-- the link is to the right).





Gavin and Gran (Sarah's mom)

(cute picture- minus me in the background)

Like Two Peas in a Pod

Today, we went to visit my friend Amy, who I used to work with in the ER, and her baby, Alyssa. Alyssa was born about 6 1/2 weeks before Taylor was. We got the two of them together back in July, but now, with them being a little bit older, they had a lot more fun playing together. Taylor was very excited to have some new toys to play with. I am sure she gets tired of playing with the same toys at our house all the time. At times, Taylor would be sitting in my lap, and Alyssa would crawl right up to me and get in my lap, too. It gave me a little glimpse of what it would be like to have twins.. haha

The girls enjoyed sharing/stealing the toys from each other... haha

Taylor is about to roll over on top of Alyssa, and Alyssa is thinking, "Man, I wish I could have my toy back!" ;-) They even enjoyed the swing together, and it looks like they're holding hands in the picture above.

Alyssa is sooo cute with her dark hair, big blue eyes, chubby cheeks, and the little fat rolls on her legs! Precious!! We found out that she and Taylor have a lot in common. They have some of the same toys. They both enjoy "little puffs" snacks. They like to unfold all of the laundry after mommy has just folded it. They like to chew on tags, and they like to play with paper. Amy said they could even pass for sisters with their dark hair and olive complexion. It was a fun day, and they were both ready for a nap by the time we were done!