4th of July Weekend

Another video of swimming over at my mom's on July 3rd...



We changed her out of her bathing suit while we ate, and then afterwards, she just went and jumped right in- pull-up and all! At least we managed to get a swimmer diaper on her...

Taylor really has no fear in the pool which is quite frightening to me since I have had several dreams of her drowning. It makes me nervous, but it's nice to see her having such a fun time all at the same time. She loves it so much it's almost impossible to get her out of the water. In fact, we went swimming again yesterday, and I had to bribe her with some ice cream to get her out ;-)

Kena didn't make it back into her bathing suit either, and with the sun going down, she was getting a bit chilly.

4th of July

The family got together over at Dawn & Shawn's where we had some great food, rode four-wheelers and a go-kart, made S'mores, watched fireworks, and just enjoyed each other's company.

*It started off with Taylor & Nate Dogg. Then, Kena came along and squeezed herself in as Taylor yelled, "KEN-AAAA!" I showed Taylor that if she turned herself forward and put her feet on the ground there would be more room for all three of them. They were happy for a moment until Taylor decided maybe it would be more comfortable eating chips on the hammock ;-)*

Some of my favorite pics of the day:

She thought she was so big!

Cari and Alisha were crafty, as usual, and made their kids' adorable outfits. Me- I just relied on good ol' Old Navy for cute shirts. I plan on learning to sew and starting some projects soon, so maybe next year....

and cute little pigtails to top it off!

*This one I stole from my sil's blog. Her pics are always better than mine ;-) For more, click here.

Then, the fireworks started...

The big sparklers were perfect for keeping the little ones from burning their fingers. We just had to make sure they weren't burning anything or anyone else.

It's so great to have a day where we can celebrate our freedoms and how proud we are to be Americans! This is the best nation in the world, and I am so grateful to live here!

Two Month Check-up

Last week, Bella had her two month well-child check up. She was 11 lbs, 12 oz and 22.5 inches. She was in about the 75th percentile in weight, 50th in height, and 90th in head circumference. I wish I could find Taylor's information (I'm sure it's packed away somewhere) to see how they compare to each other at two months.

Of course, along with those check-ups comes SHOTS! Taylor always did really well with her shots. She would get mad and scream for a minute, and then, she would be fine. When Bella got her shots, she started crying and had big ol' tears running down her face. By looking at her eyes, she looked like she really had her feelings hurt. Luckily, my mom had been able to watch Taylor, so I was able to focus on consoling Bella. She calmed down after several minutes, and slept the whole time I was getting my TB and tetanus shots for work over at the employee health office. She never ran a fever or was real tender or especially cranky; both of my girls have been pretty lucky with their shots in that way.

This was funny because Bella smiled at Taylor, which made Taylor laugh (almost uncontrollably), which made Bella smile more, which made Taylor laugh more....

I have my first day back at work on Saturday. We've been working on trying to get Bella to take a bottle which has been quite frustrating- mostly for Jared since he is the one having to feed it to her. Some nights she will drink the whole thing, and some nights she will fight and fight and fight and will NOT take it! I guess when I'm not there to be the back up she won't have a choice and will have to drink it when she gets hungry enough. Needless to say, I'm a little nervous about going back to work just because I know that I'll be stressed the whole time worrying whether or not she is eating or if she's starving and causing her daddy all kinds of stress, too. I mean, she really has been an easy baby and wouldn't be much work for whoever has to watch her if only she would just cooperate with taking her bottle! Seriously- she is usually only fussy if she is hungry, tired, needs her diaper changed (all easy fixes), or if Taylor won't leave her alone (not such an easy fix).

Bella had her baby blessing at church on June 14th. We were so glad that all of our family (on both sides) were able to make it. Afterwards, everyone came over to our house, and we cooked hamburgers and hot dogs. We were hoping to be able to enjoy our deck and newly fenced-in backyard, but it rained that day. The rain had cleared out, and the sun was in full force, so it was extremely humid, so no one wanted to be outside which made for a very FULL house- not to mention a lot of unwelcome visitors (flies galore! I don't know if it was all the food or because it had rained or what, but I have never seen so many flies in my life. It took several days to get rid of them all.)

Thanks to Aunt Cari for letting us borrow cousin E's blessing gown! (These pics were actually taken a couple of weeks after her blessing).

Taylor on her blessing day (which off the top of my head, I think was Feb. 4, 2007)- since I didn't have my blog when Taylor was first born, it's nice to go back and document some special moments for her as a baby, too.

Bella wearing a pretty little dress that Aunt Mimi bought her

First smiles caught on camera:

Taylor

Bella

Bella truly has been a wonderful blessing to us! She is such a sweetheart. She is cooing and talking all the time now, and I just love when she gives me a big smile. Taylor was- and continues to be- such a challenge for us that Bella has really been a tender mercy from the Lord! I just don't know if I could handle another Taylor- she is one of a kind! This little girl really melts my heart, and I love her so much!

My Terrific Two-Year-Old

The "business" look

(She was crying because I was making her stand still to take a picture.. haha)

So, I started making a list of all of the cute things Taylor says and does. Her vocabulary is growing so much everyday that the list is getting longer and longer.

*I wanna go high! (she says this if she wants to get up on the kitchen counter so she can look in the cabinets)

*go get! (Oftentimes, we will tell her to go get her shoes or whatever else, but now, she has started telling US to "go get!" and I quickly correct her and tell you "no, YOU go get!" haha)

*She used to call all drinks juice. Now, she will say juice, milk, water. She LOVES chocolate milk and says, "I want cholate!"

*She loves her cousin Nate Dogg and calls him GaGa.

*Ready... set... go!! (or 1... 2....3...)

*my turn (she's not used to having to share her toys, so when we get around other kids, we have to teach her to share and give other kids a turn; she has picked up on that and always insists that it is her turn.)

*bikit (biscuit)

*why?? (a few times she has said why to everything that I say... isn't it a little early to be starting that??!!)

*We are semi- kind of trying to potty train her, and lately, she has started to think that she can do it all on her own. She'll say that she has to potty and will say "I be back!" As I start to follow her, she holds up her hand and says, "I be back, Mom. Sit. I be back!" I don't trust her in the bathroom alone.. haha

*wait mint (wait a minute)

*A few times after Jared and I have asked her to do something several times, she has said, "Fine!" (again, way too young for so much attitude)

*We've been working on getting her to pray and repeat after us. One night, Jared was saying, "I'm thankful for my cousins, aunts, uncles," etc. The words didn't always resemble what she was supposed to be saying, but the best part was that "uncles" sounded more like "uglies" haha

*Geez! (she gets that from me)

*I need that!

*I have a cute little black, antiquey stool that she believes is hers. She will carry it all around the house to turn on lights or to "wash her hands" (aka playing in the water and making a mess). Now, all things are within her reach which is very scary to think about.

*She likes to help burp Bella and will pat her on the back and say "goodness, baby!"

*hold my hand

*ceries (cereal)

*When my mom babysits Taylor, she will often sing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star to her. Taylor has started singing that totally on her own without being prompted.

(She can sing it better than she does in this video. She's a bit camera shy.)

*She's a bit obsessed with bugs/flies. I guess it's hard not to be since we've had so many flies in our house this summer. So many times out of nowhere, she will say, "Bug got my ear." As an added bonus, you can hear her say it at the end of the above video. She says "ear" like a true southern girl.. haha

*Another thing that she says in a very southern way is "come 'ere" (come here!)

*That's enough (she usually says this when I'm feeding Bella. I think sometimes I ask Bella if she has had enough, so Taylor has started letting me know "that's enough" whether Bella has actually had enough or not. Also, I tell Taylor "That's enough" when she has been picking on Bella too much)

* be nice! We have to remind her to be nice especially after she has done something that required being put in time out. Now, when we tell her she can't do something or when we do something that she doesn't particularly like, she says "be nice!" in a very scolding way.

*She has a huge crush on our friend Dave. At church, she will always run over to sit with him. The other day, she picked up Jared's phone and pretended like she was talking on it. After a minute, she said, "Hey, Dave." Who else would she be talking to? (well, other than Grandma) Unfortunately, Dave just left to go out of town for a couple of months, so today at church, she was saying, "I want Dave." Then, after church, we were at home, and someone knocked on the door. She was sure it was Dave. Nope. She's going to go through some serious withdrawals ;-)

*She LOVES eggs! mostly boiled eggs. For a couple of weeks, she always wanted an egg every morning. She would say, "I want eeeegg." I had to cook several at a time, so I would have some ready for the next couple of days. She usually just eats the egg white and throws away the yolk (or leaves it somewhere on the floor until I make her throw it away)

*Last weekend when she stayed with Dawn, the kids had a pillow fight. While we were in the movie, we got a text from Dawn saying that Taylor had bumped her head in the process- no tears just a big goose egg. When I saw her the next day and looked at her forehead, without me even saying anything, she touched her forehead and said, "Ty bump my head." She said it in such a cute way, too, and said it over and over again for several days later. She's never going to forget that.. haha

*Where my shoes are? (We will often ask 'where are your shoes?" and this is how she turns it around to ask us the question).

*Sta Bob or Poo Pants (what she calls SpongeBob SquarePants)

*As I have said before, she is constantly wanting to hold Bella now and will even pick her up on her own and try to carry her. The other day she picked her up and carried her from our bathroom to the living room. She's pretty strong and hasn't dropped her yet. On the downside, she squeezes her fairly hard at the same time. On the upside-- she's not squeezing her around the neck and trying to carry her that way!

*pizza (it's so cute when she says it). She has even said "I want pizza now!"

*Sometimes (well, a lot of times) she is aggravating Bella, and I will give her a little slap on the leg or arm and tell her to stop. So now she will give me a soft hit back and say "you stop!" (most of the things she does are really cute until she's been working my patience all day long and I've had to tell her not to do things a million times all day long; then, it's not so cute anymore)

*"I can't hear you!" This is probably one of the funniest things she has said lately. The first time, she had ran back to her bedroom, and Jared was trying to get her to come in the living room. She wouldn't, so as he started to count to three, she yelled out, "I can't hear you!" She has done it several times since. The other day, I was watching SpongeBob with her, and at the beginning, it says, "Are you ready kids?" "Aye-aye, Captain." "I can't hear you!" I realized that that must be where she got it from, but the thing is that she wasn't singing the song. She used it at a different time but totally in the right context. She has said it several times since. I was putting on my make up the other day and dropped something. She said, "What happened?" I said, "I dropped something." She said, "Huh?" I said it again, and she kept saying "huh?" over and over about four or five times and then finally said, "Huh? I can't hear you!" I said, "Why can't you hear me? Is there a bug in your ear?" "Yeah" was her reply :-)

She's getting very brave in the pool. More videos and pictures from our 4th of July weekend to come!

I wish I could video everything she says. She just has so much sass and attitude but can be such a sweetheart at the same time. Don't you just wish you could capture everything about your children growing up and never forget? Every facial expression, everything they say, every quirky little thing they do. These memories are priceless!

A Perfect Weekend

The new Transformers movie came out on my birthday, and Jared and I really wanted to see it. That following Friday, we asked Dawn and Shawn if Taylor could spend the night with them, so we could go see the movie. Taylor absolutely loves being at their house. She loves being outdoors, and she loves animals, and there is really no better place for that than their house. We went to a 5:15 movie because it's 2 1/2 hours long. The movie was awesome and had lots of humor added into it which was a nice surprise, and Bella was really good throughout most of it. Towards the end, she was tired and was getting a little fussy so Jared had to find a place where he could stand up and hold her. We went to the movie with two really good friends of ours (and I found out my friend is pregnant- yay!), and afterwards, we went to eat at Five Guys. I really didn't think I was hungry because I ate a bunch of popcorn at the movie, but I devoured that burger (not sure if devour is the right word considering how slowly I eat) because it was sooo good!

The next wonderful part of the weekend was that we got to sleep in!! Bella is still a really good sleeper. She woke up around 8am; I fed her, and then we both went right back to sleep and didn't wake up again until 10:30!! I haven't slept that late since before Taylor was born. It was sooo nice!

A little bit later, I went to run a couple of errands while Jared was finishing a test for his online class and doing some yard work. Then, I went to pick up Taylor. It's so nice when you spend a little time away and then are so excited to see each other!!

Jared and I have been wanting to work on organizing all of the rooms in our house but tend to find all of our weekends busy with other things. I picked up a few groceries on the way home, so when I got home, we decided to at least clean out the refrigerator before putting the groceries in. We threw away all of the old stuff and took out all of the shelves and drawers and cleaned them. It looked so nice afterwards that I had to take a picture.


I got 4lbs of strawberries at Sam's for $4.88, and they were the best strawberries I have had all summer-- not sour, just really sweet and delicious!!

After that, we had dinner. I believe we grilled out and had chicken and squash (from our garden!). Grilling out is one of the best parts of summer! We have been doing that a lot lately. After dinner, we took advantage of the fabulous weather that we have been having. The evenings have been amazing- not too hot and not humid, just completely comfortable.

The sun was setting


Baby was sleeping


There was one strange but awesome white cloud in the sky


and Taylor was in heaven!

Our neighbors gave us this swimming pool which Taylor has greatly enjoyed. We have even recycled the water to water our garden and to clean off the swing set, as you can see ;-) I'm not sure if you can hear her, but every time we ran back and forth, Taylor would say, "hold my hand!" It was very cute! (sorry about the quality of this video; it's quite fuzzy)

We're trying to get her to learn how to swing herself, so she can swing without us always having to be right there to push her.

An awesome movie, sleeping in, a little cleaning and organizing, yummy dinner, beautiful weather, and some good ol' quality family time--- a perfect weekend!!

Father's Day

Jared took off of work the day after Father's Day, and we went to eat lunch at Mellow Mushroom. There was a Mellow Mushroom in Tuscaloosa that I LOVED, so I was very excited when I heard we were getting one here in Huntsville. It just opened not too long ago in the Providence area. They have very yummy pizza and calzones!!


Unfortunately, the rest of the day was spent running errands, going to the doctor, and having my license renewed, but it was all stuff that needed to be done and was most convenient when he could watch the girls.


The Father's Day after Taylor was born, I decided to start a scrapbook for Jared that I would add to each Father's Day. I've only scrapbooked a few times in my whole life, so it wasn't the greatest, but it was a good concept and would have gradually gotten better, I'm sure. Well, after seeing a photo book that my sil put together for all the Mayfields, I'm hooked. I decided that I wanted to put together a book for Jared (and I can't wait to do ones for our wedding, honeymoon, pics of Taylor and Bella, etc).


One day I was looking at Old Navy's website at the little girls' clothes. I saw a shirt that said, "Mommy's Little Sparkler." I thought, "Oh, that's cute. I should get that for Taylor," but as I kept looking, there was another shirt that said, "Daddy's Little Firecracker." That was it! I just had to get it. Firecracker is definitely a good word to describe Taylor. Then, as I kept looking, they had a little onesie that said, "Daddy's Little Sparkler," which I wanted to get for Bella. I think that was really when I was inspired to do the photo book for Jared. I asked my sil, Alisha, to take pictures of the girls wearing those outfits specifically so I could make the book. I wanted it to be a total, total surprise for him. She came over one afternoon while he was at work and was gone before he got home.

Here are a few of the pics from the photo shoot. To check out the rest, click here.


I had to wake Taylor up from her nap which explains the look on her face. However, if it wasn't for that, we probably wouldn't have gotten a picture of her standing still.


This is what she was doing most of the time while we were trying to get pictures ;-)



Here's a little glimpse of the book itself. It didn't actually come in until almost a week after Father's Day, but I think it was worth the wait.

I asked him if he had any idea that I was doing this, if he knew I had the pictures taken or anything. He said he knew about the pictures. At first, I thought maybe he saw them on our computer, but little did I realize, whenever Jared gets bored at work, he checks out the family blogs... oops!

I am so grateful to have such a wonderful husband. He is an amazing father. He not only has a lot of fun with the girls, but he's not afraid to take on the responsibility of changing diapers, feeding, etc. I hope they really grow up to appreciate how awesome their daddy is! He is definitely a lifesaver to me because if he wasn't so involved and helpful, then I would probably go insane. He makes me a better mother, and I love him for that!