New Trailer for New Moon

I saw this posted on a friend's blog and had to share:

http://team-twilight.com/20090817/moon-trailer-officially-released/

Less than 3 months away!

Preschool and Dance

Taylor has started going to preschool on Wednesday mornings. We get together with some friends from church, sing songs, read books, have a lesson, do a craft, eat a snack, and play. All Taylor is really interested in is playing. I have a hard time getting her to sit down and sing and pay attention.... really, I'm doing good if I can get her to just stay in the same room as us. I'm hoping that she will eventually learn the routine and will get better.

Her first day was August 12th, and we talked about going to school.


The second week, we talked about things that fly. For the craft, we made airplanes out of candy and gum. As soon as I saw the candy, I knew this wasn't going to go over well. Taylor was only interested in eating the candy. I fought her off long enough-- not without some tears-- to get the airplane made and take a picture of it, and then she destroyed it about half a second later. Then, after snacktime, she found a batman mask and escaped to the bat cave.


This week, we talked about teeth and how important it is to brush them. Taylor is pretty much obsessed with brushing her teeth- she gets her bottom right teeth really clean ;-) My friend Miranda was teaching the lesson, and as soon as she pulled out a toothbrush, she had Taylor's undivided attention. Taylor sat down right in front of her and kept trying to grab the toothbrush out of her hand.. haha Miranda had made little boxes for the kids to put their teeth in when they lose them, and then we added little googly eyes and cheeks to the tooth.

Taylor is also taking a "Creative Movement" dance class. I am so stinkin' excited! I LOVE to dance but never really took lessons growing up (I got my mom to sign me up once but I was the oldest girl in a beginner's class with a bunch of younger girls and was very embarrassed so I quit-- sorry, mom!) Taylor loves to dance, too, so I was hoping that she would really like going to a dance class. So far, she seems to be having fun.

August 20th-- getting ready for the first day!! I made the tutu with help (lots and lots and lots of help) from Miranda. I still may end up trimming some length off of the tutu to make it shorter.

Admiring herself in the mirror.. haha-- can you blame her?? ;-)

Megan is one of Miranda's daughters. She is about six months older than Taylor, and aside from her cousins, she is Taylor's BFF. They are pretty obsessed with each other and talk about each other all the time.


walking into class

We don't get to go in the rooms and watch them dance (which is understandable because it would be distracting) so I took one more picture before they got started-- and then had to quickly run away because Taylor started running towards me.

Not sure what they learned in class, but Taylor kept doing this afterwards.

We gotta start making some more money though because dance classes can be expensive, especially as they get older and start taking more... and then there's soccer and gymnastics and piano lessons and..... Am I going to be one of those mothers who lives vicariously through her child??

Four Months

My baby is four months old today!!

I have felt such a strong bond with Bella from day one. I think her name is very fitting since the first thing I thought when I first saw her was, "She's so beautiful!" She has her moments when she is fussy and a little frustrating, but that's not very common. For the most part, she makes my job of being a mother and loving her very, very easy.

Taylor loves being as close as possible to Bella. This is a safe distance for me... haha. Usually she wants to be on top of her-- that's a little too close for my comfort ;-)

One morning I heard Bella talking up a storm when she woke up. Taylor used to do this all the time when she was little. I always loved waking up to a happy talking baby. (Now I am rudely awoken way too early for my liking by my two-year-old.. haha). I tried to catch Bella on video, but she got a little camera shy. You can hear how excited Taylor gets when she sees Bella for the first time in the mornings. Whenever Taylor gets really excited around Bella, she gets really tight-lipped and sticks out her tongue. You can kind of see it on the video. It's not an attractive face... haha.. but I used to do it when I was little too although I don't think I stuck out my tongue.

Guess she felt the need to stick her tongue out too!


She is constantly trying to shove those hands in her mouth and is drooling like crazy! and look at that crazy hair! Her hair has thinned out a lot except for most of the back and a little bit on top of her head. Mullets are the best!


Taylor decided she needed to wear some glasses.

If you look closely, you can see a little cut on the right side of Bella's nose (on the left in the picture). One day Taylor was drinking her juice and standing next to Bella while she was lying on the floor. I was sitting right next to them but not looking at them. Then I hear Taylor's juice fall to the floor, and Bella starts screaming bloody murder. She was crying so hard that she wasn't breathing. I scooped her up and tried to comfort her until she caught her breath and calmed down, and I realized that Taylor must have dropped her sippy cup FULL of juice on her head/face. Now normally I would yell at Taylor for being rough with Bella because she tends to do that a lot- she just loves her soooo much- but this time I could tell that she didn't mean to do it. She looked so upset and started saying, "Sorry, Bella. Sorry" I laid Bella back down to try to figure out where the cup had hit her and noticed blood on the side of her nose. I bet that hurt!! I tried to explain to Taylor that she has to be careful around Bella because she dropped the cup on her nose. For several days until the cut healed, when Taylor saw it, she would say "drop a cup on it." (Whenever she or someone else gets hurt, she tends to repeat things over and over. For example, if there are ants around, Taylor will find them. One day she got probably at least 20 ant bites on her left foot which probably took at least a couple of weeks to completely heal, and every day, she would say "bug got my foot" and point out her boo-boos.)

Would you PLEASE stop touching my head?!!

tell me all about it!

trying very hard to roll over; just can't make it over that arm!

Look at those chubby cheeks and the fat rolls on her arms! She has her next well-child visit on Monday. I'm curious to see how much she weighs.

She got her first taste of rice cereal tonight. Taylor kept wanting to eat it- she always wants stuff other people have ;-) We kept trying to tell her that it was baby cereal and she wouldn't like it. Later, Jared realized he had made too much cereal and asked Taylor if she wanted some to which she replied, "It's Bella's. I won't wike it."

Sew Fun

For a long time, I've been wanting to learn how to sew. I haven't had any grand projects in mind. I've just always wanted to know how in case I really need to make something--- you know when there is something specific that you need, but you can't find it in stores anywhere or if you need some modest clothing which is so hard to find these days--- especially if I need to make something for the girls as they are growing up.

Well, my wonderful mother bought me a sewing machine for Christmas, and it's taken me over 6 months to actually start putting it to use, but I'm really enjoying it. I've sewn a few pillowcases for the girls that I work with in Activity Days at church, and the last time my sil's and I took a trip to Sir's Fabric store, I bought some fabric to start working on some dresses for the girls. My sil, Cari, has sewn a few pillowcases dresses and said they were really easy, so I decided that would be a good place to start. She and my mother-in-law helped me figure out the measurements for the girls and trace out a pattern, and then I cut the fabric and sewed the dresses all by myself! I actually made Bella's dress a few weeks ago, but I wanted to make a coordinating dress for Taylor and hadn't had time time to do it until last weekend, so this past Sunday was the first time they wore the dresses.

The sewing of the dresses definitely wasn't without mistakes. My biggest problem came from doing the trim. On Bella's dress, I pinned the trim on the dress and realized it wasn't right. Then, I re-pinned it and sewed it only to realize that it still wasn't right- the thread showed on the outside of the dress... which actually wouldn't have looked to horrible if my lines were a little straighter. I debated whether or not I wanted to leave it that way but decided to take out all of the stitching and redo it. Then, on Taylor's dress, I learned from that mistake, but when I turned the dress right side out, the trim was inside out- dang it!! Luckily, Jared gave me the idea of just taking out the stitches on the sides of the trim and resewing it instead of taking out the stitches all the way around the dress. Needless to say, it didn't come without frustration, but I was pleased with the outcome!

I'd like to make some little bloomers to go along with the dresses as well. Now, I need some more projects to work on so I can get more practice and hopefully get better!!!

Three Months

On the 28th, Bella turned 3 months old! She's getting so big! She usually likes to be held facing outward so she can see everything. Every now and then she will let me hold her with her head over my shoulder and her arms around my neck, and I just want to hold her and squeeze her and never let her go! She's starting to lose some of her hair, mostly on the top left side and a little on the right. I bet it won't be long before she is rolling over. She was lying on the floor this morning and was working really hard to eat her hand and kept turning to her side. I don't know how many times I can say this, but she is such a happy baby and a little sweetheart!

I started back to work on the 18th. I am PRN (which means I work on an 'as needed' basis) and am only required to work 36 hours a month. I normally work 12-hour shifts. I thought about doing shorter shifts to start off with, but that would only mean more days that I would have to work, so we decided to stick with 12-hour shifts.

The first day I worked was a Saturday, so Jared was able to be home with the girls. My worst fear was that Bella wouldn't take her bottle so she would be crying the whole time and Jared would be getting stressed and frustrated which would in turn stress me out, and I was afraid I would have a rough and stressful first day back at work. Well, Jared sent me text messages periodically saying everything was fine and Bella took the bottle great, so he was able to ease my mind. Then, the area of the ER that I was working in is kind of more reserved for quick problems (like things you'd go to an urgent care place for) to get patients in and out, so I had a really easy day at work too.

The next day that I worked my mom kept the girls. I worked a 12pm-12am shift, so she only had to watch them for about 6 hours until Jared got home. My mom said Bella did fine until about 2pm, and then she pretty much cried until Jared got home. We're not sure if it was gas or just being away from Jared and me both for several hours at a time. My mom said as soon as Jared walked in the door and Bella heard his voice she calmed down right away.

Everyone at work has been teasing me and asking me if I'm pregnant again yet. When I first started working there (before I had Taylor), I got pregnant three months later. Then, when I came back when Taylor was 18 months, I got pregnant almost right away, so everyone is expecting me to be pregnant again now that I'm back at work... haha... I think we'll give it some time ;-)

My mom watched them again on the third day back, and Bella did a lot better. I think with time and a little consistency she will get used to being with my mom, too. It has been sooo hard leaving her when she's so little, and I feel anxious and want to cry every time I have to walk out the door to go to work. I know it's hard to babysit such a small baby, too, so I really do appreciate my mom for doing it!! She not only has to watch Bella, but she watches Taylor, too, and we all know what a handful she is! Thanks, Mom!!

I can't believe my baby is 3 months already, but I sure am excited to see her grow and see how her little personality develops!