In Memory

I don't usually post my personal feelings on here.  I tend to just post happy events like holidays and developmental milestones for the girls, but today, I'm really feeling the need to express my emotions and honor a great friend.

Mark Forester, a friend of mine from college, was killed in Afghanistan on September 29th.

Wednesday night, I had fallen asleep on the couch watching TV.  Jared woke me up to tell me he was going to bed.  In typical fashion, I decided that I would get online one more time before going to bed.  My intention was to get on Facebook to see if there was anyone that I needed to wish a happy birthday.  I signed into Facebook and the first thing I saw was the status of another Tuscaloosa friend, Jeni, that read, "America lost another hero today.  Mark Forester paid the ultimate price in Afghanistan...."  I couldn't read any further. I think my heart may have stopped for a moment.  I was in complete shock and disbelief.  Jeni happened to be online at the moment, so I sent her an instant message and confirmed the awful news.... not that she would make something like that up, but it's just not something that you want to believe is real.  Jeni wrote a beautiful post about our American hero on her blog.

I went to bed sobbing and heartbroken... no telling how long it actually took me to fall asleep.  I just couldn't stop thinking about him.  Bella woke up crying in the middle of the night, and as I went to comfort her, my thoughts immediately went back to him, and the tears came again.  My thoughts have been consumed by him and his tragic death for the last 3 days and probably will be for a while.  I constantly think about him and still have to continuously remind myself that he's gone... that I will never again see him or talk to him in this lifetime.

I went back later and read the rest of Jeni's status.  She went on to say, "...but I believe if he could've known the end from the beginning, he would have done nothing different..." and I think she's right.  Mark was that kind of guy.  He loved God and he loved his country.  My friend Mike said it best in this article, “He was an unusual combination of characters in that he had this desire to kill the bad guys, but he was the most compassionate, kind, mild-mannered person you’d ever meet."  He knew the risk he was taking, but he wanted to do it; he wanted to serve his country.  In fact, he felt as if it was part of his mission here on Earth.

Grief is nothing new to me.  I have experienced grief in many variations and magnitudes in my life- the worst of all being when my dad died, but Mark's death has really hit me hard.  My heart really goes out to his family and his other friends.  I'm not part of his family, and there were certainly friends who were closer to him than I was, so I hurt for them as well because I can't imagine what they must be feeling. 

...but as I was working out at the gym this morning, I again broke down in tears and suddenly realized he was my family.  While I was at college, my friends were my family, and I would be devastated if anything happened to any of them... as I am devastated now.  I'll never forget the fun times we had playing ultimate frisbee, flag football, and softball.  I was a running back in flag football, and Mark was one of my blockers.  We had so much fun.  I broke my nose in the semi-final game of the playoffs the first year we played.  A 6+ft girl ran right into me while I was carrying the ball.  I was running around Mark, and he was so tall that I never even saw her coming.  All of my friends and teammates came up to the hospital with me after the game.  My friend Anthony reminded me that Mark said something along the lines of, "Debbie, it doesn't look that bad.  You want bad, you should see the guy you ran into." haha  I also remember the night before I was supposed to have surgery on my nose I was so nervous.  I was hanging out, I believe, at Mark's apartment, and all the guys got together and gave me a blessing. 

We had a very close group of friends.  We went to church together and pretty much did everything together.  There was always drama with the girls complaining that the guys never asked anyone out on dates, and the guys complained that the girls didn't like them or didn't flirt with them.... well, I don't really remember what all they complained about, but I do remember that they made a list about it.. haha  When it really comes down to it though, I loved these guys.  They were like family to me, and even though I may not talk to many of them very often, they still hold a very dear place in my heart, as does Mark.  I wished Mark a happy birthday back in May and didn't get a response, but he may have already been in Afghanistan at that point.  The last time I talked to him was through Facebook last November.  I don't remember what it was that made me think of him, but I sent him a message just to see what he was up to.  He told me he was living in Ft Walton and said, "In a lot of ways, I miss T'town. I try to go back every chance I get. It looks like your little family is growing up. I'm jealous, fyi."

As I was reading through all of the loving messages everyone sent to Mark, I got to the point before we had received the terrible news, and on September 18, his mother posted, "Mark, are you all right? I couldn't sleep so I got up and saw this post. My heart is broken for this soldiers family. I can't even put into words how upset this makes me but I pray that you will continue to be safe. I love you so much. Mama" (A fellow soldier died less than two weeks before Mark did, and Mark posted something about it on his Facebook wall.)  This broke my heart.  I know how much Mark loved his momma.  As far as I could tell, he and his brothers are all "momma's boys."  I've never met her, but I know she's an amazing woman because she raised some amazing men.

Our friend Mike is an awesome photographer, and he had the opportunity to do a photo shoot with Mark and his family before he left for Afghanistan- one that will be treasured forever, I'm sure.  Here is a picture of Mark and his parents:

Mark was very clean cut the last time I saw him in Tuscaloosa... no beard.  In fact, I remember when I first saw this picture I thought, "Man, Mark's brother looks just like him!"  Then, I realized it was actually Mark.. haha  I commented on this picture on FB and said, "Holy cow, Mark! I'm not much into beards, but I think it works for you!"  More pictures of him are posted on this website by our friend Mike as a tribute to him.

This picture was able to provoke some laughter amid all of the tears.

I want to find pictures that I have of Mark.  They are all packed away somewhere right now, so it might take some searching.  Mark's body was sent to Dover, and they are estimating that his body will arrive in his hometown of Haleyville, AL, by next Wednesday and and that they will have funeral services on Thursday.  I plan to attend his funeral, and although it will be extremely difficult, I also think it will be very comforting to be surrounded by tons of other people who knew and loved him.  I've always said that I appreciate the military and all they do for our country, but I think I will really feel it now.  Things will definitely carry a whole new meaning for me now.  I have a better appreciation of the sacrifice that they are making.  This is truly tragic to me and everyone who knew him.  Mark was an amazing person that everyone loved and way too young to die..... but I can't be sad for him.  He is in a much better place now, and I know he will continue to be a valiant servant on the other side, and he can be proud of the life he lived and that he died heroically. 

Jared Ennis, a close friend of Mark's, wrote on his FB wall and said: "CCT Motto: "First There," reaffirms the Combat Controller's commitment to undertaking the most dangerous missions behind enemy lines by leading the way for other forces to follow."
Thank you for your service and example.
May our Lord and Savior bless your family and embrace you with his loving arms.
Thank you for 'leading the way.'"

An Apache pilot that worked with Mark wrote to Mike and said, "He was in every way the best controller and soldier we have ever worked with.  It was the saddest day for every attack pilot here when he died."

The Air Force did a fly over Bryant-Denny Stadium at the Alabama vs Florida game tonight in honor of Mark, and Bama gave Florida a good butt kickin'.  He was such a huge Bama fan.  I bet he thought that was cool.  You can see in all of his pictures from Afghanistan that he's sporting a camouflaged Alabama hat.  Roll Tide, Mark!

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20101001/NEWS/100939927/1007?p=1&tc=pg&tc=ar

http://www2.nbc13.com/news/2010/oct/01/video-haleyville-airman-killed-afghanistan-ar-906537/?referer=http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fnbc13.com%2Far%2F906537%2F&h=99f9c&shorturl=http://nbc13.com/ar/906537/

I love you and miss you, Mark! You will never be forgotten! "God be with you [and us] 'til we meet again.."

Single Ladies

There is so much that I want to post about, but before I do anything else, I have to share this video of Taylor from a couple of months ago. It cracks me UP!!

Usually she gets really camera shy and will stop what she's doing if she sees me trying to take a picture... but every now and then, she'll actually let me video or take a picture and then always says "let me see!"

Even Bella gets in on the action!

Dance Recital

Well, we survived Taylor's first year of dance!  Apparently, Taylor tends to have some separation anxiety at certain times- like when I drop her off at dance or when I take her to Primary at church.  She will cry and cry and say she doesn't want to go (although she definitely wasn't the only one in her dance class who did this), but then when it's over, she always comes out happy and says "we had fun today!"

Taylor loves to dance! Anytime we're watching TV and some music comes on, she always jumps up and starts dancing.  Halfway through the year, they had a visitors' week at dance (we aren't allowed to go in the room to watch them dance the rest of the days, and there's no window to look through), and Taylor did good at first until she saw me taking pictures and then she refused to do anything else.  I wasn't too happy since I was so excited to see her.

A couple of weeks before the recital, they had another visitors' week so we could get a preview of what they would be doing at the recital.  Taylor did SOOO good!!  This time, most of the other girls were being shy, and Taylor pretty much did the dance perfectly all the way through! I was so impressed!  One of the other moms said, "She did so good.  You know what that means, right?"  I said, "Yeah... she probably won't do anything the night of the recital!" haha

A couple of days before the recital, we had a dress rehearsal.  The younger girls had a holding room to go to where they got dressed and stayed until it was their turn to go on stage.

Taylor and her best friend, Megan.

The girls had fun just running around, dancing, and playing in the holding room.

Taylor's teacher, Ms. Abbi, getting ready to take them on stage.

They were playing around with the background and lights, and it was very distracting for the girls.  After they were done dancing, Taylor started walking towards the front of the stage and about gave everyone a heart attack because they thought she was going to fall off. Of course, I had the video camera in front of my face, so all I saw was her teacher go running across the stage and didn't know what everyone was freaking out about.  Then, I realized it was my child causing the commotion. She looked at me and said, "I want to sit with you!"

After a long day of rehearsal (she fell asleep with a sucker in her mouth- you know she was tired!)

Day of the recital

I thought she did really well at the recital... not the best I've seen her do the dance because for some reason she was very concerned about staying on her spot, so she kept looking around at the floor to make sure she was in the right spot, but she still did really well. (We technically weren't supposed to take videos of the actual performance because they were selling their own DVDs... which were quite costly, I must say!)  I loved watching the rest of the recital as well.  Watching the older girls dance made me very excited about the years to come.  I just hope Taylor continues to enjoy dancing!

Flowers after her performance.... she didn't care too much about them; she was just mad because another girl got a balloon and she didn't.. haha.  I guess next year I'll know to get her a balloon!

I just had my sil, Alisha, take pictures of Taylor in her dance costume the other day, so I can't wait to see how they turned out!  She definitely didn't want to cooperate at first, and then when she finally allowed her to take pictures, she would only give these cheesy, fake smiles.... although she is pretty enough to be a model, I don't think she'd be a good one.. haha... maybe on a good day.

Bella's 1st Birthday!!

Okay, so I'm horrible, and it's been two months since Bella turned a year old, and I still haven't posted anything! (It's not like I've been busy or anything... but I'll post about that later.. hopefully.. haha)

Her birthday (April 28) was on a Wednesday, so her daddy was at work, and then he and I both had activities at church that night. So, on her actual birthday, it was just Grandma, Taylor, and I there to sing to her.

Taylor was very timid when it came to eating the cake on her first birthday. In fact, I had to grab her hand and smush it into the cake to get her to really touch it.... not the case with Bella.

She had her eyes on that cake from the very beginning.

and she was not the least bit shy to go for it!

and she ate every single bit of it! except for maybe a few crumbs and what was stuck to her shirt :-)

Grandma made sure that she was not lacking in presents.... Taylor even got a present- a brand new Dora bike! She really loved Bella's birthday.

We celebrated her birthday with the rest of the family the following Saturday. I was lazy (partially lazy, partially busy) and didn't make a cake, so we just picked one up at Costco... but you can't go wrong with a Costco cake!

One of the presents I got her was a toy cell phone because she LOVES to play with our phones, and I was hoping it would keep her from wanting the real thing.. but no such luck! Her Aunt Cari gave her tons of hairblooms (that she made herself, of course!), and they look so stinkin' cute in her short curly hair.

She had a little snaggletooth when she turned one (she now has six teeth!- two bottom teeth, two top front teeth, and then the two teeth next to that on top just cut through)

I stopped breastfeeding about three weeks before her first birthday, and now she is very attached to her bottle. I think we're going to have a hard time getting her to stop taking the bottle. It just makes her so happy!

She took her first steps on April 11th (thank goodness for facebook so I can go back and check my old statuses... otherwise I would never remember this!) but still mostly crawled for a few weeks after that. Now, she is walking- practically running most of the time- and getting into everything. Her favorite thing to get into is probably the toilet... disgusting, I know.

Caught playing in Grandma's potty! We have to try to remember to keep the doors to the bathrooms closed or at least keep the lid to the toilet down... otherwise, she would be doing this all the time! One day, I actually found her with one leg stuck down inside the toilet and the rest of her body hanging over the front of it.. man, I wish I had a picture of that!

At her one year check up, she was 19 lbs (can't remember if it was 19 even or not, and they didn't give me a little sticker to remind me this time!)... she also had an ear infection (her 3rd one in a year) and then of course had to get shots... combine all that with teething and she was quite fussy for the next couple of weeks.

Bella was the mildest, sweetest, easiest little baby, but once she turned a year old, she really started to develop her own personality. She is silly and lots of fun but also very vocal about what she likes and doesn't like--- basically meaning that she screams ALL the time! It doesn't matter if she is happy or mad; she is always screaming, and it pretty much drives us crazy.. haha She and Taylor fight over Taylor's sippy cup a lot. It doesn't matter if Bella has her own; she will still go for Taylor's. Occasionally, they will fight over toys, but mostly, they really love each other. Taylor is the best big sister. She's my Little Momma and is really good about letting me know if Bella is doing something she shouldn't be doing and just watches out for her in general. The other day Bella did something I didn't like, so I grabbed her face at her chin to get her to look at me and tell her "no!" and she flopped down on the ground in retaliation, and Taylor said, "Momma! You push her? I'm gonna give you a spankin'" haha I had to assure her that I did NOT push Bella... that was all her being dramatic! Luckily, since Bella has decided to test us with this new BIG personality of hers, Taylor has gotten milder and so very sweet. Don't get me wrong- she is still quite stubborn, but she tells me all the time how much she loves me and has even called me her best friend! I thought my heart was going to melt!

Another good thing about her turning a year old is that she is now sleeping through the night! Yay for sleep!

I feel so blessed to be the mother of these two little girls. They definitely make life interesting and very worthwhile!

January & February

So, the past couple of months have been pretty busy for us. January was not a good month. We were all sick at some point during the month. It started out with Bella. She just had a runny nose and cough for about a week. I thought Taylor was somehow going to avoid it, but she eventually caught it, too, and her cough would get so bad that she would throw up every night when she went to bed. Of course, there are really no medicines that you can give them at this age. It used to be if they were over two you could give them cough medicines, but now they are raising the age limit. Some friends told me to give her honey, and that seemed to help her, but poor Bella couldn't take anything, and her little cold and cough eventually turned into a sinus infection and ear infection. She did really well through it all. I only took her to the doctor because her snot started to turn thick and yellow and she developed a fever and then found out she had an ear infection, too, while we were there.

Then I started to have cold & sinus symptoms which led to a sore throat. The sore throat wasn't so bad, but I started to notice white spots on the back of my throat. I figured I better go to the doctor to make sure that it wasn't strep since Taylor is constantly eating or drinking after me. My doctor wasn't in the office, so I saw one of his partners who said that I qualified for antibiotics anyway since I had had the sinus symptoms for a week, and IF it was strep, the antibiotics would cover it. By the next day, my sore throat was better, but I started getting body aches, hot flashes, chills, fatigue, and a little shortness of breath. I would try to rest a little and would start to feel better, but as soon as I got up moving around and doing stuff, I would start feeling horrible again. By the weekend, most of the symptoms were gone except the shortness of breath started to get worse. At times, it would get so bad that I would feel very anxious. I've never experienced anything like this before in my life. It felt as if I had asthma and needed an inhaler. Bella had her 9 month check up the following Monday, so I scheduled an appointment for myself as well. My doctor said my lungs sounded great, my white count looked fine, I was negative for mono, everything looked fine as far as the physical exam went. He said he thought it was probably just something viral from the very beginning and to give it another week. If I wasn't better in a week, come back in and he would test for more rare things. That day, I went home and felt incredibly short of breath and was brought to tears just thinking about having to endure this for another week, but it gradually got better, and sure enough, after another week I was feeling much better. So, yeah, the month of January was pretty much a waste for us... haha. I think we missed 3 out of 4 weeks at church.

February was incredibly busy because we were getting our house ready to put back on the market. We (well, in all fairness, I should say Jared because he did most of the work) spent a lot of time packing things up to remove clutter, cleaning, etc. Then, about halfway through the month, we decided that we would just move in with my mom while our house is for sale to try to avoid the stress of having to keep the house clean all the time when you have little kids at home.

So, our house is officially for sale now. Hopefully the second time is the charm! I hate being in limbo. I just want to get this house sold so that we can start looking for a new house. I've had some sentimental moments thinking about moving. I don't think I'll miss the house itself- it's just the memories, it was our first house together, it's where we brought both girls home from the hospital, etc.

So far, things are going well at my mom's house. I've been worried about Taylor becoming extremely spoiled because Grandma lets her do whatever she wants, which is great occasionally but not on an every day basis.. haha.. but in all honesty, I'm going to be extremely spoiled as well. My mom does so much. She always does the dishes and cleans the house- even when I tell her not to and to let me clean my own mess ;-) Plus, I always have someone here to help with the girls (she only works a few hours a day), and it definitely helps my stress level with the girls. I am very grateful for all that she does!

We had been at my mom's house for less than 24 hours when we had our first accident. My old bedroom is directly bedside the stairs. I was upstairs in my room putting things away in the closet, and Bella was in the room with me. My mom and Taylor came in the room to tell me something, and when they left, Bella went crawling after them. By the time I realized it, it was too late, and she had already fallen halfway down the stairs. I just screamed and ran after her, and then my mom came running. She fell down about 10 wooden stairs, and when she stopped, I picked her up and just started bawling. She had a knot and a bruise on her forehead and was crying, but she stopped crying after only a few minutes and was back to her normal self. Her pupils looked fine; she was moving everything well and was crawling around and being playful. I was so torn up because I don't like to mess with head injuries... you just never know. I felt like she was fine, but I would have hated not taking her to the ER (this was on a Saturday, so we couldn't just take her to our doctor's office) and then something happen to her. So, I called our doctor's office and spoke to the on-call doctor. I just needed the doctor to give me permission to monitor her at home. He asked if she cried when I pushed on the bruise/knot on her head, NO. Does it hurt when you push on her spine? (oh yeah, C-spine precautions-- the whole nurse thing went straight out the door and I went straight into mommy mode) No pain on the spine. He said that we were probably fine to just watch her and wake her every 2 hours for the next 24 hours and just go straight to the ER if her behavior or anything started to change. Anyway, things turned out just fine, but we are definitely more careful and trying to adjust to having stairs. I don't want to experience anything like that again.

So, if you know anyone who is looking for a house in our area, let us know ;-) and please pray that we'll be able to sell it quickly!

Bella Monster

I haven't posted much about Bella since she turned 6 months old... a lot has changed in 4 months! When she first started sitting up on her own, she would sit with one leg under her and one leg out. Now, of course, she can sit straight up on her bottom. I remember Taylor would only sit up on both knees for the longest time instead of on her bottom. Bella since has started crawling and pulling up on furniture. She has become very vocal and really thinks that she is carrying on a conversation with you. She doesn't say any actual words except for "mamamama" and "dadadada." "Dada" came first, but that's okay- I'll give it to him because Taylor said "mama" first ;-) She pretty much always says "dada" when she's happy and playful and "mama" when she's fussy.

She has earned the nickname "Bella Monster." Jared initially gave her the nickname because she loves to growl; if you growl at her, she will growl back at you, and once she really started crawling good, she would crawl after everyone. Jared would be playing with Taylor and wrestling on the floor or something, and Bella would want to get in on the action, so she would crawl towards them with a big grin on her face, and Jared would say, "Oh no! Here comes the Bella Monster!" At that point, Bella was the happiest, most playful baby. Now, the nickname is starting to take a different turn. She is starting to add quite a bit of sass into her personality. Again, she is very vocal, and if she doesn't like something, she will let you know, and she's even starting little mini-temper tantrums where she'll throw her head back, scream, and kick her legs. I don't like it one bit! I told her that she HAS to stay my sweet baby!

I didn't post after Bella's 9 month check up, and now I've forgotten exactly what her height and weight was. I believe she was 18-almost 19- lbs which is how much Taylor was at 12-15 mos. I think Bella is taller than Taylor was, too. She didn't have to get shots, but they had to prick her finger to check her blood count. She didn't cry one bit when they pricked her finger, but she didn't like it when they had to hold her hand and squeeze her finger to get the blood out, and then she couldn't stand the band-aid on her finger afterwards.

She got her first tooth on February 21st. It's one of her bottom front teeth, and the one right next to it is well on its way to cutting through (if it hasn't already- she doesn't exactly like for me to feel on her gums). She was never really fussy with the first one, but she had one really bad night with this second one where she just cried and cried and cried and was pretty inconsolable.

As far as eating goes, she has become more independent and wants to be able to put things into her own mouth which can be quite difficult when you don't have enough teeth to be able to chew. I still give her baby food but give her tiny pieces of banana, strawberries, green beans, hot dog, apple, cheerios... pretty much anything soft enough that she can gum on and hopefully won't choke.

She loves the big bath tub and loves to splash around. If she's awake and I try to get a shower without her, she will scream and cry until I let her in.

Shes loves playing with that tongue!

This is the sweet baby that I adore!

3 Years Old!

The birthday girl ; She turned 3 on December 18th

Taylor loves boiled eggs!! (but she only eats the white and throws away the egg yolk) I asked her what she wanted for breakfast on her birthday, and of course, she said, "EEEGG!" She ate them while wearing only my apron and her socks and shoes.

Another angle to give you the full effect.

As she ate, I finished decorating her birthday cake.

Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! is one of Taylor's favorite cartoons. I got the recipe for this cake here. Just don't look too closely at the cake; I did a horrible job of piping the outline. (I shouldn't have listened to the recipe when it said to cut a larger hole in the ziploc bag to do the outline.) I used chocolate cake mix instead of pound cake because, well, it's my favorite and since Taylor never eats the cake anyway (surprising for a little kid, I know!... she would much rather have ice cream), I figured I would make what I wanted.. haha

She was very excited about the cake though! She said, "I like him. I like his eyes..and his nose.. and his hands.." haha

After I finished the cake, we got ready for a day of celebration! Jared took off half a day of work, so we met up with him at the mall and took Taylor to Build-A-Bear workshop. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera. (I did take some pictures with my phone camera but I don't have a cord to hook it up to my computer yet). At first, she didn't understand and was insistent that she get one of the already stuffed animals, but she picked out a bunny rabbit that she loved and was fairly patient about waiting her turn in line although she had to stand right up front to see what everyone else was doing. When it was her turn, she picked out a heart, and the lady told her to rub it in her hands to make it warm, rub it on her forehead to make it smart, rub it on her stomach so it never gets hungry, etc. I figured she would just stand there and look at the lady, but she actually did everything she told her to do. We picked out some clothes and asked her what she wanted to name it. She said, "Bunny!" So, we said, "What do you want to name the bunny?" and she said, "Bunny Mommy!" haha My grandfather had sent the girls some money for Christmas, so we let Taylor pay for the bunny herself with the money he sent. She enjoyed getting to hand the cashier the money. We put the clothes on the bunny after we left the store, and Taylor started saying, "I love him! I love him so much!!" haha... It was the cutest thing ever! I think she was very pleased with her first present of the day.

After we left the mall, we headed to Chuck E. Cheese where we met up with Grandma and our friends, the Forbes.

The girls had a blast playing the games. I think Taylor mostly liked the "money." Her favorite game was where you just stick the tokens in, and it tries to knock off more tokens and then gives you tickets.... she went through tokens like crazy on that, and she also liked the game where you punch the ducks and try to knock them over. She wanted to do it all by herself, but the problem was it made you wait a couple of seconds after a punch before you could punch again, so if you missed one punch, you could be off on every single punch after that. I kept trying to help her so she could earn more tickets, but she didn't like that too much ;-)

Taylor loves her cousins, but other than them, her best friend is Megan. They are about six months apart, and they get along so well. It helps that Megan is very laid back, so their personalities don't clash ;-)

We took a break from playing games to enjoy some pizza. Taylor was informing Jared that this piece of pizza was too hot.

Miranda's younger sister was in town and was sweet enough to take pictures for us, so I actually happen to be in some of them! The Forbes got Taylor some dress up shoes, jewelry, and a feather boa. Jared and I got her a Disney Princess dress up chest, CareBears Nutcracker movie, and Merry Madagascar movie. Grandma got her the movies Up! and Snow White, a doll house, two dolls that talk and interact with each other, and a color wonder coloring book. Every time Taylor would open a present, she would say "Oh! Oh! Ohhhhh!" haha

I thought I had burned the outside of the cake a little bit because I used a different pan than normal, but it actually turned out to be quite yummy!

We invited Megan over for a slumber party. Jared and I were driving separate cars, so Bella went with me, and Taylor and Megan rode with Jared. He said they were "obnoxiously giggly" all the way home.. haha. I had to stop and get gas, so they made it home before I did. Jared's boss got him a little remote control helicopter for Christmas, so when I walked in the door, he was flying it around the living room, and the girls were chasing it and laughing hysterically- that is until the battery went low and Jared couldn't control it very well, and the helicopter flew into Taylor's eye.... yeah, she is still traumatized and runs out of the room screaming every time he gets it out.

When Taylor recovered, the girls watched the CareBears movie and ate popcorn. They were still really hyper and silly when we went to put them to bed, and we had to go back in the room and tell Taylor to get back in bed a few times (which really isn't anything different from our normal routine). Megan brought her sleeping bag to sleep on the floor.

When Bella woke up during the night, I thought I kept hearing something, and after I got done feeding her, I went and stood at Taylor's door. I heard some very faint crying, so I opened the door, and it was Megan crying. I sat down next to her and asked what was wrong. She said, "I just want to go home." I asked her what was the matter, and she said, "I'm just having horrible trouble sleeping." (I think this was Megan's first sleepover with a friend.) I asked if she would like to sleep in Taylor's bed because Taylor ended up falling asleep on the floor next to her. She didn't realize Taylor was on the floor and said, "I don't want to wake Taylor up." She's such a sweet girl! I told her it was okay because Taylor was asleep on the floor, so she got up in the bed, and then I turned on the closet light so it wouldn't be quite so dark in the room. I told her if she needed us she could come to our room and get us.

Jared got up when the girls woke up in the morning and let me sleep a little longer. When I woke up, this is how I was greeted.

I think Megan was feeling much better and ended up enjoying the sleepover after all. Her mom tells me that she keeps asking when they're going to do it again!

Here's Taylor playing with the dollhouse from Grandma while wearing her Snow White outfit.

The following are some miscellaneous pictures of her:

She has become quite obsessed with taking pictures of her tongue. She loves to get my camera and take pictures, and I'll find a million up close pictures of every toy she has and pictures of herself sticking out her tongue.

Just like her daddy.... he likes to stick out his tongue in pictures as well.

See what I mean?

The 2nd week of December was visitor's week at dance. I was so excited because we don't get to watch her at dance. There's not a window to look through or anything.

This is her teacher, Ms. Abbey.

She started out really well but a little timid. Then, she saw me holding my camera taking the video and pretty much refused to do anything.... I was not too happy!! So, she came and sat with us for a few minutes--- she wasn't the only kid that had some problems and got stage fright. I think we bribed her with some gum, and she went back out when they started doing forward rolls. Hopefully the actual recital at the end of the year will go a little better.

Our friends Savanna & Dave; Savanna was my roommate in Tuscaloosa for a short time before I graduated and got married; Taylor had a huge crush on Dave. They ended up moving back to Arizona back in the fall, so we were all very sad!

Taylor wearing her nightgown with her hat, shoes, and purse- so fashionable! Love this hat from her Aunt Mimi!

Taylor with some of her favorite stuffed animals and dolls

Yet another wonderful outfit- I can't wait until she goes to school and demands to pick out her own outfits ;-) The jacket is actually her cousin Natedogg's that he left at our house one day. She claimed it as her own, so I had to sneak it back to them. She's also wearing some lovely swim shoes.

This is what I wear when I clean house, too... haha j/k I hope she is this enthusiastic about cleaning when she gets older and can actually help without making a bigger mess in the process.

"Delicious!"

I think this was our first snow of the year.... first not only which is usually the case here in Alabama. We have had so much snow this year... more than I ever remember in my whole life!

Whew! So glad I finally finished this post almost two months after starting it!! So much that I need to catch up on. Bella has gotten so much bigger, and I need to update on her as well... hopefully that will come soon!