Isn't She Lovely??

On Thursday, we took Taylor to Portrait Innovations to have her one-year-old/belated Christmas pictures. We were really impressed with our photographer. She did a great job at getting Taylor to smile and look at the camera. We are extremely happy with the way the pictures turned out. When I asked Jared if we could go have pictures made there, I told him that there was a $9.99 package which sounds really good, but once we had all the pictures made, it was really hard to pick just one pose, so we ended up spending a lot more than we had planned!

The above pictures are the ones that we ordered, and we have TONS, so if you want one, let me know! The first picture was the one that we got the packaged deal with. It was our favorite because it was just such a typical and precious expression that she has.

To see all of the pictures that were taken, go to this website http://ua.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2201861&l=d160e&id=27400410

Christmas Day

On Christmas morning, I got up and fed Taylor a bottle. I put her down for a minute, and the first thing that she did was crawl over to my stocking, pull out my package of Twix, and started chewing on it! She was definitely looking forward to good Christmas food (and candy!) and ripping open the wrapping paper. She enjoyed opening all of mommy and daddy's presents, playing in the paper, and crawling on boxes. Jared gave her one of his Red Vines, and she had it ALL over her face! We really enjoyed just being able to relax and spend the morning together as a family. We watched the Walt Disney Christmas parade, Mr. Kreuger's Christmas, and Joy to the World, and we even had some wrestling matches. (Taylor really likes to crawl on top of mommy and daddy. She has even started this thing where if we are lying on the floor she will sit on our head and bounce up and down. She thinks it is quite hilarious!) Later that afternoon, we went over to my mom's house, and we ate dinner with her and my brother's family. We opened more presents and stockings, and Taylor learned that Grandma is way better than Santa! In the far right picture in the second row of the collage, you can see the present that we gave to my mom. Taylor tried to unwrap it several times and was quite successful. I just taped pieces back to it. I figured it gave it character.

We gave Rylan a Diego t-shirt, and it was a hit! He loved it!

Thanks, Mom, Neal, and Sarah for everything! (and thank you Sarah for taking pictures!)

'Twas the Night Before Christmas...

For the last several years, on Christmas Eve, my family has gone over to the Bastins' house for dinner and to exchange presents. The Bastins are very close friends of ours. My mom used to work with Mrs. Bastin (and she was one of my high school teachers), and Mrs. Bastin and her whole family have really been there for my mom in every way possible. So, on Christmas Eve, we went over to their house, ate some delicious lasagne, drank some apple cider, and opened presents.

Taylor & Catherine Bastin

Taylor & Bryson (Rylan wanted to hold her, too, but she got tired of being held, and he was very unhappy that he didn't get to hold her)

Jared got an Auburn t-shirt, and I got a blue Swarovski crystal bracelet that they actually got in Austria. Taylor's present (it was actually kind of for me, too) was a Willow Tree mother & daughter memory box. It is very beautiful, and I especially love what it says on the inside of it.

When I was little, our family would go to my mom's parents' house in Birmingham for Christmas. We always spent the night on Christmas Eve, and I can even remember waking up in the middle of the night and sneaking around to see if Santa had come yet. On Christmas Eve, before we went to bed, my granddad would always read "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" to my brother and me. So, to continue the old Christmas tradition, I had Jared go to the bookstore and buy the book so we could read it on Christmas Eve night.

Of course, we also read the story of the birth of Jesus out of the Bible to remember the true meaning of Christmas! :-)

"Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!"

Here Comes Santa Claus...

I had heard that if you went during the week that you wouldn't have to wait in a long line to have your picture taken with Santa. So, one day, I had to go into town to run some errands, and I thought that if Taylor was in a good mood that we would go by the mall to see if she could have her picture taken. We got our shopping done and went to the mall, and sure enough, there was no line! Woo hoo! Well, then I started to look at the prices of the pictures, and I thought it was just crazy. I stood there and debated for a few minutes and then just turned around and walked back out to the car. Then, I kept looking at Taylor and thinking, "but she looks so cute, and I would love to have a good picture of her with Santa..." so I called Jared and asked what he thought. I figured he would say, "That's too much, and she already had her picture taken with Santa at the church for free," but instead, he said, "Well, if she's in a good mood and you think she'll take a good picture, then I don't care." So, that left the door open, and I'm weak, so we went back inside to have the pictures taken. She WAS in a good mood, but as soon as I put her in Santa's lap, she started crying. We got her to stop crying, but as you can see from the picture, she still wasn't thrilled. She's been snotty lately, so I wiped her nose before giving her to Santa, but of course, as soon as she started crying, it started streaming out of her nose again. So, you can see snot coming out of her nose and even a little tear coming out of the left eye if you look closely. It's not a fabulous picture because she's not smiling, and she's not even looking at the camera, so afterwards, I started feeling guilty for paying so much to have the picture taken. (The cheapest thing you could get was like a 3x5 and two keychain pictures for $15 or $16. What I ended up getting was two 3x5's for almost $20 after taxes. I know $20 isn't a whole lot of money- well, it is if you're poor- but I just thought that was ridiculous for just two little pictures, so I don't know if we'll be doing it next year or not).


On Saturday, we celebrated Christmas with my dad's family at my cousin Sheree's house in Birmingham. Sheree was always one of my favorite cousins growing up. She's probably around 10 years older than me, and I always loved doing things with her. I can remember sitting on her waterbed when I was really young, and she was showing me how to cross stitch. Whenever my parents built our new house (when I was in the 4th grade), I even had to get a new bed just like Sheree's- only mine wasn't a waterbed. Well, now, Sheree is married to a very wealthy man (he owns several car dealerships), and they live in an absolutely beautiful, gigantic house in Birmingham, so most of our family functions are held there. (My dad had 1 brother and 6 sisters, so it's a very large group when everyone is together---- very much like the Mayfields). Most of my dad's family had either not seen Taylor before or they hadn't seen her since she was just born, so it was good to get to show her off ;-) After we ate lunch, the men played poker (Jared just watched), and the women played dirty santa with Christmas ornaments that we all brought. Dirty Santa is always a fun game, but after it was all over, Sheree said, "Okay. Now draw another number because Tom and I bought presents, and we're going to play again. The presents range in price from $50-$700." Oh my gosh! I was like are you serious?!! We've played Dirty Santa for several years but never like this! There were close to 20 women playing, and the biggest prizes included a flat screen TV, an iPhone (the winner of the men's poker game also won an iPhone), two digital cameras, a video camera, a Blu Ray DVD player, a photo printer, a laptop computer, and a Coach purse. I couldn't believe it! I mean, can you imagine what it must be like to be able to do that? I wouldn't mind having that kind of money just so I can buy gifts for other people like that! My dad's family grew up in Cullman, just good ol' country folk, so as you can imagine, we were all just crazy excited over this! The TV, iPhone, and laptop were all frozen by the time that it was my turn, so I ended up with one of the digital cameras (oh darn... haha!). It's the same brand as the one that I have now, but WAY better!





It is 7.2 megapixels versus my 3.2, and it even has specific settings for taking pictures of snow, taking pictures at the beach, etc. Oh and it's PINK.. haha I haven't gotten to test it out yet because I have to buy a memory card for it, but I can't wait to try it!

While we were playing Dirty Santa, Taylor played in the floor. At one point, I found her with styrofoam in her mouth and removed it, but I think she must have ingested some before I got to her because I discovered it in her diaper later! (If you know what I mean!)

Sheree also gave Taylor some cute little boots! Sheree had some brown ones like them, and I think she said she found these at Target and bought like 12 pairs of them to give to kids! They are a size 5, and Taylor wears a size 3 right now (well, she does when we can get her to keep shoes on her feet!), so maybe she'll be able to wear them by next year, but they are so precious! I love Sheree! I think it is so awesome that she has stayed the sweet, down-to-earth, generous person that she has always been!























Here is a picture of Taylor in her pretty dress that we bought her for Christmas. We're planning on getting pictures of her at Portrait Innovations, but by the time I called, the earliest appointment they had available was the 27th. I don't know if they'll still be doing Christmas pictures by then, but I will probably get some pictures of her in this dress because I just love it! We've had such a hard time finding bows and stuff that will stay in her hair, but we found a little red glitter headband at Gymboree at Bridge Street, and it's precious as long as she'll keep it on her head!

Birthday videos

My mom got me an HD digital video recorder for Christmas, and I talked her into giving it to me early so that I could record Taylor's birthday. I had a hard time getting the videos to upload when I posted on Taylor's birthday earlier. I guess some of the video files were too large, so I'm posting some of the smaller ones. Thanks for the Christmas present, Mom! It will definitely come in handy!

Taylor got mad after getting the cake and icing all over herself, so we stripped her down and gave her a bath. She was a little cranky afterwards, but once she was dried off and had clean clothes on, she was happy and ready to open presents!

The Best Two Years

Yesterday was mine and Jared's 2 year wedding anniversary. My mom babysat Taylor, and after Jared got off work, we went out to eat at Luciano's, an Italian restaurant on Airport Rd that neither of us had ever been to. It was a very nice, quiet atmosphere with dimmed lighting and candlelight. Our waiter was great, the bread was great, and the fried ravoli appetizer was delicious! We were both pretty much full before we even got our main entrees.

After dinner, we went to the new Bridge Street town centre. I had never been there before, so we walked around and explored everything. We went inside of the new movie theatre which looked amazing, saw the Christmas tree, and looked around to see what all stores were there. We were hoping to rent some paddle boats, but they close those down at sunset (which is early this time of year). The gondola rides were all booked up for private tours so no public tours were available. I was tempted to ride the carousel, but since we didn't have any cash on us, I decided that we could just come back another day and bring Taylor.

We passed a jewelry store while we were walking around, and Jared said, "Do you want to go look to see if they have a wedding band that you like?" When we bought the wedding band that I have now, all I wanted was a plain band, so we pretty much bought the cheapest one because they all looked the same anyways, and we figured we might as well save some money. It is white gold, but it no longer looks like white gold, and it is very obvious next to my platinum engagement ring. So, I've been wanting to get a new band. So, we looked at bands at the jewelry store and actually found something like what I've been wanting, so I told Jared to make a mental note of it.

After we looked around at everything, we went and sat on a bench, and Jared said, "Well, are you ready for your presents?" Presents?! I hadn't even thought about presents! He had his hands in his jacket pocket, and he said, "Pick a hand." So, I picked one, and he pulled out a small box. Well, actually, he pulled out a candy wrapper first, and then, he pulled out the box ;-) I opened it, and it was a pair of really pretty earrings with three diamonds in a vertical row. They are really nice because they can be worn with something dressy or casual.

After I opened that box, Jared pulled out another small box. This one was a ring box, so I was very surprised. I opened it, and even more to my surprise, it was a diamond wedding band! It was from a different store than where we were looking, but it was beautiful and just like I wanted!! I have to get it sized, so it'll be a while before I can wear it, but I am so excited!! I don't know how he managed all of this since we're poor, but I didn't mind being spoiled! ;-)

After that, he said he had dessert in the car, so we walk to the car, and I see a box of chocolates in the passenger seat. I open the passenger door, focused on the chocolates, and from the backseat on the driver's side, Jared pulls out a cookie cake!!!! My favorite!! I didn't think this night could get any better! I opened it up, and it said, "The Best Two Years." (Have you seen the movie about missionaries titled 'The Best Two Years?') It was so cute, and we both got a good laugh about his creativeness. It was an amazing night, and I am so very blessed to have such a wonderful husband! He is so good to me each and every day, and I love him so much!

Happy 1st Birthday, Taylor!

Tuesday, the 18th, was Taylor's 1st birthday. On Sunday, Jared and I invited our families over to eat cake and ice cream to celebrate. We hung up at least one picture from every month of Taylor's first year so everyone could see the transformation that she has made. She started off as a very skinny baby with lots of hair. Then, she slowly got chunkier and started to have bald spots which we really just have to laugh at now. Now, she is back to a little skinny thing with tons of hair, and she's just as beautiful as ever!

I made Taylor her own individual cake so she could just dive in and get as messy as she wanted. I was anxious to see what her reaction would be. She usually just loves to stick her hands in her food even if it does drive her mommy crazy ;-) She had a huge smile on her face as we started off singing 'Happy Birthday.' Then, after we blew out the candle, I put the cake within her reach, and she very gently reached out picked off some icing and stuck it in her mouth. I guess she had to test it out first before she really got into it. She started to get a little braver, and then I helped her out by shoving her hand all the way in so she was getting into the cake, too, and not just the icing. She ate a little bit and then just started rubbing it all over her hands, as if she were putting on lotion, and just staring at her hands. Shortly after that, she decided that she had had enough and quickly let us know it!


Jared and I rinsed Taylor off (she even had cake in her toes!), got her into some clean clothes, and then started opening presents! She absolutely loved ripping open the wrapping paper which I expected. Her cousin Noah gave her some pretty hair bows (he even tested them out for her) and picked out the ribbon and wrapping paper himself ;-) My mom gave her a couple of toys that play music and make lots of noise, and she absolutely LOVES them! Neal, Sarah, Bryson, and Rylan gave her her first baby doll, and she likes to chew on her head.. haha Jared and I gave her a little toy laptop computer because she always sees me working on the computer. Thanks everyone! Taylor loved all of her presents and having everyone there! and thank you, Cari, for taking these pictures!

Misty was unable to come on Sunday, so Jared, Taylor, and I went out to eat with her and the girls that she nannies at Pizza Hut on Tuesday. Taylor had her first taste of some yummy pizza, and Misty brought some little mini cupcakes.

I can't believe my baby is already a year old!!