Here is Tay working on her crawling. Notice in the video how she totally goes around her toy and straight for the Christmas tree!

But For Now...

Someday Taylor will be able to crawl and walk and get around all by herself…but for now I love how she reaches her arms up for me to pick her up.

Someday she will be able to tell me what she needs…but for now I love her cute little babbling, and guess work to figure out what it is.

Someday she will got to bed all by herself…but for now I love cuddling with her and holding my sweet baby.

Someday I won’t be changing a billion diapers a day…but for now I love that time when I get her full attention.

Someday she will be aware that my singing voice isn’t that great…but for now I love unabashedly singing to her, and her loving it.

Someday she won’t want me with her while she watches a movie…but for now I love holding her and her laughing after I laugh at something while we watch Baby Einstein.

Someday she will be able to cleanly feed herself…but for now I love working on my patience everyday as she grabs her food and sticks her hand all over the mess on her face.

Someday she will actually call me mama on purpose…but for now I love the times when she accidentally says it, and I get so excited.

Someday she will have teeth to eat normal food…but for now I love her precious gummy smile.

Someday she will stop nursing and taking a bottle…but for now I love holding her while she eats.

Someday she will have other people and friends that she will want to play with…but for now I love being her favorite playmate (aside from Eric).

Someday she will have cute hair…but for now I love her bald head, and hairline resemblance with my dad.

Someday she will sleep all night and actually want to sleep in…but for now I love the early mornings with just her and I, when everything else is quiet and we cuddle in bed.

Basically all I really want to say is that I LOVE little miss Taylor right where she’s at now. We have a ton of fun together, and I love being with her. I am excited for her to learn and grow, but at the same time I don’t want her to grow up too fast. I love you Tay!

Can't Decide

So, I keep going back and forth as to who Taylor looks the most like. Sometimes I think she really looks like Eric, then sometimes I think it's me. Maybe she's just a perfect mix. Tell me what you think...

Eric at 4 months (such a chunker!:))
Me at 3 months (my mom's gonna love this...also, look at all of my dad's hair!)
Taylor at 6 months

Now here are just a couple of fun pictures of Tay:

She definitely loves her prunes! Gotta love those diapers after the prunes!
One night I had enrichment and Eric had scouts, so Eric took her with him. So, she missed her usual evening nap, and was so exhausted by the time she got home! I love this picture!

So...who do you think she looks most like?!?

Fall Fun

Oh, I just love the fall! The only part that I don't like is that it eventually leads to winter, which I think is just about here:(. Oh well. I swear I'll just be holed up in my house, because I'm too nervous to take Tay out anywhere because I DO NOT want her getting sick! But, I'm kinda excited about that for a little while, I like just hanging out at home with just her and I. It's very relaxing for me, and we can be on our little routine, and I can get lots done around here. But, I think I need a hobby or something, because there's only so much cleaning you can do in a 1200 sq. ft house! I love to read, but I don't feel like I'm accomplishing anything when I do that. I'm not very crafty, but maybe that's something I can work on. Any suggestions of things to do during the winter and we're inside a lot?? Also, I've started buying Christmas presents, and that has been way fun. I do love Christmas, especially if I can spread the buying for Christmas out so that I'm not stressing in December. So fun!

Tay is doing so well. She is sitting up on her own very well, and wants to crawl so bad. She has the movement down, but she can't quite get her feet to have enough grip to push her forward. I'm excited for her to crawl, but also a little hesitant. She can scoot backwards, though. This week I think she has started some more serious teething. I could be totally wrong, but she has been SO whiny, and that is really not like her.

Anyway, we have really been enjoying the awesome weather we've had the past couple weeks. We've spent a lot of time outside on the swing, sitting in the grass playing with leaves, reading books outside, and taking walks. It's been SO nice.

Here are some cute fall pictures of Tay out in the leaves (which we have a TON of in our yard!)


YUM!

Doesn't she look so tiny??

Reading stories

For Halloween Eric's mom made Tay THE CUTEST poodle skirt. It is adorable. The little dog on it is so dang cute. Tay and Olivia were matchy-matchy. They were too cute. Except for Olivia had the funniest pink glasses...I couldn't stop laughing every time I saw her!
We could not get them to look at the camera for very long. This is about the best shot I got! Ha...at least you can see their cute outfits!

Taylor has been making the funniest face. She gets her whole body tense, and makes what we call the monster face. She will not do it for Eric, though. It is really funny. Here's a funny picture of her doing it...

We've been having a ton of fun with her, she is a doll. Eric has been working hard on things on the house. He found a house that is doing slate for their roof, and asked if he could use the discarded broken pieces. So, he picked a bunch up, and has been laying it down on our porch. It will look so cool when it's done. I'll post pictures later.

I need to write about Eric and I going to Disneyland, but that will have to be another post...this one is already too long. Props to you if you read it all!

Tag, I'm It...

This one is all about the hubby. Lauren tagged me for this…

1. Where did you meet your husband? It was all really weird. We met at a Nelson Thanksgiving dinner in Las Vegas at Cal and Jeanette’s house. I had no where to go for Thanksgiving, so I went with my freshman roommate’s sister Sarah and her husband Bryce. Bryce is Eric’s cousin. So we hung out a little bit there, but nothing came of that. Then 3 months later Eric moved up to Provo from Vegas and we ran into each other at Provo Towne Center Mall. We exchanged numbers, and then it was all history.

2. How long did you date before you married? We dated for a year and 3 months. We also had a summer break in there where we just talked FOREVER, while Eric would pace around for hours on the phone. I think he never got more exercise then he did that summer!:)
3. How long have you been married? 2 ½ years
4. What does he do that surprises you? He is more creative and artistic than almost anyone I know. He ALWAYS says things that surprise me because they are totally random. Also, he is forever making up conversations in his head, and I can see his reactions to those conversations on his face, or he’ll move his hands like he was talking, but it’s all in his head! Ha So funny.
5. What is his favorite feature? He has the prettiest blue eyes. They’re like sky blue. I’ve never seen anyone with such a pretty color of blue.
6. What is his favorite quality? I love how humble and honest he is. He has so much integrity, and just tells the truth, even if it’s a hard thing to do. He always apologizes so quickly. Sometimes it makes me mad, because I am a brat and just want to be mad for a little bit. But, it’s hard to be mad for long when he apologizes so fast!
7. Does he have a nickname for you? I guess just babe
8. What is his favorite food? What, why don’t I really know this. He loves steak, anything grilled. I dunno, he is awesome and always says he loves whatever I make for dinner. He’s very easy to please.

9. What is his favorite sport? He isn’t really into sports that much. I guess the one he really likes to watch is boxing, or volleyball. He likes to golf. But, I’d be more likely to be sitting down watching sports than he would…which I actually love about him.
10. When & where was your first kiss? Well, we had been dating off and on from January till April when I went home from school for the summer. Then we spent the whole summer on the phone. We had even said I love you already! Ha. Then he got off work early the day I drove back to Utah from Missouri to surprise me at my apartment. Well, my roommate were a little scary to me at the beginning, so I refused to go into my apartment. Meanwhile Eric had been waiting there for 4 hours for me to come home. He didn’t want to call because it would ruin the surprise. Finally one of my roommate came and told me they wanted to have a roommate meeting. When I went up there he was on the couch. He came and gave me a big hug and our very first kiss in the kitchen of my apartment!
11. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple? Hmm..we love going on walks together. Watching Tivo’d shows, or going on roadtrips.
12. Do you have any children? One…baby Tay, who is almost 6 months.
13. Does he have any hidden talents? He has WAY more style than me with decorating and things like that. He can write the best calligraphy, and do scrapbook stuff like a fool. So funny. He can sing a mad baseline.
14. How old is he? Ahh…31!
15. Who said I love you first? He did on the phone in July when I was home over the summer.
16. What is his favorite music? He is on this classical kick right nowJ
17. What do you admire most about him? He works so hard. He’s a great business person. He is so kind to everyone, and never judges anyone. He doesn’t talk bad about anyone. He’s so creative and can fix just about anything!
18. What is his favorite color? Blue
19. Will he read this? If I tell him to
20. Who do you tag? Carolyn, Kjersten, Veronica, Maria

ANOTHER ONE…tagged by Ashley

8 SHOWS I LIKE TO WATCH…
1. The Office
2. The Biggest Loser
3. The Hills
4. The Price Is Right :)
5. E True Hollywood Stories
6. Any gameshow
7. Sienfeld
8. Extreme Home Makeover

8 RESTAURANTS I LIKE TO EAT AT…
1. Olive Garden
2. Café Rio
3. Costco (can that count?!)
4. Goodwood
5. Teppanyaki
6. PF Changs
7. Chilis
8. In-and-Out

8 THINGS THAT HAPPENED TODAY…
1. Woke up with Tay at 4:30
2. Woke back up at 7
3. Took a shower and got ready
4. Made chicken salad for dinner
5. Cleaned house
6. Grocery shopping
7. Made a pie
8. Went to a ward activity

8 THINGS I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO…
1. Finishing my book
2. Talking to my family
3. Seth getting a job
4. Hanging out with Eric
5. Buying a lamp for our living room
6. Working out
7. Friends and family having babies
8. Hanging out with my friends next week

8 THINGS ON MY WISH LIST…
1. A house with storage and a garage (not for a while though)
2. Kitchen cabinet doors :)
3. Finished doors
4. A lamp for our living room
5. To sell the dumpster company
6. To have an awesomely successful auction
7. Mixing bowls
8. A year’s supply of food storage

8 PEOPLE I TAG…
1. Saren
2. Jackie
3. Stacey Liu
4. Allison
5. Becky
6. Lo-Lo
7. Lydia
8. Erica

Talking Tay

I just love her sweet little voice...hope you enjoy.

Bottles, Bums, and Birthday's

My baby girl turned 5 months on Saturday. She is the best baby. Her cute little personality has started to come out a lot more...I love it!
This is her with her daddy on her 5 month birthday. Oh, such a cute smile. Everything about her is growing so much...except her hair! Oh well, maybe some day.

Oh how I just love her cute nakie bum! Seriously, before I put her in the bath I sometimes have to take her into the mirror just so I can look at her cute dimply bum! She had just gotten out of the bath and wanted to roll around.

Look how big!! I can't believe she can hold her own bottle!

This is what Eric does EVERY time while he is taking off her dirty diaper. It never fails to crack me up!

Not really much other news. Eric is still going crazy with post-auction stuff. Oh, and we just got his truck back today! His transmission went out twice in 2 months!! This is why I do not ever trust car repair places. How could a BRAND NEW transmission go out one month later?? Hmmm...seems a little fishy to me. Thank goodness for warranty's!

A Taylor Update...Surprised, Anyone?!?

We took Tay for her 4 month appointment (almost a month late!) this last week. She was such a trooper. She only cried after her 4 SHOTS for like 2 minutes, we were so proud of her. But, this time she got a lovely fever for 2 days and was sick and lethargic:(. Poor baby. But, she's doing much better now. Here are some new things about her:

**She weighed in at 14 lbs 11 oz.--56th percentile
**She's 25 in. long--76th percentile
**She LOVES her hands. She will just sit and stare at them for like 5 minutes. Turning them one way, and then the other.
**She can grab her toys in front of her.
**She can take her binky out in about .2 seconds, but can very rarely get it back in. This is the reason we still wrap her up really tight at night, so she can't get her arms out and pull that thing out!
**She LOVES her rice cereal. She makes cute noises while she's eating it.
**She can sit up for about 30 seconds all on her own.
**She sleeps about 7-8 hours at night, then gets fed, then back down for another 3. Usually 11 hours total.
**She takes usually 3 naps a day for about 1-2 hours each.
**She sleeps with two pillows on either side of her and jams her face into them. It is her weird comfort thing. I'm sure that scares some of you, but I've gotten past that now. She seriously loves it!
**She will sit and play by herself without complaining for like 15 minutes.
**Usually when she wakes up she will make a little noise so we know she's awake, and then just wait for a minute without saying anything. If we don't come right then, she'll do it again. Usually she doesn't cry when she's waking up.

We are loving her at every age. Here are some pictures and videos.

How she loves to sleep...so weird!
Playing with her doll.
She chews on EVERYTHING!
All dressed up for church.
So, I just have been doing a little decorating. I'm not that great at decorating, however I was very excited about this. A lady in our ward welded that pumpkin...cool, huh!?

Just a cute video of Tay getting all excited to eat her rice cereal. I tried to post a couple other really cute videos, but it was taking my whole life to upload, so maybe it'll have to be another post!

Alrighty, that's all for now!!

Our Little Poop Head

OK, I need a little consolation. I was THE WORST mom the other day. Eric and I were driving up to Tai Pan (which is like 20 minutes away). We heard Taylor make a spit up sound in the back seat, then she got all fussy. So, I reached back without looking to grab her binky. When I grabbed it, my hand got all wet. I just figured it was spit up, and wiped my hand off. I stuck the binky in her mouth, and she promptly spit it out. I did it again, and she spit it out. Finally, I stuck it in her mouth and held it in. We got to Tai Pan and Eric got her out. He asked me if I had been feeding her sweet potatoes or something. Of course I hadn't given her anything like that yet, so why was he asking me that?!? Because there was orangy stuff all over her face. What could it possibly be?? Yes, yes it was...POOP!! Sad, sad day. She had a total blowout diaper, and it was all over her car seat. So, I made her eat a poopy binky!! I felt TERRIBLE! Then, when we got home, I got Taylor out, and the whole time the base to her car seat had been unbuckled. Who knows for how long!! AHHH.

SOOO, as I said earlier, I need some consolation!!:( Any of you have any stories like that? Either ones you've done, you've heard about, or that your parents did to you?? Seriously, I NEED to know!

Here's a picture Eric snapped before we got her all cleaned up! (If you enlarge it you can see it better)

A wedding and a blessing

First of all, HAPPY WEDDING to Ryan and Lauren!! I'm totally retarded, and I can't get any pictures of them to load on here, I can only get a couple of the reception to load. Maybe later I'll get smart and learn how to get them on!! But for now, you'll just have to believe me, they were absolutely STUNNING!! So beautiful! It was a perfect wedding. The reception was great. We had a fabulous time in Arizona. Congratulation to you both. WE LOVE YOU!!



Taylor did awesome on the flight over there and back. She slept both ways. But, when isn't she good?! She does have impeccable timing though. She had a total blowout diaper (we're talking new clothes and everything) RIGHT as they called us to board the plane BOTH times!! This is a picture of her before we got on the airplane...
While we were there we took Tay swimming for the first time, and she loved it! Here's a couple pics of that...

We also had her blessing. It was a great day, she looked so cute, and Eric gave a great blessing. He said he was getting a little frustrated up there because the boy holding the microphone for him was closing his eyes, and kept lifting the mic and hitting Eric in the mouth! Ha! But, we had tons of our family there, and it was awesome. Thank you to everyone who came! Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures that day!! It makes me really sad. But, Eric and I had to teach right after that, so we had to hurry and get to our class, so I totally forgot. But, here's a picture of her on another day in her dress. Maybe we'll just fake it on Sunday and put her in dress and take a picture with all of us!:(
A little Aunt Jemima baby. So sweet.

She's been getting pretty good with her hands. It is too cute!

Our yard!! YAY!

Eric has been working so hard on our yard, so I thought I'd post some before and after pictures. I absolutely love the yard. Also, one day he surprised me and set this beautiful swing up in the yard, I LOVE it!! Thanks babe!

Lovely, eh?

After Eric brought in dirt, grated it, and seeded. A LOT of work! He is awesome!


Doesn't it look great?? This is just two weeks after he put the seed down!

My swing that I love!!

Smiles, Tears, and a Thumb Sucker??

I cannot believe Taylor is almost 3 months!! It’s a weird thing though, because as much as I can’t believe she’s 3 months old, it also feels like we’ve had her for WAY longer than that! She is growing so quickly. It makes me sad and excited all at the same time. I am trying really hard not to keep looking forward to things that are coming up for her (belly laughing, sitting up, eating solid food, etc), but to really enjoy where she’s at right now. I thought I LOVED the newborn stage, and I did, but I absolutely love where she’s at right now. She is the sweetest baby I could have ever hoped for. She has such a mellow personality. She is so smiley and talkative. She basically lets Eric and I do whatever we want to do, and she just is so happy to come along for the ride. For example, the other day we went to dinner and she was so good. Then, we went to the driving range (which I was horrible at—but am excited to learn) and she just sat in her stroller and didn’t make a peep the whole entire time. It was so fun. We have gone down to Vegas twice now and she has been an angel the whole time. We have only had to stop once each way to feed her. Anyway, here are just some little fun fact about her…mostly so I don’t forget!

*At her two month appointment she weighed 11 ½ pounds—the 53^rd percentile. She has gained almost 3 pounds since she was born.

*She was 23 ½ inches long—the 76^th percentile. She has grown 4 ½ inches since she was born.

*Her head was in the 37^th percentile.

*She smiles all the time. But, sometimes I will be trying to get her to smile for like 5 minutes, and she won’t, then she’ll catch a glimpse of the ceiling fan out of the corner of her eye and will give the biggest smile. I think sometimes she just gets a little tired of me!

*She does a cute little laugh. Not a full out laugh yet, but it’s still sooo precious.

*SHE ROLLED OVER. Yes, on Saturday she did her first roll, and has done it everyday since. So, now we are being better about putting her in her crib for nap time. This is a good and a bad thing. I am so excited that she did it, but then I have to be much more careful where I put her.

*She doesn’t mind being in her car seat at all. She usually falls asleep pretty fast in the car. This makes it nice for me, because I get nervous driving very far with just her and I. We did have one bad experience already which involved crying so hard she wasn’t breathing, and me nursing her on the side of the highway!! Oh so fun!

*She USUALLY sleeps through the night. But, she hasn’t totally mastered that, last night was evidence of that. She went to bed at 11, was up at 1, then 3:30, then 5, then 7:30! What the?!?! So really, I should be taking a nap now! Usually she sleeps from like 11-5, or 11-6. Not too bad.

*She takes pretty good naps during the day. We’re not on a schedule yet, because we’ve just been gone too much. Lately she’s just been napping on the go. But, she’s really easy going, so this doesn’t seem to bother her too much.

*She’s getting really good with her hands. Well, sort of good. She can pull her binky out with no problem, but she cannot seem to get it back in, unless she rolls on top of it, which she did this morning. I will be ecstatic when she figures out how to get that back in. She has started grabbing at my hair. She is really fascinated with her face, though. She pushes her cheeks in with both hands, it is so cute. She has also found her ears, and loves to grab and them and pull them. The first day she did this I thought for sure she had an ear infection. I called my mom and the doctor to see if they thought she did. Turns out she just found her ears!

*She sucks on her hands a lot. Only once did she ever suck her thumb. (See pic below)

*She spits up like crazy! (See picture below)

*She loves Eric. I swear she gets tired of seeing me. When he comes home she is all talky-talky to him. I love it!

*She loves to watch TV. Her and Eric will just sit and watch together…she definitely gets this from him—I’m not a big TV watcher.

*She loves when I read her stories. She gets really excited and really stares at the pictures.

*When she gets excited she pumps her arms and legs up and down really fast. Or, she looks like she is riding a bike.

*She LOVES her bath. The other day Eric gave her like a 20 minute bath, and she would have stayed in there much longer if we would let her. I’m excited to take her swimming, we’ll see if she likes it.

I love my little girl sooo much. She is such a great baby, and a huge blessing to Eric and I.

Baby Tay trying soo hard to hold those cheeks up! Yeah, I think she's not quite ready for this chair yet, but it was a good try!

Soo sweet. This is the one and only time she has found her thumb. It was precious.

This is her lovely spit up. Gotta love it.

Yes, it was tough to get a picture with her and I. This was right before she had to go get all her shots at the doctors. Poor thing.

I loved this picture. All so sleepy.

Taylor and Claire holding hands. I can't believe how much bigger Claire is than Taylor. They grow sooo fast!:(

Just a goofy picture of Spencer and baby Tay.

Great Grandma. This was at Grandma's 80th birthday party. I'm sure Taylor loves her, even though she's making a funny face!
So sweet. We appreciated this sleeping pose, her holding the bink and all.

**Also, funny/sad story about her 2 month doctor's appointment. I asked Sue (Eric's mom) to go with me to get her shots for some support, I just knew I would be a bawling mess. Well, Sue held her binky in while they gave the shots (5 of them!!), and I stood off to the side not watching. They handed her to me as soon as they put the band-aids on. She was soo sad, and was bawling like a champ. Anyway, I did alright. I was oh so sad for her, but no tears. But, Sue on the other had was a little bit of a crying mess. So much for the support!!:)