All Bundled Up!

Taylyn loves to be buddled up in a blanket instead of putting her coat on. She gets so excited when she is all wrapped up.

Crazy Hair

We can finally put Taylyn's hair in pig tails (or as she calls them 2 ponytails). She looks adorable with them but a little crazy when they come out.

Christmas Trip!

Due to my pregnancy Cody's family kept their Christmas trip close by. We went to Las Vegas for three days. Taylyln loves "Las Begas" because the dolphins and tigers live there. She was extremely excited to go.

We had a lot of fun and ate really well. The first night we took Taylyn to my brother's house so she could play with some of her cousins and we went to dinner at the Capital Grill overlooking the strip. The food was amazing and I may never be able to eat a steak anywhere else. It was really nice to go without Taylyn and just sit and talk and not have to entertain her. She had so much fun playing with her cousins.

Taylyn decided she loves hotels. She especially loves the bed.

The next day we went to Circus Circus for breakfast and then went to the Fun Dome. Willie bought Tay a ride on the clown car and even told Shon to ride with her and then we left. The boys went to play golf, Taylyn and I went back to the hotel to nap and everyone else went shopping. That evening we went to the Mirage so Taylyn could see the Lions. We had to watch them for over an hour waiting for everyone else to get there. She didn't even want to go eat she just wanted to see the lions.
Then we went to eat at Rainforest Cafe. We thought Taylyn would love it because all of the animals but when they started talking and the thunder started she was not pleased. By the end of dinner she was at least not crying when it started. After dinner we went to the arcade and Taylyn scored. Shon won her a blue bear, Cody won her two Mickey's and everyone else won over 3,000 tickets and she got two games, a fishing set, and an etch-a sketch. She was quite happy about her new wins! The next day we all went to breakfast a little shopping and then Cody, I and Taylyn went to my Mom's house to hang out for awhile before heading back to Cedar City. It was a busy but fun trip.

Christmas Eve and Morning

This is the first year we really talked about Santa Claus. She liked the idea of him but didn't like to see him in person. Before she went to bed we set out cookies and milk so Santa could have some when he came. She was so excited and talked about it for the rest of the night.

Christmas morning she was so excited to find out if Santa ate his cookies and milk. She thought that was pretty cool that they were gone.

We had a great Christmas. Taylyn had a lot of fun opening her gifts and wanted everything opened up so she could play with them. She had actually opened up two of them two nights before but she was still excited to open them again.

She always helps me when I am cleaning so Santa brought her a cleaning set. She vacuumed and swept before she opened anything else. She was very intense and careful opening the gifts.I made Cody a Daddy Daughter picture frame and then made Taylyn a book using the same pictures. We got her a doll set so she could take care of her own baby once we have the baby. She got on her high heels, which she also got for Christmas, put her baby in the stroller and said that she was ready to go.

She also got dishes and we have meals a lot during the day. She makes noodles, rice, olives and tomatoes with chocolate milk that we have to eat at least 4 times a day.

After opening all her presents we went over to Cody's parents house to open gifts and eat breakfast. Taylyn got some more gifts and broke them all out and made everyone play with her. Cody and Tony have always wanted onsies pajama's but have never been able to find them. Maile found some on-line and then had their names put on them. On the back she had the words caution put on the butt-flap. I think it was their favorite gift.Nana and Taylyn opening a gift together. Linda had to help her with all of them. She also had fun handing gifts to everyone else. She was quite the little helper, even with the clean-up part.

Happy Holidays!

Wishing all of you a Happy Holiday and hope you enjoyed your Christmas and New Year! Here are some of the Christmas pictures we took!

Practice Makes Perfect!

Taylyn is practicing to be so much help for me when I have the baby!She changes the diapers quite often. She also loves to change Mickey and Minnie's diapers even though they are not wearing them.

Train and Christmas Decorations

Linda gave us some decoration for Christmas that she doesn't use anymore. One of them was this train. She loved it and used up a whole set of batteries over the holidays. The best part was that she could stand with her legs spread and the train can go under. All her Mickey Mouse characters took turns riding on it as well.

Sitting in Chair with Mickey and Pluto

Taylyn wanted Cody to watch the Care Bears with her, which is his least favorite movie, so he stayed busy doing other things. She went and got him from the other room. When he came into the living room she had moved the kitchen chair to the living room and put her chair next to him. He sat down and she handed him a wrapped Pluto and she sat down with a wrapped Mickey. Needless to say Cody stayed and watched the Care Bears with her.

The Snow has Arrived

It has been a weird winter. It snowed in October and then November was beautiful with nothing. December came with a vengeance. It snowed and snowed and snowed. Cody called and told me to pack a suitcase because he was booking tickets back to Florida and someone could pack our stuff and ship it out later. I was very tempted. I finally got brave enough and drove in one of the snowstorms. I did very well and it is getting easier and easier for me.

This picture was taken after one of the first big storms. Cody is sitting on a chair and his legs are level with the snow!

Taylyn wanted Mickey Mouse to have a picture in the snow with Daddy. Taylyn's favorite thing about the snow is getting all bundled up so she can watch Cody shovel the snow. Then we go in and she helps make hot chocolate for him. One day he was outside shoveling and she came into the kitchen to inform me we needed to make him some hot chocolate. Cody has done a great job shoveling but was getting really sick of it. Luckily he has had a small break because it hasn't snowed for a couple of weeks. Taylyn finally decided she likes to eat snow and crush it with her shoes. That is a great improvement considering she cried the entire first snowstorm. I just thought this was a cool picture that I took while Cody was once again shoveling snow.

Baby Aiden

Taylyn loves her Baby Aiden and they are so funny together. They just laugh and Tay takes the best care of him. She always asks if she can go to see Lissa (Melissa) and Baby Aiden and gets really mad when it doesn't happen. She is either going to be so much help with the new baby that I fear for the baby's safety (she wants to change Aiden's diaper, pick him up and feed him) or she will be so mad by all the attention that she will completely ignore him.

Trip to Nana Papa

Tay and I went down to my parents for a couple of days before Christmas. It's funny how no matter how old you are it is always nice to go home.

Taylyn had my Mom wrapped around her little finger and convinced her to take her outside a lot. She even got my Mom and Dad to take the dog for a walk. My Dad even made it 3/4 of the way around the block without help. We went around the block twice and about halfway through the second block I was freezing and ready to get back to the house and she was ready for another round. She was checking out all the Christmas lights and lawn decoration and stepping in all the water she could find. She was so glad to be outside. Taylyn had so much fun she went again the next day with my Mom while I went to the store. My sister came down for 2 days while I was there and my brother's kids came to play as well. The three girls had a blast and Taylyn actually left my side and went and played with them without me around. It was a great improvement from the last couple of times. Notice the shoes in the picture above. Pretty cute!

My nephew is raising a pig for the Clark County Fair in April so we went to see it. Taylyn was loving it and it brought back some great memories of the old days when I was raising them. We had a couple of good laughs when the pig went between Garrett's legs and he went for a ride on the pigs back. It was really funny! Garrett's other Grandparents also had a horse and some cows. Taylyn didn't want to leave because she was having so much watching and imitating the animals. We had a great trip and enjoyed visiting with my parents. My Dad had a couple of really good days and Taylyn had fun talking to him. I was doing her hair and she was not pleased with me. My Dad walked in the room and she cried, "My Papa will save me!" So she went and stood by him until I went and grabbed her to finish her hair. What a great Nana and Papa she had!

Taylyn is 2!!

Happy Birthday Taylyn!

I can't believe Taylyn is 2. Her birthday was on December 8th. It has gone by so fast but has been so much fun watching her grow and develop her funny personality. She is quite the character and makes me laugh daily. We feel so blessed to have her in our family. She has added so much to it. We love her so much.

When people would take about her birthday she informed them, "no party, just Mickey Mouse presents!" We finally convinced her to have a little party with a Mickey Mouse Cake and some family. Cody's family went crazy with Mickey Mouse and she now owns everything every made with the characters. She loves it all and usually takes at least 3-4 of them to bed with her. We tried to get her to blow out the candles but she wasn't quite sure what to do so I had to do it. She was too concerned about the fire (she burnt her hand really bad with Linda's fireplace so she doesn't like fire) to get close enough to make it blow out.

She didn't really like the cake. She just ate the frosting off it. Here she is with her Christmas Mickey and Minnie and her cousins Collin, Aiden and Brandon.

The Mickey in her hands goes pretty much everywhere with her.

We went to her two year Doctor's Checkup a couple days after her birthday and here are her stats!

Weight 27.14 58%

Height 35 in 82%

Head 19.5 in 94%

Festival of Trees and Parade

Every year Linda helps with the Festival of Trees and this year we actually were here to help. They had to cut back a lot this year due to the funds and lack of volunteers so we didn't have as much to do this year. They tried to focus on giving those in need this year so in order to get in you to bring a can a food. Cody and I decorated the area where the cans were put. It turned out really cute. Then I decorated one of the trees Linda was in charge of. Below is the tree I did.

On Saturday morning the Sigma Chi had Breakfast with Santa so we decided to go. Taylyn wanted nothing to do with Santa unless I went with her and then she stood long enough for a quick picture and a candy cane.

That afternoon they also had a huge parade. Taylyn had a blast. Her two favorite things about the parade were the car with Mickey and Minnie and the fact that her Lissa and Aiden were with us. It was a long parade but luckily it wasn't freezing cold.

The night of her birthday we took her back to the Festival of Trees with Melissa and her kids to see Santa.

She loved everything except Santa Claus as you can see from the pictures. 2007 looks much like 2008. The fact of the matter is Taylyn doesn't like Santa Claus.

2007 Below 2008 Above

Thanksgiving

We went down to Las Vegas to Lance and Peggy's house and spent Thanksgiving with all of Cody's family. Everyone was there and it turned out really nice and the food was amazing. I actually didn't get any pictures during dinner but all the kids had a blast. After dinner we went and checked in at the Venetian Hotel (Maile always finds the best deals). We walked around the shops for awhile and then finally got to ride the Gondola ride. Taylyn thought it was so cool. It was about 10:30pm our time and we were afraid she would absolutely loose it but she loved it. After the guy sang a couple of songs to us he got down and asked Taylyn if she could sing. She started with It's the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse come inside its fun inside and finished with Hot, Dog, Hot, Dog, Hot Diggity Dog" The man thought it was pretty funny. When we went under the first bridge he told Cody and I we had to kiss under the bridge. Every time after that when we would go under Taylyn had to give us each a kiss. She only forgot one bridge. It was hilarious.

This was taken sitting in the boat.She was exhausted by the time the ride was over. She went right to sleep when we got back to the room. It took Cody and I about 10 minutes to figure out how to get back to our room. We walked an entire floor to find out our room didn't exist on it. Taylyn loves hotel rooms. The next day Cody went golfing with his cousin, Josh. Linda, Maile and I decided to take Taylyn over to the Mirage to see the Secret Garden. We started with the dolphins and she thought they were really cool. We went to the underground glass area where you can see the dolphins swim. One of the dolphins were being really cute with Taylyn. She would wave and then it would nod its head and it kept swimming by her. All of a sudden it came directly towards her and opened its mouth like it was going to bite her. She flipped out and started screaming "Dolphin bite me" and climbing up my shoulder to get away from it. I finally got her calm down a little and had her touch the glass so she understood it couldn't get her but she was ready to be done. We took her into the gift shop to look around and Nana bought her a few things but anything dolphin was off limits and she wouldn't go near it. Then we went over to the tiger and lion area. That finally calmed her completely down and she loved watching them.

Nana bought her a little camera that had pictures of tigers and lions inside of the lens. She was snapping away trying to take pictures and she thinks she really did. It was so funny all the different directions she would turn to take the pictures. The leopards were running back and forth across and fence and she thought that was so funny. She kept telling us for a week after the trip how the "leopard run back forth" as she moves her arms across her body to show you what that means. After awhile watching the baby tigers play we went back by the dolphins. She was still really nervous and would tense up if the swam by her but after a lot of talking by Nana and I and seeing that dolphins take medicine too she finally said that Dolphins were funny. Two of them came out of the water and she actually laughed so we decided we better leave before something else scared her. She still talks about it.

This picture is when Linda was trying to convince her that dolphins were not mean animals. You can see the concern on her face! That night we went to Kona Grill and then headed for Overton. We stayed the night there and enjoyed visiting with my parents. Taylyn had fun bossing Nana around and having her all to herself!

We had a great Thanksgiving and I was reminded how much I should be grateful for. We have been so blessed this year and hope that I can remember to show my gratitude for all that I have been given throughout the year and just not during Thanksgiving Time.

Cody and Taylyn

Taylyn loves to be wherever Cody is even if it means she has to slow down for a minute. I came into the living room and thought this was too cute no I had to take a picture.

Pregnancy Update!

Well I have had two sets of ultrasounds and it took me a little while to figure out how to scan them so here are some pictures finally. I am seeing a specialist to make sure that the baby is growing properly due to the label of high-risk pregnancy. It is fun being able to see each month how he is growing and gives me the peace of mind that everything is okay. It won't be as much fun when all the bills start coming in but the baby is doing great and he is still a boy!!!

These were taken in November. The first is his profile and the second is his foot.

These are the pictures taken in December. As you can see he loves to show his profile and feet but not much of anything else. The last picture is the 3D kind but he wouldn't uncover his eyes. I got feeling bad because I haven't tracked my pregnancy with this baby like I did with Taylyn so here is a picture of me at 6 months. I have since popped, some of it probably due to all the sweets I have eaten over the holidays.

whatever

I told you before how she loves to say "Whatever" to Cody I got a picture while she was saying it. I still think it is funny but she is really starting to figure how when and how to use it. She thinks she is so funny and it gets Daddy's attention! You can see the attitude in her face!!

Oh the Tie Die!

Every morning Taylyn wants to pick out the shirt Cody is going to wear until he gets ready for the day. She always digs through his shirts and finds his Tie-die one. Cody was so sick of wearing it he hid it in the middle of all the shirts. The next morning Taylyn went to the closet and pulled down all the shirts until she found it. I had to take a picture. I also have a tie-die shirt that she discovered and loves to get it out for me to wear as well. We need to get her one of her own so she can wear one too. I am just a little afraid she will want to wear it everyday!!

Dog Suit

Cody's Mom has been cleaning out her basement and she came across this dog suit that each of her children wore for Halloween. She wanted to get a picture with Taylyn in it. Cody was no happy to be putting in on her and Taylyn was not pleased with it either, as you can see from her face!!!