Quiet Holiday.

We had such a nice quiet Thanksgiving at our house. Rob's cousin Joseph and his wife Kendra came to spend the Holiday with us. Thanks guys! We had a great time. We also got to see Rob's brother John and his wife LaHoma and their four kids. They came in for just one night. We had a great time and wish they could have stayed longer. Pretty lame I didn't take any pictures though!

Birthday pictures

Here are a few pictures from our very low key little party:

I was having a hard time getting her to smile! She hasn't been feeling great the past week so she looks so sad. She got this cute fake food from my sister Chrystal and her family. I thought that she would be more into taking off the wrapping paper but she was acting scared of it so we had to take it off for her.We just got her this little push and ride toy, which Rob is putting together in this picture, I didn't think about doing that before hand! She was very patient waiting, not like she will even remember any of this anyway! Taylor refused to eat the cake at first , but them she got a taste of it and started shoveling it in!

This pictures is from their actual birthday yesterday...

It was so fun to celebrate their birthdays. It is still crazy to me that they are on the same day. Rob hopes that it will always be their little bond :)

Time Flies

Today is the birthday of my two favorite people. I cannot believe that one year ago we were having our little girl. I know that it is cliche to say time flies, but it really does!

Giving birth to Taylor was one of the most amazing things I have ever done. I will not forget that moment of pure shock and joy Rob and I had when she was finally here. I won't forget how Rob was so excited and telling EVERYBODY that it was his birthday. We often talk about how long we waited for Taylor and we never want to forget that feeling of gratitude that we had when we first found out I was pregnant and when she arrived healthy and well to us one year ago.

Happy Birthday to my wonderful hubby and beautiful baby girl!

We had a little family birthday dinner and cake on Sunday since Rob had to work today. I will post pictures of the birthday boy and girl later!

A little late...

I know it is already a couple weeks past but I thought I'd put our Halloween pictures up. A friend in my ward let me borrow a costume for Taylor because I really didn't want to buy, or attempt to make, one just for the neighborhood Halloween party. She was a little pumpkin.
The outfit had a cute little hat which I knew she wouldn't keep on for two seconds, but I hoped I could get one picture.

As you can see it was unsuccessful. This is me giving up...Rob threw on a last minute wig and funky outfit to pass out candy. It was fun. Really I think this was out first year passing out candy. We never got trick-or-treaters in Pittsburgh.

The best part of this picture though is Taylor' face....

FINALLY...Good weather!

We are SO happy that the weather is getting so nice here. It is about this time of ear that we remember why we like it here! I have been going on a lot of walks with Taylor. We usually go to a little park right by our house. She really likes the swings. I think she could sit in them for a long time, I am usually done way before she is!

We were also lucky a couple of weekends ago to have Rob's sister Carol and her daughter Hannah come visit us. They are so good about making that drive down from Utah! It was just for a long weekend but we had a great time just hanging out. I love seeing Taylor play with extended family.

Fat Lip

Taylor is just an accident waiting to happen these days. She is constantly on the move and pulling herself up on everything which equates to falling all of the time. Last night she was playing by the fireplace hearth and, for the split second I wasn't looking, fell and busted her lip. It was the worst she had every screamed. Maybe even worse than when she fell out of the shopping cart. It was horrible. There was blood. Now she has this little fat lip that I see her licking with her tongue all day. I'm telling you I am so relieved when I put her down for the night to know that she is relatively safe and I don't have to be on edge waiting for her to hurt herself any second!

Like a second honeymoon...

A few weeks ago Rob and I got to get away on a little trip. It was our first time leaving Taylor and getting away just the two of us. It was hard to leave her. I am so used to being attached to her everyday, but it was GREAT to spend one on one time with my hubby. We left on a Monday and drove out to California. We got to spend a couple day with Rob's uncle and brother. On Tuesday we went to Knott's Berry Farm with his brother, Dave. We all realized how old we are when we were done after a few hours and our bodies were hurting! So sad. I just remember being younger and you could run around an amusement park all day! Needless to say we had to take a nap after that and then Rob and I went to this great Farmer's market right there in Huntington Beach. It was so fun. They had great stuff and all of the food there was amazing. The berries were huge and beautiful. Then we ate dinner right there looking out at the ocean. It was perfect. I do love California.

Wednesday- We left LA and drove down to San Diego. We stopped at the San Diego Temple, which is where we were married. It was so fun to go back and remember our wedding day how beautiful it is there. After the temple we drove to the San Diego port and got on our cruise ship. We took a little cruise down to Cabo San Lucas and back.

We spent most of our time here on Lover's Beach.
We did a lot of eating...a lot... a lot.

We spent a lot of time just reading too.

And mostly, just relaxing.
We were probably pretty boring. It was amazing though how much fun we had just hanging out and reconnecting without all of the distractions of life, work, and baby. We are so grateful to my mom and sister who took such great care of Taylor that we didn't have to worry about her.

We decided that we really need to do this once a year, get away and remember how much we love each other. We are already dreaming about next year...

Ten Months

(photo courtesy of my sister Chrystal)

Taylor turned ten months yesterday. I can't believe she is just a couple months away from being one, crazy! In the last month three of her teeth have come in, her bottom two centrals and one of her upper centrals. Her other one is starting to come through too. Needless to say all of these teeth are making her a little crankier than usual. She also seems to have a runny nose all of the time, which someone told me was from teething but I don't know if that is true or not? She is pulling herself up on everything and wanting to explore, which is really just a nice way of saying she is getting into everything! Yesterday I put her down for a minute to try and put my makeup on, two seconds later I turned around to find that she pulled herself up onto the toilet and started unrolling the toilet paper. Lovely, huh? She is still sleeping really well and is so quick to smile and laugh, which is one of our favorite things about her. She smiles at everyone who looks at her! Let's just hope the recent crankiness is short lived...

Redneck Fun

We had such a fun weekend this last weekend. Friday night we got to go on a date night with m sister Chrystal and her husband. We went to Cheesecake Factory for dinner and then back to our house for dessert and games.
Than on Saturday Chrystal watched Taylor for us so we could tube down the river with our good friends Cami and Scott. We have discovered as we are telling people that we did this that it must be a very redneck thing to do and they kind of look at us like,"You floated down the river, that is digusting!" Well we did, and we had so much fun! Maybe we are a little redneck at heart. It's great though, you all get your tubes and then you get one extra tube to put your cooler in. Then we tied them all together and just relaxed as we floated and ate and chatted. At the end there is this one part where you have to get over to to get off. So we were all trying to scoot our tubes over and some how Rob fell and got tangled in the rope. We didn't realize he was tangled and just kept dragging him trying to get over. It was funny. We were all laughing the whole time. Maybe it just made us feel younger, like we were back in college!

Rob could probably pass for a little redneck with his hat in this pic. :)

Cami & Scott

#1 Mom Moment

So last Friday I was at the craft store with my sister. We were in the line to check out and we were both turned looking at something on one of the shelves on the side when I heard a noise. I looked over to see my baby on the floor and then she started screaming. I think I froze for a split second , like what just happened here! She somehow flopped herself out of the cart. It was HORRIBLE! I felt so bad I wasn't watching her. I didn't think she could get out if she wanted to. I just picked her up and left. By time we got out of the store she had already stopped crying but I was still feeling frantic. I called Rob and then the doctor. They told me I should bring her in just in case. Remarkably she was fine. She must have caught her head because she didn't have the tiniest bump or red spot. Thankfully! Luckily the nurse didn't make me feel bad and tried to tell me it happens all the time. I am sure I was way more traumatized than Taylor.

Death to scorpians...

Since our first encounter with scorpions when we moved into this house last November we have been having the house sprayed and had not not seen a live one since. I say had because last night we found a live one. Rob was in the closet changing after work and he looked over and saw it on one of my skirts. How it got on my skirt that was hanging up, I don't know! Thinking about it really just disturbs me. We were both so cranky. It almost makes us uneasy to be in our own house! I called the exterminators this morning and they can't come out till Saturday. How am I supposed to feel comfortable putting any of my clothes on?!!

Playing at the "beach"

Our neighborhood has this pool that everyone calls the Beach pool because they have brought sand in to make it feel like the beach. Taylor is getting to an age where it if fun to go. She likes sitting in the sand and playing in the water.

9 Months

Our girl turned nine months on Monday. She is becoming such a little person. Over the past month she got her first tooth and started crawling. She wants to be on the move and playing all the time. She had also started doing this funny almost fake laugh when she is really excited. It is so fun to watch her grow.

Laziness...

I am so behind. I wish I could say it is because we have been so busy and traveling, but this is not the reason. I've just been lazy.

We have just been trying to enjoy our summer. Same old routine. Rob's busy working, and I am at home doin' the deal with Taylor! We have been venturing more into the world of babysitters and that has been great to get out and go on dates with Rob more.

A few pictures to catch up:

We celebrated our 6th year anniversary.

Marrying Rob was the best decision I have ever made. He is my very best friend and we still laugh all the time together. I think that we become closer and I love him more with every year.

We had a low key 4th of July. We had a little pool party at my sisters, Taylor is really starting to enjoy swimming. WE decided it wasn't worth keeping her up to watch fireworks so we went home and put her to bed and Rob and I just watched a movie! We actually had a lot of fun. It was just nice to have Rob off of work for a few days.

Taylor always seems to have this face in pictures. Her eyes look like she is surprised and her mouth is always opened!

She is eight months now, I can hardly believe it. She is getting so big and it is fun to watch her little personality coming out more and more. She wants to be moving and exploring everything all of the time. She is so anxious to crawl, but she is not quite there. She kind of army crawls right now if there is something she wants to get to. It will be crazy when she is really crawling! I am not sure I am ready for that and all that it entails...