Walking and Swimming

Our little man has started walking! He is still quite wobbly, but he is doing so well! He keeps getting better and more confident each day! We are so proud of him and can't believe we are approaching his first birthday next month! It's hard to believe we are already to this stage with him! Where does the time go?

Kingston is walking...Taelee is swimming! She is like a little fish in the water, or should I say a mermaid?! Most of the time she "turns into Ariel" when she gets in the water. She's always saying, "Mom look at my fin!" She loves to pretend that Stephen is King Triton, I am Queen Athena, and Kingston is Flounder. We have lots of fun at the pool! Today she decided that she was Taelee pretending to be Jasmine pretending to be a mermaid! She is constantly going back and forth from pretending to be Jasmine to pretending to be Ariel...she LOVES to pretend and we love to hear the silly sweet things she comes up with!

Daddy's Homecoming

Kingston LOVES when his Daddy comes home...

Pure EXCITEMENT!

Love His Giggles!

Hi Nana!

I took this video on my phone with the economy setting so the quality isn't the greatest, but my family had to see this little guy...wish you guys could see him in real life!!!

What a Girl

Taelee is such an entertainer! She has been a dress up queen! I don't know why I even bother getting her dressed in the morning because she ends up in her dress up clothes anyway! She is obsessed with princess and calls all of her dress ups her princess clothes. Today she told me, "I have princess arms, and princess hair, and a princess dress!!!" Sunday I put my dress on for church and she came squealing..."Mama, you look like a pretty princess! I love your princess dress!" Stephen always asks me what I created, but I didn't push her to be so into princesses...it just happened! She is constantly talking to a princess on the phone and her conversations usually goes like this, "Hi Cinderella, what you doin'? You going to the ball with the Prince? Ok, love you bunches buy!" She always tells me that a princess is at our house. She will pretend that they are there playing with her. The other day she was using the bathroom and she looked down "Oh, there is Cinderella!" I asked her what she was doing, if she was doing princess twirls, and she looked at me and said, "No Mom, she is doing this (shaking her head and body)". I love her little imagination!!! She LOVES her sunglasses! She will keep them on for HOURS, and she wants to wear them with what ever she is doing. She was wearing them this morning during breakfast and wanted to wear them last night during family home evening. All of these cute things really way out the sassy stinker she can be sometimes!

We sure love our little princess!

She has a small fascination with my bras. She loves to put them on and announces that I am wearing a bra all the time. (This should make for an interesting time when I am breastfeeding!) The other day she was doing princess twirls with it on...what a girl!

Look Who's Pedaling Now!

Taelee has been working on riding her new bike since her birthday. She hadn't quite mastered the art of pedaling until today! Stephen took her outside to practice, and I guess that's all it took!
Check out her skills...

Friends

Taelee LOVES her stuffed animals! She has quite a few, and loves everyone of them! Sometimes I wish that she loved her baby dolls as much as she loves her animals. That is until I see her doing this! I went in to get her from her nap the other day. She didn't hear me come in. She had lined all of her friends up and was giving each one a kiss. She is so sweet!
I was so happy that she didn't see me so I could get it on video!

Christmas 2009

We had a great Christmas this year!
Before Christmas we made cookies. Taelee takes after her dad in the raw cookie dough eating department...disgusting! Every time I would look away she would be reaching for more, shoving it in her mouth! Every shape I cut out she would try to grab and eat...it drove me crazy! It was fun making them with her though! Sadly they were the worst cookies EVER and they all got thrown away! Taelee enjoyed hers though, but I'm fairly certain she would eat ANYTHING sweet put in front of her!

I was so excited to have SNOW on Christmas Eve (and Christmas too)! Stephen's family came over for a non traditional pizza dinner. We watched Elf and Taelee had fun playing dress ups with cousin Julia.

Christmas Eve in our new jammies!

Christmas morning was great! Taelee was really excited when we told her that Santa had come over. He brought her a new kitchen. She LOVES it! We had to wait a while to open the other presents because all she wanted to do was play with the kitchen. When she opened the rest of her presents she was so lucky to find a sweet doll house from Nana and Gonka! She was in seventh heaven with all the new little friends inside!

See ya Later Alligator

This is by far one of my favorite things Taelee says!

She is saying see ya later alligator, in a while crocodile have a good day!

Surprise Trip to Utah

My dad came down to Texas this last week for some work meetings. He stayed with us for a few days, and I thought what a great opportunity to surprise my mom! So on Monday when my dad left guess what? Taelee and I went with him! It was so much fun planning this secret mission to surprise my mom. I can't tell you how many stories we had to come up with to hide what we were doing. My dad told my mom that he threw his back out to get her to come in the airport. We couldn't have done it without the help of my brother and sister in-law, they helped with all the arrangements at the airport. We couldn't have gotten home without a car seat. Thanks Josh and Ash! All those stories were definitely worth it...

My mom figures EVERYTHING out, but this one she hadn't a clue! She was so surprised! The surprises carried through to Tuesday too. My sister and brother didn't know that we were coming either. First we stopped at my sister's house, that was a fun surprise. Pardon the slight language...

Later that day my dad told a slight lie. He told my brother that there was a truck by their house that he needed to come see...surprise they got to see us instead! This was mainly for my benefit because I got to love on their sweet new baby!

On Thursday before we left we all had dinner at Gardner Village. It was so much fun! I love going there in the fall, so beautiful. Taelee liked looking at all the witches, but loved the ponies and ducks. We had fun taking pictures at the cutest truck, I had a hard time choosing because they were all so cute.



I love surprises, and I must say that being the surprise was just as good!

Prophets and Apostles

Taelee loves the Prophet. We were watching Special Witnesses of Christ last Sunday and she loved learning all of the Apostles' names. Stephen was looking at the ensign with her on Saturday and she was so smart to remember them. A new favorite is President Eyring because he has glasses like Mommy. I love the way she says Uchtdorf! I can't wait for a couple more weeks when we will get to hear from these great men again!!!

*This little girl amazes me EVERY day! She makes my heart melt every time she speaks, especially when she says "thank you mommy" after I have given her something...she is such a blessing to me, I think I would be a nut case right now with out her!

What are we up Against?!

If it is, I don't think we will be having another baby anytime soon! Just kidding, but could you imagine her doing this to a future child? Where on earth did she learn this? If someone has secretly been teaching her to wrestle and attack her baby, I beg you, please stop! Last night I had to take the baby away from her because she was getting too rough. This is so interesting because she is the sweetest little girl, and is very gentle and nice to others, but when she got this baby out she went crazy. She doesn't do it with any of her stuffed animals or other babies...maybe we'll just have to keep "Bella" away for a while until this little craze has passed.

Tea Party

I was trying to get pictures of our house today (I'll post them soon!). While I was doing that Taelee was doing this...

These were her clean clothes I was going to fold. She put them all on the fire place, and then tried everyone of them on. She asked me to dress her friends Saddie, Sammie, and Paisley. We decided to have a Tea Party with cherios and lotion.
Her friends looked so cute all dolled up for the party!


This is just a snippet of her cuteness!!! Yes, she dressed herself...

I wish I could have got more! I see a lot more videos in my blogging future because she is doing the cutest/funniest things lately, I wish my family could see them!

Jumping Dare Devil

Ok so she isn't a dare devil, I don't think stepping off of a 4 inch stool would be considered dangerous! She did however show her impeccable landing skills! Also that "ready, set, go" is a lot more fun when there is a slight delay after the word GO. Oh yes and the soggy wet diaper seen from under her shorts is the new fashion statement so ladies head to the store for the depends!

Favorite Things

I thought I would share some of Taelee's new favorite things. She has become quite independent and some days I think I am dealing with a 3 year old, but she is a sweetheart!

She is obsessed with shoes! We catch her all the time trying on our shoes. I remember a video of myself when I was little doing the exact same thing. Maybe it runs in the family.
(this video was taken while we were staying at Stephen's sisters)


She has found that she can climb right up on our bed with the ottomans. When our bedroom door is open we know where to find her...a little monkey jumping on our bed! She loves to lay on our pillows. I have caught her with her books up there, and daddy's Tetris game. The video is of her putting earring on her ears while lying on the pillows


She has started asking to take pictures, and we made the mistake of giving her our camera. Now every time I try to to take a picture of her she wants to hold it, "me do it". It's a possibility that most pictures of Taelee will be of her lower extremities or her hands...what have we started?!

Maybe I should just have Taelee take pictures of our house...she is pretty good! She's got a good angle don't you think?!


Taelee has also added a few more stuffed animals to her mix. She now has Sammie, Sadie, Daisy, and GiGi that she must sleep with, and an occasional rubber ducky. The other day I found her reading to her friends that she had lined up. It was so cute I grabbed my camera, but when I started recording she freaked out and wanted to hold it so I didn't get it on video. I wish I had a hidden camera on me all the time so I could capture all the cute things she does!

Letters and Shapes

I have been meaning to record Taelee with her letters and shapes for 2 months now, but as you can tell with my blogging, I haven't been very good at keeping up. It is also very hard to record a one year old and write at the same time. So finally I had Stephen record it today while he was home, and don't mind the shaking...videos always tend to be shaky when Daddy is recording!

It amazes me at how much Taelee can retain! I'll teach her something and it just seems to click. When we are driving in the car she points letters out that she sees. She loves stop signs and will say "S" stop! So cute! She also loves to look at books and point out the letters. She is one observant little girl, it makes me wonder what our other kids will be like. I was trying to make the video short so I could get it to load but she also knows a lower case "e" "r" and "u". Also when I write her name and ask her what it says she says "Taelee".

She does know a square, but sometimes she gets a little distracted, something to expect with a busy one year old! We are so proud of this little girl of ours!

The Sweetest Girl

I am fairly certain that we have the sweetest little girl! I am so grateful that I get to spend every day with her because she does so many cute things, I would be missing out if I weren't with her every second! I wish that I could have a video going of her all the time. I am so grateful for her sweet personality, she does so many things that make me laugh and more things that melt my heart! Today she was out on the porch (her favorite place) with her lamb (her favorite toy) and she was trying to show him everything she knew. She put him through the slats and would say "side" (outside), "crs" (cars) and then she lifted him up and said "sky" and "mouns" (mountains). It was so sweet, it was like she was being the little mother trying to teach him some things. In addition to her mothering abilities, I watch my friends baby Tuesdays and Thursdays and Taelee loves her! She always wants to touch her and whenever she is in her car seat she loves to rock her. Today she was so sweet with her!

Translation for the video "ni" (nice) and "hi yo" (hello) and a side note on "ni" whenever I ask Taelee if she is a nice girl or if she is being nice she pets her face and says "ni".
Could this girl get any cuter?!!? I am so grateful to be her mom!
and could someone tell me where the time goes, she is 16 months old today?!!?

Feel Good Friday

1. Milk of Magnesia. For those of you who don't know milk of magnesia is supposed to be used as a laxative. But don't you worry, I have found a better use for it...face wash! I have been "blessed" with acne since puberty. I thought it would have gotten better by now, but I am sad to say it hasn't. My wonderful sister in-law told me that her brother's doctor told him to use milk of magnesia on his face! I just started using it last night but I can already see and feel a difference! Thanks Ash for the great tip!

2. Warmer Weather on the Horizon. These last couple of days have been depressing...snow in mid April is just plain WRONG! Taelee will be sad when the "moman" (aka snowman) across the street melt away, but I am grateful for the foreseen warmer weather this weekend!!!

3. Ikea's EXTREMELY durable products. This video should explain it all
(make sure to have your sound on!)

She started shaking her head to try and get her hair bow out, but combined with the spinning it must of made her too dizzy!
I quickly turned the camera off because I wasn't sure how she was going to react to such a hard blow; I wish I would have kept the camera rolling because she is one tough girl; she stood right up and said, "more". It's like it didn't even phase her! What a sweetheart! I promise she is just fine! Stephen has been the little devil on my shoulder begging me to put it up. He hasn't stopped laughing since I showed it to him! We are very grateful that she wasn't hurt! We are also glad that Ikea's products are so durable!

Like Mother Like Daughter

Taelee loves to play with my jewelry, my bracelets in particular. She usually puts on one or two, but today she put on every one of my bangles. It was really funny watching her try and get them all on her wrist, she got pretty good at it!

Of course she had to sort them out and make piles throughout the house!

Soon after putting them all on her wrists she realized she could also put them on her legs. She got all of them on both legs at one point! She was grinning from ear to ear, thinking she was one smart cookie! You can see the smarty pant grin in the last picture. I was so glad that it was before bath time so she had naked legs, making it a million times cuter!

Old McDonald had a Farm

...and on his farm he had goats, lambs, ducks, horses, a donkey, and much much more

We took Taelee to the farm at Thanksgiving point a year ago when she was four months old, but she couldn't really enjoy it. We took her again on Saturday and she loved it this time! She pointed at everything the whole time. Every animal we would come up to she would make their noise. They have corn that you can feed the animals and she loved when Stephen would feed them. The video shows that she enjoyed it...num num!

The flowers are starting to bloom there and Taelee was going crazy over them. She couldn't smell them enough!!!

This was Taelee a year ago when we took her...it is scary how much she has changed!


***I'm sorry for all the pictures, I just couldn't pick one! I hope you enjoy them!