baby girl turns 1...

I can not believe that my little baby is already a year old! There is no possible way! Seriously, where did the time go? I can not even begin to tell you how much I love this little girl! Honestly, I was a little disappointed when we first got the ultrasound with her and were told it was a girl! I wanted another boy SO bad! I had this grand vision of buying bunk beds and having them play sports together, etc etc etc... and they were all dashed when we found out she was a girl! But boy how happy I am now that she is a part of our family! I can't even describe how she completes our family. And I'm even typing this as I listen to her scream in her crib! She was so a great sleeper before we left for Hawaii. We had begun the training of her just putting her self to sleep, like I would put her to bed semi awake and she would fall asleep on her own. We knew we were in trouble when we were talking to my mom one night and she told us that she was rocking her to sleep every night because she was just too cute to let go! Talk about 10 steps backwards! I mean, don't get me wrong, I love rocking her to sleep, but I just wanted to get her trained to fall asleep on her own before she started standing up on her own and she was pulling her self up on the side of her crib, because now she just stands there. I go in every 15 minutes and put her back down and just tell her it's time to go to bed and sleep. (until I give up and just put her in my bed with me, it really is just SO hard!) :)

Anyway...back to my beautiful baby! The thing I have learned with Taylor is that there is just no way around guilt as a parent. There are some days I just feel so bad for her because she is just dragged around and around, here and there and doesn't get a nap in (except in the car). But I feel guilty about that, so the next day we stay in ALL day so she can get in some good naps and I feel guilty for Tucker because he is cooped up all day and gets all wild and crazy! Anyway...Taylor is just our sweet chunky baby girl whom we all love and adore! Well, she isn't all that sweet, actually! She is a stinker! She is so different from Tucker as a baby! She has attitude and she has sass! She makes you work for her smiles and affections and she lets you know exactly how she is feeling by either her grunting and screaming or her throwing of her food or toys, or her totally contagious laugh! :) And that is why we are ALL THREE in love with her! And the poor thing just doesn't know what life is like without having someone (Tucker) squeezing, rubbing, loving, kissing, patting, pulling, or snuggling on her!

What would I do without my taters?

We had Nathan, Angie & Carter over for some Cafe Rio dinner on the night of her birthday. (she told me it was her favorite, it was all her idea!) :) And I made some cupcakes. We just kept things simple. I have learned my lesson about planning too much for a child's birthday when they could care less! :) ha ha! So we kept it simple and it was perfect! Tuckers first birthday cake was a piece his Aunt Kayla's bridal shower cake; they were on the same day, so this was a step up from his! :)

I love this succession of photos of her with her cake:

At first she wasn't quite sure why everyone was singing to her...

But she loved the attention...

Daddy had to feed her her first bite, she wasn't really sure of what to do with the cake...

After she tasked the goodness of the frosting, she dug right in! Just like her mama, doesn't hold back when it comes to food! :)

A little upset when all the frosting was gone! :) I should have put more frosting on!

Then on to opening some gifts! Thank you Carter! :)

Having fun with her new toys!

The coolest present she got was this cool piano from my mom! We have been having fun playing on it! It is one of those cool ones that you can dance (or crawl) on to make music! It is so cool!

Happy birthday my little Tater tot! We love you SO SO SO much!

I just took her in today for her 1 year check up and she weighed 21 lbs. and 6 oz. and was 30 and a half inches long! Such a big girl!

Funny story about the Dr. I took both of my kids in for their yearly check ups (yes, Tucker was a little late on his!) And I love their doc! She is wonderful. I take them to Dr. Simmerman at Valley Young People's Clinic. I have been taking Tucker to her since he was born and now Taylor. I love that she knows and loves my kids! She was asking Tucker a whole bunch of questions, ya know, about shapes and words and numbers etc.. and Tucker has really been into rhyming lately, he is always trying to rhyme things together and he is usually really good at it! So, he was, of course, showing off and he got really excited and asked her if she wanted to hear him rhyme and she said, of course! So he starts looking around the room and he said, ' Door....WHORE!' He obviously had no idea what he was talking about but we both just burst out laughing! It was the funniest thing I have ever heard. Of course, Tucker loved that so he started saying it over and over. This is going to be fun when he starts rhyming things with his own name! :)

By the way...she is already asleep, the little angel! :) i love her!

Post Edit- I think I got a little distracted when writing this and didn't mean to write that the only thing I've learned since being a mother of two is about guilt! :) While that is true, wouldn't that be sad if that were the only thing I've learned! :) I also wanted to write about how much more I've learned about love. The crazy thing about love is that it grows! I was a little nervous before I had her that I wouldn't be able to love another child like I loved Tucker. He was our whole world for over 3 years! I was so scared that having another baby would take away from him some how. But it has been amazing to me how my capacity to love has just increased and increased. There are still days where I feel guilty (read above) because I can't meet every need of both of them every day. But I sure do love them both more than I ever thought I could love!