Taylor turns 2!!!

I can't believe that this little lady is already two! She is so much fun to have around, I love love love her. She is sweet and sassy and loud and loving and just our little miss thang. She's my little buddy right now and can always be found somewhere close to me. A lot of times during the day I will tell her to go and play or I will turn on cartoons for her so I can get something done, but most of the time I fall victim to her persistence and cuteness and she pretty much gets what she wants.

She loves her big brother and can pretty much hold her own with him. She is not afraid of him and doesn't let him bully her around, although he pesters her ALL day. :) I missed her so much in Hawaii! She is just now starting to get into princesses and dolls. She loves wearing princess clothes (a church dress) and she got a stroller for her birthday which she LOVES. She loves pushing her dolls around the house. Maybe she has a girly bone in her after all. She is going to be our roller coaster lover. She loves going fast, going on bumpy roads, being swung around and just being out of control period. And she's loud. Oh the loudness of her voice and she's not afraid to use it. I have never met a little girl so excitable as her. She gets SO into things. If she is into something, which happens all the time, her little arms get so stiff and and her hands just move around and around and around and her eyes get so focused. I gotta make sure I harness that energy and passion when she gets old enough, because she sure does have a lot of it!

We just love our Taters, and are so happy and feel so blessed that she is a part of our family. I can't imagine life without her.

Don't get me started on the binky. I said that I was going to start weaning her of it when I got home from Hawaii, but honestly the thought scares me a bit! She is so attached, and will seriously ask for them all day long. And she likes to have extras in her hand and will just randomly change them in and out. She's addicted. Those and her blanket. I'm not even going to try with the blanket. I don't want to make myself miserable. She will carry 3 or 4 of them around with her all day long. She is so funny!

This year for her birthday we kept it pretty low key. I had all of these grand plans, that I will hopefully do next year, but they all fell through out of sheer laziness. I had just gotten home from Hawaii the day before and was just exhausted. Plus, we were all feeling pretty crappy, so we just stayed home and hung out at home like any other day.I felt kind of bad that we didn't do anything exciting. Well, my mom took us to chuck e cheese the day before her birthday, so that was her big celebration. :)

On her actual birthday I made the kids 'T' pancakes and then also the number of how old they are for breakfast in the morning. Tucker always gets the uppercase T and Taylor always gets the lower case t. That's how I tell their stuff apart if they have something matching.

Pretty typical picture for my kids:

Then we had Papa and Kathryn over for a fondue dinner. I was going to invite friends, but since we were all sick or on the verge of getting sick, I thought we should keep to ourselves. I made these cute little bug mini cakes. They are so cute, I wish I could have decorated them better.

I took out two of them for the candles and put them on the table with the rest of the food and before my dad and Kathryn even got here; somehow without me knowing Taylor climbed up on the table and delved right in! :)

Luckily there were more. :) But we had a nice night as a family and had fun watching Tates open her gifts and blow out her candles.

Next year I will try something a little bit more fancy, but this will have to do for a 2 year old. :) I went a little overboard on Tuckers 2nd birthday and realized after that maybe I didn't need to do so much for a 2 year old. Sorry Taylor! :) Such is the life of a second child. We sure do love you though, girly! :)