Phone pics...

At Christmas, I finally entered the world of the Smart Phone! I know, I am officially a grown up! I started taking pictures with my phone and using instagram **gasp** a whole world I didn't even know existed! :) 

I know that if I don't actually get my photos off of my phone every now and then, then they will be forgotten about and on that phone forever and there are definitely some good ones I don't want to forget about. I still prefer a real camera to a phone camera, but it is nice being able to snap and share all at once!

Here is my first ever phone picture. Sunday afternoon nap with Taylor on the couch:

This one of Taylor is yes, taken in the bathroom! I'm sorry! It is the only time that have have a few minutes to myself and I was taking advantage of trying to figure out the workings of my new phone. Obviously my time alone was short lived (as it usually is) when Taylor just barged right in! She told me to take this picture of her and even did a fancy little pose! :)

 

This is what happens when I let the kids dress themselves. These outfits were especially fabulous, so I had to get a picture:

 

And this is what happens when you have a pregnant mommy; fries & milkshakes for lunch. Just the two of us:

 

My mom got me a curling wand for Christmas so I finally tested it out for a date night one night. My hair has never taken a curl so well! It was so much fun! I could probably learn how to use it better, but this is what I got out of it:

   

The kids had been talking about wanting umbrellas forever, and I found some on clearance at Target. I got them for their Easter baskets, but they found them and have loved using them all of the time! And we can sure use them right now, that's for sure!

   

A Saturday morning spent painting our nails:

 

And another Saturday morning playing with Imaginext. We love Imaginext!

I am going to miss these lazy mornings next year when Tucker has early morning school...sigh...

Belly shots:

22 weeks:

And 24 weeks: (What a difference just two short weeks makes!)

Taylor is totally ready for a big girl bed, and we have one for her, but since we may be moving here shortly, we are just going to wait, and have just kept her in her crib. She can easily get in and out of it by herself, so it's no biggie. :) She got in one day while I was cleaning and said to me, 'Look mom, I'm juggling!'

 

And another lazy morning of coloring before school! I love these two!

 

Taylor turns 3!!!

I can't believe my baby is 3! Where has the time gone? On one hand it seems like just yesterday that she was my little round faced baby fresh from the womb. Then on the other hand, I can't even remember what it was like to NOT have her around. She is my little shadow, my little friend, play mate, helper, and probably one of my most favorite people on this planet. There is just something about her that I absolutely adore, even when she is whiny and scream-y and no fun at all. I can't help but just LOVE LOVE LOVE her. We have had a connection from the moment she was born. I can still remember the first time they gave her to me and let me hold her in the hospital when she was about 5 seconds old. We had an instant connection that I didn't have when Tucker was born. As much as I absolutely loved him the moment he was born, it was totally different with Taylor. (I hope that doesn't sound bad for Tucker-I love him too!!!) But Taylor and I have always just had a thing, and I love her for it! I love having her with me most everywhere I go. I look forward to many many many years of just her and I together as the women of the family.

This year her birthday fell on a Sunday, and you know what that means!!! A whole weekend of celebrations!!! :) Woo-Hoo!!! Ben thinks I go over board with my 'more than one celebration' for a birthday. But I have lots of friends who celebrate birthday weeks or even birthday months, so I'm not ashamed to admit that we had a whole weekend of celebrations!

The Friday before her birthday, we were hosting her play group at our house, so I decided to turn it into a little party for her. The school district also had a make up snow day that day so there was no school for the older kids, so I invited the older siblings of the kids in the play group. And what a party it was! I somehow got out of making a cake for her this year. Since the play group is in the mornings, from 9:30-11:30, I got her birthday doughnuts. And since her birthday is right around Valentines day, there were a lot of pink sprinkles to choose from! Extra bonus! :)

She was very pleased with her birthday doughnuts. :)

Add some goldfish, Starburst flavared jellybeans, grapes and popcorn with M&M's (A few of her favorite things) And she didn't even notice the lack of a cake! :) Also, some Target dollar section crafts, mini-play doughs and mini bubbles for the kids to take home as favors and to play with while they were here, and it was a perfectly simple and easy party! :)

Drew's older sister Kendyl came to play/help since she was out of school for the day and it was so nice having a little helper. She totally led all the kids in games and kept them entertained for me! :) You can tell it is the day after Valentines day, everyone is still wearing Red or Pink! :) 

Kendyl helped Taylor  make a heart shaped pizza out of her play-dough:

Of course, even though I told them not to, they brought gifts:

Maggie gave Taylor this owl, that she still absolutely adores! (I think that Taylor thinks that Maggie is her older sister, they spend enough time together, they are totally buddies, even though Maggie is Tuckers age, and is really good friends with him too. She is so sweet to Taylor!) I will be sad next year when Maggie is in all day Kindergarten, we won't have as many play dates!

After the crafts were done and the toys were opened and there was only a few minutes left before the parents were to come to pick them up, Kendyl led them in a dog pack and they were all dogs and roamed around our house in a dog pack, barking and panting. (Thank goodness for Kendyl, glad it wasn't me down there with them!) :)

My mom came in to town that afternoon to spend the night with us before flying out to my sisters house the next morning. It was a perfect night to celebrate with grandma.

This girl loves her some grandma!

You can see she was very excited to be opening presents:

We went to Hu-Hot where they give the birthday kids a free S'mores dessert. So we roasted some mallows:

I'd say it was a success: :)

Sunday morning, on her actual birthday, we once again had doughnuts for breakfast before church. Leftovers. And she got to open her gifts from us.

After church that evening, we watched a movie together as a family. And had some icecream and cookies after for a treat. It was a perfect way to end the day.

Here she is snuggling with daddy watching the movie:

Yes, she wore her 'Birthday Princess' shirt again on Sunday :) I love this girl!!!

 Then on Monday, because my dad was out of town on Sunday and so was Kathryn, they wanted to do something for her for her birthday. Kathryn had just spent the weekend in Tacoma at the Washington State High-school boys Wrestling tournament that John was in, so she had gone to a cute little cup cake shop over there and had brought back one for Taylor for her birthday. So sweet!

Papa was singing a bit crazy and she wasn't quite sure what to think about it! :)

And all of us with the birthday girl!

Happy Birthday my funny, smart, sweet and crazy little girl! I love you SO very much!

The day of LOVE!

The day of love was so LOVE-rly. I love these smallish holiday's where we don't have to go crazy with activities and food and decor and can just celebrate the ones we LOVE the most.

We did decorate a little bit. Had to. I can't help it! I made this picture banner of the ones I love the most. I actually found the cute little heart clips in the dollar section at Target and wanted to use them somehow, then I found some red yarn I had that I had forgotten about, and vioala- a picture banner was made!

Of course, class and friend Valentines were made. I didn't want to go the commercial route, so I made these You 'blow' me away Valentine cards, and attached them to some cute bubbles also found in the dollar section at Target! :) Thank goodness for the dollar section at Target-It's my fave! And then I had Tucker sign his name to each one and decorate them if he wanted to, and they were done. Super easy!

We also spent the few days leading up to Valentines day making cards for daddy and grandparents. Here is what Ben got when he woke up on Valentines day:

A slew of homemade cards and paintings and some reasons why we LOVE him!

I wish I would have thought to take a picture of the cards we sent to the grandparents before we sent them all out, but they were so cute, we cut out a handprint of the kids and then I glued their picture behind it on a card and so the hand came down like it was blowing a kiss. And it said, 'Blowing lots of kisses your way!' I got the idea on Pinterest, and they turned out so cute. Then the kids decorated them!

I made the kids a special V-day breakfast of a cut out heart in their toast:

Notice the chocolates got eaten BEFORE the eggs & toast. I guess the order is: Bacon, Chocolate, Eggs and then if they have room, the toast. :)

I actually hopped in the shower real fast after breakfast and when I got out, the house looked like this; the chocolate boxes opened and half eaten. (Chocolate boxes left for us from daddy when he left for work.)

Then some more opened and half eaten chocolate boxes on the couch. (Papa had come over and given us even MORE chocolate!)

And this girl in her room with chocolate on her face. hmmm....

We had a wonderful day though! Tucker's class had a Valentines day party that I helped with. Here are him and his BFF, Irelynd. (Yes, sadly, he's moved on from Brooklyn!)

Taylor was happy to participate in all the fun things the class got to do:

They had different rotations with activities and treats at each one, and Taylor LOVED being a big girl with her brother in his group:

And then I got busy for a few minutes helping some kids with some stuff, and I found that Taylor had made herself at home in the corner reading area. Shoes off and all!

Ben kept on telling me that he had Young Men's that night. Which is what he usually does every Thursday night. I had a night full of heart shaped pizza's and making cookies with the kids planned because I thought we'd be flying solo. But! That morning when I got my V-day card from Ben, he told me to meet him downtown and that he had arranged my dad to watch Tucker and my good friend Katrina to watch Taylor for the night! It was absolutely perfect! :) What a wonderful husband I have! We ate some good food, cozied up in our hotel room, watched a movie and got a GREAT night's sleep! It was exactly what we needed and a perfect evening! :)

I had to get a picture of this, Ben packed his stuff for the night in a BOX! Who packs in a box for one night at a hotel? I was dying laughing! :) Only Ben! We have thousands of bags here at our house, easily accessible. But he chose a box! :) My funny Valentine!

It was definitely a perfect way to celebrate our LOVE and there sure are a lot of wonderful people in our lives whom we LOVE!