Silblings...

Can you tell that these two are siblings or what?
One word: Cheeks!

As I was looking through some of Taylor's pictures I was SO reminded of some of Tuckers pictures as a baby. I had to go back and compare. We sure know how to grow 'em big around here!

So cute! I love these two!

Speaking of names...

We had our little Taylor girl blessed while Ben's mom was here in town. It was so nice to have it while she was here. We wanted to do it while she was here because she had brought with her this absolutely beautiful southern blessing gown. It is the same dress that my niece was blessed in a few months ago in Alabama. The Pyper side of the family is out numbered with boys. My Sister in law just had a little girl and so my Mother in law got this dress for the girls to wear for their blessings. Anyway, we were so glad that Taylor was able to wear it and she looked just darling in it!
She didn't, however, enjoy us putting it on her. :) I was so glad that Ben's mom was here to help get her dressed in it.

And finally coming to terms with the fact that this dress was going on, no matter what! :)

Oh, look at that sad sad face...

We were going to do it during Sacrament Meeting, but we didn't plan too well and found out last minute that our ward was having ward conference that week, so they didn't want us to do it during sacrament meeting. Anyway, long story short, we ended up doing it at our house with all of our family after sacrament meeting. I actually really liked doing it at home, really intimate with family. It was such a sweet blessing. There is nothing better than watching your husband bless your sweet baby girl, giving her a name and a blessing. It was a great blessing, and we are so blessed to have little Taylor Rae in our family!
Taylor and her daddy...

Tucker wanted to put his hands on her head, just like the other guys did, so he got to do it after the blessing...

Here is my family that was present. Allen & Kelli came up from Quincy so it was nice that they were there with us. Nathan & Angie were in Hawaii, and we were sad that they weren't able to be there with us.

And Grandma Glo and little Taylor. It is Grandma Glo's father whose middle name was Taylor. So it was great that she was able to be there while Ben, who was named after her father, was able to bless his daughter with the same name.

Here are the two Campbell granddaughters...

And our little Pyper family. I can't believe we have two kids! It is still crazy to think about sometimes. I swear we just got married last week! Is it just me, or is Tucker just so handsome??? :)

Me and my beautiful baby girl!

{I just love that gorgeous dress--Thanks Grandma!!!!}
I just had to add these pictures, because they are so cute. After we took off her dress, I sat down with her, and she was just smiling and smiling. (And yes, after taking off her headband and seeing that red mark on her head, I don't think I'll be putting a headband on her again any time soon!) Anyway, she was just smiling and smiling away...

And instantly pulled this face! I am so glad my mom caught it on camera! :)

I just love our little girl! I can't imagine our family without her.

What's in a name...

Because we always call her Taylor Rae, people have been asking us if her name is Taylor Rae, like her first name is TaylorRae., Or they ask if we are going to call her Taylor Rae all the time as her first name. Just like a lot of people call me Taraka Rae together. Anyway...the answer is no. Her first name is Taylor and her middle name is Rae. She just will go by Taylor.

But it's just cute to call her Taylor Rae sometimes!

She is named after both Ben and I. I like to say she is named after her daddy. Ben's middle name is Taylor. My middle name is Rae; and my mom's middle name is Rae. Taylor was also Ben's grandfathers middle name. So, her names, both of them have some deep family roots. I love giving my children family names. Tucker isn't necessarily a family name, but his middle name is Campbell, which is my maiden name, and obviously very dear to me. A lot of people I love and respect deeply have that name!

I just can't stop taking pictures of her! She is our little chunky monkey! Here are a few of my favorites from the past few weeks. I have so many things to blog about, but I just can't help but post these right now! I will hopefully work on some more posts tomorrow so I can finally get caught up!

Her faces are just priceless! I know this picture looks like baby torture, but she was just in awe of all the exciting things in Tuckers room, so I just let her lay there and look around at everything.

Grandma Glo's visit...

Ben's mom came to visit us during her spring break, and we loved having her here! We were still in newborn mode around here, so we didn't get out much, but we still had a lot of fun playing inside and doing the little things. Tucker is pretty easily entertained! :) But Grandma got a lot of baby time, and that was what she came here for, so I hope she had a good time anyway! :)
We did make it down to Riverfront Park one day. It was a little chilly, so I didn't want to take Taylor out for too long. But they did get to ride the Carousel. Tucker saw the carousel and was so excited, and I didn't understand because he usually hates carousels, but him and grandma went for a ride, and he actually liked it! It was the first time I had actually seen him enjoy it! Well, the first few rounds, he didn't look too happy, but after that he seemed to have fun.

We fed the ducks. We forgot bread, but we had just eaten Mexican food for lunch, so we fed them leftover quesadillas. :) The ducks downtown are crazy! They were seriously getting so close, and just wanted more and more.



We, of course, had to stop at the garbage goat. Yeah, we really know how to impress grandma here in Spokane! :) And the garbage goat didn't disappoint! :) I was watching this show on the Travel Channel of the top things to do as you travel on I-90. I-90 is the interstate that goes from Seattle to Chicago and it goes right through Spokane. And the garbage goat in Spokane made the list! It is a must stop here in Spokane! :)
Anyway, here are the pictures to prove how cool it is!

I can't tell you how many pictures I have of myself on this garbage goat, from over the years; And now here is Tucker's first one of him on it! :)

Ben, Tucker and Grandma Glo at the falls. The falls were kind of lame this year since we didn't get any snow, but Grandma didn't know any better, so shhhh...don't tell!

This is what Taylor looked like in her little blanket tent on her stroller...so cute! I can't get enough of this girl!

It was time for grandma Glo to leave and I realized, because we hadn't done much all week, that I didn't have a picture of her with the kiddos. So, here's the best we got on her last day here!:)

We love you Grandma! Come again soon!

Dear Aunt Kayla,

Please hurry up and get here, we are counting down the days! :)
Love you!!!

BFF's...

I love having two children!!! I mean, it is A LOT of work, and not so much fun sometimes, but I love watching these two together. Well, right now it's only Tucker that I love watching because Taylor can't really do much, but you know what I mean. Tucker LOVES Taylor! I think that he is just so happy to have someone other than just me all day! :)
She was crying the other day and I was doing something so I asked Tucker to put her binky in. She stopped crying, so I figured he had done what I asked. I walked out a few minutes later to find Taylor has some friends in her bouncy chair with her. :) Instead of the binky he had gotten his super heroes to comfort her. It worked, she stopped crying! :)
I guess this is what you get when you have a big brother...

The two cutie-pies...

I just love this picture because of the look on Taylor's face...

And I love this picture because Tucker got a hold of my camera and this is what he took a picture of. Flash. Can you tell that he is all about super hero mode these days?

I took Taylor in with me one morning to wake up Tucker. Yeah, she was having a good time! :)

Then she fell asleep on his pillow and Tucker woke up. He was very happy to have Taylor next to him when he woke up. I love it!

BFF's..

I really hope it stays this way! I love that these two have each other. (Yes, I do realize that she is only 2 months old!) But I sure do love watching them together already! He is very protective of her already, he always jumps right up when he hears her crying, and does what he can to make her stop. And he always wants to help! Life is good with these two!!!

Life with Taylor Rae...

We sure are in love with our new little Taylor Rae.
We have had many firsts over the past few weeks. But first things first, the new BIG brother!
This expression pretty much sums up his feelings about his little sister. He loves her! He is ALWAYS wanting to love on her and kiss her and be near her. I love watching him with her. He is so sweet and gentle. (most of the time!) :)

Her first Dr. Appointment... Had to get in the ONE TIME use of her newborn size little outfit that she got as a gift. My children have both jumped right over that size as they have both been born bigger than the weight limit. :) But that's why we love them. So when a friend of mine gave me a newborn sized outfit, I knew that we'd be lucky to get in maybe one day of wear out of it! :)

Her first Olympics! Taylor was born right in the middle of the Olympics. Since they were on 24 hours a day for the first week and a half of her life, we did a lot of Olympic watching when she was first born. To say that our good friends, Ryan & Alicia are Olympic FANATICS would be an understatement! :) So when they showed up to visit Taylor when she was just a few days old, I wasn't surprised when they gave Taylor her very own Olympic Onesie! :) I love it! I love that it is totally homemade! :) It made me laugh so hard! :) Taylor was the youngest little Olympic fan cheering on our American team! :)

Her first bath... She actually loves bath time and will usually just lay there and let me clean her! She is so sweet! There is nothing better than smelling a freshly bathed newborn babe.

First trip (of many, I'm sure) up to Papa's house. We went up to Sunday dinner at Papa's house. And she loves snuggling with her daddy! :)

My mom was here for her first week of life, and Uncle Nathan and Carter came over to visit one day. Some how Uncle Nathan ended up with both the babies and a naked Tucker (he does have underwear on!) snuggling up next to him! :)

Grama and Carter snuggling up! I love how Carter has drool just hanging out of his mouth. That is to typical of Carter right now. He is always soaking wet with his drool! :)

And here is Taylor snuggling up with her Grama...

This is the first of many, I'm sure, pictures of these three cousins. The three new Campbell cousin babies: Cassidy, Taylor & Carter. I'm sure that Carter has years of torment ahead of him being so close in age to two girl cousins! :) I know my cousin, John can relate as he was stuck being close in age to me and my other cousin, Alicia and we used to torment him! :) Love ya John! :)

And obviously this was the first visit from Aunt Kelli, Uncle Allen, Keyton & Cassidy! Tucker had fun with Keyton being here and I'm sure Cassidy and Taylor will be just as close! :)
Taylor Rae snuggling with her Uncle Allen...

Our first outing, besides to the Dr. or to Papa's house was to the Enloe's (surprise, surprise!) :) I think that Tucker, at this point in his life, thinks that the Enloe's house is his second home. Olivia loved her some baby Taylor! :) It was my first experience breastfeeding outside of our home and Olivia, who had no clue what I was doing, just came up and lifted up the blanket and asked me, 'are you feeding her from your tummy?' I really didn't want to get into it, so I just told her yeah, and sent her on her merry way! :)

Tucker got my camera again and took this picture of little Taylor...

Other than all of these firsts, Taylor has been doing a lot of this....

And we have not been doing so much of this! :) But I just can't help but take lots and lots of pictures of her while she is sleeping. I just love those cheeks! This little girl is the funniest little girl! She is such a grunter. She grunts 24/7 like loud man grunts. She sounds like a motorcycle! :) It makes me laugh so much! We had to move her out of our room because she kept us up all night. At first I would get up to check on her and she would be sound asleep, just grunting non-stop! Ben's mom thinks that she is destined to be a shot putter the way she grunts! :) I think that she is going to give Tucker a run for his money. She seems to not be very shy about the way she is feeling. She shows all of her emotions on her face and isn't afraid to let you know how she feels, and is NOT very quiet about it! :) I'm anxious to see how her little personality will be!

Anyway, we love her! :)