My pretty baby girl

Taylor was hanging out in the hallway, just chillin', so I took a few snaps of her.

I like the effects on this one.

Cute little dimple.

Chuckle Chuckle Chuckle Chuckle

What a dorky word.  Chuckle. 

The Festival

On Saturday, we went to Historic Mansfield's Wine Crawl.  I love that part of Mansfield.  Some of my favorite shops are on that strip, including an awesome all-natural feed store and Steve's Garden and Grill.  This was my first time in the art shop, which I loved!  Wow!  There were so many amazing pieces!

It was really, really hot and humid.  I didn't seem to phase Christian and Jaiden.  They enjoyed climbing all over the firetruck.  The two of them were on a mission the entire night to snag a balloon.  I don't think either of them ever succeeded. 

We learned about a lot of great restaraunts that we have been missing out on.  Lucky for us, there were lots of samples!  (not enough for my hungry tummy, though)

We ended up at Steve's and listened to the reggae band.  We will definitely go back there some Friday or Saturday night for a family-friendly night of music and good food.
My back was sure sore the next day from carrying Taylor around in the Bjorn.  I think she has exceeded the weight limit.  I felt pregnant with a 20 pound kid.

Juuust. Aboouut. Therrrre.

Taylor is just about crawling!!  

She can definitely get places, but it isn't normal crawling.  She gets so frustrated trying to figure out how to coordinate all of her limbs.
Christian started crawling at six months, also.

For my memory's sake:  She started sitting up at 4 months old.  She started rolling over both ways around the same time.  She is cutting teeth, but none have come through yet.  This has made for some very long nights.  She is just over 19 pounds, or may be at 20 pounds now. She will eat anything.  I mean ANYTHING.  Pickles, ribs, beans, bananas, chicken, carrots, kiwi, mango, crackers, collard greens... you name it.  I still make all of her baby food.  Her favorite thing is definitely milk, though.  (still no formula)

Sarah the Diva Pig

I never knew a pig could be so much fun!

If we try to correct Sarah and she isn't willing to cooperate, she will whip her head around with attitude. 

She will follow us around, giving love bites on our legs to get our attention.

She looooves to have her tummy scratched. 

She is constantly in search of food. 

She is definitely a diva and has pretty much taken over Taylor's pretty room. 

Every night, she will disappear and make herself a bed on Taylor's floor using her rug.

She likes to pick on Bam.

She is extremely nosy and curious.

Taylor thinks she is just hilarious.

She is pretty much house trained, but has had a few accidents in one specific corner. (probably our fault)

She does NOT like baths.

She gets sudden bursts of energy and darts around the house like a mad woman.

 Getting her belly scratched

 She makes her bed like this in Taylor's room every night.  It was actually dark in here, but my flash lit it up.

Snoozing.

Last Trip of the Summer...

Our good friends invited us out to their family's lake house on Possum Kingdom.  Happy birthday, Candice!!  We left earlier than everyone else, so we piddled around, stopped at Dairy Queen, and hung out for a bit.  Ryan is very against dining in at Dairy Queen, but this one was quite decent.  The drive seemed to take forever in the dark with no landmarks to speak of.  When we finally got there around midnight, we drove up in the middle of a fiesta!  The entire community was outside of the lake house hanging out, drinking some cold beer, and living it up.  The kids WERE asleep.  But there was no way CK was gonna miss out on the lively festivities... plus his girlfriend, Jaiden, was awake and playing.  We got all settled in, put Taylor to bed (she did not sleep very well), and hung out with everyone for a bit.

The next day, we hit up the lake.  We anchored down at the infamous Hell's Gate and swam around for a bit.  When we came back, the luau party was just about to begin.  The kids' water slide was already set up and some folks were sporting their grass skirts.  As the people were getting ready for the party -mowing and such - someone ran across two tiny baby bunnies.  The poor things were terrified, so we gathered them up and made a home for them.  Most of the dogs out there roam free, so it wasn't safe for them to be left alone.  I bottle fed them for the first few days with small animal milk replacer.  They now eat rabbit food.

The food that night was awesome!  I could have eaten those ribs every day for the rest of my life - Taylor and CK ate them up, too.  And I actually had some potato salad that I really liked!  Candice and I rocked the karaoke, while the kiddos practiced flips and tumbling in the grass.

On Sunday, we went back out on the boat for some tubing action. CK jumped right on the tube. He did not even want me to ride with him on his first go.  After a few runs, I jumped on with him.  He liked for me to lay down while he stood over me, holding onto my lifejacket as a "ski rope".  He said he was "kurfing" (surfing). 

 I love this picture.

 And I love this picture.

 And this one.

This one, too.

 Hell's Gate (I did not take this.  I forgot to take a picture of it.  Duh!)

 (This is not my picture.  I put it on here to show how everyone ties up together in Hell's Gate.)

I am pretty sure this is how CK's boogie board broke in half.  Haha.

 Everyone, even Frank the pup, was so tired.

 Christian and Jaiden fell asleep on the couch together. 

 

 All by himself on that big ol' tube