TAAAYLORRR RRROSE!!!

She hears her name so often these days, mostly in my stern voice. 

She learned how to climb out of her bed. 

The first time, it was funny.  Christian and I were outside laying out his freshly dyed noodles so they could dry (he later made a necklace).  I heard her holler "MOMMY!". I looked up to see her standing at her window, blinds pulled back, looking right at us.  That made me laugh.

I put her back in her bed, since she still needed an nap. 

I later came in to something much worse.  This didn't make me laugh.

Next to the rocking chair was an ottoman with her baby book (seen on the floor by her chair) and her baby keepsakes in it, all sorted chronologically.  This was scattered all over her room.

 Every diaper was pulled out.  Every toy.  All the "too small" clothes that I had sorted - donate, save, give back to whoever.  Ugh! 

So, I closed her door and walked away.  I was too frustrated to pick it up at first.

I then went back and made her help me.  CK was a very big help, too.

I didn't know what to do.  So, I talked to her.  I told her that she can not get out of her bed anymore and that she needed to lie down and go night-night.  "No more", I said.  She repeated to me, "Out.  No ma'am!!".  I agreed. 

Guess what?  She layed her little head down and went to sleep!  She didn't get out of her bed again!  It always surprises me what babies can understand.

A little bit of Christian

This month, Christian has done some cute things... some funny things... some inspiring things... and some crazy things. 

* He likes to go around the house and try to karate chop flies. 

*He throws magic at EVERYTHING with his "magic hands".  The automatic doors at stores make him soooo happy!  He throws little balls of magic at them and VOILA, they open!

(have you ever seen the car commercial with the kid that thinks he is Darth Vader?  This is soooo CK!  Watch it here.)

*He put his Bakugans in his pajama pants the other night and told Ryan "Here, put these in your underwear.  Thats where I keep them."  Ryan told him "no thank you, we don't share underwear treasure."

*He found some tiny little snails in the front yard and brought them in to keep as pets.  He took them back out after a bit so they could go potty.  They were never seen again.

*While eating at Chick-Fil-A, he prayed and thanked God for his food.  I always forget to do this.  Thank you, Christian baby.

*My mom emailed this to me:

We were driving to my house from Target and the sun was sooo bright! I had on my sunglasses and Christian was squirming around trying to block his eyes from the light – so I handed him another pair of sunglasses I had in the car.

Me: Wow, that is really bright, it’s almost painful

Christian: It’s God.

Me: That’s right.

Christian: Okay, God, I know I took a long time in the story but really… I’m sorry.

Me: HA HA HA HA HA!

Christian: Don’t laugh you’re going to make it really bad. You’re not supposed to laugh at God.

Me: [serious] I wasn’t really laughing at God.

Christian: That’s good. You can laugh at me, but not God.

Me: I think God likes to laugh too.

Christian: But don’t laugh at Him.

Me: Okay.

XTO Picnic 2011

Every year XTO outdoes itself and puts on, yet, another fantastic picnic for the employees. 

Ice cream stands galore, smoothie stand, pretty extravagant face painting, caricatures, serious pencil drawings, shows, entertainment, bounce houses, foam factory, music, catered food, snacks, drinks, raffle, goody bags for the kids, bingo for the adults (with really, really awesome prizes)... you name it.  It's all free, too!

This year's theme was Carribean Getaway, so there were lots of pirates and sand. 

The kid's each received a cute pirate-themed bandana (among many other things) in their goody bags.  This bandana became Tay's shirt for the day.  It was funny how many photographers took her picture at the picnic.  She definitely got her 15 minutes of fame and loved every minute of it.

There were cannons going off all over the place!  (no cannonballs, though)

Christian quickly ran to the sandpile.

 He was determined to find the hidden treasure.

 Tay tried to keep up.

 She didn't really care too much for the sand, though.  She just loved her new accessories(bucket and shovel).

 This parrot let CK hold him like a little baby.

 Pirates were everywhere!

 Nikki and I did the zipline.

 Woo-hoo!

 I just hung there like a limp noodle.

 This guy handed CK the ball and was trying to coach him at first.  He even let him move closer a bit.  As soon as CK threw his first pitch, the guy said "Woah!  Man!".  The kid definitely has an arm.

 Cheesin'

 Chillin'

 I let them give her a tramp stamp.  HAHAHAHA!  Ryan didn't like it too much.

 She insisted on having this one, too.   :)

 CK's favorite part was the BMX/Skate show.

 So very intense...

 The guy jumped over a kid.  I would never let my kid volunteer for this!

 At the end of the show, the kids all got autographed posters of all the riders.  CK now has his hanging up on the inside of his closet door.

Rainfest 2011

We ventured out to Grapefest this year to glance at all the wine that I can not enjoy. We had a really good time, though.

I think it rained once this summer in the matter of 107 days. We went to Grapefest on this one day of rain. It didn't just rain...  it friggin' POURED for about 2 whole hours. So, we sat down in a little shop to eat tamales then went outside to watch the rain.

  Before it rained, we had a chance to hit up the carnival part of the festival.

Christian played a basketball game, hoping to win a ginormous stuffed goat or something. Luckily, he did not win. He came VERY close, though.

Taylor was very intrigued by the merry-go-round. So, we put the kids on and let them go. I didn't even think about how this could affect my not-just-in-the-morning sickness. (16 weeks and STILL sick.  What's up with that?!)  But, I did survive.

 As we watched the rain, CK's hair got curlier and curlier.  I looooove his hair!

Changes

I changed my do.  I used to change my hair ALL the time, but since I have had Tay I've been blonde and long... boring.  So, I cut my bangs, layered my hair A LOT, and make it light golden brown. 

Tah-dah!

My Miss Priss

I have been messing around with my camera some and decided to take some pics of Taylor Rose.  She is such a ham and LOVES having her photo taken.  As for me, I still need a lot more training on my camera.  There are times when I surprise myself and a shot comes out in great focus and is very detailed.  But more often, my shot comes out a bit blurry and without much depth.  I need to get the whole ISO/shutter speed/ aperture thing down.  Just when I think I have it, something goes wrong.  Maybe I just need to take a class.  I could use a Photoshop class, too.  I am descent, but not great.  So for now, I stick to basic editing.

Where did all the water go?

We went to Possum Kingdom to celebrate Candice's birthday and watch the first Cowboys game of the season. 

I took the kids on a walk to the lake, which wasn't far considering we were at a LAKE house.

 But, the lake was much farther away than we remembered.  All of this dirt used to be under water.  It now makes a great home for many deer.  Taylor Rose LOVED the deer!

 When we made it to the water, we all ran right in and discovered that the ground was very soft.  I loved the texture.  It was super silky and squishy mud.  We all wanted to roll around in it!

 Tay couldn't resist the squishy-ness.

 Christian liked how clear the water was.  We could see straight down to the bottom.

 Tay just liked to run and splash.

 Christian practiced skipping stones and got REALLY good!

 He ran...

And ran.

 We collected cool things along the shore.  I was determined to find jewelry or something really awesome since this had all been under water for a super long time, but had no luck.

 CK found lots of shells.

They are actually STILL in this very cup in the 3rd row seat cupholder of my car.  No one ever sits back there so I always forget to grab them.

 What the heck?!?!  We never did figure out what this thing was.

 CK wrote his name in the sand.

 And Tay wrote hieroglyphics.

 I love that my kids are such water babies!

 We all had such a great and relaxing time.