Nine months and Noisy!

Taylor is now 9 months old! I took these pictures of her today playing with her favorite toy, a giant stuffed bear. She has two teeth no although you can't really tell in these pictures of course.

Here are a couple recent videos of her. She's so entertaining and surprisingly noisy. This little girl is so much fun. (sorry the first one is so dark)

Things that make Taylor happy:

chewing on stuff

face plants into pillows other soft stuff

other people clapping

baby einstein

Brooklyn

waking up

playing with faces

peek-a-boo

cheerios

making loud noises

shopping with mommy

Butterfly fly away

First day of Kindergarten . . . it came way too fast. I put her on the bus this morning and as it drove away (faster than it should have) I was just about ready to fall apart. I didn't think I would be so emotional about it, but apparently I can't help it. I thought I was prepared for this. I was waiting for the day when I could do what ever I want in the morning, watch my shows, do my own projects without having to find a project for Brooklyn to do, not listening to her saying "I'm hungry" every 10 minutes. Now that's gone and I'm not sure what to do with myself. I remember my first day jitters, but this is multiplied by 10, mostly because I won't be there with her. I've had all this anticipation building, and now I just have to wait.

I know she'll be fine. She has a great teacher. Her teacher is the principal's sister for goodness sake. How could it get any better than that? Mrs. W is her teacher and Mrs. V is the classroom aide. Their classroom theme is all ocean life so there are fish name tags, fish hanging from the ceiling, and a fish bowl billboard. It looks like so much fun in her class.

Taylor even had fun during meet the teacher.

There were lots of chairs for her to crawl in and out of.

Well, on Monday (I don't know why I didn't wait until Tuesday) I thought we would do some fun things, but I have to say going to see Hannah Montana at the movies was the most fun. Now I can't get the song "Butterfly fly away" out of my head. It was stuck in my head when i went to bed last night and it was stuck there when I got up this morning. It has the best lyrics and probably is why I'm so emotional. Here they are for your poetic pleasure.

You tucked me in, turned out the light


Kept me safe and sound at night


Little girls depend on things like that


Brushed my teeth and combed my hair


Had to drive me everywhere


You were always there when I looked back



You had to do it all alone


Make a living, make a home


Must have been as hard as it could be



And when I couldn't sleep at night


Scared things wouldn't turn out right


You would hold my hand and sing to me



Caterpillar in the tree


How you wonder who you'll be

Can't go far but you can always dream



Wish you may and wish you might


Don't you worry, hold on tight


I promise you there will come a day


Butterfly fly away



Butterfly fly away, butterfly fly away


Flap your wings now you can't stay

Take those dreams and make them all come true



Butterfly fly away, butterfly fly away


We've been waiting for this day

All along and knowing just what to do


Butterfly, butterfly, butterfly, butterfly fly away



Butterfly fly away


Butterfly fly away

I'm learning to let go.

Celebrate!

Saturday was my birthday and at this age it almost feels like just another day. Well, Mike did a good job at making my day feel special! First, he let me sleep in a little and took care of the girls while making breakfast for me. We ate French toast and sausage together as a family. Mike is not much of a breakfast eater so this is kind of a big deal for me. For those of you who don't know, my husband is a great cook. I love eating his food.

After breakfast we got ready to go see "Up." I loved this movie! It's so fun and works well with both old and young. We saw it as a family, Taylor too! We've never braved the movies with an infant before so this was a first for us and she did great. We even got compliments from people sitting around us after the movie at how well she did.

Another surprise during to movie was Taylor's first tooth! She finally got one out on the bottom. She's still quite fussy so I'm sure others are soon to follow. It's hard to get a picture without a screaming fit so you probably won't see one.

After the movie we went to Joe's Fresh Farm Grill. Warning: The Fried Chicken Tender Basket might as well be the Four Fried Chicken Breasts Basket! They were huge. I only got through two and had to take the rest home. However, like many things on the menu, they were delicious. I don't do fried too often so this was a nice greasy treat. Higley and Ray if you're interested.

After lunch, we took the girls home and Mike gave me birthday money and sent me shopping BY MYSELF for 2 blissful hours. After visiting 5 different stores, I ended up with 2 shirts, 4 pairs of earrings and 4 necklaces. It's been a long time since I've gotten any stylish jewelry so I stocked up!

I got home and got all fancied up with my knew jewelry and we headed off to a surprise dinner. Mike wouldn't tell me where we were going so I tried to be calm and patient about it hoping it was something I would like and not something he's been dying to try. We took the girls to Ted and Stef's (cousins) in Scottsdale. The only clue I had was it was near their place and I had never been there before. We swapped cars with Ted and Stef (which they had just washed their beautiful black Tacoma and we had our dingy dirty Pacifica) and used GPS for the first time ever to get to our destination. Where did we end up?

THE MELTING POT!

This is a picture of one part of our four course meal! It started with a cheese fondue appetizer with breads, vegetables, and green apples. Then we had a salad. Then came the entree with 5 different kinds of meat (filet mignon, sirloin, pork, chicken, and shrimp) and more vegetables (as seen in picture). Then dessert! Pure milk chocolate fondue with rice krispie treats, pound cake, brownies, cheesecake, bananas, strawberries, graham cracker covered marshmallows and the favorite of the night . . . oreo dust covered marshmallows. We've already decided to figure out how to make the Oreo marshmallow. They were delectable! I was absolutely stuffed, but so happy and in love with my food. Thanks so much Ted and Stef for watching the girls. We really appreciated it and they had such a good time. Brooklyn is still talking about Lola!

I give all the credit of my beautiful birthday to my wonderful husband. He takes such good care of me and puts up with a lot. I am so incredibly blessed to have him in my life. We've been friends for 10 YEARS now! Best friends just shy of that, so it's very hard to imagine life without him. I'm so glad I married my high school sweetheart and that we have two beautiful girls to show for it. We have a blast and still laugh at each other almost everyday. We may have struggles just like any other couple goes through, but I will forever love him. After such a wonderful day I've got a tall order to fill for his birthday. Hopefully I don't mess it up!

Here's a list of some things we got on my birthday (or planned to get) for free or special priced:

Free popcorn at Harkins

$10 of your meal at Joe's Fresh Farm Grill

A dozen donuts at Krispy Kreme (missed this one)

special love and attention from those who love you :)