4 Years Old!

Happy Birthday, Addison! Our girl is 4 years old. We had a great weekend celebrating her little life. We were so thankful for the houseful of helping hands we had as we turned our house into the North Pole for a “Santa’s Workshop” party. An especially big thanks to BopBop for spending HOURS tying strings on snowflakes!

Addison discovered Grans's necklace before the party, and did not want to take it off.

The kids came downstairs and wasted no time digging in to the cookie decorating setup!

Although both of our children were terrified of Santa, he did make an appearance.

This cute little guy walked in the door, grabbed Addison’s hand and jumped right into the festivities. He also kept giving her kisses! We’re going to have to keep an eye on him!

The kids also enjoyed some great snuggles and lovin' from all 4 of their grandparents and enjoyed having everyone around for a few days.

And although we have no pictures of it, we, of course, celebrated the exciting Heisman win of RG3! The kids were clapping and cheering, even though they didn't really know why. Then Austin breaks out with a "Yay, Sic 'em Bears!" Maybe he did know after all.

It's hard to believe it's already been 4 years since this little bundle joined our lives. For some reason this year I did a lot more reflecting and remembering our experience, thinking about what we were going through this time 4 years ago. I have to say, 4 years ago I may have been pleasantly surprised at what life looks like now. However, I'm really glad I'm on this end of things!

HOLIDAYS!

We had a great Thanksgiving in Texas. We enjoyed cooking, constructing, playing outside and riding the golf cart & 4-wheeler. The kids had a blast hanging out with their cousins, too.

This weekend we decorated our house for Christmas. We’ve looked so forward to starting traditions with our kids and carrying on the traditions that we remember fondly from our own childhoods. This is the first year the kids actually participated a little in the decorating, and it was a lot of fun. I know they still don’t get it all, but you’ve gotta start somewhere, right?

Believe it or not, I actually caught the kids like this this morning completely unscripted. I love that this picture marks where we are in life- 2 kids here, but 5 stockings behind them (and a random cup in the middle of the floor??).

Catching Up

Not that many posts ago, I mentioned that I was going to try to do better about posting more often. That obviously did not happen. Sometimes it just doesn’t feel like there’s much happening in our lives that anyone would want to read about. So since the last post, we’ve just been chillin’…

(notice the watch is on her right hand- little lefty!)

Wes completed the Tough Mudder, a 12-mile obstacle course through the mud,

(running thru wires with live current in them)

and posing for pictures.

(this is his "smiling" face)

The kids were Dr. Seuss’s Thing 1 & Thing 2 for Halloween. They were not very cooperative with photos, and then we forgot to try again once we got home, so here’s the best we got.

For those of you who don’t know, we found out we’re having a girl! We had a level 2 ultrasound, and everything with her heart looks perfect & they found no markers for Down Syndrome (my first trimester screening was elevated), so that was all very good news to receive! We are currently at a standstill on her name. We both have names we like, just not the same ones.

Addison & Austin continue to play so well together. It’s really fun to listen to them playing & talking together. Today I heard Austin say, “Come on, Addison. Let’s play cakes” (a game they made up). So cute!

In the last few weeks Addison has made some huge progress in her speech! It was, of course, right after we had been talking with her speech therapist and teachers about how we didn’t feel like she was talking much and what could we be doing to encourage this more. And then she just comes out with phrases, concepts and even sentences that I had no idea she could form! It’s been a lot of fun! Here she is today at lunch. She insisted on puppy sitting in her chair and she’d “feed” him and then take her bite, the whole time conversing with puppy, “More mac & cheese? Okay. Here you go. Yummy!” Anytime she wanted something she’d say “Puppy wants milk” or “Puppy more apple.” And if I’d ask “You want more apple?” she’d say, “No, puppy more apple.”

Austin is currently obsessed with baseball. We’re not really sure where this has come from. We watched the World Series, but he was asleep for most of it. These are some of the phrases we commonly here him saying around the house:

“I love baseball, Mommy.”

“I GOT IT” (with a coozie over his hand, held up in the air)

“C’mon Rangers.”

“I play baseball” (usually right before he throws something he shouldn’t be)

As you may imagine, Wes is pretty excited.

I’ll really try again to do better with blogging. Hopefully with the holidays coming I’ll have more to share. Thanks for staying tuned.

Mini Laps, Warrior Dash & Birthday!

This was a busy weekend for the Taylor family! We had lots of family in town to celebrate with us. Saturday included Addison’s MiniLaps, Wes’s Warrior Dash, a birthday party for Austin, and watching the Baylor Bears play some football! The kids loved having all our family in town. I wish we could have them around more often!

Addison did great with her lap. She waved at all the spectators as she walked around, but I think was a little too overwhelmed to smile!

We flew from there to Warrior Dash to watch Wes jump over fire.

Then we headed home to celebrate Austin’s 2^nd birthday! He enjoyed his cake and singing, but has loved playing with the train set he got! It’s been a huge hit.

"I did it!"

Sic 'Em Bears!

My dad also took some pictures of the kids for us. They love their rain boots, so I wanted to capture this phase for them.

Funny Kids & Birthday Hats

I am loving my kids ages & stages right now. It seems like they do things every day that crack me up. I am writing this post mostly because they have done things in the last few days that I want to remember, & this is the best place I could think to put them.

1. We are starting to see Addison’s mischievous streak. Last week was picture day at school and she WOULD NOT smile. Her teachers said they were doing everything they could to get her to break a smile, & she’d almost start to smile & then stop herself.

2. Addison has been refusing her lunch that I send with her to school. I thought she was maybe getting bored with the same old stuff, so I actually looked online for creative ideas and have put some effort into her lunches. Still refusing it. However, she will eat other kids’ foods. So today her teachers realized that she won’t eat it if she thinks it came from home. But if they sneak it onto a different plate or tray- she eats it! Little stinker!

3. Austin played dress up at school the other day. His teachers said they put a tie and sunglasses on him, & he wouldn’t take them off the whole morning.

4. Addison has been sleeping in a big bed for about 6 weeks now with very little protest. We’ve only had one night that she got out of bed- until last night. After I put her down I heard her dresser drawers closing, so I went back in, & she had turned on her light and was climbing into her chair to read a book. The second time I went back in, I unscrewed the light bulb from her lamp. So she gets out of bed, cries for a minute when the light won’t come on, then climbs back into bed and goes to sleep. I guess she’s just testing the limits.

5. Yesterday at Target Austin gave a constant narration of what we saw: “White box. Yellow. Baby stroller. Shoes. Blue. Brush teeth [toothbrushes].” Then out of the blue, he puts his finger on his chin and starts saying, “Mmm-hmmm. I seeeee [with accurate inflection].”

6. Austin’s newest phrase: “Aw, shoot!”

As I type these out I realize some of them don’t sound as funny as they were when they happened. Oh well, I enjoy them.

Last week was Austin’s birthday. We were going to have a little family celebration at home that night. Instead, we ended up running to ERgent care to take care of an ear infection. Bummer. However, at preschool they made him a little crown to wear, & he loved it! He’s been wearing it around the house saying “birthday hat.”

I wanted to get some pictures of Austin in his crown, & we had some extra time today, so we went to the park to take pictures. I think the only reason he was okay with it was that he got to chase squirrels. I tried to explain to him that the chase is a lot more fun than the catch. I’m glad we didn’t find out for sure!