What's Up, Taylee?

Oh, sweet baby Taylee! She is our pretty princess, our angel baby, mommy's little miracle.This picture was taken right after a bath the end of August. She is now loosing some of her super-chub, but she still has great cheeks! Her hair has some curl in it when it is wet and it is so stinkin cute!On September 1st, Little Miss turned two months old! Here she is all ready to go to see the doctor. She wasn't this happy after she got all those shots. She was miserable all day! I felt so bad for her :( At two months she was 13 pounds 3 ounces (95%) 23 inches long (75%).Taylee enjoyed her first U of U football game...well, kind of. She mostly just chilled in her cute Utes gear. The game itself wasn't super exciting. Poor Cougars.Another picture of sleeping beauty. So peaceful. She is getting super long eyelashes. Lucky girl! This picture was taken in September before she developed her latest talent.... ...sucking her thumb and rubbing her hair! At first I was not too thrilled with this talent. How was I ever going to take her thumb away?!?!? And then she started sleeping 10 hours straight through the night (thank you, Ms. Thumb, for always being right where she can find you!) and I decided to count it as a blessing and not a curse. One day we'll figure out how to break the habit. For now, I'm enjoying all the sleep I'm getting!!!

The Sunday after General Conference Taylee received her name and blessing. Her name has a really special meaning and her blessing was as beautiful as she is! I can't say it enough, she is my angel and I feel so blessed to be her mom. Some babies cry during the blessing, not our little miss. She smiled through the entire thing! It may be that she LOVES being talked to, and having all those Priesthood holders looking at her while being blessed didn't hurt either, but I think she gets it. It was a very special blessing for a very special girl!

I really need to get a picture with a real Taylee smile. She smiles with her whole face and it just melts my heart! Her eyes are still really blue (crossing my fingers they stay that way!) just like her grandma, aunts, uncles, and great-grandma (the Taylor genes). That is one gene I wished I would have had passed on to me.

I'll do another post with more pictures of Taylee after I can get some of her in her dress on a day that isn't as busy as her blessing day!

Taylee is such a good baby. She eats great and sleeps even better! She is happy. She loves to coo and talk to us....and LOVES to be talked to. There is a light in her eyes that makes me want to be a better person. A more patient person. A more spiritual person. A person equal to the task of raising such a beautiful daughter of God.

What's Up, Ryker?

Ah, Ryker! Such a cute little stinker!! Ryker is at such a fun age. I really love 3!! He doesn't have all the milestones that Jaxon has reached but hopefully one of these days (one of these days soon!) we'll be posting about him being potty trained. Not today. He knows what he wants and he's not one to be persuaded to do anything that is not his on his agenda.

One day while we were cleaning up dinner, Ryker was standing on the step stool and lost his footing. He fell a whopping 12-24 inches but landed just right and split his chin open. He had his first adventure having stitches put in on the kitchen counter. It was traumatic, but it all ended up being fine in the end.

Ryker loved his first helicopter ride at Peach Days. I personally thought he was way too young, but he continues to have very few fears and didn't seem bothered at all. He points out helicopters when we see them flying over head. He calls them copter-planes :)

He also enjoy playing in Great Grandma and Grandpa Jensen's irrigation water at Peach Days.

Little People, games, super heros, ninja turtles, fighting bad guys....this kid loves to play! We've certainly missed having Jaxon around all day. Ryker is a lot like Jaxon in the fact that he plays so well. He can play all by himself and be completely happy and entertained and he also plays well with others. The first month or so that Jaxon was in school he would say periodically throughout the day "Jaxon at school? Lets go get him now." He loves his brother.

He also loves his sister, she just doesn't play "bad guys" like he would like. Ryker loves to talk to her and look at her and prefers when someone else is holding Taylee so that we can hold Ryker. He thinks he still needs to be held a lot of the time. And because I don't have the energy to play battle of wits with him, I usually give in and am often times seen carrying not only Taylee in her carseat, but also Ryker. It needs to stop before I break my back!

He says cute things like "Mom, can I wear my piggies?" Which translates into meaning he wants to go barefoot. He says "Where is him?" when he is looking for someone or something. He calls anyone wearing a cowboy hat a Hee-haw guy. He loves to give hugs and kisses and gets super excited when either Brian or I come home after being gone to meetings or whatnot. He has the cutest little voice and language and I am really going to miss this stage. He's growing up more and more each day! He is still our little Ryker Bean and brings so much excitement into our lives!

He also loves to tell knock-knock jokes. He'll say "Let's play the knock-knock game!" Only problem is that he tells the same knock-knock joke (with slight variations from time to time) over and over again.

Knock-knock?

Who's there?

Echo.

Echo who?

Echo 5!

And then he laughs and laughs. And so do we. Because let's face it, I still think it is so funny!

What's Up, Jaxon?

Way back in August, Jax celebrated his 7th birthday! It's been an amazing (and amazingly fast) 7 years. When I think that in 7 more years he'll be 14 and then 7 years more he'll be 21, it makes me feel....we won't think about that. I'm happy for today that he's only 7 and for the 7 wonderful years we've had with him.

This year was the first year we've done a birthday party with friends. He's never really said much about it and I didn't have a clue as to how to throw a birthday party. But this year we decided to do it. He invited a few friends from school, the ward, and his cousin and we went to the Classic Fun Center.

One of the highlights for me was listening to the 7 of them talk to each other on the way to the Fun Center. It was hilarious! Kids are so awesome! It made me miss being in the classroom :) The other definite highlight was watching Jaxon be so completely happy. He had a great time and it made it all worth it.

For dinner we went to Applebee's (that is where he wants to go every year!) and then came home and opened presents as a family. It was a great day! Another huge milestone for Jaxon has been starting 1st grade and going to school all day. He loves his teacher (so do I) and is doing so well. There is a ton of homework every single night, I honestly don't know how families with lots of kids do it, but it is pushing him and he is doing awesome! I guess it's not a ton...but it takes a while. He has a math page and then 3 separate reading things. Luckily the little books are a breeze and don't take anytime at all. The other 2 are easy, but they just take a bit of time.

I thought he would love to eat school lunch, but after the first week he said he only wanted to bring home lunches. Just fine with me! The real reason for wanting to eat home lunch has nothing to do with my awesome PB&J sandwiches, but everything to do with recess. Since his last name starts with a V he is at the end of the lunch line. Home lunch means he can sit down and eat as soon as he get in the cafeteria and doesn't have to wait in line.

I write him a little note everyday and put it in his lunchbox. I didn't think he even cared much about it until I forgot one day. He has since told me that a little girl in his class has to sit by him everyday at lunch so that she can read his note. It's become kind of a big deal, and I'm glad he enjoys them. I really enjoy leaving them for him!We started our Peach Days celebration with a helicopter ride again this year. We didn't know how Jaxon would feel about it since last year it was so traumatic. When we asked him if he wanted to do it again he said "What's Peach Days without a helicopter ride?" It made Brian's heart smile! This year Ryker went in my place and I stayed on the ground with Taylee.

Jaxon and I went to see Mary Poppins in September. We had a great time and the show was fantastic! I loved watching Jaxon watch the show. It was so magical and he was in awe!! Beauty and the Beast is coming in February and I'm excited to take him again.

Jaxon continues to be a great helper with Ryker and Taylee. He has been super emotional since school started and has days that are full of pouting and whining. He has been so tired with school all day and soccer practice and homework at night that I have to attribute some of it to that. Hopefully it's just a phase and he'll snap out of it soon....for all our sakes! All in all he is still a wonderful kid and tries really hard to do the right thing.