Reunion

Our friend, Lamont, came to town this weekend for a quick visit from Nebraska. He and Mas were in training together (while we were traveling and living in hotels) and we kinda adopted him as part of our little family. We all went to dinner and outings together quite often.

He and Saylor seem to share a special bond. She really liked him even when she was going through her 'I only let Mommy or Daddy hold me' stage. She was very particular, but he was her buddy! They had lots of fun playing for the few days he was here and I'm thankful that we have been able to stay in touch!

Saylor is TWO!

I'm a terrible mother. I'm just now getting around to blogging about my baby's birthday! Shame on me.
Monday, my little girl turned TWO YEARS OLD! We had a low-key day, made blueberry muffins together that morning, went to our usual "Movers and Shakers" at the library, and had an extremely healthy dinner at Chic-fil-a with some cupcakes and play time!

Saylor and her friend Rylan

Ave

Super Saylor and Super Dad

Mommy and the Birthday Girl

Family is coming in next weekend for her party, so we will celebrate more then. Basically we are gonna celebrate most of the month.

In the last year, my little Miss Priss has really come out of her shell and within the last few months has become much more independent! THANKFULLY!! I had terrible visions of her being stuck to my leg until I peeled her off and drug her kicking and screaming into preschool or kindergarden. She now LOVES to go to church and asks about it repeatedly throughout the week. (Mostly because she absolutely loves one of her teachers. And this week she graduates to a different class--we will see how that goes.) She is still very cautious, but I kinda like that about her.
She loves to run, and jump, and sing, and dance, and throw, and catch, and count. She's quite the little entertainer! She sings Row, row, row your boat and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star really well! And she loves the attention she gets for it. Yesterday she was singing Twinkle, twinkle at the top of her lungs at Hobby Lobby and excitedly watched all the little old ladies giggle as she sang.

She loves to make people laugh.

She loves to play with her kitchen and her baby doll.

She loves Sesame Street, especially Elmo. Elmo pretty much makes everything better.

She still sleeps with her monkey and a baby doll and has to be covered up PERFECTLY! Oh my word, if it's not perfect, she screams "TOVER UP" over and over again until we go in there and make sure every possible inch of skin is covered. She is still sleeping in her crib. Is it bad that I really, really like that she is contained??

She's so dad-gum sweet! She will just randomly run up and hug Mas and I and say "I wuv you, Mommy/Daddy"! It melts my heart! She loves her babies and is so sweet and gentle with them. She reads to them, feeds them, rocks them, etc. It is absolutely precious to witness!

She's a big girl....she is 37.5 inches tall (97%) and 31 lbs (90%)! And if that whole theory about doubling their height at 2 yrs old to determine their adult height is accurate--she will be 6'2". Holy cow!!

Our sweet little two year old is so much fun! We are enjoying every single minute with her and she definitely keeps us laughing! We are honored to be her parents and are thankful for our healthy, happy baby....er, toddler!

Christmas 2009

I'm very, very far behind on blogging....but here is my attempt to catch up. We went to Amarillo the Wednesday night before Christmas, then left Christmas Eve morning to head to Lubbock to see Mas' family. The roads we TREACHEROUS to say the least!! We were in the car over 7 hours that day in the miserable icy weather. But, the Lord kept His hand on us and we made it safely! We got to see Mas' sister, her husband, and son Zach--who we haven't seen since Saylor was a few days old! And we also got to see MeMe!

And Saylor met her Grandpa, Vern for the very first time!! It was so great getting to see family that we rarely get to be with!

Angel and Saylor

Me and the kiddos! I can't believe how much this kid has grown. It seems like just yesterday I was rocking that little baby to sleep and now he is 5 1/2 years old! It was so wonderful to get to love on him a little! (Saylor is in a daze--she had just woken up)

After Christmas Eve, I really struggled with remembering to get my camera out. We were just super busy! We had Christmas Day with Yonna/Papa and all of my grandparents and then we left the day after Christmas to head back to a snow COVERED Oklahoma City.

Here are the girls with Aunt Tana in their matching PJs that she got them!

And here is Saylor playing in her ball pit/jumper thing.

We are still struggling to find a place for all the goodies we brought home from Christmas. We barely got it all in the Tahoe to bring home. I'm pretty sure we need a bigger house, at least Saylor does--or maybe the office needs to be turned into a playroom! She got so much great stuff--but a lot of it is big stuff and we are OUT OF ROOM!

That's my quick run-down of Christmas! Nothing too exciting going on around here.

I'm still trying to get in the groove of being back at work a day or two a week, but it has been so great! I'm thankful for my job and that I truly love what I do!

We are just looking forward to all the blessings that 2010 holds for us!

Happy New Year!

Being a Mommy

I want to look back and know exactly what being a mom to an almost two year old was like--its crazy how fast you forget each stage of their little lives because they change so quickly--although it doesn't always seem like it when you are in the midst of the "stage"!

Being a mommy to Saylor means that sometimes I open my Burt's Bees chapstick, only to find a thin layer of saliva because little miss independent put chapstick on all by herself.

Being a mommy means I have more iPhone apps for toddlers than I do for myself, truly.

Being a mommy means I have to go on a house wide search to find any kind of tupperwear or serving spoons because someone needed to feed their baby or monkey or bear.

Being a mommy means I do lots of silly dancing and singing, or pretty much anything to get a laugh from my girl.

Being a mommy means that I save my cookies or ice cream or cheetoh puffs for naptime or bedtime so I don't have to share!

Being a mommy means that I carry half of the grocery store around to make sure there are enough snacks to get us through any dilemma.

Being a mommy means helping to put the same diaper on the same bear over and over again because "bear poop" and "he stinky!"

Being a mommy means I get the BEST and most sincere hugs and kisses in the whole world!

Being a mommy means bouncing through the house doing 'horsey' twenty thousand times just to hear a sweet giggle.

Being a mommy means that I get to spend about 20 minutes treating all her clothes with SHOUT before I can even put them in the washing machine.

Being a mommy means that somedays I count down the minutes until bedtime, only to wish that I could go scoop her up from her bed and cuddle with her.

Being a mommy means I will never sleep the same, I'm convinced.

Being a mommy means I say "no" about three thousand times a day and I probably hear it in return about that many times.

Being a mommy means that I cry at the simplest of commercials.

Being a mommy means that the holidays are even more special.

Being a mommy means that most days I think my child is an absolute genius!

Being a mommy allows me to wake up to the sweetest sounds of singing and talking that I have ever heard. It is probably my favorite time of day.

Being a mommy means experiencing an unwavering love that I never knew existed before I knew her!
What a great adventure it is to be Saylor's mommy!

Future Commentator

Saylor just about talks NON-STOP all day! She is to the point now that she gives you a running commentary of EVERYTHING she is doing. It is super sweet. For example, tonight she ran from me to her daddy to give him a high five and then back to me...so this is what she said "wunning, wunning, DADDY HIGH FIVE, wunning, wunning, sit down!" She will also tell you "I seet (sweet), I pincess, Saysee siwy (Saylor silly), and so on and so on! And what I love the most is she tells on herself all the time! I will hear her playing in another room and she will say "dat not nice!" or "no, no" and I walk in and usually catch her doing something she shouldn't be doing. Car rides are non-stop singing and talking performances. Whew--there isn't a quiet moment around here unless she is sleeping! And it is definitely constant entertainment!!

On a completely different note--I started my new job today. It is just new employee orientation all week, mostly just sitting and listening, but that means I am away from my girl for five whole days, which is super tough! Thankfully I have a great husband that switched a few days around so he could be home with her all week while I was working. (That means he worked six out of the last seven days--and 12-13 hour days at that!) I am so thankful for him! Otherwise I would have had to get up SUPER DUPER early to get us both out of the door by 7 am! I know many of you moms do that every day...and I admire you so much....but this momma is way out of practice. Getting us all ready and to church or the library by 10 is about as good as it gets around here. Also, with Mas being home, my sister-in-law didn't have to test her patience with two feisty little girls all day long!

But, after all this orientation stuff is over with I will only be working one, occasionally two nights a week!

That's about it with us!

I'll leave you with a few pictures of my Saylor girl so you aren't too extremely bored with my ramblings.

Playing Daddy's guitar

Little Miss in Daddy's hat

Daddy's workout buddy!

A few nights ago, after Saylor's bath, she wandered into Mas' office/workout room and found him doing P90x (an exercise program) and decided she wanted to join in the fun!

(We actually had some really great footage--but I am a dummy and used the video camera like a regular camera and turned it sideways at one point, not even thinking. Obviously, you can't flip a video halfway through!)

Precious little Indian

Here are a few pictures from last Tuesday night when we took the girls to "Haunt the Zoo" and then some from Halloween night. I am pretty sure that she is the cutest Indian I have ever laid eyes on!

And of course, don't forget about the "punk-in-cook-eeeee"