Flashback Friday Night Football

For 3 years, I had a free pass to the high school football games...we never used it.



Finally, a few weeks ago, we got a little taste of Friday Night Football.

Dave's first taste since he was a Railer himself...over 10 years!



Earlier that week, we heard it was the last game of the season, which was not much of a big deal to us, seeing as we hadn't caught any of the others. Then we heard it was against Winfield! My alma mater! So we decided it would be a good game to go to.

It was perfect football weather..jeans and sweatshirts... my favorite!

We met our friends, Joel, Kendall and Ollie there. Ollie and Taylor had quite the good time playing on the bleachers. We decided to sit on the "visitor" side since there was a lot of room for the kids to play without being in the crowd.

I was definitely for Winfield. #1, they were the under dog...I always go for under dogs. #2, blue and white is just SOO much prettier than black and yellow! I pick my teams well....because to everyone's surprise, those Mighty Vikings got the victory!

I think Mason was already picturing himself in a helmet and pads! I have a few years before I'll have to add some black and yellow to my wardrobe.Another fun family outing. Too bad we waited till the last game of the season. Next year, maybe we'll catch more.

Waffles and Spaghetti

We love Wednesday nights.

We've been meeting with our Community Life Group on Wednesdays for about 2 1/2 years now.

Thanks Joel and Kendall for inviting us "outsiders" in! We're glad we're not "outsiders" anymore!

We have 5 couples in our group, plus us...and we have LOVED getting to know them all.

Each couple takes turns hosting at their house...one of the best parts is the food!

A few weeks ago, it was our turn. We're doing a study on a marriage book called Men are Like Waffles, Women are Like Spaghetti, by Bill and Pam Farrell. So we thought spaghetti was a good choice for dinner.



I took these pictures because I had never made or SEEN this much spaghetti (the picture doesn't even do justice to the massive amount of noodles that were in this pan) Dave was very concerned we wouldn't have enough noodles. Whenever I make spaghetti for the family, we always have more meat sauce than noodles. So he did not want this to happen when hosting other people.



I thought I had enough in the pan. He kept saying "add more, add more, it's better to have too many than not enough".

You know how it's just so hard to tell how much spaghetti you're really going to have in the end? Well...we had plenty...and LOTS and LOTS of noodles left over...I mean LOTS.

It was definitely one of those "I told you so" moments...but I didn't say that. I was nice and kept quiet.

We are LOVING this book! I highly recommend it to any group or couple. You will have so many of those "AH HA!" moments....it has helped us learn to understand each other and how God made us so different.

We are so thankful for each of the couples in our group, the time we have together and the time we've been able to devote to growing, individually, as a couple, and as a group.

best buds

As I was finishing my shower and getting out to dry off, I heard Mason waking up from his nap.

I couldn't get there right away, and he wasn't crying hard, so he just needed to wait for me.

In the meantime, Taylor somehow snuck out of my room and into his...

this is what I found...

I wondered why he had stopped crying.

They sure do like each other.

some words from the birthday girl

The party was over, just some family was left, and we were all hanging out in the garage.

I grabbed the video to catch Taylor blowing and yelling at a bug.

She was quite wound up, so I decided to do a little interviewing as well...

Down on the farm

Old McTaylor is having a birthday,
E-I-E-I-O.
And on her birthday
she is turning 2,
E-I-E-I-O

With a oink oink here and a moo moo there, here a quack there a neigh, everywhere a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Old McTaylor is having a birthday,
E-I-E-I-O.

That was the little ditty I came up with for her farm party invitations. A little cheesy, but fitting.

Here's our little 2 year old farmer! She'll be sporting this again for Halloween.

We just thought it was a perfect little addition to her party! What's a FARM party without hay??? Thanks Josh and Molly, for the hay bails!

Welcome to the barn...

And on the farm, you DEFINITELY need animals...you know, like cows and Ninja Turtles....you'll find them on a farm...didn't you know? and chickens (or ducks...whichever he was, I can't remember)

and ladybugs...there are LOTS of those on a farm.

Add some yummy grub and a hay-rack ride...and we have a FARM PARTY!

And of course, what's a 2 year old birthday party without presents?!?! Here are just a few of the favorites!

How could we have made the same mistake twice....

We got her a stroller for Christmas last year too...after opening it, she didn't care about any other presents.

At that time, she didn't understand that the stroller was not really for her...so it didn't last long. We thought she would maybe understand better now, you know, now that she's TWO! So round 2 on the stroller....You'd think we would have learned and saved this for last.

Thanks for the princess dolls Aunt Stef, Uncle Steve and Tyler, Jaden and Paige..she hasn't let go of them since Sunday!

Underneath the cousin dog-pile (and Papa)...her princess couch that folds out into a bed!
Oh yeah, and good thing she got a doctor kit...now she can take care of all the animals! Thanks Joel, Kendall and Ollie!
And of course....that long awaited BABE cake!
To fill some of you in...
Taylor is obsessed with the movie Babe at Gma and Papa's house.
Hence the farm party and pig cake.


I'd love to know what she is thinking in this picture...



The cake was probably the funnest and most memorable part of her party.
Thanks to my mom and sister! Without their help, I'm not sure that I would have accomplished this HUGE task!
The night before, I almost went with the "easier" pig cake.
But that's definitely not me...I tend to pick the hard stuff and want things to be PERFECT!
I'm so glad I did it! It was a FIRST for me...I learned a lot, and can't wait to learn more on my next one!

Here's what you get when you try so hard for a good family picture.
Don't mind Taylor's finger in her nose, or the wonderful look of a messed up blind (from Taylor's room) behind us. This is as good as it gets!
I almost deleted this picture because it's so blurry. But after looking at it, I thought it was kind of fun. A frozen moment of pure happiness and excitement she had on this day.



Happy Birthday Taylor! We love you more than we will EVER be able to express to you. You bring such joy to your daddy and I every single day. Your smile melts our hearts...especially daddy's. Your laughter just makes us laugh along with you. Your sweet, sweet tender spirit makes me thank God for you every day.

Holding you in the hospital, staring at you for hours on end, and watching your daddy tear up as he held you for the first time, are memories that seem like just happened yesterday.



And now here you are...a toddler, no more baby.
You can walk and run,
jump and tumble,
talk and sing,
dance and be silly.
You want to "kee up" all the time, helping mommy do dishes and cook dinner
You want to put makeup on like mommy and you love to pick out daddy's shirts for him to wear.
And oh, how you love to cuddle...my favorite thing, every day....laying on the couch and snuggling. I hope you'll ALWAYS want to do that, and just in case you won't, I'll enjoy it as much as I can now.
You love to take care of your brother, feeding him bottles, bringing him toys and cheering him on to crawl! You are the BEST big sister!
You are growing up so fast.



I am so thankful to be home with you each and every day...to watch you grow into this beautiful little person. We love you Taylor! And we thank God for bringing you into our lives and giving us this job of being your mom and dad...the best job ever! Happy Birthday Princess!

am I crazy?

It's 1:00am and I just pulled all of the different pieces of Taylor's birthday cake out of the oven.

I have NEVER in my life really made a cake...I think I've only made one or two regular cakes, let alone anything fancy.

But I was determined to start a tradition of making my kids' birthday cakes.

Of course, I had to go and pick something OVER THE TOP for my first try.

Right now, the cake is cooling...it is in 6 different pieces and lots of cupcakes with the left over batter.

Tomorrow it will be assembled, frosted, decorated....and in the end, we SHOULD have a PIG!

Or as Taylor will know it....it will be BABE!!

Tommorow we will celebrate our little girl's 2nd birthday...this late at night, being as completely and utterly exhausted as I am, that kind of just makes me cry. She has grown up SO much in the last few months approaching this big milestone.

Tomorrow the garage becomes the barn. Taylor will be the farmer... (here's a sneak peak)

Tomorrow we have one million things to do...but in the end, we are hoping it is one hoedown that she'll never forget!

toofers!

Lots has happened over the last month....

hopefully I'll get caught up on sharing it all!

We were without a camera almost all month....except for a few pictures I used borrowing Dave's parents camera.

Mason got his 2 bottom teeth and I've been trying to catch a shot of them.

Here's the best I could do...you have to look close!

He now has his top 2 teeth coming in...so that smile of his is about to look much different!

Now that I have a camera, I've been snapping lots of pics the last week or so.

Here are some I just had to share...

Look at those baby blues...

sorry, this one's a little blurry....but he wanted to show off his favorite toy!
He's just such a happy baby. but he has his moments too

Can't believe my little man's 8 months old at the end of this month!

He's crawling....hopefully a video is coming soon...it just won't upload.

He goes after everything...those gosh darn cords are his favorite.

And he's trying oh, so hard to pull up on everything!

I do believe my days are about to get a little tougher! I was spoiled with ease having that girl first!

oopsy daisy!

Sure hope this goes away before her birthday party on Sunday!

She emptied the cupboard of all the tupperware...yet again!

Then moved to a new activity...."run as fast and crazy as I can through the hallway!"

When she fell, her face rammed into one of the bowls on the floor.

Man, they should put a warning on tupperware...it leaves some nasty marks!

Sidenote: this post was from the beginning of the week...so yet again, an outdated post, her face looks much better now. Here I am with a new camera and ready to start posting pictures again...and I can't get anything to upload on blogger for almost 5 days! FRUSTRATING! So now I have to play catch up!

1000 miles later...

We're back and we're TIRED!

Friday we DID make it to Great Wolf Lodge! WOW, what a place! Taylor and all of her cousins were in HEAVEN! It was lots of fun for us too! She is still saying "pool" every time we get in the car...HOPING we will be taking her back there!

Friday evening we sent Taylor and Mason back home to Newton with Grandma and Grandpa and Dave and I headed to the St. Louis area for me to do training for some of our Premier girls who live there. It was a quick trip but a good one!

Back to Kansas City on Saturday night, just to split the drive up and so we could shop this morning! We had hoped to take total advantage of not having to get up for ANYONE or ANYTHING...but we were both up at 8:30. I was kind of bummed!

This morning we headed to Best Buy so I could spend my birthday money on an ipod home sound system and to get a new camera (due to our previous new camera having to be returned...that's a whole other post!) Let's just say after missing an entire month of the kid's life...I'm very relieved to have a camera back!

And lastly, we stopped at The Children's Outlet (my FAVORITE for the kids!) and got some awesome deals! I think I got 17 CUTE CUTE things for $60!!!

I can't remember the last time I was this tired...I'm sure I'll be recooping ALL week! After we got the kids from Grandma and Grandpa's we took them to the park, knowing if we tried to entertain them at home, we'd just want to LAY and close our eyes! So we stayed as busy as we could...ending the night with an ALL-family dance party in the dining room to our new ipod sound system! Yes...Taylor danced, Mommy danced, Mason danced AND Daddy danced!

I've said that we need a blind on our dining room window since we moved in over 2 years ago...but if these dance parties continue, we REALLY need to get a blind!

Hopefully I have pictures from our trip to Great Wolf Lodge SOON!

rain, rain, go away!

Funny that I am wanting the rain to go away.

#1, it's kind of too late, the chances of Dave getting to work today are already shot.
#2, I LOVE rainy days...especially when Dave gets to be home.

But not when we have a trip planned to someplace like this....

A trip that was suppossed to happen on Friday, when Dave is normally off.

Dave's brother, Jason, and his family are going to be in Kansas City this weekend for a wedding. So we (us, Stef and her family, and gma and gpa) were all going to go up and stay at Great Wolf Lodge just so everyone can be together! Taylor and Mason just don't get to see their Michigan cousins enough.

We were suppossed to go on Friday....as long as it didn't rain this week. When it rains, Dave's crew makes up the rain day on Friday.

So, we are kind of bummed. Maybe something will still work out.

In the mean time, I think I'll go take a nap while the kids are sleeping...naps on rainy days are the BEST!

Tres Amigas...part dos

For you faithful blog followers, you may remember a post back in March, right after Mason was born...when we introduced you to his 2 friends, Cora and Braden.

Here's a flashback....all 3 babies born within 8 days. Cora on the left, Mason in the middle and Braden on the right. All of us mommies taught at Slate Creek together. This past Friday, we got them all back together again! Look at them NOW!!

We visited lots of our friends at Slate Creek (where I used to teach) and then went over to our friend Kendall's house for the kids to play.

Thanks for such a fun afternoon Kendall, Kara and Jess! Your babies are absolutely adorable and we are so blessed to have you in our lives! Yes, Kendall, your BIG baby is adorable too and I know the one coming soon will be too! Just didn't want to leave you out.

Saturday

Saturdays during the fall don't get any better than this...

K-State's on TV...GO CATS! OU's on TV (not a surprise)....

The ribs are in the smoker, other yummy snacks are in the works...

Now this is what we call SATURDAY!!!

Hope you enjoy yours!