Tay's One Year Pics

These are probably my three favorite pictures from Taylor's one year Picture session (thanks to Emily Murdock). I just love Tay so much!

She is walking all over the place. She likes to tell me "no" now, she will repeat after me if I say "I love you", she still is obsessed with dogs and loves playing with her dogs all day (fake ones that is), she is eating a little better and keeps amazing me with all her new things she learns. Last week at church I took her out to the hallway during sacrament, we walked past a picture of Jesus. She pointed to the picture and said "Jesus". So teaching her does pay off! She sure is a cutie.

I can't believe she is 1 1/2 though. I keep thinking will I really have a 2 year old in 6 months??? Holy cow.

New Family Pictures

I have a couple of new ones as part of my blog design. These are some of my favorites of just Taylor and one of Me & her.






I seriously love her so much. I find myself often thinking about how I can't wait to have another one and I know the time will come to submit out papers before we know it, however, I thoroughly enjoy my time with Taylor and the fun days we have together. She sure is a blast and her personality is booming! Her vocabulary now consists of: Mom, Dad, Doggie, Ball, All-Done, Whoops (which sounds like upths), and Uh-oh. I have had fun teaching her some small sign language too. She knows: dog, bird, more, all-done and thank-you. I had no intentions of teaching her, but she picked up on one word and I thought it was fun teaching her.

She loves the pool! I will upload pictures of our pool adventures soon.

Taylor is One!!

Sorry for the lack of posts, but I have been a wee bit busy.

Taylor turned one March 14th and I can honestly say I love her so much and she is my best friend. I have had so much fun with her the past year and seeing her personality come out full force. At age one, Taylor is now: crawling super fast, crawling up stairs, standing, walking along furniture, occasionally standing on her own, loves Dogs and saying "doggie", points to the sky because that is where birds and airplanes are, she gives kisses and hugs, has an adorable laugh and will pretty much laugh if anyone else is laughing. She weighed 13 lbs 13 oz at her one year check-up. I believe she was around 25 inches long too. We are doing much better sleeping through the night, thanks to a GI relaxer she is on. Turns out everything is fine with her, other than a bad case of Acid Reflux and GERD.

I can't believe it was a little over a year ago when I posted that we had just gotten Taylor and got to see her for the first time. We love her so much and I can't imagine any other child being in our home right now other than Taylor. She is my little peanut. People always ask me what that day was like to get a phone call saying we were going to be parents. There really are no words to describe what it was like knowing I was going to be a mom, it was a girl, and we were going to be parents with-in 24 hours.

Here is a picture of when she was 3 1/2 weeks old:


And here is Taylor on her first birthday:

We Are Moving To........

Dallas, Texas where Ty will start work in a few weeks. We will be there the first week of March. This is bittersweet. I'm excited to live by a sister and my parents, but it will be sad to say goodbye to San Antonio. I have lived here for 14 years. We are excited for a new adventure though.

Best Friends + 3

My best friends, Brittani and Chelsea, had babies shortly after we got Taylor. Taylor was born in March. Brittani had her baby in November and Chelsea had her baby in October. It is so fun having kids so close in age.

I'm Still Here......

Well, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I've been behind lately. Oh well.

We spent Christmas and New Years in Dallas. It was so fun with Taylor this year. She didn't know what was going on, but still had fun exploring her presents I think.

Hope everyone had a great holiday season... I'm sad its over, but I'm excited for the Spring.






Happy New Year!

Where Have I Been?

I didn't realize that it had been two months since updating my blog! Here's a recap...

Taylor was a ladybug for Halloween


Ty and I left Taylor behind with Nanna and Pappa in Dallas so we could go on a cruise with his family over Thanksgiving week. We had a great time, we were glad that Taylor was in good hands, but we sure did miss her. The first two days I left her were hard, I cried a lot and I felt really guilty leaving her. But Ty and I enjoyed our time together. We didn't realize how much we don't see each other until we spent a whole week together. Our stops were Honduras, Beliz, Cozumel and Costa Maya.






Lastly, Ty is done with school!! He has one more final and will never have to go back to school! He may go back for some extra licenses he can get, but he has his four year degree. We are proud of him.

Finally!!!

On September 28th we finalized Taylor's adoption. That was a really fun day. I didn't think I would get emotional, but I did. I was doing pretty good until the lawyer made me and Tyler both state and promise that we would love Taylor forever and ever. That last part kind of got me! Here is off after the court hearing. Taylor was extremely tired!


Then, on October 9th Taylor was sealed to Tyler and I. That was really special and really neat. There was such a sweet spirit in the room, nothing like I had ever felt before. The spirit was so strong to me and I couldn't help but cry the whole time. It was so neat. The sealer talked to us a bit and was saying how not very many people have the opportunity to be able to bring their kids to the temple and have them sealed to them. It went on and said how Taylor was sealed to us as if she had been born to Tyler and I.




On October 10th she was blessed in church. The whole weekend was a blur and by the time our church meeting rolled around, I was so tired and out of it. But, I did pay attention to Taylor's blessing. Tyler did a great job. Two of the things that stuck out most to me were how he mentioned that she would continue to be an example of optimism and hope and second, that she would understand and appreciate the special way she came to this earth. ;-)

Here is Taylor before church:



I love Taylor more than I ever thought was possible and I'm so glad she is all ours. She has brought me so much happiness and joy, I don't know what I did without her! I told my mom on the day of the sealing after being a cry baby, "now I know why we go through trials, or at least one of the reasons, and that is so we can experience this much joy and happiness".

Not that I didn't feel like Taylor's mom until she was sealed to us, I definitely was her mom already, but it was the last piece of the puzzle that we needed. It was just a great day.

Why oh Why???

..do moms have to get sick. I caught a stomach bug and lets just say it's not fun! All I want to do is go in a dark, cold room and sleep for hours! I will just nap when Taylor is...... she isn't being difficult, just a 6 month old who I can't leave unsupervised. I hope this passes soon!

6 Month Check-Up

Taylor had her sixth month check-up today. She is sleeping so well in her crib right now, because of the shots. Poor girl.

She weighs 11 lbs 1. oz. And is 23 inches long. All along the Pediatrician has told me that we will compare Taylor two months behind since she was two months early. So, since it was her 6 month check-up, they compare her to a 4 month old. Today, she was where a 3 month old would be at as far as weight and height. SHe isn't even on the charts! 0 percentile!! Her motor skills are fine, she is developing fine, her weight is proportion with her length, but she is still small. We are going to check her weight again at 9 months and go from there. The dr may decide to do testing between 9 months and 12 months depending on her weight gain.

My pediatrician also made me feel good about Taylor's sleeping habits at night. I've always thought Taylor has done a great job with sleeping at night considering she is so small. However, I think we as mom's anticipate that special night when we can put our babies down to sleep and not hear a peep out of them until morning. I think when that doesn't happen, we second guess ourselves and what we are doing. I have been anyways. I have been debating on the cry it out method and even tried it a couple of nights. I've ended up getting her to sleep by rocking her or picking her up briefly. I trust my doctor's opinion. I asked her if I should let Taylor "cry it out" at night. She quickly said no way!!! The Dr. told me if Taylor was the "normal" 6 month old, she'd lecture me on letting her get to sleep on her own, don't go in in the middle of the night if she wakes up, etc, etc. But she told me not to do that until Taylor weighs about 14 - 15 lbs. (I instantly thought, "Taylor will be two before that happens!) She kept stressing to me she is fine, etc, but at the same time, not the normal 6 month old because of her weight. The Dr. made me feel so much better about the fact that its okay Taylor wakes up halfway in the night and needs me to put her pacifier back in to get her to sleep.

The Dr told me to no longer let her go more than 6 hours without eating at night. She needs those calories! She normally does anywhere from 6-8 at night. But I need to be more strict and feed her every 6 hours. That's fine with me.

As far as baby food, I can give her rice, veggies and even try oatmeal if I want. But I can't give her too much of it. The Dr told me that Taylor gets most of her calories from her formula. So, she can't be getting so full off baby food that she won't take a bottle. So as I feed her and try to give her baby food and she stops taking her bottles, then I need to stop the baby food and do only bottles.

All in all, bottom line.... I love my little peanut! My one sister calls her a "puffle". A puffle is from that online penguin game. A puffle is a big, little person. Haha.

Here is what I learned today:

*I have no clue how people did it back in the day without Dr's. I sure do love ours and she makes me feel better about everything.
*I'm learning that it really doesn't matter either...in that every baby is different. ESPECIALLY PREEMIES! ;-)
*And I need to just let it go...sleep that is... I need to deal with getting 6 hours of sleep and just know I will always be tired.
*My dr told me that the "Baby Wise" Book works for one child, but not the other. There is no such thing as one book that works for every baby. So when the time comes and Taylor can go more than 6 hours in the night, it will be trial and error.