Taylor... 7 months down....

We love you little lady!

You are winding down on your seventh month, sweet little Taylor Sue, and you are turning into quite the fun little lady!  We were talking about what your personality is like right now and if I had to put it into a few phrases I would say that you are another little girl in our family who knows what you like.  You do not like to be left alone.  You can be playing happily, but if your entertainment leaves the room, you let us know about it.  When we re-enter, you greet us with a big, toothy smile.  You are very easy to make laugh and have an incredibly contagious belly laugh.  It's like a little roar of laughter, followed by the huge giggles.  The sound never gets old.  You completed the milestone this month of actually sleeping the entire night.  It has happened a few times since but you are still working your mama at night.  Someday soon you will be a good little sleeper.  You do a great job of snuggling in your bed and drifting off to sleep, but you still like to have a night party every now and then.  You love food and will eat anything I give you.  You even clap when you really like it.  You have a mouth full of teeth with four on the top and two on the bottom and have a sweet, sweet smile.  You still love your brother and sis and they can get you giggling with the best of us.  You are getting stronger and have pulled yourself up a few times this month.  You can just barely get up on all fours by yourself and have started to scoot backwards.  This is frustrating for you as the toy that you are working so hard to get in front of you just gets farther and farther away the harder you work.  You will figure it out soon, but for now you go from sitting, to your knees, and back again.  We pray for you often and love you to pieces sweet little lady!

Sweet Tay-Tay

Hehe

Funny Man

T has mainly one goal these days... to get a laugh out of you.  The other night at the dinner table, he kept asking to get up to do random things just so he could walk back in the room like an old man with this hilarious face on.  We kept letting him because we were laughing so darn hard.  He's actually a bit tricky to discipline because it's hard to keep from laughing.  My little cowboy...

Dutch Oven Cook-off 2013!

Matt's family has held a 'Dutch Oven Cook-Off' for the last seven years.  What an awesome weekend of fun and tastey food!  I hate to brag, but my hubby and I brought home the 'mini antique double barrel shotgun lighter' trophy for the tastiest dish.  We outdid ourselves this year and will have to start practicing up for next year.  It's tough to go wrong on apple crisp :).  I love my husband for many reasons, but I loved him a little extra last night as he snuggled in with T and Madison in our little tent in the 40-some degree weather for their first overnight camping trip.  Tay and I chickened out and headed home.  The kids loved it and said their favorite part of the weekend was sleeping in the tent with Daddy.  What a great weekend of campfires, smores, dutch-oven cooked meals, boat riding, tent-sleeping fun!

Cousins! - Evie, Charley, T, Madison and Taylor, and Savanna

8 months and found her tongue ...

Matt and I in the same picture... may be one of the first on our blog :).  Thanks Karen!

There are few places that this little man doesn't see as open invitation to relieve himself.

Ladies

You know you are real-deal when you have tools like this for your dutch oven!

Uncle Todd took care of Taylor's nap for us :)... I was about five seconds late in getting my camera for a sweet sleeping shot!

The passing of the trophy :).

First Day of Preschool

Months ago I was in a major debate with myself about what to do about Preschool with Madison.  To make a long story short, she ended up getting signed up for preschool at Farmstead.  Today was her first day.  She has come such a long ways from my little girl who wouldn't leave my leg without melting down.  She got out of the car, walked into school hand-in-hand with her teacher, and never even looked back.  When I picked her up she had much to tell me about... monkey bars, cupcakes, stories, crafts, ...  She seemed to like it and said she was excited to go back.  When her teacher brought her out she said that she was, "quiet, a good listener, and had no tears".

Pretty lady all ready to go

Our attempt at an art project

Goof... ball...

Quite a trio

Proud of you big girl!

Pool Time!

We spent many hours here.  Madison became quite the little fish after starting the summer at swimming lessons.  She started to do many things she hadn't done before at lessons... and by the end could swim under the water with her eyes open for quite a ways.  We spent many hot days poolside :).

Taylor grew into the pool this summer... not sure how, but I managed to forget her suit this day.  Whoops.

Crazy T

Always jumping... over and off everything

why not...

Honesty by the T-Man...

When we pray as a family before we eat dinner, Eliott usually says, "I don't want to pray".  We usually just ignore him and go on with our prayer.  Yesterday, during Madison's sweet little prayer, all I could hear was T chomping on his sweet corn and slurping his lemonade.  After she was done I told him, "You know, Eliott, you are really supposed to wait until we are done praying to eat your food and drink your lemonade".  He looked at me, dead serious, and replies, "I know... that's why I don't like to pray".