Taylor's birthday dinner

For Taylor's birthday we went out to dinner to ClaimJumpers. Though the food and service weren't very good, we were at least able to capture a good family picture.

Taylor's a big girl now

This is it. Taylor has turned 1 year old! We can't believe how big our baby girl is getting, but we are loving every minute of it. She is just such a character and one of the best things is watching her and Ella interact. Ella plays with her really well even when Taylor doesn't listen to her :)

Taylor started her transition to the pre-toddler room today. It's for kids 12 months to 18 months of age. She had her last breakfast in the infant room and then off with the big kids she went. This next classroom naps on cots, eats food at little tables and drinks from sippy cups only. They do have back up cribs for new transitioners to the room, but Taylor was too cool for the baby crib! The school director sent me this fabulous pictures of my napping birthday girl.

The things Taylor is learning - Part 2

Here's another short video of Taylor showing off her dance moves...

The things Taylor is learning - Part 1

Crawling at 5 1/2 months, walking at 9 1/2 months....she never ceases to amaze us! As Taylor approaches her first birthday, she is learning so much each and every day. She can now say a few "words" such as: baby, Ella, uh-oh, yes, no, dog and hi. She calls both J and I "Dada" which we will get straightened out someday. Taylor is now 100% on people/table food, but she will probably admit to eating some vegetable/fruit baby food b/c we have some left in the pantry. She loves to dance and will just start bouncing whenever she hears music. Here is a video of her sharing and bringing things to Mama....

Ella's artwork

Here are some recent pieces of art created by our very own Ella Martin.

There's the tooth

I took a quick picture of Taylor's new tooth for blogging purposes :) You can see the one has broken through and since this picture was taken, the one next to it has also made an appearance. Overall she's been in a great mood through out her teething, so we consider ourselves very lucky b/c it certainly doesn't look comfortable.

Nice weather

This past weekend we made it a point to get some fresh air and play outside for a bit. Near impossible to get a picture with both girls looking, but we did manage to at least snap a few to share.

And then there were three

At the beginning of the week we noticed that Baby T's top tooth made an appearance! It's barely broken through the gum, but it is plain as day to see. So Taylor officially has three teeth and the second top tooth is also on it's way in.

She's a little girl now

There's no mistaking it now.....Miss Taylor has her ears pierced and she looks like a perfect little princess.

She did really well overall. After the first ear was pierced, she no longer liked the lady that was piercing them but that's to be expected. After all was said and done, she cried for about 2 minutes and then she felt better. Ella even helped distract Taylor and was a great big sister.

Her ears were still a little pink in this picture but after her nap that day, they were no longer red and they've been great ever since.

P.S. Tia, relax. I only let her hold the medicine dropper so that I could take a picture and then I took it away from her.

Dance Party

I tried to take a video of Ella and Taylor during a dance party, but I had to catch it in two takes.

Enjoy the dance party stylings of Ella and Taylor....

Happy Birthday Grandpa

Grandpa's birthday was last weekend and Ella made him a card. I wrote "Happy Birthday" and drew the hearts, but the rest was all Ella's artwork. She has gotten really good at writing her name and her new thing is to draw animals. It's cute because all of the animals look the same except she knows to make a dog and an elephant's ears really big.

Happy Birthday Grandpa!