Bookworm?!

I have always loved to read books, but this summer, I really flew through them!! I generally have some down time in my day IF I can get all the kiddos to sleep at the same time (which usually does happen, suprisingly). During that time, I quickly clean the kitchen, load up the dishwasher, wipe down the bathroom, then sit down to eat and read. Here are a few of my new favorite books and authors...

1) Meg Cabot. She is very much a "girly" author. I have read Queen of Babble, Boy Meets Girl, Every Boys Got One, Size 12 Is Not Fat and have recently finished Size 14 Is Not Fat Either. The books are hilarious. Shout out to my friend, Ashley, who has gotten me addicted!

2) Ted Dekker. He is a Christian fiction author that writes thrillers. I've read Showdown, House, Obsessed and my favorite is Three. Three came out in movie form also and is really good! He does a fantastic job of tying in the book at the end to religion.

3) Karen Kingsbury - I've just started my first novel of hers...Redemption. I've heard of her books from Ashley and Kristin F. I'm only half way through this first one, and I can barely put it down!! She is also a Christian fiction writer. If you like fiction, read this!!!

So, does anyone have any other suggestions? I'm always looking for a good book!

Hudson Simpson - 3 months

You will probably remember the pictures I took of Hudson when he was 2 weeks old. Here he is at 3 months! I took some pictures in his home a couple of weeks ago. He got a bit fussy and needed a nap, so we met up at the park later that afternoon to finish the session. He is so cute and really starting to smile!! Here are a few of my faves...

Update

Wow!! It's really been a LONG while since I've posted. Well, a long while for me, anyway. Lindsay and Britten were here for 3 weeks and we loved every minute of it! Taylor and Britten really had fun together. Britten is so smart and at such a fun age! We spent quite a bit of time with them while they were here. Taylor also experienced her first ear infection, which turned into double ear infections. NOT FUN! At the same time, Dustin had an eye infection, sinus infection and strep throat. So, I had two babies to take care of in the evenings and 5 kids during the day. I was wiped out and so grateful when Dustin was feeling good and able to help again!

Dustin and I had planned a date night a few weeks in advance. Pop Pop was going to keep Taylor overnight. Dustin was still not feeling well at all when the date night rolled around, but I REALLY needed a break. So, Taylor still stayed with her Pop Pop and Dustin and I stayed in, ate fast food and watched a movie. It was really pretty nice!

I have started keeping more kiddos again. They are all new kids this fall, except for Taylor and Thatcher. Most of them are part-timers. I have Mason, an 18 month old 3 days a week, Hunter (most of my blogging friends know him) a 3 year old 3 days a week, and Jadyn, a 2 1/2 year old all 5 days a week. I'm back to crazy busy days, but to me so worth it to be home with my precious baby!

Onto my baby (whose not really a baby anymore)...Taylor turned 10 months old last week. I planned to take pictures of her last Saturday at the park, but the rain kept us away. I'll try again this weekend. She is crawling everywhere and very quickly now! She's talking all the time, which amazes me and can "sort of" sign please and more. She eats pretty much anything we do and is drinking from her own sippy cup now. She really is growing too fast! Even though I spend most of my time chasing her everywhere, I love the stage she's in. It's so cool to see her discover and learn new things all the time.

Not to bore you any further, here are some pictures from today. The first few are of Hunter and Jadyn wearing sombreros. These kids are so funny!



And here are Taylor and Thatcher hanging out on the picnic table. They can both climb all the way on top of the picnic table now and have no fear of falling. I sense some major bruises in the near future...
Check out their little feet dangling under the table :)

I kept telling Taylor to give Thatcher a kiss and every time I said it, she put her arm around him and put her head on his shoulder. They are so cute together!
By this point, I think Thatcher had had enough cuddling from Taylor for one day. Check out his expression!

Cousin Time

Lindsay and Britten are in town and Taylor and Britten have been able to have lots of cousin time! Britten has come over to our house to play almost every day! We converted our back living room into a complete play room. The kids all really seem to love it, including Britten and Taylor. Britten and Taylor have also gone swimming together! Here are some pictures from the last week...



Taylor wore her first ponytail the night Lindsay and Britten came in

Taylor and Britten inside my dad's entertainment unit
Bathing Beauty!
Britten giving Taylor kisses
After a long day swimming in the sun, it was time for ice cream and snow cones. Naturally, Britten had to have a Dora ice cream.

Taylor eating a lime off of Dustin's cherry lime ice. She loves lemons and limes!

We attempted to do their pictures at Tech tonight. It was hard! Britten wanted nothing to do with my camera and Taylor kept crawling away. Here are a few of the better ones...

This is as close as we could get them together. It only lasted about 5 seconds

Taylor showing off her pig-tails

Kissing cousins

Britten laughing in the grass

This is the best picture I got of Britten all night. She is at Gammy's house watching Dora. She was so fixed on the TV, she didn't even know I took the pictures.

No Pirate's Here

We went to the eye doctor on Monday to check Taylor's eyes. Her pediatrician referred us because she thought Taylor might have a lazy eye. She said if she did, she would wear a patch over her good eye to correct the lazy one. I am glad to report that Taylor's eyes are great. We will not be having a little pirate! I use to notice in my baby pictures that my right eye goes in. I still notice it occassionally in my pictures now. The eye doctor said that Taylor has the same bone structure I do in the nose and eyes. He said that she also has no bridge on her nose yet and that gives the illusion sometimes that she is cross eyed.

Oddly enough, on Sunday, the day before we went to the eye doctor, she had lots of green gunk in her left eye. It was also really red and swollen. The doctor said it might be pink eye, an eye infection, or a cold in her eye. He gave us some drops. It spread from her left eye to her right on Tuesday. Let me tell you how fun it is to give a 9 month old drops in both eyes!

In other news, our little munchkin is crawling everywhere. She's been "trying" for some time now. On Sunday, she decided it was no big deal and started crawling all over the room. She also sits up in her bed and pulls up to her knees when she wants out. This makes nap time a little more difficult!

Here are some pictures from last night...Taylor's first experience with a basketball! She's already got the ball-handling drill down perfect and we're working on triple threat!

Summer Fun!

Aunt Staci bought a swimming pool for Taylor and Britten (when she gets here in a couple of weeks). Staci and Taylor tested out the water today. Taylor said it was just right. She's having a blast in the water!

9 Months

Taylor Faith is 9 months old today! I cannot believe in just three more months, we will be planning her first birthday. That's scary. What sounds awesome is that in 3 more months, we'll be done with formula and hopefully off the bottle! Yay!!!

Taylor is so much fun these days. She never ceases to make us laugh (and I think she knows she is funny!). She still scoots around on her bottom or rolls across the room to get somewhere. She wants to crawl so bad and gets so frustrated when she can't do it. She is standing very well and even "cruises" some when she is holding on to something.

She is still growling and does it very often. Her favorite times to growl seem to be during a prayer or when someone at the mall or Wal-mart is talking to her. She growled at a lady at Wal-mart last night. The lady looked at her and then laughed. I think it caught her very off guard.

Taylor also has two bottom teeth now! Yay! The past week or so with them coming in has been a little rough, for Taylor and her mom and dad. Poor thing was just in so much pain. But now they're in and we are ALL happy! :-)

She is still a great eater and is now starting to eat table food. Her favorites are definitely sweets. Yes, I'm a bad mom and let my child taste our desserts. It's so fun to watch her face when she gets something yummy. She grins from ear to ear!

Here are some pictures I recently took of our sweetie...

Waving to the camera

Standing up

She loves baths!!

See her two teeth?! So cute!

Mikaela and Taylor

Riley and Taylor

4th of July

We had a very busy day yesterday, but it was so much fun! We started the morning at the 4th on Broadway Parade. We sat on our church lawn with some friends from our class. I think I got pictures of everyone's kiddos, except for Thatcher, who would not look at me all day!

Taylor and Dustin enjoying the parade

Kole after eating his donuts

Charlie is too cute in his sunglasses

Carley in her cute lawn chair

How do you not love that face?!

After the parade, we walked down Broadway, along with probably 100,000 other people, to get a corn dog. Taylor fell asleep, even with all the people and noise!!

I love this little girl!

After the parade and corn dogs, we headed to the park in Slaton for their 4th celebrations. Taylor got to see her Grandma and Grandpa and her Great Aunt Lynette and Great Uncles Don and Lonnie.

This is Taylor's "Elvis" smile

Taylor and her future boyfriend, Kutter, although she much prefers fighting right now. She pulled Kutter's bandana and knocked him on the grass! He is about 5 weeks older than Taylor and she's already 2 lbs bigger!!

After Slaton, we headed to Plainview to see some of my side of the family. Taylor got passed around all night and loved every minute! We ate really good food, and enjoyed good company.

My big girl clapping

She LOVED playing with Shebi's dog Mia. Mia was scared to death of Taylor! At one point, Taylor stuck out her tongue so Mia could lick it...gross!

Taylor so excited over Mia

My beautiful cousins, Kristin and Kelcee

Taylor and her Pop Pop

Taylor didn't get to enjoy the fireworks. She sacked out a little too early. She stayed inside while we enjoyed the show from my Uncles front yard.