More Cousin Pics, Cowardly Lion and Ryan at 12 weeks

Dustin had to go to Spur Friday night for the football game and had a cross country meet early Saturday morning, so the kids and I packed up Friday morning and headed to Lubbock. We met Chrissy and her kids at the fair to see the animals and get some grub. I was good...I packed Taylor and I a lunch, but sure did enjoy a strawberry lemonade and funnel cake...mmmmm good! It was crazy (5 kids 3 1/2 and under, 2 double strollers, balloons, diapers to change, etc), but it was worth it. Chrissy and I laughed at how crazy we must look!! Silly me left my camera in the car, so I don't have any pictures of the kids petting the animals!

After the fair, the kids and I headed to Slaton to stay the night with Dustin's parents. Man, it's great for Taylor to get to play with grandparents! She sure enjoys it and so does Ryan and I!! Sam and Diane spoil us all! They bought us supper, then we all went and played at the track. Taylor loves to run and race and Ryan just loves being outside anywhere! Saturday morning, I met my dad and sister and nieces at the park to watch a flag football game and let the girls play at the playground. Here are some pics of our fun morning.

Cute babies

Poor Ryan is out-numbered

Lindsay and Ryan

Ellie and I
The girls pretending to be babies

Dad and Ryan watching football


Saturday afternoon, we went to Riley's birthday party. It was Wizard of Oz themed. People were encouraged to dress up like anyone from the movie, except Dorothy. Riley, the birthday girl, was Dorothy. Taylor had a great time!!!

Riley as Dorothy and her sister Mikaela as Glenda the Good Witch

Taylor was the Cowardly Lion

Dustin's cousin, Kristal dressed up like the apple tree. She even had a sack of apples that she threw!

This is how excited Ryan was during the party!

And finally, Ryan turned 12 weeks yesterday! Here are a few of the many cute pictures I got of him yesterday.

Not sure what face this is...it cracks me up!
Holding his head up high!

He was so excited when he found himself in the mirror!

Cousin Fun at the Park

Last weekend, we spent some time at a park in Lubbock to celebrate September birthdays. We had a lot of birthdays this month...Lindsay, Chrissy, Brian and Kendall! We had cake, pie and homemade ice cream...yummy! The kids played on the playground and fed the ducks. It was a beautiful and fun day!




This first picture was actually from Saturday night after my grandparents 55th anniversary party.

Taylor and Cooper feeding the ducks

Britten and Cooper



Kendall feeding the ducks

Sweet Ellie - 9 weeks

Ryan - 11 weeks

He looks JUST like his daddy!!

Taylor at the playground

Taylor, Kendall and Clayton playing in the sand

Clayton and Cooper

Kissing cousins

The Book of Jennifer's

Taylor is learning memory verses in her class at church. Here is her first one in her words...

"God made the sky and earth. Jennifers 1:1."

That girl cracks me up!! I recorded her saying it the other day. It's just too cute for words! She met one of Dustin's cross country runners after the football game Friday. Her name is Jennifer. She looked at me and said, "Jennifer...like my memory verse?"

Another funny Taylor story while I am telling them...Last Saturday we celebrated my grandparents 55th wedding anniversary!! We ate at Furr's then all went to mass with them in Lubbock. Taylor saw a statue of Jesus and asked why he was just wearing a diaper. Silly girl! Then she asked me if Jesus was real. I told her of course he is. He lives in heaven, but we can also have him in our hearts. She scrunched up her nose and said, "I am taking him out of my heart. He's too big to fit in there!"

Deer, Elk and Ducks, Oh My!

Some crazy things have gone on in the last couple of weeks for us! And yes, they involve a deer, some elk and some ducks. We'll begin with the deer. I was pushing the kids in the stroller to the post office one day last week and thought I was seeing things when I saw deer running in someones front yard. I got closer and the deer had jumped the fence and was running around the yard with a black rottweiler!! We went on to the post office and I told the lady working there what I saw. She informed me that she is the town pet, Deer Abby. Someone found her hurt as a baby and nursed her back to health. She roams around town eating dog food and anything else she can find. She spends most of her time in that yard with the rottweiler. Crazy!!

Also, there is a man just outside of town that raises Elk. They are beautiful!! I've known about them for a while and have been meaning to get pictures. Some of them were really close to the road one day, so we stopped and took pictures. Taylor loves looking for them when we drive by and counting how many she can see. Sometimes they lay down in the grass and all you can see are there antlers. It's pretty cool!

And onto the ducks...The day after we saw Deer Abby for the first time, we decided to go to Lamesa to the park and to feed ducks. I only had about half a loaf of bread. We started throwing the bread to the ducks and they SWARMED us! Taylor was screaming "It's eating me," because one of the ducks bit her finger. I was freaking out and trying not to let Taylor see. I was trying to carry Ryan in his carseat and Taylor back to the car. The ducks were literally biting at my legs, so I had to start kicking them to get back to the car. We will not be feeding the ducks in Lamesa again...apparently no one else is either because they were starving! I didn't get any pictures of the duck feeding, but did of the elk and Deer Abby.

2 Months

Ryan will be 2 months old tomorrow!! I took him Wednesday for his 2 month appointment. He is

12 lbs 10 oz (75th percentile)
23 1/2 inches (60th percentile)

He is growing so quickly. He is holding his head up so good! And of course, cooing and smiling a lot still. He acts like he's trying to roll over from his tummy to his back. He also sat in the bumbo for a while today (pics of that below). He is sleeping 7 to 8 hours at night, which is so wonderful! He's eating 6 ounces at each feeding. The pediatrician told me most kids don't start eating 6 ounces until they are 4 months old...oops! He seems content with it though. Here are some pictures of him on his tummy and sitting in the bumbo. Isn't he just the cutest thing?!

And of course, my sweet Taylor. You will notice a scratch above her lip. She fell at the park last Sunday night. She was swinging on her tummy and face planted in the dirt. She busted her nose and lip pretty bad! Her lip was so fat for a day and she talked with a lisp, but she's all better now. Of course, I think it hurt mommy more than it did Taylor! This is before the game last night. Taylor is all decked out in her brown! Go Sands Mustangs!

Family Pics

We took a few pictures before church this morning. Ryan's not really looking at the camera, but they turned out pretty cute! I LOVE the last 2 of Taylor. That litle girl is adorable! She told me the other day that she needed to do some "lunches" so that her legs would get stronger (she meant lunges). HA HA! She's constantly saying funny things like that! I love my two sweet kiddos so much!

All Smiles at 7 Weeks

Ryan has started smiling and cooing so much when I talk to him, and his eye contact is great! I THINK we are starting to develop a bit of a schedule, and I must say, it's working quite nice. He takes his last bottle about 8 or 9, goes to sleep about 10, then wakes up for his next bottle about 5. He'll usually go back to sleep until 8, then stays a wake a few hours. Taylor continues to be a great big sister and loves on her brother all the time. Enjoy these sweet smiles...hope they brighten your day. :-)

Ryan at 6 Weeks

I've been seeing a lot more smiles and catching more "smirks" on camera. What a sweet boy he is! Dustin said this onsie Ryan had on today is cruel...I thought it was adorable! Notice the back of it in the last picture!

My Sweet Taylor

So, I've written a lot lately about Ryan, but a lot of neat and fun things have been going on with Taylor, too. I've been trying to remember all the funny things she's been saying so I can blog about them. This is my way of remembering all these great moments because her baby book only goes through her first year. So, here are some fun stories about my sweet baby (well, not so baby anymore) girl.

**The other day, we were saying prayers before supper, and instead of saying, "In Jesus name, Amen" my silly little girl said "In princess name, Amen." The next day, she thanked God for putting princesses on cups (we had just bought her 2 new sippy cups with Disney princess on them). I LOVE the sweet and innocent prayers of children. Usually, she thanks God for her mommy, daddy, and baby Ryan. Grandparents and friends are often prayed for too.

**As we all know, Taylor is very fond of dressing up, purses, jewelry, make-up, etc. In other words, she can be quite the little priss! The thing I find funny, though, is she can be quite the tom-boy, too! She loves to jump in puddles or play in the mud. We went out the other day and I was pushing Ryan around our street and the side street because he was fussy. I wasn't really paying attention to Taylor. I looked up and she was laying down in her clothes on the sidewalk in a huge rain puddle. She was soaked head to toe. She also LOVES bugs...so much that she freaks out the neighborhood girls with all the bugs she catches. The other day, she picked up a HUGE cicada and brought it to me. See the picture below...nothing scares her! She was given a bug locket...a plastic jar you wear around your neck. She went outside the other day in her Cinderella dress to catch bugs. See, she's my prissy tom-boy!!


**Taylor has grown quite fond of Dora and Diego in the last 6 months or so. She's learning lots of spanish because of it. She can count to 10 in spanish, which is too cute! I pushed Taylor to the post office the other day in her stroller. On our way, she smelled a skunk. She said we needed to get out our "noculars" to look for the skunk. She said, "If we see the skunk, we will yell, 'Espeda, skunk'." I asked her what that means and she said it means wait. She learned that completely on her own! So, she's looking through her "noculars" and says, "Is that a skunk? No, that's an old shoe." I looked in the parking lot and sure enough, there was an old shoe! She's too cute!

**Taylor continues to surprise us with her vocabulary. Lately, she's been using really big words. Taylor wanted to climb on Dustin's back to play horsey. It took her a while to get up there. Once she did, she said, "Eventually, I got up there." What...eventually??!! That's just one example that I can think of her using a big vocabulary.

We've really been enjoying summer and having daddy home! Last Friday, we packed a picnic and headed to the park in Lamesa. We ate under the trees then played on their playground. Taylor had lots of fun! Here are a few pics from our picnic fun!

Ryan slept through most of the picnic

Here are a couple pics I took recently. I just love this soft sweet smile!!

She got some dress-up clothes our neighbor outgrew. Here she is showing off her new Cinderella dress.