Taylor's Birthday fun

Taylor turns 3!

Taylor has been looking forward to her birthday since the day after Christmas. When asked how old she is she would reply "I'm going to be February 12th!" That much anticipated day finally came and she couldn't have been more thrilled. We decided to have a jungle themed party and started collecting all the necessary animals including 7 of Taylor's friends from her play group and nursery class. Next step was to transformed our basement to look and sound like the jungle. We had a so much fun getting things ready for the party. Seeing Taylor's reaction the morning of made all that hard work worth it. The kids made monkeys, caught butterflies from a elephants trunk, did a cake walk (Taylor's favorite game), and had elephant birthday cake. She got so many fun new toys that she has a hard time committing to play with one because she loves them all so much! After her party it was unthinkable that the day of her actual birthday was still a day away. We should have just ended it there but we had promised some more fun and she was looking forward to them. Enter February 12th. She woke up to more presents, this time from mom and dad and grandparents, got to go to lunch with her dad, and later that night she got to go to build a bear and pick out a new furry friend. Can you say spoiled? Yes, I admit it was a little over board but sometimes I can't help myself. She loved every moment and I think having a birthday lived up to all the hype. We want to send out a very sincere thank you to everyone who helped to make Taylor's birthday so special!

My Little Superstars!

I wanted to dedicate some (more) blog space to my favorite superstars. Having these two little ones means that there is never a dull moment. Taylor is our drama queen and is bound for a stage. It doesn't matter what kind, as long as she is in the spotlight she is happy. She loves to sing, dance and is always making up situations for her dolls and stuff animals to play out. She is a sweet heart and is always quick to give hugs and never forgets to say "I love you so much!" a few dozen times through out the day. Kennedy is my little stinker and most of the time I absolutely love her detremined spirit. She is as stubborn as can be, but with one look of those beautiful blue eyes and all is forgiven. She loves to scream. Be it a happy, mad, sad, or just for the fun of it, she can squeal with the best of them. She loves Taylor and Roxy, if they are in the same room as her she has be be situated so she can see them at all times. She is definitely a momma's girl, but there's no denying she loves her daddy as she squeals with joy and bounces up and down when he comes through the door. Needless to say I love my sweet little girls!

Kennedy and what I call her "sexy pose"

Taylor trying to steal the show, always wanting to be the center of attention

Bath time is always so much fun

Kennedy's Splint

One ride down a slide at Monkey Bizness with her mom is what started the next series of events. Kennedy is upset. At first we thought she was scared from the slide then realized she must have hurt her foot or leg. The next day Kennedy is still completely sad and protecting her right leg. After worrying about her all day and finally one trip to the doctor's office (and later a trip to Littleton Hospital radiology and two ex rays later) this is what Kennedy has to show for it. The slide was on a "bouncy house" contraption which was a lot of fun but when we reached the bottom her foot got caught under my leg at the very end and bent it back. Fortunately the ex rays did not reveal any hairline fractures in any bones in her leg as was originally feared by the doctor and us. She still seemed to be in pain when any pressure was applied to her leg so the splint was to stabilize it. Today the splint is off and she seems to be doing much better when I touch or move her leg, but still won't stand on her leg, poor girl. The doctor believes it is some minor ligament damage and will heal nicely on it's own in a few days. We are very thankful it wasn't anything serious!

Well I thought about the army...

Kennedy finally figured out how to "crawl". She has been rolling to get around forever and never showed any interest in any other form of movement. However, just in the last two weeks she has gone from learning how to get up on her hands and knees, to sitting up from laying down, and finally entering the world of the army crawl. It is so funny to see her scooting around. I honestly thought the day would never come. Thankfully it has opened a new freedom for her and she is more content for longer when I put her down to play. Way to go Kennedy!

Tag! You're it!!

I have been informed that I have been tagged. I can barely think of 1 random fact about me that would be remotely interesting for everyone let alone 6 but I will try my best.
1. I love reality shows. It really doesn't matter what it is about, I'll watch it. I've always been a people watcher so to be able to do that in the comfort of my own living room makes it oh so fun for me. Sometimes on Saturdays when I don't have much going on I can get sucked into the reality marathons for hours on end.

2. I recently came to the realization that I am indeed a control freak. I have a hard time when things don't go according to the picture perfect plan in my head. This definitely includes how I expect things to go with my kids. I think of what I want them to be doing, like napping, and if it isn't going as planned I get extremely grumpy. You think I would learn that after 3 years of having very little control over most things in my life, I would chill out a little. However, I have yet to learn that lesson in life.

3. There is one little random fact about me that Nate absolutely hates. When I get stressed, or just extremely bored, I tend to pull out my hair. I'll sit and play with my hair until I find one that has a different texture and I will pull it out. I can get lost in my thoughts while doing this and before I know it there is a pile of hair in my lap. Now can you see why Nate hates this? It is surprising that I'm not bald by now. Even Taylor will see me doing it and tell me to stop or just taddle on me to Nate.

4. When I was in 6th grade I joined up with the Girl Scouts of America. Now before you picture me in a brown and green uniform I have to explain that I wasn't that kind of girl scout. I was on the double dutch team. Yes I was a double jump roping fool. I got involved through my friend Erica Houston and we even went to a national double dutch tournament at Lagoon. We would practice once a week while listening to New Kids on the Block and Bobby Brown. Ahh, those were the days!

5. I think I am a sleep-a-holic. I can take a three hour nap during the day, go to bed at 9:30 at night...and yes I still groan when Taylor comes in my room at 7:00am. Nate is totally opposite from me and so I tell him that my over sleeping makes up for his lack of sleeping.

6. I love to blog peep. This goes back to my love of people watching. I can spend hours reading people's blogs. When I go through my lists of family and friends blogs and find there is nothing new I tend to check out their (or should I say your) family and friends blog. Now if only I could learn to make my blog all fancy and cute like some of yours!

So there you have it, 6 random and fairly useless bits of information about me. This has been interesting reflecting and examining myself as to what makes me unique. This is the point where I believe that I have to do some tagging, so Ashley, Laura H., and Brooke M. you're it!!

Christmas 2007

We had a wonderful Christmas in Utah at Grandma Ricks' house. Most all my family was there, minus the Turscanski's who were missed. We left the Saturday prior to Christmas day and got stuck on I-80 in Rawlins, WY for over 2 hours due to blowing snow. So after spending 12 hours in the car we finally arrived in Salt Lake City. We prompted Taylor with the saying "it's a Christmas miracle!" which quickly became a theme at Grandma's house. Sunday Great Grandma Yospe had all cousins and great-grand kids over for food, catching up and fun. At one point Taylor discovered that dancing attracted attention from everyone so she put on quite the show and milked it for all it was worth. She is such a drama queen. Christmas eve was filled with lots and lots of yummy food, thanks aunt Christine and Grandma! Taylor and Grandma made sugar cookies for Santa and everyone enjoyed the falling snow making it a white Christmas. We sat around the fire and reminisced about past Christmases to remember Grandpa Ricks. We even heard the bells on Santa's sleigh! Christmas morning was filled with many new toys and fun things from Santa. Taylor loved her new kitchen and little people and made sure that everyone had a chance to play with her. Kennedy just loved playing with all the ribbon and paper. I had to include this picture of Kennedy on Christmas morning. She is so sensitive to the flash on my camera that as soon as I would hold the camera up she would squint and close her eyes completely. As a result pretty much every picture of her on Christmas morning looks like this one. She is such a funny girl!

Thank you to everyone for making this Christmas so fun and memorable. We wish we were closer to family but it is times like these that we cherish!