Christmas

Taylor has been so good around all of the Christmas decorations. She mostly just points at the decorations. Her favorite things to look at are the Christmas tree with all the decorations and lights, the nativity scene, and the HO, HO, HO sign. She likes to pick up the donkey and hold it and she likes to play with the bells on the HO, HO, HO sign. Some of the highlights of this month have been going to see the Temple Square lights, going to City Creek Mall, Spanish Fork lights, watching the Christmas classics, the Riverwoods lights, and seeing Santa at the Orem mall in her Santa dress. Her least favorite part was seeing Santa. She took one look at him and started bawling her little eyes out. Her favorite was seeing all the Christmas lights. She liked to also go in the car with us and look at the Christmas lights on peoples homes. We also went over to Chris's brother's house for Christmas Eve dinner and then reinacting the nativity. Taylor played one of the sheep and she did a great job. Christmas day she went to Denny's with her dad without me because I had to work. She had her first scrambled eggs there and really liked it. When I got home from work we hurried and opened up presents and then went to my folks house to have Christmas dinner and open up presents. She really enjoyed it except for my mom's new camera with her tripod. She wore her Santa dress that day and looked way cute! Some things that she does that are cute is:
- she sleeps with her blanket and bear
- she says car, hot, dog, dada, moma, ball, roll, and princess
- she likes to eat mostly cheese and watermelon, but she is good about trying new foods
- she cuddles with her doll baby
- she enjoys opening and closing doors
-s he will bring our shoes to us and wait for us to put them on

Halloween, Thanksgiving

Taylor and I went to Chris's work to trick or treat. She was able to walk around the hallways to the candy that they had placed outside their office. She clung to the pieces of candy and would not let it go. It was really fun to see her walk around. Everyone that saw her could not take their eyes off her and said how cute she was. We then went trick or treating with my brothers family and my parents in their neighborhood. Taylor loved being outside with everyone and getting the different candy. She has not eaten any yet so Chris helped her with that. It snowed all day for one day about 11 inches and I had Taylor go outside in it. She just stared at the snow falling and then Chris tried making a snowman in the backyard without gloves so it was not completed. Taylor was actually scared to be around it. She still likes her watermelon and it's still her favorite fruit. Yesterday was thanksgiving and Chris and I put up the Christmas decorations. It was fun for us but Taylor was a little bit confused as to what was going on. She likes to point at the the fake Christmas tree that we have lit up with ornaments. Today is Black Friday and we are going to to some Christmas shopping:)
Some things that Taylor does that I would like to remember is
- she will point at different things in room until we identify what it is. ( it usually is a fan or light)
- she talks all the time. Her favorite words are da, car, all done
- she carries a blanket and bear around the house and often needs both to go to sleep
- she has curly/wavy hair and its adorable
- she does different poses
- she is starting to drink more milk from her sippy cup and eat less of the watermelon
- she likes to run in open face and will run so fast that she face plants. she doesn't cry when she gets up though

It's fall time

My friend was willing to take pictures of Taylor and I over at this old abandoned barn in Mapleton and then we also carved out holes in the bottom of pumpkins to stick our babies in it. The pictures turned out really well. I took some more pictures of Taylor walking. My family and I think it's so funny the way that she walks with one arm out and the other arm bent. She makes us smile.

I also took some pictures of her in a halloween outfit. I could not resist buying the leg warmers because they were too cute. She looked adorable in it.

Walking

So Taylor is now walking everywhere and for long distances. The long distance is from our family room to the kitchen or vice versa. She was really wobbily in the beginning and had a hard time keeping her balance.This was the case for about a month and a half and as of yesterday October 1st she was walking everywhere without falling over every two or three steps. She is so proud when she does this and smiles while she walks. Also when Chris and I would walk with her holding both of her hands she would lean her head back to smile at us:)

 When she gets the courage to walk she just goes for it and it's fun to watch

She is such a sweet girl. She really is fearless. I will take her to the park and she will try to climb up the slides even if they are steep. She knows no boundaries. I was not like this when I was little and was afraid to do anything that involved heights. She loves the swings as welll still and enjoys getting pushed back and forth

Some other things that she enjoys doing is opening and closing doors, trying to talk on the phone when I am on the cell phone, and she likes to wave goodbye to her dad when he leaves for work. Just recently she has given great hugs. She wraps her hands around our neck and lays her head on our shoulders. Chris and I really like this because she was not much of a cuddler when she was younger.

Ist Birthday

Taylor was able to celebrate her birthday on her real birthday... August 4th which was a Saturday. We had her party at my parents house with my parents and my cousin Brittany and her husband Trevor. We had hamburgers and salad. Afterwards Taylor opened up her presents and then we tried to give her her cake. We enjoyed the big cake, but she did not enjoy hers as much. She kept gagging when we tried to put some cake or frosting in her mouth.

She is so cute we just love her to pieces. Some things that she does now  that she is 13 months is she talks/mumbles. She has started walking but still prefers to crawls everywhere. She laughs when being tickled. She crawls up and down the stairs, only goes to the bathroom #1 and #2 in her crib. She LOVES watermelon, but just sucks the juice out and then spits out the watermelon. She loves to play and crawl everywhere at the park. She crawls up and down slides.

Swimming, Camping, and Aquarium

Taylor really loves the water. We went to Eagle Mountain with a friend of mine who also has a daughter around Taylor's age. It was a splash park and she loved it.

For Taylor's birthday I wanted to get her a stroll along walker so that she could have fun pushing it. Even though I gave it to her before her birthday I think that she will continue to use it past it.

We went camping for the first time with Taylor which actually went a lot better than I expected.She does not love nature yet, but she can't walk on her own yet so I think that prevented her from exploring. She did really well in her port a crib and I think she will start enjoying it more as she gets older. Chris and I went on the ski lifts. It was so relaxing and the scenery was gorgeous.

We also went to the Aquarium in Sandy. Needless to say I was a little underwhelmed with it. I am comparing it to the aquariums in southern California, specifically Long Beach which is bigger and better. Then I had to remember that it's Utah and that explains it. Taylor really liked it though. She kept banging on the glass of the fish tanks with her hands. Chris's favorite part was the otters that were swimming and playing with each other. My favorite part was the eel. They actually do "shreek" like they do in the movie Princess Bride.

There are some things that I would like to remember about Taylor a week before her first birthday.

- she likes to crawl around sliding with her hand a small object on the floor

-  she likes to stand on the couch and crawl from one end to the other

- she likes to open and close doors

- as of late she has become a Momma's girl and cries when I leave a room

- she is very sweet and will wrap her hands around your neck and give you a hug

- she likes to crawl over us and play with people's hair

- she plays with the blinds and the strings from it

- she likes to look at herself in the mirror and will blow on it