Horray!!

New House

Current state of house, 5 days post move-in. I'm pretty impressed with ourselves.

Living Room
Master Bedroom

Guest Room

Kitchen

View from kitchen

Holy lots of boxes Bat Man! I had no idea we had this many sice we packed in 2 sepearate phases. Thanks Stephen, for pointing that out that that's not even all of them.

Groundbreaking

It's a good thing we took this picture before the meeting.

This is about 15 minutes in. Notice Zoe is not happy.

This is about 20 minutes after it started. "A" for effort? No shovel pictures for us.

Who Needs Toys?

This is what I caught my kids doing for fun after I'd packed up the entire kitchen and nearly all their toys. It was adoreable!

Halloween Night

Despite my best efforts, all Taya really wanted to be was a princess. It didn't help that Adalyn was Cinderella. Taya asked if she could wear a crown with her witch costume, then she wanted to wear her princess dress up shoes, then she wanted princess make-up on her cheeks. Thanks Addie for letting Taya wear the wig. I really think it made the costume. Don't you?

Halloween

Halloween was a little crazy this year since it was the week right before we moved. Somehow, we fit it in. Taya was a "nice" witch (thanks to cousin Tasha for the costume). I thought Taya wouldn't really care as long as she got to wear a dress and I put make-up on her, but that wasn't the case. See next post...

Flower Girl Dress

Here's Taya's Flower Girl Dress for Aunt Kim's wedding. Horray!!! After much to-do, it fits perfectly and Taya threw a fit when I made her take it off.

Preschool

Mason Morse, Lilly Whiting, Ginger Petersen, Bethany Jensen, Taya Sturdevant, & Preston Lewis

Just the girls.

Taya started attending a co-op preschool this year. Basically a bunch of my stay-at-home moms were all going crazy trying to keep our 3 & 4 year olds intertained all day every day, so we rotate "teaching" 2 days a week for 2 weeks at a time. After my first day teaching I thought, "Wow! That really wasn't as bad as I thought it might be." Quite honestly, the biggest challenge was really Zoe. She was the total bully of the bunch. Taya, Bethany, and Ginger were a real three-some always wanting to all sit next to eachother and do just what eachother did. I have to say I think Taya's favorite "teacher" so far is Sister Lewis. Hats off to her!

Face Painting

I know, it's too early for Halloween. Too bad because this is great!! Janessa knows a friend who does this for a living and needed kid models to update her portfolio. It was free, we just had to allow her to be photographed. Tough payment.

Stubborn Girl

Lots of times as a parent, but by the time you get your camera out to document whatever act you're dying to get on tape, your child will not perform. That was NOT the case with this. Everytime I take Zoe in the water, she does this same thing. She'll hold my hand long enough to get her balance and then yank her hand away and refuse any sort of assistance at all as she continues walking into deeper and deeper water until she falls under and I have to resuce her (and yes, I did rescue her) and then she immediatly repeats the same exact act. I've tried nearly every flotation available for children and she usually likes them at first, but as soon as the newness wears off she either figures out how to get out of them, or just screams her head off. I've heard of fearless, but I thought eventually she'd grasp some sort of fear of drowning. I've considered not coming to her rescue quite so quickly in hopes to instill some fear, but I'd hate to have to convince CPS that I swear I hadn't intended for her to require recessitation.

Griffin's 2nd Birthday Party

Zoe Sturdevant



Griffin Day (birthday boy)

Taya Sturdevant

Ok, so the slip & slide wasn't as much fun as we all remember it. While most things are improved upon with time, I think this toy must have been scaled back to a more tame version due to injuries or something. Anyhow, the little kids didn't have a clue what they were missing.

At 15 months old, Zoe is now just barely toddlering along like a newborn baby giraffe. It is her preferred mode of transportation. It continues to amaze me just how obviously different her and Taya are already. Zoe spent a good 20 minutes just sitting in the mud watching everyone on the slip & slide. Taya would have been screaming until she was clean and then refused to go in the grass. Watching Zoe's personality come out is one of the best things about life right now. She sure does give us a run for our money though. She's a stubborn, yet sweet little thing.

I don't think Griffin had a clue it was his birthday, but that's just my opinion.

Girls Trip to San Diego

I might as well start with my favorite picture from the whole trip. Nothing makes you feel more proud of your kids than Grandma and Grandpa doting over how smart and cute your kids are. Too bad they're bias too. I must say that having kids has put a damper on feeling 12 again every time I go home. My parents still live in the house I grew up in though and have plenty of space so it still feels like home.

We spent 3 whole weeks there and I just can't believe how fast the time flew by. Here's the highlights:

...went to my cousin, Emily's wedding and got to visit with lots of family. It was great to meet several of my cousin's spouses I've never met before. You all are awesome! Here's where I've seen the best photos from the wedding. It's her photographer's web site.

http://jimkennedyphotographers.com/jkpblog/emily-patrick-get-married/7682/

...visited my college friend, Barbara (I can't believe the last time we saw each other was my wedding!) and met her 2 handsome boys.

...went to the beach (Check out the awesome umbrella. Why didn't we get that years ago?)

...went to the Del Mar (San Diego County) Fair.
...attended church at the tinny branch my parent's are serving in up in the mountains near San Diego.
....and chased Zoe out of trouble. I swear this girl needs to be tethered. She learned how to get through every block we put up and raced for the stairs every chance she got. I think that was all that kept me from gaining a million pounds after all the yummy food we indulged in.....RB donuts, In-N-Out, Claim Jumper, yummy!!

Well Checks

We had well checks for both girls today, and yes, they are "well". Thank goodness! Here's the stats:


Taya - 3 Yr. Old check-up
Weight 34 lbs. - 75%
Height 39" - 90%

Zoe - 1 Yr. Old check-up
Weight 25.14 lbs. - 97%
Height (Length) 30.5" - 90%

Kinda ironic they're both 90%.

Jammie Twins

Ok, the other purpose of this blog is to share pictures of my darling girls. We are so glad we got 2 girls in a row. I can't believe how much they already love eachother. We had to work hard to help Taya learn this wasn't someone for her to boss around.

Safety Kid

One of Taya's goals for this year was to learn how to pedal a bike. Yes, Taya has written goals for the year. If you know her dad very well, this doesn't surprise you....nor does the helmet he insists she wears. But the good news is that goal is complete and she's ready for a bike with training wheels.

Taya's 3rd Birthday

I figure for my first post, going back to Taya's birthday 3 months ago, it's too far back, right? So the whole idea behind this thing is that I feel guilty for not having done a better job of keeping up baby books or journals for my kiddo's. So, this is an attempt at a different avenue to accomplish that.

For Taya's birthday, we went to the Rodeo with some great family friends and her surrogate Aunt. I must say it was definitely nice having some extra hands and eyes. Janessa only lost her 3 year old twice. I probably would have too, if it wasn't for Sandy.