Anniversary #4

On October 26th, Scott and I had our 4th anniversary. It seems like it has gone by really fast. We weren't able to take the week off this year because my boss had a big hunt that week. So we took our vacation in August and took a couple of days off for our anniversary. The day of our anniversary, we took Taylor to her baby sitter and headed up to Mulligan's because it was a cold day and they have a heaters on their driving range. Well, the heaters were not on. We were VERY cold. We didn't finish our buckets and headed out to lunch. We ate at Hires Big H. Scott is a big fan of their burgers. After lunch we went bowling at the place where we kind of had our first datish thing. Too long of a story to explain on this post. I won the first round and got a 167. I am pretty sure that is my personal best. Scott won the second one and I think he was around 180 and I was around 140. We actually bowled really well for people who haven't bowled in over a year. We still had some time to kill since Taylor was asleep at the babysitter's so we told her to text us when she woke up and we did a little bit of shopping. That night Scott took Taylor and I to The Cheesecake Factory, the traffic was ridiculous, but so worth it. It was sooo good. I got a BBQ Chicken salad that was big enough to feed 3-5 people and boy oh boy was it tasty. It definitely did not disappoint. Taylor got her first taste of food that isn't mashed. I gave her pieces of banana and avocado, and surprisingly, she ate the avocado better. Scott got fettuccine alfredo that he said was ok, but Scott is very picky. I love that place and I haven't had it for years. I was so glad Scott took me there for our anniversary. He is so sweet.
The following day, the pregnant babysitter told us she couldn't take Taylor because she was just too uncomfortable, which was totally understandable, so Taylor got to play with mom & dad all day. She was such a joy to have with us all day. We got a later start than we hoped because we had Taylor, and we headed up to Salt Lake again. We ate lunch at a diner up some canyon in Salt Lake, I guess they are known for their dinner, so we kind of disappointed. After lunch we headed over to the Salt Lake City cemetery. Yes, we went to a cemetery. All but a few of the prophets were buried there, so we went to see. We had to go to the office of the cemetery and get a map of where the prophets and notable people were buried. It was really interesting and we really enjoyed ourselves. Taylor loved it too, but I think for her it was just exciting to be outside. We were really glad we had a map, because the cemetery was extremely large. We would have never found anything. We spent several hours there even with a map. It was interesting to see that some of the headstones of prophets were really discreet and others were VERY large. President Hinckley's was good size. We would have walked right past President Hunter's if we had not been looking for it. Not far from President Hinckley's headstone, was one that had a really cool poem on it. I guess it was a poem? Scott and I really liked it though. We also saw one headstone that had a free mason's symbol on it. That was pretty cool.

After the cemetery we went to see Brigham Young's headstone, at dinner, and headed home. We had planned to go to Gardner Village, but we ran out of time. We did stop at the corn maze at Thanksgiving Point, but it was dark and cold, so we didn't stay long. Guess we can always go next year when Taylor is a little bit older. f
Overall it was a great anniversary. Even though we didn't have a lot of money to spend. We really enjoyed ourselves. It was great spending time with each other and our super cute daughter. We didn't have to spend loads of money to have a good time together.

7 Months & 8 Months

I don't know why I never seem to have time to blog. Maybe because my little one REALLY likes the laptop cord and laptop and wants to grab it or crawl all over it every time I get on it. Or, maybe because by the time I get done with Taylor every night I am usually pretty tired and just feel like getting into bed and reading a book or something. Guess it is just not a priority. Since Taylor is now 8 months, and I missed the 7 month post, this is going to be a combined post about 7 and 8 months. I probably won't remember when anything happened anyway if I did two separate posts.

Taylor is a very active baby. She started scooting around maybe a week shy of 7 months and then it turned it to crawling about 3 days shy of 7 months. It wasn't really a surprise to us since she had been up on her knees quite a bit and she just doesn't want to ever sit still. She has recently started pulling up on things as well, so I don't think walking is in the too far distant future.

Since learning to crawl Taylor discovered the doorstop behind the door and very much enjoys playing with any of them she sees in the house. Her cousin taught her that it to one side and let go it makes a cool noise, so that is what she does. We have purchased plenty of toys for her, but she really likes doorstops, shoes, & cords. Yep, she is a little different. She does also love a little white stuffed panda bear that was given to us as a gift at my baby shower. She will smile and laugh at it before she picks it up and chews on it. It is pretty cute.

Her main baby-sitter had a baby herself, so she temporarily goes to someone else. She is so flexible though and she adjusted to the new place really fast. The girl that watches her has two boys and one of them is about a month and a half younger than Taylor. From what I hear, they very much enjoy looking at each other and smiling at each other.

She is starting to become more of a binky baby, so I try to keep them put away unless she is going to bed or riding in the car. She must have a love hate relationship with binkies, because she throws them out of her crib at night. This is wear I find them.

Under the crib against the wall. I call it the binky graveyard. It makes me laugh when I can't find all of the binkies and I look there.

She has been sick a lot recently, but that could be partly because of the changing of the season. She had a cold and then got over it and I got a cold and gave her a new one. Then she had some diarrhea issues and we are hoping that is over. She has 6 teeth and I think she is getting another one, which seems to cause her all sorts of problems. Almost everything that is wrong with her can be caused by teething.

Overall even when she is sick she is very happy baby. I can see she already has an attitude and she is going to be a little spit fire when she starts talking, but we love her to pieces and enjoy her every day. I hate having someone else watch her all day, but it is so fun to pick her up and watch her light up and crawl as fast as she can over to me. Someday I hope to stay home with her and watch her be cute all day long. Oh dreams...

I'm losing it!

No, not my mind, weight. I am finally losing weight again and I couldn't be happier about it. My weight has been crazy with the pregnancy and everything. I gained 40 lbs during my pregnancy and then lost 33 within the first 6 weeks after Taylor was born. Then I gained 13 back slowly. Towards the end of nursing, I started weight watchers because I was fed up with how my body looked. I have now lost 11 lbs. It has taken two months, but I am ok with losing slow and doing it healthy. I am sure I could lose more if I added working out, but I still haven't figured out how to do that successfully without sacraficing something important to me, like time with Taylor, Scott or sleep. Anywhoo. I am currently 11 lbs from my pre-pregnancy weight and once I lose that, I am going to stay on weight watchers to lose another 20-30. I am really enjoying it because it is not restrictive and I don't feel like I CAN'T have certain foods. I just pick and choose what I want and what I am going to sacrafice to have it. It doesn't go as fast as HCG, but I don't feel like I am not eating anything either. This is something I can definitely do long term. Hooray!

Boring

Recently I have decided my life is VERY boring and extremely predictable. My week goes like this:

Monday Thru Friday

• Get up between 6 and 6:30, shower and get myself semi decent, get my snacks ready for work, get Taylor ready, drop her off at the baby sitter and go to work.
• Work 8-5, with the exemption of my lunch break that usually consists of running errands. After work, if Scott hasn't picked her up, pick up Taylor and make it home by 6.
• Fix dinner if Scott is hungry or find something for me to eat if he is not.
• Play with Taylor and then feed her dinner at 7 and give her a bath if it is bath night.
• Give Taylor a bottle and get her to between 8 and 8: 30.
• By 8:30 I am spent, so I clean a few things up and then drop into bed and cuddle with hubby and watch TV for a little while.
• Wake up at least once a night and feed Taylor again and sometimes wake up a couple more times with her.
• Repeat

Saturday & Sunday

• Get up when Taylor does
• If I am lucky, take a nap when Taylor takes her morning nap, if I am not, clean the house or take care of things that didn't get done during the week
• Get groceries
• Get lunch
• Run errands
• Play with Taylor
• Spend time with one of our families
• Church if we don't sleep through it or miss it because we didn't realize it is Stake Conference.
• Spend as much time as a family as possible

Then the week starts over and we do it all again. I would really like to add in a workout, but I just don't know where I would get the time or energy to do it. This week I have told Scott twice that I want to work out and didn't end up happening. I guess running around the house for 2 hours between getting home and Taylor going to bed has to count for something right?
The weird thing about this is I am not even complaining. I am actually pretty happy these days. We are still struggling with sleep, so I have bad days, but I am pretty content with how my life goes. I just wish there was more time in the day so I could get more done, or do something exciting to change up the routine. I am excited for the upcoming holidays to change things up a bit, and I am really excited that some day (not as near in the future as I would like) I will get to stay home and be a mom and I can decide what we are going to do that day and not be a work drone. But...with that being said, life is good, and I have a lot of blessings to be grateful for. I get to spend time with my adorable daughter and fantastic husband every night and every weekend and right now I couldn't ask for more than that.

We've Been Doing Stuff

I can never seem to find the time and desire to blog anymore. When I get Taylor down to bed at night there is usually plenty to be done, and therefore, I don't spend time blogging. I do post pictures on facebook, but that is a lot quicker then writing an entire post and putting in pictures. So here is a recap on what we have been doing for the past month.

We went on vacation the end of August. We decided it wasn't hot enough here in Utah and we headed to Arizona. When I think about what we did for our vacation, all I can think is we golfed. The golf was good. We enjoyed it a lot. I played really well for only playing maybe twice in 2011 previous to our trip. We also went to Tombstone (thought it would be better). The coolest thing we did there was a ghost tour at the Birdcage Theatre. The history was really insteresting. The only other thing it seems like we did was eat. We tried to find some really good places to have ribs. And if anyone ever goes to AZ, Scott recommends Scottsdale BBQ Company. Good food. We also went out to dinner with a good friend of mine from BYU-I and visited at their house. It was great to see her and her little guy. We left Taylor with my in-laws. I did cry twice while we were gone because I missed my little one. Once in Tombstone when we were playing with a little girl at dinner, and once on the way home when we decided to stay the night in Vegas. Vegas was a lot of fun, but the minute we booked our room, I started crying. It sucked for Scott because we booked it on his phone, so when I burst into tears we were walking the strip. He said he got some looks. Anyway, while we were doing this:

Taylor was doing this:

I think she had a good time at Grandma's house, but I'm sure she missed us as well. Right when we got back, she was a little grumpy with us.
Honestly life has been a bit of a whorlwind since we got back from vacation. We both work all day long and spending  time with Taylor takes up our evenings so we only have the weekends most of the time. We are trying to fit in date nights where we can.
Two weeks ago Scott took me up to the Heber Creeper while my parents watched Taylor. I had never been on a passenger train and I was super excited once we go there found out what we were doing. Scott surprised me and took me on a sunset BBQ. It was a little chilly, but it was a lot of fun and it was a different kind of date and that is never a bad thing. I love surprises.

That last two weeks I have barely even functioned with how crazy things have been. Last Monday Taylor had her 6 month check up and I didn't work that day because or baby sitter had an eye infection. Taylor threw up at the doctor's office, but acted pretty normal so no one thought much about it. I guess teething can make babies puke, and I have really sensitive gag reflexes so it wouldn't be super crazy if Taylor did too.
Tuesday was normal until that night when I started throwing up. I threw up all night long and part of Wednesday. Of course I didn't work. I did take Taylor to the baby sitter so I could get some sleep which turned out to be a bad idea, but we are not there yet. Scott has been working crazy schedules because he has had some changes in his employees, but was able to come home Wednesday night and take care of Taylor and I. I was so grateful! I don't know how I would have functioned that night because I didn't have enough energy to walk up the stairs holding Taylor. He also got up all night Tuesday night with her. It was a huge relief while I was so sick.
I felt better Thursday morning and went to work, but my baby sitter was then sick. So I ended up picking her up at 11 and taking her to my parents to watch her until 3. They had already had the stomach bug so I figured I wouldn't be spreading it to them. I had to leave work early to take care of Taylor on Thursday.
Saturday Taylor couldn't keep anything down. She pretty much spit up or threw up everything we fed her except apple juice mixed with water and then her dinner that night. But Sunday she did much better so we still took her to the baby sitter on Monday. By Wednesday she was doing awful. She started screaming at night and not taking her naps. She had a horrible day at the sitter's on Thursday, so I made a doctor's appt for her on Friday. By Friday she was feeling much better though. The doctore thought she possibly got the stomach bug twice or she was just throwing up from her teeth. These two teeth have been really hard for her... ugh. So finally yesterday Taylor was back to normal and did really well. Hopefully we are done with that craziness for a while...

So that is pretty much all that has been going on with us...

Taylor is 6 Months Old!

Every time Taylor gets a month older I am shocked how quickly the last month went. The last six months have gone by so fast. She is such a big girl! She is 29 inches long (99%) 17 lbs 5 oz (76%), and her head is 43.5 cm (79%). I always have to remind myself that she is as young as she is because she is so strong and so big I expect her to act like an older child.
She currently has 4 teeth and one more I am guessing will come in in the next few days if not sometime today. She has really struggled with the last two teeth coming in. They are really hard on her and she has had two that were so close to cutting for 2 weeks. One came through and we are still waiting on the other. I don't know why her teeth take so long to come in and cause her so much pain. It is really sad and it is hard to be so helpless against it.

She doesn't quite crawl yet, but she would really like to. She gets up on hands and knees a lot and can move her knees forward, but can't figure out how to move both the hands and knees together. She ends up in downward dog position a lot too. Haven't gotten a picture of it yet, but it is really cute.
She sits up by herself now. She of course still topples over, but she is getting much better.

She is a really good eater now too. She eats everything I have given to her and now that she has a booster seat with a tray, she is really enjoying meal times. She eats her entire dinner most of the time.

When she is not in pain, tired, or hungry, she is a lot of fun to be around. She laughs at her toys and at her self. She loves to show off her top teeth now and will smile really big and scrunch up her nose so you can see them. It is pretty cute. We adore her and love playing with our happy little baby.

5 Months

Baby Taylor is 5 months now! I can't believe it. She is growing so fast. She is so big and so active. She wants to be moving all the time. She has been eating "solid" food for a month now and it depends on the day how well she does. She started out pretty rough, then got better, and now it seems like she is always distracted when I try to feed her. She will get the hang of it sooner or later. Right now it is like she just doesn't want to sit still to eat. Hopefully that goes away! I think part of the problem is I am feeding her in the bumbo and we need to get an actual space saver high chair instead. I think she would be more restricted that way.
We have been pretty sure that she is still teething. After the first two came in, we got a small break and then she seemed to be in pain again, but the last two days she hasn't acted like there is much pain. Who knows, baby teeth a little unpredictable.
She still smiles a lot and most of the time she is a joy. She can get frustrating at bed time and during feeding time, but she enjoys her baths and playing with mom and dad. We take her outside every night before bed and she LOVES to be outside. She loves to watch the wind blow through the trees and will make all sorts of excited noises out there.

She does a lot of crunches when you lay her down. She doesn't like to be laying flat. She wants to be up and moving, so she will lift her head and shoulders and her legs and try to get up. It doesn't work, but it is super cute. We did buy her a exerciser/activity center that she gets to be upright in. She didn't like it at first, but I think she is getting to be a little more fond of it. 

She has started going to her new baby sitter, and she seems to really like her. She is taking better naps now and she smiles like crazy when I drop her off. I am so glad we found someone that will work for us. She doesn't have a day care center and won't take more than two kids. Right now she has Taylor all the time and a friend's daughter once a week. It is really ideal for us, and she really is great and she seems to love what she does. It would be even better if I could stay home, but this is a better solution than a lot of our options.
Now if we could only get Taylor to sleep better at night...