A Fun Family Outing

At the end of March, Phil and I decided that we needed to get out of the house and do something fun with our little family. We drove to Grand Junction and made our first stop at Wendy's for frosties.

We then drove through the Colorado National Monument. It was stunning.

Taeya is scared of heights, hence her need to hang onto the fence as she tentatively looked over the edge of the cliff.

After driving through the National Monument, we took Taeya to a park to play. While we were there, we found out there was a little pond with ducks so Taeya had her first experiencing feeding the ducks. She loved it!

Taeya did some rolling down hills and running up and down them which she thought was great fun.

After hanging out at the park we drove to Chuck E Cheese. When Phil's parents were here after Christmas, Grandma took Taeya there and had a few leftover tokens that she left with us. We were able to take her there without spending a penny (thanks Grandma!). She had a very fun filled day and we enjoyed playing with our sweet girl and seeing the joy that the park and Chuck E Cheese brought her.

It was so wonderful to get out of the house and do a little something different as a family.

At the end of our fun filled day, we had a special treat and went out to dinner (with coupons of course!) I'm so glad we were able to just spend some great family time together making some wonderful memories. Phil and I are excited to take Taeya back to that park again to feed the ducks.

A Time to Trust

Well, trying to keep my promise to blog a bit more frequently. This week has been very busy and many things have been filling our time. As you'll be able to see from reading below, Monday was a big day in our week.

On Monday, Phil was laid off at work. We are trusting the Lord that He will provide for our needs and direct our steps to where He wants us to be. Although we are hoping to stay in our current area, we are willing to move to a different area is God opens the doors. It's definitely a time where all we can do is trust and do our best to be diligent to look for jobs, send in resumes and just be open to what God has for us. Bible study this week was on I Timothy 6. Read it sometime, it's a good chapter and was very applicable to the job situation. It talks about being content in all circumstances and our material possessions.

Monday was also the beginning of the puking stage of pregnancy. Although many friends have tried to encourage me that I may not be as sick with this pregnancy as I was with Taeya's, I have counted on being sick and would be pleasantly surprised if I wasn't. Well, I'm sick...it's horrible but at least I know it'll have an end...even if it's 9 months from now. So, be forewarned, if you visit my blog in the near future (or for the next few months) be prepared for me to talk about what is consuming my life right now, puke!

The last thing that happened on Monday was my mom ending up in the hospital in CA with a serious infection and reaction to a new medicine. Thankfully, she's doing much better and was able to go home on Saturday although she's still in a lot of pain. Please keep her in your prayers as it will be awhile until she recovers fully.

On some brighter news, I'll share something about Taeya, who is still doing great and is a joyful little girl! She doesn't watch much TV/Videos but lately, I've been letting her watch some Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in the evenings. As I type this blog, she was dancing all over the room to "The Old Bamboo" song. It's so precious to watch. I have to get it on video. I don't have any recent pictures because I haven't downloaded my pics lately so I attached a pic of Taeya from February.

Big Plans for November

This past weekend, Phil was away on a church retreat. When he returned, I made him a nice dinner of Moroccan Spiced Chicken and had a little present prepared for him. I gave him a box with five candy bars inside. They were: a Skor bar, Sugar Daddy, Sugar Babies, a Baby Ruth and Milk Duds. He immediately looked at me and said, "You're pregnant aren't you?!" I then replied with a "Yep." We celebrated our exciting news together and we're both looking forward to baby #2!

It's funny, because the past two months I felt like I was pregnant but ended up not being pregnant. This month, I don't feel pregnant but I am. We are very excited that Taeya will have a sibling regardless of whether it's a boy or a girl. We'll almost definitely find out the gender of the baby when we're able to. Although I haven't seen a doctor yet, based on pregnancy calculators on the computer, this baby will be due around November 8th. Since I had a C-section with Taeya, I'll definitely have to have another C-Section as there are no doctor's or hospitals that do V-BACs around here. I'm fine with that because my C-Section last time was very uncomplicated.

We'll be praying for a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby in the end. I am only five weeks along but want to share our exciting news with our friends and family so that they can offer their support no matter what happens.

I will try to pick up my blogging a bit more than I have been lately. I've been busy with Taeya, tutoring and running my house. In the evenings, Phil has had the computer more frequently than he used to and I just haven't made the time to blog on a regular basis. I will TRY to do a better job of it and hopefully, some of my readers will come back and leave comments once again. :)

Christmas and a Birthday

Well, I still haven't finished sending out my Christmas cards, yeah, the ones that say "Merry Christmas" on them, so I guess it's still okay to do a Christmas post.

 

We had a wonderful time having family come out before and after Christmas. Although we had some trouble with flights arriving and such, and the little ones and many of the adults were sick with headcolds, we had a great time just getting together as family. I'm so glad everyone was able to come hang out with us in Colorado. My family all came before Christmas and stayed just a little after Christmas and Phil's family arrived on New Year's Eve and stayed for just over a week.

Taeya got spoiled by WAY too many presents from doting grandparents and a certain aunt. Not only did I not know where I was going to put all her Christmas presents, then we still had her birthday presents to go through. :) She had a lovely 2nd birthday party, or actually three. (One party with my family, one with Phil's family and one with our pastor's family's girls who love Taeya dearly.) I can't believe my sweet girl is already 2 years old. She has changed so much in the past few months and although I still refer to her as "my baby" it's getting hard to find the few traces of baby that still remain.

Have You Heard of the Advent Conspiracy?

All the Trimmings

We had a wonderful time last weekend decorating our home for Christmas and picking out our Christmas tree in the mountains with our friends, the Jones family.

Enjoying our snack time in the middle of our tree hunting.


Taeya loved the sledding.

Taeya and her girls.

Wearing Momma's hat

A little of our beautiful state of Colorado
Mommy and Taeya

Taeya had a great time playing in (eating) the snow and having fun with the Jones girls and we hunted for our tree.

Taeya looked like such a big girl here, I just had to get a picture of her eating her cereal.

Our first Christmas in our new home.

Our beautiful Christmas tree. Taeya loves it!

Our Happy Kiddo

I've been rather lax at updating the blog lately. I'm working on trying to be more consistant about uploading pictures and information.

Read at the bottom of this post for an update on Taeya. It's mostly for me to remember these days but you can read it if you'd like.

Want some corn Mama?
Taeya LOVES going to the park...any park. Whenever we drive past a park that Taeya sees, she starts laughing, pointing and saying "park!"

Sliding with Daddy.

My what big feet you have!!

Running into church a few Sunday's ago.

One of Taeya's favorite styles...multiple headbands.

Why so happy? We're at the park of course!

Here we were playing in the leaves outside the Doctor's office.

What a very sweet girl we have.

Taeya has been growing so much lately. Friends keep commenting at how big she's getting. Her language is developing everday although she is still a very quiet little girl. She doesn't talk a lot unless she wants something but when she does want something, Taeya will usually repeat whatever she's trying to say until she gets the response she's hoping for. Some of the things she can say are: Mama, Daddy, Cereal, More of dis (this), No, es (yes), cookie, cracker, mik (milk), yes eas (yes please), ruff ruff (what a dog says), Moo, baa, meow, bankie (blanket), bunny. There are many other words in her vocabulary and she understands much of what I say to her.

Taeya LOVES her sleep! She generally goes to bed between 7 and 8 pm. When she starts getting tired, she sucks on her two first fingers on her right hand and often covers her right hand with her left. If she gets ahold of one of her many "bankies" she tends to immediately put her fingers in her mouth. Taeya goes to bed so easily at night. She doesn't enjoy getting her jammies or diaper on but once they're on, she snuggles with me for a minute, I lay her on her bed and she puts her fingers in her mouth and is ready to sleep. I generally pray with her and turn her music on then shut off the lights and leave the room. We transitioned her from her crib to her open-sided bed on Oct. 31, 2009. I told her to stay in bed and when I went to get her up from her nap, she was still in bed. She's done extremely well in her new sleeping arrangement. She almost always stays in bed for both naptime and bedtime. Occassionally, she'll get up to get a toy but then returns to her bed. I always check on her before I go to bed at night and a few times I've found her on the floor. I'm not sure if she's fallen out of bed or if she climbed out. A few mornings or after naptime, I sometimes find her with all of her bedding stripped off the bed and placed on the floor by the door. She definitely has a Type A personality. She will pull off every blanket and stuffed animal and put them just where she wants them to go.

Speaking of her type A personality, she always closes doors or drawers if they've been left open. She likes everything to be very orderly (except her toys!). She leaves her toys spread out all over the place. Taeya loves to climb. She climbs on everything she's able to. She's a little monkey just like her mommy was when she was little. I love my sweet little girl and her sweet little personality. Everyday is special with my Taeya and I love seeing her grow and change little by little every day. In just under a month, my baby will be two. I can't believe that we've already had nearly two sweet years together.

The Zoo

In mid-October, we headed out to Denver to take Taeya to the Zoo. She enjoyed seeing many of the animals that she often sees in her books. While we were there we were able to stay with our friends, Derek and Amanda, and also visit Brian, Keturah and Bella. We had a wonderful trip and I can't wait until we're able to do it again someday!

(The pictures are pretty-much in backwords order but it doesn't really matter much.)

Daddy and Taeya enjoyed watching the chefs making Crepes at the crepe place we went to. It was oh so yummy! Us with our friends, Derek, Amanda and soon-to-arrive Baby. (Amanda's due at the beginning of December. Can't wait to see the little one!)

Our family at the Denver Zoo

Brian, Keturah and Bella. We hung out at their house during Taeya's nap time so we could take her back to the zoo for a little while. They live just a few minutes from the zoo. It was great seeing Keturah again and meeting her family. Bella is about 6 months younger than Taeya.

As proof that we really did see animals...The Red Panda was one of Phil's and my favorite animals.

Trying to get a picture of Phil and me with the camels in the background. They're there. Just look close. Taeya had fun playing around at the BBQ place we went to for lunch. She has a crayon in her mouth in case you were wondering.

What a sweet little 21 month old we have! (She's now almost 23 months!)

She was watching the anteater here. He was HUGE!

While at the zoo, we thought it would be fun to take Taeya on the carousel and the little train. We bought tokens and were excited about her enjoying her first rides. Needless to say, it didn't quite turn out as planned.

Once the carousel started, Taeya cried the entire time and clung to me with a death grip.

However, when we were done, she happily waved to the "kitty" we rode on and gave it a great big kiss goodbye. We ended up not taking her on the train. Maybe next time.

Altogether, we had a fabulous time as a family on our little get-a-way trip and can't wait to do it again!

Please Vote

Hey friends, can you do me a quick favor and vote for our photo on my friends photography blog? We had family pictures done and whoever gets the most votes will get a prize...and we'd love to win!!! I'd post the picture here but I don't own the rights to it so bop on over to Cerise Photography and vote for #7 The Camps! I'd appreciate it!!

http://marciacerisephotography.blogspot.com/2009/10/october-photo-contest.html


Thanks, Megan

PS. I LOVE Marcia's photography and if you're local and are looking to have your pictures done professionally, please stop by for a preview of her work. You'll be happy you did!