Al and Joni Plus One

Taylor's First Football Game!

noreply@blogger.com (Joni & Al) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:00:00 +0000

Once again we find ourselves more "behind" in our family blogging than we'd like to be, but better late than never, right? In early September we made the trek back to Austin, with our sights set on Taylor's first trip to Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium to see her beloved Longhorns open the 2009 football season. From the get-go, Miss Tay was ready to roll (and this time with her own travel bag).

Quality breakfast tacos are a must before a long day of tailgating and cheering for the Horns.

She chowed-down too! I think she has a new favorite breakfast.

The Godfather had no problems taking the reigns of the stroller and making the mile long trek from the parking spot to the tailgate (although Taylor's purple backpack may have thrown off his balance, which explains why her hair had a faint smell of Miller Lite).

......nap and rally!!!

With the escalator line stretching all the way out of the stadium, we decided to take the ramp up all 10 flights to our seats. But Taylor was loving every minute of it. Not counting a 2 level carrying stretch by Daddy, Taylor made the entire walk by herself.

Come on Daddy, we don't want to miss the Boys running out of the tunnel.

Once we were there, she was very engaged, and ALWAYS on the lookout for Bevo. Actually, we think she was calling out "BBEEEEVOOO" when this picture was taken. For those of you not in the know - Bevo is the live longhorn mascot

Taylor and Daddy taking in all the action.

As if we weren't high enough, Taylor gets an even better and more fun vantage point.

Loud and proud, baby!

Taylor was definitely feeling it. We swear, we don't practice this stuff at home

Here's our final parting shot from the stadium. Taylor was having such a great time, we were pretty much the last to leave the stadium. If you can believe it, this shot was taken around 10:00pm, and we entered the stadium around 5:30. She was such a trooper, but she felt so at home with the other 100,000 Longhorn fans that crankiness never entered her mind.

The next day we went to the Salt Lick for the best BBQ on the planet. This picture is Taylor's first public "time out". Note the amount of remorse on her face for not listening. But that's ok, she can't be perfect during each and every Austin related excursion.

Our sweet princess in her warrior paint after a long, but well loved, very successful, and thoroughly enjoyed trip to Austin.

Taylor's 2nd Birthday!

noreply@blogger.com (Joni & Al) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:57:00 +0000

Hi everyone!
It's back to delayed posts, I have so much to catch up on. For startes, Taylor's birthday which was over a month ago! Good thing my mothering skills aren't measured by how quickly I post updates, that wouldn't be good. ;)

First things first, the stats!

Weight: 27lb 13oz (60th percentile)
Length: 35" (77th percentile) Sidebar: I wonder when they start calling it "height"? Hm.
Head: 19.75" (99th percentile!) We are very conscious about the neck holes in shirts. :)

Taylor Jean turned two on August 16th and had quite the week of parties, presents, cake and lots of love. She is starting to understand what birthdays are all about now. I think she was claiming it was her birthday for at least 3 weeks. Al's was on Sept 22nd and I think that finally broke the cycle. Now she's all about, "It's MY daddy's birthday!". So precious.

To start us off on the birthday celebrating, "Yibby" and "Yincon" (Libby and Lincoln) were in town before her birthday and came by to give a fun present to her.

Hmmm, tissue paper and a box. I'm not really getting it.

Oh! I see! A fun bumble-bee ride! She was in love. Good thing for hard-wood floors.

On Sunday, August 16th, we had Taylor's birthday party. The weather was teasing us all day and we were really worried that it would rain. I didn't even want to think about it because we had close to 40 people show up for the day! Our house is not equipped for a party of that size indoors. Maybe someday when we redo the basement!

Anyway, by the time the party started at 4:00, the clouds had parted and the sun was shining. It was pretty windy, but we weren't going to complain. We got to have all the tots (all 8 of them) outside!

Taylor Jean first thing in the morning. She wanted milk, water AND juice that morning. Why not, it's her birthday!

Love those locks!

Party time!

Even as her friends start showing up, Taylor is obsessed with the baby. They were making each other giggle, it was so sweet.

We had to have three water tables with the amout of kids that came over. Thank goodness we were able to borrow a couple from Taylor's friends! Notice that they still crowd around one.

Some of Joni's family, Uncle Joe, Aunt Ann, and Uncle/Godfather Bryan

Some daycare parents and Joni:

Organized chaos:

Had to put in this picture so the Texas crew can see the Longhorns decked out for the party. ;)

Birthday Princess:

Birthday cake! Notice the sneaky little finger coming closer to the cake:

Time for some girl chat, the Three Musketeers (daycare buddies):

Who knew that they most exciting gift (for ALL the tots) was the mini-table and chairs from great aunt Joan and uncle Bryan???

These three had a riot sitting at the table and banging their hands. Too funny to hear their little giggles.

Post party bliss, another fun one, a new stroller and baby doll from Jon and Priya!

Later in the week, Taylor finally mustered up some energy to open more presents. This was the grandparent and parent round. She opened present from us, my parents, Al's parents and great-grandma, Mimi.

A Vet kit from Amma and Bumpa (Joni's parents)!

A Bevo book from Mimi!! Taylor loves to read books, but this was the FIRST book she ever insisted on reading more than one or two times A NIGHT. It was perfect timing too because we were headed to Austin in a couple weeks. She loves that Bevo now.

Cheesin' for the camera while we open Nana and Papa's gift:

Awww, a stuffed Hippo! Taylor giving some love:

I can't believe our baby girl is two! She is such a little adult and makes us laugh constantly. Such a little comedian. Everything from mimicking our expressions to running around the house in a silly way. She is also really into pretend play. She loves making meals with her play-food and dishes, has conversation with her stuffed animals and dolls (and answers for them), talks on the phone and tells us who it is (Nana/Aama/Mimi/Bumpa).

Some recent Taylorisms:

After I put her into her carseat after picking her up from daycare, she looked up at me and said, "How YOU doin'?" HAHA!

"Beep! Beep! Ya!" when she wants to listen to the Beatles, "Baby You Can Drive My Car"

"I scare me!" When one of us startles her.

"Oh my gosh!" To just about anything, but lately it's every time she sees our UT flag hanging on the garage, "Mommy, oh my gosh!"

"Settle down ba-bas! No-no Chewy!" She likes to take control of the situation when the dogs are playing or are in her space. She absolutely loves them though, lots of hugs and kisses and we can't leave the house in the morning without her saying bye-bye to them.

"Yay mommy/daddy!" When one of US goes potty.

"My do it." Very independent little lady.

And finally...when Al or I say, "You're such a big girl!" she replies, "No, I'm a big BOY!" ;)

Coming up, summer wrap-up of some micellaneous outtings, first UT game over Labor Day, and a visit from Suzanne, Keith and Nicholas!

Happy Fall everyone!

Colorado June 21-27

noreply@blogger.com (Joni & Al) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 01:25:00 +0000

In June, we took a six day trip out to Estes Park, CO. The original intent of the trip was to go to our friend from Austin, Jane's wedding, but we decided to make it "the" trip of the year and extend our time. After all, I had never been to Colorado amazingly enough! It also happened to be the second of what we hope will be annual trips with our other friends from Austin, Jon and Michelle. We found out about Jane's choice of wedding location when we were in Vancouver last year! It was then that we decided that our 2009 vacation would be Colorado. Thanks Jane!
Later in the week, we were also joined by yet another great Austin friend, Delia, who now lives in Spokane, WA going to law school. You go girl!
Our trip was filled with beautiful scenery, wonderful weather, great company, a fun birthday celebration, family love from Al's brothers and a wonderful wedding to end the week.
Lots of pictures!

Sunday:
We made it!! Taylor is very excited to be in a big minivan! Look at all the space, woo!! Sorry Taylor, mommy and daddy aren't QUITE ready to be minivan owners. Need to take baby-steps with that one.

On our way to Estes Park, we made a pit-stop in Boulder to visit Al's brother Orion, his wife Kristin and their 2-year old daughter, Maisie. They lent us a pack n' play, a hiking backpack, booster seat, and our favorite item, a GPS!
Sweet picture of the cousins, Maisie and Taylor. Maisie is almost exactly 3 months older than Tay. I think the last time they were together was Christmas 2007! Dig back in the archives to see them in their tu-tus!

The little ladies eating at their table.

Taylor playing with some of Maisie's toys, sitting on the front porch.

Monday

Finally made it to Estes! One of our first elk sightings! These guys were not shy! Just hanging out around the visitor's center:

Lunch in Estes. Thankfully this is one of the few weeks that Taylor was really into smiling at the camera. Yay Tay!

First trip out with the hiking backpack. I think the hike was supposed to be about 3 miles.

This is about 1.3 miles into it, hehe. Poor Al, it was a steep climb and we hadn't gotten adjusted to the altitude yet. First full day in Estes and first hike. Taylor was doing ok though so don't worry. ;)

Beautiful views during the hike:

Jon taking a turn with Taylor. Why is SHE so tired??

A fun rock shaped like a foot that Al wanted to climb.

Unfortunately he didn't think through the exit strategy. In the end, Jon had to help him get down...and I was offering support by videotaping it. Hehe. Unfortunately it didn't turn out so great otherwise I would post it. ;)

Taylor taking a little break too while daddy is goofing around. One of my favorite pictures of her.

Gorgeous sunset view from our rental house:

Breakfast on one of the balconies.

Little Diva at lunch in Boulder:

Later that day having dinner with Maisie before daddy plays soccer with uncle Ross. Al's other brothers (Lucas and Ross) met us in Boulder on Tuesday.

How about some chicken??

Don't mind if I do!

Al and his brothers, Lucas, Ross and Orion.

Al (the goalie) playing soccer with Ross (in background) just like old times. The other guys on the team asked if Al could play again the following week. Wish we could!!

Taylor having fun and going a little bonkers watching the game.

The next day we decided to make our way up to Trail Ridge Drive in Rocky Mountain National Park. Look, another elk!

Beautiful mountain views:

One of my favorite family photos. Such pretty scenery!

Sweet Taylor Jean:

Back at the house, Taylor giving some 'tude after a bath.

Out for mommy's birthday dinner! Taylor trying some of daddy's spaghetti. Yum!

Taylor and Mommy...I think we took 10 shots like this and in every one, I look the same and Taylor is either a blur or making faces like this. Such a nut.

Taylor with her buddy Michelle!

Another hiking trip! This time just Al, Taylor and Jon.

One day we checked out the arial tram on the other side of the mountain we were staying on (Prospect Mountain).

The top of the hill was over-run by Chipmunks because you could buy peanuts to feed them! Even Taylor got in on the action. How cute is this??

Michelle got super brave after a couple of bags of peanuts!!

On the tram:

View from the top, beautiful even in drizzly weather:

The next day (Thursday) we had Delia in town and took another hike. The ladies (minus Taylor) me, Delia and Michelle:

Friday evening was the wedding. Michelle was a bridesmaid and Jane had asked me months ago to be her day-of coordinator. I don't know how many people know this about me, but I actually considered (albeit briefly) looking into becoming a wedding planner. I had so much fun planning my own and loved all of the coordination and organizing. I decided quickly though that I didn't want to work weekends or deal with crazy brides. ;) Anyway, I had SO much fun living out my dream for one evening. It was an ideal wedding to be coordinating, a laid-back bride and groom, a fun group of friends, and a low-maintenance wedding. The hardest thing I had to do was keep track of the time for toasts and the Ipod playlists! It was a blast!

They had the wedding at the historic Stanley Hotel (and no, the Shining was NOT filmed there, Stephen King just got the idea of the book while staying there).

Beautiful scenery and weather for the back-drop:

The ladies all dolled-up:

Me and my honey, before he had to take the nugget home to bed and let mommy stay out late. :)

Great friends, Michelle, Jane and Delia

Our home for the week, what a fabulous place!

Quick video of Taylor dancing the night away at the wedding, dress undone and all:

Firsts and Father's Day

noreply@blogger.com (Joni & Al) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 01:28:00 +0000

I'm baaaack! My last day of the semester was Saturday so I am frantically catching up on some blog posts! Afterall, we have a certain someone's 2nd birthday coming up in a week. On top of that, I need to get to our Colorado vacation that happened in June too! Baby steps...

To start, here is Father's Day which we celebrated with my parents on June 20th since we left for Colorado on the 21st.

In the suburb we live in (St. Louis Park), they have a "Parktacular" celebration every year which spans a few days. On Saturday we decided to partake in the days events starting with a morning bike ride!

Here is Miss Taylor all geared up and ready for the ride. Ponytail and everything!

After the ride, Taylor was pooped! She looks cranky, but she really was just zoning out while we were at the park. I think it was time to go home to have lunch, and rejuvenate with a nap!

Sweet picture with Taylor and her daddy.

Ok, we did manage to get a smile out of her while playing at the playground. She loves little houses!

After we rested up at home, it was back to the Parktacular! We went to check out the petting zoo and it was awesome! They even had a zebra (which we couldn't pet, but she was excited about).

Taylor feeding some goats, so much fun!

In action:

Another first for her, face painting!! She really wasn't sure what was going on during the painting, but sat there SO patiently and still. She loved her bumble-bee! She's a big fan lately which is why her birthday party theme will be ladybugs and bumble-bees. A garden theme of sorts. :)

The finished product:

Taylor donating $1 to the Great Dane rescue group. At least I think she was giving.... ;)

These dogs were so sweet and Taylor was in heaven! Such big doggies!

Having fun with grandpa (or Bumppa):

Not sure about Taylor, but Al sure looks excited about something. We saw this group with fire hoses and some tarp. Take a look at what they were doing at the next picture:

Fun!!! Al said that if he had known about it, he would've worn his swimsuit. The guy responded that Al was too big to partake anyway. Sorry honey!

Family dinner at an old favorite, The Convention Grill. We've been going there since I was 2!

(Sorry for the quality of these pictures, I had to mess with the sizes and now they all look pixilated. Need to reload a couple I think.)

Some Firsts and Miscellaneous Moments!

In May, Al scored a practically new "In Step" bike trailer for Taylor. He also invested a little in himself and bought his first ever NEW bike. We all bought new helmets and gear and headed out on our first bike riding adventure. Despite the fact that Taylor loves hats, she wasn't too crazy about her helmet. She obviously didn't have a choice in the matter and was a good sport. When we stopped at our destination though, she was quick to say "Off." to her helmet. Silly girl.

Here is our big girl posing with her trailer, a little moody because of the helmet:

Posing with daddy!

Happy as can be with her "Eeet-za!"

Another major first in our household, potty on the toilet! This was June 20th (22 months), the day we were celebrating Father's Day and we had gotten into the habit of putting her on the pot pretty frequently. Most times she would sit there and say "all done" after a few seconds. This day however, she looked at me and started going! Such a proud little girl. Since then, we have had moments here and there but are still a little while away from no diapers. Congratulations Taylor Jean! We're so proud of you! You go girl! :)

Some other miscellaneous moments and fun tid-bits.

Taylor is such a sweet and silly little girl. She is also independent and not a pushover. We love every single bit of it. She is such a little lover too. Always big on the hugs and kisses, even if she initially says, "no!", she will come right around and give in. It's all in the name of it being HER decision. Like I said, independent (and a little stubborn). ;)

Most things are "I do it" or "My do it". When she actually is able to do something by herself..like walk down our outside cement back stairs with no rail or help from us, we watch on with a mix of pride and a little bit of heartache that our little (almost) 2-year-old is already breaking into her own person.

One of her favorite things to do, hands in pockets. And yes, to our Kansas and Texas family/friends reading this, she was wearing a jacket in May. It took us awhile to get summer!

We love seeing how tender-hearted she is with everything and everyone. Including her "ba-bas" (Chew-Chew and Bobo as she calls them). Lots of hugs for those boys. Even if they get in her way when she's eating, "Chewy bahk-up!" she squeals, there is always a hug for them later.

Taylor loves her friends at school and is always so excited to see them, especially if it is outside of daycare!

She is also at the stage of being OBSESSED with babies. My cousin Ryan and his family stayed with us from San Antonio a couple weekends ago and they have a 3 and a half-year old (Abigail) and a 1 year-old (Mily). I honestly don't know if Taylor knew that Abigail was around much, silly girl was all about Mily. From the moment she woke up to any time we were not around her, Taylor would ask "Where baby go??". After they were gone that weekend, Al asked Taylor, "Taylor, would you like a baby to stay at your house all the time?". She said, "Yeah!". So then he keeps talking to her about it and asks if she would like a boy baby or a girl baby. She responded, "A boy baby.". Very matter-of-fact as if she had been thinking of it.

Ok, Taylor, we'll do what we can....just have to wait a little bit. :)

At the same time, she loves to be wrapped up like a baby in her bath towel after bath. She'll just sit there and cuddle for a little bit which hardly happens anymore. Then we'll ask, "Are you Mama's baby??" and she'll respond, "No, Dada's baby!" or vice versa. She is very into opposites. Such a little smartie.

She still loves to sign and loves learning new ones. One of her favorite things to do is sit in daddy's lap in front of the computer and look up a new sign. She will watch and do it after a few times. Not 100% accurately, but enough so that we know what she wants. It helps too because she isn't the most articulate yet with her speech.

Miss Taylor on her great aunt and uncle Joan and Bryan's bed. Looking at herself in the mirror. Such a precious face!

Reading to her two stuffed animals of the week. So far she's not overly attached to any particular thing, just needs a blanket of some sort and a few of her stuffed friends. The one she is particular to lately is the stuffed baby that fits into a peanut shell that her Nana bought her. It's her "baby".

Last picture, a little summer fun with our nextdoor neighbor's daughter, Jersey. We brought our water table over and the girls got to play on warm Saturday. Unfortunately they will be moving soon, we will miss you guys!

More fun to come, trip to Colorado, 4th of July cabin weekend, and a 2nd birthday on August 16th!!

Family Trip to Kansas

noreply@blogger.com (Joni & Al) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 01:58:00 +0000

In May, Al and Taylor made a special trip to Kansas to attend Al's cousin Jake's wedding. Poor Joni was stuck in class, so Daddy and Tay Tay had to make the trip without Mommy. Taylor did very, very well on both flights (much to Al's relief), and she even scored her very own seat on the flight down, thanks to the generous and thoughtful flight crew.

Although the trip was barely 3 days, we still were able to catch up with a lot of family.

Taylor and Nana hanging out at the farmers' market, catching some tunes:

The wedding was set on Jake and Megan's property, and the ceremony was very sweet and we were really happy to have made it :) Unfortunately, the ceremony pics didn't really work out, but we do have a couple of good posed shots:

(Daddy still hadn't mastered the art of the barrette, so Taylor just winged it...)

Aunt Dee Dee and cousin Deidric

After the ceremony, we all made a quick detour for ice cream. Cousins Deidric and Baily couldn't help but enjoy themselves.

Then Baily came back to Nana's house to stay with Taylor. These two really bonded over the weekend:

Just before we left to head home, we were able to stop at Aunt Kelly's house for a quick visit. Taylor finally got to meet her newest cousin Caleb.

One final goodbye with Nana before boarding the plane. We had a great time!!

We're still catching up the blog, so the Father's Day, 1st Bike Ride, Potty Training, and Colorado blog posts should be coming soon :)

Mother's Day and Play Dates!

noreply@blogger.com (Joni & Al) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:23:00 +0000

I'm catching up! Now I'm up to Memorial Day weekend with this post. ;)

Upcoming topics for later posts: first bike ride, Taylor and Al's trip to Kansas and some fun miscellaneous shots and videos.

PLUS, we are going to Colorado next week so expect to hear about that trip in, um, August?? ;)

Ok, here's Mother's Day first.

We started out the day meeting my parents for a wonderful brunch and then headed to one of the city lakes to walk around the rose garden. It was a little chilly that day and the roses weren't blooming yet, but they had beautiful tulips blooming and some other spring flowers.

Best Mother's Day present ever, a little cuddle from my sweet baby girl.

Sharing a kiss with grandma at brunch:

Then being a little goofball:

The "moms" and Taylor:

Family shot at the Japanese rock garden:

Our little monkey with grandpa:

Taylor checking out the bright flowers, I'm so glad my camera picked up the color!

Grandma and Tay:

The moms and Tay with the tulips:

Another family shot with more tulips:

A kiss from my "baby":

Riding the trolley with grandma and grandpa!

Alrighty, now to fast forward to Memorial Day weekend. I was visiting my sister in Tuscon this weekend so Al and Taylor had a busy and fun weekend with some buddies.

On Saturday, Al and Taylor drove up a north a little to hang out with Al's coworker and her family. Her daughters are such sweethearts and were so good with Taylor. They all loved the trampoline at the cabin!

Here is Taylor with Olivia (O-ie) and Bella.

Then on Sunday, they met up with Taylor's best bud from daycare, Olivia (Taylor calls her "E-a"). They had a lot of fun with Olivia's new summer toys! These two are so cute together. Whenever we get them together outside of daycare, their eyes light up and they call out each other's names. Tay says "E-a!" and Olivia says, "Tay-tay!". It's so cute. They've been buds since the infant room and even transitioned to the toddler room together since the teachers knew it would make it easier for each of them. It seems they do everything at the same time (developmentally) and feed off of each other all the time (monkey-see, monkey-do). Both Marni (Olivia's mom) and I have visions of their first sleepover years down the road. I sure hope this becomes a long-lasting friendship, it's so sweet.

The girls on the slide, "airplane!":

Taking a stroll down the sidewalk. They took turns pushing each other. They even tried to both sit in it at first. This ended up being more fun.

Check out how they both learned to put their feet up to make the ride "smoother":

Taylor's turn to push:

Now E-a's turn:

Taking a water break and telling secrets, at least it looks like that, doesn't it??

This is my favorite picture ever, I can see us using it on their highschool graduation photo collages. ;)

The little ladies with Olivia's daddy, Gal:

Here are some fun videos. Marni had them mimicking her like a pro, so glad they have video of this!

A little car action:

Austin fun!

noreply@blogger.com (Joni & Al) — Tue, 26 May 2009 01:11:00 +0000

Hello everyone!

Many apologies for the long absence. We have A LOT to catch up on. First, I need to post about our trip to Austin back in April. I know it's almost June, but since this is the closest thing I have to scrapbooking right now, I want to make sure everything is covered. Coming up later...Mother's Day, play dates, first bike ride.....stay tuned!

In April, after tax season and in between semesters for Joni, we took a long weekend trip to DFW and Austin. On these extended weekends, we fly into DFW since we have a lot of friends there now and it's a lot cheaper! We spend one night there and drive down to Austin. It was a great trip as usual, but much too fast as usual. We miss all of our friends and family down there dearly and really cherish these trips that we try to do twice a year. Thanks to everyone for their hospitality and good fun!

On to the pictures!

I had to post these first two because they were just too funny. Poor Taylor, she was over-tired after the flight (past her bedtime) and became really upset because Daddy was in her car seat. Al was installing it and sat in the seat to make sure it was tight enough and she was not happy. She kept saying, "Dada out!" and swiping at the seat. She started bawling....so what do good, kind and sympathetic parents do? They take pictures of course!

Our first night there, we headed over to our good friends, Keith and Suzanne's house so Taylor could see her buddy Nicholas. Suzanne was still out of town, but fortunately we caught her at the tail end of our trip.

Here are the two little monkeys trying to break their way into the staircase:

The next morning, before we headed to Austin, we stopped by our friends Shane and Whitney's house for breakfast. Their sweet boy, Austin, was very kind to let Taylor take over his toys that morning.

Here is Taylor trying to find a way to get closer to their cat, Max:

Taylor thought it was really exciting that Austin had the same barn yard magnet toy that she had!

Taylor and Austin sharing a puzzle:

On our way to Austin, we stopped at an outlet mall and hit up three different kids-clothing stores. Our best buy? A $2 purple baseball cap that Taylor insisted on wearing backwards. She was practically strutting! She still loves it and will say "Puple hah" when she sees it. Such a funny little girl:

Once we were in Austin, we met Kolin, Alexis, Kevin and Amanda at Chuy's for some good Tex Mex. I noticed after this trip that we didn't get many pictures of other people besides the kids. Partly because Taylor was being shy around EVERYONE and partly because we just plain forget when we have a clown to keep our camera busy!

Here's Taylor checking out the menu:

I think she liked what she ordered!

And even shared a bite with Daddy!

On the way back to the Bradley house (Scott, Tanya and Samantha's place) we stopped by Shady Grove to meet the Bradley fam for a few minutes of live music on the lawn. Al took Taylor up to the front and she was mesmerized by the singer/guitarist. He even gave her a little shout-out!

The following day, we headed to Dripping Springs to visit with Mimi and Mawlene (Al's grandma and great-grandma). Taylor with one of her only pictures WITH someone else. And she smiled! ;)

On Friday evening, we had a really fun night planned. Kolin's family was all in town including his mom (Karol), dad (Steve) and brother (and our other great friend), Kacey. They were celebrating Steve's 60th birthday with a crawfish boil. It was both mine and Taylor's first time and it was a lot of fun! We both tried it and actually liked it. That's a huge deal for me especially since I hate shellfish!

Miss Taylor Jean in her skull & bones outfit (from Kolin):

The Howell boys, Momma Howell and Alexis preping the crawfish that was going to be frozen for future use:

It was such a treat to see all of them for the first time in years. Aside from Kolin, none of them had met Taylor yet so that was pretty special. Al and I consider them our Texas parents/siblings so it's always great to spend time with them. It's one of the many things we miss about living there. :)

Cute shot of Taylor and Samantha primping in the morning:

Playing around at Austin Java Co. after brunch:

We decided to take Taylor to Eeyore's birthday festival. This is a shot of the drum circle. I don't think she was really into it (even though there was a live donkey there!), but now we can say she's been once. ;)

Saturday night we met our great friends Jon, Michelle, Mike and Ann Marie for a nice night out. Mike and Ann Marie just had a baby girl, Gracie, this past November. Again, no pictures of anyone else except the babies...and Al of course.

This is another classic torture picture. For some reason, Taylor was NOT happy about bath time with Samantha. I don't know if it was too deep, or she was cranky, or what, but I had to take a picture of course. The best part is Samantha having a good ol' time in the background, ha!

Brunch our last day in Austin at one of our favorite places, Hickory Street, with a little live music action:

Back in Fort Worth Sunday night and we met our old neighbors, the Overman's, my cousin Ryan, and Keith, Suzanne and Nicholas for dinner. Here's a picture of Nicholas, Evrett (Taylor's old buddy from daycare in Minneapolis) and Taylor. Not pictured, Brenden, Evrett's new baby brother.

Hey, there IS a picture of me and Taylor with someone else! Me and Taylor with my cousin Ryan. He, his wife Angie and 2 daugters live in San Antonio now, but Ryan just happened to be in Dallas for a month while we were passing through. So great to see him! Hopefully next time we'll see the whole family. :)

One last time to play before we leave in the morning. These two were having a good ol' time before bedtime!

Hope that helps give everyone a fix for a little while. Mother's Day photos are next!! :)

Happy Earth Day and Easter!

noreply@blogger.com (Joni & Al) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 00:58:00 +0000

In honor of Earth Day on April 22nd, we wanted to do a quick post to document Taylor's first movie experience "Earth" by Disney. Al and I had heard about this movie coming out and really wanted to see it. It chronicles three "families" (Polar Bears, Whales, and Elephants) as they go through a year in our ever-changing environment. It also has many co-stars of birds, monkeys, lions, penguins, etc. My dad happened to win some sneak preview passes for Sunday morning, so we took advantage of them!

Side note: Disney will plant a tree in your honor for every ticket purchased opening week. The movie comes out April 22nd and is a great one for kids of all ages! :)

Taylor was so tired when we got there even though it was a 10am movie. She had too much fun partying with Great Aunt Joan and Great Uncle Bryan the night before! Thanks again for watching her, she had a blast!!
She became alert though the minute we walked into the theater and saw grandma and grandpa. When the movie started, she was a little nervous (because of some loud music), but she soon got really into it. She would do her signs and call out the animal names. Luckily there were other babies and kids in the theater so no one was annoyed. Actually, I think grandma and grandpa were louder than Taylor making funny noises at her and calling out the animals. I actually "shushed" them more! Too funny. :)

She made it through the whole movie and traded laps between everyone. She would tend to go into Al's lap during parts where there was intense music, but seemed to enjoy it. She ended up passing out with about 20 minutes left and woke up right at the end. We really had no idea how she would do since she doesn't watch much t.v. right now, but overall, it was a great experience!

Relaxing in daddy's lap after her quick snooze. We actually gave her the Nuk for two reasons, 1) it quieted her down a little and 2) we kind of wanted her to nap a tiny bit.

Not the best picture of everyone, but we had to capture the moment.

Family shot at Mall of America (outside the movie theaters):

For those of you who have never been to MOA, here is the indoor amusement park. Taylor was in awe the minute we walked in. I think it was too much for her to take in, maybe in a year we'll check it out.

Now for Easter!

We started the morning with grandma and grandpa and had breakfast out:

Then headed to Rochester to spend Easter with great-grandma and extended family.

Sweet face..one of the rare times that we get a smile out of her for the camera!

Taylor Jean with her cousin Benaysay (Joni's cousin's daughter) who will be 3 in May:

Frankie (Joni's cousin Matt's son), Taylor and Benaysay..guess who the loud one is??

Sweet hug after sharing the eggs from the egg hunt:

Common face she makes...I think I have some like this when I was her age...

Family shot, it was hard to get a good one with Tay, but this works!

Four generation picture:

Funny video of a duck that does the funky chicken (how does that make any sense?). My aunt Ann bought it for Benaysay (her granddaughter) and Taylor was really riveted by it. You see Benaysay coming in at the end to reclaim her toy. Hehe.

Ok, just for fun, I had to add this photo that my aunt Mary found of me a little while ago. I was about 2 and could really see Taylor in this photo...we have the same glazed look apparently. ;)

Coming up....our trip to Austin happening this weekend!!

18 Months....and 3 weeks

noreply@blogger.com (Joni & Al) — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 23:41:00 +0000

Hello everyone!

Now that Taylor is almost 19 months (will be on March 16th) I decided it was about time to post her 18-month stats and some pictures. ;)

You guys will love the "mom" moment I had at the doctor. While the nurse tried to measure Taylor the first time, Taylor was being fiesty and the nurse kind of rushed it. When the doctor came in, she noted that Taylor's height had dropped off from her normal 95th percentile. I didn't think anything of it because I figured it would happen someday. Then after she had finished her exam and left the room, I looked at the sheet and it said she was in the 55th percentile! That just didn't jive with me considering 3 months prior she was in the high-90s still. So at first I was going to let it go, but then knew that it would bug me. I know these things aren't an exact science, but that seemed way off to me.

When the nurse came back into the room to give Taylor her shots, I asked her if she could measure Taylor again. She kind of looked at me surprised, but did it anyway. Sure enough, she had shorted (no pun intended) Taylor by 3/4 of an inch! I know, I'm being one of "those" moms, but I had to. 3/4 of an inch is a lot in 3 months! So here are Taylor's stats after I made the change on our take-home sheet and looked up infant height stats online. Hehe.

Weight 25 lb 10 oz (70th %ile)

Height 32.75in (75th %ile) (was noted as 32 inches and 55th %ile on the doctor sheet)

Head 19.25in (96th %ile)

Other than that, we had a pretty good appointment. She still had an ear infection that was left over from her double ear infection two weeks prior, but everything else looked great and we got her some more antibiotics for that ear!

Some little tid-bits of Taylor at 18 months:
- She is still very much a daddy's girl. I think that will be a permanent trait and I find it endearing now. Unless she is pushing me away from Al as I try to hug him, then daddy has to let her know that's not cool...which he does. ;)
- Her favorite foods are fruit (especially bananas and strawberries) and cooked carrots and cheeeeese! Oh and of course bread. She eats at least a half of a piece on the way to daycare because she sees Al give the dogs their medicine in bread. When she eats her fruits and carrots, she sometimes sounds like the Tazmanian devil because she is so frantic to get them all eaten.
- She is giving "real" hugs and kisses now. It's so sweet to watch her give her daycare buddies big hugs when she greets them in the morning. They all greet her too, "Tay-Tay!"
- LOVES saying "No". I guess that's just her age though.

I have to admit, it’s been increasingly difficult to get good pictures of Taylor. She is not camera friendly lately and will not “ham it up” for us. Silly girl. So here’s what we have!

One day after a nap, Al started putting her stuffed animals in her crib. She loved it!

Ok, this is not the most attractive picture of Taylor, but I had to show you her "No" face when she is really emphatic. It's kind of funny. You'll also notice her new couch from Aunt Joan and Uncle Bryan. She loves it because it's her size! Oh, and the hat is a clown hat she made in daycare and wanted to wear around the house:

Climbing into the laundry basket, another favorite pasttime:

Taylor with her buddy Chewy:

We have also been going out for breakfast on Sundays a couple times a month. Taylor does pretty good and chows down on her fruit and pancakes:

Funny girl:

I LOVE this video. Taylor loves putting on gloves, especially if they aren't hers. She apparently walked into the bedroom with one of Al's goalie gloves on and asked him to put on the other. This made her night!

Here's one more quick video. We really don't let Taylor watch much t.v. unless it's Texas football or KU basketball. There is the occassional "Jack's Big Music Show" for a few minutes in the morning, but she normally turns off the t.v. which is funny. Anyway, this past Saturday, Al recorded the KU/UT basketball game and we thought it would be fun family bonding to watch some of it with Taylor before her bedtime. She even got to stay up a little late!

Poor girl is going to be so confused with her daddy's college sport teams. For basketball, he will always be a KU supporter, even if they play his Longhorns. So for those non-Jayhawk followers, whenever KU has free-throws, the fans hold their hands in the air and if the basket is made, they bring their arms down and make a "Woosh!" sound. Here is Al teaching Taylor this very important move. You can't hear it, but she actually tries to make the sound too.

Some "firsts" - Basketball and Pigtails

noreply@blogger.com (Joni & Al) — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 01:57:00 +0000

I should be doing homework right now, but I started this post a couple of weeks ago so I want to get it finished!
Anyway, a couple of weeks ago Al's firm received a lot of free tickets to the Timberwolves game. We decided to try to take Taylor even though the game was at 7:00 and her bedtime is usually 7:30. As usual, she did great. She really likes the environment of places like this! As long as there is action, she is up for it.

Here is a picture of daddy and Tay...yes, the Lakers were a MN team back in the day (see the statue)..hence the name "Lakers". ;)

Our good friends Matt and Stef were able to come with us. Taylor was loving Stef's lap!

Here are some fun videos from the night.

Our seats were great because the stairs ended at our row so Taylor couldn't really go anywhere. She had a blast sitting on the bottom step because it was just her height.
There was a set of grandparents in some rows up top who were enamored with Tay. They had thrown her their program so this is her retrieving it and being a bit perplexed. :)

First walk through the skyway! These are lifesavers in MN!!

Now for the other "first". Pigtails!!! I had just gotten done trimming Taylor's bangs (not an easy feat) and decided her hair was long enough to try the piggies.
She LOVED it! She likes looking in the mirror when she has pretty things in her hair.

And LOVES to chew on her toothbrush.

Tagged!

noreply@blogger.com (Joni & Al) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 05:05:00 +0000

Ok, this is just a quick post because I was "tagged" by my friend Jane in her blog. The rule is, you have to pick the fourth picture out of your fourth picture file and post it.

Surprise, surprise, my picture is one of Taylor! It was fun to look back about 8 months ago and see these pictures. This one was taken on May 29th in our backyard. She was about 9 months old. You could see one small curl forming on the right side of her head. Who knew that would turn into a whole mop of curls on her head!

Ok, so if you haven't done it yet, it's your turn Suzanne, Beth & Whitney!

Christmas Day

noreply@blogger.com (Joni & Al) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 01:51:00 +0000

Happy New Year everyone! I started class again today so before the semester gets out of control and Al gets crazy busy with tax season, I thought I would at least get our Christmas pictures posted!
Christmas was in MN this year and we realized it was the first time we have had Christmas in our house even though we moved into it in 2006. It was a relatively nice and quiet holiday break for us which was good. We all needed some R&R and time to recoup for the new year!

A quick festive picture of our fireplace with Santa toys laid out (the Nutcrackers are not for Taylor..those are part of our collection). Even though our family room is decked out in wood paneling and old-school ceiling tiles, it's actually our favorite room in the house. It is so cozy in the winter with all the Christmas decorations up. Al and I were commenting the other day that our house looks best during Christmas. ;)

Taylor with her first taste of present opening since her birthday in August. She was pretty excited about it for the first couple of presents.

Her big Santa present was set up in the basement. Our basement is actually not ideal for hanging out in. We plan on refinishing it in the next few years, but until then, Al did a great job of clearing out some space and cleaning up a good spot for Taylor to have a play space. That's where her new tunnel toy was set up. It's four tunnels, an intersecting part and two tents. It's so big that we couldn't put it all in the same space. She LOVED it. I wish we had taken a picture of the whole contraption put together!

Later that morning, we made the 90-mile drive to spend Christmas day with most of my mom's side of the family in Rochester. Not everyone lives in MN, but we had a pretty good number show up.

Four-generation photo with both Grandma Kneeskern's:

Taylor loving her Santa hat that great-aunt Mary let her wear!

The Kneeskern/Voigt women, Grandma, Taylor, Joni and Katrina:

Some of the great-granddaughters, Taylor, Bianca, Mia, Megan and Benaysay:

Almost 50% of the great-grandchildren with great-grandma:

The day after Christmas, we had our immediate family's Christmas dinner and present opening.

Here's daddy helping Taylor clean off her fingers! These two are always cracking me up!

Taylor helping Grandma clean up the turkey. The outfits were a coincidence!

Here a just a couple of additional fun photos of Taylor post-Christmas.

I just bought her some barrettes for her bangs because she won't let me trim them. She looks like such a big girl when she wears them! This is also another classic "cheese" face of hers. ;)

Taylor loves her "ba-bas" and they seem to like her a little too. Here's a picture of her and Chewy hanging out one morning while we were trying to get her dressed.

One of Taylor's most recent Christmas gifts from Mimi (Al's grandma). She bought Taylor her own rocking chair and the first one we received wouldn't go together correctly. So we had them send us another one and just received it on Friday. She loves it!

Holiday Tid-bits

noreply@blogger.com (Joni & Al) — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 18:56:00 +0000

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas! It's Christmas Eve and I wanted to add a couple of pictures on the blog of some holiday fun. I'm sure there will be another posting of Christmas-day events. Now that I am on vacation and have a few weeks off from school, I can "play" a little and keep this blog updated a bit more. :)

Taylor is getting pretty "hammy" lately. Someone taught her how to say "cheese" when a picture is being taken and now says "mo, mo" (more) when we are taking pictures. While it doesn't produce the cutest face (saying cheese) it is really pretty adorable when she is doing it:

Every year, my family has a tradition of making Christmas cookies. About five years ago (give or take) my Godparents, Joan and Bryan, offered up their big kitchen to us. With their nice countertops and 2 convection ovens, we are able to make an octuple batch of cookies in about two hours! It has been a fun tradition for everyone.

Here is Taylor's first cookie cutting experience assisted by Grandma and Grandpa (or as Taylor says it "Bumpa"):

"Bumpa" helping Taylor decorate:

Even Mommy did a good job, "Yaaay"!:

Here is the new "cheese" face. Like the shirt? That was a gift from Godfather Kolin in Austin:

It has been awhile since we posted a video and I was finally successful today.

Here is a little glimpse of how Minnesota parents torture their toddlers: You begin by wrestling them into snowpants, boots, coat, jacket and mittens. All the while, they turn completely limp and lose all functionality of their limbs. It is literally like wrestling a greased pig or putting a cat in a kennel, depending on the level of agitation of said toddler. Then, you get to strap the poor kid into the car seat with all the gear on and head out into a blizzard. It is advisable to double check the temperature before you head to the park, but what's the fun in that?

I leave you with Taylor's first sledding experience. This was run number one of two. We hadn't realized that the temperature had dropped to 6 degrees (that's right, SIX) during her nap, and the wind was really blowing. Needless to say, she did not have fun, but we have a great video! Did I mention she throws tantrums now? I don't really blame her for this one....

Thanksgiving and 15 Month Stats

noreply@blogger.com (Joni & Al) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 01:24:00 +0000

Hi everyone! I can't believe we didn't manage to get a post in the month of November. We're getting worse instead of better! School is going well, but it's definitely created a deficit in our "free" time bank. We're managing though and enjoying as much family time as possible.

Taylor just turned 16 months yesterday and becomes more and more enjoyable each day. Who knew that was even possible?? She loves exploring her environment and discovers new things every day. Of course her favorite passtime is stacking and unstacking Tupperware containers. LOVES it. What's even better, she loves to put them away when she's done. Everything has its place and she is very aware of that. Apple of mommy's eye!

We have her 15 month stats from her appointment last month:
Weight - 23 pound 13 oz (70%ile)
Length - 32 inches (90%ile)
Head - 19 inches (96%ile) BIG head! Makes us very aware of the types of shirts we buy. They need to have a stretchy hole opening or lots of button. ;)

Now for some pictures!

Loving on her stuffed tiger that grandma bought her the day she was born:

For Thanksgiving this year, we drove down to Kansas to see Al's family. It was a great weekend and so nice to spend four full days down there with everyone. Even Al's great-grandmother, Mawlene, made it up from Texas with Al's grandma (Mimi). So we had a few opportunities of 5 generation photos. Very special.
We were also there for the arrival of our newest nephew Caleb Isaac and during the weekend, Al's cousin Kristi got engaged. Big weekend and lots of pictures!

Taylor running around with Nana's hat:

All the little grandbabies loved getting a ride on Mawlene's walker:

Running around Nana and Papa's backyard. The weather was great the first couple of days!

Al's family (Taylor was napping):

Baily (Taylor's cousin) was trying very hard to get Taylor to laugh. Taylor just laid there motionless with no expression the whole time. Finally Baily put her hands in the air and said, "That's all I've got!" and walked away. So funny!

Baily spent the night at Nana's since her mom (Al's sister Kelly) was schedule to go into the hospital the next morning. The two cousins got to play that night, very sweet.

Taylor hanging out with her cousins Deidric and Tavaris. They were so sweet to share their toys with her.

We also found some time to visit a high school friend of Al's (Adam) and his family. They have a 2 year old daughter, Ainsley and a 2 month old son, Fletcher. Now Fletcher, Al and Adam all share the same September 22 birthdate!

Taylor and Ainsley being goofy together:

Taylor not sure what to think about this little baby in daddy's arms:

Later that night, Caleb Isaac was born. Here's a picture of big sister, Baily with the proud daddy (Justin):

Nana and Taylor hanging out in Taylor's favorite chair of the weekend. She loved it so much that we're getting her one for Christmas from Mimi:

Taylor not happy that she has to share her ride with Al's cousin's boy, Logan:

Five generation photo including Joni and Les (Papa):

Al and Taylor with Grandpa Voigt:

Taylor and Joni finally getting to meet baby Isaac:

Happy Halloween and updates!

noreply@blogger.com (Joni & Al) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:57:00 +0000

Ok, ok, we are HORRIBLE now at keeping up with our blog. Once a month posts are not acceptable so we apologize. :) School is keeping me busy and Al has been diligently working on our finances since we are in the process of finally setting up Miss Tay's college fund. We couldn't let Halloween pass by though without some pictures.

First, a few updates on Taylor's latest developments. Late last week (around Oct 22nd), Taylor took some official steps between Al and I. She was loving it so much that she completely exhausted herself. After awhile, she would take one step, then collapse to her knees and crawl the rest of the way. As of Halloween though, she can slowly work her way across a room. She stands by herself really well and can even stand up if she's sitting in a small chair or something. It's so cute! I know they say be careful what you wish for, but constantly carrying a 23+ pound 14 month old is not fun anymore. Especially when all she wants to do is have you walk her around bent over and having her direct where she wants to go.

She is also mimicking and verbalizing really well. As far as sign language goes, she knows "food", "more", "please", "thank you", "milk", "all done", "water" and "drink". So dang cute.

For words she says, "ma-ma" and "da-da" although she also uses these words for many other things. She also says "Hiiii", "more", "banana" (nana!), "bye-bye", "ba-ba" means doggies, "turtle", and she'll mimick almost everything we say, like thank you, bye-bye, uh-oh, etc.

She blows kisses (she makes a loud smacking noise on her hand) plus she gives real kisses, puckers her lips and everything. The cutest thing is if one of us is walking around with her (like I was carrying her at Target), she will move our face to hers and lay a big fat one on us. Here's a cute story. After her night of walking for the first time, she and I were hanging out on the floor and she started smacking my face and waving her arms everywhere. I was trying to tell her "nice touches" and finally just closed my eyes until she was done for fear of getting a scratched cornea. Next thing I know, after about 3 seconds of my eyes being closed, I got a big, wet smooch right on the kisser. I just cracked up and she was so proud of herself. Such a funny little girl.

She loves being at events, especially events that have cheering. Even if we're watching a UT game, she will join in on the clapping. Most times she thinks we're cheering for her, of course.

Little miss is down to one nap a day most days. Especially at daycare. I guess the timing works since she'll have to do that in the toddler room starting in December.

Her favorite foods are bananas and carrots. She could eat those all day every day.

Lastly, she is still a total daddy's girl. I honestly don't know when it will be my turn again. I'm not that surprised though, I knew Al would be a very attentive daddy and she always prefers being in his arms. The little stinker will even look at her bedroom door when I go and get her up in the morning. She just stands there and waits for him to come pick her up out of her crib. I keep joking that hopefully we'll have a boy next so I can get my Mama's boy! ;) The only time I really am the prefered one is if we're around other people, then I'm #1. ;)

Ok, time for some pictures!

This year we decided to have Taylor be a little gorilla for Halloween. It was so funny. She does a monkey noise where she goes "ooh! ooh! ooh!" and slaps her chest. I honestly don't know where she picked that up. But of course we had to use "nanas" for her finishing touch props.

Here she is with her fake banana for the daycare party on the 30th:

She was not in much of a festive mood that night. The day was unseasonably warm and all the tots were uncomfortable in their warm costumes.

Here she is tired and hot (with her costume unzipped):

Now for her first trick or treating outting. Her mood was a lot better and she hammed it up a bit for our neighbors. Here is her first piece of candy that she enjoyed gumming:

This is her and Mr. Dude, our neighbor's 4 month old bull-dog that outweighs Taylor. So cute! I think he's trying to snag her snicker bar. Taylor's favorite part of the nights, was emptying out the candy bowls piece by piece and then putting them all back.

Here are some cute pictures from the past month.

Daddy and Taylor on one of the Saturdays that mommy was in class:

Taylor proud of herself after completing her favorite task, putting clothes in the laundry shute. Look at that belly! :)

Sweet face:

Family shot at the Apple House. It was FREEZING that day (one week ago) and has been beautiful since then:

Ok, this next picture is very unflattering, but I thought it was a hilarious "before" and "after" shot of Taylor. Taylor has a tendency to wipe her messy hands in her hair during meals. Of course the messier the better in her mind. So this night she was eating some ravioli and marinara...you can actually see the chunks in her hair. I had to wipe her down before I even put her in the bath!

Before:

After! Is that the same kid??? ;)

Home Improvement

noreply@blogger.com (Joni & Al) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:45:00 +0000

So first, we apologize for not posting anything in over a month! It's been an incredibly busy end of the summer and beginning of fall. The biggest new event is that I (Joni) went back to school on September 13th. I started an MBA program and am really excited about it. It's a ton of work, but only 20 months long and every other Saturday classes. Al is being extremely supportive and helpful so its helping me a lot mentally. I'm not pulling my hair out yet!

In other news, back in May we got hit with a pretty hard hail storm. It shredded our newly planted landscaping in back and also did some damage to our house. In ones way though, Mother Nature worked in our favor. We hated the outside of our house, but couldn't justify new siding in the foreseeable future. Even though the hail only damaged one side of our house, the insurance company couldn't match the aluminum stuff we had so we ended up with the whole house redone and the detached garage! Oh, and a new roof, but that's not as exciting. Anyway, we're sorry for not having some Taylor pictures (we've tried to upload some videos...or Al has...but it hasn't been cooperating), but hopefully those will come soon (Al has to take over the blogging for now).

For tonight, I just wanted to show some house progress!

The front of our house before the facelift. In this picture you can also see some stone by the sidewalk. I had taken 2 days off from work and did some landscaping. It was actually very therapeutic. Out all day in the sun for 2 days, improving the yard, getting away from work and having "me" time.

Here is the side of our house (the side that was actually damaged) with all the ivy and overgrown foliage. Ugh.

Close up of the side (before). Seriously, everything had been so unkempt when we first bought the house in 2006 and we just hadn't had the time to work on this side yet. Unfortunately it's the side that is most exposed since we're on a corner.

Back of our house (picture taken in 2006 before our patio). Notice all the ivy on the addition. It was beautiful in the summer, but looked bad in the winter. Plus when it dies off, it's impossible to come off (the front of our house was an example of this).

Here's a picture of Al taking things into his own hands. We decided that since we were changing our house color, we wanted to get rid of the awful brick in front. It had been painted white and was falling apart anyway. Al worked on it for a few days with a small sledge hammer and a crow bar. It actually came out pretty easily! We just have to pay for the siding that covers that area since it wasn't a "necessary" add-on. Well worth it for us!

Close up of the front of the house. You can see what the ivy does to the siding and brick when it dies off. It's IMPOSSIBLE to get off too. Yuck.

A fun shot of all the brick we took off of the house. Woo!

Ok, drum roll please! Just to give you an appetizer, here is the "after" picture of my landscaping. It was really gratifying to do this myself, but now I know that I could never do it for a living. I was so sore for days! In case you're wondering, the white-looking stuff behind the stone is grass-mulch mix. Next season it should fill in nicely.

Close up of one side. The one plant in the front is a really nice hosta, but the white flower got chopped off by another storm we had in August. Next year it will look even nicer. I love the perennials in the back because they are at peak time right now (September) with bright pink color. The middle ones now have a purple daisy-like flower. It's amazing how many new neighbors you meet while doing some landscaping. I was surprised by how many people stopped while driving by to tell me how good it was coming along. So nice!

Front of the house after new siding and new roof. Next season we're going to look into tearing out the big bushes and redoing the landscaping. We want big bushes like this for the privacy, but the ones we have are dying out and in bad shape. We also need to find a way to cover the foundation. It will be really fun to get some ideas from the landscaping company we used for our patio.

North side after new siding and all of the bushes ripped out. We will hopefully landscape this area too next year. Al is working on getting the shutters up on this side currently. The one bad thing about the new siding though is that the window trim looks shabby now (older windows) and are covered with dead ivy remnants.

Back of house. It looks SO different without the ivy! So bare, but nice. Al redid the downspouts and tore out the ivy roots, except for what is on the chimney. We're debating on leaving that part. You can also see the handrail by the backdoor that Al put up about a month ago. He is getting to be so handy!

Back of the house with the new siding and patio. We like how the Texas sign looks against the new house color.

Ok, so that's all for the house, here is your reward for looking at all of that. Taylor and daddy during the first game of the year. So precious! She's getting to be such a big girl .

Taylor's First Birthday!!

noreply@blogger.com (Joni & Al) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 03:29:00 +0000

This past Saturday, August 16th, our baby girl turned one! It's extremely hard to believe that a whole year packed of amazing milestones has gone by so quickly. We had a very memorable birthday weekend for Tay (or at least we'll remember it) and have many pictures and videos for her to look at when she's older.

Before we get to that, we want to document some of Taylor's recent milestones and personality traits. We don't ever seem to get around to scrapbooking or updating her baby book, so we've relied heavily on journaling through this blog. Feel free to skip to the pictures at the bottom since this post is pretty "wordy".

One year doctor appointment stats:

Weight - 21lb 13oz (65%)
Length - 31 in (96%)

Head - 18.75 in (98%)

She's staying steady with her long and lean, big-headed look! ;)

Taylor is such a fun girl and is full of personality. She is constantly amazing us with how quickly her brain picks things up and soaks everything in. Her first word is officially "Ball" although it comes out as "Ba!". She definitely knows what it is though. She also says "ma-ma" and "da-da", but not as consistently. She loves to pull herself up on anything, but is still a little ways away from walking. For a couple of weeks she has been able to point out "nose" and "ear" and is very deliberate when pointing to other things. She also waves "bye-bye" and has been doing that for awhile now. Currently we think she is predominantly left-handed, but you never really know if that will stick. Her new favorite thing is to throw things down the laundry shute. I knew this day would come when we would find toys mixed in with the laundry downstairs, but I never expected it to be before she could reach it by herself! She also likes to throw things out of her ducky tub and then sit back and raise her hands in a question when we say "Where'd it go??". Then she picks up the toy and repeats the above action over and over and over.... She also likes to say "uh-oh", usually after we say it.

She loves her puppies and when we come home from daycare, she kicks all of her limbs at the first site of them. She cries when we let them outside and it looks like they are running away from her. She also cries if you shut a door that she wants to go through. It apparently hampers her exploration. She loves small stuffed animals that she can cuddle into the crook of her arm when she goes to bed. She still sleeps on her tummy with her butt in the air and her feet crossed over each other. She is a very warm-blooded child. She hates having a blanket on her and manages to kick it off any time we try. So even though she just wears t-shirt and shorts (pajamas) to bed, we don't even bother with a light blanket, she stays warm enough without it. She likes story time, but gets impatient and wants to turn the pages faster than you can read. She has started to "dance" a little with certain musical toys. Usually she will be holding herself up on the coffee table and just sway her hips back and forth, it's precious.
Alrighty, we could probably go on forever so we'll leave it at that for now. I think we got a good picture of "Taylor in a Nutshell" Version: 1 year.

Ok, back to the birthday weekend.

Friday evening, we drove up to Danbury, WI to spend the weekend at Joni's aunt and uncle's cabin (Ann and Joe). The weather couldn't have been more perfect, low 80s and sunny all weekend.

The people in attendance on Saturday for Taylor and Katrina's (Joni's sister and Taylor's Godmother) birthday were, Ann, Joe, Grandma & Grandpa (Joni's mom and dad), Katrina, Joan & Bryan (Joni's Godparents), and Donna & Wendell (long time family friends of Ann & Joe). Joni's cousin Deanna and her 2 daughters joined us on Sunday evening. We spent Saturday at the beach, then for dinner grilled steak. We ate a little early to make sure we could get to the festivities before the youngest birthday girl went to bed. My aunt Ann made Taylor a fantastic monkey cake in honor of our little monkey. It was so great! Taylor wasn't sure what to do with it at first, but once she got a taste of that frosting (and shared some with us), she was on board!

We took a ton of pictures of the whole weekend, but here are just a few. If you want to see the rest, I have a link at the bottom of this post.

The birthday girls having breakfast Saturday morning:

Naptime at the beach, we love those chubby thighs!

Mama with her baby girl:

The wonderful monkey cake from Aunt Ann:

Taylor sharing frosting with Al...before she even tried it herself:

Checking out her first present, she never did quite figure out what to do with it (or any of the gifts for that matter):

Helping daddy read her card:

Lounging before heading to the beach on Sunday morning:

Taylor loved her new crab floaty with her "Ba!":

Taylor with Joni's cousin's daughter, Benaysay (she turned 2 in May):

Taylor lounging after her lunch on Monday before she, Joni, and grandma headed back to Minneapolis. "Mom, I'm really done with performing" :

"OK! One more shot, but that's it, I'm done after this.":

Poor baby was not a fan of the life jacket we tried to make her wear. She couldn't even sit upright by herself:

So we swtiched life jackets and she was a happy camper. We love this shot of her on the boat for the first time:

Here is a quick video of Taylor watching Bianca and her friend tube, she really liked it!

When Taylor and Joni returned home on Monday evening (Al had come home Sunday night), we had another birthday celebration with just the three of us. We got a free 7 inch cake from one of the local grocery stores, and gave her the gift from us, plus the ones that had arrived from Al's mom and grandma, Samantha (her friend from Austin..Scott and Tanya's daughter) and our friend's Jon & Priya (the Irish soccer ball).

Birthday cake Round 2!

There are plenty of more cake eating and present opening pictures on the Ofoto link. Click here to see those.

It was a fabulous weekend and Taylor is so blessed to have so many wonderful and supportive people in her world. Thanks to everyone who made her first birthday an extra special one!

Another trip to Texas!

noreply@blogger.com (Joni & Al) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 01:58:00 +0000

Sorry to keep everyone waiting for our latest post, there were some issues posting pictures a couple of days ago. Now I've finally had time to load them!
Our trip to Texas was a whirlwind as usual, but of course fun. We flew into Dallas because 1) we now have a handful of friends in the area and 2) it's SO much cheaper than flying into Austin now. Our first evening we were able to stay with one of Al's oldest friends (and now mine of course), Lora, and her husband, Parker. They have a beautiful baby girl, Presley who is 6 months now. It was so fun to see Taylor and her interact a little bit. Of course, Taylor seemed to be more impressed at times with their Jack Russell Terrier, Cady.

They LOVED each other! This is what she does with her own pups too...she loves those kisses:

Here is Al with the two little ladies. Presley is such a sweet little peanut, I'm so glad we finally got to meet her!

The next morning, we made a pit-stop in another Fort Worth suburb to see my old co-worker, Whitney, from my days at Guaranty Bank in Austin. She and her husband Shane have a very sweet and adorable 4 month old baby boy, Austin. Whitney is now one of my blogger buddies, we're both addicted!

Here are the proud mamas with their babies:

After stopping at the Lumpkins house, we started making our way to Dripping Springs to have a quick visit with Al's Mimi (Grandma) and Mawlene (Great Grandma). Taylor was a little fussy during the visit so we didn't get any group photos, but here is one with Mimi singing to her. It seemed to calm her down for a bit!

The rest of our time in Austin was great and filled with lots of friend time. We really miss everyone down there!

Here is a picture of Taylor with her Godfather Kolin:

We stayed at our usual place in Austin, Scott and Tanya's house. They have a beautiful 2.5 year old daughter, Samantha, who is such a doll. She was in love with Taylor and always wanted to lend a helping hand. Such a sweetie.

Here's a cute picture of the girls hanging around. Taylor with her classic wide open mouth smile:

Since our flight out of DFW was on Monday morning, we made the long drive back to Dallas on Sunday and stayed with our good friends, Suzanne and Keith. They had just gotten back from a week long vacation about 2 hours before we arrived so we were so appreciative of their wonderful hospitality! Plus, Taylor got to play with her boyfriend, Nicholas, who is 7 weeks (to the day) younger than her. They were so cute together. Of course both of them are on the move, so it was hard to get a great shot of them together.

Here's one of them playing with one of Nick's toys:

Now for some fun videos.

This one cracks me up. Suzanne is holding Nick and Al is holding Taylor. I love how Nick actually is able to walk towards Taylor while Taylor just stands there and watches.

Watch their version of "Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots":

This is Taylor going a little bonkers during the drive to Austin. I swear she goes through about 4 different emotions in about a minute! She's really trying to start babbling!

Seattle/Vancouver...finally!

noreply@blogger.com (Joni & Al) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 22:29:00 +0000

Wow, I guess I wasn't kidding when I said we would get these pictures posted in July! I finally uploaded all of our pictures to Ofoto from our trip out to Seattle and Vancouver. We flew out Monday, May 19th the day after Taylor's baptism. Our old roommate (Taylor's godfather), Kolin was with us for the flight there. When we arrived, our other Texas friends, Delia and Jon were waiting for us at the airport. Jon's wife, Michelle, was stuck in California for work stuff and was flying out later that night. We all stayed in Seattle for a couple of days, then Delia and Kolin had to head back home. Jon, Michelle, Al, Taylor and I drove to Vancouver Wednesday morning. We toured downtown for a bit, saw some Totem Poles and then took a 90 minute ferry ride to Vancouver Island. On the island, we stayed in a small city (Sooke) where we rented a house tucked away in the middle of nowhere (or so it seemed to us). It was so relaxing and peaceful and it was awesome to stay in rental houses the whole trip. We won't do another long trip any other way. Especially when traveling with friends and/or kids!
Vancouver was beautiful and the weather cooperated for most of the time. We had a great place on the water with an outdoor hot tub and great deck. Many times we had dinner at the house and just hung out drinking wine and beer and playing Scrabble! We stayed there until Saturday, then took a ferry back to Vancouver and drove back to Seattle that night.
The trip was so relaxing and fun. Taylor was such a champ the whole time. She never showed any signs of being stressed out with the flights, car rides, constant sightseeing and new places. We were so proud of our little traveler! We also loved being able to spend some quality time with some wonderful friends. Can't wait to do it again!!

Here are some of our pictures from our trip.

Taylor and Kolin ready to land in Seattle:

Dinner the first night in Des Moines, WA. Kolin (behind the beer) and Delia:

The view from our main, upper deck at the rental house:

Here you can kind of see the mountains in the distance:

Famous fish throwing at the public market in Seattle:

Al, Jon and Taylor hanging out at the house:

Lunch time in Seattle - just look at those big blue eyes!:

Wednesday - driving into Vancouver:

Family picture in front of the Totem Poles:

Ferry ride with Al, Taylor, Michelle and Jon:

Taylor enjoying a meal at our house in Sooke. Beautiful view from the dining room:

3 Hour hike. Taylor was a champ and actually napped for about 30 minutes of it!:

Beautiful scenery on our hike. That's probably why it took 3 hours, we were constantly stopping to snap pictures and soak it all in. The first part of the trip was through the woods (see pic above), then the last half was coastal (below):

Al getting ready to jump in the hot tub....what a stud in his hiking boots. Yes, he's wearing a swimsuit under the robe:

Doing some sightseeing in Victoria, the capital of British Columbia (still on Vancouver Island):

One of the many purple starfish that we saw at our house in Sooke during low tide:

Group shot in front of the rental house.

To see the rest of the pictures from our trip, click here!

The Big 3-0!

noreply@blogger.com (Joni & Al) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:44:00 +0000

Someday I may post some Vancouver pictures, but for now I wanted to share a couple of quick videos from this past week.

Backstory: Tuesday was my 30th birthday and the weekend prior, I had some events planned with my family. As far as I knew, Saturday was supposed to go like this....My mom, sister and I went to the Farmer's Market early in the morning to stock up on fruits and veggies. After that, we decided to hit MOA (Mall of America) and do some fun shopping. Which we did. The rest of the day's plans were to happen as follows. My sister and I were going to drop off my mom at her place around 1:00 so she could start prepping dinner for that evening (with my immediate family and godparents). Then K and I were going to go get a pedicure and come back around 5:00 for dinner. Instead, when we got back to my mom's around 1:00...well, you can see for yourself. Poor Taylor will be traumatized for life!

I was so confused when I walked into the house because all I could see was Al holding Taylor and a video camera and there were streamers everywhere. I thought, "Hmmm, surprise?... We're having dinner early??" Seriously, I could not figure out why he was filming me, then as you could see, everyone (extended family-aunts, uncles, cousins) came out from behind the streamers in the front living room and scared the *$&#*& out of me! And Taylor. Poor baby. You'll be happy to know that she fully recovered shortly after though. I don't know if it was the noise makers or me screaming that got her going. Probably both. It was so sad! She is definitely more aware of her surroundings nowadays and can get freaked out pretty easily by the oddest things. The latest has been with certain stuffed animals. So bizarre! I know it's just the age she's at though and is part of the many phases we'll go through!

Anyway, fast forward to Tuesday (my actual birthday). I had been instructed by Al that we needed to leave the house by 5:00pm. When we got in the car, he told me to put a blind-fold on and I had to wear it for the drive. That wasn't too much fun. ;)

When we stopped, he made me keep it on while he got something out of the trunk. I was able to take off the blind-fold when he got back in the car. When I did I immediately knew we were at my old ice skating arena in Edina. I had spent half my childhood there so I even recognize the dang parking lot. In the box (the WRAPPED box) were my old figure skates. Man, I was SO confused. We walk into the arena and he tells the kid at the office that we have an hour of ice time rented out. Just the two of us! It was the sweetest thing ever. Granted, I was still numb from confusion and then shortly after that, I was terrified since I hadn't touched the ice in almost 10 years! Taking that first step onto the ice was frightening. It's amazing that you can do something that is second nature for so long, but when you haven't done it for almost as long, your body takes some time to get used to it. I can't say it was "just like riding a bike", but after about 45 minutes, I got a little more comfortable. I think the days of me doing an axle are long gone, but I didn't look as horrendous as I thought I would!

Al took a video of a couple little "tricks" that seemed to impress him. ;) Oh, and he did a spin on his hockey skates at the end of the video which was almost more impressive. HA!

Next post I promise more pictures of Taylor. :)

Taylor's Baptism

noreply@blogger.com (Joni & Al) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 01:01:00 +0000

Slowly but surely I will get our Blog updated with everything! Now we're onto the baptism which happened May 18th. Maybe by July I'll have our Vancouver trip posted! ;)
So here are some pictures from Taylor's baptism. Al's mom, Mimi, sister DeeDee and nephew Deidric made it up for the event. Our old roommate Kolin (Taylor's godfather) also made the trip! It was fun and very special to have everyone here.

Taylor and Kolin reunited after6 months:

Deidric, Taylor and aunt DeeDee at service before the Baptism:

Taylor in her pretty gown. She was such a good girl!

Al's mom and Mimi...Four generation photo:

Joni's family (minus sister Katrina):

The Godparents, Katrina and Kolin:

Joni and Taylor with Joni's Godparents Joan and Bryan:

The Patio!

noreply@blogger.com (Joni & Al) — Fri, 30 May 2008 15:06:00 +0000

I know we have a lot to catch you all up on (baptism, trip to Vancouver, etc.), but I wanted to share something that was house-related before we forgot. Sorry, no baby pics with this post.

Al and I finally decided to pay someone to put in a patio for us. We really hated our yard because there was nowhere to really hang out and enjoy the summer weather. Plus, we have very little time to do anything, so it would be a slow and tedious process for us to get it done ourselves. It was done in 2.5 days since we hired professionals! We are so excited to have the new patio and have used it a few times now. Unfortunately it has been a cold spring so we are anxious for some warm summer nights so that we can really start breaking it in!

Here are some pictures....

BEFORE (Al was in the process of digging up some stones from an old "garden"):

UPDATE - We took the "After" pictures Saturday morning and I'm so glad we did. Saturday evening we had a freak hail storm that showerd on us for 10 straight minutes (some of it golf ball size and knocking out power for 40 minutes) and basically shredded most of our wonderful new plants and flowers. The hanging baskets in the below pictures are destroyed and all of the hostas and a couple of hydrangea plants are shredded. Just when everything was finally blooming around here too!

AFTER (the patio furntiure has pads, but we brought them in due to rain Friday night):

It's actually made our yard feel a lot bigger surprisingly too. Probably because it's utilizing space that was ugly and destroyed by the dogs. Now we can't wait to work on all the other pockets in our yard. Especially the front!

Updated with Pictures: Happy Mother's Day!

noreply@blogger.com (Joni & Al) — Tue, 13 May 2008 01:33:00 +0000

Sunday we had a beautiful, albeit chilly, Mother's Day. We began the day at church with my mom, dad and sister. Taylor did very well and was mesmerized by the colorful banners all over the ceiling, that is, when she wasn't snoozing. At one point she was actually snoring pretty loudly during the homily. It was pretty funny. Later that morning, we had brunch at a great restaurant west of the Twin Cities, followed by a fun game of putt-putt. This wasn't your run of the mill putt-putt either. The owner is actually an artist and each hole is it's own sculpture. Unfortunately our camera wasn't charged so I have to wait to get my mom's pictures before I can show you some of the cool scenery.

Here are some pictures:

Windy day!

The Mommies with Taylor!

One of the fun putt-putt holes:

I do have another treat for your viewing pleasure though. When we got back to the house, Al was finally able to give me my gift. After weeks of anticipation (ok, days) and being banned from the guest room (the closet in the guest room) I could finally see what all the fuss was about. When I found the gift (placed in Taylor's crib), it was the size of a cd. Hmmm, all this trouble for such a little package??

Well, see for yourself!

Here is the gift that Al made me for my first Mother's Day:

Quick tid-bits

noreply@blogger.com (Joni & Al) — Mon, 05 May 2008 03:14:00 +0000

Hey everyone, not much to report, but thought we would post a couple of pictures and a short quick video.
Taylor is growing up so fast. It's fun to see and witness, but at the same time it's a little sad that each stage comes and goes so quickly. We don't take any little moment for granted, that's for sure!
To give you a little update, she has a couple of little bottom teeth coming in. They're sharp! It's fun to see them poking through when she gives us that big smile of hers. She's also on the verge of crawling. Right now she will fall over (on purpose) when an object of desire it put in front of her and she will eventually inch-worm herself over to it. Most times the object is a cell phone or TV remote. Those items motivate her the most! She is also waving "bye-bye" when prompted. She had been doing a lot of arm waving before this, but in the last week we can tell that it is legitimate waving. I love seeing that little mind of her's at work! Such a little smartie. :)
Ok, it's late so I'm going to wrap it up with a couple of pictures...the stuff you really want to see anyway.

Tay and her buddy Chewy taking a nap:

Little stinker pulled herself up in her crib! She isn't able to do it from a lying down position yet, but it looks like it's time to lower her crib mattress.

Funny short video of Taylor riding in the Bjorn with daddy:

Taylor's first trip to D.C. - April 4-7

noreply@blogger.com (Joni & Al) — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 18:37:00 +0000

We're finally getting around to posting the photos (or some of them) from Taylor and Joni's trip to Virginia/D.C. to visit Libby and Lincoln. They went out there to fulfill the October birthday present that Joni gave Libby, a certificate good for one visit from Joni and Taylor in 2008! Taylor did pretty good on the flight and mom did pretty good traveling with Taylor by herself. Taylor was a bit crankier than her normal happy self all weekend, but I think it was due to her teething. Those stinkers are just taking their sweet time coming in! Overall, it was a fun and exhausting weekend!

Here are some highlights:

Taylor checking out the mini-pancake that Lincoln made for her. It was her first pancake!

I think she liked it!!

Libby and Taylor hanging out:

Taylor and Wiley meeting each other (the braver of the two cats). I don't know if Taylor understood what the two kitties were, but she sure was excited everytime she spotted one of them walking by. Maybe she missed her pups back home? Their other cat, Coyote, was not a fan of Taylor. She even hissed at Joni because she smelled like Taylor! Must have been all the weird noises that Taylor makes. Poor kitty was going to have a melt down, but luckily had a full recovery the day after we left!

Saturday was gorgeous so we took advantage of the weather (along with all the other tourists) and went to D.C. to see the Cherry Blossom trees.

Here's Taylor with some in her hair. And no, we did not pick it off a tree, we found some lying on the ground. :)

The whole crew - Joni, Lincoln, Libby and Taylor:

Taylor sporting her little bow and sylin' sunglasses. Notice Lincoln's hand holding her hand so she wouldn't rip them off before we got a picture. ;)

Sweet face waking up in mama's bed:

Everyone wore out from the weekend:

Here is a video not related to the trip, but we wanted to share it before we forgot about it. It highlights Taylor's vocal stylings to give you an idea of how she likes to "talk". We think she's scolding Chewy for getting in her space. For some reason he thought her lap was the best place to lie down. It gets even better when he tries to flip onto his back at the end and really is in her lap. She isn't sure what to make of it!