choices...

Can we see the twin hair in this pic?

Look who's sitting up now!

Grandma Sherry came for a surprise visit this last weekend. Thanks Grandma, we love you!

And to think they wouldn't let us bring her home from the hospital because she wasn't gaining enough weight...17lbs at 7 months...that's my girl!

My little swimmer girl...she literally went down this water slide over and over for at least 2 hours!

My little helper in the kitchenYes...do you need something? I'm reading!We have learned the art of giving Taylor 2 choices to choose from, both of which we would like her to do. For example: "Do you want to put your shirt on while you're sitting down or standing up?", "Do you want to eat your dinner with a fork or spoon?" You get the idea. Well, this is what I overheard Taylor telling her baby doll the other day:

Taylor: "Baby, do you want to go to the park naked, or do you want to wear a hat? It's going to be freezing outside!"

I was dying! Naked or Naked with a hat? Love it! I love the innocence of our little ones. She says the funniest things.

Words to live by...

According to Taylor Powell...2.5 years old

1. Be a good citizen.
-"Mommy, we're not supposed to go pee pee in the pool, we're supposed to go in the potty"
-This is also true for the tub, she always asks to get out to go "pee pee", love my girl.
-Pointing to the ground, "Mommy, who put their gum on the ground in the ice, we're not supposed to put our gum in the ice, we're supposed to put it in the trash"
-When Aaron flicked one of her toys off the table, Taylor responds: "Daddy, that's not nice, you're being a bad girl. Go to my room for a time out."

2. Sing and Dance often.
-"Head, shoulders, knees, and toes.....eyes, ears, mouth, and TOES"
-To the toon of families can be together forever, "I want to hit Lon-don, and take her binky all day" (ironic isn't it)
-"Mommy, want to hear a new song?" Taylor makes up songs all day long, seriously! I would say she is singing at least 50% of the day. We know she doesn't get that from her momma.
-Taylor likes to dance in front of the TV with music on, even caught her making up a dance the other day when I had classical music on, pretty inventive.
-Her best moves: the booty shake, the knee drop, and the arm swing move.

3. Be Honest
-"Mommy, I want some medicine". Referring to the cough drops that she loves for some reason and trys to steal at all costs. "But, Taylor you have to be coughing in order to get that medicine." Taylor replies, "Ugh Ugh, cough, cough. Mommy I am sick!" With a big grin, holding the bag of cough drops.
-We're at my in-law's house and Taylor walks down the stairs looking like she just got off a horse. Clearly had peed her pants. "Taylor what happened? Did the pee pee get anywhere?". "It get all over Bobby's carpet". She then re enacts the entire events of how she went on the carpet.
-I'm in the car with my mother-in-law and the girls and we're driving past a 7-11. Out of nowhere Taylor says.."Hey! I get donuts there with daddy yesterday. He said, shhh, don't tell mommy". BUSTED! My mother-in-law and I were both crying laughing, it was hilarious!

4. Bargain, when necessary
-"Mommy, I clean up my toys and you give me a treat?"


5. Pray Often
-"Heavenly Father, thank you day, thank you sister and cupcakes, thank you for toys, thank you Caesar (my in-law's dog), Jesus Christ, Amen." To then always be reminded to bless the food, it'll come someday.
-Most prayers consist of: "Heavenly Father, thank you day, thank you (favorite friend/relative of the day), Jesus Christ, Amen." All being said while trying to sneak the cheese off the dinner plate. Already good at multi-tasking!

6. Prepare for the temple
-"Taylor, who are you going to marry someday?"...Her response...Caillou!
-When grandma/grandpa were living here and gone one day Taylor asks where they were. "They're at the temple today Taylor." Taylor: "Oh, they're getting married there? Like me does someday?" (She is listening during family home evening!)
-"Taylor, did you know that tomorrow is the day that daddy and I were married 4 years ago?" Taylor sings completely on her own, "for all e-ter-ni-ty". Melted my little heart!
-"Taylor, when Jesus comes again one day, what are you going to say to him?" Taylor, "Thank you".

The best $20 purchase I ever made...

Pics of the kitchen, mentioned on the previous (more important) Christmas post.

I had this dream that I would find a cute wooden kitchen for Taylor on Craiglist. All the ones you buy online or at the store are like $250, not a chance! After about 6 months of searching I finally found it! It was super gross, old, and scary when I bought it. Like, I'm talking spider webs, spiders, layer of dirt, seriously gross. When I was driving home I was thinking..I hope I don't end up just tossing this thing in the trash because it's unsalvageable. Well, after 2 months of working during nap times and after the kids went to bed we finally finished. With all the sanding, 3 coats of paint, applying contact paper, making the canvas paintings above the kitchen, and repainting the $10 table/chairs also purchased on Craigslist we had Taylor's Christmas present! I really wanted something she could play with for a long time. We're pretty proud of it and Taylor LOVES it which is the most important thing!

BEFORE PICS:

All the knobs were originally white, I had already started spray painting them metallic.
You probably can't tell from the pics, but everything was SO dirty!
And the AFTER:

We used contact paper for the surfaces and "backsplash". Painted a $2 wash tub from Wal Mart metallic for the sink, and painted all the accents metallic.

Utensil holders are formula cans with scrapbook paper around it.

And I painted the canvas paintings, super easy! Doesn't everyone cook with a helmet on?

We had to do most of the painting/fixing up down in the storage room of the basement, so Taylor was banned from that room for at least a month!

Taylor is now our official cook in the house, that is if you like soup made with: potato, egg, pickle, chicken nuggets, cabbage, tomatoes, soda, pie, and fries!

The Power of Santa

Can we see the picture here...it's Christmas eve...and we have everything we need for Santa. We have the cookies and milk for Santa, we have the carrots for the reindeer, and what is in the little gift you ask. That is a cute little box that holds all of Taylor's precious binkys!!! Yes, it's true. Santa actually sent me a text and told me that if Taylor gave him all her binkys she could get that tricycle she's been asking for! Isn't Santa so smart and creative?

So, Taylor had to practice 2 weeks before Christmas and did not have her binky. It was pretty rough the first 5 nights or so. She was seriously like a druggie that needed her fix. She had a really hard time, but then the power of the tricycle won her over and she was willing to give it up. The good news is that Santa would give her binkys to a little baby that needed it. So, she chose sweet baby Nora to give them too. She's a cute little girl in our ward, that does

n't even use a binky! It didn't matter and Nora "loves her binkys" that Santa gave her. Hey, I figured if Taylor has been sleeping in a big girl bed since before London was born, and is almost potty trained it was time to get rid of the binky. It was a tough 5 days/nights or so, but now she is binky free, and she's actually not that bad about steeling London's. Phew! We did it! It was as hard for me as it was for her, let me tell you. The second night she didn't have it we drove back from Tracie Ware's house about 1.5 hours away and left at 8:30 at night. Normally she would be out before we hit the freeway with her binky/wa wa. What happened without the binky you wonder?...The longest 1.5 hour trip consisting of Taylor whining/crying for her binky the whole time! But, we did it and made it through! It was a big mile stone for her, so we're so proud!

And...the big tricycle!

Taking cousin Isabelle for a ride.

Ok, I know I'm biased, but doesn't Taylor look beautiful in this shot?!

Christmas morning was so fun! I have so many fond memories of waking up ridiculously early and running out and tearing through presents. I was so excited to have that with Taylor this year since she was so aware of everything. We had the annual Christmas Eve party at my brother in law's house that lasted til super late, so needless to say Taylor didn't even wake up til around 8:30. She came out and was so excited to see her kitchen! (This will be an entire post since I worked for a very long time on it.) It was a day filled with opening presents, Taylor playing with each one, opening more, eating good food, staying in jammies all day. It was great to have just our little family together on Christmas...loved it! And, the best Christmas present ever was that I was supposed to work Dec 23-27the since it was my holiday to work and miraculously I got Christmas Day off. Truly a blessing. I am so grateful for our beautiful girls and an amazing husband to spend the day with, while thinking of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Taylor making London dinner with her new kitchen stuff.

London is the sweetest little girl in the world. Would you ever guess looking at this cute chunker that she weighed 5 lbs when she was born?

The Student's Wife..

Life has been crazy and fantastic all at the same time! I must say that life with Aaron in school has been quite the ride. With Aaron busy taking really difficult classes, working, and watching the kids on the weekends while I work he is super busy! Which then means I am super busy and alone with the kids for the majority of the time. We don't get to see much of each other during the week, this morning I saw him for 20 minutes, and he'll be studying til super late tonight at school. Some days I feel like I get a glimpse of being a single mom. Here's a perfect example of our sweet little life, this was my night last night...

I had a YW activity at 7 pm. Around 5 pm I took my bro-in-law to pick up his car from the shop. I got home close to 6 and needed to feed the kids and get to the activity (with church clothes on) by 7pm. Not a big deal you might say right? Well, that's asking a lot sometimes especially when by yourself. You never realize how helpful it is to have another person around just to hold the baby or fill up Taylor's drink. That next hour consists of: trying to feed the kids, I have London still in her car seat on the large island counter, with a bottle propped (I know, don't judge, you have to do it sometimes). I'm trying to make Taylor a bean burrito while she is happily reading. Happily reading turns into throwing the books everywhere, but she's happy so I'm fine with it. Taylor needs to go potty, get her eating dinner, change all of us into church clothes, change London's diaper, finish a project I need to present and get out the door, and I eat the last 5 bites of Taylor's burrito for my dinner. Needless to say we don't leave until 7:10. Terrible leader I know.

Hang in there with me, this is where it starts getting good..

We get to the church by about 7:15, walk in and Taylor needs to go potty. After what seems like an eternity we finish the potty process and walk into the activity. Luckily it was the informal part of the YW in Excellence program so everyone is mingling. I pull sweet London out of the car seat and...seriously poopy diaper! Love it, since I have spent about 1.5 minutes at the activity at this point and I need to change a diaper. We head out and get her changed and get back to the activity.

I spend about 5 minutes chatting with the girls and we all get seated for a short slide show. Another leader is holding London, and Taylor is sitting on my lap. Ahhhh, feels nice to sit down and rest for a second. The slide show begins, everyone is happy and calm, and then, wait, something warm on my legs...something wet on my legs...and Taylor says.."uh oh mommy". Yep! You got it, she is peeing on my lap!!! Fantastic! So, natural instinct I stand up really quick and hold her out in front of me and all but run out of the room. Of course I have to be sitting in the front row, figures. So, we head back to the bathroom and change Taylor's clothes. She asks to keep her pee soaked tights on, of course this is impossible at this point. Although we have to clean her shoes so she can put those back on and luckily I have a change of clothes for her. Awesome!

We get back to the activity and...its over! Sweet, I have officially attended approximately 12 minutes of the activity. What can you do but laugh and enjoy the fact that you have two beautiful girls, right? And, the other good news is...I'm wearing a black skirt so no one can tell I'm cruisin around with a pee soaked skirt. I seriously was just laughing about the whole thing.

I love my beautiful family and this is why:

-London has been sleeping through the night for 1.5 months now.

-The girls have been sleeping in the same room for about a month! And sleeping through the night! I have to say I'm just as proud of myself as I am of them. It was hard work on both of our parts. We did it without any major hitches! And, I'm getting better at somehow doing the whole nighttime routine on my own and getting both girls down.

-London is the sweetest baby in the entire world. I need it because Taylor is what you would call a "spirited" girl. She can be the sweetest girl one minute and then the next minute she is finding every button possible to push. Bless this 2 year old stage!

-And, Aaron is doing great! I am so appreciative of how hard he works with school. He will be applying to P.A. school this fall, and lets pray that he gets in!

-And I am so appreciative of wonderful friends and family, play dates, projects, and story time to keep me busy!

baths and "band-dands"

Taylor fell the other day and insisted she needed one of her princess "band-dands" on her nose. Her nose miraculously instantly felt better and she kept it on for a few hours. Funny lady. She has been a great big sister, and loves to help out with baby London.

We have a belly button!!! Finally! They said since London had the IV lines in her umbilical cord that it would stay on longer than normal. I didn't know that longer than normal meant for 6 weeks! Sponge baths only go so far, so I was pretty excited to give her a real bath. She loved it as you can see, she was super chill the whole time.
Tracie, Troy and the kids came for a visit a few weeks ago. Taylor and Brooke are about 9 months apart and the babies London and Connor are only 5 weeks apart. Can you see a bit of a difference in those two? Little lady.
PLAY DATES. I love our ward, and all the mommas! Seriously, our play dates have gone from the once a week park date, to somehow hanging out sometimes several days in the week. Here are all the babies hanging out. Hudson, Logan, Isabel, and London. All the older babies were rolling all over the place, so it was quite the test to get them all together.
Bought this precious swimsuit for London before she was born, don't know why I was thinking she might actually go in the pool. Oh well, she looks cute in it though!

Our first adventure with the 2 kids at the Denver zoo. Don't worry, one of the crazy bird animals escaped while we were there and they quaranteened us off to one area until it was caught. Crazy. It was close to 100 degrees that day, and we went around noon. We've learned our lesson, but had a great time.
Aaron feeding Taylor to the giraffes...
And for the London happenings at 6 weeks...

-She is a great sleeper for the most part, she'd rather be swaddled and putting herself to sleep in the crib by herself than in the swing or even being held (one benefit to starting life out in the NICU)

-She was 7 pounds 5 ounces at her 4 week appt, so I think she is close to 8 pounds now and plumping up

-She is a great eater, and after only about 4 weeks she was able to fully breastfeed instead of having to breast feed her, bottle feed her since she was too tired to finish, and then pump.

-She has endured the wrath of a 2 year old sibling, it's pretty amazing what the subsequent kids go through with older siblings and survive. Let's just say I can never leave London unsupervised for a second.

-She is starting to get on a good predictable schedule and have actual awake/sleep times throughout the day.

-Overall she is a great, beautiful, and alert baby for her age and prematurity.

-We love her!

Blogging Binge!

Ok, everyone who knows me and ever checks the blog knows I'm terrible at posting. So, I found some time while both girls were sleeping to do a little blogging binge and do the full update on how we're doing. So, check the last 2 posts to find out all about our little London girl. We love her and are so proud of Taylor the big sister!