Sunday, April 10, 2011

Adventure City

We went to Adventure City over in Anaheim for Amalia's birthday (Joanna's daughter from daddy's work) and had so much fun! Today I realized that our little Taylor is a THRILL SEEKER! She is not the shy, scared girl that we saw at Disneyland 9 months ago, she wanted to go on every ride and roller coaster there was...and laughed her way through every one. Daddy has himself a real play partner.





This is Taylor's first "ride" higher than a carousel...since Disneyland in July of 2010. She's loving it!


On the swinging balloon...she giggled out of pure joy on this one!


Sooo fun!


Taylor's first ever "roller-coaster"...and it's a rickedy one too!


Taylor went hands up in the air on this one!




On the train around the park...we actually had to "evacuate" this train in the middle of it because someone dropped their sweater and got it stuck in the wheel...haha!

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Tuesday with Taylor

Today was my Tuesday with Taylor so we headed to the mall for a girls' day. We watched about an hour of the movie Rango (not fans of this movie), had some fun int he photo booth in the movie theatre, and hung out at the mall for a while. Fun day with my girl!



Saturday, March 26, 2011

The Little Gym- Marina's Birthday

Today we celebrated Marina's 3rd Birthday at The Little Gym and boy, our little girl is showing us just how she is growing up so different from our (my) expectations. She is out little athlete now!!!

Under the parachute with friends


Forward roll (with her great friend, Isabella, from Beach Babies)


Being silly


Being monkeys


Listening so attentively to the teacher


All friends from Beach Babies


Happy Birthday Marina!


Excited for the cake


Taylor and her party loot

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Birthday weekend in Palm Dessert

I decided to forego our annual camping trip to Anza Borrego this year for my birthday and instead, enjoy a relaxing, pampered-rich weekend in Palm Desert at a resort which is one of BJ's job sites. Ahhhh, the beauty of having an architect for a husband. It was a WONDERFUL weekend! It is calling my name again very soon, as I got sick teh last day and couldn't make it to my spa treatment which my mom bought for me. Guess I have to go back and use that gift certificate sometime soon!

In the pool the minute we arrived!




Beauty Queen


Birthday flowers from my mom and dad...they are the best!!!


Our view


Our cutie




Resting after a long day of play


Taylor had us do an Easter Egg hunt with her Uno Moo pieces


Results of a fun time


One of my fave's


Last day...enjoy it while it lasts!

Thursday, October 28, 2010

What do you want to be when you grow up??

Mommy: "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

Taylor: "Tinkerbell and Cinderella"

**I think this one was influenced by us asking her "what she wants to be" for Halloween so much lately.

Mommy: "Oh, okay! What do you want to DO when you grow up and you're a big girl like mommy?"

Taylor: "I want to cook all by myself!"

Monday, October 18, 2010

Taylor's update

1. Taylor loves her new class at school and doesn't cry when we drop her off anymore. Instead, she blows kisses, one after another really fast while laughing while I walk out the door. Love it!

2. Taylor loves (and is so good at!) puzzles. She has been doing interlocking ones up to 24 pieces in the tray and she just started doing ones out of the box (with help of course to start with the corners and edges)! It's amazing.

3. Taylor loves games on our phones, like tangrams and of course, puzzles! She is a pro at "dragging" pieces to where they go. Last night I couldn't get a piece and she told me, "You have to be gentle mommy. You drag it over." Haha!

4. Taylor's favorite movie is UP! She is an addict! She only gets to watch movies on the weekends and on Tuesdays (her day off of school) and this is the first one she always watches. Thank you Jocelyn and Simon for lending us that movie!!

5. Taylor loves pretending to be a ballerina. She stands on her tip toes, puts her hands in the air, and spins around...so cute.

6. Taylor is a definite book worm. We often find her in her room in the rocker reading book, after book, after book. At a birthday party we went to recently she disappeared and I frantically went running through the house and there was Taylor, by herself in her friend's room reading books off of his bookshelf. At school, everyday when we pick her up she is in the book corner reading books and she gets so excited when we get there that we stay for another 10-15 minutes reading books at school with her. She LOVES books. We even hear her reading her books out loud when she is watching her movies...multi-tasking!

7. Related to above, Taylor takes a while to warm up to crowds and prefers to be with smaller more intimate groups. She will hang on to me for quite a while until the crowd dissipates and she has found a good friend to play with. She is definitely her daddy's girl!!

8. Taylor can't wait to be three. She always tells us how old she is (holding up her fingers), then tells us how old "Sydney and Rachey" are, holding up three fingers. She says "I'm going to be three too!"

9. Her new favorite stuffed animal is the baby turtle that has been ssitting up on her top shelf in her room since she was born. There are three turtles, a baby, a mommy, and a daddy, all of which we bought on our babymoon to Maui when she was still in my tummy. She loves it!

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Tanaka Pumpkin Farm 2010

Wagon ride pulled by a tractor








She's a pro at feeding the goats (2010)!


Comparison!!! Feeding goats in 2009


They are quite aggressive...


2010 with mommy


2009 with Nanny B.




in the corn maze...fun!


She took a picture by 8 of these signs!




Looking for a Taylor-sized pumpkin


Found it!

Monday, October 11, 2010

Mommy-daughter time at Downtown Disney

Today we thought I had an important meeting at work but because it was Columbus Day Taylor had the day off so she went to work with me! It turned out that the meeting did not occur so after a nap at my office Taylor and I headed over to Downtown Disney for some afternoon fun and a special dinner with just the two of us. We walked around the whole Downtown, we bought her a TinkerBell Halloween costume, we looked at all the yummy treat stores, we bought a cookie (a football cookie!) for desert, and then had dinner at The Rainforest Cafe. Of course, after dinner she read books for a while in the Rainforest Cafe shop and then we went and danced to some live music in teh main plaza at Downtown Disney. It was a fun mommy-daughter afternoon!!!

Yummy treats!


Taylor chose the football cookie!


Dinner at Rainforest Cafe


In the plaza


With her cookie

NASCAR

Today I had school and so Taylor and daddy went to....NASCAR!

Daddy bid on some VIP NACAR tickets (with pit passes and all) at a golf tournament he played in and he won! So, he took his little girl to the races. Taylor got ear plugs to help with the loud noise but when they were walking down the hallway at the start of the race they didn't help a bit! She wanted to leave pronto.

So, off to buy headphones! She looked so cute in those headphones! Below are pics of their cute time together. They got soft pretzels, lemonade, a NASCAR coloring book, and a day full of memories together.

PICS TO COME...

Sunday, October 10, 2010

OH MY GOODNESS!!!!

Today I had school and when I came home and was playing with Taylor upstairs, daddy came up to tell me the most surprising, exciting news I had heard in a very long time.

Taylor was an early talker and could say almost all of her sounds early on in life, even the /r/ sound and the /l/ sound. The weirdest thing though was that she could not say any throat sounds such as /k/, /c/, or /g/...until today!!!

Daddy came upstairs and had Taylor say my name. I cried!!!! She finally learned to say all of her throat sounds and I just couldn't believe my ears! We spent the rest of the night saying lots of CCCCCool words, getting all excited and giddy, and Taylor just being oh so proud of herself.

Taylor: "I did it mommy I did it!!!!"

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Tea Party

Taylor has been wanting to have a tea party with my real china and so today we decided to have our very first tea party. We had so much fun! We had hot chocolate for tea, we had strawberries with chocolate drizzled over them, toasted PB&J, and cheerios. I LOVED my special day with my girl.