Backyard Progress

We have got a lot of progress. I've never been so excited to see trenches and dirt and pipes!

Pig Tail Clips

I have spent Taylor's naptimes this weekend making these. I have to make two now for those cute pig tails.

The Story Of Our Backyard

Our backyard is slowly coming along. We started working on it over three years ago. We go all of our cement and a fire pit with a sitting area. Then, we stopped. Backyards aren't cheap! Now, more than ever, we need our backyard for Taylor. We still are outside a lot, just in the front and on walks around the neighborhood. We are very excited to have it done. Jimmy is a bit of a perfectionist and we can't do anything until it is completely, 100%, thought out and planned to be just right. Here are the pictures from the first phase of our backyard...

This is the second phase. First we had workers grade and level it all out. Then, we found out that we had to build a small wall across the whole back. Just a huge setback. Now the wall is complete.

That's the small wall getting built.

The cap had to be done twice (Jimmy must have it perfect) because some of it didn't look right. After it was all done, the colored concrete that the cap was originally poured in didn't match the part that had to be redone, so Jimmy stained it all yesterday. It looks very nice and he worked all day on it.

Yes, that would be my spoon for the kitchen that I found in the concrete stain bucket.

Working hard.

Lot's of prep so that the color didn't get on everything.

Ta-Da!

Finished product.

So, I got really excited until Jimmy told me all the work he has to do inside of the planters. He has already put tar and foam to water proof it, now there has to be drains (white thing sticking up behind the wall in picture) and sprinklers for the plants. He is almost done with all of that. He worked all day today too. It's coming along, I am just very anxious. Jimmy has the patience and would rather do most of it himself so that it is just the way he wants. Grass is coming soon I hope!

16 1/2 Months

Today is a sad day because I go back to work tomorrow. I am so lucky that Taylor spends her days with my mom who also has Gavin. She will have fun playing and spending time with her Grandma and Papa. It's me who is so sad. I made a list of all the things Taylor has done in the last ten weeks. My list is pretty long and I'm sure I left some things out. She is so much fun right now, but can be challenging too! Here they go...

• Has not had a bottle since the day I went off of work, June 12.
• She is saying a lot of small words and it seems like she is learning new words a lot more often. In the past week she said shoes, tree, bug, and bubble.
• All summer long she can make the sounds of a dog, cow and duck, makes the movement and noise for a monkey and makes a clacking sound for a pig. She can't snort yet.
• She LOVES books. She can always be found looking through a book and pretending to read it. We always know when she's reading because she makes the same noise everytime...bah,bah,bahbahbah, bah... Very cute to watch.
• Will not read a book upside down...it has to be the right way and she knows which way the pages turn.
• Absolutely loves ELMO! She can't get enough. He is called "Mo."
• Will NOT drink milk. Has been taking bigger sips if I mix a little strawberry in it :) It's progress.
• Puts her finger to her mouth (sometimes in her nose) and says, "shhhhhhhh."
• Blows lots of kisses and says "muwah" every time.
• Starting to throw tantrums a lot more often. Goes from so happy to a wreck in 1 second.
• Has gotten four molars and a bottom front tooth just since I've been off of work. That has been loads of fun!
• I can now put pig tails in her hair. I am so excited about it. I don't like when I look back at her in the car seat and one bow is out and the rubber band is half way out. Those aren't so easy to fix.
• Always brings the remote to either turn on Elmo or rewind a song she wants to hear...thank you Jimmy for showing her that.
• Has hated the bath for about two weeks now. She always loved the bath and now she doesn't. Hope it passes.
• Still loves Gage so much, but is very rough on him.
• Loves to go outside everyday and play and take rides in her little pink buggy.
• Has been saying 'no' with the head nod for a while now, but is now doing 'yes' too.
• Has not had a bad sleeping night all summer... I will knock on wood now that I am going back to work.
• Went from waking up 5:45 to 7:30.
• Loves fruits and veggies, but her favorite is strawberries.

I know there's probably more, but this is it for now. Today we are going to go out and run some errands. My curling iron died just in time.

Cousin Love

I've been doing another Photoshop class all about brushes. I didn't post all of them because it's different than the other class I took and doesn't always involve a picture. This lesson did, creating all different frames. This is very neat and I think I will make a lot more of them.
They are not cousins but I could not move this picture to the bottom.

Taylor and Gavin

Taylor and Teagan

Musical Munchkins

Today was our last class. So sad to see summer end. This was the cutest class and Taylor enjoyed it a lot. It was fun to go each week and get to see Linkyn and Danielle and play different types of instruments. There were only three girls in the class and occasionally a few more would come.

I was a little afraid of this today...the only day they would allow cameras in and here's how it started...it did get better though. I have no idea what set her off here. We were the only people there.

That's Ms. Shandra singing to Taylor since we were the only ones.

Loved listening to the singing.

Playing with sand blocks. They sing a song about a train and rub these blocks together to make them sound like a train.

There's Kaylani, Taylor and Linkyn singing the fish song.

Playing the symbols.

Wearing the symbols on her ears.

A hermit crab.

Lollipop drum...Taylor loved this.

Linkyn too.

Taylor tattling.

At the end of every class they got to say goodbye to the guitar and play it a couple of times.

The drive home.

Bike Ride to the Park

Sunday evening we rode our bikes to the park to let Taylor play. She loves riding in the bike trailor and Gage has to go in the basket on my bike because we had too many mishaps last year with him riding next to Taylor. Now, I'm afraid she'll strangle him. They both enjoyed the park.

All loaded up and ready to head home with a mouth full of snacks.

Thanks Genn for the tips about the rubber bands...they work in her hair and now she can have pig tails!!

Feeding the Giraffe

It was really bothering me that the post wasn't near where it should be. So, now it's where it goes.

Day 4- Santa Barbara Zoo

We left Pismo Beach to head home around 9:30 Friday morning. We thought Taylor would fall right asleep because it was her nap time, but she got all goofy instead. I think she was fighting her sleep. She was cracking herself up, and giggling, and making noises.

We planned to stop at the Santa Barbara Zoo so that we could break the drive up a little. It was so nice and we made it through everything in less than two hours. The weather was perfect because it was so close to the beach.
That's a penguin in the back.

Taylor is so into animals right now.

There she is feeding the giraffe which she was not afraid of at all. She kept doing the sign and saying more to the lady. We went back twice. Then the camera battery died. So, we video taped the second time. The clip is posted a couple of posts back.

Thank God Taylor got tired because we hit a ton of traffic once we got to LA. She was so good and slept for about 2 1/2 hours and then watched Elmo the rest of the way without a peep!

We had a great vacation. It was so pretty and so nice to escape the heat. It was in the 70's the whole time. I was sad Jimmy had to go back to work yesterday and I'm getting very sad that I go back soon. It was a great way to end the summer though :)