Memorial Day Weekend!

Well, I'll finally add captions...we had a great Memorial Day Weekend and it was so nice when Tom got home on the Friday and we knew we were going to have the rest of that day and the next three to spend together (he had been having meetings on the last 3 Saturday mornings).
So, we turned Taylor's room into the "kids' room" over the weekend. We got Taylor a new daybed and put that together, put the new bedding on the kids' beds and I made some cute crafty things to put up above each of their beds. We haven't moved Taylor into the bed and Max into the crib yet...but it's all ready to go! Saturday, we had dinner with our dinner group which is always so fun. Sunday was our more relaxed day and mostly stayed home other than going to church and taking Maddie to the dog park. Monday we went to a park downtown and had a big picnic with our ward/church congregation. It was great. I LOVE our ward! That evening we went to our friends' in laws house (trampoline pictures below) for a BBQ. They had a bunch of other friends there that we didn't know so it was fun to get to meet some new people.

Yeah, I know...I REALLY need to visit the hair stylist! That was my first thought when I saw this picture!
This was Taylor's first time on a trampoline and she loved it...she just ran all around it in circles.
These are our friends Curtis and Sarah. They invited us to go to this fun country/western dinner and show with them up at this ranch in the mountains. We had a great time. They have a little girl 6 weeks younger than Taylor so the girls are good friends and we left them with a babysitter at their house, but we had to leave a little early during the show b/c Taylor was upset...we still had fun though. Oh yeah, Sarah's going to have a baby ANY day now...you wouldn't be able to tell unless she turned sideways though! She looks so great!
Max on a date with Mommy and Daddy

Poop #2

Well, Taylor has pooped a second time in the potty! We're proud parents! I started reading Pottywise (thanks Holli for the suggestion...I love Babywise and didn't even realize there was a Pottywise). Anyway, I've only read about 15 pages so far and I've decided that I no longer have the goal to have Taylor potty trained by the time she's two. She just may not be ready...especially at night time. If she is...wonderful. But, if not...we'll get there. But, I'm pleased with her two poops so far!

Filling up...

We've been debating about getting a newer, bigger car... someday... Everytime I think about getting a bigger car I just think about how much more it will cost to "fill er up".

So, my sophomore year in college I had an internship working for a country music radio station announcing the farm news. I remember one promotion/contest the station had where the first 100 people to show up to a certain gas station one morning got $9.47 worth of gas. I drove an old, tan 1988 Ford F-150 (it was a dirt-colored beauty!) and I woke up at like 5 a.m. so I could go get some free gas and it almost filled my tank!!! $9.47!!! That was it... it's so crazy to think that just a few years ago the gas was under a dollar a gallon.

So, with that said...we keep putting off purchasing that newer, bigger car. In fact, the sound of our little 4 cylinder Mazda protege put-put-putting up the big hills is music to our ears because we know that lack of power in the engine saves us a whole lot of money...

the kiddos...

Yes, Taylor loves to dance on our table! and pose! She's a pretty silly girl!

She also loves to take her favorite stuffed puppy and put him in the high chair, swing, Max's car seat...you get the picture. It makes us chuckle.
As you can see, Max is getting so big! and, this picture is a couple weeks old (I'm pretty behind on blogging). I love it though when Taylor is talking to and entertaining Max and he just looks at her so intently. It's the sweetest thing. They are such great kids!
I love their feet in this picture...

time...

I can't believe that Max will be two months old tomorrow! Time is just flying by! There's a country song called "you're gonna miss this" by Trace Adkins and Tom told me that when he listened to it the first time; it made him get teary eyed (he never cries). So everytime I happen to hear it I just stop and listen to the words and let myself be reminded to try to slow down and appreciate this precious time I have with my family.

Max started to officially smile a couple weeks ago. It still doesn't happen all the time, but a few times a day I get to see his darling smile. It melts my heart! He's getting SO big! Taylor is too. She'll be turning two on July 15th. She loves to talk on the phone. She has me call someone (usually a grandparent) and she'll carry on a good 5-10 minute conversation where she's doing most of the talking. We can't quite understand every word yet, but can decipher at least that she's either talking about poop, potty, puppy, chocolate, Max, baby, or something to do with those subjects. :-) It's pretty funny. We're also working on teaching her to not scream when she's upset. This really isn't that much fun, but hopefully with consistency she'll eventually get the picture. She did an awesome thing on Mother's Day...she pooped in the toilet!!! We were so excited. It gives us a little light at the end of the tunnel.

Well, Tom just came home for a pretty short lunch break so I better finish this post. I'll put some more pics up soon...

Philmont...

to the east...
to the west...

During the week of April 24th (Tom's birthday) he had a weeklong training in Philmont. He really enjoyed it and got to do some hiking and running while he was there. It was sad not having him home for his birthday but Taylor, Max and I sent him a surprise birthday package and that was fun. And, it was so great when he came home! Here are some pics he took at Philmont...

Our official "blackmail" pictures!!!

Well, Taylor has been spending some time sitting on the toilet lately and it's so cute that we haven't been able to help ourselves from taking some pictures of her... Yeah, we don't think anything has actually happened while on the toilet, but she's definately getting comfortable on it at least... I'm hoping we can have her potty trained by the time she's two, but I don't really know what I'm doing. So, who knows how that will work out. At least we have these great shots of her though to help her be a well-behaved teenager if you know what I mean! ;-) Oh, and she's definately gotten the word "poop" down. She says it all day long with a cute little high-pitched voice! It's so funny; we go in and get her up in the morning and she's starts to instantly gab about poop!
This is one of her following Tom's instructions to push...