Lob her

Here are some quick pictures of Ms. Taya. I cannot BELIEVE she is going to be 3 in less than 2 weeks!! It's amazing how fast time flies when you're having fun. I am the luckiest mom in the world--she brings me SO much happiness :) She recently got a new fish (bishy) named Tootle. Yes, she named it herself and picked it out. He's actually pretty cute--a bright red Beta! She also is really into riding her bike at my mom's house. They bought this handle thing that goes behind her seat so they can keep her balanced while she rides. She LOVES it!


For her birthday I am going to take her to see Kung Fu Panda and have a BBQ with some friends and family--I want her to feel like the princess she is!


She LOVES this hat for some reason...

Taya and my mom's dog, Julie

Being the Diva she is in Chanels!

Taya-isms

Taya is such a funny girl...

On Sunday I was sitting at the kitchen table with Taya's aunt Mak and we started talking about all of the funny things Taya says and does... Right after she put her little hand out and said "Welcome to my Grandma..." to introduce everybody to my mom.

She also has the way of making it near impossible to keep a straight face when getting her in trouble... I almost always have to turn my head away because she makes me laugh!

She's at a stage now where she insists on doing absolutely EVERYTHING herself. She likes to buckle her car seat, pour the water in her oatmeal, brush her hair, pick out her own clothes, read books to me, wash her hair, walk by herself (I'm rarely allowed to hold her ;) ) She's just turned into little miss independent! I'm SO proud of her!!

The other night, she was reading a book with my dad and memorized 10 words and was reading them back to my dad when he would point at them randomly. I really think she'll be able to read by the time she goes to Kindergarten... she has just always wanted to be a "big" girl!

Princess Taya

Here's a cute pic of Taya that I took last week... We were sitting out on the porch reading magazines and enjoying our girl time :) She was *SO* adorable because she was pretending to talk on her cell phone and kept saying "Oh! That's so cute.... oh really? That's cute!" I just love watching her pretend to be a little lady. She's 2 going on 15 most days, so I think I really will have my hands full!!

You are my sunshine

Well it has been awhile since I have posted, but I really hope to get back into the swing of things... sometimes major life changes make it difficult to do even the smallest things, even if it's just posting a small life update. I just felt like I didn't even want to post depressing things, but now I have a lot of happiness in my life. Throughout it all, Taya has been my sunshine. Every single day she finds a way to make me smile and laugh. She is by far the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to me in my entire life and I am so grateful to have such a special little person in my life. I hope you will enjoy her stories as much as I do :)

(This is a picture of her crazy bath hair!)

Car accident....

I am going to make this short, but I just wanted to let everybody know that Taya and I are COMPLETELY ok after our car accident on the interstate last night. Thank you so much to everybody that has shown love and concern... it's been amazing. We really were so lucky to be in the car that we were (A Volvo S-40) and I am just so glad that everybody involved walked away without injuries. Thank you all so much!!

Meow!

Here are a couple of pictures of Taya on Halloween.... Definitely one of the cutest kitties I have ever seen! The night before Halloween, we did a "test run" with the face paint I bought and I put a little bit of pink on her nose and gave her brown whiskers. Then, I put the face paint at the very back of the counter and received a buiness call. When I hung up, I came back into the kitchen to see Taya had pushed a chair over to the face paint and had drawn ALL over the counter, her body, her clothes, EVERYWHERE.... Needless to say, the face paint was completely ruined. (The counters were cleaned easily with a little help from a magic eraser) So, I painted her face with my liquid eyeliner. It didn't turn out perfectly because she didn't want to sit still, but I think it was a great alternative. She had a wonderful Halloween and got a whole bucket-full of Halloween candy just by going to my dad's office. Next year will probably be the first year we actually go trick-or-treating.

ANOTHER song!

Every morning while I'm getting ready for work Taya and I have the same routine and it starts with Britney Spears' new song "Gimme Me." We have Comcast On Demand, so we turn it on really loud and dance around my room singing to it.... haha. As soon as it's over, she starts asking for "another song" So, of course, I turn on another random song. Anything from 50 Cent to Carrie Underwood--huge variety going on. Anyway, for the hour or so that I'm getting ready for work, she dances around my room watching music videos singing and dancing and AS SOON AS they are over, she asks for "another song." It takes me a little bit longer to get ready doing it this way, but it's definitely a lot more entertaining. :-)