Halloween 2010

We had such a great Halloween weekend! Saturday afternoon our neighborhood had a fall festival, complete with a petting zoo, inflatables, BBQ dinner, a band, monster face beach balls, and trunk-or-treating. Cousin Kohen ("guh-guh" as Charleigh CONSTANTLY says lately...she LOVES her cousin, who's much more like a big brother) and Aunt Meg joined us for the festivities. Charleigh loved the goats, dog, bunnies, and pigs at the petting zoo, pointing at the animals and saying the sounds they make, rather than calling them by what they are; she had fun on the inflatable jump house with a climbing wall and slide; and trunk-or-treating. She really didn't "get" it, but Kohen helped her out. If he was given one piece of candy, he would say, "Carleigh wants one", and if he was given two pieces, he would put one in her bucket for her. It was VERY sweet!

Feeding the goat an animal cracker

Petting the pig and snorting

Reaching for a bunny rabbit

Coming over the top of the climbing wall in the inflatable jump house

At the top, getting ready to slide

Wee!

She has figured out how to sit down at the top of the slide and come down feet first on her bottom!

Such a big girl!

Sunday evening, Halloween Day, we dressed Charleigh in her ladybug costume. We did the best we could getting pictures, but she is not one for posing for pictures right now...like it or not, what we capture is what we get at this point! Charleigh's bedtime is around 6:45, so we went down in our cul-de-sac to play with all the neighbor kids a little early and we visited 3 houses to get candy all before dark. Maybe next year she'll be more "into" Halloween and want to go to all the houses on our street and collect as much as she can in her bucket.

Getting into her costume

Sweet little girl!

She didn't mind the hood at all.

I tried to get her to pose with her little pumpkin, but instead all I got was a VERY silly girl!

Getting ready to try a Twix, Daddy's favorite. I'm sad to report that Charleigh HATES chocolate!

Beginning of Fall

I didn't realize it's been 3 months since I've last updated our blog! Charleigh has changed so much since our last update in July. She's into EVERYTHING! We really could probably do without toys right now, because she will find anything entertaining as she's exploring. We've spent lots of time outside lately since the weather has cooled. She loves visiting all of the great parks we have around us. She's become very agile, climbing up and down stairs very easily, crawling through the tunnels on the playgrounds, and sliding down the slide by herself. She hasn't figured out how to sit and slide, so she gets on her hands and knees and turns her body with her feet going down the slide first, let's her body slide down while hanging on with her hands at the top, and then she'll finally release and slide down...very cute to watch! She's really into pumpkins and ghosts with Halloween all around us, and she says "boo" anytime she sees anything to do with either. Charleigh still LOVES her books, and we'll often find her sitting among a pile of books quietly by herself for quite a long period of time (15 mins. of quiet is a big deal)! She is also really into school busses, squealing when she sees them when we're out and about, rolling her hands around and around because as you know, "the wheels on the bus go round and round" (one of her favorite songs), and when it passes, she grunts and holds her hands palm side up as if asking, "Where is the bus going?" She also is really into animals right now. She knows quite a bit of animal noises, "cocka-doodle-do" being our personal favorites because she just moves her tongue back and forth while making a noise. Although, her pig "snort" is pretty hillarious, too! She's answering yes and no questions very well. Her yes is very cute because she says it with a bit of a lisp, "yeth". She uses please most of the time without prompting, which sounds like "pisss". She loves her dolls equally as much as she does cars and trucks.

This pregnancy is going very well so far. I'm feeling really good with lots of energy, which is a huge blessing as it requires a bit of energy to keep up with Charleigh. We've found out that we're having another little girl, and we've decided to name her Reagan Jean. We've been trying to talk about Baby Reagan in Mama's belly as often as we can, telling Charleigh about her new sister. She really loves babies, so we're hopeful that she is going to enjoy being a big sister in a few months.

Here are some recent (well, the past 3 months) pictures:

Told you she was "into" everything!

LOVES the tupperware cabinet!

 

Enjoying her books

Fun at the park with Kohen

And then a stop for a yummy icecream cone!

Charleigh recently visited a pumpkin patch with her cousin, Kohen, her best buddy. They both loved the pumpkins and holding the bunnies!

The best I could do...not sure how ANYONE gets two kids to look at a camera at once!

It's a BIG pumpkin!

Loved holding the soft bunnies

 We had a fun family weekend in the mountains last weekend, visiting the Wolly Worm Festival and Valle Crusis Country Fair. As you can see, Charleigh wasn't too into the wolly worm we bought her! :) We also went on a fun little hike one afternoon. Charleigh loved riding on her daddy's back and being outside.

Not sure why the picture inserted this way, but here's a family pic from our hike last weekend (don't get a krick in your neck! :) )

Charleigh in her Woolly Worm sweatshirt. She's telling Pops she's ready to hit the links!

On our way into the Wooly Worm festival

It was a chilly morning, but the mountian air was so refreshing!

Charleigh didn't want to have anything to do with "Woolly"

She LOVED getting her picture taken here...she cried when we were done!

After our hike...LOVE this picture of Charleigh and Brian!

Could be our Christmas card :)

This is as close as Charleigh wanted to get to the woolly worm!

We hope that everyone is doing well and enjoying fall as much as we are! I promise to update sooner than 3 months from now...Halloween will hopefully provide for some great pictures to share with you! :)



News at the Taylor House

We have had quite an emotional rollercoaster of a week at our house. I'll start with a little tribute to our Golden Retriever, Riggs, who passed the past Wednesday. It all happened very quickly, which we are so grateful for, but it made it very difficult to deal with, especially with having to make the decision we ultimately chose. Riggs was not himself on Tuesday night, which Brian first noticed when he didn't scarf down his dinner in less than 30 seconds, as he does EVERY meal. He began drewling quite a bit and was very lethargic. I ended up at the emergency vet late Tuesday night, and they found Riggs' lymph nodes swollen all over his body, the largest in his neck which made it difficult for him to eat or drink. We decided to leave him overnight so that he could see the internist the following morning, and upon her exam, she found that even his spleen was enlarged, which indicated stage 4 Lymphoma. Brian and I made the decision to take Riggs to our regular vet and let him go.

Riggs was the perfect dog for us! He was a great running buddy for Brian; loved camping and hiking with us; and most importantly, was the greatest companion you could ask for. He truly was "Man's Best Friend". He allowed Charleigh to crawl all over him and tug at his ears, and he was equally as fond of her as she was of him. We will miss Mr. Riggs very much, but we're so thankful that we had the 4 wonderful years we did with him!

Here are some of our favorite pictures of Riggs with Charleigh.

A rollercoaster always goes back uphill, and it did for us. Charleigh is going to be a big sister! God definitely threw us the best kind of surprise we could have asked for! We had our first ultrasound this past Friday, and Baby Taylor #2 has a great heartrate and things are looking good so far. We're due February 24...it'll be here before we know it!

Here are a few fun pictures of Charleigh from around the house recently that I wanted to share:

  Charleigh had some fun in the tupperware cabinet!

Playing with some balloons after her party

This is SO fun!

Pizza is yummy!

I found Charleigh in this position during one of her naps.

Charleigh has become very attached to a sweet stuffed dog from Great Aunt Wendy. It goes everywhere with us now, and it receives numerous hugs and kisses on a daily basis!

We'll keep you posted as the pregnancy progresses, and hopefully we'll have some pictures of Charleigh walking soon! We're headed to visit Brian's family this weekend, so I'm sure we'll have plenty of pictures to catch up on when we get back!

Charleigh's First Beach Trip

We travelled to the Outer Banks of North Carolina the week of July 4 for my cousin's wedding in Kitty Hawk. Charleigh was a part of the wedding, riding in a wagon down the aisle on the beach. She was amazingly well-behaved, playing with baby Luke in the wagon the whole time. She even danced during one of the solo's sung during the wedding, to which everyone found very humorous. She was a beautiful little flower girl, and we were so proud of her good behavior...not that we have much control over her behavior at this point! :)

We spent the remainder of the week in a little beach town further south called Salvo with my parents, sister, brother in-law, and nephew, Kohen. There's not a whole lot to do there (we had to drive 20 minutes for the nearest grocery store and seafood market), so we spent most of our time around the pool at the house or on the beach. We couldn't have asked for a more relaxing vacation (well, as relaxing as it gets with a 13 month old)!

Charleigh loved the ocean! She's spent enough time at the lake on the shoreline with waves crashing up around her and playing in the sand that she was prepared for the ocean...but not the saltwater taste! It was so cute how she learned to "spit" it out. She enjoyed the pool time, as well, splashing her hands and throwing balls in the water. We enjoyed watching her have so much fun on vacation!

Family picture before the wedding ceremony

Charleigh and Daddy watching tons of pelicans fly by...

she's fascinated by birds, so these were pretty cool ones!

In the wagon during the ceremony

Hanging with Daddy after the ceremony...by this time it was 7:45, about an hour after bedtime for Charleigh. Notice the thumb in her mouth! :)

Charleigh enjoyed some time with Uncle Mark and Aunt Laurie this trip (they had to hold her hand down so she wasn't sucking her thumb in the picture)! They spoiled her with lots of attention, walking the pier, and yummy snacks.

Charleigh and Daddy in the pool at our rental house

Chillin'

Bubbles don't taste very good!

Playing in the sand

Charleigh loved jumping the waves with daddy!

She also enjoyed the freedom to crawl in the waves!

The cutest sandy toes ever!

My sister, Meghan, took some pictures of us out on the beach one late afternoon. After some work on them, she sure made us look better.  She needs to start charging a fee! :)

Probably my favorite...

Before we left the Outer Banks on Saturday morning, we stopped at the Wright Brothers Memorial. They had a great museum with replicas of the gliders they tested between 1901-1904. Charleigh and I are at the end of the field where they landed the first successful flight from the top of the hill behind us, Kill Devil Hill. 

Brian and Edith at the top of the hill by the monument.