Tuesday, March 30, 2010

It's Fun to Be One!

And it was SO fun to celebrate Luke's first birthday with him last weekend! We love that "little" guy so much! ...and he sure can celebrate in style! His party was at a beautiful park with great food, a huge crowd, a clown, face painting, balloon animals... that baby knows how to party!

Here was our best attempt at a family shot for the day. I like it. It's crazy and far from perfect but happy and fun. Like us.

My beautiful sister and her beautiful boy

Tulip (the face painting clown) was quite talented! Kirsten was thrilled with her transformation into a butterfly.


Matt was very excited to be turned into Superman (and Danny was not letting that clown anywhere near him! ... and we always think of him as the "daring one"!)


I love this picture and how Matt is right up front with the big kids... in total awe...




Danny kept a close eye on that crazy clown from Mimi's lap




This awesome gator, balloon, flower hat lasted about 6 minutes






SO sweet. So, so sweet.





These boys know how to get around a cake!





...So does this one! It didn't take Luke long to figure out how awesome this birthday cake situation was :)







Love you Luke! Don't grow up too fast!







What Beauty Is

Innocence.

Sweetness.

Curiosity.

Endless Energy.

My girl.

Lord & Taylor (and Other Random Adorableness)

We're still busy... I'm still not blogging much... and my kids are still the sweetest, cutest, most precious living things ever. (No, I'm not prone to exaggeration at all, why do you ask?)

Moments I don't want to forget:
- The boys have recently learned their last name. They walk around saying things like, "I am Danny TAY-LLL-or. You is Mommy TAY-LLL-or?" I could just eat it up. I need to get it on video. They refer to everyone using their full names very often. "I say come here Matt TAY-LLL-or! I want to play with you!"

- Brian asked Danny who was in our family last week. He answered, "Danny Taylor, Matt Taylor, Daddy Taylor, Mommy Taylor, Sissy-Love Taylor... Yup... EVERYBODY!"

- We took the excitement about learning our last name as an opportunity to teach the boys their middle names too.

(Kirsten's middle name is Grace. This is the name that we chose for her so we tend to emphasize it a bit. Somehow when she was small we got into a habit of calling everyone Grace i.e. "Daddy Grace". It made her laugh and it was cute. It makes us laugh when the boys refer to themselves as "Danny Grace" and "Matthew Grace" but we figured this might be the time to teach them their names.)
It didn't really take. But it is CUTE. Matt still insists that he is "Matthew Grace" and "no Dean!" and Danny loves the idea of his middle name. However, instead of saying "Ward" he says "Lord". Now, Mr. Articulation believes this is his name. He corrects us every time we say Ward and it is so funny. Again, I need it on video... but I don't want to forget it. Too cute.

-Last week-ish Matt jumped into my lap. Danny reprimanded him yelling, "My mommy is delicate!" to which Matt answered (with a twinkle in his eye) "My mommy bouncy!!!!"

I've been teaching the twins that girls are "delicate". I got this idea from my friend Tiffany. I think it is SO smart. I want them to "get" that boys and girls are different. Daddy loves it when they tackle him. Mommy doesn't. I get that they are "all boy" and are going to play rough sometimes... so I want them to understand that you don't play rough with girls (unless Sissy Love is asking for it and tells them to come get her ;) ...then it's fair game).

Matt randomly looks at me, full of sweetness, and tells me "Mama you delicate. You a girl. Girls delicate. Not boys. Boys strong. Girls delicate. Like Mimi, Grandma, Debbie, Sissy-Love. Yup. Girls delicate Mommy". (Possibly ever so slightly sexist but I think this may be the beginning of raising gentlemen... at least I hope so!)

-The boys are TWO. Precious, adorable, hilarious, and cuter-then-cute... but still two, if you know what I mean ;) We've been talking a lot about saying "yes" to people. (As in, when Grandpa says stop touching the blinds we'd like you to say "Yes, Grandpa"... not "I playing with them. I playing with these Grandpa. I no want to stop." or "Yes, Ms. Debbie" and not, "I still playing. I not going to clean up right now. No thank you Debbie. I no clean up.")

Danny asked Matt for a toy earlier today and Matt said "No, not right now..." (which is his standard answer to everything). Danny gasped, in a very over exaggerated fashion, then yelled "You say yes to me! That our rule! Our home rule is you say yes to me!"

- And Kirsten just promised that she will always love me "with all the love in the world" even when she is a teenager. I need to get her to put that in writing ;)

Sunday, March 7, 2010

The Good Stuff

Life is busy... blogging isn't high on the priority list... I know, I know, you've heard it all before... Catholic guilt? (I loved keeping up with this blog last year. It was a great outlet and a great way to record my memories. These days it's just not happening... I digress...) So here is a list of the things I never, ever want to forget that are happening in our lives right now (aka the good stuff) Here we go... in the simplest format possible :)

Matt: You are so loving. The genuineness (is that a word?) of your emotions is so touching to me. I just want to squeeze you up all the time. For example: When I tell you I love you (or even if I don't ...) you turn to me with the most loving look on your face and say, "I love you the more." Somehow, our answers of "I love you more" and "I love you the most" got mixed up in your precious little head and so you proclaim this to me every day (God help the person who corrects you, I refuse to be responsible for my actions if that situation arises :) Nothing could be cuter right? WRONG. When I answer "Oh no, I love YOU the more" you reply "Well, I love you the more too!". There are just no words to describe what it does to my heart.

This morning while I was getting ready for church, you walked into my room and said, "Mommy you look boot-i-ful!". I laughed thanked you, and walked into the bathroom to ask your dad if he'd put you up to this. You stood there listening as he denied it and threw your arms around my legs saying, "Mommy you am boot-i-ful!" I never, ever want to forget it :)

Danny: Everyone might call you "baby Brian" but you've got some of my genes... (the ones that love speech and language development specifically!). Overnight you began overemphasizing your /s/ sounds. Adorable for a 2 year old... but it gets better. You have become Matt's self appointed Speech Therapist. When I ask you if you liked reading a book you answer, "yeSSSS. I like the SSSSSSnowman. You like he SSSSSnowman Matt?" Matt answers, "I yike da no-man" and you reply "SSSSSSSSSnowman. You like he SSSSSSSSSSnowman Matt? It a SSSSSSSSnowman."

Kirsten: HONOR ROLL. That sums it up... what else is there to say? Like I told you when you brought home your awesome report card, "It's easy to do well when it's easy to do well... but it is hard and awesome to do well when it's hard to do well. I couldn't be any prouder of you. Truly. If you'd come home with an acceptance letter to Harvard or a Nobel Peace Prize I wouldn't have been prouder. I've missed you sweet girl, I am so glad you're back.

There is more... so much more. It's coming soon... in a simple, stress free format :) I just needed to proclaim how blessed I am right now, whether that qualifies as a boring post or not :)

Monday, March 1, 2010

Lukie Love

This weekend we celebrated Luke's baptism.

The church service was lovely and the party was so much fun. It was a wonderful celebration!




Maureen, Ryan, and my Godson, Luke Patrick (I LOVE that baby!)


My other loves... how cute do they look in their coordinated spring outfits? (LOVE the socks... they make me happy :)






Me with my arms full of Lukie Love!





I love this picture of us. It makes me happy. He is so cuddly and squishy! (...and he's such a chubby little guy that he makes me look skinny ;)





My guys... hoarding goody bags. They were hiding candy under their legs, in their pockets... these guys love a good party :)





My sweet Luke, I pray that God will bless every breath you take. I love you always!