Big 3-0 Celebration

Last week was a bit crazy as I got sick, recovered, and then rushed like a manic to get the house ready for Chris' 30th birthday celebration at our house Friday night.  Getting a house cleaned and ready is so different once with a kid because you clean and then have to clean up again after kiddo destroys room after room.  Who knew one kid could do so much damage?  Now I know why they invented playpens!  Everything was great and I even managed to fit in making Chris a surprise birthday cake.  Keep in mind as you look through the pictures that I am very much an amateur baker/froster.  The party went great and we are so lucky to have wonderful friends and family that came over to celebrate Chris' birthday with us.

Chris' Mom makes him a chocolate chip cookie cake every year plus some of his favorite candy

The Lego cake I made for Chris

Gavin taught Taylor how to eat ice out of the ice chest

Me with the birthday boy ~~~ Brothers

Serious and funny pic of Chris, Dad, and Jefe

Chris and his Mom ~~~ Chris, Kellie, & Jefe(siblings)

Sorry for all the family photos, but we rarely stop 

and take photos that it was a great time while everyone was together.  

One last one of the Lambert family!

When it's hot...

then one must play in the water to keep cool!  After seeing how cool Graham's water table was, off I went in search for this great sale item.  Four, yes four, Target's later we are now the proud owners of an artic water table.  After doing so much searching for this table over the past week I couldn't wait to bust this bad boy out of the box and fill it with water.  Taylor was a little hesitant at first but then went to town dumping the water out onto the driveway and splashing everywhere.  Here are a few pictures of our water fun.  

I wished and hoped, but poor kid was cursed with my fair skin.  She will be thanking me years from now for making her wear hats until she decides to rip them off.  Check out the tongue sticking out.  Tay is constantly walking around with her tongue sticking out.  Guess she's been hanging out with the dog too much!

You need to go here Mr. Penguin!

How does it do that Mommy?

You have to put your hands in all the way to the bottom for the full effect and then....

giggle uncontrollably while splashing the water everywhere!

Hope you find a way to cool off!

Taylor Tuesday

Here's our cutie at her finest.  Please look past the massive amount of drool as we are STILL cutting all our side teeth.  Taylor has figured out how to pull the bibs off so we just have several wardrobe changes a day.  

Plus in case you haven't seen her smirk/cranky face I included one for you.  It's hard not to laugh we she makes this face because it's so awful.  We get to see this face more often right now as I wonder if the terrible twos have decided to start at the terrible thirteen months instead.  This face came as I would not let her have the camera.  

Happy Tuesday!

Toddler Lesson #86

Never let your toddler play with a pack of unopened gum when you aren't watching!

ps.  yes that is part of a piece of gum that she started to gnaw on, but amazingly enough i have yet to see any blue foil in her diaper. 

Taylor Tuesday

I have discovered that there are way too many moments as a parent when you want to capture a picture of what your child is doing and then quickly stop them. I couldn't resist when Taylor grabbed my phone and started holding it just like I do. I'm now thinking that she must see me do this way too much! (please look away from the massive pile of laundry that has me busy today) The second picture was a funny picture that we caught over the weekend of Dad on the roof. Did you know that electricians can find zen on the roof of a house?

Crafty Things

Every so often the crafty bug takes over me and I get inspired to create something.  I've been doing more crafting lately, but just keep forgetting to post it on here.  So here are a few things I've made over the past month.

This is Taylor's 1st birthday invitation that I did

And her birthday hat, the 1 is on tape so that I can change out the number each year

This is the card I made for 3 year old's birthday.  

I had fun making a card without stamping.

I really need to find a better way to take pictures of my cards so that they come out clearer.  Any tips from my blog readers?

This next card was made for my grandmother's birthday.  You can't tell but the pink flower is covered in glitter.

Next I needed a gift for Taylor's friend Leili.  She has beautiful hair and tons of it so I made her some clips.  I can't wait until Taylor has enough hair to hold some of these in.  I was able to combine crocheting and bow making into one to make these little cuties.  I'll have to find the pattern to post for you later, but it was a very simple pattern and I was able to finish one is less than 10 minutes.

Next I needed a cute card to go with it.  I loved using the die cut on this to create a cute front and inside.  

The next two cards may look the same, but there are a few small differences.  I made one card and then changed a few things I didn't like and now I can't remember which one was first because I now like how they both turned out.  These were Mother's Day cards for my grandmothers.

That ends my catch up on crafty things.  I am currently working on some scrapbook pages and will do a better job of posting as I create.  

Taylor Tuesday

I know I'm a day late with this, but we were busy battling some unwelcome bugs in our house yesterday and all the pictures were on my laptop(in the house).  Taylor and I went up to Fort Worth to visit my family this past weekend and I was able to introduce Taylor to a good snowcone.  I had made snowcones for us using my margarita machine and some of the syrup from Walmart.  Taylor thought they tasted just fine, but I find myself to be a bit of a snowcone conseuir and that syrup just didn't hold up to par.  I LOVE Austin, but we are severly lacking a good snow cone stand and so one of the things to do on my trip home was to let Taylor try a good snowcone.  If you can't tell from the picture, she loved it as much as her Momma and was very angry at me when it went away.  I think I've created a monster!  Hope you are having a great Wednesday!

Taylor Tuesday

Look at that.. it's not even lunchtime and Taylor Tuesday is already in your inbox! We went camping this past weekend at Inks Lake and Taylor has SO much fun. She would stay outside all day if I would let her and she loved playing in the dirt.(I think that was her hint to Daddy to get sand in the sandbox) I just loved this picture because Taylor had fun with her new sand/dirt tools and then you gotta love the tongue sticking out.

Molasses Cookies

In preparation for our camping trip this weekend(yes you heard me right, I'm attempting camping with a toddler) Chris asked me to make some molasses cookies. My mom used to make these anytime I went to stay with my grandparents because my Papa Dick LOVED them. I would find him sneaking 2 or 3 at a time when my grandmother wasn't looking. Everytime I bake them it brings a smile to my face thinking of him, plus I reading the recipe from my cookbook that's written in my mom's handwriting. I thought I would share this recipe with you since it has become a favorite around our house and some of our newest favorite recipes come from my fellow blogging buddies. A few tips about the recipe are to a) use a stand mixer if you have one since the dough gets VERY stiff, b)let the shortening cool for about 10 minutes so that it mixes right, and c) go ahead and double the batch because your family will thank you later!


Molasses Cookies

3/4 c shortening
1 c sugar
1/4 c molasses
1 egg
2 c flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon

Melt shortening in a saucepan over low heat. Remove from heat and let cool. Add sugar, molasses, and egg; beat well. Sift flour, add soda, salt, cloves, ginger, and cinnamon. Add to mixture and mix well. Chill for a few hours. Form into 1 inch balls for cookie sheets.

Bake at 375 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes. Enjoy!


I just couldn't do a post without a picture of Taylor, so here's a picture from during our outside playtime today. Taylor now knows to go to the door and point at the handle when she wants to play outside.

When it all started

I knew the original Taylor Tuesday 1st anniversary was near and can't believe I missed it by a day! Yesterday was the one year anniversary of my first Taylor Tuesday email. Taylor was almost a month old and was having trouble getting her to nap for longer than 15-20 minutes at a time. This new momma just needed some time to shower, eat, or nap! Chris was always the master swaddler, so when I remembered that we had the velcro swaddler I tried it out. Low and behold it worked like a charm for our cutie and she was as snug as a bug and sleep for quite some time.

Here is the email and pictures that I sent Chris that morning after being so excited:

thought you might like to see what is making tuesday a much better day than monday.

we love you!
w & t

Hope you enjoyed our flashback!

Where did Taylor Tuesday Go?

No I did not forget about you my blogging friends. Taylor Tuesday was emailed out to my family, but it contained a picture of Taylor with Baby Emma and you just saw that in an earlier post and no need to recap on here. I did promise them a very special Wednesday update of a special trip that I took Taylor on yesterday. Well look at the clock... it's 11 pm and I'm just now getting around to emailing out the photos from our trip. Ooops! You know this motherhood and work thing is really getting in the way of my blogging time! So here is the late Wednesday/early Thursday edition of Taylor Tuesday.

I've been putting bows in Taylor's since she was born and even celebrated the day that she had enough to hold a bow without a headband. Even though we live in the South, when Taylor's hair started to look a bit like a mullet it was time to get a trim. Yes that's right, Taylor had her first haircut! My hairdresser, Lynn, was so sweet to do it for me and Taylor did awesome! She sat in the chair like a big girl and was fascinated by her reflection in the mirror and the pictures of Lynn's dogs.
This isn't the greatest picture because Taylor was not interested in looking at the camera, but I wanted to show off her finished hair cut.

The hairdresser told me that by trimming the hair it might start to grow thicker. I'm hoping for enough on the sides for pigtails! Can't you just imagine Tay with piggies? I even have the sets of bows ready... grow hair grow!

Baby Emma

Taylor and I ventured to Kohl's the other day and I discovered that I'm going to have a hard time telling Taylor 'No' when it comes to toys. As soon as she spotted the baby doll boxes she reached out from her stroller to talk to them. We've been looking at the baby dolls at different stores for the past couple months, but they were all so big and came with WAY too many parts and pieces. There on the shelf was the sweetest little doll in her box. Taylor grabbed ahold of that box and just started talking to the doll. It was the cutest thing ever and now we have Baby Emma. The doll didn't come named, but Chris and I thought it would be easy for Taylor to say. Taylor held on to the box all through the store, in the car, and all once we got home.




Taylor shed a few tears when she thought I was trying to torture her by taking Baby Emma out of the box. I am such a mean Mommy!

All was better very quickly and Taylor was a happy girl with a baby doll free from the box.

Taylor now totes Baby Emma around the house. I look forward to further adventures with Taylor and Baby Emma.

Love,
Wendy

Did you know...

Did you know...

that it's more fun to play with bunny ears on

Daddy knows how to push the swing to get the best giggles

that I did finally take a picture of the playscape,
but then Chris told me the bottom part wasn't done

that Daddy pulls out the COOL toys while Mommy is gone


but at least Taylor is starting to learn to pick up toys