Christmas part 1...

On Saturday we headed out West for Kanopolis, Kansas!!! Justin had left earlier in the morning to go with his parents to watch his cousin Ty coach his high school team in the state championship, so Taegan and I made the journey alone to Grandmas. We would be meeting Justin and his parents there. I let her take a nap and then we got up and around and ready to go. The drive went very well and Taegan did awesome until about the last 10 minutes of the 2 hour drive. All in all I was proud of our journey! Once we got there she was very shy around everyone and it took a bit for her to warm up to people. Once she did-she was her usual fun happy self. I decided to bring along her bag of blocks for her to have something to play with and that was the first thing she did with her cousin Brekkyn-

Once everyone got there and we all said our hellos we decided to eat dinner(it was 7 o'clock!) and then we made a decision to do the presents Saturday night instead of Sunday morning so we wouldn't be so rushed. This turned out to be a great idea because Sunday we just all relaxed, got brunch ready, talked some more and then headed home. So here are a few pictures of Taegan opening her first presents for Christmas this year:

Opening her "melmo" doll!!!!

Showing Grandma how to put his pacifier in.

Opening her pig pillow pal(that she LOVES).

Laying next to Brekkyn with their pillow pals and Elmo.

It was a great weekend, one that I look forward to every year. I love the way his family hangs out and relaxes and just loves being together. It was so fun to watch Taegan actually play this year with Brekkyn, who is one year older than her, and look forward to what they will get into next year.

We leave in 10 days for Disney World and I absolutely can't wait to go!!!!! This is my Mom, Dad, and I's favorite vacation together of all time-and now we get to take Taegan! What a fun trip it will be for the 5 of us. Justin and I were just talking last night about how Taegan will just be in awe of everything. Counting down...have a good start to your week!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We just got home from a yummy lunch with my Dad's side of the family for Thanksgiving! Although my dad wasn't there(he is not feeling well) and my cousin wasn't there(she just had surgery) it was great to see everyone and enjoy a few hours with them. Taegan showed them just how cute she can be and then how cranky she can get when it is almost 2 hours past nap time. We ate some dessert real quick and home we are to put her down. As I type she has just stopped chattering and is fast asleep. What a sweetie!!! I hope everyone has a great day and has a chance to step back and remember what we are thankful for. I look forward to being with Justin's family this weekend for our extended family Christmas out of town...it should be a lot of fun!

On another note-we took Taegan to see Santa last weekend and she HATED it. She cried and screamed and wanted nothing to do with that man holding her, touching her, or talking to her!!! Oh well, we will have a picture to document her visit for the future.

Have a good weekend!

I love...

Today I thought it might be fun to make a list of some of the things I love. I have been in kind of a bum mood lately and thought this might pick me up a bit...

*I love how Taegan has decided to be such a lovey girl lately-kisses and hugs all the time!!
*I love the fact that Justin works so hard to provide for us and never complains.
*I love baking and making the house smell incredible all day long.
*I love seeing my "Future Wildcat" on the big screen at the last home football game last Saturday.
*I love how I can depend on my mom and his mom to help out with Taegan in a pinch.
*I love being there to kiss Taegan's "ow-ow" when she needs it kissed.
*I love a clean house...if even for 1 nap time!!!
*I love the time I get to spend with Justin every evening just being us.
*I love, love, love Taegan's new jacket that looks so CUTE on her.

*I love that even on a bad day Justin and Taegan are still here for me when I get home.

*I love Sonic Lemon-Berry slushes.

*I love that we just refinanced our house and will save 150 bucks a month!!!

*I love the holidays and can't wait to decorate the house and see how Taegan handles it all.

Thanks for letting me share some random loves today.

Snow???

Our weekend went pretty good, but fast. Justin has basketball tickets this year and he is the only one of us that has them. So he attends them with his parents while I hang back with Miss Taegan. This weekend was a very sport filled weekend. He had a game on Friday night, we had a football game Saturday(that didn't turn out like we wanted), and he had another game on Sunday afternoon. So we had Sunday morning as our family time, and it was super good. We hung out and laughed and ran some errands. All in all, it went well and now we are onto to Monday again. I am working 3 days this week and then it will be Mom's birthday Saturday.

The one thing I am NOT ready for yet is snow-and we woke up to HUGE flakes flying and collecting on the ground. Yikes, what happened to fall??? Have a good Monday.

Back to normal...

What a week it was and has been so far. Sorry it has been a while since I have been on here, with Taegan sick I didn't get much of anything done around the house. It was so nice to cuddle with her and soak up that time with her, but I must admit I thought the walls were closing in on me a few days! She was really starting to feel much better by Saturday(thank goodness), so we left her with my parents and headed to the KU vs KSU game in Manhattan. I am so glad we had the chance to get away and go to the game. Justin's aunt and two cousins were able to make it to the game so we got to hang out with them. Amy was also able to find a ticket to the game for cheap and it was a great day!! Not to mention the Cats won....made it even better.

Taegan has continued to improve and is back to her fun, spunky self!!! She went through a few days of total meltdowns and I was worried this was going to become a new norm for her, but lucky for all the parties involved those have disappeared:) She has taken up a new excitement for Minnie and Mickey(which is good because we leave for Disney World in a month!) and will soon be introduced to the friendly man known as Santa. She will get to go get her pictures taken with Santa next weekend and I am just hoping she doesn't run the other way from him. Fingers crossed on that! As for the rest of this week-I am working the rest of it and she is gonna be busy playing with grandmas.

I do have to share that we had a great day yesterday. Two weeks ago Justin and I decided to try and refinance our house just to see if we could. Well, yesterday we got the appraisal back and let's just say it was WAY more than we thought. What a relief that has been, this means we will be dropping our interest rate 2% and making a huge change in our payment. That makes me feel real good-and relax just a bit with money. We are both super excited about this and are eager to see how much money we can save!!! Enjoy the few pictures.

Jess, Amy, and I at the tailgate(yes Amy is drinking a Diet Pepsi!!!)
Justin and I

The whole family that was there(yes some are wearing blue and red)

Taegan ready for bed reading a book with her Daddy. She came running to him with the book...so cute!

Picture post...

Halloween went very well this year. We got Taegan all dressed, the grandparents came over for dinner and then we headed out to trick or treat before the KSU game. We went to a few on our block, let the guys come back home and watch the game and Mom and I took her to some other blocks. She made out with tons of candy and had fun going up to all the doors! She didn't enjoy carving the pumpkins at all-don't let the following pictures fool you, those were the only times she was even near the pumpkins. Just not her thing this year. Late Saturday night into Sunday she started running a fever of 102 and developed a nasty cough. We took her in on Sunday morning and are being treated with Tamiflu. She is actually acting much better today, but yesterday she was like death-it was bad! Hoping she kicks this soon...enjoy the pictures!

This is our sick little girl:(

Our little ladybug
Carrying her pumpkin to Daddy to carve

The finished products...Disney theme

Heading out to trick or treat

Her Halloween loot

Helping Momma clean the guts

Working on her little one

Messy face in the car after eating some Halloween candy.

18 month checkup-Nurse Ann made her day with a sucker.

Walking with Grandma with her purse.

Watching the Doodlebops with Baby in the car

Reading with Grandpa Greg

Reading with Daddy

Riding her first carousel.

Our 18 month old girl!