Happy 2014!!

A short post to close out 2013.  Thanks to this awesome app, Flipagram, we leave 2013 and head into 2014 with a 30 second wrap up of all the amazing moments and little blessings we experienced this past year.  Wishing you all a prosperous, healthy, and rewarding 2014!  We love you all!

A very Merry Christmas!

We hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas!  Here a some snap shots from throughout Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with our little guy. 

We made Taygan ate cookies for Santa.

Of course we had to make Mickey shaped cookies for the big guy. 

 Sweet little, guilty, face.

 All decorated and put out for Santa!

Surprises put together and ready for Christmas morning.  We were able to once again re-wrap presents from his birthday and put them out from Santa.  The kid has so many toys and isn't old enough yet to remember what he got at his birthday, so we take advantage and give them to him again. 

Every boy loves a power tool! 

 Action shot!  Look for him on this week's Top Ten plays. 

 He loves Kyte's flashlights, so he found him one in the $1 bin at Target to put in his Christmas "stocking" (I couldn't find his stocking in storage so we improvised this year with the pictured green box, again thanks to the $ bin at Target)

 More power tools!

 Helping Allie bug open her gift bag.

 New shades from Aunt Mate.

 Working with Daddy to build his airplane.

 It came with a Taygan size power drill!

 Dressed to impress for Christmas dinner.

 

 

 buttttt....my favorite shot of the day is this after bath shot with his new frog slippers from G-Mama.  It's a shame this kid has no personality ;)

Santa Baby!

Santa was a success!!  We had been watching Mickey's Night before Christmas and Mickey saves Santa so he knew what to expect (we also told him Santa looked like Pop, ha!).  Rather than fighting traffic to get in the mall and then the line of kids at the mall Santa (not to mention how expensive the photos are) we made use of our annual Biltmore Estate passes and headed to Antler Hill to visit Santa there. He started off a little unsure while we waited...

 But then I offered "snacks" (organic pomegranate fruit chews) if he would sit with Santa for a minute. 

 

 And boom!  A perfect picture!

 And then he wanted to talk Santa's ears off...

 He was obviously really into the story.

 After Santa we headed to Cedric's for some lunch and couldn't resist a few more photo ops on the way out.

 

 I think you all will agree that 2013 went better than 2012. 

Merry Christmas!

 

Toddler Bed Time

Well, I guess its official, we no longer have a baby if we no longer have a baby bed, right? He still wears diapers though, so maybe I will refer to him as our baby boy until those are gone :) Which may be soon.  He went pee-pee in the potty for this first time ever this week!!  All on his own, he looked at me one evening and said "pee-pee in the potty" and grabbed my hand and took me to his potty.  I took off his diaper and he sat down and went! Just like that.  He has gone a few other times since then in it, but we have decided to just let him go as he ask to go or if we ask and he says yes we will go.  I don't want to rush it and it become a fight.  I figure at some point he will be in big boy undies, my baby won't be a baby forever and I am holding onto that little last part of his "baby-hood" as long as I can. 

Back to the toddler bed!  Due to our monkey climbing out of the bed numerous times we took the front part of his crib off last week, but b/c we had just borrowed his crib from a friend we didn't have the toddler bed conversion rail to put on the front of it (our friend had not bought it with the crib).  Without the rail the mattress was moving around when he climbed in and out and when he rocked himself to sleep, so I ordered him a toddler bed.   The bed happens to be the most adorable thing I have ever seen, its a mini sleigh bed!  Of course Tagyan had to assist with the assembly (and who doesn't need rain boots on to when putting a bed together?)

It didn't take long for Kyte to inform me that I needed to entertain him elsewhere if I wanted the bed together any time soon, ha!  So we went for a long bubble bath which included a game of "where'd Taygan go?!"

After the bath...back to work.  Daddy had made some serious progress!

And finallyyyyyyyyy...time to play on the bed while Daddy finished up the drawers for underneath.

I LOVE this next pic.

We are incredibly lucky that he loves his bed and his sleep.  We haven't had (so far) a problem with him getting out of it (or his crib with the front off) instead of going to sleep.  The kid loves his sleep, like his Daddy.  When we finally got the bed all finished up last night, he wanted me out of the room and Daddy to lay down with him.  This is the position he gets in when he says "Taygan's going to sleep". 

After we read our night-night book and said our prayer, he gave us night-night kisses and he went right to sleep. Such a big boy :(

This morning I went to open his door when it was time for him to get up, he looked at me as I said "Good morning Taygan"  and said "nope" then got off his bed and shut his door.  Climbed back in bed and just sat there, ha!

He is a mess and we love every minute of it!  These little milestones pass so quickly, I wish I could stop time.

25 months...but who's counting

 

Well hello blog, you old friend, you.  Ok, quick recap of the past 5 months:
-we got a contract on the house.
-two year 18 month tantrums started. 
-said contract fell through b/c the buyer thought we had termites (needless to say we didn't)
-we got another contract on the house, procrastinated packing, finally packed, closed and moved.
-bought a piece of land to build a new home on.
-all 4 two year molars broke through.  Also before 24 months.
-fought for 2 months to have house plans approved, got house plans approved, started building.
-Taygan turned 2
-ran three 1/2 marathons
-did I mention handling a 2 year old?
Yeah, I think that justifies my lack of posting so I will move on to current life :)

I wish I could just video our smart, energetic, mickey-loving, crazy climbing, anti-snuggling little boy 24 hours a day.  He says and does the cutest things.  And then he throws a fit and I forget for a minute how adorable he is... until he says "sorry momma" through the tears. Melt. My. Heart.  Kyte and I are going to try to be better at getting video of him.  Sure we take tons of pics, but his little voice is so precious and I want to be able to hear it forever.  And I want to share it with you.  We have now put the camera on the bar so it is always in reach.  Be prepared for me to be back on the blog.  Here to start is a video from bath time (still is favorite part of the day) with "Mickey-Mouse"

 

 

 

 

 And here are some pictures captured from our 2 year photo shoot taken in our new neighborhood.  The first is from our lot before we broke ground. (and will be going on the wall in the new home)

 

and about those "fits" I mentioned. 

 

which quickly (and thankfully) usually turn into smiles

 

Love his smile.

 

 

working the over the shoulder pose...

these two have my heart!

 And since it's "Thanks"giving month, a quick picture that brings me to tears every time I look at it.  I can't tell you how thankful I am for Taygan to be able to live "with" his great-grandfather. Taygan loves him so much and it makes my heart full when they get to spend time together.  Kyte snapped this sweet moment over the summer.