Family Photos!

We took family photos in November and now I am posting them. There are a lot just so you know... I have yet to pick the perfect one to frame on the wall because Mercedes was far too distracted with the beauties of the outdoors.


Kiss from Mercedes.


This one melts my heart.
Love Mercedes' face in this one!
And this one I love.
Okay so I love every face Mercedes makes, even if she isn't smiling for the picture. Well then of course I LOVE Taylor's face, but that just goes without saying. :)
HA Mercedes kept doing this thing where she sucked her lips inside her mouth and it was so funny!
Love this girl.


Gotta have the not-so-serious family picture.
And then of course the serious one.
Boys being silly.
What great men!
And then of course the women. Our numbers are getting stronger by the year!

Merry Christmas!

December

My mom has this amazing chili recipe which she emailed me probably a year or two ago. Being a new wife at the time I didn't have much cooking experience and thought I would wait to attempt the chili until a later date. Well about two years later and many many home-cooked dishes later I felt like I could take on the task! It included soaking the dried beans over night, then precooking them before starting the actual chili. It went so well! And it turned out A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. I made this huge pot of it and asked my mom how to can it. Well...no more than 48 hours later we had eaten just about all of it.
Sprinkle a little Queso Fresco on top and WA-LA! It was delightful.
Mercedes is just silly! She'll be 10 months on the 19th. I'm starting to feel like I'm having to work harder to keep the house clean. I wonder why?
Mommy and baby!


Mercedes LOVES water. I'm so happy about that because I love it too. We can never drink to much water. :)
She's finally getting a little hair! With a bit of H2O and some hair spray it starts to show up even more. We think it'll be curly.

This is her little toy area next to the Christmas tree. She'll entertain herself here for a little bit while I clean the kitchen or sit at the computer.
I couldn't get over how cute this was. Like she's reading the book to her toys.
Snow flake!

I finally started painting again. I hadn't done much since Mercedes was born. I honestly feel like I'm forgetting a part of myself when I go for a long time without. Art, I will always paint and draw. I promise.
Here's is our makeshift baby-proof Christmas tree. One of Mercedes' favorite places to be in the apartment.
We even put tape over the bowl because Mercedes discovered how fun it was to splash the tree water all over the place.
I really miss Utah snow at Christmas time, but Roseville is its own beautiful winter wonderland.
I can't even express how much I love the morning fog around our apartment.
It's like a dream.

Just some thoughts...

I'm sitting here watching Mercedes eat her lunch and she is cracking me up. She's so entertaining to watch as she figures out how her tongue works, her lips work, and her fingers work. What a spazz she is! She's just learned to point too and now she's pointing at everything. It's neat to see our forms of communication are growing as she is.

I'm so excited for Christmas by the way. I need to take some pictures of our tree so I can blog about it. What a lovely season!

Have a fantastic day. :)

All about Mercedes

Mercedes is nine and a half months old now!!! Yeah, I can't really believe it.She still has just two teeth. She's had them for about three months now.
She's definitely not one of those babies who doesn't like getting food on herself. In fact she loves to play with her food. And boy she constantly cracks me up.

Thank you again for the binkies mom!
She is standing so much now!
See the little band-aid on her toe? She had a doctor's appointment and the nurse had to prick her toe for some blood. When it happened Mercedes watched with concern the whole time and once the little sting kicked in she looked at the nurse, mommy and daddy and had this look that said, "Why did she do that to me!?" It's a hard thing to know they don't understand.
She's getting better at napping. Yay!
She loves cables and cords. She's starting to learn to not bite them. Notice how she's playing with it using her feet?
A new thing she's started to enjoy is holding onto the back of her walker. She's so silly we can hardly stand it!
One thing she LOVES to do is give kisses. She gives us kisses on a constant basis. And then other times she just tries to eat us. I guess she gets that from us trying to pretend like we're biting her.
She loves to climb all over me when I lay on the floor near where she is playing. She'll climb on top of me and then try to give me kisses and bite my face. I find much joy in it. :)
We thought she had a pretty good chance at having curly hair (once it actually came in) because Taylor and I both do. The other day I decided I'd put a little water and hair spray in her hair to see what happened. I brushed her hair in the opposite direction that it grows and wa-la! She has curls!
She can be so funny at times, and at other times be so serious.

We thank Heavenly Father for sending her to us!

Husband

I love this man. Words cannot describe....so why am I even attempting to put it into words? Because I can't hold it in. It's amazing how two people are brought together who were meant to be together. Being at the right place at the right time, like deciding to still going to the gym in a snow storm even after a long day of school, or picking up an extra shift at work and being placed in the right section of the restaurant. Sometimes I can't believe how it all fell into place. And then he wanted to marry me. I love him. I will forever be grateful for my man.