We have a One Year Old!

Yes It is true. We almost can't believe it.

Sunday Taylor's family came over and we threw a birthday party for our little critter. I probably had a little too much fun getting ready for it.
The little outfit she is wearing is an adorable little outfit given to us at a baby shower before she was born. It came in a "birthday package" put together for when our baby turned one year.
I just love this face.
We opened presents first. I love this picture because all three of us are so intensely focused on getting the toy out of its package.
We told her to give the toy a kiss and so she did.
She was starting to learn that there were fun things inside the packages.
Taylor and I got her a book that was one of my favorites growing up. The Runaway Bunny.
Great-Grandma 'Nette from Utah sent Mercedes this cute little monkey. She loved it instantly.
This cheesy smile gets me every time. This is her crinkly nose grin.
She loves putting things on her face and head. Go figure?
Throughout the whole event she would stop and look up at the Tinkerbell balloon Grandma and Grandpa Nelson gave her. She loved that thing most of all I think.

Aunt BJ made her this ADORABLE little tutu and we had to try it out immediately.
She wasn't too sure about it.
LOVE.

I never knew it would be so fun to celebrate our one-year-old's birthday.


After presents came the cake and "Happy Birthday Song." She wasn't too sure about 9 people standing around her and singing to her.
Of course she had to take a bite out of the cake.
This was her first ever piece of cake! She was actually quite dainty about it.
The she decided to get her hands dirty.

She thoroughly enjoyed her cake.
And let me tell you this girl loves her water.
It was such a fun party. Taylor and I are loving every minute of parenting and are so excited for every day with Mercedes.

Simpliy obsessed I guess

So for the past while I have begun to be obsessed with trying to clean and organize our house. I think it all started around the "nesting" period before Mercedes was born. At least that's when I started to feel that crazed "I've gotta clean this place or I will go insane!" feeling. I guess I've always been somewhat of an organized person, like when I was 9 I shared a room with my three brothers and I couldn't stand their boyish messiness so I taped a line across the room and threw their messes over onto their side. That's just an example.

Lately I've been watching a lot of the shows CLEAN HOUSE and a little bit of HOARDING:BURIED ALIVE and it makes me feel even more antsy to clean. I'm sure a lot of it has to do with the fact that we are slowly, yet, gradually growing out of our apartment. When we first moved in it was just Taylor and I and we only had about half the furniture we do now and we had almost no baby stuff. Now as far as baby stuff goes, we're probably set for the rest of our future children with the exception of some blue colored clothes.

I'm almost always trying to think of things we can throw away, donate or get rid of. Thinking about all of the things we bring into our home every week, we HAVE to get rid of just as much just to keep our home orderly! That brings me to the wonderful feeling of letting stuff go. I think I'm probably obsessed with getting rid of stuff...well as long as it's nothing I really care about or need. I seriously LOVE the feeling of sending stuff out of this house. It's like a big breath of fresh air! I love taking a bag full of unneeded and non-necessaries to D.I. or Goodwill. Handing the bag to those friendly workers I always feel like saying "Thank you for relieving me of this stuff!" And I drive away with an empty trunk and a happy heart, ready to go through the next closet and set of drawers at home.

With all this being said, I'm off to go organize a bit more before Mercedes wakes up from her morning nap. It is Saturday after all, and you know what they say...

"Saturday is a special day. It's the day we get ready for Sunday: We clean the house, and we shop at the store, So we won't have to work until Monday. We brush our clothes, and we shine our shoes, And we call it our get the work done day. Then we trim our nails, and we shampoo our hair, So we can be ready for Sunday."

I haven't heard that song in a long time. Good stuff, but I probably will shampoo my hair on Sunday.

Help baby Ezakiel

Baby Ezekiel is in the hospital with RSV and several heart defects. His mom and dad own the sub zero ice cream in the Provo mall. Go buy ice cream to donate and give support. We can't do that because we are in California and so that is why I'm posting this to spread the word. Go to this link for more information and to donate.

December and January

First of all, let me just say how sorry I am that it has taken me so long to blog. This is going to be a long and random post because I have to make up for lost time. Here goes!

Before we were released at the beginning of the new year we taught the Valiant 9 class in our ward. Let me tell you, these kids were great. We decided to throw a Christmas party for them to thank them for being such an awesome class.

Here they are making their gingerbread (graham cracker) houses.
We had a total of 4 girls and 1 boy.
Seth found his place with Taylor and the skate boards.

These kids LOOOVED Mercedes. Thanks guys for being such a great class!

I believe this picture was taken on Christmas Eve morning. Getting Mercedes ready for a late-morning jog as a family.

Christmas morning we woke up with great anticipation and opened our presents. Who knew it could still be so fun for grown-ups!?

We got Mercedes her first doll.
She now carries it everywhere and loves it like her own baby. I think she will be a fantastic older sister.
Later in the morning we headed over to Taylor's parents house. We then spent the rest of the day opening presents and having lots of fun.
Love. :)
Grandma Tammy and Grandpa Galen got Mercedes the coolest little walker thing. She loved it right away. (Notice the excitement in her eyes!)
They also got us a cool child carrier. We're definitely going camping and hiking this summer.
Mercedes did FANTASTIC despite the fact that she hadn't napped all of Christmas day. But by the late afternoon as we were driving home to get her ready for bed, she was out like a light. (Notice her droopy face). Christmas was an awesome day.

Now for some random photos...
Mercedes painting with me. Well, I painted while she thought she was painting.
Here I painted her toe nails for the first time. It was a rough attempt but we'll get better. :) I love having a baby girl.
One afternoon we babysat Mercedes' friend Preston for a couple of hours. Mercedes wasn't really used to having other babies around but overall I think they had fun.
These two are exactly 2 weeks apart.
Gotta love babies.
I used to think it was cute when Mercedes first started pulling things out of cupboards and making little messes. Now there are so many messes everywhere I turn. I don't think it's cute anymore.
But I DO think this face is unbearably cute!

This little girl LOVES her bunny. And she also loves sticking out her tongue and making funny noises with it. Cracks us up constantly.
She helps with the dishes. Or, at least we let her think she's helping. Actually, we really just try to keep her from climbing into the dish washer.

Life is gooood!

AND that's my smattering of the last 40 days or so!

Now let me just say that I am so excited to begin the new year!!! A lot of exciting things are happening this year! Here are some of the things I'm overly excited for...


On February 26th Taylor's brother Jonathan is marrying the most fantastic girl, B.J. We couldn't be happier for them both!


In the beginning of March my beautiful sister-in-law Ana will be having a baby boy! I can't wait to meet my new nephew!


See these two people standing next to my hubby? These are my wonderful parents whom I love so much. This picture was taken the last time I saw them. This picture was taken about two years ago. Yes, TWO YEARS. My dad has been serving as the Mission President of the Kiev Ukraine mission and they have been gone since June 2008. Taylor and I went out to visit them in March of 2009. They will be coming home in JULY!!!!!!!!!! I think about it every day and I'm practically jumping out of my seat with excitement right now. 5 months are nothing compared to 3 years.
They will also be bringing home my two youngest brothers. (Morgan, the one at the top of the stairs, and Slade, the one standing in front of my parents). I chose this picture out of all of the family photos I have because this portrays real life in our family. We're all kind of random and weird. Morgan and Slade have pretty much grown up. Morg is a man and Slade's voice has changed and he has passed me in height. I have missed them all more than I can say.


And last but not least, my brother Jordan will be coming home from his mission in Santiago, Chile at the end of August!!! I can't wait!!

Gosh this is going to be a fun year. Anyway, wow what a long post. Hopefully it didn't take you as long to read it as it did for me to post it!

Paintings

I started painting again and I wrote about it and posted pictures on my other blog. If you want to see it click on this link: Kenzie's Blog