Happy 11 Months, Sweet Tay-Tay....

I cannot believe you are ELEVEN months old! The minutes, hours, days, and months are totally flying by and you are getting to be such a big girl, Miss Taylen Jae!

You are continuing to pull up on ANYTHING and EVERYTHING and absolutely love cruisin' around the house "walking"....aka holding onto your daddy's fingers high above your head and wandering arounf the house with him. You are blowing kisses and have mastered, "Mom-Ma." You've still been cycling through the hacks and snotts, but seem to be getting over them a little quicker each time. You are currently taking antibiotics for your first full blown ear infection and have had three, outfit changing "blow-outs" in the past 36 hours. (You can THANK the lovely medicine for those.) You are still our human vacuum cleaner and we are all getting really good at making sure all things tiny are picked up off the floor. You have tried just about every type of fruit and veggie and seem to really LOVE blueberries. You still use the Binky and are drinking your bottles...although we've been working in the sippy cup as much as possible. I still can't believe you will be using that thing full time in about three weeks. You love watching Trey and Ty and mocking their every sound. You've really mastered the, "I'll drop it, you pick it up" game and I'll continue to play that with you until your heart's content! You love to log roll every time I change your diaper and you've gotten quite good at sleeping through the night. Your smile continues to light up our lives and your giggle is absolutely contagious....

We love you LOTS and LOTS....

~Mommy

A little Valentine's Day gift....

has totally turned into my "Awww..." moment of the day.

Tonight as Jason was going through Trey's backpack, he came across Trey's little SpongeBob journal that I had given to him for V-Day. Ty and him both LOVE to write, draw, and color, so I wasn't able to pass up the little dollar journals I came across at Walgreen's V-day morning as I grabbed goodies for my 5th graders. Trey has taken his to school and has been randomly writing in it in the back of the van. I hadn't gotten a chance to glance through it until tonight.....

The inside cover....(LOVE!)

Awwww...LOVE you too, Buddy!!!

I think someone has a little Kindergarten crush!

So, thanks Trey (ahead of time) for letting me peek through your journal. I know you'll someday be annoyed with me for putting this on the blog...but I just had to capture this moment.....

It's moments like these that melt my heart....

Manner Marbles....

Thanks in part to a great post from my good friend, Marta Vee....we have started a family "Manner Marbles" Jar around the Weite House....

Marta definitely hit the nail on the head when she talked about it being our job, as parents and role models, to work hard, put forth our maximum effort, and TEACH and EXPECT our kids to treat others with respect. Everyone knows that parenthood isn't all bells and whistles and that, many times over and over, your children will test you and push you. Push you to the point where you think you're going to break and nothing sounds better than throwing in the towel....but, it's up to us to lead them towards being the kind of people who bring out the best in not only themselves, but everyone else around them.

Trey and Tylee are already LOVING the idea and are really embracing the use of kind, caring words and getting the chance to drop a marble of their color of choice into the family jar each time we catch them using kind words and/or actions. We have definitely had our fair share of "sassy pants" and "smart mouthing" around here over the past few months, so Jason and I are also LOVING the way the kiddos have been talking to one another already. It's not to say everything is going to be peachy all the time, but there's no losing in a situation like this.

So, here's to hearing lots and lots of marbles making their way into our jar.....