A good Sunday...

Yep, two posts in one weekend. :-)

It has been a good Sunday!! It started out with a very fun phone call this morning as we were headed to church (which will be explained at a later time ;-)). I had this week off from working in the nursery, so I was able to be in church in our new sanctuary (which is really nice looking now, and so much bigger). Taylor hung out with us during the worship portion - we sang some really great songs this morning - but then went to play with the little ones during the sermon. There was a shortage of volunteers, and they were full, so I ended up staying to help out - maybe I will make it to the WHOLE service next week! :-) Taylor took a GREAT nap after we got home (almost 2 1/2 hours!), we watched some Lions football, and took a walk (fleece coats were necessary in this fall like weather).

Our little sweetie wearing some new clothes from shopping yesterday - looking so grown-up!

"Reading" the paper with daddy

Oh my - who could have made this mess?! :o)

 

**edit** I can now announce the news from the phone call this morning. Jeff (my little brother) asked Jen to marry him!! Yay! We are very excited for them both! So excited to have Jen join the family!!! And this is actually the THIRD engagement announcement this summer - we will also be attending Ryan's friend Mike's wedding, and Ryan's brother Chris is engaged to Liz and they will be getting married next October. It will be a busy year for weddings!

A good Saturday....

With school back in session, it makes me appreciate Saturdays that much more. Ryan was gone all day at the Michigan football game, so Taylor and I got some serious one-on-one time together. :-)

We...

went running (this was Taylor's hair after we got back and I took her little hat off)

played on the floor

 (hello, blue eyes)

drank water (she is getting better at holding her own sippy cup)

went shopping, took great naps, and ate dinner together (no pics :-))

played in the big bath tub

 (she loves sucking on that washcloth!)

and got cozy in our pj's...

(doesn't she look like she is ready for bed? :-))

It was a good day. 

(Oh yeah, and we had a good start to the weekend, too, because Taylor got to hang out with this cutie on Friday night... :-))

Picking apples with little girl

Plans for apple picking were rained out on Saturday, but we were able to reschedule and the weather was beautiful for picking this morning!

After church, we headed down to Crane's Orchard with three goals in mind - picking apples, cider donuts and apple cider. :-)

We picked about 16 pounds of apples (some simply for eating as is, and lots for applesauce making) - a mixture of Fuji, Cortland, Jonathan and Empire apples. The Honey Crisp apples were all picked from the day before - which was not surprising! We will have to go to Farmer's Market for those.

Afterward walking through the orchard and hauling a little 17 pound sweetie, and bags of apples, we treated ourselves to some cider, donuts and apple crisp. Yum!

Taylor smacking the table while mommy and daddy had a treat :-)

Next year Taylor will be running around the orchard and probably trying to pick lots of apples for us. :-)

Pics...

Taylor ran into her buddy Brady at the orchard (it is so, so hard to get two little ones to look at the camera at the same time, or at all!) :-)

Helping to pick apples

Loving fall!

Seven Month Sweetie Pie

Our smiley, squirmy, wiggly, giggling, talkative, huggy, little girl is seven months old today.  

At seven months Taylor is:

**Sometimes sleeping through the night, sometimes not :-)

**Going to bed around 7-7:30pm, and waking up around 7:00am

**Wearing size 3 diapers, size 9-12 month clothes

**Loving her "Hope College" monkey, she sleeps with it, it goes with her in the car, as well as to daycare

**Adjusting really well to daycare in the morning, and seems to be pretty content with my part-time schedule, taking a good nap in the afternoon after I pick her up

**Using a pacifier fairly consistently at bedtime and naptimes

**Eating her cereal, fruit and veggies really well twice a day, as well as some yogurt now, too... she doesn't really know what to do with Gerber Puffs snacks yet

**Having more fun with interactive toys, and everything still consistently goes in her mouth

**A big fan of giving mommy big open-mouth kisses, but not so much for daddy - the pokey whiskers get in the way

**Starting to move into a crawling position from a sitting position, especially if she sees something she really likes, such as a remote control, a phone, wires - anything she isn't supposed to have :-)

Seven month pictures

Happy that daddy is home from work

Reading her favorite book

Reading with mommy

More food, please!!

Reaching for the phone

Starting to be on the move

Happy :o)

I am happy because of this perfect cool and sunny weather (and the leaves are starting to change on our neighbors tree! :-))

I am happy because it means we can wear hooded sweatshirts and jeans again...(getting ready to head out to daycare and school in the morning)

I am happy that every day is one day closer to Christmas, and I can start looking at purchasing things such as these....

I am happy that I have a fantastic job...teaching is incredibly rewarding (most of the time :-D)

I am happy that I can spend every afternoon with this little girl...

I am happy that we can take our walks (and runs) along places like these...

And even though I am afraid to say it out loud, because I fear something might happen, I am just plain 'ol happy about life right now, and that I get to call these two my family :-D