This is for my little brother...

Jeff is my little brother. He really likes my blog, and so I thought I would do one post about him.

I love my little brother and always have...(my dad and I with Jeff when he was just a little guy).

Even when he was a little bunny...

He likes guinea pigs. :-) This looks like our little one we used to have. 

Try to overlook my extra large glasses...we used to fly together all by ourselves without mom and dad, it was fun.

He was always the one I stood next to for pictures on the first day of school...

Wasn't he a cute little kid?!

"Oh, Christmas Tree, Oh, Christmas Tree..."

It's that time of year! CHRISTMAS TIME!! I love Christmas - the pretty lights, the Christmas trees, the Christmas music and movies, celebrating the advent season - I love all of it! And I cannot WAIT to celebrate all of this with Taylor! She may not understand what it all means this year, but it is still fun to see her reactions to the tree, wrapping paper, and twinkling lights. :-D

On Saturday, we bought our Christmas tree from a tree farm, and it was a fun experience! When I was growing up, we would go to a place where we could cut the tree down ourselves, while sipping hot spiced cider, and the place we went this year brought back a lot of those memories.

Taking a wagon ride out to the trees

We found it! A pretty Frasier fir (yes, it may look a little big, but we trimmed it down :-))

Ryan, all business, getting ready to cut down our tree :-)

Saw, saw, saw!

Waiting by Santa's sleigh for our tree to be wrapped and ready

After a little trimming (to get it to fit in the living room), and nest removal (using the hose extension to vacuum a tree was a new experience for me!), we got the tree up and decorated! Taylor was quite interested in the tree the next morning, (she stared and did a lot of chattering when we held her up to the tree), but she learned pretty quickly that it can be a little prickly to touch! The ornaments were still rather interesting to her, and I am pretty sure we will be re-hanging a lot of ornaments between now and Christmas. :-)

Checking out the ornaments

Checking out other Christmas decorations (the carolers are from my parent's house that we used to put out every Christmas) - both the carolers and Frosty play music, and Taylor loved them!

This little person is the best Christmas gift I could ever ask for!! :-)

(new bunny pj's from grandma mem - with little ears on the feet that she loves to pull! :o))

Merry Christmas!!

Taylor's First Thanksgiving

After a half day of work on Wednesday, we packed up the car and the little girl, and headed to Battle Creek for a couple of days for Thanksgiving!

It was a short visit with Jeff and Jen (we wish they were closer!!), but we still love that they made the drive up for the holiday! Grandma Betty was also in town, and uncle Scott came, too! It was a big group for us, with 8 people around the table!

With "aunt Jen"

and uncle Jeff

Eating breakfast with uncle Jeff

Playing the piano - she loved making music with grandma mem and great grandma Betty

Hanging out with grandpa Randy

Getting ready to eat (Taylor took a nice long nap in the afternoon, and was sleeping while the adults ate turkey :-))

Hanging out with daddy on the couch

Beautiful, blue-eyed girl!

9 Month Stats

Taylor, you are

27 1/2 inches tall (50th percentile)
18 lbs 8.5oz (50th percentile)
head circumference 44.9 cm

You're leaning out, but they said that happens when you start MOVING more! And you are a little mover! :-D

I LOVE weekends

A weekend with Ryan, Taylor, holiday lights, roasted chestnuts, Santa, carolers, playtime, naptime, snuggle time, Max, and Frosty - equals a great weekend in my book!

Saturday was the Holiday Open House downtown that Ryan and I have gone to every year together, and it was fun to have Taylor in tow this year!! Of course we had to have her dressed for the occasion. :-)

And she got to meet Santa (and was mesmerized by his beard :-))

With the beginning of the Christmas celebration, I have started to pull out some holiday decorations. Frosty is a big hit so far. :-) (Yes, the background of this picture shows just how messy our house can be sometimes with a 9-month old crawler)

But Taylor got her own little Christmas friend this weekend, too - Max (the dog from the Grinch who Stole Christmas). She is a big fan of chewing on his nose. :-)

So excited!!

This weekend we also had to take care of lowering Taylor's crib. I found her sitting up this morning when I went in to get her (she finally figured out that she can do more than just lay down in her crib).

Silly girl :-)

Have I mentioned how much I love this little girl?! I'll take snuggle time with her any day. :-)

Looking forward to a short work week (this week AND next week!) and getting to see Uncle Jeffrey and "Aunt Jen" in a couple days!! Can't believe Thanksgiving is right around the corner!