Mercy's first food: take 1

We tried rice cereal with Mercy for the first time yesterday and I'll let you be the judge on how she liked it...

I guess we'll try again in a few weeks. :)

Mmmm...shaving cream

Flower Baby

Happy Birthday, Daddy

Notice below the piece missing out of Ryan's cake. Noella was SO excited for the birthday party all day (and especially having cake) that Ryan decided to cut into his cake before his official party so that Noey and him could enjoy a special piece together. I started to object but Ryan insisted that it was his birthday and he could eat his cake early with his daughter if he wanted to. He had a point.

This is a picture of what Noella got for Ryan for his birthday. I asked her multiple times what she wanted to buy him for his birthday present and each time she said a horse. So that's what she got him. Thanks goodness for dollar store play horses. She named him Grace.

4th of July

The 4th of July kind of snuck up on me and I forgot to make sure I had holiday appropriate outfits for the girls. I managed to find something suitable for Noella (thanks to my cousin, Robin) but poor Mercy ended up in a bathing suit and white sweats. Only thing I could come up with on such short notice (short notice? as if the 4th of July was a different day this year?) but at least she was in the right color scheme. I thought it turned out OK until Ryan made the point that she looked like one of the trapize people in the circus from the 1950's. It oddly rang true. Poor little Merce all ready for the circus when her best friends are all cutey and frilly. I'll do better next year.

And here's a pic of the whole crew. Ashton/Layla, Lily/Bryn, Noella/Mercy. It really is a unique blessing to have such close friends who all have kids the exact same age as our own. And this round we all had girls!

OH Kitty!

"OH Kitty" is all Noella said for about 3 hours straight. We headed to Maryland to make a visit to Dan and Molly's farm house and Noella was OBSESSED with the three little kittys. This one in particular who's name is Spring. Ryan and Dan took the girls on about a 1/2 mile hike and Noella carried this cat the entire way.

Farm life makes for a tad dirtier face...

Say Cheese!

Nope. Noella likes to make the dramatic face as opposed to the smiley face.

Typical Morning

Oh to have a back yard....

Our equivalent of a campfire with roasted marhmallows.

Sexy Daddy / Sweety Girlies

Daddy and Merce

As you can see, Mercy has the trademark Taylor baby hair...sticks straight up.

Pretty Mercy

Hide n' Seek with Aunt Bess

All of these pictures are of actual hiding places that Bethany and Noella chose while Ryan was counting. Ryan and I have never laughed so hard.

The Pedicure

I'm really not one of those moms who wants a beauty queen daughter and is starting the up-keep on the feet early! It was just a fun Grammy/Mommy/Noey date and Noella LOVED it. Best $5 bucks I've (my mom) ever spent. She sat so still and just watched intently as her toes were cut, filed, buffed, and painted. She even managed to get her feet under the special dryers.

The finished product!

The Grammy/Aunt Sissy combo

Grammy and Aunt Sissy came for a visit and Noella, once again, loved all the attention. She even forgave Aunt Sissy for her sidewalk scrape and played with her in the world's smallest pool out on the back deck.

Notice the big girl panties on Noey. We're starting!

Cousin Lovin'

The cousins came for a visit to meet Mercy and I have to say that Noella may have enjoyed the visit a bit more than Mercy. :) KiKi and YaYa taught Noey Hide n' Seek, Tag, and The Trick Game as Lily like to calls it. The Trick Game is where you run across the yard as fast as you can and then do a "trick". Lily and Caroline were doing somersaults and handstands (mostly) and Noella managed a few rolls in the grass but she got the idea which was funny to watch. I have to say though that Hide N' Seek was the most comical. Noella and KiKi played and would hide in the most obvious places (more so Noey than Kiks). Noella would count to 10 (or 6) and then say, "Here I come...or not!!" which is obviously a slight variation on the usual, "Ready or not, here I come!" Tag was pretty easy to catch on to. Just run around the yard after the cousins and try to keep up.

As you can see, Noella keeps her eye on her big cousins and likes to take the lead from them. One of these things is not like the other... :)

And here Mercy and Gus finally get in on the action...

Cousin Lovin'!

Moe, Larry, and Curly

A Horse of Course!

Noella rode a horse! I honestly couldn't believe that she actually got on it. We went to Aunt Bess's horseback riding class and on the way there Noella started asking if she could ride a horse. Of course I told her that she had to wait until she was a little bit bigger, thinking that there wasn't any possibility for her to even try let alone not be too freaked out to get that close. But she kept asking so Manna asked the instructor if Noella could ride a horse and she said yes! (When I told Noella she could ride one she said, "Yeah? I'm bigger?") You can tell from the pics that she's a little unsure but she didn't hesitate at all when I lifted her up. Maybe my dreams of a soccer star are going to have to be put on hold for my little equestrian.

Fam of 4 Beach Trip: take 1

We decided to take on a few reinforcements for our first family-of-four-beach-trip. Mom and Dad Taylor and Aunt Bess joined us for our first family day at Rehoboth Beach. We decided to take the plunge early with Mercy at a wee 4 1/2 weeks to see how things fared. We rated the day a 7 out of 10 before we blew five huge holes in our back tire on the way home. That was a bummer and knocked down the rating of the day. For the most part our beach day went as well as can be expected with the anticipated glitches here and there.

I'd say that the highlight of the trip was definitely Noella. She LOVED the beach. Last year it took us till August for her to put her feet in the sand. This year she hit the ground running, refusing to even glance in our direction as she explored every component of the sand. We had to pry her attention away from sticks and shells to play with the beach toys Mana and Papa Taylor bought her. The little pool was a hit too to add some water fun during this early season of ocean water being too freezing for all but surfing Daddy's in wetsuits.

A frequent pose on the beach...

Mercy wasn't quite as engrossed in the sand and all it had to offer. She preferred her car seat and a tent to the waves, sand, and sun.

This was pretty much how she chilled except for when it got a bit more chilly in the breeze...

We had a couple bouts of fussiness from little Mercy but overall she did pretty well. When she was asleep and Noella was playing I actually got a little sunning in and Ry got a bit of surfing in...or at least an attempt in the small waves. The low point was the changing process in the parking lot off the beach. I attempted to change Noey's diaper while she was standing up and only succeeded in having pee running down her leg about 5 minutes later. Oh well....it's only take 1 at the beach. I'll get better with practice.

We finished the night with the usual Grottos and ice cream on the beach. Wait...is this pic before or after all the goodies? That belly looks pretty full of pizza and ice cream. :)

All in all, the beach day was a good one. I got some sun, Ry got in the water, Noella discovered her love of sand, and Mercy did her usual go-with-the-flow. Now if I can just figure out how to change a sandy diaper in a piping hot parking lot while my toddler is running around the car...

A comeback?

This is my trial-run post to see if I remember how to do this. Considering my maiden voyage of blogging came to an abrupt halt 8 months ago after only 3 posts, I'm thinking about giving it another go and seeing if I can actually keep up with it. It was so fun to read the (whopping) 3 posts that I had written to bring back the memories of those specific days. Must motivate myself to keep track of these memories we're creating. Considering baby #2 is on his or her way it might be bad timing to renew my blogging commitment but here's to hoping.