My 18 month old baby!

She really isn't a baby anymore, but she just seems so young to me still; I think because she's such a snuggle bum. And possibly the fact that she doesn't talk. Oh yeah, and that she just barely started walking a little over a month ago.
Taytum is so yummy! She really loves to snuggle with her mama and gives the best hugs. My favorite is when she pats my back while giving me a hug. This girl can be a little feisty at times, but for the most part is pretty content. She loves, loves, loves books and is currently attached to our Handy Manny tool box, which she will drag all over the house. She loves shoes and puts on about a hundred pairs a day. She also loves doing whatever Carter and Andi are doing... or rather, messing up whatever they are doing. They are usually pretty tolerant of her.
Taytum loves Junglie the giraffe (seen above) and sleeps with him every night and nap time. Tay also loves to eat. I don't think we have come across anything that she doesn't like yet. She sits at the table on a booster seat with us and thinks she is so grown up. She is finally starting to babble. She's got the mamama and the dadadada going and we'll occasionally hear some other random sounds out of her besides her normal grunting and whining.
She is way into dancing! If there is music on she will rush in to start shaking her booty, raising the roof, or just spinning in circles. There is no stopping this girl.
She does this quite frequently; standing on her head. She'll put all of her weight on her head and lift her hands out to the side. I wish I were that flexible!
Tay loves to play dress up with the older kids and especially loves to wear things on her head and sunglasses.
This was Taytum's first day of nursery. She did pretty well. I am in primary, so it was up to Jefferson to introduce her to the whole nursery experience, which I think helped. I guess she cried a couple of times, but when a leader picked her up she was ok. The whole sitting and doing an activity thing is a little over her head at the moment... like a table full of puzzles that they want all the kids to sit at and do, or playdough, or even sitting for singing time is a little bit of a stretch for her. But she stayed in the whole time! Just in time for baby girl to come.


We really are in love with this little one.

5 minutes

This was the conversation that occurred in our five minute drive to the store today...

Andi: Are we going to two stores or just one?
Me: Just one.
Andi: What's it called?
Me: Hobby Lobby.
Andi: What are we going to do after the store?
Me: We're going to go home and have some lunch.
Andi: What are we going to have for lunch?
Me: Probably macaroni and cheese and some applesauce.
Andi: Yay! I love macaroni and cheese! Are we going to take naps after lunch?
Me: Yup.
Andi: What are we going to do after naps?
Me: We get to go over to the Corrigans.
Andi: What are we going to do there?
Me: We're going to play.
Andi: Play?
Me: Yeah, play.
Andi: Yay!

And then, thank heavens, we pulled into the store.

This is just five minutes with her folks. Try all day!

Speaking of my favorite people...

At FHE tonight I asked Carter and Andi if they remembered what we have been talking about in primary, to which Carter replied, "We can't remember, we're just kids"

Carter walked up while I was changing Taytum's diaper today and said, " Whoa! Taytum's bum is getting big." (to her credit, everybody's bums look big compared to Carter's) :)

Both Carter and Andi say "upside over" for upside-down.

Andi was coloring at the table the other day and I asked her what she was coloring and she said, "I'm writing Carter an email."

Just because

they are my favorite...Taytum loves wearing things on her head (minus clips or headbands) and found this hat one day and wore it around for the next couple of days. Whenever she sees it she'll bring it to me to put on her...

Pseudo FHE

Andi wanted to play FHE tonight and be in charge of music and a lesson. We all kindly obliged and sat in a circle on our pillows. After singing some made up song about families she went into a lesson about baptism. I asked a couple of questions about baptism that she knew the answer to. Then, I asked her how old we are when we get baptized and she thought for a second and then said, "Don't worry about it." I just about peed my pants laughing.

We then proceeded into lesson two, which was on "True loves kiss." She made me lay down and have Jefferson kiss me to see if it was true love... it was; I woke up.

That girl makes me laugh.

This girl...

Wow... this girl has been trying my patience lately. She is such a wonderful little hand full. She is sassy and fights everything! I am not exaggerating when I say that she probably asks me 100 questions a day. "What are we doing today Mom?" "What am I going to wear?" "What are we going to do after naps?" "Can we play for five more minutes?" ....... You get the point. She is so busy worrying about what we're going to do next or later that I don't think she truly enjoys anything while she's doing it. She wants to be in the know about everything. If I make any sort of exclamation, Andi will run into the room and want to know what happened. She wants to be a little mom and control other little people and can be bossy. She wants to be a part of every conversation. She wants to help with anything and everything that I am doing. Don't get me wrong, I love this little lady, and I love having her by my side, most of the time. But every once in a while, she is a lot to handle. According to Jefferson, in a nutshell, she is me. What goes around comes around.

Christmas Twenty-Ten

I am finally getting around to posting about our fabulous Christmas in Klamath. We truly did have such a wonderful time. It started the week before Christmas when my kids and I traveled to K town with my brother and sister and their families. It was possibly the longest trip ever, but my kids were rock stars and were so good the entire time (minus Taytum who whined quite a bit due to being sick, but who can blame her). We encountered some weather on the way, multiple stops for kiddos, and two flat tires in Bend; mine and my brother's. What are the chances?! But made it safe and sound on Saturday evening.
The next day the kids all got in their Christmas get-ups and looked quite dashing. Carter and his cousin Jay:
Reece, Remi, Taytum, and Andi:
The whole week was filled with fun things. We probably went grocery shopping every day. There is just not enough room in two fridges and three freezers to feed the 21 of us that were there! Plus we all just enjoyed getting out of the house.

On Tuesday night my mom put on a concert at the Ross Ragland Theater called "Sounds of the Season." She puts on a free Christmas concert at our local theater and plays tons of beautiful Christmas music and then we all serve cookies and hot wassail to everyone afterward. The people of the community love it (and her) and there were 500+ people in attendance this year! She is so incredibly talented!
Wednesday was my BIL Nic's birthday so my parents so graciously watched all nine of the grandkids (ages 4 and under mind you) so the grown ups could go bowling. We had a blast!
Every night during the week leading up to Christmas my parents did a Christmas story time with all nine of the grandkids up in the bonus room, no parents allowed. The kids thought they were something special! My parents would read a different Christmas story each night and hand out a little present to each of them. My favorite was the giant smurf stuffed animals each of them got.
My dear husband finally arrived on Thursday night just in time for all of our festivities to begin Friday morning. (A big thank you to my hubby for letting me come early and to my brothers and BIL's who took care of me; between the flat tire, chains on and off, getting stuck on my parent's mountain, watching my kids so I could go out with the girls.... you guys rock!)

Christmas Eve day began with popcorn for breakfast... true Stewart style! My parents rented out the theater for friends and family to see "Tangled." We had been wanting to see this movie since it first came out and we were not disappointed. Everyone got their own bag of popcorn and soda. I don't think I heard one peep out of one child the whole movie. My parents sat up in a row with all the grandkids, and Tay fell asleep on my lap, so it was a nice little break.
After the movie we came home and a special visitor showed up! Boy were the kids surprised!
Santa knew a little something about all of them, including what they had asked for for Christmas.
Taytum had just woken up from her nap and wasn't quite a fan...
All the grandkids (minus Jay) with Santa:
Taytum's face is priceless!
After Santa left we let the cousins do their gift exchange. This rug was sanity saving when it came to open presents. It kept the kids contained and we made them all sit on it any time they got to open a present.
Andi LOVES her dress that Calvin got her (or whoever it was from the Stewart family).
Here was our beautiful table for Christmas dinner, name place cards and all. Us girls had a fun time shopping for all the decorations. Christmas Eve dinner turned into quite the fiasco, hence no picture of us sitting at this lovely table. It was delicious and enjoyable, but kids just happened to not be super cooperative at that time.
After dinner were the traditional Christmas Eve gifts. My parents got each of the kids a book and of course, pajamas! My favorite!
After we were all in our Christmas pajamas, the kids did a flannel board nativity with my parents. It was so cute. They had practiced at Christmas story time the night before, so they were all well prepared.
My dad read the nativity story from the scriptures while the kids put up the appropriate pieces throughout the story.
After the kids were in bed, it was time for some grown up gift opening. We did our gift exchange and pajamas. I wish I had a picture of all the adults in our jammies. My mom made us all coordinating pajama pants with matching shirts. I love them!

Christmas morning was a riot! The kids loved every second of the day. It's safe to say that we were all spoiled rotten!

We hope everyone had an equally enjoyable Christmas. Happy New Year!

Thirty flirty and thriving

That's right folks, we are at 30 weeks. I have been feeling great. I don't really forget that I'm pregnant, but I don't feel pregnant, other than all the movement coming from my belly. I don't feel huge (though when I look at pictures I think I look plenty big). Luckily I am still in my normal pants. Have you ever tried to find maternity pants long enough for someone with my inseam? Impossible. I carry high, so that has definitely helped me stay in my current pants, though I have a feeling within the week I'll be having to bust out the rubber band trick. I feel good. I'm not uncomfortable, yet. I'm not tired. I'm not overly anxious to have this little one out. I am, however, getting super excited about having another little baby girl to love on and hold. It's not that I haven't been looking forward to it before now, but these past couple of weeks I have been really excited about it. I have started nesting a little; cleaning out the toy closet and the kids' closets and the pantry. My appointments are down to every two weeks and at this last appointment we talked about my birth plan. It made it real that we are having another one. The name game is still going strong and we remain open to any and all suggestions. Just wanted to record that I am at a very happy pregnant place.

We. Are. Family.

All my brothers, sisters, and me... (and parents and nieces and nephews)