Happy Birthday Taylor!

I remember growing up my mom always made my birthday’s so very special.  I wanted to make sure that my children always have that memory.  It took me a little while to think of what I could do to make sure they would feel special every time, so I came up with the perfect idea.  Taylor may not remember it this year, but I will have pictures to show him that every year, starting on his first birthday, his room was filled with balloons, so when he woke up on the morning of his birthday, he would be excited. 

So, last night, Casey and I blew up 60 balloons and quietly put them in his room.  He was so excited when he woke up!

I’m not entirely sure why this picture is fuzzy, but oh well.  We took him out of his crib, and he had so much fun just playing with the balloons, he hit them and threw them.  It was wonderful to see.  It made me think of all the birthdays to come.  I’m sure there will come a point where he will think we are weird, but I’m also sure he will secretly love it every year!

 

We had a little breakfast celebration this morning with pancakes, sausage, and a candle.  He also still went to daycare this morning.  I was going to keep him home, but his friends at daycare wanted to bake him a cake.  He loves his friends at daycare, and they all love him so much, I thought, why not?  Well, I hope that everyone enjoys this very special day in our hearts and smiles for T-Man, because honestly, who doesn’t love balloons?

1 year ago…

One year ago at 5:25 pm, Casey and I welcomed the most precious baby boy into our lives.  In that instant we were a family.  I will never forget that feeling of becoming a mom. Forever and always I am a mom and Casey is a dad.  It is amazing how quickly time goes by, I remember his first month like it was yesterday.  His little orange face, his tiny fingers, his long toes.  I remember sitting in the hospital holding him in front of me saying, “We have a son!” 

I would be lying if I said this past year was easy.  It hasn’t been, but every hard moment has been worth getting to see Taylor’s face everyday.  Every 2:30 am wakeup, the teething process, the nap less days have all been endured and weirdly cherished now that he is 1 year.  Thank you to all of our family and friends who have helped us when times were a little more difficult that we had anticipated. Like the car ride back from Big Sandy when Taylor wouldn’t stop screaming. I will always remember that moment.  We broke all the rules and took him out of that car seat in the back of the suburban, me crying because I didn’t know what else to do. 

Taylor has learned a lot over the past year.  He crawls forward and backwards. He LOVES Aspen.  He calls us dada, and mamama. He throws balls. He stacks blocks. He blows kisses.  He claps when we say “Go Gators.”  As much as he has learned, he has taught us many things as well.  He taught us that it may be okay if the house isn’t always clean.  He taught us that sleeping is overrated.  He taught us that screaming can be funny.  The greatest thing that he has taught us has been that we can love him so very much that there is nothing in the world that matters more. We love you so much Taylor Ryan Smith!

Happy Birthday!

Christmas Time

Well, I seemed to have missed Thanksgiving, as well as our trip to Florida, and all of the other events that seem to be quickly passing us by.  However, I was not going to miss this! 

Since as long as I can remember, I have ALWAYS wanted to go cut my own Christmas tree. Last year, we just wanted to get the tree up, thank goodness we did, since someone decided to grace us with his presence a little early, but this year we were doing it right!!  That means going out in the cold and chopping that oh-so-perfect tree down!  We had to get all bundled up as it was rather chilly outside.  Yes, all you Floridians! It was actually cold! As in just over freezing, C-O-L-D!

  This is just a small portion of all of the trees we had to choose from…

I was so happy it snowed the night before.  It couldn’t have looked more beautiful.  If you thought it was difficult to choose a tree in a tree lot at Lowe’s, you haven’t seen this place!  There were so many trees!  Big ones, small ones, fat ones, skinny ones, Charlie Brown ones…

We probably walked around these 5 lots for a god 45 minutes before we found THE TREE!  It was standing all by it’s lonesome.

 

Casey knocked all of the snow off before I could get a picture, but here he is sawing it down.  It is full on all sides, and HUGE!  Casey was very excited that we found such a great tree.  Real Christmas trees are very important in this household.  It puts us right in the holiday spirit.  I’m so happy that we were able to take our little one this year.  As much as I would love to live closer to family, this is one perk I am a little reluctant to give up!  We attempted to get some pictures of T-Man, but he wasn’t very cooperative, as he was in a little bit of a “mommy” mood.

 

As our tree was getting bundled up and trimmed, we took a ride on the pony!  That’s right, there was a pony at this farm, and Taylor LOVED it.  He wasn’t in the best of moods, but once he sat on that pony, he was all smiles.  I wish we captured it on video, but he was laughing the whole time, probably one of my favorite moments with him.

 

Excuse my pointing in this one, but his face was too precious! 

 

I hope everyone is staying warm, and enjoying the start of the holiday season.  It may be a little while before we are all together again, but we are making the best of where we are!

 

Happy Holiday Season!!

Pumpkin Patch

Oh how I LOVE fall! I love that the leaves are changing, well changed now, and the cooler weather.  We have yet to have snow, knock on wood, but the need for jackets and beanies has arrived!  I love snuggling up on the couch with my family, pups included to read Taylor a bedtime story.  With fall comes the pumpkin patch!  There is a local farm that has a corn maze, a corn pit, and a field where you can pick your own pumpkin.  Last year, we enjoyed the pumpkin patch with our neighbors, who have become our very good friends!  I don’t know what I would do without them some days!  Taylor was awfully tired from his morning activity, and could not be awaken for anything, so he slept most of the time.  I was still able to get a few pictures of him, when he wasn’t more interested in something else.

The field of pumpkins!

 

He lost interest in the pumpkins fairly quickly…

Enjoying the corn pit.  He was just staring at Lucy playing.

   

I love this picture of Lucy.  Even though her eyes are closed, you can seen how much fun she was having! 

We are so excited for Halloween!!  We have our costumes all ready to go, and can’t wait to share it with family!!  Only 4 more days!!

Growing Up

As Taylor takes his morning nap, I find myself thinking of how much he has grown.  I’m picking up toys off of the floor that I could remember thinking, “It’s going to be so long before he can play with this!”  I’m packing clothes away that I remember being so big on him.  I’m chasing after him as he bee lines if for anything that he is not supposed to get into.  What really got me yesterday was a trip to the park.

I can remember the day like yesterday, it was beautiful outside, so we went to the park.  Casey was on his way home, so he met us there for Taylor’s first park day.  Taylor was so excited to be in the swing and was so curious.  I felt like he looked so grown up in that swing.

Yesterday, I had flashbacks of that moment.  That moment I sat in the mulch trying to capture a picture of him laughing.  That moment I thought, “Wow, look how big he is.”  I had flashbacks, because I was doing the same exact thing!  I was sitting in the mulch, and couldn’t believe that this boy in front of me used to be so small.  I mean, he wore preemie clothes small.  Now, he is wearing 12 month jackets and shirts.  He wears a size 4/5 shoe! (He is still in 6 month pants, but they are high water's, as you will see in the last picture, but the kid’s waist is skinny, what can I say?)  What seemed like was going to take forever, has started to fly by.  I’m starting to think about his birthday for goodness sake!  It is amazing the transformation these babies make at this age.

I sure love him to pieces, hope you enjoy the pictures!

  

 

Taylor’s Surgery

This past Friday, Taylor had the cyst removed on his neck.  I was unbelievably calm, no tears from this mom!  When we arrived, we played in the halls of the hospital, had car races on the bed, and blew bubbles.  Taylor would talk to all the nurses that walked by and a few stopped in to comment on how content he was. (If only they stuck around for post-op.)  The only time I began to get a little worked up was when the anesthesia team came to take him back.  I could have asked them to go back as well, but I didn’t really want to see my child drift off into a lifeless sleep, so I just handed my sleeping baby over and smiled.  I knew he was in good hands, after all we were in one of the best Children’s Hospitals in the country and our anesthesiologist was a Florida Gator, how could we not be?  For the next 25 minutes Casey and I sat in the room.  He watched sports center, I looked through the pictures of T-man, just waiting…

  

Finally, in what seemed like forever but was only 25 minutes, Dr. Tibesar came back and said everything went well. The cyst didn’t rupture and he was in recovery. I was very excited to have Taylor in my arms, and shortly after he was.  He was very groggy and confused as to where he was and what had happened.  He still had his IV in his leg, and the oxygen monitor on his toe.  When he finally woke up a little more, he decided he was hungry and he was hungry now!  He was given some apple juice, but he hadn’t eaten since 7 pm the previous night!  I don’t know how parents go through this multiple times with their children. My heart definitely goes out to them, to have to endure that pain it indescribable.   As parents, you never want your child to feel pain, but sometimes it is necessary. Waiting is the hardest part, and Taylor’s surgery was minor!  When your child is just crying out in hunger and you can’t feed them, all you can do is hold him, so that is exactly what I did.  I held him so close and just told him it was okay.  Casey and I took turns rocking him and showing him that we were there.  I don’t think Taylor has fallen asleep on my chest since he was a newborn.  It was a much different feeling with his arms wrapped around my neck and his little legs wrapped around my waist, but it was great.  I didn’t want to move, I wanted to hold onto that feeling for as long as I could.  He could hear my heartbeat and he knew he was safe. 

All good things must come to an end, and when he woke up, he was ready to go.  We stripped him down, and they started taking the monitors off of him.  First came the oxygen monitor, check. Then came the IV….

Check.

Then, it was time to go home…Thank Goodness!

He ended up falling asleep in his car seat immediately and enjoyed his mac n chesse at lunch. 

SO happy it’s over!

A Beautiful Fall Day

After Taylor’s morning nap, we decided to go take some pictures.  It is his 10 month birthday, and it was absolutely gorgeous outside.  We decided to go to the park near our house, Crow-Hassan.  Casey couldn’t make it, but we are planning another hike with him tomorrow!

I, of course, tried to capture the best photos I could, but Mr. T is much more interested in playing with the leaves than looking at the camera with a big grin.  I also found out today he isn’t the biggest fan of hats.  I guess we will be purchasing some with snaps under his chin.

 

TC Marathon and 10 mile

I know, it has been awhile since I have written anything! I can come up with a million excuses, but the only one that matters is that I have been spending quality time with my little man.  So much has happened these last couple of months, it is hard to keep up.  I can promise to do better, but I really don’t think I will, so instead I promise to TRY to do better. 

Now, to the post.  A couple of weeks ago, Casey and I ran the TC marathon and 10 mile.  Now mind you, neither of us trained for the experience that lay ahead.  Casey didn’t seem concerned, but I was nervous.  Thankfully, we had Mama Smith to cheer us on, as well as about 300,000 other spectators.  Now I can’t speak for Casey, but as for me, I had a blast.  I only had to walk up 1 hill at about 9.5 miles, which was pretty impressive since the farthest I had run was 6.  I finished in 1:48:48, not a world record, but hey it’s MY PB!  I felt good afterwards, I could walk, and I even sprinted to the finish line.  My personal goal was to beat 2 hours, and at the top of the hill, I could see the clock read 1:58.  Even though that was the actual time, I started in the 4th corral, I still wanted to beat that 2 hour mark and I did.  Races get addicting, so of course I immediately signed up for the Disney 1/2 marathon in February and thankfully convinced the Smith wives to join.  It should be a great weekend!  (I think Jamie should come for the girls weekend though!)  Here are a few pictures from the day…

I apologize that a few are blurry, but Mama Smith’s camera seems to be on the fritz!  I thought she was joking that it would only focus on one thing.

 

It was a beautiful morning, this was just a

few of the runners for the 10-mile!

That’s right, I wore gloves, and arm warmers!

Cheering Mom and Dad on with Mama Smith.

Oh, and eating, can’t forget the food!

 

Casey after…I don’t think he looks so bad.

With his Mama, don’t they both look great?!

Taylor with his Mama! His expression is priceless…

The flag we run under, held up by two fire trucks.

    This race was fabulous.  The weather was beautiful, I can definitely see why it is the Most beautiful Urban Marathon in America!

 

This is already on order for a canvas photo.

I LOVE IT!