Pinterest Addiction

It started in November when Amy made these ribbon topiaries for Sarah Taylor's party...

I started looking through Pinterest looking for ideas of my own...

I haven't tried this yet but it's on my list of to-do's. On the blog I stole the idea from, it said these are $130 at Pottery Barn but cost her only $10 to make. Here is the link if you're interested:

http://naptimedecorator.blogspot.com/2011/10/ruler-growth-chart.html

I will definitely be doing this in February. I got three shovels at Target for $1 today!

And now... for the recipes/projects I have tried thus far:

5 Ingredient Peanut Butter Bars

Just made them tonight... delicious!

Smores' Cookies= UNBELIEVABLE!

Hawaiian Crock Pot Chicken

I liked it but Trey wasn't thrilled with it. He's picky though. I'd give it a go if I were you.

Only 3 ingredients!

I had a blast making these reindeer cupcakes, and they were a hit at our family Christmas get-together.

I wanted to find a way to paint ST's hands and feet but in a fun and creative way. I found this idea off Pinterest, and because it was Christmas break and I had some extra time I tried it out. Not too difficult, and now I have a keepsake that I'll treasure for a lifetime!

And finally, brownies that you cook inside of the cookie cutter. SO EASY!!

Hmm.... what will I try next?! The choices are endless!

Christmas 2011

Christmas 2011

On Christmas Eve, we went over to Trey's Grandmother's house to visit and open presents with her.

One of the gifts we gave our Grandmothers was a calendar with pictures of Sarah Taylor throughout the first year of her life. It seemed to be a big hit!

After visiting with Grandmother McKinney, we went over to Trey's parent's house to open presents with them.

Sarah Taylor with a microphone she got from Aunt Glenda

Sarah Taylor loved dancing with Tigger (he sang and danced and she absolutely loved it)!

ST is spoiled to say the least. Gran and Grandaddy gave her so many things!

She got a frog and blanket for the car, a bath time octopus that blows bubbles, food and a toaster for her kitchen, and several other things. I'd have to say her most favorite toy of all was...

her new tricycle! It's so neat- it has two different sets of pedals she can use as she grows, along with a handle we can use to push her with.

This will be perfect for summer time!

Gran and Grandaddy spoiled all of us, and as always we had a fantastic time opening presents with them. : )

Oh, and did I mention she got an Elmo backpack, too?

She LOVES it!

On Christmas morning, she woke to find that Santa had brought her a BIG teddy bear, a cradle for her babies, a kitchen, a chair, and several other goodies that she got to open.

It was so funny to watch her walk into the room, because she was still groggy and didn't quite know what to do. She just sort of walked around it all and stared for a few minutes.

It didn't take long before she warmed up to her teddy bear.

And her cradle. : )

Her stocking had all sorts of Aveeno products, Dr. Seuss DVD's, squeeze packs, and yogurt puffs. Santa Claus definitely knows what she loves!

I think this has to be her most beneficial gift of all. She no longer has to crane her neck to watch TV, and she crawls up in it all the time to watch Elmo and read her books. I love it!

Smiling at Daddy

Right before church

After church, we drove up to Florence to open presents with Grammy and Aunt Mamie.

As you can see, she started getting brave with the lights and ornaments, and loved touching them and taking them off the tree.

Aunt Mamie painted this stepping stool for ST, and I absolutely adore it. Aunt Mamie is always great at getting special gifts like this. In fact, she printed off the first two years of my blog for me and made it into a book, which I absolutely LOVE.

Grammy got her pots for her kitchen...

a book, an outfit from Kelly's Kids, and several other things. Her biggest gift was a Bitty Baby that looks like her. This is going to be her new best friend!

Amy bought this huge Bible Atlas for Trey which he had been wanting for a long time. You'd think he had won the lottery...

And after church that night we got to open up our stockings. Stockings are one of my most favorite parts of Christmas, because there are always really fun prizes hiding in them. : )

We stayed in Florence through Thursday and had a great time spending time with family and friends.

We even went to visit the lions at UNA.

I hope all of you had a very Merry Christmas!

Happy 2012!

Sarah Taylor at 13 Months

Our sweet baby turned 13 months on December 23rd, and each month she surprises me with all of the things she picks up on and is learning. The last month has been a lot of fun and filled with good times and family adventures.

We celebrated Thanksgiving at Trey's Grandmother's house and headed straight for Orange Beach after that. We had a lot of fun shopping for Black Friday deals at the outlets and several other places...

while Sarah Taylor and her Grandaddy had fun acting silly. : )

Sarah Taylor loves her Grandaddy!

ST has begun exploring all sorts of new things, including cabinets and drawers (and basically anything she can get her hands on). She loves to point and say "Hey" as she waves, and when she wants your attention she'll scream bloody murder!

On December 10th, we took a trip down to Vernon to have Christmas with Mamaw.

As always, Mamaw was way too good to us and we had a great time spending time with her AND eating her amazing home cookin.'

"My turn to take pictures!"

ST's favorite gift was her "Elf on the Shelf" that we fondly named Vern (after the town of Vernon of course). I have a feeling there will be some fun times ahead with Vern!

"Ride a little horsey down to town..."

Did I mention she likes crawling inside of drawers and cabinets as well?

One of the biggest challenges we took on this month was transitioning from the bottle to the sippy cup. It was hard on me because I felt like that was the last thing I could hold on to before my little baby became not so little anymore. :( We had a VERY difficult time at first because she refused to drink milk out of anything but her bottle. After trying 6 different sippy cups, we finally found the "Nuk Transition Cup" that she eventually took to liking, but that is it. This is the ONLY thing she will drink milk out of, and in the beginning we had to put flavored yogurt in it just to get her to drink it. Oh me.... is this a foretelling of what it will be like with potty training??

At this point, Sarah Taylor has 7 teeth and is cutting her 8th tooth. This tooth doesn't seem to hurt her as bad as those in the past, but she's had her days nonetheless.

At 13 months, Sarah Taylor loves eating cheese, yogurt, goldfish, freeze-dried apples and strawberries, Nutrigrain bars, and apple sauce. Her favorite toys would have to be her Weebles playset from Grammy, her Little People riding toy from Aunt Vicki and Uncle Tim, and of course her most favorite of all would be her books. She still loves board books with bright colors and pictures.

Our little girl can light up a room with her big blue eyes and sweet grin. We adore her and enjoy every single minute we have to spend with her. Each month keeps getting better and better!