I love you, too.

Taylor told me "I love you" tonight.

It's the first time she's said it without being prompted first, and it made me SO happy.

My little baby is growing up.

And I adore her!

Taylor and mommy, July 07!

*********UPDATE*********

Taylor has already learned how to manipulate the "I Love You" to get what she wants.

Today (Saturday), I had to re-lay her down for her nap like 10 times! I even ended up spanking her once! After I laid her down for the last time, I had to use the bathroom, which is right beside her room. While I was doing my business, I could hear Taylor in her room screaming, "I love you mommy! I love you!"

I felt HORRIBLE for being frustrated and being mad, and the spanking. So I went in her room, laid down with her, rubbed her back, and refilled her sippy cup.

Taylor knows how to work her mom!

Road Trip from...

Nashville to Chatanooga.

Doesn't sound too bad huh? About 1 hour and 45 minutes is what it should take. I packed the girls in the car this morning at 9:45.

Snacks? Didn't need them. The drive isn't too long. We'll get there before lunch.
Toys? I loaded up. I didn't want the girls to get bored for the 1 hour 45 minutes we'd be in the car.
Music? I had it! My ipod!
Movies? That too! Thanks to our portable DVD and a few Elmo and Mickey Dvd's!

I was so excited to do something out of the norm today. A break.
Cayce needed someone to take her to the airport. Only thing was, she needed someone to pick her up... from chatanooga. But hey, I didn't mind. Honestly. I really was excited for it.

It started out a bit chilly. I hate wearing shoes during road trips (even short ones) so I had to have my flip flops. Silly me... there was ICE on my windshield when I got out to the car. So My feet FROZE... literally. Not too bad. Turned on the heater and I was A OK in a few minutes.

Then I needed gas. I filled up on the other side of murfreesboro so that I'd feel like we'd made more of a dent in the trip! It was maybe 10 (or right after) at the time.

We made excellent time. My favorite part of the trip is that one rest stop on the Tennessee river, near the state line. I LOVE that rest stop. I remember stopping there on youth temple trips before there was one in Nashville. LOVED IT. But I didn't stop this time. Oh no. We had to get to Cayce.

At 11:0... something, I called Chris. It was his lunch break. I was so excited to tell him I was passing the rest stop... or near it. can't quite remember. I just remember talking to him. A little bit after I got off the phone with Chris, I passed a sign saying
"Chatanooga 13 miles"

WOOHOO... almost there. And right at lunch time too. I had timed it perfectly. We'd get to Cayce's just right. Taylor could eat, maddie could nurse and....

Wait...

We slowed down...

Then we stopped!

???? What was going on? Alright... no biggie. We'd be there soon. But we weren't. After 30 minutes I started calling people. My mom, Cayce, and Chris. I told chris... NO we're not in chatanooga yet. Almost... 12.9 miles away!!! I asked Cayce to check online to see what the hold up was. I asked my mom for advice cause the girls were kinda whiny.

Another 30 minutes. I asked Cayce to REALLY try to figure out what was going on! I asked my mom if I should try to nurse Maddie even with all the cars and trucks and people surrounding me. I asked Chris what he thought could possibly be going on. He said it takes about an hour to clear out a wreck. Okay I thought... they've had time to clean it up. We'll get moving soon.

Another 30 minutes. I had gotten out of the car, gone back and read the girls some books, turned the music up to drown out the screams of a hungry baby (I decided against the nursing... She wasn't going to starve), watched some dvd's, and gotten very aggravated at I 24! But still... no real movement.

ANOTHER 30 MINUTES! SERIOUSLY... WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON CAYCE? MOM, THEY ARE BOTH SCREAMING AND NOW I AM TOO! CHRIS, THE GIRLS MIGHT NOT MAKE IT BACK ALIVE! (I got so bored, I pulled out my camera and tried to see the weirdest shot I could take in my car. I had fun with the macro setting. But my camera is outside, in my car at the moment, and it's cold and I don't want to get it now. I'll show my random pics tomorrow.)

We finally started moving again. And do you know what the holdup was? Because I don't! There was nothing. One second I was stopped, the next, I was doing 70 again! Maddie cried herself to sleep. Taylor went through 3 Elmo's World Episodes, 5 Mickey Mouse Club House episodes, and 1 round of Leap Frog Letter Factory! Oh my WORD it was awful. We FINALLY arrived at Cayce's at... 1 something. That's right... almost 4 HOURS after I left, I arrived. Taylor got some Burger King which she didn't really eat, but instead fed to Sady. Maddie nursed for like 5 minutes and then went back to sleep. And then we got to get back in the car to drive home.

I'm a forgiving person. So, I'm forgiving road trips for giving me such a hard time today. But I'm not going to be taking another one anytime soon, unless I'm really prepared (bottles, snacks, earplugs!)

who let you go? - the killers

This is one of my favorite songs ever!

Also... please excuse my singing... I know it's rough.

Goals for My Etsy Store

I haven't been doing alot of time online time promoting my etsy shop, but sales have been pretty steady (3 this past week.)

I'm still wrapping up a HUGE wholesale order, so I'm going to try to finish those up... but I decided it wouldn't hurt to put a little more effort into my etsy store.

I've decided my next major item to buy is a WAGON! I'm so excited. I can't wait to take the girls to the zoo in our new wagon!

So here are my goals to reach my ultimate goal of purchasing a wagon by the end of the month!

*300 hearts! (people heart your store when they like it. At the moment I have 220 something! only 80 to go.)

*atleast 30 views a day to my shop. (I'm averaging about 15 new views a day right now. I'm just going to start with doubling that.)

*I would love to have about 50 followers on my other blog by the end of the month also. (by the way... I'm offering a free giveaway on there at the moment. You could win a free sock monkey beanie. Check it out and tell your friends. It's at http://www.babyluvgifts.blogspot.com/)

*Create 10 new hats! I'm also asking for suggestions on my other blog for hat ideas. So i'm going to make some new hats. That way, the people who have seen my shop before can come back and order something new! I'm so excited.

Okay, well those are my goals for now. As I go along, I may edit and change them, even add to them. We'll see. And be sure to check back for an update on my goals. Who knows... hopefully I'll be so busy the rest of the month with sales, i won't be able to blog one bit! I'll keep dreamin.

A day at the Zoo

Saturday, we spent the day at the zoo with John, Krystin, and Isaac.

We bought memberships, which I reccommend to anyone with small kids, so me and Krystin will definately be back with the kids this summer! I can't wait to take the kids again, and have picnics and all sorts of fun!

Anyways... here's pics from our day! There are alot, as there always are when I do pictures!

Enjoy!

Taylor loves the swing!

And so does maddie!
I love doing this with them! I think it's too cute and funny

Isaac could swing all day too!

I didn't touch the colors on this picture at all... these are the birds actual colors. Isn't it beautiful?

This is john's hand feeding the little birdie

Then chris tried!

We only had two strollers at first... so taylor rode on top of Isaac's.

Elephants! One of Taylor's favorites!

Giraffes!

Monkey's... my favorite

Meerkats... another one of my favorites

We finally went and rented another stroller... $7. we almost could buy another cheap umbrella stroller for that much. But oh well. The kids were getting tired... and we really needed it. Only, when we got it, Isaac decided he didn't want to ride in his stroller anymore, so Taylor could have ridden in it. They had fun both riding in the rented stroller though. Til Taylor started kicking and got Isaac in the head. It was fun for a few minutes though.

Taylor liked the zebra's alot too.

She stood at the fence for a long time looking at them.

She also loved the Tigers! I did too.

I'm not totally sure, But I think Isaac like the alligators the most. He was either calling them snakes or asking to go see the snakes. Either way... they were pretty cool.

We decided to try and get some cute pictures of the kids... yeah right! If one was looking and smiling, the other one wasn't. If they were both looking, neither one would smile. Here's the best of what I got though.

I LOVE this picture. Isaac can totally work a camera!

Next was family pics...

Isaac would not smile or look. Til John put him in a headlock! And can I just say that Krystin is the absolute cutest pregnant lady in the world. :)

And here's our little family. The girls were both worn out... and so were the adults.

Then it was back to the gators. And this is the only picture of taylor AND isaac facing the camera at the same time. Thank you Chris for getting it!

After that (3 hours) we decided to head home. The kids were cranky, and us adults were getting there. We did stop by the gift shop and get taylor an elephant and maddie a tiger. I had to get them something for their first trip to the zoo.

Isaac was out before we even got to the cars!

Taylor was out after only 30 seconds in her seat.

All in all, it was a great day. So much fun. I can't wait for more zoo trips this year! Hopefully they'll be just as fun as this one was.

two prettiest girls in the world

You can't help but smile when you see these faces.

At Last

I finally feel like my life is on some sort of schedule.
It has taken 5 1/2 months, but I think we've finally got it down.
So here it is... My Day!

6:40 am ~ Chris kisses me goodbye for work. He might not actually do this everyday anymore. Most days I have no idea if he's done this or not. I'm usually sleeping.

7:00 am ~ I wake up to Taylor at her door yelling "Mommy" to wake me up. I go get her and put her in my bed. I turn on whatever cartoon or musical she's currently in love with (at the moment it's Annie!), and go back to bed.

I drift in and out of sleep for the next little while, depending on whether or not taylor actually stays in bed with me or decides she wants to play in my room.

8 - 9:00 am ~ At some point we go down for breakfast. Lately I haven't been hungry, so I just get something for Taylor. Sometimes, I'll turn on the tv and scoot her to where she can see it. (I'm kinda thinking she may watch too much TV.)

9:30 - 10:00 am ~ Maddie wakes up. That's right... my baby sleeps in! She's perfect, what can I say! We watch more cartoons or a movie. We play some too. We do fun things sometimes.

11 - 12:00 pm ~ I start lunch and we eat. We get our lunch call from Chris. Maddie is eating lunch with us now too!!! She's eating cereal (only if it has fruit in it.) I'll start making baby food soon. I can't wait.

1:00 pm ~ Once lunch is done, it's my favorite time of day - NAP TIME. both girls go down for a nap. This is usually uneventful. They both go down easily. As long as their primary cd music and water fall moving picture are on.

3 - 4:00 pm ~ Nap time is over and it's play time. Sometimes we go outside... sometimes we make something... Depends on my mood.

4:00 pm ~ Chris calls home to let me know he's on his way home! I need him to call everyday! It may be silly, but alot of times, chris is out on an install or something and doesn't get off right at 4. I want to know when he'll be home. So he calls me, almost everyday.

5 - 6:00 pm ~ we have dinner at some point during this time. Yum yum. Maddie gets sleepy here too... so she has another nap, not as long as the first... but very effective!

8:00 pm ~ Time for prayers, a sippy cup, kisses goodnight, and lights out. Sometimes Maddie isn't quite ready to lay down yet (she's usually in bed by 9 though) but taylor is generally in bed at 8 (that's when our tv shows usually come on!)

10 - 12:00 pm ~ Chris likes to be asleep before now, but he usually isn't. I stay up til midnight or so. Once everyone is asleep is when I have a couple hours uninterupted peace to get crocheting and such done. Then I go to sleep.

3:00 am ~ I'll wake up and feed maddie. After nursing for a few minutes, she's right back to sleep.

6:00 am ~ Maddie will wake up again sometimes. After a few minutes eating, she's back to sleep... and so am I.


And then it all starts over. In the past 5 months I haven't slept for more than 3 or 4 hours except just a handful of times. but I'm cool with that. Eventually, Maddie will sleep through the night. And I tend to be a bit of a night owl anyways. :) I do my best thinking at Midnight :)

I'm so greatful that life has slowed down a bit, calmed down. Maddie isn't a newborn. She has a schedule and it fits well with Taylor's. And I just follow their cues. There are something I want to work on (TV Time, Activities.) But I'll get there. I think I'm doing good at the moment. Not great... but good. And that's fine with me for now!