South Carolina

We had a great week in Hilton Head, South Carolina with all of Glen's family. It was so nice to be able to go outside with the kids and not worry about it being too cold. I love the ocean and the beach and it was fun to see how much Matthew liked it. He ran around jumping and landing in the sand. We went out to eat a lot which was fun but also a little crazy with two kids. Matthew did quite well but Taylor only slept through one resturaunt. We had some good southern food and seafood. YUMMY! We went to Savannah Georgia one day where Glen used to live. It was such a beautiful city and if I had tons of money I would buy one of the houses downtown. Sadly I did not take any pictures. We went to Uncle Bubba's resturaunt in Savannah (Paula Dean's brother) and it was very good.....shrimp and the most amazing key lime pie!!

Our flight to North Carolina was great as you can see. It wasn't that long of a flight but we wish the flight back to Detroit was this good. Matthew was very hyper/sleep deprived and kicked the seat in front of him (poor lady and poor Glen) He was sitting by Matthew and I had Taylor duty.


The only picture I took in Savannah (just to see the spanish moss on the trees..very pretty)

Uncle Bubba's

We had a few really warmer days but by the end of the trip it was getting a little colder. I was actually freezing in this picture. I know I should have had some pants on.

A beautiful light house on Hilton Head Island. We climbed up to the top and Matthew still talks about it and wants us to go back

So pretty!

Matthew taking his twice daily asthma medicine. He really liked the head phones although they weren't even plugged in. This medicine has been such a blessing. He handles colds much better now and we have had our longest stretch yet of him not having a cough. YEAH!!

Happy Birthday Ashley!!

It is my sister-in-law Ashley's birthday today and I just wanted to wish her a happy birthday. Ashley and I ended up being roomates at BYU our freshmen year and have been great friends ever since. I will always remember how happy I was when I saw that she was going to be my roomate and how she told me "we're going to best friends really fast. So I have to take some credit for her and my brother Nolan getting married. Some might think it would be weird having my roomy date my brother but I loved it. I got to see my brother a lot that way and we all had a lot of fun together. Ashley is so fun and sweet. The picture below is of us being pregnant with Matthew and Thomas who are just a month apart. Without any sort of planning we ended up having baby girls 2 weeks apart; Taylor and Grace who are still waiting to meet each other. (so sad) We will see them in the summer (so far away)! I hope you had a great day Ashley. I love you

Christmas Eve

This was on our way back from Canada to Michigan on Christmas Eve. We decided to sing some Christmas songs which we find Matthew singing sometimes by himself. His favorite is Santa Claus is coming to town and Jingle Bells

Jingle Bells

Home again, Home again

We had a great Christmas break that went by way too fast. We first drove up to Michigan, then to Canada for two days, back to Michigan for Christmas and then down to South Carolina for a week (pictures of that trip still to come) The kids did pretty well overall. It was a lot of driving even though we did fly to North Carolina. We had a 4 hour drive up to Canada and then back and 4 hour drive to South Carolina from the airport. It was so fun seeing how excited Matthew was about opening presents. He was pretty cute. He was so full of energy our whole trip just running around like crazy and into everything (in a house not baby proofed) He was a lot of fun and really does not stop talking. On the way to Canada we couldn't get him to go to sleep because he wouldn't stop talking. Glen and I tried to ignore him but then he tried to get the other people in the car to talk to him. He is such a funny kid. Taylor was pretty good most of the time. She does not appreciate being in her car seat too much though if she is awake. It was fun to spend time with all of Glen's family. We got home yesterday and it is great to be home. Glen starts school on Monday and I have a list of things I want to do and get done. Coming back to cold cold weather was hard but I have to gear up for a few more months of winter.

Happy Taylor

Look at Matthew's face as he is opens his bike from Santa (Gram & Grandad) so excited!! The bike and shopping cart got left in Michigan since we had no room in our car.

Taylor got a little toy, some hair bows, and socks..... YEAH, what a fun Christmas (I don't think she really cares, do you?)

Playing in the snow. Matthew really enjoyed eating it. We were in Toronto, Canada visiting Glen's Grandma for two days and came back on Christmas Eve to Michigan

Cool Dude!! You can see Matthew's car seat next to him but I promise we weren't driving

Oma and Matthew

MERRY CHRISTMAS

We hope you all have a wonderful and safe Christmas!

Love: Glen, Jill, Matthew, & Taylor

Merry Christmas Everybody!

Watch out Taylor!!

Poor Taylor. I love this video because you can just see her facial expressions change when Matthew starts getting close. She looks all happy when she finds my face and starts smiling. When Matthew comes around it's like she is preparing herself for something as you can see in this video as Matthew throws the blanket over her head. Matthew does really love her a lot of the time. He gives her kisses and wants to check on her when she starts crying. Other times he tries to kick her or poke her in the face. Taylor does smile at Matthew quite a bit though. It is usually when he is talking in his normal voice and not his hyper screamy voice. I sure love seeing them together when they are both happy. They look quite a bit alike sometimes and very different in certain ways. I think they will look similar because they both have brown eyes.

Cute little Taylor

Sorry about the poor camera job. I was trying to have her look at me and not the camera so she would smile.

2 months old

Taylor is doing good and we are enjoying her beautiful smile more and more these days. She seems to be doing a lot better and is an angel at night. She was sleeping from 11 to about 5!!! We have been trying to get her to sleep earlier and when we have she wakes up around 3. Either way, it has been great. Now if we can just get her to stop taking 10-20 minute cat naps all day we will be set. When we go somewhere in the car she ends up having a longer nap and on those days she is much sweeter. She is such a doll and really adds so much to our family. She oohs and ghus at us all the time which is so fun. Matthew really loves her and is already protective of her. We took both kids into the doctor for their 2 month and 2 year check ups and shots. Matthew got his shots first and then he started saying Taylor not get shots. How sweet; he didn't want her to hurt. Glen and Matthew left the room so he didn't have to see his little sister cry. They are both doing great. Taylor weighed 12 pounds 7 ounces

A few more

It was great to have my parents here for a few days. Thanks for coming mom and dad!

Grandma Susy taught Matthew how to have a party. He would yell let's have a party and this is how we found all his little people. What's better than pirate, Noah, fireman, farmer and Bob the Builder eating cookies and pizza. That's a party!

Doing pilates with Grandma. It was so great to see my mom walking as much as she was. She is doing so great. When we saw her last she was in a wheel chair so it was so fun to see her.

my parents got Matthew a few tractors for his birthday that he loves driving around (John Deer of course)

Taylor's Blessing

Taylor's blessing day was great. Glen gave her a great blessing in church and it was fun to have both of our parents there. This dress was my blessing dress that my mom made. We had here blessed in the dress further down which is a dress my mom made for Jordan (my sister Holly's daughter). We just had to take some pictures of her in my blessing dress too. We took these pictures because I have a picture of my dad holding me just like this and I want to put them in a picture frame or something. My mom thinks I look quite a bit like Taylor but I didn't have a round face like she does. We don't know where our kids got their round faces from but they sure are cute!

It was so fun having my parents here. We went out to eat a couple of times and did a few other things but I told them they have to come sometime in the fall or summer when it's warm enough to do stuff outside. We set up all of our Christmas stuff while they were here too which was so fun. I love Christmas!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Matthew's birthday was so much fun. He turned the big 2 on November 21st. It was great to have my parents here for it. Matthew really had a lot of fun with Grandma and Grandpa. He was always talking to them and wanting them to play with him. I can tell I am going to love Christmas time and being Santa. I was very excited to have Matthew come downstairs in the morning to see the balloons we had everywhere and his kitchen. It was a very eventful day and Matthew loved it. We opened some presents, went to playground world, went swimming, out to eat, and then home for cake and ice cream. We went swimming at the Hilton by the medical school campus. For those of you whose husbands are in medical school, you should go or we all should go sometime. The water was so warm and nobody is ever there. Matthew was so happy on his birthday and it really felt like he knew the day was about him. We sure love him!!

Matthew really wanted a lightning macqueen cake like Thomas his cousin. Because I am not very talented that way and lack of time this is what we ended up with...a normal cake with a lightning macqueen car on top.

Glen and I were so excited to find this kitchen for half price because Matthew loves these things. We go to playground world and instead of heading straight for the slides, he goes to the kitchen. Who knows, he might be a chef someday. He was so excited and played with it non stop all day.

We went to dinner at the Texas Roadhouse for Matthew's birthday. They had him sit on this saddle while they let out a big Yeehaw. Matthew was a little scared with all of the attention. He sure loved eating the free peanuts and have a ton. There was proof of it in his diaper for a few days!

I love this picture of Taylor. She looks a little scared but so cute!! Things are going really good here. Matthew is doing better and we avoided another hospital trip. YEAH!! Taylor has been sleeping through the night for quite a few days now which makes me think it might continue to happen. I really thought it was just a fluke the first two times. Every morning I tell her how proud I am of her :) Matthew didn't sleep through the night until the doctor told me he was big enough and didn't need to wake up to eat so we made him (around 4-5 months old). Taylor seems to be doing a little bit better in the day too. The nights are still pretty rough and we usually get to sleep really late. Eventually we will get her to bed earlier and have an evening again. But things are good. I am going to be more positive this post because Glen told me the last one was pretty depressing. I was just being honest. Taylor is getting more fun and cuter and cuter everyday. She is getting a lot chubbier lately too. Her hair is getting a lot lighter and sadly thinner too. Not too much but I am really hoping she doesn't lose all of it. She has really changed our family, for the better of course. I love to see her and Matthew in those cute moments when Matthew is so sweet with her. I feel very blessed to have two healthy and beautiful children. I feel a lot more comfortable with taking them both out and just doing the day to day things. I love this time of year. Last night I was doing some Christmas shopping ALONE and went outside and it was snowing. I really love snow but once Christmas is over it can go. I wish!! We have a lot of fun things to look forward to with Thanksgiving and Christmas. My parents are coming on Thursday and I am so excited to see them. They haven't been here yet so it will be so fun to show them where we live and what we do out here.

How sweet. Matthew really does love Taylor even though sometimes he doesn't like her to get my attention. He is always talking to her and wanting her to play with him.

Look at the difference in the color of their hands. Taylor doesn't seem to have the olive skin that Matthew has; she is a little more pink

6 weeks old

CRYING: One of Taylor's favorite past times

We sure love this sweet little girl!!!!

Taylor just has her days so I try to just take it day by day. We try not to say that she has colic (what exactly is that anyway? The doctors thought Matthew had it and nothing helped. The doctor the other week thought Taylor might be the same as I hoped it might be acid reflux or a milk allergy or something so that it would be fixable; however, it looks like she has none of the above) Still, I like to say she is just a little fussy (sounds more bearable right?) But like I said, she has her days. Somedays it feels like she cries all day. She takes 20 minute cat naps and stays up until 12 at night screaming while we try everything to get her to sleep. And then somedays she takes at least one good nap for 2 hours and is pretty happy while she is awake and falls asleep by herself on the floor with a binky. Yesterday was one of those days, YEAH!! Today I would say is somewhere between. Poor Glen, sometimes he comes home and I have had it and am not too happy. I'm glad we have our good days. Both Glen and I thought we would have an "easy" baby (no baby is easy, just easier) because Matthew was so hard. Now we realize that it might not ever happen so we are going to take a good 3-4 year break before we gear up for number 3. I did just turn 24.........I think we have to time to take a break. I think overall Glen and I are doing pretty well. I think Matthew prepared us so we can handle a little crying. Although, I feel like I still am not handling the lack of sleep very well. I don't think you really ever get used to it. It seems with Matthew that 4 months was the magic time. His was a much easier and happier baby and we got him sleeping through the night sometime around 4 months. These kids are worth it though, no matter what.

Taylor started smiling a few days ago. It takes a lot of work to get them out of her, but they are coming. Sometimes she smiles looking at a wall and in this picture I don't know what she is looking at. It was really lucky that I got it on camera.

Taylor at 1 month weighed 10 pounds, 10 ounces and her head was in the 25th percentile (not following in her brothers foot steps) Matthew, I think, weighed around 12 pounds at 1 month and by 4 months weighed 18. I think Taylor will be a little slower than that. Matthew now weighs 30 pounds as of last week

Matthew had to join in on Taylor's tummy time. He was lifting his head up and telling me how strong his neck is. I was telling him that this was Taylor's exercise to help her get a strong neck. Matthew really says the funniest things and likes to talk to Taylor. I think he really wants her to be old enough to play and talk. He tells Taylor to watch him eat and play and always wants her to play "chugga chugga" with him. I sit on the floor with my legs out and Taylor sits in the middle and Matthew in the front. We pretend we are a train and we usually end up crashing with Taylor falling on top of Matthew. He loves it! At least once a day Matthew tells me he is going to go check Taylor which usually means Taylor is asleep and he is going to go scream, "Hello baby Taylor!" right in her face. I then hear, "Baby Taylor awake!" GREAT! Thanks Matthew (such a helper)

Handsome Matthew

Yesterday was a beautiful day and we were able to spend sometime outside. It is so nice that we can just walk around our little neighborhood. Matthew has the runniest nose and sneezes all the time now. ALLERGIES, ahhh. It always makes me worry that it will cause the asthma problems but hopefully it won't this time. The doctor did give us claritin so I have been giving him that the last two days. I would like to take him to an allergy doctor to see what he is allergic to and then we could stay away from those things because right now we really have no clue what he has problems with.

SUPERMAN!! We kind of put this together last minute. It would have been really lame if my sister hadn't sent us the cape she made and the red underwear. Matthew enjoyed trick or treating. We got to do it at our ward Trunk or Treat and down a fun little street in Perrysburg. All the stores hand out candy and it's just perfect for young kids. We went last year too but Matthew was a lot more into it this year.

Matthew is always giving Taylor something to play with. Isn't he so thoughtful. He says "Here Taylor, a toy" Matthew is very sweet with her most of the time but lately has been horrible. Throwing things at Taylor and I and hitting us and running around being so hyper. I'm not sure what brought on the change but hopefully it doesn't last too long.