My friend....plus pictures!

I am blessed with lot of good friends and people that I can lean on. For instance Kelsey Whisler we have been through so much together it is crazy and she is a sister that I never want to leave my life. The Dawsons are great friends we have so much in common and that is so great. I love that we have kids around the same age and we love youth and food! The Hahns even though we don't get to spend as much time with them as we would like every time we do they are such an encouragement and just pour wisdom into our lives. They are a family I would love to model mine after. The Oostings are such special friends to us. I am always excited when we get to spend time with them and have fun laughing and enjoying eachothers company. The News have taught us so much about ourselves and are always around when we need company. But one friend I want to talk about today is my friend Brittany Hair. I could search across the globe and I don't think I could find a better friend. I could sit here all day and list everything she has done for me and my family but I don't have all day I do have little kids. She is there for me like no one else. Even though we have a long distance friendship somehow it works for us. We email everyday and I get so excited when I see I have an email from her. I can tell her anything and everything. And when me or Stephen are being stupid she usually tells us! She came up and spoiled us when Leah was born. She gave of her time, money, and energy to help us out as much as she could. I'm so sad that she is in Houston. But hopefully we will be able to get down there soon. I wish I already could pack up the kids and visit. Brittany is a character all her own. It used to catch me off guard some of the things she would say but now nothing surprises me with her. She is determined, beautiful, and hardworking. She is someone I look up to so much. I can't wait until we can walk through more things in life together. I am so blessed and happy to have a friend I can always lean on. Brittany the Taylors love you more than you know! Oh and here are more pictures you requested.Britt and Leah

Britt and Lucas

BABY LEAH

So I haven't written in this blog for a long time but I do have a nice update we had our baby girl about 3 weeks!
Her name is Leah Grace and she was 8lbs 6 oz and was born on August 30th. She was quite stubborn b/c she was 10 days past her due date. They thought maybe we got the dates wrong but they did some tests on her when she came out and sure enough she was overdue. I ended up having to get induced on the 30th. I was super nervous about being induced b/c I had heard so many horror stories about how painful it was and all that but really I liked it a whole lot better than lucas's labor. I was only in labor for 2 1/2 hours. It was quick and fast I went from 3 cm to 10 cm in about 50 minutes. I was in lots of pain and I didn't realize that I was as far along as I was so I was asking for some pain medicine b/c I knew I couldn't go on that much longer but they said nope too far along and about 15 minutes later she arrived. I only pushed once and she was out. I'm really grateful for such a quick and easy labor. Stephen said I was a lot more grumpy this time though! But Ms. Leah is super healthy. The only problem she had were these crazy big bumps on the side of her head from being pushed too fast out the birth canal. These bumps will probably be here a while but thats ok! She eats good, sleeps good she is just wonderful. I love my baby girl and so glad she has finally come into our lives. Lucas is doing really great with her too. He was a little emotional for a few days but he is getting over that too and he just loves on her like such a good big brother. He showers her with kisses and well he actually has a cold the past 2 days and he gets very angry that he can't love on his sister. We have smoothly transitioned to having 2 kids. Mommy is tired by the end of the day definitely but we are doing good and so blessed with all the blessings God has given us. Stephen is super busy but we try to find time to relax together as a family. The Taylors are doing good we have definitely grown from just me and Stephen and in only 3 years. Crazy how time flies and what can be accomplished in that time. Well here is some pictures of our little ones!

Her funny bumps!

brittany

Brittany I pretty much do this blog just for you lol here is some pictures of the couch and I said I would take a picture of my 25 week belly but this is actually my 26 week belly love ya!

20 weeks

This is my 20 week picture....we still don't know if it is a boy or girl yet but should find out on monday april11 so keep on the look out for that

Updates

So I've updated mostly what has happened this past few crazy months but there is still a couple things that you need to be updated on....

Lucas
Lucas is now 14 months old. He has 10 teeth 6 on top 4 on the bottom. He is also walking now. He a pretty amazing kid. He learned to walk with an ear infection, a crazy rash, and the norovirus, oh and getting his top 2 molars in. He is the strongest kid I know. I stopped breastfeeding at a year and since i've stopped he has been sleeping pretty much through the night which is nice on mom! He still has two naps a day but he in the next month or so we will probably cut down to one. We are also on our way to getting him to sleep in a toddler bed before the new baby comes so we can be all ready and prepared when the new baby comes. He plays really well with other kids and loves going over to Nana and Papas house. They spoil him with everything so that is probably why. His new thing is to say "tickle tickle" I'm not sure if he knows what it means but he says it for everything. He isn't much of a talker he is more of a pointer and shakes his head yes and no.


Stephen
Stephen turned 25 on March 3rd. I have been giving him a hard time about getting older but he knows I'm kidding...I hope! We had a nice birthday at home with some friends over for dinner. We went out of town the week before and that was part of his birthday present. He is still going to school. Sometimes it seems never-ending for him but he is over halfway done so it will be over before he knows it. He is still busy with church and we got some new childrens pastors and for the next 12 weeks Stephen will be known as Captain Jack...picture below

Dani
Dani is still baby-sitting but should be done by the end of April. I'm just focusing on getting through the day without being sick and wanting to fall asleep. But I'm so full of joy that I'm pregnant again words can't even describe how I feel. Super excited for find out what we are having in the next couple weeks. I'm staying busy with all the youth group things that are going on and taking care and trying to raise our son right...harder job than it seems! Here is a few more pictures for you to look at...

Sickness

The year of 2011 for the Taylor family has been a year of sickness! First off we found out we were pregnant on December 23. We were trying and feel blessed that we got pregnant right away again. We can't wait to expand our family and see our little Lucas in a Big Brother role. I think it might be hard for him to share his momma because he is a big mommas boy but it will all work out. Our new baby will be around August 20th. We should be finding out the first week of April what the sex is so keep an eye out for that. But with this new baby has been lots and lots of morning and afternoon and night sickness. I've thrown up all hours of the day and some days I felt so bad I didn't do much but lay on the couch all day! Which with Lucas I was not like that at all so I felt really bad that for about 5 weeks straight I was kinda just out of it. I felt like a horrible mom and wife! But so glad I'm feeling better. Now I'm just battling how tired I am ALL the time! But I would rather be tired than wanting to puke my guts out so I'll take it. But the baby and I are both on track and growing just as we are suppose too! In February we had a really bad scare with Lucas. After nap I noticed some dots on the back of his neck almost like mosquito bites but I didn't think anything of it at the time I just thought it was marks from how he slept well about an hour later I changed his diaper and all his legs and stomach were covered in mosquito like bite rash thing. So we took him to the doctor and the doctor thought it was a reaction to his one year shots that he had about 10 days before and that there was nothing we could do but give him benedryl. So we went home but the rash started changing and getting worse....way worse. He also started running a fever and started to refuse to eat and drink. Well we took him to the er at 3 in the morning and they said it was something called erythema multiforme and he said he thought it was not from his shots but from a penicillin reaction. Which he was on antibiotics for an ear infection as well. So he gave us steroids for him and told us to do our best and if he gets worse bring him in. Well he kept getting worse and finally they admitted him into the hospital. We stayed at the hospital for 2 nights. He had rounds of medicines and all that jazz. But God totally healed him. This rash he had was suppose to take 2 weeks to go away and on some parts had bruised so bad it was going to take 6 to 8 months for the coloring to go away. He got the rash on a Tuesday. It completely covered his entire body on Wednesday and was competely gone by Saturday you couldn't even tell he had a rash. It was amazing. We were exhausted but so grateful that God poured his grace and healing powers on our son! The worst part was all the needles and ivs they kept poking him with. His arms, hands, and neck were so bruised and poked they looked horrible! But anyway after we came home Lucas and Stephen also ended up with the norovirus. So we had a couple of days of throwing up and diarrhea. So glad that all the sickness is over. Here some pictures of Lucas's rash. This isn't even the worse it got. But its a little taste of what we were dealing with!

15 Weeks Pregnant!

Christmas and Lucas's birthday

So I haven't written on this blog in months and so I have a lot to catch everyone up on...

Christmas...
Christmas this past year was so much fun. It was so relaxing and so nice to be around family. 2 days before Christmas we found out we were pregnant! (More about that later) We went to the Christmas Eve service at church which was fun and Stephen sung in the choir! Then we had a relaxing Christmas at home in the morning then went over to my brothers and had lunch and had Christmas over there as well. We didn't do anything overly crazy it was a low key Christmas which was really nice because last Christmas it was so crazy because Lucas was about to be born so it was nice to just relax and not rush and just spend time together. It was fun watching Lucas open up his presents but after about the third present he didn't really care much for it anymore. Little Stinker! But that is ok it was fun watching play with all his new toys and such. A couple days after Christmas Brittany came up to visit for a week. So we had another Christmas with her and thomas and lily. Pictures below are pictures of our Christmas fun!

Lucas's Birthday!
Lucas also turned 1 on January 2nd. We had two parties for him. One for friends and one for family. The friends we had at Pizza Hut and he was spoiled and made a mess with his cupcake. It was fun celebrating my baby boy. I can't quite believe I have a one year old still. He is growing so fast I think time needs to stop so I can enjoy where he is at right now b/c tomorrow he is going to be 5 years old and I won't know what to do! The second party we had at our house with my family. We had cake and spaghetti. He wasn't too fond of the cake. But it was fun and we played with the wii and just had fun with family. Here are pictures of his birthday!