Ten Months of Taryn!

Taryn is 10 months old today! Seeing previous blogs of Aubrey when she was about this age, I figured I'd better do a blog entry for Taryn and all that she's been up to. Here are some of our favorite pictures showing what we love about Taryn and what she's learned over the past 6 months or so.

I had to get a picture of Taryn with her fingers. She has continued the tradition of a completely different self-soothing approach than all the other girls. No pacifier or thumb for Taryn, but two fingers. It was three when she was really little until her fingers got too big and then she went down to two and has kept that up. She usually covers her fingers with her other hand, so getting an actual picture of the fingers in her mouth was quite the accomplishment. With the help of the Bumbo, Taryn began sitting up on her own quite early and was really good at it. I love this picture as well because you can see the difference once she lost all her newborn hair. She went bald for a bit after all her dry scalp patches would take big chunks of hair anytime we cleaned her head. I was sad to see all that dark hair go, but once it was gone you could actually see all her new "big girl" hair growing in.

I tried really hard to get a picture outside of Taryn closeup so we could see her beautiful brown eyes, but she wouldn't ever look right at me, but I at least caught her smiling which was sometimes hard to catch with the camera and its bright flash that was so distracting. And here is Taryn in her first Easter dress, with the adorable huge flower headband.

Taryn began eating baby cereal right around 6 months old. She loved it, of course, once she figured out how to get it in her mouth. I love these first pictures of the girls in the highchair because they just look so tiny.

Another attempt at getting a good picture outside. I was holding Taryn and putting the camera around and in front of her so she kept trying to grab it, which is why we have the waving look.

During Spring Break at Tyler's apartment in College Station, Taryn had her first swing ride at the park. As you can see, she loved it! I had to put her in with Aubrey just to keep her upright because she was so little in that big bucket seat. She also loved the hotel that we stayed in and the purple bed. She's really good at sitting up on her own now.

The girls love to play with Taryn like she's their very own doll. They begged me to take a picture of Taryn after giving her a princess crown. During the summer, Taryn went swimming for the very first time. She liked it okay - it was still pretty cold. Once she was in the water though, she didn't mind it too much.

While living at Grandma and Grandpa's house, Taryn slept in the pack and play. If you laid her down in the bed, she immediately started to cry, but if you sat her up she loved it and was very happy as long as she could reach her piano toy.

While vacationing in Utah, Taryn found a pretty interesting teething toy. It was cold and squishy and yummy. Too bad Dad took it away after she dropped it on the ground outside. It was a good idea while it lasted. We also took some time trying to get a picture of Taryn's first tooth, which came right around 8 months. This was the best we could get, so if you look really closely, you can see her first tooth on the bottom.

The pillow pets were a good distraction while unpacking in our new home in El Paso. The girls wanted this picture in the blog because they liked the fact that her hand is blurry, showing that she was waving at the time the picture of was taken.

Around 9 months, Taryn started on her first finger foods with some teething biscuits. They didn't last long once she figured out that they weren't that tasty. She spent most of her time throwing them overboard and watching them break into tiny pieces. She much prefers those puffs and cheerios for snack time.

Taryn has been slower than the other girls when it comes to crawling and pulling herself up on things. She still has yet to do either. We finally started standing her up by the ottoman or couch and she'll stand there until she gets bored and then plop back down on the floor. She has no desire to move along the couch or anything yet, which is fine. I want this baby stuff to last as long as possible. Like I said she isn't crawling yet, but she does know how to get around. She kind of scoots and army crawls and rolls to get where she wants, but never on her hands and knees. My other kids usually did this as well - just going from an army-type crawl straight to walking. Regular crawling was never a long part of their growth milestones.

And finally a picture from today on her 10-month birthday. She loves her toys especially anything that makes music or that she can open and close with her hand. She has just started clapping for herself whenever we cheer her on and her 3rd tooth has finally made an appearance. She loves to see the pictures of each of the girls in their blessing dresses as we walk down the stairs. She talks to them every time we pass. She smiles whenever she sees any of her sisters and will talk contentedly to mom or dad or whoever will listen to her jabber. She's adorable and we can't get enough of her.

We love our little miss Taryn!!

Moving From Three Houses to One

Through the months of May and June we were packing up all our things and moving across the state. I figured I'd use this blog entry to catch up on all the last couple days at each of our three "homes" as we prepared to leave them all and head to our new home in El Paso.

First, in Wichita Falls, we packed up all the stuff we had taken out there from our home over the past 18 months, which ended up being A LOT of stuff. We did realize that we were there for a Christmas plus multiple birthdays so of course we were constantly adding new things, but still, it was a lot. We loved being so close to family and during our final weeks in Wichita Falls, I was able to spend some time watching my nieces. I made sure I took some pictures of all the cousins (the ones not in school anyway) and some of them turned out super cute.

After our Memorial Day Weekend (see earlier post), we drove down to College Station for Tyler's final week of work there. We stayed in his apartment again and helped clean and pack up that place as well. While Tyler worked the girls and I spent some time at our favorite park. I loved this picture because it has all four girls on the swings together. It was Taryn's first swing ride.

Tyler had brought the majority of his apartment home the week before, but the rest we packed into our van. These pictures do not do it justice just how much stuff we had shoved in the van, but you can at least get an idea. We thought we weren't going to be able to get it all in, but Tyler is an amazing packer.

We left his apartment on the 31st of the month; however, he still had one more day left at work, so the girls and I were left to entertain ourselves in dowtown Bryan where our hotel was until he was finished completely with the job. These pictures were taken outside the hotel.

We walked the downtown streets during the morning. There were many statues that the girls loved and we found a couple libraries and some fun stores to peruse while waiting. 

 After leaving College Station, we were able to spend one last week in our home in Anna. We went to the lake with our closest friends and the kids played all weekend long together doing things like creating an entire talent show. We sure are missing all our friends that we had made in our first home town.

 We left our house full of packed boxes to where Tyler would return after our trip to find a house in El Paso and our vacation to Utah, but for the girls and I - it was our final goodbye. :(

We spent a couple days in El Paso looking at rental homes and found one just in time to have it ready for us when we returned from Utah. We spent time at a mall in the area and the girls wanted to ride a small train they had in the food court; however, you had to pay with cash and we didn't have enough for all three, so they settled for this little ride that they could all ride at the same time. The girls also liked this resting spot in the mall complete with huge ants in the planter.

When we weren't looking at homes, we spent our time driving around town checking out the schools, our church, and the neighborhoods, going to a movie, and hanging out at the hotel which had a pool. The chlorine was so strong my eyes burned every time we were there, although no one else seemed to be bothered by it. 

After our vacation in Utah, we brought Tyler's parents back with us. We got into our new home and Tyler and his dad flew back to our house in Anna, packed up two moving trucks, and brought all of our belongings to El Paso. Once we unpacked and finally settled a little bit, I was able to take some pictures of our new home. One of the front, and one of our view which overlooks the mountains and a church that has bells, which the girls love to hear.

So far we just love El Paso, our home, and the fact that we are all living together again with all our own stuff. We miss our family and friends, but have quickly met new friends and look forward to our future.

Utah Vacation and Cousin Fun

While we were inbetween houses and jobs, we decided that was the perfect time to take our vacation. We spent almost two weeks in Utah with family and we had a fun time. Here are a few pictures and highlights from the trip:

We made arrangements to see my Grandma Willes; and my cousin Brittney was able to come with her kids. It took a little time, but eventually the 2nd cousins were playing together and having a good time.

We stayed with Tyler's brother Tim and his family for the first couple nights. The girl cousins have so much fun playing together. They created a cheer together and also a "Singing Show" where each girl performed her favorite song. I was also happy to get one picture with Taryn and her cousin Anson who was born just a little over 2 months after Taryn.

We spent the next couple nights with Tyler's sister Tiffany and her family. More girl cousins, so of course lots of fun playing dress-up among other things. I loved this picture because Parker is the one boy cousin surrounded by all the girls. I tried so hard to get a picture with Taryn and Parker both looking up from their toys, and this was the best I could get.

The cousins had fun playing Red Rover since we had so many kids and it was such great weather outside.

 We spent one afternoon at Cabella's looking at all their animal displays. I took so many pictures here but this was my favorite. I told the kids to look scared because the cougars in the back were jumping on their prey, and they made some really convincing "scared" faces. (Except for Jacob who decided to go the "I'm the cougar" route, which I also loved!)

We also went to a splash park to play. The water was pretty cold, but the kids didn't seem to mind. There was a little river with rocks and a huge fountain play area, so the cousins had a blast splashing and playing. We took pizza and had lunch and try as I might this was the only picture I was able to get with Aubrey and Jacob together. We kept talking about how similar they looked, but I never could get Aubrey to sit next to him for a good "see for yourself" picture. They're only like 2 weeks apart in age and with the same hair and eye coloring, we kept discussing how they could pass for twins, so you'll just have to take our word for it. They were too cute!

Tyler really wanted to go fishing, so one of our stops was to a lake for some fishing. There was a park and shade above the water, so Tiffany and I took the kids who didn't want to fish to the top to play. I loved the view even though I couldn't get my camera to work right. So the kids are a little darker, but at least you can see the lake, the mountains, and the horizon. I love Utah in June.

We traveled next to Vernal and met all the siblings out there at Grandma and Grandpa's house. We spent the Saturday up on the mountain at Jarvey Fest where Grandpa Gibbons works one of the booths. We wished we had more time there, but the kids loved the wagon ride and being sprayed by the fire truck hose. Some of the kids made leather purses or necklaces, which was where Grandpa was working. Here Aubrey is getting help from Grandpa to stamp her leather necklace.

I was able to get a few pictures before heading off to church on Sunday. All the girls brought their American Girl dolls so of course they had to get them dressed up for their "American Girl" church as well.

We love going to Utah and spending so much time together with family. We always wish we had more time. Playing with cousins is something the girls will never forget and we look forward to every trip we get to make.

Memorial Day Weekend Extravaganza

So many things happened so close together that I finally get to catch up. Abby's last day of school started the weekend of Memorial Day. Since we were moving, we planned one final big family get together with my parents and siblings. The kids were out of school and everyone had off work, so we had all weekend to play. I probably need separate blog entries for all the pictures I took at each of the places we went that weekend, but I'll just give a few highlights for now.

We made plans to attend the Dallas Temple and schedule everything else around that. It was awesome because I don't think all 10 of us (my parents, siblings and spouses) have ever gone to the temple all together before. We took up an entire row and I couldn't help but get emotional looking at my family all together. I loved it!

After the session, Tyler and I took our girls back to the temple grounds to see the temple. Abby had been talking about going to the temple for months. She had even been praying about it, so we walked the temple grounds, took them into the lobby, and took lots of pictures outside. These were a few of my favorites even though it was a bit windy and it messed with the girls' hair a bunch. 

 We decided to go to Legoland Discovery Center which was inside the Grapevine Mills Mall for the kids to have something fun to do. It wasn't as big as we were thinking it would be and the one "ride" where you get to shoot at things was only available to ride once, so we were a little let down. But the kids loved it and would have stayed longer had we let them. There was a huge jungle type gym in the middle for the kids to climb and play. There was a karaoke section, a lego racecar building section, and a 4D movie theater which the kids all ran from one section to another having so much fun.

 We ate dinner at The Magic Time Machine restaurant. I remember as a kid always talking about going with my family, but we never did. So we finally got the chance this weekend. All the waiters and waitresses are dressed up like famous people/characters. And all the tables are decorated differently and you're allowed to walk around and see all the tables and decorations. We took a lot of pictures here. I could probably make an entire scrapbook of just this visit alone. Our waitress was Rapunzel which the girls loved, but every time Belle walked by the girls screamed for her, so we finally stopped her to get a picture.

 We stayed in a hotel near the temple and the kid's had fun playing and finding things to entertain themselves. I caught some of the cousins hiding in one of the closets and thought it turned out to be a really cute picture.

Near our hotel, they had this fancy McDonalds where we stopped for drinks one time while the kids played. I had to take a picture of the girls with Grandpa. They had oversized food items all around the building. It was definitely picture worthy.

On our last day, we went to the Aquarium at Fair Park. The girls really enjoyed seeing all the sea creatures. Some of the favorites were a huge sea turtle, the blind salamander, and the sting rays. Tyler and Uncle John even got to feed the sting rays, which they said was a little scary after the worker told them to make sure to tuck their thumbs in or else the sting rays will think it's food. But they did it perfectly and thought it was pretty amazing.

We got one last picture of our family outside the Aquarium. It was a fun, event-filled weekend where the kids enjoyed being with their cousins and all the family had a great time just being together. We definitely miss being so close to family, but I'm sure each time we all get together we'll have just as much fun as we did on this weekend.