Grady on the move

Here are some videos of Grady crawling and pulling himself up.

Wrapping up a busy September

Grady, Taylor and I hung out in Allen with Mimi and Poppa for a week while Tyson was in College Station for a training course. We had such a great time....even though it rained most of the time we were there. I especially liked having another set of hands helping out during the day!! I almost felt like I was on vacation!

Once back in Henrietta, we actually got to go outside for the first time in a long time! The weather was cool and there were NO mosquitos!! Poor Taylor has almost forgotten what it's like being outside! We took the kids up to the park next to the baseball fields. The park was just okay...we spent a whole ten minutes there. We spent an hour playing in the baseball fields! Taylor loved running the bases and playing on the pitcher's mound. Maybe just maybe she'll be a ball player!

Updates on Grady.....he's moving like crazy now! He army-man crawls, he can pull himself to standing position on certain things, he's saying a few repeating consonants, and he's starting to agitate his big sister. I'm already starting to hear "Grady stop touching me!!" Let the fun begin!

Teaching Aunt Haley and Mimi their ABCs.

Nothing makes Taylor happier than being outside!

Driving Poppa's boat up and down his street.
She had to honk the horn about every 5 seconds!

Hanging out with Daddy in the boat.

Driving Poppa's mower....watch out dogs!!

Double Trouble!! Playing with Reese
(a.k.a. Reesie Ann.....according to Taylor).

Grady and Taylor decorating their spider pumpkin.

Grady having a serious talk with Belle.

A new way to have snacks.

Zipping down the slides at the park.

All smiles while watching Taylor play at the park.

Pretending like they hit the ball....

And then running the bases....with Grady being the first base coach!

Still running...

Yep. Taylor's going to be one of those kids that picks flowers
(or in her case, plays with rocks) instead of paying attention to the game.

Hanging out in the dugout for a quick snack.

Daddy and his Grady!

Such a great smile!

Grady meeting Elmo for the first time.

Flower Girl Pictures

Taylor had the honor of being a Flower Girl at Bekah (Tyson's cousin) and Scott's wedding in Boerne, TX. When they first asked if Taylor could do it, all Tyson and I said was that there was no telling what Taylor was going to do...we couldn't make any promises on whether she would make it down the aisle or not.

Taylor did so good at the rehearsal. We had been practicing with her at home, teaching her how to "walk and throw" her flowers. She really became quite good at it. Taylor had two practice walks down the aisle during the rehearsal. The first one she was pretty nervous, so she was really focused on what she was doing. She was more relaxed during the second practice...enough so that she started to notice her surroundings....i.e., deer poop. Taylor pretty much freezes at the sight of poop...any poop. So she literally walked around all of the poop piles as she was dropping the flowers (you can see a picture of her pattern below)! Thank goodness there were going to be chairs set up to keep her on a straight path during the wedding!!

Wedding day was pretty crazy. We spent most of the morning hanging out with Mimi and Poppa. As it got closer to wedding time, Taylor slowly started melting. We were trying our best to keep her blood sugar up! Poor thing just boo-hooed as she was getting her hair done......it was her first time to ever have anything done to it....and it was sooo pretty. Taylor had the prettiest ringlet curls in her hair....but the humidity quickly killed them!! Her hair fell flat in a matter of minutes! Sigh...

I apologize for not taking any pictures of her, but believe me when I say she was NOT in a picture-taking mood. It took nearly everything I had to keep her together. For a split second before she was supposed to walk down the aisle, I actually thought she wasn't going to do it. Mimi, Poppa and Tyson were scattered throughout the aisle seats, so they encouraged her as she walked up the aisle, reminding her to walk and throw! Once she got down to the front, it was a piece of cake. She was perfect. Did I mention, the only way that I could get her to walk was if she had her sunglasses on? Yes, my child wore her pink sunglasses during the entire wedding ceremony! Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of that.

After the ceremony Taylor was ready to party. She'd been looking forward to eating cake and dancing. And that's just what she did! All in all, it was a beautiful wedding at a beautiful location. We are so happy for Scott and Bekah and happy that we could be a part of their special day!

Flower Girl with some fresh-picked wild flowers.

Taylor has a phobia of poop....and of course, there was a pile of deer poop right next to her. I thought she would never stop looking at it!

Checking out her pretty basket that Darcy made especially for her.

Telling Katie something....probably that there's poop by their feet.

Finally getting the hang of what she's supposed to be doing up there!

Showing Bekah, the bride, how she's going to throw the flowers.

Practice walk # 1: Walking next to the ring bearer, staying focused on her job!

Practice walk #2: Ring bearer left her because she was going too slow and...

As you can tell from the scattered groups of flowers, Taylor didn't stay in a straight path. On the second practice walk, she noticed all of the deer poop scattered about, so she avoided the poop by walking around it.....WAY around it!!

Unfortunately I didn't get very many pictures of Taylor all dressed up....I was trying to keep her happy and trying to keep her from messing up her pretty dress and hair (of course, by this time all of her pretty curls had fallen out due to the humidity). This shot was taken right before the wedding ceremony....and right before Taylor had a mini meltdown!! Aggghhh!

Meanwhile, Grady was just chilling out waiting for the party to start!

Why is it that when Tyson and I finally get a good picture of us,
our kid has both of her fingers up her nose?!

Ryan, Haley and Taylor partying at the reception!

Finally!! What she'd been waiting for the whole night......DANCING!

She found some friends to dance with...and that's when Daddy lost his dancing partner!

My little party girl!

Labor Day

We had such an enjoyable morning on Labor Day.....it was pretty pleasant outside. Taylor had a great time playing in the leaves, and Grady had fun playing on the blanket. It was a spontaneous decision to go outside that morning.....pretty apparent by the looks of us!! I had only managed to get Taylor dressed at that point in the day. In any case, we had a great time. We are very much an outdoor family! We are definitely ready for some cooler weather so we can have more days like this!

Taylor playing in the leaves.

Hurry up Fall, get here!!

Taylor and Grady checking out the grass.

Serious concentration is required to inspect grass blades!

Grady had a blast playing on the blanket.

Grady getting Daddy!

Grady getting Mommy!

One happy family!

Fort Worth Outing

The Sunday before Labor Day we went to Fort Worth to have lunch at Joe T. Garcia's with most of Tyson's family on the Hart-side. We got to see his Aunt Patty, Granny and Grandaddy, Mimi and Poppa, Haley and Ryan, his cousin Kevin and his wife, Nicole, and their two kids, Colson and Ellie, cousins Carmen and Brian, and Tyson's Aunt Yvonne and Uncle Rex. We had a great time relaxing on the restaurant's patio and had a great lunch!

After lunch we headed over to Aunt Patty's house where we hung out the rest of the day. Everyone had a great time playing Wii and visiting with each other. Taylor made a new friend...her cousin Ellie. They became pretty good buddies.

We had such a great time seeing everyone! As always, family visits are too far and few in between.

Taylor visiting with Poppa, Aunt Patty and Grandaddy.

Aunt Haley with her favorite nephew!

Granny and Grandaddy with their great-grandson.

Aunt Haley with her favorite niece!!

Mimi and Grady.

Ellie and Taylor.

Brian and two cute girls!

Cool Taylor and cool Mommy!