Taylor is in a BIG/BIG girl bed!

Jason and I remember when Taylor slept next to us in a bassinet, and now, we have transitioned her to a TWIN BED!  Can you get anymore grown up than that? So sad, but also so fun to watch our little girl get to be so big!

Taylor isn't even wearing a Pull Up anymore at nap or night time, so we figured it was time to convert her to a big girl bed!  We went shopping this past weekend to pick out a new twin mattress for Taylor's bed.  She tried out 4 different mattresses and picked out the same one that mommy & daddy liked, she's got good taste!

Laying on her favorite mattress

"I like it Mommy and Daddy!"

Jason then began the project of converting her Toddler bed to a Twin Bed.  For as great of a purchase this Crib to Twin was 3.5 years ago, it wasn't super easy to convert!

The girls really wanted to help Daddy put the bed together

Lots and lots of pieces!

We got the mattress the following day and had also purchased Taylor some new bedding for her twin bed!  She was very excited and so happy to be in her bed!!! After we set it all up, she kept saying "I going night night now!"

Taylor's big girl bed!

Here's a little trip down memory lane:

1 week old in her bassinet

5 months old in her crib

2.5 years old in her toddler bed

3 years old in her twin bed!!!

Some favorites from January

Here are some of my favorite pictures of the girls from January:

Just hanging out on the bed

Taylor playing "Princess" with Lizzy

Buddies!

She fell asleep in the car and kept sleeping on the chair (this never happens)

Taylor loves to take pictures of herself with my phone, had to capture this for the memory book!

Addison is 18 months old!

Addie playing with her baby

Addison is 18 months old and is such a sweetie!  She's always giving us a hug or a kiss, or will just lay her head down on your shoulder.  But she's also very strong willed.  She'll rarely do something that she doesn't want to do, and will be quick to tell us "no!"

Addison loves to play with the new kitchen that her and Taylor got from Santa. She would stay upstairs for hours playing "tea" if we'd let her.  She also loves her babies!  She'll push them around the house in a stroller and will say "poo poo baby," and then will go get a baby wipe and diaper in order to attempt to change the baby's diaper.  Addison also gets a kick out of pretending to be a puppy.  She'll crawl around the house and pant like a dog.

Here are some of the common words that Addison is saying right now: 

• poo poo (she is starting to recognize the feeling of going to the bathroom and refers to it as poo poo, she has pee'd in the toilet once)
• baby (often referring to her baby dolls)
• Taylor (sounds like Ta Yer)
• Barley (sounds like Bar Yee)
• Puppy (she calls every animal a puppy)
• Nessa (referring to our Nanny Janessa, but it sounds like Nenna)
• Please (sounds like pea)
• Thank you (sounds like ta too)
• When she responds with a "yes" answer, it sounds like two grunts "ugn guh."  We aren't really sure what she says but it is always the same grunt for a "yes" response.
• All done (sounds like all da)
• When she goes down for the night, we say night night (responds nigh nigh), sweet dreams Addie (gee dee), I love you (la yu)
• She can also do the signs for please, sorry, more and all done.

Here are Addison's stats from her 18 month check up on 1/27/12:

Weight - 25 lbs (60th percentile)

Height - 31.5 inches (40th percentile)

Head Circumference - 18.5 inches (60th percentile)  

Addison knows all of her body parts and will point to each of them when asked (eyes, ears, mouth, hands, feet, legs, etc.).  Her FAVORITE body part to point at is her BELLY!  She's got the biggest belly we've ever seen on an 18 month old but it is the cutest thing ever!  It is so big that in one of our recent doctor's appointments, our doctor recommended that we get an ultrasound on her belly to ensure it didn't have a tumor in it.  We can laugh about it now, but those few days were pretty scary.  Luckily, Addison's belly was fine, it was just big!!!

showing off her belly

her cute little belly

A Morning at the Library

I took the girls on Thursday morning to the Rogers Public Library.  We met up with my friend Sarah and her girls, Lizzy and McKenna.  Sarah's two girls are around the same age as our girls, so they always have a fun time playing together.

We went to the Toddler Story Time at 9:30am and the kids loved it!  The leader read them a book about Australia, they all sang songs together, then did a craft! Their craft was of an Australian Koala Bear (it tied to the theme nicely)!

Addison and McKenna wearing their Koala masks

Taylor and Lizzy as Koalas

After the Toddler Story Time, we hung around the children's area reading books, playing with puppets and other games.  We stayed there so long that they had a Preschool Story Time at 10:30am, so we thought "why not?"

Preschool teacher reading

These two decided to keep their masks on during this class as well

They did the same sort of thing at the Preschool class - sang songs, listened to several books being read, and then did a craft!  But in the Preschool Story Time, there was a fun event that you got to play with a huge tarp and balls (not exactly sure what they call that thing).  The girls had a blast with this.  It was really fun to watch Addison get into as well, she is getting so big!!!

Trying to get those balls off the tarp

Could they be having any more fun??

Picture with mommy during the Preschool craft

We all had a super fun day at the Rogers Public Library, we'll definitely be back!

Our weekend with Walker

We were able to watch Walker this weekend while Lindsay and Mark were out of town.  Taylor was so excited about him coming over!  On Thursday the door bell rang a few times and Taylor would respond "Walker here now?!!?"  She just couldn't wait for Walker's arrival Friday afternoon!

The only group shot of them from the weekend

Playing "Doctor" with Walker

"No Walker, don't eat the glasses!"

Addie giving Walker a shot

Then giving herself a shot as well

We weren't sure how Addison was going to do with Walker being that we'd have to hold him and he'd be the baby in the house for the weekend.  But she did awesome!  She'd go and get him a toy, went from the bedroom to the living room all by herself to bring Jason a diaper for Walker, and even told him "No baby" when he was reaching for her sippie cup.  On Saturday, Addison woke up from her nap and Walker was still sleeping, and this made her very upset.  She went to his door and started crying for the "baby."  We've never seen her like that and really had to calm her down because she was starting to lose her breath, she was so upset.  They were buddies!

Addison wanted to crawl around the house like Walker

Taylor LOVED taking care of Walker

Helping Daddy feed Walker

Buddies putting blocks in their mouth

Riding around the house together

Having so much fun!

Walker was a GREAT baby for us this weekend and super easy!  He'd just crawl around and laugh nonstop!  He would get really excited and do a high pitched squeel if there was a door to shut or if the dogs would let him crawl on them.  He was a little drool monkey that put every pink toy possible in his mouth, and had about 6-7 poopie diapers a day, but he was so stinkin' precious!  He's probably never heard his name so many times because every other word out of Taylor's mouth was "Walker this" and "Walker that."  We couldn't get over how sweet and happy he was, it was a wonderful weekend with Walker!  

Bless his heart, he was surrounded by dolls, strollers and pink toys all weekend!

A Yearly Interview with Taylor - 3 years old

I got an idea from Pinterest to interview the kids the same questions every year around their birthday.  You are supposed to start it at age 3 so I had interviewed Taylor right after her birthday but just hadn't posted it yet.  Below are the yearly questions that we'll ask our girls and see how the answers change throughout the years:

• What is your name?  
• "Taylor Autumn Epps" (she loves saying her full name)
• How old are you?  
• "ummm, 3"
• What is your favorite color?  
• "Pink and red"
• Who is your best friend?  
• "Lizzy and Zoe"
• What is your favorite animal?  
• "Bambi"
• What do you want to be when you grow up?  
• "Me?  A lion."
• What is your favorite movie?  
• "Tangled!"
• What is your favorite book?  
• "Rapunzel"
• What makes you happy?  
• "Lizzy makes me so happy."
• What makes you sad?  
• "You!" (I couldn't get her to explain this one and didn't want to distract her from the rest of the questions, I tried to not take it personally)
• What is your most favorite food to eat?  
• "Cereal and peas."
• What is your favorite song to sing?  
• "ABCDs" (and then she started singing the ABC song)
• What game do you like to play?  
• "Matching game" then she said "I don't want Addie to get it."
• What do you like to take to bed with you at night?  
• "Toto" (from her Halloween costume)
• What do you love most about Addison?   
• "I love her so so much!"

Taylor playing "Doctor" with Addison

Here are the stats from Taylor's 3 year check up on 12/1/2011:

Weight - 34.5 lbs (80th percentile)

Height - 37 inches (50th percentile)

Head Circumference - 20 inches (90th percentile - thanks daddy)  =)

Taylor is able to communicate with people pretty effectively.  She knows what most things mean, and rarely gets frustrated with words.  The only word that we can't get her to correct is the word "come."  She says "pome," using a P instead of a C for come.  Jason and I have tried a lot of things to get her to say this word word correctly.  We'll practice saying "cat" then "can" then "carrot" then "come."  She'll say all the words with a "c" sound but then will say "pome."  A few weeks ago, Jason was trying to teach Taylor to say "computer" versus "puter," and she responded "pomputer" instead.  It was pretty funny!

Pushing Addie around in a stroller before bed

We came home to a goat in our backyard

Yes, you read the title correctly.  There was a goat in our backyard when we got home from our 10.5 hour drive from Atlanta!  The story of how it got there dates back from over a year ago, and I figured that if I'm capturing memories in this blog for the kid's memory book, this story should probably be shared.

Here's the story:

We hosted our first annual White Elephant Christmas party with a few of our close friends here in Arkansas a year ago (Dec of 2010).  The present was supposed to be creative and/or provide humor for the group.  

Jason's gift was a hamster in a cage that we named Mr. Jingles.  This wasn't the type of White Elephant gift that you could just shove in the back of your closet or flush down the toilet.  You had to either keep the hamster or give it away.

The Suttons got this gift and were NOT happy!  They were especially not excited once their 5 year old son, Maddox, walked into the room and screamed with excitement!  He had always wanted a hamster and now his family finally had one!!!!

the cage was even provided for Mr. Jingles

Mr. Jingles!!!

What's even more funny about the Suttons getting Mr. Jingles is that hamsters are nocturnal animals.  So, Mr. Jingles is constantly up all night running on his wheel or scratching the cage.  They've had to move the cage to the office several times, and I believe that the count of them dropping the cage is up to four!  Not sure if you've ever dropped a hamster cage and had the cedar shavings spill all over the floor, but I've heard that it can be quite a mess.  I believe that our "dear" friends have called out Jason's name in vain a few times during these occurences.

Our second annual White Elephant Christmas party was hosted by us this past month.  The rules were a little different this year - 1) all gifts had to be creative and/or provide humor  2) the "Sutton" rule was put into place which said that no gifts could have a heartbeat  3) gifts were given as couples (instead of individual gifts as the previous year)

It was hard for Jason and I to think of a creative gift to top the Hamster last year, but I think he did pretty well!  As the Smith family was opening our present (they were unfortunate to not pull the Christmas Story Leg Lamp or the cold hard cash with a Jersey Shore calendar), they heard strange noises coming near the box and here is what they found:

Rocky the Raccoon 

Rocky didn't have a heartbeat, so he technically was not breaking any rules. Cathy was NOT amused by this present, but her son Cooper preceded to cuddle with it for the rest of the night.  This was very entertaining to watch.

Erik (the hamster winner) and Brian (the raccoon winner) threatened retaliation to Jason, and that is what we received when we arrived home from Atlanta this past Monday.

Mr. Bojangles was waiting for us in our backyard (notice all the poop)

The girls were super excited to see a goat on the back deck, so we quickly got the food out and fed it.

The goat was hiding behind our couch on the back deck

feeding the goat

they wanted to keep this thing

The poor little goat was so scared that he wouldn't even leave our back deck.  This would have been fine except it was like we had 100 rabbits out there with all the poop that was left.

I quickly found a nice family through craigslist that was excited to hear that we were giving away a 9 month old billy goat.  This family had the thickest Southern accents so I really believed that they were going to keep the goat on their farm versus butchering it (I heard this was an option for many people in the area).  7 year old Luke and his mom showed up at our house, quickly rallied the goat and then carried him to their car, and placed the goat on Luke's lap for the 20 minute ride home.  This was VERY entertaining to watch!!!

Our new friend Luke with our billy goat

Well, it turned out to be a funny story.  The fortunate thing for us was only having to take care of the goat for 6 hours while the Suttons are still cleaning up hamster poop and cedar shavings on a daily basis!    So, as entertaining as it was to have a goat in our backyard, Mr. Jingles still provides us laughs on a regular basis..........

Christmas in Atlanta (Part 2)

The second part of our Christmas vacation was spent with Papa & Jammy Epps in Northern Georgia.  We celebrated Christmas again, ate amazing food, and enjoyed the annual New Years Day party.  On one of the days, Taylor was even able to go out with all the boys to skip rocks on the Chattahoochee River which is right by Jammy and Papa's home.

As soon as we got there, Taylor and Papa ran upstairs to check out all the toys

Addie found one of Jammy's antique chairs that was just her size

Taylor thanking Papa for her new tutu

showing off her new tutu and boots

the boys are excited about their machines to clean up dog pee

Taylor gave Jammy & Papa the hand made Christmas wreath she made them

Taylor and Jammy hanging out

Dennis showing Jason around the kitchen

The girls playing well together

Taylor and Addison love to play together and I've been trying to capture a picture when Addie lays down on the ground to go "night night" and Taylor will wrap her up in a blanket.  It is so stinkin' sweet!

"go night night Addie"

Addie even liked to play in Paityn's jumper

the boys got a little taste of living in the mountains and were able to help their dad chop down a tree

Taylor loved to play with the dogs (I think she is really missing Barley and Sadie)

Look who's a cowgirl in North Georgia

On one evening, we were able to get into the hot tub before bed.  Taylor really enjoyed it although she didn't want to leave our side.  Jan came out to check on us and Taylor told her "I love this bathtub Jammy!"

A little time in the hot tub

Papa and Jammy hanging out with the grandkids

Papa taught Taylor how to cook oatmeal

A family picture

Our family

Josh, Tara and Paityn

Papa and Jammy with the grandkids

We didn't take any pictures from the New Years Day party but it was a lot of fun to see and catch up with the family friends that have known Jason for a long time.  They were super excited to meet all the kids, and we had a nice time with everyone before heading back to Arkansas that afternoon.

Happy New Years!!!