Happy St. Patty's Day!

We had the family over for our traditional St. Patrick's Day meal. This is the first time my Mom as not made this meal, it's one of my favorite dinners of the year. We had irish soda bread, corned beef, cabbage, carrots, red potatos, and green beverages, then for dessert we had a bailey's chocolate mouse pie, all while listening to some traditional irish tunes on Pandora (check out the "music" link on the right)

We went over to my parents house on Sunday to help them get ready to move and have some yummy spicy sausage chili. Taylor had a blast in their red wagon and being chased by Kona. My parents also have a Lama next door, she thought they were pretty interesting.

Here are a couple photos of the guys working.. they built two planter stands for the back porch and replaces about 5 windows!

This is just a portion of my parents amazing backyard. In 2005 John and my Dad built this pergola from scratch! I'm totally amazed at how beautiful it turned out and how talented they are! We had our wedding here and it was absolutely perfect! We could not have had it at a more romantic location. My Mom planted almost 800 flowers that year for the big day and John planted a 15 plant rose garden here for me for our wedding... aw. :) It was stunning!

We finally sold our Triumph Spitfire. :( It was sad to see it go because it was a great little car with lots of memories. While we were making the sale in Jantzen Beach, we noticed there was a carousel, so of course for $2 we couldn't resist taking Taylor for a ride. It was a bitter sweet day.

Quick little tid-bit...

Taylor used the potty today! We have been using it for about a month now and today we sat on it before her bath and sure enough, she went! Yay for our big girl! :)

Silly girl... look at her little elvis lips. She cracks me up! :)

Here is that adorable wooden piano & chair that we got from my parents yesterday, she looked so cute playing it. :)

Today Taylor was expressing some interest in pens and coloring on stuff (our couch, John's Bible notes, etc..) so I thought we better do some real art on art paper. Notice the same "sunset" theme in her second project on the left.. I think she will be an artist. :) I love this girl, we think she is so talented!

Yesterday we all went to visit Grandma & Papa (my parents) up on Cooper Mountain. It was such a beautiful day! Taylor got lots of kisses from their dog Kona and loved every minute of it! They sent us home with a bunch of goodies because they are packing and getting ready to move so we got 2 end tables, and some toys for Taylor, my favorite was a small wooden piano and chair that used to be mine. My Mom paints watercolor so she said I could pick out one of her beautiful framed prints to take home... but I couldn't chose so she let me take 4!! I have all but one hung already. :) Thank you!

Yesterday Taylor and I did a little art project, I set out some "paint”, a brush, & newspaper of course and let her have at it. John thought her finished product looked a bit like a sunset… so it's called "Sunset over the Hills" (see the red/yellow sunset, the green hills, and the blue river… I know, we have quite an imagination over here.) She had a lot of fun, and of course, a bath was in order once we were finished.

ATTENTION Concerned Parents: That's not actual paint that she is eating, it’s vanilla pudding with food coloring, it dries quite nicely making a perfect fridge decoration. :)

On a side note... I can tell that we will be the proud parents of a terrible two in a year, she is already showing signs of "wanting it NOW" & "doing it MY way" etc… For instance, when I lay her down to be changed, she screams bloody murder, arches her back and tries to flip over. Once I get stern and tell her no, she sits still but continues to cry. This goes for any time she doesn’t get her way. Any other parents have some advice or comforting words??