2 Earthquakes jolted North Texas last night

Apparently 2 minor earthquakes struck Irving, Texas last night. There is no major damage reported. We live in Coppell, just north of Irving and didn't feel anything. How crazy is that!

So much for Halloween

What a horrible week! Taylor has had a fever since monday night. Nathan stayed home with her yesterday and took her to the doctor. He said it is just a virus and it should only last 4-5 days. He said her fever should break either yesterday or today. Her fever was down to 99.1 at 5 am this morning. That is good news, except her fever goes down after we give her Motrin and then it shoots back up when it wears off. It got to 105.1 the other night and I almost freaked. Luckily the motrin kicked in and brought it down to 102.6 quickly. It's that sad when you are glad your child's fever is down to 102!

Anyways, hopefully she will break the fever today. If she is feeling up to it, we might dress her up and go trick or treating to a few houses, but we won't be able to go to trunk or treat at the church. I was really looking forward to going to trunk or treat and I know Taylor would of had fun. Also, I don't think we are going to Baylor Homecoming tomorrow morning. We've been planning on going for almost a year and I had bought Taylor a Baylor cheerleading outfit to wear to the parade. It is the 100th year of the Baylor Homecoming parade and we were really looking forward to going down to Waco and seeing friends. Maybe we can just go to the parade - who knows. I don't want to push it if she is still not feeling good.

The real kicker today, on my way to work I got a speeding ticket! I was going 50 on the feeder road next to I-35 and apparently the speed limit is 35. I mean really! Who goes 35 on the feeder road????? I know things could be worse, but it has been a pretty crummy week. I almost forgot, yesterday was Nathan's 30th birthday and he had to stay home with Taylor. Let me tell you, Taylor is not the sweet loveable Taylor when her fever is up. It's like a whole different little person.

Please pray that the fever will break soon and it is nothing more than just a virus. Fever scares me because there really isn't anything you can do to help - except Motrin and a high fever can cause major problems. As a mother, it is so hard to see your child sick and hurting. I hate Taylor being sick.

Hope everyone else is feeling well and has a Happy Halloween.

Rough week

Yesterday was a rough day for Nathan and me. We were both sick with a stomach virus and spent the day in bed. Taylor went to Tammy's that morning and we were both feeling better by the time we had to get her at 4pm. Well, I thought we were in the clear, but around 7 last night, both Nathan and Taylor came down with a fever. Nathan went to bed and broke his fever and is fine today. Taylor's fever keeps going up and down. This is no fun.



I made Taylor a pallet on the floor next to me so she could watch cartoons while I worked.

Nathan's 30th birthday party......beer pong anyone???

Will you play ping pong with me???

Today we celebrated Nathan's 30th birthday. His real birthday is October 30th, but we had his party today. He wanted to feel young again and relive his college days, so we had a beer pong tournament. For those of you who don't know what beer pong is, it is ping pong with hitting the ball into the cup of beer. If the other team hits the ball in your cup, then you have to drink the whole cup of beer. It was nice getting to hang out with some of our college friends who we don't get to see that often and some of Nathan's co-workers.

Taylor and Zach Baker popped bubbles for a little while

Hording the ping pong balls

The boys playing beer pong and the girls watching

Nathan and Brandon take on Nate and Andy

Taylor rocked Cody in the bouncer




Nathan blowing out the candles on his homemade ice cream cake

We all know how much Taylor loves cake and ice cream - had to post a picture of that!

Nathan teaching Taylor to play ping pong

Not such a great day

Well, today was a bad day. I got up and went to work this morning at 6 am. Nathan called me around 7:15 this morning and told me that Taylor had thrown up in her crib. He cleaned her up and I told him to call me if something else went wrong since she seemed to be feeling okay. Ten minutes later he called back and said she had thrown up again. I packed up my work and came back home so Nathan could go to work. She did seem okay and she didn't have a fever, so we decided we would call the doctor when the office opened. So, I called the doctor and got her an appointment for 10:50 which was the first available appointment. After I got off the phone, she threw up again! I think she has only thrown up once in her 16 month life and now 3 times in one day.

So, we go to the doctor and he says it is just a cold with an upset stomach from all the mucus. He said we could give her some cold medicine if we want, but to let it work itself out and that she isn't contagous or anything. Luckily, she didn't throw up anymore today and seemed to be feeling better all day. We are just a little jumpy now - every time she coughs, we are afraid she is going to throw up.

What a fun day!

You would of thought it was 20 below outside this morning. I had Taylor in some warm clothes and she was still cold, so I busted out the reindeer hat.

I had my Ipod on my desk and had it locked, so I didn't see any harm letting Taylor hold on to it. Well, approximately 5 seconds later, she had unlocked it and turned it on. She had turned up the volume and was dancing - it was so cute! The best part was, she was jamming to Michael W. Smith's Awesome God.

Taylor and I had a fun afternoon with friends. Taylor and I met Crystal and Somang at Starbucks for an afternoon green tea frappacuino yummy drink and some girl talk.

After Starbucks, Taylor and I came home for a playdate with April and Abigail. The girls played while April and I talked. Nathan is out of town today in New Orleans, so April invited us to dinner at Anameas and who could pass that up? So, I didn't have to cook for just Taylor and me and we had wonderful chicken soft tacos with good friends.

Long-time family friend in town

Mom came back into town last night with our long-time family friend Margaret Martin. Margaret lives in Scotland and we use to hang out with the Martins all the time when we lived in Scotland. Margaret has two children, Angus who is Zachs age and Jenny who is a year or two older than me, but we were best buddies when we were little. I haven't seen Jenny and Angus since 9th grade when I went back to Scotland during the summer for a visit. Anyways, they are loved family friends that we only get to see every few years.

Margaret got to meet Taylor and brought her the cutest bib that says Scotland and the duck(Jemima Duck) from Beatrix Potter (author of Peter Rabbit, etc.). Taylor loves the duck and says "quack, quack, quack" all day long now when she plays with the duck. It's cute though.

We were suppose to do some shopping today, but mom and Margaret wanted to get back to Houston before the bad weather hit. I am so tired of the meteorologist saying a storm is going to be so bad and it ends up not even hitting or it barely rains. Anyways, we could of done some serious shopping today because the weather was fine. It did rain for maybe 45 minutes. I went ahead and did my own shopping on my lunch break!

Happy 30th Birthday Mike!

Saturday night we went over to the Denisons to celebrate Michael's 30th birthday. Nathan and Mike have been best friends since high school in Brownwood. Both their birthday's are in October, so Dacia and I usually plan something together - last weekend we went to Rodney Carrington together for their b-day presents. Anyways, we went over and hung out for a few hours. They live in Celina, so we don't get to hang out as much as we use to when we lived in Little Elm. Taylor loves her Aunt Dacia and Uncle Mike who feeds her ice cream!

Aren't these the cutest overalls? Nathan's grandfathers secretary made them for Taylor with a matching bow the size of Taylor's head!

Taylor watching baby Cody eat his bottle. I think she wanted to know where her bottle was - she use to love her bottles!

Taylor playing fetch with Bandit.

Taylor playing washers with daddy. She's pretty good!

Sink repair with a little helper

I wanted to change the faucet in Taylor's/guest bathroom. We needed to change the hoses out and hadn't gotten around to it. Nathan was out of town most of the week, so Taylor and I had to get the sink hooked up in the guest bathroom before the social at our house. You would think it would be easy just to attach the hoses and that's it. Well, that is it, but the nerve racking part is turning the water on to see if you attached the hoses correctly. I just new I was about the flood the bathroom and didn't have time to mess with it because I had to get everything ready for the social. Luckily it worked out fine and I had attached the hoses right because I didn't have water shooting out from anywhere. Taylor was a such a big help - just see........

Getting the hoses ready for mommy.

Checking the hose after mommy attached it.

Showing the dogs what the hose looks like and telling them how to attach them to the sink.

Sunday School Halloween Social

Our Sunday school Halloween social was at our house last night. We had a costume contest where everyone dressed up like a bible character. Adam and Eve, Meshak and Abendafro, Daniel and the Lion, the Ten Commandments, Delilah and Samson, Debra and Barak were at the party. Nathan and I dressed up as Bathsheeba and Uriah. The social was pretty fun and we ended up playing battle of the sexes which the girls dominated the boys!

Lunch playdate

Last tuesday, Crystal and Somang came over for lunch with mom, Taylor and me. It wasn't much of a playdate since Somang is only 2 months old and Taylor went to sleep before we finished lunch. It was nice to get to see them and Somang is just precious.

Christmas photos

Last night we took our Christmas photos with one of our friends Courtney, who has started a photography business. You should check out her website - it is precious. Just click on the Anthologie button on my blog and it should take you to her website. Courtney did Taylor's one year photos and they were awesome. If your looking for a photographer in Dallas, I highly recommend her!

Anyways, we got all dressed up for our pictures. We went to the Grapevine Springs Park Preserve in Coppell which is actually pretty nice. Taylor loved walking on the bridge and looking at the water and the fish. My mom and I were about to have a heart attack every time she stuck her head through the slats on the bridge to look into the water. When I was little I had an affinity for water. It didn't matter where we were or how much water there was, if there was a pond, pool or stream, somehow I ended up in it. Luckily Taylor didn't go swimming yesterday!

Getting ready to leave for the photo shoot.

My mom reading to Taylor while we waited for Nathan to get home from work.

My mom is in town this week because Nathan and I are both traveling for work. I leave this afternoon for Missouri and Nathan leaves tomorrow morning for Kerrville. I get back tomorrow night and Nathan gets back friday night about the time the October social starts that we are hosting at our house for our sunday school class. It's going to be a crazy week!

Rodney Carrington comedy show

Last night we went to the Rodney Carrington comedy show with Mike and Dacia for Nathan's birthday. We went to Joe T. Garcia's for dinner and it was scrumptious. The opening act, Marc Ryan was hilarious. Rodney was even funnier. We laughed and lauged and my cheeks started to hurt I was laughing so much. The best part of the night was hearing my husband laugh. Nathan has the best laugh in the world and it one of my favorite qualities about him. It might sound funny, but his laugh is wonderful. I can't help but smile every time I hear it.

Us with Mike and Dacia before the show.

Us at Joe T. Garcia's in Fort Worth

Post spacing

I'm sure you all have noticed that my blog post spacing is all jacked up. Trust me, I mess with it constantly. I've done everything I can think of to get it to just let me do it myself, but for some reason, my blog has a mind of it's own. Any advice on how to get this taken care of would be greatly appreciated.

Nature Fest in Carrollton

What a wonderful, fabulous saturday. I've been needing a day like today for a while. We had a slow, peaceful morning. Taylor took a 3 hour nap and while she was sleeping, I actually got to lay in bed and read. It was glorious! I don't remember the last time that during the daylight hours that I got to sit down and just read for fun. When Taylor woke up from her nap, we headed to the Nature Fest in Carrollton. The best part was, Nana and Poppy were in town and came to the Nature Fest with us. Well, the Nature Fest wasn't what I expected. I thought it would be huge with a pumpkin patch, all kinds of booths, etc. In reality, there were several booths set up with some small animals from local research and/or conservation groups, some other groups and a crafts/games area. There wasn't much to it, but we made the most of it.

Taylor did get to touch a corn snake and loved seeing the other animals. She wasn't old enough for the crafts, but had fun with the games.



Taylor with Nana touching a corn snake. Creepy!

Nathan, Nana, Poppy and Taylor

Taylor playing the duck game.

Playing bean bag toss and winning!

Playdate with Abigail

Thursday afternoon, we went over to the Huskey's house for a playdate. Taylor and Abigail played in the backyard on the slide and then we went inside and they played with a tea set and doll house. We had a wonderful time playing and the girls are so cute together.

We could only stay an hour because we had a dinner reservation with some friends to give the boys (Nathan and his best friend Mike) birthday presents. Dacia and I are the best wives ever and surprized the boys with tickets to Rodney Carrington for Sunday night. If you don't know, Rodney Carrington is a comedian and he had a show a few years ago called Rodney that was hilarious. Luckily my mom is coming in for the week, so she will be able to watch Taylor when we go to the show tomorrow night.

Yeah for the English language

Taylor is 16 months now and is really starting to talk. She's been saying a few words for several months, but is now really starting to pick up talking. She still babbles a lot and we just kind of nod and agree with what she is saying. She has said "mama", "dada", "more","dog", "BoBo"(our mini beagle), "duck" and a few other words here and there. She has recently learned please, juice, milk, up, down and can repeat almost any word you say to her. She knows a lot of her animals and their sounds. We, maybe I should say I, have taught her that the turtle says "love you". I don't know what a turtle really says, I don't think they say anything, so since they are my favorite, they say something sweet! It is so nice finally getting to really communicate with your child.

The Music of ABBA concert

ABBA ROCKS!!!!!!

Last night I went to my first concert in I don't even remember when! My friend April and I went to the House of Blues downtown and saw a tribute band to ABBA. If yall don't know who ABBA is, the musical and now movie Mamma Mia! is based off ABBA songs. The concert was a blast! The singers looked like the original ABBA group and the neatest part was that the original guitar player for ABBA is touring with this tribute band. I had never been to the House of Blues and it is pretty awesome. We made some new friends with some 'dancing queens' if you catch my drift. Watching the people was almost as fun as the concert. We sang and danced the entire time and it was sooooooo much fun.

The House of Blues

April and me before the concert started

Got to love the outfits!

The guy in the middle with the guitar is the original guitarist from ABBA

Taylor rocking her new House of Blues T-shirt

Our sweet friend Chloe's birthday party

We went to our wonderful friend Chloe's 2nd birthday party this afternoon. Her birthday party was in her backyard with fun little games set up for the kids to play, face painting that turned into hand painting and a super fun swingset with a slide. Taylor tried all the games, loved the bowling the best and the slide. She's too little to climb up by herself, so we kept having to put her at the top of the slide and hold her as she went down. I think her favorite part of the whole party was eating the cupcake. It was almost as messy as her own birthday party! Don't worry, I totally got a picture of it! We had a wonderful time at the party.

Happy 2nd birthday Chloe!!

Taylor playing ring toss.

Taylor playing bean bag toss.

Taylor getting her hand painted. She got a red heart on her right hand and a purple flower on her left hand.

Taylor chowing down on a scrumptious cupcake.

Taylor with her gift bag. She likes to carry bags around.