It's Snowing

We had November snow this year, so I couldn't resist taking Blue and Tayla to the dog park to enjoy the snow coming down! It's a good thing I did because after only a couple days of snow it all dissapeared! Hopefully we'll get more later this season, until then at least we have to pic's!

My First Walking Shoes!

Tayla got her first pair of Stride-Rite's! She is a week away from 9 months and growing like a weed! She is cruising the furniture and working on standing all alone. It won't be long before she's taking her first steps. She crawls like a maniac when she needs to get somewhere in a hurry but enjoys practicing her standing the most. This is such a fun age, we are really enjoying our happy little girl!

Snow Baby!

We made the most of a free weekend and snow in the passes and headed up to "Snow-qualmie". This is Tayla's first encounter with the fluffy stuff and she seemed to enjoy herself but was happiest when she got to eat it.

Need a Lift?

Hyak wasn't open yet so the lifts weren't moving, which made for fun picture time! Blue loves the snow, he runs around licking the snow as he goes! It's quite comical! It takes a lot to get him to stop running around when he gets in his snow frenzy.

Mom and Tayla

Here Kitty, Kitty

Tayla was a kitty-cat for halloween this year! We found this little outfit at a second-hand store for about 3 bucks! What a steal! It even had a sound chip in the kitty face that meow-ed when it was pushed, how cute! Tayla didn't trick-or-treat but we went out to eat with Grandma and Grandpa Thorn at Fatburger so she could show off her outfit.

Happy Halloween!

Tayla was not too sure about having make-up on her face so most of it came off before she ever left the house!

7 1/2 Months!

Although as I am posting this she is going on 8 1/2 months! But at least I'm getting up to date finally. She is our little climber now, she can climb all the way up the stairs but not down! She pulls up on everything and crawls like a maniac. She started crawling at 6 1/2 months which amazed us, we quickly had to start child-proofing! She is finally getting some consonants, she uses "d", "g", "k" and "b", every now and then I hear a "m". She actually uses these sounds appropriately, too! "Ra" for Ralphie, "Ki" for kitty, "Ga" for Grandma and Grandpa and so on.... We know it won't be long before we get a true word! Her newest thing is raising her hands above her head when asked "How big is Tayla?". So cute!

Palm Springs, CA!

Hooray for vacations! With all the job craziness we were in need of some sunny destressing! Lucky for us my mom and dad invited us to join them in Palm Springs. Greg and Holly(my bro' and sis-in-law) joined us from LA for the weekend which was fun. Darik had an interview so he met us down there a few days late but still got a good 5 days. Tayla taught herself to pull-up on the bathtub on this trip and now is unstoppable. We had a wonderful week and came back refreshed!

Mommy and Me (again)

I'm not so camera-shy now that I've got my Tayla-Rae. I love posing for pic's with my girl! Here we are at some supposedly cool historic lookout, we weren't overly impressed but it was sunny and warm and that's really all that matters! And yes, I cut my hair and lightened it up. I'm not at all in love with it so it's brown again now and in the process of growing (isn't it always?). Feel free to email frequetly reminding me that I satisfied my curiosity and to never do it again.

Three Generations

Grandma T, Tracy and Tayla (lot's of T's) enjoyed spending a warm and relaxing week together.

Grandpa T and Tayla

Grandpa and Tayla hanging out in the make-shift play area we made in the hotel room. It was great to have a ground floor unit that walked right out to the pool. We could play while Tayla napped and bringing lunch and all our pool necessities out to the pool was easy!

Grandma and Tayla

Grandma and Tayla tested out the Kiddie Pool but found it wasn't that interesting (or clean), the big pool ended up being much more fun.

Swimming Baby

Tayla loved swimming in the pool, she got to have swim sessions once or twice a day all week long. Daddy even got her to kick her legs while he glided her around.

Mom and Tayla Camping

Darik's whole family went camping down at Cannon Beach, OR. It was tons of fun because the brother-in-law's and myself brought our parents, too. We took up a good portion of the campground and we barely fit around the campfire at night. Some would argue that we didn't! We had so much fun running around on the beach all day and playing in the ocean (only when the sun was out because it's pretty arctic!) . Even Blue dog got to come chill with us in the dog friendly town. This was over Labor Day so Tayla was about 6 1/2 months.

Cousin's

Cousin Karik and Tayla are finally starting to be able to enjoy eachother's company. It was so much fun to have all the babies around camp.

Tillamook Factory

My dad's company represents Tillamook cheese so of course we had to go tour the plant. It was only a 45 min. drive from our campsite. We brought back plenty of squeaky cheese (cheese curds) for everyone to eat around the campfire.

Beautiful baby!

The summer sunshine is enough to make Tayla happy! About six months old here.

Tayla makes a friend

Actually she already knows Scott (a fellow Coastie) who is a good friend of Darik's. But she loves to give talk to him anyway.

Mommy and Tayla at the wedding

Tayla and Daddy at the wedding

Summer Wedding!

Tayla and her parent's really enjoyed the summer sunshine at Pam and Jake's wedding in Seattle. The afore mentioned duo are Coastie friends of Darik's.

Grandpa's are my favorite!

Tayla seems to really love her Grandpa's. Grandpa Rod(DenHerder) has the magic sleepy touch.

Daddy's the Best!

Daddy with his minnie-me! They're so cute!

My Pool!

Tayla loved her very first pool that Grandma and Grandpa Thorn bought for the cabin! It was so bright because of the colorful yellow canopy that Grandma and Grandpa DenHerder could see it(via binoculars) from a neighboring island! Tayla was fortunate enough to have a quite a few warm weekends to use it. The itty-bitty bikini was courtousy Rachel Harris.

I love Doggies too!

Or rather, doggies love me! It's quite discusting when I think about it but this is a multi-time per day event. Not only does she get kisses from Blue, but Grandma and Grandpa Thorn's dog Finley and a few nosey doggies at the dog park. But since giving kisses is the only problem we've encountered with Blue since Tayla arrived we count ourselves lucky!

I love Kitty-cat's!

In a house full of animals, Tayla has much to amuse herself. She loves the kitties most because they are the most elusive. Kelso (pictured here) is the most tolerant, which is amazing since he hates people, except me and sometimes Darik. Ralphie our usually tough, outdoor adventurer, dog wrestling, people friendly, fat cat runs like a sissy when she comes near. Go figure. Anyone recognize the post-baby belly on the TV? Oh, yes, that's Mrs. Brittney Federline. The crap we used to watch before we got rid of cable, but that's another story! And how old is Tayla in this picture, my guess is 6 months (I knew I should be labeling our pic's!).

5 months old!

Actually more like 5 1/2! This is Tayla enjoying some sunny weather at cousin Zachary's 3rd birthday party. As you can tell she is starting to sit by herself very well, she rolls front to back and back to front and can feed herself Mum-mum crackers!

Cousins

Tayla and Karik are only two weeks apart! Still a little too young to really enjoy each other yet but its fun to see them smile at each other. Here they are sitting with Grandma DenHerder (a.k.a. Grandma Lynn) and cousin Addison (5, Karik's older sister) looks on waiting to return to reading.

Pack Mule

Finally at the top! We went on a gorgeous hike while camping at Mt. Ranier, unfortunately it was pretty socked in with fog but the flowers were amazing. This was Tayla's first time in the hiking back-pack and both she and Darik did very well.

Happy Hiker

Although she slept through most of the hike she really enjoyed herself while she was awake!

mom and tayla

Here we are all bundled up for a cold night camping!

Camping

Tayla's first camping experience at Mt. Rainer. We had lot's of fun with all the cousins and took a beautiful hike. More pic's to come...

Vroom, Vroom

Tayla got her first car! What a lucky girl, but the next one's not until she's 16.

Darik's First Father's Day!

We had Tracy's mom and dad over for Father's Day dinner. Can you tell we are a baby house now with all the toys on the floor? Never thought we'd be one of those with toys everwhere but it happens!

4 months old!

Tayla on Father's Day looking so big! She even rolls over now but only back to front. She just had her 4 month check-up and she is 15 pounds (75%) and 26 in. (97%), tall little girl!

Tayla Swims!

Tayla's first time in the pool with cousin Mia (8months) and Auntie Beth.