just when you thought it was safe to check the blog...

oh no, it's the return of silly eyes - version 2.0 - augh!!!!

save yourself - quick!!

ben taught me how to do silly eyes, and i think it's the most hilarious thing ever!! i do them all the time, and then scream and laugh like crazy afterwards!! see...

good times!! and check back again soon for a march update, hopefully before the baby arrives!!! :)

bye!

p.s. disclaimer: that is not a real double-chin seen in those photos above. it must have just been some bad lighting... or something wrong with mom's camera lens... please disregard...

as promised: ben's birthday and our special surprise...

why, hello there! so, we posted about christmas events in february, and now we're keeping on that schedule by posting about january events in march! thanks for checking back in! :)

things have been going really well lately - i have stayed injury free (momma doesn't believe in jinxes), luke has been talking in hilarious complete sentences and trying out all kinds of new things as he nears birthday #2, and the baby to come is now only about 3 weeks away (yikes!)!! here are some pictures of a few things in january (even though you'll notice it looks like fall around here, not winter!). first up - me and luke on a trolley ride with momma. this is one of our favorite things to do when we're out and about in the woodlands. if you come visit us for more than a few days, we'll probably go on a ride together...

and here's luke in the hot tub at mimsie and grandpa's house! i did knock two of my teeth loose while playing in it that trip, but boys will be boys and we had so much fun in there!! all the pictures of me also had mimsie, and she would not approve of them being up on the blog, so you can just imagine me having lots of fun too. we hope to go back soon to play with maggie dog and swim some more. maybe mom and dad will even consider getting a hot tub of our own - woohoo!! :)

and now let's move on to the real reason we don't blog much anymore. this was a very mild winter and we still play outside pretty much every day. we love riding the plasma car and the bike and playing with lots of other outside toys. but back in january, aunt mandy and diana surprised me and luke with a very special christmas and birthday present - our very own gator powerwheels - WHOA!!! i wish everyone could have seen the look on my face when i found it in the garage, and here are some pictures of the first time i rode it...

this is luke wondering what on earth that thing is that i'm riding...

and this is luke getting his first close-up look at it (while daddy was adjusting something under the seat) - do you see this look of mischief and wonder at all the "boy stuff" we can do on this thing!?! that says it all, folks...

and here's our first ride together...

we pretty much spend a majority of every day riding around the yard on it, helping daddy with yard work on the weekends, picking up stuff, dumping stuff off in other places, collecting pine needles, wood, sticks, etc, going over huge bumps, riding around our cul-de-sac and even to the park, and generally enjoying our manliness with some real power under our feet (literally). it's a win-win because we love it, and it keeps us out of mom's hair more, so she loves it too. THANK YOU aunt mandy and diana!!! and now you all know where we are when we're not updating the blog... :)

also, i guess i have one more noteworthy update, which is that i started preschool back in january too! i go to school twice each week and even wear a special uniform and take my own lunch! i really enjoy it so far, and it gives luke and momma some nice alone time, so things are going well there. here's me on my first day (no tears, please)...

i also had my birthday in january, and that was a super awesome day. i wore the birthday hat again, and here's a quick shot of me opening something in the morning...

this is luke's reaction to having a four-year old brother...

momma lined up a really special day for me doing some of my favorite things. here's me in the backseat during our stop at the car wash, which is a favorite weekend activity of mine with daddy. even though we go very often, i still watch with such focus to see what's going on every time...

daddy had to work that day, but that gave us a good excuse to go visit his office, which we've never done before here in houston. i was SO excited about that, and especially loved riding the elevator in his building...

after that we all took a long lunch and went to eat a picnic at hermann park, complete with cupcakes and spiffy sunglasses... (you would think i could manage a smile on my birthday, but as usual, i had to play it cool instead)...

here's luke getting in the birthday spirit...

we also rode the train there, which i LOVE to do...

and we stopped to get helium balloons and then ate dinner at my favorite cheeseburger place, and then came home to open my big gift, which was my own airplane - yes!!! i was beyond excited about this, although once again, you would have had to be here to know that, since the camera sucks all emotion out of my body. the airplane is super cool, very realistic, and was a little bit pricey which is why momma still can't afford to buy me any pants, apparently...

haha - just kidding about the pants! anyway, you can see uncle scott flying the plane in the picture above, and sitting next to him is miss linda, the flight attendant, from our trip to indiana at christmas. :)

okay, well, that's about all for now. there's a chance we'll actually get some february pictures up on here before too long, so check back in again soon - bye!

Christmas... and more of the new year...

hello again - our second post of the month - yes!! :) and as promised, we finally have pictures to share from Christmas! but first, i have to start with a disclaimer: there are a lot of pictures of me today (and were last time too) but it's not that momma is playing favorites, it's just that i'm in a really good phase of smiling cute for the camera and always have funny faces to make, and therefore, share with you all. we hope there are no complaints, and let's get started with some adorable ones of me and "small dog" that ben made for me (at build-a-bear) for christmas...

this is that same goofy face you've seen before, and it's what i do now when i realize momma wants me to smile for the camera...

and now to finally get to our Christmas events... first, we have one and only one picture of me opening a gift at home. we got several new musical instruments, and this is me intensely trying out the "flutophone" which we pretend is a trumpet...

and that's all we have for that because momma only took a few pictures that day and most of them were not very good and aren't that exciting anyway, so we'll move on to our trip to indiana, which was christmas day. flying on christmas was actually really fun, everyone was cheerful and happy, and ben and i were both good on the plane ride there. see - - this is me being good...


...and this is ben being good! :) ha!! he got to watch movies on daddy's laptop for the first time on a plane ride (after having only just recently sat through his first entire movie ever a few days before - jungle book!) and was very focused on what he was doing, no time for smiling even...

we had an awesome flight attendant, and after we landed, she arranged for ben to go up to the cockpit to sit on the pilot's lap and even turn the control "wheel" - oh my!! ben loved it and even did manage a small smile for that one!!...

meanwhile, i continued to make this face throughout the day because i just couldn't help myself but to be super happy on christmas...

we had a great time at beamee and grampee's house and stayed for several days, playing with relatives, having visitors, and somehow managing to not break a single one of beamee's 4,000 breakable christmas decorations that she had out (and those were just the ones that we could have reached!). momma managed to take almost no pictures whatsoever, but aunt aimee saved the day by sharing hers. and here's ben playing with the "crazyforts" from beamee and grampee, sharing in the fun with aunt debbie - yahoo!!! it was quite cold in indiana but ben still managed to go without pants for a majority of the time...

the crazyforts are a really fun building toy and after we made the suggested structures on the box, we couldn't really go on without making a car wash, of course, complete with aunt debbie's scarf as scrubbing brushes...

here i am waiting patiently while ben takes forever with his turn in the car wash...

and you might remember from the last post that momma had bought us all kinds of winter gear in the weeks before our trip. and then the weather forecast all but guaranteed absolutely no snow whatsoever in indiana during our trip, and our suitcases were already very full and heavy anyway, so we left all the winter gear at home since it wasn't going to be needed. but ben kept saying 'maybe it will snow anyway' and momma kept trying to tell him, 'yes, it's possible but very unlikely so please don't get your hopes up...' and what do you know but we woke up on tuesday morning and everything was covered in beautiful white snow!! we were ALL so surprised and so happy and it even continued to snow all day! and we managed to scrounge up enough clothes to keep ben warm while he played outside, and this is what he looked like - oh my! totally embarrassing, sorry ben!!

hilarious though because all ben wanted to do during our whole trip to indiana was play in the snow, make snow angels and build a snowman. we read "the snowy day" a lot and ben just couldn't wait to make snow angels like peter!

and this was snowman #1 on the first day that ben and taylor made together - so cute!

but once back inside, ben was so happy for the snow but really was wishing momma had brought all of his snow clothes that actually fit him and didn't make him look like a dork...

and so off she went to target to score a full set of snow stuff for ben - on sale, mind you! - and life was good and he got to play in the snow for two days and wear his own snow boots and snowsuit and even got pulled around in the sled by momma!
and everyone was loving the snow, except me you might notice, because i was mostly inside the whole time because i was not as big of a fan of the cold, and momma didn't buy snow gear for me and instead i just hung out with aunt elaina and aunt aimee and beamee and life was good anyway. but back outside, they had a big snowball fight the second day, and i had to share this picture because everyone is looking up as if the biggest snowball ever is being thrown from across the neighborhood and daddy is determined to catch it - hilarious!

anyway, this is getting long and the point of it all is we had such a great time with everyone and were especially thankful for that awesome surprise snow. we had a great christmas, and ben got to help make a proper snowman after all...

yay! and come back again soon for some pictures of another christmas surprise we got and hopefully a few of ben's birthday pictures too. bye!