2011 Recap

During January and February, we attended Kindermusick classes. Taylor loved to run around and play with the instruments and books, but didn't really want to participate in the actual activities. Although, she did LOVE the parachute at the end of every class.

At the end of January, Adam and I went to Hawaii for about a week. We had a blast! Snorkeling off Black Rock, whale tours, and my favorite was the day we took the Road to Hana! We rented a Jeep for the entire trip, and it was fabulous for seeing all the beautiful Hawaiian landscape!

Road to Hana

We actually saw the whales better on our snorkeling trip than we did on our whale tour.

In February, Taylor and I got the flu. She dealt with it very well. I didn't even know she had it until she couldn't get over a cough and I took her to the doc for some steroids. I planned to take myself to the doctor as soon as we were done at the peditrician, but when they tested her for the flu and it was positive, I knew what I had! I waited too late for medicine, and it was terrible on me! I got over it, but I hope I never have that again!

In March, Adam built Taylor her very own playhouse! He picked a cold weekend and finished it in a rainy weekend, but she LOVES it!

In April, we went to the A-Day game, celebrated Jesus, and experienced a terrible natural disaster.

At our church's Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday.

Getting her Easter basket

Egg hunt at Mama Donna and Papa Rex's.

On April 27th, my hometown and much of the state were hit by an F4 tornado. The landscape of Tuscaloosa changed drastically and months later, it still stakes by breath away as I drive down McFarland Blvd and 15th Street. I went to work the next day, but all I did was stare at pictures and read stories on the computer and cried. Many of my coworkers had lived in Tuscaloosa for at least 4 years while attending Alabama, but none of them were affected the same way as those of us actually from Tuscaloosa. Tuscaloosa is rebuilding and will be stronger. It is still very surreal to me.

This is an area of town Dad grew up in. Completely gone!

Moving on to May, we had some 18 month pictures made and took a trip to the zoo.

Modeling Pepsi for Daddy!

She had it made, getting to walk around the zoo on everyone's shoulders!

Shortly after her 18 month pictures were taken, Taylor got her first little hair trim!

Thanks Aunt Karen!

In June, we celebrated Henley's 2nd birthday!

So this is how you wanted me to eat my birthday cake, why not this one?

We also began our fun at Alabama Adventure! I wasn't sure how Taylor would do with all the water, but she loves it! Even takes the slides face first! Before the summer was over, we were even heading over to the kids section (we mostly stayed in the toddler section) and going down those big and curvy slides!

The gang's all here!

There weren't many rides she was tall enough to ride, but she loved this one!

In July, we had my 10 year class reunion! Has it really been that long??!! We had a mix and mingle on Friday night, a family picnic on Saturday and a dinner on Saturday night.

Go Wildcats!

Party planning committee!

We also went to the beach with our friends. We had a few days of adults only and then Nannie and Papa brought Taylor down to spend a day and a half. She LOVED the ocean! Click here to see a video.

Our friend, Wes, took this picture from our room's balcony. While he was taking pictures of Taylor, a man from the pool deck came over to Wes and asked him to stop because his wife was getting freaked out by the "guy on the balcony taking pictures of everyone"! :) He was only taking pictures of Taylor!

In August, I started a new job with Southern Company! I had been praying for a new job for several years and waiting on God's perfect timing. And His timing is perfect! This new job has been such a blessing and I actually ENJOY my job!

The last weekend of August, we set out to get the house really clean (because it doesn't get much love during football season) and Taylor was always under foot. I started giving her jobs (e.g.she cleaned the bathtub, while I cleaned the rest of the bathroom, then we'd swap) and she LOVED it. She still cleans and cleans! She helps with laundry, dishes, LOVES to sweep, etc. She has actually started truly helping some! I hope this continues!

I don't have a super cute picture of her cleaning, because I'm, well, cleaning. But, here's one of her even dusting her books!

In September, Adam and I went to Pennslyvania for the Penn State game. We flew into Philly a couple of days early and took a tour of the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, etc. That night we ate dinner in China town. I wanted some real Chinese food and we got it! I ate so much that I could barely walk back to the hotel, but it was so good!

The next day we drove through the Amish Country. It is so beautiful! They had had so much rain, and the grass was sooo green! They were still cleaning up from flooding resulting from Hurricane Irene and then Tropical Storm Lee. We stayed in Harrisburg, much of which was closed down due to the flooding. On Saturday, we drove into State College and enjoyed the game. Roll Tide!

We flew home on the 10 year anniversary of September 11th. That was a little scary to me!

Towards the end of September, Taylor slipped down a couple of stairs and fractured her elbow when she tried to break her fall. :( Poor baby! Mommy just let her suffer through it on Sunday (with pain medicine), but when the first thing she told me Monday morning was "Oww, my arm", we went straight to the doctor. She was a trooper though!

She was so good! The X-rays hurt her little arm so bad, Mommy was crying!

Getting a treat for being so good during her time at the doctor!

During October, we took Taylor to the Homecoming festivities on campus. The parade wore her out!

We also enjoyed our church's Pumpkin Patch!

She got a football on the other side, picked that out all on her own!

For Halloween, we went over to a friends neighborhood to Trick-or-Treat. They shut down the streets and you have to have a pass to get in. It's THE place to go in our neck of the woods. We've gone over there for Halloween every year since we moved up here. Even before we had Taylor, it was fun to hand out candy to all the kids. One year, Adam dressed up like a big baby and got attacked by kids and dogs!

We had the Hungry, Hungry Catepillar and Butterfly, a Fairy Princess, Dora, and a Pumpkin!

In November, we celebrated Thanksgiving with family.

In December, we had a two-week long Christmas celebration! Check it out here, here, here and here!

This post was hard to write because I see how much Taylor has changed and grown over the past year. I still had a baby at the beginning of 2011. I barely feel like I have a toddler anymore, she's getting so big! More to come on that in the next post...