Loves to cheese it up for Enoch, who took this picture

Today’s post is to spotlight Alora.  I love when my kids start to show their personalities.  I enjoy getting to learn more about my little people, their likes and dislikes, what they get excited about, and being the one who gets to introduce them to the world around them. Stuff like that. This baby is definitely the exclamation point at the end of our Taylor family sentence.  So here’s to you baby!

Alora likes to be in the know.  She is often found hanging out near a window so she can be the first to welcome Daddy home with a big “HI DADDY.”  It melts Seth’s heart every night (I think if she were to then follow with “May I have a dog please” she would be our kids best hope of ever getting one.)  Being in the “know” also means knowing when Enoch’s friends are over playing in our back yard.  Can’t have that going on without the little sister saying “Me too, Me too!”

  Can you see the air she’s getting?

Speaking of “Me too, Me too” Alora thinks she should be big enough to sleep with the older two.  It worked the first night, the second night the older two were begging me to take the giggling “Babby (Abigael), and Iggy (Enoch)” caller back to her own bed so that they could get some sleep.

Alora is all about the fashion.  She is a shoe lover (especially when they aren’t her own.)  She also thinks hair bows are on their way out.

She also thinks the best way to spend her time is to help Mom with her chores.  Yes, I am a lucky mom.  She helps pick up her room, helps me make my bed, empty the dishwasher, and her favorite, sweep.

She has been known to throw a tantrum if the broom is not handed over promptly

Alora also likes tight places and food.  Combine the two and you have an ideal way to spend your morning.

  

Whenever it is quiet and Alora is awake, we go looking quick.

Speaking of eating, Alora is a “picker and chooser” kind of eater.  A picture is worth a thousand words.  

Enough said?

 

She loves to sing along to the Beetles, dance like Abigael, and tease Enoch.  Yep, she is learning from the best. Oh baby, we love you in all your exclamation point glory!

I just had the “Uh, mom, I have a big project due tomorrow” pulled on me right as I was putting the kids to bed.  It would of course be the night that Seth had Young Mens and bishopric meeting afterwards so I was on solo parent mode.  I probably should have used this as a learning experience and let Abigael face the natural consequence of procrastinating, but when I found out it was a diorama (I must admit I’ve been waiting for one of these) we set to work.  Here is the final product.

In an earlier post I mentioned that I wanted to work on getting Seth and I in more pictures.  One day Alora was being picture cute (as normal) so I whipped out the camera and started shoot.

after shooting several cute pictures I remembered my goal (go me) and started putting myself in the photos.

So there you have it folks.  Me in some pictures.

Seth and I were just talking about how lucky we are to have Abigael as our first born.  She is setting a great example for our younger two to follow.  One of the many wonderful things about Abigael is how much she loves her little sister.  Last night Alora was treated to a true princess experience with a stylish attire, horse drawn carriage and the paparazzi, compliments of Abigael.  Just take a look

Can you see Alora's brown streak in her left eye?

paparazzi

For my birthday last year Seth got me a camera.  ”What, you didn’t have a camera before this?” you ask. Well Seth always has a nice camera and always takes nice pictures so I have left great picture taking up to him, and what a great job he has done.  I need to borrow his flash card so I can have awesome pictures on here to show you.  Over this last year his camera has had a major growth spurt. With the added lenses and flash and what not, you need to be a muscle builder just to lift the thing and forget putting it in your back pocket for spur of the moment shots.  The thing needs its own backpack.  So why share this “his camera is bigger” tale, well I have been using it as an excuse as to why I’m not on the front lines taking pictures as well. Problem is, is that Seth isn’t with the kids most of the day and I am lucky enough to be, so there are a lot of great pictures that aren’t being taken because I’m not in the mind set to grab my camera. Seth and I have also decided that we need to make sure we are in more pictures, and make sure we get pictures together.  My sister, Janell and her husband Cameron, shared the light with us when we gave my parents a digital picture frame for Christmas from all the children with pictures of all of us on it. They sent us about 200 pictures of themselves.  They had been taken at arms length, by friends, or a passing stranger. As Seth and I looked at all the fun, happy memories they had recorded, we decided that we wanted to do the same. (That and the fact that the last picture we had of the two of us together was before Alora was born.) So here we go, the turning of a new leaf.

Also, this is for you Julienne and Janell, our wood burning stove with cooktop. We love it!  Nothing like cozying up to the fire on cold winter nights.  Enoch and Abigael love to have hot cocoa or apple cider heated up on the cooktop and sip it while being mesmerized by the dancing flames (okay so Seth and I like it too.)

So join me this week in having more piping hot memory making drink moments and taking pictures of them.

How was Valentines for everyone?  We had a very nice day.  Since Alora’s birthday was on Sunday (meetings, church, can’t go to the stores) we decided to celebrate her birthday on Saturday.  The kids were all in favor of this because they were concerned that if she wanted something we couldn’t go and get it on Sunday and they wanted her to have a happy birthday.  Alora got a little Furreal bear for her birthday which she calls “Baby.” She loves her baby, she kisses it, pushes it in the stroller, and wants “the grandparents” to hold it often.  The truly funny thing about “Baby” is how much my older two like this toy.  Alora has screamed at the older two to give it back quite often.  On Saturday when Alora went down for her nap, Enoch went looking for “Baby” and wanted to know how to put it to sleep.  I wrap it up in the blanket I made for Alora’s birthday and he quickly told me he could take it from there.  He then toted “Baby” around for the next 15 mins.  

For Valentine’s day I made the family aprons and a large rice crispy “kisses.”  I then sent them on a sounds scavenger hunt where I wrote down different sounds that they hear in our home.  They love scavenger hunts.

We then took the kids to the pet store where we got to see fish, birds,reptiles, and the cats.  Alora LOVED the cats.  We spent along time chatting with them.  She had “Baby” in a backpack which she told the cats about.  She then had to take it off to show them.  She then had to stick “Babies” hand in for the cats to really see baby.  She then had to take off her shoe and stick what she could in the cage so that they could admire it.  

That night we had cheese cake for Alora’s birthday cake.  We let her have the fork to go for it, but all she did was delicately dip it into the cake and lick it off.  Oh well, no great messy cake eater pictures this year.

So do you like my new header?  That was Seth’s Valentines gift to me.  He designed it with meaning.  The mountains are my home town mountains (he went on google maps and went into 3D mode to get them,) I love humming birds, there are 5 flowers (one for each family member and the one wondering off is none other than Alora, and of course the red flower is me, because I love red.)  Anyway, I love it. Seth said he would help me finish up designing the blog so that I can have a sweet looking blog.  No leaking faucets at this plumbers house. Thanks honey!

Ever year I plan on making a Thankful Turkey that we can use year after year and this year I finally did it.  Each day we each write something that we are thankful for and put it in the turkey, then on thanksgiving we read all the things that we have put inside.  Then I put them inside our Thankful Turkey book and can read them through the years.  I’m really excited about starting this tradition.  Do you guys have any fun Thanksgiving traditions that your family does?

We had such a fun thanksgiving. We went over to Seth’s grandparents for the dinner and had a fun time eating, talking, eating, playing gaming, eating. I love his family. The day before the kids had the day off of school so we went to the zoo with the Gunnels. We went at the right time because we got to see the animals being feed, a funny baby monkey tarzaning around his cage. He even crashed into a wall and slid down it like in the cartoons. The kids thought this was funny after they realized he wasn’t hurt. We also got to see two mountain lions rough housing and a cheeta sprint across his field. We had a lot of fun.

The day after Abigael and I did black friday. Everyone was nice and the lines where pretty short. We got what we set out for and came home to this

Napoleanna, defender of all that is on sale

Later we went to Tracey Aviery where JuJu Bee chased the peococks while the older two kids hid behind mom and dad and told us to go save her before she got bit. They had some really amazing birds there. We really had a good time. Those pictures are on Seth’s camera so I will need to upload them later. We then went to Temple Square and saw the lights. They were beautiful as always.