Kansas!

Hi Everyone!
It's been so very long since I have been on here. Our lives have been crazy since we decided to move to Kansas.
We have been hear 5 months now but we have been through so much that it feels like years. I don't even know where to start.
First of all, I never wanted to raise Taylor in California. But at the same time, being forced to move isn't the best situation. The California economy hit us hard and we knew we had to move soon. It was a hard decision but we decided on Kansas to be close to Todd's family. Portland was our second choice but family help would have been 2.5 hours away! :o(
We arrived in the dead of winter and were told on a daily basis that is was the "worst winter in 20 years". Lucky us!
Todd and I lived with his parents for the first few months and job hunted like crazy. He has been working at a bar in Kansas City, MO and I landed a position at a medical device company about 10 min away. We have been in our new apartment for about a month now and Taylor and Bella have adjusted nicely.
We absolutely love our apartment and the location. I'm really loving Kansas. I was never a fan of California. It has some GREAT things that I'm missing, mainly healthy restaurants, but everything is so green here and the neighborhoods are amazing. Very family friendly. We live next to a pasture with cows! So instead of sitting in traffic for hours on end, Taylor gets to see baby calves. :o) Much better!
I travel almost every week for my job so that has been tough on everyone. It was really hard for me to go back to work full time after being able to spend so much time with Taylor. I'm still struggling with it but Todd and I are determined to make a better life for all of us here.
I competed in my first competition on May 15th so I'm still hitting the weights and attempting to keep my fitness career alive. I'm up at 3:50 every morning to go to the gym before work. I placed 3rd in the tall class and got a giant sword to show for it! Ha, we have no idea what to do with it!
Taylor had her first trip to the ER on Monday. She had a bad heat rash that got infected. Poor Todd had to take her to the ER by himself while I headed to Austin, TX on business. I felt horrible. She is on antibiotics now and the blisters are almost gone! Thank goodness. Poor thing!
I will do my best to keep up with this and add some pictures soon!

Grammy Smiths Valentine's Day Visit!!

We had the most amazing Valentine's Day!! Todd's sister Amy is going to be heading back to Kansas in a few days because her work here in Semi Valley is all done. We are very, very sad! :o(   This prompted an earlier visit by Grammy Smith.  Todd's Mom flew in on Thursday night and joined us Friday morning with Amy before I headed off to work. 

Taylor has grown so much since she last saw her! She is over 20 pounds right now. 20.6 to be exact.  We are buying 9-12 month clothing for her and I'm constantly moving things into the 'can't wear' pile in the closet.  Of course Grammy came with Valentine's Day gifts for little Taylor and yummy treats for Todd and I. 

So I was off to work and Todd and all of his girls spent the day together.  After Todd left for work Grammy and Aunt Amy were on their own until I got home! They had so much fun.  Taylor has so much personality these days and is really becoming animated and VOCAL to say the least.  We often wonder if we brought home a loud bird from the hospital.  It's ear piercing sometimes. 

  

The entire weekend was so much fun! Todd and his mom were able to spend some time together and Grammy and Aunt Amy had so much fun baby sitting.  I didn't want them to leave! :o) Here is a fun video of Taylor and Grammy! 

 

We have also started to feed the little tiger some rice cereal.  The theory that it keeps them fuller longer and helps them sleep through the night is, to me, just a theory.  She has yet to sleep longer then four hours and is up every two to three hours after midnight.  And she's had a pretty bad cold the past few days so with the congestion she's up every hour.  I'm exhausted to say the least.  

Here are a few images of one of our first successful meals: 

 

Four Months and a Photoshoot

Last Tuesday our little princess had her four month check up.  She hadn't had a check up since her first month because of insurance issues so we had a ton of questions! Before going into the office I had some of my friends try to guess her weight. My mom was the closest with 20 pounds. Taylor is 18 pounds 12 oz.  The doctor said that is average.........for a 7 month old! :o) Hilarious! She said that there was no need to worry since Todd and I are so tall.  Todd wanted some sort of magic cream for her patchy hair but apparently they don't make anything like that for babies! She'll have to sport that mullet for a while longer. 

The next day I had my first post pregnancy photoshoot.  A photographer from New York contacted me and we set up a shoot in Malibu. I wore two dresses for the first half and then two bikini's for the second half. The bikinis that I chose were adjustable so I was able to make them bigger around these child bearing hips that I haven't quite lost yet. I am very nervous to see how the images came out. I saw a few in the tiny camera screen that I was happy with BUT that was a tiny camera screen! I'll have the disk next Thursday and might post some images. 

How adorable is this picture?! 

While I was at the shoot poor Taylor and Todd were having a rough time.  She has been having some separation problems since I started going back to work and leaving her for any longer then 4 hours. After hour four without me she will just cry and cry. Todd does everything possible to soothe her but nothing was working.  On this day she was really bad and it took me almost two hours to get from Malibu to Studio City.  Candy came over to try to help but Taylor was inconsolable.  It was one of the worst nights for poor Todd.  

So when I received the call on Thursday about working background on a Coors Light commercial I was very hesitant to take it since I would be on set anywhere from 12-16 hours.  The money was too good to pass up though.  I was up and gone by  6:30 am and didn't get home until 10:30 pm.  Auntie Amy baby-sat Taylor from 5pm until I got home and thankfully no one had to experience the hours of hysterical crying.  It looks as though she is over her separation issues. Thank goodness!! 

Christmas Video

Here is our little princess and daddy on Christmas.  Note the outfit and the Christmas socks.  She was having a tough tummy day and we had to change her outfit a few times and the only thing that survived were the socks!! 

17 Pounder

Nope, I'm not talking about our Thanksgiving turkey, I'm talking about our little Taylor.  She is officially 3 months as of December 7th.  We weighed and measured her and she is almost 17 pounds and 26 inches long. We couldn't believe it.  I of course had to look it up and sure enough she is in the 97th percentile for her age for both height and weight!! 

Here is a picture of her with her Auntie Amy! 

She has started to go to the gym with us as well.  We have an amazing deal with LA Fitness for her to spend time in the Kids Klub while we work out.  I was pretty nervous the first day and I couldn't stop thinking about her during my workout. I didn't even put my headphones on because I was scared I would miss the club calling me for something.  When 

I went in to grab her she was unfortunately sitting by herself with her bottle balancing on some blankets and she was struggling and in a panic to get it to hold still so she could eat. I was pretty fired up! I flew in there so fast and grabbed her bottle.  The next time we took her in I asked them to call me when it was time to feed her.  It was a different girl and when Todd went down she was playing with Taylor and making her smile and then fed her and burped her.  Whew! That was a good day. Since then it's been fine. She is the youngest in there so they usually just put her in the swing and she just takes in her surroundings.  Afterwards she naps a few more times then usual in the afternoons so I think she is getting some major stimulation.  

Here she is in her workout gear.  You like the little Jordan socks? So cute!! 

Her and daddy getting ready to workout!

As for me, I started back to work on Friday.  It was a short four hour shift to help fill in before a big Christmas party.  It was really good to be back to work and see all of my friends.  The guys that work in the pro shop bought me a chocolate cake! Mmmmm...doesn't help me lose the last 5 pounds of baby weight but I indulged!!  Todd did an absolutely amazing job taking care of Taylor! This was the longest that he has been alone with her.  He cleaned the entire house, took her for a walk, made me dinner, bought me my favorite dessert and left me a sweet card.  *sigh* I have the most amazing man in the entire world.  SuperDad!!! 

My friend Vanessa was so incredibly sweet and bought us one of the most amazing gifts for Taylor! It's a little seat for her now that she can hold her head up....well, she looks like a little bobble head but she is getting strong.  Here she is in her chair, so cute!! Do you see little Bella back there enjoying the box that it came in?! 

Our first family Thanksgiving!

 Look at our little turkey!  

We went on a pre-Thanksgiving stroll to grab some snacks and some holiday coffee treats. 

Our first family Thanksgiving was amazing.  An amazing 17 pound turkey and only one fire! Todd was the master chef of the day.  We took all of our recipes out of my Clean Eating magazine that I subscribe to so most everything we had was a low fat/calorie version of the normal dishes.  It was Todd's first time cooking Thanksgiving dinner and I can't believe how well it turned out!! My job was deviled eggs and dessert.  Well, unfortunately, the pumpkin cheesecake that I wanted to make called for a lot of ingredients we don't have including some expensive spices so instead of spending $40 on ingredients Todd decided to pick us up little individual pumpkin pies from the bakery. 

    

Taylor's Grammy Smith and Auntie Amy bought her the adorable Thanksgiving outfit and the hat that kept slipping up and looking like a wig was made by Grandma Dorothy. When worn right it looked adorable! 

                          

The fire came later in the evening when a wrong burner was turned on and the plate with turkey sitting on top of it caught fire! Thankfully the turkey was saved and the smoke alarm didn't go off.  Which was shocking since there were some pretty big flames! :o) 

2 Month Photoshoot

Our baby girl is getting so big.  She has already doubled her weight and added 5 inches to her long little legs.  Her newborn onsies are making her look like a little sausage.  It's time to move to the 3-6 month section of the closet! 

Taylor is definitely daddy's little girl.  She is a spitting image of Todd!!! We have an old picture of Todd when he was a baby and we put it up to a similar picture of Taylor and I'm telling you, just a spitting image.  I'll scan that in soon and show you the side by side comparison. 

This past month has been pretty fun.  She is so much more vocal and her facial expressions are a crack up.  She has really started to mimic different noises and will just talk and talk.  And we are finally getting some smiles out of her.  Whew! I thought for sure social services was going to be knocking on our door if I posted one more picture of her crying. 

We went in for her two month shoot about two weeks ago. This time the little princess decided it was my turn to get wet.  She was pretty hungry part way through the shoot and we were lucky enough to have time for me to feed her.  Well, soon after, it was all up on my shirt.  But she didn't stop there. We had just gotten her naked for her next shots and as we were cleaning the spit up off of my shoulder she decided to tinkle.  And by tinkle I mean my entire front was soaked.  We actually ended up getting a great shot of me holding her at that moment by accident.  We have an amazing shot of her and Todd but it won't post onto blogger for some reason. I've tried over a dozen times!! I'll keep working on it because it's an adorable daddy/daughter shot! 

So I went home from the shoot pretty wet and Todd had a big smile on his face since he was tinkled on twice at our last shoot!!! 

At the Pumpkin Patch

On Wednesday, Oct 22 Todd and I took little Taylor to the pumpkin patch in Woodland Hills. What an adventure. First of all, I've been looking for a little onesie that I saw weeks ago that say "My 1st Halloween".  Well, we go to find one and they are all gone and they are starting to put up Christmas stuff. I couldn't believe it. I did find her a cute little outfit with a matching hat.  Plus, her auntie Amy bought her these really cute halloween socks that matched perfectly! My sister Wendy sent a really cute mermaid outfit but it's HUGE.  She'll be able to wear it next year. 

 

The pumpkin patch was huge and had so many fun things for kids to do.  Taylor is going to love it when she gets older. So the plan was to get one shot of her amongst all of the pumpkins and one family shot. We headed to the pumpkins and saw that David and Victoria Beckham were gathering pumpkins with their kids too. We put Taylor down and got one shot of her before the tears came.  Every picture after that she was crying. We think it was the hat. The evil, evil hat! For some reason she HATED it!! 

I didn't want every picture we had of her in the cute little outfit to look like we beat her so we set up a little photo shoot at home. It turned out to be really cute AND we got the one picture of her smiling! SOOO CUTE!! 

Taylor's First Photo Shoot

Last Thursday Todd and I took Taylor to her first photo shoot! My friend Kate is an amazing photographer so I was really excited to take Taylor to her for her first shoot (http://www.katerochaphotography.com).  I found a picture that I wanted to duplicate and Kate went above and beyond to make it happen. 

Well, like any model before a big shoot, Taylor broke out. That's right, baby acne! I couldn't believe it. All over her little cheeks and chin. I was so upset but at the same time I know the magic of photoshop! Not only did we have the big shoot on Thursday but Taylor was meeting her Grandma and Grandpa for the first time on Friday.  Todd's parents were due Friday morning after the shoot. I seriously considered putting cover up on my one month old baby girl. 

We get to the shoot and Taylor was fed (I'm learning to nurse in public, and by public I mean the back of Todd's truck with my Hooter Hiders on) and awake and happy.  It was perfect timing. We set up and took Taylor's clothes off and got her ready for her first layout.  At that moment I see a perfect yellow stream flowing down Todd's shirt.  The princess piddled all over daddy. I, of course, thought this was hilarious!  Fast forward to another shot where Taylor was

 laying on Todd's legs and sure enough another tinkle. Where was it all coming from? 

We really wanted to get some shots of her sleeping as well but she was too excited to be in front of the camera. Overall I think she did really well. She's a natural! 

Enjoy the pictures!!

One Month Birthday

Yesterday was our little Taylor's one month birthday. What a month it has been.  She is growing before our eyes. I knew that she had gained some weight and my guess was around 2 pounds.  Well we go to the pediatrician last week and sure enough the little tiger gained exactly 2 pounds.  The pediatrician was shocked! Normally at that time babies just gain their original birth weight back. Not our hungry little monkey! :o) Apparently I have magic milk! She went from 7 pounds 5 oz to 9 pounds 5 oz in a little less then a month. Todd can't stop touching her chubby little cheeks. 

Overall she has been a really good baby.  She has 3 or 4 nights a week of colic so I'm really trying to watch my diet and make sure she is getting all the air out after her feedings.  Of course on the nights that daddy is home she is just an angel.  I'm not kidding! She will cry for 2 to 4 hours a night when he is at work and on his nights off she is napping or being all bright eyed and adorable. Ahhh, daddy's girl already! 

She has her first photo shoot tomorrow and we are so excited! One of my friends Kate is a professional photographer and offered us an amazing deal on a photo shoot with her.  Like any model she has broken out all over her little cheeks and chin. I think she might be nervous about her big day! ;o) I will hopefully have pictures as early as next week.