Yesterday

Yesterday, Tali and I went outside to play in the garden....mainly so I could do some weeding. Tali loved being outside! Her little friend across the street even came over to play. They had fun sitting out on the lawn playing with toys. Tali even came over to where I was working and decided she would help Mommy. She even brought her little yellow Spongebob shovel. Little did I know she had an ulterior motive. She wanted not to play in the dirt, but to eat it! Welcome to my world. I'm just glad she never grabbed a worm to "examine" it. She was so dang cute! Every once in a while she would come behind me, pull herself up, lay her head on my back and then pat my back. I would then turn around and say "BOO!" and she would just laugh! It was a REALLY good day! I was so excited to get the majority of the weeding done. Now it actually looks somewhat descent. I am now a little sore and kind of burnt. Funny thing is I even put on sunblock, but apparently forgot the important parts (face, neck and ears). I think my ears got the worst of it.

In other news, Tali got her 4th tooth yesterday! She now has her two top and bottom front teeth! YAY! I'm still trying to teach her how to chew her food though. Brian and I noticed she mainly just sucks on her food and then swallows it which makes us a little nervous. We now have to watch her to make sure she chews before swallowing.

On Friday, I was showing Tali some puzzle pieces that she had of a cow and a dog. I was telling her what sounds they make and she was actually trying to say "wuff" and "moo!" Of course she could have just been calling me a dog or a cow. Brian has been trying to get her to say "uh-oh" lately, but when I said it to her on Friday, she actually said it! She hasn't said those words since. Go figure.

Are you friggin' kidding me?!?

Yesterday and today have just been unbelievable!
Yesterday, Brian and I went to go see one of my friends I used to work with and her new little baby. As we were leaving our house, we heard this terrible grinding noise when Brian pushed on the breaks. You guessed it. The breaks were really bad and from what we could tell were wearing into the rotor. So as soon as we got back we went to go get new rotors and brakes for the front. As Brian was changing them, he informs me that there was only a sliver of brake pad left and the rotors were worn down to half the thickness.....yes, I know. It's pathetic.

Then yesterday, Brian decided to work on our stupid stove. For some reason it was being very temperamental. It would shut off as I was trying to cook so Brian spent the rest of the evening looking at it. As I was getting ready for church this morning, I came out of my bedroom and noticed a gas smell. I mentioned it to Brian and he told me that it was probably from when he was cleaning the junk out of it last night. We get home from church and the same thing. I still smelled gas. We had turned on the fan in the kitchen and turned off the gas valve. We now have to buy a part for our stove that costs around $75! Now we're just waiting for it to ship. I was so annoyed by having to spend money we didn't necessarily have in order to fix the car and our stove. Hopefully it works. I'm just glad we're ventilating our house pretty good. Even though it's friggin' cold! DON'T WORRY MA! WE'RE JUST FINE! I jokingly told Brian that I hope we don't die. He apparently didn't think it was very funny.

New found friends & teeth

Last night one of our neighbors came over for a visit. They have a cute little girl named Olivia that is about a month or so younger than Tali. Tali LOVED having someone around her age to play with. They were SO cute! They would chase each other around the house and share toys and grunt at each other. It was so funny! They really had a good time playing together! Here is a picture I took of the two of them.

In other exciting news, Tali cut her third tooth today! It was one of her top teeth. YAY!!!

11 Months Old

My how time flies! Here we are again. Another month has already gone by.
Here are some of the pictures my Mommy took of me this month.


Today I am 11 months old. I now have 2 teeth going on four.


This last month I got to do a lot of new things. I'm learning quite a bit too. I'm learning how to walk in fact today I stood on my own for a couple of minutes. Mommy was really excited. Mommy & Daddy are also teaching me the alphabet, shapes, colors and how to stick my tongue out (Don't tell Mommy, but Daddy taught me that one). That really makes Mommy & Daddy laugh.


I'm so funny I crack myself up.

Yesterday, Mommy and I went shopping for a cake pan for birthday next month. I even got to pick it out.

One more month to go!

Firsts

This post may be a little longer because I'm combining Easter and Talitha's first zoo visit. Hope you enjoy it.

Here are some pictures of Talitha's first Easter

Tali bidding for the Easter Bunny job. What a cute bunny! How could anyone resist?

Our Easter baskets (Brian's, Talitha's & Amy's)

This was after coloring our Easter eggs. We kind of procrastinated and colored them after church.

Our backyard Easter egg hunt. She did such a good job. When she found her last egg, she did not to let it go.

Check out the video

Today, since it was such nice weather, Brian met Tali and me at the zoo after he got out of school. We thought it would be a pretty good idea. Since it was Monday we thought it wouldn't be crowded.....we thought wrong. It was PACKED! We did however still manage to get awesome parking spots close to the main entrance. There were cars parking out on the street and some even had to park at the south entrance. It was Talitha's first time visiting the zoo and she absolutely LOVED it! Her favorite exhibits seemed to be the giraffes and zebras.

Monson Day-O-Fun!

She kept trying to get clo ser to the giraffes and would wave at them to come closer.

She was showing Dadd y the weird lookin' monkeys

She got so excited when sh e saw the zebras. It was so cute!

During thi s photo, people we re pointing as they passed saying how cute she was. She got a good laugh out of them. She just smiled back and waved at them. What a DOLL!

I was quite surprised. We were able to eat lunch and walk around the entire zoo and still have enough time for Brian to make it to work on time. It was such a good day!

Two teeth Tali

It's official. Tali has cut her second tooth.....FINALLY! YAY! She is still teething though. Her two top teeth are trying to pop through. Hopefully they will come through really soon. Poor thing never hets a break. She is now learning how to bite though. When we were at Applebee's the other night she was chewing on and actually eating a stick of celery. It's so weird to see how much she's grown from a little tiny baby.

Happy Birthday....to me!

Yesterday was my birthday. It started off not so great because of the weather. The plan was to go to the zoo and since it was kind of cold and dark outside, I thought it would be too cold for Tali. I was a little bummed because I LOVE the zoo and I really wanted to go. We decided we would try and figure something out later.

We had fun making fruit pizza together and Tali seemed quite interested in what we were doing. In fact, she was trying to bust out of her high chair to get to it because she knew it was edible.

For lunch Brian made me this really yummy chicken and broccoli alfredo dish. What a nice hubby!

I guess he was feeling kind of fancy so he broke out the fancy glasses and poured some white grape juice in them. He cracks me up! I love my hubby!

As the weather slowly got better around 3:00 p.m. we decided that it was finally warm enough to go to the zoo. When we got there, it was about 4:50 and we had 10 minutes until it closed. I was yet again a little disappointed but determined to do something fun. On our way home, Brian suggested we go to the park nearby (which happened to be mine and Brian's park) to walk around. Tali LOVED watching the ducks and geese.

We took a few photos....

and while walking around, I found this tree that had this heart-shaped knot in it. I thought it was pretty cool so of course I had to take a picture.

We then went out to dinner with some friends where we had a very interesting waiter.

Tali kept eye-balling my icecream my friends had them bring me. I couldn't resist. I gave in and gave her some of my birthday icecream.

After dinner we went home for some yummy fruit pizza! Mmmm! Tali really enjoyed it too!


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See? She just cracked us all up! Apparently, she was so tuckered out she started to fall asleep after eating the fruit pizza. Check out that hair! Hahaha!

Brian had teased me all day that I wasn't going to get his gift until the very end of the day.......I don't think he was kidding. At 11:45 last night he brought it to me and this is what it was

Oh yeah! The first 3 books in the Twilight series (I already had the last book).
It really turned out to be a wonderful birthday!
Thanks Brian! I love you!

Drive-way movie and family vacation

After dinner Sunday evening, Brian and I had realized we had rented some movies we hadn't even seen yet. The movies were supposed to be back that night. We decided we didn't want to waste our money so we decided to watch them.....in the comfort of our very own driveway.

As we sat in the car watching the movie, we decided we needed some theater candy. Luckily we had picked up some chocolate licorice and fun size candy bars the night before. So, Brian went inside and got blankets to stay warm and the candy with water to wash it down. It was so cool! Tali was in the backseat for the majority of the movie bundled up. When she woke up it got a little more difficult, but it was still fun anyway. I thought it was a very fun and creative way to watch a movie as a family. Knowing Brian, there will be plenty more of them.

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Lately Brian has been pretty stressed with work and school and has been overdue for a much needed family vacation. We contemplated going to Southern California and buying those Southern California City Passes. The only problem is, it would be such a hassle to take Tali to Disneyland/California Adventures and Universal Studios because she couldn't really do anything except for sit in her stroller while we went on rides or wait in ridiculously long lines to get photos taken with Disney characters. The only thing she probably would enjoy would be Sea World and the San Diego Zoo or the Wild Animal Park. To me, it seems too expensive for her just to enjoy those things for one main reason. We have a zoo and an aquarium here at home. Why would I want to spend over $1000 when she wouldn't be able to remember or enjoy it. It would just seem like such a waste right now. She wouldn't even be big enough to ride any rides.

I've been wracking my brain trying to think of something fun we could all enjoy that isn't so expensive. We really want to get out of town so if anyone has any suggestions of family vacations that you could take an almost one year old on, I would LOVE to hear it!

Scaling stairs and Teething Tali

On Wednesday, I was babysitting my sister's kids. When I finished changing a diaper, I was walking down the stairs and found Tali on the bottom step. I asked my niece if she had helped Tali get on the stair but she said no. I then...of course broke out the camera to document this milestone event! Luckily I brought it which I wasn't going to do when I was gathering Tali's stuff for the day. I obviously changed my mind and so glad I did! Sorry, it's a total butt shot, but I was so excited and was trying to watch her instead of the camera to make sure she wasn't going to come down the stairs.

Here is the video!

Yes, I am one proud Momma! The funny thing is, we don't even have stairs, so she must have learned it from Nanna & Pappy Monson's house.
Way to go Tali!

Another thing that has been happening is Talitha is teething with not one tooth, but three! Yes, three teeth are trying to emerge from my poor daughter's swollen white gums. Can't a kid get a break? She has actually been a pretty good sport about it though. I will be so glad when they finally pop through. Hopefully it will be soon!