2 months

Scarlett is 2 months old already! Just a month ago she was like this...
...still a fragile little newborn, with her reddish skin and plump little arms and legs.

Then a few weeks later, around Halloween, she began to hold her head up:She's learned to take the "rough love" of her older sisters, who always want to cuddle with her. And now, at 2 months old, this little girl is at 12 pounds already! Thats about the 75th percentile for girls, which I am very proud of because I've worried about finding the time to feed her while keeping up with the other two!
And....though I know this comment may come back to haunt me....Scarlett is an easy baby. She sleeps through the night, and she's easily entertained during the day. I'm looking forward to every month ahead with this little angel!

She makes me laugh every day

"There is NO way in this whole wide world I will ever ever ever, no NEVER kiss a frog - yuck!" - Tiana, from Princess and the Frog

Beautiful

Last night we went out to dinner as a family to one of our favorite Mexican restaraunts. Toward the end of our meal, an older couple came up to us and said "Your little girls sure are beautiful." It made my day. For some reason a comment like that means a lot when coming from a complete stranger.

Of course I know my girls are beautiful. But I am biased :)

November so far...

Wow the days are flying by. Has it really been two weeks since Halloween? Here's whats up with us:

The house is coming together. It seems like all we do is work on the house. Cleaning, organizing, rearranging, and throwing out. My goal is to have a tolerable amount of order to my house before the Christmas chaos.

Christmas is coming up fast. I have neighbors who put on their Christmas lights last week! Really! And oh my goodness the retailers are already advertizing mega-sales, and I feel so much pressure to get out there and shop for Christmas now before everything flies off the shelves!

I went back to the gym. Turns out I'm not losing my baby weight as quick as I used to. Lydia said to me "Mommy why is your tummy still big?" I'm also supposed to run a 10K before I turn 30, so I gotta get my act together. Now. It was a painful first week.

Scarlett is a great baby. She sleeps 7 to 8 hours through the night, but she doesn't nap very long during the day, which is a tolerable trade-off.

The weather is awesome. So far November has given us temperatures in the 60s and 70s, and every day is sunny. I never appreciated it when I lived here before, but after being in Scotland for nearly 4 years, this is bliss. The girls play outside every day. Unfortunately just a few days ago Claire discovered fire ants. I forgot they didn't have those in Scotland and I should've warned her. I also need to warn the girls about scorpions and tarantulas and rattlesnakes! Yikes!

Lydia and Claire make me laugh every day. I need to do a whole post on Claire because she is quite the character. And Lydia is so grown up and smart - I can talk to her about anything, but she's also learned to talk back. I just have to learn new ways to outsmart her.

And because I can't have a post without pics or video, here's a couple clips of Lydia.

Halloween back in America

In Scotland, and most other European countries, there is only one holiday - Christmas. They claim that "all those other holidays are just created by Americans to make money".

Okay so maybe we spend a lot of money on silly holidays like Halloween - but its so much fun! I had forgotten that so many people decorate their houses for Halloween - on the inside and out - with lights and inflatables and scenes like this one here. And there are so many parties to go to! Luckily Lydia has no shortage of costumes, so she was Rapunzel for her school party, then Snow White for a church party, then Bo Peep for the Trunk or Treat.
Here we are at the church's Halloween carnival. Lydia worked on the pumpkin for about 5 minutes then left the rest for daddy. He did a great job :)
Then Claire... oh Claire... she hates dressing up. She just couldn't be bothered with it. We tried and tried to at least get a fairy skirt on her, but she'd take it off. So she went around the party like this - no shoes, not playing any games, just looking for food to eat. But Lydia was a great sport and played all the games...even though she cheated on some of them. This year we went with the Toy Story theme for Halloween (like many others I'm sure). Here's the cast:




And how did we get that Mrs Potato Head costume on Claire?? Josh held her tight, I shoved it on her, then grabbed her up in my arms and Josh stuck some candy in her mouth. Done. Then as the trunk-or-treating started she forgot she had it on. We only have 3 girls ...the pink batgirl is Addie, one of Lydia's friends, who wanted to be in the picture too! And you can see that we forced poor Scarlett into a sheep costume. Lydia loved having Scarlett as her sheep.She was the CUTEST Little Bo Peep ever! And many thanks to my mom for her adorable costume.

...Till we meet again

Sometimes I feel like I'm living in a tornado that just won't stop spinning. At 8 months pregnant I learned we were moving across the ocean back to the US. That was stressful. We moved, lived in a temporary house while all our stuff was in transit, had a new baby, started a new preschool, bought a house, and then the week that our stuff arrived from Scotland I learned that my dear grandfather had a stroke and wasn't doing too well. My sister and I booked a last minute flight to California... and I left Josh to handle the move on his own while my mom watched Lydia & Claire.

Sarah and I only had a day to spend with grandpa, but it was well worth it. The stroke left him unable to speak and barely able to move, but he was still fully aware of his surroundings, and was able to nod yes or shake his head no, and make silly faces. I arrived at the hospital really early so that he had no other visitors, and I remember that when he first opened his eyes and saw me he just started crying. He tried so hard to talk. it broke my heart. So I just did all the talking. I told him all about my girls and about Josh and his new job, and our move from Scotland. I told him about church and our callings. Then i felt like that was all pretty boring, and he was pretty tired, so i sang him some hymns.

I had Scarlett with me, and against my better judgement I brought her into the hospital amongst all the germs, but was able to shield her pretty well. I introduced her to grandpa. Scarlett is 6 weeks old, and the 25th great-grandchild. Lydia was born the same week my grandmother passed away 4 years ago, and never got to meet her. I'm glad grandpa got to see Scarlett.

We were in and out of the hospital all day. Here's what I love about my grandpa - even when life was slipping away he was still trying to make me smile. He always wants to make people smile. We talked to him about dancing with grandma, and then he tried to wiggle in his hospital bed like he was dancing! And then he gave us a wink and his trademark sly smile. He still had his swagger.

Grandpa passed away on Tuesday afternoon. He left this world the way i want to...at home, surrounded by his four children who have insurmountable love and respect for him, and who never left his side until he took his last breath.

He is surely happy now that he is with the "Queen of his castle", my grandma Bettie Jean. But its the rest of us who are at a loss because there is only one man I've ever known that is so happy, forgiving, full of love, and downright hilarious as Lawrence Edward Taylor. They just don't make men like that anymore.

I love you so much grandpa, and I wish you were around longer so my girls could get to know you for the great man you are. But I know you'll be watching us.

Pondeleros!
(that's Spanish for "Till we meet again")

and only a Taylor will get that. ;)

Aunt Sarah comes to visit

My sister Sarah came to visit for the weekend! She moved up to Riverton Utah to teach just the week before we moved to Midland. Since we won't be with my family for Thanksgiving, she decided she couldn't wait until Christmas to see the girls again, so she's here!And of course she had to bring BYU gear for the kids :) This weekend Sarah has done a lot of babysitting for us, which we really appreciate as we've been getting things sorted at the house and running errands without kids. The girls have been to the duck pond and watched movies together, and this weekend we went to the Halloween party at the library.

The only dress-up costume I packed in Lydia's suitcase was Princess Tiana, so that's what she went as to the party. Then when we got there she wanted her face painted as a kitty cat. Sure, why not. Claire didn't have anything for a costume except high-heeled dress-up shoes, which only lasted 15 minutes and then she put on her crocs. So yeah, we were a little unprepared (I mean, Halloween is still a couple weeks away!), but the girls had a blast.The girls got balloon animals, but we had to wait like 15 minutes in line for them. All this time Lydia is striking up conversation with every kid around her, and meowing like a kitty-cat.Then we went to the craft room and made treat bags, so we could go all around the library trick-or-treating!
Thanks Sarah for a fun weekend!

Almost there...

This Wednesday, the 2oth, the moving van arrives! We've been busy painting, cleaning, and fixing up the house we just bought, and we're ready to finally call this place a home.





I just have to include this picture because it made me laugh. The house comes with a huge pantry, and the previous owners had labeled every shelf! Who is that organized?? Not me. And only an American would have shelf space dedicated to Jello.

Sneak Peak

Little Helpers

Lydia and Claire are my little helpers. I just love these two munchkins. They are still so little, but they try to be so grown up, especially around Scarlett. They always want to hold her, and help burp her and bathe her, and they even speak to her in baby voices. They are little mommies, who love miss Scarlett as much as I do.

They are also little helpers around the house. We give them some small chores to do, but they always want to take on big projects, like painting.But we know better than to trust them with paint, because inevitably they'd start painting like this:Our family is growing, and growing up. But occasionally there are moments that remind me that my girls are still babies. Claire especially likes to do things to remind me that she is 2...
..like plaster herself and her toys with the "bum medicine."

Scarlett meets her sisters

Miss Scarlett

Scarlett Lillian Viets

Born September 15th at 4:31am

7 lbs 2 oz
19 inches long

Miss Scarlett wasn't supposed to make an appearance until today, the 19th, but she and I were definitely ready. The funny thing is, my mom had just come home from Utah that same night, on Tuesday, and within hours of her being home, I had to call her to come watch the girls so that we could head to the hospital! My Father in Heaven knew I needed her here.

My birth story really isn't all that exciting - I woke up at 1am with some painful contractions, got to the hospital and had my epidural by 2am, then watched TV and rested for a couple hours. They called my OB when I was fully dilated, he got there about 4am, I pushed through 3 contractions and she was born at 4:31am. Easy!

We were so excited for Lydia and Claire to meet their new sister. All they want to do is take turns holding her, and they are actually very good with her.
Although the "taking turns" part really tests their patience.
Josh and all his ladies :) He's definitely gonna need another pay raise!
And as for the name....
My favorite name has always been Isla. I heard it a lot in Scotland and just loved it. I wasn't going to give in to Josh, who wanted Alaina, which was a name we had both liked when Lydia was born. But then when we moved here, I realized that every American pronounces Isla "EES-la", which is the Spanish pronunciation, instead of "EYE-la". And so at the last minute I had to
surrender my favorite name, because I didn't want her to grow up as EESla.

I wasn't entirely sold on Alaina, so I went back to the books and came up with more names. We had 8 that we liked! Then after she was born we narrowed it down to 4. It wasn't until that afternoon when I knew her name. The nurses had taken her away for a bath, and when they brought her back to me they had put on her head a bright red bow. I knew then that she was my little Scarlett.
Lillian is Josh's great-grandmother's name. We originally had plans to give our girls names from the Taylor side, and boys names from the Viets side... but at this rate I think we will only have girls! If they are all as great as my first two, I'd gladly have a few more. We are so very blessed with these little princesses!