September, 2011...

Ok, please forgive me for our little hiatus from posting, but now that I have my own laptop (thank you Santa - I needed one so bad that I received two for Christmas, thank goodness Dell took one back, and thanks to my husband and my parents for the generous gifts of a laptop of my own), I am back in action...

SO, I will try to do a quick recap of the last several months.  It may take me a few posts since I only have an hour at a time to myself these days and it's usually spent washing bottles, doing laundry and other necessary things stay at home moms do! 

On that note, let's get to it...Where did I leave off?  I think it was somewhere around September?

Katie Marie - the beautiful bride!

SEPTEMBER brought the excitement of Brenton and Katie's wedding in Kenwood, CA.  Andrew, Cody, Callie and I flew down a week in advance.  We met up with Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Wayne and stayed in a lovely home near Grandma Lauren and Grandpa Don's house.  It was the ideal home for the twins, set right along the golf course with plenty of room for the kiddos to roam. 

The week was filled with many wedding preparations including wine tasting, family gatherings and lots of time catching up with family and friends.
Katie was a beautiful, gracious bride and Brenton was a handsome, proud groom.  Don and Lauren's home and vineyard looked absolutely stunning and was the perfect setting for the marriage of two very special people.  Congratulations Brenton and Katie!  Here are some pictures from the wedding week...

Katie and Brenton in the beautiful vineyard!

The wedding party on Don and Lauren's deck overlooking the vineyard and barn.

Andrew (best man), Cody (ring bearer), Callie (flower girl), and me (bridesmaid), walking down the aisle in the vineyard.

The Taylor/Buffington Family

Three Generations of Taylor Men!

Andrew and Cody



Me and my baby girl!

Dressed up for rehearsal dinner!

Sporting our new shoes!

Great Grandpa Buffington and Cody and Callie!

Four Generations!

PRESCHOOL - September also marked our first time to preschool.  Cody and Callie started attending Lake Washington Toddler Group Co-op Preschool.  It is a co-op run thru the local community college.  We attend once a week for two hours and I get the opportunity for parent education as well as much needed time out of the house.  Cody and Callie really love preschool and playing with new friends, exploring new toys, learning new songs and games, doing art projects, etc.  Grandma Nancy also joins in the fun since it is almost necessary to have two sets of hands for these two kiddos.  Here is a picture of us on our way to our first day of school! Please excuse the dead grass, we opted to not water our lawn this year as we figured we had two very good reasons to spend our money elsewhere :) ... I am sure it will be green again come spring, I hope!

We also made our first quick visit to see Daddy at work at the Microsoft campus.  We are so thankful that he is no longer commuting to Olympia everyday.  He gets more sleep and we get to see him more often!

So, I have to refer back to my notes for this section because I honestly cannot recall what happened yesterday, let alone months ago...Sooooo....

By the end of September, Callie is crawling and climbing around and Cody is up on all fours trying so hard to crawl like his sister.  It is only a matter of time... Both are pulling to a stand.  Cody has two bottom teeth and is chewing on everything in sight.  Callie does not have any teeth but she looks ready to pop a bottom tooth.  We also suffered our first colds and boy were they a doozy.  The whole family got sick... stuffy noses, coughing, fevers, you name it.  It is no fun when we all just feel miserable.  Both kiddos are learning to self feed, can hold their bottles, and learning to use a sippy cup. We love the NUK sippy cups since they are not hard to use and don't leak when the kids throw them on the floor.  Both kids love their soft, cloth books and their sassy picture books.  They also love their standing music table by leap frog.  They can easily pull themselves up and play music, the alphabet and even learn spanish... they play with this toy so much, I can now recite the entire alphabet in Spanish! Cody and Callie are now very aware of each other and are interacting.  They smile and laugh at each other when they feed which of course makes me smile.  I just love knowing they will always have each other.  OK, I think that is about all on the update for September.  Now on to October!!!