Taylor goes to Taylor...

What better first concert for Taylor than Taylor Swift? She loves all of her songs and she's almost to that age of wanting to go to concerts, so I thought this would be the perfect one for her 1st! It was actually also part of my birthday present. We went last saturday night, just mommy and Taylor. She had a pretty good time, but we did leave early. Taylor is my little homebody! She never wants to go places...she would be perfectly happy staying at home with her animals and watching a movie! We laugh about it. I always say she can't be my kid because she hates to shop! Anyway...we had a pretty good time.

Happy 60th Dad!

Well we pretty much had to ruin the surprise to get Dad to his 60th birthday party! We had been planning for months and really thought we had a great day picked, but turned out not to be so. July 1st was a friday and we figured with the holiday weekend we could get him here...by telling him we were having a family reunion. Well, he had to tell him because he insisted he had to work! Thank goodness, he came! We had 60 or so of his family and friends, some of whom he hasn't seen in forever! It was a good party!

Along with his party, we decided we wanted to take a trip to Austin for an adult party weekend! The four of us (my hubby, sis and her boyfriend) flew out on Friday morning and came back on Sunday. We had a great time hanging out, eating and drinking!! We went out on 6th street in Austin on Friday night. Of course we ended up at our favorite place...Pete's Piano Bar and its a night we will never forget! One of the funnest nights I've ever had...or funniest maybe?! We put down on a napkin..."Please embarass our dad! He's 60!" Well, the video tells the rest!! Never laughed so hard in my life!

LOL! I could watch that everyday!
Some other good pics from our trip....

 baby lizard in the house!

 the Oasis at Lake Travis

 one of my favorite places ever!

Summer...almost gone!

I am so behind it isn't even funny! I'm not sure where to begin! Summer has been great fun. Taylor went to several camps and had to be juggled a bit. Thanks to Grandma's for helping us out! Jason went back to the office full time and mommy quit her job at Sante and took on two new jobs! Its crazy how fast things can change. Its all for the better though. Mommy will get to spend more time at home with the girls and will maybe even get to keep Parker at home a day or two a week. And...since I will be teaching PE at Taylor's school two days a week I will also be with her. This year her class will get to attend PE, Art, Spanish, and Music, so I will have her in class! She is super excited about it now, but we'll see if it lasts. I'm sure no kid likes to have their mom when they are in 7th grade. lol!
Some random pics I took over the summer....

 Parker's 1st ponytail!

 troublemaker!!!

 Taylor was pretty excited about her new running shoes, shorts and shirt! Ready for a marathon :)

For now we are ready to get back into a routine. We really love the Fall too! Our little Parker will be 2 next weekend...I can't believe that! And in October Taylor will be 5. We are ready for the second half of a great year!

Cameo on STL Today!

The other day Sante was asked by the Post Dispatch to provide the Trainer Tip of the week! I got to be the lucky person to give tips on exercising outdoors! Here is a link to the video on STLtoday.com
http://videos.stltoday.com/p/video?id=99947881&genre_id=2962

Cowgirl Camp!

I just can't pick a couple favorites of Taylor's Horseback Riding camp....I love them all!! I think its just how happy she is in them. You can see on her face how much she loves horses. Every kid has their thing and...I think we have found her thing! At night she would tell me she had to hurry and get to sleep so she could go to horsy camp in the morning and in the morning she would yell, "wake up, the sun is up, its time to go to camp!" On the way there she said, "they are going to be so happy to see me mom." I said, "who, your friends?" She said, "NO...Revel and Spurs!" How cute! They told me she did such a great job and she will do really well at riding. On the last day when I went to pick her up she was riding a huge horse in the arena all by herself! I was in awe. She could get him to go, turn and stop all by herself. Now the only problem is that she wants to go to camp all the time and they don't have it all the time! And...that we couldn't afford it! For now she will keep taking private lessons and dream of barrel racing! :)

 feeding them...

 brushing them...

walking them...

 she didn't want me to share this one..LOL! But at least she knows that you have to clean after them!

 riding bareback!

 bathing the mini horses..

What a cute little cowgirls she is!



Our Gimpy Little Lady...

You know how it is when your dog is limping, but you can't figure out what he did or whats hurting him? You ask him, but he doesn't talk to you, so you just guess....thats what it was like with Parker for the last week! Like the comparison? LOL! She talks her little head off, but everytime we would ask her if her foot hurt, she wouldn't say a thing!
It started with jumping on the trampoline at Mawmaw and Pawpaw's house, but Jason says she didn't fall or no one landed on her? He just called me that night and told me that she was limping. The next day we called the Dr. and the nurse told us to use ice and ibuprophen and call on monday if she was still limping. Have you ever tried to put ice on a 22 month old child?? Right! Plus, we couldn't even figure out if it was her foot, ankle, knee, or hip?? We thought it looked a little better on Monday, but Tuesday I noticed and so did my mom, so I called on Wed and they told us to come in to the pediatrician. I was thinking, "what the hell is he gonna do?" He's only gonna send me for an x-ray right? Wrong! He asked if she had had a cold recently or fever and then asked about a few bruises she had and if she bruises easily? I think she does, but really I think its only becuase she is so darn fair! So he sent us for a blood test STAT. STAT??? Why? I didn't ask many questions, but he said it would tell us if there were an infection in her body. What he was really trying to say is that he was testing her for Leukemia!!! Good Lord, I'm glad I didn't ask that day or I would have been a total wreck the whole day! By the way, have you ever heard of a baby not crying when they get their blood taken??? She screamed bloody murder when the doctor even looked at her, but when we got to the lab place and the guy tied a band around her arm and stuck a needle in her arm she only made a small peep! Jeez...I was almost crying just watching it. I cannot give blood what so ever and have an anxiety attack every time and she just sat there and watched! She's much stronger than I will ever be!
Well, thank goodness her test was normal and the dr. told me why he was testing her for cancer etc. I never thought a limp was a sign of that! I guess it was just that she wasn't showing signs of a break and wasn't complaining much about her foot or leg.
Long story short a few days later we were sent for x-rays and back to the pediatrician. The xrays were normal and we paid another $25 co-pay to walk into the dr. office and have him tell us that its probably just a sprain! There could be a chance its a tiny fracture that won't show on an x-ray, but we wouldn't want to cast her for no reason, it would just heal on its own.
So....poor little girl had to go through all that for a little of nothing that her parents were more concerned about than she was. But...I know I will always get every little thing checked out from now on because you never know the things it could be. Just the thought of my child having leukemia freaked me out and made me love her and appreicate her so much more!! I don't know how parents can go through something like that watching their child in pain and confused. Its got to be heartbreaking!
So all is well with our little lady for now! The limping is almost gone and she's a happy, healthy and crazy little girl! :)

A future Rockstar!

I don't know...I'm starting to believe her that she will be the next Taylor Swift! She makes up these songs that just go on and on! She's even got the moves down...lol!