9 months.

This girl....

Length: 29.25 inch (96%)

Weight: 19 lbs 3 oz (67%)

This girl is long and lean. Except those thighs. Gotta put her chunk somewhere, amiright?

Milestones this month:

• That tooth is half way in and I am on the edge of my seat for another one! 
• You ONLY say "mama" and you stick your bottom lip out when you do. Sorry, Daddy! We're working on it, I promise!
• You are a PRO at waving "hello" and "bye bye"! I don't even have to wave first... you just do it! When I come to get you in the morning, I open the curtains and you wave outside because I used to say "hello world"... cutest thing.
• You love to clap and "dance" (a type of scoot bounce...you know) to any song, but especially Bubble Guppies (can you tell it is all that we watch).
• You are FINALLY putting yourself back to sleep most nights! (*** key: most. I have finally come to realize that sleeping is not a milestone... when I chose to become a mom, I chose to give up sleep forever. Or at least until they're all out of my house... maybe.)

Things you like this month:

• You LOVE shells and cheese and anything green but you're not a huge fan of fruit! That's Jason Taylor's child right there. Def not mine. 
• You love the ol' toss-ya-in-the-air trick. 
• Your favorite toys right now consist of a penguin puppet, your stand-up music table, and the elefun ball shooter (score for $4!). Mommy's favorite toy is your cat piano/mic/thing. :)
• You have to get up and walk EVERYWHERE. I guess this is more of a milestone, but you fully enjoy "finger walking". You can get there WAY faster!

Things you don't like this month:

• Strangers. Hello, separation anxiety.
• The vacuum. Not the coolest task of the day.
• Changing after bathtime. Laying on your back + being cold for any matter of time = fussy fussy fussy! 
• Teething. Duh.

Special memories:

• Watching daddy's first Kansas MS 150 ride! 
• Wearing two piece pajamas (milestone or memory? Either way, I'm crying.)
• Our first trip to Nebraska Furniture Mart and Louisburg Cider Mill.
• Having Ampa & Amma visit our new house!

Love you sweet girl! Can this month drag on please? I'm not ready for double digit months. That means I have to plan her TEA PARTY birthday party! There is no better joy than this (besides Jesus...duh).

Side note, Jason and I have decided to shorten the "possesions" month of 7 and go right to "media" month. More on this after the media month :). I will not be on facebook, Instagram, blogs, etc. And if you do see me on there, tell me to go read a book! 

Our weekend in pictures.

We had the best weekend with my in-laws! They were our first visitors in our new house (hello motivation to get the guest room done)!

It also happened to be the very first fall-ish weather. We had to turn on our heat! Hallelujah! So obviously there were so many snuggles:::

And intense Bubble Guppy watching:

These two are twins, I tell ya. Both babies and they could talk your head off. 

Best candid:

Best "give me that donut" face:

And some family pics: (but I can't show you the best one... it's christmas card material)

uh, I die:

So happy fall y'all! Go get some cider donuts and hot, fresh apple cider! 

Andie is 9 months old! More on that coming soon! 

a simplified life.

I forgot to publish this post a few weeks ago! Whoops:::

We are almost entering our third month of "7"!

Let me just tell you how we're doing: If I were a teacher, I'd give us an "F". If we were getting paid for this, we MIGHT have a couple dollars. If we were already living and adapted to a third world country, we'd be knocking this thing out of the park.

But we're Americans. Living in America, drinking American water, coping with this 21st century American society. So Jason basically hasn't even participated in the 2nd month (which is clothing, btw).   My first month with food basically went:

Eat the 7 foods for about 2 days, by the 3rd day, I've cheated, and by the 4th day, I've switched one of the foods out with something else. Ha.. so I'm a failure.

HOWEVER.... Our effort doesn't reflect our gain. Our spiritual, emotional, and mental gain from TRYING. It is now a constant thought in my head every day: to live more simply. So far, I've actually loved only wearing 7 items of clothing. It takes up so much less time in my day deciding on what to wear, I haven't ONCE thought "I have nothing to wear" because I have my 7 clothes. I know what I have and every morning, I just chose an outfit.

I mean, I wear the same outfit to bed and then again the next day all the time (it's a mom thing;)), so clothes really wasn't too hard. I did realize how much I could get rid of!

A significant question Jen Hatmaker asks in her book is about identifying yourself with these THINGS.

"What in my life, if taken away, would alter my value or identity?"

I try and think about this whenever I'm questioning keeping something, buying something, or giving (something I've been doing more of) something. Even things I get for Andie! It breaks my heart sometimes going into her closet knowing all her clothing needs are met and so much more, when a lot of children don't have any clothes at all!

So I'm off to go sleep in my Nike shorts and gray gap tee. Again. for the 4th day in a row.

8 months

I feel like Andie has done more in 8 months than I ever did before her. And sorry, I know she was 8 months on the 7th, so a little behind :)))

But I feel like I am now on her birthday countdown. I mean, I start listening to Christmas songs in September, so I can definitely start planning her birthday, right???

Hint: it's a tea party theme! I'm so excited!

All right, baby girl. This is you, now:

Weight: TBD

Height: TBD (but freaky tall)

Milestones this month:

• You have your first tooth!!! Finally! It happened on the 9th... I thought I saw a speck! Sure 'nuff... it's past the gums!
• You are saying "mamamamama" all the time! It's kind of my favorite thing! I know you aren't calling for me, but it's still too sweet to hear. 
• You are a speedy crawler, but you are wanting to "walk" ALL the time! You take a GIANT step with your left foot and catch up with your right. Ha, it's kind of precious. You can pull yourself up on anything, which has resulted in countless bumps and bonks.
• You are eating more and more "finger foods". Meaning, we bought the first (of many) boxes of Cheerios! You really can't get enough. But don't worry, you are eating PLENTY of veggies and fruits! Especially watermelon... you really are my child.
• You can clap your hands! It makes you smile so big!

Things you like this month:

• Sleeping in our bed after your 5 am feeding..... so sorry (or not? because it's precious?) that I started this. Hopefully you grow out of it by the time you go to college.
• Your paci... another thing I'll have to break. Every time you see it, in your mouth it goes!
• When daddy comes home, you know exactly where to look and you get SO happy!
• Puffs, rice cakes with bananas (or just plain and a day old in the bottom of your carseat... those are usually winners, too), cheerios, grapes, avacado... you LOVE them!
• Seeing your Nana and Papa! They make you laugh like no one else. So glad we can see them whenever we want to!
• When we clap for you... makes you smile so big!

Things you don't like this month:

• teething. :(
• When I walk too far away. So the nursery this week should be fun....
• When you are full or didn't like something, you just stick your whole tongue out. It's hilarious to us! 
• When Papa cheers to loud while watching football. It's gonna be a loooooong season. 

Special memories:

• We went to your first family reunion in Pratt, Kansas. 
• You also met your adorable baby cousin Knox, the only baby so far you can boss around :)
• You got your toenails painted for the first time.

September Weekends

How am I so so far behind in blogging?! Sheesh!

Let's grab this set up from Little Baby Garvin and recap life:

1. For Labor Day weekend, we went to a little town called Pratt Kansas.

Pros: Andie got to wear a bandana and not for fashion, for cooling her hot body down. This is real life country. Aunt Shelby took a bunch of the most incredible film pictures I've seen in a long time and Andie was in 90% of them. (Thanks a million). Cons: Andie is teething and had snot all over her face the entire weekend, mixed with sweat. It was so pretty.

3. Old Settler's Day is Olathe's Fair, so of course we HAD to go!

Pros: I bought fudge. And chevron leg warmers. Duh. Cons: Our cousin Kennadie (3 years old) decided she neeeeeeded to go potty! 

2. We took ANOTHER road trip, this time to Oklahoma.
Pros: Thank God for DVD players.

Cons: Andie was NOT having it being in the car again. Her attention span to the DVDs only lasted about 10 minutes.


3. We got to go meet baby Knox and hang out with his teeny little bod. Pros: Obviously smothering him with love.

Cons: Andie might have gotten a little jealous.

4. We got to see the rest of the Taylor fam! Pros: The 3 month gap between Emie and Andie is DEFINITELY not as obvious as it used to be! It is so fun seeing them grow out of the infant stage and into the almost-toddler stage together!

Cons: She had a terrible night the 2nd night and I let her sleep in our bed for the first time EVER. I know. I'm terrible. 

5. We got to sneak in a visit to the Brown family! Pros: While we were there to celebrate Barrett's 2nd birthday, his awesome mom went ahead and made me the most amazing lemon bars for my birthday! I could have eaten all 2 plates right there. Cons: Totally not enough time to catch up with your best friends. 

Let's also note how monstrous my baby's legs are in this picture.

Finally, one more weekend of activities and we are FREE!

The petting zoo is rated R.

So crazy how life comes in a full circle. My parents took me to Deanna Rose Farmstead when we moved to KC and now Jason and I take Andie. Things like this get way more fun when she can enjoy and engage, rather than us adults walking in the pig-scented heat pushing a sleeping baby...

Here's the story in pictures:

1 & 2: this dinosaur of a goat just clobbered his way up the fence to say hi. Freaked this mother out, let me tell ya. 

3: sleeping pigs make Andie smile. Or she knows what to do in front of a camera

4: this, my friends, is the picture of the week. I covered the head of this goat with my finger because I was so wigged out. Get this::: it's breeding season. The male goats have a harness with chalk in the chest area. It's color shows when the lady goat will give birth. Guess how you know which goats are impregnated? Disturbing goat picture in your mind? You're welcome.

(That goat is indeed pregnant)

5. Family. Can't beat it.

6. Jason bathing. 

7. He wants to pump his own water all day long.

8. My favorite people 

9. I know, little guy. Life's rough. Hakuna matata. 

7

Okay... So what is 7? 

If you think its basically 7 months of eating dry chicken and wearing the same pants, you're not that far off.

Jason and I recently read the book '7' by Jen Hatmaker, and if you read it, I'm sure your mindset about life changed or was challenged just a bit. I've read books like this before but this one actually inspired us with something we could DO. 

Basically, it's a challenge to live a little simpler. We are doing this in hopes to realize just how "rich" we are, how we take such vital things for granted, and to reduce ourselves so Christ can increase.

Here's the format: every month you give up something/change the way you're living. Month one is food. We are eating 7 foods for the entire month (with a ton of justifications, I mean carefully considered options). This might not be hard for a lot of people, but when you've eaten DRY chicken and spinach and sweet potatoes with no "fixings"... It gets old. 

Regardless, we have already learned and realized a lot about our American habits, such as how we can so easily just go to the store and buy whatever we need. And whatever we don't need. I always pick up way more food than I intended on buying and I always end up throwing away more than I am okay with (aka like NONE). 

We also took notice of how much we look forward to each meal, like we feel entitled to special food that makes us feel comfortable/happy/fancy/better. And by "we" I mean "I". 

So, pray for us on this journey because I have to reassess why I'm doing this 7,431 times a day. :)