Taitym is ONE!

I just have to start out by saying I am the worlds biggest slacker when it comes to blogging!

On August 13th 2011 my baby girl turned ONE ): I can't believe how fast this year has gone by. It feels like just last month I was blogging about finding out I was pregnant and that I was having a girl. I can't even begin to tell you how much this little girl has changed my life. I can't even imagine my life without her. She has such a funny personality. When I come home from work, I just sit and play with her all night. By the time we go to bed my cheeks are literally hurting from laughing so much. Taitym and I have so much fun together and I LOVE always having my little buddy by my side!

I have ALSO been the world's biggest slacker when it comes to getting Taitym's pictures taken SO I finally scheduled a session with the famous Jen Herem Photography. Taitym had the flu the day before we were scheduled to get our pictures taken. I hesitated to cancel our session but I wanted her pictures taken before her 1st birthday!  So the day of our session with Jen, Taitym was still a little fussy but seemed to be feeling a lot better. So I let Taitym lay around most of the day and just tried to keep giving her liquids and eating whatever she could keep down. About an hour before our session I put Taitym in the bath and she started to get worse and worse. She was crying and I could tell she had a fever but by now it was too late to cancel on Jen. So I got Taitym out of the bath and did her hair and we went to meet Jen. Taitym was NOT happy about getting her pictures taken and was not easy to work with. Poor Jen not only had to deal with us being late but had to try to make my poor sick baby smile and be playful. Jen actually got a few pictures of Taitym smiling but the rest were here just wanting me to hold her and wanting to lay down on my shoulder or her crying. Jen captured amazing pictures for me and I couldn't be happier with how they turned out 

 

So after we had pictures taken, my mom and I took Taitym to InstaCare. She had a fever of 104 and was so so sick. Within the first 10 minutes of being at InstaCare, Taitym threw up all over me. We spent the next 5 hours at InstaCare with the nurses coming in every half hour making us giving Taitym Pedialyte and they gave her a small dose of Zofran to help with the nausea!!!

Something New

I have been waiting and waiting to pierce Taitym's ears.  I just couldn't bring myself to do it.  I just kept think I would be a horrible mom if I caused pain to my baby that didn't need to be caused.  Every time we go to her check ups I end up crying every time they give her shots.  I always have to leave the room and as soon as I hear her cry I run in and grab her and we just cry together (: haha I know I am a baby!!  SO my mom and I went to lunch one day and I asked my mom if she would come with me to pierce Taitym's ears.  She said she would but she didn't want to take her to one of those piercing places in the mall, she wanted to take her somewhere nice.  So we went up to the Gem Smith in Bountiful.  I made my mom hold her while I walked outside of the store!  I heard her scream and figured that had to have been the first ear so I waited a second and then went inside.  My mom said she didn't really cry when he did the first one.  I think she was in shock that this nice man would hurt hurt but a few seconds later they did the other ear and then she started crying.  It was so sad... She couldn't catch her breath and just kept gasping for air.  I only felt bad for a second and then realized how freaking cute she looked with her new earrings!  She glared at my the whole way home but go over the pain after that.  She hasn't messed with them or pulled on them.  I honestly didn't think my baby could be any cuter but I defiantly think she looks even cuter with her little diamond earrings!!

The New AND Improved.....

My friend Whitlee found a girl that would do our extensions for $35 a bag.  I have always wanted LONG hair but I have thin thin hair and it would take me years and years to grow it out SO I figured I would give the extensions a try!  I think the girl did a pretty good job considering how much she charged me.  I went to the girl who normally does my hair and had her add a few more extensions in and trim it up!  I defiantly feel more girly with long hair and I am LOVING it!  I will post another picture tonight of the front.  I haven't washed my hair since I got the extensions put in so I will wash it tonight and take a picture!  If you want the girls contact information who did my hair, let me know!  She lives out in Roy and was a really nice girl!  She just does them out of her house and charges $35 a bag.  She used 8 bags of hair on me and she used 9 bags of hair on my friend Whitlee.  If you tell her I refereed you, she will give you 25 dollars off!! 

Giveaway!!!

My old neighborhood friend is doing a giveaway!  Go to her page here http://malwalkerphotography.blogspot.com/2011/04/giveaway.html and enter her giveaway!!!!!

GIVEAWAY

I said as soon as i got 100 likes on Facebook, that i would do a giveaway!
So, here it is!

to enter the contest: 
- comment on this blog and tell me you already like me on Facebook, or go and 'LIKE' me on Facebook -- then tell me that you did!

additional entries:
- leave a comment telling me that you linked my Facebook page on your Facebook for your friends to go and 'LIKE' me too, mention the giveaway to your friends as well!  {you can tag me in the link by pushing the @ key then typing Mal Walker Photography so i can see the link to count your entry} or just copy and paste your Facebook page url in your comment on this blog, so i can count your entry.

- if you have a blog, leave a blog post about my contest with a link to this blog. make sure to provide the link to your blog in your comment on this blog, so i can count your entry!

- leave a comment on this blog telling me how you found me, and who you found me through. if you know me personally.... tell me the first time you met me!



rules: 
you have to have a minimum of 1 comment on this blog post, and can only have a maximum of 4 comments on this blog post.
contest will end May 3 at 11:59pm -- EASTERN time! 
if you have already booked a session with me, you can use this free session in its place.
florida residents, this will be available to redeem before May 22. Then not again until June 24 - August 13.
utah residents, this will be available to redeem anytime between May 25 and June 18. Then again until September. session must be done before November 1.

winner: 

- the winner will receive a free portrait session, up to 6 people, and will also get a free 11x14 print, OR two 8x10 prints. 

*winner will be chosen on May 4, using random.org*

thank you, and good luck! 

Wordish Wednesday!!

I have been going through a lot these past couple of months.  I don't want to get in to too much detail because things are still crazy for me right now BUT I do have to say that the one thing that has kept me going and that keeps a smile on my face is Taitym.  I still have her sleep with me and one of the reasons is that every morning when I wake up I love looking over and seeing her just smile at me and reach for me to pick her up.  I love coming home from work and seeing how excited she gets to see me.  She is such a girly girl (just like her mom) and loves putting my makeup brushes on her face while I am putting my makeup on.  She LOVES wearing bows and hats (she always has a hat or bow in her hair) and she smiles at herself in the mirror every time she sees that she has one on.  I love that I can act crazy and sing and dance in front of her and I am sure all she is thinking is "my mom is a crazy dancer and she defiantly can't sing but she makes me laugh so keep on going." I can't imagine my life without Taitym.  I think about her all day every day.  I love going to the mall and buying her stuff. It use to be all about me but now I have someone else to look after and I couldn't be more happy about it.  I love always having a little buddy to run around town with, to eat lunch at home with and have dinner dates with.  She is now eating solids so when I make dinner she just has bites of whatever I am having and it's so much fun to spend my nights with her.  We have so much fun being together, just us two.  I wish time would just stop, she gets bigger and bigger every day and I just want her to stay little so I can snuggle her and have her love on me forever.
Taitym, I know you can't read this yet but I hope you know you are my world, you are my everything.  I have never been so happy in my entire life and I love you more than I can put into word!  LOVE YOU... MOMMY!!!

Taitym's baby blessing

On October 24th, 2010 we blessed baby Taitym!  My brother, Kyle holds the priesthood, so he was able to bless Taitym.  I have not been to my new ward since I moved to Riverton and I haven't gone to my parents ward in a couple of years, so I just decided to bless Taitym in my brothers home.  We just had to have his bishop present to confirm it happened.  I cried the whole time Kyle was talking, actually I don't think there was a dry eye in the house.  My brother is very spiritual and was worried about blessing Taitym, he didn't want it to be too much about the Church because Steve is Greek Orthodox and I haven't gone to church in a while but he said all the right things and it meant the world to me to have him  bless Taitym.  My brother and I haven't always seen eye to eye but he is someone I will always look up to.  He treats his wife, Kelli like she is the most amazing person in this world and the most important person in this world.  This sounds cheesy but he is honestly like the ideal husband type.  Everytime I see him and Kelli together you can just tell how much he loves her and adores her.  He wasn't the older protective brother, he was more like the secret protective brother.  He acted like he didn't like me while we were growing up, but I know he secretly loved me.   When he left on his mission, I thought it would be the best 2 years of my life, I would have the basement all to myself, I wouldn't be woken up by him and his loud friends and 2 in the morning, I would be able to have my own bathroom and not have to share it with him (he is like a girl and takes like an hour to get ready) but when he left, it was so much harder than I could have ever imagined.  As soon as we dropped him off at the MTC I cried that whole day.  I cried everytime I wrote him a letter, I cried everytime I recieved a letter.  He is honestly the best brother in the world and I love him so much!!

Merry Christmas

On Christmas Eve my whole family always gets together.. We went up to Steve's parents house first so I could open my presents from them and their presents to Taitym.  We jsut hung out with his family for a little bit and then went to my Grandma and Grandpas house.  We usually have all the small grandkids act out the Mary and Joseph scene with Baby Jesus, they get all dressed up and my grandpa reads the story.  This year my little cousins were at their mom's parents house so it was just the older kids this Christmas Eve.  We had amazing food and a lot of fun just spending time together!!
It was SO fun spending Christmas morning with my little family of 3.  Taitym got up around 6:00 AM so I made her a bottle, changed her diaper and layed her back in bed.  I was so tired and excited to sleep in BUT the little kid in Steve and I defiantly came out.  At about 7:30 Steve said "Can we go open presents now?" I had been waiting 2 hours for him to get up.  I was so excited to open presents.  I ran downstairs and sat infront of the tree.  Steve and I took turns opening our presents.  It was so nice to only have to wait for one person to open their present before I could open my next one.  In my family, my parents would make me wait for Kyle my mom and dad to open a present and then it was my turn again.  I swear they all would take their time taking off the wrapping paper and opening the dang box just to make me mad.  I swear it took each of them 5 minutes to open 1 present.  Steve defiantly surprised me with the cutest white Michael Kors watch, a new jewelry box, a iPod plugin for my car and new iPod (I have had 3 other ones, one of them I smashed in my car door, the other I lost and the other one was an iTouch and I hated it.)  I bought Steve a Kinect for his XBOX and 3 games to go with it, a Lakers hoodie with Bryant on the back and Kobe's # and some sweat pants to wear with his hoodie. Steve and I didn't really buy Taitym much this year, just because she is so little.  I did buy her a bunch of outfits the day after Thanksgiving but she is growing so fast that she had already worn them all before Christmas.  I talked Steve into buying her a Tickle Me Elmo and she absolutly loves it.  We also bought her a little play cell phone and a couple of other little toys.  After we were done opening presents, Steve went to his parents house and Taitym and I went to my parents house.  We opened up our presents with Kyle, Kelli and Camden.  My mom and dad spoiled Taitym and Camden.  They bought them both a pair of True Religion jeans.  They are seriously the best dressed kids in the world.  After we opened presents, we ate breakfast and took a nap.  Then we headed up to my grandma and grandpas house.  We opened up presents from Grandma and Grandpa and just hung out with my family.  I honestly have the coolest family in the world.  We always have so much fun together and I love hanging out with them.  My mom has 1 brother and 2 sisters, with all of their kids included we have 24 of us.  It's a big group but we all act like best friends!!
I can't wait until next Christmas... Taitym will be old enough to know how to open her own presents and actually want to play with her toys.  I have always wanted to be the mom that bakes cookies with her kids Christmas Eve night and puts out milk and cookies for Santa.  I can't wait to do that next year.