year and a half

We have hit a momentous age in baby years...18 months! It is showing too. All of a sudden this little girl is an older sort of baby. She is starting to replace her finger points and desperate squeaks and grunts for actual, real-life words. Her interpretation of them anyway. One of my favorites is when she is telling me she did some business in her diaper (any business) she pats her bum and says "beeps" meaning, poops. She has a kitty that she loves and instead of saying kitty, she says "mimi" So, Kitty has a new name.

Just some of her words:

shoe, "oosh" purse, "boose".... ice, "eyeshh".... Sam, "mam".... story, "dohwee".... Elmo, "mehmo"

dress, "dess".... Grandpa, "papa".... and new ones everyday.

She still loves to bite her brother when she's upset. About once a week he has bite marks to prove it. This girl is all about the clothes and brings me and dad shoes and jackets and tutus to put on all day. although I think her favorite is when it's bath time and that diaper comes off, she takes off running through the house, free as a bird. This little thing is fast too. She loves to be chased and she hardly walks anywhere... she sprints

She loves her "boose" which I used as a scripture case. She walks around with it on her shoulder and usually has her arm shot straight up in the air, so it doesn't fall off. Her natural gravitation for clothes makes me laugh. But if you scramble the letters in Soph, you get shop.... are we in trouble? I think we are, but I'm up for the ride.

pretty great, had to share

My Sister-in-law Patricia started a cooking blog. She goes all out on meals and her most recent posting kind of cracked me up. A New moon themed dinner.... well 2 dinners, Jacob vs Edward. Check it out here

the last of florida, maybe the best

Cocoa beach was so great. It's about an hour from Steves brothers house so we only spent a day there but what a great day it was. So warm, not too hot. We just packed snacks, brought beach towels and played. The waves were high that day and the surfers took advantage of it. It was so fun to watch them and it gave little Sammers piece of mind because if there were sharks in the water, they would most definitely get the surfers first.

This was Sophies first time seeing the ocean. Sam was also about 18 months. She was a bit apprehensive but when she warmed up 10 fold. She just turned into a little crazy mermaid. She ran for the water and had many protest to me hanging onto her arms so she wouldn't get knocked over by the waves.

Emma with a mermaid fin

Love this little man

Pretty sweet sand castle, very fun to build

Just call me Tyra Banks. I'm so comfortable being photographed in my swim suit

Cutie Cousins

Jeff and Patricia and Emma

I totally forgot her swim suit, good thing She's a baby eh?

One other thing we did on our trip was go to Gainsville Florida. Besides BYU, Steve has a few other college football teams he likes and one of them is Florida. We visited their stadium which I even have to admit was cool. I've never seen any football stadium all ready for a game but totally empty. We got shooed out not much longer after we got there. It must have been a fluke to have one of the doors totally open. Good luck I guess.

The Magic Kingdom

We spent a full day at the magic kingdom and it didn't disappoint. The weather was breezy and mid 70's, The lines were fairly short. We started our day with Steve's brother Jeff and his little girl Emma. They live here so Disney isn't as big of a novelty. It's amazing what an ordeal even getting to the park is. and even on a November day in the middle of the week, how big the crowds were.

Uncle Jeff has been fantastic with Sam and Sophie. Sophie totally digs him. He gave Sam his Star Wars Legos game and has taught him to play it. He's never really played video games... we may have a little addict on our hands. He has been in heaven tough.

Meeting Minnie and Mickey!!

Sam was so pumped and had the sweetest little genuine grin and soph really liked them from a distance but when mickey tried to give her a hug, she gave him one of her best scowls. I played the role of keep Sophie from screaming and squirming while Dad got to go on most of the rides with Sam... I was only bitter while I was waiting for the ride to be done. Baby girl and I did some bonding too. She is the sweetest funniest crazy little thing. She loves babies so to keep her content, we would go baby spotting. when we found one she would burst into her little gleeful giggle and point and say "Beebee!" Her glee was heightened when at one point she made the realization that she too is a baby. She pats me and says "mama" and pats her little chest and says "Beebee"

Emma was fun to have around. She is going through a stage where she is scared of everything so Her dad had to convince her to go n rides by saying, "but this is baby Sophies favorite ride... This is baby Sophies 2nd favorite ride." By 3rd favorite... she grew a bit skeptical.

I really love that their expression is the same... and that they look equally as nervous

Jack sparrow

Sam and Steve Sparrow

Soph and I waited for the boys at the bottom of splash mountain and I caught them on tape... they obviously were oblivious to us spying on them

We got splash on a lot and Sophina loved it.

on "It's a Small World"

Mickeys house was decked out for Christmas... already.... My kind of Mouse

We stayed til Dark... I have mosquito bites to prove it, 17 to be exact. Sam had great energy all day and just ate it up. And we kept him well hydrated with sprite, which he loves. He decided his favorite ride was Splash Mountain. I'd have to agree little man. I wish we could make Disney a yearly thing. Such a great time.

Disney World, part Hollywood studios

So I just blogged about how to keep going to your favorite hairdresser, which unintentionally sounded like a plea for my readers to stay with me through this rocky economy... so if you were thinking, "I hope she is able to put food on the table" then were confused at me then posting about my fabulous Disney vacation.... I guess I understand your confusion. The good thing about this yuck economy is that there are deals of the century out there. For example, When steve-o was thrilled to find cheap airline tickets, his enthusiasm was heightened when at the check-out, there was a pop-up window from Delta, one-upping our purchase by 20 bucks and no lay-over. Thanks, crappy economy!

More Thanks are owed to Stevie's brother Jeff and his wife Patricia who have the Orlando hook-up.... Free park passes, house close to Disney, and they lent us a car for a week (which sophie puked in...sorry guys). I had thoughts of eating light while out here, but Patricia has had fabulous dinners of lasagna, homemade bread, and chocolate chip pancakes ready for us when we come home tired and hungry from a hard day of fun.

And one night we were able to repay them with food by taking advantage of my BIL Jt's hook-up. He is the manager at bonefish grill in Mississippi and called in "comp meal for us

One night we were able to repay them with food by taking advantage of my BIL's hook-up. JT is the Manger of a bonefish grill In Mississippi and called in a "comp" meal for us. SO yummy and such a nice restaurant.

Hollywood studios and home of Sammos highlight of the trip.....

....What could be keeping a 4year olds attention so intently?

buh buh buhm... a star wars show, complete with darth vader and everything

I waited in line for a good 40 minutes so Sam could go onstage and learn some Jedi skills and try to defeat Darth Vader. at the last minute, he decided that it wasn't such a great idea and we went somewhere else.

Lightning and Mater were a bit less intimidating

We opted not to wait in the line to meet donald and snuck a picture with me.

handy manny

We all loved the toy story ride

Disney world part: Animal kingdom

I figured I needed some journaling to go along with these pictures. The general Taylor family consensus of Animal Kingdom was... We Loved It! It was so peacful and serene for a theme park. the scenery was gorgeous and soothing. We didnt spend nearly as much time as we would have liked. Even though it's summertime temps here in the sunshine state, it's still winter and still gets dark early and that's when the park closes. So when 5 o' clock rolled around we still had a few places we wanted to see but time ran out. Still, we were able to go on the Safari and saw alot of animals, apperantly you don't always get to see them. Sammers was a bit nervous at the description of how these animals would be viewed, he would say, "I'm not sure I want to go inside of the animals cage" He was delighted not to have been eaten by a lion.

His bravery didnt stop there. He and Dad went on the ride "Dinosaur" which has some pretty intense moments and he loved it. Sophie enjoyed riding in her stroller but im not sure she understood much else. She did have fun poiting at all the animals. She was hardly a stink at all.

Our family pictures I asked a fellow passer-by to take (I kind of think they were Mormon. Am I the only one that goes out of state and tries to pick the mormons out?)

I loved the views here... It was so serene and peacful after the beginning of the day was spent at Hollywood Studios. (That post to come)

On the Safari ride

Sophies curls+humidity=I can't even stand it

Some animal friends. The white rhino was so cool, I've never seen one before, let alone that close

Hello there handsome

Sophies face right when the triceratops ride takes off... I love it

Sophie feeding her new baby minnie, she looks so tired

Crash

A little bit of hair talk

I have hair blog... I never ever update it. Still hair is a really really big part of my day to day, So I just may blog about it right here... or it may never happen again.

As a hairstylist, I try to keep up with trends happening in the world and the biggest happening at the moment that seems to be affecting everybody is the economy. ( just typing it, I think i threw up a little in my mouth) Hair can be so unbelievably, ridiculously expensive. On the other hand you can get a haircut, at some places for the price of a cafe rio salad. The most recent 8 dollar haircut I tried to salvage was complete with what can only be described as "dog ears" and a line of sad little hairs that were thoughtlessly left behind on the perimeter.

What is a haircut worth? As a fellow "struggling in this economy"-er, I could see why a cheap haircut with no wait time could be enticing. The thing to know is that you can find a good stylist in a great clips salon, there are just a lot of limitations those stylists have put on them. Because it is a walk-in basis, they are generally expected to finish a haircut in 15 minutes. No shampoo, blow dry, no style and limited time. These things are essential to components to a great cut. Now, blowdryers that suspend from the ceiling, champane being served and amazing decor (all of which usually jack the price of your ticket up) are not needed to get a great cut. A shampoo is important so the hair can be easily combed through and manipulated. A style is important so your stylist can see how your hair will lay, and also instruct you on how to style your cut. A good haircut saves you time and I know that if my hair doesn't look good even after putting in the effort to style it, I just quit trying it's not worth the effort.

As far as color goes, Some ways to save on your yearly salon visit is to combine your haircut and style together, stretch it a week or two, and go a little closer to your natural color. By combining your cut and color, most of the time you get a discount. My womens cuts are $30 but with a color, the price is $18 dollars. My reason for that is, the style is always included in a color and with the haircut, by combing the 2, I only style once, that saves me time, that savings is passed onto my client.

By gettting your hair done every 5 weeks, you are in the salon about 10 or 11 times. By stretching your appointment to 7 weeks, you are in about 7 or 8 times. Translated into money, if you are getting your hair cut and colored and your eyebrows waxed, with tip, you may be spending around $100. That's $300 a year you would be saving just by dealing with your re-growth for a few weeks longer.

If you are used to a full head of highlights, a way to save money is to go a little closer to your natural color so you don't have to get it done as often. To keep that very blonde feel, make sure there is a good amount of blonde close to your face.

There really are a lot of ways to keep going to your favorite stylist and avoid having to buy a box of clariol while picking up you milk and eggs. Or gritting your teeth while asking if anyone is available while your 7 year old gets a buzz cut.... or out of desperation, grabbing the clippers yourself and pulling a Brittney Spears.