Cutest Bunny EVER!!

Here are some pics of Taylor in her Halloween costume!

The rest of the pics are on Snapfish (Click here to view)

Hope you all had a fun Halloween!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

happy monday to me!!

Ok - so Monday mornings are normally such a drag....you know - back to work after enjoying a nice weekend knowing you have 5 more days until the next weekend.....

This was a typical Monday morning until Mike W sent me a text to let me know that Maryland is RANKED in the AP Poll!! WOOOHOOO! #25 baby! Bring on the Hokies!

GO TERPS!!!!

Congrats Sissy & Todd

They did it!! 26.2 miles! WOW!! Today was the 33rd running of the Marine Corps Marathon and Mom, Dad, TP and I headed down to Arlington to cheer on Jacqueline & Todd as they ran. Months and months of intense training paid off but I did hear Jack say that she will never do it again! ;0)



Here they are at mile 22....

It was a beautiful day and we had lots of fun cheering on all of the runners. As nice as it was - it was still too chilly for Taylor to take her jacket off. She was sad cause she really wanted to show off her new tshirt that Aunt Jack bought her......

Hahahahaha! Brilliant!

TP had a fun weekend of wearing new clothes from Aunt Jack & Uncle Todd. Today it was the running shirt and yesterday she wore her new pink Maryland Terps shirt from Todd for the Homecoming game....which we won on a last second field goal! GO TERPS!!

Hope everyone had a good weekend! :0)

Pictures from NC

Here is the link to the pictures on Snapfish from our trip to NC. They are part of the October file so you'll have to scroll down to see the new ones.

CLICK HERE for the pics.

Oh Thank Heaven....

....for Kevin! I'll explain later in the post what I mean by that. I'm going to back up to Friday and tell you all about our weekend in Charlotte, NC!

I left off on my last post on Friday afternoon after my lunch with Katie. That night Kevin and Katie came over to Jen & Ian's for dinner and we had a great time just hanging out and catching up with each other.

Saturday afternoon we were off to the Pumpkin Patch. We got there and got out of the car to find the temperature was a bit chillier than it was at the house. :( We got a few pics with Taylor but then had to wrap her up and put her back in the stroller to make sure she was nice and toasty. Here is my newest favorite picture of the family......
Despite the chilly weather we had a great time! Jonathan got to go on a Hay Ride and pick out a big pumpkin for carving. He and Ben also got to feed some of the animals in the barn which was super exciting to the little guy. There was also a Tomato Slingshot that Ben and Ian mastered. It was then that I saw the swings that looked like little horses. I LOVE swings so that was my excitement for the afternoon! Believe me - you'll see when I get the pics posted. HA!

We got home that evening and got ready for Jen and Ian's friends Kevin and Amber to come by and watch the VA Tech game! They are pregnant with their first baby - a little boy due in January! YAY for them. For those of you that watched the game - it wasn't pretty and apparently not exciting enough to keep Jen, Ian, Ben or myself awake past the 3rd quarter. Apparently Kevin and Amber found his entertaining - they will feel our pain in just a few months! ;0)

Sunday morning rolled around and we were sad knowing that our vaca was almost over since we were leaving bright and early the next day to get back on the train. Now - the thought of getting back on train made us miserable! After a lot of debating - I called Amtrak and found out that it is super easy to get a refund on your unused tickets! That is when we decided to rent a car to come home in. Yahoo!!
After that decision....Ben went to the driving range with Kevin and Jen and I drove out to the outlet mall to walk around for a little while. As we were turning onto the street with the mall I remembered that Heather had told me there was a Steak n Shake over there. I asked Jen if it was true and when she said Yes you would have thought I had won the lottery! I know most of you know about my obsession with this place (thanks Lesalie and Heather) so I was pumped to be able to get a yumm-o milkshake and shoestring fries! I would have loved to get a little burger but my pulled pork was cookin in the crockpot so I wasn't going to ruin my dinner. :)

That evening Kevin and Katie came back over to have dinner with us! While we were getting things together - Ben was calling around to find us a car to get home in. After calling at least 8 different places - there was not one car available in the Charlotte area! WHAT!?! I couldn't believe it. Our happy day turned into a sad day since we were again getting back on the train the next morning. This is where the Oh Thank Heaven for Kevin comes in.....Kevin offered to drive us home. He said that he didn't have anything going on this week and he had told some of his friends up here that he's come home for a visit soon! Happy day - turned sad - was turned happy again! WoooHooo! A thank you shout out needs to go to Katie as well since Kevin had to use her car and she is driving his big Ford F150! THANK YOU KATIE!

So all in all we had a fantastic time down in NC. Jen and Ian are fabulous hosts and it was great to spend so much time with them. Thank you so much for getting all of Jonathan's baby stuff out of storage for Taylor to use....especially that swing! :0) We are already looking forward to your trip up here at Thanksgiving! Give Jonathan a big hug and kiss for us!

It was fantastic to see Kevin and Katie again as well. Katie - it's been way too long! Thanks again for letting Kevin use your car to bring us home in! It was a great ride and so much easier than dealing with the madness of Amtrak!

I'll get my pics uploaded to Snapfish tomorrow and will post the link afterwards!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

All ABOARD!!!!

Greetings from Charlotte, NC!

So a little over a month ago Ben called one afternoon to tell me that he looked up train tickets to go to Charlotte to visit our friends Jen, Ian, Katie and Kevin. It seemed like a brilliant idea! It was fairly cheap and then we wouldn't have to worry about driving down and stopping every time Taylor needed a diaper change or a bottle. So we booked the trip and were counting down the days to our mini vaca!!

The 16th finally came!! We had an eventful day before noon even hit! Taylor woke us up @ 530 so I fed her and then went to log on to work for a little bit before I got ready. We were out of the house a little before 8 and got to Scott w/ a few min to spare. Good thing we left a few minutes early cause there was traffic everywhere we went. We got to Union Station about 1010 and we heard that it was the last call for checked baggage for our train so we went running to the counter.....thats where everything got a little crazy. We were told by the not so nice man that we couldn't check luggage b/c we were going to an unmanned station. Ben asked about his golf clubs and the guy shrugged his shoulders and said it would be up to the conductor whether we could take them on. Ben then asked him if this information was anywhere on the website and the man looked at him and said "dunno-i don't go on the website". Are you kidding?!? Rude! So we go to the gate and just wait to hear what our fate is going to be-will we be allowed on the train or will we be renting a car. We got to go to the front of the line b/c of TP! Score one for the baby! The lady standing in front of the door took one look at us and all of our stuff and I think she felt bad. We explained that we didn't know we couldn't check bags blah blah blah - she told us not to worry about it and just get on the train. YES!!! This lady is our new best friend. Not only did she not give us a hard time about our bags but she let us sit in the section reserved for parties of 3 or more even though TP doesn't count since she doesn't have a ticket. Yay!
So off we went on our little adventure. What seemed like such a good idea when we booked the tickets - little by little didn't seem like it anymore. Don't get me wrong - it was great to feed her right when she was ready and we did diaper changes with ease but it was a B-O-R-I-N-G ride. After leaving a few minutes late and having an extra long stop in Greensboro for too many reasons to go into - we finally arrived at our destination almost 10 hours later. I've never been so excited to see a car! HAHAHAHA! Dear Crazy!

It's a little bit of a dreary chilly day but that hasn't stopped us from having our fun. Ben went to play golf with Kevin and Jen, Jonathan, TP and I went to the store to get all of the fixins for our meals this weekend. After we got back and unloaded - TP and I went back out to meet Katie for lunch. We went to this yummy little pizza place up the street! Good times!

That's about it for today! Hope everyone is having a Happy Friday! More from NC to come......

It was another fun weekend! It started Thursday evening with the arrival of Jen and her son Jonathan. I was able to hang out with them for a little while before going bowling. We were having a great time catching up and I was packing Taylor up to head out when Jonathan tripped over himself and went head first into our bottom step. Insert PANIC here! There was a lot of blood - more than normal for biting his lip according to Jen and then we realized that he had bitten all the way through! OUCH! Poor little guy. He was a trooper though - as was his Mommy. I've been told to enjoy the non mobile time with TP and I then understood why. :(


Friday was a normal work day for us. Jen and Jonathan spent the day with grandma and came back to the house later that night. Antonio and Lauren stopped by as well so they could spend some time with them.


Saturday morning - Ben, Jen and Jonathan headed over to the playground by our club house to run around while Taylor was taking a morning snooze. Jonathan had a great time and apparently Ben went down the slide a few times with him. Too bad we don't have a pic of that! ;)

Later that afternoon after both kids were fed and rested we headed over to Sterling Fest. It was almost over by the time we got there but we were still able to walk around the local community booths and check out the scene. We walked over to the Fire Station and were lucky enough to run into Becca! Taylor actually woke up while we were there so we got a pic of us with our favorite volunteer firefighter!!

The fun didn't end there. After Sterling Fest we went over to Ben's parents house to see Billy who was home from VA Tech for the weekend. Taylor was so excited to see her Uncle Billy.....

We were all excited to see him. We miss you buddy! :)

Taylor was apparently pooped after the fun day because after she took her last bottle she slept from 9pm to 7:30am!!!!! YESSSSSSS!!! ;0) BUT that's actually not the most exciting part of the morning. She rolled over for the first time and Ben and I were totally taken by surprise! She has been so close for a few weeks but she hasn't been able to get over shoulder. This time I was holding her and I put her down for a second and over she went! Just like that! Big day for us! It was a great start to a long day for me. I had to work at the bar but it wasn't too bad....despite a horrible Skins game.

Only 2 more days of work for me this week. We're leaving on Thursday morning to head down to Charlotte, NC until Monday. We decided to take the train so we didn't have to worry about stopping whenever we needed to feed or change TP. Keep your fingers crossed that it goes well!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

K

TGIF!

Happy Friday everyone! It's going to be a beautiful weekend - hope you all get out to enjoy it!

We have a fun weekend planned! Jen and her little guy Jonathan planned a last minute trip up to NOVA to visit with the grandparents and they are staying with us! It's so great to see them again and such a bonus since we're going to be down at their house next week!

So Jonathan and I were just watching Sesame Street - my how's it's changed since I was a kid. Same concept - just a little more "hip". I have to say that I just heard the funniest phrase and I never would have expected it on Sesame Street......

3 of the characters (names that I will one day know when TP is watching) were reading the Action Dog book that had a motorcycle noise coming from it. When the question was asked what kind of noise is that, - one of the little guys answered "a lactose intolerant antelope that just ate a batch of cottage cheese!" I almost feel off the couch laughing! Oh the things I have to look forward to! HA! Dear Crazy!!!

The Weekend and Pictures

So it was a fun weekend for Taylor and I.....yep it was just TP and I. Ben had the opportunity to go down to VA Tech with the boys for the football game and some time with his little bro Billy so I said "GO GO GO". Friday morning rolled around and that was when I started to get a little nervous about being by myself....Friday night came around and I got over it quickly. I picked up TP from daycare and we had a nice quiet evening just the two of us.....we had dinner, went to the grocery store and then I did some stuff around the house after she went to bed. We got up Saturday morning, played for a while....did some tummy time and got even closer to rolling over. Then it was time to get ready for our visit with Amanda. She brought over lunch and we had a great time eating and catching up before we took a trip to the outlets so she could spend her hard earned gift card to COACH! TP loves going into COACH.....no - it's not cause it's full of amazing beautiful purses.....it's cause of how white and bright it is!! At least that is what we tell Ben! HA!!

Later that evening, TP and I went over to my parents for dinner and to hang out with Joan & Bob - my parents dear friends from Jersey. Now - being as they are from Jersey - they are big Eagles fans. We don't hold that against them.....anyway - they brought Taylor a few presents....a new book, a fun 1st Halloween Outfit and a bib that can't be described so I've posted the picture that I sent to Ben....

Priceless huh!?!

After dinner I took up on an offer from Tom & Angela to watch TP for a little while since one of my most favorite bands - Emmett Swimming - was playing at Ned Devine's. They very rarely play in the area anymore and the one time they do - it's the same weekend that Ben is gone. It worked out well though - I got to see the band play a set and TP got to play with Sammie and Baby Daisy (T&A's dogs) ;0)

Sunday morning we got up really early, got all bundled up and drove to downtown Herndon to get on the WO&D Trail and wait to cheer on Aunt Jack & Uncle Todd. The background for this adventure is.....Sissy & Todd are training for the Marine Corps Marathon. They have a pretty intense training schedule and this past weekend run was the longest one - 20 miles. They start near their house in Fairfax and the 1/2 way point was right smack in the middle of Herndon. When I spoke to Jac the night before, I asked her when she would be at the 10 mile mark so we could meet them and she said...."well, if we start around 6:30am then we should be there around 8:30". Honestly - I was at a loss for words when she said that! DEAR CRAZY!! So we got there around 8:15 and started walking. It wasn't long before we could see them running towards us and the next thing I know - Jac asked if she could push TP and away they went.....

Jac & Todd running with TP

TP all bundled up - it was only 60 degrees in Leesburg when we left the house! Thanks to Leslie S for the outfit she gave to us at the baby shower - it came in very handy!!

I have to say - I'm very impressed with Jac & Todd and how much time and energy they have put into the training for this marathon. We'll be there to cheer you on on the big day!

Next it was back to the rents house for breakfast and relaxation! They left to go downtown with Joan & Bob so it was NAP TIME for Taylor and I. Boy did that feel good! We woke up just in time to watch the Skins game. HAIL TO THE REDSKINS BABY!!! I love my husband but man it feels good to beat his team. ;0) Once the game was over it was time for the fun to continue and we headed over to Ben's parents house for Melissa's bday dinner. Taylor was so happy to see her Daddy! We had a nice time and a delicious dinner. Taylor laughed a real laugh for the first time when Nana (Ben's mom) was playing with her. I got some great pics - the link is below.

Hope you all had a nice weekend! :)

http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=242410998/a=5781352_5781352/t_=5781352

It's a .....

GIRL! Congratulations to Melissa - she found out today that she will be having another little girl. She said that she is destined to only have girls as payback for when she was a kid. HA! Dear Crazy!

We're excited to meet our new niece mid/late February 2009.

And in this corner.....

....weighing in at 14 pounds 6 ozs and 25 1/4 inches tall.....Taylor Paige Killian!

We had Taylor's 4 month check up this morning. Everything went really well. She is in the 50th percentile for weight and head and the 75th percentile for height. The nurse said this puts her on the taller side. I almost laughed because you never hear the word "tall" when talking about either mine or Ben's families. ;0)

Taylor was all about showing off for the doctor when she came in. She was standing on my lap (obviously I was helping her) and then she sat with her head straight up. She followed all of our voices back & forth and added her own "comments" here and there. The doctor said we had a little social butterfly! Wonder who she gets that from!?!

She passed the visit with flying colors and it was the first one for us that we didn't get a referral to another specialist. Yahoooo! She handled her shots as we thought she would.....she was far from happy for a minute or two but she was perked up once she saw her little sun/mirror rattle! Ah - the magic mirror. (Thanks for bringing that back to me Sissy!)

That's it for this update! I'm waiting to hear from Melissa a little later this afternoon and I'll make another post after I talk to her.

:)