Down 'N' Out Diner

What is the Down 'N' Out Diner you ask? It is a group that Ryan and I started with our friends Isaac and Lesley. The main purpose of this group is to feed the Homeless a homemade meal once a month . We also try to help gather supplies that the Rode Home needs to take care of those who have fallen on hard times.

I'd really like to encourage everyone who is interested in helping, to please do so. We have a fan page on Facebook that posts the current projects we are working on. Our next project will hopefully be in January, we have had a great community of support on facebook but we could definitely use more help.

In November we did our first dinner, we served Baked Potatoes, Chili, fresh fruit, various desserts and Capri Sun to drink.



In December we did a blanket drive and a dinner. The blanket drive went well and our dinner was great too. I forgot my camera on the night we did the dinner, sorry.

Happy Halloween

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. We were the Frankenstein family this year. Ryan was Frankenstein, I was Frank's bride and Micah was Frankenstein Jr. I thought we all looked pretty great and we spent so little to look so fabulous! Micah and I made it to as many Halloween activities as we could, so that he could show off the cool Frankenstein hat I made him. By the time Halloween night came around I was really ready for this holiday to be over. We really lived it up this year!

Truth be told, I refused to take Micah trick-or-treating. A few nights before Halloween, we took Micah trick-or-treating to the care center where my Grandma was temporarily residing (she's out now, Yeah!). Micah caused such a big scene every time we made a stop for candy that I didn't want to go through that again. I've always heard that it is good to let children have options, I completely agree with this practice, except when you have a toddler who thinks the whole bowl of candy is his, and wigs out every time another kid gets close to that bowl of candy. In this case I think it would have been best to show Micah his piece of candy, rather than tho whole bowl, and let that piece of candy go straight in his bag. We still have the bag of candy and almost all of the candy. Ryan and I have been very disciplined in not eating anything but the chocolate :). I let Micah have a piece every once in a while but I am really afraid of him getting cavities; luckily he loves to brush his teeth.



Fun Halloween activities we did this year:
-Corn Bellies- got 2 free mini pumpkins
-Pumpkin Walk- got another free pumpkin!
-Neighborhood party- played spooky bingo, made spiders out of Oreo's and licorice, made ghost suckers, bone necklaces, and got to decorate 2 more pumpkins! (I did not buy any pumpkins this year).
-Playgroup party- Micah played a bean bag toss game and actually made a shot!
-Scary baby and me story time
-Trick-or-treat at care center- SCARY
-Make spooky spider cupcakes
- Eating lots of spooky food

Juice Abuse

Enjoy the most recent picture of Micah, it has nothing to do with this post, but it's hilarious. he loves it when I vacuum and suck his clothes with the hose. This time we experimented with his hair!

We don't by a lot of juice at our house, but lately we have been indulging. This is such a treat for Micah, I love it because at snack time instead of asking for cookies he asks for juice. Poor guy has no idea that he is getting equal parts of juice and water. Can you imagine how off the wall he would be if I gave him pure juice!?

We haven't had any juice abuse in the sense that that is all Micah wants to drink, actually we have to deal with Milk abuse. We did have a brief moment of juice abuse on Saturday morning when Micah asked to have a drink of my juice and he refused to give it back. We were sitting on the couch just barely out of bed and this boy had the strength of ten grown men. He was not going to give up that juice with out a fight. Of course I just let him have it. I was too weak with laughter to put up much of a fight anyway.

CAUTION: The Taylor's blog is under construction.

Sorry for the inconvenience. The Taylor's blog is receiving a face lift and it may look a little funny while you are visiting. All kinks will be sorted out soon. Thank you for your patience.

I feel pretty

Recently Micah has started to try dressing on his own; he mainly does this with shoes. On Sunday I was in the kitchen making cupcakes (another post to follow) and in walks little Micah in black heels. I was so surprised to see that he actually weaseled his way into my high heels. The shoulder shrug just adds to the cuteness. As you can see he is not finished exploring his feminine side. I love the mascara all over his face, I also love how delicate he was with the brush.

I guess we're having Cheerios for breakfast

Yeah, my first try at a collage, I'll get better :).

So Micah is becoming very independent, he loves to try to do things on his own. As you can see, on this particular morning, he tried to poor himself a bowl of cereal. He didn't exactly get any into the bowl, but he didn't mind at all. He was loving the cereal buffet he created on the counter. When I discovered the scene, I couldn't help but laugh. He is just so darn cute, even when he's making a mess. It is so fun to watch Micah explore and learn from trial and error, I hope he always keeps his cheerful get 'er done attitude. My favorite thing in the world is to hear Micah yell, "I deed ee" aka I did it when he has accomplished something.

Apology

Sorry I am horrible at blogging. I will post more fun and exciting and perhaps not so exciting things soon. Here is a taste of what's to come.

Micah

My Fabulous 26th Birthday

Micah

Fun summer happenings

Micah(He was not that interested in the fountains at the Gateway)

Cutting Micah's Hair - Before

Cutting Micah's Hair - After

Wow this post took me all day! (give me a break, I am a busy, and not to mention sick, mommy)

I am pretty sure Micah is saying, "I did it"! He is playing with an empty Ritz cracker box, and putting toys inside the box. it seems as though his objective is to put toys inside without the box falling over. Each time he has done this successfully he yells "I did it"! He is so silly.

Today Micah had his 18 month appointment. During the apt. I told the Dr. about how Micah has been having A LOT of tantrums lately. I mentioned that I was reading the Happiest Toddler on the Block by Harvey Karp, and since I have used his technique, Micah's tantrums have escalated. She gave me a few other ideas to try. The first book she recommended is 1,2,3 Magic and the other one is SOS help for parents. I am excited/ desperate to try something new; hopefully something that will work.

Oh yeah and everyone has had the stomach flu in our house (blah). This is the second round of the flu to hit us in the last 2 months. We think the first round was H1N1 (scary, but not as bad as it sounds), I dodged that one luckily. This time around I was not as fortunate, however I have managed to hang on to my cookies! Micah was probably the worst off, there was no telling when he was going to up-chuck and I had to clean up a lot of messes on the carpet. Luckily I was able to borrow a carpet cleaner from my Grandmapa to get the carpet good and clean. Thanks Grandmapa!