The Lion is Broke!

So we have been telling Taryne for a few weeks now that when she turns 2, the lion has to go. She is a big girl now and no longer needs a pacifier. She has not used it during the day in over a year, but must have it the moment she gets home.

To make the process "less painful" and get it over quickly, we decided to just cut the pacifier off the end of the lion.

Well, it was definitely painless. After a quick little "Oh my goodness, what happened" moment, she declared it "Broke" and tossed it to the side. We expected a big production (sort of like the one we got on her actual birthday when she realized the bounce house was really gone) but nothing. She will occasionally carry it through the house, but always declares that it is broken.

Seriously!?! If I had known it was going to be this easy, I would have cut the pacifier off months ago. It has not affected her in any way. She still goes to bed like a very good girl and rarely gets upset.

I will be getting a different animal for Baby #2 just to make sure there is no confusion in any way. Hopefully in round 2 it will be this easy. I am almost positive it won't be....

Until next time...Gig'em!

Taryne Turns Two!!

One week ago, our sweet little girl turned two!! Not sure how she is already two, but she is and let me tell you, she is a boat load of fun lately. And super silly. And clever. And smart. And totally amazes us every day with something new.

For her birthday, we did a strawberry themed party. Somehow I didn't get a ton of great pictures during her party, but I have been assured that others have some good pics and they plan to share. I will share those later too.

We had a bounce house (thanks to a good friend for letting us borrow the "kid" sized bounce house they have), a bean bag toss game and I made a coloring table for the kids. I was amazed at how entertained the kids were with coloring and throwing bean bags. Who would have known!

For the food, I decided a few months ago to go with hot dogs and Frito Pie (which sounded great at the time, but not so good now that I am pregnant!). We kept the food simple. Thank goodness since I have been feeling a bit tired and nauseated lately.

I decided that I was going to attempt fondant on Taryne's cake. It turned out better than I had hoped but not near as good as I wanted. I am a perfectionist and so I saw EVERY SINGLE FLAW on the cake. I did not eat a piece of cake, but I heard it tasted good. Sweets sound sort of yucky at the moment because I never pass up birthday cake. I made my fondant from a recipe on Bakingdom (one of the many blogs I follow) and everyone said it actaully tasted pretty good compared to other experiences with fondant. Yay! I guess it was a success! I sort of freaked out with the cake becuase I hated it when I went to bed. It look too plain. So the next morning after attaching the strawberries and the number "2", my mom suggested I paint vines on the cake. Thank goodness for her suggestion becuase until I painted the vines I absolutely hated the cake and was caclulating the time needed to make another batch of buttercream to re-decorate the cake.

The party itself was fun and Taryne played with everyone. I really think she had a great time. She sure enjoyed cake time and of course was excited about opening her gifts. All the girls at the party were so helpful and gave a play-by-play of Taryne opening her gifts. It was quite hillarious!!

She was ready to BOUNCE!!! She talked about the bounce house the entire week after the party and was pretty upset when we put it away to return to Melissa....

Bouncing before the party with Aunt Charlotte....

BEAN BAGS!!!!!!

The cake...

Carolina Grace, Morgann and Connor tossing the bean bags....

She seemed a bit mesmorized by the two candles....

Jacie, Morgann and Alexis....

Taryne (and both of us) are very blessed to have such wonderful friends and family. Thanks to all who were there to celebrate with us! Taryne has thoroughly enjoyed all of her gifts. She has rotated them all around in the past week to give them equal "play time". Kind of funny...

Until next time...Gig'em!

Labor Day Weekend 2011

Wow, what a busy weekend! We started the weekend (well, sort of) on Thursday with the beginning of the 2011 college football season. We watched some great games on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and tonight. The Ags beat the hell outta SMU to start of what we hope to be an awesome season before we leave the Big 12 for good. More on that another day.

I tried to take lots of pictures this weekend of the fun and silliness that went on in our house...

It started with a "No, Mom!!" when she saw my camera...

Then she wanted to be an Anne Geddes model....

She just happened to see the pack of paint brushes on the counter and was determined that she must paint something. So I took one of the coloring pages from a large coloring book and let her have at it.

And then she started painting herself too....you know, so she could finger paint too.

And this is how she has been sleeping lately....

We finally had the opportunity to meet Mr. Connor Baldauf....what a cutie!!

And after lunch the sword fighting commenced. Yes, we have foam swords. Long story, but they are tons of fun, especially with an almost 2 year old.

One of the great things about our house is we are in the direct fly-over zone for the fly-overs for all home football games. We discovered this by accident after we moved in because we heard the planes fly over and it was super loud. So now, before every home game, we spend a little time in the back yard to watch the fly-over. This week was a B25 from World War II.

Today, we spend the entire morning at the doctor's office for Taryne's 2 year well baby check up. Yes, basically all morning. We love our doctor, but he takes FOREVER. I shouldn't complain because he spends a lot of time with each patient to make sure all your questions are answered and that you are comfortable with everything. By the time we left, Taryne had 3 shots (including a flu shot), Kyle and I both received flu shots and I had 4 tubes of blood taken for the pregnancy blood work I have been putting off. Long morning.

This afternoon I started working on "stuff" for Taryne's party. I can't believe she will be 2 in one week.

Well, I think that was all the fun and big highlights of our holiday weekend.

Until next time...Gig'em!

Big Sister Taryne

Well, it is official. Taryne will be a Big Sister in April 2012!! Baby Rode is due April 9th.

She is very excited and when we ask about a little brother/sister, she insists she is getting a sister. The Martin girls have prevailed in the past, so we shall see. I believe my cousin, Keri, figured it to be 1 in 8 births in the Martin family were males. Either way, a healthy baby is all we ask for!

We had a fun time trying to get her to stand still, smile and be in a pose where someone could actually read the shirt!

Until next time...Gig'em!