Our Visit to Indy

Derek, Taylor and I headed down to Indy yesterday to visit family and friends. We got to see a lot of people while we were in town! We enjoyed introducing Taylor to my friend Megan from high school at lunch, and meeting her boyfriend! We stayed with one of my friends from college Mindy and her husband Mike. Two more of our friends Erin and Carrie came over with their families...as you can see we had a lot of fun! Taylor slept through the night and wasn't around for most of the evening! We also got to see my friend Christine from college and her newest baby Ava who was born on Thursday! Congrats Christine and Brian!

On our way out of town today we got to have brunch with Derek's aunt and uncle as well as his cousin and his family! We had a great time seeing everyone, thanks so much for making time for us!!

A Few More Pictures

Here are a couple more pictures from Taylor's Baptism. We will have to post one with Grandma and Grandpa later, those aren't on the computer yet!

Taylor's Baptism

We are back in Indiana for the holiday's and we are having a great time! We have had to relocate to Erin's house a few days early because my parents house lost power! It has gotten down to about negative 2 degrees so we decided we should probably go to a warm house with Taylor! My parents are staying at their house and roughing it. Luckily they have a generator so the house should warm back up soon!

Yesterday we had Taylor baptized at St. Martins in Syracuse. This is my parents church, as well as the church that Derek and I were married at. It was a small ceremony after mass. My parents, sisters and brothers in law, our nephew, my godmother Sue, and Taylor's godparents Jeff and Elizabeth were all there for the service.

Taylor was able to wear the baptism gown that myself and my sisters all wore when we were baptised as newborns, that was really special for me and my family. We are so thankful for Taylor and for all of our family and friends that spent this special day with us. There will be a few more pictures to follow!

Happy 1st Birthday Aiden!

Today we went over to our friends Mike and Deanna Bailey's house for their son Aiden's 1st Birthday party! I can't believe it has already been a year! We are so happy we were in town to celebrate his birthday, we missed some of their other son Trian's birthday parties because we would be back in IN for Christmas! We actually almost missed getting to meet Aiden last year before we left for Indiana, lucky for us he came the night before we left!

The Bailey's have quite the birthday month in December...so....Happy 1st Birthday Aiden...Happy 5th Birthday Trian...AND Happy Birthday Deanna!!! We had a great time today spending time with all of our friends and Mike and Deanna's families!

Taylor's First Christmas

We had to celebrate Christmas a little early this year since we are headed back to IN for the real thing! I also am notorious for buying Derek presents that have a 15 day return policy...this guarantees that we will get to have an early Christmas! We decided today would be the best day to do our Christmas as our own little family since Derek was off work and we had other plans for the rest of the weekend.

Our Christmas started with Coppers new present first...a new bed! Her old one is..well...just that..OLD! She was pretty interested in it, she was also very curious following Derek around when he was throwing out her old one! I am thinking she'll get over missing the old one pretty quick!

Taylor was actually very helpful in opening her presents! She has quite the grip so she would just latch on to the paper and tear away! It is a good thing we only got her a couple of presents, her attention span isn't too great yet! From her face in the picture it looks like she really likes the present! I guess we did a good job!

Derek got an MP3 player to use while he is at the gym, I am surprised he has made it this long without one! I had to have one when I use to go...then again I wasn't really as interested in the working out part as the people watching!

Derek likes to play games with me on Christmas (I feel sorry for Taylor for when she gets older!), last year it was basically Let's Make A Deal...this year he gave me a tiny tape covered piece of wrapping paper and told me if I could open it in 5 minutes or less without damaging the contents I could keep whatever was in it! I figured it was a golden graham or something like that...but thank goodness I played his game, it was a picture of new oven! Some of the burners on our oven have decided to stop working so we are getting a new one!! I also got some clothes that I asked for!

Christmas was a lot of fun with Taylor this year! I am looking forward to the next two Christmases we still have coming up with both of our families!

Thanksgiving Week

We have had a pretty big week with a lot going on...so this will be a long blog entry to cover it all! My parents came in town on Tuesday and we have been having a great time with them! I am going to be so sad tomorrow when they head back, I am thinking they will be too when the leave this beautiful weather!

For Thanksgiving we went over to Derek's parents house. We had a delicious dinner and enjoyed spending time with his parents, sister's family, grandma, aunt and my parents! Taylor had fun watching Beatrix, she is becoming so aware of who is around her!

When we got home we got to do my favorite thing in the world....decorate for Christmas! Dad and Derek helped me with the tree and it went up really fast! Taylor is really enjoying looking at the lights!

On Friday we went up north to Jerome, Arizona. It is an old mining town that is on the side of a mountain. My Aunt Debbie recommended a great restaurant for us to try, so we had lunch at The Haunted Hamburger, which had a great view looking down from the mountain and really great hamburgers. We walked around for just a little bit, it was a kind of chilly up there so we decided to head back home.

Our good friends Seth and Andrea were in town from Philly, and they came over Friday night with thier daughter Abby for dinner. We had so much fun getting to spend time with them and watching Abby! It is fun to see what is ahead for us! As always you can see Copper needed to help them get Abby ready for bed...either that or she was feeling left out of the pictures!

Today we went to the horse track. It was a gorgeous day with the temperature in the 70's so it was great to be outside! Mom was the big winner...she placed her bet and realized it wasn't the horse she had wanted to bet on...well lucky for her that horse won!

We have had a great week! We are so thankful mom and dad were able to come spend 5 days with us. We can't wait to see them again in a few weeks! We love you guys!

Welcome back Mamaw!

We had dinner tonight to welcome back Derek's grandma! Mamaw spends her summers in Indiana and her winters out here in Arizona! We were so excited to see her and introduce her to her new great grandchild. Derek's Aunt Judy also came with Mamaw to help her get settled. We really enjoyed getting to see Judy and spend some time with her! We were also celebrating Derek's mom's birthday...a few days early! Happy early birthday Grandma Moon!