I'm not ready for ONE!

The moments that make us smile never seem to end... and I don't want them to!

We're cheesy about EVERYTHING!

Getting ready to help Daddy and Grampa work

This boy can't get enough of the musical instruments, I think Gram introduced him to the Piano.


Lots of people told me "just make it through the first year" and for some reason I thought this meant that I wouldn't really LOVE the first year. Maybe this is dumb, but it was my first "first year" and I didn't really have anything to gauge what it would be like, so I just assumed it would be hard and not that fun. WRONG!!! SOO SOO SOO WRONG! The first year of my sweet boys life has been incredible! Honestly, I can't really believe it's almost over . Where did the time go? I guess this is where the saying "time flys when your having fun" originated?!?

LOTS of things have changed in the past month. Well, I should say LOTS in the past two weeks. Zane is MOBILE.. meaning he's EVERYWHERE ALL THE TIME! He's started clapping, waving, pointing, saying "Dog or Gog" and having melt downs when he doesn't get his way. "Gog" and the melt downs are mostly my favorite things. Every time he sees Lady, he says "Gog..GOG!" and points at her, it's adorable! Yesterday I was at a design appointment and my clients dog started to bark in the back yard, Zane stopped crawling looked around and said "gog... gog?" with this precious face like "where is it mamma?" so I think he knows what a dog is! I find this comforting because I find myself in a constant state of "am I teaching him enough.. I don't read to him enough.... do I talk to him about things enough?...... blah blah blah..." So knowing that he understands what a Dog is and how to wave "Buh bye" is comforting. Now.. the tantrums. I should say they are most like protests, but quite serious. It's not really funny, but it's comical to see this little person with a HUGE personality and such strong opinions - remind me I said this when he's 16! I'm starting to really try and focus on consistency, organization and routine so he knows what to expect, what we expect and has an understanding of what our days look like - I'm not great at this, because I'm a play it by ear style person, but I'm really working on it. Most of his protests come from me taking something away from him, not giving him something fast enough, making him sit in his high chair until we finish dinner as a family or moving something out of his reach (normally the computer or iPhone). Overall, we're all learning together! I'm sure we're going to make mistakes, but hopefully we won't ruin him for life!

This past month we celebrated Father's Day, Mom's Bday (including a surprise trip from Aunt Lorrie), Kendra's Bday & Play and Joe's birthdays. Kennedy also came and babysat for the first time BY HERSELF, so Dave could take me out on a date, it was awesome!! I feel so blessed to have all of the people I love close to me and to be able to see them on a regular basis :) Father's Day was quiet and calm, which I what David asked for. I had a lot of time to think about him and what a wonderful man he is. I feel blessed that I've been able to fall in love with him twice in my life, one as my husband and now as the father to our soon. Baby, you inspire and encourage me to be a better mom. I'm excited to see where God takes our family over the next 20 years. Your first responsibility is to be Zane's father, but I believe that he will want to be your friend too. Your integrity and your home brew just keeps people coming back for more ;) I love you!

Your the BEST Dad a boy could wish for,

Happy 19th Birthday Uncle Joe! You've got BIG things in store for your this year, get ready!!

Happy Birthday Grammie! We love you!!



We're in the process of planning Zane's 1st Birthday Party. I sure we're being ridiculous, but we're having a LOT of fun doing it. I have decided that the reason people throw 1 year birthday parties is to mask the pain of your baby tuning 1. The party will be at our neighborhood splash pad (which is Zane's new favorite activity) and we're doing a fish theme. I've already spent 3 hours cutting out individual fish to attach to each invitation as a 3D element.. whew! I'm sure Zane will greatly appreciate my efforts and making sure his party is super trend Oh.. ok.. I KNOW he won't care about about anything but the water, food and his nap and I'm sure he'll use this party to taunt his younger siblings about their non existent invitations and parties, due to the fact that I will only have time to make it by sonic for brown bag dinners and lemon aids, but I'm still doing it and having fun! !! Oh I also think he'll really enjoy having his family there too, as will his Daddy and I!! We'll post pictures next month!!

Thank you all for the love and support you are in our lives. We value your love, friendship and who you are in our lives.... you make our world a brighter and fuller place.

Check out Zane's 11th month in pictures https://picasaweb.google.com/Nichols.Taylor/ZaneS11thMonth?feat=directlink


Love,
Taylor

We're In Double Digits Now

It's hard to write this because I'm realizing that my "baby" is almost 1! You may think I'm kidding, but we're in the 2 digits now and I'm NOT ready for this yet. I think I may have mentioned that I measure milestones every Monday, but this month we've started a Monday and Friday tradition. It's just hard to keep track of all the little things this man is doing in just one day a week. I've got to be honest, I thought I'd be telling y'all he took his first steps this month, but I think he's focusing his energy on how FAST he can get places crawling. On that note, I think I've found my "mommy invention"... wait for it.. wait for it... A CRAWLING RADAR GUN! Genius eh? I'll let you know how it pans out for me ;)

Zane is moving and grooving, he's crawling and jabbering about everything and he's into EVERYTHING! People, this isn't a joke. The kid is busy ALL THE TIME! He's started mimicking us when we talk or make faces at him and he thinks it hilarious to play hide n seek. He has really started interacting with other kids and seems to enjoy spending time around other babies his age (I'll be referring to him as a baby for a while yet, just FYI) which is quite fun. I have been taking him a music class on Friday mornings and we've discovered he's IN LOVE with the guitar. It's quite a hoot to be honest because he chases the teacher around trying to pull up on her leg and whenever she moves away he cries. Luckily she's nice and lets him get an extra stroke or two in before she puts the guitar away. We're still enjoying our playgroup on Mondays (here in our neighborhood) which is giving us lots of opportunities to learn how to share and "be gentle" which is nice. Zane is learning ALL about gravity right now. Everything that is in his hands MUST be thrown at some point! It's funny to watch him remove his blankets, monkey and glow worm from his bed during nap time. He'll methodically drop each item over the railing and then stand there and stare at them as if he's hoping they will magically hop back in bed. I try not to cave all the time, but sometimes I just can't help but go return them to his bed only for the process to begin again. Lady is enjoying this when he's in his highchair as she's finally getting fed! I swear if my sweet Dog didn't bark when she was hungry it's possible she would starve. Please don't turn us into "doggy protective services" we do love her dearly!!


David and I celebrated our 7 year wedding anniversary this past weekend. It's just strange that it's already been 7 years. Seems like that was yesterday too! Dave keep promising me that we can have another wedding at 10 years and I'm going to hold him to his word ;) We spent the weekend in downtown Austin and lovely 'Gram Nichols' kept little man from Friday - Sunday. I'm not sure which one of them was more tired when we picked him up! Zane is so lucky and we are so blessed to have grandparents, family and friends who love on him and help us raise him. Thank you all SO much for everything you do to help encourage and support us being good parents. We greatly appreciate you and Zane is just plain spoiled to have such fun people in his life! All weekend Dave and I kept asking each other "is this where we thought we'd be in 7 years?" and honestly neither of us said "yes" to that question. We both kept saying how much richer, happier, stronger and more incredible our lives are than anything we could have dreamed or imagined. What a reminder of God's love in our life and the reality that "My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts," says the LORD. "And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine." Isaiah 55:8. God has been gracious to us. He's given us much more then we deserve and He's shown mercy in our lives continuously. I'm thankful that God picked Dave for me. He's my hero, my rock, my supporter, my encourager, my confidant, my partner and my best friend. My prayer is that we can mirror a strong marriage to our son, that he will see how much we love each other and love the Lord together and that he will be encouraged to see that marriage really is one of God's greatest gifts to us. I'm looking forward to the next 7 years!!

Oh.. We also had a wonderful Easter with our family and friends. We had company in from Michigan, Colorado and Houston. Papa Ed turned 70 and it was my first Mother's day! We've had a lot of fun times with friends and it has been great to spend time with the people we love so much. We're looking forward to taking Zane on trips to see more family and friends soon!!

Well, that's about all! I lowered Zane's crib to the bottom notch today, packed up his 6-12mo clothes and put away his baby jumper. I'm looking forward to the next stages and steps, but I'm a tad bit sad that this portion of our journey is coming to a close. Our pastor recently made the comment "Good parenting is when you work your self out of a job" and I have to say I'm starting to see that. It's hard to help your children be independent and self sufficient when you enjoy taking care of them so much. I'm sure by the time Zane is a teenager I'll have a different feeling about this, but today, when he's pushing my hand away and pulling the spoon into his own hand I'm realizing that you have to enjoy EVERY second!

I hope your all well, enjoying the beautiful weather Spring brings and getting ready to live in the pool over the next 3 months!

It's a Circus around here!

I think it's about time for me to hire a personal assistant. I'm not sure how people do this! I'm talking about CHASING A BABY! Oh my goodness!! This is the most "full time" job I've ever had, seriously!! He started out slow and has quickly moved into the "Zoom Zoom ZOOM" phase of crawling. He is everywhere, all the time and if I'm not pulling him away from the dog food or out of the kitchen cabinet, I'm trying to reach him before he sticks his tongue into the ONLY outlet that I failed to cover. It's a circus around here, but we're having a BLAST!

Zane is already a little helper and he loves to be involved in whatever project I'm working on. If it's the dishwasher, he's unloading every dish I put in. If it's the laundry, he is pulling out the dirty laundry while I'm putting it in. If it's the bathroom, he's unloading magazines into a display ALL over the floor. I'm seriously not sure how I accomplished anything before I had his help. I'm trying to make everything a learning opportunity, but I've got to be honest, there are days that I just sit him in the empty bathtub long enough for me to make the bed! He's busy, busy busy like his Mom and very inquisitive like his daddy.

He's started talking this month and of course his first words were "Dada," but he's started saying "Mama and Bye bye" on occasion now too. This boy loves his Daddy and I have to be honest that the highlight of my day is seeing his face when David walks through the door at the end of the day. David is great Daddy, a loving husband and the best friend a mom could ever ask for. I'm so thankful he's able to be home with us everyday. I'm humbled when I think about military wives and I'm seriously not sure how they do it. What a gift their sacrifice is. I pray their loved ones are able to come home soon.

This month I've learned a few things about myself or maybe I should say "I've acknowledged" a few things about myself.
I'm an over committer.
I try to fit round begs into square holes and vise versa.
I'm not as organized as I'd like to think.
It's easy for me to stay in pajamas all day.
I thrive on a plan.
I desperately want to do more then I'm mentally or physically able to do.
I'm learning more on the journey then I expected.
I'm able to see when I make a mistake.
I'm sometimes unwilling to admit mistakes, most often to myself.
I'm striving for perfection.
I desire the result, but often fail to experience the process.
I'm a work in progress.
I've got a long way to go!
I love my life.
I'm grateful for everything I've been given.
I'm excited to see where I'm going.

Speeidng through Spring!

Date nights are AMAZING!

Some of my favorite smiles are when Zane is in his car seat!

He LOVES cups! Any type, any place, any time!

It's been a busy month around the Nichols house! Mom got the pantry cleaned out, Dad brewed a batch of beer and built garden beds in the back yard and little started crawling and pulling up on EVERYTHING! We've had fun!

Zane is full speed ahead. He's been "toying" with crawling for a few weeks now, but this Monday he just put the pedal to the metal and hasn't slowed down. I found him standing up in his crib after his morning nap on Monday as well and he's been pulling up on EVERYTHING. We're trying to "child proof" our house, what a JOKE! Are you kidding me? Seriously, people really think this is possible? This little guy can find things I can't find! Speaking of. I've been on a "loosing streak" this month. I've lost my wallet, my wedding ring, earrings, and my mind all in a matter of 48 hours! Luckily, I'm married to a hero who's been able to locate everything but my brain so far! I'm just worried... How do you loose two major items in 48 hours? When I find my brain, I'll see if I can figure it out!

We hosted a play group this month with a group of mom's from our neighborhood. About 9 Mamma's with babies came over and played for a morning. It's really fun to watch all the kids (did I seriously just call my baby a kid? ;( (That's uncool) play with each other. They are already becoming such little people. Taking things, deciding what they want, when they want it, who they want it from.. It's so amazing!

Ok. So you might notice a business card with my name on it... I've started an Interior Decorating business with one of my dearest friends and my old co-worker, Montana Lee. We had a client approach us in December and we've been chasing a snow ball down hill ever sense. We're learning a LOT and we're really enjoying working together. God's been really faithful to help us and has given us lots of direction and vision along the way. Montana is a wonderful partner and she's lovingly pushing me outside my "comfort zone" and into my potential. She's encouraging and has been so supportive as I'm fumbling through the journey to find a healthy balance between work and mom.. what a hard balance to find! Overall, I'm really enjoying being able to be back in "design" again! I love making houses become home and it's a dream come true to be able to do work I love, with someone I love and respect all while being a Mom! God's so very good to me!

Zane is going to spend his first "overnight" with Gram and Papa this weekend and Dave and I are going to slip out for an evening and enjoy a little of the SXSW music scene! Thank you Gram and Papa! What a blessing Zane has two sets of AMAZING grandparents to love and help us raise him up to be a Godly young man.

Love to you all! We hope your family is enjoying the Spring Break holiday!

Love,
The Nichols Family

I'm geting back in the swing!

I want to be a blogger.. a good one.. one that inspires others, that is honest, that is funny, that is reliable and most of all one that is open and real about my fears, joys, hopes, dreams, failures and successes. This is me getting back on the band wagon! Thanks for any and all encouragement!

Pumpkin Patch Fun

A journey to being whole..

It's almost been a year sense my last posting. I had such lofty plans of posting daily or even weekly and now I've accepted it might just be yearly!
Where do I start? I'm very bad at not starting because I always wait until the start will be grand, official, whole, so I postpone till I'll be able to produce "my best" and as you can tell that doesn't happen!
I always knew having a baby would change my perspective and selfishly I wanted to have a child for that purpose. I didn't want others to have knowledge of a deeper love or a greater understanding of life because they had children and I didn't. I had NO idea! It's life changing... in SO many ways!! ABSOLUTELY life changing!!
Zane was born on July 16th @ 11:50am. He's opened parts of my heart that I didn't know existed and shown me things about myself that I never imagined I would learn.