'Twas the night before the night before Christmas...

(the 23rd...)

And all through the house

Not a baby was stirring (which is good because it was like 1am!)

Not even a mouse (because we don't have any here, thank you very much!)

The stockings were hung

On the piano with care (because of Claire's ability to pull on them and seriously injure herself with the stocking holders)

In hopes that we'd actually fill them with goodies this year.

(many times we really don't fill them, it's pathetic)

Janessa & Jordan were NOT nestled all snug in their beds

With visions of (NOT sugar plums..what are those anyway??) frosted sugar cookies dancing in their heads

Janessa in her favorite men's Hollister sweatshirt courtesy of her husband, and Jordan in his...beanie

Had just settled in the living room for a nice peek at the "stash"

So, we weren't supposed to GET anything for each other this year. BUT, Jordan, like the good husband he is, knows that Janessa loves it when he breaks that rule :) And he got her some stuff ANYWAY. NOW, he will forever say that I COULDN'T WAIT to open my gifts, but HEY. HE asked ME if I wanted to open them, and what was I supposed to say?? NO?

So here goes :)

*WARNING* Scary images of a makeup-free Janessa coming up... you may want to shield your eyes...

***But first: Is this not SUCH PRETTY wrapping paper? :)

The easy-find lid tupperware! YAY!

And I was very excited about this one: (Jordan knows I LOVE purple!)

Some of the boxes were really hard to open: (or maybe I'm just a dork and didn't get a knife or something...trying to rip packing tape with your bare hands might not be that easy...)

Jordan also got me a sweater from Macy's and two sweaters from his favorite store: Savers. Yep! They are cute too!

Now, since I was actually sticking to our "no presents" plan (since I already got this beauty and Jordan got a blu-ray player for himself for the same price as I got the camera...crazy!) I had gotten him NOTHING. NADA. ZILCH. BUT, he masqueraded the presents he got ME that morning, so I HAD to get him something! (even when he told me not to!)

So I headed to Walmart the night of the 23rd with my friends, Rachel & Jonathan, and Megan. Jonathan was awesome bc I needed to get a "good quality crescent wrench" and I had NO idea what that was or what "good quality" was) and so he helped me get it. And then I got him candy.

My manly man with the crescent wrenches :)

Um...I even wrapped the gum (Jordan LOVES pina colada anything!) so he'd have more than one present to unwrap haha ;)

And wrapped the Reeses...

And some candy Jordan likes but I DON'T, so it was awesome!!

Christmas with MY Family.

Ok, we're doing a post for each of the families. Don't be alarmed when you see like NO pictures at my parents house...sorry guys, I kinda forgot about taking pictures after getting there and eating all that delicious food...

But FIRST: Check out the awesome apron my Mom made me!! Fof, I LOVE it, and have used it a LOT this year... and yes, Heather, I know it's "frufru" and that I am to blame (I helped my Mom pick out the fabric, pattern, etc. and according to her, I "made" her make one for all of the girls in the family...whatever, there was NO forcing here...).

So here we are at my parents' house. Yes, such a great picture. But when you don't have that many... My mom, Claire, me, and Laurencita.

And here is a great one of Lauren and Claire...what is Lauren so afraid of? :) Getting her picture taken, I'm sure...and she not even a teenager with braces yet!

And finally, here's Claire opening her very first Christmas present!

That Hawaiian counting book...she LOVES it. She loves to pull every single little loose piece out of it and get them lost! Don't worry, Mommy has found them all.

Jordan and me with Grandma Fern...yeah, this is the best picture we had :)

And cousin, Kiera, is taking Claire somewhere here...hmm...

And here's my honey (pictured with Jay and Claire) in a nice little Santa hat! Great look for you, babe!

And here's what we got my parents for Christmas. As you can see, there are MANY picture frames that still need to be filled!

Thanks Mom and Dad for a great Christmas!!

More Claire Updates...she just keeps on doing new stuff!

Since I'm obsessed with documenting every step of Claire's childhood, so that when she asks what she was 'like' I can refer her to the blog instead of telling her the exact same one-liner my mom always told me when I asked ("you liked to hide under blankets." All she's got on me. That's ALL.).

Anyway, at 11.5 months old, Claire is doing some really fun things:

1. We have been testing out utensils with her! The other night it was so cute. My mother-in-law, Lenore, was helping her eat by giving her a little fork. Claire tried to get some of the food from her tray with it, but is still not quite there, so Lenore would take the fork, put a little piece of food on it, and give it back to her. Then Claire would pass it back to her for a refill. Ha!

2. Claire is pretty much obsessed with "doggies." She now knows exactly what we mean when we say that word, and she promptly starts hyperventilating at the sound of it! Haha. She'll even stop crying when Jordan or I talk about the doggie and make little barking noises. Lenore and Dan have a dog named Tess and Claire has a love-hate relationship with her. She will get so excited at the sight of Tess, but then freak out when tess comes near. BUT, in a little while when she gets used to her, Claire will go after the "doggie" :)

3. Claire is ALMOST walking. The most steps she's taken is 6 at a time. It has been really exciting to see her walk! It's funny because she can totally do it, but it's all about the confidence, and she's not quite there yet. The most we've gotten her to walk has been by offering her an ornament or one of Tess' disgusting toys :) high in the air, and then she'll have a little more motivation to walk. *update...she's taking even MORE steps since I wrote this post...walking soon!!

4. So, Jordan is convinced that Claire says her own version of "tree." Every time he points to the tree and/or says "Christmas tree" to her, she says "ka." Apparently, this is her word for "tree."

5. Claire loves it when I let her bite my finger. She thinks it's really funny when I scream in pain. And her teeth are like little RAZORS!! I don't know why I endure this pain for her entertainment.

6. Um. So, this may be a little "graphic" but it was pretty funny so I'll try to tell it in the most ungraphic way possible. So, I am really nervous about weaning Claire from breastfeeding. She's WAY too attached to it. In fact, this morning, I'm laying on my bed as she crawls around trying to throw herself off of it, I'm sure... and I just barely nursed her. Guess it wasn't enough. She grabbed my shirt, pulled it up and buries her little face into my chest, latching on. It was like bobbing for apples. She'd do it, then come up for air, and then go down again. Until I got control of the situation. Weaning here we come...I'm scared.

7. Claire will look down at her belly or point to her belly when you ask her about her belly button :) She isn't pulling up her shirt or anything yet (probably because a lot of times she's got a onesie on...try that!)

8. When you tell her "clap your hands" she does it! It's really cute :) I'm working on the infamous "gimme 5" right now...

9. When ask her "Can Mama have a kiss?" and pucker up, she'll put put her lips up to yours. It's so adorable!! Jordan taught her that one ;)

10. One of Claire's favorite toys: bras. I think it's the texture of the bras and the wire? She'll put it in her mouth and crawl around with it like a little puppy. So funny. (and yes, I own a pink and yellow bra... it came in a two-pack at Costco...)

11. Claire sleeps like this, pretty much all the time. With her little bum in the air. I sometimes go in to "check on her" but it's really just to see how cute she sleeps, if I'm really being honest here!

(although I did find her like this during a nap the other day :)

12. Ok, I know I've already blogged my brains out about Claire and the tub, but I just can't help myself. Could you?? I mean, look at this face...

And she's even fine getting out...always happy to get wrapped up in her towel :) Look at those teeth!! (no WONDER she's been up in the night so much!)

We Are Freaks.

Yep. Freaks. In a matter of 2 days, we redecorated the living room. The thing is, we were already planning on putting up a couple of galleries with our new family pictures. And for the last three years, I've been dying to paint the fireplace wall a gray blue color, and Jordan has resisted (since the wall is 18 feet HIGH! I mean, who wouldn't, right?).

Then, the navy blue curtains I made a while back, have gotten bleached in the sun, so I'd been meaning to change them (with something LINED this time!), but there was a problem... Even the 108" curtains are too short. SO, we had to make a cornice. Custom. Jordan is a saint. He did it all (well, I helped on the easy parts :)

First, here is a picture of the progress. The only one I have. Seriously. Sorry. We used the Valspar one-coat paint from Lowe's (Jordan said he'll NEVER go back to any other--we used less than a gallon of paint on this wall and ONLY ONE COAT.)

My honey doing the painting! NOW. The reason we are FREAKS, is because we decided to do this last Wednesday. We needed it done by Saturday morning because I had a baby shower here on Saturday at noon. SO, Jordan did all the painting on Thursday and then on Friday, we had to do the curtains. (and that was AFTER 10pm because we had my family's Christmas party that night!) That took a LONG time. In fact, for the 3rd time in my life (first since college!) I pulled an all-nighter!!! AH! It was crazy. We were rushing to get this done!!

And then once we got it done, we had to clean up. YOu should have seen the mess!! Our AWESOME friends, Rachel and Jonathan came over on Saturday morning and helped us clean up. Jonathan steams ALL of the curtains. He was awesome! Rachel helped clean up the tools and vacuum and mop! They are the BEST!!!!

Ok, and now here is the outcome:

Like how the stockings are hung on the piano? Haha...that's another project...we couldn't put them on the actual stocking hooks because Claire can pull them down :)

Here are the galleries:

And the curtains:

I'm going to make some pillows out of the same fabric I used for the cornice (the thingie on the top of the curtains) but ran out of time! (and my sewing machine is acting up)

And here is the crowning jewel of the room. Haha--actually I'm showing this because I was really impressed with my taping job! Pretty good huh?? *the key is to use your nail to press down the tape on the edge you'll be painting over so NO paint gets through! Then you'll never have the bleeding paint issue!

Claire at 11 Months

It's that time again to give a nice little update on our little monkey.

1. She loves going up...and now DOWN the stairs! Didn't know she could go down until the other day. I saw her doing it and thought to myself: "um...never seen that before. Is our child a genius? We never taught her that! Then...I talked to Jordan. "I've been teaching her that for a couple of weeks now!" he said." Whatever. I will teach him to be teaching her things behind my back!! JK. :)

2. Claire LOVES treats. Chocolate, candy, cookies, etc. AND as you can tell from a previous post, her Mama gives them to her ALL THE TIME! She should be shot for such poor mothering, but...well, I guess people don't want her dead. Anyway, In this picture below, Claire has an ENTIRELY WRAPPED Hershey's Kiss in her mouth (can't blame her, it's the white chocolate-oreo one! BEST ones, besides the white chocolate peppermint!) and is greedily grabbing as many kisses as she could get into her miniature hands! Classic smile. LOVE it.

3. Claire says "mama" all the time. I'm still not sure if she knows that I AM Mama, or maybe she thinks the "milk supply" is Mama. Nevertheless, she knows that word is associated with me! I am LUCKY btw. She does NOT say Dada yet!! I'm trying to teach her, you know, to be nice and all... (sorry Honey)

But look how she loves her Daddy :) awww...

5. Claire has been walking for some time now. ASSISTED. That's the key word :) But at least now, we can walk with her holding just ONE of her hands. She grabs on for dear life, to be sure, but it's progress!! She also stands on her own now too! And she loves pushing her little cart-thingie around... (disregard my dumb commentary...)

6. Claire can do the motion for "bye bye." It's sooooooooooooo cute. She simply opens and closes her little hand (only the right hand btw.). We used to have to do the motion with our hands first and then she'd imitate, but now she does it when we say the words! So cute! Jordan says she's started "nodding" her head. I don't know about that....

7. She's a little ham. Think I've mentioned that. But she now throws TANTRUMS. I used to be able to take things away from her and it was no big deal. NOW she arches her back, cries, etc. etc. It's fun.

8. Claire has now officially shifted to a one nap schedule. Yes, the wonderful days of 2 naps are over. The best part was Mommy going back to bed when Claire did 2 hours after she woke up. Now, she goes down at 11 and sleeps til 2pm.

9. Claire has a mouth FULL of teeth. Seriously. Every time I think a "teething period" is over, out pops a new one! We've gone through 3 BOTTLES of Motrin. I feel like a drug pusher! Seriously! I don't know why people make this HUGE FUSS about sleep schedules because seriously, they get disrupted every other week by teething, so why bother?

Claire Eating. I have a lot of these pictures...

Mothers beware. You may be DISGUSTED at how many unhealthy things I allow my child to eat. Seriously.

Claire enjoyed the whipped cream at Kneaders. We LOVE their million-calorie french toast breakfast. It's pretty much to die for--all you can eat for $5 too. I should do an Ode to Kneaders. (Like the hair? Well, the rule with Kneaders is that at breakfast time, you really can't go in anything but pajamas and bedhead)

But don't worry. Later that day, she had some veggies. Daddy gave them to her. She might just be sucking the butter from them though...

One morning I thought she might like to try chocolate cake for breakfast. She had a nice little bath after this experience. But not to worry. She had her fruit after this--freeze dried strawberries and bananas. Didn't seem to like the bananas, but LOVED the strawberries. I think she had another bath at that point?

A new In-N-Out Burger opened near our house. Claire thoroughly enjoyed Daddy's vanilla shake! We were at Best Buy in this picture (more on THAT to come!! Merry Christmas to me...Merry Christmas to me...)

But don't worry, here she is eating a very healthy asparagus spear. She was sucking on it like a straw. Jordan said that I might have overcooked it. Oh well. She LOVED it! Crazy!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree!

Seriously. Where does the time go? It's Christmas time again, and it feels like I was JUST pregnant.

The excitement and simultaneous dread of putting up the Christmas decorations came to the Taylor house this past week... Claire did NOT experience dread, and was very interested in the tree!

This year I got a couple of new ornaments :) Tai Pan, day after Christmas sale, of course! And no, I'm not usually an after-Thanksgiving day shopper, but Claire was already up at the CRACK of dawn and I had nothing better to do. Plus Tai Pan always gives a free item if you get there before 8am, and this year they were red and green peppermint votives, instead of a cheesy snowman candy jar like last year. (I apologize to those who like snowman candy jars...)

AND, I was triumphant in using...wait for it...wait for it.... the POWER DRILL!!! Yes. I used the drill. I used to call it a screw driver, but my husband informed me that the "power tool" kind is called a "power drill." (Yes, now you know where I'm coming from in the tool expertise spectrum.)

Well, I, ALL BY MYSELF put up this little beauty:

I drilled holes in the doorway corners, then screwed in the drywall screws, and zip-tied the garland to the screws. Let's be honest, Jordan told me this is how I should put it up, but when he was telling me this, we had planned for HIM to do it. But, he went to work, and I decided I need to be more self-sufficient! And there I was, drill in hand!!

*some people have marathons under their belts...I have a garland hanging*

The "I'm Gonna Get You" Game

Claire likes this game.

The Pacifier.

This is the only way Claire has ever "taken a pacifier."

Off the floor or from any baby nearby, and NEVER the correct way...

NEW MOON!!!!

YES. I went. With all the other GROUPIES. On opening night. (not at midnight the morning of though, don't worry...)

Actually, Jordan and I went with some of our bestest neighborhood friends :)

My review:

LOVED IT LOVED IT LOVED IT LOVED IT. Even though I HATED this book!! At least, I liked this book the least out of the others. But the movie was AWESOME. I want to see it again!! Like right now!

I liked the first one and I knew this one was going to be better since there was a bigger budget, etc. but I was still even surprised at how better it was than I thought!

10 Things I liked the most:

1. The phrase that Bella used to describe how she was feeling with Edward gone, "it felt like someone punched a hole in my chest" was only used 2 TIMES in the movie. That was much better than like 57 times a page in the book...

2. The makeup and effects were WAY better, although the golden contacts were still a little much...could tone it down some.

3. The movie flowed soooo much better--Twilight was so disjointed.

4. The music was so much better too. The music in Twilight was a little weird sometimes, and very deliberate.

5. The acting was much better--Rob and Kristin were way better in this movie. Taylor Lautner is still not as good of an actor, but maybe he'll be better in future movies.

6. It stayed completely true to the book, which is important--except cut out a lot of crap Stephanie Meyer rehashed a million times in the book, so makes a better movie!

7. Ok, the part where Jacob takes his shirt off and he's RIPPED... so funny--the girls in the theater went wild, of course (not ME, claro!) and it was funny, this guy in the same row as me shouted out (right after Jacob takes off his shirt, and the girls are swooning) "and now the pants!" It was hilarious!

8. Um, it was cool to see Edward with his shirt off, but I wish they would've made him wax his chest :)

9. Loved the wolves. They were really cool.

10. And last of all, ummmm... I just loved it. I need to see it again. Then maybe I'll have 10 MORE things to say. :)

Tiara Gets Hitched

This weekend we were able to go to my cousin, Tiara's wedding to Josh Brett. Jordan and I got to the ceremony not-fashionably-at-all-LATE. It was pathetic. But we got there!


And here is the EXTREMELY happy couple: (you should have seen them actually being married...I don't think I've ever seen any couple that was more ecstatic!)


Tiara and Josh have a very widespread reputation for PDA. We are glad that they are finally able to "get a room!"
And here is Tiara with her parents, my aunt Shaunie, and uncle Bart:
At first, Claire wasn't too sure about all the commotion.

But then she was OK. (with MOMMY of course!)

Ok, this picture was just TOO CUTE to not post. LBH.

Then we went to the wedding dinner. It was so fun!! We got to sit with our cousins and my aunt, Tammy. That was really fun!

OK, is this not the PRETTIEST wedding cake??? I think so!!

Claire with my cousin, Josh, and other cousin, Carissa (the sister of the bride...you're next Cariss!)

She found a new friend in Josh. Ice cream + brownie = instant trust. :)

Claire really likes pomegranate. She ate ALL of Jordan's that were on his salad. (but when he fed her an avocado...well, she instantly spit that out!)

And of course, it was fun to hang out with auntie Heather and Claire's little cousin, Lauren!

And Grandma Fofa :)

Very fun day!! (that ended for Claire before the reception...we had to get home...Claire was pooped!)