Taya's Birthday Weekend

My little Taya girl turned 4 on July 31. What a big girl! She laughs that Jason calls her "baby girl". We celebrated Taya's birthday for 2 full days - lucky girl!

Taya had a birthday waffle for breakfast complete with a candle and happy birthday song.

Grandma and Aunt Jesi took the kids to Big Spoon Yogurt. Yummy!

Next up...the family BBQ and pool party!

Followed by presents!

She LOVES her pink laptop from Grandma Bunny. Hopefully she won't become a workaholic :)

Now this is HUGE. You may be thinking, she got a bike, no big deal. This was actually a huge deal! Every time we encouraged her to ride Dawson's old bike she screamed and cried when she just sat on it. She refused to try riding it - too scary! So, my sister convinced me that all she needed was a girl bike and she would do it. She was right! I took her to the store and she refused to buy a bike until I told her it could be pink with glitter and tassels. All of the sudden, she was in... Hilarious! Now she is happily riding her new girly bike.

Make a Wish!

Now time for the Pool Party

And guess what...Taya learned to swim!!!!! I had a talk with her a week or two ago about how she needs to be more brave and try swimming without her floaties and putting her face in the water. Then, we have been working with her ever since getting her to swim across the hot tub with her face in the water without floaties. I went to show my parents how good she was doing and when she swam to me - I realized she was really swimming! I backed up and let her go. She swam all around that pool the rest of the night. I am so proud of her!

And Dawson learned how to dive - look at that form!

Now onto Saturday and our much anticipated trip to Chuck E Cheese.

How cute is this baby???? So cute! He loved the baby rides, especially the carousel.

Here are 10 things we love about Taya:

1. She LOVES her baby brother and is so cute to him - hugs, kisses and gritting her teeth. Adorable.
2. Taya loves to cuddle and be affectionate - she will grab your face with both hands and give you a kiss!
3. She is becoming more brave...hence the swimming and bicycle riding.
4. She loves to learn. She knows all her letters, letter sounds and can write her letters. She loves to do her preschool workbooks every day.
5. Taya was soooo shy when she started preschool, but she really came out of her shell at the end of the year and she is learning to be more sociable.
6. She speaks really well and has a large vocabulary.
7. She is very mothering - she likes to help Holden and cook.
8. She is a daddy's girl. She loves her mom, but she LOVES her daddy. If she hasn't seen him much for a couple days, she will start crying saying she misses her daddy. Too cute.
9. She likes to be creative. Her favorite things to do are crafts, painting, coloring, play dooh, writing, etc.
10. She is usually a good sport and can take a lot of rough housing that Dawson dishes out.

Happy Birthday Taya. We Love You!