Happy 4th Birthday, Taylor!

On November 24th, Taylor Grace turned 4 years old! She continues every day to amaze us with her determination, spunk, humor, and kindness! She has officially become a little girl, with very little remnants of her "baby" or "toddler" years left in her. She is maturing every day, and it brings a lot of mixed emotion to Sam and I. We are proud as we watch her growing into the strong-willed girl that we know will be successful and happy, but it is bittersweet knowing that we are getting closer and closer to those years that she will no longer want to cuddle with us or crawl into bed with us in the morning. We are embracing every day that we have with her and enjoying every minute of the age that she is!

Taylor is in preschool this year and loving every minute! She has been practicing writing her name with us at home, and she loves playing phonics puzzles and phonemic awareness games with us to prepare her for reading. We read every night, and she has memorized so many books! Her favorite right now is "Pinkalicious". She loves it so much that it is missing it's cover, and has a lot of Taylor's own contributions to the pictures that she has made over the years!

She is very much into all of the Disney princesses, but especially Ariel, Rapunzel, Sofia the First, and Jasmine. She loves coloring, building with Legos, reading books, painting, taking a bath (and pretending she is Ariel), and playing dress-up. She loves pretending to be a princess and getting everyone in the family involved. From the moment she wakes up, she puts on a princess dress and her imagination begins! She also loves listening to the Disney radio station on Pandora and dancing with mommy and Maddy!

She is a very picky eater, especially at dinner time. Her favorite foods are pancakes, oatmeal, grilled cheese, pizza, and any fruit or vegetable (one thing that I did right!). Her tantrums are becoming few and far between (thank God!) but we are starting to get some of the "mommy, you're mean!" or "that's not nice, daddy!" comments. On to the next chapter of parenting!

Taylor's stats:
Height: 40.5 inches
Weight: 40 lbs
Clothing size: anywhere from 4-6, depending on the brand
Shoe size: 9

We celebrated Taylor's birthday with the Pavelkas at her cousin Haley's birthday party, which was a blast because it was princess-themed and right up her alley! On her actual birthday, both sets of grandparents, Great-Grandma, and Aunt Mimi were over to celebrate. She came down with croup on the day of her birthday, too, and has been having a rough time fighting it all week! Hopefully it will clear up before her "friend" party on Saturday!

Princess Haley and Princess Taylor!

Pinata time!

The morning of her 4th birthday! You can see in her eyes that she isn't feeling well, poor thing!

Sofia the First birthday cake! "I want to eat her face and a flower, mom!"

Great Grandma, Mar, Mommy, and Princess Taylor

Fall Fun!

Despite this fall being chaotic with Sam's surgery, we still managed to have some fun with the girls! Here are a few favorite pictures from some fun fall events.

Taylor's Preschool Field Trip:
I was able to go with Taylor to her first field trip to Dollinger Farms, where she learned about farm animals, went on a hayride, picked out a pumpkin, and played with her classmates!

Picking out the perfect pumpkin

Channahon Bonfire and Hayride: 
Sam and I were able to go out with Taylor to the Bonfire and Hayride in Channahon. It was a little chilly, but we loved every minute of it! Taylor loved the hayride even more than last year. We only went on it twice this year, because it was a lot more crowded. Sam was so happy to be able to make it out so shortly after being home from his surgery.

Enjoying some s'mores with daddy

Having fun on the hayride

Preschool Halloween Party:
One of the benefits for Sam of being home on medical leave was being able to attend Taylor's preschool Halloween party! She wanted to be a witch this year. Mommy was really proud of finding this adorable witch costume on amazon.com for $8. Sam loved watching the kids parade around in their costumes, but his favorite part was Taylor screaming "Hi daddy!!" throughout the parade!

Trick or Treat!
It was a rainy Halloween, but we still managed to make it out for trick-or-treating this year! Madelyn and Sam didn't join us, but we still dressed her up in her costume to snap a couple of pictures! 

Trick or Treating with Gianna!

Sisters

Outside Fun!
Here are a few random pics!

Pushing Maddy on her new swing!

Hanging out!

Not sure how I feel about crawling on grass, mommy!

We can always count on impromptu playdates in our neighborhood!