Happy Birthday Taylor!!!!

Really . . . has it been 5 years. I can't believe it. A few months after we moved to San Antonio to begin this whole dental school adventure, I found out I was pregnant with Taylor. Here we are at the end of our adventure, and our baby will be starting kindergarten. I just can't believe it.

Fortunately Nana had spring break that week, and Nana and Papa were returning from a visit with Papa's parents in Arizona, so they stopped for a few days so that they could be with us for Taylor's birthday.

Taylor was just DYING all day long to open her presents. She awoke to decorations and a pile of presents on the kitchen table. Unfortunately, Dad and Shelby had school that day, so she had to wait until everyone was there before she could open gifts. At the doctor's office, we learned that she is in the 90th percentile for both height and weight . . . which is not a surprise because she wears some of the same shirts that Shelby does and we are constantly being asked if she and Shelby are twins.

I'd told her I had a surprise for her at lunchtime. It was a cool surprise, but she was disappointed because she wanted the surprise to be that she could open a present. Instead, she got her sandwich cut into 2 dinosaurs (which I thought she would love). She'd have rather done the gifts at the time, but now that there's not presents staring her in the face, she LOVES the dinosaur sandwiches. My visiting teacher knew that Taylor LOVED dinosaurs and saw this sandwich cutter that would cut a sandwich into 2 dinosaurs and bought it for Taylor. It was very sweet of her and the girls do love it. In fact, when Payden wants sandwiches, she asks for dinosaurs to eat.

Finally, when dinner had been served and everyone was home . . . it was time. We had to wait a few minutes for Mom to finish her birthday "cake." She was soooo excited.


She kept asking if it was time yet.


Finally, it was time and she was ready. It was really, really easy to shop for her. She is a very passionate kid and right now she LOVES LOVES LOVES dinosaurs.


She ended up with 3 dinosaur books. Then she got another gift that she'd been asking for . . .

The movie Thumbelina. Thanks to commercials, she knew that Barbie Thumbelina would be coming out right before her birthday and so she kept asking and asking for it. She then got one of the new dinosaur animals (like FurReal friends), which she just KNEW she was getting. I also like giving them a game for their birthday, so she also got some Legos.

She ended by opening the card from Nana and Papa. They gave her some money, which she used to buy one of the other new dinosaur animals. When we got Grandma and Grandpa's money, she bought a third new dinosaur animal. It's nice that she's easy to please.


Then it was time for her birthday "cake." In our house, cake doesn't get eaten very well, so I told Taylor about a big cookie that I could make instead, and she quickly decided she wanted that. That was definitely a better idea as it was all gone by the next day.



Then it was time to dig in. With a cookie cake and cookies 'n' cream ice cream, we were all cookied out by the end, but it was delicious.



We laughed at this one . . . Shelby was talking when I went to snap a shot of her and we all laughed at the shot.



It was a good birthday, and we are so amazed at big Taylor's gotten. It's so hard to believe she'll be going to Kindergarten next year, but she's ready and excited.

Happy Birthday Taylor!!!!!!