Its the little things

Its the little things that bring me the most happiness.

Its walks in afternoon sun holding my husband's hand

Its in my two year old's zest for life

Its in his love of experimenting and learning what happens when he does this or that

Its in the gummy grins of my newborn

Its in the late night snuggles with my hubby

Its taking a nap and opening my eyes to this sight:

Its watching him gain self esteem

Its the fact that my lap is ever occupied

Its in fresh summery meals

Its in those quiet moments

when the babes are sleeping peacefully

Its in the giggles and screaches of excitment

its in the homefromwork greetings

Its in the self styled outfits

It comes from sweet babies, needing me

and walks in the warm summer air.

Its in those chubby cheeks!!

and in the memories we're creating

Its in having the best dad for my kiddos

and its in recognizing every day

(and thanking God)

 that I have been blessed with way more than enough to keep me happy for eternity.

Hallmark and Sprint

Summer is just getting started,

but because we have had such stunning weather, 

I feel like we have been enjoying it since as soon as we felt baby Grey

 was ready to enter the germ-filled world.

This Summer I am determined to fill our weekends with memorable family adventures.

When we moved to Kansas City, 

we were pleasantly surprised to discover that it is an extremely family oriented place.

There are countless free or cheap activities for families.

We kicked off our summer adventures a few weeks ago with a trip 

downtown to Crowne Center.  

Here they have the Hallmark Visitors Center which has a really fun art adventure for kids.

After this I bought Beck some paint for himself.  

He loves it but only because he likes changing the color of the water in the rinse cup.

I don't think becoming an artist is for him.

future chemist maybe?

 Me and my man

 All those snot-nosed kids in such close quarters made me nervous about having my 7 week old there

so Greyson and I hung out outside in the sunshine to wait for Beck and Chase to finish.

Grey didn't mind a bit, and neither did I. 

He is pretty cute company.

One weekend we went to "Sprint Family Fun Days"

This is downtown KC also,

but its in a really cool area called the Power and Light District.

Sprint's world headquarters are in Kansas City so they put on a family fair

 once a month and everything is free.

We went with our good friend's the Steffensons and we timed it perfectly to beat the crowds.

They had TONS of fun activities for the kids from art tables, to coloring, sandtables, facepainting, 

clowns, really tall guys, and kids interactive shows and bands all day.

The kids had a blast!

I think the biggest hit with Beck was the bouncy house.  

He loved coming over to the wall and saying:

"Stuck in net! Stuck in net!"

At one point there was a huge gust of wind and it started to blow over and cave in.

We had a hard time getting him to get out even then.

Beck was thrilled to have a rocket painted on his face

Beck, Gavin, and Reilly

Making drums to use with the drum band

After a few hours of fun, we heard there was a free Rodney Atkins concert at 4:30.

It was only 1:00pm and all the kids were already exhausted but we really want to go.

Someone had given us free coupons to a brand new bowling alley close by.

So we decided to stick it out for another 3.5 hours for the concert and kill the time with some bowling.

The first 15 minutes was spent teaching Beck about taking turns and the dangers of heavy bowling balls.

After that the kids did really well.

And toddler sized bowling shoes?! so cute!

We were all pretty tired as you can see.

After bowling we still had almost two hours to kill.

Somehow we managed to spend the time with the kids (reasonably) happy and nestled ourselves in a great little spot for the concert and waited for the crowds to arrive.

4:30 FINALLY arrived and they announced that there would be two opening bands before Rodney Atkins.

At this point the crowd had changed from young families to singles mingling and we realized hanging out for another 1-2 hours would have been a disaster.  

After all that waiting around we had to fight the crowds and head home before the concert.

We joked about how different our lives are now that we have kids.

It was still a wonderful day and are excited for Sprint Days in June!

Our little Grey

More beautiful pictures by Jalene, although the beautiful child is provided by me ;)

This little angel has blessed our lives for almost 4 weeks now.

un.bah.leave.a.bull.

Seriously, where does time go?

Little Greyson is so wonderful to have around.

I remember reading on a friend's blog 

that her second baby just fit into the family so well and they hardly remember life before her.

I feel the same way. 

and really, newborns seem so much easier compared to a two year old!

The most difficult part so far has been making sure that big brother doesn't smother him to death with love.

I still can't set Greyson down unattended because 

Beck will drop whatever he is doing to give loves to Greyson.

"Hi baby"

"Oh baby" (in a sing-songy voice)

"cute!"

all while hugging, and kissing, and holding his head.

Then comes the whines from Grey.

"Baby sad?!"

"Baby crying!"

and the attempts to pick him up or shove a binky into his mouth.

Of course, 

its a delicate balance because we don't want to discourage him from showing love for his brother,

but want the poor baby to get some undisturbed rest every now and then :) 

(Greyson's eyes say it all don't they?)

I am so glad Beck loves his brother

but we are hoping his "enthusiasm" starts to wain a touch in the near future.

As far as temperament goes, Greyson is a pretty mellow kid

He eats every 2 1/2 to 3 hours but is a speedy nurser, which I love.

He has just started getting a little bit gassy and spit-uppy after feedings, 

but as long as we burp him well it doesn't bother him much.

We are getting more and more smiles out of him each week.

Last night Chase and I were talking to him while he was sleeping.

I told him his momma loved him and a huge smile erupted in his sleep.

We laughed and then Chase added that he loved him too

and once again, another huge sleepy grin.

Although most wouldn't consider him to be "chubby" 

he is so much chubbier than Beck as a newborn so we love to pinch his little rolls.

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Although he is bigger than Beck was as as newborn, 

his hands and feet are itty bitty compared to Beck's

He has the same little swirly callic that Chase and Beck do on the back of their head.

Little Greyson loves to snuggle

He likes a binky but could live without it.

He still sleeps a lot but we are getting more and more periods of awake time during the day.

He loves to be swaddled, 

and will calm instantly with the sound of Chase's voice or my soft "shhhh" sound in his ear.

He is still fitting in most of his newborn stuff and a few 0-3 month clothes as well.

 We've been working on the sleep, eat, play routine

He is a total milk dud after eating and we have a hard time waking him up enough to play after nursing.

The only thing that will definitely get him up (and angry) every time is changing his diaper. 

He still hates that, but I don't really blame him.

We are just so in love with our two boys.  

Watching your oldest become a big brother strengthens your love to levels you didn't realize were possible.

and then adding another babe to the family just expands your heart that much more.

Its amazing how much you can love a little creature before they've even shown you who they are inside.

Greyson is just so precious. 

I can't wait to see what the world has in store for him.

He fits into our family so perfectly already.

We are happy in the Taylor household today.