Leslie Dawn Taylor

born July 28, 2010

7 lbs . 5 oz . 18 3/4 in

My beautiful niece is here!!!  Congratulations to my sister and her family on welcoming Leslie to the world today! 

Cute popcorn gifts for guests!

Love those lips!!

Dalton was so glad to see his mommy.  He wanted to climb all over her and snuggle.

“Can you talk?”

First family picture!

“She’s cute mom…

but I’d rather play with my new gifts from baby sister!”

We’re feel so blessed to have this new addition to our family.

Today was rock star dress-up day at school and these two loved every minute of it!

Riley picked out her entire ensemble, even the jewelry from mom’s collection.  Aunt Paige gave Dalton some spiked green hair and he was so thrilled about his look.  As soon as he jumped out of the car at school, he said “Look Aunt Manda, I’m a rock star!”

These kids love the bath.  I mean really love the bath!  Braden just graduated from the seat and is thrilled about it.  Truth be told, he was ready to ditch the seat a while back, but as you can see in these pictures, he is a moving machine in the water and it makes this mama very nervous!

Can you see the water moving all around him?!  Yes, there are random toys in there courtesy of Riley, who would have emptied the entire contents of her kitchen if we had let her last night!

LOVES to splash the water

And here’s big sister who also loves a good soaking in the tub!

Remember this?  Riley had just turned one when she discovered the toilet paper roll.  She had so much fun unraveling the entire roll and then played with it surrounded by her for as long as we would let her!

This little guy thinks it’s more fun to eat the paper instead!  We’ve had to keep the bathroom doors closed so Braden can’t snack on the paper.  I promise…we do feed him!

(yes, I removed the paper from his mouth before he could swallow any!)

What a great way to celebrate our country’s independence – food, family & fun!  Here are some pictures recapping our fun weekend:

First up, a small parade put on by the city of Grey Forest. 

Riley and Dalton had prime seats in Aunt Paige’s car.  Riley’s covering her ears in the picture because she hears the sirens coming!

Braden wearing his “no pinching allowed shirt”…we decided it needs to read “no biting allowed”!  Just another fun part about a teething baby!

We spent a lot of time in the pool both Saturday and Sunday.  These are Riley’s frog hands (her feet were green too)…she poured water over some green sidewalk chalk and hopped around like a frog…goofy girl.

Sunday morning Riley and Josh participated in our neighborhood’s 4th of July parade.

She was SOOO excited about her jazzed up fast car!  Thanks Aunt Paige for all the decorations!

We went over to my parents’ house yesterday afternoon and the kids had a blast swimming in their pools!

Cannot believe this girl is already one…where does the time go?

They had so much fun together in their own little pool!

And the big kids had their own big pool; of course they kept wanting to get in the baby pool.

We celebrated my sister’s birthday with a (smashed) cake (courtesy of dalton) and singing at the top of our lungs!

We topped off the holiday weekend with some fireworks with friends and family.

Happy Independence Day!