Hobbit Girl

Taytum wanted to be a Hobbit for Halloween. I tried with all my might to convince her to be a princess or something else girly. No way José! So it was off to the sewing machine I went to create my Hobbit masterpiece! I am pretty sure it was the bomb diggity! Loved my little Hobbit girl and I was so glad she had a great time on Halloween!

Getting ready for our ward Halloween party!

LOVED her curly hair!(Notice her hairy feet)

The Hobbit and Spidermand

October has come and gone.

October was a very busy month for the VanBuskirk Family. We have been swamped with getting our own practice started but are happy to say that our office is now open! We had my brother and his family come into town for a weekend. We went to two Halloween parties and had our first experience trick or treating. Taytum loved Halloween and still talks about it. I never got a chance to do a real 3 month shoot for Preston so these will have to do. We are looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas and spending lots of time together as a family.

The only picture we got with all of the grand babies in the same picture.

Noah and Preston.

Three months old!

My sweet littles.

Love this crazy girl "too" much as she would say.

Two Months!

I can't believe how fast time has flown by. I want to do a min-photo shoot each month so that I can see how much Preston has changed. Preston is such a relaxed little guy and almost has a bored look on his face most of the time. He is a wiggler when he is awake. I hope that is not an omen for the future. (Maybe its a good thing I am going to the gym) In the past month he has begun to smile more and more. He is always grinning at me first thing in the morning and all I can do is laugh even if it is way to early for me to be awake. He melts my heart with his smiles. He has begun to watch you when you talk and make more eye contact. He puts up with his sister very well. We put a crib in her room and he sleeps through her during the day and she sleeps through him during the night. I am such a blessed momma.

Taytum tid-bits

Our sassy little Taytum started her first dance class last month. She is totally in love and everyday asks when she can go to dance again. She would wear her tutu's all day, in fact we have had several tantrums over not being allowed to wear our dance clothes around the house. She is totally into Princesses. She has princess sheets, a princess quilt Great Grandma Culler made her, a princess dance bag, princess barbies, well you get the idea. She loves her barbies and I am pretty sure if I counted I would hear "mom could you play barbies with me" 50 times a day. She has a very active imagination. She is always playing pretend with what ever is around. She is very sassy, today she told me she was a mean girl. When I replied that mean girls don't have any friends she told me that it was ok she didn't want any friends. She is so funny and is always keeping me laughing by the random things that come out of her tiny mouth. I love all the new experiences that we get to share together but am sad to see my baby growing up.

Preston's Blessing

We blessed our sweet Preston Sunday August 21. It was such a sweet blessing. Josh did a wonderful job. I remember the specific things that he blessed Taytum with during her blessing and was touched by what Preston was blessed with. He truly will be a blessing to me for all of his life and eternity. It was wonderful to have our family there and to see uncles and grandpas and great-grandpa join in the circle. I feel like the words to a primary song "mine is a home where every hour is blessed by the strength of Priesthood power". I have always felt the blessings of having a Priesthood holder in my home and hope that my children one day will realize and have a testimony of the power of the Priesthood.

Three is the best age to be

(WARNING: this post contains a ton of pictures)
We celebrated Taytum's third birthday on Saturday. Taytum is all about the princesses lately so we had a princess birthday party. We invited all the aunts, uncles, cousins, and some friends to help us celebrate. No princess party would be complete without princess crowns or a frog prince. Taytum had a barbie princess cake and flower cupcakes. She had been talking about her birthday for quite a while leading up to the big day. It really was a great party!

The Birthday Girl

Addyson eyeballing the princess cake (excuse my weird face in the background)

The boys made super hero masks, Carter was modeling his for me.

The princess all decked out in her dress ups with her new Belle doll.

She got ballerina classes from Grandma complete with her first real leotard.

The princess blowing out her three candles.

The kids played pin the lips on the frog prince. Isn't that frog so cool, my hubby is so talented.

The girls making their own crowns.

Sweet boy

I am so in LOVE with this sweet face. I just want to kiss those cheeks all day long. Honestly I have a hard time getting anything done because I just want to snuggle with this adorable little boy.

Big Sister

Taytum met her little brother Preston the morning after he was born. It took her a minute to figure out what was going on. She was more interested in my hospital room than her brother but eventually she warmed up to him and gave him some good loving. Now she is learning all the can'ts and don'ts of having a baby in the house.

Preston Lee VanBuskirk

He is finally here! Preston Lee VanBuskirk arrived July 13 at 8:50pm weighing in at 6lbs and 19 3/4 inches. Other then he was lying transverse when we arrived at the hospital the labor was great. He has been a great baby. He sleeps so well, except for when mommy eats chocolate and then not so much. He has already started gaining weight just like his sister did. It won't be long until he is one plump little guy. For now I am just enjoying every chance I get to cuddle, love, and kiss on his sweet face because I know all too well that this stage does not last for long.

This could be bad

Here I am sitting at my computer with Taytum napping in the next room. I read some of my book and attempted to rest/nap but was too uncomfortable for much success. So what do I do? Get on my computer to check facebook, then slowly turn to online shopping where I bought a shirt for the new little guy and a new outfit for Taytum and a pair of princess pajamas for her birthday next month. Then I turned to eating and the first available food, brownies. I need to be productive or do something else or this winding road I am on could quickly get ugly. What to do? What to do?

Oh baby!

Here I am at 38 weeks (almost 39 when I am actually posting this). I took a picture of my belly with Taytum 8 days before she was born so I had to take a picture of this preggo belly at the same time to compare. Last week I went to the hospital where they did and ECV which is a procedure to turn breech babies. Although our little guy was not completely breech but lying transverse with his legs straight toward his head the procedure was a success. I thought he turned back to his side the next day but at my appointment yesterday he was still head down. So now I am playing the waiting game to see when this little guy wants to make his appearance and join our happy family. I am really hoping it is soon!

Construction Baby Shower

About a month ago I put together a baby shower for my sweet sister-in-law Jessie. It was so much fun and I thought everything came out so cute. So I thought I would share a few of the pics with y'all.

Jessie sporting her fashionable tool belt. Later the guest had to guess everything in her tool belt.

Creative Juices

I am getting pretty excited for this weekend. My brother Brent and his wife Jessie are coming into town and I am throwing a shower for their baby due in August. Brent is going to school for construction management and recently received an internship with Oakland construction. A huge deal since they are awesome, and they have and office he can get a job at in Durango when he graduates. So in honor of this cute boy and his construction man dad I am throwing a construction baby shower. I love being able to have an excuse to be crafty and this has been so much fun getting all my creative juices flowing. I will post pictures from all the decor as soon as possible. So question: What are some of the best baby shower games you have played?

Happy Easter

Taytum was in love with Easter this year. Monday night we started it off by having the story of the Savior's death and resurrection for Family Home Evening. I was impressed when Taytum repeated to my dad the next day that we learned about Jesus and the tomb. Friday evening we dyed Easter Eggs for Taytum's first time. She ended up with multi colored hands from using her hands instead of the tool but she had a great time. Saturday morning we had breakfast and an Easter egg hunt at Monee and Papa's house (Grandma and Grandpa VanBuskirk). Taytum really enjoyed finding the eggs and we had a great time watching her. Her enthusiasm was contagious. She played with her cousin Addyson and the parents and grandparents enjoyed watching as the girls broke into their candy with great excitement. This morning the Easter Bunny left Taytum a trail of eggs leading to her Easter basket. She was so busy collecting the eggs she didn't even see the basket of goodies. As she was opening it up she told me that it was so cute and had a lot of ''oh's''. But my favorite was when she said, " Thank you Easter Bunny". She got to wear a beautiful dress to church and she enjoyed looking like a princess for the day.

Lions and Tigers and Boys, OH MY!!

Due to the fact that I still can't get regular access to my own computer and haven't uploaded pictures in like six months, my blog has been a little on the lacking side. So an update is much needed for the two people who will read this blog. First off, the VanBuskirk family will be adding another boy come this summer. Josh and I are really excited for this little guy to make his appearance in four months. I am due some time in the middle of July. My first due date and my ultrasound measurements are different by 10 days. So I am not getting my hopes up for the beginning of the month. Taytum is so in love with babies these days and I am guaranteed to have my hands full of extra help from her. She has been attempting potty training and if she tries she does great. She is at such a fun age, I am loving our new conversations that we share. She is slightly obsessed with birthdays and tells me every day that it is her happy birthday. She is such a drama queen and I am learning patience every single day. Josh has been working up a business plan through the college's small business department and hopefully within the next six months we will be opening up our doors to all of Farmington. But for right now he is still working in Shiprock and trying to learn to love the people he serves. We really are doing great and we have so many blessings to count each and every day.