Space for Taylor

I feel like a broken record. I am constantly saying, "Dylan give her space", "Dylan don't squish her", "Dylan be gently with her". He loves her so much that he always wants to be squished up against her. If she is laying on the ground, he wants to lay right next to her (he gets so closer that pushes her over). If she is sitting up, he will sit behind her and hug her. I love that he loves her so much, but poor Taylor has no personal space when he is around. Taylor isn't great at teaching him to give her space. Most of the time she starts cracking up when he starts getting close. It isn't until she gets squished that she starts crying. Here are some pics of Dylan loving his sister =)

Anniversary in Whistler!

Bryan and I were able to get away and spend the weekend in Whistler to celebrate our 8 year anniversary (can't believe it's been 8 years!).

Big, big thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Willett for watching the kids and giving us a gift certificate that we could use for the hotel and ZipTrek tour!! It was Taylor's first night without Mommy and it was no problem. Maybe we should get away more often :-)

We had an awesome time just relaxing and enjoying Whistler. There was actually way more stuff going on in Whistler during the summer than I thought there would be. Like I said, we did a zip line tour which was really fun. We did 5 zip lines that ran between huge trees in Whistler's rain forest and over the river running between two mountains.




We also got lucky and were there during Crankworx, a huge mountain bike competition. There was all sorts of stuff going on each day, but the best was the Slope Style competition. These guys were doing back flips and going off huge jumps...it was pretty crazy and real fun to watch up close.





On our last day we took the Gondola and a chair up to the peak of Whistler mountain and did a little hiking. It's pretty cool seeing the mountain without all the snow and the views were incredible.

Dylan's Bike Tricks

Dylan's newest passion...riding his bike. Up to this point he has had difficulty pedaling anything with wheels. I thought it would be a few years before he started riding his bike but last week he started riding and now he won't stop. The first thing he asks in the morning is if he can go out and ride his bike. He has been averaging 2 hours of riding a day. He loves it!!! His latest thing is to show us his tricks. This video highests some of his favorite tricks. It is too cute!!! I'm glad we missed video taping when I asked him to try taking both hands off the handle bar. It didn't end too well =).

The Obsession Continues...One Year Later

It was a little over a year since Dylan's fireman obsession started. It all started when I Bryan and I were in D.C. visiting Jeff and Tracy and Dylan was staying with Grandma and Grandpa. He watched a video at their house about firemen and fire trucks and he has been obsessed from that point on. Dylan talks about firemen all the time and how he is going to be one when he grows up. He asks me if I will visit him at the fire house when he is a fireman. When I say "yes, I would love to visit you" he tells me that he will give me fireman badge sticker and he will let me sit in the fire truck and ambulance. It is super cute! He can't wait till the day he can drive a fire truck. I've told him that he has to drive a car for 2 years before he can drive a fire truck (I'm assuming you can't be a firemen until you are 18) and he is totally bummed.

Today we went to a water day at the Issaquah Community Center. A fire truck came and sprayed water out of the pumper truck. Dylan was in awe and he had a lot of fun running through the water. The firemen stayed for while to talk with the kids and Dylan totally clammed up. He thinks they are so cool, but he just stares at them and doesn't say anything. It is so funny!

Liz and Eric's Wedding

We had a great time at Auntie Lizzy and Uncle Eric's wedding in July. It was awesome to have so many friends and family in town and to introduce the two newest members of the family.

Taylor and Andrew really seemed to hit it off and it was fun to watch them get to know each other. They also seemed to enjoy all the attention they were getting from their grandparents and great grandmothers.

Dylan was the ring bearer and did a great job. He even stood at the altar with the rest of the wedding party for at least 20 minutes! He didn't really stand still, and there may have been a destroyed boutonniere involved, but what can you expect :-)

Dylan meets his sister and Taylor first visitor

Dylan was really excited to meet his sister. He was so sweet with her and really enjoyed her.



Taylor gave Dylan and awesome rescue truck.



Dylan struck up quite a friendship with the nurses who cared for Taylor. He was their little helper.



Grandpa meeting Taylor


Auntie Lizzy and Taylor


Aunt Lana and Brenna with Taylor


The Harris family with Taylor. The girls are going to be great big sisters in July!

Taylor Grace Schmit

Our precious little girl, Taylor Grace was born on January 11th 2010 at 12:58am. We are so in love with her and we feel so blessed to have her in our lives!



Here is the story of Taylor's birth. I started getting contractions on January 10th (my due date) around 7:30pm. They weren't painful at first but they were regular and I could tell that labor was beginning. We called my parents around 8:30 and told them that we better have Dylan stay at their place so we wouldn't have to have them come over in the middle of the night. At first I said that we would drive him over to their place, but I could tell that labor was starting to pick up and it might not be a good idea. My parents came and took Dylan. By this point my labor was starting to painful and my contractions were not very consistent. Sometimes they would be 12 minutes apart and them 8 minutes and then 15 minutes. I could feel pressure and could tell that we should head to the hospital soon. We called the on call doctor at 10:30pm and she said that we should head down. We went to triage and they hooked me up the machine that checks my contractions. They nurse said she would come back 10 minutes later to look at my contractions. I knew I was dialited a lot and I just wanted her to check me and get me into my room, but I didn't speak up. She came in 10 minutes later and checked me and was surprised that I was already at 7cm. She called the on call doctor and told her I was ready for a room. She also told me that she didn't think I should get an epidural since I was doing so well and I was already at a 7. They moved me to my room around 12:15am and they found that Taylor was facing down. It is more difficult for babies to come out if they are facing down and they wanted her to face up. They had me lay on my side to try and flip her. I wasn't sure whether or not I wanted an epidural and the nurses weren't even sure it would kick in in time for delivery. They gave me a little pain reliever in my IV and it dulled the pain a little while I made my decision. Our Dr. came in and told me that she was going to be in a c-section for the next 45 minutes and that if I had the baby she during that time I would have another Dr. from another practice delivery me. I wasn't too concerned and I knew that they trusted this Dr. so I would be in good hands. Laying on my side was really uncomfortable because the contractions were getting really strong. I started feeling a lot of pressure and I told the nurse that I felt like I had to push. She asked me to roll unto my back when the contraction let up and it never let up. I told her I really had to push and she forced me to move to my back so she could check me. I was at a 10 and she called for the Dr. and extra set of hands ASAP. The Dr. from the other practice came in and I pushed for 5 minutes and Taylor was born. It was the most painful few minutes of my life, but definitely worth it. Since I hadn't practiced any techniques for dealing with the pain I just wanted to curl up into a ball but I couldn't. Finally the nurse said, "Karen I need you to focus on me" and Bryan said that I just turned into a different person after that and totally focused on her and what she told me to do. Luckily Taylor was born quickly. Here are some pics of our precious little girl.







We called my parents and Bryan's parents when we got into our room. My mom said that she would head down right away. Bryan's parents said they wanted to come, but we told them not to rush because we didn't think she would come that fast. Even though my mom left right away she still missed Taylors birth. She walked in our room and was shocked to see that Taylor had already arrived. Bryan's parents arrived around 2:30am. It was a really different experience from when Dylan arrived. He came close to 7pm and everyone had been in the waiting room for a few hours. This time it happened in the middle of the night and it was really quiet. Here are our first visitors.