Christmas is coming!

I cannot believe that Christmas Eve is one week from today!! I am so excited. And so busy. It's amazing how much harder it is to get your holiday to-do list done with a new baby! Especially when that new baby has decided that he's happiest if he's held every minute he's awake. And if he's not being held, well, he's not so happy! I try to enjoy it though because he's only this little once. Little by little I'm getting everything done. I cannot wait until next week when family starts to arrive! Just a couple pictures to share...

Here is Allie hunting for our tree a couple weeks ago. See that sassy pose? Totally matches her sassy attitude. She cannot wait for Santa to come.

This little man started to smile this morning :) Gas has prompted him to smile in the past but he had a full-on smile fest when he woke up this morning. I just want to eat him up!

The Christmas countdown is on and we can't wait!

Poor boy

Last Tuesday, Cole was not himself. So on Wednesday I took him to the Doctor and he had a fever. Already??? He was not even 3 weeks old! Unfortunately, the fever was over 100.4 and if it's that high and the baby is still so young, they send you directly to the hospital. But not before they did a spinal tap on him right there in the office. It was horrible. Nothing feels worse than sitting there helpless while one of your kids is going through something so traumatic. They were mainly worried about meningitis, so they wanted to test his spinal fluid. Then off to Ogden Regional we went. Right away he got his IV, blood drawn, and a urinalysis. His spinal fluid was sent off to the lab. We weren't allowed to leave until the cultures came back 48 hours later. So it was just a looong waiting game. They kept his IV in the whole time pumping antibiotics into it. Luckily, his first test results that came back were looking good so we were pretty positive that nothing would grow on the cultures. And nothing did! So he got a virus from somewhere, unfortunately that's all we know. Hopefully this does not happen again while he is so young because I am not a fan of the hospital! We took a bunch of pictures while we were there. There is not much more to do while you just sit and wait! Here are a few...

Just after we got to the hospital and he got his IV

My mom came to see him before she picked up Allie for us. Thank you mom and Jen for taking such good care of her for us!!
He had quite the setup
This was taken after a long night...his IV stopped working and they had to restart it....NOT FUN. But I love this picture. So sweet.

Aunts Kim and Brenda came over for a visit, he was spoiledThe pediatric wing has a wagon you can take your little one for a walk in. He was not too thrilled the first time we tried it...

So we took him back and fed him and then he was all about it. Did I mention this boy is a piggy? In 6 days he went from 8lbs 7 oz to 9 lbs 5 oz. Volunteers for the hospital make the kids little booties, so they gave us these on the day we left

He is so happy to be back home with his big sister. She is thrilled.
Fingers crossed this is not the beginning of a sick-filled winter!

Two weeks

I can't believe that two weeks ago today little Cole joined our family. These past two weeks have been everything....exciting, exhausting, you name it! Cole has turned into a great sleeper the past few nights and I hope it lasts. I'm sure it will change but a mom can dream! He gets up every four hours to nurse and then goes right back to sleep. The best part is that my sister Betsy gets up with little Charlie to feed him as well so we text each other during the middle of the night to see how each other is doing. There is just something about knowing someone else is up at the same time as you that makes it a little easier to handle!

We gave Cole his first bath last night. Some of you may not know this but Ryan LOVES baths. He takes them all the time. So we were wondering if Cole would take after him and love them just as much, or if he would scream his head off. So we put him in the warm water and he immediately fell asleep. He loved it! He slept through the whole thing. It was just about the cutest thing we've ever seen. What made it even more funny was that I had just fed him before the bath so he had a huge belly. He was in heaven.

We love these kids.

10 days

Can our little boy be going on two weeks old already? He's growing so fast, it makes me sad that this newborn stage lasts such a short time! We are loving this sweet little addition to our family. Having two kids is a challenge at times, I feel torn in wanting to give the same attention to both Allie and Cole. Ryan has been such a HUGE help with both of the kids, he's such a great dad, we are all so lucky to have him. Here are some of our favorite photos that we've taken in the last 10 days of our baby boy...

Everyone seems to always gather on our bed to watch TV


my sister Jen took this pic of Ryan and Cole and it's one of my very favorites
so proud!

I cannot get enough of this cute little body!

are we looking sleep-deprived?? ;)

Cole Merrill Taggart

Our little boy was born on Thursday, November 18, 2010 - 4:04pm. 7 lbs 9 oz, 20 inches long. He looks exactly like Ryan ;) I have yet to see myself in him! Labor went really well...all in all it was about 8 hours long and once I got my epidural it was GREAT! Ryan was so helpful through the whole thing and loved seeing this little miracle come into our lives. Allie is IN LOVE. She is such a good big sister already and will be a great example to her little brother. We got home yesterday (Saturday) afternoon and had our first night at home. I won't lie, it was TIRING! He was up a lot, but we made it! He pretty much just eats and sleeps. Nursing is going great, these first couple weeks of nursing are never very fun but so far so good. We are slowly getting the hang of having two kids but it's crazy! Here are some pics of our first two days together...

First family photo, just a few minutes after being born this is his favorite thing to do getting ready to say hi to his visitors!

Allie waited a LONG time to be able to hold her little brother!
first morning together

Ry stayed at the hospital with us and they loved to cuddle up on his bed

Grandma was in the delivery room with us while grandpa and Allie waited anxiously outside for Cole to get here!

Big boy!!
I found this on Ry's iPhone and love it

On our way home!

Allie doesn't leave Cole out of anything
First night home...goodnight! We feel so lucky to have this sweet boy become part of our family and are so excited for all the fun times to come!

Ready or not...

It's baby time tomorrow! We check into Ogden Regional bright and early at 6:30am. Do you think we will get any decent sleep tonight? I doubt it. It's weird to be induced and know exactly when your new baby is coming. We have been waiting to see if this boy will come on his own but that does not seem to be the case. Just like Allie.

Ryan is a ball of nerves since he has never been through this. I'm a ball of nerves and I have been through this! He wants the delivery to go smooth. He's worried that something could go wrong. I try to tell him how they monitor both the baby and I like crazy through the whole thing and that everything will be fine. I'm nervous for the delivery too. It's a scary feeling to know that once you get checked in, you can't leave until you deliver your baby! Allie's delivery was so smooth, it seemed too easy really, I hope this goes the same! We hope that he his healthy and that there are no complications. I can't wait to hear that loud scream ;) I'm most excited for the moment Allie gets there to meet her new little brother for the first time. I can't wait. Wish us luck!

Birthday Boy!

Today Ryan turns the same age as me! He loves for people to know that I'm five months older than he is so it's always nice when this day rolls around ;)

Allie and I are lucky girls to have you in our life Ry. And very soon there will be a lucky little boy too! Here's to one more week (hopefully) of restful nights! I'm afraid you have no idea what's in store for you with this new baby that's coming but I guarantee you will love every minute of it...there is nothing like it! HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our amazing dad and husband!

This is the month!

I can't believe that October has come and gone and now it's November. We are having a baby in November! This is still unbelievable to us. October was a total whirlwind. It was so busy and it went by in the blink of an eye. This is what some of it looked like.

The pumpkin patch took up most of our time. It was really successful this year and a lot of fun. It was definitely hard work, we were out there just about every night, but it was worth it! One week we had some very special helpers come help us out for a couple nights...The Santos fam!

We were pretty easy on Bets and Charlie, but we put Steve right to work

Nala was out there every night with us, the customers just loved her

We did have a little fun while they were here. Is this picture hilarious? Poor Allie is getting smothered by my huge belly. This happens often lately. She bumps into it constantly and we get a good laugh out of it.
Our favorite guys

How cute is this bum?

When it came time to carve our pumpkins Allie did some of the dirty work but had Ryan do most of it We don't mess around when it comes to carving, whatever it takes!
Can you tell which is Allies?
Our little witch :)
She loves trick or treating and would go all night long if we let her

A few days ago we had some family pictures taken. With how many of us there were it's amazing that they turned out so good!

Our little family


I love this

Here we are at 37 weeks! We had an appointment yesterday and things still look great! Fluid levels are good, lungs are developed. I'm still feeling really good, just quite large! We have an appointment to be induced on Nov. 18 if he does not come earlier. Less than two weeks! We are so excited and nervous at the same time. The unknown is always a little scary, we just want to be the best parents we can be to both Allie and this new little one. We want him to be healthy and happy. Still working on a name, I think we are down to two! We are anxious to hold him and love him. And until then, we are taking advantage of every date night that we can!