Christmas

Here are a few pictures from the past week. They are not in order, well, they are in reverse chronological order...

Taya with the huge stuffed giraffe her aunt Erin gave her for Christmas. It does not have a name yet...

My daugher and me on her first Christmas.

First Christmas

Taya in her Christmas dress. She was falling over in the recliner. She did really well at Mass.

The Banks' came over last Sunday.

We purchased a family gift for Christmas...a new treadmill. We (Ethan) enlisted the help of Ryan to get it downstairs. Ethan was kind enough to give Ryan the "heavy" end :)

Taya having a conversation with Abner.

Nima needed some shoes to go outside this week. It has been very cold. Bbbrrrr.

Taya crashed in the recliner while Eli was here.

Taya enjoys bright lights and candles.

Tummy time looking at the Very Hungry Catepillar.

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Christmas at Grammy's

We celebrated Christmas early at Grammy's house. We had a fabulous time and we all made out with a carload of gifts. Taya was especially spoiled by her Grammy and Santa Claus.

Below are some pictures and video of our weekend.


Nima was interested in sitting in Taya's carrier while the "big" kids were opening their presents.

Grandpa Bud was exhausted with all the activities...he had been at grammy's for maybe an hour.

Ooohhhh, is this for me? Inside was Taya's first Cabbage Patch Kid (from Santa, aka Grammy).

The Mann Family 2008. We have been very blessed this year beyond our imaginations.

Taya's first Christmas season

Hi! We have had pictures to post for a few weeks but our office has been way too cold to work in (it's upstairs) so we waited a while. It is still cold, but Ethan is braving it and I'm down in the warm living room. Miss Taya is taking a nap and Nima is cuddling with me :). I'm so lucky!

We traveled to Ogallala for Christmas at my mom's, which we celebrated very early since it worked in everyone's schedule. Taya was still not feeling the best and we spotted the top of a tooth on Saturday evening. Our nights have not been restful, but we hope she will start feeling better soon.

Taya was four months old on Dec. 6. She has been doing so many fun and cute things. She likes to laugh, talk, and smile which I hope you can tell from the video. She likes to scoot around on her back and turns circles and pulls her legs up to her chest and throws them over to the side. She has not actually rolled over yet, but we can tell she is thinking about it. She also puts anything her hand come in contact with in her mouth (or toward her mouth). With her teeth coming in she likes to chomp on her toys, fist, pacifier, and even our fingers. She truly is a sweet little baby, even with the interruptions at night.

Reading a book: "The Polar Express".


Looking like a little angel with her hands folded while she sleeps in daddy's arms.

Looking at her Christmas tree.

With mommy

"Hey mom and dad!! Look at me :)"

(I love this picture!!!!!!)

Tummy time...







Playing with dad-o

Meeting Santa for the first time.

We actually went on a wild-goose chase looking for Santa. This was the third place we tried. She didn't know what to think, but really wanted to play with his beard. She didn't cry though.

Video of Taya

This is Ethan's handywork. He does such a great job with decorating the house; we are one of the few houses on the block with outside lights, at least so far.

Below is some video of Taya. She is really "talkative" and is usually telling us or her frog a story. Hope you enjoy!!

Taya in her bumbo, telling dad all about it.

Pictures and update

Hi everybody and officially "Happy Holidays". The first day of advent was Sunday so we celebrated by putting up our Christmas tree. It was actually a two day process we started on Saturday and completed on Sunday. It was really fun to see Taya looking at the lights on the tree. She really loves sparkly things. Ethan put up our lights outside as well. We changed it up from the past two years, but he still put quite a few up. We are very much looking forward to spending time with our loved ones this season.

Taya had her 4 month check up yesterday which turned into an appointment for feeling sick. Taya began to get stuffed up with the sniffles on Sunday and by Wednesday morning developed a fever (luckily we had our doctor appointment planned). It turns out she has an ear infection and has now received her first medication of her life. It's hard to see her sick, but she is now feeling better and has even been talking and playing almost like her usual self last night and today.

Her new stats:
15 lbs 2 oz
25 inches long
Head circumference: 41 cm
Taya is in the 50th-75th percentile on everything. Dr. Harnish was very impressed with where she developmentally. We are also thinking she is going to start cutting some teeth soon. I got my first one at ~4 months old, so we aren't surprised.

We had a nice Thanksgiving at home with Papa Les. We made the whole sh'bang with turkey, mashed potatoes/gravy, a raspberry jello salad, relishes, yams, and pie. I won't divulge what we cheated on. Ethan did most of the work since I was on-call and was at work right before lunch.


Baby Eli Banks. I bought him a handmade diaper bag with matching quilt from my cousin Katie (she made mine) and I took a picture of him on the quilt. His mommy and daddy said they get a lot of use out of it :).

This was Nima the evening we got back from Grammy's after the big birthday/Thanksgiving bash. She was wiped out.

Taya in her new bumbo. She likes to sit in it, but gets tired after ~20 minutes. Thanks Grammy!

A slightly dated photo (from Nov. 18). Taya meeting Eli for the first time. "Hey, who's that?"

Ryan rather enjoyed holding the two at the same time.

Another dated picture of Taya with her dad-o. We were on our way to meet Eli.

Merry Christmas