Makechnieland

Week 5

2012-01-25T15:58:00.000-08:00

Picture Wednesday, Finn at 5 weeks old.

We captured one of his funny little grins today.

Never looks as cute in a picture but I think my little baby's smiles are so beautiful. I'll work pretty hard making a myself look completely silly just to get a goofy little grin from my babe.

This week Finn is suddenly not a newborn anymore. I really don't love it and I love it so much at the very same time. Suddenly he's this darling, big, squishy baby instead of a tiny, fragile one. What happened and how did I miss it?

This week's been a rough one for me health-wise. I've had a pretty nasty migraine since just after Finn was born and this week it's gotten worse. And I'm fed up. I finally went to the doctor last week, got some meds that didn't work for me. I tried a bunch of other things too. Basically it's a stressful time, I'm not getting much sleep, and my hormones are out of whack. I suppose, for me, that equals a constant headache. Awesome. Before this week I just hoped that it would go away eventually. But now I'm tired of it. I want to exercise, play hard with my little boy, clean up around my house but everything just hurts too much. I'm ornery that I'm missing so much time with my rapidly sprouting kids, and our rapidly disappearing time in this house, and with the people here because I'm not feeling well.

My poor honey has been a trooper. He even stayed home from work today and helped get the house ready to list. He did a ton of cleaning, straightening, and yard work all day and then the Realtor came to take pictures. And now, our house is on the market. My beautiful house that I thought we'd live in for much, much longer than 10 months, is on the market again. It's cleaner and neater than it's looked since we've lived here and now that it looks fantastic, we're out of here. Oh well, that's life. I can mourn the loss of my lovely home, but it won't do any good so I'm trying not to get too upset about it. As my dad said once when I told him how I felt about my house, "Your house doesn't have any feelings for you. It doesn't care who lives in it!" True dad. On to the next, I suppose.

My doctor's calling in a new prescription tonight for my headache. I'm sure I'll find something to help soon. A blessing I was given recently said I would, so I'm sure I will. Let's hope for a better next week!

Picture Wednesday

2012-01-21T05:21:00.000-08:00

This week's picture is a bit late due to some computer issues, but here it is! Finn at four weeks old.

Had to throw a crying picture in there too because I still think he's darling even when he's ticked. As you can see he's wasting no time increasing his cheek and chin surface area in order to give us more to kiss. he's very thoughtful that way.

This week he's started giving us just a few little smiles. Tate got one yesterday for the first time and his response was, "Mom, I think that means he loves me!" Yep, I'm positive that's what it means, Tate.

Finn is giving us a bit of a run for our money sleep-wise. Sometimes he'll sleep for 3 hours in between feedings at night. Sometimes he'll take a while to go back to sleep after a feeding. Sometimes he'll wake up an hour early for a feeding. But he's otherwise a wonderful baby.

Glenn was in Denver for 3 days this week for work and we all survived around here. It was much harder without any help in the evenings or at night, but we survived. Tate missed his daddy a lot. A couple times he woke up from his nap and asked for Daddy. One evening at dinner he said, "I hear something. Someone's coming! Is it Daddy?!" No buddy, sorry. Remember, Daddy's in Denver on a trip. "I think I want to go to Denver too." Yeah, wherever Daddy is must be much more fun, right?

We're very glad he's back and won't be leaving us again before we move.

This guy...

2012-01-18T10:40:00.000-08:00

is just plain awesome.

Well, they're both awesome, but right now I'm referring to the older of the two guys. My sweetheart, my boys' daddy, the geologist, the athlete, and all around awesomeness personified.

We are very blessed that Glenn has a GREAT job right now. And in addition to that, he happens to love his job. And even better, his job happens to love him back. It's basically a dream situation in the current economy.

Glenn had a very flattering review a couple months ago in which his boss told him that he refers to Glenn as "the easy button". He trusts that he can send Glenn into any situation and Glenn will do an awesome job with very little supervision required. He's also great with people. He makes them feel comfortable, heard, and valued and it's a skill that a lot of science-minded people don't necessarily possess. So when his supervisor started to plan for some re-structuring in the company and had to choose a few people to bring with him to work in the Denver office, he chose Glenn.

Less than 3 weeks before Finn was born Glenn got a phone call wondering, "Would you consider moving to Denver?" Less than a week before Finn was born we got the official offer, considered it, and decided it was a good move for our family. So, there you have it. We're off to Denver in a few weeks. The timing is not ideal. We just had a baby. We just bought a house and will have been in it for less than a year when we hit the road. But we've always thought, of all the places we could live where Glenn could do his work, Denver is the place we hoped to end up. We're getting there much sooner than we expected, but there's nothing wrong with that!

Because the timing has been less than ideal, I haven't been able to really wrap my head around it. There was a new baby and then there was some recovery and adjustments to figure out and I really didn't want to talk or think about it for a while. I'm starting to get excited about it now. It's a lot to deal with at once, but it will mean great things for our family so we'll figure it out. Glenn's company is amazing and are taking really good care of us. The move is going to be relatively pain free, which is exactly the type of move I can handle right now.

I'll have to devote an entirely other post to my feelings about moving, but for now, I just want to record how proud I am of my sweetheart. He's amazing at what he does, takes great care of the boys and I, and I love him to pieces. Here's to another great adventure! Yee-haw!

Christmas 2011

2012-01-14T18:40:00.001-08:00

Christmas this year was a blur. It came and went so fast and I'm still reeling from its' passing and sad that it's over. I'm not sure how much Tate actually "got" this year about Santa Claus, but he certainly understood more than last year. We did a little Christmas story advent and opened a new book each night for our bed time story. He loved hearing all the new stories and I think they helped him understand Christmas more than anything else we did.

Christmas Eve we made Christmas cookies for Santa and left carrots for the reindeer. It was all so much fun.

Christmas morning he slept in until 9:30. It was awesome. It would have been more awesome if Finn had slept in too...but awesome none the less.

He ran right to his new marble ramp and started playing.

Eventually he got to his stocking which held the greatest treasures of the day: fun new cars. He got a bunch of new little cars that fit on his train table track. A new tiny dump truck, cement truck, and steam roller and such and we could have just stopped there. He could have played all day with those and not opened another thing.

Eventually we got him to open some of his other presents. A trumpet from Nanna. A new drum, which could only be played while marching of course.

We even had a little parade at one point, marching behind Tate around the house. Santa also brought Tate a big wheel bike. He's still figuring out how to ride and steer it.

Tate was absolutely spoiled beyond belief by his family from afar. Lots of new movies, an awesome remote control car (which he spent a good part of the day chasing around our house in circles), a cool Thomas flashlight, darling new clothes. It was incredible.

It was hard being so far away from family on Christmas this year. It was a bit lonely, especially in my sleep-deprived, hyper-emotional, four days postpartum state. We kept it pretty low-key. We got on skype with my family and called some of Glenn's. We spent most of the day watching Tate go from new toy to new toy and just having an absolute blast.

He was so happy and so entertained by all his new things and it was fun to watch him be so excited all day. We couldn't even get him to finish opening all his presents so a few of them went back in the closet for his birthday.

This was a Christmas we'll never forget, that's for sure. I can only imagine that next year will be even more fun with two littles and Tate a bit older. Christmas might be my favorite day to be a parent. It was awesome to watch Tate enjoy all the magic.

Battered boy and Week 3

2012-01-11T11:25:00.000-08:00

Nanna is gone one day and look what happens around here.

Poor kiddo. First he was chasing a balloon around the living room, tripped over his new tricycle and smacked his forehead into the sharp edge of the entertainment center. Luckily it didn't split open. Just made a big dent which turned into a big bump.

Then he was playing hide and seek with Daddy and ran into the dark closet and smacked into the laundry basket with his eye. See Nanna, you shouldn't have left.

Little Finn, on the other hand, has survived 3 weeks with us relatively unscathed. Three weeks. That blows my mind. Thus far he's a very good little baby. He goes 3 hours between feedings, even at night...which will hopefully stretch out a bit soon. He has much more awake and alert time than I remember Tate having at this age. He spends a lot of time with his little eyes wide open and looking around. He knows our voices and especially loves Glenn's and Tate's. His little eyes open big and he looks around and tries to find them whenever he hears them. It's sweet.

Here's the little man, three weeks old.

Sad Day

2012-01-10T07:47:00.001-08:00

It's a sad, sad day when Nanna goes home. Quotes from Tate yesterday:

- After we told Tate we were taking Nanna to the airport. "Nanna, I don't want you to go to Utah."

- After we got back from the airport I put Tate down for his nap and when I finished reading to him and was leaving the room he said, "Can Nanna come in now?"

Sorry dude. All good things must come to an end.

This week with Nanna was so wonderful. She is an incredible mother and grandmother and we love her to pieces. She took very good care of us all this week. She took Tate on walks, to the park, the pet store, the library, the zoo. They spent hours playing with toys, reading books, and snuggling on the couch. She put Tate to bed every day for naps and bed time. She helped with the boys baths and getting them dressed and fed. She helped the boys and I get out of the house and made sure I didn't do too much. She cleaned, did endless loads of laundry, made sure we were all fed, and stayed up with little Finn when he was inconsolable at night. She watched the boys while Glenn and I escaped to see movies, TWICE. She completely took over while I rested up and started to feel better.

She was super woman this week and we were sad to see her go!

I love my mom. And it's amazing how I love her on a whole new level when I see her love my kids. She played hard with Tate all week long and it was just the greatest thing to watch my little boy adore his Nanna. It made me realize again how much we miss by living so far away.

So why did no one warn me that time speeds up even more every time you have a baby? Hmmm? These past few weeks have just flown. I thought Tate grew up fast but this is just nuts. I've thoroughly enjoyed my "fun time" having Glenn home for a week and then having Nanna come for more than a week was just plain bliss. It seems like I blinked and three weeks just disappeared and now I have two sons. I feel like it's been a constant party hanging out with my honey and my mom for such a long time and now it's time to figure out how my new reality is going to work. It's been a juggling act today but it wasn't as hard as I thought. It helps of course, that Glenn doesn't have tons to do at work this week and is able to come home early. It also helps that my husband is amazing and a huge help any time he's around. We'll get this all figured out.

In the mean time I have some very sweet memories of the past 2 weeks to look back on. Sweet moments with my mom. Long conversations, good food, and priceless play time with my two little boys and their Nanna.

Thanks so much for coming Nanna. We miss you already!

Picture Wednesday

2012-01-04T13:46:00.000-08:00

It's been a wonderful week. It's gone very fast. Glenn just went back to work on Tuesday. My mom came last Friday and is staying until next Monday. We've had a lot of fun and a lot of help around here and I'm very grateful for every bit of it. Every time I think about my mom leaving and all of the other upcoming changes around here I just have to make myself think about something else. Can't fathom it. Not yet. I was hoping that my speedy labor and delivery would mean for a speedy recovery too. Unfortunately, that's not the way it works. Same process. Same recovery. It's slow and I'm tired, but we'll get back to normal eventually. And until then, we'll enjoy the slower pace.

Here are a few highlights from the week with our two boys and wonderful visitor:

1. Tate asking for Nanna to read to him before his nap and not me. For the most part he's being sweet to his Nanna and loving his time with her, which I love to see. We haven't seen Nanna for 6 months so I'm glad he's loving having her here as much as I am. It's really fun to watch them play.

2. Finn is a happy eater. He makes the sweetest squeaky noises while he's nursing. It's hilarious and LOUD. It's like a little "grunt-squeak-grunt-squeak-grunt-squeak" as he breathes in and out. It's darling.

3. Lots of afternoon naps had by all! Oh how I love these.

4. We went to dinner a couple nights ago and all of a sudden Tate started yelling "Finn. FIIIINNNNN" Like he was calling him hoping Finn would answer and tell Tate where he was. Finn was just in the car seat at the other end of the table, but for a second there big brother was very worried when he couldn't see his little buddy.

5. A trip to the zoo. Finn and I stayed home. Glenn, Tate, and Nanna ventured to the zoo and even fed the giraffes.

6. Lots of snuggles with these two.

Tate has yet to feel anything but warm and fuzzy for his little brother which is splendid.

Generally tired but loving life with help while I've got it.

Finn had his first doctor's appointment today. At 2 weeks old he's gained his birth weight and then some. Now he weighs 8lb. 15 oz. That's what Tate weighed when he was born. He's a healthy and happy boy and none of us can get enough snuggle time with little Finn.

Little Finn, 2 weeks old.

Little Finn

2011-12-27T18:00:00.000-08:00

There are so many things that have happened in the last week and all need to be recorded. I'll just start at the beginning and catch up everything else eventually.

Last Monday the 19th I went in for my last check up. We were told everything looked good and we set up my induction for Wednesday morning. Since it would put me just a couple days shy of 39 weeks (and she's not allowed to schedule an induction without a good reason before 39 weeks) she did a couple quick ultrasound pics to sort of justify the induction.

We had a great day on Tuesday. Glenn stayed home from work and we just played all day as a family. We took Tate to Jumpalooza, did a little shopping, and played at home. It was the perfect last day together. Then at 9:30 that night my doctor called and told me that the hospital wanted official ultrasound pics to justify the induction and the ones she took wouldn't cut it so...she told me to just come into her office the following morning and she'd break my water and send me over to the hospital. My doctor is the absolute best. She felt comfortable with my baby's development and knew she was going to be out of town and wanted to make sure I was taken care of so she just made it happen. I love my doctor. The last few weeks of pregnancy were so much easier because I knew how long I had to last. I knew that I didn't have to worry about planning to have Tate taken care of spur of the moment, I didn't have to worry about giving birth on Christmas day, or of having an enormous baby, because she was comfortable with him coming a little early. It was perfect. Man, do I love having a plan!

We dropped Tate off with our friends the Dursts at 6:30 Wednesday morning and went to our doctor's office downtown. She took us back to an exam room, broke my water and then asked, "So, what time should we tell them your water broke? How about 6:15?" Then she walked us over to the hospital where she had some patients to check up on. It was hilarious.

We went to the labor and delivery floor and met our darling British nurse, Jillian. She was a crack up the whole time. So sweet, very straight forward, and funny. What a darling. She confirmed that my water had broke. At this point my doctor came in to check on me and she said, "So when did your water break?" I had to stifle a smile and thought to myself, "Well, you should know doctor, since you did it." But instead I replied, "At about 6:15 this morning." I got started on pitocin at 9 am and about 20 minutes later I started feeling some pretty good contractions. After an hour they were quite tough, and long, and only 2 minutes apart. I got my epidural 15 minutes after that and it was great from then on! Glenn wrote sweet letters to our boys while I tried to get some rest. Jillian took it upon herself to help us decide on a name for our little boy. We had it narrowed down to 3 but just couldn't decide between them. Finn, Kellen, and Brennan were our finalists. She immediately eliminated Brennan as his initials would be B.M. and she wouldn't have that. Then she wrote down Finn and Kellen on a paper towel and asked every person who came into the room what their opinion was and marked it down. After a couple of hours there was only one mark under Kellen (Glenn's vote), and 8 or 9 under Finn. I don't know if that's what changed Glenn's mind about the name or if he decided it wasn't so bad after all.

Jillian checked me at about 1:30 and said I was complete. Seriously, everyone should have an induced labor WITH an epidural. The whole process went so much faster AND I didn't feel the pain. Awesome. She paged my doctor, I pushed through 4 contractions, and little Finn was born. It was wonderful. Glenn and I kept looking at each other saying how we couldn't believe how fast it went. It just flew by.

Little Finn weighed 8 lb. 2 oz and was 20 inches long. We think he's darling and feel so very lucky to have him. Glenn and I were reminiscing last night and remembering how last year at this time we wondered if we'd ever have more children. And now here we are with another little boy. We feel incredibly blessed to have him and love him to pieces.

Glenn went to pick Tate up from the Durst's and brought him to visit us at the hospital. It was so great to see him. I have a friend here who warned me how big Tate would look after having a new baby. She was right. He seemed to have grown and gained 20 pounds since I saw him last just that morning. He looked enormous! So grown up and so sweet wanting to hug and kiss his little baby brother. He loved seeing his tiny nose, his tiny feet, and his tiny ears and fingers. It made my heart just melt to see him beam at his little brother.

Then Glenn took Tate to spend the night with the Johnson's so he could stay with me in the hospital. It was nice to have Glenn there but it was hard to know Tate was with someone else for the night. I knew he'd be fine and have a great time with them but I wanted him with us so badly!

The time in the hospital went so fast. It was a great hospital. Good food, most of the nurses were nice, and I was able to spend plenty of time resting and staring at my new baby. Tate came to visit again the next day and we spent some time snuggling, watching Tangled on TV and playing with the buttons on my bed. Very exciting.

It's been a crazy week. I can't believe little boy is already a week old. I have so much more to record but it will have to wait. I'm going to take a nap!

I'm going to do weekly picture postings of my little babe again. It's so fun to see him grow week to week, and it's an added incentive to make sure I get the camera out at least once a week! So here's our first picture Wednesday: our little one week old Finn.

Announcing Finn Arthur Makechnie!

2011-12-22T20:43:00.000-08:00

It's been a long two days, and I want Kim to be able to share her experiences in her own words, so I will keep this short...

Finn Arthur Makechnie was born yesterday (December 21st, 2011) at 1:54 PM. He weighs 8lb 2oz, and is 20in. He was a very easy delivery and labor... I should know because I watched and did none of the work myself.

Everyone is doing well, and we expect Kim and Finn to come home tomorrow. We have had some very generous friends, the Dursts and the Johnsons, watch Tate for us. It is nice to have friends who are willing to pitch in so we don't have to worry about The Tate-O. He has been a really good sport the past few days, and he has been so cute with Finn, but I can tell he is a little stressed out. I am home with him tonight.

As I said, I am going to keep this short, but I know Finn's adoring public has been clamoring for some photos, and If I don't publish something soon the Paparazzi is likely to beat me to the punch, so here you go! He is still pretty new and squished up in most of these, but I will get some more normal looking pictures tomorrow and post them.

Songs

2011-12-18T18:06:00.001-08:00

This past week we borrowed the old Winnie the Pooh movie from the library. Tate has learned a couple of the songs from it and is constantly singing them to himself and jumping around the room. This one is my favorite.

Lately we've been singing Christmas songs for bed time songs and "the angel song" is one of his favorites. Yesterday he was in his room talking and singing to himself during nap time. I snuck up and listened from the bathroom connected to his room and caught him singing "in excelsis deo" over and over to himself. It's pretty delicious with his little lisp.

Goings-on

2011-12-12T12:13:00.000-08:00

We've had a lot of fun the last couple of weeks. First, Glenn's work threw him a surprise baby shower. It was amazing. A sweet lady he works with called me a couple of weeks before and asked about dates and times and then planned a fake meeting to get Glenn there without suspecting. Tate and I were there, they'd made a cake and set up a bunch of tables and some decorations. Glenn walked in and was completely surprised. (That's Martha in the purple, she set the whole thing up.)It was awesome. Tate was excited all day about going to a party at Daddy's work and he was not disappointed either! I thought it was pretty amazing that his work would throw him a shower to celebrate our second baby boy. It was SO thoughtful and Glenn just ate it up. They gave us this huge wrapped tower of diapers and wipes and even got a new dump truck for Tate. It was really fun and so sweet!Thanks Newfield!

Once we finally got out tree up we pulled out our new Christmas tree train. Tate's been fascinated with the concept since he first heard that they existed and wants to look for Christmas tree trains any time we're in a store. We got it all set up during his nap and when he woke up, there it was, around the tree. He loves it and it's super fun to watch him just stare at it and then push all the buttons on the remote to make it go and whistle and such. Last week our little community had their winter festival and Glenn and I, keen not to miss out on a good/free time, checked it out. Our community is awesome. They have fun festivals and family events all the time and this one didn't disappoint. They had a petting zoo. This time Tate was more intent on bothering the animals by pulling their tails (poor little piggy)and checking out what kind of food they were eating to pay much attention to the animals. They also had a horse drawn carriage, a trackless train AND camel rides. We couldn't miss out on that! Glenn wouldn't let me ride with Tate...but the boys had a good time. I wasn't sure how Tate would feel about climbing on a huge hairy beast but he ate it up. He calls them "canamals" and he still talks about how he got to ride on a canamal.

Lastly, we've been to 2 Christmas parties in the last 2 weeks. Glenn's company Christmas party which he's dubbed "grown up prom". It's a nice dinner and entertainment/dancing after. It was a fun date night. Then last Saturday we went to his company's family Christmas party. They do such a good job planning these parties. This year was a Hawaiian theme. We had a yummy breakfast and then went upstairs for a bunch of activities. Cookie decorating, balloon animals, a hula contest, (this is what happens when mom and dad can't tell Tate "no" and he wants to see us hula)and of course, a chat with the big guy. Tate was a little hesitant at first but warmed up quicklyand was soon chatting Santa's ear off about the train and bicycle he would like to have.

On top of that Glenn's been really busy with some new things at work which we will post about soon, I've been busy with planning a couple of young women's activities, and we've all been doing some shopping, shipping presents, and general readying the house and ourselves for little babe's arrival. 9 days and counting, by the way!

Sailboat Bed!

2011-12-07T11:11:00.001-08:00

We got a package in the mail today. It was from Nanna and contained some real treasures. Two presents for Tate which he very reluctantly left under the tree and this:A gorgeous sailboat quilt that Nanna made for Tate's new big boy bed. (In the picture he's already hiding under it and asking me to come find him.) Tate's been in his bed for a couple of weeks now but just sleeping under a sheet and some of his little blankets. He's THRILLED to have a big quilt just like mom and dad's bed. Now he can play "cave" and hide and seek in his own bed under his own blanket! He calls it his sailboat bed. He absolutely loves it and so do I. I love the fabrics and the colors are just perfect for my little boy's room. All of the time that went in to piecing all those sailboats together is just plain incredible. It's an absolute treasure. And I love that my mom made it for my little boy.

Thanks SO much Nanna! We cannot wait to see you in a few weeks!!!

I have a collection...

2011-11-29T12:26:00.000-08:00

A collection of quotes from the Tate-o. I've been scribbling them down, texting them to Glenn, and trying to remember them for a while. It's time I get them recorded before I forget them all!

Lately he's been playing a lot of make believe. He becomes an animal or a character from a movie and suddenly I'm another animal (the mommy animal) or another character from the same movie.
- "Mommy, I'm a dinosaur. This is my blue tail. I'm extinct!"
- "The little lion cub named Simba is sleeping on this grey couch while his mommy lion is doing her exercise movie."
- "Mom, you are Kanga and I am little Roo."
- Sometimes he doesn't clue me in on the animals we're playing, he just calls me an animal. Most of the time it's just fine but every once in a while he calls me something unflattering. I was talking to him about how he needed to tell me when it's time to go potty and he just looked at me and replied with a , "Yeth mommy walruth."
- Sometimes he likes to distinguish the kind of animals we are by the color of shirts we're wearing. I was wearing a pink shirt and Tate was wearing a black shirt with an orange car at the time, "The pink elephant wants to take the.....(looks down at his shirt) orange car elephant down the stairs to get him some orange juice!"
- When he's in a Fox and the Hound mode, I'm Copper and he's Todd. "We'll always be friends forever, right Copper?"
- When we play Winnie the Pooh I'm Christopher Robin and Glenn is Eeyore. "Christopher Robin, can you juggle?" No Winnie the Pooh. I'm sorry, I don't know how. "Eeyore can juggle. I think he'll be home soon."
- In the movie Bolt, the dog thinks he has super powers that have been taken from him by being in contact with Styrofoam. Tate was trying to lift something really heavy one day and muttered under his breath, "Ooo, must be made of styrofoam."
- One day on our morning walk we stopped to feed the ducks our left over pancakes and one snuck up and bit a piece right out of his hand. He jumped, whimpered a little, then shook it off and said, "Wo, that thurprithed me!"
- "I know just what to do! Watch Toy Story!"
- He has this darling idea that hugging makes everything better. So once when I was throwing up he heard me and told Glenn, "I want to make her happy." Glenn tried to hold him back for a minute but Tate just ran in and hugged me over the toilet and said, "Mom, I'm hugging you to make you happy again."
- When he was sick and about to throw up he'd just start sobbing and saying, "Mommy, make me happy. Make me happy!" Broke my heart.
- In the bath tub, "Mommy, you want to kiss this mean turtle so he'll be nice."
- Crying in his room while not taking his nap, "My face is all wet! Wipe this water off my face!"
- Sometimes he narrates what he's doing as he's doing it. "The big boy hugged his mom." "The baby tiger is playing with his train."- When Glenn was playing with him the other day, "Daddy, you will take me to the movie theater and we will watch the lion king and you will get popcorn!"- Then there's the just plain sweetness. "Mom, I'm happy playing with you." - Lately he likes to hide under blankets or especially under the covers on our bed. "Daddy, can we all three hide in the cave?" Most of the time he wants to be found. Sometimes he gives us instructions that go something like this, "Mommy, can you say, 'Where's Daddy and Tate?'"
- When talking about new baby brother and how sometimes he will cry, "I will make him happy. I will sit with him and we will watch my Christmas tree train. And I will show him how to watch a show. We will snuggle on the couch and watch Toy Story.
- And my latest favorite on a particularly emotional morning in his high chair, "I have tears that are wobbling on the corner of my eyes and splashing onto the tray. Make me happy again."

Changes

2011-11-22T17:58:00.000-08:00

Today was a big day. I took Tate to my OB appointment this morning. We had a really long wait so he got super antsy, but he's been sick again this week (bronchitis this time) so I didn't feel like I could pass him off to anyone. We've been reading books lately about new babies and he remembered from past appointments and books that when the nurse puts the "microphone" up to my tummy we can hear baby brother's heartbeat. This time he sat really still, listened to the swishing sound, then started mimicking it from across the room. It was really funny. The nurse just smiled.

Today my Dr. gave me some GREAT news. I'm trying not to get my hopes up...but I am getting my hopes up. She's going to be gone a few days before Christmas until a few days after new years so she may let me be induced as early as December 21st. I'm thrilled. I love to plan so very much and having that date as a possibility and all that entails (planning early for Christmas, being home from the hospital for Christmas day, not having the possibility of giving birth on Christmas day, knowing when to ask for help with Tate, etc.) makes me very happy. There are a lot of reasons the Dr. is willing to let me go that early. It's 10 days before my due date but little boy is measuring a week and a half ahead of schedule and she says considering Tate was so large this guy would be very big if we let him go full term. I hope that can stay the plan. I love having a plan!

I spent all morning just elated at having a plan and having so many concerns taken away. Then there have been a few melancholy moments this afternoon. Realizing that our time as a threesome is quickly coming to a close makes me a little panicked. And at the same time I can't wait to see and hold this little boy, introduce him to his big brother, watch his daddy love him to bits, snug his possibly tiny body. I'm so excited that Tate will be the big kid and get to help and be the example to this little guy...and at the same time I'm mourning the loss of my first little baby boy. He's not a baby anymore and that fact is really in my face this week.

Tonight is his first night in his new room. His room is now painted (thank you Glenn) and has a big boy twin bed and a little dresser of his own. A few other things need to be hung and finished up, but his little body is in that big bed tonight and that makes me...pretty sad. He's excited about his new room, which makes it easier. I'm going to have to figure out how bed time songs are going to go. There has got to be some snuggling during the songs. Tonight I missed the snuggling in the rocking chair during song time. It's my sweet snug time with my not so little boy and I'm going to figure out a way to keep the snugs coming even though he's in his big bed.

Lots of mixed feelings today which I'm sure are going to be tumbling around in my brain for a while. I know this all comes with the territory. I know it will all work out as it should and we'll be a very happy foursome in the end. Right now, I'm missing the way my little tiny baby Tate looked in his great big crib. I swear it's like someone pushed a very fast forward button the moment we became parents and all we can do is try out best to savor the moments as they fly by.

Still Pregnant

2011-11-17T12:31:00.001-08:00

I'm now 34 weeks along and I don't think I've recorded anything about this pregnancy since I first recorded that the little guy existed. I figured I'd better get on that before it's all over and I forget everything!

This pregnancy has been different from the first one. Either I forgot how sick I was last time, or I was just more sick this time. It was pretty bad for a long time and every once in a while there's still a bad day or a bad smell that just kicks up the contents of my stomach. Good stuff. Even so, it was still not too miserable. I'm grateful I'm not one of those people who is throwing up constantly through all 9 months, or who has to be hospitalized because literally nothing stays down. It's not that terrible for me, and for that I'm very grateful.

This time I was having crazy sciatic pain until about 6 months...when I finally stopped jogging. Turns out that was the instigator and since trading my morning jog for a longer morning walk, that pain has almost completely vanished. While I miss being really sweaty after a little run and all of the good mental health and confidence boost advantages that come with it, I'm glad to not be in terrible pain most of the time! Fair trade I suppose. This whole loss of the control over the way my body is going to grow and change during pregnancy is not my favorite. Wouldn't it be nice if you could decide where and how much pregnancy weight you were going to gain? Mmmm, I would really like that. I just keep telling myself that I got back into shape once and I can do it again. It's part of the process. And if this process results in another sweet little baby boy...I'll take it.

While the beginning of my pregnancy was rather rocky (Glenn was a sweet, patient angel), the last month or so has been great. I'm enormous. I hear that it's normal to be more enormous with #2 but it's still kind of unsettling. How on earth is there room for 6 more weeks of growth in there? How enormous is this little boy going to be? Does he know that he's welcome to come out a little earlier if he's ready so that he doesn't surpass his big brother's birth weight? Tate was quite big enough, thank you. While I feel like I look like...something huge...I still feel great at this point. I know that the really uncomfortable last few weeks are coming, so I'm just trying to savor this time of not feeling claustrophobic in my own body. It's nice right now.

I'm amazed with how fast this pregnancy has gone. These last six weeks look rather long from this end, but the fact that I only have six weeks left and that over 7 months have passed is crazy too. Just six more weeks of being a family of three. Six more weeks of being able to give 100% to Glenn and Tate. I'm just planning on the adjustment period after babe is born being pretty rough. Then if it's not so terrible I'll be pleasantly surprised. I hope Tate handles it well and knows I'm still crazy about him. I wanted him to have a sibling for so long. There were times I wondered if that would ever happen. I know it's the right thing for our family. I know he'll adjust eventually if not right at first. And I know that in order to be a well-rounded person he has to learn that he isn't the center of the universe. He can't have everything he wants in life and he can't have everything right now. He needs to learn to be patient, to share, and to take turns. What better place for him to learn those things than in a home where he is loved so very much? This will be good for him and his little brother will just adore him...and hopefully be just like him.

Messy Job

2011-11-07T08:01:00.000-08:00

Yesterday there was a very wet accident at church. It was gross. Will there ever come a time when potty training is 100%? Will it be years from now?

This morning I was lucky enough to have Glenn home for a few hours. He's playing in a company golf tournament today and he didn't have to be there very early so he had breakfast with us and then went for our morning walk with us. On the way home Tate threw up. A lot. He was soaked, huge puddles in the stroller, and he kept unloading in the woods. Excellent. I was SO grateful that Glenn was there! My poor sense of smell has been pretty sensitive lately and we would have had to take several barf breaks on the way home if I had had to carry little soaked boy and push the stroller by myself. Oh yes, and our washing machine isn't working so all the vomit laundry will have to just pile up for a bit until the guy comes to (hopefully) fix it tomorrow...or I make a run down the street to a neighbor's house.

All in all, today could have started out much worse than it did! Glenn helped hose things down before he left for golfing, we don't have anywhere we have to be today and kiddo is acting quite happy in between barfing sessions so hopefully it will pass quickly. It's funny how your perspective on mess changes when it's a sweet little boy who you adore making the messes and he's saying things like, "I'm not very sick mom (as he's crying and vomiting). I'm very happy!" Or, "Mom, hug me and make me feel better!" It's one of those things that are hard to imagine being possible before you have a kid of your own and you love them enough to just keep cleaning up after them. Sure, it gets tiring and there are times I get fed up, but he's a very sweet boy and the snugs and sweet paybacks are frequent with this job too.

Halloween Festivities

2011-11-01T13:41:00.000-07:00

We had a whole weekend of Halloween this year. Friday night we had our ward trunk-or-treat. Tate was so excited to wear his Peter Pan costume. He still hasn't seen the Disney version, but he LOVES the musical and kept wandering around the house us as Glenn and I got ready saying to himself, "I look just like Peter Pan" and smiling.

Glenn decided last minute that we should dress up for the trunk-or-treat too. His idea was that we should dress up as each other. So there we went, to our ward function, Glenn dressed in my maternity clothes stuffed with a pillow, and he suited me up in his lacrosse gear. The stake president is in our ward. I'm pretty sure he didn't approve...oh well. We thought we were funny.

Tate got lots of lollipops. He would have been just as thrilled with just one. Kiddo loves lollipops.

On Monday morning I wrestled Tate into his costume again (for some reason he was very anti-costume that morning) and we went to visit Glenn at work. We brought him some Halloween treats, Daddy got to show off his cute little boy at work, and Tate got to watch Daddy fly his toy helicopters in his office. Tate knows that Glenn's toy helicopters live in Glenn's office and always asks to see them when we visit.

Finally, last night we got kiddo in his costume one last time and took a few pictures out front.

Here he is showing off his flying skills.

Then we walked down the street to a little neighborhood partywhere we shared pizza, conversation, and toys with neighbors before heading out for some trick-or-treating. Tate was quite happy borrowing other kids' toys. He needs a bike in a bad way.

Then he and Glenn went around the neighborhood while I manned the door. It was so cute watching little Tate walk down the street in his costume holding his pumpkin bucket and his daddy's hand. This year he "got" Halloween and was thrilled every time he said the magic words and people put candy in his bucket. He thought it was so cool. It was a very fun weekend. I've never been a huge Halloween fan. But this year, with Tate having so much fun, I quite enjoyed it. Happy Halloween!

Grampa

2011-10-27T10:49:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago my dad flew in for a very quick and unexpected business trip. He stayed pretty busy, but we were able to steal him for a bit of play time too. The night he got here Tate went absolutely nuts. He brought Grampa up to the toy room before we could even show him the house and started showing him all of his toys, climbing all over him, and got upset when Glenn and I wanted to join in the fun. He pushed us out of the room and said, "Could you two please just go out?" He wanted time alone with just he and Grampa. It was sweet see him that excited about his special visitor.

That night our neighborhood was having a little shindig so we went to check it out. A little train ride, real horses, lots of free toys and a bounce house. Little Tate, who was already incredibly hyper, was in heaven.The last fun outing we had with Grampa was a few days later. He went with us to the zoo. When the idea was proposed Tate said, "Mom, Grampa and Tate will go to the zoo and you can just stay home." Ah, thanks buddy. But I ended up going as well. Tate was a bit grumpy that day and not super enthused about anything, but he did get to show Grampa the drums. Oddly enough, still his favorite part of the zoo.Tate thought Grampa was just the coolest. They played hide and seek every day. That never got old, even though Tate clearly doesn't quite understand all of the "rules" yet.

Little man also had a lot of special bed time stories from Grampa, including one interesting story he had to make up because it was all pictures and no words. Then there was a lot of snuggling time on the couch and a few tears when he learned Grampa wasn't going to be around in the morning. It was precious. I haven't been able to watch these two play together for a really long time. The last few visits we've made to Utah have been at times when Grampa was either super busy or out of town so they haven't played much for...a really long time. It was heaven to see my little guy absolutely adore and play with his Grampa. Thanks for the visit Grampa. We love you.

A little Chaplin

2011-10-23T17:39:00.001-07:00

My thoughtful husband came home from work last Friday with a great plan. He'd heard about a showing of some Charlie Chaplin shorts at a cool park downtown with live piano accompaniment. "Yes, please!" I said. And right after piano lessons, we packed some sandwiches and drove down. We got there early, staked out a spot and walked around a little bit. Tate loved walking by the little pond with huge fish in it, running up and down the grassy hill, and having dad swing him around.

Discovery Green is a great park right in the middle of downtown. They had a stage set up with a grand piano next to a big screen. A fun atmosphere for a good outside movie. Luckily the weather was perfect! Starting to cool off just enough to be refreshing.

Before the movies started they had a "walk like the tramp" contest where the pianist played music and kids tried to walk around the stage in big shoes with a hat and a cane. A fun idea...it just went on a bit too long.

We weren't sure how Tate would like the silent films, but he loved it. As soon as the movies started he was absolutely riveted. The live accompaniment was very cool. I was fascinated with how she could play music that matched the mood and action of the movie exactly in time. What if she took certain parts too fast or too slow? The whole rest of the score would be off and she wouldn't end with the film. It was really impressive. We watched "The Tramp" and "The Immigrant", and by then it was late and time to go. Tate was very sad. He kept saying, "I want to stay! I want to stay!"

A very fun, and free evening out! Thanks honey!

I have a friend...

2011-10-16T18:13:00.001-07:00

This past week we stayed with some friends in Austin for 5 days. It was wonderful. They were so accommodating and fun to play with. We even fit in a double date! Glenn had to do some recruiting at UT for work, so my friend and I played for days and I learned/was reminded of a couple of things:

- I remembered what it feels like to be around my dear friend. The almost feels like family kind of friend. The kind of friend who would drop everything to help you if you needed it, AND you wouldn't feel the least bit guilty about it because she'd be entirely willing and genuinely grateful for the chance to be of help. I miss that. I have a hard time feeling that close to people for some reason. A lot of it probably has to do with feeling guilty when I need help. I feel like I need to be able to return favors and feel needed in return in order to somehow justify the times when I need help. Some people just don't need me like that. They have other good friends, or family close by, or they're just really independent. The guilt is a big part of it. I know it's dumb. I'm working on that. But I realized how much I miss having her close by.

- This friend makes me want to be better. I left her home with my mind (and planner) filled with ideas about how to be a better neighbor, friend, member of the church. She struggles with feeling lonely sometimes as well, and yet, she's determined to make the most of every opportunity to serve and fellowship. Something as simple as a Halloween treat swap becomes an opportunity to fellowship and reach out to those in the ward who might get left out because they're not in any "group". She's pretty cool that way.

Basically, I feel refreshed from the break and inspired to do better and try harder. And at the same time, I miss her today.

So thanks for the reminders, my friend.

Conference Sunday

2011-10-03T18:51:00.000-07:00

Glenn's out of town this weekend. It's a real bummer being without him, but we try to stay busy and make the most of it. Sunday morning we went to the park. It was a beautiful morning. It's started to cool off a little in the mornings and I just keep holding my breath and soaking it in, sure that it's a joke and the heat will return tomorrow or next week.
Tate had a blast and I took a lot of pictures. Little man is so much fun right now. I'm loving every minute of him. He has very few grouchy days. He has grouchy mornings or afternoons occasionally, but for the most part he's been very pleasant lately and just plain fun to be around. He's constantly pretending to be different animals, talking all the time, and says the sweetest things. He does a lot of narrating what he's doing and it's pretty funny.

Tate calls these "music notes". I guess they look a little like music notes."Mom, I'm standing on this music note. I'm being VERY careful."

"Mom, look at me! I'm a rangatang! Oo oo oo ah ah ah"

"Mom, can you find me two drum sticks to play these drums?"

Sometimes being a mom is tiring and I worry about little boy #2. Okay, so fairly often I wonder and worry what having 2 will be like. Am I ready? Is there any way to be ready? Will Tate adjust well? Will he still know that I love him to pieces? Am I going to feel like a terrible mom while trying to pull it together and figure it all out, knowing full well that the process took a good long time last time? Then he smiles and laughs like this

And I'm reminded that worrying will only get me so far...no where, that is. And I just enjoy this time with this little face.

Tate has a Nanna who loves (read: spoils) him and sent him a few instruments as potty training motivation. The drums are a big hit. They all are, actually. There should be videos. I'll get on that. He spent a good deal of conference giving the prophet, apostles, and the MoTab some accompaniment on the drums.

"Mom, look at me, I'm a walrus!"

"I'm giving my drum set a BIG hug!"

And for those who requested an underpants picture, here you are. Seriously, how darling are tiny little underpants buns? Love it. Potty training is still going strong. Most days if I pay close attention and keep reminding him he can be dry all day. He lasts most nights and naps too. Every once in a while we have a bad day but he is really trying. Sweet little guy.

Success!

2011-09-23T10:52:00.001-07:00

Potty training has turned a corner in a big way. I had serious doubts days 2 and 3 that this method was going to work for Tate. I wondered if he was old enough to tell us before he needed to go or if he could even recognize it himself. I was starting to feel panicked and trapped and also covered in urine. Now, a couple days later, he's been dry and clean for two days and even made it through the night last night without an accident!

We take him to the potty more often now, but he's also informed us 4 or 5 times that he needed to go and hasn't had a single accident in a two days. So either this method really is magic, or Tate's just brilliant. Or perhaps both! HA! I'm so excited for him! He's so proud of himself too. He gets it. He's happy and knows he's doing it right. It's so sweet. I'm certain he will still have accidents, but the fact that he really wants to keep his pants dry means that they will be less frequent (hopefully) and that is so awesome. Just plain awesome. I'm so proud of him.

It was a very rough few days because that method is intense and I was really tired. But now it's better and I'm glad it's over with! Way to go kiddo!

In other news, Glenn and I are going to a concert tonight. On a date. Tate is staying with a sitter for the first time. We've left him with other couples we're friends with who have kiddos of their own but this will be his first time with a sitter. One of my little beehives. I'm a little nervous...okay, I'm a lot nervous...but I've stressed about it all week long and I know I'm just being paranoid and I'm sure he'll be fine. And do you know what's better than going to see Matt Nathanson, Maroon 5 and Train? Going to see them for free!!! Glenn knows Matt and he's getting us tickets! I'm so excited. It's going to be a spectacular date night!

Smiles and deep breaths

2011-09-21T19:01:00.000-07:00

Thanks so much for all the advice and encouragement. This is hard. I knew it would be. Now at the end of a relatively unsuccessful day 2...i'm a bit tired. I guess this is more for me to remember how it went and have it recorded for the next time around...and because this is sort of my journal substitute. But please feel free to throw in any advice you may have. By all means!

Yesterday was okay. I was really attentive. Lots of praise. Lots and lots of praise. As long as I caught him right at the beginning he could finish in the toilet, which I took to be a super good sign. He didn't ever tell me when he had to go. The only time he really said anything was when he was already soaked. But I figured that would come with time.

Today was harder. Many more accidents. Much more mess. One particularly bad time there was a trail from the toy room, down the hall, to the bathroom and still the bathroom was soaked. Walls, floor, toilet, cabinets. Everywhere. It was like a fire hose he couldn't shut off. Still keeping everything positive. Still doing absolutely nothing when he's awake but playing, reading, occasionally watching a show, and always asking him to tell me when he needs to go. Praising when he's dry. So excited when anything happens in the right place.

So in an effort to remember something positive from today, here's a pro/con list. Just so I remember that there were some pros.

Pros:

- Moments of hilarity. Like the above fire hose incident. Seriously, pee all over the walls. Sometimes it's so much and so frequent all I can do is laugh.

- Moments of snuggling. He was very willing to climb in my lap, lean against my shoulder, and read books or just sit with me and talk about his toys today. Those moments were wonderful.

- Playing and staying really close all day means catching so many funny things he says. Constantly writing down quotes and laughing at my cute boy.

- He took a nap. He wouldn't yesterday but I was so glad for the little break today. It was really a little miracle considering there was an AC guy and a plumber here right around nap time and he still fell asleep.

-the AC is fixed. Everything should be fixed now and should be covered by our home warranty. That is great news!

- Glenn is in town and he's not terribly busy at work this week which means he's home at a decent hour. We're both so glad to see him when he walks in the door. A much needed break and re-surge of positivity and encouragement.

- Our one big success of the day was that he woke up from his nap dry. One less time to change the sheets and I was so so proud.

Cons:

- So. Much. Mess.

- Saying the same phrases over and over and over. Poor Tate's stopped listening to me. Stopped responding to my questions all together. Like he's learned to tune out the things he's bored with hearing.

- Tate has yet to tell us that he has to go before he's gone. It's either we're catching him as he's just starting and we run him to the bathroom, or he's just soaking himself and staring down in silence unable to stop or just uninterested in stopping.

We're sticking with it. I have not cleaned up this much and stuck with it for 2 days to just give up. He will get it right? He will figure it out and start telling us BEFORE it happens eventually, right?

I definitely had some unrealistic expectations about how fast it would happen. So now I'm starting to re-arrange my plans for my next week. Visiting teaching should probably be done this weekend when Glenn's home so I don't have to bring Tate. Should I have the YW presidency meeting here so I don't have to worry about him having accidents at their home? Because unless something drastic changes, that will happen. More than once.

Am I going to be able to leave the house any time soon without a feeling of panic? Glenn's going to be out of town next week for a while. If it's several days like this alone not being able to leave, clean, cook, check my email, read a book....I might lose it.

It's okay. One bad day. At least there are several pros to be found. I'll focus on those tomorrow. It'll happen.

Wet

2011-09-19T18:18:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning Glenn discovered a wet patch in our ceiling. He investigated in the attic and discovered a leak in some part of our AC unit. He stayed home from church while an AC guy came to look at it and they thought they had the problem figured out. Glenn had a friend come over last night with a saw to remove a piece of plywood so we could get fans in to dry the right area of the ceiling and then a repair man came today to fix what they thought was the problem. Awesome. Problem solved. AC back on. Just need to get it dried out and find a ladder tall enough to get up to paint the ceiling. Easy.

Glenn went up this evening to have a look. Still leaking. Must be a different problem. Another night with the AC turned off to avoid more leakage. Another call to the home warranty people tomorrow to see when they can send someone to look at it. Luckily it should all be covered in the home warranty and we found the problem before our warranty expired. It's just inconvenient. And a bit warm. Also luckily, it hasn't been too hot the last couple days. Hopefully it will be completely fixed soon.

And while we're on the subject of things that are wet...potty training. I've been thinking about it for a while. Knowing it's something that needs to happen and something I would really like to be "finished" before little baby arrives...but Tate has been VERY resistant to the idea. We've been trying to warm him up to the idea for months. Talking about it, trying to run him to the potty when we know it's time, acting like it's a big exciting deal. He's been completely disinterested or worse. Once I knew he was starting to go and I ran with him to the bathroom, him screaming all the way, and it ended with me trying to pull his shorts down and him desperately holding them up and having a total freak out sobbing melt down. I just let it go for a while thinking it would surely be easier when he's "ready", right? There would surely come a time when the proposal of going on the potty wouldn't make him completely panic, right?

Well, tonight for FHE we went to Target intending to let him pick out some fun underpants and start the potty conversations again. He was really excited. So we decided to pick out a few motivation toys...and some stickers for a chart. He's thrilled. He's been talking about it all night. We let him try on his underpants when he got home and he said he wanted to try to go on the potty. No results, of course, but the fact that he sat on the thing without a single sob is a big deal! So...now that we have the gear and he's excited...I guess we're trying it...tomorrow.

I've read and re-read the three day potty training method that my cousin Amberly and then my sister-in-law Aub used to great success, and I do feel like it's sounds logical, feasible even, which for me and the subject of potty training is a big deal. I'm really nervous. Nervous about his emotional state. Nervous about how he'll react. Nervous about keeping him motivated when it stops being new and fun. This method is big on positive reinforcement. Diving into potty training without pull-ups, back-ups or crutches. It sounds perfect. I hope he's really ready. I'm excited that he seemed okay with it this evening. Hopefully that lasts! Wish us luck tomorrow!

Happenings

2011-09-14T10:39:00.000-07:00

We've had a busy couple of weeks and I seriously must start getting caught up. Labor day was fun. Of course it was fun, Glenn got to be home with us! We decided to brave a trip to the beach. The weather was supposed to be perfect heat-wise, but very windy. Tate put his little dump truck down and it took off down the beach by itself. He laughed so hard chasing it all the way down the beach. Once he caught it he kept trying to position it in the right direction so the wind would blow it away and he could chase it again.We made the most of our windy beach morning. Tate loved diggin in the sand and chasing the sea gulls. I loved soaking up the sun without it being 100+ degrees outside, and Glenn took a brief swim.
Then it was back to work for Glenn and I did a bunch of sewing and prep work for a big craft fair I did on Saturday. I had high expectations because we did really well at this same one last year. This time it didn't go as well but it was still okay. We made some money, just not as much as I was hoping for. It was just sort of an off day. The booths next to us didn't sell much either. But I think our things are super cute. I had a friend who painted some darling nursery art and she didn't sell a single painting. I felt so bad. We did some trading when we were through and I ended up with this darling airplane painting which will be so so cute in Tate's new room. While I was at the fair Glenn and Tate drove up to Austin so Glenn could go to the UT vs. BYU football game. He's been so looking forward to seeing his two schools go at it. Unfortunately, the game didn't quite live up to his expectations either (BYU lost and didn't play terribly well), but I think he's still really glad he got to go. While Glenn was at the game our good friend Janelle watched Tate for us. Tate had been talking about playing with Tori and Lizzy all week. He sure loves those girls. They went to a park and Tate took a header off a swing and broke the fall with his bottom lip. Two of his teeth went right through his lip and ended up being loose for a couple of days. Poor Janelle had to deal with all the blood and gore AND felt so bad...but really, he's a boy. This will, I'm sure not be the last of the bloody episodes he has and I just feel bad she had to deal with it. It was kinda sweet actually. He'd whimper when he put anything in his mouth and even asked us, "Will you kiss inside my mouth?" because he knew our kisses could fix whatever hurt. I love that. It looked pretty gross on Sunday but it already looks tons better and his teeth are tightening right up.
I spent Saturday night all by myself while the boys stayed with the Cluffs in Austin. It was so odd and so nice at the same time. The first time I've been by myself for that long since Tate was born. It was strange and so quiet. I really kicked back. I watched Reign Over Me on TV. Has anyone seen that movie? I'd seen it a long time ago. It's really good. Who knew that Adam Sandler could actually act? Wow. So many specials on 9/11. So many thoughts and memories to ponder all night and morning by myself. Turns out you have lots of time to ponder when it's completely quiet in the house all by yourself.
Sunday was an emotional day. Remembering where I was and what I felt 10 years ago. The panic, the ache for the victims and their families, the fear that nothing would ever be the same. We sang patriotic hymns at church which had me choking back tears. We live in such a blessed country. It was humbling to reflect on all the blessings that we have because we live here and all of the good that came from that awful tragedy. The things we suddenly had in common and how the pain we all shared made us stronger and better somehow ... I wish it had lasted longer. It was a good reminder to recommit myself to being a better citizen, a better neighbor, a better person.
This week has been busy too. Putting things back together after the craft fair. House needs to be cleaned. Tate needs some real play time. Dinner should be cooked again. It feels good to be back in the swing of things.
I started three new piano students last week. I'm very excited to be teaching and having students come to my house is just wonderful. All three students come on Friday afternoons when Glenn is home (when he's in town) to play with Tate and all three students are little boys. Wowsers do they have energy. They're all very different and very busy. I'm constantly trying to be interesting enough to keep their attention on me just for a few more minutes. It's an interesting glimpse into my future.

New Hampshire in the Summertime

2011-09-01T13:41:00.001-07:00

Once again it's been almost 2 weeks since the events I need to record took place. The wonderful week we spent in New Hampshire went so fast and the weeks since have just flown. The real reason for our summertime excursion was to be in attendance at the burial of Glenn's Grandpa Dan. It was a very nice little ceremony. One I wish I had been able to take more pictures of, but our little boy required some attention to keep very quiet. Glenn gave the dedicatory prayer, we had some time chatting with family I've only met once or twice, and a seafood dinner right next to the ocean, Tate got some love from his cousins. It was a full day. The rest of our trip we had had very few commitments at all. All Glenn wanted to do was go to one of the few lakes by his house every day. We didn't quite make it to a lake every day, but almost.
Tate has been enamored with the idea of fishing for quite some time but the poor kid had never been fishing. You see, while the lakes near our house do hold fish, they also hold snakes, turtles, and gators so Glenn told Tate that they were going to do some real fishing in a lake in New Hampshire. For weeks before our trip Tate was telling everyone from the check-out lady at the store, to my visiting teacher, that he was going to go fishing in a lake! He was in heaven. We took almost all the cousins to Elbow Pond one day and did some fishing off the dock. Tate's idea of fishing was smacking the end of the pole in the water over and over and over and saying loudly, "I'm fishing in a lake". Not the most conducive atmosphere for fish catching, but he was in heaven. When he didn't have a pole in hand he followed his cousins around saying, "Can I? Can I? Can I? Can I?" until it was his turn again. Patience was really hard to come by when fishing in a lake! We did manage to catch just one fish. The time spent at these beautiful ponds and lakes was so therapeutic. So green. So quiet and still. Cousin Chloe was a favorite on this trip. Tate just adored her. When Brendaen's family arrived at the house to visit he saw her and ran up to give her a hug yelling, "Chloe! Chloe! Chloe!" Another time she was crying for some reason and Tate hopped out of my lap and ran across the room saying, "I want to make her happy!" and gave her a big hug.

Then of course he had a sweet connection with Nelson, currently his only boy cousin. And lucky for Tate, Nelson is a great cousin. He's so patient and plays so sweetly with Tate. They were buddies. Tate just lit up when Nelson would give him a little attention. It was darling. He would follow Nelson around saying, "Nelthon. Nelthon. Hey Nelthon." One day the kids were watching a bit of super man and then they went outside to play. Nelson put on a cape and Tate followed him around saying, "Nelthon is thuperman! Mommy, Nelthon is thuperman!"Of course Glenn couldn't let the kids have all the fun.

Watching Tate play with his cousins and just adore them was probably my favorite part of this trip. He was in heaven with so many friends to play with. Everywhere we went he would tell people, "These are my friends! These are my cousins!" One afternoon I kept Tate home to take a nap, while the rest of the fam went on what was supposed to be a shortish hike. It ended up being over 4 hours of climbing and bushwacking through the woods. With a couple of very little kids in tow, it was...memorable for the group and I'm glad we stayed home and didn't add another toddler to the group. Here are the kiddos, exhausted at the top of the mountain.

"Green Eggs and Ham" was a favorite bed time story that week and Tate would follow cousins around all day asking, "Could you? Could you...?"

We played at lakes, went for gorgeous morning jogs in the misty woods, spent a bit of time picking berries at Gramma Heather's.

After a week of wide open, dark green, 80 degree weather, cool evenings, delicious food, and great company, Glenn and I got off the plane pretty unsatisfied with our surroundings here in Texas, in the middle of a terrible drought. I mean seriously, look at this Eden where we stayed for a week.This is Gregor and Amy's house. They were so sweet to host us again. We love staying with them and getting in late night talks, letting our kids play all day in their huge yard. It was just perfect. Every time I drive through Glenn's home town, the lyrics to Camelot just come into my mind. They have every time since I first went to visit before we were married. And as cheesy as it sounds, they really describe the feel of the place. It just seems so idylic, peaceful and perfect.

"A law was made a distant moon ago here.

July and August cannot be too hot.

And there's a legal limit to the snow here (well that part may not be true) in Camelot.

The winter is forbidden til December (also, I'm sure, a stretch).

And exits March the 2nd on the dot.

By order summer lingers through September in Camelot.

Camelot. I know it sounds a bit bizarre. But in Camelot, that's how conditions are.

The rain may never fall til after sundown.

By 8 the morning fog must disappear.

In short there's simply not a more congenial spot for happy ever aftering than here in Camelot."

Making our way home was less than perfect. There was a lost wallet, a mad dash to the airport and a missed flight. We got VERY lucky and had to wait in line so long at the airport to check in that they changed our flights to the next day for us and we didn't have to pay extra. That gave us time to spend another day with family and locate the missing wallet. It was crazy hectic but all worked out in the end.

Glenn has said several times since we got back how much he prefers visiting his home state in the summertime as opposed to the winter. We usually make it back for Thanksgiving but this was a great visit and we may need to make the summertime trip a tradition. Thanks for hosting us Makechnies. It got up to 108 this week in Houston. Wish we were still there!!!

Sister's Visit

2011-08-25T11:04:00.000-07:00

My sisters came to visit a couple of weeks ago and it was just splendid. We stayed very busy, exercising every morning then heading out on an adventure before coming home for lunch and Tate's nap then we were off again for the evening right after he woke up. Every day was full and exhausting and so fun. It was great to have them here where we live and to see Tate open up to them a little more because he's here in his element. It was not so great having them go home at the end of the week, but I am confident we really made the most of their time here!

We were charged with doing some serious back to school shopping during their stay so their first few days here were filled with just that. We hit up the mall close to our house, the woodlands mall and market street, and also the outlet mall. We had fun finding unique things and Tate was actually a super good sport and was just so happy to be out and about with his Aunties. He had a big smile on his face the whole time.

We had a nice, relaxing Sunday. Just chilled inside and went to our late afternoon church meetings. On Monday we went for a run, did some shopping, then after naps we took a trip to the NASA space center. We did not leave ourselves near enough time to play around there. There was so much fun stuff to see and play with and we were really in a rush to get in as much as we wanted to in our three hour stay before it closed for the day. I wasn't sure if it would be any fun for Tate but he adored it all. He was thrilled to see real rockets and space ships and astronauts. We went in this one exhibit that had so many favorites it was an overload and he just kept saying, "That's a rocket! Those are stars! Space rocks! A moon!" over and over in a very animated voice while pointing to each thing.

This big Saturn rocket is just amazing. It is unbelievably big. Kenzie, poor dear, got sucked into the engine.

Tate, Mallo and Kenzie at the entrance to a space station model.

One of our favorite moments from NASA day was watching Kenzie stand in front of this series of mirrors that was supposed to represent what you would look like and what you would weigh on different planets. She thought it was pretty cool that she would only weigh 60 pounds on Saturn. She took pictures of herself in each mirror...including the one representing earth. Her complete fascination with the exhibit was so funny.

Tuesday we went swimming in the morning. It was a really nice chill time.

Then we picked Glenn up and went down town to the science museum to see the butterfly exhibit. We met some hissing cockroaches among many other nasty bugs.

Then went out into the butterfly conservatory. We carried cards to try to identify some of the different kinds. Mal and Kenz were a little startled by how friendly the little butterflies were.

Tate, however, had much more fun this time and would giggle when they flew close to him.

Eventually Mal and Kenz got friendly with the butterflies, even stepping in for some close pictures...as long as the butterflies were holding still.

Then, since it was free day at the museum, we wandered through the rest of the science museum too.

Tate is learning about porosity and permeability in the oil and gas exhibit. Glenn was very proud.

For dinner we showed the girls a fun little Cajun restaurant down town with delicious beignets. Oh my heart.

For their last afternoon we perused the aquarium. Such a fun place to visit. Tate loved every minute of course, but so did we.

The white tiger was especially frisky that day. There was a guy who tried to rile him up and the tiger got so mad he jumped on his hind legs, tried to paw the guy's face through the glass, and growled really loudly. Man, were we glad the glass was there. Those beasts are SO big.

I was selfishly glad to learn that the girls were as tired as I am during Tate's nap time. I was thinking my feeling of crashing at noonish was just due to my being preggers, but I think the morning jogs in the soul-crushing heat may actually have something to do with it. We were all so bushed! It was nice to have someone to jog with and complain with about all of the sweat and gross heat.

Oh it was such a nice week. We had an absolute blast together. We watched movies and Office episodes, ate skookies (a new favorite!) to our hearts (but certainly not our waistbands) content, played really hard, laughed at pretty much everything Kenzie said, and talked a lot. I especially loved little moments like these:Little moments Tate was able to spend with his Aunties. I miss those little things because we live away and it makes me so happy to see Tate love his Aunties. Tate loved reading stories with Auntie Mallo this trip. Once he even asked her to read to him AND sing his bed time song instead of me. I was thrilled that he was so taken with her.

We miss you ladies. Thanks for a wonderful visit and please come again!!!

For those who don't already know...

2011-08-11T12:21:00.000-07:00

Baby boy Makechnie number two is on his way! It took longer than we hoped this time, but with some time, some tests and some lessons in patience with Heavenly Father's plan for us, he's finally on his way! In fact, we're expecting him in 20 weeks or so. His due date is January 1st, 2012. We had our 20 week ultrasound yesterday and were lucky enough to have two of his aunties there to say hi to him. He was a little shy. He had his hands up by his face the whole time, which we thought was darling.
He was not, however, shy about his gender. He wanted there to be no doubt that he is a little guy. We're incredibly excited! And Tate's just going to love having a little brother to play with. Eventually, if not right away, right? I just smile inside picturing the two of them playing together. Tate taking pride in showing him the ropes and little babe copying his cool big brother's every step. I hope they're best friends. I hope they realize at some point how great it is to have a brother.
The pregnancy is going well. The marvelous trimester of vomit is finally wrapping up and I'm feelin' much better! It might have been worse this time. It might just be that I've forgotten some details from last time and I didn't remember it being quite so bad...but either way, it's over now and life is great. I'm especially happy to be currently sporting an elastic waistband, which is oh so much more comfy than my regular pants rigged with a hair elastic.
Keep cookin' little boy. We adore you already!

Aunties

2011-08-07T16:18:00.001-07:00

Tate is in love with his Aunties. He's having an absolute blast playing with them. I'm a pretty big fan of them myself. The first morning it was almost more than he could stand that they were here and he got to play with them all day! We still have four more days to play and we're both feeling super lucky.

Thus far we've been doing a lot of shopping. You know, these girls are both starting school again in a couple weeks so new school clothes are a must. The next few days we have some fun outings planned. Basically we're having a blast, working out together, eating too much together, watching funny shows together, and tickling Tate until he can't take it any more. No complaints here!

This video is especially for Nanna who requested a video of Tate giggling. So here it is. Kenzie was shooting foam darts at the ceiling and they hit her as they bounced back down. For whatever reason, Tate thought it was stinkin' hilarious.

Summertime...and the livin' is easy.

2011-08-04T04:42:00.000-07:00

It's wicked hot here. We just try not to go outside for very long unless it's early morning or right before bed. On Saturday mornings we do yard and housework and sometimes Tate comes out with us and colors with chalk while we work. This was what he looked like after half an hour outside.Covered with chalk and his hair soaked with sweat. Poor boy.

A couple days ago we were watching Tate hit one of Glenn's golf balls around in the kitchen with a drum stick and we thought, "seriously, let's just take this kid golfing." So we packed up and went out to play mini golf. We all had loads of fun. Tate let Glenn help him swing the club just once or twice. There were way too many cool things to see and climb on to be confined like that for too long. There were all these animals that glowed in the dark, things floating from the ceiling, paintings on the wall. It was a magical land! He had to hug and climb on every animal we came across. Very fun outing.

Then yesterday Tate and I ventured out to Discovery Green, a big park right in the middle of down town. Tate thought it was pretty cool to play right by all the "castles". It has this huge fountain that kids can run around in and a big playground right around the corner. We tried to get there early but it was still just crazy hot. Tate had a blast. We went last year too. Look how little he was. Sheesh kid. Slow down, will ya? It was a great outing. Tate thought it was all so cool. He just ran and ran until the fountains stopped, then he'd look down the holes waiting for the water to come back out. A sweet friend who went with us even let him borrow their umbrella for a bit. He loved that.

In other news, I'm busy sewing like mad during Tate's naps trying to get my inventory up for a big craft fair in September. I'm really excited for it and hope I can do as well as last year. It's going to take a lot of work over the next month to get ready because I want to have more to sell than I did last year and...I'm no where close.

Glenn's busy at work and loving it, which is such a blessing. He's been looking for some good motivation to run and something to train for, and he found it. He signed up for a marathon on March 3rd. The guy's insane. He'll do awesome, I'm sure. I'm excited for him to have a goal that big. It will be good for him. Also, he came home from work yesterday and told us he has to leave this morning for 6 days. Major bummer. Hate it when that happens. Also yesterday, however, my sisters decided to make a last minute trip here. They're coming tonight for a week. So while Glenn's going to be out of town, at least they'll be here to keep us company! It's going to be a wonderfully busy week and will be so nice to have company again! Happy last few weeks of summer everyone!

Cael's Party, Harry Potter, and a love song.

2011-07-25T15:11:00.000-07:00

We said goodbye to some great friends last week. The Gardners finished packing up and moved out to Denver. Steve was asked to transfer there and they decided to go just a couple months ago and it was way too fast...and I did not approve. We miss them already. Jen is a great friend. She helped me so much this past year. Adjusting to living here, watching Tate, crafting play dates. I just love her. And Cael and Tate were little buddies. Last week Tate went to Cael's birthday party. They had a slip and slide in the back yard and you'd think it was Christmas. Here's Cael trying it out.All the kids had so much fun. Jen set up a little slide they could climb up at the front of the slip and slide to give the littles a bit of momentum on the slip and slide. AND there were these great squirt guns that Tate couldn't quite figure out but loved nonetheless.It was a huge hit. Thanks for the fun party Gardners. We miss you guys!

It's been far too long ago now but our Harry Potter evening simply must be documented. My friend Janelle, who lives in Austin, and I have been talking for months about how to get together to see the last HP midnight movie. It seemed like we just couldn't make it work out and then at the very last minute she had quite a nice reason to come down here. She heard about a quilting store closing down here so she made the trip and we hit up a fabulous sale. Everything was super cheap and I seriously stocked up. Thanks for the tip Janelle! The store was crazy crowded, the lines were crazy long, and the kids held up quite nicely in spite of the cramped spaces and the heat. Man, was it hot in there. Here are the three kiddos camped out in the corner (we took turns supervising and shopping). The photo shamelessly stolen from Janelle's blog. Thanks Janelle...

Then that night we snuck off to see the movie. It was so fun to be out with Janelle and to have a good friend to be nerdy with. No, we didn't dress up, but we hoped to make fun of those who did. Unfortunately, there were very very few. But we had a great time anyway. The movie was great. I quite enjoyed it. There were parts that brought me close to tears (I know, I know. But that poor Snape is just so sad.) and I found myself very satisfied at the end. They did a great job wrapping up this story and legacy and I'm really glad we saw it!

And this video, as random and poorly done as it is, is just for my momma. Because she doesn't care how random and poorly done they are, she just wants to hear Tate's voice. The other night I sang "So this is love" from Cinderella, to Tate before bed and for the next 15 minutes we heard him singing over and over, "so this is love, mmmmmm, so this is love, mmmmm." it was so cute. I tried to catch a few rounds from the bathroom next to his room but this is all we got.

Surviving the Heat

2011-07-21T14:38:00.000-07:00

I'm finding it difficult to blog about our summertime lives because they're just not super exciting. We're spending a LOT of time at the pool. We're probably there 4 times a week or so. We love it. It's just about a quarter mile walk from our front door so we get in our suits, Tate hops in his stroller, and we head over for as long as we want. Unfortunately I don't have pictures because it's impossible to take them when I'm there with Tate by myself. I'll try to get some when Glenn's home this weekend.
Tate is getting much braver in the water. Last year he didn't care for water in his face at all. This year he thinks he can swim, in spite of the many, many time he's jumped off the stairs to us right before we look and sinks right to the bottom. When we grab him he usually comes right back up with a big smile on his face. At least he knows how to hold his breath. So far. Gives me a heart attack every time.
Our pool has a little play ground with a slide and he's started to love climbing up the stairs, braving the sprinklers, and going down by himself over and over. A feat he never would have attempted last year. It's so fun to watch him just love being in the water and it's a very nice way to pass the time in this nasty heat.
We still get out in the morning for our brief jog around the duck pond and then we've been spending lots of time in the toy room, watching shows, getting things done around the house, running errands. Most of the time Tate is very sweet and patient. Sometimes the poor kid feels like a caged animal. So this morning, we decided to brave an early visit to the zoo. It has been months and Tate was as excited as the first time we went. Poor kid. He just yelled as we drove up, "I see the zoo! I see it! I see it!" He put on his sunglasses himself. I thought it was cute, so we left them. He was just thrilled to see the animals again and kept telling them, "Hey komodo dragon, I came to visit you!" "Hey, big fish, I came to visit you!" "Hey chimpanzee, I came to visit you!"
Oddly enough, I think one of the highlights was seeing this "diver" cleaning one of the fish tanks. Tate thought it was the coolest. He kept waving at him and talking to him. "Hi diver, I'm Tate." We remembered quickly why it's been so long since we've braved a long outside outing. It was so crazy hot. We always visit the drums in the African section, but this time we lingered for about 20 minutes. It was a great little stretch of shade.We both kept guzzling water, seeking every bit of shade we could find, and still left completely soaked in sweat. Yuck. It may be another while before we visit again.
Play dough is another classic keeping cool activity these days. Tate has his own version of play dough play. He wants us to make him cars. Play dough cars. Not just any cars. The cars from the movie "Cars". Here he has Mister the King, Sally, Lightning, Chick Hicks, Luigi, and the tractor. Of course he dictates the color. They must be in the correct color. He especially likes it when the tractor says "mooo" and tips over. We're determined to have a good time in spite of the heat! Thank heavens for air conditioning!

The 4th

2011-07-13T10:29:00.001-07:00

We had a great 4th this year. I've been very behind in my blogging to it's taken me a bit to record it, but it was splendid nonetheless. The festivities really began on the 2nd when Glenn and I got a sitter and went to a Red Sox vs. Astros game. We were hoping to rid Glenn of the "curse" of never having attended a Red Sox game where the Sox have won. Luckily, our odds were very good when they were playing the Astros. It was a fun night. Fun atmosphere. And of course the Sox were victorious which made for a very happy Glenn.

On the 4th we went to a little parade in Kingwood. It was a good time. Wicked hot, but we found a spot in the shade and it started early so we didn't feel like we were melting into the pavement until near the end. Glenn entertaining Tate before the parade started:The beginning was a bunch of old cars and Tate and I picked out a bunch of characters from the movie "Cars" which he thought was pretty cool. Here are Glenn and Tate with Mack the truck.

Glenn scored him a few free things, a flag, mardigras beads.However, I can say with absolute certainty that the highlight of the parade for him were the multiple lollipops he ended up with! Better than Christmas.

I think the highlight for Glenn and I was watching this funny lady, seen here cooling herself off from all her exertion. She was hilarious. She was very intense about getting the freebies from every float offering them. She had her little goodie bag and would walk in the street along the floats getting goods from everyone on the float throwing goods. She was out there competing with a bunch of little kids...the best part, there were no kids even in her group. Just her. Getting lots of free candy. For herself. It was like a sport to her. Hilarious to watch.

By the end of the parade we felt like this:

And we were ready to get home for some AC and Tate's nap time.

That evening we met up with the Gardner family, some of our best friends here. Sadly, they're moving to Denver next week! I can't think about it too much. It stinks. Not only are Jen and Steve wonderful, but they have sweet twin daughters, and a little boy just older than Tate. They play nice together and Jen's been a great friend. They invited us to join them for their tradition of going to the Miller Outdoor theater downtown for the Exxon sponsored symphony and fireworks. It was wonderful. The hill was completely crammed but we found a great spot, sweated out the wait until the concert, and had a great time. Jake and JoAnn and family, cousins from my side, were in town for part of the summer and they came over to spend the night with us. Here's Jake and his little girl Jayla

And cutie pie baby Michael.

It's been so nice to spend a little time with them this summer. Their kiddos are so sweet and fun to watch. They play sweet with Tate and JoAnn sure is fun to talk to. I wish we'd been able to spend more time all together with both of our families but both the guys were pretty busy working. Here's our whole group waiting for the concert.

The kids played on the blankets, ate way too much candy and snacks, and had fun listening to the music too, I think. Here's Tate "playing the trumpet" with the symphony.

John gave it a try too.

We adults enjoyed the good music and fun conversation. There's something about patriotic music that makes me so happy, so proud. We sure live in a wonderful country and I'm very proud of it and this was a wonderful way to celebrate it.

The concert ended with the 1812 overture, complete with cannons, which Tate loved, even though at the end of the night he, and the rest of the boys, were looking like this:

Then a great fireworks show. Thanks Exxon. So much fun! I think it may well become a tradition. Happy Birthday America!

Nice Break

2011-07-08T17:04:00.000-07:00

Tate and I spent 2 whole weeks in Utah relaxing and doing a lot of playing with family. Glenn was in Utah as well for most of the time, but he was on a field trip with work so we only got to see him a couple of days before he flew back to Texas. We found super cheap tickets so Tate and I totally justified a long trip visiting fam. We were lucky enough to be there at the same time as Aunt Kimber and her kids and they all played so nice with Tate. He was in heaven having so many kids to play with all day long. They spent lots of time outside, which we really can't do here much in the summer unless we're at the pool. They'd go out for long stretches of time and just play on the tramp and wander to the play house and play with the toy food. He was happy and tired at the end of every day.

The first weekend we were there we took a quick road trip to St. George to support Adam in a triathalon. It was really exciting. I've never been able to be at one of his triathalons so we were glad to be in town for this one and give him some support. He was crazy fast and it was so fun to watch. He's a pretty cool guy, my little brother. He even let little Tate try on his swim cap. Tate had mixed feelings about it, but we thought it was hilarious.Uncle Adam was adored on this trip. He had this great game on his phone where Tate could squish ants with his fingers and it made a gross squishing noise. Tate laughed so hard every time he pulled it out and still talks about it often. He was excited to see Uncle Ad every time he came over.

After that weekend we headed back to American Fork and spent the rest of our days playing with cousins, swimming in Nanna's pool, playing outside. I did a little shopping with my sisters, which was splendid.

The marbles were a favorite. My mom has this great little marble ramp thing and I've got to figure out how to make one. He was talking about it on the ride to her house from the airport he was so excited to play with it again. It was well-loved on this trip. So was mom's kitty named Cheyenne. She's very very old and too tired to run too fast or swat at the kids, which is perfect for my very affectionate little guy.

"Hi kitty!"

"She has a nose!"

Tate loves her to pieces.

Tate had a fever for a few days which was a bummer, but we all enjoyed the sick snuggles. He was a little shy on this trip with most of the adults so it was nice to have him willing to snug for a few days. Nanna even got a naptime snug.

Aubs and I took our little ones to the petting zoo at Thanksgiving point one afternoon. It was really hot but we toughed it out! Tate was a bit of a grouch. He was just getting over his fever and was a bit tempermental already and then the first goat he fed was very large and little boy forgot to keep his hand open when he fed the goat so he ended up with his whole fist inside the goat's mouth. He was pretty stressed out and refused to feed any more animals. He spent the afternoon waving at them from a safe distance.Luckily Mya was all over it! She's a pro. I sure love spending time with those little girls. They are so spunky and have such big personalities that are vastly different. It's so fun being their Auntie. Little miss Mya turned 3 while we were in town. It's so hard to believe she's been around for three years! Where did the time go?

Tate and Mya spend some time in the little jail. They had fun getting "stuck" inside the bars and rescuing each other.

This is Tate's new expression...and one of my favorites.

He says "Hmmmmm", pulls his mouth to the side and taps his finger on his cheek like he's thinking really hard. He usually does it when he's sad about something, or even worse, when he's trying hard not to cry. It's darling and so sad watching his little face decide whether or not to let loose and cry. I wonder where he got that from.

Glenn and I celebrated our 6th anniversary while we were out there and we got to go on a date while Nanna watched little Tate! It was SO nice to have a night out without worrying in the least about who we were leaving him with. We had a great time and wonderful conversation about our 6 years. So much has happened. So many wonderful memories and man, we're so happy together. We just spent hours counting our blessings and discussing the years to come.

It was a great trip. So relaxing. So nice. Jogs and workout videos with my sisters, long talks at night, episodes of the Bachelorette (so much better with other people to comment along with), a beautiful afternoon at 7 peaks, great food...basically there are too many highlights of this trip to even mention. It was just what we needed.

We were glad to get home but have so much to do around here. I feel like the settling in will never end. I just got a new calling in the Young Womens so I have a lot of names to learn and things to figure out there but I'm excited about it.

Thanks for a wonderful visit, family. We miss you guys so much!

Little Symphony

2011-06-08T13:29:00.000-07:00

I heard about a free concert series this summer put on by the Houston Symphony. I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to take Tate to hear some music and see some instruments. Most concerts, of course, don't allow 2 year olds and, also a huge bonus, that this concert was for kids and families. They even had an "instrument petting zoo" for the kids if you show up early. We weren't about to miss that. Unfortunately Tate was having a bit of an off day. Short nap plus choosing to skip dinner equals a lack of any expression and enthusiasm, but we're still convinced he loved it.

The drums were a favorite. As was the xylophone and of course, the violin. And we just had to try the French horn. (Don't worry mom. This was sterilized before Tate put it in his mouth.) Despite his blank expression, he was pretty excited about touching all the instruments, although we only knew that he was excited by how reluctant he was for his turn handling them to end. Here we are checking out the double bass. Just like Berlioz the Bear from one of Tate's favorite books.

The concert was so fun. Familiar and exciting music and just the right length for little kiddo. He was feeling better after we let him down his orange juice. A little sugar. That's all he needed to be happy. Pretty soon he was wiggling to the music, pointing to instruments, saying "cool" when he recognized one, and especially excited when he could see the cymbals. It was good fun. At the end we found the tympani and he said, "I want to get the tympani! I can get it!" So we walked up there and looked at them up close. Very exciting stuff, tympani.

It was a fun night. It was great to get out and listen to some beautiful music. I'm glad that Tate enjoys it too.

Catch up

2011-06-07T13:40:00.000-07:00

I have quite the update about our neighbor boy but first there are a few things have been going on around here lately that I should probably record before I forget.
A few weeks ago we were visited by more ants. This time in the office. I was on the computer and an ant crawled out from between the keys...then another. I looked behind the computer and found a trail of them crawling up the cord and into cracks in the computer. I'm baffled at how these little beasties decide where to camp out. Why the computer? Really? Glenn got out the drops again and within a few minutes the papers looked like this:

They formed a line across our wall and down to a little crack in the baseboard. Luckily they were gone by later that day and we have yet to find them anywhere else. I'm tired of bugs. Last week it was a tiny lizard, in my pantry. I was very proud of myself for catching it under a bowl and throwing it outside. Yuck! Then later that week I found this big guy in the driveway. Still wiggling around. He was large. But at least he was outside, right? Unfortunately, bug season here has just begun.

Fortunately, there are many good things about our new little neighborhood. My morning jog now looks like this:We can go around the duck pond or down a little trail in the woods. It's great. Our neighborhood also has two nice pools and a little splash pad. The pools opened a couple weeks ago and we frequent them to keep cool. It's most fun when Glenn can come. Tate also has a new favorite pool toy. It's a little penguin with a propeller that he follows around. The pool has all these slides and fountains and all little guy wants to do is wander around with his penguin. We had the chance a couple of weeks ago to go to an Astros game using our friend's law firm's amazing seats. I guess they couldn't find anyone to use them that night so we were happy to take advantage. Obviously, they were in a great location, and also included were unlimited sodas and a great buffet spread. Yum.

All in all, a good start to the summer.

Neighbor Boy

2011-05-31T08:38:00.001-07:00

Our interesting neighbor boy, the one we met at our final walk through of our house, has made a habit of bringing our mail to our door. Pretty much every day unless I manage to get to the mailbox before he does, he gets it out of our mailbox and brings it to me at our front door. Always sans shirt (he has many tattoos), and with his basketball shorts sitting quite low. I wish he wouldn't get into our mailbox, but I know he's just trying to be nice...so I'm not sure what to say to him. He usually just hands it to me and says, "here" and walks away as I say "thank you". Glenn is sure that he's a good, nice kid at heart, so I'm trying to give him the benefit of a doubt.

Yesterday Glenn was home and he answered the door when our neighbor brought us our mail. Glenn engaged him in a conversation about Memorial Day. "So, what are you going to do to celebrate today? Barbecue or something special to honor our soldiers?"

He said, "Oh, that's today?"

"Yeah." Glenn said.

"Oh, no. It's probably just smoking pot and drinking for me." Said our neighbor.

Glenn laughed it off and they said goodbye. Dear me. Well, at least he's very honest, right?

Then Glenn looked down and noticed that our sweet neighbor had brought us our own outgoing mail that we had put in the mailbox that morning.

Inthtrumenth (instruments with a lisp)

2011-05-24T10:45:00.000-07:00

I was given an Ipod for my birthday from my sweetie and a great ihome system from my mom. Tate was having an irrationally whiney morning so we put on a little music to try to cheer him up. He's been really into music and musical instruments lately. I think it's primarily due to watching an episode of Little Einsteins every morning while I shower. They talk about instruments a lot on that show. Lately, marching bands are his favorite part of parades, he picks up sticks at the park and pretends to play the violin, flute, or drums, our pot lids have become cymbals and everything flat is a drum or tympani, and he's started to try to name instruments in the music we're listening to. It's darling.

Anyway, this is the effect my new birthday presents had on little Tate. Pretty sure I'm going to turn on classical music every day from now on. So so funny.

Surprises

2011-05-23T11:09:00.000-07:00

My birthday was yesterday. I turned 28. Glenn knew he would have to be out of town on my actual birthday so he planned some fun things for the few days before.

On Thursday morning he had arranged to drop Tate off with a good friend who was going to watch him all day and night. He took off work, "kidnapped" me, and we went down town. We had a blast, shopping at the galleria, lunch at California Pizza Kitchen, went to a movie, browsed at pottery barn and crate and barrel, a cupcake at Sprinkles. Then we checked in at the Hotel Icon where we stayed overnight. It was a really awesome hotel. Glenn did a great job.

He also planned an activity for that evening. He told me the night before that he had planned something. As he put it, "I'm going WAY out on a limb here. I mean, way out on the end of the limb where it bends." I was a little nervous. What if it was terrible? How was I supposed to react well? He told me that he couldn't find anything else going on in the city on a Thursday night, no plays, concerts, or anything that was perfect, so he bought some tickets to the only thing he could find and he said, "It could go two ways: we could be surprised and actually like it, or we could spend a great night completely mocking everything about it." I am pleased to say we had a great night doing the latter. He took me to see Yanni in Concert. Oh my dear. It was hilarious! Not really my style of music or entertainment, but that's exactly what made it so enjoyable. That, and the fact that I was sitting next to Glenn. The lady next to Glenn was just weeping the whole night and would "conduct" along with her favorite songs. Then there was the binocular couple, and intense camera man. Good times.

I was actually really impressed with Yanni's band. There were some killer violinists, a jazz harpist who seriously rocked, and a flugelhorn player who was pretty surprising too. I think it was Yanni's over the top personality that just made it hard for me to think of him as a serious talent. My favorite move was when he would stand in between two synthesizers facing the audience with one hand playing one note over and over (yep, just one), dancing and smiling seductively to the audience, and the other hand was punching the air and strongly pointing to cue his band behind him. It was just so hilarious. It was like he was commanding the universe instead of just standing there flipping his hair, playing one note, while his band played all by themselves in the background. Hilarious. So much punching, pointing, swaying, and hair flipping. It was a great time. One of my favorite moments was when he was trying to talk all seriously about his next song and a man yelled from the audience, "Will you kiss my wife?" Yanni said, "Are you serious? You want me to kiss your wife?" And then he said, okay and the guy brought his wife to the edge of the stage and Yanni kissed her on the mouth. Yuck. Then there were the three encores that the audience didn't really want. Oh we laughed so hard.

It was super fun to spend all day alone with Glenn. We had so much fun. It's great to be able to talk to him all day long and remember how much I like to talk to him all day long. Such a good man I've got.

Then on Saturday he had arranged a little surprise party at our community swimming pool. He made a cake from scratch and had emailed tons of people in the ward who I've even just mentioned before, to come eat cake and swim. It was very sweet.

Yesterday was kinda boring but I wasn't bummed about it because I felt like we spent so much of the last week playing. I went to church and spent time in nursery (Glenn and I were just called as the Sr. Nursery leaders of our ward. Good times.), opened very thoughtful presents from my family, spent time on skype and the phone, played with Tate. It was nice.

I was telling Mallory about my marathon date with Glenn and she said, "You know, if he had just taken you to another movie, five years from now you would never remember what that movie was. But you will never forget the birthday when you went to see Yanni." So true. Thanks everyone for a fun birthday.

Play Day

2011-05-17T10:40:00.000-07:00

Last week was really busy. Babysitting for a friend all day, errands and stuff around the house. It had been a while since we'd really played or done something fun for Tate. By Thursday Tate and I were ready for a fun play day together. We decided to check out the butterfly center at the science museum downtown. He's been into butterflies lately, thanks to a couple of little einsteins episodes.
First we encountered this cool fountain outside. I'm pretty sure Tate could play in a cool fountain all day long.

Then we headed inside to check out the exhibit. It was super cool. Tate loved that giant caterpillar.And we climbed up some stairs (also a hit) to the big exhibit room where we met some huge bugs: spiders, roaches, grasshoppers and the like.

Tate was fascinated by the big butterflies coming out of all the cocoons. And loved to see the different food that all the different bugs were eating.

Then there were all the buttons to push. He didn't really have to understand what all the buttons were for. There were just so many of them! Kid was in heaven.

And a special thanks to this little exhibit for confirming my fear that a large spider just might be hiding in my shoe every time I go to put it on. After that big room we went out to the butterfly conservatory. The conservatory was enormous and looked like a lush rain forest. There were thousands of butterflies everywhere! It was very cool. Tons of butterflies everywhere you looked. All different colors and sizes and they were not shy. They'd fly right up and flutter in front of your face. That freaked Tate's freak a little. He was fine until one came right up to his face and then that was it. I was holding him and pointing to butterflies at least a few feet away for the rest of the time. It was amazing. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face and Tate was much happier too, as long as they kept their distance. Tate was especially mesmerized by the waterfall and frustrated that I wouldn't let him dive in.Then we had a butterfly treat on the way out. It was a great outing.

That night we went to the discount day at jumpalooza with Glenn. I told Tate that we could go when dad got home and he said, all excited, "Dad wants to COME?" Yeah buddy, Daddy is coming. For some reason, he could not get enough of Daddy that night. He didn't want anything to do with me. If he was climbing somewhere, Daddy had to go with him. At one point Glenn started punching these big things like a punching bag and Tate started busting up laughing. Then he said, "I can do it too!" and started copying Daddy. It was so cute. A very fun and full day. Glad we took a break from the daily grind to really play for a whole day.

Adios!

2011-05-02T10:17:00.000-07:00

The ants are history! I cleaned out the pantry today and put things back in. My counters look much cleaner and it's just plain wonderful not to be running in to the little things every day.

There was really no difference after the bug folks came to spray so Glenn took matters into his own hands. We had ant traps that did nothing. Then he found this great stuff called "Terro". You put a little drop of it onto a piece of paper and the ants eat it and take it back to feed to the queen. Once the queen dies, you're free! Glenn was super excited. He planted it right along their path and watched them. He is very science-minded, so watching the process unfold fascinated him. There was much fist-pumping, shouting, and celebrating as they fell for his tricks. I enjoyed watching him much more than watching the ants.

He even sang them a little song as he watched. Sung to the tune of "Lead Kindly Light"

Drink deeply ants amidst the encircling doom.

Die vermin scum!

Drink of the poison and feed it to your queen.

Die vermin scum!

Good times. I had his song stuck in my head all day.

Adios ants. Please don't come again!

Here are a couple of other friends who live at our house.

Lizards. Several. This is one of their favorite tricks. Tate thinks it's hilarious to see just their heads sticking out.

And this is a little frog friend who we find right on our back doorstep every night. We must have some delicious bugs hanging out there or something.

That's a lion! And that's a Cheetah!

2011-04-29T20:15:00.000-07:00

Tonight we went to a movie. All three of us. It was awesome. Just what we needed. Glenn's been out of town this week doing training and will be gone next week too. I was worn out and tonight was so perfect.

We decided to take Tate to see African Cats. He loves animals and we thought he'd really enjoy it. We were so right. He's had a little problem the last few weeks in church of not being able to stop himself from talking. The boy is sweet and happy, but somehow completely unable to comprehend the complexity that is a whisper. We had this fun animal book out last Sunday and we had to hide it because he kept naming all the animals one by one in a normal full voice. He was so happy. He was excited. He was just too loud!

So tonight, in the movie it was more of the same. Glenn and I went back and forth between embarrassed and trying to discipline him, and laughing so hard it hurt because Tate just could not stop talking.

"That's a cheetah! That's a baby cheetah! That's a lion and he's walking in the grass. That's a crocodile. He's swimming in the water. The lions are hugging. That's so cute! He he he he he he. That's a hippopotamus. That's some water. Those are waves. Those lions are swimming in the water with the alligators. That's a wildebeest! Wow, look at all those wildebeests! That's a pink ostrich. That's a big lion. He wants to run. He wants to wrestle. That's a gazelle. That's a turtle. Hi Daddy! That's mommy! Those are some trees!" On and on and on. He kept talking when we were whispering in his ear to stop talking. He kept talking through our hands covering his mouth. He was so enthralled in the movie it was like he physically couldn't keep his mouth shut.

At one point Glenn took him out after several warnings that he needed to stop talking. He later told me their conversation in the hall went like this,

G - "Tate, you need to be quiet or you can't go back into the movie."

T - (still completely happy and chatty) "Where did mommy go? I want to see the movie."

G - "Tate, would you like to go back in to the movie?"

T - "Oh yeah!"

G - "Tate, can you be quiet?"

T - with a little smile, "Ummmmm. I don't know."

G - Tate, we have to be so quiet if you want to see more of the movie."

T - "Ummmm. This is my tummy, and this is my back." (master of distraction)

We really did try to keep him quiet. Popcorn, fruit snacks, orange juice were all utilized and still the kid just couldn't contain his excitement. Luckily we were three of maybe 8 people in the movie theater at the time and most of them kept laughing at little man.

It was so sweet to see him completely lost in the movie. There is something so precious about the pure, innocent joy that children find. I just adore being a part of it. Tonight, I love being a mommy and being able to witness that pure bliss all the time. It reminds me how spectacular this world is. How blessed I am for all the little things he notices and finds wonder in that I so often overlook. It was a good night.

Next week we're going to get Oceans on netflix. I have a feeling he'll just LOVE that.

Hooray for Visitors!

2011-04-25T12:36:00.001-07:00

It's been a crazy and wonderful 2 weeks in our new house. We moved in and 3 days later, we had visitors. We LOVE visitors! Mom, Kenzie, Aubry, Mya and Sadie came down for Kenzie's spring break and stayed with us for a whole week. We had the best time showing them around our city, neighborhood, and home. And they were really great guests, in spite of many crazy challenges of being in a new home. The ants of course, and also we lost electricity for 2 days of their stay. We spent plenty of time on the phone before they came making sure all the utilities on this house would transfer without a problem...but there were problems. Tons of food thrown away, no AC (luckily it wasn't too hot and we stayed out most of the day), and the kicker, all the fire alarms beeping all night long. We didn't have a ladder tall enough to reach them to put batteries in. A few flashlights and ear plugs later, we had a pretty good night's sleep. Good times. I'm just glad they were so sweet and such patient guests. Sheesh!
The first day they arrived we spent the evening at our duck pond.

We met lots of new little ducklings, little turtles, and even our strange rodent of unusual size. Not sure what it is...but it's not real pretty.The next morning we ran some errands, and spent some time on the phone checking on the electricity situation then after naps we headed to the zoo. I love going to the zoo. It has yet to get old for me. Especially with visitors! Tate loved having so many people around and showing off his zoo.

We even met a little pig wandering around on a leash.

And what is a visit to the zoo without a little bongo drums?

It was sure fun watching the kiddos playing together. I was pleasantly surprised how well they all got along all week. They played nice and were excited every morning that they got to play together again that day. It was so wonderful. We could all just sit in our little toy room and watch them play all day long.
The next morning we went to the downtown aquarium. Always a good time, especially when lots of coupons are involved. We walked through all the fun exhibits. Marveled at fish the size of our children.Mya marvelled at the snake the size of her daddy.

Kenzie tried to scare the puffer fish

and gave Tate some lovin'.

At the end of the exhibit we tried to get the kids to touch the sea creatures.Kenzie was super excited. Tate and Mya both passed on the sting rays but Tate loved these horseshoe crabs, and Mya thought petting the star fish was pretty cool. Sadie preferred the white tiger. Then it was off to the train through a shark tunnel. And then a turn on the ferris wheel. A very fun morning. Kenzie decided she needed to try the hurricane simulator. I was glad she did.

After the aquarium we took off to Galveston for 2 nights. We went to the beach that evening and all the next day. That first night we went to Stewart beach which was really gross and covered with sea weed. We'd only been there once or twice before but it was always nice. So the next day we just walked across the street to the beach by our hotel. It was really pleasant and the kiddos played in the sand all day and could have done so for days and days.

Finding sea shells, diggin holes, dumping water. It was little kiddo heaven.

Mom and Glenn stayed in the waves most of the day and could have done that for days and days. It was great to see mom's face when she's near the ocean. Certainly not the most beautiful beach she's ever seen, but there really is something about being near the ocean that just lights her up inside. I think I inherited it too.

We got home on Saturday, cleaned all the spoiled food out of the fridge and freezer and Kenzie, Mom, and I went to the temple. Kenzie did baptisms and crossed another temple off her list. She's been to far more than I have now.

The rest of the weekend we just hung out. Played with chalk, went to a fun park, lots of bubbles and a few attempts at grandkids pictures.

Looking at a little lizard.

On Monday mom offered to watch the kids while Aubry, Kenzie and I went shopping. We had a great time and scored some great deals. Then we had lunch at Cheesecake factory. Hard to beat a day like that.

They left Tuesday morning. It was pretty sad. We miss them so much around here. For a few days every time Tate heard a noise that might be the door he would say, "Maybe Nanna's coming to visit?" Still when I ask him something like, "Guess where we're going!" or, "Guess who we're going to play with!" He says, "To see Mya (Kenzie, Nanna, Aubry, Sadie)" It's kind of bitter sweet when they leave. While I'm kind of glad to get back to my house and getting things figured out around here, I realize so much more after they're gone how much I miss them. I miss having easy access to them. I miss my little guy being able to play with his cousins. I really don't like that Tate is growing up so fast so far away from them. He's missing so many little things and I absolutely loved watching him play with his family.

It was a great week. A few favorites in no particular order:
1. "Delicious, Mean, and Scary" We listened to the Tangled soundtrack in the car...a lot. Tate and Mya's favorite song the "I've Got a Dream" but it starts out, "I'm Malicious, Mean and Scary..." I like Tate's version better. Mya had most of it memorized and had some great facial expressions and actions timed to the lyrics.

2. "Um...I don't fink so." This was Mya's response any time I asked her if she wanted to do something and she wasn't quite sure what it was.

3. Kissing these cheeks. I mean, seriously. 4. Listening to my mom read stories and sing songs to Tate at night.

5. Moments like these.

5. Shopping with my sisters.

Thanks for coming you guys. Please come again! I promise we'll have electricity!

Bugged

2011-04-20T17:04:00.000-07:00

Today I'm bugged. Annoyed. Frustrated. Stressed out.

We have ants. Lots and lots of ants. I'm told they're called sugar ants. They look like tiny baby ants and they're living and apparently throwing really great parties in my pantry. We found them a few days ago scurrying along the shelves. I took everything out of the pantry, threw away a bunch of food they had helped themselves to (even though the bags were rolled up and clipped too), wiped everything down, and sprayed lots of spray. The next morning they were back. So I tried again, throwing away more food, wiping everything down, spraying different chemicals. No luck. They must really love my new house. Luckily they're not in every part of my kitchen, just one corner so far. Unfortunately the corner they settled in is the corner with my pantry and one little counter by my sink. It's been four days. I'm so grossed out by them. I realize it could be much worse. It could be cockroaches. It could be mice. It could be much nastier things. But I'm still grossed out. The fact that they won't die, that they're eating my food, that they're constantly reappearing on my counter and sink makes me super anxious. I'm really jumpy, inspecting everything, every bite, every utensil. I've just stopped going in the pantry. It grosses me out to see them on the shelves, on the boxes, in the food. I'm just going to wait until they're taken care of and then I'll go in there and clean it up and re-stock. I know, I'm a pansy. Glenn's pointed that out. But I can't help it. It's so gross.

We have a pest control person here tonight. She said it could be up to 7 days before they're completely gone. Ew.

We said goodbye to my family yesterday. We spent a wonderful week playing together in spite of the ants. I miss them so much already and I have so many pictures and stories to post. Hopefully I'll get around to it tomorrow. Just wanted to quickly get my frustration out about this particular situation. Yuck.

Final Walk-through

2011-04-07T06:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we met our Realtor at our new house for our final walk-through. Everything looks wonderful. I have no idea where everything is going to go and what else we will need...but I can't wait to start figuring it all out.

On our way out this old car absolutely blasting rap music drives by, or rather, swerves by our house and our realtor says to us, "Well, at least they don't appear to be from around here. This is a really nice neighborhood and you wouldn't want neighbors like that driving past your yard every day." I agree with her.

Then the car turns around and pulls to a quick stop in front of our next door neighbor's house. A boy stumbles out, he's probably in his early 20's, and he barely has time to close the door before the car takes off again. Our realtor just looks at us and says something like, "Guess I spoke too soon."

We laugh, finish up with our realtor, head back to our car and the boy stops us. He asks if we're his new neighbors (he lives with his mom, who we've met earlier and seems to be really nice). He stumbles over to us, holding a cigarette, and trips on the driveway. I don't really understand how he's still standing upright, he's so wobbly. He offers his hand and says, "Sorry, I'm drunk." I think to myself, "Yes. You most certainly are. And that's probably not all you are."

Glenn just laughs, says, "It's all right, man" and we introduce ourselves. As we end our conversation and start for our car again he yells to us, "Don't worry, I won't throw my cigarette butts on your yard." We just laughed and said, "Thanks!"

Glenn and I get in the car and the first thing he says to me is, "That boy is going to be a member of the church some day."

I look at my saintly husband in amazement. "Seriously Glenn, that was your first thought after meeting that kid?"

He thought for a second, then said, "Well, my first thought was, 'I really hope his friends don't rob us,' but my second thought was, 'That kid's going to be a member of the church some day. He's messed up, but he's really friendly. He seems to have a good heart.'"

Oh my dear sweet husband. I have a lot to learn from him.

Well, it's going to be a busy few days signing papers, packing, moving, setting up utilities, changing our address. It all has to happen so fast because we got our closing date moved up but we didn't know it was "for sure" until yesterday so that gives us 2 days to get everything done so we can move in and get somewhat settled before my fam gets here! So excited and also so stressed out. One step at a time. Wish us luck!

Lately

2011-04-05T11:59:00.000-07:00

We've been busy. It's actually kind of hard to pin point why the last few couple of weeks feel extra busy, so here's a run down of what we've been up to in general.

- I have a new calling. Well, it's not super recent, but I'm in the Primary Presidency in our ward and it keeps me busy. Sharing time, meetings, trying to figure out cub scouts, and planning our activity this Saturday.

- I've started teaching piano lessons. I just have three students, all on Friday afternoon when Glenn's off of work so he watches little mister. I love it. Nice to have a little extra money to hoard for something special (a new Easter dress? A family vacation maybe?), and fun to be teaching again.

- Glenn found the perfect motivation to get in shape. A competition, of course. His company and his division are having a biggest loser contest. Cash rewards, prizes, and of course, the opportunity to be the "winner" which is, in my opinion, his biggest motivator. He's lost 12 pounds this month and the contest goes on for 4 months. He completely swept the competition this month (extra impressive when you consider that we had company and a vacation in that month). I'm trying to be good and supportive. I'm running out of salad ideas for dinner.

- We bought a house. Yep, that's probably the biggest reason it feels crazy around here. We looked for months and one night we were looking at the newest listings in the development we love and we found our perfect house. It's the builder we like, a floor plan we like, has all the extra spaces we've been hoping for (an office downstairs for sewing/computer/piano, a game/TV/toy room upstairs out of sight...), and it was for sale by a relocation company which means we got a fantastic deal! The seller is being relocated by his work and his company basically bought the house and just wanted it sold so they weren't pricing it very high. I seriously can't wait. I'm crazy excited and also crazy anxious. Packing, moving, changing addresses, utilities, caring for a yard and a house and eventually furnishing and decorating...it's awesome and intimidating. I can't wait. We close in a couple weeks but we're actually hoping to be able to move in this weekend! Because...

- My mom, sister, sister-in-law, and two nieces are coming to visit next Tuesday! I seriously can't wait to have them come! I hope we're in our house by then, even if it's empty and messy.

I feel swamped. I love it. It just seems like there are a lot of things that are always at the back of my mind and are never going to make their way to the top of my list. When, for example, am I going to make time to go to the dentist? No idea.

Tate's wonderful, as usual. And, because I know my mom would say, "seriously Kim, what good is a post with out a picture of Tate?" Here are some pictures of Tate.

I was cooking dinner and I heard his voice "reading" a book to himself in his bedroom. This is one of his new favorites. It's called "The Wicked Big Toddlah" about an abnormally large baby who lives in Maine. Tate's discovered how cool the library is. We go there and come back with a bunch of new books which he can't wait to read with us and is quoting to us within days. Randomly throughout the day he'll quote multiple pages to himself. It's hilarious. The bad part, for me, is that when he can quote entire pages of these great books it's sooooo hard to resist buying them for our collection. I love that he loves books. He's such a good kid.

Outer Banks

2011-03-22T14:33:00.001-07:00

We went on a little vacation last week to the Outer Banks in North Carolina with some of Glenn's family. We stayed in this house just a couple blocks from the beach. With March being the "off-season" and splitting the house rental three ways this place was quite affordable. Everyone had their own bedroom and bathroom and a big family room by the kitchen made for some great game playing and great food, which is no surprise when Makechnies are in the house.

The house even came equipped with a foosball table so of course, there were several tournaments.We played lots of Speed and Chutes and Ladders. But I think my favorite memory in the house is probably watching "The Bachelor" finale with Amy, my sister-in-law, and Arthur, my father-in-law. It was absolutely hilarious watching for Arthur's reactions to this ridiculous scenario we were watching. He would comment with us on their relationships and the reality of it all and then the next morning he said, "Ladies, I've been thinking about it all night. I kept waking up and thinking about the show and I have to tell you...I think he chose the wrong girl." It was SO funny.

I'll be honest, being from out West, I wasn't exactly sure what the OBX were all about. Apparently it's one of the big vacation spots in the East, and we sure found out why. The beach was gorgeous. Morning runs along the beach were so wonderful.

While Glenn and I had a blast, we wish that little man had been a bit more pleasant. He began the week with a bad cough and got hit with a stomach bug one night that had him up all night screaming and swallowing hard, determined not to throw up. Poor kiddo. He was pretty ornery all week which just made us mad! We get to see our family so infrequently that we really hoped he would be sweet and play! But no such luck.

Tate and Grandpa Arthur.

Tate admiring his only boy cousin Nelson. Nelson was really the only one who consistently got any love from Tate.One afternoon we drove down to Roanoake and had a nice little walk. Tate found some sticks which made him smile. Briefly.

Tate and Uncle Ian, recently returned from his mission in Denver!
And there was a lively game of capture the flag.Another afternoon we went down to Kitty Hawk where the Wright Brothers achieved the first successful flights in 1903. They had a museum, a little movie, and a cool monument up on a hill.The crew, resting from the walk up the hill.Paige and Tate chasing some geese in the field.Tate and the monument.It's kind of hard to see in the picture, but those four markers (three up close and one far away to the right) are marking the distance of the first four flights of the Wright Brothers. The first one was only 12 seconds. This was probably my favorite outing. It was really cool to be in the field where the first manned airplanes flew. There was a cool sense of history in the place.Tate and Glenn in front of the light house in Corolla.Feeling under the weather + time change + new people and places = many, many melt downs.Fortunately, some of the meltdowns ended like this...which helps a little bit.The last day we were there we had wonderful weather. Not quite warm enough to convince me to get in the water, but we had a great time on the beach. Tate found a stick that he decided was a fishing pole and walked around the beach catching fish. Apparently we need to take the poor kid fishing.
The Gregor and Amy Makechnies asked me to take their family pictures. I do have a very nice camera now, but I quickly learned that I have a lot to learn about taking family pics. There were entire chunks of pictures that I looked at afterward that I wish I had paid more attention to and changed just a couple small things and they would have turned out great. Oh well. I learned a lot and I think we still got some good ones. Poor little miss Paige was having none of it. The sun was in her eyes and she was fed up quickly. We got some smiles eventually even from miss Paige.
It's hard not to get at least a few good ones with such a beautiful family in the shot!

The last night Tate finally warmed up and was himself a little more. Running around giggling and wanting to wrestle and hug his cousins. Silly boy. Why couldn't he have figured out how wonderful they all are just a few days earlier?
We had tons of fun exploring another lovely part of the country with some fantastic people. The word "leisure" was the word of the trip and the perfect description of our experience. Calm, relaxing, leisurely. Perfect. Thanks for inviting us Makechnies!

A visit from Auntie Mallo

2011-03-10T10:15:00.001-08:00

We've had a very fun few days around here spending time with this gal.

Auntie Mallo came to visit for a few quick days during her spring break from Utah State. We had a blast, obviously. On Monday we hit up the Houston Rodeo. It was quite the event! We got a sitter for little man and spent most of the day down at the fair grounds. There was so much to do and it was a really fun glimpse at extreme Texas culture. We browsed some funny booths. And by browsed I mean, we tried on everything, laughed really hard, and took a million pictures.We visited a little petting zoo where we met some goats, sheep, little pigs, deer, llamas, and kangaroos. "Why hello! Are you a deer? Yes you are!"

We realized after looking back at our pictures how silly we probably looked being the only people in the petting zoo over 3 feet tall and thrilled to touch a deer. Oh well.

Then there was the food. We'd told Mal all about the crazy things these Texans fry at their fairs so we had to try a few! The three of us shared fried oreos, cheesecake, and cookie dough. The cookie dough was the winner. Yum. I'd like to say we worked out as much as we ate this week but that is simply not true. We did work out, but I don't know that any amount of working out is going to undo fried cookie dough. Worth it.

Then we went to the rodeo. It was spectacular. Such a good show. The bulls were a favorite. They were the biggest, meanest bulls I've ever seen and Mal and I screamed...a lot. After the rodeo they moved a stage into the middle of the arena, Tim McGraw gave a concert and we again, screamed...a lot. I feel like she and I become heightened versions of ourselves when we're together. It's so fun. The concert was awesome. Tim played a great balance of new and old songs and we did not leave disappointed!

Day 2 we took a little slower. We hit the gym, watched a movie then went shopping at an enormous mall down town.

Then yesterday we went to the zoo. It was a blast to show Auntie Mallo the zoo. It's one of our favorite places and Tate loved having her there. He kept running from place to place with a big smile on his face.We even stopped to feed the giraffes. That was awesome! Today Tate's talking about how he fed the giraffes some salad. Loved it. And we saw their new 5 day old baby giraffe. It was very cute.

Our last hurrah with Mallo was a quick trip to Kemah. We couldn't resist the sting ray aquarium. We bought these gross little dead fish to feed to the sting rays. We were, as I said, even more nervous and jumpy because we were together, and that made Tate nervous too. Poor boy. It was fun and a little scary being so close to so many sting rays. Some of those mammas were really big!They were very friendly and excited to be fed and petted. We liked the petting much more than the feeding. We got splashed quite a bit and left pretty wet and smelling like fish. Delish.

Then we went for a little walk along the boardwalk. It was so beautiful. Tate couldn't be happier with the ocean, boats (he called them pirate ships), and seagulls to look at AND things to climb on. What could be better? A train ride with Daddy of course.We ate dinner at a yummy little Greek place. It was a great few days.

It's so nice to share where we live and what we do with people who come to visit. I love having visitors. It's great how it seems to make me more proud of the place that I live and the life that I live when I get to share it and talk it up for a few days with a visitor.

I sure love my sister. She's one of those people who make you feel better about yourself just by being around you. She's always positive and happy and she's great fun to talk to. As my mom put it today, "you just never know what's going to come out of her mouth next!" Which is completely true. It's a blast.

Some favorite moments:

-Staying up really late and talking.

- Watching movie scenes that made us laugh over and over until we were in pain from laughing so hard.

- A half gallon of Chocolate Dipped Strawberry Ice cream. See what I mean? No amount of exercise could keep up with us.

- Women's fringed shawls.

- Watching her tickle Tate until he almost couldn't breath because he was laughing so hard.

- So much screaming during the sting ray feeding. So much.

We love you Mal. Thanks for coming to visit!!

Never Gwow Up!

2011-02-25T11:25:00.000-08:00

We've discovered Peter Pan at our house. It started with a book we got a few weeks ago. Then I bought a movie of the musical with Cathy Rigby. Tate and I have been watching chunks of it some nights before bed while Glenn's been out of town. It's been something fun to do and take up some of those long after-dinner hours without Glenn around. We just finished the movie for the first time last night and Tate was SO hyper. He kept chanting words to the song "I won't Grow Up" and running around in circles. Glenn and I just sat there watching him go nuts and laughing so hard!

If you've never heard the song before, there's a lot of repeating and this is apparently his favorite phrase, "Never grow up. Never grow up. Never grow up. Not me. Not I!"

Silly hyper boy.

Quick Trip

2011-02-21T12:18:00.000-08:00

Tate and I took off to Austin for a few days last week. We were tired of sitting around here and with friends offering to let us crash at their place it was the perfect excuse to get out of town. Tate did great on the three hour drive and LOVED playing with Tori and Lizzy Lou.

Unfortunately, the two girls got sick the very morning after we arrived and were sick the whole week. They let us stay anyway and we had a great time. The kiddos played with toys and play dough, Tate jumped on the trampoline while I practiced using my new camera.

(The response to "where's mom?")

The Cluffs even made Tate feel special on his actual birthday, which was on Thursday. They treated him to a special breakfast (heart shaped and a 2 shaped pancakes), decorations, a sweet present, and another birthday cake! He's one lucky little guy.Notice how his fork is empty but his hand is full of cake. Silly boy.
We met up with Lindsey and Owen at the mall. Some great girl conversation for me and a train and carousel ride for Tate. Everyone's happy!

Then Stephen watched the kiddos that evening while Janelle and I went downtown to the "Moulin Rouge" sing along at the Alamo Draft house on 6th street. It was hilarious. While not my favorite movie, it was an incredible event. So many drunk people in one theater. Just hilarious. They gave us all props to wave during certain songs and they dropped confetti and even had fireworks at one point when the characters kissed. It was a hilarious good time and a great girls night out with Janelle. Thanks so much for the good times Cluffs!!

On the way home Tate and I had a little mom/son adventure and stopped off at the Blue Bell ice cream factory. Tate was deliriously giddy after having been cooped up in the car and was a very giggly boy during the tour. He had everyone just busting up with his antics.It was really fun and the perfect half way stop to break up the drive. The tour was short and then we had chocolate dipped strawberry ice cream afterwards. Wow it was good! But his favorite part by far was the old ice cream delivery truck they had outside. He loved it. He ran right up to it and said, "Hi old car! Hi!"I'm so excited for Glenn to get back this week. This is his last week away and we're very ready for him to be home. I hope it's a while before he has to travel again. We miss him around here but we really have been trying to stay busy and have lots of adventures. I really love our mom son adventures.

The Wee Party

2011-02-19T11:56:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday we had a little birthday party for Tate. We wanted to celebrate while Glenn was still in town. We just invited three of his little friends around here, one of whom, the only boy we invited, wasn't able to come at the last minute. I wasn't sure if Tate would get it, if he would care about all the stuff and the games, but he did. He had a blast. He was smiling, jumping up and down, wanting to play games again and of course he loved the birthday cake!

We had a Toy Story party and Tate was in heaven. We hid army guys around the room and everyone had fun finding them and putting them in their little bags. Then we played pin the tail on Bullseye. Little Miss Logan was very excited about being blindfolded. Tate and Kennedy, not so much.

Then we played a fishing game, also known as "the claw". Glenn hid behind this sheet and clipped toys to their fishing pole. They thought it was the coolest.

Then a round of musical chairs. When the music stopped they had to stand on a picture of a toy story character and if that picture was drawn out of a bag they got a prize. Tate was very attached to his new silly straws.It was fun to watch their faces. They totally understood when they were the winner and rushed to Glenn to get their prize. So cute.

Tate loved having us sing Happy Birthday to him. He just ate it up. And he thought his birthday cake that Dad made him was extra cool. He's been telling us for weeks, "I want a blue birthday cake for my birthday party."He was fascinated by the candles and got a bit too close with his lips, and then he was too timid to get close again. As soon as we helped him blow them out he yelled, "Wo! Smoke!" Very exciting.

Then we had lunch. Pizza from "plizza planet" as Tate calls it. We all sat down on a big sheet and ate cake and pizza while watching a bit of Toy Story.

Hooray for cake!

It was small, but really fun. Tate was SO happy which was the goal. I just wanted him to have an extra fun day playing with friends and being the center of attention. Happy Birthday Kiddo!

Dear Tate,

2011-02-17T11:53:00.000-08:00

Today is your birthday. You're two years old already. The most wonderful, full, and sweetest two years I've known and they seemed to pass the fastest. I've spent a lot of time this week thinking about the moment two years ago when you came into our family and changed everything. We fell in love with you from the first and we're amazed that we somehow are able to love you more every day.

You are a darling little boy. Your Dad and I think there isn't another boy in the world as handsome as you. You have beautiful little eyes, long eyelashes, and a gorgeous smile with deep dimples. Your sweet giggle is just delicious. I never get enough of hearing you laugh and as a consequence we wrestle, play hide and seek, talk and sing silly to you, and you get tickled...a lot. You've earned two little scars on your forehead since your first birthday. You've managed to scare the jeepers out of me twice as those two little wounds bled like crazy but, as always, you recovered quickly and were ready to play again in a few minutes. This quality sure helps me out as a mom. I don't even have the time to freak out when you're so visibly over it as quickly as you are.

You're very sweet pretty much all the time. It's a rare day, or afternoon when you're grumpy for no reason. Usually you're grouchy if you haven't had enough sleep, when you're hungry, or if you're sick. Otherwise you're good to go. You're easy going and don't get worked up if another kid takes something out of your hands which has made nursery and play dates pretty easy so far. You just move on to something else. Your Dad and I are always saying that we're never more proud of you than when there are a lot of other kids around. We're just amazed at how naturally easy going you are. It sounds prideful. It is prideful. We're proud of you. We're constantly saying to each other how lucky we are to have such a sweet little boy, a beautiful little boy, a happy little boy, a smart little boy. There are very few moment when we're not thrilled with you. I'm sure that will change. Likely it will change soon since you are now entering your "twos" but I hope not. Thus far, my dear little boy, you've been a joy to parent. You've had very few frustrating phases or habits. Most of the time you're very polite and obedient. I hope your sweet nature sticks with you as you grow up. That would make our lives much easier!

You love when Daddy comes home from work. You light up when he's around and your sweet nature gets even more bubbly and excited. He's been traveling a lot this year which has you a little confused, but you seem to be even more excited to see him because you miss him when he's gone. You're good buddies and he adores you.

We've had a lot of changes in the last year. Daddy graduated from UT and we moved out of our first home and into an apartment in Houston. You adjusted just fine and now we spend our days having little adventures and exploring the big city we live in. We've been to a lot of parks, a couple museums, the aquarium, and we frequent the zoo. You love animals, know the sounds that they all make, and really enjoy seeing them in person. You're most excited by fish. All kinds of fish. We may have to cave at some point and get a fish tank for you and your daddy. It's a fondness you two share.

You love books and songs. Some of your favorite books right now are, Peter Pan, The Little Engine that Could, The Little Red Caboose, Peter Rabbit, Benjamin Bunny, and some good old sesame street books. We read a lot of books to you and it doesn't take long before you're quoting it back to us throughout the day. You had Where the Wild Things Are completely memorized months ago and you've got several others down now too. It's a little scary how smart you are and how quickly you memorize things. You're the same way with songs. We sing you a couple songs before your nap and bed time and you pick them up really quickly. Your favorites change frequently but right now they are "Feed the Birds", "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", "Wouldn't it be Loverly", pretty much any Disney song and primary songs too. We hear you singing these to yourself all day long. You'll be occupied playing with your train set and you'll start singing an entire song, all with the most delicious lisp. I have to admit, I find your sweet lisp so endearing. You speak so well and so clearly that it's just funny sometimes to hear the phrases that you say come out in your teensy little boy voice.

You also quote movies, just like your Daddy. All the time. Your favorites of late are Kung Fu Panda, Toy Story, Cars, and Beauty and the Beast. Most of the time you even put the movie phrases in the right context, but it's funnier when you randomly quote funny parts of movies. You'll be eating your food and say "My father's not crazy! He's a genius!!", or "I'm sorry, I just wanted to see who the dragon warrior was." Basically, you keep us laughing all day long.

Tate, I love you. You're my little buddy. We play together all day long and I never get enough of you. I'm already dreading the day when you'll go off to school and someone else will get to spend more time with you than I. I know I will always look back at this time and these first years of your life with a little ache in my heart because I love my little you. I love that you adore me and never tire of giving me "a great big hug" or "kitheth". I love that you love snuggling with me while watching a movie or snuggling in my lap while I read you stories, or snuggling on my shoulder while I sing you songs. I'll miss all of these little boy sweet moments so much. But I can honestly say I'm doing my best to really soak you up. To enjoy every moment with you. I know no matter how much I do I'll still wish I had snuggled you more, kissed those squishy cheeks more, listened to your sweet giggle more, played trains with you more, adored you more. But I guess that's part of being a mother. All of these wonderful moments pass so quickly and as much as I look forward to the future of you, I can't help but love the right now. You are a wonder, my Tate. I love you. Happy Birthday.
Love,
Mom

Little Conversation

2011-02-09T14:39:00.000-08:00

Tate was talking to me today as Luigi (a car from the movie Cars), while holding his little toy Luigi.

T- "I'm Luigi. I'm a race car!"

Me- "Oh yeah? Luigi, do you drive really fast?"

T- "Yeah."

Me- "How many tires do you have?"

T- "I don't have tires. I'm a boy."

Ah. Thanks for clearing that up.

Tuppenth a Bag

2011-02-08T15:39:00.001-08:00

Tate loves his bed time songs. He loves them so much he's often found "singing" them to himself throughout the day. Sometimes he just sings one phrase over and over. Sometimes he sings an entire song. He also likes when I start a phrase and then pause and let him finish it.

I think it's super adorable when he's playing with his trucks and trains and I hear him singing, "Lots of chocolate for me to eat. Lots of coal making lots of heat." (My Fair Lady), "Shall we dance? Shall we dance? Shall we dance?" (The King and I), "When You Wish Upon a Star", "Give Said the Little Stream", "I Love to see the Temple", or "I am a Child of God". It's so sweet to hear whole verses come out in his tiny voice as he's playing.

My current favorite is when he sings "Feed the Birds" from Mary Poppins. He knows the whole song now and I have not been able to catch it on film even though he sings to himself all the time. He gets cranky and stops every time I run for the camera. I finally caught him on video but the video wouldn't load on the blog so, while I love it, my mom can't see it. So we tried again when he started singing it in the car one night. We hurried to pull the car over under a street light, turned on the light inside the car, and snuck out the camera and it still turned out completely black. Oh well, at least you can hear his little voice.

I love that he loves music. I love that it's in him enough that it just bubbles out of him when he's completely occupied doing something else.

I love the way he begs to climb on my lap whenever I'm playing the piano and how he gets all excited when i take his little fingers and make them play a melody that he can recognize. I'm lucky to have a little boy who enjoys something that I genuinely love sharing with him. I'd be pretty sad if my little boy didn't want me to sing him bed time songs, though I know that time will probably come soon enough.

Freezing Rain and a Play Date.

2011-02-05T10:46:00.000-08:00

Glenn has training in Oklahoma this whole month. It's a huge bummer. Luckily, he gets to come back this weekend and next weekend. We're making the most of having him here and trying to pack some fun in these few days we get to have him around.

Tate and I kept ourselves busy this week while Glenn was away. Story time, play dates and such. It's been really cold out this week so we had to be creative. On Friday we had what they called "freezing rain". Basically it rained a lot and froze all over the roads...and everything else. No snow, just ice everywhere. They were on the news telling everyone not to drive if you could possibly avoid it. Whole sections of freeways closed down. Schools and most of the downtown area was completely shut down. At first I thought it was just silly but then I realized that, unlike Utah, this city simply does not have the equipment to take care of a little ice so it becomes seriously dangerous.

Our favorite play date this week was was a trip to a blow up jump place with little miss Logan. They were both a little timid at first, he more than she. This whole, unsteady ground thing really threw them off. They warmed up to the idea pretty quickly and were soon climbing, squeezing, and sliding with the big kids.

Tate especially liked tackling this giraffe to the ground over and over again. Little man somehow managed to fall off the only solid thing in the room, a picnic table, and split his lip open. It was good fun. Lots of blood. He stopped bleeding pretty quickly and then was mad I was holding him still on my lap and he was off to play some more. It was a great outing for a cold day.

TALK-ee-toes

2011-01-29T12:54:00.000-08:00

We had taquitos for dinner. I loved the way Tate pronounced the word "taquitos". Really, he just put the emphasis in the wrong place, but we laughed pretty hard.

Two kids

2011-01-24T11:34:00.001-08:00

This week we've had two kids. Some of our good friends here went to Spain and while fighting back waves of jealousy, we offered to watch their little girl Logan. She's a very talkative, sweet, bouncy little two year old and she and Tate are great friends. We've had a fun week trying to keep them busy and help her have a good time so she didn't miss her mommy and daddy too much. Here's what we've been up to:

- Every morning Tate wakes up and insist "Logan is awake! Logan wants to come out!" When in fact, she usually woke up about half an hour after him and it was torture waiting for her to wake up!

- Realized many differences between little girls and little boys. Seriously, it's amazing how even so young they are all girl or boy. For example, Tate eats a lot, quickly. He's picky about what he eats, but the food he likes are cleared from his plate in minutes and usually it looks like this in the process:

Logan sits there with her food in front of her singing to herself for half an hour and her plate still looks like this:

We played with some chalk outside for a little bit one afternoon. Tate couldn't wait to start coloring. We made shapes and letters and played games.

Logan preferred to just carefully gather all the pieces of chalk up and hug them.

By the end of our chalk time Tate looked like he had taken a bath in a rainbow.

- Glenn and I were referred to as "Tate's Daddy" and "Tate's Mommy" all week long. It was hilarious, "Tate's mommy, I want some ice water." "Tate's Daddy, I spilled my milk." Logan and Tate even started teasing us together. My favorite was the following conversation:

L: Tate's Daddy, I am 2 and you are 48!

Glenn: Oh really?

L: Yeah! Hey Tate, your Daddy is 48!

T: Yeah, he is:

Both giggle for a long time.

- Then there was a trip to the zoo of course. It was the perfect day to go. Great weather, which we've been a little short on this week.

Our group's favorite this time was the reptile house. The littles loved the alligators right behind the glass!

My favorite is this little case full of different colored frogs, blue, gold, orange, and even pink. So cool.

Of course we can't miss the enormous snakes.

And then a little trip to the zoo aquarium on our way out. Sting rays and jellyfish were favorites as usual.
- We had a lot of story time this week. Sometimes it was necessary to help with the post-nap grumps or the missing mom and dad grumps as well. Glenn was always ready to help and snug.

- It was surprising how much longer everything took this week. Getting ready, getting out the door, getting in the car, getting out of the car...you name it. I should have expected it I guess because that's how it felt we added one little person to our lives so of course it's a shock to the internal stop watch when we added another.

Tate is going to be seriously bummed out tomorrow morning when he wakes up and his little friend is not in the next room, ready to play with him. We love you Logs, thanks for coming to play!

MLK Parade

2011-01-18T17:36:00.000-08:00

Glenn was away last week in Florida. His grandfather passed away and he went out to help his mother and grandmother. I'm sure he'll post all about it. It was a pretty special experience for him.
He got home Sunday night and when he went in to work Monday morning they told him that there wasn't much to do and they didn't expect him back yet anyway...so he came back home and we went to a parade for Martin Luther King Day downtown. We went with these two ladies, Amy and Kennedy. Good friends from the ward.It was fun to witness a parade here in Houston, especially on Martin Luther King Day. We kept looking around and saying to ourselves, "One of these things is not like the other." And it was us. Because we are white. These cute boys were right next to us the whole time and were very serious about the free stuff being thrown from floats.

Tate's favorites were the marching bands. He loved all the cymbals and drums and trumpets. Although he kept flinching at all the loud noises. He got a little red football and that basically made his morning.Here are a few of our favorites from our first Houston Parade. These pants: Wowsers This group was actually really fun. They were seriously getting down and it was so much fun to watch.
We're not sure what this man was about. His car was just covered with trinkets and signs and junk.

Another interesting car...

And of course a "space shuttle" with an astronaut inside. Tate loved that.
Glenn and I loved taking pictures with my new camera. It's a beauty.
It was a really fun outing and we're so glad that Glenn is home again!

Little Things

2011-01-11T12:53:00.000-08:00

We went to visit family in Utah again right after Christmas. We had a wonderful time playing games, talking all night, doing tons of shopping, and going to so many movies (thanks Kenzie for babysitting!).

We had one particularly rousing game of Guesstures.

Mya watched for a while and then decided she wanted to get in on the fun too. She knew just what to do with the cards.

And kept doing the same funny pose. So stinkin' cute.

We went on a long play date with Aubry, Mya, and Kenzie. We went to the aquarium in Salt Lake and then to a fun little Belgian place for dinner and then we walked around Temple Square. It was fun watching the kids discover new things together. The aquarium was really cool. Tons of amazing fish, penguins, a sea turtle, some sharks, sea horses, and snakes. It was awesome.

Mya was serving us cupcakes out of this "window".

Then Tate had to try it too!

Poor Tate had a rough time that night because he was still feeling sick. The whole first part of the week he was pretty grumpy but by the end he was himself again. We met up with Adam and Camarie at the restaurant and Tate wanted Adam to hold him as he sobbed.

Adam asked him, "What's wrong Tate?"

"I cwying."

"Why are you crying Tate?"

"I sad."

"Why are you sad Tate?"

"I sick."

We quoted their conversation all week long.

Later as we sped through the lights on Temple Square because it was late, we stopped at the nativity. It was beautiful. We were all a little tender as we listened to the music and the story. We were tired but so glad we took time to walk around the temple together.

This trip I especially enjoyed watching my little man spend time with my family. Here are some of my favorite moments.

- My dad left on a business trip just a couple days after we arrived so we didn't get to see too much of him. However, the first day we arrived he walked in the door and we told Tate to go see who it was. Tate walked around the corner and said, "Gampa" really soft then ran up and gave him a big hug. It was so sweet.
- Nanna loved all the snuggles of course. He was most snuggly when watching a movie so she would scoop him up and shoo us out of the room so he would snug her longer.

- Watching Aubry having an in-depth conversation on the floor with Tate about his favorite foods.

- Tate and Mya played so nice together all week. Of course, it helped that Tate didn't try to hug/tackle her much this time.

- Tate had one particular afternoon of adoring baby Sadie. He wanted to hold her on his lap and then he practically laid on her on the ground trying to hug her and then kept saying, "I wanna kither" (kiss her). It was sweet to see him adore his little cousin.

- Adam wrestled with little man and I think it was the highlight of his week. He laughed so hard and loved the rough boy play time.

- For some reason Tate loved climbing in this little jumper seat and of course he'd get stuck quite frequently. Once he looked over at Auntie Cami sitting on the couch and just said, "Cami, help!" I thought it was sweet that he not only knew her name, but that she would help him out if he asked her.

- Auntie Mallo snuggling Tate in the mornings and sharing her cereal. She even let him tell her which color of marshmallows he would like next. He's so spoiled.

- Auntie Kenzie is always so great at getting down on his level and playing with him. It was also wonderful to have her help with Tate as we did a LOT of shopping, (sisters had Christmas clothes money to spend) and movie going that week.

Another wonderful trip back home. We miss you guys and thanks for the good times and for being so sweet to my little man.

Tate had a special treat on the way home. We always stop to wave at the pilot at the front of the plane, but this time the pilot saw him and let him explore the cock pit and even sit in the pilot's chair. He had the BIGGEST grin on his face for the first 10 minutes of the flight. It was so sweet.

Glenn took pictures from the window most of the flight. Man, I miss those mountains.

Christmas

2011-01-04T13:02:00.001-08:00

This Christmas season was wonderful and the morning certainly exceeded our expectations as well. Tate was feeling yucky but he was still in a pretty good mood. He was thrilled with his toys in his stocking and found no need to continue opening presents when there were so many fun toys around already. We persuaded him to open a few but he soon reached a point where he was simply not interested. In fact he was playing with his cars and jumping them off his other presents. He kept making them talk to each other and telling each other where they were driving.It was so much fun to watch him love his new toys and be excited about playing with them. There is so much more magic involved with Christmas now that we have a little one. It's wonderful.

Glenn and I enjoyed our time opening each other's presents while Tate was completely entertained with his own. Glenn did a great job this year and bought me a new camera. It's a beauty. He did a lot of research and found one that is far too advanced for my needs/abilities right now, but I'm excited to do some studying and hopefully find some fun photography classes as well. So excited! He tricked me and wrapped several boxes inside of boxes and when I finally got to the camera box I looked up and there he was, sitting on the couch, taking pictures of me with my new camera. Little sneak.I'm pretty sure Glenn's excited about our new camera as well. He spent a lot time during the break taking some great pictures.

Glenn got some new sunglasses he's been wanting, some Red Sox Russian nesting dolls (they were a Texas state fair find and are so funny), and some other fun things.

It took all day but Tate eventually got around to all of his presents. Nanna sent some great new Disney movies and cars, Gramma Heather sent some crayons for the bathtub which we put immediately to use.

Tate also received some toy story toys, a book, and the third Toy Story movie. You know those books that have buttons you can push as you read the story? Tate's never had one and was completely enthralled. He liked one button in particular and kept pushing it over and over and dancing an awkward little dance. It was hilarious.

He kept doing it all morning until Glenn eventually took the book away.

We took our time Christmas morning, talked to family and had a yummy breakfast. After Tate's nap we went to a movie at a nearby dollar theater. Tate was still feeling yucky and coughed until he threw up...three times. It was great fun.

I'm still in denial that Christmas season is over. It's by far my favorite time of the year and I just don't want to take the music out of my car and put everything away. We tried something new this year that I think we'll do again. I went to the library and got a bunch of Christmas books, wrapped them, and then we opened and read one every night for Tate's bed time story. It was fun to hear him quote parts of the story and gain a little more understanding about what Christmas is all about.

On Christmas Eve we did our traditional dinner on a blanket (from my family) and talked to Tate about how this is Jesus' birthday and we asked him what he would like to give Jesus for his birthday. He answered without even hesitating, "Cars".

"Oh Tate that is sweet. Is there anything else you would like to give Jesus?"

"Trains."

"That's very nice. I'll bet Jesus would love some toy trains. Is there anything else, Tate?"

"Very very quiet."

"Ah. Well, I'm sure he will appreciate when you're reverent and quiet during prayers and church, huh Tate?" We thought his responses were so funny.

He also really got into Christmas music this year. We'd listen to it as we drove around, cleaned the house, cooked dinner and such and they became our bed time songs as well. He seemed to enjoy the decorations and the whole Christmas feel. It was a wonderful Christmas season. Can't wait for next year!!

Festivities

2010-12-24T11:40:00.001-08:00

We've had a lot of fun getting ready for Christmas this week. Last Sunday we went to the Halls for dinner. They're our good friends here and have a darling little girl Tate's age. We attempted to make gingerbread houses together. It wasn't super successful but it was really fun.

Glenn found out that a deal his division has been working on fell through so he's been able to take some time off this week. He was told a couple months ago that he wouldn't be able to use the rest of his vacation days this year and would be super busy over Christmas because of this deal so, while it's disappointing that it didn't work out the way they hoped, I'm really glad that we're able have him around this week after all! AND we worked it out so he'll be able to come out to Utah next week with Tate and I. YEA!

I tried some new treats this year. Candied popcorn in cinnamon bun and peppermint bark. Recipes courtesy of Our Best Bites. I love finding and using other people's delicious recipes. I can cook okay but I cannot come up with the ideas. We'll definitely be making these again!

Our good friends from Austin, the Cluffs, are in town this weekend and we were able to play with them at the zoo. It was so fun for Tate to be able to play at the zoo with some of his favorite people. We looked at the fish of course,

saw the daddy elephant taking a bath.

Glenn narrated for him.

And had a little snuggle/wrestle time with Tori.

It was great to see them and spend a little time with them, especially in such a fun place! Tate was a good sport especially considering he's been feeling generally like this all week. He has a cough for the past couple weeks that has gotten worse the last three days. We had some ideas of fun things to do outside but since he was feeling icky we just got in the car last night and we went to Prestonwoods Forest to see the lights. It's a neighborhood we heard about where each street is really decked out with beautiful Christmas lights and has a different theme. One street was "A Christmas Carousel" with bright carousel horses and music. One street was "Frosty the Snowman" and they had pictures and signs with the story of Frosty along the street. It was amazing. We'll definitely go back next year if we're still here. There is something about tons of Christmas lights that just makes me feel like a little kid. I'm so excited for Christmas.

Tate woke up a couple times last night and has a fever this morning so...this is how he's spending this Christmas Eve day.

He wants to watch a show but he just can't or won't sit up very long so he keeps crawling around the room and then lying down with his blanket facing the TV. It's sad to hear him coughing so long and so hard that he gags and then whimpers afterward. We took him to a clinic and he didn't seem to have an infection but he gave us some meds because his cough has lasted so long so hopefully he'll start feeling better soon.

All in all, it's been a wonderful and busy week. I love Christmas time and it really is so much better now that I have a little one. He may not exactly understand Santa yet but will certainly get excited about opening presents and discovering all the new delights that have been carefully selected for him. He loves reading Christmas books. We've been to the library and read a new Christmas book every night for the past three weeks. He loves them and also loves to listen to Christmas music in the car. I'm so excited to watch him tomorrow! Hopefully he's feeling well enough to enjoy it. I cannot wait.

The week before Christmas

2010-12-16T12:59:00.000-08:00

We went to Glenn's work's family Christmas party on Saturday. They had a big formal party a couple weeks ago for the adults (which was awesome! Like a grown up prom.) and then another party for families, specifically for the little kiddos. It was amazing. Yummy breakfast in pjs, balloon animals (this is supposed to be a fishing pole with a fish on the end. Tate thought it was great and kept wildly swinging it around), crafts and cookie decorating (clearly he has some natural talent in this area),

amazing goodie bags,

a train giving rides in the parking lot, and of course a visit with the big guy in red. We'd prepared Tate a little asking him what he wanted Santa to bring him. His response was, "A Cookie!" Okay, that's easy. Then a little while later he added "cars". We watched other kids sit on Santa's lap and tried to get him excited but when it was our turn it was just too much sitting with some large, strange, furry man so he lost it. We knelt down next to Santa as he tearfully told him he would like cars. Then we were outa there.

I was so impressed with his company and how much they care about our families. They threw two big parties and tried to make special events for all of their employees. Tate had a goodie bag with a personal letter from Santa with his name and a couple things about him. For such a huge company I left just so impressed with the care they took for each kid.

Glenn left again on Monday morning and gets back late tonight. I understand that a lot can't be predicted about the processes he's involved in there but it is frustrating that a his schedule, especially where travel is involved, is so last minute. Plus we miss him like crazy when he's gone. But we're so grateful for his job and now I'm done complaining.

This week we got our family pictures back that we had taken a few weeks ago. Courtney Paul took them last year for us and we loved them! Then we were lucky enough to move down here right after she did so we were able to have her take them for us again. She actually did two sessions for us because the first time we tried it was cold and rainy and Tate was grumptastic because he was on Benedryl for yet another rash. And still she was able to catch some great pictures. We think she's amazing. Here are some of our favorites...

I think that last one is my favorite. It's got so much of my little guy's personality.

This week we've been running lots of errands and getting a lot of last minute Christmas things finished. Every year it seems like I'm "done" weeks ahead of time and then I just keep making extra work for myself by coming up with other things I would like to have done for Christmas. It's ridiculous. This week I finished 4 skirts for some darling nieces on Glenn's side back east. We're giving to their family this year. They are done and mailed off. It feels great. I hope they like them!

One last tid bit about this week. It's been hot. 80 degrees. We've had the AC on all week. Spent some time outside at a great new park we found and Tate and I were sweating. It's the week before Christmas. While I really don't like sweating profusely all summer long here, at least I understand that it is to be expected in the summertime. In the middle of December, however, it's a little annoying. In the back of my head I know that I should appreciate being warm in the winter time but most of my head is just annoyed at being hot and sweaty...again. It just doesn't quite feel like Christmas when it's so blasted hot outside.

My boys

2010-12-10T17:40:00.001-08:00

Obviously this is what you do when you have empty wrapping paper rolls lying around.

Little man sure loves his daddy.

He walked around saying, "Hi-Ya" all night long. The little boy that is, not the grown one.

Glenn was gone Monday through Wednesday this week and is leaving again next week for four days. I'm grateful he has a good job. I'm grateful that he is busy at his good job and that his company is doing well right now. We sure miss him though, when he is away. There is a marked difference in sweet Tate's demeanor once Dad walks through the door at night.

For Nanna

2010-12-03T10:18:00.001-08:00

Nanna really loves little man videos so here are a couple of cute ones we caught this week.

He found a little hand mirror at Gregor and Amy's and carried it around for a couple days calling is a magnifying glass.

He's figuring out the ABC song. He does a pretty good job on his own but doesn't always finish it when we're watching. We catch him singing the song to himself all the time while he's playing with toys, eating, or walking around.

Sorry for how incredibly dark this video is. We've been trying to catch him saying the whole thing for little while but the time we finally caught it was late at night and in the car. So it looks terrible but at least we can hear him.

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-12-01T12:05:00.000-08:00

We just got back from a great trip to New Hampshire and Massachusetts for Thanksgiving. We rented a car this year which made getting around a lot easier. We stayed with Gregor and Amy and their family from Sunday until Thursday. Nelson was sweet to give up his room so we could camp out in there. It was fun to be able to stay with their family and spend so much time playing with them. We played some games of course. Pit was a hit this year. Anything loud, fast, and aggressive is a hit with a family like ours.

We got in a few rounds of Pounce as well. My personal favorite. The Andover Makechnies were incredibly wonderful hosts. We had our fill of great conversation, delicious food, and tons of playtime for the little ones. Tate loved having so many cousins to play with. AND the Makechnies have a dog AND chickens. He was in heaven. The first thing he would say every morning was, "I see the chickens!" Followed closely by, "I see Paige(or Nelson or Brynn or Cope)!"

One morning we got up and I told him it was too cold to go see the chickens just then and he said, "Mom, I jus a little boy." I just stared at him. Okay that's true but wherever did you hear that, little man?

Tate spent some quality time with their dog Tennyson, Tenny for short. He was constantly following him around and when he found him on his dog bed by the fire he would lie down and snuggle him. We had to monitor the snuggling a bit as Tate is not as light as he used to be.

We went on a little day trip to Portsmouth with Seth and Vincent one day. It's a beautiful little city right by the ocean. Charming shops and restaurants, beautiful old buildings and streets. Good company and of course the boys got some "chowdah". It was a very fun day.

Tate found lots of rocks, sticks, and leaves so of course he was happy.

Tate met his Great Grandma Alice this trip. She came up from Florida for the holiday and helped Grandma Heather make Tate this train cake. He was so intrigued by a choo choo train that was covered in candy and made of cake. Does it get any better than that?

I envy my sister-in-law Amy's running routes in New Hampshire. While the hills are killer, especially for a Texas runner like myself (I'm used to flat, flat, flat), you couldn't find more beautiful scenery. Even at this time of the year when all the trees are looking a little sad, running along woods, streams, old bridges and train tracks...it was so peaceful. I just took one morning jog by myself and then we ran the Thanksgiving day Turkey Trot again this year. It was FREEZING that morning. Here is Seth doing a little dance and trying to warm up.

The route starts out with a huge hill and then the rest of the race is great. After we got up the hill, the cold wasn't as bad! It was nice to have a little exercise in the morning and feel much less guilt about what I was about to do to my body for the rest of the day!

Thanksgiving dinner was amazing as always. Arthur and Gregor always deliver absolutely delicious food. I always come home inspired to cook more and better.

The little cousins table.

Nelson. Tate's only boy cousin chillin' on his own.

Nelson is the best boy cousin a mom could ask for. He's kind and respectful and he also loves to be a boy. He's a great example for my little man. Nelson spent lots of time playing with Tate and trying to teach him boy things. One night they spent about a half hour wrestling each other and quoting Kung Fu Panda. "Ski-dush"

Tate slept very well that night.

And here are all the kiddos with Great Grandma Alice.

Next it was off to Boston to visit the Needham, MA Makechnies. We hit the perfect weekend to visit them and were able to see Hailey play a soccer game AND score a goal. (Tate even cheered her on, "Go Hailey!") And on Saturday we went to little Chloe's first performance of the Nutcracker with the Boston Ballet. She did great and I'm so glad we were able to go and support her. I have missed the Nutcracker. For several years growing up it was a big part of our Christmas routine. One or more of us were in the production so there were rehearsals and performances. It was great to see it again and listen to the beautiful music and wonder at the stunning dancers.

Arthur, Heather, Glenn, and Kim at the Boston Opera House.

We didn't spend much time down town in Boston this year but we drove through a bit. I love that city. It's big. It's old. It's kind of got this attitude of, "We don't really care about you. Do whatever you want, just don't bother us." I love it. It's gorgeous, it's got tons of fun cultural and historical things to explore. The one drawback is the cold. I'm even more of a wimp after living with out winters for a few years here in Texas. But still, every time we go I think, "I could totally live here."

The Needham Makechnies were wonderful to us as well. Tate slept in Hailey and Chloe's room and luckily didn't wake them up too much! The girls were such adoring cousins and were great to play with Tate and share their toys. We were even able to partake of what is apparently a weekly tradition at their house, home made pizza and movie night. A treat indeed!

We only stayed with them for 2 night but we stayed up into the wee hours to have great conversations about just about everything. I love those guys. Then it was time to head back to Texas. Tate, giving some love to Hailey:

And Chloe:

Our trip home was a bit of an adventure. We checked in the night before but by the time we got to the airport our flight had been cancelled and we were put on a flight leaving two hours later. So we waited for that one and then waited on the tarmac for over an hour for something to be fixed so we missed our connection in Detroit. We waited in the Detroit airport for 4+ hours and then finally got home at 10pm. This is how we all felt:

Amazing how we seem to come home from vacations more exhausted than we left. Totally worth it. Thanks for the good times East Coast Makechnies. We love you and miss you already!

Half Marathon

2010-11-20T14:09:00.000-08:00

This morning Glenn and I ran a half marathon. We did. We ran 13.1 miles. It was really cool. I don't have pictures of us but our good friend took some and hopefully she'll send them to me and then I'll post some later.
I had all these irrational fears of bad things that could happen during the race: bodily functions gone very wrong, tripping fellow runners, injuries and such. None of them happened. So that's good. Glenn signed up for the race with me months ago but then decided he probably shouldn't run it because he has patellar tendonitis and some other stuff that makes running really painful but he went to a doctor last week and the doc told him to wear some bands and that he would be fine. So he ran it with me. It was nice not to be alone out there.

Janelle Cluff, our friend from Austin, is from Houston area and she was going to be down here for Thanksgiving week so she offered to watch Tate while we ran. We stayed at her parents house last night in Clear Lake to be closer to the race this morning for us, and then she took care of Tate all morning while we were running. She got him ready and brought him down to see us at the finish. It was wonderful. So wonderful to have her help. Really, the only alternative if she hadn't offered, and since Glenn was running with me, was to push him in our jogging stroller. Tate would have been going crazy stuck in the stroller for that long! So a big shout out to Janelle and her parents for all their help. We are so grateful.

Glenn and I woke up at 5:15 to head down to Galveston. I was feeling nervous and having a conversation with myself that went something like this:

- "Why did I think this was a good idea?"

- "You must be really stupid, I guess."

- "You're right. This was a dumb idea. Seriously, who does this? Look at all these people who are in amazing shape and do this all the time and then there's me. Just decided to train for something with my sister because I was feeling stuck about my situation and needed a goal. That doesn't make me a runner."

- "I know. Like I said, not real smart."

It was exciting and scary and about 10 other emotions at the same time. Glenn was his normal social, jovial self, making jokes with people in line for the bus and packets and chatting with everyone in BYU or Boston Red Sox gear. I think it would take a lot to make Glenn feel any pressure.

We picked up our shirts and bibs and got on a bus to take us to the race start at a beach on the other side of the island. It was beautiful. Just beautiful. It started at the beach that we went to a couple months ago and wound around a little loop before turning beside the sea wall for about 8 miles. I could not imagine better conditions for my first long race. The sun was coming up but it wasn't too hot or too cool, the ocean view for miles and miles, sea breeze, the course was flat flat flat, and there were water tables every 1.5 miles. Seriously, hours of looking at this:

It was beautiful.

I realized when I got there and as I was running that there is so much more about running and running races that I don't know. The only race strategy advice I was given was not to start too fast because you will run out of steam and have a hard time finishing strong. So I spent the first 5 miles making myself slow down and watching my pace to keep myself at the pace I wanted to maintain. Then about mile 7-8 is started to get hard to speed up and maintain the pace I was aiming for. It was discouraging to look down and see myself going slower than I wanted and try to speed up...then look down again and realize I hadn't sped up at all. I just couldn't get myself to go any faster. Glenn did great. It seemed, and actually was, pretty easy for him. He didn't hurt or get too tired. He stayed with me and could have gone faster than me most of the time too. That made me mad. I'm over it now but it was frustrating that it comes so much easier to Glenn. He's not too sore or tired now. He's basically just a natural athlete. Impressive, and impossible to compete with...so I'll stop trying.

I was a little disappointed with my time even though I made really generous goals and I actually made it under my really generous goal time. I'm fine now though. I'm realizing how amazing of a thing I did today. I'm proud that I was able to train and get through it fairly easily. I never had to walk. I never felt like I had to stop. And the miles seemed to pass pretty quickly. It was a great run and certainly the most beautiful I've had. Never ever in my life before a few months ago would I have imagined running a half marathon. I just started running after Tate was born and it's been huge for me, someone who has never regularly exercised before to have this as my thing. I'm not fast or good but I'm happy with it and I actually enjoy it. I never thought I would, but I do. I'm so glad I ran this race and now I have a time to try to beat for the next time!

So...anyone wanna run it with me next year?

Me in 1983

2010-11-11T11:53:00.001-08:00

Is this Tate today, or me back in 1983? I'll let you guess...

Little Adventures

2010-11-10T12:36:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday Tate and I went downtown to play. The Museum of Fine Art was free that day so I thought we could check it out. We found this great furry caterpillar on our way in and stopped for a few minutes to watch him. Tate is still talking about the "capillar" with yellow stripes. He was a really cool find.I walked around the museum a couple days last summer with little man in a front pack and really enjoyed it. It was a different story this time. He was busy, and while he loved the pictures of "castles" and finding all the animals and pictures of Jesus, he was a bit too noisy and got bored quickly. But we made it work for a short time with the help of some fruit snacks.
I loved it. It was a much needed deep breath. Not sure how else to describe it. Just taking in those beautiful paintings brings me back to my days abroad wandering through larger museums filled with beautiful paintings by some of the same artists. It was relaxing to wander through paintings in styles and by names that I recognized and remember all the things I've been lucky enough to see and learn.

Then we took off to do something Tate would actually enjoy. There is a little train that goes all the way around Hermann Park, a huge park in the middle of the city. Tate is so excited about trains lately that he and I couldn't resist taking a ride.

We sat in the very back row. We watched the train tracks go past. We waved at the ducks in the ponds. We pointed out bikes, trees, fountains, big rocks, squirrels and castles (every big building is called a castle). We even went through a tunnel. He's big into tunnels right now.Little man couldn't sit still. There was so much to see from every angle. He kept touching every screw, pole, board, everything he could get his hands on. It was a fun morning exploring a couple things our city has to offer and spending some quality time with Tate-o.

Little Sweetie

2010-11-08T18:07:00.000-08:00

I just have to record a few recent moments of sweetness before they're lost to the dusty recesses of my brain. This morning I was doing my makeup on the couch and Tate crawled up next to me and tackled me in a big hug and said into my neck, "Because I love you". I just about cried. He's such a sweet, happy boy right now and I swear my chest can barely hold my heart when he, in his tiny little boy voice with his sweet little lisp and limited vocabulary tells me little sweet things.
Sometimes when he wakes up way too early and I'm not ready to get up I take him in to our bed and let him drink his milk while I lay down for a few more minutes. A couple days ago he woke up and I came in to talk to him. I told him it was too early to get up and it was still dark outside. He said, "snuggle (which comes out thnuggle) in Daddy's bed?" He has my number, that's for sure.
Last week it was, "Mom is SO bootiful" as we were driving to Costco.
A little while back I was putting clothes away in my closet and he walked in, held out the skirt I was wearing and said, "So darling!"
He's been such a happy child the last couple of weeks. Just a joy to be with and talk to. I love these times.

Halloween Festivities

2010-11-01T11:11:00.001-07:00

We had a very fun and very busy weekend. We started off with a fun zoo trip with Glenn on Friday afternoon. I love those half day Fridays. They have a dinosaur exhibit there for just a few more days and Tate loved it last time I took him so we thought we'd have a go with Daddy. They have huge dinosaurs that move and make noise. The first time we went it was all I could do to keep him from crossing the rope and climbing on them. This time he was a bit more timid. He was glad Dad was there to reassure him that these big guys were okay. He has new favorite animals all the time but right now his favorites are definitely the fish. He loves all the fish exhibits. We've tried to convince him to crawl in this tunnel underneath the fish several times but this time he agreed...as long as Glenn went first to make sure it was okay, and then I had to go through with him.
He also loves the sting rays and the jelly fish. It's nice to have an excuse to just stare at these creatures. They are pretty incredible.
Saturday the 30th was really our Halloween and we had a full day. I got up early to go for my longest training jog. 10 miles. I found a few ladies from a different ward who jog every Saturday and met up with them. One lady is training for a marathon so she had to do 20 miles. I ran 10 with her then she kept going. It was great. It was the first long run where I felt like, "That wasn't so bad. I could totally do another three miles" afterward. It was a huge confidence booster.
Glenn took Tate to his first little birthday party and I met them as soon as I got ready. A little girl in our ward here turned two and she invited him to her party. He was in a great mood and being well behaved until I showed up and then he turned into the fuss monster. What's that about? He seemed to have a good time playing with all the other kiddos. I was so proud of how well behaved he was. I love those times.
Then we took kiddo home for his nap. He took a great nap but for some reason woke up a total grumpster. He was ornery pants for the rest of the day, which is a bummer. We dressed him up in his "Woody" costume and went over to a neighborhood festival for a bit. This is the only picture we got with all of his costume pieces on. He kept removing them as the night went on.
They had pony rides at the festival which was a must for our little cowboy. He loved having a chance to ride "bullseye" just like Woody.
Then of course there was the petting zoo which he loved. I think he could just chase and snuggle smelly animals all day if I let him.
After that we headed to the ward Trunk or Treat. It was a good time. There were so many darling costumes on tiny little people. Glenn and I took turns walking around with Tate, sharing a root beer float, chatting with ward members, and trying to get rid of all our candy. I think Tate got the "trick or treat" thing by the end but he was really content just to carry around a couple candies in his fists until they melted and got all squishy inside. He had moments of giggling and being sweet and happy but if anything went wrong he would just melt down. Silly kid. All in all though, I think we had a pretty great day.

Long Shot

2010-10-25T19:06:00.000-07:00

Woke up this morning and went in to get Tate out of bed. This is what I saw:
Yes, that dark line on the carpet is what you think it is and he did it with his diaper and pajamas still on. How he managed to create a separate puddle in his crib, soak his diaper and pajamas, then stand up and soak his bumper pad and shoot a long streak about 3 feet from his crib while staying fully clothed is entirely beyond me. This boy stuff leaves me completely baffled.

One Little Speckled Boy

2010-10-23T11:31:00.000-07:00

We thought Tate just had an angry heat rash last weekend. It was warm out. He'd been in his car seat and stroller a lot. It made sense. But then it didn't go away. It did get a little better for a couple days and then he woke up on Thursday looking like this. His whole body was covered with red raised bumps.

I took him into the doctor and she informed me that he is allergic to amoxicillin, the antibiotic we've been giving him for his ear infection. Great. So now he's taking a steroid and antihistimine for his allergic reaction.

It helps that he's been perfectly sweet all week. His skin looks so sad but it doesn't seem to bother him one bit. It's a little better today but still not gone. Poor little speckled boy.

Texas State Fair

2010-10-22T10:18:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went to Dallas. Glenn had a ticket to see the BYU vs. TCU game with some friends from Austin. I wanted to go to the state fair with some of my friends from Austin. The Jenkins were nice enough to put us up again, which made for some really good times, good conversations, and good food! (Thanks Liz and Sterling!) Tate had a blast playing with so many kids. (Molly, Lizzy, Tate, and Tori)Saturday morning we went to the fair. Glenn came for the first couple of hours before he had to be at the game. Our first stop was the petting zoo. As with everything at the fair it was over the top Texas style. This was no ordinary petting zoo. They had cows, goats, pigs, and tiny shetland ponies. But they also had camels, kangaroos, ostriches (which were really quite scary by the way. Its huge head would just suddenly dive violently at my hand holding the seeds. But who can pass up the chance to feed an ostrich?), a giraffe, and zebras. It was amazing! Tate had an ear infection last week and was kind of ornery all day. He still had a cough and started to get what we thought was heat rash all over his body (another story entirely). We just watched as it crept all the way up his face all day long. Poor kiddo was not at his best but we did our best to have fun anyway. Here's Glenn shading Tate from the sun. He was worried about little man.

A lot of things at the fair had me asking myself, "What person thought this up?" Like this enormous sculpture of UT and OU football players carved entirely from butter.

It was fun to spend time with some wonderful friends. We talked, wandered, and shared some great fried food, a Texas fair staple. They had fried everything: PB&J sandwiches, pickles, beer, s'mores pop tarts, club salad, margaritas, snickers bars. You name it and these folks deep fried it. We shared a piece of fried cheesecake and I must say it was delish.

We spent 5 hours there and still only saw about half of what this fair had to offer. I think we may go again next year. It was a fun little Texas culture event.

Play Dates

2010-10-18T10:50:00.000-07:00

While in Utah we had several fabulous play dates. I went to the temple with Nanna and then she let us taker her out to lunch to a great little bistro in town.
Auntie Mallory drove down from Logan both weekends so we could do our long jogs together. It was SOOO nice not to have to get through those by myself! We did 9 miles the first Saturday and 8 the next. It was exhausting but so awesome. I felt pretty amazing the rest of the day knowing that I could make my body jog for 9 miles. I wish we could run our races together! It was so nice to have someone to talk to and endure with.
Cousin Mya came over one afternoon with paints to share with Tate. We went outside to paint on the sidewalk. Mya knew just what to do.

First the papers and then our feet got a brilliant treatment of Mya's artistry.

Tate was very content to find rocks in Nanna's garden and carry closed containers of paint around. I smushed his fingers in the wet paint once or twice but it distressed him so he mostly watched the mess unfold.

Mya and Tate got along famously at the beginning of our trip. Then Mya got a little tired of Tate's very physical affection. He just adores little Mya and wants to be constantly following her, copying her, and best of all hugging her. But since he outweighs her now and his hugs sometimes end with a tackle she learned really quickly that she wanted nothing to do with that! It got to be quite funny. Once or twice Mya would be crying about something else and then she'd really start to wail and we'd find out that Tate had gone over to her to try to comfort her with a hug and that definitely made it worse!

One afternoon we went to the Thanksgiving point Dinosaur Museum with Aubry, Mya, and Baby Sadie. It was a great time. There were lots of fun hands-on exhibits for the kids to touch and play with. The actual scientific concepts were definitely beyond their understanding but they loved to touch and throw things around and push all the buttons. Very cool.I love this picture of kiddo on his tip toes trying to figure out what is in there!

Mya and Tate climbing around a dino foot.

Mya's favorite part of the exhibit was this huge prehistoric turtle. She loves Crush from Finding Nemo so she calls every turtle Crush. This guy was huge Crush.

I tried to get Tate to play in the dirt at this cool erosion exhibit with sand and water but he was not alright with getting dirty on that particular day. Funny how he is dying to get messy directly after his bath or right before church or pretty much any other time I really don't want him to.

The Saturday before we left we went to Hogle Zoo with Nanna, Cody and Aubry and their girls, and Aunt Mallo too. It was so great to go with so many of us. There were tons of hands to grab, feed, and lift up the kids and also some of my favorite grown ups to talk to along the way. Here's Tate trying on Auntie Mallo's stylin' sunglasses in the car.

We had been at the zoo less than 10 minutes when Tate split his little forehead open. He was running to tell Uncle Cody about the monkeys he'd seen and he just biffed it. It was an awful sound hearing his head smack right into the asphalt. He was screaming and I picked him up and just waited to see where the blood was going to flow from. His head? His mouth? His nose? It took several seconds and then blood just started pouring down his face from a nice little cut in his forehead. Poor boy. I'm really lucky Aubry was there because I do not handle blood well. Especially my little babe's. I had a hard time looking at my little boy's forehead giving me a deep open smile. She ran to the first aid station and got Tate patched up really fast. He was completely fine after just a few minutes. I, however, kept a pretty good grip on him the rest of the trip. Here he is with Auntie Mallo sporting his own little rhino horn.

Aunties Aubry and Mallo holding Mya and Tate at the Rhino enclosure.

The highlight of the trip was definitely the tigers. We caught them in a very frisky mood. There were 3 or 4 tigers right near the windows and two of them kept wrestling with each other. They's get on their haunches then bat at each other with their huge paws then stand up and just tackle each other to the ground over and over. It was amazing. They are such huge, powerful creatures and it was stunning to see them up close like that. Tate kept saying, "Tigers, wrestle again!"

It's funny to hear things that I tell Tate come out of his mouth. I'm constantly telling him not to drink the bath water because it's yucky. Then this tiger gets in the water right in front of us at the zoo and starts drinking the water. Tate told him, "Tiger, no. Don't drink it. It's yucky!"

Tate, me, Aub and Mya watching the giraffes.

Sweet little Mya, obviously contemplating something very serious.
The zoo party. Aubry, Tate and I, Cody and Mom.

Now that I actually put write it all out I realize how much of what I do these days, and especially the special kid things I do with Tate are all about animals. I guess it's good because he loves animals right now. I just hadn't realized how many animal themed adventures we have!

Thanks for all the fun play dates family! Let's do it again really really soon.