Mr. Tate's Birthday

Tate turned 4 yesterday! It's amazing to me that it's been that long since his birth, because it seems like only yesterday.

We decorated his bedroom door see Family Tradition HERE), so this is what he woke up to.

It definately started the day off right for him...

My Mom invited us over for lunch and then both her and my sister surprised Tate with a party. They invited one friend, Allyssa (my cousin). They wanted to keep it small in ways of friends but to at least have one kid there. It worked out perfect for Tate! He was happy to have Allyssa there, and happy to get a ton of attention from the other adults (Grandpa, Grandma, Christina, and Thomas)

Christina went to the dollar store and bought Tate a bunch of little toys and wrapped them all so that he had a million presents. Here are some of them...


My parents gave Tate a microscope.
He is totally into science things so this is perfect for him. Then my Dad sat down with him and taught him how it worked.

When Bryan got home later that day, we had another little family party for him with cake and more presents from us. We gave him some more science related gifts. A bug vacuum and habitat (He immediately found a cricket for it),

and a rock tumbler (he's been wanting this forever).

Then Bryan spent the rest of the evening with him helping to start the rock tumbling process.

Highlights of our Vacation

We had a fabulous time in California! The first couple of days were spent at Disneyland and California Adventures. Here we are on the River Raft Ride before we got drenched.

This is me during the ride (completely soaked, yet thoroughly happy)

Tate had a frozen smile both of the days. It made it completely worth it for Bryan and I just to get to watch him.

Only at Disneyland do you smile while waiting in Line...

Tate rode on Bryan's shoulders much of the time.

The very best part about Disneyland was meeting Belle. Tate fell in love with her the moment he saw here. He immediately started to sing to her the song from Enchanted, "I've been dreaming of a true love's kiss..." Then he took her hands and started dancing with her.

I guess she fell in love with him too, because she asked him to be her Prince Charming during story time.

Tate did a wonderful job, except for the fact that he wouldn't stop kissing her throughout.

Then Tate met Mulan and he decided that he liked her a lot too!

He attacked her by kissing her several times on her lips and then the nose getting her lipstick all over her face as well as his.

Needless to say... Tate slept really good that night!

We went to the beach on Saturday (It was just a little crowded) But besides that, it was totally relaxing and great to being able to spend time together doing nothing. We ended up going to Santa Monica Pier because it was closest to where we were staying...

Tate didn't care if it was packed, he was just happy to be with Mommy and Daddy and to have fun looking for shells in the sand.

The water was really cold, at least for me (I'm a wimp), but Bryan and Tate enjoyed riding the waves.

I was completely satisfied laying out in the sun watching them.

We also watched the sailboats a little and enjoyed the cool breeze.

The End.

Lost For Words

I'm sure that by now you're all aware of the tragedy that happened to my cousin Christian and his wife Stephanie. If you haven't heard, they were in a private plane crash last Saturday and are now facing recovery as they are severly burned. I feel so sick inside for them and their 4 children, I haven't been able to post about it or anything else for that matter until now. For the last (I don't know how long) I've looked forward everyday to reading Stephanie's blog. She has such an amazing outlook on life and motherhood. Both she and Chris are amazing parents and they are an inspiration to me. I know that God can work miracles and I'm praying that he will give them the blessings that they need at this time.

Happenings this Week

This week has been nice and busy. We've had a ton of stuff going on. I've been planning a shower for one of my friends who is adopting a baby girl at the end of the month. So, its been fun making over 80 invitations. I think they turned out pretty cute though.

I bought two new swim suits from Layers Clothing. I've been waiting all summer for them to go on sale and now most of them finally are. I love their swim suits-they are totally cute, modest, and cheap. That's what I like.

On Tuesday, Tate and I went over to my sister's new place and helped her a little bit with getting things situated. We took Tate to McDonald's, got him a happy meal and let him play on the toys for his first time ever. He loved it!

We had a ward play group at our house on Wednesday. There was a great turnout of 11 Moms including me plus all of their kids. So, that was lots of fun. Everyone brought food and we had a little pot luck afterwards-yum. Wednesday night my little bro Thomas received the Melchizedek priesthood and we went and got pizza afterwards.

Bryan took Tate to work with him on Thursday-I love those days, and my Mother came over and hung out with me. I seriously don't remember the last time we've been able to have time together without Tate, so it was nice. Thursday night we got together with Bryan's friends and had more pizza and watched the Olympics a little bit. They had a huge turtle (it's going to be as big as the ones in the zoo), and they had a pet snake. Tate was a little bit scared to hold the snake but not for long... especially with Daddy right there.

That night, I stayed up until 2:30 AM fixing odds and ends and cleaning our house (The inspector was coming at 8 AM). So, I only got 3 hours of sleep that night. I was exhausted but couldn't be home because of the inspector, so we went to the mall and got Tate some new church clothes-they are so cute :) Then we met up with my friend Emily and let the kids play at the playground there. Tate always enjoys doing that!

This morning we woke up early and cleared out most of the dead vegetables in our garden. Then I gave Tate his much needed hair cut. He was kicking and screaming the majority of the time, so it's a miracle I didn't cut his ear or anything. After that we cleaned out several drawers (I'm trying to get more organized to make the move easier. Then after all our fun chores were over-we went swimming and ate some sunflower seeds from the sunflowers Tate planted. They were huge seeds and very delicious. Tonight I have a date with Bryan. We're going to see the play "Saturday's Warrior".

On a side note: Tate did the cutest thing today. He was sitting on the floor in his bedroom holding one of Bryan's mini levels to his knee. He was talking to himself, "Hmmm... I wonder if Heavenly Father made me right". He was looking at the little bubble to see if it was in the center of the level, and because of the way he was sitting the bubble was to the far right. He then looked up at me and said, "It's crooked. Heavenly Father made me wrong". It was just hilariously cute because of his seriousness!

Two Surprises in One Day!!!

Just when I was beginning to think that we would NEVER sell our home... Surprise! We have a buyer. Yeah! I'm totally happy. This is such a blessing for us. And if this blessing isn't enough, my friend Faith called me up yesterday and asked us if we would like to stay at their time share resort in Palm Springs California. They had booked to go for their ten year anniversary and then at the last minute they aren't going to be able to make it. I'm so happy that they would think of us!!! So, California... here we come. (Well, not for another two weeks).

Homemade Superman/Batman Cape

Tate's been wanting a Superman cape for a VERY LONG time. I found an awesome tutorial HERE, and thought I'd give it a try.
It turned out better than I expected, and Tate just adores it.
It has a velcro strip in the front so he can put it on himself.
Tate seriously thinks that he can fly and he's been having the time of his life.