the birthday bash

Winter decided to hit Iowa on Tatum's birthday. The crazy blizzard and a nasty bug passing through my family kept everyone from coming to the little party we had planned. Of course, Tatum didn't care at all but I couldn't help but be a little disappointed. I had a rainbow theme planned out, with colorful plates and napkins, a rainbow banner, a rainbow cake, we got tons of Cold Stone ice cream, I had a yummy dinner planned complete with rainbow fruit kabobs. Pretty awesome, right? :) But alas, none of it was to be enjoyed by anyone but me, Brennan, and Tatum.

We blew up balloons for Tatum the night before. I honestly didn't think she would really care, but I wanted to make it feel a little more festive. But I was wrong, she totally cared! Usually she is really slow to wake up completely and just wants to be held. But as soon as she saw the balloons she started grunting and trying to get down. I knew it was going to be a good day.

We spent the morning playing together and Skyping with Aunt Mara and Jade, Aunt Stacy and all the kids, and Grandma and Papa. She loves Skype. Then Tatum took a nap while I made her cake.  Once Brennan got home from work she got to open her presents. Then we ate dinner (she was not the biggest fan) and had cake.  She didn't dig in quite like I thought she might, but she did eventually eat some of it.

Without further ado, the pictures:

She emptied the diaper bag and found these crackers and decided to help herself.

 Opening presents.

 Trying out her new puzzles.

 She loved the doll. Here she is giving it a kiss. It pretty much goes everywhere with her now.

 Trying out her new piggy bank.

 See she loves the doll so much she eats its arm. :)

The banner and the cake.

 The cake, pre- and post- frosting.

 Mom and Dad with the birthday girl.

 Time to dig in. She definitely took some convincing.

She was done. :)

Well I had a fun day and I think Tatum did too. I am so glad she is mine. Thanks for spending your birthday with boring old mom and dad, Tatum, we love you!

Happy Birthday Tatum

Holy cow, today was Tatum's birthday! She's not a little baby anymore, and as fun as that is, it's also a little sad how quickly it goes.  It's hard to believe it has been a year since she was born but at the same time it's hard to believe that it has only been a year. I can't really remember what my life was like before Tatum. What did I do?  I must have had a lot of free time. :) Being a mom has certainly been the most challenging thing I have ever done but I know it is the greatest thing I have or ever will do.

So let's see how Tatum has changed. First is a picture of her the day she was born. Then there is a picture of her every month for the last year. She sure has grown!

Happy Birthday Tatum! We sure do love you lots!

some weekend awhile ago

I have a bit of catching up to do in the blogging department.  So we will start with the weekend that kicked off the Christmas season for us.

It started on Thursday when we headed to Mount Vernon for "Magical Night" which is their holiday celebration up town. We rode a trolley down main street, saw a live nativity and Tatum met Santa for the first time (and didn't cry!). It was a lot of fun and not freezing cold which is always a plus.

Tatum walking with two of her favorite men, Caden and daddy.  She sort of acted like she couldn't move in her winter coat, even though she totally could. One time she fell on her back in the grass and just laid there, frozen, until we went to help her. It was hilarious, I wish we would have thought to take a picture.

 On the trolley.

The fun continued Friday night when we took Tatum to the Children's Museum for the first time. It was free night so it was a little bit crowded for my taste but I think she could really enjoy it on a normal day.

 This picture was taken from the outside of the little house she was in.  She was not shy about joining the older kids in there and playing away. She couldn't have cared less about where mom and dad were.

Tatum also tried the carousel again.

Saturday we got back into the Christmas spirit by heading to Mount Vernon's community performance of Handel's Messiah.  Dad, Rich and Brennan all rehearsed and performed with the group.  It was really good!

We invited our friends, the Jensens, to come too and unfortunately we had to sit behind the biggest scrooge. Every time one of the little kids would make a peep he would turn around and stare at us.  It was so uncomfortable! It didn't help that he was hugely muscular and a little scary. I don't know why he had to be like that, but it certainly managed to ruin the performance for me a little bit.  I mean come on man, it's Christmas! They're kids! Have a heart. (Not to mention the fact that it was a FREE concert, it's not as if he paid big bucks for his seat.) Oh well. Dad, Rich and Brennan did great!

We started wrapping presents that weekend too and Tatum loved to carry them around.

Tatum has recently discovered the cupboard that holds all of our Wii things and loves to get them all out. She likes pulling the cords behind her teeth like some sort of animal, but her favorite is to wear the nunchucks around her neck.

And that takes us a little closer to today.  Stay tuned for more! :)

sick

I feel like I have a lot of blogging to catch up on.  But this is about all that is happening around here lately.

Tatum isn't feeling the greatest and no one will do but mom (as you can see in the picture, she has to be touching my hair as well). Even if she wanted daddy she couldn't have him since he has 3 finals tomorrow. 3!!! But then we will be done with school for 5 whole weeks. Although I do enjoy cuddling with sweet Tatum I would prefer that she just start feeling better.

Maybe tonight I'll be able to do a legitimate blog post after she is in bed.

when mom is gone...

...strange things happen. I just can't leave these two alone together. :)  I had to go decorate at the church for our Christmas party today and luckily Brennan was able to be home so I didn't have to take Tatum with me. (I'm pretty sure I would have been zero help with her around.) When I got home he had these sweet videos to show me. Maybe he is trying to make sure she follows his footsteps into acting? :) In his defense, Tatum has been obsessed with putting blankets over her head and walking around and we always call her Mary when she does it.  Perhaps that's what got his creative juices flowing?  Who knows?  There are three of them, one of which is turned the wrong way, and they are all pretty much the same (I think the last one is probably the best though).  But each of them had parts that made me laugh out loud so I couldn't choose just one to share.  If you're bored, give them a look and enjoy a laugh, I sure did.

Those two make me smile.

twinners

A few weeks ago we had the kids over and Caden showed up wearing the same shirt Brennan had on! I thought it was pretty funny so I took a picture. :)

Brennan helped them each do a melted crayon project. Kelbie is the only one who finished hers before they left.  It was quite a struggle to get a picture with her eyes open but we finally managed.

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Brennan had the whole week off from school and just had to work the first three days of the week.  It was great to have him around a little more but not he's back at it with only two weeks of classes left until finals! Eeeek! It will be a stressful few weeks, no doubt, but it will be good to have this semester behind us.

The Monday before Thanksgiving we did a gratitude FHE and we all made hand turkeys and put what we were grateful for on them.  Brennan and I do this every year and it was entertaining to try to include Tatum in the tradition this year.

Here she is with her turkey. Judging by the way she reacted I think that holding her hand on the paper to trace it was the most painful thing she has ever experienced.  Crazy kid.

 Our family of gratitude turkeys.

On Thanksgiving eve we headed to my parents' house to spend a few days.  Thanksgiving day was very typical.  The guys went and play football in the morning.  The rest of us went for a walk or a run and then watched the end of the football game before heading home for yummy breakfast muffins, the parade, games, and then the big meal.  We ate way too much, as usual. And then we started to plan our strategy for shopping.  Brennan and Caden went out to a couple of stores together that night.  And then mom, Crystal, Kelbie and I headed out at 3 a.m. We are crazy.  We froze our tails off, found a few good deals, enjoyed some breakfast and had a good time together.

Tatum discovered the joys of the rocking chair with Aunt Crystal on Thanksgiving.

And the next day she played in the tunnel with Grandma.

 It's a horrible picture because Tatum's hand got in the way but I still love mom in it. Too funny.

Tatum has really been opposed to Thanksgiving from the beginning. Someone has got to teach this girl some gratitude.  She is always taking down my "Give Thanks" decoration like she just doesn't want the reminder.

It all starts with the mischievous grin.

 And then the destruction begins.

I am grateful for this time of year and the nudge it gives me to count my blessings and remember all that I have to be grateful for.  Saturday morning (which quickly turned into a morning of chaos as we tried to get to the temple) our car died.  And it's going to stay dead.  And it was completely avoidable which makes it all the more frustrating.  And it was my car, the better one, the one with presumably more life in it. And it's expensive to get a new car. And and and and and. I could go on and on.  It was a frustrating weekend with a frustrating outcome and it has made it more of a challenge for me to stay grateful.  But it has been a great exercise for me to remember what really matters.  We have so much! How lucky are we that we have TWO cars so Brennan can still get to school and work.  We are so lucky that it died five minutes from my parents' house so they could come and get us before we froze to death.  We have a warm home, a healthy daughter, the means to get another car, generous parents to loan us theirs in the meantime, enough food to eat, knowledge of the Savior and his atonement, the opportunity to get an education, a good job. I could go on and on.  So what's one car dying prematurely compared to all that? Not much, I know, but I'm human and it will still be hard. :) So for those of you around me, have patience. As Brennan will gladly point out to you, I'm not very good at being an optimist, but I will sure try!

We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving as well!