Back in the beginning of July we were able to make a trip to Utah and I am finally getting around to blogging about it. My parents were driving out for my niece, Mallory's, baptism and we decided at the last minute to make the trip with them. It was a fun, and very hot, week. And it was so good to see so many people we love and miss.
Tatum loved having so many cousins around and the fenced in yard at Nathan and Stacy's house was great. Here she is playing in the sprinklers with Nathan's kids.
Libbie is such a good sister/cousin/daughter/niece/girl. :) She is so good to keep an eye on the little ones and always more than happy to help them out when they need it. She is really just a sweet young woman. And growing up way too fast! Here she is helping Tatum jump on the trampoline. This trip was Tatum's first trampoline experience and she LOVED it.
More sprinkler fun. We definitely got our fair share of water activities in during this week. Like I said, it was a hot week. We met the Eskelsens and the rest of the Cardon cousins at a park but all the slides were too hot to play on. Lucky for us the park's grass was getting watered so the kids all ran through the sprinklers. I wish I would have gotten a better shot of some of the expressions Tatum was making. She thought it was the greatest thing.
I love this picture because of the way Tatum is looking at Claire. You can tell she just thinks Claire is the coolest and wants to be doing whatever she does. I am so glad that Tatum has so many older cousins to look up to. They are all great kids.
We definitely made sure to get plenty of snuggle time in with Nathan and Stacy's newest addition, Tyce. So tiny and sweet!
Tatum just observing the crazy. :) Just kidding, Tatum certainly has her fair share of crazy in her.
My turn with Tyce. :)
So many toys! Tatum didn't know what to do with herself, there was just so much to play with! She liked this little outdoor ride on toy and loved it even more when daddy tied a rope on it and pulled her around. Helmet required, pants optional. And little miss Claire there in the background learned how to ride a two wheeler all by herself so she was showing us her new found skills.
Notice the big kid (aka Daddy) on the trampoline in the background.
Trying so hard to get some air.
Tyce is definitely the smiliest baby I have ever met. It was so fun to get smiles out of him.
Tatum got lots of practice for when her little brother gets here. She loved Tyce a lot (maybe a little too much). Tyce doesn't look too sure of her though. :)
Splash pads! We tried a few splash pads while we were there. This one was definitely the best and we went a couple of times. It had a little stream that Tatum especially loved and then these fountains were at the end. We have wished many times since we got back that there was a splash pad like this one around us.
This is a different one that we tried on the fourth of July. Not as good, in my opinion, but still fun.
Happy Fourth of July! My family has apparently gotten quite unpatriotic so we didn't do sparklers or anything and we only kind of watched fireworks. But it was still a fun day spent all together. After our BBQ we took a walk to a park and Tatum and Claire got to ride in the wagon. Tatum was a little grumpy I guess.
Nathan was just entering his food coma and the giant tire seemed like the most comfortable place to relax I guess.
Three cute kids on the walk back. Tatum would try to say anything Claire asked her to say. It was pretty funny listening to them.
She finally learned how to eat a popsicle. I think it helped to have a bunch of older kids showing her how it's done.
Back at the best splash pad ever. :)
On Friday after the boys went golfing and the rest of us took the kids to the park and the splash pad we headed up the canyon to check out a natural water slide. Apparently we did a good job wearing Tatum out because she stayed asleep when Brennan got her out of the car. So he carried her like this for the first part of the hike.
Then we used the hiking backpack my parents have had since Crystal was Tatum's age. It does the job!
It was seriously SO HOT! And we were hiking at the hottest time of day on a trail with no covering at all. The baby inside of me plus the baby on my back were just a little too much. Luckily Crystal saved the day and carried Tatum the rest of the way. (Brennan was already carrying Finn, he didn't just leave me hanging. :)) It was so hot my mom almost passed out when we finally made it to the slide. It was kind of freaky. I guess she just told Nathan that the top of her head was just really hot and asked him for a hat. And when he looked at her he could tell she wasn't doing well so he ended up getting his shirt wet and putting that over her head. Crazy lady!
Here is a little video of some of the group taking their turn down the slide.
That night we headed over to Archer's first birthday party. Archer is Callan and Aubrie's (Brennan's brother and sister-in-law) little boy. This was the first time we have met him! The party was so cute and you could tell they did so much work decorating and then it rained so everything had to be moved inside. Sad day. It was so fun to see Archer and Aubrie and the rest of the gang. We got to see Dustin and Kim and there three little kids at the party as well as a few other times, but I somehow ended up with no pictures of it. It was fun to spend some time with them and meet little Jack. Especially because they leave for France in a week and who knows when we will see them next!
Saturday was Mallory's big day, her baptism! It was really great to be able to be there. Somehow we didn't manage to get a picture of us with Mallory but here is one of her with grandma and papa. Such a pretty girl.
Later that day we headed to Bridal Veil Falls and let the kids splash around in the water and throw enough rocks to get in trouble. Why is throwing rock so much fun? I don't know, maybe one day Tatum will be able to explain it to me.
After that we had dinner at a park and then improvised with the equipment we had and played tennis baseball. Despite several mishaps Tatum still managed to have a great time, pant-less again for some reason. She was sitting on third base, in her own little world, when 8-year-old Gavin managed to hit a line drive that hit her right in the chest. It scared her more than anything, but seriously what are the odds?! Then she went wandering off to the playground that was right by the baseball field with a tennis racket in her hand. She had already been down the slides and they were very manageable so I wasn't worried about it. It never occurred to me that she might decide to go down the slide while sitting on the tennis racket. But she did. Which made her go a little faster and wipe out at the bottom. A bloody lip and some scrapes up her back from the wood chips were the result of that brilliant idea. Silly Tatum.
A little action shot of Brennan playing tennis baseball.
My less than stellar attempt at getting a picture of Tatum in the 4th of July dress my mom made for her. It was pretty darn cute!
Eating dinner at the kids table. She thought she was pretty neat.
Another exciting thing that happened while we were out there was that we bought a minivan! We were hoping we might find something since the used car market is better out there and if we didn't we would have had to fly Brennan home for work and Tatum and I would have stayed another week with my parents. But we found something. Nothing fancy but we love it! And although it might not look like it, Tatum loves it too! :) I just took this picture after 16 hours or so in the car. She was a real trooper on the way there and back but she was ready to be done. So was I so I couldn't really blame her.
Whew. It feels good to be one step closer to being caught up. I wish I would have blogged about this trip sooner so I could have done it justice, but it was a good time and we are glad we got to go.
So I'm super behind on blogging...again. But I started this post about a month ago so I figure I'll start by finishing it. Blogging begets more blogging so I just have to get myself to post something.
This post was a little tribute to Tatum's two favorite people, Grandma and Papa. Life is always better when they are around. I can't say that I blame her for feeling that way. Just check out these pictures and you will see that they are way more fun than boring old mom and dad.
At Grandma's house she gets to sit on the counter and eat yogurt bites while Grandma cooks.
Grandma doesn't even make her hold the banana herself!
They are much more fun at the park. Papa took Tatum for her first spin on this toy (I have no idea what it is called.)
And Grandma added to the fun by having Tatum try it laying down. Funniest thing ever.
Pretending to sleep with Grandma.
Driving a firetruck.
I think she might even be thinking that Grandma's hair is more fun to play with, which if you know Tatum that's really saying something!
Papa will lay down and try to take a nap with you, instead of making you take one alone.
Watching the Vocal Point concert in Nauvoo.
Papa plays a whispering game with a pool noodle. So fun.
Now in case all those photos weren't proof enough check out these videos.
This is Tatum laughing at Grandma in the car. Really all my mom was doing was looking at her, but it couldn't have been more funny. Why aren't I so hilarious?
Grandma even did a whole balance beam routine at the playground. What could be more fun?
And driving the firetruck. Hours of entertainment, I tell you.
This post is really just meant to document some of the photos I have managed to get of Tatum with my parents. They aren't big picture takers and aren't super keen on being in pictures but I try to catch some of these moments so we can look back on them. In all seriousness I am so grateful that Tatum loves them so much. I feel so lucky to live close to them right now, allowing Tatum to know them and interact with them. And I am so grateful to them for loving her, being great examples and taking an interest in her. They really are the best parents and grandparents a girl could ask for!
Well I let myself get way too behind on blogging and now I don't even know where to start. The task just seems to overwhelming at this point. There were a few milestones last week so I guess I will start there. Brennan and I celebrated our four year anniversary on the 19th. Hard to believe it has been four years. We got to celebrate in an extra special way with an ultrasound. Yes, if you haven't heard, we are having a baby. The due date is November 3rd and we just found out it's a boy! We are very excited. Tatum got to come to the ultrasound with us, but we regretted it when it ended up taking over an hour!
I'm pretty sure Tatum thinks "mommy's baby" is my belly button but oh well. :)
Here I am at 21 weeks. I feel like I am getting much bigger than I did with Tatum but I'm trying not to let it bother me.
My parents babysat Tatum that evening and we were able to go to Biaggi's for dinner and enjoy some dessert at the park. We also ran a few errands toddler-free, we sure know how to party.
Tatum turned 18 months the next day. I can't believe we are already halfway through her second year of life! I love watching her grow and learn but at the same time I just want her to stop. There is a crazy mix of emotions revolving around children growing up. I've always heard parents say things along those lines, but I'm just barely beginning to get a feel for what they meant. We were in Mt. Vernon for her check up that day, which is probably just about her favorite place to be. Here she is taking Duke out, and looking especially cute I think.
Her appointment went well, in that she is a healthy, growing girl. But she hates the doctor's office! All it took was the doctor cleaning off his stethoscope to get Tatum to throw her arms around my neck, scream bloody murder and start trying to climb up me. I'm sure he loves when it's time for a Tatum check up. :) Her nurse is a good friend of my mom's and doesn't like that she has to be the bad guy and give Tatum shots. As she was leaving the room after the shot and saying bye to Tatum I asked Tatum to say goodbye to her. So between sobs Tatum let out the most pitiful sounding "mmmmmuah" and blew her a kiss. It was the funniest thing.
18 month stats:
Weight: 24 lbs (~70th percentile)
Height: 33 in (~90th percentile)
Head circumference: 47 cm
I don't really know what to say as far as an update goes. She does or says something new every day so I couldn't possibly list them all. She has started to pretend play, which is fun. She will sing "clean up, clean up" (just those two words) over and over again and is usually pretty good about cleaning up her toys or other messes she makes. She LOVES grandma and papa and nothing makes her more sad than having to say goodbye to them. When she wakes up in the morning I can usually hear her in her crib talking about grandma, papa and Caden. She is down to one nap and has been for awhile. It's finally starting to get close to two hours long. When we first cut back to one nap it was never more than 45 minutes. Not fun. For the last few weeks she has been obsessed with books. I realize this is a good thing but sometimes I get awfully tired of reading the same books over and over. Everything stops, and I mean everything, if she hears a train, an airplane or a dog. She is old enough for nursery at church! Yay! Too bad she won't go without us. :( We took her to the playground at the mall last week and Brennan commented that we could leave and she would be totally fine. She had no idea where we were and couldn't care less, but yet she freaks out when we take her to nursery. So bizarre. Oh well, hopefully eventually. She loves to swim but hates to get her hair washed in the tub. She loves most fruit and milk and that's where the list ends. She has not been much of an eater lately. She won't touch most vegetables with a ten foot pole. It can be quite frustrating but I try to remember it's probably just a phase. She loves going on bike rides, which is great because I love it too. There is so much more to say about this little girl but I will stop there. She is great and we love her death!
We'll end with a few photos of Tatum at 18 months.
She has enough hair for pigtails!....kind of. They are kind of interesting but I just couldn't resist.
We had a photo shoot for her and that went over about as well as the doctor's office. But we did manage to get this cute one.
When I met Brennan a little over four years ago he had just gotten home from his mission and was an assistant manager at Costa Vida, a very delicious restaurant. At that point he had given school some thought but had no real plans to attend college. He thought maybe he could work his way up into higher management of Costa Vida (or maybe Cold Stone, where he worked before his mission), maybe eventually own some himself. And I have no doubt that he would have succeeded. But it would have meant many years working many many crappy hours and he decided it wasn't what he wanted. So he started school the same semester I finished. For the last four years he has been a full time student (sometimes through the summers too), a part-time worker, a husband and for the last year a half a father. Pretty tall order. I'm sure there were times that he wondered why he hadn't stayed with his original plan, it certainly would have been the path of least resistance. The path he did take sure wasn't always easy. It was rough going at times but he made it. Last month he graduated from the University of Iowa with a Bachelors of Business Administration in Accounting. It was a big accomplishment and a big day from him. Way to go Brennan! Four years ago you changed your course and aimed for something different, something higher and you met your goal, good for you!
My parents came down to celebrate and attend the ceremony. Brennan got to choose the restaurant and despite my urging to pick some place a little fancier that we wouldn't normally go, he chose Buffalo Wild Wings. :) We did try something new there though, their fried pickles. They were really good!
Tatum sitting between her two favorites.
Me with the man of the hour.
At the arena. Where they didn't turn on any AC. It was an incredibly muggy day, quite miserable.
Brennan with two of his greatest supporters and cheerleaders. We wouldn't have made it this far without you guys. Thanks mom and dad!
He's the one shaking hands with the important looking fellow. Yeah, you can hardly see it.
Some pictures with the Tater Tot in the back yard. I had to post this because his sleeve is hilarious.
And I had to post this one because of Tatum's adorable grin. (Yes, it's a horrible shot of me.)
Here's a video of his name being called.
After the ceremony we had ice cream sundaes at our place with my sister and her family. And at the family dinner the next night my mom made a cake for Macy's birthday and Brennan's graduation. :) He also got a fancy new phone he has been dying for so I hope he felt adequately celebrated. :)
Really, I am incredibly proud of him and this accomplishment. When I was in college I was just single old me. He had a lot more to juggle and he did it. Congratulations Brennan! Three degrees down, one more to go!
