Heading South!

 

Well, we are heading down to Kansas City tomorrow to stay in a hotel so that we can make our flight early on Saturday down to Florida!! WOOHOO! We are SO excited to share with Tate all the fun that we have in Florida. We know that it will be a COMPLETELY different type of vacation due to our new little Tater Tot, but we also know that it will be wonderful. We'll probably have much less sleep than we typically get while on vacation, but with the addition of Tate, it will be SO SPECIAL! We are praying that Tate does well on the flight and no problems occur. Although, I am taking him to the doctor in the morning...I think he may have pink eye. :( He's had a cold and I just want him all checked out before we go to make sure everything is okay and we don't need any meds before we go. Hopefully all will be well and we'll get headed out with no problem! :) As you can see, Tate was pooped when we took this photo. He has been having some troubles sleeping since his cold came and he was finally able to conk out on the boppy yesterday for a couple of hours! He loves his boppy so much that we even stuffed it into our suitcase so we can have it in Florida! Ha. Oh well...whatever works! It's amazing all of the extra stuff you have to lug with you when you have a child! We'll manage I am sure! I'll try to blog in Florida, but if I don't get a chance, I'll blog with lots of pics when we get back! ADIOS!!! 

Stylin'

 

It has been SO FUN dressing Tate these last couple of days since Christmas! He has so many cute new clothes that I just can't wait to put an outfit on him in the morning. This was what he wore today. Of course the sweater was adorable alone, but the coordinating hat just topped it all off! It was hilarious! 

Christmas Morning!

This morning we woke up and headed over to Chris and Brenda's to see what Santa had left for Tate in his stocking and under the tree. Tate was so excited to see all of his goodies! :) Then we had another photo session (minus Bode) in front of the tree. We are determined to get pictures of ALL of the kids in Florida. Bode was having WAY to much fun being his adorable self that he wanted nothing to do with sitting still for the camera.

 
 
 
 

Well, it's the evening of Christmas Day and all in all, it was an outstanding first Christmas for Tate. He got WAY to much and he is a bit under the weather with a cold, but he still managed to have a good time and crack several smiles. We are glad to be home tonight so that Tate can get back to the "real world" where someone is not constantly holding him. He is still sick and definitely not himself with this nasty cold. What a bummer that he had to come down with a cold for his first Christmas! :( We made it through and are feeling SO THANKFUL for all of our wonderful friends and family and for all of God's amazing gifts he has given us! 

More of Christmas...

 
 
 
 

We celebrated our traditional Christmas at Balderson's on Sunday night and it was wonderful! As usual, Cathy outdid herself with the wonderful food and hosting duties! It is always so great to get together with family especially as the family grows...although, with the growing family goes leaving early to get the children to bed! :( It was such a great time even though it didn't last as long as we all would have liked! 

Cute kids!!!

 
 
 
 

We made an effort to get Bode involved in these pictures, but he just wasn't in any mood to be sitting still! He was too funny though and I wish I could have captured it on camera! 

Special Memories...

Here are a few pictures of Tate with his birthfather...
 
 
 

On Saturday, we celebrated Christmas with "The Stewart Side" of the family. In addition, we were excited to have Tate's birthfather join us and get to spend time with Tate and the family. It was wonderful and Brandon is AMAZING! We are completely thankful for him and his unbelievable heart! We are so happy that he has decided to remain in contact with us and with Tate. It was a great time and wonderful to have him meet my family. He is such an outgoing guy that he managed to fit in perfectly. It was so awesome to see him with Tate. It just reaffirms the fact that he loves Tate SO MUCH! Tate is so blessed to have a birthfather and birthmother that truely wanted only the best for him. It was an honor for us to have Brandon at our Christmas and be able to introduce him to our family. It is so hard to be able to describe what a strong, mature man that Brandon is. He is completely respectful of Sean and my role as Tate's Mom and Dad. He expresses so much gratitude for us which floors us because we feel as though WE are the ones who should be so grateful for him and Tate's birthmother!!! Sean and I are both stronger people because of this gift him and Maggie (Tate's birthmother) have given us. Without Brandon in our lives, I feel like we would feel as though something were missing...he is truely family to us! What an amazing gift it was to just be able to spend this time with him and Tate! We are SO BLESSED!!!! 

Christmas with the Knutsons

We went to the Knutson's house for Christmas on Thursday. We ate, we exchanged gifts, we stared at our little angels (and snapped a lot of pictures!) and we had a GREAT time! Here are a few pics from the gathering...

 
 
  

Sick...

Our little sweetie is sick. :( I had to take him to the doctor yesterday for the first time (besides his check ups) yesterday. His eyes were puffy and red and he had a cough and some congestion. The doctor said it was just a cold and to just watch him. He said that if he gets worse, we should bring him back in. He is still smiley and in good spirits. No temprature or anything. He's slept through the night for the last 3 nights! YIPPY! Although, this morning, he seems to progressively be getting worse. He still acts fine, but his cough is nasty and more frequent and his snot has turned green. :( We may be making another trip to the doctor today...we'll see. Poor guy!

Okay...this is a BIG deal!

 
Tate usually HATES his swing, so I gave up on it about 2 weeks ago. I just figured he would never like it. Today, I was looking at my list a mile long and one of the items was to finish the Baby Book Scrapbook pages that I had started from Tate's Baby Book. I wanted to have the majority of his life up to this point documented so that I could show the book to Brandon (Tate's birthfather) when he comes on Saturday. SO, I decided it had been 2 weeks since Tate tried the swing and it was worth another try. As you can see in the photo, he liked it! He was happy and cooing and smiling for about 1/2 an hour in the swing before I looked over and saw he had fallen asleep!!! It's a miracle! I put a blanket around him because I wanted him to feel cozy and he's been sleeping in there for 40 minutes now...that means he has been in the swing for more than an hour! This is a huge accomplishment for him considering he couldn't be in it for more than 2 minutes without crying just 2 weeks ago. This is only the 3rd time that he's gone to sleep on his own without being in someone's arms or in his carseat. Hopefully this is a new trend and he'll be able to play in there more often! 

Tate and Santa

  

This isn't a great picture because it is a picture of a picture. As you can see, we brought Tate to see Santa today. He did a really great job and smiled a lot. They didn't capture him giving his biggest smile, but it's still a cute picture!

A little cuddle time

 
Sids wanted some cuddle time with Tate. He is so gentle with him...Sids loves kids! Okay, if you don't know why his name is Sids, it's too long of a story to explain on here and so I won't even go there! :) 

Our entertainment :)

 
 
 

The things that entertain us now are soooo different than the things that entertained us less than a year ago before all of the kids were born! Our entertainment now is so much more enjoyable, I must say. As you can see, Tate wasn't too entertaining...he was ZONKED! Although, I could still be entertained just staring at him while he sleeps! 

Gifts and more gifts...

 
 
 
 
As you can see, Tate got TONS of gifts...we all did! Everyone was WAY too generous! Tate matched his gifts great though, and we didn't even plan it! Our sweet little penguin! :) 

Shattered hopes...

 
We need to accept the fact that we will not be getting a good picture of all of the "Peakin Side" cousins for a long time...possibly years. This was our attempt! 

Peakin Christmas 2006

 
 
 
 
We celebrated Christmas in Colo on Saturday and it was a great time! It was great to be with the whole family. It's always so fun to have all of the kids together and see what new things they are all doing...they all grow so fast. It was a great way to break Tate into the what Christmas is like! We are so blessed to have such a wonderful family!!! 

Torn...

I have a list a mile long of things that I need to buy, do, clean, bake, wrap and wash. Yet, I would much rather lay on the floor and play with Tate...nothing else, but enjoy him. I feel like every since he arrived, it has been so busy! I keep telling myself that things will calm down after the holidays and I won't have so many items on my list. Time is just flying by! I know that he's only 10 weeks old, but I feel like he's only been here 3 weeks! Where did those 7 weeks go??? I don't want to miss a second of his life. I don't want to miss a single smile, laugh or cry. I am feeling terrible that he has spent hours and hours in his carseat these last few weeks while I have to lug him out into the cold to run my errands. He doesn't seem to mind it because he sleeps and sleeps in his carseat, but when I have days when I am at home, he doesn't sleep as much and I am able to play with him and enjoy him so much more! He makes so many other things in life seem less important. This is good in many ways because he has put things into perspective for me, but bad in that I do have other things in life that I have to continue to do! I guess I am just feeling a bit torn today...torn between my list and my son. I am tired and looking forward to celebrating the holidays and being done with preparing for them!

"I know God won't give me anything I can't handle. I just wish he didn't trust me so much"
- Mother Teresa

Our Christmas Gift!

Sean and I bought a video camera today for Christmas for each other! I am soooo excited to get it charged up and use it! Hopefully I won't be as nuts with it as I am with my camera. Tate is going to be so sick of having cameras constantly in his face! :)

Our Big Boy...

 
 
 
 

It has been a while since I have posted pictures, so I thought it was time. Tater is changing SO much with everyday that passes! He's getting more interactive and much stronger. He's no "Iron Man" by any means, but he's getting a little stronger each day it seems. In just the last 3 days, he has been wanting to be in the standing position a lot! He has been bearing a little bit of weight on his legs for a few weeks now, but not a lot. Lately, he must have been doing some squats while we weren't watching because he suddenly wants to be standing so much! Also, tonight, we put him in a 3-6 month sized pair of pj's for the first time! He is getting so big so fast!!! He is so much more interactive too...when I start to sing a song or do a nursery rhyme with him that I do frequently, he gets excited because he knows what's coming. He smiles all the time and has started making a bit of a laughing sound. I can't wait until he belly laughs for the first time! Whenever I ask him a question or talk to him, he looks me right in the eye and chatters away! His voice is so cute! Sometimes when I sing to him, during the song, he coos and smiles, almost like he is singing along with me! He is adorable! I can't wait to wake up in the morning everyday just so I can see what new thing he is going to do that day! I LOVE motherhood!!!! :)