I always do this...

I think I just bite off more than I can chew! I have such a full week in preparation for Tate's 3rd birthday party on Saturday. I create all of these fun plans and ideas in my head for my 3 year old's birthday party and he probably doesn't even care and won't remember it. It's 12:15 and I should have been in bed 2 hours ago. Yet, I just found time to blog. Why can't I just keep things simple? I just can't do it! I know who I got this from...THANKS MOM! :)

Apple Picking 2009

It was a beautiful setting.
A great weekend.
Amazing people that we love so much.
Great fun.
Great food.
A flourishing crop of apples!
Priceless memories.

fun in the orchard

Here are several pictures from the orchard. We always have a lot of fun running around the orchard and picking/eating TONS of apples. This year didn't fail to deliver! Lots of apples were eaten all day long and they were DELICIOUS! In the evening, we got to watch the Hawkeyes whoop up on Penn State which was such a rush! Oh there's nothing like screaming and yelling as the Hawkeyes beat a team that no one expected them to beat! It was an amazing day and weekend all around!

Fabulous Accomodations...

I can't say enough about the fabulous home we stayed in for our Apple Picking Trip 2009! It had all the bells and whistles...a kayak, 4 wheelers, a Go-Kart, snow mobiles (good thing that weather didn't permit the use of them!), a huge firepit, hot tub, hammock, TONS of beds, acres and acres of beautiful land with a stream and check out the gorgeous views! You can't tell in this picture, but the house is an A-frame with all windows in the front and a wrap around porch. Simply beautiful!

With the fun crowd we have each year, we could stay anywhere really and be happy, but there was something about this place! We hope to go back to this home each year! It was perfect!

She's just such a good subject!!!

So here are some pictures of Ayla...because seriously, I can't help it!!!

a funny series of pictures.

Do I have anything in my teeth?

Yup...looks like there's a little something riiiiight there.

I'll get it out if you clean mine out.

All clean!

Tate's Birthday Celebration

We always celebrate Lani and Macy's birthdays while Apple Picking each year. Since we aren't having 1 big birthday party with both sides of our family and all our friends for Tate's birthday this year, we decided to do our celebration with my side of the family while Apple Picking. It was a great time!

Cassie made this super fun cake...

Tate got his 1st set of 'real' golf clubs!

He was SO excited...

and proud!

He was so happy!

Tate got tons of amazing gifts and was genuinely excited about each and every one of them! He couldn't wait to get home to play with all his toys and the second we got in the door, he started pulling them all out and hasn't stopped playing with them since!

Thank you everyone for all of the great gifts!

5 Years Ago

It was probably the most beautiful day of the year...
September 25, 2004
I will never forget all of the little details...
74 and sunny.
I remember those butterflies in my stomach.
I remember almost being late for pictures.
It was one of the best days of my life.
It was more than I dreamed my wedding day would be.
I still believe it was the most beautiful wedding...
which is a good thing, since it was my own!

We have gone through a lot together in the last 5 years.
These 5 years have flown by!

From left to right...
Jessica, Kay, Cassie, Me (duh), Sara, Brenda
In the last 5 years, all but one of these girls have had at least one child and 2 have been married.
I love them all dearly!

Cassie and I...

Chris and I...

Look how small Brigg and Lani were!!!
They were both complete angels (as they always are!) that day...

Brigg was just a little older than Tate is now on our wedding day.
He was such a sweetie and very cooperative that day.
Tate and he are 2 different types of children...that's for sure!
I love how Brigg is watching the girls kiss Sean in this picture...

Sean and his groomsmen...

Lani had been walking for less than a month and she walked with sheer glee down the aisle!
So, so cute...I'll never forget it!

Minutes after we were married...

Just before heading into the reception...

Sean,
I cannot imagine going through this life without you. We have our tough times, our disagreements, our differences...but through it all, I love you with every bit of my heart. I know that we will only learn and grow together in the next 5, 10, 20, 50 years we hopefully have together on this earth. I wouldn't want anyone else in the world for Tate to call "Daddy" and look forward to growing our family with you!
I love you more today than 5 years ago!
Happy Anniversary!

Love,
Jennie

We ALL do!

Not exactly an exciting birthday...

I felt awful all day. I've had a headache for over a week off and on and today couldn't eat anything because I had nausea all day. So no fun birthday dinner for me. I watched Dancing With The Stars and am now heading to bed. I will say that I had a great moment when I got home from work and Tate gave me his birthday card he got for me and gave me tons of hugs and kisses! That was the best birthday gift and for a moment my headache and stomachache went away. He is such a sweetie!

I officially have less than a year in my 20's...ugh.

and it's over

I cannot believe the weekend is over. Even though tomorrow is my birthday, I STILL don't want it to come. We had a productive weekend, but still some of the things on my looooong list didn't get done. :( However, some things that I didn't have on my list DID get done.

We did some rearranging of Tate's toys because we understand he'll likely be getting some more in the next couple of weeks and our living room has slowly become a toy room. So we put some of the toys he doesn't play with away and then we had a low, long unit in the basement that we used to have the TV on and now that the TV is in our room, the unit wasn't necessary down there. SO, we moved Tate's rocker out of his room and brought it downstairs and put the unit in his room to store toys/books on. It fits PERFECTLY in his room and looks as though it was meant for his room. He was SO excited when he walked into his room and saw all of his toys set up. He played in there and read books in his bed all evening. Now, we have about 1/3 the amount of toys in our living room as we had before.

I also cleaned and organized Tate's closet which made a huge difference too! Also, I reorganized our hall linen closet which was in dire need of some organization. I did do a few loads of laundry, payed bills and Sean did the dishes. That was pretty much it though. I didn't get the "deep cleaning" done that I would have liked to have gotten done. I haven't been feeling 100% and seem to be getting tired really easily. Also, I've had a headache that has kept re appearing at some point every day for the last 10 days or so. I am still pretty satisfied with what we accomplished this weekend and we still found time to just relax and enjoy some family and football time! We were thrilled to watch the Hawkeyes win again this week!

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Here's to the week flying by!

Funny Face

I am feeling just awful for Tate. As I have mentioned before, he has nightmares...almost nightly. He has always said, "a tiger is eating me!" or "a cheetah is eating me!", but that's pretty much what his nightmares are about. We stopped showing him the movie Kung Fu Panda (even though he loves it!) because we think that's when the nightmares started and they seemed to have slowed down since we stopped watching that. This morning at 5a.m. he woke up saying, "there's a funny face in my room! He pushed me down! He cut me!" He would not go back to sleep after that...he was too scared. We have NO IDEA what he's referring to, but he has been OBSESSED with this "funny face" all day. He would peek down the hall towards his bedroom, but wouldn't go down the hall without us and then he asked us to go to his room and find the "funny face". We would tell him that there was no "funny face" in there and so all day he kept saying, "see, there's no funny face in my room Mommy." But he couldn't stop talking about it. We would try to avoid the topic and just change the subject so he would forget about it, but he won't. He is scared. It is so sad! He took a 5 hour nap in our bed today. He was exausted, but not scared. Then at bedtime he didn't want to sleep in his room because of the "funny face". We assured him there was no "funny face" in there and made him go to bed in his room. He just kept repeating over and over and over, "there's no funny face. there's no funny face. there's no funny face." My heart is breaking for him!

We looked online about nightmares in toddlers and found some information that indicated that they will occur when toddlers are being taught new things or are experiencing stress causing changes. For example, potty training or parents pressuring them to change behaviors or learn something new. This would actually fit some things that have been going on lately. Tate is being more defiant these days and we are really cracking down on making him "listen". More time outs have been given and we feel as though in the past we may have been too lax and now we're trying to correct that. In addition to that, we have been attempting potty training, however we've decided to stop that for a couple of weeks. Also, we have been concerned lately that Tate is color blind. Not that there's a whole lot that can be done about that, but we would just like to know. He knows his colors really well, but always seems to get red and green mixed up. He can't tell them apart, which is apparently the colors that people who are color blind tend to have problems with. When we hold up something red and ask, "what color is this?" He says, "green". So we've been working on his colors A LOT lately. Apparently doing all of these things at once where he feels pressure can cause a stress that causes nightmares. We read that this is the age when nightmares start to occur because when a toddler turns 3 is typically a common time where lots of changes occur...potty training, learning a lot of new things, preschool, ect.

Anyway, I have no idea what to do to stop the nightmares. As I said, we are putting potty training on hold for a few weeks, so maybe that will help. We will not be putting our attempt to making him a better listener on hold though! This is necessary! I don't know. He has been so scared about the "funny face" all day and I just feel so bad for him. I hate to know that he's in his room scared. :(

Beaverdale Fall Festival 2009

When posting about our weekend yesterday, I had totally forgotten that it was the Beaverdale Fall Festival this weekend. There is a parade every year in Beaverdale and it was this morning. We went last year and met up with Sean's cousin Tammie and her family. That day, she told me that they were expecting again! This year, we met up with them again and they now have a family of 4 with the new addition of Oliver.

It was so much fun and Tate LOVED it!!!

Here are Tate, Sophie and Cooper. Tate went to daycare with Sophie (Sean's cousin's daughter) and Cooper and was SO EXCITED to see them both and was running and giggling in glee to be with them!

He got 2 bags JAM PACKED with candy...

And snuggling with Oliver solidified the fact that I AM READY FOR ANOTHER BABY!!! Oh my goodness, he is such a little snuggle bug, I didn't want to let him go!

And here he is.
Can you say ADORABLE?!!!!!!

Tammie and Derek make BEAUTIFUL children!
Just look at those peircing blue eyes Sophie has!

The weather was perfect and the parade was looooooong! Tate was wore out and went down for a nap right when we got home. It was a great way to start the weekend!

We honestly don't know where he got this from...

Yesterday, Tate put 2 tennis balls under his shirt and said, "these are my boobies!" Really, we have never prompted him to do that or seen him do it before. He's not around other kids a whole lot since he's not in daycare right now, so we have no idea where he got it from. It was pretty funny though!

You can't really tell in this picture, but the tennis balls are in his shirt...