Because I have no pictures...

Here's a short video of Tate in the bath tub the other night. I just watched a cute video of Tate's girlfriend (Ava DeCook) in the bath tub, and it reminded me that I took a video of Tate the other day too. Since I haven' t taken any pics of him these last few days, this is all I've got. As you can hear in the video, Tate has become quite the chatty child. He seems to always want to be in conversation although it's usually just jibber jabber with a word mixed in here and there. Kris, his daycare provider always tells me how he is constantly talking, she says he never stops! He's like that at home too! :)

Rub a Dub


This weekend will be another busy one. On Friday from work, we are going to get our taxes done. Then on Saturday Tate and I are going to hang out around the house and get some things done that have been neglected around here (such as laundry!!!) and then when he gets up from his nap we are going to a friend's house to do her hair. We are excited to have some 'family time' when Daddy gets off of work that night. Then on Sunday I am going to be meeting a friend out for brunch and giving her some infant boy items to borrow (she is pregnant with a boy). Sunday evening I am going to a Mark Schultz concert at my church. I know, I am quite the concert goer! :) Hopefully between my plans I can get some cleaning and laundry done around here! UGH! It's not easy to find time to do everything that needs done now that I am working full time. Oh well. We manage. :)

A little late...

Last Friday when I went to the Jeremy Camp concert, Nana and Papa P watched Tate for the night. I met Linda in Ankeny before I headed to work on Friday morning and handed Tate off. She brought him to Colo and her and Pat watched Tate all day and then kept him overnight. I went and picked Tate up around 9:30 in the morning on Saturday. Tate apparently did great and didn't miss me a bit because when I went to pick him up I had visions of him dropping everything and running to me with his arms wide open the instant he saw me. This, my friends, did not happen. He looked at me and kind of smiled like "oh, hey Mom." Then when I handed him over to Linda to say goodbye just before we left, he looked at me, waved and said, "bye!" He could have cared less if I had left him longer! Actually, my feelings weren't hurt too badly, I was thrilled that he had a great time and wasn't sad to have me gone. This was OFFICIALLY the first time we left him overnight with someone else. We did leave him once before, but we were there to put him down for bed and were there when he awoke the next day so he didn't actually know we were ever gone. It was so strange waking up in the morning and not having him there.

Thank you Nana and Papa for watching Tate and showing him such a great time! We REALLY appreciated it!

Post Bath

This is Tate's "post bath hair". I love it! On a regular day, one might think that he doesn't barely have any hair at all (which he really doesn't have that much!), but after his bath I like to put lotion on his head and his hair kind of flips and curls and is all messy and cute!
Tate has really started enjoying his riding toys lately. He especially loves his Little People Bus that he can ride. He likes to get on it and ride all over the basement...only backwards though. He doesn't like to ride it facing forward. He is silly.

Lovin' the bath time photos...

As I have mentioned more times than one, Tate LOVES his bath time. He always gets so smiley and animated...thus, you have gotten to see several "bath time" posts in the past year. I can't help it, I always get so many cute pictures of him in the bath. :)
This is Tate's "kissing" face. Whenever I say, "can Mommy have a kiss?" This is what he does...

Jeremy Camp

Tonight Melissa and I drove to Omaha to see Jeremy Camp and Toby Mac in concert. Melissa got us tickets to it for me for Christmas and it was such a GREAT gift! For those of you who are not familiar with these artists, they are both AMAZING Christian artists. I am a huge fan of Jeremy Camp and have seen him once before. It was such a great time and very uplifting! It is 1:30 a.m and I just got home. I should be heading to bed to go to sleep, but I am all wired from the night (and possibly the Mountain Dew I drank) and all of the fun we had. :) Jeremy Camp's music is so inspiring to me and I hope to have the pleasure of seeing him again in concert some day. Toby Mac puts on a super exciting show as well and they both do it all to glorify God by using their amazing talents. And to be in an event center packed with people all praising our Lord is pretty incredible! It was a great night. Thank you Melissa for the wonderful gift!

Here is a video of Jeremy Camp singing Take My Life at the Dove awards. This is not even close to how amazing the concert was, but at least you can get a little taste of Jeremy Camp Live. :) He has a lot of music like this and a lot of 'softer' stuff too. He's one of my faves!

At my wit's end!

I am about ready to lose it! I don't know if I can stand another day of this weather! We go to Florida in 3 weeks...that's not soon enough! Right now, 3 weeks seems like an eternity!!! Winter is not my friend!

Eating with a spoon!

Until tonight, Tate has shown no desire to eat with a spoon. We have tried on several occasions with no luck, but for some reason tonight, it just clicked! Of course, he refused to eat with a small spoon which probably would have been a bit easier for him. Oh well, we won't complain. It was pretty cute and quite messy as well! He enjoyed it though and when I finally took the spoon away, he was NOT HAPPY! I think he has finally started to get his appetite back! Thank God for that because I was beginning to wonder if he would ever get better! Check out the video below and see Tate in action with his new found talent of eating with a spoon! :)


Tate eats with a spoon

Cousins

Tate and I went up to Colo for the evening on Saturday and spent some time with the family. Tate had a great time playing with his cousins. They loved playing in the kitchen that Nana and Papa had set up. They even had a little table and chairs just their size to sit in. It was pretty cute. We all just hung out and chatted and watched the kids. At the end of the night I gave a few haircuts and then headed home so Tate could get to bed. Tate is going to have a blast playing at Nana and Papa's when they watch him on Friday...he's even going to spend the night with them!

Tyler and Leah are getting so big and they get more cute every time I see them! Only 10 more weeks and we will have a 7th niece or nephew! I can't believe it! We are so excited to get to meet the new little one!

More Puke

Tate puked again tonight. He has been acting fine and has seemed better since his last puking incident. He hasn't barely eaten anything though this last week, but has been drinking fluids well so we aren't terribly concerned...we know he's not getting dehydrated. He has had some pretty nasty stuff in his diapers this last week as well, but has remained happy and fever free. Well, after dinner tonight, while he was playing, he got on his hands and knees on the living room floor and just started puking. UGH! After he was done, he literally stood up and went on playing with a huge smile on his face. So weird! When I put him to bed tonight he cried and continued crying for a really long time. It escalated into a bloody murder scream so I ended up going in his room (I thought maybe he had puked again) to check on him. I NEVER go into his room after we put him down for bed, so I think he was a bit alarmed to see me. The sight of me didn't stop his crying though. He was inconsolable for about 10 minutes in my arms. We tried rocking, laying down in Mommy and Daddy's bed, I tried singing to him, walking around...nothing worked. Finally, we went into the living room and turned on Handy Manny and immediately he stopped crying...that boy LOVES Handy Manny! He watched it for about 10 minutes and then I put him back in bed and he went to sleep. I don't know what the problem was, but Handy Manny cured it! Hopefully he gets back to his healthy self soon!

Weekend Plans

It is 9:45 and I am barely able to stay up another minute! Yep, we are wild ones around here! :) So there goes my Friday night. As of tomorrow, we have a busy day planned. I am watching Bode for a few hours in the morning and I hope to get some cleaning and some laundry done sometime during the day. Then, once Tate gets up from his nap, we are heading up to Colo for the rest of the day to spend some time with the family. Poor Sean has to work all day and then has homework to do once he gets off of work at 6:00. When Tate gets ready for bed, we will load up in the car and head home. Then on Sunday we will go to church in the morning, Tate will take his nap and then in the afternoon when Tate wakes up, we are heading out to the Poleys' for Landon's 3rd birthday party! I can't believe he's 3!!! I have high hopes of getting some more cleaning and laundry done on Sunday too, but we'll see how that goes. Then it's back to a long work week! UGH! I don't know if I'll ever get used to that! Anyway, hopefully I'll get some fun pics this weekend to post! :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

So I am a slacker this year. Sorry to all who received Valentines from us last year, we didn't get them done this year. I just haven't had enough time in the day to do it! I did however go to Target today (alone!) and get some Valentines for Tate to take to daycare tomorrow. A list was sent home with Sean the other day of all of the kids at his daycare "just in case" we wanted to do Valentines. I remembered last minute (today) that I hadn't taken care of getting those yet and I didn't want to be the only parent who didn't participate, so I headed to Target before picking up Tate and got the Valentines. I got a chocolate rose and a card for Tate to give to Kris (his daycare provider) and Valentines and candy for the kids. It is so weird to me that Tate has this whole other world that he is a part of that I don't know fully about. Some of the kids on the list I had never even heard of! I know that Kris will keep the day festive for the kids tomorrow...she is great! I am sure Tate will have a blast! I hope all of you have a day filled with love! Happy Valentine's Day!

You know you're an adoptive parent when...

1. The fact that there are 143 million children without a parent to kiss them goodnight has made you lose sleep.

2. You realize DNA has nothing to do with love and family.

3. You can't watch Adoption Stories on TLC without sobbing.

4. The fact that, if 7% of Christians adopted 1 child there would be no orphans in the world, is convicting to you.

5. You spend free time surfing blogs about families who have experienced the blessing of adoption.

6. It drives you crazy when people ask you about adopted child's "real" parents.

7. You have ever been "pregnant" with your adoptive child longer than it takes an elephant to give birth.(2 years!)

8. You had no idea how you would afford to adopt but stepped out in faith anyway, knowing where God calls you He will provide.

9. You have ever taken an airplane ride half-way around the world with a child you just met.

10. You believe God's heart is for adoption.

11. You realize that welcoming a child into your heart and family is one of the most important legacies you could ever leave on this earth.

12. You know what the word "Dossier" means, and you can actually pronounce it!

13. You have welcomed a social worker into the most private parts of your life.

14. You shudder when people say your child is so lucky that you adopted them, knowing full well you are the blessed one to have him or her in your life.

Author Unknown

I love this. I stole it from another adoptive parent's blog. Although I have not yet experienced #9...I look forward to experiencing it in the future. ;)

Dance Party USA

Mom and Dad are building a room on their house and it is currently empty. Dad has his entertainment system up and running though. The kids LOVE the wide open, empty space to run and play in and on Friday night, Dad cranked up the dance music and the kids danced. It was pretty funny. The first part of this video is just of Tate and Brigg running around and playing. Tate adores Brigg and loves to copy him and Brigg is so good with Tate. The last part of the video is of Dance Party USA. Enjoy!


Dancing

Tights

Okay, so these tights have become quite the issue! I LOVE them and honestly believe Tate does too. They are from Germany and are meant to be worn under pants to keep little boys warm. Yes, they ARE meant for boys! My sister seemed to think it was wrong for me to be putting tights on a boy, which is funny because she is usually not too concerned with fashion. My mom thought they were a great idea, so at least she was on my side! Sean is not at all okay with Tate wearing tights and is just plain in denial that I put these on him. I think they are SO adorable and very functional as well! Sean says he will NEVER put them on Tate. I am the one that dresses Tate anyway, so I am fine with that. Anyway, Tate wore them all day on Sunday and had warm legs and feet because of it! :) Thanks Gretchen for sending them to us! We (Tate, my mom and I) LOVE them!

Weekend in pictures...

Tate LOVED this snake. He walked around with it around his neck all evening!

Seriously, Tate had the time of his life...he was all smiles all weekend!

Tate loved all of the cuddles and attention from everyone!

We had a 'photo shoot' and Lani was so funny doing all of these adorable poses!

Cassie and Lani...

The mohawk Brigg got...he became a different child once he received this cut!

I love her...she is so funny!

Such a ham!

On Saturday morning, Tate and I headed up to the QC to visit Tate's girlfriend Ava and his future in-laws, Lora and James. :) We had such a great time visiting them and seeing their adorable new home and just hanging out. We are so grateful to have such great friends in them! Thank you Lora and James for having us over!

Ava is SUCH A HAM! She is too funny as you can see in the pictures!

As you can see, Ava is a pro at how to use a phone!

Okay, we tried. I know they don't look too excited, but at least they are both facing the camera.

Little sweetie...

Okay, this is amazing! I have never quite seen such a long tongue on such a small child! Hilarious!

Happy to be chattin' on the phone again!

Ava teaching Tate how to play her drum.

Finally

I finally had time to address my computer issues tonight so that I could post pictures from Tate and my fabulous weekend in Muscatine! We had such a wonderful time hanging out with the family! The only thing that would have made it better would be if Sean had been able to come!

Here are Brigg and Lani after their haircuts...

Sweet Ayla!

Two reasons why I haven't posted pictures yet...

1. I found Tate in his crib this morning covered in vomit and had to stay home from work today because he had the flu. So besides dealing with a sick child, I had to do laundry and clean up my child and his room...their was vomit all over his crib and on the floor and walls!

2. I am having computer problems. I can't get my pictures posted. I know what the problem is, I just haven't had time to fix it. I'll try tomorrow.

Can't wait to post later!

I am still in Muscatine...we have had a blast! I have SO MANY great pictures to post later!

Important things to do!

Tate stayed in his pj's all day...I wish I had been able to stay in MY pj's all day too! Oh well, the day flew by because we were VERY busy at work due to so many people not coming to work. Hopefully this terrible weather is going to improve because I am dead set on going to Muscatine this weekend NO MATTER WHAT!!! I have been looking forward to this trip and can't wait to see the DeCooks and my family. In addition to that, Cassie is in desperate need of a root touch up and Brigg HAS TO HAVE a mohawk! Super important stuff people!

Here Tate is just being cute...

Tate still LOVES his play kitchen so much! Here he is just checkin' out what's in the fridge.

Canceled

Sean's classes were canceled today due to the weather so he gets an entire day with Tate. I am so tempted to call into work too, but I won't. Our family rarely gets an entire day together...usually just a few hours here and there in the mornings and an occasional afternoon if I am off early. I wish my benefits had already kicked in, I would absolutely take a day off if they had! Oh well, I know Sean and Tate will have a fun day today just the two of them!

What's going on...

I am not so good at keeping my blog up to date now that I am a "working mother". I just want to spend all of my free time with my family. Actually, I just don't have a ton to blog about.

What's been going on...

I am officially out of training at work and things are going fine. I miss my family, but I will survive. Daycare continues to be great for Tate and he loves it there. Sean is super busy as usual and he attempted to start his first IV today. The key word in that sentence is 'attempted'. He couldn't get it. Apparently the man was 73 and very dehydrated and so it was hard for Sean to find the vein. He was excited that he was even able to try, but was mad at himself for not getting it on the first try. I can imagine it's going to take lots of practice. He can't wait to try again. :)

I got off of work today at 2:45 and when I got home, Sean and I went out and scooped snow. We knew that more was coming, but we thought we'd get what had already accumulated so there wouldn't be so much to scoop tomorrow. Sounds like we may be getting up to a foot! YUCK! After we scooped, we went to pick Tate up at daycare and ran a couple of errands. I fell asleep in the car while we were driving to the bank and slept through Sean going through the drive through there and the whole way home. Then, as soon as we walked in the door I layed down on the couch and slept for about an hour! Apparently I was tired! It's 8:45 and I plan on being snuggled in my bed by 9:00.

On Friday Tate and I are heading to Muscatine (weather permitting!) to visit family and on Saturday we are going to the Quad Cities to visit the DeCook's. It has been forever since Tate hs seen his girlfriend, Ava and I haven't seen Lora in James in forever either! I can't wait to see their new house they moved into and just get some time to hang out with them. Sean is sad that he won't be able to join us. :( Then that evening and Sunday Tate and I plan to spend time with my family and just hang out. We won't be in a rush to get home on Sunday because Sean works until 9 pm anyway. I am SO looking forward to the upcoming weekend in Muscatine! I am sure I will have plenty of pictures to post after the weekend, but for now I have been a slacker in the photography area. I'll work on being better about that! :)

Bring the rain

I have been struggling with some things lately in my life. The huge change that occurred when I started working again, missing my family and daily stress amongst some other things I won't mention. I have heard this song, "Bring the Rain" by MercyMe several times. I love it. I love the words. I heard it on the radio today and for some reason it hit me differently. I have realized that I have not been praising Him enough through these tough times, I have not been going to Him enough. He has brought this "rain" into my life so that I can go only to Him and this song is a reminder of that. What's a little rain? The song says, "I am yours regardless of the clouds that may loom above, because you are much greater than my pain. You who made a way for me, suffering your destiny - so tell me, whats a little rain?" I needed this reminder today.

I can count a million times
People asking me how I
Can praise You with all that
I've gone through
The question just amazes me
Can circumstances possibly
Change who I forever am in You

Maybe since my life was changed
Long before these rainy days
It's never really ever crossed my mind
To turn my back on you, oh Lord
My only shelter from the storm
But instead I draw closer through these times
So I pray

Bring me joy, bring me peace
Bring the chance to be free
Bring me anything that brings
You glory And I know there'll
be days When this life brings me pain
But if that's what it takes to
praise You Jesus, bring the rain

I am yours regardless of the clouds that may
loom above because you are much greater than
my pain you who made a way for me suffering
your destiny so tell me whats a little rain

So I pray

Bring me joy, bring me peace
Bring the chance to be free
Bring me anything that brings
You glory And I know there'll
be days When this life brings me pain
But if that's what it takes to
praise You Jesus, bring the rain

Holy, holy, holy
Holy, holy, holy
is the lord God almighty
is the lord God almighty

I'm forever singing
Holy, holy, holy
Holy, holy, holy
is the lord God almighty
is the lord God almighty

everybody singing
Holy holy holy
you are holy
you are holy

I miss my husband.

Sean worked until 9:00p.m last night. Just as he got home, I was going to bed. We said goodnight in passing and he went downstairs and did homework. He didn't get to bed until after 1:30 a.m and to sleep until 2:00 a.m. He is just getting ready to head out the door to work (6:30 a.m). He works tomorrow at 7:00 a.m again. This is his life. I feel bad for him. I wish I saw him more. I miss him.