I miss Tate!!!

Tate has been having a blast in Colo all week with Nana and Papa P., but I miss him terribly. I went up and visited him last night and it was sooo amazing to see him after being away from him for the longest I have EVER been away from him, but it was equally as terrible leaving this morning knowing I wouldn't see him for a couple more days. This week has been super productive for getting things done around our house though! And it really has been good for Tate...he is having so much fun!

Lora and Ava are coming tomorrow evening and staying for the weekend! There are no words to describe how excited I am for tomorrow!!!! First, I get my baby boy back...second, I get a whole weekend with the most amazing friend and her sweet little girl. I'm so excited that I'm giddy!!!! :)

SOOOO, be prepared to see a bunch of pictures when the weekend is over!

Saying Goodbye...

Chris, Brenda and Bode are a huge part of our lives.

Shortly after I moved to Des Moines, Chris and I bought a duplex together.
Chris met Brenda the same week Sean and I met. Sean and Brenda both moved into the duplex with Chris and I about the same time and we all hung out quite a bit.
Chris and Brenda married only 4 1/2 months before Sean and I did.
When they had Bode, I watched him for 10 months of his life before Tate came along so that he didn't have to go to daycare.
Then, Tate came along and Chris and Brenda have always been there for us when we needed someone in a pinch.
Tate asks to go to Bode's on a daily basis and in the same breath says, "go see kwis and benda?!!"
He loves being with them...all he knows is having them in his life and seeing them on a regular basis.
On weekends when we're in town, you're sure to find Sean and I playing cribbage with them until the wee hours.
Things won't be the same with them no longer in Des Moines.
We wish them well and look forward to being able to see them in sunny Florida!
Today though, we are sad.
We love you guys and will miss you all so much!

Brenda is sort of a second mother to Tate. One night I was putting Tate to bed and I said, "I love you Tate." He replied with, "I wuv you Benda."
And he does...so much...One last wrestle with Uncle Kwis...

Bode was tired when we went over to say goodbye, so he wasn't into hugging Tate goodbye, but Tate wasn't going to leave without a hug!

Super fun family evening...

Tate is going to be spending the week with Nana and Papa P. this week. I have never been away from Tate for more than about 36 hours at a time his entire life. This will be so much fun for Tate, but difficult for me. I will be heading up to Colo to see him mid week. I will miss him so much and so will Sean!

We decided that since it was our last evening with Tate before his week with Nana and Papa, we would have a super fun family evening! We went to Incredible Pizza and it was, well...incredible!
They have a buffet with lots of good food and TONS of fun games...Go Karts, Mini Golf, Mini Bowling and the typical games you would find at a Chuck E Cheese.

Tate LOVED the Mini Bowling...

Tate managed to score an 11.
He thought it was the best game ever and even jumped up and down cheering when he got a gutter ball!

Daddy may have enjoyed it just as much...

Tate may have liked this racecar game just as much.

He played it twice.

When we got home, Tate tried his bike out for the first time. This used to be Brigg's, then Lani's, then Bode's bike. Now it's Taters!!! And before I get lectured...we know that Tate needs to wear a helmet. Sean was right next to him the entire time. Plus, Tate hasn't quite mastered the 'riding' part of riding a bike. He pretty much just sits on it. Sean tried to make him understand by showing him how to peddle, but he didn't get it. We'll continue to work on it.
He still thought it was super fun!

Then we played inside...

Apparently Tate couldn't locate his basketball and decided to use Manny as his basketball...

OH, and we cannot forget that at Incredible Pizza they had a HUGE claw grab game filled with Sponge Bobs and Patricks. And wouldn't you know...Sean managed to grab a Patrick. Tate was SO excited, but keeps calling him Squidward. In case you didn't know, that's another character on Sponge Bob. It's sad that I even know that and we aren't all too thrilled that Tate knows it either. We have recently stopped letting Tate watch Sponge Bob and this Patrick is probably not going to help that effort.

As you can see...he loves Patrick...

And apparently Patrick was thirsty...

I still get this all the time...

While the guys (and Brenda) loaded the UHaul...

I watched the kids.
They were pretty funny.

They watched movies...

Bode and Landon enjoyed their last day together before Bode moves to Florida.

And the boys took pictures.
Bode took this blurry self portrait of us...

and he took this one of Landon...

and this is Landon's artistic genius...

Sleepy and Stylish

Notice Tate's shoes. He picked them out himself. I think it's so cute. It drives Sean nuts.
Tate ALWAYS does this. He has a fit if we make him wear matching shoes.

This was after having a complete meltdown at the park on Friday evening because he hadn't had a nap.

This is where I live...

During the day, this is my livingroom. I don't think Tate's comfortable unless there are cards and toys strewn all over the floor. I am thankful he is a good helper when it comes to clean up time each night.

It's the little things.

Sean moved our television from the basement to our bedroom yesterday. I was seriously giddy about it! I've been wanting him to do it for months and he wasn't too keen on the idea. I'm not sure what changed his mind, but he surprised me and I am so thrilled. I am about ready to go lay in bed and watch some HGTV.

Celebrating

We had such a fun day and evening on Saturday! We had a day of celebration...
Celebrating Brigg's 8th birthday and Bode's 4th birthday and celebrating a final weekend together as a family before Chris, Brenda and Bode move to Florida in a week. Not that we won't ever be able to hang out together with all of us again by any means, but not while we're all living here in Iowa. Our gatherings will be fewer and farther between as well as most often will be centered around a holiday or event or at times during a vacation when we hopefully can all get down to Florida at the same time. We are all hoping for the best in their new venture, but selfishly wish they were staying here in Iowa.

There was around 20ish people in our group at the hotel and as usual, we are pretty good at taking over a hotel when a big group of us are there. It was a lot of fun and we all pretty much took over the pool area earlier in the day and then the lobby for the evening. The kids had a blast and so did the adults!

Picture Parade of the Party...

Mostly just pictures of the kiddos.

Macy Grace...

Tate and Ayla playing with their baseball bats...

Kayla and Ayla...

Cassie and Hadley...

Sweet Hadley...

Leah showing off what the lobby floors did to her feet...

Tater...

This was the kids "winding down" at about 10:00pm...
They were up L-A-T-E!!!

As I was looking through the pictures, I realized I didn't get a single picture of Lani. :(

Ayla, Ayla, Ayla...

Seriously!

That's all I have to say about that...

1st trip to the zoo this year!

It was so much fun! We met Mike, Sarah, Leah and Kayla at the zoo right when it opened. The weather was perfect...high 70's and sunny!

The kids had fun feeding the animals and the Koi until Leah got bit by a swan.

Other than that, the animals were in full force...the tiger was roaming the fence line right in front of us, the giraffes were really close to us and active, the monkeys were funny and playing.

It was a good trip.

The Peakin Family looking at the giraffes...

Leah looking at the Jelly Fish...

Tate amazed by the Jelly Fish...

Daddy and Tate checking out the giraffes...

It was so great getting to spend the morning with you Mike, Sarah, Leah and Kayla!

Checking out the scenery from Daddy's shoulders...

Leah Lou

Sweet Kayla

Oh my goodness...I love taking pictures of Sweet Kayla!

Leah & Kayla

Oh how I LOVE these 2 little sweeties!!!

I can hardly believe it!!!

These pictures are a miracle!!!

Tate was obviously enjoying himself today because it is usually impossible to get a picture of him smiling these days!!!

This one melts my heart!

Broken?

I know I've mentioned it time and time again, but Sean is a child. That is probably why he is known as "Uncle Fun" in my family. He relates to his nieces and nephews and likes to do the things they like to do. So last night he was racing Brigg down the hallway at the hotel (because you know how common it is to see a 32 year old man running down a hotel hallway) and apparently got going so fast that he couldn't stop and somehow stubbed his toe on the floor. Anyway, fast forward to today. After walking around the zoo, Sean says, "my toe REALLY hurts! I think I might have messed it up!" He takes his sock off and this is what it looks like.

Ummm, ya think?!!!This picture doesn't even do it justice...it looks worse in person!