Kayla visits

Tate is so happy to have Kayla here today to keep him company.

I am too, she is so funny and entertaining even when she isn't feeling 100%!

She keeps saying, "Where's Tate's sister?". She doesn't understand the concept of him not having a sister. I know, it's an unbelievable concept to grasp...even for me! ;-)

Someday...someday.

This NEVER happens...

Tate doesn't nap...ever. It's been MONTHS since he's taken a nap and almost 2 years since he's napped regularly. He isn't much of a sleeper...never has been.

Today he napped on the couch while watching a movie from 4:15 to 5:45 when I woke him up.

That is a bit concerning...hopefully he's not getting sick. He seemed fine once he woke up, so maybe he was tired just because. He is excited (as am I) that Kayla will be joining us for the day tomorrow. I'm sure I'll have pictures to come of our day with sweet Kayla!

Blogiversary (belated) and things to remember...

You know, on January 19th, this blog celebrated 5 years! Wow! I cannot even begin to say how much I have loved having this blog and how amazing it has been for me to have something I can look back on whenever I want to reminisce. Also, there are just so many things that I tend to forget and it's fun to look back to Tate's baby days and remember those things. I also love that I have a way to keep in touch with those that are far away. Blogging is something that I look forward to each day or so and I look forward to checking into so many others blogs as well. :)

I wanted to document a couple of things about Tate that I just want to have somewhere so I don't forget them...

There is a new show on Nick Jr. called Bubble Guppies. Tate is ADDICTED! He LOVES it! It's really educational and Tate is a sponge and has already learned so much from the show.

When Tate speaks in Spanish, he rolls his "r's"...seriously, he speaks with the appropriate accent as well. It's so funny and amazing to me. He honestly knows more spanish than I do. The other day he said to me, "Mommy, yo quiero la papaya." I responded, "Um, you don't even know what a papaya is do you, Tate." Then he said, "Ha. Okay, yo quiero la manzana por favor." Seriously?! I asked if he was serious and he said, "yes, I want an apple please mommy." Well okay then!

When he is referring to colors, if a color is the light version of a color, he calls it "good morning". For example, he'll say, "mommy, can you hand me the dark blue and the good morning blue crayons?" It's so funny.

He can write all of his letters in upper case and is working on lower case. He's pretty good at it actually. He usually writes them all in upper case, but just today he started writing some in lower case, although he needs to work a bit on not writing the lower case letters backwards (below, he wrote most of the A's in lower case and they are backwards) :), I am so proud of him. He spends a lot of time saying, "mommy, how do you spell _______?" Then I tell him and he writes it down. Today, he wanted to know how to spell lots of names...

(Cassie, your name cracks me up...he makes his S's like Z's so your name looks like Cazzie...ha!)

Tate loves ham and cheese sandwiches...like REALLY loves them. When he wakes up in the morning and I ask, "what do you want for breakfast, Tate?" 9 times out of 10, he says "a ham and cheese sandwich." The other time he says, "I don't know."

Tate's transition to our new home has been flawless. He loves it here. He loves all the space and loves his new bedroom and especially loves his new toy room. It has been so wonderful that he has done so well. We were worried because of his difficulties when we moved to our previous place.

my parents

On Valentine's Day, my parents will celebrate 41 years of marriage...41 years.

I love that I can call these 2 Mom and Dad.

I love the example of marriage that they are.

I love that they are still genuinely happy in their marriage.

I love that they still laugh together.

I love that they go on a date together once a week.

I love that they are such great parents!

They attended a "White Ball" tonight and can I just say that my parents are SO CUTE!

Adopting Tate

One of the blogs I am a religious lurker on is Kelly's Korner. Every Friday she does Show Us Your Life Fridays. This week it is about your adoption stories. Since as most of you know, I am extremely passionate about adoption and unbelievably blessed with an amazing open adoption, I decided to participate. So below is the story from the beginning...from the moment God placed it on our hearts to adopt until the day we held Tate for the first time.

I will start from the beginning. Sean and I got married and always wanted to start a family right away. I would have been thrilled to have gotten pregnant on our wedding day if I had been able to. I have had some female issues for as long as I can remember, so I had an incling that it may be difficult for me to get pregnant. To make a long story short, we tried for several months to get pregnant and I ended up at the Reproductive Endocrinologist's office where I was told I have PCOS. I was immediately started on oral medication. I took my Basal Body Temperature every morning. The medication made me miserable. The whole experience was exausting. It lasted a year...no progress. In fact, each month that I charted my Basal Body Temperature indicated that I never ovulated...not once. I was discouraged. At the end of 2005, my doctor said that our next step was IVF. Sean and I had planned a vacation over the New Year that year and decided we would pray about it and likely start IVF when we returned at the beginning of 2006 after taking a several week break from all of the medication. While on that vacation, something happened...God put it in our hearts to stop with the fertility treatments, we didn't want to do it anymore...neither of us did. We had always talked about the possibility of adoption and were definitely open to it, but just thought it would happen after we tried every avenue to concieve. Not because we felt as though adoption was a "last resort", but because we had a preconceived notion that adoption would take years and we wanted a baby as soon as possible. While on vacation though, we knew...we knew that we were supposed to adopt. It wasn't even a full week upon returning from our vacation that we contacted Bethany Christian Services to schedule to meet with them to begin the adoption process. In February, we began the process that would lead us to the greatest blessing of our lives.

Read on HERE about our adoption. Or click on the right sidebar where it says "Our Open Adoption Story".

Then, click HERE to read about and see pictures of the first day we met Tate's birth mother...one of the most amazing and special days of our and Tate's lives.

HERE is where I announced that we had a son and pictures of our first days with Tate.

I have written about Tate's birth father Brandon on several occassions, but you can read HERE a little bit about their bond.

movie night

We had Peakin Family Movie Night tonight. We rented Despicable Me which was SUCH a great movie! Tate LOVED LOVED LOVED it! So did we...very touching. Tate thought it was so fun to eat popcorn, turn the lights out and snuggle in on the couch in our new basement family room for movie night. I highly recommend Despicable Me if you haven't seen it already.

stuff I'm thinking

(I cannot compose a nicely written post right now. I just saw that my sister posted a list of random thoughts, so I am copying)...

*I love wine. I don't really drink much, but I could quite possibly become a wine-o. Red wine please. :)

*Have I mentioned that I love my house? Well just in case I haven't, I do. I love my house.

*This weekend we will celebrate Tyler and Leah's 5th birthdays. Seriously...I cannot believe they are 5!

*Tate is doing wonderfully in our new home. Really, we have noticed no adjustment issues to date. I think he just loves the house as much as we do! :)

*We really need to hang pictures in our house. Aside from that, everything is done! I will post pictures when things are finally hung on the walls.

*I got an under the counter mounted CD Player/Radio for Christmas. It was mounted the first day we lived in this house and the radio has been turned on first thing in the morning and is on all day until we go to bed. I love listening to K-LOVE all day.

*When is winter going to be over??? Seriously.

*Our TV isn't in our bedroom right now because we have it in the living room on the main level. I miss it. We have gotten into the habit of watching TV as we go to sleep.

And there you have it.

wine with a friend

Nothing like wine and a good conversation with a great friend.

It's so nice to be neighbors with Lora. I texted her, "you should pop over for a glass of wine." And guess what? She did! It only takes her about 30 seconds to get here. We sat in our cozy jammie pants and drank wine and talked.

I love our house more and more every day.

Things are good...things are really good.

:)

our news

As all (or many) of you know, Sean plans to go to anesthesia school. There are requirments that he must meet in order to begin anesthesia school. One is that he must have at least a year of experience in an ICU and it is most preferred that it be in a bigger hospital with a decent sized ICU. He's applied for ICU jobs since the day he finished nursing school. He quickly realized that he would likely need acute care experience before any hospital would hire him into their ICU, so he accepted his current job in Clinton. He still would apply for any ICU job he would see posted at any of the Quad City hospitals, but never heard anything. That is until October...he got a call from Trinity in Rock Island about his application for an ICU position. He was asked to come in for an interview. It went well, but he wasn't offered the job and kept getting asked to come in for another interview and another and another. About 4 or 5 (I lost count) interviews later, he got a call yesterday and he was offered the job!!!

This job is going to change so much in our lives. Not only will Sean no longer have to commute to work (his new commute is 15 minutes), but he will be able to start applying to anesthesia school in the upcoming months. He has been working 7pm to 7am for just under a year and in his new position, he'll be alternating months. One month he'll work 7pm to 7am and then the next he'll be working 7am to 7pm. This is HUGE because that night shift all the time was really getting to him. It'll be nice for him to get a breat every other month from those hours. :) Lastly, this job has more financial benefit for us as well. He is SO EXCITED about all that is to come with this job...we both are!

So that's our big news. Nope, we're not pregnant or adopting again (yet!) like some of you thought we might be, but we are so unbelievable excited and grateful about where our life as a family is going right now.

the best day

I must say that I was so overly excited about moving to this house. Like beyond words excited. I just knew that moving here would totally live up to my expectations. What I didn't know...that it would exceed my expectations! Honestly, I have NEVER been so happy with my home as I am here. Everything about it. The LOCATION, the character, the size (definitely not huge, but SO MUCH amazing usable space for us), the new everything (carpet, paint, appliances), the coziness, the garage...and the list goes on. I honestly feel like we have twice the space we had before. And Tate is doing AMAZING! He LOVES it so far! He keeps saying, "our new house is TERRIFIC! I love it here, it's FANTASTIC!" Yup, I agree Tate. And there are just not enough thank you's to go around to thank everyone that helped. Really, I hope each of you know how much we truly appreciate all you did. We have the best friends and family!

And today. There isn't a whole lot I can disclose yet, but it was the BEST day. The best day we have had since I can remember. Then, Sean got low census and doesn't have to go to work tonight. :) Hooray! My parents came up and took us out to celebrate our new home and the other fun news that we can't disclose yet. I plan to later this week though. :) It may seem more exciting to us than it does to all of you though, so don't hold your breath too long.

All in all, I just feel so full of joy tonight.
:)

a long day

I just got home (well, the home we've been living in this past 11 months). I left at 8:30 this morning and haven't been here since. I spent the entire day at our new home (the one that's WAY better than our current home) unpacking, arranging, putting away, carrying...you get the point. I don't know how many loads later and our new house is looking great! We are trying to do a much more organized move than we've done in the past and it's working famously! The kitchen and bathroom are all unpacked and put away and Tate's bed is set up. We have moved all of the "little stuff" and have just the furniture and a few other odds and ends left to move with the Uhaul tomorrow. SOOOO, tonight is our last night in this house. I must say, I am not in the least bit sad. I am so excited to be in our "new" house. So I just thought I'd touch base really quick because this will be the last you hear from me until next week. Our cable and internet will not be installed at the new house until Monday afternoon.

Oh and seriously, we have the BEST friends and family...everyone has pitched in by watching Tate, letting us borrow their vans and helping us move. Wow, we are blessed. And unfortunately, we've moved A LOT in the last 7 years...this will be the 5th time! And we've had this amazing help each and every time. So THANK YOU is not enough to say to you all! We hope you know how much we appreciate everything you all are doing to help!

Just Sayin'

We get the keys to our house tomorrow.

Just sayin'.

I could hold Abby all day...

Introducing Abby Lynn

I got to meet and photograph our gorgeous, 9 day old niece Abby Lynn today.
Oh my goodness how I love her!

Isn't she beautiful?!!!!

more...

Seriously...

And these just kinda make me want to cry.

Mommy love...

his orange hat

My mom bought Tate a new winter hat for next year because all of the winter stuff was on sale after the new year. We thought he may wear it this year too. It's a "youth" size, but as most of you know, Tate has a large head and has been wearing "youth" size head attire since, well about the day he was born! :)
Well, he decided he wanted the tags off of his hat tonight after his bath because he was cold and wanted it to make him "cozy warm". He has had it on since then and just asked me if he could wear it to bed.

It's kinda big on him, but he loves it and seriously, he is too darn cute!!!

I mean, I can hardly take those adorable blue eyes, perfect little button nose, subtle dimples and little pointy chin!

And the bad thing is that he KNOWS that I can hardly take those things and uses them to his advantage WAY too often!

Even though I know he's doing it to work me, I still fall for it way too frequently...I just can't help it sometimes!

Oh man, he makes my heart sing!

Tate's favorite song...

Yesterday Tate said, "Mommy, you are amazing just the way you are."

Um, can you say melt my heart?!

Seriously.

I knew where he'd heard that saying though and unfortunately, he didn't come up with it himself. :)

I asked anyway. I said, "That's so sweet Tate. You are amazing just the way you are too! Where did you hear that?"

He said, "It's my favorite song, Mommy. You know, the one where the world stops and stares for a while and there's nuffing (nothing) on your face that I would change."

Oh my goodness, I honestly don't know how he learned all those words! He is too funny!

So I pulled the song up on You Tube and he's made me play it about 10 times in a row while we dance all over the living room.

Oh how I love my boy!

oh crap.

Sean just called me to tell me that he slid into the ditch just outside of Clinton. He is fine, the car is fine. Just frustrating. And seriously...this week?!! Really, we don't need anything else added to our list this week.

I like comments...

...and I'm kinda (okay, actually VERY) needy. I'm not too proud to admit that. You know, words of affirmation is my love language by a mile! So I haven't had a comment on the last several posts. Is anyone out there? I just want to know that I still have readers! :)

With Love,
Needy Jennie

adjustment

Tate struggles with change.
When we moved to our current home, it took Tate about a month before calling it home.

He kept saying he wanted to go to his other home and he missed his home.

He didn't sleep well, he was angry at us.

It broke my heart.

I am worried about that happening again, but he's been to our new house a few times now and always says, "I LOVE this house!" and "THIS is my new room, and this is where my toys will go!" He acted genuinely excited.

Today, we started taking everything off of our walls, we have bins sitting all over the place, we are clearly in the moving process with all but the necessities packed up.

Tate watched as many of his baby toys went out the door to be taken to Goodwill or to be sold at Once Upon A Child. He was concerned and is now saying, "I don't want to move. I want to stay in this home, I love this home."

Uh oh. I was hoping because he's a bit older that the adjustment period would be a whole lot easier and a whole lot quicker for him. Now I'm doubting that. Ugh.

On a side note...

The front door and the side door of our new house are red.
I love them. :)

So I'm adding to my prayers an easy adjustment for Tate to the new house.

He only has 5 more nights in this house!

Feelin' the love...

I have some funny stories about Tate that I want to document before I forget them...

The other day, Tate looked at me and said, "Mommy, I love Lora to the moon and back." I said, "AWE! That is sooo sweet, Tate! I bet she would love to know that. And guess what? I love YOU to the moon and back!" He responded with, "Mommy, you can't love me to the moon and back. Only I can love Lora to the moon and back." I said, "Don't you love me the moon and back too?" He said, "No. But I really really love you a lot!"

Uh, thanks a lot. Ha.
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We went to Von Maur yesterday and when we walked in, Tate said, "OH MOMMY, I LOOOOVE Von Maur!" Me too, Tate! Ha. :) Then we were making our purchases and the woman helping us asked Tate if he wanted a balloon. He, of course, said that he did. She went and got him a balloon and he then said, "thank you for the balloon, I love you, but I have to go home now because I have to poop." Wow...embarrassing! I apologized to the woman and she informed me that she has a little boy too and wasn't offended at all. We may have to teach Tate to withhold saying 'I love you' to complete strangers!

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And on a side note, Tate pretty much doesn't understand that kisses go anywhere besides the lips. Those of you who have been in a situation to get his hugs and kisses know that all too well! You can try to turn your face away for him to kiss you on the cheek, but he doesn't have any of that. It's lip kisses all the way for the Tater! We have tried to explain that when someone turns their head to just kiss them on the cheek, but that obviously goes in one ear and out the other. Another tidbit about Tater hugs and kisses...the hug comes first...always! He doesn't EVER kiss and hug. He gets all confused if that ever happens. It's a hug THEN a kiss. :)

a manicure date

I took my sweet niece, Leah on a manicure date tonight.

It was so much fun having one on one time with her!

We chatted and laughed and got our manicures and just had the best time!
I love this girl...

I don't know if you can see it, but the girl who did our nails wrote LEAH on her nails and then put a flower on her thumb. So cute. Leah LOVED it!
Leah instantly chose the sparkly polish. She picked 2 different sparkle colors and wanted them both. So, the manicurist alternated the 2 colors on her nails.

She is too funny and I loved the conversations we had this evening.

I think it's so special to get one on one time with my nieces and nephews and this is the very first time I've had one on one time with Leah!

I loved every minute of it!

so thankful

So thankful to live near friends and family that are so helpful to us! I just don't know what I'd do without them! Between my parents, Cassie and Paul, Sarah and Mike, Lora and James and even Sara and Travis, Pat and Linda who still aren't THAT close in proximity to us, we seem to always have someone willing to watch Tate when we need someone, help us move when we need extra hands, have a bed for us to sleep in, have us over for dinner and be available to me for a shoulder to cry on or a listening ear.

All of these family and friends are (as usual) stepping up to help us in any way they can for our upcoming move. Helping someone move is no fun...it just isn't. We know that, and we appreciate those that are helping us move and watching Tate while we are moving so that it's as easy as possibly for us. As I sit here and think about how impossible this would all be without them, I just feel so very thankful!!!

Love you all!

we started packing...

We started packing today. I packed up 1 of our bathrooms and threw away A TON of stuff. It felt great to get rid of a bunch of stuff. Then, I got excited about how good that felt and decided that I would go to the basement and get rid of a ton more. I ended up going through Tate's baby toys. I will say, it wasn't as fun to get rid of that stuff. In fact, it was hard and made me kind of sick. The memories of Tate playing with these toys are vivid! His little brothers or sisters will have toys of their own though...whenever that may be! I did keep a few and the rest are going to Once Upon a Child so we can make a bit of money off of them. It kinda broke my heart, but at the same time, still feels good to clear out our stuff a bit.

It feels like we spent all day doing stuff and when I look around, the house looks just like it did this morning. I hate packing, I hate moving...it's always so much more work than you think it will be.

This weekend we will be doing a lot of packing and preparing....it will be our last weekend in our current home! I can't believe it! It feels like we JUST moved in! We are going to make a trip to Cedar Rapids sometime this weekend or Monday to visit our newest niece, Abigail Lynn, born yesterday!!! I CANNOT WAIT to snuggle her...and of course to photograph her! :) I'll have to dust my camera off because it's been FOREVER since I've taken a picture.

So I am realizing that I just don't have a whole lot to blog about right now. I'll hopefully have more exciting things to post soon.

Randoms for the night...

Tate and I are home from our weekend in Muscatine. I watched my sister's kids while she and Paul went to Chicago for the weekend. It was fun watching the kids...they are really good kids. I am happy to sleep in my own bed tonight though! :) If you can believe it, I didn't take A SINGLE picture...well, unless you count the couple of pics I snapped with my phone. Those are in my tweets on the right sidebar.

So we are moving in 12 days. I am PRAYING HARD that this snow accumulation stays away! Oh my goodness, it would be a God send if we had dry ground still in 12 days! I mean, the cold is inevitable...I can deal with that, but snow would just make it so much worse!

I had big plans to head to Des Moines this coming weekend to do some hair, but after looking at our calendar and evaluating all that needs to be donw before we move, I realized there is NO WAY that is going to happen! So I cancelled those tenative plans and will be staying home the majority of the weekend to pack pack pack! We will however be making a short trip sometime either over the weekend or on Monday to visit our new niece who SHOULD be born tomorrow!!!! Sara is being induced in the morning and we are praying that all goes quickly and without a hitch. :) Cannot wait to meet (and take pictures of) our new niece! I am going to be doing a newborn photo session with her when we visit...FUN FUN!!!

My lips are chapped. I HATE that!

I miss my husband. I've been in Muscatine all weekend and he worked all weekend. Can't wait to see him when he wakes up tomorrow evening. :)

I was asleep by 10:30 last night and slept until 8:30 this morning. It was fantastic and I am feeling very rested. This makes for a slight problem tonight though. I am concerned that I won't be able to get to sleep tonight. We shall see!

When I opened my blog to write this post, I saw my last post was the tour of our new house and I seriously got butterflies in my stomach! I am SO excited and look at the pictures more than I like to admit. :)

So that's all I've got for ya tonight!

A tour of our new home!

We went to check out some things at the house again today and discuss some things with the new landlord.

While I was there, I decided to take some pictures to share!

The stove will be moved to the wall across from where it's at in this picture once the microwave range hood in installed and that cabinet without the doors is removed...

I love the archway above the bathtub...
I love the front door and also am super excited about the built in corner hutches (there are 2 of them) in the dining room!

The master bedroom is small, but this little area outside of it will be handy to put a dresser or 2...

This is the view of the basement from the bottom of the stairs...we plan to put a TV, couch and our island/bar down here...

Also, Tate's toys will be down here...kind of a toy room area...

This is standing on the other end of the basement, facing the stairs. The stairs come out in the kitchen. To the right of the stairs, you can see those kind of saloon doors...those go to the laundry room and more storage...

The side door goes right into the kitchen...

We are excited to have a fully fenced yard, a large patio, as well as an outdoor storage shed...

The garage is a 2 stall garage and Sean's favorite feature is the basketball hoop...

We are SO SO SO excited! Going through the house today got me even more excited! I just think it's so cute and I cannot wait to move in!

Now we're just PRAYING that the snow accumulation STAYS AWAY until after January 22nd!

A new recipe posted!!!

Isn't this fun?!

I found this recipe online and made it over Christmas.

It was EASY and a huge hit!

Check out A Peakin To My Recipe Book for the recipe for Glass Block Jello.

10 in 10 and 11 in 11

I saw on another blog I read that the author posted her top 10 favorite things from 2010. I thought it was a good idea, so here are mine (in no particular order)...

10. Vacations to Florida (3 to be exact!)

9. Entering my 30's

8. My new Prius

7. Starting Jennie Peakin Photography

6. Our weekend away in Chicago just Sean and I

5. Tate getting potty trained

4. Meeting Maggie, Tate's birth mom

3. Sean getting his first nursing job

2. Moving to Davenport

1. Welcoming our new nephew, Boone into the world

And I am going to go a step further and now list the top 11 things I am looking forward to or would like me and our family to accomplish in 2011 (in no particular order)...

11. Weight loss

10. Move to our new house

9. More photo sessions

8. Travel to Florida

7. Start Tate in Pre-School

6. Sean get a job in an ICU in the Quad Cities

5. Start using my sewing maching (finally!)

4. Go to bed earlier

3. Welcoming our new neice into the family (any day now!)

2. Spending more time outdoors since we'll have a house, yard and patio of our own!

1. Sean get accepted into an Anesthesia program

chaos, a small kitchen and a Snuggie

While it seems as though everyone else in the world got back to a routine today, my life still feels like complete chaos! I mean, the tree is still up, my house is a disaster, everytime I clean something up it seems like another mess is created. I don't know what it is, but I can't seem to get a grip on things in my house! And to top it off, we are moving in LESS THAN 3 weeks! YIKES! 18 days to be exact. I have no idea how it's going to get done along with all of the other things I have to do in the next 18 days.

So tomorrow and Wednesday are going to be the days when I claim back my house and my life. That is my plan at least! We will see how it goes. Sean works tonight so he'll be sleeping all day tomorrow and I have a suitcase that needs unpacked in the bedroom as well as some other organizing and cleaning to do in there. Guess that'll have to wait until Wednesday.

We have driven by our new house yesterday AND today. You think we're excited? We totally are. I make Sean drive by and I think he's getting annoyed. Although, we actually got out yesterday and discovered (while looking in the windows) that the fridge and stove were in the kitchen! Yay...kind of. The kitchen is SMALL and we originally looked at it without any appliances. Now that the appliances are in, it looks even smaller! Yowzers, it was a little alarming to see how small it was with the appliances in. Oh well, I'll survive. On the plus side, the appliances are all brand new which I LOVE! :)

Tate is LOVING all of his Christmas gifts and just plays and plays and plays all day long. I am loving the Hawkeye Snuggie Sean got for Christmas and am wearing it as I type! It's so cozy and earlier today Tate said, "I want one of those too, Mommy, it's so snuggly!" He said, "I want one with Woody and Buzz on it." I said, "well I don't know if they make them small enough for you." His response was so funny, he said, "well I should call Nana P and see if she can make me one!" He knows who to call to make him things! Ha! Nana P, he tried to call you just after he said that and your line was busy. :)

One of my many guilty pleasures is on TV tonight...The Bachelor! It's 8pm, so I will be putting Tate to bed in a few minutes, snuggling back in with my (technically Sean's) Snuggie to watch The Bachelor and then trying to get some picking up done down here in the living room and kitchen!

Good night all!

Our Family

We almost never get in a picture all together, so I had Cassie take a few of us the other day.

I hate myself in pictures, but love that we have some family pictures finally, so I'll deal with it.

I can hardly stand it, Tate is so sweet in these pictures!

I am in love with his shaggy hair! He has the perfect hair for a shaggy do with his little curls and waves!

Looking into 2011

As Sean and I drove home from Muscatine tonight, we talked about 2010. We both agreed that 2010 was a much better year than 2009. 2009 was a rough year. We had a lot happen in 2010...big changes for us. For 2011, we kind of are hoping for calm. We are moving in 3 short weeks, but aside from that, we are hoping for some sort of calm. For not a lot of big change. I've learned that we don't always get what we hope for though. So I say, "bring it on 2011!" I believe that our family is stronger because of the stressful times we've endured and I also believe that whatever is thrown at us, with the help of the Lord, we will be able to handle it. I am mostly praying for good health and joy for our family, friends and us.

Bringing in 2011!!!

Since we were already in Muscatine from the beginning of the week, we decided to just stay through New Years Eve to celebrate with my parents.

We invited DeCook's to join all the other friends and family that were there and it was a fun party!

So glad we decided to do this again this year!
Just some of the group that was there...

Sean and Brenda...

Lora and I...
Cassie, Brenda and Lora...

We did A LOT of singing while bringing in the New Year...

Sean and James... There was LOTS of dancing.

I think this picture was snapped only a couple of hours after my brother and James met.

They were fast friends.

Ha!

"I GOT A FEELIN', THAT TONIGHT'S GONNA BE A GOOD NIGHT, THAT TONIGHT'S GONNA BE A GOOD NIGHT, THAT TONIGHT'S GONNA BE A GOOD GOOD NIGHT!"

Brenda rockin' some of the fun New Years glasses we had...

Lora and James...

Brenda and Chris dancing the night away...

This was to be a snapshot of all of my parent's kids and their spouses.

Somehow James squeezed into this one...ha!

Mom and Lora...

This was at the end of the night.

Most people were doing much more sitting than dancing...but not these 2!

They were still workin' the dance floor!

It was SO MUCH FUN!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Welcome 2011!