A weekend filled with lots of...

FAMILY

FUN

CUTENESS

NATURE

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS

INTENSE COMPETITION

FOOD

STREAKING

Happy 4th of July!

We had a fabulous weekend! We went up to Storm Lake on Thursday night to spend time with family. We were so excited to get there. Sean worked until 9 pm on Thursday night, so we planned to head out of town by 9:30 and that way Tate would sleep in the car. We were so excited to get there (and it was so late!) that at 11:50 pm, Sean got pulled over! Ugh! In the midst of lights flashing and my panic because I my insurance card I kept in the car was expired, Tate woke up...he was less than thrilled to wake up to bright flashing lights. He cried and cried and cried...which was probably a blessing because the cop rushed back to his car not worried about the fact that our insurance card was expired and came back quickly to let us know he was giving us a warning. WHEW! We got to the hotel about 12:30 am and Tate woke up when we got him out of the car. We put him right down in the pack and play, Sean went to bed (I stopped hearing Tate talk around 1:00 a.m) and Cassie and I hung out in the hall outside of our rooms and talked until almost 2 am! I was asleep around 2:30 and woke up to Tate talking to me at 6:35! He usually always sleeps until at least 8:00. Needless to say, we were ALL tired! Tate (for the first time in about 7 months!) took a morning nap and an afternoon nap the next day.

The guys had tee times at 9:45 and we all just hung out with the kids at the Tom and Donna's (Cassie's in-laws) house. We had an amazing dinner of ribs and all kinds of sides, tons of yummy sweets and some intense Bagg-O competition. We headed back to the hotel around 7:30 with Chris and Brenda so that Bode and Tate could swim for a bit before bed. We put the boys to bed and hung out in Cassie and Paul's room and watched the Boston Pops fireworks on TV and chatted. We were all just too exhausted to watch the fireworks and there was NO WAY the boys would have made it...they were just too tired. The next day the guys golfed again and we all hung out at Donna and Tom's again. After the guys got back from golf, we celebrated Brigg and Bode's 7th and 3rd birthdays with a party, cake and gifts! It was so much fun and we just can't believe these boys are getting so old! Time flies! We all spent the rest of the afternoon playing games, chatting, and eating. We had another amazing feast and then Sena, Tate and I headed home around 9:00 pm. Tate didn't get to sleep until almost 10:15 in the car, but then slept until 9:40 this morning!

It was a whirlwind of a weekend, but A TON of fun! Hope you all had a fabulous 4th as well!

he loves my shoes

Tate loves wearing Mommy's shoes...especially this new pair of black Crocs I just got. For some reason, Tate is always pulling them out and putting them on. He can walk in them, but prefers to just stand in them. Here he is watching one of his "sows" (shows) while standing in his favorite shoes of Mommy's.And doing some gymnastics...

Weekend Fun

We had a great weekend. Mom and Dad were in town and we spent the weekend hanging out at Chris and Brenda's and also managed to fit a little shopping in! :) Tate and Bode had fun together...for the most part, but by the end of the weekend, I think they had enough of each other! Ha. As you can see, Tate enjoyed Bode's Batman mask (for about 10 seconds) . Bode taught Tate some rowdy things this weekend. We can't keep Tate from catapulting himself off of our couch. Thanks Bode!
Just being sweet...seemed to be a rare sight this weekend! He was quite the stinker.

Alway loves a bath...

Ebony and Ivory

Advice Please!

Okay, we have a situation on our hands...

Tate is having some "bedtime issues". We (at least for the last year) have been super consistent with bedtime. At least in the sense that (accept for a handful of times mostly at Mom and Dad's) we put Tate to bed at the same time every night, we don't go back in his room once he's in bed, no matter what. He sleeps with the same things all the time, we do the same bedtime routine at night. Lately, we have been super cautious about not riling him up for the last 45 minutes or so before bed. He's always rubbing his eyes and acting tired at bed time. We put him to bed and without fail, he is awake in his crib for no less than an hour and usually about an hour and a half...sometimes even 2 hours before he goes to sleep! He doesn't always cry, sometimes he does though for part of the time, but not for that long. He pretty much just squeels in delight running around in his crib and jumping and talking to himself with an occasional, "PUPPY!!!!!!" or "MOMMY!!!! DADDY!!!!" yell here and there. He doesn't have this problem for his nap, he goes right to sleep within 15 minutes or so and sleeps for usually 2 hours. At night, he gets to sleep by 10:00 or 10:30 (because he goes down at 8:30) and wakes up by 7:30 in the morning. That's only 9 hours of sleep at night and 2 (if we're lucky) for his nap. I don't think 11 hours of sleep a day is enough for a 20 month old is it?! He can't go without a nap, he did that one day and that was not a good idea at all! I don't know what to do. He no longer has an ear infection, so I know it's not that...plus, if he did, I would think he would be crying more and have trouble at nap time too. He is teething, but we've tried Ibuprofin and he still stays up. We gave him some tonight and he just started snoring about 5 minutes ago and it's 10:35! I have no idea what the problem is. What should I do? I need advice!

The last few days...

I've been finding it hard to come up with things to blog about. Also, I've been finding it hard to remember to take pictures! This week FLEW by which I am definitely not complaining about! We didn't do anything too exciting. Just a lot of hanging out at home in the evenings. Tate is so funny. He has many things that he really enjoys these days...coloring, playing with his "guys" (mainly the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse characters), playing with his "tactoes" and cars, dancing, praying (he seriously makes us bow our heads, fold our hands and pray about 5 times during dinner) and his new passion...cheerleading! Yup, we may have a male cheerleader on our hands. :) It's pretty funny...see the short video below. Ha.

I can't even stand it...seriously...look at that face!

In heaven playing with his "tactoe"

and his "guys"

and he is quite the artist as well...

relaxing with Daddy in the morning watching his "sows"...aka shows.

GO TEAM

Tonight we went over to Chris and Brenda's and the boys swam and played, we ate some chinese food (yummy!) and hung out for a couple of hours. Tate was having serious Bode withdrawals. Bode is truly Tate's best friend and it is about the cutest thing ever! All week, Tate was walking around with my old cell phone up to his ear saying, "Bode, Bode, Bode, Bode" over and over again. He was so happy tonight to get to play with him. He copies Bode's every move. I am glad they are getting along better than they did just a few short months ago.

This weekend, Mom and Dad are in town. We're excited to spend some time with them and just hang out and possibly do a little shopping! :) Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Daddy/Son Time

My day today was uneventful...I worked. SO, I am going to post about Sean and Tate's day! :)

Last year, I got the deal of the century when I bought a practically new bike trailer with room for 2 kids for us to hook behind a bike at Goodwill. It was $20!!!! Seriously, I am proud of this purchase. :) So anyway, Sean and Tate have been getting some good use out of it. They took it this morning for a few mile bike ride to a park and played there for a couple hours and then came home. Sean found a little splash pad at that park that he didn't know was there and plans to take Tate back tomorrow in the bike trailer and go there. Tate will have a ball I am sure! He loves the water. I am jealous! :( I am happy they are doing some fun activities though and getting some really important Daddy/Son time in because once school starts again for Sean, it'll be hard to find a lot of time. I am really dreading Sean going back to school in the fall! I just have to keep reminding myself that he's going to be done in LESS than a year!!! WOOHOO! Well, at least for a while...before he goes back AGAIN! Ugh...I am just blocking that out of my head.

Not a lot to talk about tonight. I have some pictures, but don't have them uploaded so those will have to be for later! :)

playing, dancing and being dramatic

Tate and I had a pretty low key day today. I did some organizing and putting away of his toys. He had so many toys in our living room upstairs that were baby toys. He would "play" with them occasionally, but I knew would never notice if they were gone. I was at my wits end tripping over and stepping on toys all of the time. We had to have a little more organization, so that's what I did today.

Tate and I then left to go to the park and as we were driving there, it started to sprinkle, so instead we headed to the play area at the mall. It was insane there. I am not kidding, at one point, there had to be about 40 kids in there all running around and screaming at the same time. Tate was right in the action as happy as could be! We stayed for about an hour and a half until Sean met us there when he got off of work. Then we stayed for another 20 minutes or so. Tate was in heaven.

When we got home, we danced and played and Tate rediscovered some of his "old" toys that were buried under all of the toys that I had put away this afternoon so he was happy to play with those. We had our nightly dance party and then played some more in his bedroom. It was a nice evening. Tate was being pretty animated, so I took some pictures for you all to enjoy! :) Also, I got a video that's not as dark as a lot of the others I have put on here. I will post that as well.

This is Tate doing "OH NO!" He did this the other night when we were at Cathy's and he was imitating me doing it and now he does it all the time! It's pretty funny.

I just think this picture is HILARIOUS. Tate is super into his dancing here...

Two of Tate's favorite things, "tactoes" and Mickey!

Tate was so kissy tonight...I love that! Here he is kissing his giraffe figurine.

a fun evening at home

Don't know what to post...so I'll ramble.

I was just thinking that I should blog. I have no idea what words are going to come out of me tonight, so I am just going to ramble the thoughts that are going through my mind.

I just watched Juno. I bawled. It touched Sean too. I just feel so blessed. And sad. And anxious. The movie made my heart ache for Tate's birth parents, made me anxious to experience the blessing of adoption again and just made me feel so blessed to have Tate. When it was over, Sean said, "I just want to go get Tate out of bed and hug him!" I know what he means. I just never knew this would be my life. I never knew I would be an adoptive mother. And now, I can't imagine NOT being an adoptive mother. It's one of those things that truly changes who you are. I feel it did for me. I know it did for Sean. It's something that (even though it's not realistic) you want everyone to experience even if it's just so that they completely understand you and what it does to who you are. I have blogged countless numbers of times about how blessed we feel and how amazing we feel adoption is. I know I am repeating myself. I can't help it. I can't stop. There are no words. None.

Moving on...

Here is my brutally honest (and random) paragraph...

I hate my job. I mean, I would hate ANY job. I miss my job as a stay at home mom. I am going to sound super high and mighty (remember...random thoughts and this is my "brutally honest paragraph"), but I feel like I am better than having to listen to people scream at me on the phone all day. I am not better than that. I know that. That is just not even right that I said that, but I am not with holding here...obviously. SO there's my thoughts on that. And no matter what I do, my house just cannot stay in order for more than a couple of days. It's a problem. I cannot get a handle on the laundry, cleaning, dishes, laundry, laundry, toys, toys, toys. It's kind of out of control. No matter how much I tell myself I am going to get it under control...it never happens. I just can't!

Moving onto more happy thoughts...

Though I complain a lot in life and on my blog. I really, deep down am content. I wish I could have a maid, a money tree, an electric car, a model's figure ;), a little boy who obeys my every word and cuddles me when I so desire Tater cuddles, a job inside the home, a husband who is off the same hours I am off. Truly, I DO know that these things are NOT what's important and though I forget that momentarily, I always am reminded. God always pushes me back to reality somehow. It's amazing how I would have dealt with my circumstances so much differently before I had Him in my life. I just don't know how people deal with hard times, sad times, happy times...anytime for that matter, without God in their life. It's like I don't remember what it was like before I had a relationship with Him. Maybe I just don't want to remember.

So how about that for a random post! Good Night!

Much Needed

I came down with some sort of flu bug yesterday (the 4th time this year!!) and when I got home from work I went right to bed. It was 5:15 last night. I just woke up at 6:50! That's 13 hrs and 35 minutes of sleep! WOO HOO! I think I needed it and I feel great today! I am sad though that I missed out on my evening with Tater and Sean. :( I wouldn't have been any fun anyway.

Cool Dude

So Tate discovered his love for sunglasses today. We have been trying to keep sunglasses on him for a while now and he will leave them on for about 2.5 seconds and then take them off. Well apparently today Daddy was wearing his sunglasses and Tate noticed and wanted to wear his too. So Sean gave them to him and he left them on until we went inside! Tate has this thing where he sneezes when it's too bright. It's pretty cute, but the sunglasses help stop that. So not only did Tate like wearing his sunglasses, he likes playing with them and holding them. He had an all out melt down before bed because we wouldn't let him bring them to bed with him...oh the drama!

It's about time!

We finally have our internet issues fixed...I think...I hope. Our internet has been going in and out for over a week. It's so frustrating. We have had 3 appointments with technicians and I think this time it worked! YIPPY! Although, I don't really have anything exciting on th Peakin Front to report. Sorry.