Pretty Princess

First we did the makeup (she requested the blue eyeshadow), then we did the hair, then we put on the pink pretty princess dress. She was so cute and she couldn't stop looking in the mirror.

 
 
 
  

Out to Sharky's

Nana loving up to Tater Tot...
 

Macy, Lani and Brigg looking adorable as usual...
 

Tate and Daddy enjoying the music...
 

Nana and Papa with all of their grandbabies...
  

Coming to an end...

Well, the vacation is coming to an end. Andy and Jody flew out yesterday evening...Lisa, Tony, Macy and Dad are leaving in a couple of hours. It is sad to see everyone leaving and such a great time coming to an end. It has been a fun filled trip, that's for sure! Everything from beach to karaoke to relaxing to makeup on the little girls to swimming to eating to LOTS OF LAUNDRY and everything in between. We had 16 people staying under one roof and somehow it managed to work out perfectly. We had to let Andy and Jody spill over into another place when they were added to the mix, but they were probably relieved that they didn't have to stay in this madhouse! :)

We are heading out tomorrow at 1:00 (Florida time) and will be flying into Kansas City. As sad as we are, we are anxious to get home and see if Tate continues to sleep through the night even when he's not on vacation. :) Now that the holidays are over, hopefully our lives will die down for a bit and be a little more relaxing. Although, I am sure that's just wishful thinking because with Sean starting school again the day after we get back and with searching for a new place to live and then moving again (YUCK!) we probably will be as busy as ever. I have no idea how I am going to manage to pack my apartment up by myself and still function as a mother! Somehow I am sure it will work out. Once we move, I will be relieved! So for now, I am enjoying this last day of vacation to the fullest because it will be a while before I'll get to relax this much again!

Some of the happenings here...

I did the girly girls' makeup the other night and they were in HEAVEN! They couldn't stop looking at themselves in the mirror. You can't tell in the picture, but Macy had bright blue eye shadow on...she requested it! It was hilarious! Of course Lani had pink eye shadow on. :) Lani even let me french braid her hair. They are too cute!
Mom and Dad flew Jody and Andy down to surprise Cassie for her 30th Birthday. She was SO surprised and happy to see them. Jody is missing her 4 boys I am sure, but has definitely had plenty of kids to entertain her between the 5 kids we have here!
It is virtually impossible to get a picture of all of Mom and Dad's grandkids together while looking at the camera. This is one of the better ones! Oh Well, we'll get one sometime in the next 10 years I am sure! Ha.

We have had a wonderful time and will be heading back home on Sunday. Tate had slept through the night all but one night and has been a complete angel! Hopefully this trend will continue when we get home! We have been blessed with absolutely GORGEOUS weather and are planning on heading to Southbeach for lunch and fun in the sun today! Hopefully I'll have more pics to post from there in the next day or two!

Happy New Year!!!

Happy 2007!!! We have been so blessed this last year and are looking forward to 2007! We brought in the new year with a bang...well, let me rephrase that...everyone besides Tate and I brought in 2007 with a bang. Tate and I brought it in while sleeping soundly in bed! I am not complaining though...it was great!

Tate has been a COMPLETE angel since we got down here. He has napped wonderfully and slept through the night both nights we have been here. He's doing so well that we're thinking we may just move down here! Ha...we wish! Here are some pics from the first couple of days down here. In the pic of Tate in the pool, I am hoping his cuteness will keep your eye off of me...it's a terrible pic of me, but I had to post it because Tate is so cute in it. He LOVES the pool and just lounges in the floatie! The pic of Paul is of him dancing while performing karaoke...Funky Cold Medina! Dad's purchase of a karaoke machine was a FABULOUS purchase. We all did karaoke all night for New Years Eve and I am sure thatwe will be doing it again before the trips over.

It's been in the low 80's the entire time and it's been GORGEOUS! We have had a blast even though the house is a complete madhouse with all 16 people. The kids are being angels...all of them!

I will try to post again before the trips over!

Heading South!

 

Well, we are heading down to Kansas City tomorrow to stay in a hotel so that we can make our flight early on Saturday down to Florida!! WOOHOO! We are SO excited to share with Tate all the fun that we have in Florida. We know that it will be a COMPLETELY different type of vacation due to our new little Tater Tot, but we also know that it will be wonderful. We'll probably have much less sleep than we typically get while on vacation, but with the addition of Tate, it will be SO SPECIAL! We are praying that Tate does well on the flight and no problems occur. Although, I am taking him to the doctor in the morning...I think he may have pink eye. :( He's had a cold and I just want him all checked out before we go to make sure everything is okay and we don't need any meds before we go. Hopefully all will be well and we'll get headed out with no problem! :) As you can see, Tate was pooped when we took this photo. He has been having some troubles sleeping since his cold came and he was finally able to conk out on the boppy yesterday for a couple of hours! He loves his boppy so much that we even stuffed it into our suitcase so we can have it in Florida! Ha. Oh well...whatever works! It's amazing all of the extra stuff you have to lug with you when you have a child! We'll manage I am sure! I'll try to blog in Florida, but if I don't get a chance, I'll blog with lots of pics when we get back! ADIOS!!! 

Stylin'

 

It has been SO FUN dressing Tate these last couple of days since Christmas! He has so many cute new clothes that I just can't wait to put an outfit on him in the morning. This was what he wore today. Of course the sweater was adorable alone, but the coordinating hat just topped it all off! It was hilarious! 

Christmas Morning!

This morning we woke up and headed over to Chris and Brenda's to see what Santa had left for Tate in his stocking and under the tree. Tate was so excited to see all of his goodies! :) Then we had another photo session (minus Bode) in front of the tree. We are determined to get pictures of ALL of the kids in Florida. Bode was having WAY to much fun being his adorable self that he wanted nothing to do with sitting still for the camera.

 
 
 
 

Well, it's the evening of Christmas Day and all in all, it was an outstanding first Christmas for Tate. He got WAY to much and he is a bit under the weather with a cold, but he still managed to have a good time and crack several smiles. We are glad to be home tonight so that Tate can get back to the "real world" where someone is not constantly holding him. He is still sick and definitely not himself with this nasty cold. What a bummer that he had to come down with a cold for his first Christmas! :( We made it through and are feeling SO THANKFUL for all of our wonderful friends and family and for all of God's amazing gifts he has given us! 

More of Christmas...

 
 
 
 

We celebrated our traditional Christmas at Balderson's on Sunday night and it was wonderful! As usual, Cathy outdid herself with the wonderful food and hosting duties! It is always so great to get together with family especially as the family grows...although, with the growing family goes leaving early to get the children to bed! :( It was such a great time even though it didn't last as long as we all would have liked! 

Cute kids!!!

 
 
 
 

We made an effort to get Bode involved in these pictures, but he just wasn't in any mood to be sitting still! He was too funny though and I wish I could have captured it on camera! 

Special Memories...

Here are a few pictures of Tate with his birthfather...
 
 
 

On Saturday, we celebrated Christmas with "The Stewart Side" of the family. In addition, we were excited to have Tate's birthfather join us and get to spend time with Tate and the family. It was wonderful and Brandon is AMAZING! We are completely thankful for him and his unbelievable heart! We are so happy that he has decided to remain in contact with us and with Tate. It was a great time and wonderful to have him meet my family. He is such an outgoing guy that he managed to fit in perfectly. It was so awesome to see him with Tate. It just reaffirms the fact that he loves Tate SO MUCH! Tate is so blessed to have a birthfather and birthmother that truely wanted only the best for him. It was an honor for us to have Brandon at our Christmas and be able to introduce him to our family. It is so hard to be able to describe what a strong, mature man that Brandon is. He is completely respectful of Sean and my role as Tate's Mom and Dad. He expresses so much gratitude for us which floors us because we feel as though WE are the ones who should be so grateful for him and Tate's birthmother!!! Sean and I are both stronger people because of this gift him and Maggie (Tate's birthmother) have given us. Without Brandon in our lives, I feel like we would feel as though something were missing...he is truely family to us! What an amazing gift it was to just be able to spend this time with him and Tate! We are SO BLESSED!!!! 

Christmas with the Knutsons

We went to the Knutson's house for Christmas on Thursday. We ate, we exchanged gifts, we stared at our little angels (and snapped a lot of pictures!) and we had a GREAT time! Here are a few pics from the gathering...

 
 
  

Sick...

Our little sweetie is sick. :( I had to take him to the doctor yesterday for the first time (besides his check ups) yesterday. His eyes were puffy and red and he had a cough and some congestion. The doctor said it was just a cold and to just watch him. He said that if he gets worse, we should bring him back in. He is still smiley and in good spirits. No temprature or anything. He's slept through the night for the last 3 nights! YIPPY! Although, this morning, he seems to progressively be getting worse. He still acts fine, but his cough is nasty and more frequent and his snot has turned green. :( We may be making another trip to the doctor today...we'll see. Poor guy!

Okay...this is a BIG deal!

 
Tate usually HATES his swing, so I gave up on it about 2 weeks ago. I just figured he would never like it. Today, I was looking at my list a mile long and one of the items was to finish the Baby Book Scrapbook pages that I had started from Tate's Baby Book. I wanted to have the majority of his life up to this point documented so that I could show the book to Brandon (Tate's birthfather) when he comes on Saturday. SO, I decided it had been 2 weeks since Tate tried the swing and it was worth another try. As you can see in the photo, he liked it! He was happy and cooing and smiling for about 1/2 an hour in the swing before I looked over and saw he had fallen asleep!!! It's a miracle! I put a blanket around him because I wanted him to feel cozy and he's been sleeping in there for 40 minutes now...that means he has been in the swing for more than an hour! This is a huge accomplishment for him considering he couldn't be in it for more than 2 minutes without crying just 2 weeks ago. This is only the 3rd time that he's gone to sleep on his own without being in someone's arms or in his carseat. Hopefully this is a new trend and he'll be able to play in there more often! 

Tate and Santa

  

This isn't a great picture because it is a picture of a picture. As you can see, we brought Tate to see Santa today. He did a really great job and smiled a lot. They didn't capture him giving his biggest smile, but it's still a cute picture!

A little cuddle time

 
Sids wanted some cuddle time with Tate. He is so gentle with him...Sids loves kids! Okay, if you don't know why his name is Sids, it's too long of a story to explain on here and so I won't even go there! :)