MUSIC

I love music! Ever since I was itty bitty, I have loved to sing and still do. I go through periods where I do it more and periods where I don't do much singing at all, but I always love it! Music really touches me, in fact, making it through sacrament without getting teary during at least one of the songs is quite an accomplishment for me.

That said, I am very excited to announce the addition of music to our blog -- FINALLY (wow, it has taken a long time to get it working). You will note that this is very chill, hangin' out music, which is what I want and need to hear when I am blogging, so that is what you get to hear too :). Jack Johnson is one of Morgan's and my favorite things to dance to in our living room. Colbie Caillat is one of my most recent favorite musicians to listen to. Every time I need to calm down, get a mood boost or just need a good smile, I pop in Colbie and it works like magic!

Hope you enjoy the musical addition (even more because it doesn't blare at you when you first come to the site, you get to start it on your own!).

Good Morning Mommy

Now that Morgan is in his new room, he is so much better about sleeping. It used to take me up to 3 hours to get Morgan to go to sleep for naps and sometimes even at bedtime. Since the move downstairs there has only been one incident when he didn't go right to sleep and even though he was awake he still didn't get off of his bed - amazing since all of his toys are in his room.

This also holds true in the mornings. I have told him numerous times that he is welcome to get out of his bed in the morning and play with toys or come upstairs and get me, but when he wakes up he just sits in his bed and yells "Mommy, I wake up!" until I come downstairs and say good morning. Usually, when I walk in the room I say "Good Morning Morgan!" and he replies, "Mommy, I wake up" with a giant grin and little bit of laughter in his voice, but this morning, before I could even say Good Morning, Morgan smiled at me and said "Good Morning Mommy!" It melted my heart (particularly after being up with Chloe numerous times and not having a very "good" morning)!

Yesterday, Morgan and I ate lunch together after Chloe went down for a nap, and it was the first time I was able to actually sit down with him and eat lunch in the last few weeks. As we sat there dipping our apple slices in caramel - yum! - and chatting and giggling about silly things, I remembered why I love being a Mom (and I sure needed the reminder after this crazy week)! I love just hanging out with my little buddy.

And I certainly can't leave Chloe out. Last night after Morgan went to bed, I put her on the changing table to change her diaper and she looked right at me and started giggling and grinning. Maybe she was just extra ticklish, maybe I looked funny, or maybe she was just in a silly mood, but whatever made her laugh, it was another sweet moment to remind me about the joy of motherhood.

Parenting has its ups and downs, good days and bad days, long naptimes and shorter ones, but all in all, when I think that I get to be Morgan and Chloe's mommy forever, every morning is a pretty good morning!

October Pictures Posted

I have been kind of a slacker this month about updating our smugmug website with everything we have been up to, but they are up! Check them out here.

Who knows..maybe you'll find yourself in some of the pictures. Happy browsing!

The Tate Halloween Zoo

Here are some picts of our cute little Morgan the Monkey and Chloe Kangaroo. Since I was a slacker and didn't put together costumes for Seth and me, Seth got creative yesterday morning and decided to be a zookeeper, so I followed suit! Unfortunately we didn't take any pictures of the whole family together, but here are the cute kids!

Morgan and Chloe were so lucky to get to see all of their garnd parents (and even a great grandparent) on Halloween. We went to lunch with Grandpa Mark, had pumpkin breadbowls, soup and witch finger breadsticks with Grandma Becky, Grandpa John, and Grandma Colleen(Morgan loved that the breadsticks looked like witch fingers), and then we Trick or Treated at Grandma Denese and Grandpa Tate's house where Uncle Collin scared little Morgan.

Afterward we went to trunk or treat and Morgan got to see all of his buddies in their halloween costumes! Happy Halloween!

Project Mayhem

All of you that know me well, know that I always have to be busy with something . As if family, home and a little bit of work, aren't enough to keep me busy, I have to take on major home remodeling projects too! In the last three weeks I have started, finished and am mid-way through a number of projects. I finished an armoire to hold the TV in Seth's and my room, I stripped and repainted a dresser for Morgan's room, I sewed a duvet cover for Chloe's comforter, I finished the couch that I recovered a while back, I painted two tall chair/stools, am almost done recovering a rocking chair, and almost finished painting another rocking chair. In the meantime, my kids have probably not gotten the attention they need...good thing Seth has had about a week off.

Now that we are through most of these projects and we have everything in the house pretty much where we like it, Tuesday, I decided that instead of getting our carpets cleaned upstairs, we should just pull it all out and replace it with wood-type flooring. So, yesterday we went to all of Morgan's favorite stores...Home Depot, Costco, and IKEA to compare flooring options and ended up getting the IKEA flooring. It is "curing" in our house and we are all set to install it next week! So much for ever taking a break! I have to say, though, I really have come into my element...I love refinishing furniture. There is such a sense of pride (and little bit of OCD nitpicking) when you see furniture in your house that started so unattractive and you made so beautiful! :) Here are some pictures of the finished results.

Boo at the Zoo and Halloween Fun

We went to Boo at the Zoo with the Manwarings on Saturday, and WOW - was it ever a zoo! That place was so packed that we had to park a block away from the back entrance and there were so many people I was worried one of the kids would get lost! CRAZY!

Despite the crowds, we really had a fun time. Morgan and Mason had fun looking at the animals and thought it was pretty cool to be all dressed up in their costumes. They looked so cute. They got to trick or treat a couple of times, but we were not patient enough to stand in all the lines. They got a string cheese and a couple of small candies and that was plenty! Chloe slept in the stroller the whole time in her little kangaroo costume, tail and all. Here are a couple of picts of the kids in their costumes.

The LCD screen on our camera broke a couple of weeks ago so we haven't been taking as many pictures as we should. It is such a pain to look through the optical viewfinder - back to the dark ages! I know Ruth took some cuter picts of Mason and Morgan together, so I will have to get them from her and post them.

After Boo at the Zoo, we went to Grandma Colleen's Halloween Party. The kids decorated dirt cupcakes, mini ghost cakes, bobbed for donuts, made paper pumpkins and wands (which the boys used as swords) and went trick or treating to the older cousins who were hiding with candy around Grandma's yard. The kids were decked out in their Halloween garb when we got there, but had their costume tops off within the first 30 minutes!

IKEA

I know I have posted about IKEA before, but it seems appropriate to do it again. Morgan loves IKEA. I can't figure out why because every time we go it is a long trip, and he isn't potty trained yet, so he doesn't get to go to the play area. He even knows that yellow and blue are the IKEA colors because every time we see IKEA or Best Buy, he says "IKEA".

Regardless, it is one of the top three stores he asks to go to (Costco and Home Depot are the others - maybe I have just trained him to get excited when we talk about these stores since they are stores we frequent and I always get him revved up before we go.)

We have made quite a few trips to IKEA in the recent weeks, while we have been redoing Morgan's room, refinishing furniture and doing various other upgrades in our house. The last time we went, Seth came with us and we started with cinnamon rolls - YUM! Here are a few of the cute little Morgan moments at IKEA.

Here he is in the basket filled with pillows! He loves it when Seth comes with us because only Daddy would throw him into a basket of pillows!

He really loves the kids section of IKEA - which means we spend the longest time in there. This bed looks a lot like the one we got him, so I think he just felt right at home. I think the thing that really makes IKEA fun for Morgan is the ability he has to try everything. Everywhere we go he loves to try out the beds, couches, chairs, toys, etc.

Sleepover

Morgan had his very first sleepover last night! He has stayed over at Grandma's houses before, but never with "friends" at our house. Since they didn't have school today, Aunt Shanae and Uncle Collin (Seth's youngest siblings) stayed over at our house in Morgan's room. Shanae took the top bunk and Collin took the lovesack. They had to go to bed pretty early, even though it was "staying up late" for Morgan (They went to bed at about 9:45).

Here is a picture of the three of them this morning watching Veggie Tales.