Walking, Spoons, Clunking and Fun

Sunday Chloe started venturing to walk on her own, yesterday she took off and today she is walking like a pro (a wobbly, one-year-old pro)!



You'll notice that she is holding a spoon in the video - this is her new obsession! She has always liked to hold something while walking, but this obsession is not exclusive to walking. Chloe carries a spoon with her just about everywhere she goes. The other day, I had to pry the spoon (which she had carried around the house all morning and brought to the car and on all of our errands) out of her hand to go into a restaurant for lunch. As soon as we sat down, she had another spoon in her hand. It is like her security blanket - weird!

Morgan inherited some cowboy boots from my cousins and, even though they are still too big, he loves to clunk around in them.



Finally, I just have to add that I love being the mother to the most wonderful kids in the world. We have had so much fun this week doing big things, but the moments that make me smile the most are the little ones: listening to Morgan thank Heavenly Father for letting him play with his cousins at the "museum with the balls" (Discovery Gateway) in three different prayers today, hearing Chloe say "cheese" when I am taking her picture (here's her cheese face),
having real conversations with Morgan about the things he likes and thinks and just having fun together. Here I am being tackled by giggling children...and loving every second of it!

Birthday Bash

At the Tate house, birthdays are no small affair! It all started when Seth and I were first dating and he decided that instead of celebrating my birthDAY we would celebrate my birthWEEK. The following year, my birthWEEK was even more special when the gift for one of the days came in a very small box accompanied by a marriage proposal!

While we don't neccesarily celebrate with 7 days of presents and fun anymore, birthdays are still special and involve more than one day of celebration! This year, Morgan had his first"friend" birthday party and it was so much fun! Morgan invited all of his buddies. All the kids brought bikes or cars to ride around our church gym and played with various racetracks, shake and go and matchbox cars.

We had lunch of penut butter and jelly sandwiches, grapes, carrot sticks, goldfish crackers and capri suns - Morgan's favorite lunch.

The kids made and decorated cars out of fruit boxes and paper plates and then went to the "Drive In".
We sang Happy Birthday from our cars and the kids got to eat cake in their cars while they watched a very special movie starring themselves (video footage Seth took during the party)!Then we opened presents!
Click here to see and download more pictures from the party. (Send us an email if you want the password and the hint doesn't help).

Too Much Fun!

I have been a major slacker about my blogging lately (and my scrapbooking, and my reading, and so many other things in my life). I've decided that it is okay though - if we weren't out doing lots of fun things that prevented me from blogging, what would I have to write about?

Wednesday night, Seth and I went to the Ben Folds concert with my brothers and their friends and girlfriend. It made me feel really old - and I am only 24. Despite some serious potty mouth, it was so much fun and great music!

Thursday night Morgan's buddy Jackson and his little brother Crew came over to play (his parents got Jazz playoff tickets - lucky!) until I forced all the kids to go to sleep so I could watch the Office - an unsuccessful attempt with a 3-year-old, 2-year-old, 1-year-old, and 3-month-old in a 3 bedroom house - luckily the episode is online! Morgan and Jackson had matching jammies on and were so cute, but somehow I forgot to pull out the camera in the chaos - I know, how could I let that happen, right?

Yesterday, we went with our playgroup buddies to Wheeler Farm (click to see more pictures) and endured some seriously cold wind! We were happy to enjoy the sunshine anyway! Morgan loved the lambs. He loved petting them, feeding them, and laughing at them. Chloe liked the lambs and the baby chicks too, but she was pretty ticked when I wouldn't let her stand her cute little shoes in the farm mud to see the baby cow. Yeah, yeah - I'm a party pooper, but she doesn't walk on her own, so that stinky mud would have been all over me when she was done!


Then, it was off to my cousin Lydia's birthday party (she was turning 6 - Morgan was the one invited - see why I feel old?) to play outside, get faces pained, and ride the pony (click to see more pictures)! Morgan especially loved the sand pile in the back, complete with dinosaurs, diggers and trucks. Watching Lydia open her presents got him really excited for his own party which was today (there will be another post to come on this). Too much fun for one day if you ask me!


After all of this, I am still waiting for my much deserved break from Tuesday! And after reading all this, you probably deserve a break too!

I Think I Deserve a Break

After a day of cleaning my house, baking a cake and hosting a birthday party yesterday, I thought I deserved a break...

so today I have:
read three chapters in my current read before my kids woke up (shocking, I know, but after an early phone call I couldn't get back to sleep)
showed Morgan all the pictures from his birthday
fed the kids breakfast
assembled a hot wheels race track
played with said race track
gotten everyone dressed
changed the sheets on both kids' beds
done three loads of laundry
cleaned out the "stuff" drawer in my kitchen
reorganized 2 of my kitchen cupboards
gone through and organized all of my "paperwork"
gotten another quote for A/C (woohoo)
cleaned up from the birthday party
fixed lunch and ate it with Morgan at his picnic table
done some obedience training with the dogs
played on the swing with Morgan
fed Chloe lunch
walked around the house with Chloe
colored with Chloe
cleaned up after Chloe's coloring
done the prepwork for dinner
cleaned up after the prepwork for dinner

...and now that naptime is almost over...I REALLY deserve a break! Unfortunately, there is still a long list of things I haven't done and my house is somehow still a mess. Maybe I'll get to take a shower tomorrow...

Oh, and if you are wondering, this is pretty much a normal day.

Well, back to work, but at least I can add "update blog" to the stuff I got done today list!

Happy Birthday to Morgan!

Morgan turned three today! He came into our room first thing this morning and asked if it was time to open presents! He knows what birthday means at our house - you will be spoiled rotten with presents!

He went on his Birthday Date with Dad - riding Trax down to the gateway to get Ben and Jerry's and watch the fountains. Then they grabbed some Wendy's (with some more ice cream) on their way home.

Later we went to dinner with my family and then back to our house for some cake (which I made - yay me!) and even more ice cream and more presents to open!

Morgan even got to stay up a little late playing Karaoke Revolution and Guitar Hero with his aunts and uncles! He got this wonderful little guitar for his birthday that makes him feel like he is playing without getting booed off the stage!

Here are three of the countless things I love about Morgan:

1. He has a hillariously contagious laugh!

2. He is super friendly and courteous!

3. When he shows people how old he is now, he does it with his thumb, pointer and pinky fingers - three fingers and I love you all in one!

I am MOMMY, hear me roar!

I can handle just about anything. Spit up, dog slobber, gooshing poopy diapers/clothing/sheets, dirty binkis, dog hair that finds its way into my fridge, muddy dog feet tromping through my house, spiders, bugs, sticky fingers, sticky fingerprints all over my stainles steel appliances (and so much more) - you don't scare me!

And then there's vomit. I don't do so well with vomit. (We got a new couch and loveseat this weekend - Yay! Why? Because one of the dogs threw up on the old one and despite my best cleaning efforts, I couldn't get the smell out enough to erase the memory of dog vomit).

Today Chloe has the flu. It took me 15 minutes to work up the courage to pick up icky-vomit-crusted Chloe out of her bed and into the bath. I called Seth for some empathy and he told me the hospital trick for clean-up duty: a dab of toothpaste in a surgical mask (which we do have hanging around here).

After less than a day of giving baths, taking showers, changing clothes, changing sheets, doing laundry and scrubbing the floor - I am pretty proud of the state my house is in! Motherly powers are pretty amazing - I am Mommy, hear me roar!

She's a Keeper

This morning the kids took a bath. They were playing so sweetly together and Chloe was having so much fun with Morgan. She leaned over to him with her mouth wide open to give him a kiss.

At first he wasn't sure what she was doing, but when he realized she was giving kisses, he happily obliged. It was so darling and they kept doing it long enough that I was able to grab my camera and capture the sweet moment!

A few minutes later ....

Jen "When* we have another baby, do you want a boy baby or a girl baby?"

Morgan (without hesitation) "A boy!"

Jen "Yeah, I think you would really like to have a little brother to play with."

. . . . (minute of contemplation)

Morgan (very matter-of-factly) "But mom...we will still keep Chloe too."

Apparently Morgan likes Chloe enough to keep her around!

(*This is not an announcement - I just like to plan ahead - WAY ahead!)

TuTu Time - Part 2

The tutu is making the rounds at our house! Morgan tried it on the other day - Seth was the one with him when he put it on and the one telling Morgan to make a circle with his arms, so don't look at me if he takes up ballet down the road! I wonder who will wear the tutu next - Callie? Roxy? Hmmm...