Happy Easter!

I think this next picture is just priceless. The look on Kellen's face as he's looking at his sister just absolutely melts my heart. And I was uploading the pictures this afternoon onto the computer and Kellen saw them and remarked, 'I like looking at my Tatum.' Man, I love how much he adores her!



We actually did Easter baskets after we got home from church and had naps...the kids had fun with them...

Kellen's basket....

Tatum's basket...

John 20

He is alive!

He's not young anymore...

but he's having a hard time remembering it!

Matt and Kellen were trimming some more limbs this afternoon, and Daddy decided to show off by jumping from the ladder to the limb. Well, he forgot that he wasn't 20 anymore.

He attempted to Tarzan leap from the tree. Somewhere between leaving the ladder, grabbing the tree and hitting the ground, his shoulder came out of socket. Well, let me get more specific...his shoulder came out of socket when he grabbed the tree limb, which assisted the crash to the ground quite a bit.

OUCH!

(Now, for those of you who don't know, this isn't the first time this has happened to Matt. Luckily for us (or unluckily for him) it's happened so often that he's able to put it back in himself, which meant we didn't have to go to the ER to have them put it back in place for us.)

Poor guy...he had to put it back into socket with minimal wincing and verbal complaints, because both the kids were outside watching his 'show' and were intensely concerned about him. Tatum kissed his shoulder and wanted to get him 'bo bo ice' to make him better, and Kellen was just all over upset and couldn't bear to watch him at all. Of course, Kellen was over it immediately as soon as Daddy said he was ok, and exclaimed,

"When you flew through the air that was SUPER AWESOME!"

Boys!

It was just a quick errand!

I went to pick up Tatum at school today...wasn't gone too long, and came home to find this. I REALLY wasn't even gone that long. Really.

Um...what is it about boys and destruction? He was supposed to do some small trimming. I think we need the same dictionary.

Of course, once Tatum saw her Daddy up in the tree, she wanted to go up there, too...

Spring Break, Part 1

Yes, I know it's been almost a month, but hey...at least I'm trying, right?


So after I got off of work during spring break, we went to Maw Maw and Paw Paw's (well, Tatum and I joined the males of the family, who were already there). On Thursday, we HAD planned to go to the zoo, but considering they had every entrance blocked off becuause it was so busy (we must not have timed it well and arrived too late), we switched gears and reversed our initial plan.


Downtown Aquarium it was.


And the kids had a BLAST! It was Tatum's first time there, but Kellen had been there a few times. He acted like he didn't remember it when we were discussing it, but I think he remembered it once we arrived there.




This particular exhibit was fairly close to the eels, which Tatum absolutely did NOT like. It was interesting to see her intense reaction to certain things, both at the aquarium and at the zoo (stay tuned for Spring Break, Part 2). I wonder what causes a child, with no prior history with an animal, to have an intense reaction to it - one way or another, really?


At any rate, she wanted NOTHING at all to do with the eels. And made it well known to anyone within ear shot.



Petting the sting rays at the discovery zone. For some reason, Kellen was a little nervous this time. Tatum was excited about seeing them, but wasn't sure about actually petting them. She wanted to get her hands in the water, but was wary about actually touching them.







We timed it just right to be able to watch the tiger show, which was really the changing out of the tigers...They took one back, cleaned up the area, brought out some 'entertainment' in the way of some food for the next one, then brought the next one out. During the cleaning portion, one of the workers did an educational bit on the tigers, their interaction, etc. It was really interesting. Kellen and Tatum were enthralled. While the first tiger was still inside, Tatum and I were next to the glass, but she's pretty quick at backpedaling, and did so when the tiger got up and ran past the glass. Bless her heart, that frightened her and she wanted to be NO WHERE near that glass! Yet, she was still fascinated and wanted to get close again once the tiger was a little further away.




We also took the train ride to see the sharks...I am just in utter amazement of those creatures! None of the pictures turned out, so you don't get any of those...sorry!




And luckily for us, the weather was WONDERFUL for the splash pad. I had packed the swimsuits and towels already in preparation for the day, so we were adequately prepared.

Kellen loves the splash pad. Tatum, on the other hand, has to be convinced to play...she does NOT like to get splashed in the face without warning and well, it's a splash pad. Needless to say, she was slightly less enthusiastic in her playing than her brother, but she still enjoyed herself!

And as we were walking out, we decided to get a picture here on the bench. Kellen decided he was going to be monkey-man and started climbing on the shark, and I'm sure it wasn't the first time that had happened, so I just let him go. You can see the exhaustion on both of their faces!

My helper...

What a blessing it is to have such a wonderful helper. Two of them (some days) truth be told.

Both kids have been fed for the night, and we're just hanging out here at the house tonight...a rarity it seems, lately. No t-ball practice, no school activity, and we were home by 5:30ish, which meant dinner was over by 6. Again...all rarities as of late.

Back to my point.

I was putting a load of laundry in to wash, and apparently Tatum heard me. All I hear is a little girl running toward me shouting, "I help ou, Mommy! I help ou!"

Have I mentioned how much this girl L-O-V-E-S to help with laundry? As in, L-O-V-E-S it. Has thrown a fit because we didn't understand she was asking to help me with it one weekend. Really.

So I put the towels in a pile on the floor, in front of the washing machine, and sure enough, she was diligent in putting them into the washing machine. Yes, this was an added step in my process, but SO WHAT!! This gave her such joy! And as soon as we were through with that pile, she wanted to move on to other clothes...so cute! Then, she ran into the house and proceeded to tell her big brother that, "I help Mommy!!"

She was so proud.

So I asked if she wanted to help me some more, and got out the small hand vac...and she played with that for about 5 minutes...just beaming with pride that she was cleaning the carpet. No, it's not perfect, but that's not the point.

And wow....what does that say about how far I've come in kicking some of my perfectionism with that statement? Does that mean that I'm getting to the point that I'll let the kids do something if it's less than perfect or not done just the way that I would do it? Hmmm....

God MUST be moving here, folks!

Sweet words...

You have to know things will be great when your morning consists of a sweet girl and the words, "Kiss, Mommy!" followed by, "Cheek, other cheek."

Then, "Nose, eye, other eye, other eye." [I feel I must insert here that I don't actually have three eyes...she just kept going back and forth]

"Ear, Mommy."

"Other ear."

Awww....all is right with the world when things like this occur to start off your day.

Tatum's birthday & birthday party

Here are some pictures of Tatum on her actual birthday...She looked ADORABLE all dressed up that day! (Trust me, she did...the pictures may not have turned out all that great, but it was totally the photographer, not the model!)

The rest of the pictures are from her (VERY windy) birthday party, which we held nearby at the park. She had LOADS of fun playing on the playground, feeding the ducks, eating cupcakes, and of course, opening her presents. Which reminds me, I need to write thank-you notes. Ug!! Where has my mind gone??

Part of the fun was actually flying a kite...Winnie the Pooh, of course! It was certainly windy enough! Daddy and Mike worked on it, and for a little while, they even let the birthday girl play along. Except that her playing along was simply chasing after the kite as Daddy pulled it away from her! Tatum actually thought that was quite fun...Then decided she had had enough, and wanted to help with the real kite flying.




Here she is opening some of her presents...jewelry, dolls, a puppy, but the crowning jewel, perhaps, was the Aggie chair with the cup/water holder. Once she sat in it, she insisted on a water bottle, put it in the appropriate holder, and was pretty well set!



And here is the birthday girl with Daddy and Mommy shortly after diving into her cupcake...I wonder who she takes after with her affinity for all things chocolate??

Here is big brother very much enjoying the cupcake, icing and as many sprinkles that he could possibly fit onto the icing...and even some that didn't fit!

Catching up

I'm woefully behind in my blogging, so I'll see if I can TRY to catch up a little at a time. I've just downloaded several hundred pictures from my camera, so that should tell you how behind I am in that respect as well. Granted, we DID just get through with spring break and had a glorious time with many adventures captured on film (can you even say that now if it isn't really "film" anymore??), but you get my drift...Rather than get overwhelmed by catching up all at one time (yeah right!), I'll attempt to do a little bit...

Get ready!

Happy Birthday my (not so) baby girl!

I had another early morning with the kids today. For some reason, Tatum isn't making it through the night without some help (either putting her back in bed or settling her back down in ours) and Kellen seems to gravitate toward Mommy and Daddy's bed at some point in time in the middle of the night as well. So I woke up to Kellen sleeping next to me and Tatum hollering for 'Mommy!' I brought her back to bed with me, while Matt snoozed oh-so-nicely on the couch, so as to be sure his tossing and turning didn't disturb my sleep. Several hours later, when it was actually time to wake up, I got out of my shower to see Tatum still asleep, but Kellen starting to rouse and snuggle with her. He laid next to her, gave her a hug and kiss, then stroked her hand, which prompted her to grab onto his thumb - in her sleep, mind you - and hold his hand. So he looked at me, shrugged his shoulders, and just laid down next to her again. It was SO PRECIOUS! So precious, in fact, that I went and woke Matt up and made him come to look!

I then proceeded to tell Tatum "Happy birthday!" She got really excited and started saying, 'Happy birthday party!', so we tried to explain that today was her birthday and we would have her party later. All morning she walked around saying, "Happy birthday to me!" She's VERY excited about her upcoming party. But then again, this is the girl that will sit and have tea parties for hours, so...

I just still can't believe she's two. I'm in awe that two WHOLE years have actually passed since she was born. She's brought so much joy, laughter, love and SPUNK into our lives - I can hardly remember our lives without her!

Here are some of the current things that Tatum loves:

Shoes
Socks [Note: neither of these top two stay on for longer than perhaps 5 minutes in the car, but they MUST be put on prior to going someplace]
Having her toenails painted ("pretty toes")
Bows in her hair (although they don't stay there for long - most of the time)
Having her hair fixed (Pig tails, ponytail, top spout - there's another name for that...)
Pink and purple just about anything
Winnie the Pooh
Her lovey (the yellow one...that's why we have 3 identical ones)
Her blanket (a specific one - pink with minkey on one side and silky on the other)
Her paci's (although she knows that they're for night-night only, which includes naps)
Jackets with pockets
The Foot Book (Dr. Seuss)
Brushing her teeth (yup...she loves it!)
Baths (she loves the bath, but dislikes the act of actually getting clean, including washing her hair)
Going to the park to feed the ducks
Coloring (both with actual crayons and with sidewalk chalk)
Dancing to just about anything with a beat
Her brother
Her big girl undies
Having tea parties

These are obviously in no certain order, but I wanted to jot them down so that I could remember what she likes RIGHT NOW. Even if she's almost as stubborn as her mommy, she's such a tremendous joy.

Happy birthday, my sweet monkey!