I like it!

I just thought I would share a little something about Tatum. She hit the "terrific twos" about a month ago. She won't be two for 3 more months. Thankfully this time around we're a lot more laid back about her responses, than we were with Tayson, and try and find the fun in it because it is pretty funny. Tatum is so sweet and full of personality and shares her opinion strongly. She says, "no" to a lot of things and lately when she doesn't want something she says, "I like it" (instead of I don't like it). It's really funny because she's so flustered when she says it but we just have to laugh. She also says, "I like it" when she does like something just in a sweeter voice. Well, for some reason last night she didn't want to eat her dinner and she continued to say, "NO, Don't, I like it!!!" After Jay was finished with dinner he started to help her by scooping up the food for her and giving her bites. Well then she started saying "I like it" (in her sweet voice) and as she was chewing she was making mmmmmm sounds until she was finished. What a funny kid. Definitely a roller coaster of emotion but entertaining at least.

Halloween 2009

We had a fun Halloween this year but we really missed Jay (who was supposed to be Fred Flintstone), so it didn't feel quite complete. We had our Trunk-r-Treat on Friday. We decorated the van pretty scary (the pictures don't give it justice). I had some scary music playing and strobe lights. Too bad the fog machine didn't end up working because there wasn't enough output from my van or that would've been sweet. There was even a couple of kids who wouldn't come get candy from us because they were too scared. Our branch invited the Okinawan branch to the Trunk-r-Treat and they had a great time. That evening my friend and I went to the Haunted House and laughed and screamed a lot. It wasn't the scariest I've been to but I was impressed especially with the limited resources. Halloween isn't really celebrated in Japan, so there isn't a whole lot available off-base. Halloween morning we carved pumpkins at the Stokes Home. Her husband is gone right now she she invited several of us that were husbandless over for lunch and fun. Then we headed right over to The Cox home for a birthday party. From there we headed home and got ready for Trick-r-Treating. Then after that we went to the Narvaez home for a party. Needless to say, we were exhausted by the end of the night and Tatum did not want to wash her hair before bed but I kind of had to so she was screaming the whole time.

For some reason Tayson evaded getting any pictures on Halloween, so this is the day after.

He was our cool Bumblebee Transformer. Too bad he didn't want to be Bam Bam but his costume was pretty sweet.

Here's our little Pebbles. She didn't want her picture taken, so I had to catch her on the go. It's kind of funny how she was all about wanting to be in Tayson's picture but really didn't want anything to do with her own.

Here's Wilma. I don't know what's up with my pose but I thought I better add it so you could see the whole costume. Jay's sister Sarah Leigh was so awesome to make our Flintstones costumes and send Tayson his Bumblebee costume. She was very creative and everyone loved them.

Trick-r-Treating was fun. It was the first time for Tatum and she caught on fast. Even though it was raining, she was hard to keep up with. I'm surprised she didn't get tired. Tayson had a good time too and the rain didn't seem to slow him down either.

My sister, Jodi, told me how to make these fun cupcakes and I thought they turned out great (delicious too). Tayson took some to class and they really enjoyed them.

Tatum's new haircut

Yes, this our little, silly Tatum. She is wearing a diaper, 3 pairs of Dora underwear and Mom's shoes. Don't worry, this is a very special occasion you won't find Tatum undressed very often. We had bought Tatum a potty and some underpants and she wanted to try them all on. The problem in this picture is the poor girl can't see. I finally had to break down and cut Tatum some bangs. I really didn't want to but the poor girl kept pulling her hair things out and then had to hold her head up to the ceiling to peak through her bangs. I would always say, "why does her hair grow like a mullet and so much of it fall forward?" Well, I cut her bangs and had a sort of flashback like, whoa she looks like me. So I pulled out the baby pictures and got my answer. She definitely got the mullet from me.

Tayson's Nickname

I thought I would share this because Tayson will definitely want to remember this when he is older. If you didn't know, Tayson is very passionate about legos (obsessed). That's pretty much what he wants to talk about, look at on the computer and it's the only present he ever asks for. It makes shopping easy but they are kind of pricey. Any way, a couple of weeks ago he was talking to us at the dinner table and said, "Hey, do you guys know the name all the kids in the neighborhood are calling me?" Of course we said, "No" because we really had no clue and we were hoping it wasn't a bad name. He gets all excited and says, "The Lego Professor." We both busted up laughing. The best part is the next day we had some new friends over for dinner and their little girl asked Tayson what his name was. He took a long pause and looked at her and said, "The Lego Professor." What a great kid. So witty just like his dad.

Kitty Shopping

We did not get a kitty but I had to share this super cute story about Tatum. A few weeks ago we went to the animal shelter to look at the kittens because we were kind of thinking it would be fun to have an animal. We walked in and Tatum was ecstatic. She was screaming kitty, meowing, and jumping up and down. We decided to get one of the kittens out for the kids to pet. It was a really cute little black kitty. Tatum was really scared to touch it but so excited at the same time. She got her hand within a few inches of the kitten and with the scariest, entranced, evil voice was saying, "Touch it, Touch it". She didn't blink her eyes once either. We were busting up. She is such a funny kid. Needless to say, she never actually touched the kitten even though she wanted to so badly. Whenever I tell anyone this story, she is more than willing to use her scary voice again and give us a good show. I tried to get her to do the voice for me on the camera but she wouldn't, so hopefully this story makes sense.

Tayson's 6 year old pictures

My friend, Abby Izor, is PCSing (permanent change of station) soon, so we decided to take advantage of her wonderful talents and have her take pictures of Tayson for his birthday. These were taken at the Sunabe Sea Wall. There is some really cool art painted on the wall there and Abby did such a good job making the colors stand out. This is just a taste of the pictures so far because all her equipment had to ship out. I'm really excited to see how the rest of them turn out when she gets settled.

What a cool dude!

Checking out the aircraft Dad works on

Tayson's new board

I'm so lucky to have these two awesome, handsome guys in my life.

Our Little Tatum

Tatum is such a fun kid. Here are just a few pictures that give you a glimpse of what a great and enjoyable kid she is.

These are Tatum's new shoes that we ordered from Payless. They are obviously too big but she didn't seem bothered that her cute little pinky toes were hanging out the sides. We tried to find her some shoes at the BX but her feet are too chunky for all the shoes on base. Finally we found some shoes at Nishimatsuya (we call it the bunny store). It worked out great because the shoes were only $5 a pair.

Tatum is my little helper. She is always ready and willing to help Mom. Here she is helping me wipe down walls. She loves to help with laundry, dusting, dishes, you name it. The second I get cleaners out she is ready to go.

Tatum reminds us a lot of Tayson. She absolutely loves books. She asks me to read books to her all the time. If I let her, we would read for hours and hours. She got a birthday card from her Grandma and Grandpa and she loves to take it to nap with her so she can "read" it. What a cutie.