Tatum Turns 3

Our Sweet Tatum turned 3 on February 28th.

We had a really fun party.

We were able to rent the small theater and watch Tangled.

The years have gone by so fast. Our little Tatum is now a big girl.

She loves to play dress-up and put on makeup. She's a smart little gal and has a pretty broad vocabulary. She loves anything girly and pink. Tatum enjoys telling jokes and using her "deep" laugh. She also loves to add the raspberry sound at the end of "Nope" and "Yep". She has a jokester personality just like her Daddy. Tatum has a lot of fans and loves every bit of it.

This is the cake I made for Tatum. I had a fun time making it.

This was a first time Barbie cake for me. I enjoyed doing her hair and making her crown and necklace. This is an actually Barbie just wrapped with plastic wrap. I first baked a cake mix in a bowl not realizing I was supposed to double the recipe. The dress turned out only about 5 inches tall. That was definitely not tall enough for the Barbie to fit inside, so I had to make a quick run to the store and bought a double layer cake to put on the bottom. I'm so glad it turned out in the end. This is really my first fancy frosting experience and I think it turned out pretty good.

Here's the kids playing "Heavy, Heavy Hang Over Thy Poor Head"

Kara joins the Big Girl's Club

I had such a great 30th birthday. Am I really 30? Where has the time gone? I'm excited for my 30's. They are going to be incredible.

Jay made it back just a couple of days before, so we planned a party for the next weekend. On my birthday we went to Tayson's football game, I had lunch with my wonderful girlfriends and then we had a little party at home where Jay and the kiddos spoiled me. Then next Saturday we got a bunch of our friends together for a game night. I made 6 homemade pizzas and everyone brought something to share. We ended up with sore cheeks from laughing so hard. What a great night. I have the coolest family and friends ever.

Lunch at a really good Thai restaurant

Kara, Alli, Lisa, Jeanne and Heather

Jay was so sweet and got the house all decorated. He and the kids got me clothes, shoes and jewelry. I don't know how I got so lucky to have a many who can pick out such stylish things and they all fit perfectly.

Here's Tatum sportin' some of Mom's new shoes and bracelets. She walked around in those shoes like it was second nature. Of course the look wouldn't be complete if she wasn't in her cute undies.

Game night was so awesome. You know when Jay is posing like this, we are having a great time.

Kim, Rick and Chloe Narvaez

Austin, Rebecca and Bob Pena

Kaylee Clifford (her hubby was coming home in a couple weeks)

Alli Schooley and Bill Cox

Chad Schooley and Bill Cox

Bill and Lisa Cox

Mike and Brittany Chiniquy

Jay and Kara

Workout with Tony Horton

Tony Horton came to Kadena and did a workout and then meet and greet. It was so much fun. He is just as goofy in real life and I think that made it all the more fun. He definitely kicked all our butts. We did a little bit of every style and then some other new moves. I was super sore the next few days but loving every bit of it.

Tayson's 1st Flag Football Practice

Last week was Tayson's 1st Flag Football practice. He's been so excited to start and he is doing pretty well at it. He can throw a nice spiral and does really well dodging the other players. Tatum had a great time at Tayson's practice too. She was playing in puddles and getting kind of muddy. It's nice to let her just explore in a big open area during his practices. Now we sit a lot closer to his practices, so we'll get better pictures later on. I'm really excited to cheer him on in his games. I'll probably be that crazy mom cheering on her kid after every play. I've always wanted to be that mom.

Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving morning started out with the Turkey Bowl. I look forward to this every year because it's really the only chance I get to play football during the year. We played with a lot of people from the Okinawan Military District. It was a gorgeous day. Jay was gone on TDY (temporary deployment) so it was the the kiddos and me. We missed him very much. The holidays just are not the same without him. The first play I was able to tag the receiver (we were playing 2 hand touch) and got a shoulder to the cheekbone. I got a little beat up during the game but loved every bit of it. It made me feel like a kid again getting so many bumps and bruises but I can definitely tell I don't heal as fast as I used to.

The night before I was taking Tatum up to bed. She was asleep in my arms and I slipped on a nerf gun at the bottom of the steps (Tayson got in some huge trouble for that). I landed really hard on the stairs. I sacrificed myself to save Tatum and got a huge bruise that was a big lump for several days on my thigh, bruised my elbow and a big lump and bruise on my other shin. These battle wounds didn't keep me from playing football but when I fell trying to block the ball, I could've cried. I didn't (had to be tough) but ouch!!!!! We had the old people (adults with kids) and the kids play against the missionaries and youth. We kicked some butt. The little kids were great at rushing the quarterback. I guess 5-7/8 yr olds are pretty intimidating. They were so antsy it was hard for them to count to 5 Mississippi before rushing in.

After the game we headed home to get food ready. I made 2 sweet potato pies, a cherry pie, watergate salad, creamed corn and a veggie tray to take to the dinner. It was the first time I've made my own pie crust and it turned out really good.

The kids and I were able to spend Thanksgiving with our great friends the Cox Family and Jeanne Downing and her girls (her husband was TDY as well). They feel like family to us, so it was a very relaxing and enjoyable day. Sadly I didn't get too many pictures but I did get one of the beautiful table setting.

Tatum was the only one who wore a dress to dinner. She really wanted to get dressed-up for the special dinner. What a cutie and such a girl. I love it.

Tayson Falls asleep in Crazy place

Tayson was supposed to be getting ready for bed. I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth, came out and this is what I found. Kids fall asleep in the craziest places and positions.

Tatum's Crazy Hair

One day, Tatum decided she wanted to do my hair. We got out all of the hair things and had a great time. We tried to put as many hair things as possible in her hair. Isn't she cute?

Marine Corps Ball and Sleeping Tatum

We were invited to the Marine Corps Ball by our awesome friends, Bill and Lisa Cox.

I was so excited to get all dressed-up. We had a great time. We always do hanging our with our awesome friends. There was a great ceremony, good dinner and dancing.

Hopefully we'll be able to see the professional pictures from the ball soon, so I can post them up.

Bill and Lisa Cox

Jay was being naughty and needed a little spankin'

Lisa, me and Maria (another good friend from church)

I had such a good drink while we were there. I had heard of a Shirley Temple but never knew it was non-alcoholic. Well, Bill hooked us all up and I really liked it.

What handsome guys

This picture has absolutely nothing to do with the ball, but it needed to be posted. I came home a couple Saturdays ago and asked Jay where Tatum was. He said something like I think she's upstairs playing. I looked around for a while and this is where she ended up. She is on the backside of our table (that's why we couldn't find her for a minute) asleep, standing up. She has her head lying on the chair. What a cutie. When we woke her, she was really disoriented and it was funny. I would be disoriented too.

Okinawa Zoo and Children's Museum

The kiddos didn't have school last Friday, so we decided to go to the zoo and Children's museum. We had a really good time and I was completely worn out by the end. We were able to have our little friends over for the entire day and my kids just loved it.

Halloween 2010

We had a really fun Halloween this year. Friday, Tayson had a party at school and he and Tatum had a great time. That night we had the Branch Fall Festival. We had some fun carnival games, haunted house, cake walk and a Trunk-or Treat. Saturday Jay was able to make it back from TDY just in time to be able to go Trick-or-Treating. We had some friends come over for Pizza beforehand and then after trick-or-treating a scary movie.

Tatum was our cute little princess, I was a witch (80's rocker for the Fall Festival) and Jay our sexy, white trash man. Many people wanted to take pictures of him while trick-or-treating and some people weren't quite sure if it was a costume or just a white trash father takin' his kids tricker treatin'. Of course Jay played the part very well. Also if you look really closely you'll get to see the pizza stain on his shirt that added just the right touch. To get this perfect look all you do is smash the pizza you are eating for dinner onto yourself and then eat the rest. Very simple.

Tatum loves to do her cute little princess poses.

Here's Tayson our scary mummy. Whenever the camera came out, he was in character.

Tatum and her best friend Katherine at the Trunk-or-Treat. That's our van. It looked a little scarier in the dark. It was a good time.

Tayson doing the cake walk in mummy mode.

Tayson's school class.

I love making my kids costumes each year. Of course I try to make it simple. Tatum's dress was actually a teen dress off of the clearance rack that I shorted the straps on and added sleeves. The length was perfect.

Tayson's was just cream pants and tan shirt with strips of white cloth tacked around the clothes. I added a little brown spray paint so that it looked aged.