Tatum's 1 year old pics by Abby Izor

Our little angel had her pictures done for her first birthday and they turned out just darling.  Abby Izor did such a great job and I love every one, so I pretty much posted every one.  I feel bad that I haven't had anything about Tayson lately, so definitely be looking forward to that.  Plus his birthday is coming up soon, so we'll have a lot of pics then.  I hope you enjoy our cute little Tatum and her great personality.

Camping with Friends

A couple of Weekends ago, we were invited by our friends, The Cox Family, to go camping.  He, Brother Cox, was being deployed for 6 months and wanted to get together with his friends one last time before he headed out.  We had such a great time camping at White Beach with several families from our Branch.  The Holbrooks, The Downings, The Schooleys, The Wahlquists and of course the Cox Family.  We barbecued and played games until 2 AM then had a great breakfast the next morning.  I really enjoyed spending time with everyone and being able to be with wonderful people.  We had a great time talking and getting to know everyone more. 

We stayed in the cutest little cabins and I wished I had taken more pictures but we are pretty bad about remembering to get our camera out, so these 2 are the only ones we got.  These 2 girls love our little Tatum and are always trying to find her when we go to church.  Too bad Tatum is going through a little separation anxiety though, so she wasn't playing for too long.

Tatum Eating

Tatum is a crazy little eater and really enjoys putting food in her hair.  One time, she had eaten some peaches and had peach juice all over her hair.  I wiped as much as I could out of it since we were heading out the door and didn't have time to give her a bath.  Her hair looked all crazy and kind of had a flip up hair do going on and someone asked what kind of hair gel I used to make it look so cute.  Well, I said peach juice works best and then rub a wet wash cloth all over and let it do it's own thing.

Here is Tatum learning to feed herself with a spoon.  I think she did a pretty good job.  Now she loves trying to feed herself with a fork and spoon.  She gets frustrated once in a while so sometimes Mom scoops and hands her the utensil to feed herself.  It works pretty good.  She just hands me her spoon or fork when she is ready for some more. (March 10th)

Tatum Turns 1

Not only did my cake taste good, but it made a good seat too

This feels squishy between my fingers

I love babies and  taking care of them

Tatum is giving loves to the bunny Tayson got for her

Tatum was very anxious to open her presents

Tatum turned 1 on February 28th and we can't believe it.  Where did the year go?  Our little angel had such a wonderful birthday.  She really enjoyed opening presents, being sung to and best of all getting to eat her cake with her hands (and feet).

Here is a little about Tatum: (in no particular order)

-She blows on her food even if it isn't hot

-She loves the challenge of trying to get into anything she shouldn't have; mostly Dad's video game consoles

-She loves to smile or give dirty looks.  You never know which one you're going to get but their both cute

-She loves to share her food with you even if it's already been chewed.  She doesn't want you to go hungry.

-She gives her own kind of kisses.  First she purses her lips together and makes kissing sounds to show you she wants a kiss and then she comes in for the attack with mouth wide open and has recently added tongue as well.  

-She giggles after she toots and I really can't blame her it is pretty funny

-She gives great hugs and cuddles

-She enjoys bouncing on the trampoline (which is finally fixed) and laughs really hard when we play steamroller

-She is a little water baby and loves swimming.

-She loves babies and it breaks her heart when she can't hold a baby and give loves

We (and pretty much anyone who meets her) just love Tatum and she brings a lot of joy to us.

Happy Birthday Sweet Angel

Writer's Workshop

Tayson's favorite subject in school is Writer's Workshop.  Just recently he finished his 3rd set of high frequency words flash-cards so his teacher sent home a different activity to do each week at home.  Tayson's been doing these in school, but I never realized how much I would enjoy doing this with him and watching his creative juices flowing.  

First:  He draws a picture

Second:  Writes a story (around 5 sentences) about the picture containing: beginning, middle and an end all on his own spelling the best he can

Third:  We go through the story together and Correct spelling and punctuation.

Fourth:  He colors his picture.

I couldn't believe how well he did and how impressed I was by his spelling.  At one point during his story he looked up at me and asked why I was smiling so big and I just told him how pleased I was with how well he was doing and I couldn't help but smile.

He wrote a lot faster than I realized he could and he didn't have a hard time at all spelling his high-frequency words.  I'm so impressed with how much he has learned so far in Kindergarten and I'm looking forward to doing these stories each week.

Our First Garden

A few weeks ago we had bought some seeds and put them in our window so they would sprout.  We finally decided it was time to plant them, so we had a good time together working on our little potted garden.  We had made a new year's goal to learn to grow a garden, so it was nice to get it started.  We planted: broccoli, carrots, basil, butter lettuce, red lettuce, cherry tomatoes, green peppers, parsley, and green onions.  This is first time for us, so we'll just have to see how everything turns out.  Wish us luck.

Tatum decided playing in the dirt wasn't quite enough.  She had to taste it too.

Kara's 28th Birthday

February 12th was my birthday.  Jay and Tayson woke me up in the morning saying "Happy Birthday" and brought me breakfast in bed.  Then I walked downstairs and there were balloons and streamers decorating the whole house.  Then they brought me my gifts to open.  I got a really cute purse/diaper bag, a wallet planner, a hoodie, a book about mothers and sons from Tayson and a beautiful family Willow Tree Plaque.  It was a great morning.  We went about the rest the days as usual.  Tayson had school, I was volunteering at the school, etc...  That evening we went to Romano's Macaroni Grill and they sang to me in Italian and we had a delicious dinner.  The turtle cheesecake at the end was my favorite.

The "Birthday Girl"  I can't believe I'm 28.  Time has gone by so fast.

The handsome husband who was so thoughtful.  He knows I love surprises, so he got off work at 3:00 A.M. (he works mids) and came home to get everything ready.  What a sweetheart.

Tayson showing me how I'm supposed to look when the waiters/waitresses come to sing to me.

Tatum liked the singing too.

Showing us how big his next bite is going to be.

"I love Food"

Lounging in my robe with my great gifts