Six Months Old

Has it already been six months?! Tori is growing up so fast; eating solids, sitting up, scooting all around the house. She is such a fun, happy baby and we just love her! She now weighs 15 lb 10 oz (50th percentile) and is 25 1/2 inches long (50th percentile).

What joy

this bundle of wonder

this ball of bright-eyed energy . . . .

that holds happiness in a giggle

and all of heaven in a smile.

Birthday Boy!

Happy Birthday, Tater Bug! Tate turned three on September 6th. We had a little party for him on Saturday since we had cousin Ethan's baby blessing on Sunday. It was so funny to watch Tate rip into his presents. Oma and Opa gave him a remote control car and he was convinced that the remote control was a camera. When he wants to take the car for a spin, he asks us if he can "take a picture" of the car.

"Tate and Lightening McQueen. He races like a race car. It's a birthday cake!"

"Opening my presents. It's the train and the track. And I got those. Thank you!"

"Ohhhh! Buzz Lightyear! Big Buzz Lightyear. He flies and falls down and Woody helps him. Oh. I love Woody and Buzz."

"My puzzles. It's Shane and Oma and Opa. Oma is sitting by daddy. And that is very Shane. I love my Shane."

"My trains from Shane and Darcee. All aboard! Chuga chuga choo choo. All aboard!"

We spent the afternoon on Sunday at the Deeter residence after Ethan's blessing. Annie was so sweet and had a little cake and present waiting for Tate. Thanks for being so thoughtful, Annie!

"Whoa. Fire. Tate is blowing it on his cake and candle."

Yes. He really is blowing out the candle in this picture. Do you know how long it takes to blow out a candle when you don't even open your mouth?

"It's a Lightening McQueen!'

Go Utes!

Don't worry, don't worry. We're still true blue Aggie fans. Well, most of us are. Tori, Phil's fellow school counselor at IHMS, has converted Tate over to the Utes. He loves to hear their fight song and yell "Go Utes!" So when Tori (Phil's co-worker, not our baby girl) hooked us up with tickets to the Utah vs. Utah State game, Tate was pretty excited. He pointed out every U in the stadium and said, "Look. There's Go Utes and there's Go Utes and there's Go Utes . . . . "(you get the idea). We had a blast at the game and were pretty proud of our Ags even though they lost.

Back to School, Back to School . . .

Tate started at his new "school" (aka: daycare) this week and he was such a trooper. We've been talking about and preparing him for this change all summer. He did so great. He ran right into his new classroom and started playing with the other kids. No tears, no hesitation. His teacher said that a few hours later he paused and said, "I need my mommy. I need to go home." But she just distracted him with some toys and he was fine.

When I got home that night, Tate was so excited to tell me all about his new school, the fun toys, the new teachers, and "the little boy in the green shirt, he was playing with the big truck and I screamed at him."

Thank you, Tater, for being such a big kid and making this day a little bit easier on mommy. I love you!

Take Me Out To A Ball Game

Grandpa and Grandma came to visit last weekend and we headed out to the ballgame. It was HOT! But it was fun. Bees won, 8-3 (I think).

We were treated to fireworks after the game. Tate surprised us and didn't whine or cry at all. In fact, he didn't move a muscle during the whole firework show. Thanks, Grandma, for preventing premature hearing loss.

I love Tori's face in this one! I want to draw a thought bubble coming from her head that says, "What the heck?!"

Sittin' Pretty

Family Pictures

So, obviously, we had some new family pictures done. Tori, normally an extremely happy baby, was super sleepy during the entire photo session and we couldn't squeeze more than two smiles out of her. So we'll be back to do more pictures of her another time. But here are the results of our photo session. (I'm not sure why I really needed to post these. Most of them are displayed somewhere on the blog already.)