That's a Wrap!

A little late on this one but two weeks ago Tate had his last day of preschool at Country Junction.  Next year he will stay at Country Junction but move to the "Pre-K" class four mornings a week.  He has learned so much this year, he can write "T-a-t-"...for some reason he is scared to write a "e" on his own, he still has to trace that one but we're making progress.  He is constantly asking me what letter words start with or showing me letters he recognizes on signs and in books.

First day of preschool this school year, September 2012

Last day, June 2013

Love his teachers Miss Leslie and Miss Sandy

Miss Lexie (Miss Sandy's daughter) , a senior in High School who helps out every once in while in class and also babysits, Tate LOVES her

Tate's class doing there end of year performance (a few songs), it was very cute

On the way to Tate's preschool graduation a deer ran in front of my car and my camera happened to be sitting right there, this happens so often it is not at all unusual.  

Just a few pictures from a random afternoon outside...

Father's Day

Todd spent Father's Day morning fishing then joined us for a family walk to the park followed by dinner at our friends and new neighbors the Roberts.  It was a packed day but very fun.  I am so thankful to have this man as my husband and father to our kids.  My own dad was out of town but we are looking forward to celebrating with him next weekend!

Do these boys look excited to be on a walk or what! 

Todd is laughing while I'm taking this picture because Tate is at the top yelling at me to put my camera away.  Some day that kid will thank me I know it!

Manual Mode

Last weekend I took a second photography class from "Mamas with Camera's" all about shooting entirely in manuel - no automatic settings, which means adjusting and setting the ISO, white balance, aperture and shutter speed.  Sounds simple enough, not that I will need or be able to do it in all situations but it will come in handy with tricky lighting situations.  We had a perfect cloudy day this week so I took the boys to the park for a practice photo shoot.  I had to bribe Tate with a lollypop and that only bought me a few precious moments before he was shouting "stop taking my picture"..."put your camera away now or I'm leaving".

Happy Birthday Cole!!!

My little baby is 1!!  How did this happen?  Cole is still so laid back and happy, how did I get so lucky?  He is baby babbling up a storm and even repeating some sounds we make.  I think we've got a little while till walking with I am just fine with, this is my last baby so I am enjoying his cute crawl as long as I can.  He is into absolutely everything, we finally had to give in with baby locks on all cabinets as he wants to open and pull everything out.  He sure loves a bathroom - there is toilet paper to eat, water to play in and toilets to flush!  We are in the eating EVERYTHING phase, parks are difficult - so many delicious things to eat - bark, sticks, dirt...mmmmm.  I think what I love most about him is how cuddly and loving he still is.  And let me tell you, this baby makes me feel soooo loved!!  I secretly love it that he dives for me and wants me over everyone else when I enter a room, and if I walk across the room he sprint crawls after me!  Thankfully he is good with new people/strangers so leaving him with babysitter/grandparents is always easy.

We celebrated his birthday tonight with grandma & grandpa Shay, great-grandma Pete and aunt Kate.  We served Coconut lime chicken, grilled corn salad and cilantro lime salad from grandma for dinner and Barefoot Contessa Chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting.

Cole just started antibiotics for his sixth ear infection in five months and I don't think he was feeling very good, he just wasn't his usual smily self tonight but he enjoyed eating wrapping paper, being held by everyone and pulling at grandma's glasses.  He wasn't quite sure about the cupcake but Tate grabbed his bulldozer spoon and started shoveling it in which Cole didn't seem to mind and we then had to stop Tate when we thought Cole had enough.

Side by side comparison of Tate and Cole on their first birthdays!

We recently started doing 10 minutes a day of "school work" as we say to Tate, but it's really 10 minutes a day of fine motor practice - tracing, writing etc.  He wasn't a super fan but then Todd had the idea of having him come into the office and sit at Todd's desk next to him while Todd worked.  Well, that made it really cool and fun and the past few mornings Tate has walked in there all on his own and said, "I'm going to do my work in dad and my office now" and opens his work book and gets to business.  Very cute!

Tate carried his grilled cheese in the family room yesterday when I wasn't looking and set it down unattended.  Didn't take long for someone to find it!

Jumping Fool

My attempt to implement "no jumping on the sofa" is going really well.  Not.

Sunny Wednesday

These two...

Cole started crawling months after Tate but he is catching up fast, he is cruising like a mad man, charging stairs and using his walker.  I caught Tate helping him today with the walker and being so sweet, melted my heart....and ten minutes later he had gotten into my ribbons for wrapping gifts and was wrapping them around Cole's neck.

Thanks for the booty in my face big brother!  Boys!

Tate has never wanted to share a bath with his brother because "he doesn't want the baby to play with his scuba divers", but Todd always says, "well then we'll go buy your brother his own brand new divers and he wont share them with you" - nice dad.  Then Tate would give in and share the bath.  But the last few nights Tate has actually wanted to take a "brother bath" as he calls it and willing shares his bath toys...something is up...just look how suspicious they look in the below picture...