Weekend

Shame on me for not taking any pictures all weekend!

On Saturday my uncle, aunt, and cousin came to visit from St. Louis.  We spent the afternoon with them.

On Sunday we went to a family reunion.  It is all of my mom's relatives on my grandma's side of the family.  There aren't too many of my grandma's siblings that are still living so it was a small crowd.  We went last year when Tate was just 6 days old so it was fun to go again and have everyone see how much he changed in a year.  Brett and I got in some practice on our new ping pong table.  I got it used and it is proving to be money well spent!

Today we went to a Memorial Day service at the nearby cemetery.  They marched out some veterans and prayed and listed those buried in the cemetery who served for our country.  My grandpa Nick was one of them.  Then they played Taps on the trumpet.  It was a beautiful service with rolls and coffee after.  Tate got to play with a 14 month old girl until it was time for a nap.  He was a sneezy mess all day despite some Benadryl. 

Actual Birthday

On Tate's actual birthday, Brett and I took him to the zoo for the first time.  There is a small, free zoo in a nearby town.  Tate thought it was fun when he could see the animals but most of them were hard for him to notice.  We also ran a few more errands, which included some business at the bank.  We were there for a while and Tate decided to take his first steps.  He walked from Brett's chair to my chair 3 different times!  We also went to Orscheln's where Tate got to see all of the baby chicks.  We went to Walmart and then to Applebee's for some supper.  I think it was a great day and perhaps Brett and I had more fun than Tate!

Birthday Party

Tate's birthday party was a lot of fun.  He was grumpy (teeth?) so he did have a few meltdowns.  He had one right before his cake and I had to bribe him with a bit of chocolate to get him back in his highchair with a smile on his face.

Freezing

I spent the evening freezing 8 lbs. of strawberries and 2 lbs. of green beans. Hopefully tomorrow I can find some time and energy to blog about Tate's birthday.

Sleepy

I was hoping to blog about Tate's birthday today but I am enjoying sleepy snuggles instead. It can wait until tomorrow.

12 Months

I have a 1 year old!

Your favorite toys are your new cozy coupe truck and your big barn toy. You still like books a lot but don't sit well for the story anymore. You love to be outside and play in the rocks and dirt. You really like the cats and dog. You also like to see the cows and will moo (boo) when you see them. You are a chatterbox and do a good job of mimicking words. So far I have heard you say hi, baby, boom, beep, uh-oh, daddy, mama, woof, and cat. You will sometimes wave and show how big you are. Yesterday when someone showed you 1 with their finger you did it too. You point to a lot of stuff. I still can't get you to clap. You have 7 teeth and are working on 2 top molars. Ever since my surgery dad has been in charge at night and you are sleeping much better. You sleep from about 7:30 to 5:30. Praise The Lord! You usually take 1 nap a day around 10:00 and sleep for 1.5 hours. You have been drinking whole milk for about a week. You loved it and switched easily. You drink 3 eight ounce bottles a day. You still refuse to drink milk out of a sippy cup. You still do not tilt your sippy cup. You are a really good eater and will often times let me spoon feed you some applesauce or oatmeal. You still won't pick up many fruits or vegetables but you eat bananas really well. You still love broccoli, French fries and pizza and also like turkey lunch meat, grilled cheese, shredded cheese, chicken nuggets, and noodles. You are cruising and crawling like a maniac. You stand on your own more and more and you took your first steps on your first birthday.  You took them while we were waiting at the bank!  You don't like wearing shorts outside and do a bear crawl when you have them on. You are wearing mostly 18 month clothes and still in size 4 diapers and wearing size 5 diapers overnight. You are just getting to be so much fun and we love you to pieces!

Catch up

I am having a hard time getting back into blogging. I worked hard last week cleaning and cooking for Tate's birthday party that we had on Saturday. I decided to have a party with just Tate's grandparents and aunts and uncles. I made pulled pork, pasta salad, fruit salad, chicken salad, cupcakes, and Tate's smash cake. It doesn't sound like a lot but it sure was hard to do and take care of Tate. Tate is working on a few more teeth so he has been grumpy. We did take some time to have fun! The weather was beautiful so we played outside a lot. We also met my friend from high school at the park and played with her son.

On Sunday we went to a graduation party. Tate liked the cake and punch. We ran into just a little bit of hail. My brother had big hail that broke some windows. Yesterday we went to the elementary school for lunch since they were having a cook out. It was great to see everyone and fun to see how the kids are growing. They all loved Tate! There was a bucket of water outside for an activity after lunch. Tate decided to play in it and all the second graders gathered around o watch. Tate started dipping his hands in the water then touching the kids. The kids thought it was funny and the ones that got touched thought they were lucky. Yesterday afternoon we went with Brett to take some protein blocks to the cows. The protein blocks are stored at my uncle's house. He was outside trimming trees with my cousin when we got there. My uncle thought Tate needed to get out o pay with the dogs. Then he thought Tate needed to go inside and see the bird and the cat. By the time we left Tate was ready to go home so Brett go to haul protein blocks alone. It was a fun day!

An F4 tornado hit Moore, Oklahoma yesterday. The destruction is terrible. I hate storms and tornadoes!

Right now Tate is snoozing in the recliner. The birthday boy had a rough start to the day. I cannot believe he is 1.