My favorite season---so far anyways!

When Tatum turned one I thought back through the year and thought "how could next year come close to being as memorable as this one?!" **CLASSIC ROOKIE MOM THOUGHT**

No one year, or season can out shine another- they are all so special in their own unique light. But I can say the lady 6 months have been so FUN! Tatum is learning new things everyday! The love I have for her is unreal! There are NO words to describe the place she holds in my heart. She adventurous, cheerful (that's what her name means btw), daring, loving (like no other toddler I've know) and a performer to say just a few of my favorite characteristics!

She's recently started saying sentences! My favorite is her expression and passion on all her words! She's quite the dramatic tot!

There are so many favorites I could go on and on (like any good mom could) forever. When I think of the love I have for her it's hard to imagine that God loves me (and you!!!) MORE--it's amazing. His grace and mercy is never ending and His LOVE is unconditional! What a wonderful role model we have to be great parents!

Rocking my baby to sleep,
Xo

Happy Harvest!

Tatum's First Halloween!

We choose not to celebrate the traditional Halloween holiday simply because it is a dark and inglorious holiday, however I could not resist dressing tatum up in a cute costume! We decided she would be Snow White and we would spend the evening at Grandpa & Grandmas house with daddy, her auntie Ashy & uncle Josh, and bestest friend Abby (who was Minnie Mouse for the evening)! Grandma Lomprey made tatum an adorable hand painted pumpkin pail to collect candy in! We only went next door to say hello to the world's best neighbors and get the dads a little candy! We spent the rest of the evening waving to trick or treater's and passing out candy. By 7:30 tatum was SO tired we headed home with Mr Snuggles close by and a fist locked tight full of candy! (made me smile to see her little fist so full of candy!) it was a fun night filled with love and laughter.

Unfortunately I didn't have my good camera so these will have to due.

This time last year...

....is how a lot of my thoughts have begun this last week! I can't believe Tatum Sky will be ONE year old in just 19 days! I'm not sad that she's grown so much, so fast--I truly feel joyful and excited to celebrate the amazing year we have lived. It's really fun to take a moment and look through year old pictures and Facebook post. Boy is social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc) great documentation of what we have done, are doing, and our short term goals for the future! I think I might print out a few pages of my status updates for Tatum's scrapbook.

So this time last year, Halloween 2010, I was in Ocotillo (the desert) camping with family and friends. My brother Kendall was home on leave from the USAF for just a month before leaving to serve 2 years in Germany. One of the highlights of that trip was as soon as we got to our camp area, Kendall unloaded our buggy and we went on a ride. It was so fun, we drove fast and even jumped the buggy ;-) I think Kendall was trying to get me to go into labor and insure he was going to get to meet Tatum before he left the country.

In the picture below I had less that 3 weeks to go, it was VERY windy for the record!

First word: dada

Tatum officially said "dada" to brandon today! I'm not going to lie I was a little sad it wasn't "mama" (just because I am so competitive!) but as soon as she smiled after saying it my heart melted! She is so perfect (to us, hehe) I can't imagine having another one just a perfect as her sometimes!

Click here to see video

3 Months Old

The month of February was the begining of SMILES & what seemed to be the curse of never ending DROOL aka teething!!!! 

We all got colds that lasted all month long, Tatum and I spent more than a few nights sleeping sitting up in the recliner! Tatum went to Sears to have her pictures takens for the first time professionally (not counting in the hospital at birth.) She got her nails painted hot pink with "Piggy Paint" and dressed up with some of mommy's pearls. They turned out great!

We played dress up at Grandma & Grandpa's house

They bought Tatum so may cute clothes from Solvang when they went on a road trip. It was exhausting!! 







For President's Day weekend we when to the Salton Sea to camp and participate in the annual desert scavenger hunt Treasure Trails. Brandon started going when he was just 10 years old so he was so excited to bring Tatum out for her first time! There is also an award handed out every year for the youngest baby on the trail....he was determined to win it!! Every mom he saw carrying a young baby he would strike up a conversation and casually ask how hold their baby was. (it was really funny to watch from a far!) We had a great weekend, and it was finished off by Brandon getting to take Tatum in front of the whole crowd and accept a plaque and take a picture for the local paper! 


We also took Tatum off roading in our Jeep! Behind our house in Corona is the Cleveland National Forest. We packed some snacks, and the dogs and drove up the mountain to see the fresh snow! From the top we could look out and see the ocean, it was so pretty!!

We went to lunch one day with Grandma, Tawni and Cami

....and Tatum fell asleep on the table! It was so funny!!

Auntie Nawny LOVES Tatum time!

Abby & Tatum got their pictures taken together

Tatum also started rolling over and doing "push-ups". She loved having floor time with abby! they would take each others binkies (...well Abby would steal Tatum's) and touch each other! 

We had a FUN (and busy) month!! 

Daddy Day Care

DADDY DAY CARE....but only for 1 day

Mommy had to go back to work for one day, so daddy stayed home to take care of you. I'm sure he was thinking 'How hard can it be?' So I set you two up for success, I had everything either of you could need layed out and ready to go. I left the house, said a prayer and giggled a bit, on my way to work. I was in a meeting for 8 hours and wasn't able to check in, so I asked your auntie Ashley to check in on the two of you! There were minimal tears shed...by you, none by your dad, and lots of laughs from the both of you! You had just learned to make noises, you found your voice, it was adorable!

When I got home and asked your dad how his day went, he quickly said, "it's much easier to go to work everyday!" We laughed and he told me all about your day. He said you guys spent all day on the couch making faces at eachother, you drank lots of bottles, and them puked lots all over your dad. I asked if he had time to clean the house, do the laundry, or make dinner, he responded, "ughh i didnt even have time to brush my teeth...AND the only thing I've eaten all day was a quesadilla and thats only because the baby was crying and I was waiting for her bottle to warm up so I thought 'what the hell, I might as well make something to eat!'"

All in all it was a great day, your dad enjoyed being with you and i was happy to come home to be with my family! As we laid down that night your dad said, "daddy day care is closing up shop!"

Tatum's 1st Trophy

Treasure Trails 2011

For the last 14 years Brandon has been going to an off road event call Treasure Trails, in Salton City.

At 9AM on Saturday, everyone is given a set of clues to go on their treasure hunt.  The clues are short rhymes or puzzles leading to the location of 400 little treasure chests.  The objects in the clues are rock formations, trees, hillsides, piles of rock, hard mud... anything unusual or outstanding.  A dead tree branch may be a dragon, a rock might be a turtle or a shark.  Or, a root might be a serpent or a lightning bolt.  The clues are easy enough that the kids often spot things before the adults in their group see it.

This is not a race.  The only challenge is in solving the puzzles and thus finding a hidden treasure chest.  The chest is then turned in when found and a prize will be awarded on Sunday.  Along the trails, you'll also want to be on the lookout for more objects worth cash prizes.    For those who remain clueless by Saturday night, Trail Masters provide extra clues. Its a really fun weekend in Ocotillo!

For the last 3 years, Brandon has told me that of all the different awards they give out, he wants to win the "Youngest Baby on the Trail" award. All weekend he was scoping out the "competiton" other young babies and asking thier mom's and dad's how old thier baby was. (it was so cute!) The awards ceremony on Sunday came, and we waited through the LONG list of raffles, and prizes! The announcer finaly asked thr crowd, "Who thinks they ahve the youngest baby girl here? Yell out her age..." Someone yelled out 4 months, and Brandon held Tatum above his head, and proudly yelled "11 WEEKS!!" Te announcer called him forward to collect tatums prize, and have thier pictures taken for the local news paper (http://westshoresnews.com/index.htm) and the website photo album (http://www.treasuretrails.org/photoalbums).

Brandon was such a proud daddy! (And i am grateful we won so he didn't expect to get busy and try again for next year's award!!) We had an awesome weekend with friends!