Message from Katie

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I hope you have a good Christmas. Make thoses wish lists!

Have a good Christmas and make those cookies and gingerbread houses, like me and my brother!

Love,

Katie

All I wanted was to drink just one cup of coffee before I started my day.....

Why hello there...

We are going to update our blog... Finally. It's been a crazy several weeks and I could spend lots of time (which I don't really have - but who does?) updating you on every event that has happened to us BUT I am not going to bore you. Yes, we had Halloween and Yes my kids were the cutest on the block and Yes we have the infamous Tate farm, Halloween costumes and the random cute kid pictures WHICH I am actually going to post for all the world to see. - you didn't think you were getting out of that did you??? and Yes the kids (all three!!) are doing well in school, at least when they attend..Kyle that one is for you my lovely college student.

I will hit the highlights ever so briefly.

Katie is currently the Uno champion in our house. Her and Kevin have a standing Sunday game that starts right after lunch and is a hoot to listen to and even more fun to watch.

Katie had 2 teeth pulled on the bottom row (canine teeth?). She was and is a trooper. Her jaw is swollen and gums are sore and she isn't too interested in eating. but she is still all smiles.

Kyle had his wisdom teeth removed today. His mom messaged me to let me know he is fine and woke up talking non stop to the nurses, so much so they had to ask him to be quiet.

My sister Traci gave me the best news I have heard in a while... So I am also all smiles!!!

Philip...Is adorable. starting to talk more. We are hearing MINE, NO NO KATIE, Katie LETS GO often. His favorite is I LOVE______ elevator (evetor), mommy, daddy, bubba, sissy, meow meow, babies, candy(cannee), cold coke(colcoke), waffles, oranges(oangees),mcdonalds (donalds) and Lola.

I am happy, content, blessed beyond words, sleep deprived, but feel very very loved.

Check out my beautiful family.

C

6:15am wake up to a cat puking on a clean stack of laundry right next to my head.

6:45am mommy, mom, mom, MOMMY...oatmeal?

7:00 do I have to brush my teeth every morning? Why?

7:30 get in the car, get your shoes, get your backpack

8:00 no Philip, let mommy take a shower by herself please

8:10 change Philips soaking wet clothes from getting in shower fully dressed

8:30 breakfast at a Rolos. Thank goodness for that train!!!
note - go back tomorrow and retrieve Philips hat that I left on table

9:30 wrestle my lipstick tube out of Philips hands, wipe off bright pink fingers and pick up
the 5 dollar bill he threw on the ground while I was looking for wipes

9:55 apologize profusely to poor woman standing behind me in line when Philip decided he was
done with his water bottle and threw it at her

10:15 What was I thinking. Sams club. Has anyone else noticed an echo in that store?

11:30 I had to pee, came out of bathroom and Philip had nutter butters all over the floor.

11:31 check nutritional content of nutter butters, do they qualify for lunch?

12:00 is baby Einstein really playing on two different tv's at the same time? and AGAIN what
was I thinking trying to turn one off.

12:15 Tylenol for me and hummm Tylenol for the baby too. I am sure he is cutting a tooth
somewhere.

12:30 NAP time

1:00 phone rings

1:25 door bell rings

1:50 phone rings

2:00 coffee

2:15 more coffee

2:30 Katie is home! she had a great day.. she is telling me philip is awake, but we choose to
snuggle a little bit longer before we get him up

2:45 snacks for all the tvs are back on.

4:00 Katie painting in kitchen

4:15 went to pee for 2nd time today....came back to 15 water bottles spread out over kitchen
floor and straws removed from the back of several Capri suns, also all over floor

4:30 Wow I am doing it. Making dinner, Katie is crafting and smiling and Philip is drawing
white board. I am good :)

4:35 Looking for upholstery cleaner to try to remove the massive amounts of
black dry erase marker from off of my favorite red chair, guess I wasn't doing it.

4:36 Thanks Katie, I see it on the rug too

5:10 Dinner... mom do i have to eat? I am not really hungry

5:20 outside. 2 more hours until bedtime

6:30 Woo Hoo! its the ice cream man 5 dollars for 2 cold treats.. what a bargain

6:45 Looking for stain remover

7:00 bath. Kids are so much cuter when they are clean

7:15 night night Philip

8:00 good night princess

8:30 is my Kyle really on his cell phone for 183 minutes in the middle of the night? AND
this can't be right... 2000 text messages in the past 5 days?

9:00 2 more hours until my bedtime.....

C

All is right in our world

Brandon is here! Brandon is here!! Brandon is here!!!

You gotta love Auntie Traci's style. I probably have bought Katie 3 different dresses this season and she will not have ANYTHING to do with them. Auntie Traci on the other hand FROM A DIFFERENT STATE no less sends her a dress and she won't take it off! Good job Traci. You win.....

Today was good.

C

Well. I am not sure where exactly to start. since my last entry we have caught our second skunk, we celebrated Kevin's mothers birthday at the Cracker Barrell. Kevin has gone out of town for 5 days and Philip has perfected the word "NO". I am tired, my house is as mess, the cats are hungry and I just remembered that I didn't eat dinner.
BUT. Following in my sister's footsteps (imagine that) I too cleaned up my child's room and created a crafting place for her. Katie is thrilled and extremely grateful. I have already received 2 thank you notes from her and lots of hugs and kisses. Totally worth not eating dinner!
Kyle informed me today that the next hurricane has his name, so look out Traci, I am sure the eye to that one will pass right over your house!
It appears that I am always talking about everyone else in my family but not really about me, so let me spend a few minutes talking about all the exciting things going on in my life.....






Well that about sums it up...
C

"Mom....MOMMY.....mom.....mom...MOM...MOMMY....mom....BOO!"

Words from Katie

Katie and Jake August 2008

September 1st labor day

What a great weekend. Jake came up for a short but sweet visit Friday night. Katie was thrilled. She kept asking me when the phone was going to ring to let us know when he would actually get here! It felt wonderful to wrap my arms around him and give him lots of hugs and kisses!

Another highlight was that we finally caught the skunk that has been living under our house. It did retaliate by spraying right into the air conditioner. Two cans of Febreeze later I can still faintly smell skunk. BUT that's OK..

Labor day itself was fun. Philip woke up at 6 am sharp with more energy that I have had in my entire life put together. By 7:30am Kevin and I decided he needed to be outside SOMEWHERE... So by 9am we were on our way to the park. It was a perfect day for it. Overcast and breezy. Our plan worked. He gave us a 3 hour nap which gave us all (Katie included) time to recharge for the next round which began with him throwing sand and ended with him scraping his big toe running full force down the driveway.

Katie and I walked down memory lane today, looking at her baby clothes and matching the outfits to various pictures in our scrapbook... Then (after philip was in bed) she proceded to beat me at UNO. 5 TIMES.....She is an amazing girl. I am so blessed.

Well tomorrow is another day! Wish me luck.....