Tate turned 2!!

My baby turned 2 on Saturday, and I really can't believe he's that old. In some ways though, it seems like he's been around forever-I don't know what we did with our time before he came around! These are some things about my Tater that make him my sweet, funny, naughty little boy:

*he's a chatterbox, I can understand him but others probably can't

*he loves to sing-some of his favorite songs are "twinkle, twinkle little star", "abc's", "I'm so glad when daddy comes home", and the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme. He tries so hard to get all the words but he can't keep up very well

*he likes to dance to "Right Round" by Flo Rida--don't ask me why

*he laughs when I take him to time out...it's so irritating

*he goes to time out quite a bit

*he loves to watch Caillou, Mickey Mouse, and Max & Ruby

*he loves to kick balls all over the yard with dad

*his version of counting to ten is "one, two, six, seven, nine!!"

Tate was a spoiled boy, he got 2 parties--one with each side of the family. On Saturday we went swimming at Grandma Love's and had pizza and cake, then Sunday went to Grandma Wakefield's and had dinner and cupcakes and played in the sprinkers! These are the highlights from the parties:

This was our present to Tate-a race track...I think Jord likes is just as much as TateSwimming! It's a good thing he had a life vest on because the little stinker loved to run away from Jord and jump in before he could catch him

Blowing out the candles on his "Buzz Lightyear" cake

All the presents from the Love's

Opening presents and the Wakefield's

I didn't want to do another cake so we just did cupcakes shaped into a football

4th of July week.

I love any holidays with kids because it's just more fun, and it breaks up the every day monotony of....life! So last week was great, it was Riverton Days, (I refuse to spell it with the "zz" like they always do, it's lame) Alexa, Hailey, Jord and Tate on the Dragon Coaster-Tate loved it but got a bloody lip from smacking his face on the lap bar...
Jord won this monkey shooting hoops at the fair. Tate was so excited but now where am I going to put an oversized stuffed monkey??

Then we went to the ranch overnight on Friday. Tate was great during the day and had so much fun riding the 4-wheelers, playing with his cousins, and just being able to run free! But nights are awful with him anywhere but home. He is a very scheduled child and if he gets thrown off even a little bit, it's nightmarish. So needless to say, we came home early on Saturday to take very long naps!We tried going to the rodeo in Mount Pleasant and Tate was good for about the first 45 minutes and then was finished....so we didn't get to stay for very long.
Then Saturday night we decided to just stay home and chill and do our own little fireworks in our circle. I forget sometimes how easily entertained kids are--Tate could've cared less about any big and loud fireworks around. He was just as enthralled with the little tanks and spinners.

Boo to the MTC.

I've been in a blogging funk lately--I just don't feel like writing anything. But I have to make myself because this is my journal, so here I go.

Today was sad because we took Jord's brother Chace into the MTC....well, not "into" more like "semi-near." They've turned into quite the nazi's these days. Only one car is allowed in, you're supposed to take all pictures beforehand, and you stand on the curb and say your goodbye's for about 2 minutes before their escort takes them inside. It feels weird, but I guess it doesn't give you as much time to be as devastated. It goes too fast. Not to mention Chace was all smiles and excited to go in there...he didn't even shed one tear. I miss him already.

First Haircut!

So finally at the age of 23 months, Tate got a haircut. It's taken TWO FREAKIN YEARS to grow anything on that head! And it still was mostly on the top, not much on the back or sides. I took him to Cookie Cutters...which I loved that place, but Tate hated it. He cried and cried the whole time-I don't know how that girl was even able to cut his hair, but she did a great job.Before, with his crazy curly hair

During the scream sessionHe stopped crying at the end long enough to get a balloon...

And after! This was the best picture I could get of him. But it's so cute, he looks like such a little boy now...

HAWT.

There's a reason I've always been Team Jacob.

Seriously?!

I was reading my Us Weekly on Friday and it was flipped to this page (and no, I don't watch this show). Tate was sitting by me on the couch and looks over and points to each person and goes "daddy, mommy, Tate!" over and over again. Are you kidding me Tate? Please tell me I look nothing like Tori Spelling. I think I would have rather him mistaken me for one of the dogs on the bottom.

Hawaii

Jord and I just spent eight Tate-less days with his family in Oahu...and it was fabulous! I missed my Tater, but it was so great to get away and not have a 2 year old whining and clinging to me the whole time. And he had much more fun anyway staying here with my mom and Meg all week--he had lots of people to play with!

We did everything from cliff jumping, snorkeling, and cave swimming; to Pearl Harbor, movie tours at Kualoa Ranch, and FOUR HOURS at the flea market. We had so much fun...

These were the grounds at the condo we stayed at in Ko'Olina

Pearl Harbor

Waimea Beach where we cliff dived and went cave swimmingTy, Josh and Jord in the cave. It was so fun, you'd get sucked in and spun around, then spit back out. I jumped in shortly after this just in time for a big wave to smack my head into the ceiling of the cave.

Me and Chace at Sea Life Park

Jord skim boarding on our beachKualoa Ranch was the coolest place. It's thousands of acres of land, and lots of movies and tv shows are filmed there. So we got to take a tour of some of the places--like Jurassic Park, Pearl Harbor, 50 First Dates, and the show Lost. This was the famous tree where they hide from the T-Rex...After the movie set tour we got to take ATV's out and ride all over the ranch--it was beautiful! This is Jord getting ready to go..Me, Kallee, and Sis after driving the ATV's. Ya, that's not a tan--it's dirt. We were filthy after getting off those!

I was so excited to come back and see Tate, but I am now going through post-vacation depression. I just want to go back and lay on the beach.