Finally, some pictures of Tatum

I feel like the worst mom ever! Being the 4th child in my family, I know what it is like to look through family pictures and realize that there just aren't as many photos of me as there are of everyone else. It's not that I don't love this little ball of cuteness as much as the others, I guess I just don't think about taking her pictures amongst all of the puking, cleaning, changing, puking, cleaning, changing........... she is always soaked with spit-up- yuck, it doesn't make for a perfect picture opportunity. So, as I looked back on my blogging over the last few months, I realized Tatum is just not getting any facetime and I would hate for her to look at this when she gets older and wonder why her mom never acknowledged her presence. So, yes I have taken some pictures- of course I wish I had taken more to chronicle her growth, but I am not completely incompetent.

At 5 months she is still not interested in ever rolling over. Am I worried? Not really, she hates being on her back, maybe it is the reflux. I think that she might just go straight to crawling.

It has been terribly hard to get Tatum to smile for the camera. As soon as I stick the camera in her face her face straightens right up- I got sort of a half smile here.

I realized if I can tickle her with one hand and take the picture with the other I can catch a good smile.

I put pigtails in her hair last week for the first time because her hair is getting so long. Oh my goodness, does it get any cuter than that?!

Snapshots

The kids were having fun posing for the camera. I thought I would post a few.

I can't help but think that I have some beautiful kids, especially Addyson because she looks so much like me- hehe- just kidding!

Snow

We have had some pretty cold weather here in Dallas the last few weeks. It actually snowed quite a bit on Christmas Eve. I never thought that would happen. We have lived in the Dallas area for almost 5 years and it has snowed like once or twice. I kind of felt like I was back in Colorado for a second. Then, it snowed again about a week later so we decided to take a couple of pics.

Whirlyball- maybe the greatest sport ever invented!

Our good friend Tiare had her Birthday 3 days after Christmas so her sweet husband decided to do something really fun for her for her Birthday and boy was it FUN! Whirlyball is kind of like a cross between lacrosse and basketball in a go cart that has a funky joystick for steering and no brakes. It doesn't get much better than that!

It was boys vs. girls and we were some serious competition.
The girls made a trophy for the winners, a Golden Cup, which is modeled by Jessica.

Shaunna had a fun idea to get shirts made that said Team Tiare with everyone's ages and names on the back. I was lame-O and didn't get one made.

And the winners were............the girls of course. And we didn't even cheat at all(wink, wink)!

Tiare blowing out her Birthday candles

Happy Birthday girl, we love you!

Christmas- The Best time of the Year!

We have had the best month with Thanksgiving and Christmas! We seriously are so very blessed to have such wonderful family and friends. It was such a busy time filled with parties, Christmas activities with the kids, early(really early) shopping trips with the girls, eating, did I mention shopping? Whew, it goes by so fast! We are very very lucky to have to have great people in our lives !

So, Christmas morning started really early for Addyson and Ethan. I am woken up by little voices downstairs by the tree, and when I turn to look at my clock I see that it is 2 a.m. Dave has to go and break the news to them that they need to go back to sleep because Christmas is not happening for at least another 5 hours. Of course, almost exactly 5 hours later they are awake and have sorted everyone's presents into seperate piles. They had already inspected their presents and were speculating what was what.

I was thrilled when Addyson asked Santa for a doll, because she has been asking for such grown-up stuff, I just want her to stay young and sweet. So, Santa delivered her B.F.C. ink doll named Addison and she was very excited!

She loves Littlest Pet Shop stuff these days!

Ethan did not know what he wanted, except for a Wii and a DS. I did not know what to get him. He was a little annoyed when he was opening up socks, underwear, and clothes. I thought it was pretty funny. Ask for cheaper presents, Ethan- ask for cheaper presents.

This Christmas was loads of fun with Paige! She was so excited and happy. She got lots of girlie stuff. She walked around with her dress up shoes, lip gloss, and bracelet and just kept brushing her hair with her new princess brush. Precious!

She is a princess!

We had a little bit of scavenger hunt for Addy and Ethan to find their big gift.

They found it!

Ethan didn't feel so bad about all those clothes when he saw the Wii. I think I was just as excited to play it as they were. I haven't been getting as much done around the house as I should these days because I keep getting distracted by Super Mario Bros.

Ethan lost his first tooth on Christmas Eve so he had both the tooth fairy and Santa visit him on the same night!

Christmas day was nice, we sat around and played with our new stuff and then my mom, step-dad, brother, sister-in-law, and nephew came over for dinner which was really yummy BTW. Another year gone and memories made. I can't wait for next year!