kemlady

There has been a lot of posting about little Tate lately on this here blog and not so much about Kemry.

Don't start thinking that she has quieted down.

Just the opposite, actually.

I think getting a brother has magnified her personality about 150%.

That girl sure keeps me on my toes!

For example:

...wearing my shoes all the time...

...becoming a tattoo artist...

She drew a picture of me and a little heart to go with it. I think she really captured my beauty.

She is also in love with my lipstick. All tubes have now been hidden for the sake of our clothing and walls :)

Her {French} snowman. Its my favorite.

We needed Kemry to eat a bazillion oreos for one of Tyrel's homework assignments.

She happily obliged.

As for her updates:

-She is fully potty trained with the occasional bed-wetting at night.

-She is the only kid in her swim class, but she is already a little tadpole. She even swims about 10 feet all by herself.

-She is super sassy and extremely smart.

-She is also so very caring. The minute Tate starts crying she is by his side to calm him down.

-She is a little too friendly with strangers. Anytime someone comes to the door {the UPS man, for example}, she begs them to come inside and play.

-Her bangs are aaaaaaaalmost long enough to stay behind her ears. This has taken FOREVER, folks. I refuse to trim them because we are soooooo clooooose.

-She is still obsessed with Halloween and won't stop talking about it. I think we will end up having Christmas for about 6 months at this rate.

-AND SHE TURNS THREE IN TWO MONTHS! Whaaaaat?

three months.

Mr. Tate turned three months old last Friday.

And let me tell you, he is just the sweetest thing.

All his does is coo, squeak, and sigh.

{And poop, but, hey.}

He is so squishy and soft and adorable and ohmygoodnesswelovehim!

raking leaves and motherly instincts

There is a new study that proves you have a set of muscles in your body reserved for raking leaves.

I was the sole creator/instructor/participant of said study, and after 12 30-gallon bags full of leaves {from just our front yard alone}, I can state with confidence that it is true {false, but who really cares, right?}.

I unfortunately had to tackle the task 99% alone since Ty works all day and it starts to get dark around 5.

Every time little T-man crashed for a nap, Kem and I put on all of our cold-weather gear and got our fall on.

Thankfully, we survived, minus one incident where, from out of nowhere, a random man with crazy hair quickly parked in front of my house, hopped out of his car, and made a b-line toward Kemry. 

I made it to her first, ready to break his shins in.

{It turns out he lived up the hill from us and wanted to cut down one of our trees? I only listened to about 10% of the conversation because I was ready to all South Dakota on him {Is that a thing?}. All I know for sure is {1} I was ready to poke his eyes out if he touched one of us and {2} one of our trees has now been cut down. Maybe I was a little dramatic? 

NO. The answer is NO.}

Here is to surviving both fall and crazy supposed neighbors we have never met!

happy halloween!

Here are some crummy pictures from my phone to get you in the spooky spirit!

Tyrel was super proud of his pum pkin this year. 

I keep telling him that he just carved a Y.

But he is dang proud of that Y.

The perfect Peter Pan.

Except chunky.

And poopy.

Then there is this girl.

When I went to get her out of bed this morning, she informed me that she needed to go find her pumpkin {the candy pail that EVERYONE has}.

She ran past both adoring parents in search of said pumpkin.

When I told her where it was, she was furious that there were no treats in it.

I assured her that all her treats {that she had collected the night before at our church party} were in the kitchen.

 She grabbed her bucket, ran to the door, and yelled, "Come on Mom! We need to go Trick-Or Treat!"

I explained that we had to wait.

She got a quizzical look on her face, paused, and then, with her pointer finger in the air, she demanded, "Halloween cartoons!"

Christmas should be fun this year ;)

Happy halloween, everyone!

May it be safe but ever so wonderful!

Previous Halloweens can be found and here and here :)
The last one has my favorite picture of Kemry EVER.
I am in denial that she was ever that little.
It seems like she has been in her terrible twos her whole life ;)

greetings from a lazy october

Is it really October?

Really?

Here is a picture of our front yard exactly one year ago:

  

And here is the quick shot I just took from our door with my phone:

 So, no. 

In my opinion, it is not October.

We haven't raked any leaves, carved any pumpkins, gone to Trader Joe's to buy cider, or made caramel apples.

And Halloween is next week?!?!

Yikes!

{Guess what I will be working on all weekend long? Costumes, for sure!!}

It is literally the most uneventful time ever around here.

Seriously.

But I will give you a rundown of our lives, anyway.

The Tate-man

This guy is the sweetest.

He is such a tricky, stubborn baby, but when he is happy, oh boy!

He is SO happy!

His biggest piece of news:

We found out from his cardiologist that his heart defects have practically fixed themselves!

There are still a few quirks {a hole, a murmur, etc}, but his chances of being inhibited by his issues are approaching zero.

We are just tickled!

Cons:

-Hates tummy time and would rather eat the blanket than lift up his head.

-Won't sleep in his crib for longer than an hour or two at a time.

-Won't sleep longer than 3 hours at night {with a rare 4 every once in a while}.

-Growing out of clothing faster than we can buy it for him.

-Shots. Boo.

Pros:

-He is the smiley-est baby EVER!

-He has practically stopped spitting up, which is great for my hygiene.

-He is eating and growing perfectly.

-It is starting to feel like we had never been without him.

 The Kemster

 

This kid is so busy.

You have no idea.

From dawn to dusk, she is at a full sprint.

She is super sassy but super sweet {which was exactly how I was at her age...}

Cons:

-She has mastered talking-back to her parents. Already. Great.

-She only takes naps about one day of the week.

-She jumps, crawls, and runs on everything, thus leading to more "owies" than usual.

Pros:

-She is absolutely hilarious, regardless of whether she means to be or not.

-She is almost completely potty-trained.

-She loves helping take care of the baby, playing with other kids, and thinks that Daddy is the coolest.

The Hubs and Wife

 The Hubs-

Cons:

-Work work work. And as the holidays approach, it will only get worse.

-My brother and his wife got the CUTEST puppy ever, so he gets to listen to me talk about how adorable it is, hoping that sometime in the next 20 years he gets the hint  {but no sooner than 5 years...I only want kids right now. No animals, thankyouverymuch.}

Pros:

-He gets out once a week to play basketball until late at night, is starting to really love his grad program, and gets to cuddle with me {sometimes}.

The Wife-

Cons:

-The kids constantly test my patience, my head always hurts, and being a mother of two has served me a huge slice of humility.

Pros:

-I get at least 4 showers a week!

-The baby weight is finally coming off. Everyone says that nursing makes it melt away. My weight has been thawing. In the refrigerator. But at least it is progress!

We are tired to the bone and don't get any time alone, but we are so very happy.

Keep on keepin' on, October!

We are ready for candy, turkey, and ham, in that order, so lets get to it!

Stat!