The World's Coolest Tent

Nana is here for a visit and we are SO excited to see her!!! Nana, Mommy, and William went on an adventure to Target today and boy did they have fun. Mommy and Nana found a play tent that is just perfect for William's farm-themed bedroom. What do you think?

Mommy just finished putting it together while William is napping. We can't wait to see his expression when he wakes up. It has two doors that open into the tent and can close with Velcro. It also has a little "fenced in" area to the side of the tent that we think will become William's reading nook once it is in his bedroom. We plan on painting his room sometime this month and will post more pictures when his room is complete.

We are headed to the doctor this afternoon. William may have a sinus infection. Poor little guy.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Love,
The Tates

Tate Look-alike Meter

A friend of mine posted this on another site with her family and it looked like fun. I love the fact that Will looks equally like both of us. I guess that answers everyone question about who William looks like....both of us!

On the Road Again!

Well...we came...we saw...and a few conquered. The old truck is up and running!!! WOO HOO!!! The weekend fix started off to a rocky start...spilled gasoline, the wrong battery, but ended on such a happy note...lots of riding around the pasture in the truck. Colby, Jolie, and Rod worked really hard to get it up and running, and run it does. They had some hurtles, like ants in the distributor, but they did it! Colby sure did enjoy working with them on the truck, and William and I are really proud of all of them.

While the fixers were busy with the truck Grandma, Mommy, and William played. Mommy even got to rest for awhile while Grandma wrangled the little one. William loves to visit Grandma and Grandpa's. He got to watch his beloved cows as much as he wanted to. Although the size of the cows up close and personal is a bit intimidating to him, he really loves watching them. He even helped Grandpa get hay for them on Sunday morning. He is such a little examiner. He is happiest when he is busy exploring the world, and is allowed to just study things. William was even brave enough to sit on a horse for about a minute!

We had a great drive home which was a true blessing to Mommy and Daddy. William slept about 1.5 hours, and then was pretty content the rest of the drive. Chelsea is now back at home and is sleeping. She will usually sleep for about 3 days after she comes home from puppy vacation. She sure does enjoy her time in Brownwood with the Wildtree Gang (the other dogs that live with Rod and Patt)

Our weekend ended on a great note and our week has begun in full swing. Colby is at a conference downtown until Wednesday evening, so we won't be seeing much of him until Wednesday night. William might try a new class this week that is offered at the Children's Museum and Sara is trying to get back into the swing of teaching.

Have a great week everyone!

~The Tates

BIG NEWS!

Big News indeed!!!!

William has gone potty on the big potty 2 nights in a row!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woo-hoo little buddy! We are so proud of him! We are hoping the trend continues.

We have had such a crazy week. Both William and Colby were sick with a stomach bug, but are better now. Unfortunately, several others became ill with the bug including Mommy, Grandma, and Grandpa. Even a few friends got it. SORRY EVERYONE! This bug has really hit the SA area. The oral surgeon Mommy went to this week had half of her staff out with it. It does seem like everyone is on the mend though. Grandma came down this week to help out after Mommy's root canal. The root canal went great and we sure have enjoyed having Grandma. Today we went to the Children's Museum and then had lunch with Daddy. We had a great day. Tomorrow we are taking Grandma back to Brownwood. William will love this trip as he will get to see his beloved cows, his dog, his Grandpa, his Aunt Jolie, and the horses. Grandpa, Aunt Jolie, and Daddy are also going to start working on the 71 Chevy Truck that needs to be fixed. It should be interesting to say the least. Mommy plans on going for a horseback ride if the weather is nice.

We hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!

Here are some pictures from our week.

Love,
The Tates

Another Semester Begins...

We are slowly getting back in the swing of things from Christmas break. Colby returned to work last week, which made William a very unhappy little man, and Sara began teaching again last night. This semester she will only be teaching two nights a week. Woo hoo!!

Last Thursday Sara and William headed to the Children's Museum with a friend and had a great time. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for our membership! We also are going to try a toddler class on Tuesdays that is included with the membership. Look for that next week :-) William really enjoys the museum. He spends lots of time at the different exhibits really studying them. He was also quite the painter this visit. Thanks to our friend Jackie for taking the pictures!

This past weekend did not have a great start to it. William woke up with a nasty stomach virus while he is cutting teeth. Needless to say we were up until about 3AM on Saturday with him and then he felt bad most of the weekend. He is doing GREAT now! Saturday afternoon/evening was Mommy's Day Out (MDO) with some of her scrapbooking friends. We headed to Round Rock to check out the IKEA store, and then to Cedar Park to visit a huge scrapbooking store called Archivers. She found some great paper while there. They ended the evening with a meal at the Hula Hut in Austin. A restaurant she and Colby would visit while in college. It was a great night!

Joshua came for a quick visit on Sunday. It was so nice to see him. Poor Colby ended up catching that tummy virus and had to stay home sick from work on Monday, but he is also feeling better.

Here are a few pictures from the Children's Museum and MDO. Enjoy!

Love,
The Tates

What a fabulous weekend!

We had such a wonderful weekend, and it was the perfect end to our holiday vacation. On Friday we headed to the Botanical Gardens to try out our new membership. Thanks Nanny!!! We had such a fun time just running around and looking through the different exhibits. William especially enjoyed the fountains and the waterfall. We had planned on eating at our favorite Mexican restaurant, but they were closed so we headed home to relax instead. Saturday we headed to the zoo and enjoyed observing all of the animals. Most of the bears were out because it was cool, and that was a special treat. As always we played for a while at Tiny Tot Nature Spot, an area of the zoo specifically designed for kids 5 and under. After our zoo visit we took a train ride around the park that surrounds the zoo, and then headed to our favorite Mexican food spot for some lunch. Our weekend evenings and Sunday was filled with Wii entertainment. We are once again addicted to our Wii. It sure has been nice being able to spend some quality time together as a family. We sure hope we can keep it up this year!

We hope everyone is easing into the work week. Colby is back at work today, and Sara begins teaching again in one week.

Enjoy some pictures we took at the gardens...

Love,
The Tates

Happy New Year!

Happy 2009 to our friends and family! We had a wonderful New Year's Eve at home with some friends and some Wii. Every New Year's Day we have bagels and locks for breakfast and the rest of the day we relax and play together as a family. Today is really a day of eating and watching football so we always have some of the traditional New Year's day food (black eyed peas, cabbage, and lentils) and some chili as we watch bowl games.

Here are some of the pictures from Nonno and Nina's visit, as well as the AlamoBowl. Thank you Aunt Jolie and Grandma for the pictures!!!! We had such a nice visit with them, and William especially enjoyed their dogs. I'm not sure that the feeling was mutual for the dogs though. We watched movies, played with Will's new toys, ate a lot, and played some Wii. Nonno really wants to get one as soon as he gets home. Ha! We have converted another one to the wonderful world of the Wii. :-) Nonno also really enjoys football and was able to come with us again this year to our newer family tradition of going to the AlamoBowl. We had a gift exchange before the game at our house and some pre-grame Wii time :-) and then Nonno, Grandpa, Uncle Mike, Aunt Jolie, and Joshua (Will's Godfather) joined Mommy and Daddy at the game. Uncle Mike and Aunt Jolie rented a room by the dome so we were able to enjoy some pre-game festivities at their place (including some fantastic chili) before we headed over. This year Northwestern played Missouri and it was a GREAT game.

We hope everyone has a safe, happy, and prosperous 2009! We can't wait to see what wonderful things we have to encounter.

"A happy New Year!
Grant that I May bring no tear to any eye
When this New Year in time shall end
Let it be said I've played the friend,
Have lived and loved and labored here,
And made of it a happy year."
~Edgar Guest

Happy New Year!!!

Love,
The Tates