Eat at Charley's Tomorrow

What a week it has been and TGIF tomorrow!

Colby has been very busy at work, and to say the least it has been quite stressful on him, and we will both be glad when the week is over. To add to that poor little Will is having a terrible time with alleriges and teething. Those darn teeth just keep trying to break through but just don't seem to cut through. With all the drool and fussiness we feel as though he is a tiny baby again, but then we see him run, climb, and jump and we thrown back into the reality of having an almost 2 year old. Hopefully this weekend he will start to feel better. We did enjoy a nice morning at the zoo though, just Mommy and William. My hip still isn't better so I contacted my rheumatologist today to see if my x-ray results were in, and they were. Everything looked great. No joint damage which is good, but now that means I probably have to have a different type of injection in the hip. This injection will not be on the outside of the hip, but rather closer to the groin region. It's not a great shot to have because there are nerves and arteries near by so you have to be extra cautious. It's really a last effort kind of injection. I guess I should mention that it is still a steriod injection. So next week sometime I will go for an MRI and then 2 days after that I will talk to my doctor to see what's in store. I'm hoping my hip starts feeling better before then.

I had a great meeting tonight with the Special Events Coordinator of the Arthritis Foundation for San Antonio. She is such a sweet person and very enthusiastic about her job. She is just what this event needs to bring it to the next level. Looks like I will be getting more involved with the foundation, and I am really excited about that. I have really been enjoying the planning and fundraising I have been doing with the Arthritis Foundation and am hoping I can really help even more.

Tomorrow, for those of you in the San Antonio area, we are hoping you all can help support the Arthritis Foundation by eating at Charley's at The Forum. They are a grilled sub shop that will be donating 15% of the price of your order to the Arthritis Foundation-Texas Chapter. Please be sure to print the coupon below and go between 11AM-7PM.

We hope everyone has a fantastic Friday. Don't forget to eat at Charley's if you are in San Antonio :-)

Hugs,
The Tates

Happy Shrove Tuesday!

Happy Shrove Tuesday (or Fat Tuesday) to everyone out there! We love Shrove Tuesday for several reasons. The first is that it is a reminder that one of our favorite holidays is approaching, Easter. Easter is such a joyous holiday to begin with, but because William was born on Easter Sunday the holiday means so much more to us. The other reason we love Shrove Tuesday is because that means we get to have our traditional pancake dinner. Colby and I have celebrated this tradition since before we were married. Who doesn't love a good pancake?!

So the next question some will ask is "What in the world is Shrove Tuesday?" For those who are interested, Shrove Tuesday is the day before the first day of the Christian season of fasting and prayer called Lent. The word shrove means to obtain absolution for one's sins by confession and doing penance. Shrove Tuesday was named from the shriving that English Christians were expected to do prior to receiving absolution immediately before Lent begins. Now a days many Christians use Shrove Tuesday as a day of self-examination. A day to consider the wrongs they need to repent and what areas of life they need to improve their spiritual growth in. Usually it is an area in which they feel a strong need to ask God's help in dealing with. Shrove Tuesday is also widely associated with the eating of foods such as pancakes because these used up ingredients such as fat and eggs, the consumption of which was traditionally restricted during Lent.

After Colby prepared our yummy meal of blueberry pancakes for the boys and chocolate chip pancakes for the Momma we talked a little about our past year and which areas we need to improve in. We both agreed that we need to get back to church. After last spring we stopped going, and both of us feel very strongly that William needs to grow up going to church. We both did and that is something we want for our son. So hopefully this Shrove Tuesday gave us the push to start doing this again.

We hope everyone indulges just a little tonight. We sure did! Here are some pictures from this evening.

William relaxing while Daddy cooks

Will enjoying his pancakes


Colby and Will enjoying some honey before the pancakes.


Sara enjoying her chocolate chip pancakes


Love,
The Tates

Another Blog...

Well if we weren't busy enough, Sara has decided to organize an all day Scrapbooking Crop in May. The proceeds from the event will all go to the Arthritis Foundation. It is going to be a LOT of work, but she thinks it will be well worth it. Here is a blog she is keeping about the event. For those scrappers out there feel free to get the word out :-)

Colby has really dedicated himself to becoming more healthy and loosing some weight, and he has started a blog to keep himself motivated. We are really proud of him.

We may head out to the last day of the San Antonio rodeo today so William can enjoy some cows :-)

Have a great Sunday!
~The Tates

Get Your Sneakers On!

It's that time of the year again....The ARTHRITIS WALK is coming up!!!

We love the arthritis walks for two reasons. For one it gives us the opportunity to raise money for the Arthritis Foundation, and secondly it allows for an increase in awareness for arthritis-related diseases. If you know our family, you know those are two very important reasons to participate.

Since we moved to San Antonio we have participated in the Arthritis Walk every year (minus the year Will was born b/c he was just a few weeks old). So it’s time to start building our team AND raising money for the San Antonio's Walk! This year we are the Team Tate's Tough and Thriving Titans. We hope that we get at least 10 people to join our team, and our goal is to raise $3000 by May 30th. Even if you can't join our team feel free to donate to the cause :-)

For our family this is a very empowering event. It gives us a sense of purpose and control over a disease that affects many in our family.

We would love for all of you to join us. You can visit our Team webpage by clicking here. If you would like to join our team be sure to click on the "Join my team" link. If you would like to donate you can make a general team donation or a donation to an individual team members. All donations are tax deductible.

Thanks to all of our friends and family for your wonderful support!

Love,
The Tates

Valentine's Weekend

We sure had a busy Valentine's Day weekend. When we woke up on Saturday morning William got his Valentine's Day treat. He was given a new Tonka Truck Rug with 2 tonka trucks. It is the coolest rug. It has roadways painted on it so he has a place to drive his cars. It also comes with a nifty carrying case, so don't be surprised if you see it on your house sometime soon ;-) After breakfast we headed to Grandma and Grandpa's for a festive weekend. Not only were we celebrating Grandpa's birthday, but we were also celebrating Uncle Mike's. On top of the birthday celebration Daddy and Aunt Jolie rebuilt a carburetor for the 71 pick-up. Talk about tough work. They did such a fantastic job!

Serious business!


Aunt Jolie and Dad fix the truck


Will and Grandpa on the tractor

Saturday night we enjoyed a wonderful meal. Grandma made a yummy chocolate cake for the birthday boys. William enjoyed helping Grandpa blow out the candles until they were actually out. Then he got pretty upset, but as soon as he could eat some cake he was all better :-) Once William was in night-night land the adults had a fun night playing Ticket to Ride. This was a new game for us, and it was SO MUCH fun! We really want to get it now. For those that aren't familiar, Ticket to Ride is a board/card game where you try to get your trains from one destination to another. It really is fun, and Colby was the big winner. Grandpa and Sara came in last, but we didn't care.

As always William enjoyed running around chasing the dogs, cats, cows, and horses. Grandpa put William to work. He had to help get hay for the horses, and then they had to plow the fields...well not really. Will and Grandpa just drove around on the tractor, but we told William it was more than that ;-) William and his Grandpa are such a cute little pair. They're just are busy, busy when they are together. It was pretty chilly this weekend so William did enjoy some indoor time as well. Grandma keeps a box of toys for him and he played with them some, however it was apparent Sunday morning that his favorite toy was a wicker plant stand. Just FYI- William has always disliked a pacifier. The only time he will take one is when he is teething so he can chew on it. He is still cutting the 4 incisors at once and now some molars...hence the paci in almost every picture. Poor little guy.



Mommy got to visit with Grandma and Uncle Mike some while the others were outside rebuilding trucks and wrangling animals. She even finished a book this weekend, and not a chemistry book, a real novel!

We had a great weekend and are very much looking forward to seeing everyone again soon. Here is a slideshow with some more pictures of our weekend.

With love,
The Tates

Happy Valentine's Day

We hope everyone has a very Happy Valentine's Day!







With love,
The Tates

Our Weekend and Good Bye to Highchair

Happy Monday out there!

We hope everyone is having a great day so far. It is actually raining a bit in San Antonio. Hallelujah! We haven't seen rain in ages!!!!

We had a nice and restful weekend. Sara's hip is feeling much better today. It seems as though the steroid shot may have done the trick. We will know for sure by mid-week. We decided not to paint Will's room this past weekend. We will most likely be working on it in a couple of weeks. We are so excited to start it, but a little nervous as well. Look for updates on that in early March.

On Saturday we took William to the Schertz Library playscape in the morning, and had a blast. This playscape is awesome. They have an area designed for children 2-5, and then an area for those 5 and up. William loves to run around the entire area so it is always a good workout for his parents. Saturday evening we met a friend of ours and their son for dinner. The boys are just a few weeks apart in age, and really enjoy playing with each other. We were very brave to take two 2 year-olds out for sushi dinner, but both boys did a fantastic job and we really enjoyed the adult conversation. We can't wait to do it again. Just a little FYI for those who are concerned, no the little ones did not eat sushi. They had their own meals of fully cooked food :-).

On Sunday, we went to visit Joshua. We are all making a big effort to get together once a month, and we are really enjoying it. As always, William was happy to see his Godfather and play with the myriad of items in Joshua's living room. He especially liked plucking the guitar strings and rearranging Joshua's rock collection. Joshua is so sweet to let Will get into his stuff. After visiting for a few hours, we all jumped in the car and went for lunch at a pretty cool sandwich/coffee shop downtown. Lunch was yummy, but William couldn't stay still for long, so we decided to take a walk around downtown. We finished our lunch adventure up with some chasing of pigeons and playing in the fountain at Republic Square Park. The fountain was one of those fountains that is actually built with stone on the ground that has jets that push the water up. William got a little wet, but goodness he had a great time. William was ready for his nap, and he was letting us know about it so we had to cut our visit short. We all had a really good time. It is always a joy seeing Joshua and spending time with him. The rest of our day was spent relaxing at home and enjoying some quality time together.

The big news in William's world is that he is no longer using his highchair. That's right folks he has moved on to bigger and better things. William now sits at the table using his booster seat that Nana bought us as our traveling high chair. It works perfectly on our chairs! It seems just like yesterday that Grandpa and Daddy put his highchair together. Here are a few pictures of his first time in his highchair, his last meal in his high chair, and his first meal at the table. Time sure is flying by, but we truly are enjoying watching William grow. We realize this transition from the highchair to the table seems silly, but it makes us even more aware of how fast William is growing up. We are so thankful for our little family.

Grandpa entertaining Will before he eats in his highchair (August 2007)


First time in his highchair (August 2007)


Last time in highchair (February 2009)


First meal at the table. (February 2009)


Have a fantastic week everyone! This weekend we are headed to Brownwood to celebrate Grandpa and Uncle Mike's birthdays. We can't wait!

Hugs to all,
The Tates

Our Week in Review

Hi to everyone reading our blog!

We just wanted to do a quick update of our week and post a few pictures. William is doing much better than he was this time last week. He is over his cold and the pink eye that he had. The nurse practitioner that we saw last week also informed us that he is cutting all four incisors at the same time, which explains a lot of his grumpiness. All in all he is having a great week. He has become quite obsessed with our shoes lately. I have posted a couple of pictures from this week with William in mommy's slippers and running shoes. What a silly boy! We are so amazed at how much he changes weekly. William is really speaking a lot more, and is beginning to put together phrases better. He loves looking at the moon at night, and readily tells us when it is time for bed, or "na na" as he calls it. He also loves to color, and we probably color at least 5 pages a day. We just love our little boy!

We had a wonderful, quiet visit with Nana. We had some great BBQ at Coopers in New Braunfels and then Nana and Mommy hit the outlets. They went a little crazy at Carter's, but Will has some really cute pjs and an adorable swimsuit. The rest of Nana's visit was spent just relaxing and enjoying each others company. We had lunch with a friend of Mommy's from high school, and Nana really enjoyed seeing Lise. It had been way too long! We love and miss our Nana already, but we are hoping to see her again soon.

Much of this week was devoted to fixing Colby's truck. It has been having some hydraulic issues, but Colby and our friend Butch seem to have fixed the problem. Thanks again Manigolds for helping us!!!!!!

We also got a short visit from Grandma and Grandpa this week. They came down Wednesday night to watch William on Thursday so that Mommy could teach a lab class during the day. We always enjoy spending time with them, and are excited about seeing them again in a week to celebrate Rod and Uncle Mike's birthdays.

Mommy had to go to the doctor today to have a steroid injection in her hip, so we think we are going to have a nice relaxing weekend. We might paint William's bedroom, and if we do we plan to post pictures! What we envision is awesome, and we are hoping we can pull it off :-)

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Love,
The Tates