Will's First Barber Haircut

Well today marks a very important day in Will's life. He had his first barber shop haircut! Daddy needed a haircut so we headed down to Daddy's favorite place. Daddy went first and then we asked William if he wanted a cut, to which he quickly replied "no." So we told him he needed a haircut and put him up on the seat. He wasn't very happy about it, and every time the barber would cut his hair he would say "Yeah!" Kind of like if I say yeah it will be over. All in all he did really well for his first barber shop haircut, and we were really proud of him. Hooray for not having to go to the very pricey kid's hair salons any more!!!

Doesn't he look handsome?!

Here is a picture we snapped of Will yesterday while he was acting silly, and trying to make faces against the back door. Such a funny little guy!

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Hugs,
The Tates

The Griswalds Go Camping!

Ok..maybe the title is a little dramatic, but that is completely how we felt on our way home at 9:30 at night last night. Our Saturday began GREAT! The boys helped Mommy do some food shopping for our trip, pick up a few more donations for the charity scrapbooking event she is planning, we had lunch, and then packed up the car. We dropped our favorite beagle off at a friend's house (thank you Chambers family!) and head north to Pedernales Falls State Park. It is a gorgeous park on the Pedernales River about 1.5 hours from our house just outside of Johnson City. Once we made it to the park we set up camp. William really enjoyed helping Daddy pitch the tent, well he probably enjoyed beating things with one of the poles, which made him enjoy pitching the tent :-)

After the camp was ready to go we decided to head towards the river. We really enjoyed a nice, leisurely walk down to the river and we even got to use the child carrier backpack we borrowed from another friend (thanks Beely Family!!). We were SO proud of William at the river. When we first got to the river all he wanted to do was through rocks into it, and that was a lot of fun! Then he grabbed Daddy's hand and started heading across the river. We were at what is called "Trammel's Pass" and it is a natural rock pathway across the river. The boys headed across while Mommy stayed behind to take pictures. The skipped rocks together and just played near the river. It was really a sweet sight to watch...a Daddy and his son by the river. William decided that he was up for more of a challenge on the way back, and basically got pretty deep in the water. This was AMAZING! At one point he was chest deep in water (while holding Daddy's hand the whole time) and walked back to the other side. He was SO proud of himself, and we were so proud of him for being a strong, brave boy!

We hiked back to camp and Mommy started a yummy dinner of taco soup and homemade guacamole. It was really good!! We read William stories, watched a beautiful blue bird in camp (which Will promptly chased after), played with bubbles, and observed a large amount of vultures circling and swopping down near our campsite. Colby and William investigated and found that several campsites away the people had left, and left all of their food at the site. Hence the vultures. I guess they got a good meal out of it! So you must be thinking to yourself, well I don't see any Griswald like features to this story, what could possible go wrong?! Well like all good National Lampoon Griswald family stories something ALWAYS happens..

As bedtime approached William kept asking to go in "Momma's car". We would say "No bud, we are sleeping here tonight. Won't that be fun?!" To which he would quickly reply "NO..Momma Car...Momma Car." So we decided to take a family walk around the area before bedtime to get the little one all nice and relaxed before he needed to go to sleep. Unfortunately when it was time to go to bed William had a level 5 meltdown (on a scale of 5). "Momma's car! Momma's car!" He would shout over and over again. Colby laid him down in his pack n play which only made William more upset. He even tried to climb out of the pack n' play. Colby and I were prepared for the fact that he might not want to camp, and we were ok with that, but we weren't not prepared for this....

As Colby is very calmly trying to pack a few things up while Sara was trying to get Will to calm down and try to go to sleep at camp William kept screaming "Momma's car! Momma's car! Momma's Car!" At one point he saw the car light on (Colby was putting stuff in it) and he jumped off Sara's lap and headed for the car. As Mommy ran behind him to try and help him navigate the darkness William slipped and hit his head on the open car door. So now the crying REALLY began, and a nasty looking bump. At this point we decided we should pack it in and head home. Nothing like a traumatic first adventure in camping. After Will stopped crying we put him in his car seat where he requested his bear, blanket, and milk. He sat there crying to go and saying "Ouch" while rubbing his head. We headed on down the road back to Cibolo, and Mommy and Daddy decided to sleep in his room due to the head bump. It was a long night, but everyone is better this morning.

All in all we had a FANTASTIC first camping trip! We plan on slowly getting him use to camping by camping in the back yard and getting him use to sleeping in a regular bed. One day he will enjoy it, and for now we will take some great day trips to the Texas State Parks!

Enjoy some pictures we took while we were there.

Love to all,
The Tates

Earth Day 2009

In celebration of Earth Day we decided to plant a vegetable garden for William. Grandma and Pawpaw were here for a visit and were such a big help! We will post more about their visit as soon as we can. We realize Will's birthday pics are still not up yet...sorry!

We went to Schulz's Nursery in Marion to make our plant purchases and William was very serious about it. He was so cute! That boy has such a unique personality, and when he concentrates on something, he really concentrates. He picked some tomato plants, okra, bell peppers, swiss chard, squash, and some other herbs and flowers. William really enjoyed picking the plants and placing them in our cart. He is such a big boy now! Pawpaw and Daddy actually built the garden and did all the manual labor while William napped. Once nap time was over Will planted just 2 plants, and then he was done. Everyone else planted a few and we think the garden looks fantastic. We might have William paint the border of the garden to really make it his.

Thank you SO much to Pawpaw and Grandma for all of their help. We can't wait to have some fresh produce from our garden! Happy Earth Day everyone!!! Here are some cute pictures we captured today.

Before we forget, we saw this on the blog for a scrapbooking store in New Braunfels, The Scrapbook Haus, that Sara loves, and we think it is an AWESOME project. Please check it out!

Hugs to all,
The Tates

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter Everyone!



We just LOVE Easter! 2 years ago we had a very special delivery from the Easter bunny, and since then we are just overjoyed during this holiday. This year we had a wonderful Easter. Nana arrived late Friday night. Saturday morning we woke up and headed into Central Market to pick up some yummy desserts for dinner. Aunt Samantha, Uncle Sean, Sara, and Lauren arrived around lunch time and we spent the majority of the day watching the kiddos play together. They had so much fun. Nana bought them some battery powered bubble blowers and they had a big bubble war. They also played on Will's slide and in the sandbox. Lauren has started a new snail shell collection that she is keeping at our house. After some outside play they all came in to dye some Easter eggs. The girls picked out a glitter egg kit and they turned out GREAT! William really wasn't into dying the eggs, but he enjoyed playing with his new grocery cart, play food and microwave that the girls brought him. They played with them when they were little and now it is Will's turn. We had a yummy ham dinner with roasted sweet potatoes and asparagus. YUMM-O! Will had pretty much exhausted himself on Saturday and went to bed before dessert. The rest of the night was spent watching the girls and Uncle Colby playing the Wii.



Today we woke up to rain and wind, but we really didn't mind because we so desperately need it. The Easter Bunny was very smart and hid the eggs all around the house, and on both the front and back porches. The kids had a great time searching for eggs and really seemed to enjoy the baskets that the bunny and Nana brought them. After the big hunt the kids played with some play do, played Wii Music, and with Will's train. We had creme brulee french toast for breakfast with fresh fruit and bacon. The Herfurths left right before lunch time and Nana left right after. We sure were sad to see everyone go, but we had such a good time and hope to see them again soon! Nothing beats great food and even better company! :-)



This afternoon William took a nice long nap, Daddy went on a bike ride, and Mommy has been catching up on the computer. Will and Daddy are working in the gardens now because it has shaped up to be a gorgeous day. Later today some friends are coming over for dinner, and we are looking forward to that.



We are very blessed to have had such a wonderful weekend with family and friends.



Here are lots of pictures from the weekend. The majority were taken by Uncle Sean who did a wonderful job of capturing some very candid shots.

Love to to all,

The Tates



PS

We'll post a blog from Will's birthday tomorrow :-)

2 Years Sure Did Fly By!

We can't believe how quickly 2 years has flown by. It seems just like yesterday that Sara woke up to make Easter breakfast and realized she was having contractions just 5 minutes apart. We can both clearly remember that morning and our last trip together as a family of 2, and at 3:53 PM our beautiful baby boy made his entrance into the world.

We thought we would start his birthday blog(s) with some of our favorite pictures from about one week before he was born up to that Easter Sunday and his birth-day.

One Week Before...



7 pounds, 2.1 ounces


Listening...


A Mom's First Glance


Daddy's First Kiss


First Family Photo



We love you William!

Will's 2nd Birthday Party

This past weekend we headed to Patillo for a mini birthday celebration. We stayed at Grandma and PawPaw's but were able to see Aunt Jolie, Uncle Mike, Aunt Brenda, Uncle R.T., Elsa, Dani, Kati, David, and Neil. We had a great time just watching the kiddos play together. We had a barnyard theme for his special party which included his barn play tent, milk bottle bowling, and a fishin' hole. The boys especially loved the fishin' hole, which was nothing more than a rubbermaid storage container with water, rubber duckies, and fish in it. William really enjoyed blowing out his 2 candle. He was all prepared and when he saw it lit he started to blow! It was so cute. William was given some wonderful gifts and he has been enjoying playing with all of them. Aunt Jolie and Uncle Mike really spoiled him this year, and gave him a cool battery operated Go Diego Go Train that we now have set up in his room. He loves it. They also gave him a good horse swing that we will be keeping at Grandma and Pawpaw's. The kids really enjoyed swinging on it at the party, and William kept wanting to ride the "neigh-neigh" as he calls them. He also received a very cool wooden barn with animals, a cool guitar that plays music and he can strum the strings. So not only is he a farmer, but a rock star as well ;-) He also received an awesome three-deck car track and his own "power drill." He really has enjoyed all of his gifts, and we feel very blessed to have so many caring people in his life. As soon as we can we will add some pictures of him playing with them. We had a wonderful time at Patillo and William really enjoyed himself. Thanks again everyone! For now here are the pictures from his party.

Will's party was Saturday and on Sunday we helped Pawpaw take some things back up to Patillo from Brownwood. Their move back to Patillo is fast approaching so we try to help when we can. We also went for a drive around the land at Patillo and we all loved looking at the cows and the pretty land. It was especially nice to see Freckles, Great-Grandma Paula's cow. William got to open his birthday presents from Grandma and Pawpaw on Sunday and Monday. He got some really cute clothes and some much needed art supplies. He and Grandma finger painted on Monday morning, and boy was that fun to watch. For those that don't know William isn't a fan of having things on his hands so he would put his finger in the paint, smear it around, and then promptly wipe his hands on his jeans. It was really amusing!

For those of you that may not know Colby was laid off late last week due to the economy, but luckily we are able to spend some quality time together as a family until he finds something new. We already have some good leads and are hoping that the transition into a new position will not take too long. Thanks for all of your support!

We are very much looking forward to William's birthday tomorrow. We are thinking of heading to the zoo and having a picnic lunch. Either way we will post something for sure.

We can't wait for Easter weekend. Nana, Aunt Samantha, Uncle Sean, Sara and Lauren will be here for a fun filled weekend! WE can't wait to see them! Along with our fun Easter plans we will probably have another mini birthday party celebration for Will. Since his birthday was in the middle of the week this year we just decided to celebrate both weekends with our families. What a lucky kiddo!

Hugs to all,
The Tates