Happy New Year!

2010 has been good to us, and we are hoping for an even better 2011.  Best wishes to all of our family and friends for a fantastic New Year!  We love you all!

Now, I'd better get to writing down my goals :)

Christmas 2010

 

 

I did a poor job of documenting Christmas morning.  I was torn between taking video, taking photos, and soaking in the experience with the girls.  The latter won, thus the limited number of quite terrible photos.  But, it was a fantastic, albeit tiring, day.

Rowan and Harper scored a sweet kitchen, plus play dishes and food.  They are loving it.

Harper was quite content playing with her stocking toys--couldn't have cared less about opening anything else.

With every present she opened, Rowan exclaimed, "Oh my goodness!" or "Look at this _______ Mama! It's so beautiful!"  It was quite funny, and Justin and I had to hold in our laughs.  There is nothing like a kid on Christmas, really, there isn't.

And for those of you who did not get our card:

We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

 

 we tried to get a photo of the girls together by the tree, but alas, neither would sit still long enough.  justin had Christmas Eve off, so we had a nice, relaxing day. Just the four of us. It was awesome.

From Thanksgiving 2010:

Just about the only photo I took that day (lame) but this has been Harper's cheesy smile for the past few months.  She's fun.

Halloween 2010

The cast of characters:

Not pictured: the mom.

Halloween was super rainy and cold, which was kind of a bummer.  Rowan said she wanted to go home after we'd only done about half of our little neighborhood.  She had fun walking around with friends though, and we made it through all of the houses.  Justin stayed at the house with Harper and handed out candy, and then when Rowan and I got back:

Harper ate everything.

Just kidding, she had a couple things, as did Rowan, and then...the next day it was forgotten about! I threw the candy out, and never heard another word about it.  I have to enjoy it now, because I really don't think we'll be so lucky next year!!

October 2010

October was filled with fun Halloween activities:  pumpkin carving, Hee Haw Farms, a ward Halloween party, and of course, trick or treating.

Dad did most of the work...

Ro helped..kind of.  She mainly loved playing with the lids. 

And the nugget stayed out of the way.

and the final result!!

 

We didn't choose a great time to go this year--by the time we got there it was dark, all of the animals were pretty much put away.  That's Ro's favorite part.  She did enjoy going down the slide by herself though.  The kid loves a rush, I think, and just kept going and going.

Harper was pretty bored--she couldn't see the animals, the poor thing just had to sit in the stroller while we walked Ro through the different activities.  We plopped her in the corn pit for a few minutes, and she enjoyed it, but since she puts everything in her mouth, we didn't leave her in there long.

happy father's day

happy father's day to the daddy at our house.  couldn't imagine life without you.  thanks for all you do! 

we love you.

Easter 2010

{the loot...even mommy got some stuff from "E. Bunny"}

Well, I must say we had a nice Easter.  Justin had the day off work {hooray} and we had a nice relaxing morning, watched General Conference, and enjoyed each other's company.  I really wish every day was like that!!

{admiring some of her treats}

I know, isn't her morning hair awesome?  Wait, here's an even better one:

She sweats a lot in her sleep, so her hair is always super curly in the mornings.  And all over the place.  Rag-a-muffin Rowan.  So cute.

We got the girls some $1 bunny ears from Target.  How cute are my lil' bunnies??

We hid a few candy-filled eggs around the house for Rowan to find.  Obviously she enjoyed herself!  I had tried to talk up the Easter bunny in the days leading up to Easter, but by that morning she'd forgotten all about it and only got excited about finding eggs because we made it seem exciting.  We'll get there, along with teaching her about why Easter is really important.

While Rowan found her eggs and dug through her goodies (consisting of bubbles, books, and way too much candy) Harper just hung out like a champ,

sporting her new shades.  Look at that sassafrass.  She's totally digging them!  I love her.  So much that I want to get up right now and go munch on those cheeks.  Yum!!!

After conference and naps, we headed over to Nana's for another egg hunt and some dinner.  I was bummed that the weather wasn't great, but Rowan didn't mind.  She had a great time with this hunt as well.  I have a feeling we're going to need to tone it down with  egg hunts next year....or get her to eat hard-boiled eggs and just hide those instead.

{futile attempt at getting everyone to look at one camera at the same time. I am convinced this will never happen.}

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter (two weeks ago...I know, I'm so late)!!  We sure did!

Easter 2010: Decorating the Eggs

I thought it would be fun for Rowan to decorate eggs this year.  We got an egg dyeing kit {ahem, a *princess* egg dyeing kit} and got to work for FHE on Monday.  We may or may not have gotten brown eggs.....but, I actually liked how the colors turned out, even though they didn't really match the princess theme.  They look pretty cool, right?  Don't tell me if you don't think so...I like them.

So, Rowan didn't help very much with the dyeing process.  She just wanted to stick her hands in the dye.  But, she did help with putting the princess stickers on.  Which, might I add, is one of her favorite things to do.  (Put stickers on things, I mean.  And not just on just eggs.)

{Don't mind the not done hair and comfy clothes.  If you recall, someone has been having a hard time changing out of jammies these days.}

She also tried a hard-boiled egg for the first time {after throwing an egg on the floor, forcing me to peel it} and she DID NOT like it.  "It's yucky" were here exact words, paired with spitting out the tiny bite she'd taken.

The final product.  Remind me why I bought a princess kit?  Couldn't I have gotten something prettier? {Don't tell Rowan I said that.}

And just because she's so cute and squishy:

She didn't help with the egg dyeing/decorating....she must've been too tired from sleeping and being held and cuddled all day long.  Oh, and the coldsores are healing!! Almost gone!!

Christmas 2009

{the girls with Santa on one of our last-minute shopping days}

I didn't do a great job of documenting Christmas this year. Oops. I also didn't get Christmas cards sent out, neighbor gifts out, and I'm sure I missed a hundred other things. I'm using the 3 week old baby as an excuse for my lack of accomplishment this December. Next year, I will be better.

Despite all that, we had a great Christmas, though it came and went way too quickly. My mom and brother drove out from New Jersey to join us and my other 2 brothers living out here. It's been fun having a full house, no matter how chaotic it has seemed at times. We shopped for 4 days straight, including on Christmas Eve (yes, this year was horrible as far as procrastination goes).

{the girls in their Christmas pj's}

Christmas morning was spent at home, where we opened gifts, ate a yummy breakfast, and talked to my sister Jessica who is on a mission in Argentina. Then in the afternoon we headed over to Justin's brother's house for the Tate side get together, which included dinner, gifts for the kids, and just hanging out. It was a nice day.

{the loot}

{rowan playing in one of her many baby doll toys. she got hooked up this year}

{rowan in her Christmas dress.}

I had to throw this last photo in even though it wasn't actually taken on Christmas day . When I first put this dress on her, she started twirling and dancing all over. Cutest thing ever. And when I told her to stand by the tree so I could get a picture of her, she would lean on it in all of these different poses. She kills me.

4th of July

I know, I know. It's July 22nd and I'm barely posting about the 4th. In my defense, despite feeling like I never do anything with friends anymore, I have been busy! When I'm not working, Rowan and Lima Bean Kids and the house keep me more than occupied. I feel like my days are very full.

Anyway, here are a few from our 4th. We all woke up early to go to the parade, then headed over to Kelly's parents to swim and eat. Justin had to work that night, so after lunch, Rowan and I headed home and took long naps, then headed over to watch fireworks with Jaclyn and Bryson.

early on. pre-rain, pre-sweat. {it rained on us for about 10 minutes. seemed like the rain cloud was directly over just us. it felt good while it lasted, but we got so hot afterwards}

the flag didn't last long. she got distracted by red vines. very typical.

rowan kept wanting {and succeeding a couple of times} to run into the street. she was very good at waving at people too.

post rain, nice and hot. rowan gets that really red face when she's really hot. runs in the family.

here are a couple from later on. rowan hasn't been the biggest fan of swimming pools this year (up until this past weekend in fact). she was more keen on jumping on the trampoline all by herself.

later on that evening, we watched fireworks. rowan didn't mind the smaller ones in the street, but got really freaked out with the big loud ones that launch in the sky. when they would boom, she would turn around and hug me really tight. can't complain about that!

love her

she's such a goofball. i love it.

she can also be a bashful yet flirty. it's hilarious. this photo is post-bath, pre-pajamas/hairbrush, just running around in the buff. i just love her :)

happy valentine's day!

Christmas 2008-Tate side

We had a nice little Christmas here in Utah with the Tate family. Jessica was in town too, and Santa brought her a stocking full of goodies in addition to Rowan's presents and mine & Justin's stockings. Santa sure is nice!

Rowan didn't really get the whole opening presents thing. We had to help her. She got her very own laptop, and a whole bunch of books.

She also got her very first doll, a vintage C*bbge P*tch. She adores it. She gives her baby "huggies" all the time. It's very cute.

Notice the fat lip. Justin and I were in the mall on Christmas Eve (what? yes, I know we're crazy) and I was walking with Rowan in a store--she had her arms up, holding on to my fingers and she slipped and fell face first into the floor. Poor thing cried for a good 10 minutes straight.

Her hair is this crazy every morning. She's an all-over-the-place kind of sleeper.

After we opened presents at home, we had a nice breakfast with Justin's mom and brother & sister-in-law. Then we headed to Danielle & Dave's to do the big family thing.

Justin had fun trying out James' new toy. He couldn't get it down. Not that I would've been able to either. In fact, I didn't even try because I knew I'd fall flat on my face.

The girlies got matching jackets from Auntie Kristen. Rowan also got a super cute jacket....

(thanks again, Kristen & Keri, we love it!)

I think I took about a million photos of all the Tate cousins in this pose. It would probably take me a century to find one in which all seven of them were looking at the same camera, smiling. You get the idea, though, right? They're all still so cute, and I love 'em all.

After we ate a super-delish, non-traditional Christmas dinner (which, by the way, I loved....thanks Danielle) we headed over to a local hill for a little bit of sledding. It was very cold, and rainy/snowy, but the big kids (aka uncles/husbands) and little kids (aka little kids) had fun.

It was a very nice day, and it's always great when Justin and I have a day off together! Merry Christmas!!