First 4 wheeler accident

Yesterday, we went to visit my friend Mandy and her new little boy, Noah. He is so precious! I can't believe that he's already a month old! Dylan and Hunter (her older boy) had a wonderful time playing together. Dylan had his first official 4 wheeler accident! (Not really, but it makes it sound worse!) Dylan had a blast riding this thing! I think we spent all day sitting outside watching the boys play! He decided to ride on the back with Hunter driving and Hunter is a little more experienced on it! I'm pretty sure he let go for a second and fell off the back. He fell and hit his cheek on the ground. I am still trying to figure out how exactly he did that one! Boys will be boys! Dylan is almost finished with his swimming class! He is loving it and surprising me with the things he does! He will go under water by himself and is very brave. He's growing up too fast! He practiced at my parent's house with my mom.
Lauren and I had a good time watching them!Then we celebrated Lauren, Brayden, Brad, and Danielle's birthdays. I thought this box was adorable!
I love living close to family!

Weekend with more cousins

This past weekend, we had Ricky's cousins from England here visiting. I will say it was really nice to get to see them since it had been over 5 years! They brought their youngest daughter with them (she was 11) and spent the night at our house. We had the oldest girls watch all of the kids so the adults could all go to dinner on Saturday. It was really nice to spend some time with them!Saturday morning, we went to our church lunch. They had pioneer games set up for the kids. They seemed to enjoy themselves.

Then, they all went to the steam and gas show. I opted out of this one because it was $5 per person to get in! They took Dylan, though! He had a blast!Here we are at dinner. We went to Thai Essence, which Ricky and I had never been to! Luckily we were all family, because we shared everything! Everything I tried was really good!

Lauren's first haircut and check-up

Last night, we took Lauren to get her first haircut! Her bangs were all the way down in her eyes! I just wanted to get it trimmed a little so it would grow back thicker. The girls at Great Clips were great and Lauren did awesome! She kept trying to look at the girl, but didn't cry! Yeah!

Here is the before:

During:

And After:

What a little cutie! She had her 1 year check-up today. Poor little girl had to get 3 shots in her legs. She did not like that at all! Good thing daddy works by the doctor's office, because we go there to get cheered up after the shots! Here are her stats:
Weight: 20 lbs. (35th percentile)
Height: 30 5/8 in. (90th percentile)
Head Circumference: 46.2 cm. (75th percentile)

The doctor said that she is doing well and looks great. Yeah! He also said that she is very flexible, it you can't tell from this picture! She sits with her legs like this most of the time! ( I just love this dress, so I had to get a few shots of her in it!)

Back to everyday life! Well, sorta!

We are back home and trying to get everyone back to somewhat of a schedule. Poor Lauren has been surviving on one nap a day. Although, I am enjoying her 3 hour naps! She is our little trooper. She is so easygoing and doesn't seem to complain. She gets a little fussy at 8pm, only because that's her bed time! She is army crawling all over the place! She gets around fast! I put her in the playroom, and she is right there with me all the time! I guess I'll have to baby proof the house, now! She went up one stair the other day. She usually just sits there and cries until I come back down. Too funny!

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Dylan is back in swim lessons and loving it! Yesterday was his first day of Level one. They are in the 2-3 foot pool. His teacher asked them to go under water. I wasn't sure that he would do it, since he likes to do things on his own terms. He went under and was awesome! When he finished class, he came up to me and said, "Mommy, I went under the water and I was ok!" Too cute! Then the whole way home he was telling me about it. When we got home, that was the first thing he told Ricky, too! I'm so proud of him! Today at class, he kept going under the water. I guess he is just our little fishy! In other news, Dylan loves to say the prayers. He is so good at it and is so sincere! I love to see how quickly he is learning!

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I did 8 loads of laundry yesterday to catch up! You know when you are out of underwear that it's time to do the wash! I didn't realize that there was so much to do, but I guess that's what happens when you go on vacation! Now, I just need to finish the dishes, vacuum, mop, and pull the weeds out of the flowerbed. It's so much fun always having something to do! I feel like I should be more crafty, so I think I want to start a few projects. Dylan wants a cape. Maybe I can get one done by Christmas. Keep your fingers crossed! Well, I better be more productive since Lauren is still sleeping! Have a great day!

Nauvoo and Family Pictures

Last weekend, we went to Nauvoo with Ricky's entire family. It was so relaxing and everyone got along great! I couldn't have asked for a better vacation! The only bad part about the vacation was the long drive there and back! We walked around old Nauvoo and went to all the little shops. It was really interesting to learn more about how they used to make their supplies in the olden times. I had been there before, but I didn't remember all of the little shops. We also went on the wagon ride. We had a blast! Scott, Crystalin, Ricky and I all got to attend a session at the Temple on Tuesday before we left. It was so peaceful and a great ending to a wonderful vacation!

I love this shot with the temple in the background. We were playing frisbee on the big grassy area in front of the temple. It is an amazing place to be!

The Tate GrandkidsThe original Tate'sThe Tate boys

The Tate girls

Ricky and Dylan

Me and Lauren

Our cute family

The entire Tate family!

Can you believe that we got everyone together for this? Some of the kids have weird looks on their faces, but you can't get all of them to smile at the exact same time! It's fun to look through all the shots, because you can see who was moving and even a yawn! I love digital cameras! We don't know when everyone will be together again, so it's important to get this done! The last time we got a family picture taken, Dylan was less than a year old!

Chicago- Science and Industry Museum

On Friday, we went to the Science and Industry Museum. We went a little earlier than Crystalin and her family, so we planned on meeting them inside when they got there. Little did we know that our cell phones would not work anywhere in the entire museum! We spent the whole day at the museum and didn't see them once! How crazy is that? Dylan had a blast looking at all of the trains. And we enjoyed spending some time with just the four of us!

Dylan's first photo! He took this one for us! I thought it turned out pretty good!

He looks too comfortable in the drivers seat! Only 13 years to go!

We went to the museum to see the Harry Potter exhibit. We weren't allowed to take any pictures in the exhibit, so sorry. It was so amazing! We really enjoyed seeing all of the clothes the characters wore in the movies. They also had the wands they used, their books, bedding, pictures, etc. It was really interesting and well worth the extra money to see!

Chicago-Six Flags

On Thursday, we went to Six Flags in Chicago. We all took turns riding the roller coasters and taking the little kids to the kid rides. I really enjoyed watching Dylan and Tessa ride the kid rides. They had so much fun and were so cute! The area wasn't that busy, either. The kids didn't have to wait long to get on any of the rides. They were walking in front of me and I thought it would make a cute shot! I love how it turned out!After a couple of rides, we met up with the big kids. Then everyone went on the Raging Rapids. I stayed back with Lauren while she took a nap. I really didn't want to be wet for the rest of the day either! Dylan and Tessa rode it and loved it! It seems so weird that they can ride things like that!

Standing in line waiting for the rapids. I was across the water watching them. It took about 45 minutes to get through the line. Not too bad! I had a blast with spraying them with water. They had quarter machines that would blast them with water! I got them good! After we ate some pizza, I got to ride a couple of roller coasters. That was enough for me. I hadn't ridden any since before I got pregnant with Dylan, so it had been a while!

Chicago-Brookfield Zoo

Last Wednesday, we went to the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago. We went with Ricky's sister and her family and Ricky's parents. It was lots of fun, minus the rain. It was cold and drizzly rain all day long! Good thing we had umbrellas and ponchos. Lauren held her own umbrella!

We went on a train ride around the zoo. It was nice and dry on the train. Everyone had a good time!

We were all happy to be there and spend time as a family!We also saw the Dinosaurs Alive exhibit. It was really neat. Dylan had a blast seeing all the dinosaurs. Some of them moved and some you could control. I thought it was really interesting!

Then we went to the Children's Zoo. Dylan feed the goats with the help of Grandma Tate. It was fun. He got to go inside with the goats and brush them, too! Lauren started waving bye. I thought it was so cute!

We really enjoyed our day at the zoo and spending time with our family. We stayed at the Hotel Indigo in downtown Chicago for 2 nights. It was really neat and looked like a spa in the room. We wore the kids out, so we didn't have any problems putting them to sleep. Good thing, because we were really tired, too!

Happy 1st Birthday Lauren!

It amazing how one year can change so much!

Happy 1st Birthday Lauren! We love you and are so glad to have you in our lives! You are amazing in every way and bring us so much joy!
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We were on a family vacation in Nauvoo, Illinois for Lauren's birthday, so we had a pink cake to celebrate! Luckily we went to the candle maker the day before and got a free candle to put on her cake! I thought it was very appropriate for the occasion.

Dylan helped blow out the candle. He is such a good big brother!

We went to Pizza Hut for dinner on our way home from Nauvoo. Lauren was showing off her new talent of holding her own sippy cup!Of course Dylan wanted to get a picture with Grandma!

And we got a family shot! We had a wonderful time celebrating her first birthday with the Tate family! We got home pretty late and put the kids to bed. Lauren woke up at 1am screaming and crying. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with her. She finally went back to sleep and slept until 11:30 the next morning! I noticed fluid coming out of her ear, so I took her to the doctor. She had a double ear infection! Happy Birthday to her! (I'm glad she is young enough that she won't remember this!)