Playing with Sadie

One of Tatum's new and favorite things to do is to trace her hands on a piece of paper. This morning she wanted to trace Sadie's paw so we allowed her to do so and Sadie was such a good sport!

Getting started...

Here we go...

The final project!

Our little girl is getting big!

Mike and I were pleasantly surprised one morning recently when we discovered that Tatum knows how to peal a clementine all by herself! We had propped her up on the kitchen island while we made smoothies one Sunday morning and when we turned around she proudly displayed her pealed clementine. While we snapped a few pictures of our proud little girl, she was being goofy and her smiles were very silly. This is just an example of one of the many new and independent tasks that Tatum has begun to do. Lately her new thing is tell us that we cannot sing with her or that we need to "get off" the couch that she is sitting on...if only she felt like taking on the potty training task!

Holiday Season 2009

It is hard to believe that the Christmas season is already behind us! The two weeks between school ending, Christmas, New Years, and school resuming flew by. During that time we were lucky to have a quick, but fun, Christmas visit from the Smiley's who drove from St. Louis to be here with us. Unfortunately we did not snap as many pictures as we would have liked because the Christmas weekend, and the week following, was spent bringing Tatum back to health as she was stricken with the flu on Christmas Day. We had a long 4 days following of temps ranging from 103-104 and lots of cuddling on the couch! Once Tatum had been nursed back to health we were able to enjoy the company of friends on New Year's Day to watch the Rose Bowl. Overall, we had a fairly low-key and enjoyable holiday. Tatum was a pretty lucky girl though as she scored lots of toys, puzzles, clothes, and a new play table. Baby Brother-to-be even scored a few new things too!

Here are a few pictures from the two weeks:

Yawning, while modeling, her new raincoat from Aunt Melanie

Waiting very patiently

Being very goofy (as always!)

The new table and some art supplies/playdoh from Santa

While Tatum and I stayed home due to her being sick, Mike took his parents and Kara on the Norfolk Naval Base cruise tour. For two hours they cruised around downtown Norfolk and the naval base looking at local sights as well as capturing some great images of the ships and aircraft carriers that are in port right now. It was a bit cool that day but they enjoyed being out on the water!

Downtown Norfolk

The Naval Hospital

The USS Wisconsin and the Nauticus Museum


The Norfolk International Terminals