Family

Family is the greatest thing in the world! Life would be so empty without them. I am so grateful for my little family, they bring every happiness to my life. We have been out here in Minnesota for about 7 months now! Time is starting to fly by. I can't imagine what life would be like without my two guys. We have a great time together--the three of us.
I made Tate a spinach smoothie and he loved it! As you can see he doesn't quite have the drinking out of a cup skill down yet.

This is Tate's new favorite spot to hang out.....his window sill. He loves to put both hands on the window and look down and watch the cars pass and if he's lucky a school bus (which he gets really excited about). Just so everyone knows I was standing right there. I don't just let him stand up there by himself.

Little Family pic.......it's not that often that we all look this good.

This last picture is just so cute I had to put it on. Donny and I teach in primary, our class is so cute. One of the girls in our class drew this picture of me last week. When she gave it to me she said "Here I drew this of you...that's why I was looking at you so much." Pretty good huh?

Life......

Life just keeps on pluggin away, winter is coming to a close and spring is on it's way. I can't wait for the nice weather to come. I hear that is people live in Minnesota for the summers. I'm trying to enjoy ever season, it seems like when one season comes I'm always waiting for the next to come.....unless it's winter that is coming. Life never stops, I'm amazed at how fast this year has gone. Tate is going to be one years old in less than 4 months!

This week has been spring break for Donny and we have really enjoyed him being home. Since the snow has started to melt (yay!) I have had a chance to wear my new rain boots that I used my birthday money on. I love them!

We had some nice sunny weather today so we decided to go out for a walk. By nice weather I mean it was about 48 degrees and 15mph winds. So we got Tate bundled up and headed out. He loved it! He was smiling the whole time and talking up a storm. He has gotten cabin fever just like the rest of us!

Man is he cute or what?! He is so much fun and has the funniest sense of humor. He laughs so much and is my biggest customer (meaning he thinks I'm really funny)

So ready for spring........Meaning new hair

How cute are they eating breakfast together? Tate is so much fun, he loves to just be hanging out with us no matter what we are doing. Just wants to be part of the group. (I think this might me my second photo of Donny's awesome morning hair on this blog)
I got the idea in my head that shorter hair would be a nice change for nicer weather.....(when it gets here!) So I went and had it chopped......It's really short but I like it. I'm not really used to it yet but Donny assures me it is "better than your last hair cut", plus an "it makes you look skinnier" so I'll take it. This post if for you Kens!

Yay! Tate's crib bedding is finally finished!

Donny Keeps telling me I need to get some hobbies to keep me busy (as if being a mom doesn't) anyway....... I decided to try my hand at sewing. In the past the sewing machine has only brought me stress and frustration. We now are on our way to having a better relationship. I got myself a machine and wanted to make Tate's crib bumper and skirt. It was a big project for my first, but I did it! And love it!

Tate loves to help!

King of his castle. Mostly he likes to pull on it and mess it up but at least it keeps him entertained.

I'm so happy with how everything turned out. I had fun doing it, but I am glad it is done! I think it really highlights the crib. I love this crib so much! It means a lot to me to have something made by my dad and brothers and Donny. It turned out even better than I imagined it. Thanks guys!

I just had to throw in this little gem. He hasn't used the swing in months, but the day I go to put it away he was having so much fun playing in it.

The down side of living in an 84 year old building!

From the looks of this picture we are having a great day. Don't let the smiles fool you! This picture was taken after a frustrating day.......... It stated out as a lovely sunny Sunday. We were oh so thrilled that the temperature had finally popped up above freezing..........only to come home from church to find our bed was getting flooded by the roofs melted run off!
So this is us camping out in the living room while the ceiling in our room dripped all night long.

Here's the twin mattress that we slept on. For those of you who know Donny and his size, this was no easy task. I spent most of the night teetering on the edge as well as pushing Donny into the trunk. Needless to say we hardly slept and wink and were sore the next morning.

Our bedding was soaked! My duvet cover didn't make it out so good, giant rust stain :(

If you look close you can see the water dripping from the tip of the fixture and from the huge hanging crack in the ceiling.

So this was Sunday the 13th..... it is now the 17th and it has stopped dripping, but nothing has been done to fix it. I'm just waiting for the roof to cave in on us in our sleep. We decided to risk it after two sleepless nights in the living room!

Burrr it's a Minnesota winter!

Whenever we told people we were moving to Minnesota all anyone would say was "yikes it's pretty cold there isn't it?" and my answer is yes! Good thing we have warm coats and are generally optimistic!

It started out like this......not so bad just a little snow and temps in the 40's to 20's. We can handle that. It actually looked quite pretty. Note how wide the street looks. Two car can easily fit down that wide road.
Then all mayhem broke loose on that Friday night that lasted the whole weekend! You're probably thinking that doesn't look so bad and you are right only because this picture doesn't do it justice. If you can't tell that is the very same road that is pictured above. Not even one car can park anywhere and it was like driving on Moguls. I don't have a picture of our cars but they were completely buried in the back of our building.

This is the walk from our apartment to the street.

This picture was taken almost 2 months after the previous photos! It has not melted at all! I wish I had a picture looking down the street, there is barely room for one car to squeeze down the street and this is why my drivers side mirror is hanging on for dear life after it was smashed by someone trying to maneuver the tight squeeze!

I know terrible picture of me but we wanted to put the piles of snow in to perspective. This is in front of our apartment and it looks like this everywhere! You have to be in the middle of the intersection to even see to cross the street! Needless to say I have become a little scared of driving in this winter mess. It's a new experience for us and we are trying to appreciate this Minnesota winter. As you can see from the picture I'm wearing my new winter coat for the extreme temps. It rarely is warmer than 20 and usually around 10 with a wind chill of -10 to

-30. I can't wait for summer but we are having fun out here and we are loving it!

I thought I would throw in a few of Tate cause he's so cute. He loves wearing Donny's hats and doesn't even try to take them off. He'd wear it all day I think!

Some friends of ours have and indoor pool at their apartment and are kind enough to invite us over from time to time for a dip. Tate loves the water. He did try and lick it but found out that wasn't the best idea and didn't taste great. He looks awesome in his suit!

This picture was taken the morning after the swimming. His friend Madison was kind enough to loan him a pair of pj's. Not ashamed at all to be wear girl pj's you can't see it in this picture but on the front is a butterfly and a flower. He looks pretty relaxed in them to me!

Donny and I went to a Guster concert. This is what Donny got me for my birthday present back in November. Isn't that sweet of him to get me concert tickets to his favorite band..........seems like a gift for himself to me but we did have a great time!

Tate's crib finally arrived! Yay! and he's sleeping like a king. He loves it in there, sure beats the pack and play. The boys did such a fantastic job on it over Christmas break. I couldn't be happier with it. I adore it! Now I am going to try my hand at sewing and make a bumper and skirt for it. So more pictures to come.......

Our winter break adventure!

You all are probably thinking I gave up on the blog......we have just been having so much fun traveling I haven't had time to get to it. So I hope you all are ready to see lots of pictures! We had so much fun going west for the Christmas season. We flew out to Utah and stayed one short night before we got in the car and headed north to Montana. No we aren't crazy, but it was a lot of traveling with in a 24hour period for sure. Tate is such a good baby and was such a trooper the whole trip. We spent 12 days in Montana for Christmas and loved every minute! We got to talk to Amber for Christmas and she is doing so well over in Hong Kong. She was greatly missed this year for the holidays. Montana was full of the usual relaxing activities: games, food, puzzles, movies and we even taught Kens to crochet! I guess it wasn't as relaxing for the men they spent a huge chunk of the trip down at the wood shop building a crib for Tate. Pictures sure to come when it gets here. It looks so good and Donny had a great time learning how to use all those power tools. Thanks Dad! Also thanks mom and Dad for a fabulous Christmas, I'm so glad we were able to come, thanks to you!

First before we get to all the holiday pictures I just wanted to put this one on here, because it is so cute! Tate loves his glow worm, he is so captivated by it. Grandma Glo and Grandpa Dan knew he would love it!
Tate and Gammy in the Christmas spirit. Tate loves wearing hats and was so funny with that Santa hat on. He also loves his Gammy, and I take it by that smile she crazy about him as well!

Oh Montana.....it is cold enough to wear you coat inside.......or maybe that's just the Bingham house?

Uncle Aaron is so cute with Tate! They are good buddies.

It was so funny. Maycie thought the bindings on Dustin's snowboard was a little seat with buckles. She was ready to hit the slopes!

Christmas morning. Tate was already ready for his first nap by the time we got down to open presents. He only lasted about 10 minutes after this picture.

The girls in their stylish winter hats..........I made them

Tate was more interested in the wrapping paper than anything else

I guess Maycie was more interested in the packaging as well!

We then headed south to what we thought would be a warmer half of the trip to Utah for 18 days. It was unusually cold in Utah, but we had a great time anyway. We had a great time spending time with Jason and Katie and family while they were there as well. Halle's baptism was wonderful, she is so grown up. We were sad they couldn't stay longer. We had so much fun going to movies and eating at our favorite spots while we were in Provo. Thanks Mom and Dad Baum for letting us stay so long and for everything. We love you. We also had so much fun spending time with Elle and Beej. Tate even said BJ (believe it or not, we heard it clear as day!).

Tate and Jude are so cute with each other. They had fun playing together. I guess cousins share everything, Tate wasn't even mad he was happy to lend a binki. Shortly after this picture Jude was sitting on Tate going after the binki.

How cute are they?

Tate's favorite spot at Grandma Baum's house. He loves to look in the mirror and now that he is sitting up all by himself he could have spent the day there.

Tate loves his grandpa. They both spend a lot of time in the winter with hats on to keep those bald heads warm.

Aaron and the sick babies.

As you can see, we are fans of TV. The last week we were in Utah we all got sick. I don't know who started it but by the time we left we had definitely left our mark. There was not one left untouched by the bug.

Poor little sick baby. Just wanted to be held after getting back from the Dr. appointment. Tate had RSV and a double ear infection.

Stacie came to visit us several times..............I think to see Tate more than anything else.

We made it home safely yesterday and are happy to be back. It was fun trip and we already miss everyone. I think Tate is going through grandparent withdrawls, and missing his aunt and uncles. Now he just has his boring parents to play with.