Happy Halloween and Prayer Time

This year for Halloween, Tatum was a flower(and a very cute flower if I do say so myself). Here is a picture of me and Tatum this morning before daycare. Let me say that the rest of my picture are all in reverse order. Sorry, but I am too lazy to change them all.
Since Tatum moved up in the one year old room at daycare, she got to dress up and have a party today. Miss Carol, one of her new teachers, was nice enough to take a picture of the class with my camera. How cute are they!?!?! Right now it is 3 girls and 2 boys in her class, but there is room for one more one year old. So from left to right in the back is Cassidy, Afton, and Sam and in the front is Katie and Tatum.


Before I left Tatum at daycare, I took a few pictures myself. Katie decided she wanted a close up. She is the cutest little girl and has the best personality.
Here is a picture of Tatum in the background and Afton standing up. Afton was in the nursery with Tatum for a little bit and used to give Tatum a kiss everyday when I would bring her into the class every morning, but then he got moved up. However, now that they are in the same room again, the tradition has resumed.

Here is another picture of the class. You can see Miss Carol on the right.
This is Tatum on the way to school.
More pictures at home before we left for daycare.

These next pictures were taken earlier in the week. i thought Tatum looked so grown in her outfit on this day.

PRAYER TIME>>>

Finally, if you wouldn't mind please keep our family in your prayers. Antonio is going in for surgery tomorrow morning at 6am. He is having surgery on his knee for a torn ACL. He has had this surgery before (about 4 years ago on his other knee), but that was before marriage and Tatum. His mom nursed him back to health back then.

Please keep Antonio in your prayers that he will make a fast recovery.

Also, please keep me in your prayers because I will not only be nursing Antonio back to health, but i will also be working full time and taking care of Tatum on my own since Antonio will be unable to help much for at least 2-3 weeks. I will keep you all informed on how everything is going of course. I am sure it is going to be crazy for the next few weeks at my house.

Things that make you say "HMMMM"?

As I set out to work on this wonderful Monday morning reflecting on what a great weekend we all had, I decided to pull into Chick-fil-A for a little breakfast. I ran in and heard some lady yelling out something from time to time, but I wasn't really listening to her too much. After I ordered my 3-count chicken minis(yummy) I stepped back and started listening to this lady and looking around to find her. What did I soon discover???

Chick-fil-A (or at least the one I stopped by to get breakfast) is now hosting BINGO on Monday and Wednesday mornings!?!? What in the world?? There were like 15 people playing and they were all older(surprise surprise). I couldn't help but giggle a little bit as I got my chicken minis and headed out the door.

I sure hope when I am older that BINGO will still be offered at Chick-fil-A! What a great combination. And they were giving away prizes too!!

Birthday Fun

Well, Saturday was Tatum's much anticipated 1st birthday and birthday party. I must say that LOTS of time and planning went into this event, but it was all worth it. I certainly could not have pulled it all off with LOTS of help from several people which include Brandy, Jenny, Jennifer, my mom, and my grandmother. They were all lifesavers for me and without them, the party would not have been so perfect. So, buckle your seat belts and hold on because this blog is a long one with LOTS of pictures...

Let me start off with Friday night and the set up. Brandy, Jenny, and Jennifer all came over to help me out and decorate. I was unsure how the weather would be because all week it had been rainy and cold, so we put up plastic to cut down on the wind. It was a little difficult, but we got it done.



Brandy found her Halloween costume in the process. She decided to be the Statue of Liberty. What do you think?


Jenny held me up so I didn't fall off the ladder.

David dropped by to help Antonio supervise us girls and make sure we were doing everything right.
Jennifer was such a big help. She was great at pointing out mistakes and things to fix! lol...just kidding.
Here is the goodie bag table. All the bags had the kid's names on them. It was also the "candy bar" table. I totally stole that idea from Kimberly.

Here is a picture of the present table before th party even started. The big pumpkin is actually a cooler.

Tatum's high chair also got lots of decorations for the big day.
I thought we couldn't go wrong with balloons as decorations, so we lined the driveway with them.

Who said all pumpkins have to be orange? We painted half of them pink to be more girly.

Antonio and I decided to get Tatum a Radio Flyer wagon. We figured since she liked to be outside so much it would be good to get a new toy that she can enjoy now as well as years to come.

Some of our friends showed up a little early to visit.

Here are a few pics of the food spread. See what you guys missed?? HUGE thanks to my mom and grandmother for making most of the food. There was plenty and it was sure YUMMY!


Finally a pic of the birthday girl in her birthday dress.

Gran was helping Tatum walk around the house. I see you in the back Jenny!
Here is a pic of my mom taking a mini break. I think I surprised her with the pic.
I has little kits for the kids to decorate pumpkins with. Here is Tobie with her two boys decorating their pumpkins.
And Jenny helped Mackenzie decorate her pumpkin.
Next is my mother in law with Tatum.

Antonio, Tatum, and me all together.
Ashley helping Coleman with his pumpkin.

Antonio and his parents.
Eliana, Chris, Gabby and Caiden. This is my sister in law and her family.
Brandy and Tatum

Most of the pumpkins decorated by the kids.
My sister Laurie with her girls Mya and Mckalya. Mya will be one in 6 weeks!
My grandmother(Gran) feeding Tatum.

Tim found his favorite toy that Tatum got. It was not the one he came with and thanks to the threatening looks from Tatum, it is not the one he left with either.

Scott and Jessica enjoying the party.
Mya working on walking
Kaden after he got into the cupcakes again even though he wasn't supposed to. lol
The presents that Tatum was blessed with. She got 8 VeggieTales movies and didn't get the same one twice! How good is that!?!?
Cupcake time!! Antonio getting Tatum ready for her cupcake...

Tatum LOVED the cupcake and managed to eat the whole thing! She did so good and didn't even get messy. I just knew she would get her hat all dirty, but she didn't touch it one time! She didn't even get her dress messy or anything.

After cake, she wanted to take a ride in her wagon. Mckayla decided to sit in the wagon with her.
Coleman wasn't so excited about riding in the wagon.a

Then Mya jumped in to try out the wagon.

Tim decided to help Tatum walk around too. He sure is good at spoiling Tatum all the time!
Mya decided all this partying was just too much. Good thing the swing was near by so she could crash for a little nap.
More decorations.
A huge THANK YOU to the Humboldt High School cheerleaders (my alma mater) for making this banner for Tatum's party. How cute is this!?!? It was the perfect size and everything.
No good party is complete until the morning after pictures are taken, right? Here is Tatum Sunday morning. She was looking a little rough.

And FINALLY the much anticipated front facing ride in the car. Equipt with her new Amigo CareBear that smells like Mango (Thanks Tim and Jennifer), Tatum was ready to go. Notice how she is holding on.
After a minute or two, she decided she really liked this new view of everything.

The party was perfect!!! It ended up being 69 degrees and just the perfect amount of people. Tatum took a good, long nap before the party and was in the best mood all day!

I can't believe that it has been a whole year since Tatum arrived into our lives. We have been blessed with a beautiful, funny, loving, sweet, smart girl. She is the joy of my life and I wouldn't change one thing about her. Each day she is growing and discovering new things. It is so neat to watch her "figuring things out". Just this weekend, she has started greating Antonio and I in the mornings, when we walk into a room, etc with a big "HEEEYYY!" I will have to get it on video soon. It is too cute.

Tomorrow when we get to daycare, she will officially be in the one year old room! She loves this room and they have a structured learning schedule. I talked with another mother the other day and her son is in this class. She said he started talking so much after moving up. She is amazed at how much he is learning. I will keep you all posted.

Thanks for bearing with this LONG blog. Until next time...