Sunday, September 28, 2008

Tate Words


Today was the primary program and Tate had a tiny little part. He was supposed to say "Be a missionary". The problem is that it came out every time sounding like this "uh misherary". After two weeks of practicing at home, he pulled it off. It came out sounding more like "Be uh mishnary" pretty dang close if you ask me. So in honor of his victory I've decided it's time to unveil the list of Tate words. Tate was a slow talker, he didn't even begin to talk until after age 2 and even then he only had about a 10 word vocabulary. Now after 2 years of much work and lots of patience his speech has improved dramatically. He still struggles to say words properly. He has a condition called apraxia, luckily it's mild with him. His brain knows the word and even knows how to say it properly but it just won't come out of his mouth sounding the way he knows it should. It takes repetition and practice to make the connection from brain to mouth. Sometimes it will take months of saying the word before it ever comes out right. Even then he'll stumble on words he's known for a long time. You can see him thinking deeply while repeating a word 3 or 4 times, he knows it's coming out wrong and can't figure out why. So without further ado here are a few of the MANY Tate words.

Ish Weem = Ice Cream
Mealk = Milk
Fink = Fine
Woovie heater = Movie theatre
Greenk = Green
Ocean = Lotion
Licious = Delicious
Hims = her or him
Lasterday = Yesterday
Uh Dea = Idea
Heatas = Fajitas
Popsible = Popsicle
Knew Knew = Noodles
Manna = Banana
Mo Tro = Remote Control
Lula = Tallula (hence her nickname)

I seriously could go on forever. This list is just a few of his current "words". I get a little sad sometimes when he figures a word out and can say it properly. His little words make me smile. There have been countless times that Taylor, Tanner and I will just bust up laughing at something Tate says. He has no idea what's so funny but he'll just join in with the laughter. Oh man, I love this little guy.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Baby Instructions

I totally stole this from someone elses blog, it was so funny I couldn't help myself. Apparently they really do have instuctions on how to care for your baby. P.S. That really is how my Mom checks a diaper...I know, ewww!












Thursday, September 18, 2008

Speedo Briefs...



Ahhh, the speedo brief. There has been an ongoing debate in my house about the necessity of speedo briefs. You see my husband seems to think that he needs them to train in (he does triathlons) and I don't think they're, how do I put this gently...flattering. Granted my dead sexy husband has lost 35 lbs and he's svelte and fabulous these day. But come on...a speedo? Like most issues my husband won, and he bought the coveted speedo. He wears it to the YMCA while doing his swim work out. I've relented and can see how they are better to work out in, I wouldn't want to train in a tankini. But here's where I draw the line. We were discussing wanting to take a vacation and here's how the conversation went...

Alan: "ooh, I can wear my speedo briefs with my swim shirt"

Karina: horrified look on her face "why would you want to do that?"

Alan: "because I'm hot." Proceeds to try on this outfit

Karina: Still looking horrified, giving him the...your crazy look.

Alan: "look at me, I'm dead sexy"

Karina: "Ok, yes your hot, but you can't walk around in a speedo, it's not France. If you take me to France you can wear a speedo."

Alan: "Why not, James Bond wears one?"

Karina: "When you look like James Bond, I'll beg you to wear that speedo everywhere you go."

Alan: Flexing in front of full length mirror "I already look like James Bond."

Now you understand what I'm dealing with here. My husband has a delusional view of himself and he's trying to strut around in a freaken speedo. Now I have to find ways to avoid taking any vacation that includes swimming. He's leaving tonight on his "mancation", I sure hope they don't have a pool where they're going. I better go check his suit case.



Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Discount Tire Ball

Not a bouncy ball, a formal affair. Every year Alan's company puts on a ball. It's pretty dang impressive. They get all of the employees hotel rooms at the Grand Hyatt in Seattle. We've gotten so big now that they can't just rent out one of the conference rooms and dress it up all fancy. They have to rent the entire wing. The largest room is the one we eat dinner in, another is the night club, another for pictures and the hall is lined with open bars and and tables. This was our 10th ball, Alan has been with the company 12 years now. They tend to be the same every year but they're still lots of fun. We have to wear tuxes and ball gowns and the catered dinner is usually pretty impressive. We get pretty bored around 11 or 12 pm because everyone is soooo drunk that there's no one left to talk to that's coherent. People start to stagger up to their rooms between 1 and 2 am. We always end up sleeping in and going to breakfast at lunch time, it's great! It's so nice to have a night away once a year paid for by someone else. My sister and her husband we so great and drove down from Lake Stevens to watch Tallula in Seattle for us. They went out and tooled around Seattle for a few hours and then hung out in our room until we got back. Alan's Mom and Dad took the other 3 for a sleep over. It was really nice to know all my kids were cared for and I didn't have to worry at all. Thank goodness for family! On that note, Alan's going on a "mancation" for 3 1/2 days this weekend and I was not looking forward to having my kids all to myself for that long. So my Mom comes to the rescue again! She's coming down from Marysville to stay overnight and then she's taking 2 kids back up with her so I can have a bit of a break. She's so awesome! Here's a few pictures from the hotel. I didn't get any of the ball itself, I was embarrassed to bring my big old camera down. You can't walk around in a gown with a camera slung over your shoulder. Ok, so I tried to bring it down but Alan voted NO and he won.





Thursday, September 11, 2008

Midnight Sun released

Apparently a trusted friend leaked Stephanie Meyers draft of Midnight Sun onto the Internet. I feel so horrible for her. In response she has decided not to finish the book and has released the draft herself on her website. You can read the entire book by downloading a copy for free on her website http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/midnightsun.html
I'm looking forward to reading it even though it's under such sad circumstances.

WARNING...I'm bragging here


I just have to give a little shout out to my amazing children. This picture is from the beginning of the summer and it's pretty much how they spent the entire summer. Taylor and Tanner LOVE to read. They're pretty good at it too. I've always wondered why they love it so much. I love to read so I've always just chalked it up to that. But I have friends who love to read and their kids hate it. Today I was pondering this and I think I figured it out. We don't have cable TV, we haven't since Taylor was 2 years old. So what do we do for entertainment around here? We read! Umm, duh, not sure why I haven't figured this out before. The decision to get rid of TV is one that was very much prompted by the spirit. I had that little voice nagging me to do it for months and months and I didn't want to listen. I LOVE TV, I still miss it. But finally we cut it off and haven't gone back to it in 8 years. We have seen the blessings of that decision over the years, but it was nice to see yet another one that has come our way.
Ok, back to the reading! So I've tried to convince them to read Harry Potter for a couple years and they just aren't interested. They were watching one of the movies earlier in the summer and Taylor kept asking me questions that go deeper than the movies can get into. I just kept telling her that she needs to read the books, I can't give her a play by play. So finally she picked up book one and finished it in 3days. Tanner suddenly caught the bug right along with her and was reading them just as fast as she was. Long story short Taylor read all 7 books in the month of August. No joke, all 7 in one month. Tanner finished 5 of them in August. He's on book 6 but his reading time has been drastically reduced due to school. Sorry for all the bragging, I just couldn't help myself.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Do The Puyallup!

The Puyallup fair that is, for those of you not aware of the fair lingo. One of the things I missed most about Washington when were in Georgia was the Puyallup fair. It's been a yearly tradition since I was a kid. This is the biggest, badest fair around. So yesterday was Monday Madness at the fair which means all the rides were a dollar. Normally they're between 3 and 5 dollars EACH! So we took the kids and rode the rides for about 6 hours. Never in the history of my fair going has this been possible, we would have to ride like 3 rides and that was it. It was so much fun to watch my children smile for hours, they were so excited! I loved to watch the other parents standing around, watching they're kids ride rides. The smiles on the parents faces were as big as the kids. My kids couldn't remember ever being to a fair which suprised me. We took them to a little po dunk one in Georgia which obvioulsy wasn't very memorable. So this was a new experience for them. I hope that the memories are burned into their minds the way they are for me, full of joy and wonder. Enjoy the pictures...I did!




















Thursday, September 4, 2008

The 2nd Greatest Day of the Year!

Maybe this is the greatest day of the year now that I think about it. They're all gone!!! All except Lu of course, it's to bad they don't have baby pre-school. I guess we call that daycare and I'm not sticking her in there. I'll keep her around a little longer. She's going down for a nap right now and I think this is the first peace and quite I've had in a long time. I'm gonna go enjoy it...



Wednesday, September 3, 2008

The Greatest Day of the Year!

Oh glorious morning! Two out of my 4 children are at school today, Tate will join them tomarrow. Stay tuned for the 2nd greatest day of the year.


My little rock stars all ready to go!


Tate and his buddy Cody walking Lu out to the bus stop.


7 hours of peace!