Fun with Tatum

Tatum is just a ham right now! She has learned to roll.... keep rolling over... over and over and over... and cracks up while doing it! I took a video today of it and I thought I would share... it is sort of long, as I have not taken the time to figure out how to edit them yet... Enjoy! :)

I'M ONE!!!

Wow... so Miss Tatum is officially a one-year old! We had a wonderful weekend celebrating with friends and family! Grandma & Grandpa Carrington came in on Friday, followed by Grandma Birt and Grandpa Bilinski on Saturday... What they didn't know is that they were actually landing in Seattle, Washington rather than Denver, CO... it rained for two days straight!!! It is sunny over 300 days a year... and of course, when grandparents come in... it's raining! (we needed it though, so secretly, I was enjoying the rain)

Sunday, was the big celebration! Tatum was surrounded by friends and family! Her one year old friends- Addy, Liam, and Hayden came to celebrate with her! Liam was a big helper when it came to opening presents! Tatum hasn't really had any sweets, so she had no idea what to do with the cake... she did enjoy the fish- Nemo & Dory- on top... played with them for a while, so Mom and Dad gave her a couple of tastes before we just cut a smaller piece for her. She ended up making a small mess, and I realized I should have taken her dress off BEFORE eating cake!!! :)

Monday, we all piled into a mini-van- Grandma & Grandpa Carrington, Grandma Birt, Grandpa Bilinski, Matt, Tatum, and myself- and headed to Rocky Mountain National Park. None of grandparents had been to the Rockies before, so this was definitely a must! We drove through Boulder up to Estes Park and up through the park. Not too far into the park, we spotted our first Elk of the trip... later we saw a huge herd of them grazing, and again later- more were crossing the road. We drove up to Bear Lake and enjoyed the scenery there... then did a mile hike up to Alberta Falls... and when I say UP ... that's what I mean! The grandparents were troopers being that they were already trying to get used to the elevation in Denver... RMNP is much higher... not so much oxygen at those levels! The falls were beautiful and definitely worth the hike! The little chipmunks were very friendly, and not afraid of people at all! They were trying to pose in our photos! :) Matt & I climbed up to the top of the falls and Matt tried to fall in... or just test the temp of the water... After the falls, we decided to take the longer way out of the park... and what a good decision! On our way out of the park, we saw a few cars on the side of the road, so naturally, you try to see what they are looking at and about 150/200 yards off the road was a moose! He was very tricky- hiding behind shrubs... but we got a good look at him! HUGE! Still no bear sighting yet... :(

We had a great weekend! What a wonderful visit with everyone! Wish we had more time with everyone, but we definitely enjoyed every minute!

I LOVE MY TEDDY BEAR!!!

Tatum has been a busy girl this past month! She has lots to say- fish, eye, hi, go, (what does a dog say?) wf, wf, (what does a cow say?) mmm, mmm... daddy... She has taken a few steps here and there, and is completely capable of walking at this point, but she just doesn't want to yet! She stands for long periods of time, until she realizes that she is standing- then plops onto her bottom. She points/grabs our eyes and says "eye"... she knows her and our ears, she knows our nose, mouth... her feet... She enjoys removing everything from my wallet & purse- then returns it all back to where they belong. Her favorite right now, is she takes her stuffed animals, especially her teddy bear, hugs them and kisses them! Sometimes, if we're lucky, she'll kiss us, but not too often. She loves exploring things already, and once she is on her feet... look out!

Here are a couple of videos for your enjoyment!

Play Date

We had our first play date today with Hayden. He just turned 1 on June 29th. (we celebrated his birthday with him) Tatum and Hayden played together inside for a while, then we headed outside. Tatum was not a big fan of the sand box OR the baby pool! UH OH! I don't know if the USA Olympic Aquatic Center is on her radar in her future.... dad will have to do some coaching on that one! :)

Later we went for a walk around the lake in Evergreen and into the woods where we were on the lookout for Mountain Lions... didn't see any though :( Here are a couple of pictures from our day.. enjoy!

Tatum didn't want to stay awake for the walk, I suppose...

Colorado Springs

We set on Sunday to visit Colorado Springs... no real plan in place, but we thought we would go check it out. We went to see "Garden of the Gods"- beautiful Red Rock formations, drove around them, and headed into the city. We then took Tatum on her first (of many) visit to the Olympic Training Center... little did she know at the time, that she will be training there soon! ;)

Trip to the Aquarium...

So, Miss Tatum absolutely loves fish. We have the computer set to the aquarium setting for the screen saver and she points at the computer and says 'ish' and sometimes 'fish'. Matt and I decided to take Tatum on a little trip to the Denver Aquarium. She absolutely loved the fish there, and was just checking everything out like crazy! The pictures didn't turn out too well, but they work!

Happy Fourth of July!!!

Tatum's latest fun is cruising from the front door, to the back door, to the front door, to the back door... and so on.... with the assistance of a little push car. This is definitely her favorite. When she 'crashes', she turns to mom or dad for assistance in turning the car. She can do this all day long! I will record this and upload it soon...

The Fourth of July began with us going to a neighborhood parade, where we found out that we were the parade... so we walked with the neighborhood families with a fire engine leading the way around the neighborhood. We ended at the park where the fire engine turned on the water hose and we ran! :) Tatum was not a fan of getting wet!

Happy Fourth of July!!!

Later, we headed to a neighbor's for a cookout and then headed to see fireworks... here's Tatum at the beginning of her first fireworks...

Then she woke up and really enjoyed the fireworks. She was extremely tired, but she kept pointing at the fireworks.

A couple of weeks ago, Tatum grabbed the stroller and started walking... enjoy!