Visit with Cousin Jen

While in Indiana, we visited with my cousin Jen, up in Chesterton/Porter. She has a little boy, Ben, and we took the kiddos to the Indiana Dunes and the Chelburg Farm. Behind Chelburg Farm are woods with a beautiful walkway through a ravine. We walked back there, enjoyed being a snack for the mosquitos, and Jen took many pictures of the kiddos. Each picture was just wonderful, but I am only going to put a few on here. If you would like to see more, please email me and I'll send you a link to see them!

She would NOT get off of my lap to touch the sand! Is she really my daughter???

Here are a couple of pics I took...

Mom's Slacking....

Wow, I can't believe it's been a month already since I wrote on here last... It's been a little crazy! Tatum and I took a trip to Indiana in September and had a chance to visit many friends and family. Of course, it is difficult to visit everyone we want to, but we did what we could. Here are some pictures from our trip.

She'll do it when she wants

So, since about Aug. 3 Tatum has been taking steps here and there. As I said in the post last night, she was excited that dad was home and walked about 6/7 steps to me... well, today, she let go of Dad's hand and walked from our bedroom to the kitchen table... those of you who have seen our house, know how far that is! She had walked to me from Dad and then back to Dad earlier, but this was amazing!

Aunt Liz came home from work, and Tatum was showing off on her pony... then she went to meet Auntie at the stairs... came to the kitchen with Auntie and walked to me (at the stove)... well, the rest is history! Check out the video- Dad was the camera man after Tatum walked to him a few times... This only shows a couple of 'wind sprints' we were having her do, but she 'ran' about 20 sprints (like the Energizer Bunny... she kept going and going and going...) lol... just watch! :)

New Pony one.... lol... too funny

Crazy Girl

Tatum is an absolute riot right now. Along with rolling around on the floor, which she is still doing... today, she put her forehead to the floor, stuck her butt up... and scooted around on her head... it was hilarious! We are thinking that she does it when she is waaaaay tired, but it is still funny! She has been enjoying her pony lately and I can not keep her out of her Tonka truck! Everytime I turn around, she is either climbing in or climbing out... or we are just driving around the house in it!

She has been taking steps like crazy, but likes to laugh at me when she knows what I'm up to! She'll just plop down on her butt and laugh! Today, we were up in her room and I was busy putting a picture in a frame, and there she goes, walking a few steps from her dresser to her foot stool... then I heard the garage opening, so I said.. Tatum, let's go see dad! And she booked it to me... probably taking about 6/7 steps very sturdy! She wasn't wobbly at all! But when we get downstairs, she does not want to walk anymore! So, she just plopped down and acted like she was falling... it was hilarious!

Tatum likes to put on our shoes...

I thought shoes were supposed to come in these boxes:
HA HA, MOM! You can't get me and I'm going up the stairs!!! (she was laughing hysterically while going up to the second step)
We are ready for football season around here, although we were quite disappointed with the first Colts' game... but Tatum's still a fan!

Enjoy the video, and I apologize for Hunter's commentating... there was a bunny in our backyard! lol... good thing he's here to protect us from those vicious bunnies!

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!