November

I win the award for the biggest slacker mom in November! It started off when I accidentally deleted our Halloween photos off my camera before downloading them. And apparently these are the only pictures I took of my kids the entire month of November!! I had a few photo shoots that kept me busy and a trip to Chicago, so I guess documenting our lives went by the wayside.    

Here are the kids on the train they created. The boys are really into trains and enjoy making pretend ones out of ALL the pillows in our bedroom lined up on the living room floor, plus ALL of the couch cushions, plus ice chests, toys and whatever else they can imagine! 

Levi enjoys pulling down his bottom eyelids to reveal the nerves in his eyeballs. The kids laugh and laugh when he does it. Boys. 

Also in November, we enjoyed Thanksgiving with the Dishman side of the family in Marble Falls. It was fun getting together with everyone, lots of good food (with a few vegan options this year for Chez!), a round of golf for Ty and his brothers and fun shopping on Black Friday with the girls! We are loving that we live less than an hour away so we can come back home to sleep in our cozy beds (and I can get up early to hit the Black Friday sales in Austin) before heading back out to Marble Falls on Friday, although this does mean we miss out on Uncle Doug's big breakfast. The kids loved feeding the deer with Nana, playing golf and playing football with their uncles while at the lake this year. 

 We have so much to be Thankful for! 

Punkin'

We love autumn!

See the knees on her jeans? This is pretty much what her pants look like every single day. I'm afraid I won't have any pants to pass down to someone someday. Tatum still refuses to walk, but is so active and Loves the outdoors, so she ends up dirtying up her knees every day. 

This is Tatum's favorite toy - the cookie jar shape sorter. It sings songs and she likes putting the shapes in and taking them out of the cookie jar (through the hole in the top, not through the proper shape hole. Hmm... maybe we should work on that.) 

Also, we recently had a garden planted in our backyard. I bought another groupon which had some really awesome folks from Revolution Gardens come out and build/plant it for us! 

We've been watering it almost every day and now it is a vibrant garden. Last week, we took our first harvest and had a delicious salad at our Dishman family Christmas dinner. Planted in this winter's garden is broccoli, swiss chard, spinach, radishes and carrots. I am NOT known for having a green thumb, so we shall see how this adventure turns out. However, so far so good. Plus, it's a fun project to do with the kids. They love helping water it and dump our compost bin into the compost pile. They are learning which foods can be composted (banana peels, celery, egg shells) and what can't (dairy and meat). Healthy and educational... two of my favorite things ;)

We've got ourselves a birthday girl!

Tatum celebrated her one-year birthday in October. We had a party at the house with mostly family and a few little friends of hers. It was a fun day, even if we did spend most of the morning in the kitchen preparing venison chili for our guests. It turned out delicious and we've made it again several times since, but it's just labor intensive. (Ty recently went deer hunting, so we are now experimenting with all sorts of recipes to use up what's in our newly-purchased-due-to-the-deer deep freeze). 

 

This is the cake that I made. It turned out cute, or at least I think! We simply took the cupcake off the top and gave that cake to Tatum for her "smash cake." 

She enjoyed opening a few gifts, but mostly played with the paper! 

Tatum's friends who were able to come celebrate: Eliza, Cason, and Ezekiel. 

My friend, Christy, had a super cute birthday onesie that I borrowed to take a few birthday pics of Tatum in. Thanks!! 

She loves balls!

Tatum is very friendly and says a genuine "hi-eee" to almost everyone she sees. 

 

Sliding continues to be an enjoyed past time. 

She can even take a rough landing like a champ. I guess having 2 older brothers is paying off. She's one tough cookie! 

Although, she can be a priss as she shows that she doesn't like to crawl in the grass. 

I found these super cute bloomers on etsy.com and had to get them.

 Tatum is truly a joy in our lives. She is such an easy baby with a calm temperament and a spunky personality. She loves to be around people and is always on the go. She says hi, mama, dada, dog -then clicks her tongue to call it, and can sign more, all done, milk and food. She is cruising, but won't let go to stand on her own. She continues to be a fantastic sleeper, likes to spoon-feed herself, and loves her brothers! Her current nicknames are Taterade, Tatertot, and Mutat (Tatum spelled backwards b/c I see it that way on burp cloths when they are upside down!). Even though it's been a busy year having 3 young children, we are so thankful that God has placed Tatum in our lives at this exact moment in time. She is a good reminder to slow down and enjoy the beauty that God provides daily in the little things. We love you, Tatum!

 

Meet in the Middle

October was a busy month! I think we missed 5 out of 6 weeks of church because we were out of town or I was running races so often. Glad things have calmed down a tad since then. Anyway, we were super grateful to some friends who let us crash their house while they were away in Abilene for ACU homecoming. My siblings and mom took advantage of their beautiful home and the location in Ft. Worth which made it an excellent meeting point - in the middle of all of us! 

It was fun to get together with everyone. We had some delicious meals, the kids loved jumping on the trampoline with Granny Rae, eating our favorite Dr. Pendergrass cupcakes and a fun time watching my sister do her latest talent - professional organizing. She organized our friend's pantry for them!  Does this make anyone else want to open up their home to us for next year's family reunion -haha, just kidding! 

Apparently, we didn't take any group pictures, except for my mom with the grandkids. 

However, I did try to do a birthday photo shoot with Tatum that pretty much failed miserably. She was super tired and apparently wasn't a big fan of cake (she must take after her father). 

She wouldn't dig into the cake and got really fussy and crawled away. Then she got even madder because she didn't like the feel of the grass on her bare legs! 

We tried to throw her in some bath water, but that was the final straw. 

Poor birthday girl!

Thanks to the Hejls for opening up their home to us. It totally beat cramming into a hotel room with 3 small kids for the weekend!! We are thankful for friends like you guys. And thankful for family that is willing to drive to spend time with us and our crazy kids. Love you all! 

October Science Experiment

I was reading a blog from a homeschooling mom about watching pumpkins decay as a way of teaching some science to her kids. I thought that could be fun, so we bought and carved a pumpkin. We sat it on our back porch and began to watch it. 

What do you know, it actually starts to rain in Austin, which enhances the decomposition of the pumpkin. It was REALLY cool to watch because each hour we would check on the pumpkin and could easily see many changes. 

The boys wanted to touch the mold, so I gave them straws. They enjoyed sticking them through the soft pumpkin skin. 

Tatum, meanwhile, was exploring the slide. This quickly became her new favorite toy.

Here is the pumpkin the last day I allowed it to sit in the back yard. A pretty scary sight, don't ya think? Maybe I should have sat it on our front porch for Halloween!

And what do you know, Tatum found her way back to the slide. 

 She's busy with a discovery of her own - the velocity, angles and techniques needed to S

                                                                                                                                                  L

                                                                          I

                                                                              D

                                                                                    E.

Swimming in September

Here's a little bit about what we've been up to this summer. Lots of afternoon snacks on the back porch...

Swimming on the back porch...

and afternoon naps in our cozy beds..