Christmas Eve!

Will survived his first Christmas Eve! He wasn't sure about all the commotion, but being the curious little man he is, took every bit of the celebration in. We spent the late afternoon/early evening with Chris's family. He just loved the singing/dancing Elmo from his Rock-a-bye Grandma and Grandpa and the Curious George from Great-Grandma.

Later in the evening we went to my aunt and uncle's home in Sioux Falls. Will was just mesmorized watching the wound up kids (Alicia's cousins' kids). A new tradition was started this year to have one of the kids read "The Night Before Christmas". We were all surprised to see that it had been rewritten to include a bunch of "characters" from the Tatge clan. Tayler did a great job being the first to read the story. Will paid close attention (his mom and dad are glad they are a few years away from his turn to read). I'll tell you this little 9-month-old didn't go unspoiled. He came home with lots of new clothes, books, toys and a beautiful handmade stocking from his Great-aunt Susan.

I Love Santa!

A couple weekends ago my friends and I took the kids to visit Santa in Downtown Sioux Falls. It was a fun afternoon! Will was just young enough (9 months) to enjoy sitting on Santa's lap. He sat so nicely and looked and looked at Santa. Afterwards we stood in line for a long time to ride on the horse and carriage. It was such a beautiful day compared to the frigid temps we've had lately. Will just loves all the lights and music Christmastime brings!

Thankful for LIGHTS and FANS!

Thanksgiving Day Nap

I Love Grandma's Light!

Will and Cousin Tre

Cousin Denver and Will

Thanksgiving Day Feast

Will enjoyed his first Thanksgiving! We traveled to Centerville for the noon meal at my cousin, Jen's, house. Will enjoyed some sweet potatoes, applesauce and Cheerios for his Thanksgiving Feast. For dinner, we traveled back to Sioux Falls to Chris's family. Will had a little taste of green bean casserole! The poor kid even got roped into making the trek to Michael's (with tens of other crazy people) so his mom could get in on the big sale Thanksgiving night. It was a fun day with all of our family!

If Will could talk he would have told us that he is thankful for lights and fans! Every time we go somewhere he has to look up and see what's on the ceiling - a pretty light or ceiling fan. He is just mesmorized by them! At Grandpa and Grandma Tatge's he loves to look at the fan in the family room, while at Grandpa and Grandma Peterson's he loves the light above the kitchen table with the fun tassel (see picture). We still need to take him on a trip to Lowe's where they have a bunch of ceiling fans on display -- Will would go nuts!

"Rock"-a-Bye-Bye BABY!!!

Our Baby Will sure likes to move, although he is still immobile (for now anyway). As we were getting him bundled up and ready to leave Grandpa and Grandma Peterson's house Wednesday night, he was amusing himself while we continued to chat. Take a look at the video to see our Rock-a-bye Baby!

We were so excited last Thursday because Will learned how to wave "bye-bye"! When his daycare provider, Beth, was waving goodbye to him he mimiced her. After I got him bundled up I told Will to tell Beth "bye-bye" and sure enough he looked at her and waved. If you'd have been there you would have witnessed a very proud mommy!

I also included some pictures of Will playing with his toys and a couple shots from his cousin, Alivya's, 5th birthday party on Saturday!!! We are looking forward to Will's first Thanksgiving. He is anticipating the grand meal of Thanksgiving Baby Food Gerber will be preparing for him!

Happy Halloween

Last night we celebrated Will's first Halloween! He was a trooper. We made 8 different stops out "Trick or Treating". That was 16 times in or out of the carseat. Will dressed up like a "Little Stinker" (a skunk). When we found this costume we knew it was perfect - since at some point we started calling Will "Stinker Pants". I'm not sure how it got started, but it stuck. He did a nice job of amusing his mommy by tollerating his costume all night long. Even though he doesn't eat candy yet, he didn't go without any "treats". I think he is one spoiled little guy. Today Will joined his friends, Rylee, Quinn and Michael, to take pictures in their Halloween costumes. They are quite a bunch! Afterwards they had fun playing together.

Apple Orchard

WILD!!!

Believe it or not this video was shot just before Will went to bed. When Will is laying on a soft place like the bed, his crib or the changing table he gets just WILD! As you can see from the way he moves, we are going to be in BIG trouble once he figures out how to crawl.

Anniversary Do-Over

Chris and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary on August 5th over a Totino's Pizza and chips and salsa. The evening didn't turn out quite like we'd planned. Late that afternoon I was on my way to a meeting at church when my car battery decided it's life needed to come to an abrupt end. So...our anniversary was spent at Wal-Mart getting a new car battery. We were so hungry and the new Subway hadn't even opened yet in Wal-Mart. We finally decided this past week that it was time for an anniversary do-over! After dropping Will off for some quality time with Grandpa and Grandma Tatge we headed to Touch of Europe for dinner. Keeping up tradition we had our anniversary picture taken at the restaurant. We also went to see the musical "Chicago" at the Pavilion -- it was amazing! The anniversary do-over ended up being better than our original plan! Funny how things always seem to work out.

Happy 1/2 Birthday!!!

Today is Will's 1/2 birthday! It is hard to believe he is already 6 months old. It is amazing the changes he's gone through in such a short time. He is really developing his own personality now. You can see that he is learning to sit up now (with a little help). His dexterity has greatly improved over the last couple of weeks. Our little guy has also developed into a finger-sucker. I guess he decided to take after his mom by sucking his middle two fingers. Sometimes he even tries to get the thumb of his other hand in there, too. It works wonders to soothe him back to sleep - which is a bonus! Speaking of sleep - he still isn't sleeping through the night. He is usually up once or twice in the night to eat. Mom likes the nights she's only up once. This week's new event is starting baby food --- Green Beans Here We Come!

Ladies' Man

You can guess from this picture which little boy was the center of attention at church yesterday. Will's good friend, Quinton, shared this cute outfit with him! As it turns out Will is quite popular with the middle school girls at church! They all swarm around him wanting to talk to him, pat his head and hold him. He is well-loved by his church family! I'm sure one day he'll be wondering why his mom ever thought this outfit was a good idea! It happens to all of us - I think there are a few pictures of me in 70's gear - oh, and when I thought it was cool to tie a shoelace in my hair.

Our little Will has really started to jabber a lot. He especially likes to talk while we are driving in the car. I often turn down the radio and just listen to the "important stories" he has to tell me. It is fun to see his budding personality forming!

Belly Laugh

I'm entering the techie world and trying a blog! Amanda, my friend and co-worker, convinced me to give it a try. So, here we go!

Will is nearly 6 months old now! Funny how fast 1/2 a year can fly by. The speed of his development amazes us each and every week. In no time he has gone from a sweet, little curled up ball of baby to a rolling, jabbering, kicking wild boy! Last night was one of those belly laugh moments for me. I was "trying" to rock Will to sleep (which never works, by the way). We were singing nice songs like "Amazing Grace" and all of a sudden Will's face got all red as he was learning how to stick his tongue out and blow! To his surprise he made a fun, new sound! Here we were sharing this sweet, solemn moment and he wanted to be a funny man! I guess he'll have some new noises to try out in church now. You'll see from the picture that Will is learning to eat "real food". He ate a whole box of rice cereal with apples! As soon I opened up the second box he decided he didn't like it anymore and refused to eat. We switched to oatmeal now and he's lovin' that. Soon he gets to start on that yummy baby food!