Slip Sliding Away

Both Ian and Grandpa have taught Tate how to "hold on tight" for a couple of fun new games.  Now anytime we need to do a quick sweep around the house, Tate helps by hopping on for Mop Ride.  Here's when having hardwood floors comes in handy!

Just Right

Tate is the just the perfect size to sit in Great-Grandma Baird's rocking chair.  Except now he's too busy to sit still and rock.

Adventures in Tateville

Mormor and Grandpa came to town for one last visit before heading home to Alaska for a few months.  Mormor is one of Tate's favorite playmates and they had some great days together! Playing over and under and even inside everything! 

He reminds me of a little bear cub in these three.

Big steps

Just practicing a few steps after coffee with the Hinkleys.  Tate is really working on walking and loves to stand and practice as long as there are a couple of hands for support.

Breakfast

We walked to The Park Cafe for breakfast this morning-it's one of our favorite spots.  I think Tate is beginning to love it too-as you can tell by the blueberry pancake all over his face!

On the walk home still covered in blueberries

Thanks Grandpa!

Tate had salmon caught by Grandpa Todd for the first time tonight.  He's an eating machine these days and the fish was a delicious treat. What a lucky little boy! 

Boys in Blue

Tate and Ian in their long johns getting ready for a Saturday morning ski.

Holiday To-Do List

I'm having a hard time believing it already almost December 1st. Which means if I thought I was prepared for the holidays I'm just kidding myself as I am obviously not. Decorations to put up, presents to buy and cards to send.
This is always a challenge for me as I love looking at all the options on Shutterfly but have a hard time picking my favorite design. In the end I usually spend so much time deciding that it's after Christmas before I get them addressed and sent out!
As I stared at all the different design possibilities I came across this sweet deal where you can get 50 free cards through Shutterfly by blogging about it so I figured it was worth a shot. Especially since I've loved my past photo cards, books, announcements from Shutterfly. So here it goes...
The flat photo Christmas cards are cute, fun to make, and easy to send: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards. Hopefully with this great deal I be able to get organized and send mine out before New Years this year.
And yes this post is cheesy but I love a deal like free Christmas cards. Even more when it  from a site I love like Shutterfly. 
In the meantime I'll continue to try and capture a picture of Tate that would be fitting for his first Christmas card...Here are a couple from today including some video--now that you won't find on Shutterfly.

 

Auntie Jo

Lindsey stopped by after the Utah/BYU game to see Tate's latest tricks.  He loves his Auntie Jo and showed off all his big boy moves for her like crawling and eating sweet potatoes, black beans and avocados for dinner. We love it when she comes over to play!

Tate was too busy playing to smile-this was the closest we could get.

Saturday fun

We started the day with a nordic ski and then had some lunch before helping daddy turn the leftover turkey into a potpie and a delicious soup for the week. 

Eating some lunch

And hanging in our long johns and ski socks

"Helping" daddy in the kitchen

Tate pushed the Bumbo across the floor to right here

"Who me?"

Hi Mom!

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a great afternoon filled with turkey, treats and playtime with Uncle Ndi.  A fun day all around!

Tate was too hungry to wait!

After dinner playtime

Early Morning Ski

We started our Thanksgiving with a little cross country ski in order to work up an appetite for some afternoon turkey.  It was a beautiful day-clear and sunny but cold!  Tate loved looking at the tracks and all the snow covered trees.  Hopefully now that we've found all our gear we will make ourselves go more often.

Getting ready and having a quick snack.

Skiing with Daddy

Mommy's turn

Crawling

Just this weekend Tate's  figured out how to go from rocking back and forth on his hands and knees to actually moving forward.  It's so cute and reminds me of a little bear cub.  Watch out he's on the loose now!

Snow!

Saturday a big storm rolled in so we stayed in and played with all our toys (at once!)  Sunday we woke up to a beautiful white blanket covering the neighborhood.  Tate and I went for a walk in our new-to-us backpack.  We wanted to see how well it worked before we try skiing with it.  Looks like it did the trick!

In the swing trying to push the Jeep

Having so much fun!

All bundled up and ready for the snow

At the end of our walk

Fast asleep!

Go Team Go

We had free tickets to the Utah Grizzles hockey game on Friday night so we went for a couple of periods.  Tate was a little unsure of the whole thing at the beginning but was cheering right along with everyone else by the time we left!

9 Months Old

Tate is growing and growing!  Today he's 9 months old and trying hard to learn new tricks.  He's so close to crawling; putting one hand out and then the other.  He's almost got it all figured out but then he gets tired and rolls to his back which is still his favorite position. And he wants to walk but I'm not in any rush for that! We are trying to introduce new foods at meal times-some days Tate gets more on his clothes than in his mouth but that's all part of the fun.