Isn't this adorable...

My sister, Charla, emailed me the other day showing me some pictures that she enhanced. She took a regular color picture, made it black and white, and then added a perfect touch of color to make the picture look absolutely adorable!! I sent her a few pictures of Tatum and asked her to enhance them with that program. These are two, that she sent me today. I LOVE THEM!!! I am going to try and get the first one of Tatum developed into a poster size for Tatum's room!!!

Exploring again....

Today was so nice out! It was well into the 80's here in McKinney. I saw that it got into the 90's in some places around the area!! It was beautiful out, so we decided to let Tatum go out on her jeep and "explore" again! They showed me where they went the other day. The big hill she attempted, and more! We found this great place behind our neighborhood you see in the pictures. The land back there has obviously not been prepped for homes yet! It was pretty rocky and ditchy! I am sure the kids in the neighborhood have made it a fun playground for them, so we took advantage, and taught Tatum "balance." The wood planks across the ditches were perfect! There was one, that made me a little nervous because the plank was pretty wobbly!! She did great though! I think that Tatum changes her clothes at least 2 times a day, sometimes more! Today, both times, she dressed herself! So, believe it or not, all the pictures were from today! We got back from her jeep ride, and she wanted to go play in the backyard! I was not too fond of the idea, since it is still in it's ugly Winter phase. We have not been back there in several months, so it is all dead, and gross from the winter weather! But of course, he daddy let her go out there. I kept telling him to stay out there with her, but he insisted she was fine! She played on the playground. She had a ball, and included the dogs in her play as well! Besides licking her to death, they are really good with her out there! Plus, they LOVE the attention! She played for a long time, until it got dark! Today was so nice, we were glad we could spend most of it outdoors!!

The Start of Spring Soccer...

Well, Spring soccer has started! Which means cold, wet weather!! I am not sure why Spring soccer in Texas starts in February! We all know February is our coldest month! So, week one of soccer was cancelled, and week two was COLD and Windy! It was fun to see the girls get back in the groove of things! Tatum will be working a bit harder in the weeks to come! It was fun! I am glad she LOVES it, I LOVE watching her play it!!

Muddin'

Daddy took Tatum out Muddin' in her jeep today. They went out yesterday and found a great new "Mud Pit" in the field out behind our neighborhood. So, they went back out today with the camera! Tatum loves to play like she is Dora when she is in her jeep! She always stops, gets out "Map" and checks where they are going! She stops and explores every tree she passes. She pretends to cross over the rivers, bridges, and over mountians! She is so funny! So, today Richard took her to this big hill! He was so proud of her, she wasn't scared a bit! He even said he was a little nervous when he was about to have her to head down! I love her face in the video when she is coming down the hill. You can tell she was nervous, then gets a smile, when she is almost at the bottom!! She had fun! They also found a baby mouse! Yesterday, Richard picked up a huge piece of wood, and underneath was a mama mouse and her baby! They said it was about the size of a Quarter! Tatum said it was "so cute!" The baby was there again today! I am sure the mama was smart enough to run an hide. But she forgot to teach her baby that important life lesson!! Anyhow, Tatum had a ball riding through all the mud!! I am sure they will continue to "explore" daily, to see what else they can find!!!

My Dad is Better Than Your Dad....

Tonight was the premiere of the new show on NBC, "My Dad is Better Than Your Dad!" We were watching it tonight, and I thought it was so cute to see and listen to Richard and Tatum watch and talk about how they could do that better!!! I knew Richard was sitting there wishing Tatum was about 5 years older, so that they could apply to be on that show! They are both so competitive, I know they wold love to do that show, and WIN!!! After watching the Dads and Kids on the show, Tatum wanted her Daddy to get down on the floor and do "cheers" with her! It was cute watching Tatum teach her daddy a cheer!

Happy Valentine's Day...

Today was fun! Tatum and I planned to take Daddy a "picnic" style dinner up to his work since he had to work on Valentine's Day, and couldn't be with us girls!!! So, we baked cookies today, made little smokies, cut up cheese in cubes, and opened some pineapple chunks. I got some cute pink plates, LOVE napkins, Heart Shaped Cakes, and Richard's favorite drink and put it all in my new Rattan Caddy from Southern Living. It was so cute!! I am going to use that piece ALL the time! Tatum had soccer practice tonight, so we left a little early and headed up to Daddy's work! I was sure it would embarass him, but it didn't seem too! It sure was funny seeing a man in Uniform eating off a pretty pink plate!!! We had our "picnic", visited with Daddy, and then came back home!

Tatum opened up the rest of her Valentine goody bags when we got home. She was so excited! She got a Heart Shaped PEZ dispenser, some stickers, candy, a Red Heart Ring Pop, and more! She had already opened up her new Kitty Coloring book with Water-Color paints, and painted a beautiful cat and dog today! My camera was acting silly, so I had to take pictures with my cell phone. The coloring is a little off, but oh well. At least I got a couple of cute pictures of her in her Valentine's Day outfit! The one she wore for a whopping 1 hour!!! She sure was cute in it though!!

Beautiful Day...

This past weekend was so beautiful! We wanted to do something besides hang around the house or be inside the stores, so we decided to find a resturant with an outside patio to have lunch! We meet Sally and Morgan at MiCocina, and Michele, Ben, and Emma met us there a little bit later! First of all, sitting on a resturant patio, at 3pm on a Sunday afternoon is all the entertainment we really needed. There were so many people there, who had one too many Margarita's! These people were crazy! But, the kids had fun because there was a pond with ducks! Tatum and Emma took an entire bowl of chips over to feed to the ducks! They had a blast! It was so nice outside, we were glad we were able to find a place where we could sit, observe, and take our time! Morgan took this picture on her cell phone, I thought it turned out really cute!! We can't wait for more beautiful weather!

The End of a Hard Day...

My sweet little baby!! Tatum just will not give it up. I took this picture tonight because I thought it was funny! She just threw a fit, that she was going to have to STOP what she was doing and take her breathing treatment! So, instead of having her do it in her bed, so she could be in there and turn over and go to sleep, I let her sit in the computer chair and watch her Little People DVD while she took her treatment! I was in here one minute, went to turn down her bed, and came back to find her passed out in the chair! Little People singing, and the humming of the machine didn't phase her at all!!! I let the treatment finish, then toted her off to bed! Hoping to have a FULL nights rest tonight, and not have a 4 year old little girl sneak into my room at 4am, tap me on the arm, and ask to watch TV!! That was last night!!! We will see what tonight will bring us!!!

Just "bouncing" around....

Well, Tatum has been offically dismissed from her PPCD Speech program at school! So that means, no more school for Tatum!!! Kids have to qualify with a disability to be in the PPCD program that Tatum was in. Speech delay is considered a disability. Once they test her and she passes with flying colors, then they must dismiss her, and make room for another child who needs their services! So, it is bitter sweet!!! She loved school so much, I was sad to see her leave. But, on the other hand, it is GREAT, because she has caught up with her speech, and is right where she needs to be for Kindergarten next year!! So, since she is out of school now, I have been trying to find fun, active things for her to do during that day to keep her Language Skills working! She seemed to be getting up earlier and earlier last week and I think it was because it was her first week out of school and we stayed home most of the week! We got out this weekend, and she slept better too! So, Monday we took her to a trial Karate class. I have been thinking of putting her in something like Karate or gymnastics...something besides just soccer!

Today we took Tatum to Jump N Land and met our friend Tricia and her girls Sydney and Alexis. The girls had a BLAST playing for 2 hours running, jumping, and sliding!! We all played Hind and Seek for quite some time! I love that place, because you pay for your child to play, and then the parents have just as much fun playing for FREE!!! The girls have such a blast when we get together, they never want to leave!!!

We will have to think of something else the girls can do again next week! Hannah Montana movie anyone?? Although, a $6 Tuesday sounds pretty good to me!! Well, tomorrow we will try our second trail Karate class and head off to soccer after that! That will make for a jammed packed day! We will see how she handles it! At least she will be using those Language Skills!!!