Thanksgiving

I am so grateful for so many things and feel as though I don't take enough time to think about and appreciate all that it is. This past year and a half has made me a mom, and taught me so,much about life and about myself..without a question I am most thankful for my family, most importantly my baby boy and his brother on the way. Before I had Tate I never really knew the meaning or feeling of unconditional love but I know now that there is nothing in the world that could make me love that kid any less! Even though sometimes being a mommy means life gets more challenging with each new day, I truly am grateful for every second I have with him..

Of course I am grateful for my savior, Jesus Christ, for helping me to have my family and making it possible to keep them by my side even into eternity..That is the greatest gift that could ever be given.
I often just think of things that I have been blessed with and I really am amazed I feel like I am so lucky to have all that I do..Church has been such a blessing in my life and has given me direction in all aspects of my life and been such a guide and inspiration in decisions, even small everyday ones.

I am thankful for this time of year and what it brings..it is a time of year to enjoy family and reflect on the past year of memories, as I have gotten older I have honestly realized that the best part of the entire
Holiday season is the.memories and time spent with family..although I do get extra excited to see Tate's reaction to lights hanging, decorated trees, Santa and gifts.I do hope to bring a lot of tradition into our home to help us to grow closer and to stay a close family!

I am grateful for a year of so much joy and not much to be sad about, this has been a good year so far with so many great things..many people can't say that!

I am thankful for friends and for the fact that you can go to them to talk to regardless of how far away they are.

I am grateful for this baby on the way, I must admit it wasnt the easiest idea to get used to but I already feel such a love for him and cant wait to meet my baby boy. I look forward to watching my boys be best friends and grow up together..

The list goes in and on...i hope to continue adding everyday:)

Baby Brother

{Who is still unnamed}
is due to arrive just 2 months from Tuesday..
Or about 9 weeks from now:)

I am hoping to have another ultrasound soon since we actually have insurance this time around because I'm curious to see how he is measuring and progressing!
As far as my measurements I am pretty much right where I'm supposed to be just measuring about a 1/2 a week small or so! I am getting anxious/excited but I am also pretty nervous, I love love love being a mom but I'm a little hesitant about the idea of raising 2 boys..I know it comes somewhat naturally but there are so many things I want and hope to give them and things that they need that I just hope I can do it all!! I also hope that Tate responds well to his little brother, there relationship matters more than anything to me! I really hope they are best friends.

{Beckham Kai/ Beckham Cruz or Gradyn Kai} What do you thinkk?!?!
I'll tell you one thing..He is one active little boy, he really likes to kick! Maybe it's only fitting that he somewhat be named after a soccer player? :)

Smartie Pants.

Okay so I have to say we have one funny kid on our hands.
Tate got a book for his birthday from his cousins Delilah & Jaylee called "Mickey's Roadtrip" and in the book Mickey and all of his friends go through all of these different places to get to the beach for a picnic..(none of that really matters) But anyway one of the places happens to be a farm. Tate's new thing is to make animal noises, he learned to bark back at dogs about a month ago but now you can ask him a few different animals and he totally knows what they say!

"Tate, what does a cow say?" ---"MOOOOOOOOOO"
"Tate, what does a pig say?" ---"Sniff, SNiff, Sniff"
"Tate, what does a dog say?" --- " Woooo, Wooo, Wooo"

He is so dang smart...and I think we might possibly have an early potty trainer?
I would love if he was potty trained before baby brother gets here but at the same time,I don't know if I'm ready for it yet. I know the holiday season would be a bad time to even try but I am working on just teaching him what the potty is for right now. I am definitely not in a rush. But when your 15 month old starts saying potty and then going into the bathroom, maybe he is ready?!!!

I put him on the potty one day just to see if he knew what to do, and just said "okay, go potty" and he really went!!!! I totally wasn't expecting it..but now he holds his potty until I take his diaper off and has started pottying while I change him, like he did when he was a newborn...except ON PURPOSE!!!!
I have put him on the toilet once or so everyday since and he goes everytime. So idk, he might just get a potty for Christmas..I guess we will see!

Pretty soon this kid is going to be teaching me things I don't even know. I definitely think he could teach us all some manners!lol...He says thank you after everything!!

I know I need to go back and add photos to about 2 months of posts but it just takes so long..I am planning to get videos of Tate saying all of these funny things he says but I just haven't gotten around to it yet!!! If I don't do it soon..someone please get on me about that!! I need a reminder every now and then:)

Our lil housewife

Tate is such a goof...we went out to run errands on Saturday and we got home that evening...the house was pretty clean but apparently Tate thought otherwise! He got into the broom closet and pulled out the mop and the bucket for water of course! He walked all around the house "mopping" the hallway and kitchen and even repeatedly dipped the mop in his imaginary water! I was laughing pretty hard.He always loves to clean up and helps me vacuum, sweep and mop each time I do, I'm not sure where he gets that from! He even puts his own toys away and cleans up messes if he spills or anything(with help of course..haha)..while he sings "clean up, clean up....". After he finished cleaning he pulled out every bowl and spoon in reach and decided to "bake" something..Im glad to know he has seen me do these things enough. It was just so funny to see that he already takes initiative to do that! I love watching him learn and I think he learns new things everyday! I don't know how he lesrns words so quickly but his brain must work much faster than mine! If he is in the right mood you can say the most random words and he will repeat them right back, I try to work withh him a lot on them.

He has learned to say Jesus, Meme, flower, kitty cat, Cow, Moo, pretty, brother, baby and a ton more things...a lot of which I've mentioned in previous posts! He teaches me everyday in so many different ways! You definitely lesrn to appreciate the little things when you have kids and I'm loving every minute of it.

I am so grateful for this time of year and looking forward to lots of time with family and friends.
My best friend will be here from cali in 4 days!
Thanksgiving is in 10 days..Brandon graduates in 1 month and 9 days after that is Christmas! Then exactly 4 weeks later (January 22 ) baby brother is due! Not to mention all the fun things in between!So much to be grateful for and to look forward to!

and Tate finally had his 1 yr check up! He is perfectly proportioned at the 90th percentile in height weight and his head! Yes he grew into it:) I am glad that the doctors agree that he is perfect:)
24lb 1 oz. ..32+ inches, 19 in head

I was doing really good and now I'm behind...again! It seems like There is always something to say.
Halloween was pretty successful, we were able to get out a few different days and do things as a family! We went to our ward trunk or treat where Tate had me running around like crazy as he held his bucket up to each person...whether they had candy or not:) Then we went to his Grandma and Grandpa Merkley's ward fall festival where they had games and got to get some candy! Halloween night we were able to go just one block, after one street Tate started restingg his head on my hand and I knew he was done for! Even as tired as he was he still managed to learn to say thank you when he got his candy! He is seriously so dang smart..idk what I would do without him! Hopefully he teaches lily brother well because I am not a good teacher! lol