Christmas Tour 2009

Here are a few pictures from our Christmas tour in 2009. We went to the mountains of Sevierville, TN to meet up with Mandy's Dad's side of the family. Here are a few pictures from our outing.


As you might imagine, Tate was quite the entertainment as we opened gifts.

He had to take a break and sit on a box during all the commotion.

Here he is with his Grandparents...Mimi and Pop.



Tate and his Great Grandparents above.



Here is Mandy's Granparents with their Grandchildren and Great Grandchildren (and one outlaw)

And here is the whole crew courtesy of a strangers car and a camera timer. Top row, us, Rick and Judy (Mandys Aunt and Uncle), Mary and Ned (Mandy's Granparents) and Karen, Jessica and Steve (Mandy's Dad and family) and neeling are McKenzie and Haley (Mandy's cousins).

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone! We hope you had a great Christmas as we celebrate the birth of our risen Savior and look forward to his return! Here is our Christmas card along with a few pictures taken pre-Christmas I thought we would share.

This year's Christmas Card above.

Tate and Santa Claus. The first 2 pictures were of a terrified little boy sitting in Santa's lap so we resorted to giving him "Blue" his little dog blanket and he calmed down enough to get this picture. Notice the red eyes and tears still on his cheak.

He looks like he is posing for this picture like a baby model but in reality it was a quick snapshot of a sqirmy little boy.


A family shot we were attempting to have to use on the Christmas card. (now a B side)

Doesn't he look like he is up to something here...we're not sure what.

He did pretty good with the Christmas tree this year and was interested but didn't destroy any ornaments. (or at least as of when this blog was posted) :)

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Christmas Card Bloopers

Every year when it starts getting close to Christmas we start the hunt for "The One". This is the "perfect" picture or pictures to use for a Christmas card. Usually we try to get a family shot either from something or somewhere interesting we went during the year or a Christmas themed picture. So I started noticing we had a lot of pictures that were blooper-like that were definitely not going on the card. So here are a few I thought I would share from the blooper real.

This was Tate posing by the tree making a not so cute face. Not sure what he was trying to tell us here.

My lovely and talented wife is very creative and has had many wonderful ideas... most of the time. She had seen these pictures taken by professional photographers where the family lays down in the leaves and takes the pictures from above. Clearly these people didn't have squirmy one year old who had an apparent phobia of leaves.

So...after the leaf thing, we decided maybe just a nice shot in the back yard with the leaves of fall behind us. And yet again, we came up empty and threw in the towel for this photo shoot.

Then we were in Nashville and remembered this shopping area called "The Factory" where they had a giant rocking chair and thought that would make a funny/cute Christmas card picture. We tried and again it just didn't work out.

And here we are trying to get the lights to show up and didn't realize how dark it made everything else. And no, Tate didn't throw up here, just coughing but still a great look. :) So at the end of the day, we were very close to skipping sending a Christmas card out this year but my lovely wife/photographer pushed through the pain (along with Tate having to pose/be cute). As much as I like to include a picture of the whole family, I was OK to sit this one out. Maybe next year...

Tate's Surgery

So I know we have been absent from blogging for a while and now its Christmas Day and things have slowed down and I thought I could catch up for the last 2 months. Back at the first of November, Tate went in for his very first surgery. He had a double hernia surgery which was just something he was born with that never developed like it should. Its very minor surgery...of course its minor unless its YOUR child. When its your child, anything they have to go under anesthesia for doesn't feel as minor because they are so little. Anyhow, it went great and he was a champ through the whole thing. Here are a couple pictures we took with our cell phones while waiting.


Here he is above waiting to go in early in the morning. I think the hardest thing on him was having to skip eating (which he very much enjoys doing very often) and missing a nap. :)

Here he is after with his Mom comforting him. He was a little groggy and whiny but overall did very well. You can see his IV still in which he didn't really care for either (and I don't blame him).

Thanks to everyone for your prayers and concern. His recovery was almost instant. We came home about 2pm and he ate lunch and napped. Once he woke up he acted as if it never happened. We are very thankful!