Happy Birthday Tatum!

Here's Tatum, riding on her new bike from Mommy, Daddy and Owen!

Our first born turns 4 today!! We celebrated this weekend with a nice family dinner and today we sent Tatum to preschool with cupcakes to share. She wore a special birthday crown during class and got to choose a prize from the "birthday box". Tonight we asked her what she would like for her special birthday dinner...let's just say we're celebrating with pancakes!

Tatum continues to enjoy preschool and always looks forward to her swimming classes. Her love for life and enthusiastic spirit is a constant source of enjoyment for Scott and I. Tatum remains our spunky, outgoing, competitive, animated, passionate, loving little girl. We are so blessed to be her parents! Happy 4th Tatum!!

Happy Easter!

Following church yesterday, there was an Easter brunch that included pictures with the Easter Bunny, face painting, and egg decorating. The kids both had a great time and especially loved their visit with the Easter Bunny!

Swim Lessons

Tatum just completed her 4th session (each session runs 1 month and includes 8 lessons) of swim lessons this past week. Scott and I have both absolutely enjoyed watching Tate participate in these lessons...we've actually had to have a discussion or two on whose turn it was to take Tatum to her swim class. For one, Tatum's love and enthusiasm for her lessons is undeniable. At her first lesson this past month, Tatum continually shouted the entire half hour (to no one in particular) how much she loved swim class. Secondly, it's been really fun watching her make huge strides since we first started last July. She's gone from splashing and kicking around in her teacher's arms to being able to independently swim on her stomach and back the width of the pool.

Tatum's signature jump from the side of the pool is almost always a belly-flop. She still always comes up with a big smile on her face!

Here's a video of Tatum swimming across the width of the pool on her back.

We have a name!

Thanks to all of you who participated in our name poll and gave us your feedback. Your input helped us to finally make up our minds...I was literally changing my mind every week about what to name our baby boy. We decided on Isaac Jacob. We chose Isaac meaning "laughter", because we love the name and the meaning (I just had to rule everything else out first). Jacob comes from my mom's maiden name Jacobson, and Jacob has been on our name list for all three of our babies.

Owen is 2!

Owen officially turned 2 on the 30th of March! Since Daddy was working on his birthday we had a small celebration at home with Grandpa and Grandma Russell the night before. This year Owen was definitely interested in opening his presents and couldn't get enough of blowing out his birthday candles. The obvious theme of his gifts was anything to do with trains, but it sure didn't make Owen any less excited when he opened a gift. Owen would hold up the gift with total excitement and continually shout out "train, train, train!"

The older Owen gets the more we see his personality emerge. Owen is a sweet, sensitive, and loving little boy. He has a fairly easy going tempermant, but is definitely capable of some serious pouting...I've been told both my kids get that from me:) He's also all about testing his limits right now and wants to discover the relationship between cause and effect. Owen is our little thrower...toys, books, whatever...especially when he's upset. We are desperately trying to get this under control and so Owen's spent his fair share of time in the "get ready/naughty" spot. I think he is getting better, but still needs lots of reminders. Owen's vocabulary is improving each day. He has a hundred plus single words and several phrases, but when he goes to have a conversation there is still very little we understand. I'm hoping to get a video of him talking so I can share it.

Tatum giving Owen a giant birthday hug