Tatem's almost ONE!!

Oh my, oh my, oh my!  How did this happen??  This precious baby girl will be ONE tomorrow!!

Tatem (and her baby doll/other half) at 11 months :)

I have lots to blog about, so get ready for the...

Happy Birthday Blogging Bonanza!

I'm going to attempt to blog as much as humanly possible on the days between my babies' birthdays!  Their birthdays are just 15 days apart, so get ready for lots of posts so this mamma can remember what life is like with a ONE year old and a THREE year old! :) 

Move back to Texas, Y'all!

Megan, Nate and their kids stopped by on their annual Tour of Texas!  Nate and Mark went to high school and college together, and Megan and I did too!  We just love them, but hate that they live out of state.  When they got married and moved away, military retirement sounded SO FAR away.  Eeek!  It's getting closer!  Our vote is for a move back to Texas, y'all!

How cute are these babies!  They were driving their car.  A little foreshadowing to a prom date??

I don't remember what they were doing in Tatem's crib, but I think you can sense just a tad bit of their excitement!  haha!

Our babies! 

Love it!

Thanks for making the trip!!  It was great to see y'all!

Nonny's Memorial

Ugh...the post I've been dreading writing, and the reason for my lack of blog posts lately!  I really don't like to blog out of order.  It's been almost 2 months since we said goodbye to our Nonny.  We celebrated her life with a beautiful service and took over half an Italian restaurant for a huge family dinner afterwards.  Nonny would have LOVED it. :)

Nonny's kids and most of her grand kids and great- grand kids

I've been dreading writing about this for two reasons.  One, well, I don't like to think about how much I miss her.  Two, I've been trying to put into words what she meant to me and to all of us, trying to describe how amazing and loving she was.  Truth is, there are no words.  We miss our Nonny and we love her so much!!

Kiss Kiss!

Tatem has recently discovered how to give raspberries, and she can't get enough.  She just giggles and giggles!  Of course, we can't help but giggle with her, so the girls have been giving them all the time.  Watch out...if you have bare skin near Tatem's mouth, she'll get you!  

Tonight Landrie was getting Tatem back by blowing raspberries on her chin!

Oh how I wish you all could have been in my kitchen to hear these sweet girls laugh!  

Vacay, part 2!

I couldn't fit all of our vacation pictures into one post, so here's the rest of the week!

You can't stay on a lake without a boat ride!  This was another first for Tatem, and she looked so cute in her life jacket!  She was like a little baby sumo wrestler. :)

Little Benny checking out the view!

Brooke and Abbie worked really hard to convince Landrie to ride the tube with them, but she stood firm on her "NO" answer.  Maybe we should have done the alligator tour after the boat ride. haha!

We got to check out our cabins from another view!  

While the big kids swam, we made a little baby seat for Tatem.  She could blink and wiggle her toes, but that's about it.  :)  She held onto those sunglasses a long time!

No matter how much Braiden tried, he couldn't throw Brooke or Abbie off the tube!

Braiden loving on Tatem:)

She did great in the water!

Eric and Braiden took turns driving us around.  We loved it!

Sunset by the cabins.  It was so peaceful.

I think she grew up a whole year in that week!  Look how grown up she is!  Landrie was definitely the popular one all week.  There were lots of fights over who got to play with her, and she LOVED her time with her cousins!

The splash pad was just perfect for all of us, and since it was right off the lakefront beach, we spent lots of time going back and forth between them!

cuties

Tatem got passed around quite a bit too, but she's a little pickier about who she will snuggle with!  GranJan was one of her favorites, of course!

How is it that Braiden is almost as tall as Eric??  

When you're at the beach, you've gotta dig a BIG hole, right??  How many times do I hear, "I love P-Pa.  He's my friend!"  This swimsuit cracks me up.  It stretches WAY out when it's wet.  Landrie doesn't seem to mind though. :)

beautiful Brooke

I don't have any pictures of Landrie with her equivalent of this face, but we went into the trip fully prepared for all the meltdowns that we knew would happen from skipping naps and staying up hours past bedtime.  And, oh, they happened all right!  

I already posted all the family pictures, but here's the grand kids shot.  This is one of the MANY outtakes.  Oh my!

"Maybe this will go better if we have them all squish together in a big group hug!"  

(extra points if you can find Tatem)

We all brought craft ideas for down time during the week.  Christy brought tie dye stuff, and their shirts turned out cute!  I think this picture is actually the best one...Next time we'll wait until later so we aren't melting and so grumpy!

This one's cute too:)

Beam Family Vacation

2012

See y'all next year!