James turns 6!

 I made him cinnamon rolls pancakes for breakfast, with cream cheese glaze. He loved them!
(that is the back in the picture) Recipe here: http://life-in-the-lofthouse.com/cinnamon-roll-pancakes/

6 Things I love about James:
1. He is so darn handsome
2. He is crazy creative. He is always working on some new creation and is full of ideas. He has an amazing memory.
3. He loves his Mom, and loves to cuddle with me.
4. He is kind and soft-hearted
5. He is an awesome athlete and runs like an Indian.
6. He choose to come down and join our family .... even though he is surrounded by sisters. So happy to have him here and we couldn't love him more!!!

 He got some great presents. He was excited about. Ellie gave him 6 dollars, he knocked Ellie over, he gave her a hug so big.

 We went to James' favorite spot to doing a little exploring on his special day.

 Emma in her new carrier. Yes, Barry's eyes look weird

 Running

 Walking

 Dangerous cliffs

 Hidden Lakes. Can you spot anyone down there?

uh... where is James? you might ask. He didn't want to waste time with pictures, he was too busy exploring.

 

 ah! There he is! Looking for a new fishing spot.

 Children scaring their Mom.

 Super James!

 Yep! Love him!

Yeah, I know the cake is a bit sad looking, It was a before-church-special ...while I was busy making rolls and getting a hundred other things ready. It was super delicious though. I made a lemon filling for it, and frosted it with lemon-cream cheese frosting.

 

The END

100 Days!

I guess kids these days celebrate the 100th day of school with a party.

(we sure didn't do that)

Anyway, I offered to help out with James' party, but I have a dentist apt scheduled that morning.

I ended up being quite late to the party.

When I walked into James' classroom, as accustomed, I immediately tried to spot James among the sea of kids.
They had made crowns by stapling wide strips of thick paper together and placing them on their heads. They had "100" printed on them and some children had written their name's on their crowns and perhaps had done a bit of coloring.

Then I spot James.
Here is HIS hat, modeled by Lauren.

It is NOT a thick strip of paper, he has trimmed it down to a stylish thinness. He has boldly colored the 100 in bright yellow marker,(he must have borrowed). He has painstakingly cut out the 100 print and actually glued it back onto the strip of paper, creating a very unique look. He is also, unlike the other children, wearing his hat with the 100 off to the side. (It looks much better that way)

 

:)

 

He gives me a hug and runs off to wash his hands.

 

As I am clearing off the tables, cleaning up from the student's hat project, Sam comes up to chat with me. He picks up a little black piece of paper from the

table, holds it up and says "What's this??"

 

 

Though I had never seen it's duplicate, I immediately recognized the work and the artist.

(It's Toothless)

 

I quickly snagged it from being thrown away.

 

I knew I wanted to keep it. 

Somehow, James had managed the time, amidst making an amazing hat, to also make his very own (pretty awesome) additional craft.

:)

I can't help but chuckle. This is sooo James.  He is not a sheep. He is so full of life and creative ideas.

 

I love James, you are an amazing little boy!

 

Lauren turned 4!

Our little Lauren Larue(Wooski) turned 4 years old . She was my miracle baby! When James was just a year old I felt a strong prompting I needed to have another baby. I was not ready. A month later, Barry came to me and said he felt strongly that we needed to have another baby soon. I was scared because of all the trouble I had had, getting James here, but we decided to go ahead with faith. We didn't have a single trouble, problem or worry with the pregnancy and my little Lauren was born healthy and strong on the 29th of December, 2010, and she was BEAUTIFUL!



We love our Lauren so much. She is such a tender-hearted girl, but she is also intelligent, stubborn, and will not be pushed around by certain unnamed big brothers. :)

Things we love about Lauren in random order.

I love how Lauren talks, she has an incredible vocabulary for a child of any age, she doesn't also say the words exactly right, but we love to hear her try. :)  My favorite of her words are Chocolate(trawlet) Closet (trawset) Hercules (Littlelees, that one took me a long time to figure out). She loves to sing and knows many, many primary songs and loves to belt them out when we are driving in the car somewhere.

Lauren makes me smile EVERY day without exception.

I love how Lauren will put her self down for a nap when she is tired. When we were at Anthon's farewell party, there was a ton of people over to Barry's parent's house. We were all having lunch, but Lauren was tired, she lays down on the couch in the kitchen, (the middle of everything) asked Grandma for a blanket and promptly feel asleep, among complete chaos. Lauren has done this since she was very small, I am so glad she can recognize when she needs a nap and doesn't put up a fight.
She is also an excellent eater and not picky, which I absolutely love about her.

Lauren is a total Daddy's girl. I know she loves me, but she LOVES her Dad. She couldn't be happier than when Daddy comes home. She is the first to give him a hug, the first to climb on his lap, and she insists on cuddling with him every night before she goes to sleep.

I love Lauren beautiful silky brown hair and dark, dark brown eyes. She wants so very much to be a big kid and do everything her older brother and sister can do, but also loves when I call her my big baby and snuggle her on my lap.

I love how after we drop the older kids at school, Lauren will treat me to a constant stream of talking, just about everything she has thought about for the pass day, but hadn't had the chance to share.

She is an awesome big sister, and a great help to me. She is almost always willing to help out. She is great at unloading the dishwasher, general clean-up, and she is my best dirty diaper disposer. :)

Lauren collects pigs. She dreams of one day owning a real baby pig. They are her love. She has 5 or 6 stuffed pigs and they are all named Wilbur. I help her find at least one of her pigs everyday. She is always looking for a certain one, the "white" one, the "big" one, the "mommy" one.  She feeds them bottles of milk and pushes them around in her doll stroller. :)

Lauren Noelle Pate, you were the best late Christmas present I ever got!
We sure couldn't do without you.

 

 Lauren's birthday cupcakes, made by Natalie.

 These were taken today, as I wrote this blog. I love you Wooski!

Emmaline turns 1!

On November 18th our little Emmie turned 1!



She is such a blessing to our family.

I don't think her parents or her brother or sisters could love her more.

Emma is a tease. She is very mischievous. She loves to go for something she knows she is NOT suppose to do, then turn around and look back at me (to make sure I am paying attention), if I am she will then crawl super speed towards the object (potted plant, bathroom, etc.) giggling so hard she can barely crawl ...as I am calling after her telling her to stop! (this has become one of her favorite games)

Every morning, I give Emma a warm bottle of milk, change her diapers and set her on the floor and she takes off, exploring. She crawls around the house seeing what is happening in each room. The kids call it Emma doing her rounds or her inspections.  She greets everyone with a "Hi."


Emma can often be seen with a sparkle in her eye and a huge grin on her face. She is such a light in our family.

At 13 months, Emma weighs about 26+ lbs, She only has two teeth, on the bottom, and not a huge desire to learn to walk. I don't mind! I love having her for a baby for a long as she'll keep.

Emmie is my first child to truly babble. I will say something to her and she will babble back to me like she is talking. Daddy always says. "Is that what we sound like to you Em?" and she grins so big and laughs. She also says, Mom, Dad, Ellie, Ut oh, MORE, Milk, Hi, hello, bye, yeah, and a few other words.

I love how Emmie beckons to me with her hand, when she wants me ..or something and holds out her arms when she wants me to pick her up.

One of the funniest thing Emmie does it GASP ......really loud. She forms her mouth into a perfect "o", points, and gasps.
This is quite funny to me, because MY gasping, in surprise, is one of Barry's greatest pet peeves. Now we have a child who gasps when she sees a toy she wants, gasps during the middle of the blessing when she spots her favorite food on the table. Gasps when she sees the kitty's outside the kitchen window. Gasps in the car when a big truck goes by. You name it. :)  (My friend, who loves to annoy Barry, like to encourage Emmie to gasp, and it's quite funny when they get together, each pointing and gasping at everything over and over until they sound like a bunch of whooping monkeys.)

I love when I go into my room to pick Emmie up from her nap, and 90% of the time she sits up and grins at me and says Hi!, she doesn't say Mom, she's not crying, just a grin and "Hi!" :) Love her! She has done this since she was very young.

Emmie is such a beautiful little girl, and twice as sweet. She has stolen all of our hearts and we simple could not do without her!


Love you Miss Emmaline! Happy Birthday!


(Emma was quite sick on her birthday, but she still was nice enough to let me take a couple of pictures from the special day.) (The card and balloons are from Great Grandma and Grandpa Griffin. :)  )

 Sitting on her own chair by herself.

 Cheering

 Emmie loves to push her face up next to mine and give me this grin.

October

October flew by around here.

I'm still not sure where it went.



So I'll tell you a story instead.








Once upon a time.  Pate children when on a quest to find someplace awesome....

                                                        They found it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 oh! they took their Dad along too.....

 we found the coolest fishing spot. You have to take quite the hike to get there, but it was worth it.

 Even Emmie thought so. Of course she was carried in her lite weight carriage. So it was all cush-cush for her.

 Ellie found some interesting things

 So did JAMES! A BASS. Just what we wanted.

 Lauren wanted to hold it. ......................................Lauren changed her mind.

 Soo beautiful. The sun was high in the sky, not the best time to be taking pictures, but I wanted a few, we'll go back in the morning sometime so I can get some good shots.

I actually asked for this photograph. I love this place so much.

 Emma is a little crazy on the horse. She is so fun!

 lots of THIS going on.
The Sunrise on Halloween. This is the giant tree across the street from our house. Love it1

my ONE Halloween pic. Nuff said.