One More Favor!

To the right of this page is a list of friends and babies that we know. My friend Devon's daughter was recently diagnosed with a stage 4 Wilm's Tumor. If you have a moment to go to her site and leave them an uplifting message or add them to your prayer list, I would greatly appreciate it. Devon is a kindergarten teacher at Decatur with 4 children. She and her husband are wonderful people going through a very rough time.

Mission Accomplished!!!

The Yates family had many goals for Spring Break.

The first one was Daddy's goal of mailing in his National Board portfolio. I think most of you have heard us speak of this grand event. Jeremy has been working on it since August. It is a huge project with teaching, student work, community involvement and interactions with parents that involves DVD's, paperwork, forms and lots of writing. It is finally mailed!! The last month has been a little stressful at the Yates' home. But my beloved husband has finally mailed the BEAST and returned to his normal loving state. He has 3 years to pass it so please pray that he does so it does not return to my home. We will not know until November or December, YUCK!

The second goal of the break was to get rid of the beloved Binks. Addie was starting to call it by name which to me meant time for it to go. She had it the Friday of the break when we left Anna's house and rode home to Mansfield with it. And she has not had it since! YEAH! She only used it in the car and for sleeping and honestly the car has been more stressful than the sleeping. She has been a wonderful transitioning baby. Our last big goal is sleeping all night in her bed! She goes there, goes to sleep there, but we never know how long she will stay!?

We did make it to Tulsa to the zoo, mall, Cheesecake Factory, aquarium and Los Cabos Mexican Grill. We had a great time. Addie preferred the chain curtain at the bird sanctuary, the pots and pans in the hotel room, and the Card Keys for the hotel room. Yes, there were pots and pans we stayed at an extended stay hotel because everything was booked up due to Spring Break and the weather being nice.

Back to school tomorrow!

Tulsa Vacay

To be or not to be a good mom?

Most of the time, our lives involve us going to school, and WalMart. In my happy little world, I think of myself as an above average mother doing and providing all these things that mothers do. However, the more mothers that I am around the more insufficient I feel sometimes. Over Spring Break, I have had the opportunity to be out in public more with Addie at Chick-Fil-A, shopping, the zoo, the aquarium etc.

I see all these mothers doing all these things and it leads me to think do I do that? Is my working bad for her? Did I breast feed her long enough? Am I not getting on to her enough? Am I feeding her the right things? Do I talk to her enough? Does she feel loved? on and on the list goes.

Then I started thinking about Dads. They have it so easy. If a Dad changes one diaper in a day and helps carry the diaper bag in from the car, they are considered above average. Thankfully, Jeremy does help with Addie and household chores.

I realize that this is something most mothers go through. But I am starting to realize it. As I watch my bestfriend, Jamie mother her daughter, Maebrie (7 weeks older than Addie). We both do things very differently and are teaching our daughters different things but one is not better than the other. I guess this is what makes the world go around. I always knew that home environment had a large part in who we were but now that I have my own child I am realizing it more and more.

So this is my open forum. To all my friends who are mothers and daughters, I am asking for comments with the one piece of advice that you would give to someone. Maybe something that you wished your mother had done, or something that your mother did do, or something as a mother that you have learned!

Thanks to all the mothers I know!

Welcome Annabelle!

This is the canvas that I painted for baby Annabelle. Her middle name is Grace so I had to find a great verse with Grace in it!

Her room is purple, green and purses.
















Mom has a super cute picture of Addie hugging Annabelle but I got this super cute one of her yawning. So this is what you get for now.

Our Little Climber

The other evening Jeremy and I were hanging up clothes! We were standing right there I promise. We looked down and Miss Priss was pulling her self up and into the dryer. I am not sure where she learned all this climbing stuff!
This is Addie wearing her Yates Engineering Hat. She requested it from the laundry room.

Spring Break at M-field

In order for Daddy Jerm to finish his National Board Portfolio, I thought it would be a good idea if Adalynn and I visited home for a few days. We arrived Friday evening and left Monday morning. We had a great visit and as always were so grateful that everyone arranged their schedules to acomodate and see us.

The two big events of the weekend were the baby and the cows: Addie got to meet Annabelle, Jordan and Susan's new baby. Let's just say we won't be having babies anytime soon! Addie pointed at the baby and said "baby" in this pathetic terrible voice that sounded like "Bobby". She also got to see cows in person. Also not a fan of those. However, the heifers were expecting any day, and they wanted to eat. They were not the world's happiest cows!

Of course my camera battery died. So I have like 2 pictures. As soon as my mom visits I will steal all the pics from her!

Tomorrow we are going to Tulsa to the zoo and aquarium.

Playing Outside

Ada and Mamba

Addie and Maebrie haven't got to play together in a few weeks. So we asked if we could have Maebrie on Saturday for a few hours. Jamie and Matt went furniture shopping and seemed to have a nice time. Jeremy was sure they were never coming back! Turns out, having two babies is kinda challenging! The girls had a blast or at least Addie did she loves to hug and kiss Maebrie!

Messy Eater!

You can't really tell in this picture but Addie is covered in food and headed straight for the bathtub! She likes to try and wipe her food on Mommy and giggles!

Reading with Daddy

Addie and Daddy reading a book together by the pink chair.

It appears that Addie is hitting Daddy with a drum stick in this picture!

Shopping with "Uh un"

Most of Addie's words sound the same. She has highly unintelligible speech for the daughter of an SLP. All two syllable words sound something like "Uh-un"; however, when Uncle Justin is around you know that she is saying Justin. She also calls Tarah this but can kinda say "Tuh" with lots of prompting. She enjoyed carrying Tarah's silver purse which matched her shoes. She returned it with some extra Addie slobber! Sorry Tarah!











We went to the Promenade for lunch at TLC. Then we looked around and Addie rode the carousel. It is so neat. I guess they found it after Hurricane Katrina and refinished it. It was really fun even though Adders doesn't look too excited.
















We kept thinking that she would fall asleep in her stroller, well she didn't so this is her sleeping on me when we got home! She was so tired.

Reading with Lucky

Addie has a puppy Lucky that her Ma and Pa bought her for her birthday. She is always rotating between favorite toys and books. Right now she loves Lucky and reading Peter Rabbit with flaps. One Friday when Mom kept her, she wanted to read Peter Rabbit over and over so now that is her favorite. I think in this picture she actually has one of her other Beatrix Potter books but they all look the same. However, she can tell the difference and gets upset when she realizes she has the wrong one!

Happy Birthday Grandmother!

We went to the Fort for birthday dinner with Jeremy's grandmother. We were suppose to eat at Cheddar's but they had a very long wait. I am beginning to wonder if they are similar to Olive Garden and do a fake wait all time, because I have yet to eat there. Maybe this weekend? Anyways, we got to see most of Jeremy's family and have dinner with them at Outback. Addie enjoys pointing at her Pa and saying "Pa."

I forgot about these pictures!

Two weekends ago, we went to Fort Smith for Grandmother Yates' birthday dinner. We met Justin and Tarah at Chuck E. Cheese for Addie to play and to eat pizza. Addie loves Chuck E. Cheese.















Addie with Tarah! She really liked Tarah a lot!




















Addie pointing at Chuck E.














She really liked this Bob the Builder rider.