Swimming = Success

I think I can say that Tate is officially a swimmer! No floaties here!!! He took a swimming class back in May and then we did a follow up class last week and this week. Somewhere along the line in the past few weeks, it "clicked" for him and he is swimming like a little fish all by himself. His swim teacher was fantastic and really taught the kids exactly what to do... they learned the front crawl, back stroke and breast stroke. I'm so impressed by how far he's come in such a short time. Way to go, Tater!

Warming Up

Back stroke

FUN!

First time doing a "kick flip"

Front crawl

Waiting his turn

Diving for rings

Happy Swimmer!

Love to y'all,
Tracy

Five Year Old

It's official... I have a five year old!!! Where does the time go? I swear that once you're a mom, you really understand what people mean when they say this.

We had a very busy day celebrating with Tate.  We opened presents first thing this morning and ate cinnamon rolls for breakfast - Tate's had special red birthday sprinkles on them of course!  Then grandma came with us as we headed off to swimming lessons.  After that, we met Tate's buddy Kade (and mom) at the movies to see Winnie the Pooh.  Tate didn't know Kade was coming and was soooo excited that he showed up!

Tate went to Kade's to play after the movie and I picked him up just in time to come home to open more gifts from his grandma and grandpa.  Then we all headed to meet Brad at a place called Magic Time Machine for dinner.  All the waiters are dressed as various characters and the restaurant itself is totally decked out with crazy and interesting stuff to look at ... like an actual school bus with a booth inside, or a pirate ship, or a huge crayon box...  I think all in all, Tate had a great day and is exhausted now that it's finally coming to an end... or at least, I am!

Each and every birthday my kids celebrate mean so very much to me and I want them to have the best days possible.  I'm so incredibly thankful to watch them grow up and pray each day that I'll be able to do so for many, many years to come.

Mmmmmm.... breakfast (with his new pirate costume)!

Kade and Tate at the movies

Magic Time Machine Birthday Boy

Happy Birthday to You!

Knox LOVES birthday cake!

Coolest gift from Mommy and Daddy?  A lifesize "fathead" on bedroom wall.

My Sweet Tater...

Five years ago today I became a mom.  One look at you and I realized what it meant to experience love at first sight.  And each and everyday since July 19, 2006, you have taught me what it means to be a mommy.  I know what it's like to feel like my heart is on the outside of my chest.  I know what it feels like to love someone so much it literally hurts.  I know what true worry means and true happiness is.  I know all of these things because of you.  

Five years ago, I never imagined that I would have learned so much from a little boy in such a short amount of time.  I never imagined that my love for you could literally grow everyday even when it feels like my heart couldn't possibly love anything anymore than I do at this moment.  I never imagined that I could be this thankful for a baseball hat wearing, dirty fingernail having, messy faced little boy.  I thought I understood back then what it meant to be a mom.  But Tater, you teach me the true meaning of this everyday. 

Thank you for being my sweet boy.  I love you more than you will ever realize.  God bless you today and always.

Mommy

Party Time!

Tuesday evening we celebrated Tate's fifth birthday with his friends at BounceU. Needless to say he had a fantastic time running and jumping around in the bounce houses with 25 of his closest buddies. What a madhouse!

Here are some pics of the fun!

Knox was a crazy man - with NO fear at all!!!

Pure happiness!

Pizza Time!

Mmmmmmmm..............

Now... where to put all this???

Love to y'all,
Tracy

Excuses

I meant to write a post right on July 1st to let y'all know how much I appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers for our family during the worst couple days of the year.  Truly, truly, my intention was there.  As the day wore on, I figured I'd get around to it the next day... But that night, poor Knox woke up with a 103 degree temp, which we then dealt with over the next three days.  We found out that he had an ear infection and got him on antibiotics the night before we left on our fourteen hour car ride back to Dallas.  UGH.

Once we got home, I thought I'd write a post on July 5th - which marks the three year anniversary of Nash's funeral in Iowa.  I thought about it all day... what I should say, how I should say it... and then I just gave up.  So now a few days later, I guess I'm just writing to give a long list of my excuses as to why I haven't written since last week.  And really, the deep down reason for it, is just that I don't think I had the energy to do it.  Knowing that I'm going to sit down and pour my heart out takes a lot out of me.  And I think last week I was barely getting by as it was, so I just couldn't get myself come up with the words.  That's it.  My big excuse.  I was exhausted. 

So I'll just end this post by again saying how thankful we are to all of you who continue to walk with us down our journey of grief.  God bless you always.

Family Gathered at Nash's grave on July 1st

The Sievers Family

Cousins... Cade (in back), Knox, Tate, Jensen, Colton

Knox with his Buddy - Great Gpa Mike

On their way to Nash...

Always the Big Brother

Love to y'all,

Tracy