Building Suspense

Its been nearly a month since part two…but here is part three! Our house was sickville for a few weeks and it has taken some catching up to get back in our routine around here, but I think I’m finally here. As soon as we got back from Ruidoso at the end of February I had the worse case of strep throat I have ever had. My entire tonsil was white. Yuck. Then I caught a pretty yucky cold which turned into a sinus infection and seemed to hang around forever. Then my poor husband came down with strep. Then poor little girl ended up with both my cold and strep. Then Brian caught the cold. Haha. Yeah, like I said, a rough few weeks in the Maines house! But we are all healed now and very grateful for health!

On LA day 4 we went to Ventura, CA to visit Sharon’s Uncle Gary and Aunt Pat and her cousins Wendy and Dana. Uncle Gary is Sharon’s dad’s brother and apparently his look-a-like also! It was a lot of fun meeting the family, whom I had never met prior. We had a fun day of hanging out and a delicious lunch also! They also borrowed lots of toys to have there for Tatum to play with- such sweet people!

Sharon and Uncle Gary

The fam damily

From mischievous....

....to sweet in 1 second flat! Thats my girl!

After the Ventura visit we drove to Santa Barbra to visit the pier and have dinner. It was pretty stinking cold that evening so we bundled the princess up and I carried her in the ergo (which, btw, she does not mind at all because she still likes to be carried…especially by Mommy J)

I will just sum this picture up by saying that Sharon and I are the coolest people you will ever meet. And a gorgeous background. And a rainbow.

Trying on hats in a gift shop. They look a lot alike here. Not just because of the hair either..

Cheesin' at dinner.

Ignore Tatum's finger... she didnt mean it

My pickle lover. She ate the entire spear. She calls them 'ickles'

On day 5 (I think I have my days right) we went to visit cousin Natalie. Tatum was asleep when we got there and woke up in Natalies arms (who she had never met before) and was totally unconcerned with this. She loved the dogs and Beckett’s toys and was perfectly comfortable in a strange place and in a stranger’s arms. I guess she knows family J.

Taytay still has her sleeping/just-woke-up face. Sweet girl.

After Natalie’s house we went to the roof of a hotel that Kiki represents to watch the sunset. B-e-a-utiful! Unfortunately, Kiki had to work and wasnt with us. Considering that Tatum had only had a very short nap in the car and Natalie’s arms, she was in pretty good spirits. As long as she was allowed to walk around and explore she was okay.

Not the best picture of us, but shows the amazing view.

Late night shenanigans.

Sweet girl did great on the flights home! Mommy did okay…on our first flight the man behind us threw up. AHHH! I didn’t have a panic attack though; but I did panic a bit. Thankfully Tatum was sleeping in Daddy’s arms so I could just focus on not having a panic attack. I didn’t put my feet down for the rest of the flight though…just in case.

Big girl! Ready to go.

Watching Dora on the Ipad with Daddy.

And a special treat during landing to keep her ears clear!

We had such a wonderful time in LA! Huge Thanks to Muncle and Kiki for hosting us and showing us so much fun!

LA- continued

Okay, so I posted more pictures than I had planned because I couldn’t pick my favorites…so here’s part 2!

After the beach on the first day, we walked through a little shopping center (actually…it wasn’t very little) and ate at PF Changs. YUMM my favorite!

On to day 2… Papaw brought us all doughnuts (which he did every following morning as well) and we spent the morning at J & K’s apartment while Katie and Jeremy worked. I think Brian and Kenny went running…over achievers. I showered… so I accomplished something that morning too J . After Tatum woke up from an early nap we went with Muncle to visit Kiki at work, eat lunch, visit his work, and walk around some pretty neighborhoods. Then we dropped Muncle off at a meeting (Beverly Hillbilly Style- with Sharon sitting in the trunk of her Rav….as she did every time we drove somewhere.) and went back to previously mentioned large shopping center to walk around and wait for Muncle and Kiki to meet us for dinner.

OH! How could I forget! After dinner we went to get some scrumptious cupcakes!

Sweet little TatyBear was worn out! Muncle was so sweet letting her borrow his jacket..Tatum was grateful to so she thanked him by hiding some cheerioes in it.

The following day, I believe was Saturday, so J & K both had the day off of work! Yay! Papaw started our day off with doughy goodness. Then, while Princess was taking an early nap Brian took me walking to some of the places he and Kenny had seen while running. It was fun having some hubby time to myself. After Tatum woke up we walked to lunch and then back to the shopping area to walk around some more. Afterwards, we got ready and headed down to the beach to play and watch the sun set. Have I mentioned how much Tater looooves the beach? She had so much fun getting her feet wet in the waves, even though the water was frrrreezing cold. She would squeal with excitement and then shiver from the cold. She also enjoyed walking around in the sand and chasing the birds. She kept calling them ducks and saying “cack cack”, though in her defense, they were really large seagulls.

Queen of the Muncle

This picture cracks me up. Apparently Tatum is high maintenance- Kenny pushing, Sharon and Jeremy fixing!

Playing catch on the beach.... Im sure Brian was the one who ended up with the catch :) Sorry Jerms.

Newly weds :)

While at the beach, Sharon decided that she wanted to torture Tatum...aka- take a picture with her. (and make her stop exploring)

I think the picture turned out great!

Tatum meeting Andrew...

Clearly unsure of him....might have been the hot pink shorts.

However, after doing a thorough background check via his wallet, she decided he was okay.

BIG thanks to Andrew for letting a sleepy and fussy little girl go through your wallet and keeping her smiley!

Los Angeles

A little while back (as in the end of January), Brian, Tatum and I made a trip to LA with Nana and Papaw to visit Jeremy and Katie aka Muncle and Keke (…or kiki?). We had flown with Tatum once before when she was around 9 months old and she had done very well on that trip. Still, I was a little leery of how she would do cooped up on planes and in the airport all day. Like usual, she blew me away with how all-around amazing she is. Actually, she pretty much floored me with her good behavior the entire trip. It was defiantly a ‘grown up’ trip in that we were often out and about during nap time and long past bed time, and most/all of the places we went were not places she could run around and play. Despite that, we did not have a single major melt-down. I know, impressive right? This girl just loves being around people and spending time being loved on by her family (and their was lots of that J).

Some pictures from the flights to LA:

I am obsessed with this cute and ever so cheesy grin. Apparently she was too, which is why she is doing it in every picture. Adorable!

....We woke up early.

Being a big girl in her own seat :)

We left early in the morning, plus gained two hours due to the time difference (yes, sounds like a looong day for baby; but like I said- she did WONDERFUL!) so when we got to LA it was only about 11am. Muncle had to work the first day we were there and Kiki (I like this way better) was sick so we spent the day wandering around on our own and had a great time. We walked to a yummy Mexican restaurant for lunch then went back to Muncle’s apartment for a mini-nap time before heading down to the beach. Side note- did anyone know that in LA waiters bring out kids meals first? Like, as soon as they’re ready. I have never had this happen anywhere else we’ve been, but every restaurant we went to in LA. I think that’s pretty cool.

Beach pictures-

The water was really cold! But Tatum loved getting her feet wet. She would squeal with excitement when a wave was coming. This is me running away because the wave was bigger than I anticipated and was getting my pants wet.