The Pate Family Lately...

Fall is well underway!  Around here, we celebrate "Thanksmas" -- since we live so far from family, our first Christmas celebration is always the week of Thanksgiving when we're visiting in Ohio, so we've started combining them all.  Yes...we still talk about Thanksgiving, spend time picking new things we're thankful for each day, learn about the history behind the holiday...  But, we also decorate for Christmas early and begin all our favorite Christmas traditions.  It works for us, and that's all that matters.  

So, let's backtrack over the last couple of months and see what the Pate Fam has been up to.  Gavin's class led the Rise and Shine program early in the school year, which I always love to see.  I remember that first year of school, when he was in tears before Rise and Shine started for his class because he didn't want to be on stage in front of the whole school.  He's come so far!

 

 We love our buddy, Treston! <3 font="">

This big kid finished his fall season of soccer and did so well!  It certainly wore him out.  Finally, during the last two games, he was able to get his first goals of the year and he was beyond ecstatic.  Funny how it took having a son to turn me into a soccer fan...Jarrod playing soccer couldn't make me like soccer, but I'm loving this soccer mom phase! 

Excuse the bottom of the photo...it's a picture of a picture.  Fail!


Riley's also been busy.  She wrote a letter to Sofia the First back in September and is patiently awaiting her reply.  She loves to check the mail to see if she hasn't anything each day.  Fingers crossed it actually comes! :)

We are making progress with the relationship between Phoebe and Riley.  It's still not perfect and there's still a lot of puppy biting and crying that goes on, but she's liking her 'Phoebers' more everyday.  Makes my heart happy for sure.

Riley loves to color, help me in the kitchen, and play pretend these days.  It always makes me laugh to hear her tell me exactly what I'm supposed to do and say while we 'pretend that we are....'  She is very specific on my role in our play time.

And yes, she's still dressing herself and loves to mix all kinds of colors and patterns.

Riley has certainly made raising a daughter a roller coaster of emotions already.  This little girl is full of big emotions - if you've seen Inside Out, being in that Riley's head really made me more aware of what's going on in our Riley's head.  Every day I'm working on being a better mom to her and making sure our relationship grows to be stronger and stronger as she gets older and enters the even more emotional preteen and teen years.  I love our one-on-one time at bedtime.  We had to take some selfies recently...she's so my mini-me.

As for the big kids in the family, I finally made the cut and donated my hair back in September.  It's slowly growing again, which I'm glad because I'm ready for a little more length, but I'm really happy I made the decision to donate for the first time.  It definitely felt good to do it, and Riley's decided she wants to help some kids somewhere and donate her hair now.  We'll see if she can be patient enough to let it grow all the way...

Jarrod is in the midst of training for a HUGE 2016 race season.  He's planning to do at least a half marathon, 50K trail run, and both a HALF and a FULL Ironman next year.  I think he's a bit nuts, but I love his dedication and aspirations.  I'm hoping 2017 will be a little less eventful though.  ;)  We had a great time watching Toledo beat our local Arkansas Razorbacks, and are looking forward to having some date time in Ohio in a couple weeks.  Perhaps a double date with the Balls and at least a 10K race we're running together {and by together I mean we'll drive there and be at the starting line together, but he'll probably finish the race 30 minutes faster than me!}

Speaking of the Balls, we are officially an aunt and uncle now!  Little Connor joined our family on September 10 and we're soooooo excited to meet him in a couple weeks.  He just looks so stinking cute in every picture we see.  It's going to be so fun to have a baby around the house for that week.  {And let's just hope the puppy isn't too much work...}

Oh, and one more thing before we go....we recently went to a cookout at a coworker of Jarrod's house and the kids experienced their first s'mores.  I was certain we've had s'mores before (they are a favorite of mine, after all) but they insist this was their first time.  Gavin loved it, Riley preferred the chocolate bar by itself... ;)

Phoebe Files

Our furry troublemaker is five months old tomorrow, and still as rambunctious as ever.  She's good at getting into mischief, like stealing socks from the hamper, tissues from the bathroom trash every time the door is left open, and sneaking into Gavin's room to hide under his bed with legos in her mouth as soon as she discovers his door hasn't been closed.  Boy, is she fun?!?  

We found out in September that Phoebe has a form of mange that we have been treating.  We'll go back next week for another skin scrape to see if the medicine she's been on for the last 30 days have taken care of the mites, and hopefully her fur starts to fill in again.  Poor girl has lots of small patches on her face and legs where the fur is thinning or bald.  Of course, she now has a large scrape on the top of her head that she did to herself yesterday during a game of fetch when she decided to try to jump through the swing set.  That one may or may not fill back in....we may end up with a dog that has a bald spot on the top of her head for the rest of her life.  Typical Phoebe, I suppose!  Crazy girl.

I try to take her with me as many places as I can through the day, but she doesn't exactly make car rides enjoyable.  She's still such a puppy and likes to try to chew on seat belts, the rubber mats, or whatever else she can figure out how to get her mouth around.  I can't wait for the teething/mouthing phase to pass.  She's lost five teeth over the last week, so I know we're making progress, but geesh!  All the kids clothes seems to have tiny holes in them and I'm over it....

Unfortunately, Phoebe is a digger.  Thankfully, the yard can be easily repaired!  I guess it's the lesser of two evils.  I'd much rather her be digging the yard than chewing baseboards and furniture.  But still...ugh!  I hate that she's a digger, but she is a dog!  She's also become food aggressive and now eats only in her crate.  I'm hoping she grows out of that, but I know it could be a long time before that happens.   

I am determined to get her trained to be a well behaved dog, and I'm so glad we enrolled in Puppy School that our vet's office was offering.  We took a chance because it was the first time this class was ever offered, but Jarrod and I have both learned so much and I totally adore the instructor.  She's brilliant and so knowledgeable about dogs.  I love how she's been extremely available and excited to work with us on Phoebe.  She sees every Sunday how she tests us and has offered us so many suggestions.  We're working hard on getting Phoebe to walk with the gentle lead, and this week we actually started tethering.  If she's not in her crate, she's usually tied to me so that she can't be getting into trouble.  I'm committed to trying this for a week or two and seeing the progress we make.  I'll update soon!

First Days of School

Another school year is {well} underway {slacker mom...} so it's time to finally share first day of school memories.  The night before 2nd grade started for this guy, I had to prove to him that mama could still carry him around, so a piggyback ride in to brush teeth was in order! 

He picked out his first day outfit and it was very fitting for him - Gavin practically lives in athletic shorts, t-shirts, and knee high socks.  Isn't he handsome?

I love that Jarrod goes into work late on the first day and can head to school with us.  We didn't get our traditional first day of school pics with mom and dad, but that's ok...I'm sure that tradition wouldn't have lasted much longer anyway considering how little he even acknowledged we were there.  I can see him telling us to just use the carline next year. :(

Just like old times....he settled right in with friends while waiting to be dismissed to the classrooms.  I love seeing him with his friends.  

We're excited to have Ms. Behnke this year.  We've heard so many wonderful things about her and I know it's going to be a great year.  {First quarter is quickly coming to an end and Gavin's in the process of being evaluated for the Gifted and Talented program, so that's a good sign of a great year!}

After dropping him off, Little Miss and I got started on his back to school chocolate chip cookies!  And thankfully, his books I ordered for his first day gift arrived just in time...they were on the porch when I got home from picking him up. 

The back-of-the-school car line is new to us this year since he's a big second grader now!  And I'm not enjoying it....it's so much more congested.  Boo.  

He had a great first day, and of course, picked lettuce wraps for dinner that night {which he technically eats in a tortilla...but still.}

Fast forward a month later, and finally it was time for Little Sister to go to school.  We had quite the meltdown a few days before school started.  Riley was READY to go back to school and she wasn't happy that it wasn't her first day yet.  Ironically, her first day happened to fall on the Friday before Labor Day {which was strange} and that meant that Gavin had the day off and Jarrod actually took the day off, too!  We had a fun family day.

Riley's been working on growing her bangs out since June, and we're finally making some progress.  She was really excited to wear this new outfit Mimi sent her. 

Mommy braided her hair to match Riley...hard to tell in the picture though.  She loved showing Daddy where she would have Jitterbugs before we headed to her classroom.

She was very quick to find something to do in her classroom.  I thought I finally convinced her to take a picture with her teacher, Miss Cindy, but now I can't seem to find it on my computer.  I'll keep looking...  She's enjoying her school year, but really misses her teacher from last year.

The three of us came back home and I got her cookies ready while Daddy and Gavin took Phoebe out for a walk.  We ran a couple errands, and then picked Riles up and headed out to a special family lunch of her choice - pizza!

When we got home, she was excited to find her cookies and new books.  We love Doc McStuffins these days. :)  She also showed me the self-portrait she made so that I could look at it while she's at school if I start to miss her.  Sweet girl.

I love that these kiddos love school so much....just like their mama!

July Photo Dump

For the sake of documenting the photos for the blog book, I'm just going to drop these right here for the sake of catching up!

We had a wonderful July.  It's our only month of 'nothing.'  No school for either kid, and for now, no scheduled activities.  I know that will change someday....but this year, July meant Nowhere to be early in the morning.  Relaxing morning.  Snuggles, TV, reading, tea parties, and legos.  We logged many hours at the pool, hit the movie theater, the splash park, the bowling alley, and the arcade.  We bounced in bounce houses, played with friends, had cookouts, and watched fireworks.  The kids planned dinners, made forts, had sleepovers in each other's rooms and the living room, and of course, we added a new puppy to our family.  Everything was truly wonderful!