Sterling: Our Favorite Two Year Old

Sterling, love.  He's my favoritest of all two year-olds.  Because 80% of all the pictures (10 pictures) in my 2013 folder are of Sterling I thought I would write an update.

I think the most noticeable thing about Sterling is he's an eater.  Always eating, he eats more than me or Chandler in a day for sure.  You name it he loves it; except lettuce.  But strawberries, green beans, broccoli is a favorite for sure, chicken, rice (oo he loves rice),  onions, cheese yum, pasta, cereal... I can't think of what we eat, but he loves to eat.

(love bed head/boxer brief breakfast)

He's a funny guy.  Always saying something hilarious, and acting like a weirdo.  We love him to bits.  He likes to trash his room during "nap time".  Nap time is a fading privilege.  He knows all his letters and colors, some of the sounds, and some numbers.  He's a potty champ except he has a difficult time getting all of it in the toilet; I mop a lot.

Here he is with his lady love Scarlett...

She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain

Only a couple of hours from our sunny, warm home, up in the mountains of southern California, Grandma and Grandpa lived in a magical world.  A place that smelled like, and was covered in pine trees, where it snowed in the winter and the leaves changed colors in the fall.  It was like an entirely different world.

We spent hours "exploring" the hills around their house, collecting pine cones, and playing "teeter totter" on a big log that had fallen over another big log.  In the winter the snow fell, and snow was something we only saw on TV. Grandma had a big closet full of left over snow clothes.  We would don our snow apparel and build snow men, dig igloos and sled down the neighborhood hill.  Then go inside and roast marshmallows over the fire in their ginormous fireplace and drink hot chocolate.

They had a half finished basement where the kids would sleep.  They had a NES and Atari, and a really old computer game on which you could play "Hunt for the Wumpus" down there.  We could hang out (and tease my brothers while no one was watching) while the grown ups played rook cards and ate candy upstairs.

I remember when my mom called and told me they were moving.  I was a freshman in college, and I sat on my bed listening to her explanations.  They were too old, and the mountain was too steep, and too icy for them, they were to move to St. George where the weather was more favorable.  They were to live in a track of home with other Sr. Citizens.  It was the right choice for them, but I was so sad.  My parents haven't moved from my childhood home yet, but I imagine it's the same.  Like saying goodbye to a part of your childhood.

My grandfather passed away, and my grandma now lives in Salt Lake close to many of her children.  My some of  my very fondest memories of them, and of my childhood belong to the mountains.  I loved it there.

Pirates vs. Ninjas Checkers

My gift to my little brother Nathan.  They are far from perfect, but I am so proud of them.

and for the "king me" pieces...

Happy 2013

2012 in Retrospect

"Every three years I have a really good year," my big brother Adam told me.  And then I thought about it for a while.  Is it every three years?  I don't know really, it's not that the other years are not good, or sub par in some way.  2012, however, was a really good year.  Just a really fantastic year.

We had so much to celebrate this year with Jared coming home, Nathan getting married, Cody and Audra moving, birthdays, and what not.  We blew our financial goals out of the water (more doubling our savings goal).  Which means nothing to a lot of people, but it was our first year with a real steady income and we're pretty proud.  However, Brandon has new confidence and has doubled our goal from last year. :-/  But it was the trips that made the year, we did so much fun stuff, I can't even believe it..

It really was just a wonderful year.. so here it is, 2012:

• In January partied with family celebrating a late Christmas and then partied again my mom for her birthday
• In February we went to big bear, celebrated Valentines day, and soaked in the sunshine.
• In March Sterling turned 18 months.
• April brought Easter, the beginning of swimming season, and a trip to Grandma's house for a seminar.
• May came with wedding bells, and we enjoyed warmer weather; celebrating babies with friends.
• In June Chandler turned five, Chandler took swimming lessons, and we celebrated 6 years of marriage.  By now, we were running our AC all day, and swimming three days a week.
• July was a blast.  We almost died on the boat, and celebrated Chandler's birthday, shark style.
• August started out with Sterling turning two,  a trip to the San Diego Zoo, we celebrated Nathan's wedding with an open house, and ended the month with the first day of kindergarten.
• September marked one year in Las Vegas, and we decided the summer wasn't too bad.
• In October I turned 26, and unsettling age.  We carved pumpkins, ate cake and celebrated Halloween.. and took the kids to DISNEYLAND.
• We celebrated Thanksgiving early in November with Brandon's mom and her husband.  Then packed up the kids, took a trip to Park City, drove to California for another Thanksgiving and a trip to six flags.
• December is my favorite month, and it did not disappoint.  Grandpa Dave joined us early in the month, and we enjoyed to wonderful Christmas parties before Sterling and I headed down to California to reunite with my little brother Jared.  Later Brandon and Chandler joined us for a wonderful, always eventful, Tate family Christmas.

A Very Merry Christmas

As always, our Christmas was fantastic!

 Grandma read us the Christmas story.

 Everyone got new PJs...

 ...except Grendel, but she looked mighty fine in her new sweater...

 Sterling and Chandler wrestled Nathan.

 We hung our stockings and went to bed.  

Santa came.

Sterling ate every single Cheerio from his hunt.

Chandler rocked his hunt..

And all was merry and bright..

Merry Christmas!!!

Park City

We spent the weekend before and first half of the week of Thanksgiving week in Park City.  It was spectacular.

Because it was early in the season, a lot of the ski lifts were closed.  So we drove up and went sledding on the ski hill.  The first day it was snowing really good.  (Brandon and Chandler climb the hill to go sledding)   

(Sterling wears uncle Adam's ski goggles)

 (Grandpa and Chandler)

Sterling really hated the snow.  He kept trying to brush it off his legs when it was falling, and just cried and cried the whole time.

Woooo!

Gobble, Gobble

I want to update about our wonderful Thanksgiving, but I didn't bring my camera on any of our wonderful adventures.  Instead I used my moms, which means I won't have pictures until I can get a hold of her sd card.

I did take 3 pictures while Brandon's mom and, her husband, Eric were here....

Hopefully I can get pictures from my mom's camera soon, because we really had a fabulous Thanksgiving.  Meanwhile, here's a letter I wrote to my brother Jared the day after Thanksgiving.  Jared comes home from his mission in Taiwan in 19 days!

Gobble, Gobble Jared,

Today (Friday) we ate pie and turkey and stuffing and delicious things.  We gave thanks for the wonderful things in our life.  There are too many things to be grateful for; we would be sick from eating too much candy corn if we named them all.  I assume they don’t have thanksgiving there(?).  Maybe the mission president celebrates it?  

Yesterday, Adam, Brandon, Natalie and I spent the day at six flags.  It was fantastic, and we all wondered how anyone can not like roller coasters.  The weather was perfect, and the lines were short.  Adam thinks it should be a Thanksgiving tradition.

We spend a good amount of our time speculating about how weird you will be when you come home.  But, general consensus is that we are all excited for you to be home.  I recently bought my ticket so Sterling and I will be there when you get off the plane.  How weird are you?  Just a little bit weird?  Brandon says I should not talk about you coming home, but I am not very good a writing these letters. 

Brandon wants to know what it’s like to AP, and Dad wants to know all the secrets of working closely with the mission president.  Does he really use a map and darts to pick which area missionaries will go to next?  Natalie says "Tell him he's a poo-poo head."

Time moves at a rapid pace in my life, and I can’t believe we are already jumping feet first into the holidays.  It’s my favorite time of year, and I am excited for the rest of 2012! 

See you soon!!!

Bethany