Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! We have had a crazy household over the past month or so! Michael is now officially a walker, well has been for about 3 or 4 weeks now:) He is in to EVERYTHING!!! We have moved the living room furniture to "pin" him in, so to speak:) He is so much fun right now and has so much personality! He also has a temper just like his Mama (oops)! This past month, Michael has had 4 or 5 ear infections, so the ENT told us it is time for tubes- I am really hopeful that this will put an end to Bear's ear infections! Since we have met our deductible (as you all know, from the 4 night stay at Childrens thanks to RSV) we wanted to have his surgery before the end of the year...we got the last appointment available...Dec. 31st! Happy New Year to us:) Hopefully Michael's New Year's Resolution will be no more hospital visits, for a few years:)

We had a very nice Christmas Eve at my parents house with my brother and sister and their spouses and children- We got home a little late for Michael so it took him a while to settle down to go to sleep- then he was up at 6:30, bright and early to see what Santa brought him! We are so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends! Now, Michael is napping peacefully, thank goodness, he was a little overwhelmed by the gifts, I should say, boxes and wrapping paper:)
We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and have a great New Year!!!
Kate and Geoff

Happy Birthday Michael!

I can't believe out sweet boy is 1! This year has really just flown by! Well, the last 9 months at least, the first 3 were a little rough:) But well worth every meltdown, sleepless night and glass of wine:) We had a little party for our Bear on his actual birthday, November 19th, then we had a bigger one on Saturday the 21st. All of his friends were there, along with their parents of course:) We are so fortunate to have such wonderful friends! My sister let us borrow her bounce house and slide- we set up the slide to go into a wading pool that was filled with balls- such a hit! The theme of Michael's party was Teddy Bear Picnic, since we call him Bear. I had such a fun time putting it all together, and thanks to my friend Christina, she put together the cutest invitations and party ideas- I could not have done anything without her! She is such a creative person! If you need invitations or announcements, you should check her out:)

We are headed to Atlanta on Wednesday for Thanksgiving. We will be staying with Geoff's brother Steve and his wife Lorraine while we are there- Geoff's sister Merrie just had their 3rd girl, Kacie, so they have a FULL House! I cannot wait to meet Miss Kacie and visit with our other nieces Presley and Hannah Blanche- we have so many things to be Thankful for this Thanksgiving!
I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday and travels safely to their family celebrations!
I am sure I will update once we get home from Atlanta next Sunday!
Take care!
Kate

Also, my good friend Claricia made Michael's Birthday Cake- the best cake I have ever had! The bottom was chocolate with orange cream filling, the bear and picnic basket were rice crispie treats with frosting and the present was Michael's smash cake, banana cake with banana cream filling (since the Bear loves him some banana)- It was all absolutely worth every calorie:)

Our Lil' Pumpkin

It's hard to believe in 24 days our Bear is going to be a 1 year old! Where has the time gone, I mean, really!!! We have been busy at school, playing at daycare, going to Gymboree and hanging out with family this month. Last weekend, Geoff and I went camping with a group of friends to Brownwood, Tx. It was an amazing time, but it was the first time I had ever been away from Michael for more than 24 hours! My cousin Rachael offered to keep Michael for the weekend- she has an almost 4 year old, Gino, and lives just up in Frisco. The drop-off with Rachael was so traumatic, for me, not Michael:) I cried the entire way back to Plano to get my bags:) However, before I left with the group for Brownwood, I received the phonecall that Gino has the flu! Uhg! So, I went back and forth on what to do and my wonderful cousin Genevieve agreed to take Michael for Saturday and Sunday. Needless to say, it was a great weekend and everything worked out!!! We got back on Sunday and our sweet Bear was a good boy for his cousins and they both offered to take him again, anytime:) I think we will be taking them up on this:) It was so great to get Michael up from his nap that Sunday- he was so excited when he opened his eyes and saw Geoff and I standing there- he grabbed the sides of his crib, pulled his pacie out of his mouth and had a HUGE grin, saying "Da-Da, Da-Da" while reaching for Mama of course- such a sweet boy!

We are having quite a busy week this week! Today we have the Gymboree Halloween Party and on Friday Michael will be in the Shelton Halloween Parade:) Also, Michael has his 1 Year pictures on Sunday with JosephMark, our FABULOUS wedding photographers! I will post pictures as soon as I can! In the meantime here is a pic of Michael from 2 weeks ago at the Pumpkin Patch- he had a GREAT nap, I had him dressed cute, we took him to the Pumpkin Patch, snapped 2 pics and my camera died, of course! At least I managed to get one good picture- he loves to have his picture taken:)
I hope everyone has a great Halloween weekend!
Kate

Busy, Busy!

I have been really bad about posting lately! Ever since school started back up, I have not had time to write anything! So, here we are, the end of September and I am so behind on updating, although we really do not have much to report:) Michael is a busy, busy boy...wearing his Mommy and Daddy out! He is "cruising" around all of the furniture, walking in-between furniture, crawling faster than ever, saying a few words and he has started to stand alone! The few words he now says are: "nana" for banana (his first word), "Mama", "Book", "Daddy" and today, while in the midst of a game of peek-a-boo, our lil man said "pee-ba-boo"! It was hilarious! He got behind the curtains in our living room, hid behind them and when I said, "Where is Michael?" he pushed the curtains to the side and said "Pee-ba-boo"! Geoff and I were shocked! He is like a little person now! Of course we tried to get him to do it again and he wouldn't, well he played, but didn't say it!
Other than that we have been hanging around the house. Nana, Pops and Cheryl were in town for 2 weeks putting the finishing touches on Grandmother's house to get it on the market- it looks unbelievable! With all of the changes and new accessories, it makes me want to move into it:)
We went to Oktoberfest last weekend, Michael experienced his first pretzle- not too impressed with it, but he did try it:) Then we went to the Greek Food Festival today with the Gottleibs, Patricks and Roebucks- It was fun having the kids together- next year we will be chasing the kids around instead of pushing them in strollers:) Michael tried his first Gyro! He liked this one!
Here are a few pics of Michael Man over the past month. I will try to post more in October:) Man, I can't believe Michael is already 10 months old, where does the time go?
Playing in the bathtubHanging out with Paul

Greek Food Festival
Oktoberfest

August over already?

I can't believe August is already over! Where has the time gone? My little man is almost 10 months old? What? I can't believe it! Well, since the last post, we really have not done too much. Michael and I started back to school. Michael loves seeing his friends everyday, especially his Lindsey! I can't believe they are only 2 weeks apart!
They love each other very much:)
Geoff and I went to see the Red Sox vs Rangers, unfortunately they lost:( It was fun to go though! Michael did not join us for this game, maybe next year or the year after:)

Other than that, things have been pretty quiet around the Hatch Household. I left this past Friday to attend our nephews Baptism in Mobile, Alabama with my sister. This was the first time I left Michael for more than 24 hours with Geoff- Geoff did fabulous! Poor thing ended up with a sick Michael, which means no fun! He did great though and they both survived:) I had a great time with my family in Mobile and got to play with Thomas- he is getting so big and is such a happy baby!

Trip to Boston

Michael and I went to Boston this past Friday to visit Nana and Pops before our Summer Vacation was over. I was so excited to go! I love Boston and the weather was suppose to be nice and cool, a bit humid, but nothing compared to the Texas heat! Unfortunately, Michael picked up a stomach bug the Monday before our trip. I thought it would be fine by Friday, but it wasn't. He was definitely better, but not my normal happy baby boy! I heard from so many people to give him Benedryl on the flight, so easy and he would knock right out. Oh no sir! Michael had other plans! He fought his sleepiness and ended up screaming the entire flight, only to finally knock out for the last 30 minutes, 3 hours later- To top it off, he was up the entire night crying every hour to hour and a half. I called poor Geoff crying that I did not know what to do and maybe we should just come home. Fortunately, Michael turned into his old self by the next day and we ended up having a FABULOUS time! We went on walks, the weather was in the upper 70's in the morning, Michael played in the baby pool (which wore him out!), and we went shopping- to sum it up, it turned out to be a fun and relaxing weekend!
Nana had everything we needed to keep Michael entertained! She found a jeep exersaucer that he loved and she still had the highchair she used when Geoff was a baby- I had to take a picture of Michael in it (he is such a ham, he now smiles for the camera:).
On our shopping trip in downtown Wellseley, we came across the same kind of lovies that Michael sleeps with, however, they were the blanket size lovies! I showed it to Michael and he got so excited, he had his arms outstretched grabbing for the blanket, I gave it to him and he immediately snuggled up with it and would not let it go. Needless to say, we now own it, along with a couple new back-ups for the future:)

We said our goodbyes on Tuesday and flew home, Michael was perfect on the plane ride home and Geoff was so excited to see his lil' man when we arrived. It took Michael a little bit to get excited to see him too, he was a little out of it when we got off the plane:) We had a great trip and can't wait for our next adventure! However, next time, Geoff will be traveling with us! Traveling with a baby is no easy task!

Busy, Busy!

We have been so busy over the past few weeks! We got Michael's pictures back from the Photographer, Brad Puckett, who was wonderful!!! They turned out so cute and we were so excited to have so many great shots to choose from:)



My Best Friend from High School, Laura, brought her little boy, Charlie, over to swim on the 4th of July- Charlie is about 6 months older than Michael. It was so much fun to see them interact with each other! They are going to be best friends:) Michael LOVED the little pool- it was just the right size for him and the water was not too cold:)



It is hard to believe that our little man is now 8 months old! Time sure has flown by!! Michael now sits up on his own, dumps his toy basket over on his own, smiles for the camera, eats frozen waffles (for teething purposes of course), and now, he is crawling!!!! He is in to everything and he has only been performing this new trick for less than 48 hours!!! Oh the baby proofing we need to do!!!
This past weeked I co-hosted a Baby Shower for Kim! She is already 32 weeks along and we are so excited to meet Miss Sydney in September, if she makes it that long:)

June has come and gone and now July is nearly over:( I have had a lot of fun over my Summer Break, so far, and I am going to savor the remaining 3 weeks! Michael and I are off to Boston next week to see Nana and Pops and then we come back for Michael's 9 month appointment and Allie's 4th Birthday Party!!! School starts back up for me August 10th and Michael will return to his same ChildCare at my school:)

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer as much as we are:)

Michael's First Road Trip

So, Michael, Geoff and I set out on Monday, June 22nd at 8:30 pm to Mobile, Alabama. Why so late you might ask, well our son falls asleep as soon as he gets into a car- so we left at nighttime so he would not get off schedule- worked perfectly! He slept the entire way and woke up once we rolled into Mobile around 5:30am- Geoff on the other hand was exhausted, of course, and crashed out for a few hours before heading down to Susan's parents house on the River. We had such a great time! Michael was able to meet his new cousin and our newest nephew, Thomas, and he was able to go swimming for the first time! Grant it, the pool was like a giant bathtub because it was so warm, but he had a great time:)


From Mobile, we ventured on to Atlanta, Georgia for Steve and Lorraine's wedding. This was a 5 hour car ride- Michael did a great job, however, he started to get restless during the last hour, which I could not blame the poor guy:( We arrived at Merrie and Owen's house and spent time with Nana and Pops, Merrie, Owen and the girls- that night was a BBQ to honor the Bride and Groom to be:) It was so much fun and great to see everyone before the Big Day!!! Friday was the Rehersal Dinner of course and Saturday was the Wedding! Everything was perfect and beautiful! Michael was on his best behavior with 2 different babysitters- After the wedding, we stayed at the W Hotel in Atlanta, which was the most wonderful hotel, in the world!!! Then we had brunch on Sunday at the hotel...Such an amazing weekend!!!

After the Brunch, Geoff and I took my parents and Michael to the airport- My parents agreed to take Michael home with them on the plane for this road trip of ours turned out to be a little harder on him than we thought it would be...needless to say, this was a great decision for all of us. I was a complete mess when I had to say good-bye to my little man, but he was fine:) Geoff and I drove back to Dallas on Monday and made it in 11.5 hours! Since it was my birthday and Michael was at Annie and Pop Pop's, we decided to go out and celebrate...Here's to a great weekend and a happy 28 years:) CHEERS!

No Peas Please!!!

Silly Geoff forgot Michael does not like peas, as you can see:) While Geoff was feeding him, Michael continued to rub his face and his eyes and cry:( Poor Baby!!!

We have been out of school for 3 weeks now and it has gone by super fast!! It is so fun to be home with my little man...I am really going to be sad come August 10th when we have to go back! Luckily Michael loves his teachers and friends at school and they love him too!

To sum up the past couple of weeks, Michael and I have been going to our favorite gym, Next Level Fitness in Plano (so wonderful)- I have been taking a Athletic Training Class that is kicking my bootie!!!! Brittney and Drew are in town for the month of June for Brad's rotation at Childrens- Michael has been able to hang out with his Best Bud a couple of times, but not as much as I wish we could- having a little one makes your life so busy!!! Our power went out last Wednesday- Saturday, completely awful!!! We, meaning Michael and I ended up staying at the Day's Inn on Friday night which turned into a long night- Michael is not the greatest travel companion:) Last Friday and Saturday night was my 10 year high school reunion- it was so much fun! It was so great to see people and hear what they have been up to! I reconnected with some great friends and talked about meeting up for a playgroup with our kids...very fun!!!
To top it off, Michael Man will be 7 months old on Friday and the boy is trying to crawl! He gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth! I can't believe my Baby Boy is getting so big!!!

We Will Miss You Gram Gram!

This past Sunday morning at 12:13am, Gram Gram Hatch passed away. She was such an amazing and strong woman. We are so happy Michael was able to spend the first 6 months of his life with her. She had an amazing energy every time we were around her. Even last week when we brought Michael to see her, she seemed to perk up and respond to her Great-Grandson. We sat Michael on the bed next to her and she reached over and held his foot or hand- all though he did spit up on her blanket and tried to pull her oxygen tubing off of her a couple of times, it was great to see her respond to his presence. We will miss her dearly and she will always be held in a special place in our heart!