Yesterday we took the kids over to the District at Green Valley Ranch to go ride the Carousel. We got there a little bit before it opened and had some lunch. 
I thought it would be fun to get some pictures with the pretty decorations. 
Here are the three brothers. 
Poor little Abigail is the only girl. 
Our darling kids are all ready for Christmas this year!
I thought it would be fun to get some pictures with the pretty decorations. Here are the three brothers. Poor little Abigail is the only girl. Our darling kids are all ready for Christmas this year! Newborns have the funniest little expressions and here are my favorites of Tate:
The "Wrinkled Forehead."
The "Hold on for Dear Life." 
And my favorite... the "What the Heck?!"
Finally the Carousel opened and the kids were so excited to ride. 
Abigail met a little girl there who instantly became her new friend. 
Porter thought he was so cool and said, "Look mommy, I'm riding one of Santa's reindeer!" 
Bridger didn't care what he was riding as long as he got to sit right next to Porter. 
This was little Tater Tot's very first Carousel ride and he slept through the entire thing. :)
The "Wrinkled Forehead."The "Hold on for Dear Life." And my favorite... the "What the Heck?!"Finally the Carousel opened and the kids were so excited to ride. Abigail met a little girl there who instantly became her new friend. Porter thought he was so cool and said, "Look mommy, I'm riding one of Santa's reindeer!" Bridger didn't care what he was riding as long as he got to sit right next to Porter. This was little Tater Tot's very first Carousel ride and he slept through the entire thing. :) It was a fun day with the family.
This time they chose to play with their new Geotrax collection (thanks to a donation from Aunt Adele) and they went crazy! 
We had tracks going everywhere and they didn't even get all of it out. 
Porter and Bridger sat on the floor and played for hours. 
He was a hit in his darling little Christmas church outfit!
Here are the kids all dressed up in their Christmas clothes. (Sherry was laughing and said, "these poor deprived Henderson kids, this is the only snowman they can make!" I guess technically, she's right.) 
Grandma and Grandpa came to Sacrament Meeting with us and then they got ready to head home. 
Tate is going to miss them so much! 
After saying goodbye, he spent the rest of the afternoon basking in the sun and trying to rid himself of his yellowish hue. :)
Abi is our little picture queen and she had to strike her usual pose. 
Next she wanted to give Tate a kiss. 
Tater Tot looked so darling in his little Christmas sweater outfit. 
The kids got together for a group picture. (My silly boys with their animated faces!)
This is the shot that we used for our Christmas card this year. 
Here's our entire family and it's the first picture we have of all of us as a group. 
The kids were so excited because Santa Clause was going to be there. Just our luck, we got there in time to see Santa walking out the door. (Apparently we were supposed to come an hour early if we wanted to see Santa - I guess we missed the memo.) 
I told Matt to put on his Santa hat and the kids jumped up on his lap for a picture. At least that's kind of a picture with Santa... :)
Her group had a parade that morning but we didn't make it because it was pretty rainy and we didn't want to get the kids sick. 
This was the first chance that Abi got to wear her darling new costume. 
She was very excited because Grandma Sherry and Grandpa Bill got to come watch her dance. 
Mommy got to get out of the house and see her dance as well.
We all got bundled up for the show because it was still a bit cold outside. 
Abi sat up on the side of the stage until it was her turn to perform. 
They even got to do background dancing for some of the other groups. 
When it was her turn to dance she went full out. 
Her moves may not have been perfect but she had a ball. 
At the end she got to hold her friend Taylor's hand and give a huge bow. 
Her Grandparents told her how well she did and it made her so happy.
Sherry took over the cooking, cleaning and all the errands for the first two weeks we were out of the hospital and we were so grateful for all she did. 
She also got a lot of time to bond with little Tater Tot. 
Bill also got to be with Tate for the first little while in his life. 
Tate's middle name is Albert and this is also Grandpa Bill's middle name so that is something special they share. 
Matt got lots of time to hold his new son too, thanks to the Grandparents entertaining the other kids.
I was able to get lots of rest thanks to Bill taking care of the boys,
Keeping Abi occupied, (Here she is getting the mail while wearing Grandpa's coat, which she thought was pretty cool!) 
And Sherry taking care of Tate. 
He loves his grandparents and can't wait to see them again over Christmas!
We began by building the house itself and then Sherry started decorating the roof with frosting. 
Bridger stood by, sneaking a few licks every chance he got. 
Abi decorated the exterior with gumballs and sprinkles when we noticed that something didn't look quite right... our roof was slowly sinking! 
Sherry and I did everything we could to get the thing to stick back together. (All the while laughing hysterically at our disastrous creation - which is somewhat painful after just having a C-section!) 
After several desperate attempts to save it, our house crumbled to the ground. 
Abi and Porter looked at both of us and exclaimed, "Can we eat it now?!" 
It actually tasted pretty good and the kids now have some fun memories of their first (and possibly last) gingerbread house. :)
They grabbed their umbrellas and raincoats and headed outside. 
They looked all over for puddles to splash in. 
Bridger thought the rain was the best thing ever. 
Porter had his "CARS" rain coat and matching umbrella. 
Abi's pants got soaked! 
She did not want to miss it this year so we decided to go. 
Here she is lining up with her flash light which she got to shine around as she danced. 
I felt pretty good, even though I'd only been out of the hospital for 4 days, so I decided to go as well. 
Their theme this year was "A Country Christmas" (that's why we're wearing these hats) and they let me ride on the float with Porter which was nice because that would've been a ton of walking!
Unfortunately, Matt and Grandma Sherry had to walk. 
Tate was great for the entire parade! 
The kids always look forward to this awesome house along the parade route and it didn't disappoint this year!
Abi danced the entire time and earned a stroller ride back to the car. 
We got home and Tate looked so cute in his Santa hat that we had to get a picture. 
Darling little boy! 
Here's mommy and daddy right before heading out the door to the hospital. 
Porter had to give Tate one last kiss in mommy's belly. 
We got to the hospital and the doctor was nice enough to let Grandma Sherry come into the operating room and see Tate's birth. 
Here's mommy on the operating table all ready for the C-Section. 
Tate Albert Morton was born at 10:19 am and weighed 9 lbs. 7 oz. and was 21.5 inches long. 
He was our biggest baby by a whole pound! 
Here's a very proud daddy. 
I got to see Tate for the first time and give him a big kiss. 
It was a pretty long surgery with a ton of scar tissue to work through but this little angel was worth every bit of it! 
Here's his tiny feet. 
His small hand fit right into daddy's. 
They brought Tate into the recovery room once the C-section was finished and I got to hold my baby boy for the first time. 
Matt took him into our room and waited for them to wheel my bed in. 
The nurses let daddy give the very first bath.
Tate looked so cute after his bath. 
We are such proud parents and are so excited to have another son to love. 
Grandma and Grandpa Smith headed right over to the hospital to see their new grandson. 
Grandma Nan and Tate. 
Grandpa Jer and Tate.
Look at those chubby little cheeks! 
And those chubby little thighs! 
Here's Tate one day old. 
The hospital treated Matt and I to an "elegant dinner" and this was our dessert. 
I think you always need at least one picture of your baby crying so you can remember what it was like. :) 
Tate had a bad little baby rash and swollen eyes for the first couple days and he looked like he'd been through a battle! 
Mommy was just enjoying him to death while in the hospital. 
Tate at two days old. 
Here he is starting to open his eyes and look around. 
It was finally time to head home and we got Tate all buckled up in his car seat and loaded into the Trailblazer. 
He loved riding in the car. 
The kids were so excited to finally meet their baby brother because they weren't allowed to visit at the hospital. (Swine flu protection)
Porter immediately announced how cute he was. 
Bridger got to hold him and has been totally in love with him ever since. 
Abi came running into the house after school and couldn't wait to hold Tate. 
Grandma Sherry has been staying here at the house with us to help with the other kids and she's been a life-saver! 
Porter says, "Baby Tate loves me!" 
The look he's giving here is just hilarious!
Tate loves to snuggle with Daddy. 
We all love playing with him and entertaining him. 
He already sleeps great at night which is such a blessing. 
Look at this cute little face!
This is a picture of Porter just after his Thanksgiving Feast at preschool. 
We were blessed to have my parents down with us again this year and it was perfect timing because they were able to be here for Tate's birth as well. My mom took care of the dinner and it was awesome as usual. 
The kids had fun eating at the traditional "kid's table". 
We had been telling Porter and Abi all about the "wish bone" and they were so excited to get to break it. 
They each made a wish and pulled, and the crazy thing split right down the middle! I had never seen that before and it was so funny. The kids were a bit confused as to what that meant but we just told them that they both get their wishes. :) 
Later that night we decided to put up the Christmas tree because I knew there wouldn't be much time before the baby came. 
This is always a fun activity for the family. 
This is the first year that Bridger really got into it. 
As you can see, the kids were a huge help! (We spread out the ornaments after they went to bed.) 
The final touch was the train that goes around the bottom of the tree. Porter has been waiting for this for the past few months. (The train ended up breaking the next day but it was Grandpa Jerry to the rescue with a quick purchase on Ebay for a new one!) It was off to bed after this because we had to get up in the wee hours of the morning for Black Friday shopping, and yes...I DID GO!
I turned around and Porter had scissors in his hand and I could see hair all over his shoulder.
I knew it wasn't going to be pleasant but at least he didn't cut too much off. I asked him why he did that and he said, "There was a bug in my hair so I was cutting it out." (Whatever that means.) Needless to say, we had to give him a haircut last night to even things out. Crazy kid!
I started out with just a simple quilt that I can throw on the ground for the baby to lie on. 
(Front)
(Back)
I wanted to make some simple little projects that I could have multiples of because I knew I was going to need lots of baby gifts in the near future. 
These are the "Taggie" blankets that have a satin back and the babies love to have these as a comfort item. 
I also made a bunch of diaper wipe cases and there was no sewing required on these so they were my favorite project. 
Here's a bunch of little burp cloths because you can never have too many of those. 
Next came my biggest sewing (or should say "unpicking") project - Tate's car seat. The car seat we had previously was outdated so we were given an awesome new one but I wanted to make it personalized for Tate so I decided to make a cover. 
I even made a canopy that was reversible so I can switch it up a bit. 
There's also a matching blanket to go with it and this is the backside of that blanket. 
The whole cover is reversible in case the baby makes a mess or something I can just change it around. Plus, everything is washable so I can just chuck it in the machine to clean it. (The head support and strap covers are reversible too and you can scroll up to see the other option for those.)
This is the other option for the cover and canopy. (Trust me, making it reversible was something I quickly regretted because it took forever to get it right!) 
Here's the front of the matching blanket. 
I knew that Tate was going to be born in the cooler months so I wanted to make sure he had a tent to go over the car seat and protect him from the cold. 
Here's the bear that almost got thrown in the garbage a couple times because it was too advanced for my sewing ability. 
Another project where I probably bit off a bit more than I could chew was the diaper bag. It turned out cute in the end but I definitely spent the majority of my time unpicking things on it. 
I made sure that it has lots of pockets and that those pockets are big enough for diapers and wipes and anything else that will need to go in there. 
These Boppy's were quite easy and I enjoyed making them. The big one is actually just a cover that goes over a regular Boppy (which is nice because I can throw it in the wash if I need) and the smaller one I made so that it can support Tate while he's still really small. 
My last project was a shopping cart cover and I wasn't even going to make this but I had some left over material. Tate won't use it for quite a while but it was so simple to make that I thought I'd just do it. 
