It's Great to be a Ute!

As if an undefeated football season wasn't enough including the Sugar Bowl Game which Dustin and I think will probably be the best game we will have ever attended in our lives, the University of Utah sports are still on a roll! Taylor has been a busy girl. In the last two weeks Taylor has been to 2 Utah basketball games (as Utah is now #1 in the Mountain West Conference), a Utah Gymnastics Meet (now the #1 University Gymnastics team in the nation) and the Jazz game (her third one this season)... wow she's been a busy girl. And she has enjoyed every minute of it! Her daddy definitely wanted her to see the gymnastics meet as he hopes that is her future calling. :) I think she actually enjoys the basketball games better, but I'm sure that may change as she gets a little older.

In other news Taylor rolled over for the first time on Sunday! I really hadn't pushed her to do it quite yet because I have been thoroughly enjoying her staying in one spot, but I couldn't help but get so excited when she did it. Of course I'm the one home all day with her, but Dustin witnessed the first rollover without me... typical. Anything for daddy!!!

Beyond that, nothing too exciting in the Tate household. I did enjoy a trip to InstaCare on Thursday night after slicing off the top of my thumb. That probably sounds a little more dramatic then it really was, but apparently I don't know how to chop an onion without acrylic nails. Maybe I should learn how to chop properly. I didn't need stitches (I swear it looked deeper than it actually was), but the doctor did ask me if I wanted to take the top of my thumb home... gross! (PS... A special thank you to April for taking Taylor while I made the clearly unnecessary trip to InstaCare. I'm so lucky to have some of my best friends as neighbors!!!!)

Thanks to the Robbins for a fun night at the Gymnastics Meet! Not to mention that the kids took great care of Taylor the whole time!

We had fun at the Jazz game with the Brog's. Thanks to Liz for taking some pics (photo courtesy of Liz)! Taylor and Lilly will one day look back and know that they were BFFs before they even knew it.At the U game. Nice big bow... huh? So how is it possible that when walking up to the game some guys told us that we were make our little boy a U fan before he even knew it??? I can understand if she was just wearing red and black, but I think that the bow is pretty obvious...

A Day of Firsts

So last Saturday (yes almost a week ago) we took Taylor for her very first swim in something other than the bathtub. The plan was actually to take her while my fam was in town, but it just never happened and then by the time we had a chance, she started to come down with a cold. Anyway, it was so much fun!

When I was about two months, my mom started me in the water. My mom is definitely not a swimmer, but since we had a pool in our backyard, she was deathly afraid that if I fell in, she wouldn't be able to save me. Since her near death experience gave her no motivation to learn how to swim, she decided that both Ashley and I would learn at a very early age. Since the water has been such an important and truly wonderful part of my life, I wanted to make sure to get Taylor in early as well. I have taught swim lessons and swim teams, but when it actually came time for me to dunk my own child under the water it was a very scary thought. I finally toughened up and did it. It was so fun to watch Taylor in the water. She wasn't smiling, but she wasn't crying either... she was completely content. It really was beautiful and I am so glad that we videotaped it. Of course I have no idea how to put it on the blog, but I did get up the courage to dunk her (I promise I have proof) and she did awesome!



Later that day we took a trip to Target and daddy decided to take on the Baby Bjorn and since Taylor wasn't sleeping or about to fall asleep (like she is on our daily walks with Quique) we decided to turn her facing forward. Dustin had a blast with the whole thing and Taylor was taking things off the shelves left and right. I know one of these days I am going to come home with something that she swiped. I've got to keep my eye on her.

The last first of the day, was a first for me. I am not quite sure what my problem is, but ever since my days of swimming/water polo/synchro/whatever have ended, I have pretty much lost all motivation to work out. I was doing a little bit before I got married and then since then I have just gone downhill. Which is very odd since Dustin is in great shape and constantly trying to "motivate" me. You would think that I would want to be healthy, but I guess I am just lazy. I used the "burned out" excuse for a few years, but I don't think I can use that any more.

Anyway, Dustin has been trying so hard to find the right mode of exercise to entice me to work out and so far, we haven't had any luck. I was planning on doing a beginner's triathlon in October with some of my girlfriends, but when Taylor came a month before that, my life kind of turned upside down (in the best way possible of course). Any way, I had bought shoes to clip in and out of Dustin's road bike and still had not used them. Since Dustin set up his road bike on the trainer downstairs, he persuaded me into giving it a whirl. Let's just be thankful that I wasn't clipping in and out on the pavement or while moving since I probably would have fallen flat on my face, but actually found it to be a lot of fun. Of course I only lasted 10 minutes seeing as how my legs were burning in the first 2. And although I still have yet to get back on the bike. I do have a willingness to try it again. Maybe I've turned over a new leaf???

Dreams

So last week, our company did a management retreat for our management team. It was a great way to get together to discuss strategy, generate a discussion of where we can improve, and discuss our 10-year, 5-year, and 1-year plan for the business.

First, we distributed a couple of really good books, which I'd recommend to anybody who leads (in their career or in any organization). The first is "Creating Magic", by Lee Cockrell - it's about his management experience at Disney and the key to providing a magical experience, for customers and employees, and produce great results. The second book is "The Fifth Discipline" by Peter Senge, which is a much more in-depth book about management. Great books.

We were able to go up to Midway (away from the gross inversion here in the valley) to go through some training, have some brainstorming sessions, do some presentations, and even take in a little skiing. But it was a healthy exercise becaue it's so easy to 'stay busy' and get caught up in the daily grind. Sometimes you have to force yourself to step away and make sure you're going where you wanted to go. And this isn't just good to do for work, but in our personal lives.

One exercise that I loved was for us to write down some of our personal 'dreams' that we have - things we want to do some time in our life. The main dream of the president of our company is to try and help as many employees fulfill their dreams. Last year, he sent one of our artists to a painting school in Tuscany, Italy. He also helped one employee go back to Brazil to visit his wife's family. And he bought a Fender guitar for one of the employees. But the purpose wasn't to put down a dream so that we could do it right away, but to learn a little bit more about each of us and also to think big, especially amidst this tough economy (2009 will likely be a very tough year, but that can be an excuse, or a reason to take advantage of a very unique economic environment).

So, during this exercise, somebody brought up this cool blog called "Where the Hell is Matt" about this guy who travels all over the world and videotapes himself doing a funny dance everywhere he goes. It's hilarious - but in a funny way, it's also pretty inspiring. You see this guy visiting some of the most diverse places in the world and getting everybody around him to join in on the fun:


So, one of my dreams is to dance like Matt. Well, not really. But it is to travel to as many countries as I can. I travel quite a bit for work, already (I'm likely going to Spain next week), but I want to travel and enjoy it. See the sights, eat the food, take it in with Jamie.
One country that I'm dying to visit is Israel.
I'd also love to write (and have published) a book somebody.

These are just some dreams you probably didn't know I had. Feel free to share some of your unique dreams in a comment.

Henry Poole is Here

I feel like I'm always so out of the loop whether it's movies, fashion, music, whatever, so I'm not sure if anyone is familiar this movie or if once again, I'm out of the loop on this one. A few months ago, Dustin watched half of this movie (Henry Poole is Here) on the plane during a business trip so we have been anxiously waiting for it to come out on video. This weekend we finally rented it and it did not disappoint! I remembered seeing a preview (once the movie got going) but always thought the movie looked odd from the previews. Although the beginning may appear that way, it is a beautiful movie about faith and hope. There is some great dialogue, especially one about believers (of faith) vs. non-believers as well as some incredible symbolism. It is a touching movie, but you will still find yourself laughing. I'd love to talk more about it, but don't want to give too much away because it really is very well done with great actors and character development. I highly recommend it!

The movie brought about some great conversation between Dustin and I after the movie that really just made me realize how thankful I am for my faith and my testimony. Let me preface this one thought with the fact that Dustin and I have very strong testimonies of our faith and a deep faith in God, but he brought up the question... what if when we die, we find out that what we believe wasn't true? We both agreed that we wouldn't want to live a different way. We could look back and be grateful to live a happy and fulfilling life with the standards we always strive to have, and a strong faith in God and the atonement and always a hope for a better tomorrow. I know that personally, I could not have gotten through the last few years without my belief system. And every time I look at Taylor, I'm reminded of the miracle that was given to us. There are just a few too many "coincidences" in that story to be anything but a miracle from God.

4 Months!

Last week Taylor Anne turned 4 months. I can't believe how fast it has flown by, yet there are times when I feel I have known her so much longer than 4 months. I remember those first few weeks and so many people telling me to enjoy every second because time will fly by. To be perfectly honest, I wasn't sure what there was to enjoy. Was I missing something? Knowing I had wanted Taylor Anne for so long and then not really enjoying those first few weeks made me feel all sorts of guilt. Maybe I am not a newborn mommy, maybe I just had to much change in my life in those first two months or maybe it was something else, but I do know that this last month has been my very favorite and I completely understand now what those people were trying to tell me. We left Taylor Anne for three days with my mom while we went to the Sugar Bowl and when I got home it seemed like she had gotten so much bigger and she had even picked up a new trick. I was only gone three days, actually 66 hours to be exact and I felt like I had already missed out.

Well Taylor went in for her 4 month check up and she is now 14 lbs and 23 inches long. She is now in the 60th percentile for weight which makes Dustin and I laugh hysterically since she was in the 4th percentile at her 2 week appointment. Ashley (my sister) calls her little "mish" because her legs look like she could be the Michelin baby. So here are just a few wonderful things about Taylor Anne:

• She is definitely a grunter, almost to the point of annoying. She is not really mad or upset when she does it, I think it's just her way of communicating, but she is constantly sounding like she's trying to push something out...
• She is sleeping through the night... hooray! Maybe that's why this has been my favorite month. Right before she turned 3 months, we moved her into the crib and she started sleeping through the night. There have only been 2 nights that she hasn't. This is my very favorite accomplishment! Way to go Tay Tay!
  
• She is smiling a ton. She is so happy when she wakes up in the morning (complete opposite of her mama). She has even had a couple of belly laughs. When my mom was here and we were sitting on the couch, I was rubbing her belly and she was laughing away.
  
• She is already a manipulator. She has been doing a bit of fake crying the last week or so. If I try to get stern with her she just starts smiling at me which in turn makes me melt and then I completely forget what I was even stern about.
• She is done with the binky, but her hands are always in her mouth.
• While I was in N'Awlins, she started blowing bubbles or sticking out her tongue and blowing, not quite sure what you call that.
  
• She loves music. My mom got a CD called the Lullabies of Jesus. It honestly puts her right to sleep which is very helpful since she totally fights falling asleep.
• She loves football and basketball. My mom and I were at lunch and she was getting fussy so I went to grab the diaper bag out of the car and my mom walked her over to a water feature to help soothe her. She calmed right down and my mom thought the mini waterfall was working. When she looked at Taylor Anne, her eyes were glued to the football game on TV. Every daddy's dream.
  
• She started Rice Cereal this week. I was so excited when our pediatrician told us to start her on it. I was at the grocery store and there was a woman and her daughter admiring Taylor. She was asking me all sort of the usual questions, and then I proceeded to tell her she was starting rice cereal that night. I sounded like a totally geeky mom! Here is Taylor's first attempt at it below (I didn't want to bore anyone with the video footage, so I just posted some pics, but mom and dad, I'll send you the video):

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