Thursday Almost Ten

Just enjoying a beautiful day around here. We went to the park earlier to collect samples of fall leaves we saw for a little book we're going to make, but I realized that as great as Nelson Park is by our house, it doesn't have a very large selection of different trees with spectacular fall color. Perhaps we will find some in other parts of town (although I do know realistically that this is Abilene, TX). Here are some highlights from a great week- I think pretty much everybody that reads this is now on Facebook so I might be repeating myself a bit, but oh well. Also, I have decided to put all media at the bottom of the post to temporarily remedy the problem with messing up the format every time I add something.

1. We got the Christmas decorations out over the weekend- yay! It's not all put up yet, but it was so much fun to see how excited Cadence is this year. I can already tell it's going to be a fun holiday season! She was just running around the living room with garland singing about the holidays and Christmas. She decorated the kitchen chair. And then she got her ponies out and they had to all be introduced to the Christmas decorations. It was extremely entertaining to watch her! (See Exhibit A below)
2. A quote from Addison when we were doing school work a couple of days ago..."You know, if this page could talk right now he'd be saying, 'Wow, this guy is doing a really good job.' " We'll have the Romans 12:3 talk later. For now, we take on the world! Better to err on the side of confidence at this age!
3. We are celebrating the fact that we are going to have to replace pretty much Chris's entire wardrobe! It's all too big! I am just so proud of the journey he's been on. He is inspiring a lot of people right now, and he's so close to his goal! You're the bomb-diggity man! And we are currently accepting donations for the Don't Leave Chris Naked campaign :) A thank you to Annette who has already contributed to this fund!
4. Addison's most recent song from Musical Theater (See Exhibit B) I knew he'd like this one!
5. We are SOOOO excited to head to Lubbock for Thanksgiving next week. We will be spending our holiday with T, and we will also get to visit our lifelong friends and their new baby girl. And we found out yesterday that we will be visiting the Polar Express on Wednesday. It's a real train, and they make it just like the movie- you go in your pajamas, have your ticket, drink hot chocolate and sing songs on the train, and we are en route to the North Pole the whole time. When we arrive, Santa and the elves will board the train!! Addison got the biggest smile on his face when I told him about it. I was glad, because these days because his excitement about things comes in short supply, plus the fact that it's difficult to get him to "buy" into lots of things. I'm just hoping we can make it one more Christmas believing in Santa :) So you can imagine my own excitement to see him jumping up and down and then he said he was excited because he's never seen a real live elf before. Hopefully when he sees that these "elves" aren't short and, well, very elf-like, he'll still be invested into the thing!! And you should see the cute little matching Christmas PJ's they'll be sporting...oh wait, you will see I'm sure! Thanks so much, T- this will be a special memory for the kids.
6. Chris and I have really come to love our little snuggle time with Cadence in the mornings. Since she is usually the first one awake, she just comes into our room and jumps in the bed between us for cuddles and cartoons. I'll admit, she is pure sweetness in the morning because she (99.9% of the time) wakes up with instant sunshine and giggles, even if sometimes it's a little earlier than I wanted to see her! I'm so happy that I'm not running around in the early morning like I was so I can have this time :)
7. As sweet as Cadence can be, she also tries to use said cuteness to get out of trouble. She has developed a new song that she sings now when we start to get stern with her. (See Exhibit C) We have actually seen a sight so pitiful as her singing this while crying after being in trouble. But after you hear the song you will see why it's very hard for us to keep a straight face. She is kind of quiet in the beginning, but you will get the idea.

So I didn't make it to ten again today. I'm not feeling that creative and just want to crank it out. We'll be having lots of blog love with the holidays so don't you worry. Pate goodness for all. In the meantime, peace out from the Pate house.

Exhibit A- Meeting the Singing Snowmen

Exhibit B Exhibit C

I think that's very "protrocious" of you to Lyrics to Getting Out of Trouble Song:

learn all of those words, son. I'm trying You are smiling, everything can make

to work with him on actually breathing you smile.

between words, but we're not there yet :) You're smiling, you can make me smile.