Vote! Vote!

Okay, so we're having quite a time trying to decide on a name for our precious son...

I think we have decided on the first name Jackson.  Although I had my hesitations because it's a very popular name (I'm not a fan of overly popular names), I have loved it forever, it's a family name for me, and one of the meanings means "God has been gracious"or "God's grace" which we definitely love and know to be true in this season.  The problem has come in with choosing a middle name.

So, just for fun I'm making a poll with some of the choices we've narrowed it down to.  Let me make a little disclaimer here before we get started: 1. The end result of the vote will NOT be the definitive answer for what we choose- this is mostly for fun and out of curiousity. 2. We reserve the right to go with a completely different choice than the ones in the poll. After all, it's our son we're naming here!! 3. We are certainly open to any options/ideas you might have to offer other than the ones in the poll- just leave it in the comments or mail us or something.

Let the games begin!  The poll will only be up for a week, so vote now!  If you haven't already seen it, it's on the sidebar at the right of the post. Thanks, peeps! Peace out from the Pate house.

Announcing...

Well, this has been a little while coming, but just in case you are reading this and don't know yet...

Pate Baby #3 is a BOY!!!!

I still can't get over this picture...it's just a crazy shot!  Love the hands up on his face, mouth open!

Relaxing on his back with his legs curled up

I actually have more pictures, but these are the best ones that you can actually see what's going on.  Sometimes ultrasound pics are a little tricky, especially if you don't know what you're looking for!  The reason I say it's a little while coming is because we've actually had two ultrasounds done.  The weekend of Cadence's birthday party when my family was here, we went to have an elective one (not at the doctor) done for them to experience the ultrasound and find out what we're having.  The place was awesome, and the experience was way better than any I've had done in the past, but the problem was that little man had his ankles crossed the whole time and sat like a frog.  This made it very difficult for the technician to get a good picture of any gender parts!  It was quite comical- I had to get up and move around in circles, picking up my knees, she was poking all over my tummy and making me cough and laugh...and still he wouldn't move much!!  So finally, at the very end we got the "money" shot of what appeared to be boy parts. But after all of that difficulty we weren't feeling so confident about it so we decided to just tell family and a few people that would ask, knowing we were having my big midway ultrasound last week for confirmation.  

Well, this time he was very gracious to show off for us so there was no doubt!  When you see boy parts, you see boy parts and there is no mistakin' that!!  Of course we're all excited (although Addison was pretty sure it was girl and I think he kind of wanted one), and it's just awesome to know who is in there moving, floating, and dancing around!  One of the reasons I have waited so long to post is that I was hoping we would have made the final call on a name so that I could announce him by name, but alas- we still have not finalized this very important decision!  I do hope to tell you soon, though :) 

So there's the big news.  Cadence will be in the middle of a boy sandwich!  After having friends visit a couple of weeks ago with a 9 week old boy, it was definitely getting us excited about having a baby in the house again!  Well, excited and...oh wow, we're going to have a baby in the house again and this is going to be crazy! But we know that God gives us the grace just like all of the other times in our life when we didn't know how we were possibly going to do something.  He's just good like that, and I'm so thankful for such a track record of His faithfulness and goodness in our life!

That's really all I wanted to say for now...I'll try not to wait so long before I visit you again :)  Peace out from the Pate house.

Wednesday. You are lovely and random.

Been a while since I've done a mind dump, so I thought I'd change it up a bit with some funny thoughts from our little ones among other, well...randomness:

Cadence has decided in this past week that her new nickname is "Grapes". This literally came out of nowhere, but she is adamant about it. Grapes.

It's amazing how reading opens up a new world for you when you're young.  Addison came out of the bathroom last night and says, "Mommy, you have got to buy some new soap.  This is really dangerous." After some prodding about it, turns out he read the label on the back of the soap and saw that it said to get medical attention immediately if swallowed. (just like every other soap but he's never seen that before) He was thinking like if he washed his hands and then later had his fingers in his mouth he was going to be sick or something.  It was funny.

So I've been pretty good about eating during this pregnancy- I mean I have moments but I haven't had many crazy lady pregnant moments. Until today when Chris came home from the grocery store and lovingly brought me a jar of whole dill pickles (always thinking about his wife, so sweet). So as I was cooking dinner I opened them.  And had three. THREE. (whole pickles, mind you) Let's just say it didn't go so well with me... But in that moment they were so good. Really.

I posted this on Facebook today, but here's a joke Cadence came up with.
"Why did the sauce talk to the cookie?
(I don't know, Cadence- why?)
Because he was saying, 'Hey get out of the way I'm trying to watch the movie.'"
Yep, that's what is inside of her funny little mind.

On a serious, proud mamma note, I did a couple of reading level assessments with Addison this week, and he is reading (as a seven year old, just in case you forgot) between a 5th and 6th grade level.  I'm not surprised, but I was curious to see exactly where he was at.  Now, penmanship is a different story... :) But the guy is a smarty pants. That's all there is to it.

Well, I don't have anything really funny to tell on Chris this week.  He's too busy being awesome, I guess. Or maybe there's just so many funny moments throughout the day that I can't even single out one. Something like that.

We have been having lovely weather this week.  No humidity, perfect temps, just fabulous.  And this is what Cadence looks like after an artist has been at work outside on the sidewalk:

I guess that's about it coming out of H-town tonight. And on that note, peace out from the Pate house.