Addison, Ellie, Molly, and Tate :)

 She just loves her baby brudder.  I love watching her around him...she talks to him about everything and always wants to hold and hug him.  I was so worried about how she would cope, but she's doing amazing.  That's my girl!

 Molly and Tate.  Molly is exactly 2 weeks older than Tate. 

                                       This is my absolute FAVORITE picture!  Greatest.  Picture.  EVER!

                                               Ellie (3)  Tate (11 days)  Addio (4)  Molly (25 days)

Such proud big sisters!

Tate-bug

 chillaxin' in his bouncy seat...

 Taking a snooze with the awesome blanket that Kristin made him.  :)

 See...he is awake occasionally.

 Mommy already caught him doing the "Al Bundy" look. 

Ellie shared her bubby with Tate.  For those of us that know Ellie, this is a pretty big deal.  No one gets to have her bubby.  I almost cried when she put it up on him and tucked it in.  

Tate Matthew

Tate Matthew Rohde was born via repeat C-section on Friday, Sept. 17th at 12:33 PM.  He weighed in at 9lbs 6 oz and is 21 inches long.  Mommy's doctor was shocked at how big he was!

One last picture of the belly.  We were so excited to find out who was taking up all that room!

Just sprung!

Look at all those rolls

Happy Birthday, Tate!

Meeting Mommy and getting some snuggle time in

Ellie girl meeting her new baby brother

She kept asking what HER name was

Tate is a sweet, snuggly baby

Ellie is 3!

Ellie wearing one of her new princess dresses she got for her birthday!

Mommy and Ellie on her 3rd Birthday.  I can't believe she's so old already!

Ellie is a smart, beautiful little girl. Matt and I feel so blessed to have her as our daughter.

We didn't have a big party this year, since Daddy was traveling for ball and Mommy was ready to pop.  Instead, Ellie girl got to have two parties...one with the Rohde's at our house and one with the Hockens side at Auntie Denise's house. 

August in a nutshell...

We went to the Olmsted Co. Fair with Addison and Amanda.  Mommy and Amanda (both seriously pregnant) only made it about 45 minutes before it got too hot.  This is the only picture I took, and it's actually in the car on the way home from Rochester.  She held this cotton candy bag up the entire ride home...while sleeping.  ;)

We played outside with water...here  Ellie girl is pouring freezing water on her head!

Sprinkler FUN!

We waited for baby Rohde to finish growing...here Ellie is giving the baby hugs and feeling kicks!

We laughed and played and had lots of fun

We made our very own candy land out of paper upstairs while Mommy was doing laundry!

We played with lots and lots of play-doh, which often time sounds like potato when Ellie is asking to play with it.  :)

Allergies much??

Ok..so technically this post should have been put up a loooooooong time ago, like in July.  OOPS.  Time has gotten away from the Rohde's lately.  Summer went by way too fast for us...we were either working or playing really hard.  :)  Ellie seems to have inherited her momma's issues with bug bites.  I got a phone call from daycare one day saying Ellie's face was swollen from a bug bite.  I thought I would go pick her up and find a little swelling...holy moly was I wrong!  Poor Ellie girl!  We now have prescription strength hydrocortison along with some major benedryl at our house.  Luckily she hasn't gotten bitten on the face since.

Potty trained!?

Our Ellie girl has been fully potty trained since May, but we have a few kinks to work out.  :)  First of all, she likes to strip naked to go potty.  We're hoping to nip this one soon, as it's next to impossible for me to bend over to put all her clothes back on.  :)

Second, she likes to bring all of her clothes out of the bathroom, and to whichever room we happen to be in, making us very nervous that she's going to run out of time.

Third, she likes to put the seat up and sit on the rim of the toilet.  While this is ok at home, since I am a maniac about keeping the toilets clean, (you would too if you had your face in it daily) being in public is another story!

Fourth, and most obvious....she likes to sit backwards, IN the toilet.  Matt and I could not stop laughing when we caught her like this the other night. 

Ellie's new bike

A co-worker of mine asked if Ellie would like her daughter's old bike.  It was just the right size for her, and the right price for us:  FREE!  I brought it home and Ellie insisted on buying new wheels for it while we were grocery shopping.  Once we got the training wheels on, she was ready to go! 

She's super excited to have her very own princess bike.  She struggles to not slam on the brakes, as she is used to being able to pedal backwards on her trike. 

Riding in the street, where it's much more level and easier to ride for little legs.  :)  Thanks Kristina and Abigail!

4th of July

A little pre-fireworks naparoo with Stevie.  Ellie was so excited about going to the fireworks and talked about it for three nights prior.  We had to explain to her that it had to be dark out, and it only happened one night in the Summer.  All day she asked to see the "boom-booms." 

Trying to get Daddy excited about the "boom-booms."  We like to go to the Lakeville fireworks because the area is huge and there is no bad seat.  Plus, it's nice and close to home!

Eating some candy and waiting for it to get dark out.  She was super excited the entire night, and when the fireworks started, she asked to go home.  Go figure.  :)

Lakeville had a Blackhawk chopper there for people to check out.  The line was INSANE, so we opted to not go climb in it, but we did get to watch it take off. 

It shot straight up into the air...both Matt and I were surprised at that.  Ellie kept waving to it and wanted to know where they were going. 

It's super hard to see, but one of the guys was literally hanging out the side of the chopper waving to the crowd. 

It was such a beautiful night! 

Ellie watching the fireworks.