Utah

My friend Felicia and I decided to take a VERY last minute trip up to Utah. The idea started forming itself on Saturday, and we were on the road Tuesday morning! Surprisingly enough a 15 hour drive with an 8 month old and a 3 year old wasn't too bad! We thought it would take 2 days to complete the drive, but found that it was actually quite possible to do it in 1!

I was way excited to see my family, but most excited to see my nephews, since I hadn't seen these kids in forever! (OK so maybe it had only been about 4 1/2 months, but that is a long time to me!!) I spent most of my time there hanging out with my sister Crissy and her 3 adorable kids!

While there I took the oldest two boys out on a date. First, Jaden (age 5) and I went to Leatherby's for some chicken and fries, brownies, and ice cream!

He got a bit embarrassed when I told him he had a little bit of brownie on his teeth...

so we quickly fixed that!


One of Jaden's date requests was that he be allowed to put salt on his fries. I knew this kid loved salt, but didn't know the extent of the obsession...

We also enjoyed dancing to the tunes from the juke box. After dinner and dessert Jaden wanted to go to Target to pick out a toy (gotta love their dollar section!) He also picked out toys for Kaleb and Bradley.

Later that week I took Kaleb (age 3) out on a similar date. He was so stinkin cute because he was afraid to go without Jaden. You can tell that he doesn't often have the opportunity to go places without his brothers. Such is the life of a middle child! Once we got in the car though, he was super excited, especially when I told him that we could do whatever he wanted! Of course he chose to go to Wendy's for their chicken and fries.

He thought this strangely shaped piece of chicken was hilarious!

While there the littlest things seemed to excite him. Getting to pick anything he wanted to eat, getting to choose where we sat, getting to play his new card game that came in his kids meal for as long as he wanted, getting to choose when to leave, and getting to choose what to do next. Of course he chose to sit right next to the only other people in the restaurant, and we played many versions of his card came for what seemed like hours, but I was more than happy to let him do what he wanted on his date.

After Wendy's he also wanted to go to Target and get the same toy that Jaden picked out. (There was a moment of panic when I couldn't find the same toy anywhere, but that was soon relieved when Kaleb found something he wanted more.) Once he found a toy for himself and his brothers and Nathan, he wanted to "please go home now". I think he had fun on his first date, but I think he also was excited to go back home and play with Jaden.

I also was able to go see Fiddler on the Roof with my sister, Alli. We are always up for a good musical and enjoyed this performance very much (despite some of the poor Irish/Russian sounding accents).

On Saturday Alli and I took the boys to Jungle Jim's, a fun little indoor carnival type place.

These two held hands everywhere they went, it was so cute!

Nathan had a blast hanging out with his cousins, aunts, uncle, and grandparents!

Bradley was such a good little helper. He was constantly giving Nathan his blanket, bear, and toys. When I got home from my date with Kaleb, Bradley quickly pointed out to me that Nathan was upstairs sleeping so that I wouldn't worry (quite impressive for a kid that doesn't talk yet). He even took his turn feeding Nathan.

I think Kaleb put these glasses on Nathan

Nathan loved taking baths with the boys, which is a huge accomplishment because up until then he HATED taking baths! Maybe he just needed someone to show him how fun it is to splash!


It was a great trip! However, I think Nathan missed his daddy, as did I. He was very excited to see him when we got home!



When we got home (at 12:30 in the morning!) I pulled into the garage to find this sign leaning against the door with a box of whoppers next to it (yummy!!)


Curtis "heart attacked" me by placing cut out hearts through the house with all the reasons he missed me. What a cute man I have!

Pictures

Nathan is now 8 months old!!!! Holy cow!! I can't believe it!

At 8 months he:
* is crawling
* says "mama" and "baba"
* holds his own bottle (woo hoo!)
* has two teeth (front bottom)
* laughs when he sees himself in the mirror in the car
* loves the daycare at the gym (and they LOVE him too!)
* drinks from a sippie cup
* smiles at anyone who smiles at him, especially girls (he is such a flirt!)
* is starting to like baths, finally!
* gets jealous if we hold other babies


We got family pictures taken today because the free 16 x 20 coupon I had expires this week. I have the perfect frame and perfect place for it so I am really excited! Our photo session was cut short because Nathan slipped and hit his face pretty hard on one of the props they had in the studio. It's ok though because I think we got some good pictures!

(Nathan looks so bored in these pictures! It makes me laugh!)

Nathans New Favorite Thing

I have discovered something that will almost always cheer Nathan up, and that is watching the videos of his cousin Ethan sledding. I myself love watching them, so I have watched them a number of times. As I was watching them I looked down at Nathan on the ground and saw that he was focused intently on the computer, laughing along with the video. I had to take a video of him watching the video. The thing that impresses me so much is that not even my camera could distract him, which is definitely a first!
(two things I love about this video #1 is how Nathans smile just falls once the video he is watching ends and he looks at me like he wants me to play it again. #2 is how his little feet are constantly rotating, he ALWAYS does that and it cracks me up!!)



Also, Nathan is on the verge of crawling. I am so torn because I am not ready for him to be mobile yet, but it is also exciting to watch him learn new things! Here is a video of him trying so hard. He cracks me up because he usually just gives up and ends up rolling to his destination.

Future NRA Member

Curtis has an application on his ipod of a shotgun (compliments of my dad). You shake the ipod to load the gun and then shake it again to fire. One night while Nathan was sitting on Curtis' lap he pulled out his ipod and started playing with the shotgun app. Nathan about died laughing. He had been laughing for quite a while before I thought to get out my camera, so this is kind of the tail end of it. Of course, once he sees the camera he tends to forget everything else, so imagine the cuteness of this video times 10!



(Don't worry, I promptly wiped his snotty nose after taking this video. Poor kid has had a cough and runny nose for almost 6 weeks! )

Curtis is pretty good at getting him to laugh.

You better watch out, better not CRY

So I know this is a little late, but we just got the pictures of Nathan with Santa from our ward Christmas party. He did alright when we first put him on Santa's lap, he just seemed a little confused. But after a few seconds he decided to look and see who was holding him, and that is when he made the saddest little face that I have ever seen in my life! I wish we would have gotten a picture of him crying because as sad as it was, it was also so dang cute! Anywho, here are the two pictures we managed to get. The second one is just a split second before the tears started flowing. (I also love how huuuuuuuuuuge his cheek looks in the second picture!)




And since it has been a while since I have posted anything here are a few recent pictures:

This is Nathan's best friend Lizzy. She loves him and loves being a "big sister" to him. It is too cute!

Nathan really seems to like Lizzy, she can always get him to smile.

I think he looks so big here! I can't get over it! I can't believe that he is almost 7 months old! Here they are just hanging out watching a movie.

I have been trying to get Nathan to hold his own bottle for a few weeks now, and I finally had success!...for about a minute that is. (I love his little crossed feet)

And here is our handsome boy in his new Sunday outfit after church, just chillin' on his daddy's lap while Curtis makes his Sunday calls to family.

In other news, I think we are pretty much officially moved in as of today!! Now it is time to hang things on the walls. Pictures will be coming soon!!

Nathan's First Christmas

We had a pretty exciting Christmas this year. We moved into our brand new house (FINALLY) on December 23. Then we got our new fridge and our piano on the 24th! An excellent way to kick off Christmas if I do say so myself! I had decided that I wasn't going to bother decorating for Christmas, it was just going to be way too much of a hassle. However, the first thing that I unpacked once we moved was our Christmas tree! I just couldn't help myself!


Curtis had to work on Christmas so I spent the day getting ready for our Christmas festivities that night. Since our fridge had just been delivered the evening before, I had not yet gone grocery shopping. So, I crossed my fingers as I drove to the grocery store, hoping that they would be open on Christmas day. Fortunately they were, but unfortunately there were sliiiiiiiim pickin's in the meat department. I spent the rest of the day trying to unpack the kitchen so that I would be able to cook Christmas dinner! I remember getting very frustrated at one point and thinking "This isn't fair, who works this hard on Christmas!?!" Then I thought back to my mom spending all Christmas cleaning up after us and slaving away in the kitchen. It was then that I decided that we need to spend as many holidays as we can at my parents house! (Hehe...)

When Curtis came home we opened presents. Nathan loved playing with the wrapped gifts and screamed when I tried to open them.

Here he is sporting his new hat that he got from his cousin Ethan!

And here he is reveling in all of his recently opened gifts. It was a good day!

For those of you who have been asking, we are still working on unpacking our house, but we are much closer now thanks to my parents and Alli who spent 4 days helping us settle in. Once we are more settled I will post pictures so just be patient!!! (**cough **Crissy) :) I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We sure did!