Thomas the Tank Engine

The other night we put Nathaniel to bed and he started to cry (as he has been for the last 3 weeks or so). We usually let him cry and he will fall asleep after about 10 minutes. Well on Wednesday he kept crying and crying and it seemed unusually loud. I thought maybe Ken left the door open. He said no, but that he would go check on Nathaniel. Ken was surprised when he opened the door and found Nathaniel right there ready to jump into his arms! WHAT??? How did you get out? Ken snuggled Nathaniel for a bit, then put him back in his crib and he fell asleep. At 5am I heard this huge THUD and I rushed into his room to be greeted by "up, up, Mommy" at the door. Okay, so Nathaniel officially knows how to get out of his crib (although he's not telling how). Thankfully we had a perfect transition for him into a "Thomas" toddler bed.


We had set it up in his room the weekend before and have been letting him climb in/on it during the day. He's been so excited about it.


Anyway, the first night we put him in, he woke up at 1am and I came in, told him it was time to sleep, laid there for 2 minutes then got up and walked out. He slept till 7am! And the last few nights have gone well too (no wake ups!). He even requested his nap in Thomas yesterday (instead of Momma's bed!). And so my little boy is growing up right before my eyes.

Starting Solid Food!

Logan has been eyeing us for some time now and since he is almost 6 months I thought I would go ahead and give rice cereal a try. We fed him at Oma and Papa Jim's house so everyone got to feed him (even Nate!) It was quite entertaining.

Blowouts

My son has had 3 blowouts a day for the last week! Sheesh! Guess I need to layoff on the smoothies again :-(

Mommas Helper

Nathaniel wanted to push the cart at Costco... He did a pretty good job and only ran into a couple people :-)

Library visit

Some go to the library to check out books or go to story-time.... lately we are there just for the cushions and the recliners. Hey, when it's raining outside it's a good alternative to the park :-)

Vit-A-Mix

The coolest kitchen gadget EVER! I have not been able to stop talking about it. We have had smoothies almost every morning for the last month or so... well I did have to take a week off because everyone got diarrhea. I've been trying to get all our servings of fruits and vegetables in our morning drink. This includes any kind of fruits I can find along with spinach and squash in our smoothies :-) Ken is not as excited about it, but Nate and I LOVE it! The best part about this machine is the clean up. Fill it with water and a drop of soap and turn it on for 60 seconds. Viola! Clean! I love it so much I think I should be a distributor! Just Kidding. I won't make any of you buy one. But I highly recommend it! It makes ice cream, soup, and lots of other things. I've even used it for chopping potatoes into hash browns.

Gotta go drink my spinach!

A new blanket

Thank you Kathy! It's been loved very much!

Christmas Movie

One of my favorite Christmas Traditions was started by my Dad's sisters in 1986 or so. They gave their 9 nieces and nephews and invitation to spend a day with them. They took us to McDonalds for lunch (we got to order WHATEVER we wanted), and then to a movie of our choice (AGAIN we got to order whatever snacks we wanted). I think we all fit in one car that first year. And my two AMAZING Aunts have continued to offer this special day to us as our Christmas present. Each year around Christmas the cousins discuss what movie to go see. It's a much anticipated event! I can remember my brothers eating 3 Big Macs, Fries, & a Coke and then getting Popcorn, Soda, and candy at the theater. ( We think Ken hit his Daily Recommended Calorie intake be3fore we left McD's this year...He was the only one interested in adding it up:-) I think a couple of years we even went to Dairy Queen afterwards. Oh man was I STUFFED. Sweet Memories. I'm sure it was pretty fun for my Aunts to see us all together.

As we have grown older spouses were allowed to join the fun. It's hard to get all 9+ of us together and some have missed out over the years (mostly because they have moved out of state). I think Steven and Corrie and I are the only ones who haven't missed a single year. Can you blame us? For me the tradition has become sweeter as the years have gone by. We have all gotten older and appreciate the time together so much more. We've even enlisted our parents in the fun (er, babysitting) so that we can keep the tradition going.

Hand print Ornaments

We had a Christmas party with all my Mommy friends from the St.V's Hospital group. Last year we did Nathaniel's handprint and this year we did the same thing with Little Logan. I must say that Logan looks like he is overreacting just a bit in this picture. No broken fingers!



Nathaniel's from last year is red, Logan's this year was blue.

Papa and Oma

Nate and Lucy

Just a few more pictures from our house-sitting adventure over the holidays. Next to Logan, I think Lucy is Nathaniel's best friend. He has become very comfortable around dogs... which is great, because I'm still of the opinion we ARE NOT getting a dog anytime soon. I figure Lucy and Chunkers (the one puppy they kept) will always be available should we have the urge to play.

Logan pacifying himself

This little guy is growing up so fast! I feel like this last week or so he has really tried to become more a part of the family. Talking like crazy, watching our every move, trying to figure out how Nathaniel is moving around so fast.

Boys just playing around

I just love these boys!

SNOW!

Nathaniel was so excited to see SNOW for the first time this year. It was just a light dusting... but it was fun to watch it come down. Looks like I didn't actually take a picture of the snow on the ground.

5 Months Old