Happy Birthday Nate!!!!!

From this, November 20, 2003:


To this, November 20, 2008:

Happy Birthday Nathan! We love you! I can't believe that you have turned 5 years old! Where did the last 5 years go? You are growing up way too fast. Right now you are in pre-school and loving it. You have made friends with everyone in your class. I smile as I drop you off and you are greeted by everyone in your class, they are so excited to see you. You are my little social butterfly. (I don't know where you got that from because your Mommy and Daddy are not social people at all.) You are so friendly and outgoing that you make friends very easily. You enjoy pleasing other people. It makes me pause and wonder if you'll grow up and want to be apart of all the student councils and clubs in high school. You are so eager to learn, you thirst for knowledge. It amazes me that you are already trying to figure out words and trying to read. You are a very smart boy. And you don't just excel academically but also spiritually. You know more than I ever did and it is so awesome to see your spiritual side blossom as well. You are a great big brother. You are so independent, that many mornings you and Josh are up and hungry so you get him and you a bowl, cereal, milk and a spoon. You don't just take care of yourself but also your little brother. And you are always willing to help Mommy out with Colton, getting diapers, burb clothes or playing with him. You are always doing funny things and coming up with your crazy jokes. You are a great son. We love having you in our family. 5 years ago when you where born, it was so amazing to know that I was holding MY son, and that same feeling still has never left. I always feel the same way whenever you allow that rare moment to happen and let Mommy hold you. Nathan I want you to know that you are very loved, and wanted in our family. Also know, that your Heavenly Father loves you too. Nathan, please know this, that as your parents there is nothing more rewarding than seeing your little spirit grow and start gaining a testimony. You are an incredible boy! We love you so very, very, very, much! We hope that you have a fantastic 5th Birthday! May all your wishes come true! Lastly, Nathan, thanks for being our son!

All our love, Mommy and Daddy

Bathtime

Colton, Colton, Colton! He is our fat and happy little guy. I love pictures of the kids in the tub maybe because they are all cleaned up. But I realized I don't have many pictures of Colton in the tub so here are some of him. He loves bath time, he still slump alot because he can't sit up yet because he's too roly-poly, as you can clearly see from the fat rolls in the pictures. Isn't he a chub? And, yes, I will just squeeze him for all of you that wish you could do it for yourselves!

Camp Nate

We had a small party for Nate and let him invite a few friends over. It was kind of an early party since his real birthday isn't until the 20th. It was a camping theme. We began by playing musical chairs and they loved it. Then I had them "go fish", the fish had little things on them such as pretend you are an animal, find this color in the room, etc. Then the last catch was of them getting a bag of gummy worms, swedish fish, a party horn and a flashlight. They boys loved it! I totally forgot to get the camera out so sorry I don't have any pictures of those activities. But here are some pictures of the rest of the night.

Here is the cake I made. I'm very much a novice but it tasted good. It was a nature/ bug cake. Nate loved it and thought it was cool!

Nate is blowing out his candles.

He missed one candle so he was going back to blow it out again.

This is Hyland Squire, Keaton Rasmussen, Nate, Josh and Zachary Heathman getting ready for their cake and ice cream. They are all boys from church that are his age.

The boys are sitting around the "camp fire" (doesn't it look SO real, this is the best that I could come up with). They are getting ready to open presents.

Nate is opening his first present, a monster truck.

Nate is opening up a "super-hero" memory game.

And here is Nate opening up a geo trax train.

All the boys went downstairs to play in the tents. They took their flashlights and a pillow downstairs, turned the lights off and started telling ghost stories. It was funny listening the little guys tell their versions of "scary stories".

Another shot of Nate and Josh, the cutest little campers there ever were.

And at the end of the night, our little campers are just tuckered out after a long night of many camping adventures. They had so much fun that it wiped them out. They wanted to camp downstairs in the tent, so we let them. Honestly, I didn't think they would stay down there and fall asleep. I thought I'd have to get after them for talking, laughing and playing but there really wasn't any of that. It was silent after maybe 10 minutes at the most. So, in the end, Nate had a great time and that alone made all the work all worth it. But the party went well and now that it's over and I am ready to tackle the next project.

Colton

Here is a video clip of our sweet man. He recently has discovered his tongue and is constantly sticking it out. And it is literally sticking out all day, whenever he is up he is sticking it out but the funny thing is, it's always on the side of his mouth and not in the center. He's a silly baby. Hope you enjoy the clip as well!

Super Why

Here the boys are playing "Wyatt" from the show 'Super Why' on PBS. We printed the masks out and they had fun pretending to be Wyatt. They were being so funny but it was one of those things that you just had to be there. Nate also tried putting his glasses on top of the mask and it made him looked really odd. Oh, the things boys will do.

Mmm-Mummy's

I tried making some mummy dogs for our play group's Halloween party. They turned out ok, I definitely need more practice. But the kids liked them. And they are super easy to make. Cause that's what I like, easy and simple.

Trick or Treat

Happy Halloween!

Colton is our little farmer. Isn't he adorable!

This is our new dog, we named him Josh!

Nate was mutated into Leonardo the turtle! (sorry the pic is blurry)

Trick or treat,give me something good to eat. The boys are so ready to get the show going and get some candy. They had a great time at our ward's trunk or treat!

Another pic of Colton.

Nate and all his loot!

Josh and all his loot!

And again Colton gets another picture. He's so darn cute. He kept trying to eat his animals on his clothes.

We've been T.P.'d

Can you seen this mess! This is what Josh did to entertain himself while I hopped in the shower. It's exactly as the saying goes: When the cat is away, the mice will play! And look at him, doesn't he just play the sweet and innocent demeanor so well.

Salon

I am now ready to open for business. I just need some clients now. Danny finished painting the salon on Saturday and it really changed the whole look of the room. We like how it turned out. There are still a few little things here and there that I would like to do to it. But it makes me excited to do hair again. If only I had people to do. In time I'm sure that I'll start doing people's hair. But I think that Danny did a great job on the room!

3 boys

As you can tell I'm not a professional photographer. I could not get them all to cooperate at the same time. And I made the fatal mistake of trying this late at night right before bed. But these are the craziest 3 boys. They have such different personalities and temperment. They keep life interesting and I just can't imagine life any other way.

Giddy-up Cowboy

All the boys have worn this cowboy costume for their first halloween. So, here's cowboy Colton!


You can't really see but these 12month wranglers are super tight on him. It makes his butt so look so dang cute. It really reminds me of the real cowboys that wear really tight wranglers.


I love these little toes! Aren't they adorable!
I'm posting these pics of him dressed up because he isn't wearing this on Halloween because it is honestly too tight on him. I have cowboy boots that go with this but his legs are too fat to get them pulled on him. I love this cowboy!

Misc Pics

So, here's a shot of our big boy. He is going on 5 months on the 22nd of this month but a few weeks ago at his 4 month appt. he weighed 19 lbs 8 oz and was 26 1/2 inches long. He is growing just as much in length as in weight. He's in the 90-95% for his height and as for weight he is actually of the charts. But he is a big growing boy. We love him to death.



This is my 3 crazy boys. No, they didn't all sleep together, I only wish. Colton slept with us and that was a nightmare. If he's near me, he thinks he needs to nurse the whole time. So, I didn't get a lot of sleep being next to him. Anyways, look at those 3, now, it's only 3 boys, but for some reason, being out here everyone just stares at us and comments on how we have 3 boys. They say, "You have a whole team, huh?" "They must keep you busy!" "No girls, huh!" "You just need 2 more to have a basketball team." You name it, it's been said. We go to the store, we get stared at, we go out to eat, they stare, we go to the park, they stare. You get the picture. Danny and I are at a lose as to why everyone stares at us and makes comments. I really don't think having 3 boys is really that unique. We just don't know why we are always being looked at, granite, they are smiling at us but stil?! Anyone out there have any idea to help clue us in?

Branson train ride

We went for a train ride through the beautiful mountains of Branson and we even made it into Arkansas. It was a really pretty ride. We sat on a 2nd deck of the train and it had a sky-lite dome ceiling, so we observed a lot. It did get a little chilly up there from the air conditioner. It was 2 hours long so needless to say that the 2 little ones fell asleep. I even got a small nap in, however, after my neck was so kinked I tried getting into a more comfortable position only to have Colton wake up because he could sense that his mommy was wanting to sleep. Over all it was a relaxing activity. Oh, I have to mention this story, if you've ever seen The Polar Express you'll know what I'm talking about. We had boarded the train and were just sitting waiting to leave the station. One of the train conducters came around to check our tickets, I had a ticket, Nate was holding a ticket and Josh was holding Danny's ticket because he didn't need one. Well, the conducter got mine and Nate's and punched a hole into it but then he went to the aisle across from us. He finished up and was ready to leave and Josh was stilling holding his ticket so I asked if he could come and punch Josh's ticket so he wouldn't feel left out. I don't think Josh would have cared either way but I wanted him to have the chance. He apologized and quickly came over and punched it but not just once put all over the place, it totally reminded me of the Polar Express. Then he took his hat off and let Josh and Nate try it on and get a picture of them in it. He was very nice and Josh loved his ticket, he thought it was so cool. The end.

Table Rock Dam

Look at that beautiful view, and the lake is pretty too!!


Isn't that a sweet memory of father and son!


Nate is throwing rocks trying to make a big splash.You can see his rock in mid-air that he threw.


I loved this photo of Josh. He was trying to show me something on the ground. He's getting big, he's our little pistol, he makes us laugh all the time.


Mommy and Colton over looking Table Rock reservoir. The pictures just don't do justice to how beautiful the scenery really was!

Fish Hatchery

Here we are at the fish hatchery. They had thousands of fish of various sizes. It was really to cool to see how they grow them and then transplant them to various lake, rivers and reservoirs. The boys really liked seeing how many fish were in all the different "growing beds". The first picture with us in front of the sign, if you look closely in the background you can see the dam to Table Rock reservoir. I'll post pics of those tomorrow.