February 10th: Nathan's 1st Birthday

You were acting shy as we serenaded you with Happy Birthday.



Enjoying your birthday pancake breakfast.

Oh sweet Nathan, at times this past year has seemed to fly by and at other times (like in the wee hours of the night) it has seemed to crawl slowly. I've tried to slow the moments down by really taking in all the blessings that you have given me. If I focus on them and remember to count them, they seem to linger a little longer and I get to enjoy one more giggle, one more smile, one more squeeze. I told Scott one day that I think I give you around 200 kisses everyday...seriously. Is that weird? I just can't get enough. We love you so much and are so thankful that God chose us to be your parents.

At one, you are so busy! You started walking around 10 months and really got the hang of it by 11 months. Yeah, you're a go-getter. I think you started so soon because you knew you had to find a faster method of getting away from your sister. Speaking of Hannah...you still adore her. You do everything she does. Sometimes this isn't good. For instance, you know how to correctly perform a "demi plie" (on command) and you don't mind wearing a bow in your hair. Don't worry, you got lots of trucks and balls for your birthday and you love playing with them too. And you love getting dirty. I always knew this about boys, but I'm just now experiencing it first hand. We can go outside and Hannah comes in clean and you somehow have scrapes on your knees, dirt under your finger nails and sand coming out of your shoes. I just hope you don't ever bring lizards or frogs in the house...yuck! And oh yes, one day you acually sneezed a pea out of your nose. That's right...a pea. We were eating black-eyed-peas at dinner and you sneezed and shot one of those bad boys right out your nostril! I've never seen anything like it. I can't imagine how you will gross me out over the coming years, but bring it on!

At your one year check-up you weighed 20 lbs. 15 oz (45%) and you were 30 in tall (80%). You have 8 teeth and they have ALL given you such a hard time. I would say this has been my biggest challenge with you. Your poor little teeth seem to hurt all the time. And when your teeth hurt, you don't sleep very well. Even now, you still wake up on and off at night just screaming with both hands in your mouth. I can't wait for all of them to come in! I really think it will change my...I mean your life.

You are talking more everyday. Your vocabulary now consists of:
Dada (your first word)
Mama
Thank you (although it sounds more like tha-tha) Trust me...he's saying thank you (don't laugh)
Bye-Bye
Cracker (again, it sounds more like cak-ker)

You like to play peek-a-boo and sing the Itsy-Bitsy Spider and Patty-Cake. You also thouroughly enjoy dancing, or as we like to call it...having a Dance Party. We have these parties pretty much everyday around 4:30 when I'm trying to think of something else to do before Daddy gets home. You know when I walk to turn the music on that we are about to dance and as soon as you hear it, your little body starts movin' and shakin'. You bounce up and down and turn in circles until you fall down. Or you try to copy what Hannah is doing (hence the demi plie). You are really funny to watch. You also enjoy "reading" books. You hold them up in front of your face and say, "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh." And then you laugh really hard at yourself....precious.


Puppy Dog on your shirt and a barbie in your hand.

 

For your first birthday we had a fun Circus Party. You ate so much and loved it when everyone sang to you.



Sam and Hannah enjoying after party pop-corn.

 Nathan, we love you so much and had a blast loving on you this past year. Here's to many more kisses from your mommy!

January Happenings

We are so sorry for our serious lack of blogging lately! Our computer is officially toast. I used that excuse for a while and then Scott started bringing his work computer home to use and I've just been putting it off for two months...until now. So, I'm going to recap our happenings starting with January. Here's what we were up to:

One last Christmas celebration with GG and Jeanine.

 Nan and Pop came to visit and we took them to the zoo.

 

Hannah had a Daddy-Daughter date and went to see her first movie, Beauty and the Beast.

 She really liked the concession stand.

We spent one Saturday at the rodeo. Cowgirl Up!

All dressed up for church.

Such a handsome little man.

I can't believe he turned one in February. Stay tuned for pics of the "Greatest Birthday Party on Earth" (we had a circus party)!

Celebrating 5 Years

Better late than never.  We went up to Wisconsin in October to celebrate our 5-year anniversary.  We left the kids in Canyon and spent a week relaxing and refreshing.  We started in Minneapolis with a visit to our good friends who just relocated to the Twin Cities from Fort Worth.  We stayed at their cabin for a few days before driving over to Appleton, Wisconsin at the end of the week to celebrate Nate and Kendra’s wedding.  We had lots of good food, good beer, and of course all sorts of local cheeses from Wisconsin. Here are a few pictures from our trip.

Jennifer worked on her knitting early and often

We took a walk in a great park near our friends’ house

The fall color was magnificent. Check out this tree!

Here was our view from their beautiful cabin.  All we did was sleep, eat, read, knit, watch movies, and canoe around the lake. So relaxing! (We should be receiving our AARP cards soon )

This was my favorite restaurant.  An old fashioned drive in with hand made root beer.  I stopped in there almost daily for refills.

The food was outstanding!

One day we went over to a state park to do some hiking and take in the fall color.  Here we are recreating our honeymoon pose.

Jennifer saw a bald eagle fly over while we were at this scenic overlook.

We had some great German food as several of the local towns were celebrating Oktoberfest.

On the way to Appleton, we visited the Leinenkugel Brewery in Chippewa Falls.  The samples hit the spot (even if it was only 10:30am).

This probably summarizes our trip the best.  We saw hundreds of big red barns.

We were so busy at the wedding that we didn’t even snap any pictures, but we had a great time catching up with old friends and celebrating Nate and Kendra’s big day.

Merry Christmas from Canyon and Angel Fire!

We had a great visit in Canyon with everyone.  We drove up to Canyon on Christmas Eve and arrived just in time for dinner with turkey, dressing, and all the fixings.  Before dinner, we did a balloon release for Anne. She loved celebrating Christmas. We wrote her messages on each of them and sent them her way.

Hannah wasn’t too crazy about letting her balloon go, but luckily Aunt Rebecca and Uncle Jon Michael thought ahead and got her two backup balloons, which she eventually also released.

After dinner, we exchanged gifts.  The big hit for Hannah was her Tangled coloring book (can’t you tell that’s what she has on her head?)

Hannah also got some new snow gear which she was able to put to good use with some cross-country sledding on Christmas morning.

Here is a video of all of us getting in on the sledding fun:

(note: if you are trying to view by email or on your phone, the video may not work and you will have to access our blog from your computer)

Sledding in Canyon

 

The next day we drove up to Angel Fire, NM to ski.  Hannah is our newest little ski bunny.  She skied two days for about an hour each day.  The first day she skied with me in between my legs.  The second day she took a lesson from a ski instructor named Johnny.  When we told her that Mr. Johnny was going to teach her to ski, she said “No, I want Prince Phillip,” her favorite prince from Sleeping Beauty.  To be on the safe side, Johnny agreed to be Prince Phillip for the day.  Now, when Hannah is telling us the Sleeping Beauty story, she says, “…then one day along came Prince Phillip and he taught her to ski then he kissed her and she woke up….”  He obviously made a pretty big impact on her.

Getting fitted for her boots.

The Hubley ski bunnies

Ready to go

Skiing with Dad

Here are a couple videos of her skiing:

 

On the mountain (with no kids )

After skiing, Hannah also tried her hand at downhill sledding.  She had a blast doing that too!  Here are a couple of videos: