Nathan and The Special Wendy's

One morning after giving Nathan a bath we decided to play with his hair.  We thought that since our cousin Luke is so cute with a mohawk we would try it too.  Right now Nathan is very photogenic and always gives me very cute smiles!

He was being a really good sport about all the pictures especially since he was pretty tired.

Then we had to try a more conservative style and came to the conclusion that he is cute no matter how we do his hair.  :0)

Nathan at 7 1/2 months.

 

Recently we have been meeting some friends at Chick-fil-a to let the kids play and visit.  We usually drop the boys off at school and then head over.  Eliza loves to play with Claudia and Nathan on the playground.  The other day we were running some errands and she asked "Mom, are we going to the special Wendy's?  You know the one with the playground?"  I just had to smile.

 

Eliza, Nathan and Claudia coming down the slide.

Eliza

Claudia and Eliza 

Nathan scrunched in between the shoe benches.

Feb. 8, 2013

Going out with a bang!

My last days in my 20's went out with a bang...literally!  The day before my birthday Eliza, Nathan and I were running to the store.  It was cold outside and Eliza was complaining about it, so I told her to wait for me just inside the door.  Since she was a little behind me to my left and the entrance to the store was on my right, I thought she would go behind me and into the store.  I was carrying Nathan in front of me and had him close to protect him from the cold wind.  I didn't see Eliza run forward and cross in front of me.  Since the store had just opened for the morning there weren't a lot of people to witness my falling over the top of Eliza, with my shoe flying a couple feet down the sidewalk!  I caught myself with my elbow and rolled away from Eliza the best I could while trying not to smash Nathan.  As it turned out Eliza had a small, emphasis on small, scrape on her knee and Nathan wasn't fazed at all.  I, however, damaged my elbow.  I was wearing a long sleeved shirt and a jacket and still managed to loose a dime sized chunk of skin.  It didn't bleed a lot, but it hurt!

The previously existing scars on my arm are from a bike wreck when I was about ten.  This is why you should listen to your Grandma when she tells you not to do something!

A little bit of bruising is starting to show.

On a happier note, I found a box on my doorstep the morning of my birthday.  It had this little puppy, box of chocolates and a small rose plant.  Andy wasn't able to come home that weekend, so he made sure I would have something to remind me how sweet I am.  :0)



I also got to go to brunch with my visiting teaching companion and one of our sisters on my birthday.  We went to a little German restaurant.

 

The chocolate croissant and vanilla fruit danish were really good!

 

Katie also shared her cheese cake recipe with me.  It was heavenly!!!  However, if you asked my kids you would have thought I was trying to poison them!  I didn't mind too much though.  That just left more for me.

This is an update of my elbow at day 4.  Getting some more bruising showing up.

 

This last one was at a week out.  The bruising stay around for a while and at three weeks out I still have a pretty decent scab.  The good thing is that the scar will bled in with the rest and no one will be the wiser.  When it is all said and done I don't feel any older now that I am no longer in my twenties.

Feb. 1-2, 2013 

January 2013 Updated!

January was a fairly quiet month.  We definitely needed a few days of down time following all of our holiday travels.  We quickly got back into our school routine and looked forward to Dad's weekend visits.  When Andy comes home he is good to help with any projects that need to be done.  He also volunteers to help the kids with whatever they need. 

 

 

Apparently we wiped Dad and Nathan out! 

Dad was suppose to be getting the kids ready for scriptures while I jumped through the shower.  This is how I found him.  The kids were being very quiet because they wanted me to see.



Nathan loves to snuggle with his dad!

The kids were out of school on the 18th and the 21st for Martin Luther King Day, so we decided to head out to Asheville for the long weekend.  The night before we left it snowed!!  I got the kids out of bed around 9 pm to let them play in the snow.  Experience has taught me that the snow wouldn't be good to play in in the morning.  The kids LOVED it!

Eliza and Daniel throwing snowballs at Bradley.



Look out Bradley!  Eliza is going to get you!!
 

 

 

 

Daniel built a small snowman on the deck. 

Eliza was more interested in throwing snowballs than building anything.

 

 

The snow was pretty wet and made the deck slippery.  The kids were sliding all over!

 

 

"I'm going to get you Daniel!"

 

 Bradley with his snowman.

The kids played in the snow for about 30 minutes and then they were pretty cold!  It rained on the snow later in the night and it wasn't good for playing in the next morning.  We were glad we got some snow time in!

Poor Nathan started to get a cold.  He is usually very happy to play in his exer saucer in the morning while I get the kids ready for school, but he does need more attention when he isn't feeling well.

 

 

Nathan did well in the morning, but the closer we got to leaving for Asheville the harder it was for him.  He just wanted to be held!

I got him ready for the day and then started loading the van.  He was not happy!

He screamed and cried the whole time.  They boys were helping me carry things out to the van, so I asked Eliza to try to get Nathan to quit crying.  After several minutes it go very quiet.  Eliza came running to the door and said, "I did it!  Nathan stopped crying!  I gave him his puppy and he stopped crying!"

 

Poor kid was so tired he went to sleep in his exer saucer!

We carefully loaded him up and headed out.  He slept for the first hour, but then he was a little bit whiny.  We stopped for gas and I got him out.  He was stinky and he had started to fever.  I changed and fed him.  Then be broke out a little Tylenol and he slept the rest of the way to Asheville.  He fevered the first day and all night!  Andy and I took turns sleeping on the couch with him.  It was a rough night!!  Saturday he didn't have a fever but he still wasn't feeling the best.

Dad getting ready to feed Nathan.  I was getting through the shower and Andy wasn't sure where the bibs were, so he made one out of a shopping bag.  Worked pretty well.

By Saturday afternoon Nathan was feeling much better.  The nights were still a little rough, but not too bad.

We got the game "Fibber" for Christmas from our cousins, so we decided to try it out.

Nathan thought everyone looked pretty silly with their long noses!

 

The goal is to discard all your cards first.  However, if you try to discard different cards than what you say someone can call you a fibber.  If they are correct you must pick up all the cards and add to the nose on your glasses.  I think Bradley was fibbing a lot just to get some extra noses.

 

I think Dad just wanted the game to get over, so he kept earning extra noses too.  It was pretty close between Bradley and Dad to see who was the biggest Fibber!

 

 Eliza trying out the extra noses.  This was a very fun game.  We are going to have to play it again!

 

Eliza and Daddy taking a nap Sunday afternoon.

 

 

Everyone misses dad and can't get enough snuggles from him when he is around!

 

My new calling at church is bulletin board specialist.  Our bishop asked me to do something with the theme that would catch peoples eye and get them to look more closely at our board.  I pondered and prayed about it and some ideas come to me.  It took a little doing, and a little help from family, but I was able to come up with something that hopefully draws people's attention.

 

 

As a ward we have been challenged to memorize the 19 sections from the For Strength of Youth.  The chart is were people can make the progress our ward is making with that.

 

 

Andy has been getting ready for his PT test in Feb.  It was cold the weekend he came home so he did his run on the treadmill.  The kids love to take turns running after he gets done.  This is a special activity they only get to do with Dad.  :0)  Andy told the kids they needed to get dressed and put their shoes on before they could run.  Eliza went to her room and got herself dressed and found her boots.  She has a certain sense of style that is all her own!

 

There really is something special about a dad and his little princess!



 

 

Nathan isn't big enough to run on the treadmill so his special time with dad consisted of standing on his chest!

Nathan thought is was pretty funny!

 

 

We kept ourselves pretty busy and January went by quickly.  We are so glad to have another month down and only two more to go until Dad is home to stay!  Andy and I were also able to make it to the temple the last weekend in January.  It was good to be able to attend with him again.  We haven't been able to go together as much as we would like, but we are going to make more of an effort to get there this year.

 

 

Adventures with Dad and Grandpa

Before I get to the adventures the kids had with Grandpa and Dad while Nathan and I were in Utah I need to back track a little to document some pictures.  Andy had these on his Ipod, but since the Ipods are new we are still figuring out all the fun things they can do.  Andy figured out how to share his pictures with me and I recently figured out how to download them to my computer!  (Thanks Laura for helping walk me through the process.)

These pictures are from Nov. or Oct.  The kids love to help smash down the leaves in the yard bin, so that we can get as many as possible in.  Eliza was a little unsure about being in there with both boys.

"Get a grip girl!"

"Maybe it isn't so bad after all!"

"Uh...are you leaving me in here?"

These next pictures were taken on Andy's birthday.

Nathan and Daddy

I love to see the facial expressions change from picture to picture...

Who could help but love these monkeys? 

Now onto the Grandpa and Dad adventures!

 

 

Nathan and Grandpa

We picked Grandpa up at the curb and drove around to drop Mom and Nathan off.

 

While Mom was in Utah, Dad and Grandpa watched the three older kids. Bradley fell asleep at the dinner table the first full day after refusing to eat his food.

 

I asked Andy to please at least comb Eliza's hair and put it into a pony tail everyday.  He did a great job to make sure she was pretty everyday, and documented it well. "I have gained a greater appreciation for the hairstyles that women and girls produce to look so good."- andy

Dad got a BB gun for Christmas, so they went shooting almost every day!

Daniel, Eliza, Grandpa and Bradley

Grandpa reloading...

Daniel trying to get the hang of shooting...

getting better!

Eliza's turn!

Ready, aim, fire!

Bradley was a natural!  No that isn't some crazed animal on his head.  It is a hat!

Got the hang of it now!

After shooting the van had a hard time getting out of the mud.  Thankfully it wasn't too bad.

They also visited an wild life preserve.  The snapping turtle would follow their little fingers on the glass and try to eat them!

"A turtle Dad!"

The otters were a favorite!

What a cute little kitten!

Andy said that these mountain lions were pacing up and down the fence watching Bradley's hat.  They want to play tag with it...with their TEETH!

One of the wolves.

More proof that Eliza's hair got done.  Way to go Dad!

This was her due for church.

They also hiked up to Chimney Rock.  Using the facilities before heading up.

The flag was on the top...almost there!

"We made it to the top!"

Even Grandpa made it with the "beaver" on his head.  :0)

 

Heading back down...

Bradley, Daniel, Grandpa and Eliza

Can you see Bradley hiding in this picture?

They took pringles and some hot chocolate with them.  Grandpa and Dad think of everything!

This playground wasn't too far away from Chimney Rock, so they stopped to play.  Daniel learned how to go down the fireman's pole at this park.  He was super excited!

The kids had so much fun with Dad and Grandpa that they didn't even miss me, but they did miss Nathan.  :0)

Thanks again Dad and Grandpa for making it possible for me to have such a nice trip to Utah. The kids can't wait to do it again.

Dec. 26-31, 2012