Mess Alert

Austin loves himself some Ranch dressing. Every so often he actually bites into the vegetable too. This last picture is great. Sean took Nathan and Ben to see "Man of Steel" at the cheap theater one night. They went out for Baskin Robbins ice cream afterwards. Sean looked over in the car and Nathan was clean as a whistle and Ben looked like this. HA! Totally uncharacteristic of him.

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Cupboard Under the Stairs

"Mom, can I take a rest under the stairs...like Harry Potter?" "Sure." He slept a good 3 hours in there. He's asked every time since then to take his rests in the closet under the stairs. We like those movies at this house, can you tell?

Up, Up and Away

This year we barely squeezed in the Balloon Fiesta. We went the second to last night. We've never been to the night glow before, so we thought we'd do that this year. It was great. We drove down Friday evening and headed down to the field. It was still a little light when they start to fill the balloons, so we still got to have the experience of being right in the midst of all the balloons filling right next to us. The balloons don't go up into the air, but it's still cool to see them all lit up on the field. The firework show afterwards was GREAT. I think it was better than any of the 4th of July shows we've seen in the last several year - really awesome.

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Happy Happy Birthday Austy Dear!

I love two year old birthdays. They are old enough to get excited about opening presents and they can actually do it on their own, but they could care less about how many or how expensive, etc. They love the cake and ice cream and get excited about what they can recognize in the decorating of it but could care less if the center sunk in and you had to stuff pieces of cake underneath it to even it out....HE HE HE. Two year old birthdays are great! Austin was pretty funny in the morning. All of the family was obviously pretty excited about it being his birthday and so we excitedly told him, "It's your birthday. YAY!" at which he quickly replied (with a good deal of sass), "No." He responded in this way several times throughout the day. He wanted to bring in the "Terrible 2's" with a bang! Ha! Actually Austy is one fantastic two year old. He is very stubborn when he wants to be (mostly this involves things that he WANTS). He is determined and adventurous (he plays on the playground at the park like a champ, he climbs up on counters and tables, he tries to ride the big bikes, he wanders through the forest on adventures and he is our first ever climber out of bed). He is cuddly and sweet (he will just lay on Sean or me and cuddle up with his blanket). He still loves his binkie and blanket (I let him have it all day on his birthday but we are now trying to limit it to bedtime - so far we haven't been too successful - he just finds it). He is quite independent and capable (he will push a chair up to the fridge, get out the milk and pour it into his cup. Just yesterday I watched him drink straight from the milk carton....Yikes!). He is a good little talker (I think he probably is our earliest talked and says the most things at 2 years old - he has a very big vocabulary). One of my favorite things he says is, "Oh no" because he has this cute little sing-song way that he says it and it sounds so sincere. Adorable. He'll bring us "everything" he needs when he wants his diaper changed or when we ask him to go get the stuff: a diaper, pj's, powder, diaper cream, wipes (often handfuls and handfuls of wipes not in the container)...and he is runs in and out of the rooms getting supplies and then dropping them off and then going back for more. He is very proud of himself every times he does this. He loves all transportation type things: cars, motorcycles, bikes, quads, planes, trains, etc. He loves balls and bath time and playing outside. He loves cheese, oatmeal, milk, bananas, pizza, noodles, rice, red peppers, peaches, watermelon, ice cream, cookies (mostly anything sweet), ice, etc. He loves to do something that gets a reaction from the family...and then do it over and over again. We have some good laughs. We loves this little boy to pieces!

Nathan's Preschool Pictures

Here is Nathan's preschool picture along with his class picture. His two teachers are Miss Lydia and Miss Tara. He loves his school. His buddies at school are Jonah (of course.... we carpool with Jonah and he spends one afternoon at our house each week and Nathan goes to his house one afternoon each week too), Vicinte, Wyatt, and Ensonio (I'm probably not writing that name correctly - Nathan says it with a good Spanish accent, so I'm not exactly sure how to spell it).