Saturday, September 28, 2013

5 Year Old Nathan

Happy Birthday Nathy Pants! Nathan spent his birthday morning at preschool. They sang to him and he brought Tootsie Pops to share with everyone. Sean got home a little early and we let him open his presents. He got a scooter (one with real tires) which he then spent the rest of the afternoon riding around. He chose Lasagna for his dinner, but when it came time to eat he wasn't really hungry at all. I think he maybe ate two bites. Then he had a pirate ship cake and Mint and Chip ice cream. Nathan is a great kid!! He is fun, happy, social, funny and an all around awesome little dude. Here is a little about Nathan at age 5: His favorite foods are lasagna, cheese, ice cream, popsicles (he is the only one in the family who will choose popsicles over ice cream for dessert), blueberries, watermelon. He loves the song "Follow the Prophet" (the Jonah verse) and recently "Baby Beluga." His favorite color is blue (he tells me often that he likes all the "boy" colors but not "girl colors"). He loves to play outside: wandering in the forest, climbing trees, riding the quad, jumping on the trampoline, kicking soccer balls, and riding his scooter. He also likes to play Legos and play with his family. His good buddies are Jonah, Samuel, Paul, Wyatt, Rez..... and pretty much anyone who is around to play with. He can make friends with anyone anywhere. We were at a High School football game and he was sitting in between complete strangers (we were in the row next to him) and he was totally comfortable. Before the Father-Son camp out he went with Sean and Ben to get pizza. While they were waiting for it to cook Nathan made friends with a middle aged man and they started chatting about all sorts of things. When they were getting ready to leave Nathan said to Sean, "this is my friend, Mike." He is a great sound-effect maker. He is not a fan of dogs (not even our own dog). He has a good memory and a great sense of direction. There have been several times when we are driving in the car somewhere and he will tell me where to turn (places that aren't even that common for us to go to) and on the way he'll point to that street and tell me who lives that way and so on (he definitely gets this from his Dad). He likes to help Dad work on things and he also enjoys helping me in the kitchen or with jobs. He is a great big brother and especially enjoys loving on his baby brothers, Ian. He loves to keep up with his big brother. He is ALL boy (we have had several "potty" incidences that prove this...). He brings a fun, energetic, happy spirit to our home and we love him bunches.

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Hanging at the Fair

We took advantage of School Days at the State Fair again this year. We saw a Cirque Nirvana show, a Wolf show, pig races, Chinese Acrobats, Native American Fire Dancers, saw the model trains, went to the McDonald's Farm fun zone for kids, got a milkshake from the Dairy, saw a cow get milked, checked out the arts and crafts (including the Lego displays), played on John Deere tractors, went to the petting zoo (complete with all the normal animals as well as an ostrich, zebra and baby camel), ate a picnic lunch.....a full day of fun. And all of that for me and 6 kiddos for a whopping...$4. Yes, my friends, that is how it is done.

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Dirty Dash 2013

I did the Dirty Dash last year with a few of my friends. I thought it would be a good race for Sean to do because it wasn't just a running race - it involved all sorts of other fun obstacles along the way. So when we saw a groupon for the event a few months ago we decided to do it together. It was held at the Wild West Zoo right here in our own town of Edgewood. We got a deal on 4 tickets so we asked Caelan and Ben if they wanted to do it with us. They decided to. It was a fun race through mud puddles, over rope walls, through mud tunnels, sliding across blow up slides, etc. We did a lot of walking through the course, but we all made it. Fun times.

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

The Wheels on the Bus

Back to School! Caelan is now in 5th grade with Ms. Brown. Ben is in 3rd grade with Mrs. Vallejos. Megan is in 1st grade with Mrs. White again (we love her). And Nathan started a new preschool at Manzano Mountain Learning Center (4 days a week from 9 to 12:15). His teachers are Ms. Lydia and Ms. Tara.They had stagger start dates, so Caelan started on a Wed, Ben and Megan started on Friday and Nathan started two weeks later after Labor Day.

Look what we have here...

I've had a couple of babies who have found their thumbs at one time or another. Even though I always think it is adorable I quickly take out the thumb and replace it with a binkie (I just figure the binkie will be easier to get rid of than the thumb), but this little guy is pretty determined. He takes a binkie, but he spits it out more often that any of the others and he also finds his thumb whenever he does this. I will sometimes find him asleep sucking on his thumb. I must admit it is one of the cutest things ever. I love it! And it's pretty nice that he can find it himself.