Birthday Boy

Nate's birthday was pretty uneventful but I think he had a fun day. He woke up to find some decorations in his room that his sisters made him. It was all their idea and I thought it was really cute...

Nate loves Sesame Street.

With one of the decorators
(the other one had already left for school)

We had a pretty normal day. Natalie had preschool that day so Nate and I got some good one-on-one play time together. I worked hard making my first ice cream cake and it turned out pretty darn good. The cake was Natalie's idea. It was chocolate cake with cookies 'n cream ice cream.

"Coo-kies! (Num num num)"

Nate especially loved when we sang Happy Birthday to him.

Here he is so excited for it...

The big moment...

(You might notice that Joe expertly blew out the candles before he stuck his face right in the flames.)

Here's our little cookies monster enjoying his cake
Showing us that he's two with one finger from each hand
Then it was present time...

A ball from LizzyPosing for a picture with a book from his cousinsIt's so fun when they finally figure out how to open things themselves...

This was probably the biggest hit:
trains!
You'll probably notice the girls playing too. They all love to play trains together.

Concentrating...
"Happy to you" Nate!

2

My baby boy turned two today. I thought I would handle it better since I've basically been telling people he is two for awhile now. (When people ask how old he is, he says "Two!"--it's the only number he knows.) Then, when I got him out of bed yesterday and I realized it was the last day he'd be one, it hit me like a ton of bricks.

He gave me the best gift on his last day of being one, though. He snuggled up on my lap and fell asleep. I loved every minute of it.

Before Nate was born, when it was just Joe and I and the girls, I had the strongest feeling that I needed to have another baby. It's hard to describe except as just a huge preoccupation with having a baby. It was all I could think about. I hadn't felt that way before and I haven't felt that way since. I believe that these feelings were from God. I think it was necessary for me to feel that way so that we would actually have another baby. After Elizabeth and Natalie's traumatic birth experiences, and after being told that we had a 50% chance of it happening again, we were wary, for sure. But, I couldn't deny what I was feeling. After much prayer and discussion, Joe trusted in my feelings as well and we proceeded on faith.

We had new doctors this time around since we were now in California. It seemed like every time I had to explain my history, I'd get doctors expressing concern or at least astonishment at our decision. And, I can't even count how many times I was asked if I wanted my tubes tied during the c-section surgery. When we found out we were having a boy, we got a lot of "Oh, now you have your boy and you can be done" type of comments. But it wasn't about that at all for us. We weren't having another one to try for a boy. We'd have been just as happy with another girl.

Miraculously, we made it full-term and had a completely normal pregnancy. Our little Nathaniel arrived--our "gift of God". He truly has been a gift and now he is two. It's hard to believe.

He makes us all laugh. Sometimes a little too much. Sometimes we can't keep straight faces when he's saying a prayer. He's just too adorable and he often likes to throw in random things. Our favorite example is one time when we were helping him say a prayer. We were saying thank you for our family like we always do and naming everyone by name and this is how Nate said it: "Detz (thanks) Mama, Dada, Na-na, Na-na, pan-kick (pancake)". He loves his pancakes. :)

Sometimes he knows he's being funny and he just plays it up. One time in Costco he started doing this random thing and making us all laugh. Here's the video....


Unfortunately, he kept doing it over and over, and all at the TOP of his lungs until it became a bit much. He also likes to suddenly sing/yell, "That's... El-mo's world!" (or at least his version of it) at the top of his lungs in stores. He is a funny kid.

Here are some things that I want to remember about Nathaniel right now:

-The way he always says thank you--"Detz, Mama"--and how he keeps saying it until I say, "You're welcome."
-The way he says sorry. For a long time, he has only known how to give kisses to say sorry. Just recently he has started saying "solly". Sometimes if he feels bad for something, he'll just keep saying "Solly, Mama" over and over in such a sweet voice. (Noticing a trend? He likes to repeat things a lot.)
-How he says "Hook!" when he wants me to look at something. He's been doing this for awhile and I have a feeling it might end soon. His vocabulary has been improving so quickly. I don't like it!! :)
-The way he pumps his arm and says "I will go, I will do!" when we sing this song.
-The way he plays hide and go seek: he plugs his ears, closes his eyes, and says "Two...two...two.." Sometimes he says "Two...two...fo-ty...two."

-This look he gives me when he's not happy about something:
-The way he calls balls, "ball-kick". (see above video)
-He is an amazing climber. At 18 months, he was climbing those curvy ladder-things at the park. Other parents are often quite concerned about the things he attempts, and I usually stay close, but he does fine!

-The way he likes to say "Hello" and "Bye-bye" to everyone and everything. Usually, even if he's really upset about leaving something behind, if I say, "Say 'bye-bye (toy/park/mimi, etc)'!" He will happily say goodbye and be over it.

I love this boy
and I love to watch him grow.

Preschool

I don't know if I've mentioned on here yet that I actually decided not to start Natalie in kindergarten this year. It was a hard decision to make but Joe and I felt good about what we decided. A lot of things went into the decision. We felt, and still feel, that she probably would have done fine but we wanted to give her a little more time before she officially starts the 16+ years of school ahead of her. She would have been really young for her grade. One thing that affected our decision was that it's an all-day kindergarten here. I just didn't know if she (or I!) would be ready for that quite yet.

I did feel like she needed to have something this year, though. We had fun with our co-op preschool last year. I got her on the waiting list for a preschool right at the elementary school that looked really nice and actually doesn't cost a fortune like many others around here. The days passed and it looked like she wouldn't get in. Finally, the weekend before they were starting we got a call saying she got in! It was such a relief. She started on Wednesday.

The only picture I got inside her classroom:
(It's hard managing a toddler who wants to play on everything but isn't supposed to with one arm and taking pictures with the other...)

She had a great first day. She loves her teacher and she is so excited to get to know the kids in her class. I'm excited to get my chance to help out in the class and see her in there.

1st Grade

Five days after we moved, Elizabeth started school. She got gipped out of some vacation since she got out of school in late June up there and then started in the middle of August here. She didn't mind too much, though. We had a fun time shopping for her school supplies and picking out a lunch box.

On her first day, she was up and dressed early. She was excited and a little nervous.

Cute girl

(It's funny--she tells me she likes her bangs but on the first day she felt like having them pinned back, so we did.)

It only took two days before she decided that she really likes school. She likes her teacher and she's made some friends. She finished her first project--a "Me" box that she decorated with pictures. Inside she had to put three things that are important/meaningful to her. She chose her little tiny blood pressure cuff from her baby book that the hospital let us keep after she was released, her soccer trophy, and her Book of Mormon. I'm excited for her to have a chance to show off her box. It was actually the example of a friend from class who brought his little Bible that gave her idea.

I have been waiting to see how Elizabeth would handle getting up and ready early every morning. This is a girl that would fight and fight getting ready and barely make it in time for her 10:40 kindergarten last year. But, I have been pleasantly surprised. For the most part, she sets her alarm all on her own and gets up and dressed by herself. We seem to only encounter problems when she starts reading in the morning and then it is hard to get her to do much of anything. I guess having a bookworm isn't the worst problem we could have. Anyway, at least so far (knock on wood) she has been doing great. I've been very proud of her.

Natalie

This girl is four. I keep reminding myself of that fact lately. Four can be a hard age. It's a transition from toddler/pre-school age to school-age. They become more independent in so many ways, and you start to think "They know better!" when they act like a toddler again.

My sweet Natalie is in one doozy of a tantrum phrase right now. It wears on me. I'm never sure exactly how to handle them. If something goes not quite according to how Natalie had planned, you can pretty much count on some level of tantrum. They range from quietly crying and miserable looks to angry, withering stares and slamming of doors. A new favorite is to take her blanket and go lay on her bed and sulk for long periods of time. (Has anyone ever read Spinky Sulks by William Steig? It is hilarious and we just listened to it in the car the other day. It was all I could do to not say "This is you, Natalie!")

Anyway, I always feel like I'm walking the line between ignoring her inappropriate behavior/punishing over the top behavior and yet making sure she knows I love her and that I want her to be with us. The other day she must have had like 4 raging tantrums and it was one of those miraculous days where I was handling everything really well. I wasn't upset, I was just so confused as to why she was acting like that. I started to wonder if she is not getting enough sleep or something. I'm sure this is just a phase and we will work through it.

Natalie is such a sweetheart in so many ways. It is so fun to watch her and Nate together. Elizabeth used to be THE favorite sister because she would give him more attention. Natalie loves to play with him now, too, and she is incredibly patient with him. She uses the sweetest little voice to talk to him. Even when he's doing his loud, repetitive, obnoxious thing to get her attention--"NA-NA! NA-NA!"--she will say "Just a minute, Nate" so sweetly. In fact she is a good example to me. Of course Nate adores her and loves to play with her. Sometimes he only wants Na-Na to read him a story. It is too cute.

(Gotta love the drool-soaked shirt)

It sometimes makes me sad that Natalie will most likely be starting kindergarten this next year and will miss out on play time with Nate (I say most likely because we don't know where we're going to be come Fall!). I wanted them to have more time together. I was hoping that she and Elizabeth would be 2 years apart and she and Nate 2 years apart but it isn't working out that way. Natalie has been trying to be older than she is her entire life and as a result she is completely ready for school. As much as I wanted her to have another year, I can't imagine making her wait. Her birthday is December 1st, the day before the cut-off here, so she barely makes it. Life will be different next year with just Nate at home all day...

Natalie had a great year of preschool. I haven't talked much about the co-op preschool we did but I really did enjoy it. It was hard at times but a lot of fun, too. Natalie LOVED it and was always so happy on preschool days. She's had a hard time since it ended but we're trying to fit some play-dates and things in for her.

We had a some fun field trips. One to a local candy shop that let the kids come and make their own candies. They were so nice. Elizabeth came along and we all had a blast dipping things in chocolate.

So intent...

Proud of her creations:

I couldn't get any good shots because they were always too busy making (eating) the candy.

For their end of year trip, we went to the train museum. It was our first time and the kids all loved it.They had this fun play area with train tables:

I'll have to get this guy some train stuff someday. He loves them.
(He calls them "beep-beep"s instead of "choo-choo"s--adorable :).

We got some cute class pictures, too, which I may put up when I get them.

Here are some of my favorite preschool activities:
-A healthy snacks restaurant. The kids had menus with pictures of coins on them so they could use their allotment of change to decide what they wanted.
-A lesson on magnets. We moved little boats with magnets and did some cool tricks (like the Indian rope trick: attach one end of a piece of thread in a lump of clay and stick on your table. Tie the other end to a paper clip. Use a strong magnet to see if you can lift and hold the paper clip into the air without ever touching it.)
-A 'moving through the seasons' lesson with activities and snacks from every season including a cotton ball snowball fight.

and last but not least...
-Being with my Natalie-boo (this post is about her after all)

I love you, Natalie.

The Graduate

This was a big weekend for our family. Joe graduated from law school. That's right, the day finally came. It felt like it never would 3 years ago but sure enough the day came and went.

First, the kids and I decorated a sign for him on his last night of finals:
Then, Saturday was graduation day. It seems to be a bit of a tradition for the students to walk with any children they may have so that's what Joe did.

I was one proud mom/wife watching my 4 favorite people walk across that stage. I was especially proud of Joe, who almost didn't make it through this law school experience but decided to stick with it and even graduated "with distinction".
Not only that but he found an area of law he's interested in, found a firm, managed to get hired on as a clerk, and has impressed them so much that they offered him a job after he takes the bar. Hiring someone right out of law school is not something they do often. Joe is that amazing :). But seriously, it is a huge blessing for our family. (More on that later...)

It's the end of an era for our family. A hard era of our life that has made all of us stronger, but it was fun, too. Now, off to the real world ...
These are the wonderful people that came to support us: (not to mention the countless others who have supported us all along but who couldn't make the trip--we love you, too)

The 3 J's:
Joe, Justin and Justin

The number of children between us jumped from 3 to 7 yet somehow we all made it! :)

I love this guy:

On to the next big challenge: the Bar....

17 months

Nathaniel is now 17 months old. Only a month away from 1 1/2! I can't believe it. He is finally starting to talk a little bit more. His current favorite word is "peesh" (please). He has definitely figured out how to get his way in this family and that is to go up to one of his family members and say "peesh" in this soft little high-pitched voice. He's got us all wrapped around his finger. Elizabeth especially is a sucker for his "peesh" and will give him pretty much anything she has, no matter how beloved by her. Yesterday, Joe got the girls balloons for Valentine's Day and forgot to get one for Nate. Elizabeth basically gave hers to him even though I could see in her face what it was costing her. She wrote "Elizabeth and Nate" on it and let him play with it. It was so sweet.

(Sidenote: In case you're wondering about Natalie, she will give up pretty much anything for Elizabeth. Just the other day she had set the table for dinner all by herself and she was going to sit in a certain chair. Elizabeth threw a fit and cried about this arrangement. I wouldn't budge. It was about time for Natalie to get to choose where she she wanted to sit! Natalie suddenly says "OK, we can change it", and happily moves everything about. I told her she didn't have to and she said, "I want to!" I was actually angry about this until I decided to calm down and let Natalie be a peacemaker if that's what she wants.)

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Nate is talking more. When he's in the mood, he will try to repeat things we say. He has even said some prayers now. In addition to "peesh" he says, "Mama, ball, Dada, Na-Na (Natalie), bubble, whoa, uh-oh (more like "eh-oo") and "da-ya" for bye-bye, and also thank you.

I think the reason he isn't talking more is that he has perfected the art of non-verbal communication. It's quite amazing, actually. For instance, if he wants to watch a show he will either point at the TV while looking at me and nod his head up and down, or go sit on the couch with his blanket and point at the TV. If he's hungry or thirsty he will come up to me and say "peesh" and then start walking toward the kitchen and make sure I'm following him. I ask him questions of things he might want and he either nods his head yes or whines for no.

Don't get me wrong--it's not all peaceful communication around here. Frequently he decides to experiment with his awful raptor-shriek to get what he wants (all of our kids have done this--that's what we named it when Elizabeth was little). We do our best to ignore that and respond to the "peesh".

A sad thing happened recently to little Nate. The tag on his blanket that he loved so dearly finally fell off. It was hanging by a thread. He would always find the tag and put it up by his face while he sucked his thumb with his blankie. When we laid him down in bed, he would rotate the blanket around until he found it. He brought it to me the other day, unattached. What did I do with it? Took a picture to remember it by and then threw it in the garbage....

The sad remains of the tag:

It was actually quite heartbreaking that day when I put him down for his nap and he just kept rotating his blanket around and around. I think he has adjusted to it, now, though. :)

Here's a little video I got of him doing his cow sound and saying "peesh". I love how he lifts up his chin and sticks out his lips when he says "moo". You'll have to excuse my wiping of his nose with my finger. Gross, I know. What can I say, I'm a mom. That boy does not stop drooling either. I think it's because of his huge mouth. It doesn't even bother me anymore but occasionally I get a glimpse of what that looks like to other people who aren't his parents and I remember to take care of it better...

Wow, I'm rambling today. The video:

I am such a sucker for that boy. He is going to be so spoiled if I keep this up but I can't help myself. :)

Six Years Old

We had a birthday around here. Elizabeth is now 6. Crazy. We had a little family celebration on her actual birthday and we're also having extended family over this weekend. I think she had a fun birthday.

First off, she decided that she wanted to decorate her own cake this year. She was nice enough to let us use the leftover cupcakes from the pinewood derby the day before as her cake. We made more cupcakes on Monday to take to her class so we definitely have had our fill of cupcakes around here!

Anyway, here is her masterpiece:
We had her birthday dinner request of "mummy dogs", a couple of "heart dogs" (she saw it in the magazine) and red pepper strips. Now I won't need to eat a hot dog again for another few years. The kids loved it. After that it was present time....

I couldn't resist this one after how much we all loved it when we discovered it recently:

She got the two main things on her list this year---a journal:

...and a CTR (Choose the Right) necklace (from Natalie):

Playing with her gift from Nate:

Joe and I admitted to each other last night that we have both read Elizabeth's journal. She has already written 3 or 4 times. I just have to say it is the cutest thing ever. I know--we are terrible. We promise we'll stop soon. Maybe when her spelling improves. It is just too cute right now.

After that it was cake time...

Intently watching Daddy do his lassoing-the-top-of-the-match trick:

I sure love this girl:

We have our struggles at times. Poor oldest children. Your parents have no idea what they are doing and overreact to everything because it's the first time they've dealt with it. Really, we just need to calm down and remember that she is barely 6. She is little. She is learning.

She is also incredibly kind, loving, helpful and happy. She wants to do what's right (hence the strong desire for a necklace to go along with her CTR ring!). She loves her little sister and brother and is the best big sister either of them could ask for. She genuinely cares about other people and goes out of her way to make friends with kids that might need a friend. She knows the names of every single person in her class and we get to hear about pretty much all of them every day. She is LOVING the social aspect of school. I don't really know much about what she is learning academically because she only tells me bits and pieces about that. Here is a sample conversation:
Mom: What did you do in school today?
Elizabeth: We had a math test today.
M: Really? On what?
E: I don't remember. Guess what? Keylan was chasing Mazzy today, and Mazzy was chasing me! And Jimmy said this funny thing during calendar time. And Jace got in trouble for...
(at this point I usually give the old "if you can't say something nice" spiel)

You get the idea. Don't worry. She is learning, too (at least a little bit).

She is such a blessing to me. I am so thankful for her patience with me.

Dear Elizabeth,

I love...
-the way you use hand-gestures when you talk
-the way you always say that you don't ever want to move out, even when you get married :)
-the way your laughs just burst out of you sometimes
-you--just the way you are!

Love, Mom

The Boy is 15 Months

Time is going too fast. I can't believe that Nate is 15 months. I just wanted to catch up a little bit on this busy little boy...

I feel like I am just now starting to understand what it's like to have a baby that is "into everything". I thought I understood before. I remember the girls both getting into things. Playing with all the tupperware, pots and pans, and what not. But that was nothing compared to this kid. He just does not stop getting into things. And he doesn't stop at harmless tupperware; he pulls out large appliances like the crockpot and the rice cooker. He empties drawers. He digs into the trash. He can open almost anything. He already knows how to open ziploc bags (Natalie still asks me to open them for her!), pull the lids off of the plastic toy bins, and click open shampoo bottles. I won't be surprised if he's taking off screw-top lids soon. I finally put a baby lock on the cupboard below the sink and he was SO mad about it. I must admit I was feeling very triumphant watching him. He was pulling so hard. He'll probably break that off soon enough. He also enjoys playing in the toilet and unrolling the toilet paper whenever he gets a chance.

Here he is emptying the girls' drawers:

It's a good thing he's so cute and happy. He just learned how to spin around the other night and has been doing it all the time. It is so cute. He loves it when I lay on the ground and he can come sit on my stomach or on my head and bounce up and down. He loves to dance. It's very flashdance(or Chris Farley)-esque so you can't help but sing "I'm a Maniac" when he's doing it.

He's starting to throw some pretty good tantrums. Like tonight when I gave him a graham cracker and had the gall to break it into pieces and not give it to him whole. He throws food all the time still but now he understands how to clean up and it's so cute to watch him pick things up.

This boy makes me happy.

Look at those enormous lips! I love them!