Mary Photo

 I took this photo of this Mary statue at St. Patrick Church on a Saturday morning.  I was there photographing the first Communion masses.  I have to tell you, the interesting thing is the walls in the church are a mint green, really pale.  When I took this photo for some reason the background turned out gold.  I was playing around with it in my photo program.  I changed the color to a paler yellow and even made a black and white version of the photo.  I thought I'd share the photo with you all.  I thought it turned out really well.

Daddy, Nathan and "Out-tide" Time

Nathan likes to go outside.  He will say "out-tide" to let you know he wants out.  He likes to ride in his push car, walk around, play in the yard on a blanket, pick up dirt and mulch, try to eat the dirt and mulch (much to our dismay), and he loves to swing.

Mike will often take him to swing or go for a walk for a few minutes so I can get dinner done or have a few minutes to get something else done. It's a nice break for me and fun for Daddy and baby.  Nathan has really become aware of daddy lately.  He will now cry when he leaves the room or the house, and is happy to see him when he returns.  Just today he saw Mike in a photo and pointed and laughed and then kissed him. It's so cute!  I love to watch him grow and change.

Here are a few photos of him enjoying one of his favorite outdoor activities.

Dogs are Fun to Feed!

Nathan has discovered Sulley.  He never payed too much attention to him before, but lately he has been pretty interested in him.  He especially likes to feed him!  Here he's feeding him cheerios, but he's quite fond of dropping food from his high chair tray as well.  While this is cute, it's a little messy.  Luckily Sulley does his part and eats all the mess.

Nathan figures Things Out... (With mention of Grace at the end)

As Nathan grows, I feel like I'm learning a little bit more about his personality.  He is definitely a thinker and a little more serious baby than our other kids were.  This morning he spent some time stepping up and down into this window sill.  He would try different ways to do it.  It was funny to watch him figure things out.

Later this afternoon, Nathan and Grace played on the deck with the water table. On a side note:  I've been using his cloth diapers during the day.  I love this one, it's a soft bums diaper  and this is the nuclear pumpkin color.  I really like this diaper because it's really easy to adjust, and the liners can be pulled out and a new one stuck in.  You use the cover several times before you wash it.

Nathan, again spent time just figuring stuff out.  He took these two chairs and moved them around in different arrangements.  I'm not sure what his goal was, but he seemed pretty happy with himself.  He would close them together and go hide behind them, then he'd stick himself between them. 

You can see here his power lifting face as he pulls them together.  That was some heavy lifting for a 17.8 pound baby!

He's thinking about his next move.

He moved them together one last time to make a tunnel to crawl through! It was pretty funny, and he thought so too!

On to the water pitcher...here he spent some time just putting the horse into and then pulling it out of the pitcher.

Grace was on the deck too.  So I am tossing in a few pictures of her too!  She enjoyed the water table a bunch.  I think she wishes it was a pool, because she kept saturating herself with water.  She poured water all over herself, Nathan, and the deck or in the case of the photo above, she poured water on Nathan's big bouncy ball.

Happy First Birthday Nathan!

Nathan was a lucky boy this year.  He got to celebrate his birthday twice!  Grandma and Grandpa came for a visit to see Noah's Battle of the Books competition, so we decided to have a little party for him while they were here. 

I wanted to give him a cake that was dairy free and delicious.  So I googled what would be a good recipe for that.  I came across a cake called "Wacky Cake".  It's a cake they made during the depression when things like milk and eggs were too expensive to use in cake making.  It's a delicious (and I'm not kidding) cake!

Nathan wasn't too sure about the flame on his cake.  We had just returned from dinner at the Japanese steak house, he had seen some seriously scary fire there and I think he was just a tad bit terrified of it being placed on top his cake.

He is crying from the trauma the lighted candle caused.

After cake Nathan played on the floor with some toys and the new wooden blocks grandma and grandpa got him.  He loves this stuffed snake.  He asks for him by making a "sssss" sound.

He got grandma with the snake and she collapsed to the floor.

Grandpa joined in.

This is the celebration we had for Nathan on his actual birthday.  Same wacky cake but with sprinkles on top.  My friend, Tricia, came down to celebrate with us.  We ate at Red Robin and Nathan loved it!  He had grilled chicken and mandarin oranges.  He ate the whole chicken breast!  They gave him a balloon and sang a song to him.  They even sang to Grace for her half birthday (which she was quick to inform them of).

He got some dinosaurs, a water table toy and a Thomas the Train bath toy.  He also got some bath toys from Tricia and two great books.  His Godparents sent him some little animals on wheels and a beautiful book.

He loved the paper the most!  Don't they always?

I didn't get photos of the first cake eating session, my camera battery died that time.  So I was glad to get this cake eating captured.