Nathan and his horses

My boy Nathan has been smitten with horses for a very long time. Really it's been as long as I can remember! He knows exactly where to find the library's section of horse books - the non-fiction section. Unfortunately, we only have about 6 to choose from so we have read them all multiple times. Repetition is developmentally appropriate for this age and I guess it's starting to pay off.

We have started to buy the horses carrots. Whenever he hears that somebody is heading to the grocery store, he reminds them to buy " more carrots for the horses".

He just loves these 4 friends.

He wants so desperately for these horses to be living at his house.

The big 9

I have become a very inconsistent blogger these past months. It's like 3 weeks since Peter's birthday and not even a peep from me about it. Yikes-We did celebrate the big day. The last year before double digits in grand style. He decided he wanted a "Ryan size" party. So we invited just about everyone we could think of, ordered a cake from Costco and played a great game of kickball.

Yes, this is a picture of Peter flinging Nathan across home plate. Yes, Nathan has a gigantic grin on his face. No, he didn't get hurt. Yes, Peter still adores his baby brother.
I found a picture recently of Peter's 5th birthday party. We had our neighbors and a family from church over. It's such a blessing to see how God has provided friends for our family over the years.
Peter is an amazing 9 year old. He has taught me a lot of over these 9 years.

Watermelon

This evening's weather felt like a gift. It was a perfect night to dig into the remaining half of a watermelon we had in the fridge.My kids are quite excited when they find out that the watermelon in our fridge has seeds in it. There happens to be a certain Daddy in our family that grew up having watermelon seed spitting contests.
The tradition seems to have been successfully handed down. Too bad Nathan hasn't quite figured out how to escape the spitting.
Although, he really didn't seem to mind having a face and head covered in seeds.
It's nights like this that I truly enjoy my kids. They are a gift.

July in review

Seeing as it has been an entire month since my last post, I figured I needed to do one large update. So here goes my first attempt at Windows movie maker!

Happy 90th Great Gram

Just about 12 hours after Philip arrived home from Jamaica, we headed in down to Charlotte. Philip's grandmother was turning 90 and her family was throwing her a surprise party.It was really fun to see the surprise on her face. Philip's mom is Betty's oldest daughter. She has 4 sons who live with their families in either Minnesota or Denver. Although, Betty had her 4 grandchildren and 6 great children with her this night, she has many many more up north. Many of the others, sent cards and pictures to help her celebrate. I hope when I turn 90, I'm able to have as much fun and love as Betty. It was a blessing to be able to celebrate with all the family.

Organization

I've been thinking for sometime that Nathan's room needed a little organization. The little guy had basically a basket overflowing with books and a train table in his room. I was hoping to bring some toys out of the living room and kids room to his so there was more reason to play in his room. So last night when I passed by this cool looking bookshelf at Costco, I went for it. This morning while only Nathan and I were awake and the coffee was still brewing, I assembled the shelf and brought a little order to his room. Although the shelves did bring order and toys and even the interest of playing, it also brought chaos! I never really had to pay much attention to straightening up Nathan's room but I see that now he'll have ample opportunities to learn the clean up song!

Day 9 of 9

We are hours away from the return of the mission team from Jamaica. The kids and I decided that we would make the trip to Raleigh so we can be there when Philip and the others get off the airplane or should I say get to the baggage claim. My kids don't ever go to the airport so I figured this would be a fun outing although definitely not as fun as it used to be.
Ryan is resting up for the big adventure!Nathan having already had his nap is ready to play with our new family friends. He is in love with horses so when we saw these at the dollar store this morning I couldn't resist. I think we might actual go back to buy a couple more horses so everyone has one. Nathan has just started referring to himself in the third person. He calls himself, "NayNay". It's just about as cute as he is.

West Virginia

With Philip being in Jamaica and my sister having had a new baby, I couldn't think of a better place to spend a few days. The 5 1/2 hr drive with 4 kids on my own was not something I was looking forward to but I knew once we got there it would have been worth it. And it definitely was- baby Cal is precious and the cousins played together from sun up to sun down.It was hard for Nathan to decide which cousin pairs to follow around and try to convince that they should play with him.
It's definitely getting harder to get everybody to look the same way and actually smile- not to mention get the lighting right so nobody has to squint.
I tried my hand at taking some photos of Cal while we were at the park one morning. He was a trooper and a cutie.
It's getting increasingly hard to figure out what to feed all these guys and the grown-ups. I can't imagine what it will be like in 5 years. Hopefully some of them will be doing the cooking and cleaning up by then.
I baby sat all the kids one morning while my sister had a doctor's appointment. I ( or I should say Charlotte, Peter, Nathan, Emma and then finally myself) got to feed Cal his first bottle. He took it like a champ no matter who was holding it or if they were paying attention to him.
This time away reminded my that relationships matter. It's not always easy to travel, to sleep in somebody else's bed, to manage a house with 11 people in it but it's worth it. I'm so thankful that my kids are growing up to know their cousins deeply and that we are taking time to invest in each others' lives.

Baseball

Peter finished up his first season of baseball. We had a wonderful experience with the Parks and Rec dept. We enjoyed the evenings at the ball park, the popcorn, the snow cones, the bleachers. Well maybe not the bleachers...He did enjoy his stint at baseball but isn't so sure that he wants to sign up next year.

Sunday afternoon

We spent Father's Day afternoon with friends at a friend's lake house. Swimming in the lake is one of Philip's favorite things to do so I'm glad it worked out. One of our friends made this great video summarizing the fun. Nathan wasn't too keen on the lake so I opted to stay clothed and play with him on the sidelines. I am so thankful that our kids are growing up with a Daddy as wonderful, loving, caring, nurturing and fun as he is. I know they will be better Christians and adults because of the father they have. I love you Philip. You're a great dad!

more birthday

We actually got Nathan this for his birthday but it's rather hard to hide a big wheel for a month.
He was rather anxious to get his candles blown out so that we could do it "again".

Nathan's 2

It's so hard to believe that two years have gone by and my baby is now 2. After he arrived in our arms two years ago, we were torn between the names Daniel and Nathan. Nathan means "a gift from God". I knew that his presence in our life had already been a gift so it just made sense; he would be Nathan. After two years, he continues to live up to his name.
He loves life. He claps like crazy when he's happy. His entire body moves as he claps. He is a sweet boy. He loves babies and wants to hold everyone he sees whether we know them or not.

Although the independence and opinions are beginning to be vocalized, I continue to speak into his little being that he is a gift! Although he doesn't speak with full sentences, he has mastered using the potty! Although he can't quite keep up, he never tires of playing with his siblings. Remarkably they have yet to tire of him either- mostly.
We drink a lot of water at this house. Although Nathan had his own camelbak sippy cup, he much preferred grazing off his siblings camelbaks. So I felt it was time for him to run with the big dogs and have his own. A good friend of mine said recently, "If I was guaranteed to have a boy as sweet as Nathan, I would have another in a heart beat.". I have to say, I couldn't agree with her more. He is a gift and keeper in my book. Happy birthday sweet boy.