Santa Baby!

I cannot believe that one year ago today, I brought Nate home on Christmas morning.  He was the best Christmas gift ever.  Here are some Christmas photos of him that I wasn't able to post in time last year.

Merry Christmas!

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the hospital a year ago today on Christmas morning.  I really cannot believe how tiny he was.

This little onesie my mother-in-law sent for us to open on Christmas and it was so perfect.  It read "Good Things Come in Small Packages."  Looking at these makes me a little sad because I so want to hold my tiny baby again.  They are only that small for such a short time.

Josh meeting Nate for the first time on Christmas Eve.  I love how excited Josh was!  Now they are best buds (well as long as Nate isn't destroying one of his train tracks)!

Happy 1st Birthday Nate!

Nathan turned One on December 23rd!

I really cannot believe it!  It has gone by way to fast!

More pictures of his birthday to come and Christmas day!

***Dancing With the Boys***

We debated about taking our boys to the neurosurgery Christmas party, but we all had a great time. It was good to visit and the food was fabulous (especially the all you can eat kids buffet). As soon as the live band began to play, Josh was on the dance floor and didn't leave. He found some very cute girls to dance with. Nathan also got into the action, dancing in our arms with a big grin on his face. It was so much fun, we stayed until 11:00 pm!

My Mother-in-Law's Music Website

Many people have been asking for a downloadable version of the video

to show at church meetings and family gatherings and MP3 of her song

"Do You Have Room."

You can find all these things and more on her website

http://songsbyshawna.com/Site/Home.html

Hopefully, this helps and that her message can be shared to as many as possible this Christmas!

Nate 10 to 11 Months!

I can't believe that my baby is now 11 months. It has gone by way too fast! We are truly enjoying every moment with Nate! He is the sweetest, happiest baby! He is always smiling and I love to see his sweet smile everyday!

Nate's 10 month stats:

Weight: 20.2 pounds (26%)

Height: 30 3/4 inches (93%)

Head: 17 3/4 inches (28%)

To sum it up he's very tall and skinny. Although to me he seems like a chunk to me since Josh was always around the 3rd percentile at this age.

NATE LOVES:

His Big Brother

(Nate absolutely adores him!)

Food

(he pretty much eats just about everything we give him from avacados, carrots, sausage, chicken, beans, blueberries, zuccini, oranges, etc. )

Sleep

Binkies

Books

(his favorite is "Care Bears Wish Upon a Star")

Playing the Piano all by Himself

Obsessed with Vacuums

(makes vacuuming easier and harder all at the same time)

Pulling Himself up to Stand

Crawling

Trains, Cars, Trucks

Music

(loves for mom to sing to him and he sings on occasion himself)

Dance

(he definitely feels and moves to the beat)

Cleaning Up Toys

(Josh says multiple times throughout the day: "Nate, stop cleaning up my toys! I'm playing with those!!!" Mommy...!")

Grandma & Grandpa Stephens & Edwards

People

(He seems to go to anyone and loves to smile at every person he sees)

Dad and Mom

(of course)

Swings

(every time we take him to the swings he laughs the entire time, it is the cutest thing)

Go on Long Walks Outside/Running

Animals at the Zoo

Horses

Cake

Watching Movies

(He is totally glued and has been since only a few months old. Not my favorite, he is too young to watch TV!)

I love this picture because they are holding hands and so happy together.

Josh's Love of Trains!

Josh's most favorite thing to do is play trains!

Look at that happy face!

One year ago Josh's love affair with trains began when he got his first set of trains and a small track.

Here are a couple of pictures of his first track that he built all by himself.

Josh: "Mommy, can I go to the book store to play trains?!!!!!"

Josh has asked this question on almost a daily basis for over a year.

Josh always tries to get other kids in the store to come play trains with him! He has done this since he could walk. So he has been into playing trains with friend since he was a year old. It is so cute to watch him call out to other children to come over and how he has always been so good at sharing trains(well, at the book store at least)! Here is an old picture from Barnes and Noble at the Coral Ridge Mall in Iowa where Sammy just happened to be there at the same time. They were in Heaven!

Josh called the Children's Museum in Iowa, the "Trains Children Museum." Funny how the trains were just a tiny section, but it was the highlight of the museum for him. He would play there for 2 to 3 hours straight, until John and I were so bored out of our minds, we would drag him out kicking and screaming (Not so fun. I'm glad that stage is finally ending after over a year of that tradition).

Playing trains with Grandpa Edwards

Grandma and Grandpa bought him an extension last January and this is one of the first tracks he made! I think it is amazing that a two year old can build something like this!

In Iowa the mall was two blocks away, so we were honestly there Monday through Saturday everyday, unless the weather was nice outside. We ran into Sammy many times! Josh misses Sammy so much!

Today, Josh saw me posting these pictures and he said, "I want to go back to our Old House! I don't want to live here anymore!" I want to go to the Trains Children Museum!"

This move has been so hard on Josh, we haven't lived in Iowa since May (6 months) and every day he talks about Iowa and his friends. It's amazing what a great memory he has and how he is so attached to everything in Iowa.

Josh has gotten really creative in making train tracks. I can watch him forever at home making tracks and playing make-believe with his trains. I love to watch his imagination at work. Lately, his favorite thing is to play "birthday party" with his Thomas and Friends trains.

Everyone should see this video! My amazing mother-in-law wrote this song and made the video!

Do You Have Room For the Savior?

My mother-in-law wrote this beautiful song that she recently made into a video. She is so talented! Take the time to watch it. It is very inspiring and reminds us what is truly important this Christmas season. May we make room for our Saviour and follow His example by loving and reaching out to others as he has shown us how.

Here is the You Tube site, if what I posted doesn't work:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vStl9PXWtiw

Halloween

Halloween night arrived with lots of trick-o-treaters, but Josh didn't want to go, he didn't want to wear his costume I had gotten him :( After awhile of running around in no clothes, trying to convince him to wear any costume, and seeing tons of kids in their costumes getting candy; he started to get the idea that just maybe dressing up would be fun!

His choices for costumes were monkey, elephant, or Dalmatian.

Finally he chose DALMATIAN and the excitement finally began.

Josh in a costume my mom made for youngest brother, it is so cute and in awesome shape!

Here he is running with so much excitement! It was also the most beautiful, crisp, perfect autumn night with a breathtaking sunset!

John lovin it just as much as the boys!

Halloween Zoo Boo

I've never been so excited for Halloween until this year and it is because of Nate's costume! My favorite part of this holiday is seeing all the babies and toddlers in their adorable costumes.

We went to Zoo Boo at the Indianapolis Zoo where kids get to wear their Halloween costumes and go Trick-or-Treat while seeing the animals.. It was a blast and such beautiful weather. It was so fun being together as a family and having John's mom out to visit us. I'm sad to say that we didn't get any pictures of her this trip because she was too busy getting pictures of our family. Next time, we are going to take a ton of pictures of grandma (Shawna you'll need to teach me how to use your camera). Josh refused to wear his costume even though he talked about being an elephant for over a month. Nate's lion costume was a hit with everyone who saw him and of course he smiled at everyone who passed us by. Nate definitely made everyone's day with his bright smile.

Josh thought that he could drive home. Nice try!

Josh's Loves!

Josh Loves so many things. It would be a way too long of a post to write everything, so I thought that I'd spread them out a bit.

We'll address two on this post.

1. His "Rainbow Blanket"

He cannot sleep with out it. He would love to take it everywhere with him, but he is really good about leaving it at home most of the time (thank goodness).

2. Animals, Animals, Animals!!!

Josh would live at the zoo if only I'd let him. Although, he would just fit in perfectly because sometimes I feel like I'm living in a zoo with Josh. Josh talks about animals all day long. He knows some crazy facts about them, things I don't even know that he is teaching me. The other day we were at the zoo when he exclaimed "Look Mommy, Baboons!!!" I just knew them as monkeys and looked over at the sign and sure enough he was right. Little did I know that he could distinguish between different types of monkeys/primates. His favorite animal is the elephant. Most days Josh declares, "Mommy, I'll be a baby elephant and you be a mommy elephant." He loves to pretend to be animals all the time. Whenever he wants to be a cat he gets the milk carton out of the fridge and pours it into a bowl and drinks it like a cat. This was a bit worrisome at first, but he usually doesn't spill and if he does he is very prompt to clean it up. His potty surprises have been animal figurines. He has basically collected his own safari and is finally mostly potty trained. At night time when it is time to go to sleep he talks non-stop about animals. When Josh gets to pick his own topic of conversation he says "how about we talk about animals." Lately, this has been 99% of our conversations.