Valentine's Day 2012

A month and a half late? Not too shabby. Just wait until I post our Thanksgiving pictures from last year... maybe I'll get to that mid-spring, early summer. :)

Being that Valentine's Day was a Tuesday this year, and Freddy worked all day, and we both had tons of homework to do, and I even had a video group meeting for one of my classes at 9 that night (how romantic).. it would be safe to say that Valentine's Day was pretty low key this year. (And also, with F's birthday just days after Valentine's Day, we kind of celebrate that with more oomph than the 14th gets.

But! We did go to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. :) What's better place to spend any holiday, weekend, weekday, or any time, ever? :) 

I love that restaurants give kids crayons. Straight up genius.

Happy Valentine's day to a couple of love birds! :)

I love Nathan's overalls. :) I'll be so sad when he out grows them!

Another happy Valentine's day in the books!

I {can'twaituntil} They Call Me on a Mission.

(Side note: Nathan just walked up and saw me posting this and he said, "Oh! It's Nathan! Nathan's going to church with his little tie!" Heh heh..)

Here's our little missionary!  

So, lately Nathan's been pretty obsessed with missionaries.  He loves them. What's not to love? They ride bikes, and get to wear helmets. They shake his hand, they wear name tags.. they're the best!  We had them over for dinner a couple weeks ago, and now every so often when we sit down for dinner Nathan will point across the table and ask, "Where are my missionaries???" 

These boys are so handsome! 

And you know how kids pretend to be people? Well, Nathan pretends to be our ward missionaries. It's hilarious. You can imagine his surprise when I pulled out Freddy's old name tag-- "WOWWWWW! Cooooool!!! Look, Mami, I'm a missionary!!" He talks constantly about when he's going to go on an airplane and be a missionary. :)

Thank you, Sarah, for the matching ties!

When we drive in the car, he loves to sing songs-- and one of his favorites is the primary song, "I Hope They Call Me on a Mission." It's SO cute! (He calls it the Missionary Song. Or like, the MishunARY Song..) :)

Some of the other songs he knows how to sing and loves:

Popcorn Popping

Once There Was a Snowman

Book of Mormon Stories (Or, to him, Moman Stories)

Follow the Prophet

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam (That's a favorite... A sunnnnBEAM! A sunnnnBEAM!)

Eensie Weensie Spider (or Itsy Bitsy-- whatever.)

 (That's all I can think of right now--)

St. Patrick's Day Spring Fling!

Last Saturday (on St. Patrick's Day) we had a fun activity that was put on by our ward's Elders' Quorum.  Freddy's in the presidency, so that meant that we got to help with the planning and what not (woo hoo!). But, I was actually pleasantly surprised with how well it turned out! We had a BBQ and pot luck dinner, and played softball, too (which means that we had all the equipment out, but we never started an actual game going.) 

Nathan's holding up the cup because he telling me that I need to write my name on my cup. (He's like a little police man-- always making sure that everyone is following the rules. At one family party, a while back, we asked that people write their names on their cups, and ever since he's been enforcing it!)

And even though we dragged our camera around for the whole activity, I only got three pictures. All from the same moment. Whoops.

But we had a lot of fun! (Even if we don't have pictures to prove it!) Nathan got really dirty, which means that he definitely had fun.

Nathan's Ark

Yesterday, I made huge mistake of letting Nathan lay down at around.. oh.. 5pm. Sighhhhh... When he woke back up at like, 6:45pm I knew we were in for a long night. 

We got ready for bed at, oh, 10pm or so-- but of course he wasn't tired at all... so then we played football, hide and seek, tag, soccer, read stories, lots of stories, danced around, ran up and down the stairs, went to get water, folded and put away some laundry, and did the dishes, too.  What do you mean you're not tired yet, Nathan? I'm exhausted.  

So back in his room, he started finding other toys to play with.  It all started with that wolf looking thing in a suit.  It's usually hidden away in his closet because I think it's ugly, but somehow he found it.  And like always, he wanted it to stand up (which it doesn't) so after a few minutes discovering that, he instead leaned it up against his bed.  Hey! That worked!  So then he added his little panda.. and frog.. and bear... and I could see that this was heading anywhere but bed time. So this is what he ended with:

Even this picture is missing, I think three? more animals.. I couldn't fit all of them in the picture no matter how hard I tried.  He had.. let's see if I can name them all-- a lion, duck, horse, teddy bear, koala, monkey #1, monkey #2, ugly wolf, panda, exotic frog, cow, walrus, Christmas moose, regular moose (which he thought was a reindeer), and a snake. Quite the collection, I suppose.

Admiring his work.

I told him to lay in front of his animals for the picture and he wasn't quite sure what I was asking.. so here he is laying on his animals instead. Good enough.

Yep! All of the stuffed animal containers are empty! Woo hoo!

This look was the best.. Shortly after this, he was yawwwwnnnning.. 

And at this point he had actually turned the light off and climbed into bed-- my poor camera was more concerned with being able to take a picture in pitch black, than it was with making sure it was in focus.  

We also spent a lot of time talking about sizes-- which one was the biggest, which one was the smallest.. And whether or not they were the right sizes.. Are frogs really that big?  But the best part was listening to Nathan talk to the animals and work on arranging them.  

"Okay, little horse, you be here... and ducky, you be here. Oh! Look! The baby bear! (Koala) Here, baby bear! Here! You be with your mami! (Placing it with the larger teddy bear). Awww.. Okay, now! Now! The cow be by the wah-rus." 

And then when we were pulling out all of the animals in the beginning:

I'd say something like, Okay, which one has black and white spots? (Nathan: The COW!! Wow, cool!) Good job, Nathan! 

And then he started with things like this: "Okay. Which one beeeee.... orange and lellow?! (Me: Uhhh.. the frog!) Good job, Mami! (Picking up the frog) Good job!"

I like Nathan.  Even if all these pictures were taken between 12:35 and 12:43 am. 

BZZzzzzz.. Nathan's Haircut. Wait? WHAT?

So, a couple weeks ago, I was sitting at the computer doing homework and all the sudden heard this conversation coming from the master bathroom. (Something along these lines..*)

Nathan (digging through the cupboard and finds the hair clippers): Oh look, Papi. Look! That's for hair.

Freddy: Oh, you want me to cut your hair?

Nathan: Uh-huh.

Freddy: You sure? You want me to cut your hair, Nathan? Like Papi does?

Nathan: Yeah. (I can tell he's nodding vigorously.) Mmhm.

Freddy: Okay, take your shirt off. {Bzzzzz} (clippers are now plugged in and ON!) Okay, hold still!

Then me (running): WAAAAIIITTTT!!! WAAAAITTT!!! WAIT FOR MEEEE!!!! You're not even taking pictures or ANYTHING!!! (We now have a few pictures and the whole thing on camera. Leave it to Mom to document every. life. event.)

My mad rush to document my first born's first haircut EVER.

Nathan (sort of) posing for the pictures.  You can tell that he can only focus on his reflection in the mirror, not the camera. Hmph.

Freddy tried to use the clippers with the longest guard on, but they're dull, and N's hair is pretty fine... so that wasn't so successful.  They pretty much just tugged on his hair. At this point, Nathan wasn't really a fan of haircuts.

So I intervened and we ended up trimming the hair at the base of his neck, just with scissors. (Nathan doesn't have a lot of hair, it's just long, and just at the nape of his neck.  So we just trimmed right across. Done.) 

Afterward, I was trying to gather up the little curls off the floor, explaining that I wanted to keep them to put in N's baby book.  The concept was beyond Freddy. Sooo you're just going to save all his hair? (Eyebrows raised.) He liked the idea better once he understood that we wouldn't do it forever, just his first haircut. (I guess that's more reasonable.) 

So, like I said, this has been a few weeks (or maybe month(s)..) so it's actually time for him to have another haircut-- he gets this like, mullet look when we comb his hair for church, and I'm just not a fan.  But then again, who can resist those cute little baby curls.. :)

*I claim the right to tell the story as I remember it, and since I'm barely blogging this, there's a good chance the details and exact wording may be off from actual events (i.e. how Freddy would tell the story).  So be it. I'm the blogger of the family, so I get to write history as I remember it.

Nathan loves games.

Nathan really likes playing board games.  He also makes up his own rules. It's a lot of fun when you play that way. :)

Hmmm.. where to go... where to go...

It's so fun playing with Papi! {And FYI, Freddy's wearing white soccer shorts and the white shirt we got on our honeymoon-- poor choice of attire on his part. ;)}

And he loves to join in on Grandma and Grandpa's games of Sequence, too!

Looks like he's green, this time!

And I'm trying to post a cuuuuuuute video of him teaching me how to play Settlers of Catan. But it's a pretty big file, so who knows if I'll ever be able to get it to load.

Either way, Nathan loves playing board games! He's a great sport, too! :)

It's what's on the outside that counts.

Oh wait. I guess it's what's on the inside, isn't it? Well. Who cares.
We've had a lot of changes to the outside of our house, and I thought I'd share the recent improvements!
Okay, first the before:

This was back in December 2010-- when we first moved in.  If you remember, Arizona had just had like, the ultimate hail storm in AZ history, and it caused a LOT of damage-- like to our window-- which is why our master bedroom window was boarded up.  But don't focus on that-- 

Focus on THESE.  These bushes that are like, two large hippopotamuses sitting outside my door.  I always wanted them to be trimmed down (because they're like, consuming our house) and so they'd always look like this: dead. And they were full of yellow jackets in the summer time.  And I was worried that someone could have been like, hiding behind them. (I'm reviewing my list of reasons why I hated these bushes. Because I really, really did.)

SO! The day that we were putting up Christmas lights, I was like, THAT'S IT! I'm cutting them down! I went to the kitchen and got a little steak knife.  Yeah, I know-- what a joke.  Those bushes have been there for TEN YEARS. There's no way I could have done it.  I don't think I even scratched the surface-- and I even went back and grabbed a bread knife, too. So my father in law (+ tools) offered to help in our cause. Excellent.  

Probably like, three hours later I had the bushes out (along with those monster roots-- this was a serious job... I'm not kidding..) (by that I mean for Freddy and his step dad.  I pretty much supervised, took the smaller branches to the dumpster, and swept up the sidewalk.  It was a dirty job.), the dumpsters full, and a super tired husband. And like, 24 hours later I also had our homeowners association calling us.  Hm. You didn't want us to take them out? Ohhhh!

So now they've re-planted some nice, little, new bushes in front, which I've already trimmed once because I don't want them thinking they can grow out of control like the previous ones.  But they're about a million percent better than the old ones.  Now we see our HOME. Instead of like, hoBUSHESme. You know?

And they also painted the outside of our buildings, too.  How nice.  A fresh coat of paint.
Oh-- and we also got like, five little bushes in front-- see the ones out by the tree.  Nice. Little. Stay little.

And that's our little home! Home, sweet home!

Christmas 2011. Don't laugh that it's March.

You may say, "Tracy, you're blogging about Christmas 2011 in March 2012." I just say, "Hey, March 2012 is better than April 2012. Or December." So there. It was our first Christmas here in Arizona-- last year we had just moved in and went to California to celebrate.  But this year, we got to stay home and enjoy the holiday season all month long. 

Christmas tree shopping!

We found the one we want! 

Nathan watching the tree be tied to the top of the car. Pretty cool!

Trying to keep that thing standing up straight (a month long challenge...)

Putting up the Christmas lights!

Christmas Eve!

Nathan opening his Christmas Eve presents!

If we had sent out Christmas cards, this one would have been it! (Except that it was taken on Christmas Eve, so then they would have just been really, really late. Hm. Next year!)

This is actually one I took as part of my dad's Christmas present-- he asked for pictures of and drawings from Nathan-- and at the time N was pretty obsessed with this cardboard box.. :)

Christmas morning! We came downstairs before church and Nathan got to open his stocking.  I asked him who his stocking was from and he said, "Santa." I said, "Did you say thank you?" With his hands up in the air he shouts out-- "THANK YOU, SANTA!!!"

Christmas is so SO fun with little kids. :)

My Christmas banner that I made.. :)

Christmas MORNING! (After church--)    

Nathan was SO anxious to open presents-- it was so hard to smile for pictures!

Opening presents together! (We recorded almost all of it on our video camera and then once everything was open and done, the silly screen says, "Disk error." Laaaaame.)

Nathan's favorite present was his chest of superhero costumes from Daddy.  Spiderman, Iron Man, and Captain America-- all Nathan's favorites. (They're actually for like, oh, five or six year olds, so they're a tad big on him.) 

Opening the box of costumes-- he was THRILLED! As with every single present, he wanted to stop everything and open it.  He had to try it out right then and there!

The fact that they were a little big on him didn't stop little Nathan.  He was SO excited!

So it's been a while..

Yep. It's been a while since I've blogged.  And really, I'm pretty tired right now, but after catching up on a week's worth of Google Reader, I thought maybe I could throw a few pictures up on the old blog. So here we go-- only in order if by sheer luck.

Nathan's Captain America mask and shield. (Capin Muh-nack-cuh-cuh is how he says it..)

We went to Glendale's Glitter and Glow night (sometime back in January)-- where they have hot air balloons tethered down and lighting up the night sky! Beautiful! (But hard to get good shots on a lame camera.. Boo..)

Nathan's favorite part of the Glitters and Glow festival was the Lightning McQueen slide. Fun!

Nathan had us go on it with him-- it was a big slide for such a little guy! 

We also went to the US men's team soccer match against Venezuela at the Cardinal's stadium (at the end of January).
I love this picture of Nathan. :)

We won in the 97th minute (which is over time, if you don't understand soccer-- so it was pretty exciting!) This is Nathan yelling GOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLL! (I couldn't help but add this picture! Funny!)

Our little family, after the game! :)

We had a lot of fun together!

And since Blogger is working just fine for me (I've tried to blog in the past, okay, like twice. And it wouldn't load the pictures so I'd just give up..) I think I'll blog about Christmas, too! Yay!