Summertime

...has begun! Nate finished preschool a week ago and will go back in seven weeks. That sounds long today, but I'm sure it will go by fast. I like that in our city Nate will start to go year round. Summers aren't as long (none of the "What are we going to do for sixteen weeks??" thoughts) and they get two weeks off every six weeks. Next fall Nate will be attending his last year of preschool at a close elementary school, so he will be implemented in the year round schedule.

To start, here are some pictures from his preschool graduation.

Nate was super excited to have a house full of friends last week. We hosted a playdate for our Moms Club. We spent the day before making some fun summer treats-a huge hit with the kids.

"Sushi rolls"--rice crispy treats, gummy fish, wrapped with fruit roll-ups

"Have a Toadally Kool summer!" (thus the Kool-Aid ;) )

Josh and Nate just returned home today from a weekend away with our church, camping in Payson. Nate was super excited to do something outdoorsy and I was excited to have some quality time with Aaron (and relax during naptimes!) Nate came back a little battered but had such a good time, scrapes, chapped lips and all!

Something in the sky was clearly amazing ;)

Nate and the fuzzy deer in the background (sorry for picture quality, I was not letting the boys use our good camera in the woods!)

Loving the tent life...he's been talking about this trip for weeks!

Patiently waiting for the mac n' chz to be done...roughing it, you know.

 

 

 

I think we're going to have more of a relaxed week at home....resting up for our week long trip to California next weekend! Woohoo, it's FINALLY here! :) Happy summer!

 

 

Our 1 Year-Old!

Aaaaah! Can it be? My baby is now a year old? This has been the fastest year EVER!

I just took the little man yesterday for his year old checkup. He's staying right on his growing curve which is good. Everything was great except for his shots :( He's slightly feverish today so we'll be keeping up on the Motrin. I hope things are better tomorrow. Not particularly too excited to take Nate for his four year checkup next week.

Otherwise, here's some other things our birthday boy is up to!

** Cruising and crawling at maximum speeds. He takes a few walking steps when he so desires, but cruising and crawling get him to his destinations a bit faster right now.

**Eats about anything! I'm super excited that he's willing to at least try everything I put in front of him. So far he's not into hot dogs, but otherwise he's in love with fruit (strawberries,grapes and bananas-as long as he takes his own bite off-in particular), all kinds of cheese (slice of cheese, string cheese, cream cheese,grilled cheese), Cheerios, spaghetti (or noodles in general),yogurt, eggs,toast....I'm going to fight to keep at least one good eating boy in the family! :)

**Can't sleep without his nightlight, sound machine and brown Monkey blanket. I think that just maybe his brown blanket might become his "blankie". Guess we'll see, even if he isn't covered with it he's still snuggling with it sleeping!

**Adjusting to milk ok. We only have a tiny bit of formula left to see how he does cold turkey, but I think we're getting there. He's still drinking from a bottle. We don't want to worry about that until we get him drinking cow's milk. Frankly I'd also rather wait until we get back from our California trip the beginning of June! Don't want to spring too much on him.

**Continues to take two naps. We're shortening the morning one to 45 minutes and letting the afternoon one be 2-2.5 hrs. This is starting to work well because some days he sleeps until 8am! That's super for us, since I'm used to Nate waking up between 6-6:30am usually each day.

**Has discovered our DVD shelves. He can't make a movie decision unless they are all on the floor...

**And on that note, he enjoys Baby Einstein. We let him watch one every other day or so.
**Entranced with the vaccum. He likes to chase it around.

**Loves to play with toys, books. And older brother when he allows it.

We're super looking forward to our California trip in almost two weeks! It will be Aaron's first time to Disneyland. We're even more excited with Nate because he'll appreciate it and be able to remember going.The boys are just growing so fast!

Newsworthy

About a week ago I submitted Aaron's picture to be shown on a local news station for his birthday. We were excited to see that it ran and wanted to share :)

Aaron's 1st Birthday Party!

The big day arrived-Aaron's first birthday! It came so fast. Nate and I have again been working our magic, making different crafts, preparing for Aaron's birthday party. Went off without a hitch-and I believe Aaron had a good time! Who knew that I just needed to invest in cards, bows and water bottles? Those were his favorite parts of the party. We had a small gathering with close family. Nate was most willing to help Aaron open his gifts and blow out his candle. At first Aaron was pretty proper eating his cake...then got his hands in there ;) There's a few pictures (ok, more than a few!) from our celebration. Whew, I'm glad to be done with party planning for now. Happy Birthday Aaron!

Nate's Best Friends

Having thought about my best friends, I have been meaning to dedicate a post about Nate's. Nate's first good friend is Lauren. We met her when I joined my Mom's Club four years ago. She is five months older than Nate. They became good buddies and became special friends to each other (Lauren was known to steal some kisses, hugs and some hand holding). Nate became her "Nate boy". We were bummed the day that her mommy announced that their family was moving to Australia for her husband's job :( Happy for them, but bummed since we all became good friends. They will be living there a few years before moving somewhere else (we don't know if they'll return to AZ or not). I'd like to hope that we somehow get a chance to visit them down under. So...in dedication, here's some pictures down Memory Lane :)

Sitting next to Nate at his second birthday party

Done making donuts-time to chill!

Come with me, my darling!--Fall Festival 2010

Queen Lauren and King Nathan

Lunch buddies

Lauren's 3rd birthday party

Lauren's 4th birthday party

Halloween 2011

And finally...Nate's 4th birthday party I'm bummed that we didn't get a chance to say goodbye. At the same time that they left was my last minute trip to NY so I didn't get the chance to take Nate over quick. Ugh. But, thankfully again we have Facebook and Facetime :) Nate's current best dude is Braedan. We met him through our Mom's Club too. He is two days younger than Nate. They now are in the same preschool class but that will change next fall.

At Nate's birthday party

At the end of the year preschool program last year Nate has made a new friend named Ethan in his preschool class. I'll have to see if I can get a picture of them together at the end of the year preschool program :)