Naters is 2!

Oh, my little Naters. He is quite the little sidekick for Luke. He copies everything Luke does, yet he's definitely his own person. He loves to play with action figures and toys just they way you would think a little boy would play with them. He LOVES puzzles and is very good at them. His capacity to understand and communicate everything around him amazes me. When he's in a goofy mood he will sing-song his requests to me. He can be easy going, but also knows exactly how to get our attention! And of course, as always... he's a HUGGER! Some of Nate's favorite things: Bread, hugging, puzzles, jumping and swinging! For his birthday, Chance's parents took us out to dinner to Red Robin and they had the waiters bring out a birthday Sundae for him. The crazy boy, wouldn't even try it! Did I mention he is a picky eater? Doesn't like trying new things even if they are yummy! Luckily, Luke volunteered to gobble it up!

Here he is opening up his present from Chance's parents. What a little boy!

 

We love you Naters!

The Party

We had a joint celebration at my parents again this year. It was a beautiful day and the kids all had a blast playing outside. It was so fun to have cousins and friends at this party! We had pizza and cupcakes and it went off without a hitch despite my aching bones! 

Here are the cupcakes. I know, I know, no theme, how boring! But they were yummy!

This picture doesn't show it, but he loved having everyone sing "Happy Birthday" to him!

Can you say pregnancy brain? I actually started the Birthday song for Nate with only one candle on his cupcake. Half way into the song Trisha says, "isn't he two?" What is WRONG with me? I managed to get a second one on there before the song was over!

 Not a family of Four for long!!

Luke is 4!

He's growing up so fast and becoming such a little person (Though he doesn't eat like one). He was really excited for his birthday this year. Mostly because he knew we were taking him to Jump, Rattle and Roll that day. I made a birthday chain for him and everyday he got to take one more link off his chain to count down to his birthday. He was pretty excited when he got to break off the last link! He's such a perceptive, thoughtful and inquisitive little boy! You can't give a general answer to any of his questions without him  throwing a follow-up question at you. And watch what you say around him, because he's ALWAYS listening! He's a very sensitive little boy. He is mortified if anyone other than his parents give him any correction. He's very sweet and is really looking forward to the new baby. He has to give my belly a kiss every morning. I think he's going to be a very nurturing older brother to this baby. Some of Luke's favorite things right now: Mowing the lawn with Daddy, Jump, Rattle and Roll, the Pool (though he hasn't swam since last summer he's looking forward to this summer), watching TV - but he has to be able to act out what he's watching (in fact, he refuses to watch TV while he's getting a haircut, because he can't get up). I'd say he's in character about 90% of the day. That's why these PJ's were a big hit for his birthday...

Love you Lukey!

Easter 2012

There was no shortage of Easter egg hunts this year. On Friday we did a hunt with all the neighborhood kids. Then on Saturday we went to my parents and had one there and on Sunday we had one at Chance's parents. Both boys were pretty into it. Even Nate was hunting around for eggs! At my parents house, we gave the little ones a head start...

Here is Luke with his cousins. He's so photogenic in a group shot! LOL

7 months

It's hard to believe I only have two more months to go till we meet the 5th member of our family. At this point, it starts to feel like crunch time. I no longer feel like I have all the time in the world to get this house ready for a third child. It's a tight fit as it is! Luke is really interested in the baby. He's asks all sorts of questions. "Does the baby see the food you eat in your belly?" He will give my belly a kiss at random times. He is very sweet. He told me he didn't want to come to the hospital to meet the baby, because he doesn't want to hear it cry. Nate likes to tell me that he has a baby in his belly. The other day he said, "Did you see the baby move, Mommy?" That boy (like his older brother) absorbs every little thing you say! I feel this baby move quite a bit, especially at night. I am extremely sore in my hips and pelvis. The ligaments wasted no time to loosen up for this pregnancy. I'm looking forward to loosing the extra strain on my body, but I'd be lying if I said there isn't a part of me that is totally freaked out at the thought of having 3 children (ages 4 and under!)

Bunk Bed

We got the boys bunk bed put together. Luke took to it great and had no issues sleeping in it (on the bottom bunk). We let him get adjusted for awhile and then decided to try to get Nate to join him. The first night, Nate stayed in the bed for all of about 60 seconds before he climbed out (the rule is - if he gets out - he sleeps in the crib that night). Well, now the nightly routine is to read stories to both boys in Luke's room, say prayers (each one of us says a prayer - Nate's goes like this. "Thank you for everything, and thank you for everything, and thank you in Jesus name, pray... Amen!") and then we sing a couple of songs. Well, once we get to the song part, Nate starts to crawl out and say he wants to go sleep in the crib. This upsets Luke every time, because he REALLY wants Nate to sleep with him in the bed. It usually involves some type of physical scuffle where Luke tries to keep him in bed and Nate wants out. This has been going on for about 3 weeks now. I'm not sure how to get Nate on board with staying in the bed. So here is a quick video from the first night. Nate just wanted to talk, and Luke was pretty tired...