Snow- Cal

At 6:30 this morning Russell woke me up from a deep slumber to show me this site from our balcony

Breathtaking to a So-Cal girl who has only ever seen snow a handful of times in her life. I went downstairs and outside with Russell to look around. The neighbor kids were out writing their names in the snow and this is what my car looked like.

And our house

I had offered earlier in the week to take breakfast and dinner this morning to a man from my church who just had surgery. I have already reaped the blessings as it forced me to venture out of the house this morning when I normally would have stayed inside all day. I got to behold the beauty that comes with fresh fallen snow. I drove in the snow for the 1st time (not that it was snowing very hard) and after dropping off the meals, the kids and I headed to Cousin Jessica's house to play with Riley and the other Fishers. We let the girls get out and play and they had a good time. They helped build a tiny little snowman.

A patriotic snowman

After that I started a mild little snowball fight by tossing a snowball at Morgan's belly which actually landed right on her neck. Oops. Jessica said it was a "mother of the year" moment. Yes I felt bad- just look at the face she made after I quickly brushed it off.

She got over it pretty quickly and everyone joined in the fun.

Madylin and Riley really loved it, but Morgan was complaining about her hands being cold or some nonsense like that

It's been snowing and then sprinkling off and on all day. I hope we get some more snow soon! This is great! I am loving where I live right now.

Animal Adventures

While we were at my parents around Christmas we had a couple of little animal encounters. We try to take advantage of these to help the girls get over their fears.

My brother Matt and his wife got some sort of lizard as their family Christmas present. (yeah they are strange) I was shocked that the girls each took a turn having it on their laps and touching it even!

Baby steps!

We took the girls to Bates Nut Farm- a place I grew up going to for field trips and family outings. In the fall it has pumpkins galore and is crazy crowded, but the day before Christmas it was pretty much empty! We went with my mom, my brother Steven, and my brother Matt and his family. We tried to convince the girls that the goats were harmless and that it would just tickle a little as they ate the corn out of their hands . . .

But honestly, imagine you are 2- would you want to feed these creepy guys?!

Nathan was in his usual throne with Daddy just loving being outdoors and snuggled.

The girls would only throw the food at the animals, but would NOT touch them under any circumstances

Someone started picking leaves up off the ground and feeding it to the goats and the girls liked that idea so they followed suit.

They were so excited that they could feed the animals without touching them!

I don't know if goats are supposed to eat leaves, so if the animals at "Nate's But Farm" as my dad calls it are sick or dead- it wasn't us!!

I Think Somebody Wants to Crawl

Nathan started getting up on his hands and knees at about 4 months and started rocking about 2 weeks later. It's been a month since the rocking began and he has since done away with it and moved on to yoga and push ups and elephant walking!

"Are you watching?"

He does a better "downward dog" yoga pose than I do! (huh, Christy)

Maybe he'll skip crawling and go straight to elephant walking

Better push up position than I can do too!

He's very pleased with himself

It's a new experience for me to have a singleton- so much is different. The twins were a little behind developmentally for the first year because they were premature and because well, they are twins, so everything Nathan does seems so early to me. The twins didn't get any teeth until like 8 months and he had 2 teeth by 4 months. The girls also didn't start crawling until after 9 months so Nathan is just freakishly strong to me!

Here he is at 5 months- rocking away . . .

A Post for the Little Man

Look at this face! Nathan has turned out to be just what this family needed. So sweet and such a good boy. He really just fits right in and causes so much joy. Such a mellow, easy-going, happy little guy. He is 5 1/2 months now and has his 2 bottom teeth (boy do they hurt when he gets hold of your finger!) He is almost crawling and is so funny about it- but that is for another post I'm working on for later this week.

Here he is- the "little brother"

Last night I was doing something in the kitchen and Russell was doing homework and Nathan started fussing while he was sitting up in the corner of the couch. Madylin was "reading" next to him and so I laid his head in her lap and she put the pacifier in and he just laid there for a few minutes and stopped fussing so I could finish what I was doing.

It was so sweet and Madylin just kept petting him and talking to him "It's alright, Bud," she'd say and he'd just stare at her.

His hair grown straight up just like his daddy (also not unlike a Chia Head, if you're familiar :) It looks like duck fuzz and is sorta red-brown. I LOVE it!

I was giving him a bath and thought he looked so adorable so I had Russell bring up the camera to take a picture and as soon as Russell put up the camera to take a picture, Nathan covered his . . . ahem . . . you know. We were cracking up! Such a modest boy- he'd be mortified if he knew I was putting this picture up for all to see ( ;

We started him on solids a few weeks ago and he is doing okay, but he always tries to grab the spoon . . . so this is how Russell decided to feed him. Notice his arms are strapped down.

Now what do you think he is thinking in this picture? Maybe "Mommy! Save me from Daddy's torturous device!" or perhaps, "I promise I'll never wake you up in the dead of night again!" But, I think he's thinking "No! Don't take a picture of me in this girly pink bib!"

Here he is playing "peek-a-boo" with his Daddy and laughing and squealing. So fun!

Christmas 2009

Okay enough procrastinating, I guess I am finally ready to post Christmas pictures- it just takes so much time to go through all the pictures I took and try to narrow it down! So, believe it or not, this is the condensed version . . .

Here are the kiddos on Christmas Sunday all dressed for church. I found the girls' Christmas dresses like in September, but LOVED them and couldn't pass them up!

We spent a couple of days at my parents' house in Escondido, including Christmas Eve. It's become a tradition in my family to do Gingerbread (or really graham cracker) houses and this year the girls got to be a part of the fun.

Russell worked with Morgan and Uncle Steven worked with Madylin. The girls really loved putting the candy on the houses themselves (although they put their fair share in their mouths as well)

Here is Morgan with her finished product

And Madylin with her masterpiece.

Of course it's not Christmas Eve in the Hatch house without the chimes. Dad pointed to the notes on the easel, and the rest of us hit the chimes on cue (sometimes) using spoons to play songs like "Jingle Bells" and "Stars Were Gleaming." We let the kids help a lot this year, so the songs didn't sound entirely recognizable, but that doesn't matter.

Morgan with Granna

See even Nathan joined in the fun

Here are the kids on Christmas Eve all hopped up on sugar and ready for Santa Claus to come.

Christmas morning was a blur. It started off slow and we let the girls open their stockings. They loved everything. It was great and we were cracking up because they got so excited for things like chapstick and stickers. They also got Dora panties (I think Santa is trying to tell them something) and Ponies. Morgan proceeded to try and ride hers.

Nathan just sat back with Daddy while the girls opened their stockings. We really didn't feel the need to fill a stocking for Nathan. Next year.

I LOVE this picture of my boys.

The girls got horses that they could ride as well as the little ponies. They loved the stick horses that Santa brought them. After they had opened stockings and their horses my brother got there with his kids and the madness began. The main present from us was at our house still, so I didn't know about anything the girls were going to be opening and wanted to see them open everything, but everyone just kept throwing more presents at the girls and I was trying to watch them and still watch others and open my own gifts. I didn't really get to see anyone open the gifts that we had gotten them and I don't know who gave the girls what, but they had a ball and so did we.

Again, we didn't really worry about Nathan this year. It seems like he just had a baby shower and he really doesn't need anything right now, so he enjoyed this hooded towel that Great Grandma Hatch bought for him.

After we finished opening presents we loaded up the car and headed to Russell's parents' house in San Bernardino to spend the rest of the day with them. We opened some presents with them and relaxed for a while until it was time to go over to Russell's Aunt Jolene's house for the BIG family dinner (and that "BIG" refers to the dinner AND the family!). After that we finally returned to our own home where the girls got to open their main present from us and my mom. This is it . . .

They LOVE it and so do we. I am so happy with it. Grandma Kinser got them some play food and dishes and they have been having a blast. It is supposed to go in their bedroom eventually (the final piece of their room before it is completely finished and decorated) but we like watching them play with it for now and they like to use it while I am cooking dinner and copy me.

2 happy little chefs!

So there you have it, one really LONG post about one really GREAT Christmas!