cousins

Growing up, I never had a friend relationship with my cousins.  Now that we are all adults, we are friends on facebook, follow eachother on instagram,  and have more of a relationship than I remember having when we were younger.

We got a picture in the mail this week, it was sitting on the counter when David came home from school.  He picked it up, looked at it and said "who are they?"  It was a picture of his cousins that live less than 10 miles away.  I was so sad to have to tell him that it was his cousins!  We have absolutely no relationship with half of the family.  My kids miss out on 16, almost 17 cousins that are right around their same ages, and not because of distance, they are mostly within 10 miles from our home. It makes me sick.  Family is supposed to be able to be such a strength in life and be people that you can lean on and turn to no matter what.  To have so much family so close and not be able to recognize who they are in pictures....  

I am SO thankful for the relationships that my boys do have with my siblings kids.  They all have at least one cousin that is their same age and they love to play and do things with.  We are looking forward to a quick Disney trip next week with our Washington (& local) cousins. 

beach

This weekend the boys and I went with a good friend of mine and her girls to Newport Beach!  We had SO much fun!!  One of my friends daughters had a school project on mapping and had to figure out landmarks along the way, gas mileage, time and how to get somewhere in the world.  She chose the beach and we thought it would be fun to see if it works out the same in real life as it does on paper!   

We had fun walking along the beach. The boys had fun finding shells along the way & they all walked pretty well.  David gave Nathan a piggyback ride a few times.   The best part, as we were walking along the shore we saw dolphins in the ocean!!  It was really neat!  If you look in the picture under Thomas, above David giving Nathan a piggyback ride, you can see a fin in the water.  It was great weather!  We were hesitant going down, the weather report said it was supposed to be rainy.  When we were getting ready Saturday to go to the beach it was sprinkling, but when we got there it was overcast but nice!  Perfect beach weather!  Since it is winter, we thought it would be to cold to go in the water so we dressed everyone in sweatshirts and shorts that way we could get our feet wet.

Luckily we were able to find sand toys in the store before we left for our beach trip, so the kids were able to have fun digging in the sand and trying to make sand castles. 

We rode the ferry across the bay, and on the other side bought a pizza for lunch.  We got back to the beach and laid our towels out and sat down to eat.  The seagulls were crazy!!  They had no fear at all!  One of them swooped down and took Tommy's pizza right out of his hand!   They kept dive bombing us so we had David run interference!  He was running in circles around the towels while we ate scaring the birds away.  

 After lunch the kids played in the sand more and ventured a little closer to the water.  Lesson learned...regardless how cold it might be, the kids will still go play in the ocean!

 Nathan didn't like how the sand felt between his toes, so he played on the beach in his socks.  Thomas was SO afraid of the water and didn't want to get close to it.  He was afraid that the waves would get him and take him away to the ocean where a shark would eat him.  No matter what I or anyone else said to him he was not going to go in the water.  

Finally he got brave enough and tried it....he LOVED it!!  This is him running up the beach to tell me how brave he was (and get praises) that he went in the water.  Once he went in there was no stopping him. 

 The kids, except Nathan, as we were packing up to leave.   We had such a good time and are looking forward to going again soon!

birthdays & baseball

MLK weekend was a pretty busy one for us!  Nathan had his birthday party, a pool party (yes, it was at one of the city indoor pools since it is winter & freezing!)  He had a good time with his friends, cousins and grandparents. 

 This was his invitation, a mini beach ball with all the party info on it, deflated in an envelope.  On the front of the envelope I wrote inflate for the date. 

I was in the pool with the kids most of the party so didn't get any party pictures, except a cupcake/candle picture. 

We also had a 5 game/3 day baseball tournament!  David's team, LV Rebels, played in the MLK tournament in town.  They had 2 games Saturday, one was the same time as Nathan's party so David had to miss the party & it was also his best hitting game of the tournament (& I missed it!)   They won both their games Saturday.  They had two games on Sunday, they lost both of those.  And had the semi final game on Monday.  They ended up 4th place in the tournament.  They are a fairly new team, and in the last tournament mid-December they horribly lost all their games, so to make it to the semis a month later is great.  These boys have been working hard and it shows!

stats

Nathan had his 3 year old well check today.  Lucky boy, didn't need any shots!  He is weighing in at 31.6 pounds (50th percent) and is 38.75 inches tall (25-50 percent).  

Nathan is 3!!

Where has the time gone?!  

Nathan is 3!!

I can't believe that my sweet little 6 pound 13 ounce, 19 inch baby boy is already 3!! 

I love this little boy SO much!!  He is such a sweet, loving and fun little boy.  I am so proud of him and so thankful that he is mine.  

One of Nathan's favorite things to do is to go to Disneyland.  He went for the first time before he was a month old.  He calls it "the red choo-choo" because two of his favorite things to do at Disney is the tram and the train that goes around the park.  I can't wait for him to get a little taller to be able to go on more rides!

 He also loves to help me cook.  Ever since he could walk he tries to drag a chair from the table to the counter where my mixer is so that he can "help" me. 

 of course, licking the spoon is a pretty good treat for helping and is something that he still loves to do 

these are some of my favorite pictures of Nathan

 

 Nathan loves to swing & play outside.  He also is a big fan of nutella sandwiches which he calls thank yous because after you make it for him he is very quick to say thank you for his sandwich.  He also likes to help make them. 

 Our poor mailman....Nathan loves the mailman!!  He has a mailtruck car (in the picture above) that he carries almost everywhere with him.  He looks for mailtrucks as we go places throughout the day and always waves to them.  Nathan has the best hearing ever!  He can be outback playing and the mailman pulls up across the street and Nathan stops what he is doing, runs through the house, and out the front door and patiently waits on the sidewalk for the mailman to get to our house.  Once he is close enough Nathan starts waving and yelling "hi happy mailman"  Our mailman (who is great with him) will give Nathan the mail and watches him come back in the house with it.  Nathan always tells him "thank you happy mailman"   He is also a fan of the fedex guy, ups guy and the trash guys.  

 I am so sad that my baby is now officially no longer a baby....but he is such a great little boy!  I am excited for the many great opportunities he has coming his way this year and and excited to see him grow.  I am so thankful for this little boy & love him so much! 

Happy Birthday Nathan!  

 We are having cupcakes & mint chocolate chip ice cream (Nathan's favorite) Sunday afternoon and Nathan is going to open his birthday presents and then on the 19th he is having his birthday party....a pool party!  He is so excited to swim with his friends!