Christmas Family Photo Shoot

*Note: these are professional pictures and copyrighted. Please do not copy and print :-)

Just Pictures :-)

African Children's Choir Concert!!!!

Tonight was the most amazing night!! We had the incredible night...one that I will never forget! I truly have no words...

The choir arrives

They got their energy out by playing on the playground in the rain!

Each of every one of these kids are BEAUTIFUL inside and out!!!!

Eating dinner. I made lasagna for the group and they ate every last bit!

Having devotions before the concert started.

Lining up to go on stage

Dancing. WHEW!!! It wears me out just looking at them dance! They have so much energy

Dancing some more!

The kids loved Nathaniel and he loved them back!!!

Just looking at this picture brings tears to my eyes...such beautiful children! Their smiles light up the room!!!

Backing Up ~ Our Trip To Washington To Celebrate My Grandparent's 60th Anniversary

Nathaniel's first experience at the Spaghetti Factory. He LOVED it. I am not even sure if I got to eat any of my food. :-)

Grandma found a giant Elmo that Nathaniel just LOVED!!!

Elmo attacking grandma LOL

My new ALL TIME FAVORITE picture! My guys all dressed up for the 60th wedding anniversary.

My beautiful grandma walking down the aisle! I feel so blessed to get to celebrate such a memorable occasion with my family!!!

Nate and Grandpa

Nathaniel learned the color "yellow" on the drive home :-)

Backing Up ~ A Trip To The Pumpkin Patch Part 2

Backing Up ~ A Trip To The Pumpkin Patch Part 1

Backing Up ~ My Kid's Crazy Outfit

Like mother, like son - this is how we dress when no one else is around :-)

Backing Up ~ Nate Uses the Big Boy Potty!!!!

Out of blue, my little boy decided he wanted to go poo poo in the potty!!! I was so super excited that I didn't even think about my camera until after he had done his business...I don't think it is appropriate to post a picture of my son's poo poo, although I do have them! :-)

Here he is right after he did his "business".

Here is the very next day after he decided to go pee pee too!!!!

PS For some this may be TMI, but it is so excited for me to watch my little boy grow and learn new things...plus I am definitely looking forward to him being out of diapers. :-)

Backing Up ~ Nate Goes To Hunting Camp

Every October, Paul's family goes over to Eastern Oregon to hunt. Enjoy the pics...

Special Day With My Guys

With my new work schedule, I rarely get a Saturday off. I wanted to take the opportunity to have a special day as a family.

We decided early on to go to Crater Lake for the day. It was free to get into state parks, so it seemed like the perfect time. :-) Unfortunately, the smoke from the Umpqua national forest fires clouded the incredible view. Oh well, we still had a great time. Enjoy the pictures.

Toys R Us was having a special celebration for Geoffrey's Birthday. It was pretty cool, but...

...this is about as close and Nate would let us get to the over sized giraffe. He was super scared of him.

Me and my little boy at Crater Lake. See all the smoke in the background?

Silly boy!

My two guys...aren't they SO CUTE!!!

He he he...this is a normal daddy/son thing.

On the way back, we stopped at the Natural bridge just down the road from the Rogue River Gorge. It was a short easy trail and a beautiful water view. (you can see the smoke in the air, it was actually a sunny day)

What a mischievous face

Looking at the water with the park rangers. The nice park ranger gave him a little Smokey the Bear pin. :-)

Nate was mesmerized with the water.

Mission's Sunday

I LOVE missionaries! They are a special people with incredible hearts. This Sunday we had a missionary from Romania, Tamara Henkes. Check our her blog.

Happy 2nd Birthday Elijah!

Nathaniel was invited to his friend, Elijah's 2nd birthday! It was a Pirate theme and Nathaniel had a great time.

The birthday boy! Happy Birthday Eli!!!

Cindy (Eli's mom) giving my son a bat *SCARY* to hit the pinata.

Nathaniel taking a break from the scavenger hunt to jump on the trampoline.

Nate spent most of the night trying to take everyone elses food...especially Cindy's food! :-)

Grandma's Visit

We were so excited to have my mom come and visit over Labor Day weekend.

LOVE this picture!!!!

Grandma became his new jungle gym :-)

Cuddling in the cold morning (while watching Elmo of course)

We took mom to one of our favorite restaurants "The Soup Station" in Rogue River. I finally got Nathaniel saying "I love you" on video. SO CUTE! :-)

Teaching him young

This past Tuesday, we had an early Turkey dinner because my nephew (my sis-in-law's step son) is leaving for Boot Camp and he will be missing the holidays with our family. I decided Nathaniel was old enough to begin a VERY important tradition involving black olives. Now he will know what to do with Thanksgiving comes around! :-)

Nate thought it was pretty funny that mama was eating his fingers! :-)

He wouldn't eat the olives off of his own fingers, but he ate them off of mine...he bit me pretty hard! :-)

I love this picture. There is so much expression in his face.

My future football player :-)

I still haven't figured out what the oven ever did to Nathaniel, but he sure didn't want the oven to get away with it. LOL :-)

Wordless Tuesday...Well, Almost Wordless

Last week at concerts in the park, Nathaniel and Elijah had fun playing :-)

Nate LOVES the kids toys at the mall. He also enjoys watching and trying to keep up with the older kids.

Nathaniel LOVED going up and coming down the slide!!!

Nate gets so excited when we open his door to get him out of the car!

The most incredible smile in the world!!!

Nathaniel saying "shoes" his new favorite word!!!

The video is a little dark, but you can kind of see my sweet boy trying to say "Ethiopia". SO cute! We were trying so hard to not laugh!!! :-)

Nathaniel likes to cook :-)

Yesterday, I was chopping vegetables in preparation of wrapping lumpia, Nathaniel really enjoyed watching! He thought my chopping was just for him to dance to. :-)

Catching up

Wow I didn't realize how much time passed since my last post! I guess that is what happens when you start a new job ;-). I have been training for the last several weeks so when I get home at night, I try to enjoy my little family before Nate goes to bed. Needless to say we are all going through an adjustment period.

We all were so excited to celebrate Nate's best friend's 1st birthday! Sawyer turned 1 year old this month! Exactly 1 year ago all three of us had the priviledge of visiting baby Sawyer and his new parents in the hospital the day he was born. Now Nathaniel and Sawyer play together a lot!

Sawyer's birthday was a cowboy theme held in a barn! It was awesome! Here is the cake made by Sawyer's aunt. She did amazing!

Sawyer got to eat the whole top! Lucky kid! :-)

There were horses (Nate was a little unsure of who he felt about the horse)...

...and bunnies...

...and pin the tail on the donkey... ...and saddles! It was such a fun party!

More 4tf of July Pictures

Grandma sent a special 4th of July care package! Nathaniel looks so cute in the stripes! :-)

Daddy was working on getting him to smile...I had just given him a bath, it was bed time, so he was starting to get a little grumpy.

Nathaniel finally couldn't handle it anymore. He was saying and using his sign language to say "All Done". I just LOVE his "boo-boo" face. I just want to squeeze him and kiss him.

We record the Gospel Music station when they have Christian Music videos. We have watched them so many times that Nathaniel has his "favorites". He dances and sings along to the music. This is his ALL TIME favorite song by Israel.

Happy 4th of July -- Morning pictures

I decided to try something new this morning...I made Red, White and Blueberry pancakes!

Nathaniel loves it...well, mostly the fruit and just nibbled on a little of the pancake.
Nate sporting his special 4th of July shirt from Old Navy...a family tradition.
Ah, yes. Nathaniel got stuck in his little toy corner. Poor kid was really upset, and I took the time to grab the camera again.

MORE PICTURES TONIGHT AFTER OUR BBQ AND FIREWORKS! :-)