A Boy and His Dog

Sharing his cracker. Nathaniel is really good with sharing...he takes a bite, then Chewy takes a bite, etc. :-)

Happy Father's Day

Nathaniel Gets Stuck...AGAIN! :-)

As you can see, I assumed my usual position as the photographer for my son's situation! :-) Lesson from this experience: Nathaniel should not stand on the couch!

Nathaniel's 1 year Post Placement and the Oregon Zoo!

This last weekend, Paul, Nathaniel & I were up in Portland to do our 1 year Post-Placement for Nathaniel, as well as our new Home Study meetings for Rwanda...did I mention that we are paper chasing for Rwanda now?!?!?! :-)

Here are some pictures from our weekend:

Nathaniel Goes to IKEA

This is what we do for fun when you go to IKEA without money. :-) They have the coolest shopping carts. Nathaniel was in heaven!

1 Year GOTCHA Day Anniversary!!!!

On June 10, 2008, we left the Transition Home in Ethiopia with Nathaniel in our arms forever. Today will always be an incredibly special day to us!

Amazingly Blessed

Not only was Friday, May 29th our 10 year anniversary, but it was also the very first time that Paul & I have had to buy diapers for Nathaniel!

Back in August of 2008, our family threw us an Adoption Shower, and encouraged people to bring size 3 or 4 diapers. We are currently on our last small package of 4's, and still have a package of size 6 in the garage! :-) As you can see, we have decided to go to size 5 since Nathaniel weighs over 30 lbs. We discovered that when his weighs more than 1/2 of the weight limit, the diapers start to be a little tight and don't hold as much. :-)

The Adoption shower was an incredible blessing and and amazing outpouring of love to Paul, me and Nathaniel. We are truly blessed!

Nathaniel and His Best Friend

I know I post about Nathaniel and Chewy alot, but they really are best friends. Nathaniel LOVES Chewy and Chewy loves...uh...tolerates Nathaniel. :-) LOL

Silly Grandma!

We are so blessed to have Paul's mom and Grandma watch Nathaniel every Wednesday. As you can see, they have a wonderful time together!

10 Wonderful Years of My Life...

Today Paul & I are celebrating our 10 year anniversary! I am so blessed and thankful for an incredible husband and an incredible dad for Nathaniel. I love you, honey!

Nathaniel Learns A New Trick!

Yes, you are seeing right. Nathaniel put his goldfish crackers in his hair! Funny kid.

Memorial Day Weekend Fun!

We had a wonderful, fun-filled Memorial Day weekend! Friday night we went to a BBQ at Rusty's house with a bunch of friends. Nathaniel loved the trampoline!

Saturday we had another BBQ with friends at the Sports park in Grants Pass. We had a good time and AMAZING food. I didn't take any pictures that day...I know I am slackin'!

Sunday afternoon we were invited to "Auntie Grandma's" House (AKA Jaye's house). She put a blanket on the grass under a tree and Nathaniel and Chewy played and ran for hours! It was great. Nathaniel also was introduced to the sprinker!

Testing it out

All wet!

He is so adventurous!

Umm...have you seen how big my kid is??? Look at that belly! CUTE!!! (BTW I don't normally let my kid run around with just a diaper on, but it has been VERY hot here - 80s and 90s - and this is a swimming diaper so he can run through the sprinkler...talk about impression management!)

Nathaniel and His New Baby Pool!

Chewy was very curious about the pool, but didn't enjoy getting splashed by Nathaniel.

I joined in and began splashing him with my feet!

All tuckered out!

What Nathaniel Learned Today

Several months ago when Nathaniel was learning to walk, our coffee table was PERFECT for him to hold onto and walk around in a circle. The problem came when he was walking on his own, but was still pretty wobbly. He began falling and hitting his head on the coffee table. After the 2nd split lip, we removed the coffee table...until today....here is what Nathaniel does now with the coffee table:

Just threw this one in cause it was cute and funny! :-)

Nathaniel Has Been A West For 1 Year!

This week marked our 1 year anniversary of Nathaniel officially being our son! On May 13th, 2008 we passed court in Ethiopia! Thank you, Lord, for such a blessing!!!!

Momma's First Mother's Day!

Me and my main baby squeeze!

Wearing his special Mother's Day shirt. So blessed to be Nathaniel's mom...so grateful to the Lord for giving us such a gift!

Nathaniel Goes to the Graduation of Northwest University

Paul, Melisma, Nathaniel and I set out on a "secret" mission this weekend! We took a quick trip north to attend Nick's (our honorary son) college graduation. It was set up by Nick's mom, and was a complete suprise to him! The added bonus was that our friend Abdiel was also graduating with a B.A. and our friend Brooke graduated with her M.A. in Education. Congrats! We are so proud of all 3 of you!

Nathaniel's first experience at the Rainforest Cafe.

Under 21, but way too cute of a photo opportunity to pass up!

Paul and Nick right after the ceremony.

Nick and his prayer-warrior momma!
After the ceremony at Todai