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! :-)

Silly Sunday

Yes, those are my toes in the background! :-)

Chewy is such a good sport. He gets picked on even when the baby is napping!

LOVE this picture! The amazing men in my life!

Nathaniel has a fascination with telephones lately. Here he is talking on his telephone rattle!

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!