Picture and video catch-up for the last couple of weeks

Friday (6/26) was Nathaniel's one month birthday, so I thought I would post some updated pictures. He has grown quite a bit in the last couple of weeks. He is almost 12 pounds now! I love the chub! =)

A couple of weeks ago, we went up to my parents' house to spend a little over a week with them. Due to illness, my dad had been unable to see Nathaniel until we brought him. Here he is holding him for the first time.


My niece, Kelly, was smitten with Nathaniel. I think she would have been willing to hold him 24/7 if I had allowed. =) Nathaniel misses his warm, snuggly cousin.

My niece, Sarah, also loved to hold Nathaniel.

My nephew, Bryce, with Nathaniel...

My sister, Kyra, got some snuggle time in, too.

I love how his pacifier flipped up in this picture.

Every time he stretches like this, Jason says, "Touchdown!"

Cute little "Snuggle Bunny"

My mom made some adorable burp cloths for Nathaniel. This is one that has monkeys and says, "Little Monkey" all over. It's really cute!

My niece, Sarah, gave him a teddy bear. He is fascinated with the bow.

While we were at my parents' house and Nathaniel was 3 weeks old, he decided to roll over from his stomach to his back! I didn't catch it on video, but he did it twice in a row. Here are some pictures of him trying again.


Sydney finally lost her first tooth. Unfortunately, I was not present when it actually came out. Alyx decided to be the "Mommy" and pull it without me knowing. =( Oh well, I took this "After photo," and she was thrilled to finally have lost a tooth. She currently has two other loose teeth....when it rains it pours. =) Oh, and yes, she already has the permanent teeth coming in behind the bottom front teeth. All of my girls did that...weird, huh?


We also celebrated Larissa's 8th birthday while we were up there. She chose a Funfetti cake with chocolate Funfetti icing. It was yummy, of course! =)

Another cute "Bubba" picture...

Snuggling with Granny again...

Cuddling with Daddy...

He wasn't quite sure of his Uncle Richard....

He got a little fussy....

...and so did Uncle Richard. =)

Uncle Richard got him his first Nascar outfit...Go Dale Jr! Hey, all I care about is that it's green! =) LOL! Sorry, Richard, it's all about the fashion. =)

Snuggle time with Sydney includes lots of kisses...

He loves to cuddle with Larissa, too....

Little Mommy, Alyx....I'm sure she's seen me do this a million times. I love to sniff the top of his head. As Frank Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond says, "I'm sucking in the youth!" =)

Point in case... He's going to be such a "Mama's Boy!" =)

Jason says he looks like "Uncle Fester" from the Addams Family in this nightgown. =)

Daddy seems to know just how to get a smile out of him.

A few nights ago while we were trying to get Nathaniel to sleep, he was very fussy. He didn't want to be held, he didn't want to lie down, he had already eaten, he had a clean diaper, etc. Jason decided to lay him down on the bed to see if he would roll over. Here's what happened...

Here's Nathaniel on his one month birthday right before we sang "Happy Birthday" to him.

Another sweet close-up...

I tried to catch him smiling in his sleep and just barely caught a glimpse of one. =)

We had our good friends, the Skattebos, over on Saturday and had a great time with them. Eliana has been looking forward to holding Nathaniel for a long time now, and she finally got to hold him. He got a little fussy after I took her picture with him, so she was ready to pass him back to me. She said, "He's a little cry-ey." =)

Snuggling with his "blankie"

Alyx has the touch. She's very good at getting him to go to sleep.

Lazy, sleepy mornings are the best!

Happy Birthday, Alyx!

Yesterday was Alyx's 9th birthday, but we actually celebrated with my family this past Saturday. We usually let each child pick what kind of meal they want for their birthday party and what kind of cake they want as well. When I asked Alyx what she wanted for her meal, she said, "Macaroni and cheese!" As you know, we have gone dairy-free, but we've decided that for special events and holidays, we'll let the rules slide a little bit. =) Since that was all she requested, we built a meal around that one dish. My mom fixed some BBQ beef that we put on toasted sesame seed buns and a big pan of baked beans. My sister, Kyra, brought a big pan of macaroni and cheese made with Fusilli pasta (you know, the twirly corkscrew stuff). Macaroni made fun! =) It was all very DE-lish!

She chose a chocolate cake with white frosting, but while we were at my parents' church celebrating the 30th anniversary of the church, we had dinner on the grounds and had a piece of Mississippi Mud cake. Alyx decided that she wanted that instead of a regular cake. Fine by me! =)

She wanted to be the one to put the candles on her cake.

While she was doing that, Jason was trying to get her to group them more together, so it would be easier to blow them out. She insisted on putting them in a straight line.

It wasn't until she turned the pan that we realized what she was thinking. She's pretty smart...

Make a wish!

She got 'em all...

You gotta lick the candles...

"Sisters, sisters...there were never such devoted sisters..." (Have you seen White Christmas?)

Uncle Richard (a.k.a. Uncle Ritardo) is the all-time cake cutter, because he's the BEST!! =)

After we (throroughly) enjoyed the cake, it was time to open presents. The gift that I was most excited about giving her and that (I think) was her favorite was a new digital camera. Since I got her a scrapbooking kit for Christmas, I thought that it would be nice for her to be able to take pictures that she could use on her pages. Here she is with her camera (which is in her favorite color no less, RED!!)...

Sydney's Birthday (and a tooth fairy pillow)

This past Monday was Sydney's birthday, and we went up to my parents' house to have a family party and spend the week with them. My mom's birthday was yesterday, so we were able to spend the day with her as well. We just returned today for the weekend, because the kids have their Christmas program on Sunday night and a rehearsal tomorrow morning.

When I took Sydney shopping to pick out her birthday decorations, she said that she wanted Strawberry Shortcake stuff. Well, as we walked through the party section of Wal-mart, she spotted some snowman plates with coordinating napkins that had polka dots (Soooo Cute!) and decided that she wanted that. It's a good thing she found (and liked) these first, because the "kid's section" of party decorations did not have Strawberry Shortcake. Well, we proceeded to pick out balloons and stuff and found that Wal-mart only has one brand of balloons now. Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought they used to carry a wider variety of balloons. Anyway, we got some blue and white balloons that matched Sydney's snowman theme.

Well, we will NOT be buying these balloons again! Apparently, Larissa is now allergic to yet another thing. Look what blowing up balloons did to her...

I asked her if she could smile for me...here's her attempt...

We don't know if the balloons had latex or what and if that's what she's allergic to, but her face blew up like a balloon (no pun intended). She was pretty miserable for the rest of the day and even into the next day.

My niece, Kelly, decorated a banner for Sydney's party. I thought that was really sweet of her and that she did a great job on it.


Sydney chose a carrot cake for her birthday cake. The cream cheese frosting looks like it was melting off of the cake, but it wasn't. =) It just wasn't as thick as a regular frosting for some reason, but it tasted great!


We used to just get those number candles for the girls' birthdays, but for the last few years, they've been requesting the individual candles. Sydney had a hard time getting all of them blown out at once. Here's attempt number one...

Here's attempt number two...

That last one just doesn't want to be blown out....

Finally...she got it! =)

Licking the icing off of the candles is a MUST and is sooo much fun! =)

Here's all the cousins. You can see the snowman plates and dotted napkins on the table...they were sooo cute! =)

Among Sydney's presents was a new outfit that Alyx helped to pick out for Sydney. It was a Hello Kitty shirt with some khaki pants. This was one of my favorites, so that's why I'm highlighting it. =) I thought it was really cute, because the picture on the front was in reverse on the back side of the shirt. Here she is right after she opened it...


Here she is the next day, modeling the front and back of her new outfit. I know...her hair is hanging in her face. She really doesn't like for me to put anything in it, but sometimes I just have to make her, because I get tired of not being able to see both of her eyes all the time. =)



On a side note, I just recently finished Sydney's tooth fairy pillow. She was thrilled with it and is now excitedly awaiting her first loose tooth. =) She chose the same type of yarn that Larissa did, so it's very fuzzy and difficult to make out the tooth fairy angel on the front. They love them, and that's all that matters. =)