Christmas with Pappy and Nana

So last weekend Brad and I gathered up the family and headed down to Birmingham for Christmas with Pappy and Nana. (For those of you who don't know Pappy and Nana are Brad's parents.) You know when you are packing up enough stuff for two babies, two adults, Christmas gifts, etc. a jeep is not a very large vehicle. At least we don't need a 15 passenger van like Jon and Kate Plus 8! :) Anyway, we finally made it to Birmingham around 6:30 after lots of sitting in traffic. We ate dinner and hung around the house until bedtime. We finally figured out a solution to bedtime without bringing the pack and play (which neither of the boys would have probably slept in anyway). We set up a blowup bed in the floor next to our bed. We thought Nicholas would sleep in it and maybe even Nathan too, but only Nathan slept in it and that was just for part of the night. Brad ended up laying in it for a while with Nathan while Nicholas and I slept in the bed.

On Saturday, Nana made everyone breakfast and then it came time for presents. By that time, Nicholas was getting sleepy as you can see in these two pictures. He got over it a little bit when he realized that it was time to open presents!

So Nicholas really got into opening presents. He wanted to open them all, even if he knew they were not for him. He would tear off the tag of each present first and then tear off little pieces at a time, hand them to me, and say "Thank you Mommy." Eventually he began throwing his own trash away. I guess we are lucky he is a little OCD and wouldn't dare throw his wrapping paper in the floor. It saved us some clean-up time!

Nathan's first Christmas was very special. Since he is almost 9 months now, he could sit up and sort of open presents. He would grab the paper and pull a little, but mostly he just pulled everything to his mouth. Nicholas was happy to open Nathan's presents for him. Nathan was happy to just have a bow to chew on. Poor baby is teething so much that his shirt just seems to stay wet from drool! Nathan received his very own Build a Bear named Bear Bryant II. (Nicholas has the original Bear Bryant.) He also received many other toys and clothing gifts.

Adult present opening began with the drawing of numbers to see who was the "reader" of the present opening rules. Brad won the number drawing and had to wear the reindeer antlers for the official reading. We each received the three gifts of Christmas. Our third gift was a gift for both of us. After opening the first two gifts, it was time to open the third gift of Christmas. Brad and I were very surprised to open the box to find a Nintendo Wii!! We were very excited. Unfortunately I had planned a big surprise of my own and had Brad a Wii already under our Christmas tree. I had to tell Brad that I had him a Wii of his own at the house. He had no idea of my surprise. It all worked out okay though. We just sold our Wii to some friends of ours who were searching for a Wii of thier own.

Below the boys are playing with their new blocks with Aunt Sarah.

Brad and Matt had to break out the Wii immediately for a little golfing competition. I'm not sure they got to finish playing. Nicholas had to take a trip to the park to play for a while. After all it was about 65 or 70 degrees outside!

Here is the family Christmas picture. It is a little off center, but after cropping it down it looks great. We had not really planned to all wear black, but it just kind of turned out that way. It did make for a great picture though!

Nicholas' 2nd Birthday!

Nicholas turned 2 years old on November 24th, so we had his party on the Saturday before his birthday. The theme of the party was "Let's Have a Ball" because, if you know Nicholas, his favorite thing to do is play ball. It really doesn't matter what type of ball he has or what other toys are around-all the boy needs to entertain himself is a sports ball. Which is good for us in many ways. He probably would have been fine with no other presents but a ball, but of course he received tons of gifts from everyone.

Here is Nicholas standing in front of one of his birthday banners. He was very excited about his party, mostly because I kept talking up the party all week. I would say, "What are we going to do for your birthday this Saturday?" and Nicholas would say, "ice cream" or "ball". This was really what he was so excited about, the possibility of playing ball and eating ice cream. Throw in a pop tart and Nicholas would have his ideal day! (For those of you not around Nicholas enough to know, pop tarts are all the child wants to eat. Sounds healthy huh?)

Nicholas got in his chair and waited patiently for cake and ice cream time. We sang happy birthday and Nicholas blew out his candle (with a little help from Mom). Of course right after the candle was out, Nicholas reached up to see where the flame went. He touched the hot wax before I could grab his hand. So we had a crying birthday boy for a short amount of time. He quieted down though as soon as I gave him his spoon. Then it was time to eat some cake.I really don't think I have ever seen Nicholas eat so much of anything, even cake! He has never really eaten sweets of any kind, but he definitely liked the cake today. Maybe this is a turning point for our little non-eating boy.

Here are some of the party goers as well as a pic. of the giant pile of gifts. Where all all these toys going to go in the house? What gifts are even left for Christmas? Nicholas was very excited about the unwrapped giant ball that you can see in the background. Thanks Uncle Kevin for the big ball!

Here Nicholas is giving Laura Beth a ride on his new tricycle.

One of Nick's presents from us was this giant jumper. It has been set up in our playroom for about two weeks, but it was new for all the party goers. Too bad it was too cold outside to set it up out there. We would have had more room in the yard.

None of the little kids tried to jump in the bouncer. They all just crawled in and sat there. I guess that prevented some injuries!

Nathan's sitting with Grandpa waiting for someone to rock him to sleep for his afternoon nap. Thanks Debbie for taking care of the little baby in the house!

Thankfully Nicholas had some of his friends to help with the present opening. If not we would have been there all night! Nicholas began opeing the presents by slowing tearing one little piece of wrapping paper off the gifts and handing it to me. He would say "Thank you Mommy" and then go for another little piece. The Lawler twins and Clark finally joined in to show Nicholas how presents should be opened. I think all the other little kids thought it was their birthday too! They would open presents and then want to play with them. It was hilarious! Thanks to Erica, Brian, and Matt for putting together gifts after they were unwrapped. You made all the kids happy!

Nicholas and Aunt Sarah play with the car racer given by Aunt Carol. Nicholas loves to press the go button and watch the cars shoot off the tracks.

For the child who loves balls soo much, we had to buy him a ball pit for his birthday. I'm sure we will be picking up the little plastic balls for the next five years, but Nicholas, Nathan, and the other kids loved it!

Don't worry about going to Toys R Us for checking out the toy department, just come on over and play with any toy that you want. Thanks everybody for a great party day!

Just Another Update...

The question of the day, why don't we update this blog more often? Well, simple answer, in two parts. Brad is too lazy to take the time to udpate it. Jen doesn't have any time with teaching, school, and taking care of 3 children (no, Jen isn't pregnant, I count myself as a child!) So, here is a quick update on things.

School is off to a roaring start at Sheffield. Jen has a great class this year and enjoys the challenges that it presents. She just finished this quarter of her Master's classes. She now will have her internship and one class left and she will be done with her Master's degree. If I haven't mentioned before, she will also be coaching the Sheffield Bulldog High School Tennis team this coming Spring. Come out to the local tennis courts and support them. Go Dogs!

The boys are growing each and every day. Nathan has started to eat baby food and thus, Nicholas is starting to eat more frequently (I think Nicholas gets jealous, so he starts to eat). Nathan weighed 17 lbs, 7 oz at his last doctor's visit and Nicholas weighed in at 23 lbs the last time we weighed him. Nathan has started to roll over and he seems to have pretty good leg strength when we hold him up. Needless to say, he will be walking sooner than later.

As for me, not too much going on in my department. I took a new position with ULA which will hopefully help me in the food chain at work. The good thing is that I will still be based in Decatur. However, my boss is in Denver and the job is set to report out of there. So, I will be traveling a little more than I have been.

So, enough of this typing. I'm sure you really just want to see some updated pictures of the boys. So, hope you enjoy. Below are some pictures of Nicholas and Nathan that have been taken during the last several months. We also visited the pumpkin patch today, but obviously, I'm not that fast with getting pictures posted!

Thanks Aunt Sarah for our new Halloween shirts!

Who needs a pacifier?!



My hair is too long to effectively demonstrate a Mohawk!


Don't you love my big eyes?!

Say Cheese!

Gotcha!

Nicholas: Wow, look how wide I can open my mouth?!

Nathan: Why won't you let go of me mom?!

I'm gonna stick out my tongue at you!

The boys hanging out in bed after their bath....

Check out my blue eyes!

I think someone is getting tired....

Much Needed Update...

Wow, I can't really remember the last time we updated this blog. However, there is a post in work that highlights our trip to Columbus, Ohio for Amanda and Rick's wedding. Anyways, this is Brad providing this update. Currently, I'm "watching" Nathan while Jen and Nicholas are down in Birmingham. Jen has a conference tomorrow, so Nicholas tagged along to hang out with Nana and Papa.

So, I'll try to update what's been going on the last few weeks. Nathan went for his 4 month check-up a few weeks ago. These figures might not be exact, but they are close. Nathan weighed in at 15.1 lbs and 25.5 inches long. Needless to say, he was in the upper percentile in all categories. Let's put it this way, Nicholas and Nathan will soon look like twins. Nicholas still weighs around 21 lbs, so you can see how quikcly Nathan is catching up.

Jen finished up her Summer session of Master's classes. She has two more classes this semester and will wrap everything up during the Spring semester. Jen is also going to be the head coach of the Sheffield High School tennis team this next year. So, if you have nothing to do on an afternoon this coming spring, feel free to come to the courts to cheer on the Sheffield Bulldogs. There will also be opportunities to help chase little kids around. (That is just my plug for help watching Nicholas and Nathan.)

Otherwise, things are rolling right along. I hope all of our buddies from the east coast to the west coast are all doing well. That's it for now!

The Fourth of July

We had a great Fourth of July. My parents, my brother Brian, Graddaddy, Great Aunt Jean, my cousin Matthew, and Aunt Carol all came over to swim and eat ribs for lunch. (We have a smoker now and Brad makes some delicious ribs!) It was a beautiful morning so I set up everything outside-the hammock, sand and water play table for Nicholas, the cornhole game boards, floats, tables, etc. so we could eat outside and relax in the sun. Just when it was time for everyone to arrive, the dark clouds appeared. We hurried and cleaned everything up outside just before the huge rainstorm hit. So we ate our ribs inside. The rain finally stopped so we headed outside for the pool. We played some pool volleyball, where Matthew and I were the true winners. (We just let everyone else think they beat us :) The pool water was actually cold in the breeze after the rain. I don't think I can remember a Fourth where we were cold swimming.

That night instead of watching fireworks on the bluff, we decided to ride with Aunt Carol and Matthew on their boat to see the fireworks at Doublehead resort. Daddy watched Nathan so we could take Nicholas and go out on the boat. We left about 6:30 because we thought the show began at 9:15. It takes about 30 minutes by water to get there and we wanted a good spot to watch from. We listened to the concert that was playing on the riverside and waited for fireworks to begin. At 9:15-no fireworks. At 9:30-no fireworks. Brad decided to use his phone to look up what time the fireworks were scheduled to begin. The website said 9:30. We waited. 9:45-still no fireworks. By this time, Nicholas was fast asleep on the back seat of the boat. We decided we would wait until 10:00 and then leave if there were no fireworks. Finally at 10:00, the show began. The show was good. It was my first time seeing fireworks from the river. We headed back to Carol's house in the very cold air. We finally made it home around 11:00 to relieve Daddy from watching Nathan. I can't remember the last time I stayed out until 11:00. We are definitely getting old!


Here are Nicholas and Nathan in their pajamas playing on the activity mat before we dressed them. As you can see, Nicholas crawls right up there to play with Nathan. He even likes to lay down next to him.

Graddaddy takes care of Nathan while we are getting lunch ready.

I had to take this picture of Nathan wearing the same Fourth of July shirt and shorts that Nicholas wore last year on July 4th. That meant Nicholas was 8 months when he wore it. Nathan is only 3 months and it fits! Nathan will soon pass our little Nicholas in weight.

Nicholas is waiting for the boatride to begin. He did not like wearing the life jacket. He kept trying to pull it off. When we came to a stop in front of Doublehead, I let him take it off and walk around on the boat. He was much happier then.


Here we are sitting on the boat waiting for the show to begin. There was a concert going on on both sides of the river, so we had plenty of entertainment. Plus Matthew brought his police scanner, so we listened to all the crazy things happening around town on a holiday.

Swimming!

Let's see...where do I begin?

I've heard comments from Denver to south Florida that we haven't updated in a while. So, with that being said, here is your grand update.

Nicholas will be 19 months old tomorrow and Nathan will be 3 months old next Wednesday. Wow, how time flies! Nathan went for his 2 month check-up a few weeks ago and he weighed in at 11 lbs, 15 ozs and was 23.5 inches long. As you will notice, he still has a head full of hair, and it shows somewhat of a reddish tint. We are still trying to find out where the red came from. Below are some pictures from Nathan's first dip into the swimming pool. More updates on the family below the pictures....

Nathan trying to figure out what exactly is going on.

Nicholas and Jen taking time to pose for the camera.

My wild crew!


Jennifer and Nathan taking their turn to pose.

Nicholas loving the water!

Nathan attempting to wave!

As for the rest of the family, Jen finished her Spring semester of Master's classes. She is taking another full load this summer and will be completed with the program in November. Vacation Bible School is going on this week, so she is busy teaching 5th and 6th grade girls. I continue to enjoy having every other Friday off. This really just gives me time to cut grass and go grocery shopping.

We will be headed out in mid July for Columbus, Ohio to attend another family wedding. It should make for an interesting trip since we will be flying with two kiddos under the age of 2. I'll be sure to give you a report on that trip.

Well, hope you all enjoyed the update. Stop by again soon. We will try to update more often!