Happy Birthday Nathan!

My sweet Nathan is six.. 

 I can hardly believe it. 

This kid, as I've said before, causes me a lot of worry and frustration, but oh SO much joy and laughter.  He is hilariously funny....sometimes without trying to be.  He also loses his temper at the drop of a hat and throws fits weekly, but we try not to focus on those things.  Someday I won't remember right?  Well, I kind of want to.  While the tough times with Nathan are really tough, somehow it makes the good times even sweeter.  He is a lover.  He genuinely wants to get to know every person he meets.  When we finish singing a song in church he claps and cheers....and he doesn't care who hears him.  He means it.  Marc and I both comment all the time that we wish we had his attitude toward others.  He sees the good in everyone.  He sees differences as exciting and interesting.  He asks a lot of questions.  When people meet Nathan they just love him....it's no wonder...he is easy to love.

Here are a few pictures from Nathan's first birthday just for fun. 

Nathan's birthday lasted awhile this year.  We had a small family celebration on his real birthday and then both sets of grandparents came over the next night for another party.  Then on Saturday we let Nathan have his first friend party.  He really wanted one, and we decided he was at the perfect age.  We were right....he had a grand time.  He are some pictures from all the celebrations!

Nothing like a good morning hug from your big brother on your birthday.

A candle in a bagel

This is the look I got when he blew out his candle before we were done singing!

 We had lunch in the park with some friends on the day of his birthday.  It was beautiful, warm and sunny.  A rare thing on March 21st!

When Nathan opened his presents from us he got a fishing pole, a lego garbage truck, and a gallon of bubbles.  He was thrilled!

One thing that cracked us up this year....every time we finished singing Happy Birthday, Nathan would clap and say, "Again...again!"  How could we not...we sang it twice every time.  I made cupcakes for the party at home, but for the friend party we got a Walmart cupcake cake.  I'm not one for buying cakes....I almost always make them.  Let me tell you why we love these cakes.  The whipped frosting is amazing....light and fluffy.  Just the cupcakes with this frosting would be great....but it doesn't end there.  Walmart uses a big glob of their very sweet buttercream frosting to hold the cupcakes onto the cardboard.  After the cupcakes are removed, we eat this glob of frosting.  It's as simple as that.  Try it friends, try it.

When we told Jillian we were going to the Science Center for Nathan's birthday party she said, "Can I rub a bunny?"  That's all she wanted to do.  Rub a bunny.

The giant fish tank was a big hit!

I do not know why, but all three of my kids held a snake while we were there.  I for one would not do that....neither would their father, but I was proud of them for being brave.



I love this last picture.  My boy was happy.  He had his friends and his family all together in one place.  He loved it. 

And we love him.

While I wish Nathan could stay my little boy forever, I can not wait to see what he'll be like as an adult.  Whatever it is he decides to be, one thing is for sure.....he'll be excited about it.  He will do it with his whole heart.  He will love everyone around him.  

Thank you God for my sweet happy boy. 



We have...

A brand new 6 year old in our house!

Yesterday was the big day, but we are still partying. 

 I promise to write a special birthday post about my special boy.... 

after we cram ONE more party in this weekend!

Finally!

Nathan lost a tooth!  He has been waiting for this for a LONG time...ever since Calvin lost HIS first tooth.  It all went down much quicker than I thought it would.  I noticed probably a month or more ago that his bottom two front teeth were a little wiggly.  I gave him the good news, but let him know that it would still be a while.  A couple weeks ago I randomly wiggled his top tooth and noticed it was even a little looser than the bottom ones.  Today when we were out and about Nathan asked a couple friends to wiggle his tooth and I noticed that it was getting pretty loose.  Still a long way to go though....or so I thought.  When we got home I told Nathan to go look in the mirror and wiggle his tooth simply because I thought he would be able to see it move.  It was SO strange....almost like he couldn't feel it.  A far cry from his brother's reaction to pulling a tooth.  He just pushed and pushed until it fell out and then he handed it to me.  No big deal.  I was absolutely cracking up!

Is this kid a crack up or what?  Every time I looked at him today I just giggled.  It's so unusual to loose this tooth before the bottom two.  I feel like it looks more like he got beat up!

I didn't think it was possible that he could be any cuter, but I think he just might be.

Now we're all on pins and needles waiting for the Toof Berry to arrive!



Oh What a Night!

The kids had a couple of days off this week for Spring Break so we decided to head out of town for a night.  Hotel and swimming was all the kids wanted to do.  We booked a jacuzzi suite just for fun because the kids didn't even know they existed. 

After a short drive we headed straight for the pool!  Jillian is learning to use water wings, but she prefers her mommy or daddy.

Nathan is CRAZY in the water.  He loves it so much he should have gills.  That would be helpful actually.   He really can't swim, but he doesn't care at all and has NO fear.  He swims under water really well, but gets himself into trouble when he heads to the middle of the pool and then can't touch.

Here is Marc trying to explain to Nathan that if he isn't wearing wings, he will not float.  A hard concept for Nathan.

Calvin just loves swimming.  While he doesn't know the actual strokes yet, he is becoming a pretty good swimmer.  He prefers to always be playing some sort of game in the water.

The pool at this hotel was pretty chilly, so the kids had to make several trips back and forth to the "hot pool" as they call it.  The hot pool was about 5 degrees short of boiling, so we couldn't stay in it for long.

Jilly had fun jumping to Mommy and Daddy.  (Yes, I swam.  I just didn't get any pictures of that...on purpose.)

When they weren't in the pool or at dinner, they were in what Jilly called the Cuzzi tub.  They watched the hockey tournament and just relaxed.

This was supposed to be a seat, but the kids used it as a slide.

The next morning Marc took the boys to the arcade while Jilly and I went to Kohls.  (This is what I wanted to do on MY vacation.)  I laughed at the difference between boys and girls when we were shopping.  I had to go in the dressing room to try on some pants.  When we got in there Jillian said, "Hey, I want to try something on!"  I laid out her clothes we had picked out for her, and she proceeded to try everything on.  Standing in front of the mirror she would turn and look saying, "Oh, this is beautiful!"  Never, have my boys EVER asked to try something on.  They think it's torture.  They were very happy at the arcade while we did our shopping.  A great vacation all around! 

Our Princess is 3

Three years ago I was feeling like all of my dreams had come true.  I wanted to be a mom from the time I was a little girl.  I had my two handsome and funny boys, and our family was complete when I got my baby girl.  She came in true girl fashion...a little more dramatically....via c-section.  We were all in love from the moment we saw her.

Nathan, ever the oral child, tasting his new sister...

Jillian has been so much more than I imagined she could be. 

I expected her to be sweet and she certainly is.  She is delightful.  She says to me very often during the day, "Hey Mom...I like you".  She loves to crawl up in my lap with her taggie and her thumb and just sit for awhile.  That is one of my favorite things.  She takes her role of baby in the family very seriously.  Jillian loves to play and do her thing, but she is happy to snuggle almost any time.  And not just with me...she'll choose Daddy or Calvin if they're available too.  On her birthday we were talking about how big she was getting when she said, "Mom, someday when I'm big like Papa I'll have hair in my ears too, but not right now cause I'm your baby."  That's right, Jilly, that's right.

I love being a mommy to boys no doubt about it.  But I'm having so much fun being a mom to a girly.  Jilly loves babies and princesses and ballet and tea parties.  Sometimes I find myself just watching her play and smiling to myself.  She is so much fun.  God certainly knew what he was doing when he created this beautiful girl for me.  I just could not love her more than I do.  Here is a recap of her 3rd birthday.

A candle in her waffle...

A tea party with the girls...



She was so excited about the princess plates, cups and napkins.



A couple weeks ago Marc brought me flowers for my birthday.  Jillian just loved them.  A couple times during the week she said, "I wish I could have flowers like you."  Daddy remembered this and brought Jilly her very own.  She was thrilled.

We went out for pizza and then came home to open her presents from us.  Nathan's favorite part of giving a present is getting a hug afterwards!  He gave her some Aladdin Squinkies...

Tangled!!

After each present she opened she had to clean up all the paper and give it to Grandpa before she could move on to the next one.

A giant ball from Calvin!

The princess at her party!

Waiting to eat...

Papa and Nana gave her a giant talking Belle.  She loves it!

She didn't know what to think when she opened this pink police motorcycle from Grandma and Grandpa.  When she first started riding it she got this shy smile on her face and jumped right off to sit on my lap and hide her face.  She quickly tried it again and loved it!  There will be no brothers speeding in the driveway THIS summer!

Happy Birthday to you my sweet Jilly Bean!

As soon as the party was over she crawled up on her daddy's lap to suck her thumb and relax.  That's the sign of a good birthday.