Nathan's 6th Birthday!!!!

Happy Birthday Nathan!

It was a great day! He got to wear a crown at school and be "chief" for the day because it was his birthday and he shared cupcakes with his classmates!

Yesterday, Grandma called and wanted to know if she could pick Nathan up from school and take him to lunch and shopping so he could spend the gift card she had given him on Saturday so we made plans for that and then about an hour later Grandpa called and wanted to know if he could take Nathan golfing for his birthday! I told him that he could but he'd have to call Grandma and talk to her because she'd already booked some time on Nathan's apparently busy birthday schedule! Poor Grandpa! He decided that he and Nathan would have to go golfing another day! It was kind of funny though. He had no idea that Grandma had already made plans with Nathan! What a popular little boy he was today! That is one thing that is so nice about living close to family is that we get to enjoy those little things with them more often rather than trying to cram that bonding into just a few short days! What a blessing! We all wish we could be closer to ALL of our family but it's still fun to be close to the ones we can. We just miss the rest! I know Nathan missed his Nana today and he also was missing Noah and Adam! He really wants to invite them to his birthday party but they are just too far away! I told him we would have to have a big birthday party for all the kids next time we get together!

After school, Grandma picked him up and took him to lunch at Burger King because he wanted a monster truck toy. Then they went to Target to spend his birthday gift card on something fun! Grandma gave him a Dinosaur Curator Set so he can take dinosaur skeletons and give them "skin"! He is very excited to try it out! He also got the Power Rangers Jungle Fury Red Tiger Ultimate action gear play set. Very cool!

When they were done, Grandma brought him back to me with all his goodies! We went home and he played for a while.

He chose to have "curly" pasta (again) for his birthday dinner and then he wanted a chocolate Transformers cake with chocolate chips added to the batter. The cake decorations were a bit of a fiasco but in the end it worked out just fine! He insisted that he wanted a cake like one he saw in a party catalog but I couldn't find any Transformers cake decorations anywhere so I started calling all the bakeries at the grocery stores and they said they had them but they couldn't sell them to me without the cake! Ugh! So we had to improvise. Nathan remembered that he had a Optimus Prime (in truck form) toy that was small so he set about trying to find that while I got to work on the cake. Chocolate cake with chocolate chips added to the batter, per Nathan's request, then chocolate frosting with vanilla frosting piped on it to make a road and then I added "Happy Birthday Nathan" to it, on the road and Nathan found his Optimus Prime and washed it and we put him on the road! Then we crushed up Oreo cookies and put those all over the cake on the sides of the road to look like dirt/rocks! (I said it was dirt but Nathan insisted that it was rocks so we agreed that it was both.) It turned out cute and Nathan was very happy with it!

Dinner was yummy! Then we lit the candles on Nathan's cake and sang him Happy Birthday. Doug had to cover David's ears and then David put his own hands over Doug's but he didn't cry and didn't yell and didn't run away. He actually had a smile on his face. No singing yet though. Maybe someday. Nathan blew out the candles but then we had to relight them because David wanted to help blow them out so then they both blew them out and you would have though we had trick candles because one of them did not want to go out! The boys both thought that was hilarious! The cake was yummy, very moist and super chocolatey!

After cake we let Nathan open his presents! He got a book from David called 1001 Pirate Things to Find. He's very excited about it and can't wait to start looking for all the hidden "treasures" in his new book! Jonathan gave him a new CareBears movie. He was so excited because he's been wanting this movie for months. Then we gave him the Ben10 "watch" that he's been asking for. It's not really a watch at all. It's actually a video game kinda thing but it goes on his wrist so he calls it a watch. David is desperate for one too so we told him he would have to wait for his birthday to get one! We also got him the Lego City Police Headquarters set. He is very into his legos lately and he is so excited to get started on this new set! (Although I think Doug is more excited than Nathan! Hmmm.)

As I was putting him to bed tonight, I asked him if he was happy with all of his presents and he said, "I'm happy with THIS!" (his Ben10 watch) I asked him if he didn't like his other presents and he said he was very happy with ALL of his presents. I asked him if he had had a good day and he said it was a very fun day! I likes all of his presents and he loved his dinner and his cake! I'm just glad it was a successful birthday and we don't have to do it again until next year! I'm exhausted! :o)

The Family Birthday Party

On Saturday, we invited Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Meagan and Uncle Nate, and Aunt Mandy to a joint birthday party for Jonathan and Nathan since no one was able to celebrate with us ON either of their birthdays. It was a fun time. We let Nathan choose the menu cause Jonathan wasn't going to eat any of it anyway so we had "curly" pasta and french bread. It was easy and yummy.

Then we let the kids open presents, first Jonathan and then Nathan. Jonathan got a rocking, musical snail that he loves. Oh and it's antenna squeak too! He can't quite make it rock on his own yet but he still likes to sit on it and make someone else do all the work. He has spent quite a bit of time on it since Saturday and even his early intervention speicalists (old one and new one came this week) were impressed with it! I'm sure it won't be too long before he can climb on it all by himself and just rock away the day just like he does in his exersaucer now! This boy loves to rock!!! He also got some very cute clothes and a book!

Nathan enjoyed some cuddle time with Grandpa while he waited for his turn.

Nathan got his Martian Matter Alien Maker that he's been wanting for a very long time from Aunt Meagan, Uncle Nate and Aunt Mandy! He loves it and has been making several aliens every day! I think his alien making goo is about half gone now! I'm going to have to figure out where I can get some more for him because he LOVES this thing and he's a real pro at the whole process now! He hasn't figured out that he can let them "set" for less time and then have their insides stay gooey yet and I really hope it stays that way for a while! Grandma and Grandpa gave him some very handsome clothes and the Lego City Police Command Center and the Lego City Police Helicopter. He loves them both and insisted that Dad put them together immediately which took well over an hour! He also got some great books from Uncle Jason, Aunt Jamie, Noah, Adam & Katie! We are making our way through Stanley in Space right now and both the boys are really enjoying it! It's fun to read something that is ongoing with them!

The boys both loved their gifts!

After presents it was time for cake! Grandma ordered an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins and it was yummy! Nathan was very satisfied with her choice of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream and chocolate cake.

After that, Jonathan was ready to go down for a nap and everyone was ready to head home and do the same although I'm not sure if any of them actually did that! Mandy and her friend Nate hung out for a while and then it was just us. NAP TIME!!!! It was a great party and we had a lot of fun. The kids enjoyed their presents and just spending time with all the family!

Thanks to everyone for a great party!!!

Silly Jonathan!!!! (a video post)

So Jonathan took a 3 hour nap this morning and I figured there was no way he was going to take a nap this afternoon but about 2 hours after he woke up from his first nap, he started to act tired so I put him in his bed with a bottle to see if he just wanted something to eat(drink) and then he's liven up again. He did liven up again but only for a little while and he actually took another nap this afternoon and then went to bed by 8:15 tonight! What a sleepy little boy! I hope all this sleep means he's going to get better soon. He's been sick with this darn cold for way too long! Anyway, the first time i layed him down, he drank his bottle and then decided to play. He rocked his crib for a while which was very loud throughout the house. Nathan even came and was all upset cause he heard a loud banging and I had to explain that it was just Jonathan playing in his crib. Silly baby! So then he got really quite for a while and then I heard him making some noises but I couldn't figure out what he was doing so I went to check the video monitor (what did I ever do without this before?)... I found he had moved his crib toy to the opposite end of the crib than it was on when I layed him down. Then he had gotten himself underneath it and was playing with the spinny toys on the other side of it. So I took video of the monitor screen. You can really just see his feet moving around and that the toy is pulled out away from the side of the crib and then you can hear him spinning the toy. Then I quietly opened his bedroom door and tried to video without turning the light on but it was too dark so I had to turn the light on but you can see what he had done and it was so funny! He was stuck too so I had to help him! Silly boy! Enjoy these videos!

Awwww! I got a blogger award!!! Thanks FXSmom!

My sweet friend on the blog Fragile What? gave me a V-day blogger award!!! Wasn't that nice!!! See my award at the right! I love it! Thank you so very much!!!!

My beautiful city!

I found this seriously gorgeous picture of downtown Visalia! It has the Fox Theatre and you can see the green treetops and even the mountains! I love this picture and have never seen anything like it before!

Jonathan's birthday

We had a wonderful birthday celebration! He wasn't into the cake at all but the pictures make it look like he was! He got some great gifts and he is enjoying all his new toys! We will be having a joint party for Jonathan and Nathan for the family on February 23rd so there will be more pictures to come. Enjoy the slideshow! It's a tribute to our little sweetheart!

Jonathan's 1st Birthday