Rocking Chair

My mom sent my old rocking chair home for Nate to use. He doesn't sit still often, but he loves sitting in front of the Christmas tree and looking at the ornaments. He has done really well with the tree. He is so funny because the lights on the tree have to be on at all times. We had a lot of errands yesterday and came home for about an hour in between our errands. I wasn't going to turn on the lights since we were only home a short time. Nate stood in front of the tree pointing at it until I turned them on. We also have lights on our mantel and he pointed at those until I turned them on also. He's really going to miss all the decor in a few weeks.

He looks SO big in this picture. Can you tell he's still working on his molars? He drools more than any child I've ever seen.

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We were blessed to get to celebrate with both of our families. Last year I decided to start the tradition of getting a family picture on Thanksgiving. We don't do anything fancy, but it's nice to have a picture of everyone together. It's always fun trying to get everyone to cooperate (and I'm not necessarily talking about Nate).

This year was also special because Thanksgiving day was my mom's birthday. I think Nate thought the cake and singing was for him. Check out the pictures of him licking the icing off the candles.

Twilight

Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that the movie Twilight is now in theatres. I read the book about three years ago when I was working as a media specialist. I really loved the book so I was very excited when I heard it was being made into a movie. A few weeks ago some friends from church planned a Twilight movie night. We planned to have dinner and see the movie on opening night (last night). We were all so excited. It's like we were 13 again. A few girls had on "Edward Prefers Brunettes" t-shirts. One girl even made us all goody bags that included soda cans featuring either a vampire or a werewolf. I'll be the first to admit that the movie was a little cheesy and over-the-top in places and the special effects could have been a lot better, but overall I really enjoyed it. I also loved the environment. There were plenty of other adults in the theatre, but it was mostly teenagers. They were so funny. The first time Edward appeared on screen they simultaneously screamed and applauded. It was great. This happened several times during the movie - not enough to be annoying, but fun. For the few of you reading this who haven't read Twilight, you need to read it. Don't skip the book and just do the movie. Movies are (sometimes) great, but books are ALWAYS better.

Christmas Card Photo Shoot

Thursday Nate and I got together with my cousin and her two boys and set out to get the perfect Christmas card photo. I knew it was going to be a challenge, but I thought I would get at least one good picture for our card. I was wrong. All Nate wanted to do was pick up sticks and rocks and play. That wasn't a big shocker and I wanted him to be natural, but I just couldn't get that "perfect" picture because he was a little too busy. Thankfully my cousin just happened to snap a picture of Nate that ended up being the perfect picture. Isn't it funny how things work out sometimes?

Yippee!!!

Today I reached my weight loss goal at Weight Watchers. I have lost 42 pounds (probably closer to 55 or 60 since Nate's birth). It's been almost 10 years since I've been at this weight so I'm really excited. Now I just have to keep it off. I have to thank my mom for helping me achieve this goal. She asked me back in April if I wanted to go to WW with her and she would pay for it. I honestly wasn't really excited about starting a "diet," but how could I say no to that great offer. Thanks Mom!

4th Picture - I've Been Tagged

I've been tagged to do the following...

1. Choose the fourth picture folder on my computer


2. Choose the fourth picture


3. Explain the picture


4. Tag four other people

This is Sally. She showed up at our house during the summer of 2006. We tried to ignore her and hoped she would go away, but she didn't. The worst part was that she had the mange. Those of you who know us well, know that we are suckers for stray animals (or we were until Nate was born, now they would go straight to the humane society). We knew that if we took her to the humane society that she would be put to sleep and we knew she had potential to be a good pet. We did some research and found out that there are two types of mange - one kind that's highly contagious and one type that not contagious at all. We knew if she had the contagious type that we couldn't keep her because we certainly didn't want Oscar or Emmy to catch it. Thankfully we found out that she had the non-contagious variety so we decided to keep her. We had to give her medicine for almost two straight months to get her well. This picture was taken after she was well (I have before pics, but they are kind of gross). We gave her the best of care. We took her to the vet for all of her shots, had her spayed, and even took her to the park for walks. Apparently things weren't good enough because she ran away to the house down the road. We tried to get her to come home, but she just kept going back. I will have to be honest and admit that we weren't too sad. She chewed up the wicker furniture on our front porch, ruined a UPS package that was left on the front porch, and was constantly bringing trash into our yard. The funny thing is that we had a similar situation happened with another dog about 7 or 8 years ago. You would think we would have learned our lesson. :)

And I tag (I'm going to cheat and only tag two people)...

Beth & Dee

16 Months

Nate is 16 months old today. At his 15 month checkup (which was last Thursday) he weighed 22.6 pounds and was 32 1/4 inches. He is saying dada, mama, bye, more, go, dog, eye, and a few others we can't quite understand. Here are a few of his favorites...

• sweet peas, green beans, pears, apples, raisins, avocados, and spaghetti - He loves to feed himself. It takes three spoons to feed him - two for him and one for me.
• music and dancing
• petting Oscar and Emmy, giving them treats, and taking them outside - They are finally warming up to him and not running from him.
• playing outside - We are not looking forward to the cold weather.
• looking at the moon and stars
• books
• counting - He points at objects and mimics the way I count things for him in a two-syllable sing song way. It's really cute.
• wearing shoes
• going up and down steps