4th of July

Our celebration of the 4th started a week early. Our wonderful preschool minister planned a patriotic parade at a local park. We had a great time.

Nate loves to swing and usually giggles hysterically almost the entire time he's swinging.

Just hangin' out. This is his favorite thing to do these days. When we are walking he wants to hold our hands and "hang."

This is what Nate does when we ask him where's his boo boo. He's showing us his knees, but I'm not sure he gets his shorts up quite high enough.

The parade

Can you growl like Nate?

On the 4th we had lunch with Darren's family. They have a pool and Nate was in heaven. He loves to swim and we have been trying to swim as much as we can this summer. He does really well and isn't afraid of the water, but he does not like to go under. He is in a water babies class (basic water skills for babies) and he knows when it's time for the underwater techniques and he starts shaking his head and saying No No No!

He always wants to jump off of the diving board, but when he gets up there and realizes how high it is he changes his mind. So, Darren just lowered him down off the the diving board.

That night we watched our town's fireworks show. We had been to another fireworks show on the Wednesday night before. We weren't sure what Nate would think about them since they are so loud. He LOVED them.

Very focused on the fireworks...

for a few minutes. Now it's time for some Yoga. Downward dog anyone? His water babies instructor would be proud. She's also a yoga instructor.

Happy Birthday Nate!!!

It's hard to believe that Nate is 2 today! These two years have been so much fun. Darren and I love this little boy so much and are so blessed to be his parents.

7/10/07

7/10/08

7/10/09

Peach Parade

Waiting on the parade - I don't know why we even got his chair out of the car. I think he sat in it about 1 minute.



At first Nate was more interested in watching the parade than picking up candy.

Someone gave Nate a moon pie. I would suggest not giving out chocolate moon pies at future peach parades. It was a melted mess by the time we got home.

There were lots of politicians in the parade. One group was giving out hats and t-shirts. Darren put this hat on Nate's head just to be funny. I must say for the record that I have no idea who Tim James is. So, this blog is in no way endorsing Tim James. I bet he would like an endorsement from my blog, don't you think?

I forgot to bring a bag for Nate, so it's a good thing Darren had on cargo shorts. Nate loved putting candy in his pocket.

Enjoying a yummy sucker

Nate's Surgery

Last Friday, June 19th, Nate had surgery to correct a communicating hydrocele. The procedure is the same that is used to correct a hernia. Dr. Johnson noticed that there might be something going on at Nate's 18 month check-up. There wasn't an obvious problem and she was even on the fence about whether or not we needed to see a surgeon. We did finally decide to see a surgeon and get his opinion. The tricky thing about a communicating hydrocele is that one day things may look fine and another day they may not. We saw the surgeon three times and each time we saw him things looked great. That's how it always works out, right? But we had noticed some differences at home that made the doctor think that Nate probably did need surgery. He still wasn't 100% sure that surgery was necessary, but the only way to know for sure was to make an incision in Nate's belly button and insert a camera and see if things needed to be repaired. This was very hard for me - Darren, too; but more for me since I tend to worry obsessively about things. It was hard because we didn't even know if surgery was necessary and it is not a condition that causes any pain or discomfort. But if not repaired it is very likely that Nate would have a hernia later in life that could be really painful and require a more invasive surgery. So, Nate was going to have to undergo anesthesia and we didn't even know if it was necessary...and I had almost 6 long weeks to dread it. During this 6 week period I would think is this really necessary? Should I just call and cancel this surgery and not put Nate at risk if it's not 100% necessary? Almost every time I had those thoughts it would be pretty obvious that surgery was necessary. I know that these were not coincidences. God was allowing me to see a difference to give me peace about going ahead with the procedure and confirming that surgery was what was best for Nate. During this wait time we also had lots of friends and family praying for me and Darren, Nate and the surgeon. God was also speaking to me a lot about fear through Beth Moore's Esther study. (If you have the opportunity to participate in this study, do it!). I knew that I needed to take the courage that God offers all of us and trust his sovereignty.

Finally, the day arrived and everything went so well. God granted me and Darren peace before and during the procedure. Nate did great. He didn't even cry when we passed him off to the guy that took him into the operating room. They took him back about 9:00 and Dr. Harmon came in about 10:15 to tell us how things went. There was indeed a hole that needed to be repaired just as we had suspected. We were so thankful that we had gone ahead with the surgery and had everything taken care of while Nate is young and will more than likely not remember any of it. We were home by 2:00 and Nate was back to 100% the next day. If he was sore, it didn't slow him down any. I mentioned in our beach post that Nate likes to rub his belly button when he's sleepy and we were really concerned that this would be an issue. Nate has done great. We explained to him that he has a boo boo on his belly button and he can't rub it right now. I was expecting lots of extra rocking and comforting to help him get to sleep, but that hasn't even been necessary.

I would obviously not want to go through this again, but this has been such a great opportunity to see how faithful God truly is. And if we have to deal with an issue like this in the future we know that we will see God's faithfulness again. Thanks again to everyone for all of your prayers!


Checking everything out



Rubbing his belly button one last time.



Trying to ride the food tray table



Our sweet preschool minister came to visit us and took this picture. You can see how tired Nate is and he hasn't even had surgery yet.



After the surgery

Cowboy Nate

Last weekend we went to a birthday party celebrating Nate's cousins' birthdays. It was a great party. Unfortunately it rained on and off during the party, but it didn't slow the kids down any. I think they enjoyed the sprinkles. The party was cowboy themed. There was a cute western town, cowboy hats and vests for the kids to wear and a horse for all of the kids to ride.

Happy Birthday Dax and Kepler!

Nate loved wearing his cowboy hat!

As soon as we got out of the car, he headed straight for the horse and couldn't wait to ride. His eyes got really big when Darren sat him on the horse. I'm sure he was a little freaked out about how high off of the ground he was, but he did great and even rode a second time.

Nate and Pops (my dad).

After the party we went to my parents. My mom got out my niece's red cowboy boots she had when she was little. Nate had the best time wearing those boots.

These pictures were taken the next day. Nate still wanted to wear his hat.

Nate has been making this face where he crinkles his nose. I finally got a picture of him doing it and, of course his eyes are closed. It's still pretty cute.

Picking Fruit

I love this time of year for many reasons, but one reason is home grown fruits and vegetables. We have a small fruit orchard and Nate LOVES fruit so I am so thankful we have fresh fruit right here at home. One of our peach trees was loaded with ripe peaches and Nate "helped" me pick peaches Monday afternoon. He actually did more eating than picking.

Disclaimer: We got a new camera a couple of years ago and have had several problems with the battery. We've finally found a battery that will hold a charge in the camera for more than 10 minutes (I'm not joking about the 10 minutes) so I'm trying to get comfortable using it. I decided to take these pictures of Nate at the last minute to try to practice with the camera. His hair is always a little on the wild side, but it's extra wild in these pics because I didn't comb it after his nap.

He started with blackberries - I cannot believe how much he likes blackberries. They are a little (sometimes a lot) on the sour side and they are full of little seeds, but that doesn't slow him down any.


Then he went for the nectarines (that is a peach tree, but he's eating a nectarine).


Nate wasn't too crazy about the peach fuzz. I think he'll stick with peeled peaches.


We had so many that I had to get the wagon to get them back to the house.

This is very bad photography, but I love that you can see the hydrangeas in the background. I love blue hydrangeas!

Church Picnic

This afternoon we attended our church's annual picnic. We had a great time hanging out with friends and eating hamburgers and hot dogs (and lots of other goodies). Darren and I love any opportunity we have to spend time with our church family. God has blessed us with a wonderful church family that are not only fun to hang out with, but also spur us on as we grow in our faith. Nate loves any activity that's outside, but he was super excited about the juice boxes. He just had his first juice box a couple of weeks ago. He thought it was the best thing EVER! I still water down his juice, so it's really a treat when he gets the real thing. He actually drank two full boxes this afternoon.

After our time of fellowship we headed to the lake for a baptism service. Nate liked watching everyone in the water...for about 5 seconds and then he wanted in the water.

This is one of our friends getting ready to baptize his daughter. Notice the boys standing by in their goggles. I guess they wanted to get a really close look at the baptism.

When Nate realized that he wasn't allowed to get in the water, he wasn't very happy and didn't get happy until we got in the car to head home.

My two favorite guys :)