We had a busy and fun weekend. Granny and Grandaddy were in town part of the weekend so we spent Friday afternoon and evening and Saturday morning with them. Friday night we had dinner at my house with Granny and Grandaddy and Mom and Barry. Nathan showed off his crawling skills for everyone. He has got that crawling thing down pat now. We also had a chance to play a couple rounds of Skipbo after Nathan went to bed.
Saturday morning, the three of us headed over to Mom and Barry's for breakfast. Matt and I talked on the way over there that we didn't know what we would do all day because there was no college football. We were lost the whole day :). Barry cooked everyone breakfast and my grandparents spent a little more time spoiling Nathan before they headed out. We made it back home around 11:00 and took it easy the rest of the day. We didn't accomplish a whole lot, and it was nice to relax. We took Rhapsody on a walk that afternoon. Little Nathan was worn out and fell asleep in the middle of the walk.
That afternoon I also made Nathan some baby food and made a cheese ball for that evening. Saturday night Matt and I went to our Sunday school class Christmas party. Our annual Christmas party is one of my favorite fellowships we have. My parents were kind enough to come over and watch Nathan while we were gone. As fun as our class socials are with all the babies, it was really nice to have a night off from the chaos and responsibility of taking care of Nathan and just get a chance to visit and enjoy the company of the other couples in our class.
We had dinner and visited with everyone and then had an ornament exchange. The ornament exchange has become a tradition, and it's a fun one! We play dirty Santa with the ornaments and always have a good time. Personalities come out big time during the exchange! There were 17 of us this year at the party, and Matt and I had a great time. We got to know some of the newer couples a little better and came home with new ornaments for our tree.
Sunday morning we went to church and then came home and quickly ate lunch.
I thought Nathan looked super adorable dressed for church on Sunday.
That afternoon we went to a Christmas open house that was hosted by people from Weatherford. They invited several families from Weatherford who had relocated to the Tulsa area. Nathan was the hit of the party and he had a blast! He got passed around from person to person and was constantly entertained by everyone. Everyone was laughing at him and playing with him. He is turning into a little flirt these days.
Sunday night my parents went with us to our church's Christmas play. This year the play was a comedy and it was hilarious. I laughed the whole time. It was well-written and the actors did a great job. It was genuinely really funny. We grabbed a quick dinner with my parents on the way home.
And look what this stinker started doing this weekend:
He is on his knees in this picture but after about a day and half of pulling up on his knees, he had learned to stand all the way up in his crib. Daddy lowered it Monday night so he doesn't fall out. I tell you that kid is going to be walking before I know it. What am I going to do with him?
Bedlam weekend has come and gone, and for the first time in eight years, my husband and I thoroughly enjoyed the entire weekend (with a touch of disappointment after the BCS results Sunday night). I will tell you something, Nathan sure picked a good year to become a Cowboys fan. I have been so proud of my pokes all year long. I am impressed with our coaching and with our players' focus, determination, and talent.
Our weekend was extra special due to a visit from some great friends. Nathan got to see his friend Carter again, and we got to spend some time with his parents too.
I love this picture of Nathan. It's like he's saying, "Seriously, mom another picture. Carter and I just want to play. Leave us alone." :).
The Evetts' and the Miller's came over to our house Saturday afternoon. We had a chance to visit, swap babies, play Settlers and eat Hideaway pizza before the big game. We sure miss the Evetts' since they moved. They came over a couple of times last year to watch football games with us, so it was only fitting that we got to watch the game with them. And the Miller's, well it's pretty much a given, barring unusual circumstances, if OSU football is on TV, we will be with them.
I'm thankful for wonderful friends who understand and embrace my craziness during OSU games. It makes going without OSU season tickets much more bearable when we have great friends to watch the games with.
The game was amazing, exciting, fantastic, and all other associated adjectives. Our team dominated the entire game, so my nerves were mostly gone by halftime. Our loss to Iowa State hurt a little worse after our win against the Sooners since it kept us out of the national title game, but a season that includes a win against the Sooners after an eight year drought, a trip to a BCS bowl for the first time, and our first outright Big 12 championship sounds pretty good to me! Always love my Cowboys, but some seasons are much better than others.
Sunday morning we went to church and then had lunch with our Sunday school class after church. Since Brandon, Mindy, and Carter were in town, we wanted everyone in our class to have a chance to visit with them. We had a great turnout and lots of babies (5 in total). Our class is certainly growing. It's funny that 2.5 years ago, our class was restructured to include only young couples without children, and now look at us :).
Nathan spent most of lunch flirting with Chloe
Emma had to leave early, but we got the rest of the babies together for some playtime. Our class is so fun!
Sunday night we watched the BCS results show and were disappointed that our Cowboys narrowly missed a shot at LSU for a national championship. I've never been a fan of the BCS, but this year is particularly frustrating. Too much politicking and subjectivity and just plain silliness. There is probably a legitimate argument that Alabama might be a better team than us, but a rematch in the national title game that includes two teams from the same conference is just absurd. And the fact that the Big 12 is the best conference in the country according to computer rankings and we only get one BCS bowl, come on! (Kansas State deserved an at large bid, for sure). Okay, off my soap box now. I will take solace in enjoying OSU's best season since I've been a fan and look forward to a great match up against Stanford in the Fiesta Bowl!
Little Nathan,
The months are just flying by as you continue to grow and change by leaps and bounds. Each month gets more fun, but there are times when your mommy gets pretty sad about how fast you are growing. Month seven was another great month for you full of fun experiences. This month you spent your first night away from Mommy and Daddy, celebrated your first Thanksgiving surrounded by so many of your favorite people, had a fun visit with your friend Carter, and watched OSU win bedlam (well, you were asleep after the first quarter, but trust me, it was fun!).
This month you have started to become more mobile. You have JUST started
crawling (like today is the first time it really looks more like crawling than scooting), but through rolling and scooting you have been able to get
around when you've wanted to for the last couple of weeks. And you seem to always be going after things
that you are not supposed to be getting into. You can be surrounded by a
sea of your toys and will head off to explore something else. Your
favorite things right now are the TV remote, our fireplace cover,
Rhapsody's toys, our shoes (you really like shoestrings) and the
doorstop in the bathroom. Your daddy and I know that you will be
crawling very soon. I'm not sure if I am ready for you to be mobile. You
are such an adventurous guy that I know you will be getting into
everything. You curiosity though is one of the things I love about you,
little one.
This was last week. You were mainly scooting.
I took this today. I can see the progression moving from scooting to more crawling. You are changing so fast!
You are such a social little man which is a bit surprising considering
your daddy and I are pretty shy. Your face lights up into the biggest
grin when anyone smiles at you. You will go to anyone and be
content. I'm still so very thankful for that. We went to the doctor last
week for a well check and one of the seven month developmental tasks is
showing pleasure when interacting with others. The nurse didn't even
have to ask me if you were doing that, because she could tell based off
her short interaction with you. This month we have also seen your
infatuation with other babies. You were playing with Chloe last week and
were all over her: crawling on top of her, grabbing her arms, trying to
kiss her, and pulling her hair, and you were smiling the whole time.
Daddy is going to have to have a talk with you about being too forward
:).
We started going to story time at the library this month. Sometimes it
interferes with your morning nap, so I'm not sure how often we will get
to go, but you LOVE it. You are a little small to get involved in a lot
of the activities, but you enjoy sitting on the floor and looking at the
pictures in the book and all the other babies and children. I'm looking
forward to spending that time with you especially in a few more months.
You talk all the time, although the growling seems to have stopped. I'm a
little sad about that. I loved hearing my little growler. The growl
seems to have been replaced with high pitched squeals. You have some
strong vocal chords. And the sound is the same whether you are happy or
upset. You confuse us sometimes.
You are a pro at sitting up now. In fact, we packed you bouncy seat
away, because we have no need for it anymore. We can just put you on the
floor and you stay sitting up. If we didn't strap you into your bouncy
seat, you would climb right out of it in less than 10 seconds anyway, so
it was pointless to keep around.
You love to play peekaboo. It almost always gets you laughing. If I put a
blanket in front of you and say, "Where's Nathan?" you'll pull it off
and laugh and laugh.
We are still seeing a ton of teething symptoms, but no teeth yet
Last Tuesday you went to the doctor and weighed 15 lbs, 14 oz (10th
percentile) and were 25 and 1/8 inches long (5th percentile). I don't
remember your head circumference but it was in the 25th percentile. You
are mainly wearing 6 month clothes, but you have a few 3-6 month things that still fit. You are in a size 2 diaper, but as soon as we run out of this package, I am moving you to a size 3.
You do this funny thing now when you are holding a toy, or your paci, or
a spoon. You'll hold it in your hand and flick your wrist back and
forth. It looks like you are a musical conductor. I need to try and get
it on video. Your hand eye coordination continues to improve, and you
are getting to be a pro at picking up your pacifier and putting it back
in your mouth (the right way even). For so long, you weren't able to do
that, that I still catch myself being surprised when I look over and you
have it in your mouth when you didn't before.
I am gradually trying to help you be less
dependent on your pacifier. Everything I've read seems to agree that at
your age, you don't need the additional sucking, and it has clearly
become a sleep prop for you and you have a hard time getting to sleep
without it which keeps both of us up at night when you wake up and can't
find your pacifier. You are doing pretty well falling asleep without
it, but you still have some tough moments.
You are still eating like a champ and this month you've
enjoyed trying several new foods. Since we started on solids, you have
tried rice cereal, oatmeal, peas, sweet potatoes, squash, green beans,
carrots, bananas, apples, pears and peaches. You clearly have
preferences among the things we feed you, but you are willing to eat
anything, and so far haven't had any problems with any of the foods
you've tried. Whenever I put you in the highchair you kick your legs and
slap the tray with your hands while I get your food ready. You get
pretty impatient at times and show a little temper if you are hungry and
your food isn't ready. You are eating about five times a day.
Your typical feeding schedule looks like this:
Between 5:30-6:30 wake up and nurse and usually fall back asleep
7:00-7:30 1/4 cup rice cereal or oatmeal and 2-3 oz fruit, sometimes a 2 oz bottle as well
10:30-11:00 nurse and 3oz bottle along with 2-3oz fruit and 2-3oz vegetable (we just added solids to this feeding last week)
1:30-2:00 nurse and 3oz bottle
5:00 nurse, 1/4 rice cereal and 3 oz vegetable, sometimes a 2 oz bottle (depending on how well you nursed)
7:30-8:00 nurse and 3-4oz bottle
Your sleep schedule isn't as consistent as your feeding
schedule. You go to bed about 8:00 and sleep until 5-6 When you wake up
early in the morning, I'll bring
you back to our room and let you nurse and then you'll usually fall back
to sleep for another hour or two. Some days though you are just ready
to get up and play at 5:30. You nap 2-3 times a day. You take a good
morning nap around 9:00 for about 1.5 hours. It's hard to always be
consistent about this because when you go to Mother's Day Out or when I
have Bible study, we usually leave the house about 9. Your afternoon nap
is the most inconsistent. You like to nap again about 12:30, but if you
sleep then, then you need another late afternoon nap around 3:30 or
4:00 which messes up your nighttime sleep. I try to keep you up until
about 2:00, but some days you just can't make it that long. You usually
sleep about 1.5-2 hours if you take one afternoon nap or sleep 1-1.5
hours for both if you take two.
Love bug, I don't know if you will ever know how much joy and love you have brought to our family these last seven months. I know I say this all the time, but I can't get over how content and sweet your little personality is. You are just pure preciousness.
We had a wonderful time celebrating Nathan's first Thanksgiving. We are overwhelmed with thankfulness for that little boy. I remember last year looking forward to this Thanksgiving knowing we'd have high chair at the Thanksgiving table. Holidays are so special with little ones. We hosted Thanksgiving at our home again this year. It's become a tradition to host, and I really enjoy it. Plus it's much easier to invite all our family into our home than trying to divide our time among everyone we need to see. Matt took off work on Wednesday, and it was fun to have him home with Nathan and me for an extra day. I spent Tuesday and Wednesday baking and preparing for Thursday. Matt cleaned the whole house for me on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning (I always save the coupon he gives me at Christmas for a whole house cleaning for the week of Thanksgiving).
My grandparents and Aunt Sydney arrived on Wednesday afternoon. My parents joined us for the evening, and we ate pizza, laughed at Nathan, played cards, and visited.
Thursday morning, Matt's parents arrived and we had a full house for the day. My mom, Barry, and I worked in the kitchen some of the morning getting things ready. Barry smoked a turkey, and it was delicious. He is always in charge of preparing the meat. He cooked a ham too. We also had plenty of time to watch the parade and visit for the morning.
We had to get a family picture on Nathan's first Thanksgiving.
Nathan got so much attention all weekend. There were always available arms to hold him and rock him and play with him. He soaked up all the spoiling.
We ate Thanksgiving lunch and I think everyone enjoyed it.
We had turkey, ham, dressing, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, glazed carrots, green bean casserole, corn, cherry salad, cranberry sauce, and rolls. For dessert I made a cheesecake and pumpkin roll. My fridge is still full of leftovers
Nathan got a little treat of sweet potatoes and apples for his first Thanksgiving. He mostly played during lunch though. Next year, buddy you can eat all you want.
That evening we just relaxed, ate leftovers, played cards, and spent time as a family. We also watched some football. I love having a house full of all the people we love.
Matt cooked everyone breakfast Friday morning and Nathan said goodbye to his grandparents. Granny, Grandaddy and Aunt Sydney stayed through Saturday morning. On Friday afternoon we headed over to my parents' house. Barry smoked ribs for lunch and we played a couple games of Settlers. The girls also did a little shopping that afternoon. No crazy black Friday shopping, but we wanted to get out of the house for a little while. We went to Hobby Lobby, Stage and a local baby boutique.
We went back over to my parents Saturday morning for breakfast and to say goodbye to Granny, Grandaddy, and Aunt Sydney. Then Matt and I came home and loafed the rest of the day. We were both pretty exhausted from the busy weekend. Saturday night we set up our Christmas tree and decorated it. Nathan tried to help some. We showed him all our favorite ornaments and let him play in the lights. It was a wonderful long weekend filled with many special memories.
Nathan had another big milestone this weekend, although I think this one was bigger for his mommy than it was for him. He spent his first night at Grammy's house. Before he was born, I set a goal for myself to let him spend the night at my mom's house before the end of the year. I knew that our marriage needed to remain a priority even after adding children to our family, and one of the ways to do that was to be able to have time alone without Nathan from time to time. Plus, my mom had been asking when he could spend the night since he was just a few weeks old. With six weeks left in the year, I accomplished my goal.
Matt and I had been talking for a couple of weeks about spending a night away from him. I kept telling Matt that I just didn't see a reason to let him stay at my mom's. We didn't have any trips planned or any reason to need to be away from him. Matt kept telling me though that it would be good for me to go ahead and let him stay, and I knew he was right. I knew the first time would be the hardest and needed to get through that milestone. Since OSU had a Friday night game last night, we decided to watch the game at my parents' house and put Nathan to bed over there and then leave him for the night. The game ended up going much later than we expected (double overtime), and ended with a disappointing loss, and we didn't make it home until after 11:00. By the time I got to bed, it was after midnight, but I got 8 hours of mostly uninterrupted sleep, which was glorious. Nathan has been sleeping decently for the last month or so, but there are still times during the night when I have to get up to put his pacifier back in his mouth or soothe him, and for the last few days, for some reason he has been waking up at 5:00 ready to play. So to have a night where I knew I could sleep without interruptions was really nice, and I took advantage of it. We went out to breakfast Saturday morning and then picked him up around 10:00. In total we were away from him for about 11 hours, but it was a significant 11 hours. I'm glad I was able to relax and actually get some sleep, and I know the next overnight stay will be easier. My parents looked pretty tired this morning when we picked him up. I'm thankful they are so willing to watch him for us, and I really appreciate that my mom makes it as easy on me as possible. She has everything he needs at her house and even bought his cereal and fruit for breakfast. All I needed to make sure was in his diaper bag were pajamas and a change of clothes.
Overall, it was a successful night for all of us. I spent the night with my grandparents all the time when I was little and have special memories from those times, and I'm excited for Nathan to make those memories as well when he gets older. And weekend getaways alone with my husband every once in awhile sound really nice too.
And just for fun, here is a video of our little growler.
This Fall, we have been incredibly busy on the weekends. Prior to this weekend we were either out of town or had company staying with us the last 6 out of 7 weekends. Our September and October were just jam packed. We had so much fun on our little weekend adventures and thankful for family and friends who want to come visit and spend time with us, but Matt and I were ready for life to slow down a little bit, and were looking forward to a November calendar that outside of football games and Thanksgiving was pretty much empty. We enjoyed our mostly free weekend this past weekend, and although we still filled it with several things we were able to relax a little more and just enjoy being at home.
On Friday night, Matt and I went out on a date. We were way overdue for a date night (like two months overdue), and I was dying for one. With all our crazy weekends combined with my mom not feeling well for a few weeks, we could never find a free night to go out, so we were both looking forward to some time just the two of us. We decided to go bowling and had a great time. We hadn't been bowling in over a year, and we had missed it. We bowled two games and then went out to dinner before picking up Nathan and heading home.
Saturday morning we ran to the mall to pick up a few things and have some family pictures taken. We invested in a nice camera before Nathan was born and Matt has taken some great photos of him over the last six months, but we needed some pictures where Matt wasn't behind the camera. They turned out really cute and we now have something to replace the wedding pictures on our wall (after 5 1/2 years of marriage, I think it's time to update those pictures).
That afternoon, Nathan napped, Matt changed the oil in the car, and I ran a few errands and prepared some snacks for the OSU vs. Kansas State game that evening. Our friends, Jason and Andrea and Chloe and Matt and Erica and her sister and nephew joined us to watch the game. We had fun watching the babies play during commercials.
It was a crazy game, but thankfully, OSU came away with a win and that's all that matters. I really can't believe we are three wins away from a trip to the national championship. I love my Cowboys but never dreamed we would be this close! I put Nathan to bed at halftime, and it's a good thing because that 4th quarter was crazy, and I'm sure all my jumping up and down and screaming wouldn't have been good for him :).
Sunday morning we went to church and then came home and had a lazy afternoon at home. That evening we went to a connection group with our Sunday school class. It was a fun evening of food, fellowship, and plenty of baby cuddles.
