Our own Rock Band

Last night Nick and Kyle spent the night. They wanted to play Rock Band which is always a good time! Here are our own little rock stars!

Nathan's 1st Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

This was an exciting Thanksgiving for our family... it was Nathan's first! We have SO much to be thankful for. We have such loving, caring friends and family, of which we feel blessed to have every day. Although some of our friends have moved this year (The Meyers and The Snodgrasses), we hold them close in our hearts as if they were still here.

We are most blessed to have two healthy, happy, ADORABLE little boys! We honestly don't know what we did to deserve such a wonderful family, but we praise God every day for the blessings that we have. I am so thankful for being a Mommy to Sean and Nathan - they have taught me so much, and for being a wife to an amazing man and father!!!

Okay, enough of that - let's share some pictures! This year we went over to Mom and Dad's (as usual) to celebrate with my extended family. My cousin Justin and his girlfriend Emily were celebrating with her family in Marion (we missed you guys!), but the rest of us were there.

Melissa and her fiance Dwayne




Tom and is every crazy finger



Kyle pretending to be shy!



And Nick pretending to be "shocked" that I'm taking his picture



Sean "drinking" his milk



Grandma and Nathan reading




Nathan enjoying having his back scratched by Sherri (must run in the family!!)




Nathan giving "kisses" (the best ever!)




And I actually got a picture with me in it! I love this picture!



Winding down from a fun day!

Sittin' up in the tub

I think it's almost time to blow up the duck bath (those of you with kids know exactly what I'm talking about!) Nathan is pretty much sitting up on his own now, and doesn't like to recline during bath time. Check out our big boy sittin' up!!

Nathan - 6 month check up

Poor Nathan! I've been so busy gearing up for Sean's birthday party, that I didn't even post the results from Nathan's 6-month well baby check up!

But, no news is good news! My sweet little smiley boy is healthy as can be, AND growing like a weed! He is 15.3 pounds and 26 inches long. That means he has grown six inches in six months!!! No wonder we are going through wardrobes fast these days! :-) He is a good two pounds/two inches bigger than Sean was at that age, but he's still pretty tiny too. He is only in the 9th percentile for weight/23rd percentile for height! But, Dr. Striegel says he just burns so many calories from wiggling, rolling and scooting! He's going to be crawling before we know it!

Seriously, could this child be any cuter?!?

3-year check up

Sean is officially not a baby anymore. No more well-baby visits... nope. The title at the top of my take home sheet from his visit reads, "Your three year old preschooler". Preschooler. WOW!

Anyway, he got a clean bill of health from the doc, so we are super pleased! Sean showed great improvement in the chart for height and weight. He's still a little peanut, but at least when you look at the chart there is a curve and not a flat line!! We still have to go to St. Louis to see the specialist at the Children's Hospital, but Dr. Striegel was VERY happy with his progress!!

Here are the stats:

November 2009
Height: 34 1/8 inches (0.96 percentile)
Weight: 25.2 pounds (1.54 percentile)

When you look at the percentiles, they don't look that great. But here is a comparison:

November 2008
Height: 30 5/8 inches (not on chart)
Weight: 19.1 pounds (0.01 percentile)

March 2009
Height: 31 inches (not on chart)
Weight: 22.2 pounds(0.42 percentile)

Remember, he had his tonsils and adenoids out in late March. There has been a significant improvement since then (plus he TALKS now, eats better/more and sleeps through the night!!!)

Birthday - Part 3

Saturday was the big Thomas the Train party!!! We've been SO excited about this day for months! We rented the indoor playground at our church. How great is it to have a safe, warm place for the kiddos to run around for two hours doing nothing but having fun!?!?!

The best part - I didn't have to clean my house! :-) Nathan was there too (even though he's not in many pictures). But Grandma Becky was a big help by keeping him entertained! Thank you Grandma Becky!

Sean really enjoyed being with his friends, and we really enjoyed watching him have the time of his life!

Birthday - Part 2

Sean actually had two parties this year: one at school and then his real party. Friday, I took cupcakes in to his class. Everyone was SO cute and super excited (SUGAR!)

Sean getting to pick the first hat:






Can't forget to sing "Happy Birthday!"



Digging in to the cupcakes:

Thank you Natalie!

You know, it's hard work getting ready to turn THREE! :-) Sean came home from school and needed a little down time:




But then, we got the mail... and what did we find? Sean's FIRST birthday present this year from his friend Natalie (our friend's Amy and Will's daughter). It was a remote controlled MATER!!! Oh goodness, was this a hit with Sean!



Sean was very grateful to Natalie: