Party Pics - FINALLY!

Since there are about a million pictures, I won't say much except ENJOY!

Preview of the party pics...

Here is a little preview of Nathan's birthday party... my dear friend Heather from Pirates-n-Princesses, made the banner, delicious cupcakes, darling cupcake stands, and helped with the table decorations. I was so pleased with how everything turned out... just too cute for words! Nathan loved all the Mickey (even though Daddy was Mickey'd out!)

Yes, we're those parents

We let our kids bounce on their beds and the couch. It's just too cute and funny to watch them! Of course they have to be supervised, and CANNOT do it at someone elses house, but it's something we let them do. How can you not when you see them having so much fun?

Birthday dinner

It's a tradition in my family that when it's your birthday, you get to choose where you want to go out to eat (or what you want to eat at home). Although Nathan is somewhat of a picky eater, there are a few places that he just LOVES, and is guaranteed to chow down. El Toro is one of them... (I attribute that to the massive craving for Mexican food I had during his pregnancy.)

So the family packed up and headed to El Toro for a yummy feast, and as you will be able to tell from the first couple of pictures, he liked it! :-)

Good morning birthday boy!

Had to snap a few pictures of my OFFICIAL TWO YEAR OLD the morning of his birthday. I swear he gets cuter every day!!!









Big brother playing with one of Nathan's new toys from Aunt Elaine

ABC Birthday party

Since Nathan's birthday was on a Sunday, I took cupcakes in for his class the Friday before. I got there a little early and some of the kids were still sleeping. Okay, well my kid was still sleeping. Apparently getting ready to turn two wears you out!





Love the drool on this one. Takes after his Mommy. :-)



Since we had to wake him up, it took him a minute to get into the celebration. You'll be able to tell that from the look on his face in the first few pictures.

Easter 2011

I know, I know... I'm very behind in posting! But, I'm trying to get caught up! Easter came and went so quickly! I was still trying to recover from the medical issus I had in April, so Easter was pretty low-key. Fortunately, I did have the kids Easter baskets prior to my surgery... I mean, the Easter bunny still visited out house! :-) Sean was SO surprised, it was too funny! Nathan wasn't very interested in the basket, except for the food. Very typical for him! :-) Since I was on the mend, our Easter lunch consisted of McDonald's, but we did get over to my parents for Easter Dinner/Mom's Birthday celebration (which was the next day).

Here are a few pictures from the day... hope you all had a wonderful Easter too!



The very fancy Easter lunch! ;-)



All I can say to this is monkey see, monkey do.

2-year well baby check-up

Okay, so I know at this point it's just called a "2 year old check-up", but it makes me feel better to say well-baby check-up, so go with it. :-)

Monday I took Nathan in for his well-baby and we got a great report. He's growing and healthy as can be! He did have to get one shot (which was major drama for about four minutes), but he was a trooper none the less. The good news... no more shots until he's 4!

Here are the stats:

Height: 32 5/8 inches (10.32%)
Weight: 22.4 pounds (2%)

I always think it's interesting to see where Sean was at the same age. At two, Sean was 30 5/8 inches (exactly two inches shorter) and 19 pounds. Quite a difference!

He's really starting to talk more, which is fun! He still babbles a lot, but he's starting to babble in sentences. When you ask him to repeat what he said, he'll babble the exact same thing - so I know he's trying to tell us something! He loves making animal sounds, Mama, bye-bye, hi, more, uh-oh, baby, circle, square and yucky. Those are the words we hear most, but it seems like he adds a new word to his vocabulary every day. But what really impresses me is his comprehension. He understands so much and can follow directions so well. It's really apparent when we read (which he LOVES to do... just like his big brother)!

I promise to post pictures from the big party soon!

What a month

Wow... it's been awhile since I've posted, and man is there a lot to catch up on! I think most of you who read my blog know everything that has happened in the last few weeks, but just in case, here we go!

On April 13th, I was scheduled for an outpatient procedure called an Endometrial Ablation. This was to help with some issues I've been having since Nathan's birth. Once I got to the hospital, I also found out I was going to have a D&C (guess that's why you should actually read the releases you sign... I might have noticed that! Ha!) Regardless, I was already going to be under, so it was no biggie. Everything went great with the procedures and I was home that evening. Thursday morning I woke up feeling a little crampy, but doing well. Thursday evening, however, something changed. The only way I can describe it is it felt like I was in labor. MAJOR contraction pain... and let me tell you, it's not fun when you are not going to get a sweet little baby out of it! :-)

I woke up Friday feeling much better, but very sore (like when you do too many sit-ups the day before - so I've heard :-) ). Friday afternoon came, and again, something changed. The contraction-like feelings were back and so was the pain. My dear friend Ashley was kind enough to take me to the ER as Jamie was working in a muddy ditch and couldn't get away at that moment. Once Jamie was able to get to the hospital, Ashley generously took the kids home (and took AMAZING care of them) so that Jamie could stay with me. After running some tests, they determined that I had an infection in my uterus. Once they got the pain under control, they sent me home with what seemed like an entire pharmacy full of prescriptions!

Saturday, well, I just don't remember. Not at all, which is really bizarre. Kind of the same with Sunday, but I do remember the pain increasing and moving further up into my abdomen. Back to the ER we went... they were so busy that day that I was in the hallway of the ER on a bed for two hours before finally getting into a room. Several more tests later, they determined that the infection had spread into my ovaries (and even found a touch of pneumonia in my lungs). If they couldn't get it under control, they were going to have to do a hysterectomy.

I was admitted to the hospital on Sunday, and the rest is kind of a blur. I remember bits and pieces, but Jamie will tell me a story or something that happened during that time, and I just don't remember! The good news here is thanks to IV antibiotics, I was improving. Fast forward to Wednesday when I was released... when the doctor came in, I really thought that she would tell me to take the rest of the week off, but that I should be good to return to work on that Monday. WRONG! She said that it was going to take awhile for me to recover and she wasn't releasing me until May 2. MAY 2???? I was floored. Two weeks?

I really do understand why she said that though - it WAS a long recovery and I didn't start to feel like myself until about last Wednesday. I am now back to work, feeling SO much better (just get tired easily) and happy to be back into a routine. Today is my last day of ALL medicines too! I'm thrilled about that!!!

Jamie has been a saint through this whole thing. I mean, truly AMAZING. I don't know how I got so lucky to have such a wonderful, supportive husband, but I'm so thankful that I do! He really had to take care of everything the last few weeks - me, the kids, the house, and work full time! We also had a lot of help and support from our family (real family and church family) and friends - especially my parents, my sister and Ashley. I was truly humbled by the outpouring of love and support!

So that's about it in a very long nutshell! Enough about me though... it's time to talk about my TWO YEAR OLD!!! Stay tuned...