Time with our Grandmas

We got to go and spend Thanksgiving weekend with our grandmas and grandpa and other fun relatives. Since my grandpa passed away my parents have moved in with my grandma. Now it is not only my grandma's house, it is also my kids' grandma's house. I enjoy sharing my memories with them and watching them enjoy the same things I did as a child. We drove in at 2 or so in the morning on Friday. Nathaniel and I put the boys to bed and my mom put my girls to bed with Chad's family downstairs by the ping pong table (not under it though. That is a childhood memory for all of us grandchildren.) My girls were so chatty that my mom ended up sleeping the night on the floor by them to keep them settled down. What a lady! I didn't even know that happened until the next morning when my dad was looking for her. I love my mom! Having Chad's family there was such a blast, and a blessing. He is hilarious, his wife is a saint that every women aspires to be like, and his kids are so good and so fun to be around. They were so helpful. I was worried about how hard it would be at grandma's to keep my kids out of trouble, but with Chad's kids to help it was so nice. I was actually able to relax and laugh and have a REALLY GREAT vacation! My cousin Olivia and her husband Dave were there as well. I LOVED spending time with her. I don't get to do it very often at all. We spent a lot of time together as kids and I absolutely love her. Our personalities and sense of humor are quite similar.
Nathan instantly took to Emily and was her shadow from then on. Here he is taking a turn on Camille and Emily's vibrating machine. He thought it looked fun so Tricia let him and my other kids have a go at it.

Camille and Eliza

The Nathans. My nephew kept thinking I was scolding him all weekend since they have the same name...well, shortened name for my little guy. "Nathan sit down. Nathan come here. Nathan be careful down these stairs." You get the idea.

Kate and Camille or Camillia as Kate called her. When my kids were done playing with the equipment then Emily and Camille did their treatments. They have Cystic Fibrosis. One of the things they have to do is a breathing treatment. It is this thing you put in your mouth and steam /smoke stuff comes out the end. Kate was watching my niece do that part of the treatment and said, "Can I smoke that after you?" I guess we know how Kate's going to hold up with peer pressure.

Nate and Eliza watching a movie on his ipod. So cute. Like I said, Chad's kids were soooo helpful and fun.

Nathan enjoying a game I played as a kid. Chad would put a ball in the hole and Nathan would crouch down on the floor to see it rolling under the table to the front.

Emily with her shadow. Kids just love her. Tanner doesn't really go to people well, but Emily wasn't going to accept that. She made sure she and Tanner were friends by the time the weekend was over. Love her! There is something about Emily that you just have to love. She is a ray of sunshine and so sweet. Always has been.

Dave, Livy, Tanner, Em, and Nathan. I think Dave is a great guy. Livy did really well for herself. His sense of humor was right up my alley.

Tanner and Great-Grandma. My grandma is so amazing. I admire her so much. She is and always has been such a positive lady. It's no wonder my mom turned out so great.

Tanner and Grandma. This was their first time meeting. This was a big reason I wanted to get up there. The boy needed to know his grandmas.

We went to go to the cemetery where my grandpa, Aunt Ruth, Cousin Samuel and my brother Trent are buried. Nathaniel has never been to Washington with me so I wanted to show him as much as I could. We didn't even make a dent in my list. We'll have to go again. I didn't even get a chance to see any of my childhood friends. I sure love you guys!

Still not loving the cold.

My mom bought all kinds of cute things in preparation of us coming. She bought little toys, puzzles, these antlers, and crafts for the kids. She was so cute with the kids. Very involved, helpful, and cute.

We gave Tanner a turn and Nathan was sad we took them from him.

Eliza was so wiped out one day that she climbed up on my grandma's lap and almost fell asleep. She has done this only one other time. My heart melted to see my daughter snuggle with my sweet grandma that way.

Four generations. I have wanted a picture like this for almost ten years. Eliza was a little tired so we took another one with Kate.

Eliza with her craft. She put as many eyeballs on as she could.

Mom crafting it up with the kids.

Camille's creations. She made a family.

You can see Tanner took right to Chad. So funny! Chad loves to play with the little babies and Tanner wasn't having it. He arched his back and kept his hands as far away as he could. Maybe someday they'll be buddies.

Time with grandpa. We didn't get much since Dad had to make an unscheduled trip to Billings. I will take any amount of time I can get though. What a great man.

Kate in the cubby I used to hide in as a kid...and a teenager...and again the year before I got married. I love the memories in this house.

Is my grandma stylin' in those pajama pants or what? I wonder if she will pass them down to me someday. I love them. She is such a classy lady.

My mom and dad do this birthday money grab thing when you go visit. Since they can't be there for everyone's birthdays they have this basked of coins (mostly silver) and have you reach in and grab as much as you can in one hand and that is you birthday money. Nathan was a cheatbag and he grabbed two handfuls. Mom let it slide. Maybe she shouldn't have, he got almost as much as Liza.

Kate looks a little concerned. Maybe we should have practiced with her first to get her hands nice and ready.

Eliza holding up her spoils...he scored over 5 bucks!

We were going to head home on Sunday but the roads and the fog were bad so we stayed an extra day. It was very nice. And on the way home the roads were great so I think we made the right decision. The pass was a little snowy, but very pretty.

I hope we can do that again VERY soon. I had a fabulous time!

Bossy Tanner

I remember when my niece Callie was a baby and my sisters and I used to pretend she was talking by making up different voices and trying to guess what she would say if she could talk. We would gauge it by facial expressions and what was going on around her. I do the same thing with Tanner now as I have with my other kids. It makes my kids laugh and they say, "What else is Tanner saying?" If you have ever been around Tanner and Katelyn at the same time you know that Kate cannot give Tanner ANY kind of space. The only air he breathes is the air coming out of her since she is literally in his face at all times, usually yelling, "YOU'RE THE CUTIE! YES YOU ARE, TAN! YOU'RE THE CUTIE, FOREVER!" It is great that she loves him, but she only has one volume, LOUD! So, as you can imagine, it gets old fast. This morning as she was going about her usual routine I picked up Tanner and spoke as if I were him and said, "I need some space, could you please leave me alone." Katelyn stopped and backed up. She was quiet for a few seconds and then said, "Tanner's so bossy!" I couldn't stop laughing. She really blamed him for saying it. I could get away with a lot speaking through him...

See what I mean?

(And just on a side note: Katelyn does wear normal clothes and has her hair done at least SOME of the time. She put that headband on Tanner and I couldn't bring myself to take it off before the picture. Here she was talking to her cousin, Lexi, on the phone. When did she get old enough to have her own phone conversations?)

Close Calls

I feel like we have a lot of close calls with Nathan. Those moments when you think, "Oh boy, that could have been sooo much worse." Times when you see the accident coming and everything turns to slow motion and you are just 2 steps or 2 seconds behind. Today was one of those times. At lunch I was mixing up some chocolate milk (because Mondays are chocolate milk Mondays around here) and we were singing "Witches Brew". I would pause between verses to tell Nathan to settle down in his booster so that he wouldn't fall. We have him in a booster seat strapped to the chair and then we have to buckle him in (otherwise he gets up and down at least a dozen times per meal). I had just finished saying, "Nathan, stop or you are going to get hurt. If you rock that hard in your booster you are going to fall." Sure enough he starts to fall forward since he had thrown his weight back and then forward again he knocked the chair off balance and he is heading for the edge of the table without being able to bail out of his seat. He nails his face on the table just before I can get to him. The chocolate syrup ended up flying across the table as I ran over to scoop him up. His mouth was dripping blood in no time (thank goodness for yarrow) and the inside of his upper lip was pretty beat up. The first thing he said was, "chocack bop" (chocolate milk). But all in all things are fine. As far as I can tell his teeth are intact and he didn't break his nose or gash his forehead and ruin his perfect chubby little face. Little tender mercies.
At a minimum I have to rescue Nathan from choking twice a week (I guess some weeks it is only once, but others it can be 3 or 4 times, so the average is about twice). I mean the whack his back so he starts breathing again since he swallows his food whole like a snake. I wish the boy would learn to chew.
On the same note, I forgot to mention that on my birthday he and Kate got into my purse/diaper bag and rummaged through it. They (meaning Kate) managed to get open the concentrated infant Motrin and Nathan drank it. Luckily there was only about a 1/3 of it left or less, but I wasn't sure. So, I had to call poison control. (Boy, there's nothing like having to call poison control or pulling your kids off of your roof to make you feel like a fantastic mother. I'm not winning any awards this year. I'm just trying to keep Nathan alive. He is such a stereotypical two-year old boy.) Anyway, they asked me all kinds of question about him. Age, weight, type of medicine he drank, etc. When I told him he turned 2 in April and weighed 35 pounds he said, "Oh, okay." I said, "Yeah, the weight thing is going to work in our favor this time." That as well turned out to be fine. He would have had to drink about 5 times more than he did in order to have to go to the ER so we lucked out yet again. I think this boy might be part cat with 9 lives. I swear I am NOT just a bad mother.

Practicing

Eliza hates anything involving fine motor skills. She doesn't like to color, write, draw, etc. So I thought this was cute.

My Little Family

Aunt Nancy sent this up for us last week. It looks so cute on him.
The kids couldn't leave him alone. They just kept hugging and kissing him...not that that is very different from any other day I guess.

Just a few pictures before church.
Nathan is getting to that really cheesy smile stage.

Love that Tannerboy's smile.
My girls try so hard to take good care of him.

All of my boys.
See what I mean with the weird smile on Nathan? It's comical really.

I tell ya, I'm a lucky lady. My husband wears a suit 6 days a week.
I love how handsome he is in it.

Nathaniel wasn't big on kissing his son when Nathan was born.
He thought it was a little weird. This is proof that he has changed.
I just love how cute he is with his boys.

Dreams do come true.
I've got all I want right here at home.
(Not the home itself, mind you, just the people inside.)

Snow!?!

Doesn't he look like Ralphie's little brother from The Christmas Story?
This is Nathan's first experience with snow.

Kate trying to catch snowflakes on her tongue. She kept running around saying, "it's snowing over here, too! It's snowing on the car, too!" I love the wonder and magic in kids eyes.

I don't know if I'm ready for this...in fact I know I'm not. But, ready or not, it's here!
My kids are going to love it though. I guess it isn't always about me.

Secret Agent Man

Nathaniel walks Eliza to the bus stop in the morning and then, once she is on the bus, he continues on to work at the courthouse. One day a little while back he said that while Eliza was getting on the bus the bus driver asked him where he worked. He said he worked at the courthouse. She said, "So you aren't a secret agent? One of the boys told me you were a secret agent." (He could pass for one in his suit and leather jacket, I guess [boy does he look sharp!]). Nathaniel said, "Even if I was, I couldn't tell you. Really I am clerking for the judges." I thought that might be a good rumor to keep up on. Sounds so exiting! Maybe someday...