Second Trimester

I am officially into my second trimester and couldn't be happier about it!  14 weeks down, only 26 left.  The second trimester is so much better than the first, I am definitely looking forward to feeling better, having more energy, and actually feeling like I'm pregnant instead of just a two month case of the flu.  Oh and of course finding out the gender of our little baby next Friday! Matt is hoping for a girl, I would prefer a boy but will be happy either way.  I hope time keeps flying by!

Bye Bye Binkie

Nathan has always loved his binkie.  From the first time we gave the binkie to him at the hospital he has been hooked.  Sometimes he will have one binkie in his mouth and one in his hand and still cry for another.  So taking away the binkie was a really hard decision for Matt and I.  We had planned to take it away at 12 months, then 15 months, and we still weren't decided if we were going to take it away at 18 months or not.

 

Well we went swimming with Brittany and Bryce on Saturday and got home pretty late.  Nathan was exhausted and was crying to go to bed.  But I couldn't find a binkie anywhere.  I searched for five minutes which seems like an eternity with a crying toddler when Matt finally told me to just put him down without it.  He was so tired from the day that he gave up within five minutes and fell asleep. 

 

We couldn't believe that he fell asleep without it.  And that was just the push we needed to take it away.  We survived sacrament meeting with only one temper tantrum right at the end and successfully put him down for two binkie free naps.  At this point we were feeling really motivated and decided we would send him to daycare on Monday without a binkie. ( Matt was calm, I was panicked)

Surprisingly the daycare said he was the best behaved he had ever been.  They said he fell asleep for his nap within two minutes and slept longer than normal.  He ate breakfast and lunch and didn't fuss or cry.  And he did not try tbinkies from them!

o take the other kids

Last night was the hardest night.  He was so tired from daycare and Matt was working late but he missed his dad.  But after 10 minutes of crying, then 10 minutes of rocking my little champ fell asleep and slept the whole night.

I'm so proud of my little guy!  We had no idea he would handle this transition so well and I am so glad that we were pushed to finally take away the binkie.  I know it will be better for Nathan!

 

Announcement

Guess who is going to be a big brother!

 

Baby #2 Due November 1, 2013

Topaz

 

This past weekend we headed down to Topaz with Matt's family for our annual camping trip.  This time we took our brand new trailer that Matt has been working on the past few months.  It was so much bigger than our old trailer!  I couldn't believe how much room we had!

 

We headed out Thursday morning and got to Topaz around 2 in the afternoon.  Nathan was absolutely dieing to get out of the car and get in the dirt.  I can't believe how much of a little kid he is.  Matt's mom brought Nathan a bucket which he just loved.  He would fill the bucket with dirt and then dump it right on his head.

But as much as Nathan loved running and playing in all the dirt his favorite part of the trip by far was the four wheelers and dirt bikes.  He could actually climb on the small blue four wheeler and was either climbing on it and pretending to ride or crying at someone to actually take him on a ride.

 

 Luckily Shayne and Dan were suckers for Nathan's constant begging and so he got a TON of rides!

Annie even got a ride but she did not enjoy it quite like Nathan and pretty much  just shook the whole way.

Christian and Matt also went shooting a couple of times, we had awesome dutch oven meals, and ate a ton of junk food!  We were luckily and avoided the rain and had mostly warm weather the entire trip. 

It was so nice to get away from work and we had such a fun trip!  We missed Brittany, Bryce, and Luke and hope they will make it next year.  We won't be making it to the fall Topaz trip but hopefully have a few more campouts coming up this summer!

 

Easter

 

I would definitely call this Easter the best one ever!  It's amazing how much more fun everything is with Nathan around.  And I apologize in advance for the few and poor quality of pictures I took this year.  Nathan was a little hyped up and refused to take a nap.  And no nap means he was not in the mood for the camera.

 

Because we are staying at my parent's house my mom got all the Easter eggs out the night before and had them ready for when Nathan woke up. He loved the eggs! We wanted to wait to do an egg hunt until Chloe and Brax came over so Nathan just got to play with them all day.

 

Nathan with his first Easter basket

We didn't do Easter baskets last year because Nathan was too little so we went all out this year.  We got Nathan some cars, Monsters Inc. figurines, a basketball, bubbles, and an Easter outfit.  I wrapped everything except for the cars and figurines and Nathan found them at about 10 in the morning.  He would go down and sneak one car out at a time, play for a while, and then sneak down and get another.  It was hilarious.

 

 





 Nathan opening his hot wheels cars and a Jake and

the Neverland pirates bath toy from my mom

 

Once Brax and Chloe came over we started the egg hunt.  Nathan actually did really good!  He would follow Chloe around putting a few eggs in his basket, then taking them out one by one, and then putting them back.  Chloe noticed that he didn't have many eggs and so she would put two eggs in her basket and one in Nathan's.  He noticed this a few minutes in and got confused and started putting his eggs in her basket!

 

 

Brax did not need any assistance this year

and did such a great job!

 

 

We then headed over to the Kasteler's for Easter dinner with his parents, Brittany and Bryce, and Christian.  Shayne made a ham, two kind of potatoes, jello, and of course rolls.  Nathan was falling apart at this time and ate the cool whip off his jello and nothing else.  But he sure enjoyed his cool whip!

 

We then headed to the backyard and stayed out for almost two hours!  It was a perfect spring night and it was so fun to watch Nathan and Luke playing in the backyard.  Nathan crashed pretty hard once we finally got him to bed but I think he had a good day too!

March Madness

We have definitely been having our own March Madness this month due to the fact that Nathan has become absolutely OBSESSED with basketball.  He watches it on tv, he points and squawks at basketball hoops in driveways, and he is constantly carrying around his basketball hoop.  So my sweet mom bought Nathan his own little hoop and it is pretty much all he has done this month.

Isn't he so stinking cute?  Shawn also played in an alumni tournament for Murray High this year and Nathan loved going to all of his games.  Because Shawn plays basketball Nathan has just started referring to him as "ball".  So at all of the games he would do his best to get people's attention around us, point to Shawn, and then yell Ball!  He was so proud of his uncle and wanted everyone to know.

 

Ever since Nathan watched Shawn in the games he has been taking his basketballs over to Shawn and getting him to throw it in the basket.  Then he claps his hands for Shawn and gets him the ball again.  I have a feeling we have a future basketball player on our hands!

February

February is finally over and its starting to feel like Spring!  Hallelujah! Pretty sure I spent 90% of this winter being sick and taking care of a sick toddler.  And Nathan has come down with a serious case of cabin fever.  It has gotten to the point where he will stand by the back door trying with all of his efforts to turn the doorknob and say "go, go!"  Poor kid.

February was actually a really good month for us though.  We had a really fun Valentine's day in which I got spoiled rotten, several trips to the mall to ride the carousel, and Nathan's favorite trip to Scheels. Nathan had blood work done this month and got good test results which means we wont' be increasing his medication for at least three months.  He has been talking like crazy and is now saying basketball, bubbles, please and thank you. 

But probably the biggest highlight of the month was that Matt and I both got promotions at work!  I got promoted to an official project coordinator and Matt got promoted up to a maintenance tech.  Both promotions were unexpected and we feel like they were definitely an answer to our prayers.

So even though February was great I have been counting down the days until it is over and am so happy that spring is finally right around the corner!

Can you believe how big he is?