Big week!

I'm currently waiting on Gary to get home after a week on my own! I can't wait!!! I handled it much better than last time in the sense that I wasn't nearly as paranoid about being "home alone" (I was a big baby last time haha). But, I've missed him sooo much and can't wait to have him back with us today!!!! In addition to being without daddy this week, it was also my first full, 4 day week with the boys I'm watching now! We had a really fun week together!!


My kiddos playing together all the time now! Love it!


These two are becoming such buddies!

Nathan LOVES the dump truck!!

We made cookies and the kids decorated them :)

A little love for baby Asher!

Picnic at the park!

Planting flowers! That are already starting to sprout!! (something I always worry about since every year while teaching we'd plant seeds for mother's day and there were 2 years where none of my kids' plants really grew haha)

And today we finished out the week with a morning date!! I took Alex and Nathan to the library (yeah, I'm the "cool mom" that takes my kids to the library for a date haha!), followed by chick-fil-a (including the playplace!) and coldstone! We had so much fun!! Can't wait for daddy to be back with us soon though! :)

Nathan

Just a few bullet points about my big one year old for memories' sake today :)

*Nathan now says "chooo chooo" while "pulling the train horn cord" with both hands... it's incredibly cute!
*He is super comfortable on his feet, but terrified to let go and walk! He stands on his own when he doesn't realize he's doing it, scales the wall to get where he wants to go, and is all over the place... as long as one hand is barely touching something ;)
*He's already had some knee scrapes outside! Don't think Alex got one until maybe 18 months haha... guess that's the second child for you!
*Nathan makes animal noises for dogs (ruff ruff!) and any animal that "growls"
*He points to what he wants alll the time, and most of the time he's so cute that it's hard to say no
*He hates having to stop what he's doing for a diaper change... the second you get that diaper off he tries to escape across the room... then he'll stop and look at you and giggle! He thinks he's pretty funny!
*He blows kisses (and gives really wet, open mouthed kisses still too!)
*When you tell him to "say nigh-nigh! love you!" to daddy and alex, he waves and then blows a kiss!
*He imitates the way the big boys play, it is so cute! He loves to drive cars and makes sound effects to go with it, does a pretty good job keeping the wooden trains on the tracks, and likes to fly planes and superheroes around. He also loves the little people and putting them in the bus, plane, or truck!
*He loves the mirror and will get really excited to see himself! He even gives the mirror kisses! ha!
*He is constantly getting complimented by strangers about how cute and sweet he is :) I'll miss it when my kids are too old for that haha. They also always say what a great brother Alex is and how cute they are together! (and that they look identical!)

Four Sweet Boys!

So after almost exactly one year completely off from work, I've started a new job!! A few months ago we discovered some friends of ours in our small group were looking for childcare for their two boys when their new baby was born. After much thought and prayer, we decided it was a perfect opportunity for me to start up my own little in-home childcare! It's something that's been in the back of my mind for a while (actually, something I was thinking about doing had Gary not gotten a new job here in DC). I love being home with my boys, but I have missed teaching and it's been tight this year on one income. This is a great alternative to me going back to work and I'm so excited to be starting with two more sweet boys! Asher is two months old, and Elijah is three! My boys are enjoying new playmates, and we're all busy getting into a new routine! I've been doing preschool activities with the two big boys and have kept them all busy with trips to the park, "center time", and independent room time each day! We're all adjusting pretty well so far! Their mom only works M-Th, so I'll still have every Friday off with just my boys to do things :) I am looking forword to having more space for all of us in a couple of months (we're starting to look for a townhouse to move to in July!) and hopefully a mini-van at some point, so we're not confined to only walking places.

Here are a couple of pictures of the four of them playing together!




And a couple of fun photos of my boys, too! Here's Alex on the way home from a special Starbucks date with mommy!!

And one of Nathan with his race car! (I missed the pic of him standing with both feet on the seat... and the one of him using it to climb up on the couch by himself! Silly boy!)

Alex enjoying his "Treasure Hunt" Book - a special gift from his aunt and uncle! Cannot believe how old he looks!

Nathan's 1st Birthday!

We celebrated Nathan's first birthday on Saturday (April 30th)!! Cannot believe my baby boy is ONE year old! We had such a great day celebrating as a family :) We decided to take the boys to the zoo for the day! It was crazy how much more into it Nathan was than he was even a month ago when I took the boys in Nashville. He was even noticing many of the animals that were further away (not just the inside ones this time).

Checking out some birds with daddy!


Loving the animals!


With my big one year old!!!

Falling asleep with daddy... so sweet :) And I absolutely LOVE how much Gary loves this, too cute!


He loved the farm animals best!

Family shot at the zoo!

We left the zoo around 4:00 and headed to BW3s for dinner! Nathan enjoyed munching on mac & cheese, french fries, and oranges! What a big boy! Then we headed home for cake and presents!!

Nathan loved all of the attention, and of course the singing! Alex enjoyed "helping" blow out the candles!

He wasn't so sure at first...

But then dug right in once he realized it was a tasty treat!!

He had plenty of presents to open from his big brother, mommy and daddy, his grandparents, and some friends!

Alex enjoyed it just as much as Nathan (if not more!) A couple of nights before Nathan turned one, Alex was talking all about how fun it was going to be and informed us, "and *I* get to open alllll of Nathan's presents!!!" haha. He had a bit of trouble with Nathan getting so much attention, but liked "helping" and getting to open a few gifts of his own (from family that spoils him, even if it's Nathan's birthday, not his! ha!)

Nathan loves his new musical instruments!!! Music is definitely his thing right now! He LOVES to dance and make his own music!

But his favorite gift of all is his new "racecar!!" He absolutely loves playing on this!

Nathan had his 1 year check up a couple of days later. He weighs in at 19.2lbs (15th percentile) and is 28.5 inches long (10th percentile). And his head is in the 50th percentile... apparently his little body is a a little out of proportion! haha. The doctor was a bit concerned that he hadn't gained any weight since his last check up... she wants us to give him lots of butter, yogurt, and ice cream this month! We're also starting him back up on an iron vitamin because his iron is slightly below where they like to see it. Otherwise he looked great!! He had a hard time with the shots this time around... VERY fussy for the next day and a half, woke up allll night long, and had a low fever. That was definitely not fun for anyone!