We tried to get some family pictures while we were in Casa Grande with all of the family.

Christmas in the Desert

Our Christmas vacation to Casa Grande, AZ consisted of:
*Last minute errand running
*Re-enacting the Nativity: We decided it would be fun to have all the little kids play the different parts in the Nativity (actually Ben has been wanting to do this all month). We were with all of Sean's family as well as his Grandma Dick and Uncle Garry and Aunt Jera. Jenny and I and Grandma Dick pulled together some costumes and the kids acted out our very BRIEF version of the Nativity....and loved it. Caelan played Mary, Ben and Logan played the Wisemen, Megan and Hailey were Angels, Corbin was a Shepherd, Brooklyn was the Star, and Nathy was supposed to be Joseph (but he pretty much wouldn't cooperate at all). It turned out really cute - I think we might start making this a regular Christmas Eve tradition.
*Sean reading the story of the Boy Who Laughed at Santa Claus
*Kids finding it hard to sleep on Christmas Eve (and therefore parents staying up LATE too)
*Wearing matching pajama pants on Christmas Eve night (finished in the knick of time)
*Waking up to an excited 6 year old on Christmas morning
*Balloons left by Santa Claus covering the floor
*Exploring the stockings (fruit and Peanut M&Ms)and opening presents all at the same time. Once again Nathan constantly found something sweet to put in his mouth. He pretty much went ballistic when we took the bag of M&Ms away (and it was Christmas morning, so we caved).
*Christmas breakfast casserole (DELISH)and homemade scones
*Playing with our spoils (riding trikes, making glasses with Bendaroos, playing with barbie dolls, transforming our Transformer figurines, etc)
*Playing outside in sunny December AZ weather
*Enjoying time with family (the whole Mike and Linda Dick clan, Grandma Dick, Uncle Garry, Aunt Jera, Uncle Doug, Aunt Bev)
*Eating and cooking and eating and cooking
*Singing Christmas carols around the piano
*Watching the Muppet Christmas Carol
*Going to the movies: The Princess and the Frog
*Going to church all together as a family
*Lots of pictures
*Celebrating the Savior, Jesus Christ.

First Steps

Little Chub took his first steps about a week and a half ago (13 months old). This week he has started letting go of things and going on his own. He can still only take a few steps at a time (I think 5 has been his record), but he's getting better and better..... and he's loving it. Too cute!

He has recently found some fun things to do in the kitchen. I decided to give him a bath in the kitchen sink the other day (sometimes that's just faster) and he loved it. And he splashed up a storm. He also likes to help out with the dishes.

Where's the Chocolate?

Halloween was a real treat for Nathan this year....literally. He LOVED the chocolate. He has a honing device built in that guides him to the candy. Seriously, every time I turned around he had some sort of sugary substance in his mouth. We went to the ward trunk-or-treat party. We raided Grandma Sorensen's costume bin and found a cute little devil outfit that worked perfectly for Nathan. He gathered a little bit of candy at the ward party. Then he stayed home with Dad and the boys on Halloween night while the rest of the kids went out around the neighborhood trick-or-treating. He had enough candy, especially with the big bucket of candy there at the house for all the trick-or-treaters that came by. He was in heaven.

Hanging with Uncle Caleb

Dad and I went on a 5 day cruise with Grandpa and Grandma Sorensen and Kyra (and her friend, Kayla). While we were gone, Uncle Caleb was kind and brave enough to watch all 4 of the kiddos. Aunt Erin came to stay and help for a day or two, but Caleb (and Corbin when he wasn't at school) took on most of the responsibility. Caleb said that he and Nathan became little buds. Nathan always wanted to go to him when he was sad. He would sit with him and play with him. I think this is a bond that Caleb is LOVING.

Well, even though we already got our pumpkins for Halloween, yesterday we took a trip to Bates Nut Farm (just because it's a great place to go in the Fall). We took the tractor ride on hay bales and went through the straw maze (where the kids had to find stations and get stamps). Nathan wasn't so sure about all the straw. He thought he would taste it to check out what this stuff was: not too tasty and pretty chewy.... We went to the petting zoo (or I guess you should call it a "looking zoo") - which fascinated Nathan and then ended the day with a quick trip into the candy store where all the kids got to pick 5 treats from the candy barrels (Nathan was as happy as can be with a sucker). We wanted to be able to all ride together, so Dad and Grandpa strapped Nathan and Megan's car seats into the back of the Suburban...which worked like a charm.

Not Loving the Airshow

Yesterday we went to the Miramar Airshow. I've always enjoyed going to this airshow (we used to go as a family when I was younger). It's fun to get all sorts of food and blankets packed up and then go and spend the day on the base and watch the awesome airplanes do their tricks. Yesterdays trip wasn't as relaxing as other airshow events for the following reasons:
*It took almost 4 hours to get from our house to where we parked our car (it should usually take about an hour - the traffic was HORRIBLE)
*Both Caelan and Ben threw up
*Megan had an accident (and there are only port-a-pottys)
*Nathan spent the first few hours crying (he's been sick, and he was just exhausted but was fighting off the nap). This poor kid was totally miserable.

Despite how bad it sounds, it was actually a fairly fun day. We went with my dad and Andrea and all the boys, and then we met up with Erin and David and Jennifer Mason. The kids were mostly good and had fun (minus their couple of incidences), and the fun air stuff was awesome. I always love the Blue Angels. It's amazing how close together they fly. We were about to pack it in (mostly because Nathan was so sad) once the afternoon show was over, but he started to feel a little better and get happier so thought we would take our chances. He took a little rest and was fine for the rest of the evening, so we stayed and watched the night show as well. The firework show was great (Nathan was completely mesmorized) and then I always love the Wall of Fire (very cool). You can feel the heat from it all the way to our seats.

1 Year Old

Nathan turned one year old last Friday. I can't believe it's been a year already. We made a "dinosaur land cake" for him (Ben's idea), and he LOVED it. Here are some fun facts about our one year old little man:
*He is a good screamer (loves to scream at us when he wants something)
*He makes the cutest little squealing noises and also likes the sound it makes when he takes loud breaths in
*He is a good sleeper: 12 hours at night (7 to 7) and two naps during the day (about 3 hours total)
*He is crawling all over the place
*He loves to climb up the stairs and then look at us from the top and smile
*He can stand by himself for short periods of time and likes to walk along things
*He loves his baby cereal and almost all vegetables, most fruits, yogurt, sweet things, ice, oatmeal, crackers, soups, etc...but NOT cheese
*He will scrunch up his face and nose and breathe in and out with his nose (hilarious to watch)
*He loves the bath and splashing all over in it
*He does not love getting dressed...EVER (he cries almost every morning while we dress him)
*He has three bottom teeth and his two top front teeth trying to pop through
*He likes to bob his head up and down when there is good be-bop music on
*He goes by the nicknames, "Chub," "Chubby," "Chibby Chap," and "Nathy Pants"
*He is currently 23 lbs and 29 1/2 inches long

We love you Nathan Boy!!

Ford Galaxie

Once upon a time there was a car. There was also a boy. The boy loved the car and bought it from a friend (for a real steal - $350). The car was old (1962) but filled with personality. One day the boy met a girl and they struck up a conversation about the car. The boy married that girl. They drove that car all around the streets of their college town. A couple of years later they had a baby girl. They drove her home from the hospital in their old car. It went with them as they moved around within 4 states and as they added three more kids to the family. They had other cars during that time (lots of other cars, actually), but their '62 Ford was their old faithful, always there when the other cars broke down. Years passed and the boy and girl decided that is was time for the old car to find a new home. So, with sadness they passed their old faithful onto new owners to make great memories of their own.

When Can I Drive?

Nathan has become a car-lovin' boy. He loves to have a car in his hand as often as he possibly can. He has even started to make noises as he drives them around (like the sounds of a car). Too cute. Recently he discovered a fun place to play with the cars. He likes to pull out a couple of chairs from the kitchen table and then crawl underneath the table and push his cars around. Maybe it's because he can do it all by himself, or maybe it has something to do with the hard floor, or maybe it's just because it's somewhere new.

Stair Climber

Nathan loves to feed himself these days. He will pretty much eat anything you put before him. He especially likes things like crackers and cookies and fruits that he can suck on. Now we just need to work on getting the food into his mouth (and not all over his face, his clothes, the seat, his tray, etc...HE HE HE)

Since he started crawling he has also figured out how to climb the stairs. Grandpa and Grandma have one big staircase (with no landings) and at the bottom is a bunch of hard tile. The bottom is too wide to put one of those gates, so we just have to be sure and watch him. There have been a handful of times now when he has crawled all the way to the top. He doesn't know how to get down....and I think he also knows that this whole things makes me a little nervous, so once he gets to the top he likes to look down at whoever is at the bottom and give them a big smile. It's like he's saying, "Look what I can do." I don't think there is any stopping him now - so I guess we'll have to work on teaching him how to safely crawl back down. Luckily we haven't had any accidents...so far.

Oh What Do You Do In The Summertime

Always a Party in CA

Here are some of the fun things we've done during the past month and a half that we have been in CA:
*Taken more trips to the beach
*Spent the 4th of July at a park in Long Beach with the Taylor family (Grandma Sorensens extended family): we ate and played baseball and hit a pinata. Good times.
*Went to an Angels Game
*Went to the Del Mar Fair: What a blast. We saw Monster Trucks, Motorcross Riders, and real Transformers in a show. We also saw "The Music of Abba" - a very fun music group singing Abba songs. We saw elephants, lots of livestock animals (and the kids even got to pet and feed some of them), ponies, pig races and a garden show. We rode lots of rides We ate a HUGE delicious Mexican Funnel Cake (huge pile of churros with chocolate and whipped cream and strawberries) - YUM (and big enough to feed 9 people). We had lots of fun!
*Went to the San Diego Zoo (Grandpa and Grandma Dick got us season passes) and the Wild Animal Park
*Went to the March Air Force museum and checked out all of the cool army planes.

We Have a Mover

We have a crawler on our hands. Nathan started to crawl and has just taken off. Now he is a little moving machine. When he was first getting the hang of it he would often crawl backwards, but couldn't quite get the forward motion. Then something just clicked. I think it helped that we would put a Cheerio path forward, which would definitely increase the motivation.

Family Reunion in Zion

We went to Southern Utah for Memorial Day with the Dick family. Actually it ended up being an Anderson reunion (Grandma Dick's parents and brothers and their families as well as Great Grammy Dick). It was a houseful, but what a fun time. And we don't get to see this bunch of family very often so that was a real treat. Nathan was a real treat - he let all of the grandparents and great grandparents hold him. He was happy and content...which was very different than his cousin, Brooklyn (who was pretty sad for a good portion of the trip). We ate food, played with bubbles, took LOTS of pictures and loved being together.

Moving in with Grandpa and Grandma

Well we officially said goodbye to our house in Kingman. Dad has been working with Grandpa Sorensen since February in CA, and so he was down there a LOT and I was in Kingman with the kids. It was tough to be away so much, so we knew that once Caelan was done with school we would make the move to CA. So we did. We are currently staying with my family in Murrieta until we know for sure what area Dad will be working in and therefore where we want to be for a while. We think it will most likely be here in Murrieta, but we shall see. Anyway, we got everything together to move the week after Caelan finished school. We ended up getting a storage unit in Kingman (MUCH CHEAPER than CA) for all our stuff, and then we drove down to CA. We drove back to Kingman with Grandpa's huge van and a trailer to get the stuff we were going to take with us(beds and clothes and such). And then we said goodbye to our house. So Nathan just made his very first move. Don't worry, he'll get used to it - this is what we do in this family....HE HE HE.

Happy Little One

Nathan is one happy little dude. He is starting to really like playing with toys, and is getting old enough to do a little more than just stick them in his mouth. He has recently been given the name of Chub or Chubby. I know eventually this will not be an ideal nickname, but for now it just suits him so perfectly with those cute chubbulicious cheeks of his.

Let's go to the Beach

We spent a fun-filled week in California during Spring Break. We went to the beach twice, played at a train museum, celebrated Ben's and Grandma's birthday, went to the park a couple of times, enjoyed Easter at Grandpa and Grandma Taylor's house, watched movies, and just enjoyed time together. We even managed to fit in the flu (yep - Megan, Nathan and I all got a good case of the throw-up flu, and then Caelan caught something the day we got home). But, overall it was a great week. Nathan's favorite part about the beach were the toys...and the sand. He just kept putting his hands in his mouth and then crunching on the sand. Definitely NOT the water. We put his little feet in it, but he DID NOT like that one bit.

Sitting Up

He sits. Nathan can now sit on his own. He's had decent balance on his buns for a while, but could only stay put for a short time before he would topple over, but now he can sit and sit all the day long.

Camping in Joshua Tree

We had a fun little getaway this weekend. I took the kids and met Dad in Joshua Tree. Grandpa Sorensen and Caleb and Corbin also came along (Brook and Grandma came out in the morning as well as Erin and David). We camped in some BLM land (no potties). We set up a tent which Caelan and Ben and Megan slept in. Dad and Nathan and I slept in the van (right next to the tent with the windows open)...actually Megan joined us late in the night as well). It was cool, but not cold and hardly any wind (perfect for the fire). Nathan was completely mesmerized by the fire. He sat and stared at that for hours. We spent the next day climbing rocks, hiking and riding bikes (it was more like "coasting" downhill for 10 miles - very fun). Uncle Caleb carried Nathan is his little carrier. We ended up hiking longer that we thought and Nathan started to get fussy so I took him. He fell asleep (and the sun was beating down and he didn't have any sunscreen), so we made our own little shade for him. We had a blast, and have a little sun-kissed skin to show for it (Nathan's first rosy cheeks). It made us realize that we need to camp much more often - so fun!

Family Walks

There are really no words for these pictures.

He loves our walks. I load up all the kids (one usually on a scooter, one on a little trike and one or two in the stroller) and we wander around the neighborhood in the evening hours. Nathan loves it.

Cousins

The plant that Dad was running in Kingman had to close last November. Dad had been looking for work in the area for a couple of months but has found nothing. So he has decided to venture out on something that he has been itching to try - financial planning. He took and passed his tests for his license a couple of weeks ago. Because of this new venture he has been in CA with Grandpa Sorensen a bunch to learn the ins and outs of the business. Which means I have been home in Kingman with the kids by myself. We took a little trip to CA to visit Dad and also see Charity and new baby Coren (who were down visiting). Nathan and Coren are 3 months apart. Coren is a long, lanky little guy and Nathy is tall and solid. Cute little cousins.
Nathan has become very social these days. He doesn't like to be left alone at all, and he'll let everyone know until he is happy again.