Christmas Treats

"We elves try to stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns and syrup." - Buddy from "Elf" (one of our favorite holiday movies). We actually bought it this year and the kids have been watching it over and over again.Even though our holidays were a little more hectic and out-of-sorts with the surgery and such, we still managed to get in all of our sugar eating. Nathan favorite part by far is eating the sprinkles and licking the frosting. We spent one of the kids' Snow Days making and decorating tasty treats: chocolate covered oreos with peppermint (SO GOOD), dipped pretzels, chocolate dipped cookie dough, spritz cookies, sugar cookies. Plus we still had tons of fudge left from the double batch Sean made a couple of weeks earlier, not to mention all of the goodies friends and neighbors brought over. YUM! And as you can see despite the chillier weather as we head into winter Nathan is still sporting his underwear-only style. I don't know how he does it. We keep it pretty cool in our house during the winter months and yet every time I turn around Nathan has taken off his pants and shirt and is running around with nothing but underwear on. I ask him regularly if he's cold, but he always says no. He must run warm.

Christmas with the Sorensens

Some highlights from our Christmas holiday: *Snow *Grandpa and Grandma Sorensen, Corbin, Kyra, Preston and Jesse came to our house for Christmas. They had quite an adventure getting here (car breaking down, squishing into a tiny little car, getting in late Christmas eve night), but they made it. *They joined us for church and even participated in the ward choir *We went sledding on Christmas Eve and found such a great place that we took the rest of the family back after Christmas. Corbin even helped the kids build a snow fort in the side of a little hill. *Christmas morning with the all of the magic that entails. *Hot chocolate party with Aunt Kyra

Thanksgiving with Friends

Tattoo Artist

Nathan found the permanent marker. Looks like we have an artist on our hands.

Salmon Snagging

Dad really wanted to try for better luck at the salmon snagging excursion (he had gone a couple weeks earlier with the scouts and got stormed out) so we decided to take a little family trip up to the lake for the weekend. We headed up after the kids got out of school on Friday. We stopped and had Blake's burgers and fixed the tail light on the van (after getting pulled over and given a warning for it) and then made our way to El Vado Lake. We reserved a little cabin right there by the lake. It was a cute two bedroom wood cabin right along the river. We hung out that night. Dad took Caelan and Ben over to lake and threw in their line a couple of times. The next morning we got up and made breakfast right there in the cabin: eggs, potatoes and sausage. We caught two deer fighting in front of the cabin, which was pretty entertaining to watch. The kids played with a few dogs that were wandering around in front of the cabin. There were also some bear statues that the kids had fun climbing on.

Then we headed over to the Lake Heron and fished. Dad helped the kids with their rods. We stayed in one spot for a couple of hours with no luck (there were probably 20 other fishermen around us and no one was catching anything). We tried another spot and there was no luck there either. We drove by two other spots and asked around, but apparently the fish weren't out and about that day. We decided to head home. The kids had a blast playing along the water front and climbing the rocks. We stopped in Santa Fe at a Spanish foods store and picked up some spanish sausage and then got dinner in Albuquerque before we arrived home. We'll have to try it again next year. It was a fun family getaway, even if we came home empty handed.

I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home

"I'm so glad when daddy comes home. Glad as I can be. Clap my hands and shout for joy and climb upon his knee. Put my arms around his neck, hug him tight like this. Pat his cheek and give him what? A great big kiss." Dad is one of Nathan's best buddies. He loves to climb all over him, have Dad throw him in the love sac, wrestle on the floor, read books and just be together.

Fall Festivities

Fall is such a fun season in New Mexico: the state fair, the Balloon Fiesta, Halloween, etc. Plus this year we added onto that with a new baby. We found a fun pumpkin patch to go to the weekend before Halloween. They had hay bales to climb, yummy sugar roasted nuts to eat, a corn maze (it was the end of the season so a lot of the corn husks were dying but the kids still had fun walking along the paths) and big pumpkins to take home. Then we got to Halloween. It seemed like the celebrating just kept on going. We went to the kids Halloween parade at their school on Friday and Nathan wanted to dress up like the rest of the kids. On Saturday was the ward Halloween party complete with trunk-or-treating. On Monday (the actual holiday) the kids dressed up again and went trick-or-treating in the Walmart and at the Beehive Home (an assisted living home). I think we ended up going through 15 costumes between all of us. Fun times. Nathan was a construction worker, a pirate and Shrek...and was totally adorable in each one. He even let me paint his face for 2 of the costumes. Dad always lets the kids choose the pumpkins that they want him to carve. They chose Slimer, ET, Hello Kitty and a haunted tree. Dad's a pumpkin carving master! This year I decided to try a "free for all" with the candy, instead of rationing it out every day for a couple of weeks, I pretty much just let them have at it. I think I like it better that way - it gets it out of the house sooner and it makes for only a few days of sugar highs.

ABQ Balloon Fiesta

Grandma Dick came to help out when Austin was born. We also got a visit from Aunt Lindsay and her friend, Elsbeth. We went to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta while they were here. Actually we found a parking lot outside of the park and watched the balloons take off from there. It was pretty windy so there weren't as many balloons taking off as usual, but we didn't have to leave at the crack of dawn to get there, we didn't have to deal with parking, and we got to be right by our car so we could jump back in when it started to get chilly. Plus Grandma got us some cinammon rolls that we gobbled up as we waited. And Nathan thought is was awesome to be able to sit on the hood of the car to watch the balloons. Afterwards we headed over to the Botanic Gardens. They were having a special Fall Festival in the farm section. I helped the kids make a doll out of corn husks, we got to watch them make apple cider (and then taste it...and buy some to take home. The kids got to pet some animals, and Grandma took a ride on a tractor with them. Nathan loved the idea of the tractor ride but when it was their turn to go he wasn't so sure. He took along his blanket and decided he would be fine. We ate chinese food on the way home and called it a day - Fun times.

Baby Brother is Here

Little Austin has arrived. Nathan is a big brother. He came on October 2nd (right in between General Conference sessions). I started labor early that morning but it was super sporadic. At one point I had the kids take a walk with me up and down our road to see if we could get something regular happening. As we were singing the intermediate hymn during the morning session of Conference I started to feel some hard contractions and then they just kept coming. We took the kids over to the Pearce's house and then headed to the hospital. I checked in at 12:33 PM and Austin was born at 1:00 PM. Sean went and got the kids to come and visit later that evening. They were all in love at first sight. And Megan and Nathan were also quite excited about my dinner in the hospital - they wanted to eat it all. Since we have been home there is NO shortage of people to love on him and hold him and help him. The kids take turns holding him all the time. Nathan is always right there with the other kids asking to hold him. He usually doesn't want to hold still for too long, but he loves to let Austin lay on his lap for a few minutes. And he is just enthralled with him. I love his sweet expression in his picture holding Austin at the hospital. That is a pretty accurate depiction of how he feels about his baby brother.

Happy Birthday Little Man

Happy Birthday to our Nathan boy! He is just and all around great kid. He is all boy! Loves cars, balls, running around, playing outside, getting dirty, jumping and climbing off and onto things, eating, and keeping up with the other kids. He loves to take walks with me down the street to pick up the kids from the bus. He still takes naps in the afternoon, but sometimes they are hit and miss. He's a happy dude most of the time. He loves to wrestle with Dad as soon as he gets home. He's definitely a more rough and tumble kid than his older brother, but he's pulling Ben into his ways. He likes his church class and loves to get together with his buddies: Jonah and Samuel. We love him to bits. His birthday landed on a Sunday, so we had his festivities after church. He asked for a dragon cake, so I did the best I could....and he was pleased.

Summer of Potty Training

Because this is the summer of potty training (which is going excellent, I might add), we have seen a lot of Nathan is underwear. He mostly runs around in his underwear all day. Most days he starts out full dressed but after one or two times using the potty he resorts to taking off the rest of his clothes. And if this makes him want to use the potty (and be totally trained by the end of summer), then it's fine by me. The hilarious thing is that this kid is always running around and recently has found a favorite hobby of jumping off the couch or chair into the lovesac. And he really launches. So he's become our underwear super hero jumper. And to make things even better sometimes he gives us a little pose before he jumps. Love it!

One More Summer Hurrah

We did one final summer adventure (actually one of our only two trips this summer). And it all started with a blessing in disguise. I drove with the kids to Arizona to visit Grandpa and Grandma Dick. We were planning on me taking the Suburban. It gets a little better gas mileage than the van, and with gas guzzlers like ours every little bit counts. Two days before we were supposed to leave the air conditioning went completely out on the Suburban. Since I was driving through the dessert in the dead of summer we changed plans and I took the van. No one ever likes when something goes wrong on their car, but we were lucky with this one. I made it to Casa Grande with no problems (and we drove through three intense rain storms, which were kind of fun). The very next day Dad called and told me that the Suburban had broken down on him. He knew what the problem was right away was able to get it fixed with no trouble the next day (his boss let him use the company truck for the night). If I had taken the Suburban, however, it probably would have broken down somewhere along the way leaving me stranded with 4 kiddos in the dessert. Plus, then I would have had to have it towed and taken it to a shop to get it fixed (which always costs at least three times more). So who would have guessed a broken air conditioner would have really ended up being a blessing in disguise. Anyway, we had a great time in AZ: mostly swimming....because really what else can you do when it's 110 degrees outside. Megan learned how to swim under water and Nathan went from clinging on to me for dear life in the pool, to jumping off the edge with floaties on and wanting to do it over and over and over again. He was like a little fish by the time we left. We also got some dental work done while we were there - just cleanings and check-ups and such. Nathan got in the chair, but he would only let Grandpa look - there would be no touching. Grandpa said things looked fine. We saw Kung Fu Panda 2, which was super cute. After 4 days there I drove to Murrieta, CA to visit the Sorensen clan. We had lots of water fun there too. We went to Wild Rivers. Caelan and Ben wanted to go on any slide they could. I mostly hung out in the Kiddie areas with Nathan and Megan (I'm a little too big and pregnant to go down water slides). They all loved it. Nathan started out the day a little grumpy, and he didn't want to go down the slides (even the little ones), but he had tons of fun in the wave pool (floating around with his life jacket) and in all the sprinkler areas. We also took a trip to the beach. Caelan was way out in the waves finding good ones to boogie board in on. It was making me a little nervous, but she was totally comfortable. We played in the water and sand and later had a fire and roasted hot dogs and yummy banana treats. Nathan thought he was one of the hundreds of sand crabs that we caught - he was rolling all over in the sand. Grandpa Sorensen made an awesome fort with the kids which was able to withstand most of the waves that came up on it. The kids played in the slip-n-slide in the front yard one day and went swimming in a neighbors pool another day. The kids stayed with Grandpa and Grandma Sorensen on Saturday while Dad and I went to a friends wedding. They got to go to the baptism of Kyra's good friend, Katherine.

Nathan's Words

Some of my favorite things that Nathan says these day:
-"yep"
-"it's so wummy" (it's so yummy)
-When someone says, "why?" He responds with "because." Then they say, "because why?" And he always responds back with "because why."
-"oh" (now he understands....HE HE HE...the inflection is great)

Let's Do This

We are attempting the potty training. We started three days ago. He had a hard time the first morning. At first he was totally excited, but after a couple of accidents (and then having him practice after each accident at least three times) he wasn't so sure about how much he liked this idea anymore. At one point he started crying and crying on the toilet for "dwa-pa" (grandpa). Silly boy. He did manage to have two successes that day. The next day he had four successes and he was much more willing to sit and wait. The third day was kind of a wash - I was busy running around all day, so we didn't do very well (he was in a diaper most of the day). Today he has had 5 successful pee-pees and he even went poo in the toilet once. YAY. He still has his share of accidents and I've been putting a diaper on him whenever we go anywhere, but it seems like it is coming along. We have a trip to CA/AZ planned for next week and I know that will mess things up, but I'm thinking if he can get a good start, then when school starts and our routine becomes more regular then he can really finish it up (before the new baby comes) *fingers crossed. We shall see.

Happy Independence Day

Dad had to leave the morning of the 4th of July for Scout Camp, so we did our family barbeque and homemade ice cream on Sunday. On Monday the kids played around at the house (in the jacuzzi). That afternoon we went to a family's house in the ward for a barbeque. There was a trampoline, a jump house, a sandbox, a sprinkler, lots of food and lots of friends. The kids had a blast. Nathan just ran around from one fun thing to the next.

Follow the Leader

We had family in town for Caelan's baptism. While they were here we headed to the Botanical Gardens to play one day. Nathan has to do whatever everyone else is trying: climbing on figurines, hanging on the fence, etc. He loves to run around outside so this was a perfect day for him.

Hot Tub Fun

We love out jacuzzi. Now that it is starting to get warmer more often the kids LOVE to play in it as much as possible. One of their favorite things to do after school or on the weekends is to play in the jacuzzi (taking lots of toys with them). We make it a Family Home Evening activity as well too. We still like to warm it up a little bit, but I'm sure in another month or two it will be plenty good just to leave it cool so the kids can use it as a swimming pool during the hot summer days. It's awesome that it is so shallow too because Nathan can walk all the way across no problem. He usually likes to stay in his little corner, but I don't have to be constantly worried about him out in deep waters or anything.

IPad

We recently got a little bit of unexpected money, so after doing some responsible things with it we decided to use some of it to get an iPad (Dad has had the itch for a while now). It has quickly become a new favorite toy for everyone in the family. Even Nathan loves it - actually he is almost a little obsessed with it. The kids only get a 20 minute turn every couple of days, and Nathan wants his turn just like everyone else. He drags his fingers here and there and gets just to where he wants to go (it's crazy how fast these kids pick up on things like this). It is actually the first thing he asks Sean when he walks in the door, "my turn iPack?" We LOVE that he calls it an "iPack," and it's kind of rubbed off on the rest of us.

Bedtime Visitor

This little boy has found our bed. All of our kids have gone through a little stage of waking up in the night and then coming to our bed to sleep (except for Megan). In fact we were talking about this very thing one time and I turned to Megan and said, "You are the only one who hasn't come to sleep in our bed, right Megan?" She thought for second and said, "You don't let me sleep in your bed." She's right. She is our craziest sleeper and so the couple of times that she did come into our bed either Sean or I promptly helped her back to her own bed (because there was no way we could sleep with that little girl in bed with us). So her stage was SUPER short. None of the kids had found their way to our room since we've moved. I think it has something to do with the fact that you have to walk across the entire downstairs, then up the stairs and then back across the upstairs to get to our bedroom, and none of our kids want to brave that long of a walk in the dark and quiet of night. But one night (a few weeks ago) Nathan made his first journey to our bedroom (and bed) in the wee hours of the morning. He climbed into bed with us....and that's where it began. It was like a light switched on, "Oh, Mom and Dad will let me sleep with them if I go there in the middle of the night" (because, frankly the "walk" is too much for us to walk him back to his bed in the middle of the night....HE HE HE). He figured it out real quick. In fact a week after the first trip he asked is he could sleep in our bed. I said, "Nope, you have to sleep in your own bed." Then so sweetly he said, "Sleep own bed. Wake up and sleep upstairs." Pretty bright little dude! So we've had a little visitor in our bed at least three times a week for the past three weeks. The nice thing is that he usually comes in just shortly before it's time to get up for the morning (5:00 AM or so). We don't mind this little phase - we know it won't last forever (partly because they grow out of it...and if they didn't we would "help" them to outgrow it...HE HE HE), so for the next few weeks we'll enjoy this extra little body next to us for an hour or two in the morning.

Things We Love About Nathan

Things we Love about Nathan these days:

1) He likes to go on the "ABC" site on the computer (with me - he can't quite get around on it yet), and he calls it "ABS." HE HE HE.
2) He says "hing hong" when he wants to say "sing song"
3) We sing "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree" almost every Family Home Evening Night because Nathan knows it and loves it.
4) He has finally gotten to the point where he doesn't mind out dog, Bruno. He still doesn't love him or anything, but he is fine with having him around. And when Bruno gets in his way, he just pushes his face and says, "move Bruno."
5) Nathan has started calling his friends by their names (and he knows their names). The other day in church he spotted his friend from Nursery and very loudy said, "Hi Paul." So cute.
6) He knows tons of animals and their sounds.
7) He loves to watch "Mickey Mouse" (which is the Chrismas Mickey movie which has been a favorite of all of our kids at one point or another)
8) He has started going into the kitchen and finding food/snacks/treats when he wants them. The other day I made a chocolate cake for Family Home Evening. Everyone got a small piece for treat. Then as kids were getting ready for bed, I noticed that Nathan had been awfully quiet for the past several minutes. I walked into the kitchen and called his name. It was dark in there and so at first I didn't notice him. Then I realized that he had pulled up a chair to the counter and was eating right from the middle of the cake in the dark. Silly Boy!
9) He loves to play with my cell phone, and has figured out how to get to the camera application and take pictures with it.
10)He loves to read book with me. He'll sit right by me and listen as I tell the story.
11) He loves to sit in Dad or my "boat" when we are laying on the couch. The other day he called it "horse boat." I was totally confused. He was also saying "horse" in other strange contexts too. It took me a couple of days to realize that what he was trying to say was "your boat."
12)He has started really loving super heroes. I pulled out Ben's old Superman pajamas, which now fit Nathan, and we was super excited to put them on. Once they were on he did a little dance while saying, "Superman" with his little attitude.
13) He is a burping machine. He thinks this is one of the greatest tricks ever so he is constantly making himself burp whenever he drinks anything.

Good Samaritans

Good Samaritans
So this morning I jumped in the car to run to the store with Nathan. I was pretty nervous about making it to the gas station (I was totally on empty the other day but I didn't have time to stop and get gas before the kids got home from school). I even got the feeling that I should bring a gas can with me...just in case. I checked a bunch of cupboards in the garage and couldn't find them, so I gave up and headed off. I think next time I will pay a little more attention to "the feeling." HE HE HE. I was cruising along and thought, "As long as I make it up this hill then I can pretty much coast to the gas station." I'm going and going and going....and then there is a chug and another chug and the car starts slowing down...and eventually stops (just short of the top of the hill). I had my phone with me, and I thought I would call someone. I tried one person - no luck. I only had one bar of battery left and I didn't want the phone to die too, so I got out and decided to walk. My visiting teacher lived a mile or so away. Thank goodness today wasn't as cold as some of the days last week. I got Nathan and we started walking down Route 66. I was walking for less than a minute...literally...when a car stopped and asked if I needed help. They were an older couple with a young girl in the back seat. I told them I had run out of gas, and they said, "Well hop in." So I got in (no hesitation at all....you know when you can just tell people are totally safe - that was them). Anyway, they took me to Autozone to get a gas can and then to the gas station to fill it up and then back to the car. The woman held Nathan while I filled the gas can. The man then filled my tank once we got back to the car. And the little girl told me all about the Nintendo DS she was playing. Gas was in the car, the car started, I thanked the couple sincerely, and I was off.
Probably not a big deal for this couple - 25 minutes of their day to drive around a woman and her little boy to get gas....but it was a HUGE deal to me. The couple were both retired Navy. They were actually on their way to their church building (they are the janitors for it) and then they were going to bible study (the little girl mentioned). And they are the grandparents for the little girl in the back seat but are raising her like their own child. It's good to know that there are so many good people in the world - just going about their day to day lives, but helping others whenever they find the chance. It made me realize again how much the "little things" that we do matter. And I am thankful to them for their kindness and to so many others just like them out in the world going about doing good.

Lookin' Sharp

I got this little suit while I was in CA - Andrea always passes on the boys clothes that don't fit anymore, so I'm sure Jesse and Preston wore this little baby when they were tots. Look how cute Nathan looks in it (he just needs a little tie). Love it. Dad loves when I spike his hair up. It's getting a little long to do that - I guess I need to give him a hair cut soon.

Sledding Time

We had absolutely nothing on the schedule on Saturday.
NOTHING - pretty nice.
So, we took the kids and headed up to Sandia Peak and found a fun snow-playing area. We wanted to try out our new sled that we got from Santa, but at the organized place there was no metal or wood sleds allowed. So, we took several runs down the hill with our plastic sled. All the kids LOVED it. Even Nathan went down with me several different times. Then on our way home we found a picnic area with a couple decent hills where we could try out the new sled. It was a hit. It kind of resembles a very miniature snowmobile: a seat, handles, place to put your feet on the side ski's and even brakes. It was easy for the kids to steer and control. We all tried it out, except for Nathan who was pretty much done with the cold and snow at this point. Very fun day.