Nathan is 7!!!

Well, I am so behind on the post, but better late than never, right!? Nathan turned 7 on the 4th. It's very hard to believe that he is 7 and that first grade is almost over for him.

His birthday has been very drawn out this year. On the actual day of his bday, we celebrated with a trip to the donut shop that morning before school. That afternoon we celebrated with a trip to the doctor and a lovely throat swab. He had his 3rd round of strep that day. Since it was his bday I spared him the agony of the shot, which is usually the way I like to go. So needless to say he was not feeling super great that day.

Donut Breakfast!

We did give him his presents that night, though. Abby and Clay hid the presents in the living room and then gave him hot and cold clues to find them. He ended up with a DS and a game to go with it. He was very excited.

Hunting for presents. Never mind the naked Snow White doll!

Everyone piled in the recliner checking out the new DS.

He then got to miss the next 2 days of school due to the fever. By Friday he started to feel somewhat better and enjoyed opening more presents from my parents and eating the red velvet cake my mom made for him.

Water guns and water balloons from Paw-paw and Dee.

Even if you've been sick, you still have to try out your new water guns!

Saturday evening we celebrated by the 4 of us going to a Japanese steak house for dinner. Nathan and Abby both loved eating shrimp.

Last weekend we scheduled his birthday party. We were going to go bike riding through the trails eat lunch and then ride back through the trails to the park. Well, wouldn't you know, it finally decides to rain here that weekend. So the party was cancelled and we are still trying to decide what to do about that.

Nathan at 7:

Nathan is very funny. His sense of humor is very much like Clay's. He loves to get people to laugh. He also has a mischievous side and will use that to get some laughs.

Nathan loves to be outside. He has several friends on our street that he enjoys playing with. He likes to ride his bike, climb trees, golf, & play any kind of sport.

He is very into baseball. We have been adding baseball and football stuff to his room. He has enjoyed giving me his opinion about that.

He still loves to eat cheeseburgers. He is also a big fan of tacos. He is also going through a phase of not liking things that he has like forever! He is not afraid to try new food and often tells me dinner is SO good. The other night he told me, "Mom, you make the best cornbread. The cafeteria cornbread is terrible!"

Nathan also loves his cousin Mallory. He loves his sister, but the way he loves Mallory is different right now. She doesn't try to take his stuff yet. So he's not too irritated with her. Today we were at my cousin's house and all the kids ran downstairs for a snack and just blew past Mal. Nathan stopped and gave her a hug and then ran on after the kids.

Nathan is also doing great in school this year. Clay and I are so proud of him. He likes school, but is very eager for summer vacation. He probably gets that from his school teacher mom! He has made excellent grades and even got the outstanding citizen award for his class the 2nd six weeks.

He is also going through a "I don't want to have my picture take phase." Hopefully I'll be able to get some good pics to document being 7.

The Wii has also become a big part of Nathan's daily routine. After doing his homework we usually play some tennis or bowl. He beats me pretty much every time! If we don't do homework first, then we end up scrambling to do the homework when it's really time to go to bed.

Nathan also still enjoys being tucked in at night and read to. He also loves to snuggle up with his Blue Bear and have me lay down with him for little bit. I think this is so sweet and I am glad he still enjoys this part of our night time routine.

Nathan also loves to fix things. He got his own set of tools for Christmas that he keeps out in the garage with Clay's tools. He often just goes out and grabs a tool and comes back in the house an starts "working" on things. Sometimes these things don't even need fixing, but it is so fun to watch him come up with his plan and work it out.

There are so many things I could write about our Nathan. The most important is that we just love him so much and are so thankful that we have been blessed with him in our family. I'm not sure how he got to be 7, but he is definitely my favorite 7 year old! We love you Nate Dog!

1st Grade Program

The 1st grade at Nathan's school had their program on President's Day. They had a combination Valentine's and President's Day theme. The songs were so cute and it was so fun to watch them sing and do all the motions. Nathan had one line and did a great job. His line was, "Now the United States celebrates their birthdays on the same day." Referring to Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. We sure are proud of our 1st grader!

Valentine's Day!

We had a fun family Valentine's Day. We started the morning with a family trip to the donut shop and followed that up with coming home for some Valentine gifts from Clay. It was a fun time for us all. After the gift giving, we went and ran a few errands and came home for lunch. Our afternoon was easy going around the house. Nathan and Clay went to buy us a new microwave and I cleaned. Abby took a long nap that day because she had been running a fever. That night the four of us went to a sushi restaurant and had a great meal. Nathan and Abby gobbled up their shrimp stir fry. Those two kids LOVE shrimp. They just can't get enough of it. It was a delicious meal! I am so blessed to have these 2 precious kids and wonderful husband to love every day of the year, but especially on Valentine's Day.

Losing Teeth!

Nathan has finally lost his 2 front teeth! We started working on them before Christmas and last week they both came out. Incidentally, the tooth that was the least loose came out first. It turned out to be quite an ordeal. Both teeth were just hanging on and were basically dead. So his teeth turned some lovely colors. It was really grossing Clay and I out.

Here he is with both of them just hanging there.At the beginning of the week. Minus 1.

Working to get the other one out. How do you turn your tooth like that!?!

Both of them gone! He and his friend Joey both have the 1st grade toothless grin going!

The tooth fairy has been busy at our house this week!!! Luckily she hasn't forgotten to make a stop here!:)

Stock Show

A few weekends ago we spent Saturday morning at the FW Stock Show. We went with Clay's sister, Alyssa and her husband, Ryan. It was a fun day walking around and looking at the animals and playing games. We were all impressed with the sheep dogs!

Shooting the BB guns!

Nathan won this puppy that he named, "Stocky".

Abby won this little flower.

Sweet girl with her Daddy!

Pink Cowgirl!!!

The Last 2 weeks!

My sister has done such a great job blogging about our last few weeks. I let you take a peek at her blog and our sweet Mallory to see what we've been doing. Our trip to Houston ended with Marcia driving us home and spending a week here because I got a nasty case of strep throat. My strep was followed up by Nathan having an equally nasty case of strep throat. We are all well now and praying for a healthy end of the cold season. No more strep throat!!! Here are several links to her posts.

Cousins

Mallory's 1st Birthday Party!

More of Day 7 & Our Trip Home

I just realized I had a few more cruise pictures on my camera. Saturday night before dinner Abby just crashed. She was all ready to go and then stopped for half a second and fell sound asleep on Clay. She stayed that way for a while and even slept part of the way while we carried her down to the dining room.

Here is our waiter, Oswin with the kids. He was super great and worked very hard every night to get Abby to give him "five". I think she did it one night, but this is as close as the would get on the last night.

Oswin made this mouse out of a napkin for Nathan. Nathan named it Mr. Cheesey. He is still around and has even made it to school for all to see!

Fun Times!

Sunday turned out alot different than we had anticipated. We were scheduled to arrive back in Galveston at 7am. Unfortunately, the Port of Galveston was closed that morning due to heavy fog. We didn't get in to the dock until 12:45. Then it was 5:00 before we got to our car. After stopping back at Marcia's to get all our Christmas stuff, eating dinner, & several potty stops later, we finally made it home at midnight that night. It was a long day. We were very glad to get home that night. We all just fell into the bed. We had a fun trip and made lots of fun memories, but as they say, "There's No Place Like Home!"