Merry Christmas!!

A couple of my favorite Christmas pics this year....Nathaniel LOVED visiting Santa. It was very cute- he kept saying- "Mommy, Santa's a nice man!"

Wishing you and yours a Very, Merry Christmas!

How much fun we had picking you!

Nate loves Christmas time. His favorite movie these days is definitely Rudolph- I'm pretty sure he's watched it more than 50 times! We've had a lot of snow here this year so we were able to build a huge snowman! We named him Fred. . .

Nate loves walking around wishing everyone Merry Christmas. His top two present requests this year: a computer and anything train related!! I've told him santa's elves are hard at work on those requests.

Here are some pics from our Christmas tree day....

Finding the perfect tree

We got it!

Pulling out the tinsel

Festive with ribbon around his head

Our tree is up! We got a smaller one this year but we like it- just the right size.

Trip to Christmas Village

This place is amazing! It is truly spectacular...highly recommend a trip....

Haning out with Rudolph! Nate is absolutely mesmerized by him :)

Hugging Frosty- the highlight of the night!

You can check out their website . . . Kozier's Christmas Village

Merry Christmas 2009!

A picture from our Christmas photo shoot! We decorated the tree this weekend and are getting ourselves ready to celebrate the season!

Thanksgiving blessings

So much to be thankful for this year, as always. On Wednesday we settled in for a quiet Thanksgiving at home just the three of us. It was a perfect recipe for the day and let us spend time together and relax. It is always the perfect time to think about what we have to be thankful for....and we did just that....counting and sharing our thanksgiving blessings.

Aside from eating, we spent lots of time out walking and at the playground. We watched Rudolph on Thanksgiving night as we plan to make tradition every year. Tomorrow we plan to visit the local Christmas Village which is well known for it's huge display of lights. We also plan to sit with Santa, too. We'll see how that goes.

The last few months have been incredibly hectic for us. We have recently had a potential match with our adoption (no match yet, just had a healthy birthmother due in February choose to want to talk with us further). We are waiting to speak with her soon. Also, we may be in the process of moving very soon! It looks like New England for sure. . . but we won't know the exact details until late next week. We have been hoping to move closer to family for a while now and given recent changes with my job this may be the perfect opportunity to do so. We're keeping our fingers crossed it will all work out smoothly.

We have a VERY busy Christmas holiday planned and I am SO excited for Nate to experience Christmas as a 'bigger' boy now. He is getting so big and his vocabulary is growing at exponential speed. It never ceases to amaze me how much I love this age. It is challenging at times (potty training might just be it for me!) but the learning and growing and talking part is just purely amazing.

Happy Halloween!

Meet my little Devil-Vamp!

We couldn't decide what to be this year so Nate had somewhat of a unique costume: as you can see, he was a vampire with devil horns....very scary-- and sooo cute, too! Somehow the little kiddos can't be that scary- their just too cute all dressed up.

Smilin' with Daddy in the front yard


And Mommy too

Just getting started!


Mom- I definitely do not have enough candy yet, ok?!

The final product filled with candy

Gotta take inventory

Let me get rid of the pretzels and granola bars first

Ahhh, all the good stuff now!

He even took some candy for a train ride

It was a super fun Halloween. It has become one of my favorite times of the year now. Nate loves pumpkins and leaf jumping!

We spent the day at home relaxing for the big trick-or-treat and headed out early for pizza and pictures. Nathaniel absolutely was amazed at the whole trick-or-treat process. Unlike the typical 12 year old (or 6 year old for that matter) he really wanted to savor each stop and say "trick-or-treat" and selectively choose each piece of candy. It was super cute and I am very proud of his good manners, too. I'll keep my fingers crossed that it will continue into future Halloweens as well. ;)

Fall Fest 09!

Going down the hay bale slide!! Could he be any happier?! Always has a smile on his face. Delish!

Classic pumpkin pic pose!
Yeah, I know i'm cool...
Love to swing
It's a true masterpiece....pumpkin painting
Another slide- whoah!
Riding the mini tractors in his little glory. . .
The final product..., yup- right up there with Davinci and Monet's work :)
Jumpin' -one of his favorite things to do
Hi....How are you down there???!!!
Corn extravaganza

Having so much fun

My shadow
Our alpaca friends! One day, yes, it's true- we will have an alpaca farm...it's on the 10 year plan.

Animal lover by nature
Wow- I think we got one of the only non-rainy weekends this fall to attend fall-fest. We had a blast. From the pumpkin and apple picking (left my camera behind for those) to the slides and hay bales and corn maizes -- we had a great family day. I must admit- fall is my favorite time of the year. There is something undeniably comforting about the smell of the crisp air, apples, pumpkins, and foliage that just hits me the right way.