Our Little Guitar Hero

Like I mentioned in my previous post, we have been Guitar Hero freaks here and the obsession has now passed down to the little one.......

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Ok so it's a week into the new year and I'm just now posting about our Christmas.....I'm just now getting caught up it seems after all the holiday festivities.

We had a really great Christmas with our families. Jake's family was down from Minnesota and mine from Dallas. It was the first time we were all together since our wedding 3 years ago! We had a great time! Nathan proved to be quite the little entertainer. Nothing was more precious than getting him dressed in his Santa pajamas and bringing him downstairs and seeing him get so excited to see all his family and his presents. He would scream gleefully and dance up and down and flail his arms about with such joy. This little boy definitely cleaned up in the gift department between his birthday and Christmas! We are set on toys and clothes for the next year. He just loves everything he got for Christmas. He plays with all of his toys all day. One of his favorites is a Radio Flyer wagon that he got from Grandpa Smith. He LOVES to takes rides around the neighborhood and to the park. (It's so nice to be able to do such outdoor activities in January! God Bless Texas!) Nathan is not the only one who got some fun toys for Christmas.......Jake got Guitar Hero III and 2 guitars to go with it and I'll tell you what, I find myself drawn to that game the second I put Nathan down for a nap or if Jake's playing with him. The second Nathan goes down for bed at night, Jake and I begin our guitar battling. I say this with a humble heart........I give Jake a run for his money. :-) I would never have imagined me saying to Jake "you've played enough, it's MY turn!". I think we really have become addicted to this game. Jake went out and used his Best Buy gift card on Guitar Hero II and they came out with an 80s edition of Guitar Hero that is calling my name. Anyways, it's been nice to spend more time with Jake in the evenings instead of him upstairs watching his shows and me downstairs watching mine.

For New Years, we went to our friends Jody and Emily's house and played with their sons, Dylan and Justin. (along with other friends as well) Nathan had a great time playing with all the kids. He LOVES playing with other kids. We obviously didn't last at the party till midnight, but we lasted until 8:30 which is late for Nathan since he usually goes down at 7. Once we got home and put him to bed, I laid on the couch and Jake in his lazy boy and watched all the festivities on tv. I tried so hard to stay awake but just couldn't hang. I fell asleep about 10 and Jake woke me up about 11:30 in time for the new year, then it was straight to bed and back to sleep. :-) Maybe one of these days we'll be back out amongst the crowds for a New Years celebration.

My First Birthday!

Amidst the Christmas rush, we got to take a break and celebrate Nathan's first birthday! We had a fun little birthday party for him on the 22nd. Several of his friends were still in town before the holidays and got to celebrate with us. We had attempted to cook out hamburgers and hot dogs, but as we went to fire up the grill, we realized that we were out of propane.....whoops! Thank goodness for the Foreman! Everything turned out great.....the food tasted great, Nathan got tons of new toys and clothes, but I think his favorite thing of the day was his cake! He had no problem tearing into that thing.......



Just lounging around after all the hoopla......

Tiger Woods Watch Out!

Jake's got Nathan started early on the golf lessons......and I think Nathan is a natural! Jake only had to show him a few times how to hit the ball with the putter and he picked it up! He started hitting the ball all over the room. He was so proud of himself. When he would hit the ball, he would drop the putter and clap his hands. :-)

Trail of Lights

Sorry it's been so long since a post! Well last weekend we took a nice little trip to a town called Marble Falls to have dinner with the Olson and McAnelly families. After dinner we went to the Trail of Lights of Marble Falls. We had a great time, but it was hard to get into the "winter wonderland" feeling when it was 80 degrees outside! (Notice the short sleeves and shorts)

Sad day in playgroup

Today is a sad day in our playgroup as we say goodbye to Elle and Ondine as they are leaving for Michigan tomorrow. We all met up at the mall today and had lunch and let the kids run around. We had such a fun time getting to know Elle and Ondine over the past several months and wish them all the best in Michigan!

We'll miss you Elle and Ondine!

Look at all those good-looking kids!!

Happy Thanksgiving

We just spent a week at the North Pole (aka Minnesota). :-) Actually it really wasn't too cold while we were there; however, Nathan did get to see his first snow. We had such a great time and Nathan did so great meeting all his Aunties and Uncles. He definitely was the life of the party. Not only did he get better and better at walking, he started dancing and singing to music! We also got to celebrate Sheena Auntie's (Jake's sister) birthday with her for the first time!
Here are some pics from our trip:

My first Thanksgiving meal!