Thanksgiving

Here are some pictures that were taken while my family was out visiting. They flew in Thanksgiving Day. We went to Snowbird for Thanksgiving dinner with our friends the Marquez’s. Everyone seemed to enjoy the buffet and the great view of the slopes. The day after Thanksgiving Nick got his 2nd haircut and we went to the Zoo. Nicholas slept almost the entire time we were at the Zoo! It was pretty sad since he loves animals so much. He woke up in time to see some turkeys as we were leaving. He loves to laugh at them. Everyone was watching Nick enjoy the turkeys as they walked by. I had forgotten the camera at home (shocking, I know!) so I got some video of Nick and the turkeys instead. Once I figure out how to get the video off of the video camera and on to the computer, I will send that out. After the Zoo we went to the Blue Iguana (a Mexican restaurant downtown). They have people who come by and sing at the tables. Nicholas loved the music and showed off his awesome dancing skills :0)

Nicholas started to show signs of being sick on Saturday. He was pretty mellow and just sitting around. Usually we can’t get him to sit still. He woke up Sunday throwing up. I couldn’t believe he was sick AGAIN! It seems like he had just gotten over his other illness. So, we to pretty much hung around the house the rest of the time my family was here. Everyone but my Dad wound up getting what Nick had, which is odd seeing that he is the one who held him the most! Luckily, Nicholas did not have to go into the hospital this time. I am not sure I could have dealt with that again. John has been home sick for the past 2 days. We learned how hard it is to take care of a sick baby when you are just as sick. Other than everyone getting sick, it was a fun visit with my family. We’re looking forward to seeing them again in less than a month for Christmas :0)

Nick & Grandma on Thanksgiving

Someone needs to learn some table manners!

Waiting for his food

Nicholas & Grandpa

Nicholas & Grandma

Nicholas & Uncle John

Our Little Walker

Nicholas has turned into quite the little walker. He can walk quite a few steps at a time now. I was more interested in getting video footage of him walking, so I don’t have any still photos yet. I’ll try to get some in the next day or two. I did get some of him walking behind a toy at gymnastics today. He loved the walker toy so much that his Daddy stopped to get him one on his way home for lunch. John got the last one on the shelf! It was a good thing we got it today instead of waiting for his birthday. Nick spent the rest of the day walking around behind his new toy. He just doesn’t quite understand that banging his walker harder into the wall (or other object) and screaming doesn’t get it to move out of his way. It also turns into a car to ride on. It was a great find since I was looking for both a walking and riding toy for him. We’re really enjoying watching our little boy (so sad…he’s not our little baby anymore!) explore and discover new things each day :0) It is so cute how excited he gets when he accomplishes something. It truly is amazing how much happiness the little guy brings us!

Hmmm...this is a cool toy

Swinging with Miss Annie

Tumbling with Miss Ashley

Look what Daddy brought home for me :0)

Watchin' a little King of the Hill on his new car. When he hears the theme song, he stops whatever he is doing and is mesmerized (just like his Mommy...haha!)!

Mommy's Little Helper

I posted some pictures of Nicholas helping me get the laundry folded today. He would take the clean clothes and crawl around the room with them. He also helped me unpack his monthly (more like weekly ;0) box of clothes that his Grandma & Grandpa Beckman sent him. He may be set with clothes until he's 4 (Nope, they do NOT enjoy spoiling him...haha). Basically, he threw them all over the floor and rolled in them. Ever wonder why our house looks like it does…now you know ;0) As you can tell by the floor in the pics, Nick & Jackson were also very helpful when I tried to pick up all of their toys. Take care and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Ask and You Shall Receive...Family Updates

I got some feedback that some of you wanted to know what is going on with us these days. So, here ya go. Nicholas has fully recovered from his stomach bug. Phew! It was a long recovery, so we are glad he’s back to himself :0) He spends most of his time crawling and walking (holding on to something) around the room. He doesn’t stay in one place for more than 30 seconds. He talks non-stop (he obviously got that from his Dad ;0). Nick also loves to crawl on Jackson. Jackson just sits there and lets him do it. They like to watch for John to come home at the window. Then, it is a race to the door to greet him. I have it on video, it is pretty cute :0) Nicholas still loves his classes, so we’ll probably sign him up again when the time comes. He has made tons of friends from his classes that he has playdates with now. We went to lunch with his friend, Ara, yesterday and his friend Zachary was over today. The boys had their first experience with sharing! So, of course, I took pictures :0)

When I am not chasing Nicholas (so, basically when he’s napping!), I am busy planning for my parent’s trip out at Thanksgiving. They will also be out for Christmas :0) They have seen Nicholas almost every month since he was born! I am also busy planning Nick’s numerous 1st Birthday parties! I am finally getting back into Pampered Chef…just in time for the holidays too :0) I went from being the top seller in my cluster last year to one of the least this year. Now that Nicholas is older, I am ready to get back into it full force. It is nice to get out for some adult interaction once and a while! The consistent paycheck will be nice too!

John is job searching at the moment. He has had a few interviews, which all went well (what do you expect!?). He’s waiting to hear back on those. His current office will be closing 12/31 and he gets a nice bonus for staying through the end of the year :0) We’re planning on finishing the basement, possibly getting a bigger car, and a few more fun things with that. John is starting to play in a basketball league next week. This is good news for Nicholas and I because we can actually go watch him play. Nick loves to watch basketball on TV and he liked the game we went to a few weeks ago. So, I am sure he’ll be excited to watch his Daddy play. So, as you can tell, we are all doing great! Hope you are as well. More soon…

Zachary & Nicholas learning to share

Playing with the Fridge Farm

More playing

Nicholas in the tunnel

Doing a front flip on the bars

Playing airplane with Daddy

11 Months ALREADY!?

Here are some of the poses from Nicholas's 11 Month Photo shoot :0)

Nick's First Halloween

Here are some pictures from Nicholas’s first Halloween. He had his gymnastics class today and then we went out to lunch. We also carved his pumpkin. It was too cold here to take Nick trick-or-treating so he just helped pass out the candy. As you can tell from the pictures, he was a HUGE help ;0) Jackson and Nicholas would wait at the window and then go to the door when the kids rang the bell. All the kids loved Jackson. He enjoyed all the attention and pets he got :0) The trick-or-treaters thought Nick was pretty cute too. We all had a pretty fun day!

Nicholas & his pumpkin

Our little Nick-o-Lantern

The boys waiting for Daddy to come home

Mmmm...lollipop

Nick helping pass out the candy

Gardner Village

After the MyGym Halloween party we took Nicholas to Gardner Village. It is a cute little outdoor shopping area that was built in 1853. There is a petting zoo, carriage rides, and much more. They have a really big Christmas store that I will have to go to soon (since I was on bed rest last year I didn’t get to decorate much). We tried to get some pictures of Nick on the hay, but he was too interested in playing with the hay to look up. I also put the one picture I look at the St. Olaf’s Halloween Carnival in this post. It is of Nick and his girlfriend Abby. She was in the first Kindergarten class I taught there. Nicholas loves Abby and smiles the whole time he is with her :0)

LANDSHARK!!!!

We took Nick up to the Halloween Carnival at St. Olaf’s (the school where I used to teach) on Friday night. It was great to see my old friends and students!! Nicholas was quite a hit in his shark costume :0) He had a blast! I didn't get too many pictures there. We were busy catching up with everyone. We also took Nicholas to a Halloween party at MyGym this Saturday. He had such a great time:0) He loved seeing his awesome teachers and playing around in his shark costume. It was so cute to see the little shark crawling around! It was fun to see John play with Nick on the gym equipment. He loves to play with his Daddy :0) We all had such a fun time! I’m glad we are getting a lot of use out of Nick’s Halloween costumes.

Pumpkin Patch

We took Nicholas to the Pumpkin Patch last week. He was very interested in the vines and dirt. So much so that he was not interested in smiling for the camera. It was pretty cold and Nick had just woken up, so it was a short trip. At least we made it to a Pumpkin Patch (for me and my scrapbooking) for Nick’s first Halloween :0)

Nicholas & Dr. Wilde

I never got a picture with Nicholas and Dr. Wilde (the doc who delivered him) in the hospital. Dr. Wilde was great to me the entire pregnancy. He said that he has never had a patient that he actually looks forward to seeing so much (I was always entertaining)! I guess I entertained the whole office with my self diagnosing, etc. :0) Some of you might remember that from my weekly pregnancy emails. Well, I finally got a chance to get some pictures and Nicholas screamed the whole time! John says it is just like Nick would have acted in the hospital...haha! Nicholas usually loves Dr. Wilde, but he was pretty sick this day. So, after 10 months of waiting, here are some pics of Nick and Dr. Wilde :0)

More Texas

We got to visit with my cousin Sabrina, her husband Patrick, and their two sons, Carson & Connor. We saw them for dinner Saturday and Sunday nights. It was cool for Nicholas to meet some cousins. We took them all to the playground to play for a bit before dinner. Nick went down the slide by himself for the first time. He LOVED it! He just laughed and laughed :0) He went down the slide so many times. John & I also took him down a few times. My mom and dad took turns pushing Nicholas in the swing. The other kids (Kate, Carson, & Connor) had fun playing too. My mom followed Nick as he crawled all over their house. He also had fun playing with their cool ABC magnets. We didn’t get any pictures of all of the cousins, aunts, & uncles. We’ll be sure to get them next time!

We visited some friends, Scott & Julie, and their baby, Wyatt. They live in Denton where John’s sister used to live. Wyatt is 6 months old. Nicholas loved playing with Wyatt and all of his cool toys. He also loved their dogs and cats. We went out to lunch and got some ice cream. We attempted to get some pictures with both of the boys looking. It was almost impossible since Nick was more interested in playing that posing for pictures.

We left on Monday at the same time as my parents. We got to hang around the airport together for a while. Nicholas kept us all entertained. He got all of his energy out playing because he slept the entire flight home! It was so nice for us. All in all we had a GREAT trip!

Unlce Joe & Nicholas

Aunt Jena & Nicholas

Grandpa pushing Nick on the swing

Nicholas, Grandma, & Grandpa at the park

Grandma & Nicholas

Nicholas, Wyatt, & Julie

The boys

Nicholas being real cooperative

Awwwww

Nick with Grandpa & Grandma at the Dallas airport

Family picture at the Dallas airport

Nicholas after some of his Delta cookies