Easter is one of my all-time favorite holidays – mostly for the church service. I love, love, LOVE Easter services!

This was Nathan’s first Easter and our first Easter service at our church – we were going to Mars Hill ABQ a year ago, but didn’t make it to the service because we ended up sick.

So, it was SO fun to get to see it! Our church really did it up nicely – awesome songs, a great message and at the end, they released tons of huge balloons from the top of the balcony that everyone bounced up and down in the air. SUCH a party!! I love it! There is no better way to celebrate Jesus being alive! And Nathan was just AMAZED.

We tried to get family pictures which is always an adventure these days! Ha! I loved this one, but I think this one more captures who my son really is:

We went to Mom and Dad’s for yummy hot dogs and hamburgers and spent the rest of the day watching Nathan do his first Easter egg hunt, as in, he picked up the eggs scattered all over the family room. 🙂

He was very excited about it. We even put Puffs in a few of the eggs. Ha! 🙂

Auntie Cayce helped him find some on the coffee table. 🙂

Nathan got to ride the tractor with Pops. Doesn’t he look so big in these pictures? I cannot believe how big he’s getting!

He got his first goose egg yesterday (fitting, right?). He was pulling up and down on the coffee table, lost his grip and smacked right into the edge of it with his eyebrow. It swelled up into a little bump and cried and cried and I might have teared up too. 🙁 Some ice and snuggling with Mom seemed to fix it. 🙂

And he was more than fine a little later playing with Gammy…

Such a fun day! Today has been such a great day too – he took an awesome morning nap and then we went over to my friend Jamie’s house for Lunch Bunch. Nathan always plays himself silly every Monday and today was no different! Leigh Ann brought little Hayley Grace for the first time today and since Leigh Ann still can’t drive from her C-section, they got to come with us!

The kids afterwards – so cute!

What are your special Easter traditions??

There were SO many good deals out there today, that we had to go have a day of running errands. After being at home most of the last few days, it was fun to actually take the time to dress nicely (i.e. not sweatpants!), get out in the beautiful weather and have some mom/son time with Nathan. 🙂 Most of these deals I found by reading moneysavingmom.com – awesome, awesome site that always inspires me to be a better at budgeting!

First, we made a stop at Walmart where I had a few coupons for diapers and a free contact solution kit that they are giving out in the Vision Center today. I was getting low on solution but was procrastinating on buying more – guess procrastination DOES pay off? (Don’t tell my editors I said that! Ha!)

Then we had to swing by Starbucks and pick up their free coffee or tea. All you’ve got to do is bring your own mug. That was easy enough.

We went and did a few not so fun errands – the bank, the gas station – and then headed to the mall where Origins is giving away a free facial cleanser with this form and a bottle of a skincare product you want to swap for it. Yours can be empty or full, lotion or soap – it doesn’t matter. So I took a small lotion bottle I’d bought very cheap and hated. And an added bonus, we got to say hi to Nathan’s Auntie Cayce who works in the mall. Nathan was very happy about that visit. 🙂

I walked around Old Navy, but aside from trying a few summer hats on the Nater Tot (which he promptly removed), I didn’t see anything. I’ll probably go back there tomorrow because they are having men’s polo shirts on sale for $6 and you can’t beat that.

Also tomorrow, you can stop by Lowe’s for a free tree. Yup. Tree. I know, I know, flowers and plants come to my house to die, but maybe trees are in a different category as far as that goes? Anyway, I figure we can replace the tree that is um, dead in the backyard. (I really need to remember that plants need water.)

And let’s not forget the BIGGEST freebie of all – it’s Good Friday and Christ died so that you can have the FREE gift of eternal life with your Heavenly Dad! I love how the song puts it: “It was my sin that held Him there, until it was accomplished. His dying breath has brought me life, I know that it is finished. I will not boast in anything, no gifts, no power, no wisdom. But I will boast in Jesus Christ! His death and resurrection!”

Nathan crashed about five minutes after we got home which gives me a chance to have my quiet time, clean up my messy house and get ready for a date night tonight with Jon. My parents are watching him – we are so excited! Thanks Gammy and Pops!

Have you guys found any good deals lately?

Nathan’s first graham cracker! Based on the hyperventilating that happens whenever he sees the graham cracker box now, I’d say he’s a fan. 🙂

Last weekend, Jon’s parents came in town to visit. So fun! Nathan had a blast entertaining his Nonnie and Papa O.

And I do mean entertaining.

The boy thrives on attention and he got plenty of it this weekend. He laughed, he made his goofy faces, he threw a couple of fits (ha!) and he also figured out how to push his firetruck around and walk behind it.

He’s getting to be so big!

Nathan and I took Nonnie and Papa O to the airport on Monday morning and I think he was asleep before I even left the airport property. Someone was worn out from his fun weekend!

We went over to my friend Eryn’s house for a little bit yesterday and it was great seeing everyone from my mom’s group. We didn’t stay long though because Nathan was about to melt down and did, actually, the rest of the day. Poor guy! He didn’t sleep super well while Jon’s parents were in town – I think he was worried he was going to miss something!

I finally went on a short walk yesterday with him because we just HAD to get out of the house and have a change of scenery – it seemed to calm him down for a bit, but Nathan was definitely in bed a little early last night!

What did you guys do? 🙂

Nathan turned nine months old on the 13th.

Where does the time go???

He is so fun and so sweet. He LOVES to laugh and spends most of his day entertaining me and trying to get me to laugh. I just love him!

He has been cutting his two bottom teeth and this past week, they popped through the surface! I can’t believe my baby has teeth! He did SO good with the teething – other than being a bit more restless (particularly at night), he didn’t seem to have that bad of a time with it. Praise God!

He also started officially throwing fits this month. He’ll straighten his little arms out and just yell for a bit. It’s kind of funny – ha! I have to try really hard not to laugh as I tell him no. He is getting better with the “no” word though – maybe it’s starting to click what it means???

He’s started sitting on his knees a lot – I think it makes him feel taller. And he loves to pull up on EVERYTHING – our coffee table, his toys, the couches, my pant leg. You name it, he pulls up on it. He is a crawling machine and follows me around the whole house – so we keep all of the bedroom doors closed now and have a gate up on the kitchen doorway. It’s reminding me of the days when Kody was a puppy! Ha!

Nathan is just the BEST blessing we have ever gotten. I am just soaking up every second with my boy!

Nathan has been cutting his two bottom teeth the last few days and it’s been causing him to just not sleep very well at night. So between the teeth and his constant need to pull up (even in the middle of the night!), we haven’t been getting our normal amount of rest around here.

Last night was a better night. Thank you, Lord! I’ve been feeling very zombie-like. Nathan is just a moving machine so it’s hard to keep up when I feel so out of it!!

We’ve had a great week so far – Monday, our little mom’s playgroup came over to our house. Nathan had a great time playing with Joel, Julia P. and Eve, but we missed little Julia L. who was sick.

Boys being boys… They loved playing with Nathan’s walker!

Sweet little Eve. 🙂

Later that night, we took dinner over to Clint and Leigh Ann and Nathan was “officially” introduced to little Hayley Grace. She is just so precious. I got to smell her sweet baby head again and I told Jon that it is very dangerous for me to be sniffing baby heads.

Might make me want another one. 😉

Yesterday, we met my friend Meghan for lunch. I haven’t seen her in a LONG while and it was so good to catch up! I love how with some friends – even if you haven’t seen each other in forever – it doesn’t even take a second to pick right back up where you left off before. Her hour lunch break flew past while we chatted and Nathan flirted big time. We might have to watch that kid with the girls!

Today, Nathan had his 9 month check up. NINE. MONTHS.

I’ll put his nine month post up whenever I stop getting teary eyed today. I LOVE that he’s getting to be so fun and so interactive but I laid him in bed last night and realized how big he’s getting and how FAST it has gone by.

Sweet baby.

Today, we were supposed to be in Colorado Springs, but due to some sickness issues, we had to cancel.

So sad! Especially when we were really looking forward to seeing Jen, Greg, and Barb and watching this sweet little peanut make his funny face in person:

I hope we’re able to make it out there soon!!

So, instead, Nathan and I are hanging out at the house, unpacking suitcases and trying to figure out if I have enough food to make something for dinner or if we have to go out and brave Walmart.

I’m doubting that I have enough food. Unless we’re up for eating cans of refried beans and popsicles for dinner. Protein and fruit, right? I’m all for well-balanced meals.

I have to share with you guys one of my all-time favorite books. I pull it out to use during my quiet times at least once a year:

I Come Quietly to Meet You by Amy Carmichael and David Hazard. It’s a collection of Amy’s writings that David Hazard has arranged into 40 daily readings and guys – it is SO good. I’m a huge, huge fan of Amy Carmichael. If you don’t know her story, you need to look it up. She has an incredible testimony and she is a very gifted writer. You can just tell she’s head over heels in love with Christ and I love that!

GREAT news at our house! Jon passed his dossier and as of August, will be a Level Two teacher!! Yay!! 🙂 We are so proud of him!! I was laughing at this picture because this is a typical day when he gets home from school – we all just swarm him. 🙂

Yesterday was definitely a bad nap day for Nathan. It never fails that the days where we have to be somewhere at noon is when he ends up taking a two-and-a-half hour morning nap and makes us late and the days where we are just staying home and I’m hoping to get a lot of writing done or a lot of stuff done around the house, he ends up taking a thirty minute nap.

Oy.

(I think he looks like SUCH a little boy in this picture – it’s slowly killing me. Where is my baby???)

Before he learned to sit up and pull up, he would cry/whimper for a few minutes if he woke up during a nap and then go back to sleep. But now, he just sits or stands in his crib and cries until I go in there and lay him back down. Then, I think he sees me and decides it’s time to get up so he just cries and cries after I lay him back down. Or he pulls right back up, keeps crying/talking and waits for me to come back in.

So I don’t know whether I should make him stay in his crib and sob until his normal time for getting up or if I should just get him up. He started crying last night in the middle of the night and I walked in there and found him just sitting in his crib.

Of course, I was thankful as I walked back down the hall that he’d started crying because there was a GINORMOUS spider next to the nightlight in the hall so I immediately went running to Jon. If Nathan hadn’t woken up, I might have had to get the spider by myself today.

One of the biggest perks of being married is that I don’t have to kill spiders. Blegh. I usually just put a cup over them and wait for Jon to get home. I can barely look at one without feeling a hundred of them crawling on me or envisioning them crawling on Nathan. I guess you can figure out what I dreamed about the rest of the night.

So, I’m praying that today is a better nap day because Nater Tot’s mom might need a nap as well. 🙂

Yesterday was such a fun, busy day!!

Nathan has been getting into EVERYTHING lately. At first, things were safe if they were up on the coffee table or the couches, but no longer. He is pulling up about every seven seconds, it feels like. Here’s what he was doing when I went in his room to get him this morning:

So we’ve been doing an awful lot of clapping and saying “Yay!!” and a ton of tapping his little hand and saying, “No!” Ha! And I’ve now got the video camera sitting on the mantle so it’s in easy reach (for me, not for him!) at all times.

We started by going to my friend Melanie’s house. Her daughter Julia is about three months older than Nathan. My other friend Eryn came too with her daughter Eve. So, Nathan had to hold down the fort as the only man there! Ha! We had so much fun! We took a walk to a park and played on the swings and Nathan was so tired after all the playing that he fell asleep on the walk back to Melanie’s house.

Afterward, Nathan got to go play at Gammy and Pop’s house while Jon and I went to see this sweet girl:

Isn’t she beautiful?? Clint and Leigh Ann had little Hayley Grace early, early, early Monday morning! She is perfect and makes the sweetest sounds. She was only 5 ounces lighter than Nathan when he was born, but I could not believe how tiny and delicate she was. Particularly after I picked up my big boy that night. And I have to confess – I LOVE the smell of a newborn!! Hayley Grace is just gorgeous!

(This is a horrible picture – the light was awful and we took it with my phone. But I had to show us with the sweet, new family!!)

Leigh Ann is doing okay – she had to have an emergency c-section after 28 hours of labor. So please be praying for her recovery!! It’s amazing to me how seeing your little baby can wipe away any long, painful hours of labor and delivery though. 🙂 They are going to be the best parents – Clint is already completely taken with his little girl and Leigh Ann is just so in love. SO fun to see! We couldn’t stop smiling the whole rest of the night!

Jon and I didn’t end up getting back home with Nathan until after eight, which is when he’s supposed to be in bed. So Jon gave him a quick bath, I nursed him and put him in bed and then we had a very late, quiet dinner.

Which was very nice. 🙂 Sometimes it’s hard to remember what life was like just a few short months ago before our little Nater Tot arrived. It’s nice to have our occasional date nights – even if it’s eating spaghetti at home after Nathan goes to bed!

I’ve been working on a new story and it’s reminding me of the days before I met Jon. When I was in high school, a lot of people told me to write a list of qualities I wanted in a future husband. I’m not really sure what the purpose of this was except to maybe have some invisible, unattainable standard floating out there for Jon, but it did give me a lot of things to think about. I’m not sure that I actually USED the list when it came time to decide whether or not I was going to marry Jon, but I really think that there’s more to that decision than just checking things off like a grocery list.

Things like, I don’t know, spark. 🙂 And lots and lots and lots of prayer.

Anyway, I wrote a list in high school. I think I ended up with about 70. And NO – not all of them were qualities. Actually, some of them were fairly ridiculous (drinks coffee, doesn’t play golf, likes animals but not obsessed with them, etc). But most of them were important things – loves me, respects my family, and that we would have fun together.

Sadly, we don’t have any fun together. 🙂

Jon actually met most of the things on the list, though there were a few that he didn’t end up making. When I wrote the list I was very anti-country music, though it’s grown on me. Maybe since I ended up marrying a guy who pretty much only listens to country and KLOVE.

But the big stuff? Like solid Christian, loves kids, hard worker, good teeth and not a morning person?

Check, check, check, check and check.

He is not, however, clean shaven. And he does not like to read.

But I think I can deal with that. 🙂

It’s making me curious! What are your seemingly silly qualities/preferences you want/wanted in a husband?