Ai yai yai yai yai.

These last few days have been SO busy! Tonight is our first night in over a week that we don’t have anything planned and I am so very much looking forward to a relaxing dinner at home and maybe a walk before Nathan’s bedtime tonight. We’ve been so crazy and I have taken almost zero pictures this week which might be a new record in the life of my little Nater Tot. 😉

A few things that have happened – last week, I went to see a midwife I’ve never seen before about our continuing struggle to get pregnant. She’d also struggled for a long time with infertility and she had a lot of good advice for me. While we were there she drew blood to run tests and y’all know that is my FAVORITE thing in the whole world. Um, NOT. (This blog post is officially vintage. 😉 But I got the test results on Wednesday and apparently everything was normal except my vitamin D levels which were very low, which apparently can contribute to infertility. (Who knew??)

So, she told me to take a supplement and go sit in the sun every day as close to noon as possible for twenty minutes or until my skin turns pink.

It looks like I will get that tan this year after all. 😉 I’ve actually really been enjoying my forced relaxation in the sun time every day. Ha! I put Nathan down for his nap and then head out there for a few minutes before coming back inside to write or clean or try to attempt to accomplish one of the 173 things on my to do list.

All that to say, THANK YOU for your continued prayers!! 🙂 I have felt so much more at peace in the last few months – such a huge blessing. Thank you! And please know that I do continue to pray for you all who are in the waiting boat with me.

On to Friday Favorites. 🙂

1. Amish Friendship Bread

I’ve had the starter fermenting in my house for ten days and yesterday, we finally got to bake the bread! It was so delicious and the perfectly unhealthy way to start a day. 😉

2. Spring skirts

When I was about five, my mom couldn’t get me to wear anything except skirts. Then I went through a long, long phase where I hated to wear dresses and skirts. Apparently things like these come in full circle (um…no pun intended) because I’m now back to loving skirts. Particularly jersey skirts – so very comfy and easy to wear with T-shirts!

3. Nathan’s new favorite song

Can we tell we’ve had a bunch of birthday parties in the last month?? 🙂

4. Chef John’s Buttermilk Biscuits

Seriously delicious and very quick and easy. I made these the other night with dinner and I pretended that they were incredibly healthy for me to eat. 😉

Your turn! What are your favorites this week??

Jon was gone this last weekend hunting turkeys, so we had a weekend full of Mommy/Son time, punctuated with lots of friend and Mimi/Bop time. We went to get frozen yogurt, we ate out, we went on walks and played. We had lots fun but I have to admit, we were both very glad to see Daddy on Sunday afternoon. 😉

 And after a weekend of doing things like watching Mommy get her makeup on and hair fixed and then dressing up to go out to dinner, I think one little boy was very excited that Daddy was home and taking him to his softball game. Or “beeball” as it’s known quite loudly in our house.

“BEEBALL! WHOA, BEEBALL!”

A very long time ago when we first found out we were having a boy, we went to Cracker Barrel for lunch one day and Jon told me that he was starting to worry that maybe our son wouldn’t like sports or want to play them or want play catch with him.

I don’t think we have anything to worry about.

I think Nathan experienced a high point in his life last night. First, he got to stay up two hours past his bedtime, second he got to watch his daddy play baseball, and third he got to run through the dirt chasing a ball for TWO HOURS straight. He was so excited. He laughed and yelled and was so darn cute I just let him get who knows what kind of germs all over his happy little body. And today when Daddy got home there was even more fun awaiting:

Yep. We have a boy. I’ve never been more sure of it. 😉

Sometimes there are just defining moments in being a mom. The first time I held him. The first time I kissed his sweet little cheeks. The first time he called me “Mommy”. The first time he spontaneously said, “I wruv you, Mommy!”

This was one of those defining moments.

A few weeks ago, I got an email asking if I’d like to review a clothing item from Fresh Produce and after looking at some of their adorable clothes, of course I said yes! 😉

I got my new skirt in the mail this week! I put it on this morning to have Jon take a quick picture of me so y’all could see it (and totally forgot to put my wedding ring back on after putting on lotion! Ha! What can I say? It was early), but then I just ended up wearing it all day because it was so comfy. You have to love jersey skirts. Ignore the bright white glare that is my legs. We’re working on this. Self-tanner and I need to become friends again this year, it looks like.

I got the Jersey Tiered Skirt and I absolutely love the fit. It’s super comfortable and way easy to wear with just a T-shirt or dressed up more. I love it! 🙂

Here are a few other things they have that I thought looked fun – Simple Skirts, super cute Spring Clothes and if you are planning on a fantastic vacation this summer, they also have Cruise Wear. Have any of you ever been on a cruise?? I totally want to go someday. Maybe afterward my legs would be more the color of the model in the picture above, though honestly, they would probably be more red than anything. I don’t tan, I pink. 😉

Thanks again to Fresh Produce for the fabulous skirt! I hope you check them out!

We’ve had Pandora tuned to Toddler Radio this afternoon and I’m starting to wonder if my right eye is ever going to stop twitching. There are only SO MANY different ways to sing the ABCs.

We had a great weekend! Saturday, I went with Mom to one of the kid clothing sales they have in town that was reportedly huge, but I didn’t find too much, which was probably a good thing. Then, we spent the rest of the day hanging out with Gammy and Pops.

Or Mimi and Bop. Whatever.

We put Nathan down on Saturday night and went in to check on him before we went to bed and found this:

 I love the paci in each hand and the mouth. 😉

Sunday after church, we headed over to Julia Marie’s 2nd birthday party. This is party month in the Lunch Bunch – we’ve got four parties in four weeks!

The birthday girl and Jamie and Justin.

The kids eating the most delicious cake pops EVER. Seriously. If by some horrible accident I choked on one of those cake pops and died I don’t think I would regret it. 😉

After the festivities, we put Nathan down at Gammy and Pops’ house and Jon and I hit the road for a fabulous date day. It was SO NICE. I’ve been looking forward to this for weeks!! We went to go see the Hunger Games movie and ate out at California Pizza Kitchen.

I know you are all shocked about our restaurant of choice. I have dreams about their pizza and iced tea. 😉 And we really liked the movie!! I’m excited for the chance to read the next two books. Did any of you see it?

Today was a very low-key day. We took a walk, we went to the grocery store, we played with Nathan’s new favorite toys, his matchbox cars. It was such a beautiful day, so we ate our dinner outside on the patio. So relaxing!

 Nathan thought it was about the coolest thing ever. And then he got to eat a popscicle, which made it even that much more cooler. Especially when he realized that there was a stick inside the popscicle. 😉

Nathan tripped and skinned up his knee while he was playing after dinner though. 🙁 Apparently, he has gotten old enough that he can fix them himself now. 🙁

He is so funny. He’s been very into running over to me, throwing his arms around me and saying, “I wruv you, Mommy! I wruv you!”

It is quite possibly my most favorite thing ever.

I tried to get his little voice on video saying it. Forgive my son’s nap head and my messy counter tops. Only so much gets done during nap time when I’m trying to write, but I promise, they were clean by the end of the day. 😉

I do not think I can love him more.

I cannot believe I just typed those words.

Nathan is
so big and so fun! I haven’t done a monthly post in a little while, so I
thought I’d write a few things down today just so I’ll remember. 😉

He is very into jumping lately. He jumps ALL the time.
Off curbs, off sidewalks, anytime there seems to be a change in the
flooring, he has to jump over it. He’s also started half-squatting,
half-walking when I’m holding his hand and we’re trying to walk through
places. He is so weird. 😉

He loves to run. Anytime he starts running, he starts yelling “Hurwy! Hurwy!”(Hurry). Ha! 😉

He talks constantly. From the moment he wakes up until
the moment I put him in bed. About everything and anything! He’s very
consistent in putting two to three (sometimes even four!) words together
now. Some of his favorites:

“Hi Dodo!!” (Hi Kody)
“Dat Mommy and Dat Daddy” (That’s Mommy’s and that’s Daddy’s. He’s become very aware of possessions.)
“I wruve oo!” (My favorite of them all.)
He’s
very excited by “caws” (cars), “Twus” (trucks) and “bites” (bikes or
motorcycles). We have to search for them anytime we go out.
“Pay beeball?” (play baseball)

 

For
whatever reason, he’s recently decided to start calling my parents
“Mimi” and “Bop”. I’m hoping he’ll move back to Gammy and Pops. 😉 He’s
also started realizing that people go together, so he’ll say “Mommy ee
Daddy. Mimi ee Bop. Nonnie ee Pop O.”

He loves, loves to talk on the phone! Anytime he hears a phone
ring, he starts yelling, “Hewwo?!” It makes for some interesting moments
in stores. If it’s my phone ringing, he starts shouting, “Daddy?!
Mimi?!”

His favorite response to anything is “Yeah.” “Did you have a good time, Nathan?” “Yeah, yeah.” 😉

His other favorite thing is to yell, “WHOA!” anytime something even remotely exciting happens.

“I
need more” or “I want more” has become his life motto lately. I’ve been
trying to buy more fruits since they are all in season and he’ll hold
his plate up at dinner and announce “I NEED MORE!”

His memory amazes and scares me. He remembers things from months
ago. He’ll spout into this long string of words and I’ll catch a few of
them and realize he’s talking about something that happened several
weeks ago. I need to start watching what I say to him, I think! Ha! 😉

He’s still in love with the “howse” movie (Tangled).
Really, he’s in love with horses period. We’re trying to find a time and
place to go show him real horses. 😉

He is
head-over-heels in love with babies. He adores them. Anytime we get to
see Bennett, he flips out with happiness. If we pass a baby in a store,
he talks about them for the rest of the trip.

He loves to
sing. He can do most of the motions to “Jesus Loves Me”, “Itsy Bitsy
Spider” and “If You’re Happy and You Know It”. He loves Ring Around the
Rosy.

He’s started recognizing streets that we pass. Whenever
we turn onto my parents’ street, he starts saying, “Mimi! Tayce! Bop!”
And when I tell him we’re going to the zoo, he immediately says,
“Eewee?” (Hayley) “JuJu?” (Julia).

He still hates the
church nursery. He’ll begin the tearing up process as soon as we walk in
the door. I have no idea what to do to get him to be comfortable in
there. I’ve tried snacks, cookies, milk. He even gets his “baba” (paci)
in there when he’s usually only allowed to have it in bed and he’s still
not happy.

He loves hats. He will put anything on his head and wear it like a hat. He’s also become very fond of his sunglasses.

He
laughs all the time. Thankfully, his temper tantrums have gotten less
dramatic and less frequent (either that or I’m just more used to them.
Ha!). He has such a compassionate heart! If he thinks anyone his
hurting, he immediately tries to kiss them and then he wants a sympathy
band-aid. 😉

Nathan is the absolute joy of my life! I honestly cannot imagine a more fun, exhausting, adorable, sweet, crazy boy to love!! 🙂

Monday, at Lunch Bunch, some of the kids were sitting at the table, only Evie was in a high chair, and they were all talking and laughing and interacting like they knew what they were all talking about and I realized how big my baby is getting all over again.

Time just needs to slow down.

We had a fabulous Easter! Nathan was on such a sugar high yesterday he barely napped.

We had an Easter brunch at my parents’ house, so we did all of his Easter stuff there. I found the airport at a local used sale in town about a year ago and it was in great shape, so I’ve just been holding on to it until I felt like he would actually enjoy it.

He was pretty excited! After we finished eating, he got to play with his new toys for a little bit!

Next up was the Easter egg hunt. I was a little worried he wouldn’t get it or would lose interest after the first three eggs, but he LOVED it. He took it so seriously!

He kept finding one, putting it in his basket and saying, “I need more. I need more.”

After his nap, we all got ready to go to our church’s evening service. It was a little weird going at night instead of in the morning! We had to take a couple of family pictures first and AMAZINGLY, we got one where we are all looking at the camera and smiling. It was an Easter miracle!!

Our church does Easter right! We had a family style service, so all the kids stayed in the service with us. Nathan did okay, but every so often, he felt the need to either repeat what our pastor said, suddenly start shouting, “YAY!” or lean over and point, “Der Bops!” (or “There’s Pops!” translated. 😉 During the last song, they released probably fifty huge balloons and the crowd bounced them around. Nathan was in HEAVEN.

Afterward, there were a few bounce houses set up for the kids. I’m pretty sure Nathan could have stayed in there forever.

Ha! 🙂 His faces just crack me up! He was not happy at all when we told him it was time to leave. 😉

My absolute favorite, favorite, favorite part of the day though was when I was putting him in bed last night. I sang to him and then told him I love him like I do every night and he popped his paci out and said, “I wruve oo.” He’s told me “I love you” when he’s been prompted before, but never spontaneously until last night. Completely melted my heart! 
 

We have had temperatures in the 70s and 80s for several weeks now and we packed away all of our winter clothes about three weeks ago, so you can imagine our surprise when we woke up yesterday to this:

So, we canceled our big, exciting plans to go to Walmart and stayed home, cleaned, worked on taxes (well, better late than never!! I put them off as long as I can) and watched the “houwse” movie.

Nathan was horribly saddened at the turn of events, as you can tell.

We ended up getting about three inches all together, but by late afternoon it had all melted. And today it was in the mid-70s again.

I do not understand spring here at all.

So, this morning, we got up, got dressed and headed to the zoo. Today is Hayley’s official first birthday, so we had to join her for the celebration. Julia and Bennett came too.

Nathan was pretty much in heaven. 🙂 I’m so thankful we are well again and ready to go play! 🙂

I saw this verse in my Bible study yesterday and thought it was perfectly fitting for right now: