Christmas Photos

Here are some of the photos we took for Christmas this year. We have had our tree up since early November and are really enjoying it. Ian usually does not bother it since it is in the front living room.

You can see four of Ian's teeth in this picture. Now he has seven!! Luckily he has stopped biting me while he eats...not to say he has stopped biting us at other times. We've decided that his mouth must be his main sense because he is always putting everything in there. He even licks the couch as he stands up most of the time!

Thanksgiving Weekend

We hosted Thanksgiving at our new house this year. We had Nate's parents, his sister's family and his brother's family for a total of 17. I had fun decorating the tables and making place settings for everyone.

We used our vinyl machine to cut out everyone's name. I thought they turned out very nice, and the kids were excited for the candy inside!

Nate and his dad intently looking through all of the Black Friday ads. I think Nate's dad spent more time than the rest of us combined! Nate and I went out early on Friday after 2 1/2 hours of sleep (thanks Ian!) while Nate's mom watched Ian.

The cousins playing in our back yard. It was a pretty nice day and we didn't have any snow to worry about yet.

Me cutting up my first turkey. I soaked the turkey in a brine in a big bucket in the fridge overnight so that it would be nice and moist. It wasn't quite as moist as I had hoped, but it was a lot better than some of the turkeys I have had in the past. It also had a good flavor.

Everyone playing Rock Band.

We had a great time having everyone over for the holiday. It helped remind us of all the things we are grateful for.

Family

We are hosting it at our house this year and have 14 people coming over. Wish us luck!! I just love the holidays when you can get together with your family and eat good food. It's a win, win situation! Speaking of family, last night I had a dream about Nate. He was sick with something and he ended up dying. I was so distraught and sad. I woke up all sweaty and my heart was racing and I had tears in my eyes. It just reminded how short life can be and how much Nathan, Ian and the rest of my family and friends mean to me. I love you all!

High Five!

Nate recently taught Ian how to give a high five and clap his hands together. The other day at church, Nate was holding Ian and someone came up to them and held out their hand, Ian then slapped their hand like giving them a high five.

Giveaways

My sister-in-law over at Making Life Sweet is having a week full of giveaways. Her button is on my side bar so go over and check it out. She is giving away $25 in Scentsy that ends today. The coupon binder giveaway ends tomorrow, you can also win $30 to Custom Crochet or $300 worth of coupons.

My Workin' Man

Last night, Nate wanted to get into the crawl space to have a look around since he hadn't been down there since moving in. I was playing with Ian and glanced over and saw Nate wearing his garb. I wanted to get a picture cause it's not everyday that he wears clothes like this. (Although this is not the first time Nate has been in a crawl space...he used to do it quite often for his Dish installation job). He wouldn't pose for me, but I got a few candid shots. After He was done, I asked him how things looked. He said they looked pretty good, but then he saw a big spider and didn't want to be down there anymore. So funny! At least he's willing to do stuff like that. I'm sure he'll get a lot more experience as the years go on at doing not-so-pleasant jobs!

Here are a few of the things we have been doing around the house lately. These are the curtains in the Office and below are the curtains in Ian's room. I would like to paint a blue accent wall down the road in his room to go along with the curtains.

Here is the table that I recently got for the entryway. It's not a very big space, so we were keeping our eyes peeled wherever we went and I ran on to this at a local home decor store. We especially wanted to get the table to display our Willow Tree Nativity that Nate bought for me over the past couple of years. It is so beautiful, we didn't want to wait until after Thanksgiving to get it up, even though Christmas isn't for a little while.

Playtime With Elmo

Here is a video of Nate and Ian playing with Elmo. Ian is such a happy little guy.

A New Friend

We had some new friend's from our ward come over for dinner the other night. They also just have one baby boy and he is one month older than Ian. When Ian had played with Finley earlier that day, Ian kept crying whenever Fin would look or growl at Ian. This also happened a couple of weeks earlier when we went over to their house. Luckily, Ian must have adapted to Fin because they had a lot of fun together this time.

Fin is giving Ian one of his open mouthed kisses on the cheek. So sweet!

Halloween Fun

Halloween night...Ian dressed up as a scarecrow and being held by his cousin, Kylie, as Dorothy.

Daddy and Ian out trick-or-treating.

My carved pumpkin...not really that impressive.

Nate's pumpkin.

Fall Crafts

I have been having fun making crafts for our home to celebrate the fall season. Here is a wreath I recently made. So easy and so much cheaper than buying something similar at the store. Plus I get to say I made it!These are our pumpkins from our garden back in Sugar City. I think we did pretty good!

This is a pumpkin made out of grapevine. Actually more difficult to do that I anticipated...but wasn't it worth it? I think so!

And some 3-D letter blocks spelling out AUTUMN. I love doing crafts!!

House Projects

We finished painting the family room accent wall. We decided on a chocolate brown color and we really like it! Nate was excited to get the TV mounted on the wall. We are going to paint a couple of other walls and then this room will be perfect. And someday we will actually have couches that match the rest of the room...all in good time!

Our next project is the front Living Room. We purchased a new couch set (we are still waiting on the chair and ottoman to arrive). They are microfiber and chocolate brown in color.


Above the couch are Nate's Constitution pictures. There are so many of them that it was hard to find a good space for them. This is their home for now. I think they look pretty good.

This wall is painted as the accent wall right now. (Sorry, it's a really dark picture). It is a mossy green color. We don't mind the color, but there are some inconsistencies in the paint, so we are going to paint it anyway. We are thinking of doing a deep orange/ginger color, but we will see. I think that along with the brown couches and hardwood flooring would make this room very warm and inviting. We also need a window treatment for this room, but having a little difficulty because the window is too long for the standard 84" drapes and the 95" drapes would be quite long.

I am really having a lot of fun changing a few things here and there and adding our own style (which we are still discovering!).

Daddy

The other night at dinner, I noticed Ian watching Nate very contently. He just stared and stared at Nate. It was so cute!

Photo Ops

Here are a few pictures of Ian playing in the family room. He really likes to play around on the banana chair and it is the perfect height for him to pull himself to a standing position. This is actually the first time that he stood up by himself. It's a good thing he short, too, because he sure takes a lot of spills!

Ian is watching the fish swim around at a friend's house.

Roses

We are lucky enough to have rose bushes on our property, three actually. The other day I was trimming some branches and decided to make a little flower arrangement. They looked great and smelled even better. Nate was excited because he won't have to buy flowers for our anniversary anymore (I kindly reminded him that there would be no roses on the bushes in January!!). Now I just have to figure out to trim the things...they are huge out of control!

Crawlin' Machine

Ian has really picked up this crawling thing. He crawls everywhere. I used to be able to leave him for a few minutes to play with his toys in the family room, but now he has mastered the stairs and there is no containing him anymore.




Isn't he so cute? His triumphant smile...he has daddy's grin.

Grandma & Grandpa Southwick's Homecoming

We went back to Sugar City this weekend to see Nate's parents. They got back from their mission in Oklahoma last week and were reporting on their mission in sacrament meeting. We had a good time and it was fun to see them and for them to meet Ian. Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

Ian in the bouncer. Nate and his siblings used to use this, so it's tried and true. Ian didn't quite get the hang of it, but he had a good time standing up and moving around.

Ian doing his morning stretches.

Reading the newspaper with Grandma.

Grandma scooting Ian backwards on his back. He would laugh and laugh. He loved it!

Wrestling with Grandpa on the floor.

Comin' to get momma...

He's attacking!!

Ian's new toy!! The busy ball popper. It is the first toy that we have bought for him. You can see that he enjoys watching it work.