You Are Loved

Our Sweet Nathaniel,

You are so loved!! You have filled our life with such happiness, and forever you will be in our hearts with more love than there are stars in the sky.

With a million kisses,

Mommy & Daddy

The day you were born was the happiest day of our life...

...And the days leading up to your birthday were filled with wonder and excitement!

The whole family anticipated your arrival!

Your first jammies

Your first pillow

Your first baby gift

Your first Christmas stocking

Your first visitors

Meeting and greeting everybody!

Perfect little you

Watching you sleep

We fell in love with you from your first precious moment

All of our love to you always and forever,
Mommy & Daddy
xxxooo

I Love to Watch You Play

I love to watch you blowing dandelion puffs

I love to watch you helping daddy

I love to watch you digging in the dirt

I love to watch you cuddling with Grandma

I love to watch you eating cookie dough : ) 

I love to watch you painting pictures

I love to watch you kicking balls 

I love to watch you reading books

I love to watch you splashing in the water

I love to watch you being silly!  

All of our love to you always and forever,
Mommy & Daddy
xxxooo

Bath Time Fun!

We have lots of fun in the bathtub around here!  So, today we made these colorful bathtub paints by using whipped cream and food coloring mixed together.  I love how pretty they turned out, and they were edible, too!   I always like to have a fun activity planned to play in the bathtub with you.  Sometimes we play with washable crayons, other times with water beads (one of your favorites!) And once we even painted the bath tub with an entire tub of chocolate pudding!  (You loved that one, too!)

Here you are discovering your new paints!  You are getting ready to dig in!  I just LOVE your smile in this picture, like you are thinking, "WOW! FUN!" 

Every artist has to start somewhere!

A mini-Pablo Picasso in action!

The very best part of this activity is that you got to eat the paints!  We had so much fun that I can't wait to try our next bath time activity together! Maybe we will play with water balloons next time! 

All our love to you always & forever,

Mommy & Daddy

xxxooo

It's a Gotcha Day Party!!!

Happy 1st Gotcha Day Nathaniel!  

Here you are with your Gotcha Day pancakes!
We sang "Happy Gotcha Day" to you with candles!

All ready for a party!  

Your party favors turned out so cute!       

Waiting for your friends to arrive!

We GOTCHA! : )

Surprise balloons from Grandma Dibble and Pa Church!  

Ariana drawing a sign for the front yard

So cute!  She did such a great job!

Nathaniel adding some finishing touches : ) 

Blowing up balloons with daddy!

A beautiful poem on the cupcake table

It was a perfect day for a party!  

The neighbor boys and their trains!  

Handsome cousin Jacob. He loves you so much!

Ryan and Collin having lunch

Family and neighbors getting to know each other!

Colorful flowers looked so pretty!

Daisies and Vincas livened up the patio!

Erica, Ariana and Elijah

Mr. BBQ

Pretty ladies! Our neighbor, Denae and her Mother-in-Law from Ridgecrest

Chase and Colby's Daddy and Grandma

Eating lunch at the kid's table!

Little chase in a pool of balls

Future baseball player in action!

Baby Collin in his high-chair

So many colors and sounds!

Sean playing in the sand!

Colbie and Chase playing in the water!

Uncle John, Auntie Lora and Mommy eating lunch

Meijer lemon cupcakes...yum!!

Surrounded by your family and friends

Lovely Erica and Ariana

Baby Chase 

The beautiful Haugen family

How many jelly-beans are in the jar?  

Auntie Lora guessed the closest!

There were 2007 jellybeans in the jar!

Auntie Lora and Uncle John

Weeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

Whoa!  I feel dizzy!  

One more time!

My cousins are lots of fun!

Ariana wrote, "Whoever finds this balloon gets $10 dollars." : ) 

Ariana, Brian, Erica and Elijah.  A beautiful family!  

Opening your presents!

Surprise! Its Space Man Mater!  

I have been wanting this one for a long time!

Zooooom!

Uncle John is fun to play spaceman with!

Your cousins, Jason and Johnny

How nice of our neighbor, Nancy, to bring you this toy to play with

Ice cream!

Mommy in the garden

Relaxing from a long day of play!

Ariana swimming in balls!

Our family

Happy Gotcha Day, Buggy!

All of our love to you always and forever,
Mommy & Daddy
xxxooo