Merry Christmas!

Santa was generous this year...especially to Nathan. Of course my camera phone decided to stop working just as we started opening presents so the photos are limited.

The theme this year from Santa was puzzles and art. Nathan has become amazing at doing jigsaw puzzles, so Santa brought a few 48 piece puzzles.
This is what Ryan did as we opened presents.

Wow - here's a box...not really quite sure what's in it.

Then, later in the day, Pap Pap, Nonni, and Uncle Bobby visited and brought their own array of presents. They had fun putting Nathan's hot wheel track together and Nathan loves playing with it.

Here is Nathan playing with his new bath toys.

Before Christmas, Nathan's school put on a little set of Christmas carols. This was during their rendition of Jingle Bells.

We wish everyone a very Happy New Year! See you in 2012!

Catching Up

Sorry its been so long since I posted. We have had a few busy weeks of visits from family and our annual Christmas party. I'll just post some pictures and explain them as we go.

Grammy came to visit and we made Christmas cookies. Nathan had the job of putting the cherry on top. They came out delicious.

Then the next weekend we had our annual Christmas party. I didn't get any pictures of the actual party, but here are the boys posing before people arrived.Nathan has been very interested in painting lately. Aunt Jan got him this painting coloring book and he has painted almost every page in it.Grammy came to visit again and I got a quick of her and Ryan in front of the tree. Here is just a few cute pictures of Ryan in his daily fun times.

Bath!
Jumper!

We Give Thanks!

We treked 10+ hours in the car for our first trip to South Carolina since Ryan was born.  We had the pleasure of also taking our nephew Michael in the car with us.  I don't think he'd consider it a pleasurable experience since he had to ride in the back with Calvin, but he did manage to enjoy a movie with Nathan during the ride.

Uncle Doug set up a tour of the Myrtle Beach Fire Station and Nathan absolutely loved it.  He even pointed out to Fireman Bill which truck was the hook and ladder truck. 

Then we went to Broadway on the Beach.  I spun the teacup so fast I made us both sick. 

 Then on Saturday, Nana and Papa treated us to a Christmas show.  The decorations were so nice that we took a few Christmas pictures in the lobby.

Lastly, a major milestone occured while we were in SC.  I'll let you see it for yourselves.

Boys Will Be Boys!

It only took 3 months!  My boys are starting to actually play together.  Nathan has taken a liking to doing baby things again so that he can spend time with Ryan.

Here is Ryan doing what he does best...relaxing.

 He just got done eating and he was a happy happy baby.

This penguin hat has gotten us SO many compliments.  Its no wonder, look how cute he is in it.

 Here is Nathan in his cool winter hat too.  He liked running through the leaves as we put them in piles.

An Early Thanksgiving

We traveled to Pittsburgh this weekend to celebrate an early Thanksgiving with Grammy and Charlie.  It was filled with delicious food and great company.  The first thing we did when we arrived in Pittsburgh was visit the zoo.  Nathan has been talking about seeing Tigers and Lions for weeks so we figured it was time to take him to the zoo.

Then on Saturday we met up with Charlie's kids and his grandsons.  His grandson Luke brought costumes for him and Nathan to dress up in.  They had so much fun running around together.

Their friend Erin also stopped by to hang with the boys.  Nathan talked about Erin and Luke the entire 4h15m (don't ask how we made it home that fast...I didn't drive) ride back to NJ.

Grammy had fun snuggling all weekend with Mr. Scrumptious and Mr. Yummy.

 Where's the baby?

It was a fun weekend and officially kicked off the holiday season for our family.

Boo!

We celebrated another fun Halloween at Nathan's daycare parade.  Our little chef was super cute and really rocked the outfit.  He told everyone his cooking specialty was chicken nuggets.  I tried explaining to him that chicken nuggets aren't very impressive, but apparently they are to a 2 year old.    

I love his class photo.  He has been friends with some of these kids since day 1 so its exciting to see how they are growing up. 

 Here is Nathan with his buddy Roland.  What a scary dinosaur!

After every house, Nathan asked if it was time to go home.  He got excited after about 4 houses and really got into saying "trick or treat" and then staring at the candy in his bucket. 

Ryan dressed as a cowboy.  He was channeling his inner Texan since he just met his Great Aunt Donna and Great Uncle Jim a few weeks earlier. 



A Typical Weekend

Here we are doing our usual weekend activities. Nathan is swimming and Ryan is relaxing.

Call 911! Nathan to the rescue!

This post is dedicated to the ladies of BI, especially my mom, Karen, Michelle, and anyone else subjected to the endless stories of my adorable children.

In addition to the 2 hats, notice that he is wearing his soccer shirt from practice last night. I wasn't fighting that battle to get it off of him. Enjoy!

My New Running Partner

The weather is gorgeous so I decided to lace up the running shoes and go for a little jog. I even pulled out his jogging hoodie for him to wear today. As you can see from the second picture, he isn't quite a fan of running just yet.

On a side note, Aunt Jen, Uncle Stephen and Logan came to visit last weekend. I didn't take any pics but you can check out their blog to see all that we did. It was great having them visit.

All in all, we are doing wonderful and are enjoying showing off Ryan to all our friends and family.

Test from my phone

This is a test

Fall has Arrived!

First, I should probably give a quick update on Ryan's health since we had a very minor issue to deal with these past few weeks.  He had been throwing up every so often since he was born and our pediatrician referred him to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.  He was given a full upper GI test today and the results came back all clear!  Yay!  So for now, they are only treating him for acid reflux and we hope that the vomiting gets better over time.

Here is our little man.  We call him Grumpy Grump since he never looks happy.  Its probably because the Steelers have had some bad beats this year so far.

 I adjust the flash settings on my camera too much.  I swear he isn't orange.

This is his official 1 month shot.  How adorable is he??

This weekend we went to Springdale Farms for pumpkin picking.  Pap Pap joined us.  It was a lot of fun even though Nathan refused to admit it by smiling in any of the pictures.

  Apple Cider donuts have become a tradition for us.

Sadly, our water heater broke last night so as I type this at 10:30pm, our neighbor is installing a new one for us.  At least I'll wake up to hot water tomorrow. :)

Adjusting to a Family of 4

Wow - 2 kids are definitely harder than 1. But it has been so worth it. Ryan is already fitting in well with the family. He "plays" with Nathan every day. Ryan has had some problems with throwing up that we are seeing a specialist for, but he has been put on an antacid that we hope will clear it up in the next week or so.

We just ended a week of having family in town. I was bad at taking pictures, but we want to thank Nana, Papa, Grammy, and Charlie for all their help during the last week.

Here are some new photos of our boys.

First bath - can't say he enjoyed it. Look at how well they play together. And look how messy the house is!