My Firstborn - 5 Already?

How did so much time go by already that my little Nate is 5? The mental and physical growth that Nathan has had in this past year have been amazing. He is so proud of all that he can do by himself now.

I had a really fun time planning out his birthday party, because with Legos, there are so many things you can do. I also found a keeper chocolate cake recipe, it had a nice rich chocolate flavor and wasn't too crumbly for decorating. I'm excited too for future cakes because I'm going to use some of my birthday money for frosting tips, so now I can make flowers, ribbons, grass and all sorts of other neat stuff! I surprisingly make a lot of cupcakes/cakes during the year that I frost, so I will be putting the decorating tools to good use.

It was a really nice day with the family over at our house for much of the day and there was archery lessons being given, good food (including a german chocolate cake for Matt!) and lots of neat presents for Nate. The next day we put together his new Lego house and Josh has been enjoying it and playing with it even more than Nate!

 

Continuation of our family photo session:

 

Family Portraits

I'll post the B&W ones tomorrow!

Twas a Dark and Stormy Day...

...at the beach! Seriously, I thought I had the wrong child next to me when Joshua said he wanted to go in the water. When it was raining, overcast and probably the water was no warmer than 65 degrees. This from the boy who on a hot summer day at the beach dipped one toe in the water and ran away saying "It too cold! It too cold". The only other people brave enough to be at the beach on this day were the surfers who were hoping to catch some of those 6' waves that were predicted. I didn't get any pictures of the boys once we changed them into shorts since I needed to help scoop them out the water when the surge came in higher than we expected (thanks to the lifeguards who warned us about the surges!).

 

Thanksgiving

We had a different Thanksgiving this year, with the meal being at our house this time, and it turned out really well! Mom S was able to cook the turkey at her house with just one hour left remaining to cook at my house and surprisingly, my small oven fit the turkey! And thankfully, the turkey was just as delicious as every year before. All the kids looked soooo adorable.  We enjoyed a nice neighborhood walk after the meal which gave us some room for some goooood desserts (of which we have no picture of the dessert table!). My only disappointment of the day was that we didn't get a group picture of all of us like we normally do each year. I love how we have enough food to have a second Thanksgiving meal the next day, which Jennifer hosted this year and Stacy got to join in on the good eats too! All pictures courtesy of Johnny!

Oh, and Joshua's favorite thing to say to everyone on Thanksgiving was "I fancy....I fancy". And he was adorably so!