Friday, December 30, 2011

Nate's BIG BOY BED!!!!

Okay, so this post will contain more pictures of Nate than totally necessary, but being his Mom, I have a hard time choosing my favorites.

Monday night was Nate's last night in his crib. He was pretty crabby and confused at first as to why we were taking pictures and making a video of him after putting him to bed, but eventually he cracked a few smiles (but then cried again after we left his room for good for the night).






I asked him to pretend to go to sleep...what a good actor!


On Tuesday morning, Paul got right to work and started to take apart Nate's entire room to make room for all his new things. We bought a new bed, new dresser and two new bookshelves. We planned on switching everything out and removing his rocking chair from his bedroom. We definitely hoped Nate would not be too upset with the change, so we made sure to keep him a part of project throughout the day.



Once everything was complete and all the his new sheets and blankets were laundered and set up on his bed, we took a video of him as we showed him his new bedroom for the first time. Luckily, Nate was super excited and LOVED his new big-boy-bed!!!!

He needs a step stool to climb up. :)


Pretending to sleep again...


He cuddled up to the top of his bed right away. It will take a while before he realizes the pillow is just for his head. :)


Nate's new dresser...

His new bookshelves...

After getting jammies on, brushing teeth, getting a glass of water, and saying "ni-ni" to daddy and ET, Nate usually picks out a book and we read together in his rocking chair. We got to this part of his routine on Tuesday night, and he realized at this point that his rocking chair was missing. He was so mad he went over and kicked his Packers chair which is now in the rocking chair's old place. I did my best to explain that I would read to him in his bed now, but until I actually climbed up into his bed he did not completely understand. Once he did see me climb into his bed, he got the biggest smile on his face. I could see how cool he thought it was that mom was actually in his bed. It was a bittersweet moment for me. I knew right away that I would miss rocking him, but it was also sweet to be able to lay next to him for the first time.
The first night went very smooth and he never got out of bed once. Of course I went back in his room to take a picture of him after he fell asleep. He is really sleeping this time. :)



These picture were taken on Wednesday, but you can see that we had to buy an additional bed rail on Tuesday night. After letting Nate climb up on his bed for the first time we knew we would need a longer bed rail for the long side of the bed and additional bed rail for the end of the bed. Jay ran out to Babies R Us on Tuesday night so that we knew he would be safe for his first night. This turned out to be a good decision, because by Wednesday morning Nate was sleeping up against the bed rail at the foot of the bed. The little bugger moves around a lot at night. :)







So far Nate has done a great job in his bed for the past few days. On Thursday, Jay laid him down for his afternoon nap and he got out of bed two times before staying asleep, but really that has been the worst of it so far...can't complain if you ask me. :)

The Wild

On Monday we spent the day shopping for Nate's new bedroom furniture. Luckily we found what we were looking for at our first stop (HOM furniture); however, we needed to drive over the Coon Rapids warehouse to pick everything up. This was our only option unless we wanted to pay a $100 delivery fee and wait a week for it to arrive.

On Monday night we went to a Wild Hockey game with the boys. We all had a great time!



Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Christmas Day continued...

After coming home from Uncle Rick and Aunt Diane's we sat down and let the boys open their gifts from Jay and myself.

Not sure exactly why, but Nate chose this time to throw a temper tantrum. Apparently he did not want to take another picture.



We bought the boys the Playmobil brand Fire Station, Police Headquarters, and all the vehicles that went along with them. These toys require full assembly of the consumer. We are STILL not done assembling everything!

We had stuffed ourselves plenty the last few days, so I did not plan any special meal for the evening. We just ate leftover lasagna and relaxed as we ended the night watching another win for the Packers. :)


MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Christmas Day at Uncle Rick & Aunt Diane's!

This year Christmas was a little different for my extended family. My parents went to Colorado to spend time with Twyla and her family, and Becky and her family headed to Florida to celebrate Christmas with Mickey Mouse! :) The rest of the extended family also had plans of their own, and so my sweet Aunt Diane invited us to her home for a Christmas brunch! Unfortunately cousin Dave had to work, but the six of us spent a wonderful afternoon together (Rick, Diane, Mark and the four of us). It was such a treat! Diane really went all out for all of us, and our boys.

We ate egg bake, french toast bake, fresh fruit, lefse, and cardamom bread at her beautifully decorated table. She had an assortment of juices to choose from and sugared the rim of each fancy glass! :) I brought a tray of Christmas goodies, and we ate those as we sipped on our choice of Russian tea or hot cocoa! :)

She surprised us with gifts for each one of us. She also had a craft table set up for us to make a family of snowmen wrapped Hershey bars. We had such a wonderful time talking, and being creative with the boys!

We arrived at 11:30am and stayed until about 4:15pm. A lot longer than any of us expected, but we were having such a good time, the time completely flew by. THANK YOU Rick and Diane! We are truly blessed to have such a loving family!

It is so special how a small craft can bring on so many laughs and help make so many memories!



ET got pretty creative with his snowman. Nate had fun sticking a ton of buttons on his art, and then had just as much fun picking them all off. :)



ET took these next three pictures. He is getting pretty good with the camera!



ET requested Uncle Rick help him make muscle arms for his snowman. :)

My family of snowmen!

Cousin Mark made a replica of Uncle Rick! We all had a good laugh looking at the hair of this snowman! :) If anyone knows Rick, it looks just like him in his earlier days.


This is my favorite Christmas picture of the boys! I absolutely adore seeing ET place his arm around Nate! :)