Nathan at 6 weeks

Nathan turned 6 weeks old last week!  He weighed 11.5 pounds.  He's a sweet, mellow little baby.  We love him so much!!

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Welcome, Nathaniel Jay Holt!

We are SO happy to welcome Nathaniel Jay Holt (Nathan) to our family!  He is a little angel.  He was born Thursday, October 4th at 3:04 am, after an easy labor and delivery (my favorite so far).  He weighed 7 lbs. 10 oz., was 21 inches long, and has very light blond hair.  He is perfectly healthy and nursing well so far.

Tommy and Joey absolutely adore him and have made numerous comments about how cute he is.  Joey is very protective of him.  Samuel is very intrigued by him and likes to come and gently pet his head.

Here are some of my favorite pictures so far:

  

A Funny Threat

A few days ago I had to leave Target early...the boys were racing each other up and down the aisles, and I just couldn't take it anymore.  So we abandoned our whole cart and left.  Tommy, who thought leaving the store was pretty bad, calmly told me the following:

"Mommy, I'm going to tell the bishop."  Me: "Why?  What are you going to tell him?"  Tommy: "I'm going to tell him that you made us leave Target early, and then he won't give you a temple recommend."  

Where do they come up with these things!?  

I told him that the bishop is also a dad, and that I was sure he'd left Target early when his kids were wild too, but Tommy wasn't convinced.  So then I offered to dial the bishop's number and hand the phone to Tommy so that he could tell him, but he changed his mind.  :-)

Samuel discovered crayons...

Just a quick note that after several months of occasionally trying to interest Samuel in coloring, he finally "discovered" crayons today...on the kitchen floor!  I tried to interest him in a piece of paper, but his imagination was just too big for one little 8 1/2 x 11 space.  The kitchen floor, walls, and refrigerator interested him so much more!  Uh oh, I guess I'll have to hide all the crayons and writing utensils from now on!

Happy Summer Days

Today was momentous:  Tommy began first grade, his first experience with all-day school.  And Joey began preschool for the first time.  What an exciting day!  But it marks the end of our "Happy Summer Days."  We had a really great summer.  We made a half-hearted attempt at chore charts, a whole-hearted attempt at the library's summer reading program, and another whole-hearted attempt at going on some very fun excursions.  We filled our summer with great memories!  Although I didn't take many pictures, I still wanted to make a list so that we can look back and see what a fun summer we had.  I'll try to put these in somewhat chronological order...if I can remember everything.

• The Father-Son Campout, enjoyed as much by Christy as by the kids!  (the boys especially loved canoeing!)
• Tommy & Joey's joint birthday party with a race car theme
• A busy family vacation to Utah and Idaho to celebrate Papa & Nani (Tom & Bonnie)'s wedding anniversary.
• T-ball for Tommy (He absolutely loved it and made a lot of progress, and it was usually pretty fun to be at the ball field together as a family)
• Swimming--indoors several times, including lessons for Tommy and Joey, and outdoor twice with the Banninks
• Como Zoo (a long-time favorite)
• A visit from Grandpa (Jay), who helped us create a vegetable garden (Joey loved helping plant the seeds and both boys enthusiastically harvested vegetables throughout the summer)
• A visit from Paul (we had SUCH a blast learning Paul's swimming techniques at the YMCA, hearing his fun jazz trombone music, going to the MN Science Museum, and just generally enjoying his great company)
• Teddy Bear Park (another oldy-but-goody)
• A four-day visit from the Dan & Debra Butler family over the Fourth of July (including a really refreshing afternoon at the Lakes in Blaine where the kids enjoyed the sand and water, and a cheesy fireworks display in our front yard which was perfect for the kids)
• A Pioneer Day walk at Coon Rapids Dam with the boys' friend Seth--one of a few trips to the Dam this year
• The Jackson Street Roundhouse, a train museum where we got to ride on an old, very slow caboose
• Bike rides!  (Tommy learned to ride without training wheels and Grandpa gave us a new bike for Jon...Jon's rides included a 65-miler with friends Jason & Tiffany Moses)
• Another visit from Grandpa and Grandma (Julie) too, including an afternoon of go carts and bumper boats for the boys
• A healthy eating/healthy lifestyle kickoff for Jon and Christy (after a few motivational and practice runs earlier this year, we are now trying to follow the Mayo Clinic healthy lifestyle guide).  This eating change also led to Christy's new hobby--healthy, delicious cooking!
• The YW Campout for Christy--24 hours of fun and a nice break from parenting
• The YW Regional Conference for Christy--another nice 2-night break and a wonderfully fun experience exploring Duluth with friends Shelley and Amber
• An impromptu trip to the MN State Capitol and the farmers market with friends Caroline and kids
• Springbrook Nature Center (we always love nature walks when the boys get restless)
• A summer movie (A Sharks Tale) at the cheap theater (all three boys were amazingly good, probably thanks to popcorn and suckers) with friends Allison and kids
• Jon & Christy's TENTH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!  We celebrated in Duluth and had a marvelous time walking along the beach, hiking in the beautiful woods along the North Shore and eating at some amazing restaurants.  Thanks to Papa & Nani for providing a wonderful weekend for our boys here at home.  
• Bunker Beach Water Park (Tommy & Joey LOVED the wave pool.  We also enjoyed the lazy river, (though we had the frightening/funny experience of both Tommy & Joey having to be rescued at the end--one by a lifeguard, and the other by me...and I'm still not sure how I even managed to get out of my inner-tube with Samuel squarely propped on my pregnant belly!)
• A very-mini-family vacation to downtown Minneapolis, where we got ice cream, stayed in the Hilton Hotel, enjoyed the swimming pool, hiked around in the beautiful weather at Minnehaha Falls, and went to the top of the Foshay Tower to enjoy the downtown sights from the outdoor observation deck
• And of course, to celebrate the last day of summer, the MN State Fair!  The highlights were the foods (deep-fried spam curds, awesome corn dogs, cotton candy, deep-fried candy bars on a stick, deep-fried cheese curds, and mini donuts...YUM), the rides (a motorcycle carousel and the BIG ferris wheel for Joey and the big slide and bumper boats for Tommy), and the kid activities (the Little Hands Farm where the kids get to play the part of a farmer, the BMX bike show that engrosses the boys, and new this year, the Bubble Zone, which is like a huge bubble bath for the kids to play in!).  The low-light was losing Joey for about 20 minutes...we were very worried, but he was found and taken to a Fair Office, where we retrieved him with the help of the police.  

I'll probably think of more stuff, but we really did have a WONDERFUL summer as you can see from this list.  It helps that Christy has more "free time" now that she's no longer working part-time for an outside employer.  We have been so blessed and are so grateful for this season in our lives.

Summer Vacation

One of our summer highlights was celebrating Jon's parents' Fiftieth Wedding Anniversary in the Salt Lake City, Utah temple where they were married.  It was a beautiful day, and we had a wonderful time with our family there.  Surrounding that event, we were able to spend a few days in Utah and Idaho.  Here are some pictures!

 Samuel exploring Great Grandma Atwood's yard.  Sally & Debbie were there, and as usual, they made a very fun day for the boys.  

 Tommy and Joey ventured a little farther...here they're exploring the field outside Grandma's house.

 They loved the farm life!

 Samuel's first roasted marshmallow

 Uh oh...it's sticky!

 He tried to wipe his hand clean in the grass....

 Samuel and Sally

 Samuel loved this cat and tried to follow it all over.

 Of course, Tommy tried to climb on the turkey cages

 My great-grandfather Atwood's farm purchased in 1936 and still in the family.  Part of my heritage!

 Uncle Stevan and the horse that Tommy and I rode.  It was so pretty!

 Samuel happy to be on Temple Square 

Joey standing in front of the massive Salt Lake temple

Some of the fun things we did on our trip included staying with my grandma in Pingree, Idaho, then spending the rest of the trip at Julianne, Nathan, Evan, & Perry's house in Draper, a pool party with cousins, hanging out at Margie & Jason's new house where Tommy, Joey and Sam loved playing with Gabby & Sophia, picnicking at a Draper park with the whole family, eating at the Lion House after the temple sealing, enjoying a family program commemorating Tom & Bonnie's anniversary, and spending Tommy's birthday in Provo with Ellis & Paul, and watching our cute nieces Ashton and Sophia in their dance recital (and watching Joey and Sophia have a dance off in the aisle of the auditorium).  We had a great trip and miss everyone! 

Our Garden

May 29

June 18

July 7

July 7

Happy Birthday, Tommy!

Happy Birthday, Tommy!  Tommy's birthday was June 12th and it fell right in the middle of our busy family reunion.  But we still had a marvelous time celebrating Tommy's big day.  Jon and Tommy started out the day with a breakfast date (donuts, of course).  Then I took the three boys down to Provo to visit my brothers, Ellis and Paul, while Jon spent most of the day with his family at Seven Peaks Water Park.  (I didn't think that would go over well with a pregnant woman, an on-the-go-toddler, and two boys too short for water slides, which is why we split up.)  We did some of my favorite things in Provo, which happened to be a hit with Tommy as well:

We first went to the Bean Life Science Museum.  Tommy adored it, and would have been happy to stay there for several hours.  He was so intrigued by all of the different species and wanted to spend A LOT of time at each different "family" of animals.  Unfortunately, we had to cut it short because the other little boys got bored, so we went to our next favorite place...

Can you guess where this is?

The Pizza Factory!  Tommy LOVED his six-shaped cinnamon bread! I forgot to take a picture of the boys' dinosaur-shaped pizzas.

We all loved the twisty breadsticks. Yumm.

Next we headed to Bridal Veil Falls, where the boys had a blast climbing up, down, and all around the waterfall.  Thank you, Ellis and Paul, for supervising them!!!!  The water was freezing, but the boys didn't mind.  In fact, at one point Joey got out and said, "Oh, it's hot out here...I'd better get back in!"  That was right before he came to me soaking wet to tell me that his shirt had fallen in.

We finished off at a new Provo toy store.  The kids would have been in heaven...but we were all pretty exhausted by then.  It was going fine until Samuel, who had a massive lolly pop, began having a major tantrum, and I felt like the mother of Veruca Salt from Charlie & the Chocolate Factory.  That was our cue to leave. :)

We met up with Jon again at his sister's home and had a family birthday party, complete with a soccer ball cake from Costco.  The kids had a great time playing soccer with their cousins and jumping on the trampoline.  I think Tommy had a fun, tiring birthday!

Tommy is such a cool kid.  He just finished Kindergarten and had some big milestones: he learned to ride his bike without training wheels (which he LOVES to do), he began Little League (he LOVES t-ball!), he learned to read pretty well in Spanish and picked up lots of new Spanish vocabulary, and he is also beginning to read in English and is doing fantastic.  He's read about 22 children's books (in English) on his own so far (with mine or Jon's help).  He learned to "blob" (aka, put his whole head under water) in the swimming pool and is trying to be a little fish in the water!  Like Jon, he still adores geography and nonfiction and has a great memory.  He's always learning about new states and countries.  His favorite book series at the Public Library is one with a book for each state.  His favorite book series at the school library was one with a book for many different species of animals.  He looks forward to Saturdays, when he gets to play his favorite video game Motor Storm for a little while.  He also loves playing Angry Birds on Jon's kindle.  He still really enjoys drawing--maps, people, houses, vehicles, angry birds, etc. :)  He has filled up a few notebooks with his sketches over the past year.  He's a really good and understanding brother, and he plays great with Joey and adores Samuel.  He usually even warns us when he's about to do something naughty (e.g., "Joey, I think I'm going to punch you..."), which gives us plenty of time to step in and prevent catastrophe.  He has lots of fun with his friends and has overcome a lot of the shyness he used to experience in group activities.  With his friends, he likes to pretend to be a spy or a good guy in Star Wars.  He also loves to be outside, and in the Spring we spent some time exploring the forest near our home.  Tommy is just a really great little boy, and having him makes us so excited to be an eternal family and even to have more kids who we know will also bring us so much happiness.  Happy Birthday, Tommy.  We love you!

Happy Birthday Joey!

Joey finally turned four yesterday!  (I say "finally" because he's been convinced he's five ever since his last birthday.)   He's just too big, too enthusiastic, too energetic, too brave to fit into a three-year-old mindset!  Anyway, we had a very fun day.  Sweet Joey spent the day saying "Happy Birthday" to everyone who said it to him.  We did some of his favorite things: We went swimming at the Andover YMCA, where he acted like a dolphin the entire time and would only respond with "squeek, squeek."  For lunch we met Jon at Chuckie Cheese's, where Joey's favorite attractions are the car races and the rides.  After naptime, we went to Teddy Bear Park.  And when we got home, we had cupcakes and a little family birthday celebration, followed by a dinner of biscuits and gravy.  Joey's favorite present was the scooter he got from Grandma and Grandpa.  In fact he woke up at 6:15 this morning and went out on the deck with Tommy to ride it!

Here are some things I love about Joey: He always imitates me, most notably when he tells me that if I don't do something, then he'll... (fill in the blank with some naughty thing like taking a walk around the block all by himself, as he told me today when I didn't want to get him anymore cereal at snacktime).  He also imitates me in household chores, and does a very good job of vacuuming, cleaning the table, cracking eggs, beating or stirring up batter, and picking up toys.  He loves to help me in the grocery store by putting things in the cart, and when we're at home, he's constantly going around our house gathering random things up and putting them in whatever bag or box he has handy as if he's shopping.  (My efforts to keep our toys organized are futile as you can imagine!)  He has unbounded creativity (aka "naughtiness"): he loves to climb over our fence, spray things with the hose, take his clothes off, walk on the patio table (which he calls his "school bus"), load up trucks full of our river rocks and sand, etc.  He is always pushing the limits and thinking of new ways to do things.  He picks out clothes and gets himself dressed, including wearing a baseball hat, almost every day.  He is a great brother...he plays nicely with Samuel most of the time, and it's amazing how much they interact.  He is also a great pal of Tommy and they spend hours playing together.  He is a very sweet son who loves his blankie, hugs, "clean, not wet kisses," and cuddling on the couch for a book or in his bed at bedtime.

We love Joey so much and feel so incredibly blessed to have him in our family.  Our family--our three sons and the one on the way--are the most precious blessing Heavenly Father has given to us.

The Book of Mormon Dress Code

Tommy & Joey as they jubilantly run in from the backyard without their shirts: "Mom!  We're Nephites!"
Me: "Boys, you have to keep your clothes on outside, so go put your shirts back on."
Tommy: "Okay, we'll be Jaredites.  Joey, if we were Lamanites, we'd only wear our underwear."
  :-)

Our One Big Snow Day

We had the best winter this year!  It was so mild, it didn't even seem like Minnesota.  Finally, near the end of the season (in late February or early March...now I can't remember) we had a great snow day.  Here are some cool pics:

Science Fair

Tommy was one of nine kindergartners to enter his school's science fair!  As you can see, his science project was about climates.  He made a map and a map key showing the earth's different climate regions.  He could even tell you what kind of plants and animals live in some of the different climates!  It was really fun working on this with Tommy...it took an entire long afternoon.  He also made a paper mache globe, but it wasn't quite done by the end of the day, and he was just too tired to finish it.  We were so proud of him!