Brothers

Look at two of the cutest boys ever!

Jared loves Nathan, and he especially likes to rub Nate's soft head. Jared is always close by when it's Nate's feeding time and ends up sitting right next to me to rub little Nathan's head the whole time.

Jared wanted to kiss Nathan today while he was sleeping. I told him to just give Nate one kiss so he wouldn't wake up. Jared came up to me a minute later and said, "Mom, I had to give Nate two kisses. He is just too cute to kiss one time!"

Jared claims Nate has "healing powers." Whenever Jared gets hurt he runs to Nathan and touches him so Nate can heal him.

We all seem to use the names Nathan and Nate interchangeably, but I've noticed that Jared almost always calls our little guy Nate. He is such a good big brother!

Little Nathan

Nathan is growing so fast. I wanted to post some of the sweet pictures when he was still so tiny. These two were when he was two weeks old. He still fit into a little newborn size sleeper.

Here's Nathan at 2 1/2 weeks.

Nate at 3 weeks. Notice he's already losing some of his cute dark hair at the top.

Christmas

We celebrated Christmas Eve with our traditional Shepherds Dinner with both the Hales and Staten family. As you can see, some "shepherds" don their garb for longer than others. It is always so fun to get together with other families. We did not eat anything very authentic this year, but it was fun to eat out of pie tins. Every year I remind the kids that I doubt the shepherds ever ate as fine a meal as we had.

Here are the kids on Christmas morning waiting to come down the stairs to open presents. The night before Brynn exclaimed that she didn't want Scott to take any video footage this year. When I asked her why she explained that it took way to long for him to get all set up and she didn't like waiting at the top of the stairs.

Christmas Friend

A couple of days after Nate was born Scott spent a couple of hours helping the older couple he home teaches put up their Christmas lights. He took the rest of the kids with him, and they came home with this little gnomish Santa friend. He was quite the addition to our home throughout the holidays. You can't help but want to grab his nose and cheeks...Ellie even tried to take a bite out of them. The kids wrestled Santa and used him as a punching bag. After we put up our Christmas tree they placed him on a stool next to it. This funny little Santa made me smile every time I saw him.

Alas, Santa has been given to charity. I told the kids we could take a picture to remember him by, but he was much to big to store. Thanks Santa for the fun times!

All I Want(ed) For Christmas

Is my two front teeth!

I meant to post this before Christmas. Cute Brynn with her two front teeth missing. She wanted to pull her tooth out at school (she's waited to pull two others until she was at school) but she was wiggling it at night in bed and she accidentally pulled it right out.

Merry Christmas!

Service

I am surrounded by such good, wonderful people. I have great friends who are always so willing to lend a helping hand and have gone out of their way to help me while I was pregnant and now that little Nathan is here.

Mom

My mom and dad and Caleb and Abby came to visit for Thanksgiving with the hopes that our little baby would arrive while they were here. I am grateful that Nathan acquiesced to our plans. My mom stayed an extra week to help us. She was an awesome help, and I just love having her company. I was amazed at how much she could get done in a day. She made us dinner every night and froze a couple meals too. She washed clothes, changed almost every one of Nathan's diapers and took care of his circumcision, shopped for the things I needed, helped me make a million JOY blocks I wanted to give as Christmas presents, serviced and fixed my sewing machine, dressed up Nathan's burp cloths with fabric and ribbon, read a few books, and even knitted a bunch of scarves for her young women for Christmas. I am grateful for her service to my family. I would be a mess without her, and I'm so glad she got to be with me when Nathan was born.

River of Lights
Another "empty-nester" family in our ward took my kids out for a night on the town on Friday. They gathered all but Nathan into their Suburban and first took them out to eat and then to see Albuquerque's River of Lights. When the kids got home they had cotton candy and a couple bags full of magnetic rocks as souvenirs. They had so much fun, and I guarantee if Scott and I had taken them they would not have received such special treatment. Scott and I reflected on this couple's readiness and willingness to serve in all sorts of capacities. We want to be just like them.

McDonalds
On Saturday another lady from our ward called to see if she could take the kids to McDonald's to get a Happy Meal and play on the play place. Aren't I lucky to have such wonderful people around me?

Explora
Another good friend took Jared and Ellie to the children's museum Explora on Monday. She has four kids of her own who are all in school, and used her precious "kid-free" hours to help me out by entertaining Jared and Ellie. They LOVED it! I am so grateful for her friendship and all the things she does for me and my family.

I am incredibly blessed and feel so loved! I am awed by the goodness in people, and am grateful for their example of service and love. I hope I can emulate those qualities as well.