Pictures. Lots of Pictures.

A few shots of our merry Christmas:

Nathan and PawPaw at the children's mass

"Texting" with Uncle Ben

Wow, Santa!

Hanging with Great Grandpa (Nate loved driving his wheelchair)
The cousins: Nico, Logan, Santiago, and Nathan

Cousin Logan

Red Letter Day

I'd like to take a moment to brag about my sweet husband. After many weeks of anxiously awaiting the results of his Professional Engineering exam, a torturous eight hour long test meant to measure the knowledge gained during an engineer's first four years of work (for civil engineers this covers an especially wide array of subject matter), the results are finally in. As I'm sure you can tell by the title of this post (and probably would guess anyhow because he is such a hard-working, smartie pants), Jason passed and is now a licensed engineer. This is an enormous accomplishment, and I am so incredibly proud of him! Hopefully he won't be too embarrassed that I'm sharing it with the world. :)

A message from Elmo (and Nathan)

(pssst...you should ask Jason what Elmo sounds like)

Oh, Christmas Tree

(singing)

My little guy started saying "Mama" on Saturday.

I am still on cloud nine (and I may not ever come down).

CONGRATS!

So, for those of you who know Charlie (Carrie's brother), you know that he is going through the biggest challenge a high schooler goes through (other than finding a homecoming or prom date), which is applying to college. He went on visits to TCU and A&M, and loved both campuses equally. Since he applied he has been on pins and needles, but this week he was accepted to A&M! He is totally pumped, I am really happy for him. Carrie and I both would have been excited either way, but I am a little partial to Aggieland. I am glad that another member of the family will bleed maroon, and now the Longhorns are matched, two to two.

The next challenge is convincing Carrie that season tickets are a GREAT idea, so everybody feel free to tell her that.

Great job Charlie! Carrie, Nate, and I could not be more proud of you.

Christmas thoughts

I cannot remember when I have been more excited about the Christmas season (and it is no secret that Christmas and all of its magic have long been the most anticipated part of my year). But this year is my sweet baby's first Christmas. I know he doesn't understand what the decorations, music, Advent candles, or gifts are for. I know that he will probably love playing with the wrapping paper and boxes more than the gifts we are so excited to give him. I know that he will wiggle through Christmas Eve mass like any other service (and probably even more so since it is extra long). But I just can't help but think that this wonderful time of the year is even more special because we have our precious son to share it with.

Check out Nate's reflection in the ornament...
Pretty much the funniest thing I've ever seen.

Clearly, I struck out with this one...

Dada

So lately Nate has been "talking" a lot more, not just making his pterodactyl noises (we are now referring to them as his Nateosourus Rex noises, thanks to his new t-shirt). He is sounding out repetitive "words," mostly "AYA" and "ADA," so when said repetitively "ADA" sounds like "DADA," which it pretty cool. He is manipulating his tongue and getting more control every day. In fact, yesterday he folded his tongue in the front (a new trick). When he is holding or looking at something he seems so curious, like he's really concentrating and thinking. I guess this means he is going to be curious like his dad, so we're in big trouble. I can't wait for the day I come home and Nate has taken apart one of toys in an attempt to "fix" it (I used to do that all the time. I was able to put it back together in working order a little more then 50% of the time. Hope he is a little better than me).

Last night Nate did another new thing: His high chair is on casters, and he crawled over to the chair from the living room and was trying to climb up the back side of the chair. I helped him keep from falling as he pulled up on the cross bar (it came up to his chest while standing). He leaned on the bar and started walking. He had converted the high chair into a walker, and we walked all over the kitchen. He loved it!

Nathan is learning things so quickly and always trying to advance his "skills." Cabinets and drawers trump any toy you put in front of him, and a new texture or object captivates him instantly. This has all happened so fast. Hard to believe that he used to just lay on me and sleep most of the day away.

Simplicity

Yesterday I found myself in a pinch to create something to capture Nathan's attention while I sat down to work for a few minutes (looming deadlines and curious baby boys can be a tough combination). I ended up pouring a few beans into his mini Nursery Water bottles to make shakers (he loves to shake, shake, shake). I watched him study his little instruments and then proceed to happily play with them. No lights. No music. No gears or wheels or batteries required. Simplicity is a beautiful thing.

Thanksgiving Pics

Sorry this one is blurry...It was too cute to pass up!


Clapping for the Aggies.
So much sweeter than whooping, in my opinion.


Future QB, Current QT
(Forgive me, I cannot help my corniness.)


Experiments in Sharing


More family fun

Cyber Monday

I thought I would post a quick picture-less update for all of you who are partaking in "Cyber-Monday" and stopped by the blog while Christmas shopping. We had a great time down in Houston with Tata and Toto this weekend. The entire downstairs of their house is tile and wood, so Nate was able to cruise all over the place. Also, because there are no dogs he was able to crawl and play everywhere, and I know he enjoyed the free reign he had over everything. Nate wore his 12th Man jersey Thursday, but it had no effect on the Aggies and their football team. He had to witness another slaughter, and at this point I think he is really questioning how I can be so loyal to such a frustrating and disappointing team. All I can say is that it is only temporary, and hopefully by the time he's old enough to care we'll have things turned around. At least he can root for the Horned Frogs because his mommy's alma mater is turning into quite the perennial powerhouse. And for all those haters out there that want to say that it is because they are in a weak conference, I would say that the fact that the big boys don't want to play them, and the ones that do won't play in Fort Worth speaks to what the football world thinks of them.

Enough about that. Logan came over on Friday to see Nathan, and they played football together. Logan could barely hold it together to kick the ball because he was cracking himself up. Pretty hilarious. They also played with some of Logan's toys. It was an interesting site to watch an eight-and-a-half month old and nine-and-a-half month old try to figure out the concept of sharing.

When we got back home we put up the Christmas tree, which Nate thought was really fun to touch. I hope once the decorations are on we can keep him a safe distance away. We have been successful keeping Gracie and the killer tail from doing any damage, so I am confident that we can keep Nate from pulling the tree down.

Check back later for pictures.