Outdoor Living

As if our trailer park pool wasn't enough, we've started eating dinner outside... in the back of Steve's truck in the driveway. Nathan came up with the idea of driveway tailgating, and who am I to argue? Clean up is a breeze. I just hose down the booster seat and truck, then I hose down my kids. Seriously.
Straws are the new "in" thing.

Peas and carrots in the back of a pick-up truck. Does life get any better than this right here?

This video is the next best thing if you can't be at our driveway tailgating parties.

Then we follow dinner with bouncing on the trampoline. So far, so good.
The trampoline doubles as a giant playpen.

Outdoor Living

As if our trailer park pool wasn't enough, we've started eating dinner outside... in the back of Steve's truck in the driveway. Nathan came up with the idea of driveway tailgating, and who am I to argue? Clean up is a breeze. I just hose down the booster seat and truck, then I hose down my kids. Seriously.
Straws are the new "in" thing.

Peas and carrots in the back of a pick-up truck. Does life get any better than this right here?

This video is the next best thing if you can't be at our driveway tailgating parties.

Then we follow dinner with bouncing on the trampoline. So far, so good.
The trampoline doubles as a giant playpen.

Halloween & Haunting Hank

Nathan and I looked at Halloween costumes together online and he saw a Sulley costume (Monsters, Inc.) that he thought he needed. He hates wearing costumes, but he agreed to wear a Sulley costume. After he tried it on and pranced around in front of the mirror for a little bit, he was ready to take it off. As soon as he got it off he said, "Now I want a Mike Wazowski costume too." That's another monster from the movie. He thinks he can just wish for things and they'll show up on his doorstep. And why wouldn't he think that. As far as he's concerned, that's how the Sulley costume appeared.
Here's a totally different topic. I'm not real sure where this came from, but today Nathan informed me that Hank is ready to come home from the vet. He said, "Hank doesn't like missing me. He's ready to come home now. Next time he has a tummy-ache we don't have to take him to the vet, we can just let him outside to go poo-poo." It was so sweet. I didn't have the heart to tell him that Hank never liked him.

Halloween & Haunting Hank

Nathan and I looked at Halloween costumes together online and he saw a Sulley costume (Monsters, Inc.) that he thought he needed. He hates wearing costumes, but he agreed to wear a Sulley costume. After he tried it on and pranced around in front of the mirror for a little bit, he was ready to take it off. As soon as he got it off he said, "Now I want a Mike Wazowski costume too." That's another monster from the movie. He thinks he can just wish for things and they'll show up on his doorstep. And why wouldn't he think that. As far as he's concerned, that's how the Sulley costume appeared.
Here's a totally different topic. I'm not real sure where this came from, but today Nathan informed me that Hank is ready to come home from the vet. He said, "Hank doesn't like missing me. He's ready to come home now. Next time he has a tummy-ache we don't have to take him to the vet, we can just let him outside to go poo-poo." It was so sweet. I didn't have the heart to tell him that Hank never liked him.

Grilling and Chilling

We had a few friends over for a cookout on Saturday. We all had fun, but Kathryn especially loved it. She's our social butterfly, so of course she had fun crawling around and giving smiles to a whole bunch of new people. Smiling is her specialty.

If there is one thing Kathryn isn't deprived of it's kisses. It shows too. There was another baby here, so Kathryn kept giving him kisses. Apparently, kissing is her other specialty. At first I didn't really think she was actually giving him kisses, but then she did it on command. She probably kissed him 25 times. She liked the reaction she got from the crowd, so she kept doing it over and over.

By the end of the night, Nathan was helping Steve bar tend. Nathan practiced opening bottles of wine.
Then Nathan smelled the cork.

Did I mention we had a guest of honor? Paw-Paw came for a night to deliver some furniture that I bought while I was back home last weekend. He also spent the day babysitting for me while I got stuff ready for the cookout. He wears many hats.

Grilling and Chilling

We had a few friends over for a cookout on Saturday. We all had fun, but Kathryn especially loved it. She's our social butterfly, so of course she had fun crawling around and giving smiles to a whole bunch of new people. Smiling is her specialty.

If there is one thing Kathryn isn't deprived of it's kisses. It shows too. There was another baby here, so Kathryn kept giving him kisses. Apparently, kissing is her other specialty. At first I didn't really think she was actually giving him kisses, but then she did it on command. She probably kissed him 25 times. She liked the reaction she got from the crowd, so she kept doing it over and over.

By the end of the night, Nathan was helping Steve bar tend. Nathan practiced opening bottles of wine.
Then Nathan smelled the cork.

Did I mention we had a guest of honor? Paw-Paw came for a night to deliver some furniture that I bought while I was back home last weekend. He also spent the day babysitting for me while I got stuff ready for the cookout. He wears many hats.

Happy Grandparents Day

We had to drive a friend to pick up her car from Atlanta on Friday (they PCS'd here from Germany so their car just arrived in the States), so Nathan, Kathryn, and I turned it into a Paw-Paw and Lady's house vacation. It worked out nicely because they got to spend Grandparents Day with grandkids. I helped them celebrate Grandparents Day by letting them hang out with the kids nonstop all weekend. Come to think of it, that's how they spend every visit whether it's Grandparents Day or not.

It's a safe assumption that Paw-Paw is extremely tired after his weekend of playing with the kids.

I don't know why we even try to surprise Grandma. She didn't know we were in town, so I was going to give her a surprise visit. Everything was going well until Joe talked to her and told her we were going to visit her today. He immediately realized he shouldn't have told her that, so he told her to act surprised when we showed up. Then Joe called me to tell on himself. Sure enough, we walked in her room and she put on a show like she was surprised. I told her I was on to her act and she started laughing.
Nathan always walks right into Great Grandma Gerkens room, gives a quick hello, then kicks his shoes off and climbs on her bed and plays.

Meanwhile, Kathryn was entertaining Grandma with her smiles.

Their phone conversations went like this, "Hey, lets wear our hot pink and light pink outfits today."
More pictures to come later. I left my USB cable in Georgia, as well as my phone charger, make-up, and more. Nathan probably pulled that stuff out of my bags so that Paw-Paw has to drive it to our house. I wouldn't put it past him.

Happy Grandparents Day

We had to drive a friend to pick up her car from Atlanta on Friday (they PCS'd here from Germany so their car just arrived in the States), so Nathan, Kathryn, and I turned it into a Paw-Paw and Lady's house vacation. It worked out nicely because they got to spend Grandparents Day with grandkids. I helped them celebrate Grandparents Day by letting them hang out with the kids nonstop all weekend. Come to think of it, that's how they spend every visit whether it's Grandparents Day or not.

It's a safe assumption that Paw-Paw is extremely tired after his weekend of playing with the kids.

I don't know why we even try to surprise Grandma. She didn't know we were in town, so I was going to give her a surprise visit. Everything was going well until Joe talked to her and told her we were going to visit her today. He immediately realized he shouldn't have told her that, so he told her to act surprised when we showed up. Then Joe called me to tell on himself. Sure enough, we walked in her room and she put on a show like she was surprised. I told her I was on to her act and she started laughing.
Nathan always walks right into Great Grandma Gerkens room, gives a quick hello, then kicks his shoes off and climbs on her bed and plays.

Meanwhile, Kathryn was entertaining Grandma with her smiles.

Their phone conversations went like this, "Hey, lets wear our hot pink and light pink outfits today."
More pictures to come later. I left my USB cable in Georgia, as well as my phone charger, make-up, and more. Nathan probably pulled that stuff out of my bags so that Paw-Paw has to drive it to our house. I wouldn't put it past him.

Bonus Features

Everyone benefits from our trips to Georgia. Everyone gets to see everyone, I get to go shopping and all my blog readers get to see videos. I can't post videos from our computer.

We might need to add a line to our cell phone plan. Nathan is quite the talker now. I can't talk to Paw-Paw or Lady without him asking me to give him the phone. He's not satisfied with a quick "Hello, how are you?" either. He's going to cause Lady to lose her job if he continues to expect her to talk about states during work hours.

Kathryn found Mace's water bowl.

To this day, Nathan hates swinging. It works out nicely for Kathryn, though.

Nathan's movie of choice at the moment is Monsters, Inc. He loves the scene where Sully, Mike and Boo are hanging from the doors as they're moving along the tracks. (You would have to see the movie to know what I'm talking about.) This is his reinactment of that scene. Paw-Paw's leg is a door. Paw-Paw's leg is going to be sore.

Bonus Features

Everyone benefits from our trips to Georgia. Everyone gets to see everyone, I get to go shopping and all my blog readers get to see videos. I can't post videos from our computer.

We might need to add a line to our cell phone plan. Nathan is quite the talker now. I can't talk to Paw-Paw or Lady without him asking me to give him the phone. He's not satisfied with a quick "Hello, how are you?" either. He's going to cause Lady to lose her job if he continues to expect her to talk about states during work hours.

Kathryn found Mace's water bowl.

To this day, Nathan hates swinging. It works out nicely for Kathryn, though.

Nathan's movie of choice at the moment is Monsters, Inc. He loves the scene where Sully, Mike and Boo are hanging from the doors as they're moving along the tracks. (You would have to see the movie to know what I'm talking about.) This is his reinactment of that scene. Paw-Paw's leg is a door. Paw-Paw's leg is going to be sore.

Alabama Academics

This week was very exciting for us. Nathan started preschool on Tuesday and loved it. They have one way windows, which I took full advantage of. He put on a sad show for me while I was in the room, but as soon as I walked out of the room, he was on the floor playing.
Here he is on his first day of school. These pictures are funny because you can see the progression of nervousness. He's Mr. Funny Guy at home in the driveway.
It's becoming more real to him in the parking lot at school.
He's in the classroom with a really nervous look on his face. Luckily, everything turned out to be great and he didn't even cry. You could tell he wanted to, but he held it together like he said he would. He's such a big boy now!
When I picked him up he was building a tall tower with some peg-type blocks. He told me he didn't want to leave yet because he wasn't done playing. Shortly after he told me that, his teacher, Ms. Linda, told the class it was time to pick up toys. Nathan immediately jumped up from the table and told Ms. Linda, "Sorry Teacher. I have to go home now. My mommy is here and I have to go home." The other teacher, Ms. Katie, started cracking up at Nathan's "Sorry Teacher" comment. Can you tell he doesn't like the picking up part of playing? It's such a relief dropping him off at school when he actually enjoys it so much he doesn't want to come home.
Baby Sister is a big girl too. She started preschool this week and absolutely loves it. Here she is primping for her first day of school.

I sat her down in the middle of her classroom and she never looked back. She had a whole new room to explore and a bunch of new kids to play with. Who needs Mommy when you have all that?
I picked her up and her teachers, Nathan's teacher, and the preschool director told me she is absolutely the happiest baby ever and she smiled all day long. No surprise there. Did you expect anything other than smiles from her? Nathan's teacher said she went in Baby Sister's class for a minute and Kathryn was the only kid in the room not crying. I asked if she took a nap and Ms. Jenn responded with "No way. Not even close." Baby Sister was too busy playing to even think about sleep. She was home five minutes before she went down for a nap though. A three hour nap! Thursdays are going to be great!

As I was packing lunches, I realized how neglected Kathryn looks. Nathan has this personalized embroidered lunch bag while Kathryn carries her lunch in a Walmart bag with her name written in magic marker. I guess that's just part of being second child.

Before anyone gets upset about poor pitiful Kathryn, let me explain that I ordered her an embroidered lunch bag last week, but it didn't arrive in time for her first day of school. She'll be dining in style next week!

Alabama Academics

This week was very exciting for us. Nathan started preschool on Tuesday and loved it. They have one way windows, which I took full advantage of. He put on a sad show for me while I was in the room, but as soon as I walked out of the room, he was on the floor playing.
Here he is on his first day of school. These pictures are funny because you can see the progression of nervousness. He's Mr. Funny Guy at home in the driveway.
It's becoming more real to him in the parking lot at school.
He's in the classroom with a really nervous look on his face. Luckily, everything turned out to be great and he didn't even cry. You could tell he wanted to, but he held it together like he said he would. He's such a big boy now!
When I picked him up he was building a tall tower with some peg-type blocks. He told me he didn't want to leave yet because he wasn't done playing. Shortly after he told me that, his teacher, Ms. Linda, told the class it was time to pick up toys. Nathan immediately jumped up from the table and told Ms. Linda, "Sorry Teacher. I have to go home now. My mommy is here and I have to go home." The other teacher, Ms. Katie, started cracking up at Nathan's "Sorry Teacher" comment. Can you tell he doesn't like the picking up part of playing? It's such a relief dropping him off at school when he actually enjoys it so much he doesn't want to come home.
Baby Sister is a big girl too. She started preschool this week and absolutely loves it. Here she is primping for her first day of school.

I sat her down in the middle of her classroom and she never looked back. She had a whole new room to explore and a bunch of new kids to play with. Who needs Mommy when you have all that?
I picked her up and her teachers, Nathan's teacher, and the preschool director told me she is absolutely the happiest baby ever and she smiled all day long. No surprise there. Did you expect anything other than smiles from her? Nathan's teacher said she went in Baby Sister's class for a minute and Kathryn was the only kid in the room not crying. I asked if she took a nap and Ms. Jenn responded with "No way. Not even close." Baby Sister was too busy playing to even think about sleep. She was home five minutes before she went down for a nap though. A three hour nap! Thursdays are going to be great!

As I was packing lunches, I realized how neglected Kathryn looks. Nathan has this personalized embroidered lunch bag while Kathryn carries her lunch in a Walmart bag with her name written in magic marker. I guess that's just part of being second child.

Before anyone gets upset about poor pitiful Kathryn, let me explain that I ordered her an embroidered lunch bag last week, but it didn't arrive in time for her first day of school. She'll be dining in style next week!