Talented Grandma

Nathan received this awesome quilt from Grandma Francis recently.  I just love it and think it is so special for him to have. 

 

I love all the sports teddy bears.

I also love that it is personalized just for him.  As a younger brother, Nathan gets a LOT of hand-me-downs so it is wonderful for him to have something of his own. 

 

Thanks Grandma Francis!  You are so talented! 



Introducing Hadley Anne Zick!

We are so excited to announce that our niece/cousin is here - Hadley Anne Zick!  She arrived September 24 at 11:29pm.  She weighed in at a tiny (at least compared to my boys) 7 lbs. 7ozs. and was 20 1/2 inches long. 

Warning:  There are a whole LOT of pictures! 

Nathan meets his new cousin for the first time!

Grandma and Grandpa brought Hadley a volleyball.  Tyler got a basketball when he was born.  Dad and Kyle agreed they would both rather watch girls volleyball than girls basketball.  Ha! 

It is pretty awesome to watch your "little" brother turn into a dad! :)

So sweet!  I am pretty sure that Hadley has her daddy wrapped around her finger. 

I couldn't get over how tiny she was, especially her head.  Her head circumference is only 13 cm.  Nathan's was 20 cm! 

So excited to have a little niece to spoil! 

GG and Hadley

Two sleeping babies.  They sure do have a whole lotta love!

Tyler gives Hadley kisses.  I think Hadley will be well protected in high school.

Great Grandpa Zick and Hadley.

The boys and their new girl.

Hadley is jammin' out already.  :-)  She was having her hearing test.  She passed with flying colors.  Aunt Tanya will be proud!

The happy family!

LOVE!

We love her! 

I think she has Kyle's eyes (although I didn't get to see them open) and Maggie's nose. 

Proud grandparents and their grandkids! 

Random note: My dad wore this same shirt when Tyler was born and my mom had the shirt she is wearing when Nathan was born.  I thought it was ironic that they kinda matched up for Hadley's arrival. 

Look at all that hair!  

 We feel blessed to live so close to Kyle and Maggie.  It will be so fun to watch our kids grow up together!

We are so excited you are here, Hadley Anne!

New Toys!

The morning after Tyler's birthday party, our house was pretty quiet.  Daddy and Nathan slept in which gave Tyler and I the perfect chance to hang out just the two of us and play with his new toys.  I am pretty sure I love new toys just as much, if sometimes not more, than Tyler does..

 

This toy, the GeoSafari, goes waaay back.  This was a toy that Kyle and I had when we were younger and I LOVED it then.  We had passed it on to Zach and then it was passed back to Tyler.  It was the first thing Tyler asked to play with Saturday morning.  Some of the cards are too advanced for him - the solar system and the muscle groups to name a few.  He did love the sounds.  The lights flash to a picture - example PIG and Tyler has to figure out what letter the picture starts with.  He did perfect!  We are working on addition and subtraction now.  I think we will try to learn the states and state capitals next!

We got Tyler a new puzzle.  He loves puzzles and this one had letters, occupations and was a cool shape with a bonus puzzle in the middle.  He needed a little assistance with the middle part but otherwise did a great job. 

Tyler and the finished product.  Yes, Tyler wanted to play with his new toys with no pants on.  I mean, really, who wants to wear pants on Saturday morning.  Ha!  It was too cute not to post.  Someday he is going to kill me for this whole blog thing...



6 Months!

This post is only a week behind...that means I am catching up! :)

 

Yes, our baby is already half a year old.  Crazy, right?

 

Nathan always has something in his mouth - his fingers, a toy, food - whatever is handy, no pun intended. ;)

The shadow in this photo makes his head look even bigger than it it.  Ha! 

Crazy hair!  And teeth!  As of today - his third tooth is in.  Now he has two on the bottom and one on the top!  At this rate, he is going to be able to have filet mignon by Christmas. 

He is very ticklish .   Daddy still gets the best laughs.  Nathan's belly laughs make everyone within earshot smile too!   As Tyler would say, "Nathan's so silly, mommy!"

So this has started and only lasted a day...

After one day on his knees, he figured out how to get on his feet. 

Yep, we are full fledge pulling ourselves up on EVERYTHING possible.  He is so happy standing.  I guess now that he is all over the place crawling he might as well figure out how to walk.  This little man is so strong! 

 

What else is Nathan doing?

• Eating like a champ - loves sweet potatoes, peas and cereal.  Carrots and pears are on the menu next.  He is still nursing and hadsn't yet ruined it with all his teeth.  I will admit it makes me nervous but so far, so good.   A weight update coming in a future post! 
• Sleeping is pretty good too.  We had a stretch when he was waking up a bit earlier than I would have preferred but I think it was teething related.  We have had to lower his bed with him pulling himself up.  He is almost always sitting up in his bed when I walk in his room. 
• Really starting to babble too - he will sometimes repeat sounds - ba ba, ma ma and dah dah.  Squealing is also in his reportore. 
• He does not like to sit still - crawling, sitting up, climbing, kicking.  I know he is just about out for the count when his movements stop for more than 30 seconds. 
• I cannot imagine how much more he will learn by next month.   I remember with Tyler I was so excited for him to learn the next thing.  With Nathan, I somehow want to slow him down.  Obviously, he is no of the same mindset. 
 

 

Best Babysitter Photos EVER!

One of the perks of having Mike and Jeanne babysit Nathan while we took Tyler to the Cardinal game a few weeks back was that we not only had two wonderful caregivers for Nathan but we also got some AWESOME photos from Jeanne! 

 

Sweet, happy boy! 

 

A good photo of his two bottom teeth that are in.  Now Nathan is working on the top two.

This is my favorite.   I get this cute smirk a lot.  He looks so grown up here too.  And look at all that hair!

I am going to title this one "Chins and Cheeks"

Those eyes can get just about anything. 

 

Thanks Jeanne - I am going to treasure these photos FOR-EV-ER!

 



Tyler's Birthday Party!

Tyler wanted a Curious George party so I logged on to Esty and ordered some cute decorations to help jazz up a 3-year old party.  I was thinking he would pick Toy Story or something I would be able to find at Target but no such luck.  I do love that Curious George was something that has lived on and maybe will still be popular when Tyler has kids.

 

 

No, I did not make this.  Thank you, Fudge Shope!  I know it is a bit much for a two-tiered cake for a 3-year old but it was fun.  My first born only turns 3 once! :) 

Cupcakes too! We needed options!

We have played "Wheel of Fortune" with the sign on the wall numerous times already.  Jeff actually asked me last night when I was going to take it down.  All I could answer with was..."not yet."  

I took the easy route and bought 7 pizzas from Papa Murphy's.  They must have been a hit because we only had 4 pieces left. 

Tyler is well loved and struggled with opening all the presents.  He often wanted to stop with presents and get down to the business of playing. 

I obviously was excited to get new books. 

A "big truck!"  The big truck holds lots of little Hot Wheels but I am positive they will never be put away in it unless I do it.

A big cement truck!  Tyler sure does love trucks!

This picture cracks me up.  Tyler focued on his book and Kyle working diligently in the background to get a car out of the box. 

After the present opening died down, we sang Happy Birthday, blew out the candles (my video camera operation was not stellar hence why I skipped right over that part of the party), ate cake and ice cream and then apparently Tyler was hungry as he went over to the food table and was snacking on some chips and salsa.  This kid LOVES chips and salsa! 

Shovel it in! 

 

From this 9-14-09 to...

 

...this big boy!  9-14-12

Happy 3rd Birthday Tyler Jeffrey!  We love you more than you will ever know! 

 



MIZ - SEC!

We were fortunate enough to have a beautiful fall day to take the boys to the first Mizzou SEC game in Columbia against Georgia.  The game was at 6pm so of course we arrived around 2:30 to tailgate and enjoy the festivities. 

 

They have a great Mizzou kid zone next to the alumni center.  Tyler loved it! 

I cannot wait to take a similar photo in 2028.  Tyler could be a freshman at Mizzou!?!

Daddy bought Tyler a little football so we could play a bit on Stankowski Field.

Tyler was getting tickle tackled.  :)

It was waaay past our usual nap time.  I had brought some books and I thought this was as good as it was going to get...Tyler laying down to read books. 

We found a spot in the shade across from the tailgate that was MUCH more quiet. 

Daddy and Nathan

Amazingly enough both my boys napped.  Hailey Wehmeyer was too excited to though. 

Nathan's first tailgate was a rough one.  Ha! 

In the game, Nathan was so excited.  He loved watching all the people and was such a good baby!

MIZZOU!

Grandma and Tyler were excited to cheer on the TIGERS!

 

While the Tigers were not victorious, we still had a great time.  I love that my boys are such good sports!  A big thanks to Grandma and Grandpa who helped with the boys too!