Thanksgiving in Memphis

The Hammsters spent Thanksgiving in Memphis this year. We had hardly been in the door for 5 minutes and Nate had already made himself at home on his Elmo couch kept at his Tennessee Grandparents' (TG) house. He was extra excited about the new toybox that his TG had made for him. It was full of toys! Nate was so excited and kept showing us all the toys inside, over and over again. :)

It didn't take long for Nate to entice everyone into a friendly game of catch. And by friendly I mean you lightly toss the ball to Nate and then he pummels you with it. Nana and Grandpa D were a bit surprised by his aim and strength. :)

Seriously, could you say no to this?

He even got his Great Uncle Keith to join in on some soccer.

There were two turkey's at Nana and Papaw D's house this year. Only one of which we ate...

Nate and his awesome parents... :)


Nate and Papaw D coloring and sharing some giggles.

We also visited family in Mississippi. Nate and his Aunt Patsy fed Casey LOADS of dog food. Nate quickly became Casey's best friend. They even squabbled over dog toys later. :) Nate was so adorable at Aunt Patsy's house. We were telling him all his aunts and uncles and cousins names and we told him that one of Patsy's daughters was named Sherrie, and he looked over at her and called her, "More Patsy". :)

Nate's other best friend from the visit, his cousin Hayden. Nate followed him around everywhere, even stealing his hat. :) Hayden was so great helping and playing with Nate.

Nate got lots of love from his cousin Angie.
Nate sporting his full Memphis attire, showing his Tiger Pride. Go Memphis!

We really had such a great visit in Memphis for Thanksgiving. Nate's Nana made tons and tons of yummy food, way more than we could eat. Nate really got attached to his TG while we were there this visit. During our nightly routine of listing the people that we love, Nate makes sure to say Nana and Papaw D several times each night. I hope that we will be able to see them again soon. :)

Recreational Activities

Thought I'd share a bit of what Nate's been up to lately.

Nate cuteness: The other day Nate was playing near the ottoman and he bumped his head (don't worry, the ottoman is soft and squishy). He cried anyways and held his head. I asked if he needed a kiss. "Yes" he replied and came over to get his kiss on the head. He went back to playing and a few minutes later bumped his head again on the ottoman. He started to whine, put his hand on his head and looked at me. I asked if he needed another kiss. He looked over at me, looked down at his toys, back at me, then back at his toys...(clearly torn between getting kisses for his booboo and staying to play with his toys), he then proceeded to kiss his hand and smack the kiss on his own forehead and returned to his playing. Kinda like, "nah, I got this Mom." Haha. :)

Nate really likes to look at books. Especially this Wiggles book (let me just say that I can't STAND the Wiggles show and this book is about all I can tolerate).

I love the crossed leg... chilling out, reading a "good" book.

Some friends shared this cute craft idea with us to make for Thanksgiving. It required like 30 minutes of Mommy cutting things out of foam and like 5 minutes of Nate glueing. Though a bit tedious on my part, Nate absolutely LOVED making the turkey. His favorite part was the eyes. He still points to the turkey on the fridge and says, "Googley eyes". Which is well worth all that prep work on Mommy's part.

The finished product. We ended up making two turkey's, one for our fridge, and one to give to Nate's Nana and Papaw D (Mike's parents) for Thanksgiving.

We actually were able to spend Thanksgiving this year with Mike's family in Memphis. My next post will have pictures from our trip there. Gobble, gobble!

Happy Halloween!

I'm a bit behind, but wanted to post some pictures from Halloween.

At first Nate was a little timid going up to people's houses. He held my hand to and from each house. The houses with dogs are the ones that held most of his attention. After a recent visit to my BFF Lauren's house he has become extremely interested in dogs and calls them all 'Enry (henry).

After a few houses he got into the routine and did very well with saying Thank You and a few sporadic "trick or treats" thrown in for good measure. There was one thing he was adamant about... he wanted the people giving out the candy to hand it to him so he could put the candy in his own bucket. He also REALLY loved the houses that let him pick out his own candy, or should I say the houses that let him root around in their candy bucket for several awkward minutes until Mommy would step in and say, "Nate, just pick something please..."

Contrary to what the picture looks like I didn't let him walk into strangers houses... this is Nate trick or treating at my mom's house...:)

Nate and Grandma checking out all his loot...

"Here's some Skittles Mommy." I would say, awww how sweet, but he found out earlier that day that he didn't like Skittles, so he was merely unloading the junk.

Nate's cousin, Kaylee, who was Jessie from Toy Story. She kept her costume on for all of 3 seconds once she was at Grandma's house...


She then dressed Nate up in her costume, which he LOVED. Apparently Nate wanted to be a Cowboy for Halloween , he wore this costume the rest of the time we were there. He even took the hat home with him.

We all had a GREAT time and now almost a month later his candy is ALMOST gone. Though I am embarassed to admit how much of his candy was eaten by his parents.... and by his parents I mean me. Though I might have pawned some Skittles off on Mike... ;)

Not-Too-Scary Halloween fun at the Zoo

We went to the Halloween event at the Louisville Zoo a few weekends ago. Our fall activities will never end apparently. We have a Zoo membership so it was free to get in, a nice bonus for Mom and Dad. :) The event basically consists of lots of storybook characters posing for pictures, large sets and pictures everywhere to set up the "theme" of each area, hay bale maze, and kiosks set up all over where they give out candy. I think by the end Nate had a total of 10 pieces of candy and Daddy had a Barq's Rootbeer (they both seemed pleased with their "loot"). Nate was sooo cute at each candy kiosk. He wouldn't let the people put the candy in his bucket, he wanted them to hand it to him and then he would put it in. He was really good about saying thank you each time. Very adorable. Here are some pictures from our day (notice the hood of his giraffe costume NEVER made it on his head. He was adamant about that).

This is actually my favorite picture from the day:

We let Nate pick out one piece of candy to eat that night and he picked Sixlets (Do they even make this candy anymore?). He LOVED them! He kept saying, "More candy." I tried to explain to him to pace himself, that actual Halloween was coming and he'd get loads more candy then. Patience... not exactly a virtue of a 2 year old.

Fall Festival & Pumpkin Carving Party

Nate's daycare had a Fall Festival last Friday night. There was baked goods, raffles, duck ponds, games, pumpkin painting, pie in the face, and much more.

Within the first minute Nate ran over to the baked goods table and wanted us to buy him a cupcake. He loved the cupcake... well actually he LOVED the cupcake icing. As soon as he finished the icing, he said he was done and proceeded to drop the remainder of the cupcake in the middle of the floor! Apparently I'm raising a vagrant... who loves cupcakes.



Nate was very excited to play the Duck Pond 'game'. More appropriately, Nate was very excited to play in a giant bucket of water that happened to have ducks in it. After an EXTREMELY long turn I explained that you get a prize and Nate was very dismayed to learn that he couldn't have one of the ducks as a prize. Instead he got a stupid plastic whistle that didn't even work. Poor kid. We consoled him with another cupcake. :)



Painting pumpkins. Adorable. Nate was very focused on covering every inch of his pumpkin with paint. A budding artist?



Love at first Cheeto. Nate spent most of the night playing with his adorable friend Zoe. When we got Nate some cheetos he shared them with her. Infact at one point he was feeing them to her. Does this count as their first date?



On Saturday we went up to Walton, KY to go to a Pumpkin Carving party hosted by my best friend Lauren (fellow blogger http://destinationbabyville.blogspot.com/2008/10/tagged-again.html). Nate was very excited to be going because his cousin Kaylee was coming as well. Here they are just a short while after Kaylee got a nasty boo-boo on her nose from a run in with the bar counter overhang.



More cupcakes? Really? Seriously what do we feed this kid?



One probably would guess that pumpkin drawing would be the less messy activity at a pumpkin carving party... however, that person never gave 3 toddlers loads of markers....



Ahh, this is what a pumpkin carving party is all about! Kaylee abandoned her pumpkin and came over to help Nate. They actually did a really great job getting the "guts" out of our pumpkin.



A very Mickey Halloween. Out of the 8 pumpkins featured below, 5 of them were Mickey and friends. Not exactly a scary sight...

We stayed way past Nate's bedtime, so we changed him into jammies and then headed home. He was asleep within minutes and once home he went straight to bed. We all had a great time!

Hammsters Celebrate Fall!

This past weekend the Hammsters decided to take a trip to Huber's Orchard. The weather was perfect for the Fall outing, the sun was shining and yet chilly enough to wear jackets and hoodies. If we had gone even just the weekend before we'd have been wearing tshirts and shorts... not exactly fall attire.

One of the activities they had in the kids section was a "straw barn" where the kids could play in the straw... and in about 30 seconds the kids realized that straw isn't really all that fun. Luckily there was a ladder that led up to a 40 foot slide for kids and adults. Mike and Nate headed on up...

After about 5 minutes of coaxing Nate into going down the tunnel, and Mike trying to figure out how to get him and Nate to slide down together, Nate finally decided he wanted to try it all by himself. Here he is on his first slide down... and 2 minutes later I could have taken the picture and it would have looked very much like this. His descent down the slide was so slow it was comical. Like I'm sure I've seen a cartoon sketch similar to this. Eventually he made it out and then decided this was the greatest thing he'd ever done in his 2 years and must repeat as many times as possible...

And here's Mike coming out of the same tunnel, however with a much different outlook on the situation... it was most likely ranking up there with one of the most unpleasant rides down a slide he'd ever taken and was quite sure he wouldn't be repeating...

Part of the children's section had those inflatables that all children love, and parents hate because it's a pay per turn type scenario. Nate in the past has always been too nervous to do them by himself but this time there was only one other kid in the bounce house and so Nate attempted it on his own. I was so proud and amazed at how well he did and how much he LOVED it!

They had several animals in a pen that the kids could see and feed corn through the open fence. There was a sign though that said DO NOT FEED LUCY THE PIG. I spent some time looking to see if there was more than one pig, if poor Lucy was being singled out... and how in the world would I be able to tell Lucy from Ethel? Luckily for us there was only one pig. And Lucy stayed far away from the crowds, apparently boycotting the children since she didn't get any corn. Nate did amazingly well with all the animals up close. His favorites were the goats and turkeys.

Nate and Daddy on the wagon ride over to the pumpkin patch... an extremely LOOONG ride. Probably made even longer by the fact that Nate did NOT like this ride at all.

Nate checking out the pumpkins at the patch. The goldfish that Nate wouldn't let go of apparently wanted to check out the pumpkins as well...


Nate and Mommy trying to decide on a pumpkin we wanted to bring home with us. This is surprisingly a tough choice for an indecisive family...

Nate and Daddy with our pumpkin. We decided it was the pick of the patch. Nate seemed to like it and that's all that matters. :)


We all had a great time, it was an amazing family day. As we were leaving Huber's, we hadn't even gotten down the driveway and Nate was already fast asleep. He slept the entire way home (45 mins) and then once home he slept 3 more hours in his crib. I'm quite sure his dreams were filled with pumpkins, tunnel slides, and bounce houses... a 2 year old's dream day.

Happy 2nd Birthday my son

It happened. I have a two year old. Nate turned 2 on September 25th. I'm such a sappy mom... on September 24th as I was getting ready to lay Nate down for bed, I rocked him extra long, hugged him extra tight, and whispered "goodnight my one year old boy". *sigh*

Here's Nate playing around on his birthday. If you notice the bump on his forehead, he fell a few weeks ago and this is the bump that is STILL there. If I get up the courage to look at the pictures again, I might post pictures of him 3 days after the fall. (I didn't take pictures the first few days, I was too upset)


On his birthday we sent cupcakes to daycare for his friends and him to celebrate. Nate would say bear and growl each time he saw the cupcakes.



Nate's birthday party was on Saturday. We had a Sesame Street theme since Nate LOVES it. He routinely asks for Elmo, Ernie, Oscar, and Cookie. A lady at Nate's daycare makes cakes and she made this cake for Nate

And these are the cupcakes that some crazy mom thought she could make to look like Cookie Monster. Silly mommy... if placed next to the awesome Elmo cake the Cookie Monster cupcakes looks rather depressing... so I placed them far apart. HEY don't laugh at me! I tried!

One of the first "shifts" of people to sit down to get something to eat. Going around the table starting with birthday boy, Daddy, Uncle Aaron, Uncle Brian, Brandy.

Nate while we were singing him Happy Birthday. He loved the hats, loved the singing, and LOVED that his best friend Joey was sitting next to him.

I maybe shouldn't have said, "Sure you guys can help Nate open his gifts..." This was the quiet before the storm....

Here is one where cousin Kaylee was letting Nate help her open his gifts. :) Uncle Luke supervising...

I believe this was the moment that all the younger boys "invaded" the older boys football game. "Whoa guys! Where'd all these kids come from?" :)

The kids all took turns drawing with chalk. Or in Joey and Kaylee's case, rubbing their hands in chalk dust and then their hands on their clothes. I'm sure their parents just looooved me. :)
We got Nate a bubble bucket as one of his gifts, outside bubble time was a HUGE hit amongst kids of all ages. Note to self, if ever having to watch more than one child at a time... bring bubble bucket.


Nate and Joey enjoying dinner together after everyone had left. This little picnic table was so cute, all the kids took turns eating at it and it was adorable. Nate says, "Thanks Grandma, I LOVE my table! Can you convince my mommy to let me eat here every meal?"

I think a good time was had by all, and most importantly Nate had a BLAST! The kids played and played and played some more, ate, and played again. :) The older boys all started a game of football, which was great because I'm sure they would have been bored watching the kids play and the weather was just great to be outside and playing. The kids played with our collection of outdoor toys. The party started at 2 and the last guests left at 7. Nate got so many nice gifts and we are so grateful to all. Nate's TN Grandparents (Nana and Grandpa D) weren't able to come but they sent a giftcard and the CUTEST Memphis jersey outfit. We will need to have him wear it Friday to support Memphis over Louisville. I'll get a picture then. Nate also got some great sports toys, lawn mower toy, Puppy, Diego, Pablo and Ming Ming stuffed 'animals', COOKIES, picnic table, clothes, elmo and ernie kinex, little people castle, booster chair, potty, books, and money. We were wiped out but all very happy with how the day went. Nate really loved having everyone there.

Nate says, "Thanks for coming Grandma, Grandpa Doug, Grandma Dawn, Uncle Josh, Aunt Amanda, Uncle Brian, Uncle Aaron, Uncle Luke, Cousin Kaylee, BFF Joey, Joshua, Leah, Lauren, Brad, and Brandy. You made my day extra special!"