Nate's Birthday Party (Part 1)

Nate's Birthday party was on Saturday, September 26th. We had just about 30 people here so we were very pleased that the weather decided to cooperate and we could be outdoors too. The party turned out way better than I could have even hoped for. Here are some of my favorite pictures...

Nate's Backyardigan Pirate cake

Cousin Sydney, Nate, Cousin Kaylee, Uncle Luke, Cousin Samantha take a quick picture break, it's hard to get 5 kids to stop bouncing long enough...

Kaylee had a complete blast in the bounce house.

Drew, sweet as always, checking out Nate's collection of outdoor toys.

Nate and Josh being boys.

Josh and Joey, can't get in the house fast enough.

Nate and his Uncle Brian. Nate was so happy he was able to come.

Grandma Dawn, Baby Ben, Brad, Poppa Jim, Uncle Syl

Cousin Sydney waiting for Nate to come eat lunch with her, sadly Nate ate inside and Sydney waited quite some time.

Uncle Aaron and Kathy checking out what's good to eat.

Yummy lunch.

Party table and cake.

Mike taking advantage of the bounce house after the party. Many an adult jumped in the bounce house (myself included), I just don't have pictures of them all, and for that I'm sure they are eternally grateful.

I think every kid went home thinking this was the best party ever. Thank you bounce house. Thank you nice weather. Thanks to everyone for coming, Nate had an absolute blast! See you next year!

Happy 3rd Birthday Nate!

My sweet baby boy turned 3 on September 25th. How did this happen? Where did those 3 years go? I'm sure that just a month ago I was feeding him a bottle, trying to decide when we should start feeding him solids, and anguishing over whether he was warm enough in the onesie and footed pajamas. These 3 years have truly been a blessing. My heart is so completely full with love for Nate, and yet tomorrow I'll love him even more. Each time I think, I love this age the most! Then he gets older, and I think I love that age the most. I think I just love Nate the most, no matter his age. Though if he could stay 3 for a bit longer than he was 2...

Here are some pictures of his actual birthday on Friday.

Starting out the morning right... with powdered doughnuts and a Happy Birthday song and candles.


Then off to daycare armed with lots of cupcakes...

Home to open a gift from Nana and Poppy D


It is infact the GREATEST present ever! A GIANT track complete with cars that go when you shake them. (I must admit, I'm not sure which one of the boys in my house love this track the most....)

We asked Nate where he wanted to go to eat dinner for his birthday. We tried to convince him that he wanted Chili's, but he was adamant that McDonald's was the place to be.


How old are you today?


Then back home for cake! Blowing out the candles is always Nate's favorite part of ANY birthday. If it's your birthday and Nate's there, beware... he will blow out your candles!
Opening a few presents from Mommy and Daddy on his actual birthday.

Nate's birthday went by way too fast. I held him extra long the night before to get in one last 2 year old hug. Then on his birthday I held him extra long to see if it felt any different hugging my 3 year old. Maybe it was because I was feeling all sappy about my growing baby, but that night he looked more like the boy he's growing up to be. I'm not sure I'm ready for this.

I'll try to post again soon with pictures from his awesome birthday party!

Nate-isms Summer 2009

Ooba-me
The other day Nate told me, "Mommy you a ooba-me ooba-me ooba-me up."

Clearly I'm unsure the meaning....

He continues to repeat this because he wants me to agree. So finally I'm like, sure I'm one of those.

Mike tells me later that he was singing the Oompa-Loompa song to Nate while on vacation. LOL, so Nate was calling me an oompa-loompa. :)

So I ask Nate, "Did you mean 'oompa loompa'"?
He says, "Yeah. Ooba-me ooba-me ooba-me up." And gives me this look like I'm an idiot because obviously we're saying the same thing.


What else you got?
During our vacation travels we had stopped to eat a nutritious McDonalds meal. Nate had gotten a Happy Meal with chicken nuggets and apple dippers and I had a fish sandwich. Nate loves their fish sandwich (or should I say, he loves their tartar and he tolerates the fish with each bite) and so I was giving him bites. When I finished my sandwich I reached over and got one of his apple slices.

Nate: "Hey!!! That's MY apples!"
Me: "We're sharing."
Nate: "Those are MINE!"
Me: "I'm pretty sure I just shared my fish sandwich with you."
Nate: "Your sandwich is all gone."

In a Van Down By the Fireworks

Last year we went to my sister's for the 4th of July weekend. Dual purpose, 4th of July festival in their town and my niece's birthday party. So again this year we repeated the visit. Last year we took Nate to the fireworks display and he absolutely hated it. He screamed and screamed and screamed some more until we had to go back to the car and watch Backyardigans on the portable DVD player to drown out the noise and await the end of the fireworks. We were sure that this year, Nate being closer to 3, he'd surely not be as scared.... right?

Two years in a row.

Sitting in my sister's van, watching Backyardigans on the DVD player, drowning out the noise with headphones.

At least Nate had a GREAT time at his sissy's (Samantha) birthday party.

The birthday girl.


Nate's favorite activity at the party, the trampoline. Here he is practicing his push ups, working on his "muggles" (that's how Nate says muscles).

Nate and his awesome parents.

And before the fireworks started the kids all had a blast playing at the playground. The parents got bit by LOADS of bugs, not so fun. What age is it that you stop looking at the playground as the best place you've ever been, and just worry about sunscreen and bugspray?

Sydney on the slide and Samantha on the monkey bars.

All in all we had a wonderful visit and look forward to many more years of spending the 4th of July with my family. Who knows, maybe one year we'll actually get to watch the fireworks from outside the van.

Ice Storm 2009

Here are some of my favorite pictures from our ice storm, early 2009:

We were concerned that Nate would throw a toddler-sized tantrum when we tried to put mittens on him. Just so happened that while dressing him in winter-garb an episode of Spongebob came on where Spongebob and Sandy wore giant mittens when doing Karate together. So from that moment on Nate saw his winter mittens as Karate Mittens. He is often to be found wearing them, even now in the spring, around the house, going High-Yah! and making various karate poses. Whatever works. This is my new parent motto.

Blog-wha?

I know it's been ages since I've blogged, and I hereby announce that I will make my best effort to return to regular programming. :)

We've been quite busy over these last few months.

Nate's lymphnodes on the left side of his neck were enlarged and after several hospital visits, doctor visits, surgery, medicine, more doctor visits, he is on the road to recovery. He had Atypical Mycobacterial Infection.

Since Nate's surgery he has been doing wonderfully. He has regained a little bit of movement in the lower left of his mouth (paralysis in that area caused by surgery), which is GREAT news.

I may or may not blog more about all this. I have pictures from various stages of his recovery.

I do want to say that I know how extremely blessed we are that what he had was treatable and that if you were to ask Nate, he would have no clue that anything had even been wrong with him. He has been his normal cheerful, funny, smart self throughout it all. I want to thank everyone who prayed for him, who continues to pray for him. It truly means more than I can say. Thank you.

Merry Christmas! 2008, part 2

Christmas morning was amazing. The sheer joy and amazement on Nate's face was so infectious, it didn't take long before we all had big happy sappy grins on our faces. I'll spare you those pictures... trust me, a super cheesin' Jenn in PJs first thing in the morning is not a pretty sight. :)
Instead, I'll share some much more adorable pictures of Nate and family.

Nate checking out the plate and cup leftover from Santa's late night snack. He had gotten to help me make the cookies for Santa the night before and he was very excited about it.

Nate was so cute digging in to his stocking...

Nate's really into puzzles and wanted to stop opening presents to play... it took a bit of convincing, but the prospect of bigger and better presents finally got him moving on.

Like this playdoh, which we play with almost everyday. Did I mention everyday?

Checking out a giftcard from Nana and Poppy D... what oh what shall I get? Nate hopes his TN grandparents will be able to come see him soon!

Opening presents nearly as tall as me is great fun...

Christmas dinner at mom's house with all my siblings. It's so great when we can all get together.

My sister, Tracy, and her daughter, Syndey.

My brother, Brian, and Mike.

My brother, Joshua.

We had a really great Christmas both at home and with extended family. It's amazing how having a toddler can truly bring the magic back to Christmas. It's like we get to have both sides of the story. We get to watch as Nate unwraps each present, delight in his expressions and excitement. His overwhelming happiness is the best gift I've ever received. Then when we go over to my mom's house and spend Christmas afternoon with my siblings, eating all my mom's homemade comfort foods of our childhood, joking and laughing together, sharing gifts and stories. Then we all came back to my house and my Dad and Stepmom and brothers came over to spend Christmas night together. I'm unsure how we fit so many people in our house, but we do, and it's great. The kids all play, the adults got to act like kids and played a board game. It's just so great to spend a whole day with all the people in your life that you love the most. I love my family. I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! 2008, part 1

Christmas time at the Hammond house was filled with lots of visiting, and to Nate's delight, presents. :)

And most of all, love.

Nate and his 'sissy' (his cousin Samantha) sharing a sweet moment.

Niece Sydney and Mike sharing a sweet moment as well.... that or they are staring each other down in a contest of wills...

Sweet Sydney being adorable as usual.

Nate enjoying dinner with his cousins, Sydney and Kaylee. Nate's picnic table definitely came in handy with limited table space in a very crowded kitchen.

Whether at my mom's house or my house, fun was had by all. The Wii was a big favorite... See how happy Mike is? I'm quite sure I've seen this same grin somewhere recently...

Oh that's right, it's the same grin that Nate had EVERYtime he opened a present. :)

More evidence.

And this brings us to quite possibly the best present ever. Well the best and the biggest. My sister and brother in law decided to grab the title of BEST AUNT AND UNCLE EVER. See the excitement on the kids faces, and the inflatable bounce house wasn't even fully inflated yet.

Loads of fun was had by any and all children under the 150 pound limit.


Here's a picture of our Christmas tree, mere minutes after Santa had come...
The next post will reveal what exactly was in those packages, and more Christmastime pictures.