Happy Birthday, my love. I can't believe that three years ago, we were meeting each other for the first time, and I had no idea that you would become the sweet boy that you are. You are kind, thoughtful, and so curious about everything, and Daddy and I have so much fun watching you grow into your world. We love you to pieces.
Here is a picture of Nathan enjoying a birthday lunch at the Rainforest Cafe.
Nathan and I had some much-needed mommy/son time (without the little guy) at the circus! Nathan was wide-eyed and stunned the entire time, but LOVED it. We learned a few things...
#1 - The boy loves his cotton candy. It was his first time, and he was in heaven holding onto that huge ball of sticky sugar.
#2 - Nathan is not a fan of "clown humor." The clowns would be doing their act, bumping into each other, falling, mumbling clown talk, etc. Every other kid in the place was laughing histerically. Nathan just sat there with this disturbed expression and kept asking me, "What are they saying???"
#3 - Circus Vargas is NOT the circus I remember going to as a kid. We were prepared to see the lions and elephants. Well, Circus Vargas only has... dogs and cats. NO kidding. But I think my kid was as excited to see the poor cat go through the hoop as he would have been with a lion.
Here are a few pictures...
A week late, but I still wanted to post some picts of the kids. They had sooo much fun this year. Nathan went as Buzz Lightyear, who is his hero and the topic of every other conversation in our house. Keaton went as a giraffe, and was the cutest little giraffe I have ever seen. :)
Before we left the house, we carved a pumpkin and Nathan decorated a haunted gingerbread house. Nana and Papa brought it, and it was pretty neat. Here he is with his masterpiece.
Nathan was a bit spooked at first while he was trick or treating, but he got comfortable pretty quickly, and by the end had a bag full of candy as payoff. It took quite along time to go a block, because in between each house, he would inspect his candy and negotiate with me about whether he could eat yet another piece. Keaton was happy just riding along in his car, with a big sucker in his mouth. We actually didn't hear a peep from him the entire time. Thank you, Tootsie Pop! (I swear this was his first real candy... er, aside from the "incident" a while back.)
Then when we got home from trick-or-treating, our friends Tim and Kate came by with the coolest thing I have ever seen. Tim is this amazing artist, and he CARVED a Nathan-stein jack-o-lantern! It was unreal - looked just like him, with bolts in his neck. Pretty cool...
Our baby boy is one! We celebrated Keaton's first birthday on Sunday. It was really simple - just cupcakes in the park with grandmas and grandpas. (It is definitely true that the second child gets the short end of the stick!) But we still had fun. Keaton had a good time, even though he lost it a bit when he was covered in chocolate frosting. But he perked back up when he opened his presents. Nathan had a blast playing with Bailey and Gavin, and inspecting and test-driving Keaton's toys.
Happy Birthday, little man. We love you.
Thankfully, the closest major fire (Santiago Canyon) is about twelve miles away, but things are still pretty smoky around here. My heart breaks for those who have lost homes. We are still waiting to hear about two families we know who think their homes were lost in Arrowhead area. :( But as far as the little bubble we live in with the kids, they are just sick of being trapped inside. Nathan was so disappointed that his preschool did not allow playground time today, and knowing him, he tried to negotiate with the teacher about it.
Did anyone see this on Oprah? I was sooo inspired. This book has recipes for kid-friendly food, but with a little extra thrown in. ;) Brownies with pureed spinach (sounds gross, but supposedly, you can't tell), scrambled eggs with pureed cauliflower, and chocolate chip cookies with chick peas.
Now my boys (both the little ones and the big ones) will not touch vegetables. Ryan actually picks out veggies and makes a pile on the side of his plate! So the other day, I was feeling sneaky, and put pureed butternut squash in some mac n cheese, and no one noticed a thing! (How do I insert the twiddling-thumbs, evil laugh emoticon? LOL)
Anyway, here is a recipe (from some magazine) for yummy italian meatballs with a little added something. Kids loved them.
Tuscan Meatballs (aka, "cheesy green balls" in our house)
1/2 cup steamed, pureed spinach (you can also just chop instead of pureeing)
1/2 steamed, pureed carrots
1 lb ground turkey
1 egg
1 cup italian bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 handfuls shredded mozarella cheese
1 tsp garlic salt
black pepper to taste
1 - 2 Tbsp olive oil
Heat oven to 350. Mix ingredients (except oil) and form into balls. In a pan with olive oil, brown meatballs 2-3 minutes. Finish in oven for 20 minutes. Serve with pasta and marinara sauce.
And while I am being domestic, here is a new secret I discovered. With these messy boys, the kids shirts get stained a LOT. I tried every trick - Spray and Wash, Zout, baking soda, OxiClean, and sometimes I just couldn't get the stain out. So the clothes were tossed. But I found an answer! Put 1/3 scoop of powder OxiClean in a big glass bowl, fill half-way with hot water, put the shirt in, and microwave for 5 minutes. P.S... no metal or buttons, and I watch it closely (so don't blame me if your microwave blows up!) It is amazing, and I think I should win a prize. :)
So, I have been bitten by the photography bug, and I just got this great opportunity. A professional photographer is going to mentor me, helping me with focus and exposure. This was a picture I took yesterday, where I was only focused on getting a crisp, sharp picture. Not sure how I did yet - she is still going to give me feedback (and she can be very picky, so I have my hard hat on). :)
Photoshop is still completely overwhelming to me, but I feel like I am sloooowly learning it. I don't think they could possibly create a program that is less user friendly. :) But with trial and error, I discover new fun things to do with pictures. This is a "retro" Photoshop action that I ran on an old picture of Keaton. (First is "retro", second is original.)
It has been a while since I have posted... We are so crazy with the kids all day, and then as soon as they are in bed, we just want to plop on the couch, watch TV, and do nothing that requires brain cells. But I think I have my blogging groove back on, and I am going to try to post more.
I have been experimenting with black and whites more, trying to get better at it. These are some pictures of the kids playing at an amphitheater park by our place. Nathan had fun swinging around his stick "sword", and Keaton rolled down the hill and ate sticks. :)
Eek, I just realized these pictures are all tilts (I get crazy with the tilting sometimes!) I will throw in some non-tilts tomorrow so you don't get dizzy. :) ** Added some straight ones. :)
We headed over to the park yesterday to have lunch and let the kids run around. It was HOT, and after 20 minutes, Keaton seemed miserable. But as soon as we soaked him with water from his sippy cup (which he thought was hysterical), he was good to go, and he joined in the fun with Nathan again.
There have been a few times this week where we have needed a family picture (a preschool assignment, and for MOPS), and I realized it had been so long since we did one. So I set the timer on the camera, and we all huddled on the bed for a quick picture. Some of them turned out pretty funny - I will add more in the next few days. Nathan was intrigued by the self-timer beep and flashing light, but Keaton (the only kid I know who is afraid of "It's a Small World") was not happy. Oh, well... we tried. :)
It is a couple weeks late, but I am finally posting pictures of our mini-vacation! We had a great time doing absolutely nothing... playing at the beach, walking along the boardwalk, flying a kite, and eating picnic lunches. Ryan and I also learned one new thing - our kids are not good co-sleepers. Nathan was beyond hyper since he was so excited about sleeping in Daddy's bed, and Ryan said he is a total bed hog. And I was sleeping (if you can call it that... I think I got about an hour total) in the bedroom with Keaton, and every time I opened my eyes throughout the night, there was a person about an inch away, staring back. But the hotel was beautiful, right on the sand, so it was fantastic to be able to run back and forth to the beach all day. Although, I think the kids were more excited about their new "house" (also known as "hotel room"), and they spent hours exploring the mini-fridge and closets.
View from our room.
Nathan weighing in after a few days of over-eating.
Ryan and Keaton flying a kite.
So strange! We found this on the beach, nothing else around it. Nathan spent the longest time staring at it.
Seagulls tracts in the sand. 
The other day, I was on the computer while Keaton was playing with some toys on the carpet right next to me. I was talking to him while I typed (mistake #1), and the next thing I knew, I looked down to see this.
Keaton had discovered a wrapped sucker on the ground, unwrapped it, and was happily eating his new find. I have never seen him more proud of himself. He LOVED it - he was drooling like crazy. As I was laughing and taking some pictures, Nathan came in the room and nearly had a heart attack. THAT sucker was one that Nathan had been carrying around (unopened) for days, just waiting for permission to eat. So Nathan lucked out and got to open another sucker, and both kids were happy... (And I wish I had taken a picture of Keaton when I took it away - not a happy guy.)
Our baby is officially a preschooler! Yesterday was his first day of school, and he did so well! A couple weeks ago, his teacher came to the house to meet him, and we went to the classroom for an orientation on Tuesday. But yesterday was the big day. He was so quiet during the car ride - thinking about this new school thing. And when we got to the classroom, he was pretty unhappy at having to say goodbye, and was equally unhappy when his teacher took his hand and led him in. But at pick up time, he looked like he was having a blast. He was exhausted, but after a marathon three hour nap, he filled us in on all the details... the dinosaur toys on the playground, the chocolate bubble gum song, the cookie and juice snack, soaking his clothes with the drinking fountain. And he was thrilled when his teacher left a phone message yesterday evening saying what a great job he did. We left the message on the machine, and he constantly replays it and looks so proud.
