Sweet boy. This is his favorite song to sing right now. 🙂

Bless the Lord from Erynn Mangum on Vimeo.

Love this age. 

So is anyone else in shock that it’s the end of July on Wednesday? Where did our summer go??

Though, granted, fall brings pumpkin spice lattes back so… who am I kidding. Come on fall!! 😉

We’ve been up to lots of fun!! Last week, we went to an Isotopes game with the fam. Very fun! Nathan had a complete blast. We didn’t get him in bed until after 11 and he did great the whole time.

The bean with the Gammy 🙂

During the fireworks. Someone was starting to wilt a bit. 😉

Game’s over! We can go home!!

 We’ve been having some moderate success in our garden this year! Yay! Considering we are known about the vegetation world as the people to send a flower to if you want it to die, this is a miracle. Nathan has LOVED getting to pick and eat the veggies. Particularly the “matoes”.

With our first zucchini! He woke us up early to go pick it since we made the mistake of telling him the night before that it might be about ready.

Such a silly head.

Walked in and found him like this one night and he just looks SO OLD now. For a long time he still looked like a baby when he slept but apparently no longer. 🙁

My little Handy Manny helper guy. He’s been helping Jon with projects lately which I know he absolutely loves. He always asks Jon if there’s work to do. 😉

About to work! Jon let Nathan hold the drill…

And this picture just terrifies me. Plain and simple. TERRIFIES. I will never let him near power tools again. It’s gone to his head.

Last weekend, we did a dinosaur themed party with a our good friend Joel, who turned 6 four days after Nathan turned 3. So much fun!! I was so busy visiting with people that I totally forgot to take pictures for most of the party, so these are just the highlights (and a lot of these were taken by people who just happened to grab my camera for me!). We had the party at Gammy and Pops’ house so everyone could swim. Thanks so much, Mom and Dad!!

Buddies. 🙂 Nathan adores Joel. He’s the cool, older kid.

Love the dirt cups my friend Jamie came up with!! She did so much work to make this party super cute!!

Slip N’ Slide!!

Sweet kids after blowing out their candles. We had to talk the kids into getting out of Gammy and Pops’ pool to come eat dessert. 😉

Love these tired, partied-out boys. 🙂

We’ve been busy, busy this week and I’m tired this afternoon!! Looking forward to an evening of lounging around at home in my jammies and watching our new favorite Netflix show – White Collar. Other Netflix watchers – what is your current favorite show???

Ack! So sorry for the very, very long blog silence, friends. We have bounced from birthday party to birthday party for the last few weeks – apparently July is a popular month for family and friends to be born! Ha!

So, without further ado, here’s Nathan’s 3rd birthday party – take one!! 🙂

We started the day with streamers hung over his door!! 🙂 When he first woke up, he just marched right through them with his eyes half closed but once we started singing “Happy Birthday” he woke up quick and had to run through them several times. Ha! 😉

He already looks older!! 🙁

Birthday “Frinkled” Doughnuts for the Birthday Boy. 🙂

Then it was time to head to Chuck E Cheese!! We’ve never been before with Nathan and he LOVED it. He ran himself completely into the ground here. And it was hilarious because I think his uncles and dad had more fun there than Nathan did. 😉 So fun! They all racked up a million tickets for him – he made off with a great prize!! 🙂

Me and my baby at lunch at California Pizza Kitchen. 🙂

I can’t believe he’s three!!

The birthday sundae was a lovely touch to lunch. 🙂

Then it was time for a quick nap in the car before heading over to Gammy and Pops’ for swimming and “sketti” (spaghetti), per the Birthday Boy’s instructions. 😉

Silly boys in the pool! 🙂

Our pirate decor. He was SO stoked about that skull. Ha!

And, as usual, someone got completely spoiled rotten again for his birthday. I’m still in the process of trying to clean out the playroom to make room for the new toys!! Thanks so much, everyone!!

Our Jake pirate cake than Jon and I made at like 11PM the night before. It was worth it. Nathan was ecstatic about it. 😉

Sweet baby. Such a wonderful day! We are so thankful for our amazing family who made the day so special. 🙂

I have so much to catch up on here. Oh my goodness.

Last week, my amazing grandmother came into town and we were SO EXCITED to see her! A lady saw Nathan holding this sign and asked him where his Nama lived and he said, “On the airplane” in a duh-tone of voice. Oh that child.

Nathan was so funny. He about bowled her over when she came through the doors and we had to grab him before he ran past the security border to give her a hug. We have absolutely loved, loved having her here!

Nama and Nathan after lunch at Freddy’s!

He started laughing at the table because he’d bitten his roll into “Little Nathan”. 😉 Ha!

We got our prize at the library for reading books and it was dinosaurs!! It was a happy day in our house.

Cow Appreciation Day was Friday and since we love CFA and we love free food, we thought it would be lots of fun to have a family dinner there. SO FUN. Oh my goodness. It was hilarious to see how everyone dressed up!

My cows with The Cow.

After dinner, we went over to Menchie’s for Frozen Yogurt and a firetruck drove up. Nathan was jumping up and down waving at them and two of the firefighters who were just so, so sweet took him over to the fire truck and gave him a little tour.

He got to try on a fire hat and stand on the back.

 And the BEST part….

He got to shoot a stop sign with the water! Ha! Nathan was OVER THE MOON. He has mentioned it every day since then! We were so grateful for the kind firemen!

Reenacting how he shot the sign for everyone. 😉

My tired little cow. 😉 What a great way to end his second year!! 🙂

Birthday Party #1 coming up next! 🙂

My sweet little son,

How is it possible that I am already writing this letter? I have been looking back through pictures and I just can’t even believe that it has already been another year even though all the evidence points that way. Every year seems to go by faster and faster. I am frantically searching for a pause button!

This year was a language EXPLOSION for you! You talk all. the. time. You say the funniest things! You’ve picked up some very big words that just make us laugh like “delightful”. You are very perceptive. You can usually tell someone’s mood just by looking at them.

You are so friendly! We have had to have a lot of talks about strangers this year because you honestly believe that every person in the world is your friend. You are very generous and always notice when someone is sad and you always want to help them.

You developed quite the little stubborn/strong will this year and kept
me on my toes. There were days where I wasn’t sure we would actually
both make it to you turning three! I am praying that the worst of the
disobedience is behind us because you are already growing up in that
area as well.

You are such a character, Nathan. Such a funny, hilarious boy. I am so blessed to have a son who makes me laugh every single day. You honestly say the absolute funniest things. I’m constantly writing them down so I don’t forget them. Even after we put you in bed, we still laugh over the silly things you did and said.

You love to eat. Anything and everything! You usually eat more than I do at every meal. You are constantly growing. I’ve just stopped buying more than one pair of pants and a couple of shorts outfits because you outgrow them before they are even barely used! You are wearing a 4T right now and they are starting to get a little small. You are 35 pounds and 40 inches tall. Big, healthy boy!

You have really developed a love for movies this year. We have fond favorites in the Pixar movies and in Jake and the Neverland Pirates and Handy Manny. You are a million percent boy. You would play sword fight all day long if someone would play with you. You love squirt guns and baseball bats and train sets and Lincoln logs. You love dinosaurs and fire engines and anytime a policeman waves back at you, you are in absolute heaven. You can play for hours by yourself, creating all these imaginary worlds and experiences. It’s fun to listen to from the kitchen. 🙂 I hope you always keep your sense of adventure and imagination!

You love to be outside. You live to be outside! You would play out there all day if I would let you. You have a huge love of the pool and have become an amazing swimmer. You swim all over the pool by yourself and you have even started swimming around the shallow end without floaties. You love to dive under the water and get things off the bottom of the pool. You love to do jumps off the diving board and scare your mother to pieces with your little daredevil ways. I had to stop you from trying to do a backflip off the diving board the other day. You want to be just like the big kids. You are usually dressed in your swimsuit before Dad and I are even out of bed on Saturday mornings and begging to go to Gammy and Pops’ pool.

You love, love girls. LOVE them. You talk about different girls you know all the time. Sometimes you get stuck on ideas like marriage and you tell me that you will get married next week. I have to remind you frequently that only adults get married. I’m hoping that you’ll start to develop a little bit of a “girls are gross” attitude this year. 😉

You had so many moments this year that slowly changed you from a baby to a big boy. You moved to a big boy bed. You started wearing big boy underwear. You carry on conversations like an adult. You love to “do school” and practice your letters and your lines. You could read for two hours if my voice would hold out that long. We recently started reading chapter books together and you will sit forever asking to read another chapter and very engaged in the story. You are two-going-on-fifteen, love. I am so proud of all you’ve accomplished this year!

You are the joy of my heart, little boy. You are the one I pray for the most. You are the biggest blessing in mine and Dad’s life, honey. We cannot imagine our lives without you now.

You are so loved, my sweet boy! You are so surrounded by love and cherished from so many, many people. You are prayed for by so many people! I hope you never forget that or take it for granted. You are precious, son. I am so blessed to be your mom.

I love you so so so soooo so so soooo so so sooo much, my big three year old boy!

Love,
Mommy

This week was so busy and fun!

Me and my bean one morning this week messing around with the Photo Booth app on my laptop. Love when he wakes up in a snuggly mood. 🙂

Found this in the fridge when I was getting stuff out to make dinner this week. Little sneak.

The weekly tradition that cannot be broken – Popsicles in the pool with Pops!

Family fun night!! We spent last Wednesday night just the three of us and ate outside and then played soccer until Nathan’s bedtime. SO much fun!

 
Thursday night we celebrated Caleb’s girlfriend Nicole’s birthday and the Fourth of July with our dear friends Shannon and Eric. 🙂

Post-swim firework time!

Well, I have to agree with Starbucks on this one. 😉

Saturday night, Caleb and Nicole came for dinner and brought presents for the soon-to-be-birthday boy since Nicole won’t be in town on Saturday. I’ll give you one guess at what they got him. 😉

His new Handy Manny watching ensemble. 😉 So far, he’s built a “birdy house” and a pool for a crocodile. But it’s okay, because it’s just a baby crocodile so I don’t have to be scared of it living in the playroom. 😉

And just in case you were wondering, we’re at FIVE DAYS before there is a three year old in my home. SLOW DOWN, Time!!

Or “July 13th” as most non-almost-three-year-olds say. 😉

THREE. I’ll be harping on this for the next ten days. Because, seriously, it was JUST last week that I was counting down the days until my due date and then past my due date and then finally freaking out the night before my little bean was born that life would change and would never be the same.

How right I was. And how blessed I am because of that. 🙂

We have had a crazy fun weekend! Jon finished up his intensive Master’s class on Friday (can I get an amen??) and we are so thankful grandparents live in town because we immediately went on a date. 😉 We did a little bit of birthday shopping for the birthday boy (can you guess what he’s getting?? 😉 Someone is going to be THRILLED) and then went out to eat just the two of us. SO fun and needed and wonderful!!

Then, Saturday morning, our dear friends Clint and Leigh Ann were back in town on their way to move to Atlanta from their stint at a Christian camp in Colorado and so we headed over in the morning to go to an open house to see them.

 Love these friends dearly!! (And missed Eryn who was gone on vacation!)

Nathan and Hayley were like long lost lovers that whole day. All I heard the whole time they were together was “Nathan!” “Haywee!” “Nathan!” “Haywee!” Ha!

Then we went to go watch my brother Caleb’s band perform. They did awesome and we had so much fun! We got free hot dogs and Nathan got his face painted for the first time. He asked for a blue elephant. No idea how that came about.

Saturday night, we had Clint, Leigh Ann and Hayley over for dinner and it was so wonderful! We will miss our dear friends so much.

Monday, we went to Jamie’s house for Lunch Bunch and she had a sprinkler set up for the kids. Nathan LOVED it. He’s been asking to go back to Jamie’s house since we left. 😉

And then we of course had to play baseball again after Daddy’s game was over Monday night. Love these super sweet umpires we’ve had lately who have been so kind to let Nathan hit the ball and run the bases between games!!

And now it’s time to get to cleaning and laundry and writing and getting a few things done before the holiday weekend. 🙂

Have a safe and happy 4th of July!!

I have SO MUCH to catch up on as far as our weekend goes, but that post will likely have to wait until tomorrow because honestly it’s so hot, my house is covered in laundry and I have a little boy who wants me to be Roo so he can be Tigger and we can sing and do “Super duper ally-ooper bounces” and that seems more important. 😉

BUT – I did want to let you know of a special promotion my amazing publisher is running this week! Right now, Latte Daze is $0.99 on Kindle and it will be at this reduced price until Sunday. Yay!

Have a wonderful Monday!! 🙂