I was looking for a new tag cloud for the blog and came across this, which is pretty cool. Here is a cloud of all the words I used in 2011 on this blog. Nathan helped me pick the shape and colors. Looks like a full year!
2011 Summary
Categories: Uncategorized
2 Comments
Sick Day
I am home today with a mildly sick boy. He’s in that gray area… too sick for school and day care, but not so sick that he’s miserable. So, we’ve had a quiet day with a visit to the doctor and then the pharmacy and then just playing at home. It hasn’t been too bad. I get the opportunity to sit at home and hang out with this boy all day like a stay-at-home mom without the pressure to get the house cleaned or errands done or all the things that full-time stay-at-home moms have to do. I was able to meet Nathan at the bus stop when he got home from school, which was a nice little treat to be the first ears to hear his excitement about all that he did that day. Then, of course, I was also home for a few extra hours of sibling rivalry, which is in full-swing here, but overall it has been a good day. As nice as it’s been, I am so grateful for wonderful in-laws just down the street that have taken care of sick Ryan since Friday while Michael and I worked. I don’t know how we could pull off a two full-time working parents household without such a wonderful support system nearby.
2012 has been a good year for us so far, but a very quiet year for our camera, so not very many pictures to share. We ended 2011 with Nathan playing violin in the lobby of the Power Center before the Nutcracker. Can you spot what is wrong in the picture below? Hint: Violins should be held with the strings up!
Then we had a nice, quiet Christmas. Maybe if Santa had joined a sorority in college, he would have better bubble letter skills.
Notice Nathan’s fist pump, accompanied by a “YES!” when he saw his Harry Potter chess set from Santa. He just started with Chess Club at school, so he was excited to have a fun chess set to play with.
Just after the new year we headed up north to visit friends and spend some time exploring outside. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much snow, but that didn’t stop the boys from enjoying the snowshoes that three of us received for Christmas.
We hiked out to a scenic Lake Michigan overlook which was very pretty.
Now we are back home, trying to get healthy and back into our regular schedules. We’re looking forward to a fun year!
Holiday Music
Thank you to everyone who stopped to watch Nathan play violin at the mall yesterday. He had a lot of fun and we are very proud of him. If you missed it, here is a video of a few of the songs that he participated in. The girl to his right is his friend Penelope who he has some friendly violin competition with since they are so close in abilities. The kids had a great time raising some money for the Salvation Army.
First Lost Tooth!
Nathan is very excited to announce the loss of his first tooth! You have to look close in this picture because it’s a bottom tooth, but he does have a little hole in his head now. He made his own tooth fairy pillow last night. Nothing says “Dental Milestone” like a tooth fairy pillow with flames on it!
2011 Children’s Choirs Musical
Both boys sang in the Musical at church this afternoon. I’m really sorry for the quality of these videos. If you have troubles with motion sickness, you may want to pass on these… during Nathan’s video, I had Ryan crawling all over me preventing me from holding the camera steady and in Ryan’s, I was laughing so hard, I couldn’t hold it steady.
Ryan went first. We weren’t expecting much since Ryan has been telling us for weeks that he was NOT going to sing in this program even though he knew all the words and sings all the time at home. However, we were not expecting the performance he gave us. I’m pretty sure all of the parents know who Ryan is after this entertaining performance. Also, take note the tie he picked out… Ryan is a big fan of neck ties. We frequently can’t get him out the door to church unless we promise him he can wear a tie.
Nathan sang several songs. I guess one risk of his performing violin is that he does not have stage fright. He gets a little too comfortable on stage and forgets to stand with his hands at his side and act like a good little child.
