puddle watching

Today we had the first rain in the farmhouse. I came into the sunroom to find Nate staring intently out the window.


"Nate, what are you looking at?"

"Mom, you've got to see this puddle!"


He was entertained by this for a good 20 minutes...and luckily, the water stayed outside the house.

It's a Transformers Party!

I thought that I'd share a few of the photos from Nate's birthday party we had at the farmhouse yesterday. It was the perfect sort of party - laid back and very little work to set up!


Nate with his Transformers birthday cake.

Blowing out the candles (he did get all 4 out). Emma and Nile were very interested, notice the look on Scott and Andrew's faces - I didn't even notice at the time that Andrew was covering his ears (for what reason I do not know)...


Cake-eating kids...


And yes, he did love each and every Transformer he got! The look on his face with this one is priceless!

4 years old and still growing

As I mentioned earlier, Wednesday was our first night in our "farmhouse" and it was also Nate's birthday. We are having a small "official" party on Sunday for family and friends, but we didn't want to let his birthday go uncelebrated.

So we had a small birthday party at the farmhouse for Nate. He got to open gifts from us and enjoy some birthday cupcakes.

(By the way, huge THANK YOU to Grandma Elaine for supplying the cupcakes, and for keeping the boys overnight on Tuesday. It was an enormous help...)

The favorite gift of Wednesday? The Transformers beach towel, of course. (also from Grandma)


And here's a video of him blowing out his candles.

The face of nothing good

Nate had to go to the doctor on Friday for the third time in six weeks, to check on the progress of removing a wart on his toe. Twice it had been frozen off, and again the doctor told him it would have to be frozen again. But...they didn't have the freezing equipment and had to drive to the other office to get it.

What ensued was 15 minutes of pure terror for Nate. He laid on the examining table and cried and screamed the whole time. "Mommy, just hold me!" I could do nothing to calm him. It was one of the worst feelings of my life. He was so scared of what was coming he couldn't rationalize anything. Every time he heard footsteps in the hall, he would freak out again, thinking they were coming in to freeze it. Not even the promise of a movie night, chocolate, or a trip to the gas station.

This was a far cry from what we had had in the car on the way to the doctor. "Mommy, I'm four now. I won't need to hold your hand. I am tough."

I took this photo after it was all over and he had calmed down. See how emotionally drained he is? This is not my normal Nate.

And the result? We get to go back in two more weeks. I am hoping we don't have to go through this again. Please, stupid virus, go away.

It's been a journey

Well, yesterday was the "big move part 1.". We are now waking up from our first night in the farmhouse. We have been so busy preparing for this, that I have not had any time to think, let alone blog.

Yesterday I spent the day figuring out which outlets are connected to which switches (answer - still not quite sure), unpacking, and getting the Internet and TV set up (for we can't live a night without either). Then we celebrated Nate's 4th birthday (I will add pictures later). Nate even slept in his bed last night without a bed rail! Lots of changes going on...

I'm sure there will be lots more stories that will come out of this 2 month "adventure," but right now I have to get off to work. :)