New Years Thoughts

With all of the busyness and excitement of the last few weeks...traveling to Indiana for a Wittleder Thanksgiving, staying in Pennsylvania with my family, then heading back here to celebrate the holidays with the 3 of us...I am feeling more contemplative this year about 2011 during my quieter days back in Colorado.

In this New Year, Matt and I would like to be even more dedicated to living a simpler life. Especially after the holidays as we look for places to put our new items, we are reminded of how easily it is to accumulate "things". So much that it takes the joy out of them because you can't find your "things!" As parents now we have to make even more of an effort to simplify. Every other month I am putting away Nathan's clothes that don't fit anymore and pulling out new ones! Each time I have to rearrange and reorganize to find some extra space in our apartment to store the ones that no longer fit. Not to mention car seats that he grows out of, toys, and all of the baby items he "needs!"

We want to raise our son to be content. This means we need to practice contentedness ourselves in our own purchases. So we are striving for that in our own lives. We are blessed to be living in a nice apartment in Colorado Springs and we don't want to accumulate so much that feel we need to be in a house before we are ready for that step. Hopefully, Nathan grows up to be content with what he has...not always yearning for the next best toy, trendier clothes, a nicer car, a bigger house and on and on and on!

We enjoy the freedom and time that comes from not owning a home and having a lot of stuff at this point in our lives. It gives us time to be together as a family, weekends to enjoy and not as much cleaning to do! We know that will change someday, but we want to enjoy this stage of our lives to its fullest while we are in it. And we want to focus on the benefits.

Because you are our dearest friends and family we share our thoughts that you might pray for us on this road to contentedness. Blessings to all of you in 2011!

End of December

Nathan in his "Auntie" onesie from Aunt Rosie!


Giving mommy the "push away!" Must need some playtime to himself :)


Heading out in some stylish clothes from my aunts! Shoes from Courtney and outfit from Nicole!


Sitting at my boss, Chuck's, desk! Chuck says, "Finally, someone who knows what they are doing is sitting there!" :)


Yeah Encompass Home Health!


Big boy! (I promise, I was close enough to catch him if he toppled over) :)


Recently learned how to roll over on his side while he is playing!


Becoming quite the fan of this little monkey!


Story time! Daddy can't believe I got a picture where he looks like he is actually paying attention. It doesn't always keep his interest just yet :)


The night before New Year's Eve we got snow. So of course, we had to bundle up and go out in it to try out the Rav4!





I tried to bundle him up like a good mother would...but as usual when we brought him back in from our outing he was all sweaty from the layers!

Our Baby is sick! :(

I caught some sort of a cold Sunday night before we left Pennsylvania and Matt started to feel bad a few days later. We thought we got lucky with Nathan staying healthy but on Christmas day and the Sunday after it was obvious he was indeed sick too!!

The poor guy was all stuffed up, had watery eyes, sneezing and a cough! Broke our heart. But his first sickness had to come at some point, I suppose!

Christmas Day

We enjoyed Nathan's first Christmas in Colorado-just the 3 of us. We had a relaxing, lazy day.
All smiles in the morning:




Getting ready to read the Christmas story out of Nathan's children's Bible.

We video taped this moment for our 1st Christmas with Nathan memory. I forgot to take a picture of the 3 of us though. Oops!

Present time! Yum :)


A bib! "This is the best Christmas ever, Mommy!" :)


With daddy.




We put Nathan down for a nap before we opened our gifts. The kiddo was tired out!


Matt was very impressed with the boxes I used for his presents...my boxes that I keep my shoes in! Hence, the "Hot Kiss".


Liking my Penn State t-shirt.


We watched "The Christmas Shoes" as a family that afternoon.


Popcorn, a fire, and movie time with my boys. What more could a girl ask for?


The DVD had 3 movies-Christmas Blessing, Christmas Hope and Christmas Shoes. I wanted to watch Christmas Blessing because I've heard the song for Christmas Shoes and I know it is sad. I knew I would cry. But when we put in the Christmas Blessing we discovered the 3 movies are related and Christmas Shoes was the first one...so we watched it.

Whew! Talk about emotional. There is a mother who is dying in it and her son...get this...named NATHAN, was saving up to buy her Christmas Shoes so she would look beautiful when she met Jesus in Heaven. Yes...I bawled. Matt and I were feeling very blessed on that Christmas Day for all of our health and to have such a wonderful little boy.

What better way to do tummy time then watching football on the computer with daddy?




A photo for Nathan's Aunt Nicole. His fuzzy reindeer pants!




Dinner! Using our awesome new pan from Dad and Mom Witt. I LOVE it!




A successful day! And a happy boy.




Yum!

Christmas Eve

Matt worked Christmas Eve morning. He didn't miss much...here is Nathan.

He fell asleep to his Christmas DVD from Grandma Witt.

On Christmas Eve night we went over to Kyle's parent's home to celebrate with them. It was really nice of them to have us over. They are very warm and welcoming family. I actually made a dessert that people were requesting the recipe for. That's a first! :) Thanks, Age!!


Here is Kyle holding Nathan up! Jamin can also do this at just 2 months old!


Nathan and Jamin


It looks like they're holding hands!


And looks who's going strong after the night is over!


Handsome men in my life...I love them!

Pennsylvania Before Christmas II

Last week in PA...Matt makes it out!


She always puts him to sleep! :)


Talking therapy...Age's knee.


Lego ornament time!


David and Age's to watch some football


Me and my bro!


Cuteness...


Christmas at Mom and Dads...early of course. I love this room decorated for the holidays.




The men


The ladies


Matching Eagles boys!


Mom and Dad...and some GOOD smelling perfume!






Loving his new PJ's...and feet!






Matt and I took Colin to "Bounce". He loved it! I, however, did not bounce. I sat with Nathan and took pictures.


And then they chucked a ball at me.


Love this family! (and Colin's tattoo that he earned at Bounce) :)




Reading the paper with Pappy.


They Berry Christmas!
Pap weighed ALL of the grandkids and then made a competition out of all of us guessing their weights. Guess who was the biggest baby?

18 pounds!



The gals


The 4 boy cousins...together again. William's first Christmas home in 7 years!


Family shot


Newest grandkids: Easton (5 mo), Jaxon (2 mo) and Nathan (4 mo)


Love my grandparents! Too cute.


Glad to have Matt in PA with me.


One of too many goodbye's. We were supposed to fly out Monday night. We didn't get out until Wednesday. We had to keep returning home from Harrisburg to wait for the next day's flight because ours was cancelled. I could not have handled one more goodbye! It's bad enough once.




Finally getting ready to leave on Wednesday. Looking a little tired. I was fighting sickness by this point.


VERY successful plane ride. He did great!


"I'm flying!!!"


Home sweet Colorado Home! (3 outfits later for the little man!)


Arrived to a CLEAN, decorated apartment! My husband is the best! It felt so good to be home.


Nathan was happy to be home too. He just laid here and made happy noises.