Nathan's Dedication

We dedicated Nathan Cole to the Lord this morning at our church, Woodmen Valley Chapel. Kyle and Jen, from our small group, dedicated Jamin Isiac today as well. We thought it was very cool the way Pastor Williams conducted the ceremony for the two boys. He prayed over them separately, but addressed all four of us as he asked for our commitment in raising our sons.

Kyle and Jen are from Colorado, so many of their family members attended the event. We knew a few of them from Christmas Eve, when we Kyle & Jen invited us over to their family get together. It was great to have so many people in our little ceremony between the regular morning services at Woodmen. Some of our friends from our old small group came as well as Josh & Amber.

Enough talking...on to the pictures!

Here's Nathan looking spiffy Sunday morning and watching mommy do her hair in the bathroom.


Leaving the apartment!


Picture for my mom...thanks mom for the early birthday present! :) love you.


Nathan's dedication certificate:


Pastor Williams getting to know the boys. Jen, Kyle & precious Jamin:


Nathan making us laugh :)


Guests (Thanks to Craig for taking these pictures!)


Mamas...always have an eye on our boys! :)






Praying with all of us:


Praying over Nathan


And over Jamin

It was such a warm, intimate time. The pastor did a great job.

And Nathan received a few gifts from the church:

A scripture calendar and a spoon with a gift certificate to have it engraved.

Our small group after the service (minus Michael & Dale-Michael is deployed in Afghanistan & Dale is in CA with her family until this summer)


Josh & Amber and us. We feel so blessed to have these two in our lives! They have been so supportive of us these last few years.


Amber even made a card for Nathan


I thought I might cry when I read it:


Family shots:




Nathan likes Josh :)


We all went to Red Robin afterward to celebrate!




Jen made Nathan a card too! I didn't even know this was something that was done for dedications! Jen told me I could throw it away if I wanted...she is ridiculous.



So thankful to have Jen in our small group!

Back at home. Daddy & Nathan


Nathan sitting up! :)


Watching a movie with his mama.

What a joy this child is! We feel so blessed to have been given the privilege to raise him to know the Lord. We will need plenty of grace along the way but we are so grateful to be going on this journey of parenthood! :) Thank You, Lord, for Nathan Cole.

Nathan Trying to Sit Up

We took a video of Nathan trying to sit up. He actually did better than this video demonstrates. It seems to be a common occurrence that his performing ends as soon as the camera comes out.

Two Teeth!

Both of Nathan's new teeth have been showing for several week now. So I cropped this picture where you can see his teeth when he's smiling. Much easier than having to pull his mouth open to get a picture!

And even closer up:

Fun with Nathan

A few photos from the last week.

This first one is for you mom. I tried to capture what Nathan does before falling asleep in his crib so I took a picture of the monitor.

He takes his monkey security blanket and covers his whole face with it! Then he falls asleep underneath it and I sneak in to pull it off of his face :) It's so funny!

Nathan and Jamin at small group


Nathan checking out Jamin


Nathan bundled up for the cold. How cute are these mittens that his daddy picked up for him at Wal-Mart?


Making pudding!




Fun with Mama


His hugs are the best!


Biting Mama's nose and pulling her earring all at the same time!

Houdini?

On Saturday morning when I went to get Nathan up, I found him like this:


See the sock in his mouth?

I was trying to decide if I had accidentally left a sock in his crib somewhere the night before that he discovered and decided to chew on. Because he was obviously swaddled.

I then proceeded to "unswaddle" him to solve the mystery...


And this is what I discovered:

His right foot was without a sock! Somehow, he had managed to get his sock off and work it out of the top of his swaddler and into his mouth!

I have no idea how he did this. But he appears pretty proud of himself!

Silly little boy! He brings me joy every morning :)

Nathan at Work

This Monday, Nathan and I went into work for me to do a training session with the new marketers. Thankfully, there is no shortage of people in the office that want to watch Nathan while I'm working. :) Part way through the training, Jim, our Administrator, comes in pushing Nathan on this!

I dressed Nathan in this t-shirt that day because I know Jim loves John Deere. He has several tractors in his office. Before he and his family moved to Colorado, he farmed with his dad in Iowa. However, I did not expect him to let Nathan ride one!

It seriously is one of the cutest things I have ever seen. Jim pushed Nathan in and Nathan was just kind of looking around trying to figure out what was going on. And then they stopped and I snapped a few pictures while everyone gathered around to see him. He got a big grin on his face and just started LAUGHING OUT LOUD! And he just kept laughing :) It was SO cute. While he is easy to get to smile...getting him to laugh takes more work. Apparently, the boy loves being on wheels, or loves the attention...who knows! Whatever it was, he was one happy boy!

I'm so thankful the way our work has embraced Nathan! He seems to love being around everyone.