Good times

So much time has gone by since the last post! We took Nick to the OSU lambing barns to see the new baby lambs (and a few sheep in labor). The lambs were just so cute! There were twins born the morning we went and they were just walking for the first time on very wobbly legs.

This Llama really needs some dental work....

Just a couple hours old. How very sweet!

I signed Nick up for private swimming lessons with his favorite girl, Katie. She works at Wacky Bounce (Nicks favorite place on earth), so Nick is very familiar with her. He did pretty good for his first lesson without me in the pool with him. Should be interesting to see where it goes! Will he become a champion swimmer or first class splasher?

On February 13th we headed to the coast and met up with the Sand Family there. Mike and Nick played down at the beach and both ended up pretty soaked. It was really windy, so I wimped out claiming Daddy and Nick time was precious and I needed to stay in the car and do crossword puzzles. My plan worked out perfectly. Then we spent a little time at the aquarium touching the anemone's, sea urchins and sea cucumbers. We got a quick peek at the octopus who decided to swim out and really give us a show! Then we went to dinner at Cafe Mundo where there was a live band. Nick and Jeff had a blast on the dance floor!

Some nice photos Mike took early in January.

Some of Nicks latest funnies:

Mike and I were sitting at the dinner table and Nick said "I'll be back in a little bit, I'm going to work now" and he ran into the living room then ran back and said "I'm home from work". So I asked him where he was working and he said "Safeway".

He would tell people that he's 49 when asked his age for the longest time, now he says he's 9.

Nick asked for a glass of water at bedtime and Mike got some water out of the bathroom faucet. Nick tasted it and said "this is not good water, daddy get me better water". This coming from the boy who drinks bath water every night....

Nick started crying all of a sudden so I picked him up and asked what was wrong, he said "wanted mommy to hold me, so I cried a little bit."

Christmas Cheer!

Nick was so much fun this Christmas, he was really into opening gifts. Unfortunately my camera memory was full so we didn't get many photos of Christmas morning, but Christmas Eve we have quite a few. Hope everyone else had as much fun as we did!

It's a Mr. Potato Head with an ear for hair!

Grandma and Grandpa opening a basket of chocolate. Nick was there to supervise.
And sample the goods...
Yep, they're okay to eat....
Nick's new art table from Grandma and Grandpa.
My old rocking horse that my dad put new springs on and spruced up for Nick. Nick has not ridden it yet, but we are being persistent. Do you want to ride it now? How bout now? Now?
Just hanging out by the couch.
Chilling with the Mashk watching Kungfu Panda. Nicks favorite movie. He can probably quote the entire thing by now.
Re-arranging the tree.
Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2010!

Merry Christmas!

We recently spent a morning with the Sand family at Wacky Bounce. Nick carried around a red ball the entire time. I think us adults have a little more fun there than the kids do....


So we took Nick to see St. Nick at the Corvallis Country Club. He LOVED Santa. More than last year! Santa came in and Nick shot out of his chair and charged toward Santa. Other kids were closer and beat him to Santa, but Nick patiently waited his turn. He saw that Santa had Candy Canes, so when asked what he wanted for Christmas, Nick said "Candy Cane". He even had Santa unwrap it for him.






Eating the now gooey candy cane. Smile for the camera! Big !


Bigger!



Biggest Smile!



Nicks personality just amazes us. He keeps us all laughing everyday. We had dinner with the Sand family the other night, and the boys jumped off the couch over and over again until Jeff was red and Nick's hair was wet with sweat. Jeff used to try to hug Nick and Nick would just look at him like "get away from me man", this last time Nick was trying to hug Jeff and Jeff kept saying "I don't want to". We were listening to them talking and discussing what they were going to do next, like jumping off the couch while twisting in the air. We heard Jeff say "Oh no, are you okay?" and then Nick reply "Do it again!"

Right now, Nick loves Mac and Cheese, knows his left from his right, wants to know what street places are on (borders, home, grandmas house, petco, etc) and remembers them. He also teases alot, like saying "mommy is a cute boy" then he laughs and says "mommy is a cute girl". A little while back, I didn't shut the garbage can lid all the way and Nick saw that. He came up to it, shut it, looked at me and said "Silly mommy".

When everyone was leaving from Thanksgiving Nick told them all "Thanks for coming to Nicholas's house!" He is also not a mint fan like his Grandpa and daddy and every time there is football on TV he walks by and says "Go Beavs!" and keeps walking by. Last week he kept saying to my mom and I "want wed on" we kept thinking he was saying "want red one" and referring to his toy car. He finally looked at us and said "put lid on it", knowing that we weren't understanding him and he needed to put it a different way

We are really looking forward to Christmas this year. Nick has been great with the tree in the house. He has certain ornaments he is allowed to take off the tree and redecorate with. Every night when we come home from Grandmas house we take a different route home to look at the lights on the houses. Nick is such a joy and a good little boy. We enjoy every moment with him and miss him greatly when we aren't around him. We're hoping to take him sledding somewhere soon!

I didn't get Christmas cards out this year. But the blog is kind of like a year round update! Merry Christmas everyone and wishing you all a wonderful 2010!

Love,Mike, Staci, Nicholas and Mashka

Nick Funnies

Nick keeps us laughing all the time. He's into telling stories and says "ummm" a lot. Last week I asked him "What's your name?", he replied "Nicholas." I asked "How old are you, Nicholas?" and he replied "49". Then he cracked up because he was just teasing me. He also says he has a "cute little butt" and reminds us of that every time we change his diaper. Then he says "mommy has a little butt and Damma (Grandma) has a little butt". And then he goes on to say, "daddy has a big butt". Where he came up with this, we have no idea!

Nick had his first haircut by a stylist, instead of Mike, on Friday at Supercuts. He did really well. The lady that cut his hair was really good with him and got it done really fast. It turned out cute!

Nicholas had my mom in tears today she was laughing so hard. He is obsessed with a tiny mole on her neck. He gives the mole loves and says "Nick loves mole". This morning at breakfast, Mike showed Nick a picture of Nick and Grandma at the zoo. Mike asked "who's in this picture" and Nick said "Damma". Mike asked "who else is in this picture?" and Nick replied, "Damma's mole."

Right now he's back into being interested in the alphabet, but is interested in spelling. We'll see where this leads! Anyway, here are a few cute videos I had to share. The first one is Nick talking about the pumpkins from our Halloween party. He talks non-stop all day long which is really fun. I love having conversations with him and listening to him tell me stories about his day.



Nick loves to watch Igudesman and Joo on youtube. They are musician/comedians. One performance of theirs is titled "Riverdancing violinist" and here's a video of Mike and Nick riverdancing.

Spook-takular

This year was so much fun with Nick. He LOVED trick-or-treating. He wanted to stay at the last house we went to and just chat. He was telling the homeowners all about chocolate. We had a big party at our house, my headcount was 42 people. Wow. That's all I can say - wow. We had so much fun. The kids were all great, they just ran around having a fun time. We had a couple games and activities for them until it got dark enough to trick-or-treat. It was really wonderful. And the weather here was so nice! It was great for trick-or-treating. Not like doing it in the snow in Klamath! Aaah - memories!

Nick trying on Grandpas wig. Is this what a girl would look like if we had one? Kinda cute, kinda creepy..... Spooky food! Our neighbor, Ron, did both of these fantastic treats! I was so impressed I had to post a picture! The pumpkin aftermath. The Pinata. Now best known as the "Pinata incident" - you don't want to know. Just trust me - never get a pinata. The older kids played "wrap the mummy". Gary and Jacob were the lucky Mummies. Nicks friend Axel and his mommy, Anna. He had a cow costume and his mom was the Cowgirl. They were super cute! What a wonderful crowd! The kids (I think there were 16 kids total) decorating pumpkins. This was a total hit! Will definitely remember that activity to use again in the future! Very well dressed Halloween guests, Wiatt, Melanie and Jacob. The Mummy and Little Miss Muffet.

On Friday we went downtown Corvallis trick-or-treating. It was so much fun! And it was so nice outside! The perfect day. All the pumpkins the kids decorated the night before (they were supposed to take them home, but things were a little chaotic!). So now they look cute on our front door step and they make me smile! The day after Halloween. The hats are still fun!

A few cute videos

I haven't had any videos on here in a while, so I thought I'd put on a couple that I thought were cute.

This was from September of Nick blowing wishes.


Late August doing what Nick does best, eating blackberries! Of course he was quick to figure out that blackberry bushes have thorns, so he made Mike pick the berries most of the time.



And finally, Nick's violin playing stage from August up to about 3 weeks ago (about 7 weeks total). We went through two sets of batteries in the first 10 days. Mashka is very happy that the violin is no longer an obsession, she did not like it at all! But I did!

The Great Pumpkin

So we just took our yearly trip out to Heavenly Harvest for the fall festivities. We did all the usual fantastic stuff: duck races, hay bale maze, corn maze, corn cannon, pumpkin patch, corn box. Nick loved the hay bale maze - he ran through it yelling "this is neat!" He also had a blast in the corn box and left with quite a bit of corn stuck in his diaper and pockets. I discovered that dry corn can be re-plumped after going through the washing machine....

This year we had a larger crowd that came with us. Grandma and Grandpa Edwards and the Parker family (Misty, Emily, Staci and Gary) came as usual, but YaYa and Dza Dzu (Grandma and Grandpa Monroe) and Aunt Pili came as well. Also Nick's partner in crime, Jefferson and his daddy, Kirby joined us as for the fun. It was a great crowd!
Searching for the perfect pumpkin.

Father and daughter - Gary and Staci striking a pose.
Emily and the giant pumpkin!

Everyone in their game day orange.

And this is how we left with a pound of corn in Nick's diaper and pockets.

Jefferson climbing the hay stacks.

Nick keeps us laughing every day. The things he says just amaze us. Here are some examples:

1. We were out to dinner and Mike was reading the menu. Nick really wanted to play with the menu, but Mike told him to wait because he was reading it. Nick turned to me with this serious look on his face and said "Daddy not sharing, just reading it". And looked at me like - would you do something about it?

2. Nick was running his fingers through his own hair and saying "I have nice hair".

3. Nick was eating lunch and had a mouth full of food, he opened is mouth and looked at me, then said "Want mamma to look at it" and then opened his mouth again.

4. Mike was downstairs with Nick and he was yelling upstairs to me to get my attention and ask me a question. Mike was yelling "Hey Stac!" So now every time I run upstairs, Nick yells "Hey Stac" and cracks himself up.

5. We pretend we are in a boat (its a blowup dog full of toys that's as big as a bathtub) and I use whatever I can find for paddles. We paddle along picking up friends (a crab, a turtle, etc). Nick leaned over the side of the "boat" and said "jellyfish, want to eat blue one" and pretended to pick a jellyfish out of the water and eat it.

It is so much fun having conversations with him. I love it when he tells me stories and gets soooo excited to talk about things. This is such a fun age, and we are looking forward to Halloween this year. We'll see what he does trick-or-treating. Who knows what he'll do?