Christmas!

We had a very small Christmas this year due to the weather. Jeremy went and picked up Laura in Spokane. Jeremy's Mom drove down from Colville. I cooked up a Christmas Eve feast and we opened presents. Since it was such an unconventional Christmas, we decided to open presents before dinner so that Jeremy's Mom could leave quickly after dinner since the snow was still coming down at an alarming rate. Nathan was totally overwhelmed with all the gifts. He kept turning around in circles trying to figure out what to play with next. It was really cute!


Christmas Day was spend shoveling snow. In the evening, we put Nathan to bed and Jeremy and I headed to Spokane to see Twilight! Laura had the easiest baby sitting job ever as the baby was already in bed. That was the first movie I had seen in the theatre since July of 2007 and the last Harry Potter movie. I was 8 1/2 months pregnant and totally uncomfortable but I have this thing that I have to see all the Harry movies in the theatre. Anyway, I went into premature contractions during the movie last time so that was great. Luckily the hospital get them stopped and everything was fine, but my point of this little rant is I hadn't been to the movies in forever!

I REALLY liked Twilight! I thought they did an awesome job with the casting and did a great job inserting the humor into the movie that you see in the book. I can't wait for it to come out on video.

We spent most of the day after Christmas shoveling out. We've got about 50 inches total and that was all up on our roof. We bought a snow rake, so we got the roof shoveled off. It took awhile and we've sure got mounds of snow all around! We're only supposed to get another 7-10 inches tonight. Oh goody.


Nathan trying really hard to open his new Bounce and Spin Zebra



Nathan with some of his new toys



This was the best family photo we could get. Nathan was not cooperating!



Nathan with his Aunt Laura. He had to have Mommy in the photo too. He won't let me leave his side.

Santa and Snow

We've officially given up trying to get Nathan's picture with Santa! Today was our last try. The third time was not the charm. Here was our track record.

Try #1: Nathan would go no where near Santa. He just screamed and screamed.

Try #2: We were on our way back from Spokane. The pizza place by our house had a Santa. Nathan decided to throw a tantrum in the car. He screamed for probably 40 minutes, so we just bypassed Santa and headed home.

Try #3: Just now, the local coffee stand was supposed to have Santa. We dressed Nathan all up, and drove over there, sliding all over the road. No Santa! He cancelled due to weather.

Santa was not in the cards this year. Maybe next year!

So we've been getting quite a lot of snow. It's quite ridiculous! I believe we're up to about 20 inches. Another storm is supposed to bring us much more tomorrow.
I've tried taking Nathan out in it, but even with his snow boots, he keeps falling over and cold snow gets down his boots and in his mittens. He's not been impressed thus far. It doesn't help it's very cold. Today is super sunny and it looks like a perfect winter wonderland outside! Not a cloud in the sky. It's just gorgeous. However, it is currently 6 degrees, so no outside play.


A picture perfect winter day. Hi Lindsay and Brandon's house! We can see you through the leafless tree!



Our snow covered house


Nathan's mittens kept falling off and his little hands got really cold. Not a happy time!


It's hard walking in the snow. It's so uneven and sometimes you fall into snowbanks.



Jeremy snowblowing the 17 inches we got in one night. More is on the way!

Our First Snowfall

We're getting our first snow of the year! The first snow is always so exciting. However, the excitement usually wears off pretty quickly. Last year, we had so much snow and a serious case of cabin fever. One day last year, we got 13 inches in one day. We did not have a snow blower. Luckily, Jeremy had the day off and literally spent all day shoveling out our driveway (we have a big driveway). So this year, we went and purchased a snowblower.

Last night we got about 3 inches of snow. Jeremy had some fun using his new toy. He said it's sure faster than shoveling.

I took Nathan out to play in the snow yesterday. Last year, he was too small to go outside of course. So I take him outside, and he will not leave my side! He was so apprehensive about walking out into it. I got him to hold some in his hand and he threw a little snowball.

Today, the temperatures started dropping. They're supposed to be down really super low. Like in the single digits, so Nathan will not be attempting snow again until it warms up a bit!



See that rock sculpture behind Jeremy? We call that Stonehenge. Anyway, it was completely covered in snow for months last year. Let's hope the snow isn't that high this year.



Nathan was not sure what to think of the snow!



I took this picture standing in our shop. Nathan kept venturing out into the snow, and then running back to me.

Thanksgiving

The 3 sisters



Our attempt at a family Thanksgiving photo


This year, Jeremy happened to have Thanksgiving off. His days off are Wed, Thurs, Friday, which came in very handy! We decided we were going to make the trip over to Arlington to his aunt and uncle's house. Nathan would get to meet Jeremy's whole side of the family.

Since it would be almost a 7 hour drive (with no stops) we headed to Royal Wednesday. There my Mom had prepared a Thanksgiving dinner! She was so thoughtful to use a fake butter in everything so Nathan could eat. So Wednesday night, we had Thanksgiving in Royal with my parents, Laura and were even surprised when LeAnne and Rick showed up! They drove all the way from Boise to see us for the night, so that was nice. We had a great dinner. Getting Nathan to go to sleep in a strange place was another story. My parents had even bought a crib. When we've traveled before, Nathan has slept in a pack-n-play and he's never done well. He did ok sleeping.

Thursday morning, we left for the west side. We took my parents' new 2008 Chevy Silverado over in case there were problems in the pass. That was nice!! They even have XM radio so it was awesome to get to listen to the same channel wherever we were and it never went out of range. Very cool.

We drove to Jeremy's uncle's place in Arlington. Jeremy's Mom's whole family was there. Jeremy's cousin Michele and her husband and baby Aiden were there. Aiden is 6 months old, so when when the two boys get older, they'll be able to play together. Nathan was super exhausted and didn't do too well after 4 pm. He didn't get a nap.

We then drove up to Burlington to spend the night at Jeremy's grandma's house. Again, Nathan had a horrible night and we woke up after little sleep just exhausted!

Friday morning, we drove down to Mt. Vernon to visit some of my Spragg relatives. That was fun!

Then, we drove most of Friday afternoon back to Royal where we visited with my parents again and ate leftovers. We spent the night, and poor Nathan struggled again.

Saturday we left Royal to head for home. There was actually snow here in Spokane when we got here!! There wasn't even any over Snoqualmie. We got home at 3, and Jeremy had to leave for work at 5:00 for his regular 10 hour shift. We were both so tired!!

Christmas Tree Time!

We usually get the Christmas tree out after Thanksgiving. Yes, we have a fake tree. Sad, but quick and convenient. This year, we're going to be gone all Thanksgiving weekend, and won't get the chance to put up the tree for at least a week after that, so we wouldn't have a tree until like Dec 7. That just wasn't acceptable! So we put it up today.

When we were putting the tree together, Nathan was super excited! He kept pointing at the tree and making his happy noises. But the weird thing was, when we turned ON the lights, he didn't even seem to care much. He noticed, but lights apparently do not interest him much.

Nathan got really excited about trying to take ornaments off. He wasn't too interested in putting them on. So I put a few non-breakable ones down at the bottom. He loves that!

Link to Article about Jeremy

Jeremy had a scary call a few weeks ago. It it now public knowledge, so I'm posting the article from the newspaper below. It's a good thing he's a supercop!



Prosecuting Attorney Tim Rasmussen 12.NOV.08
An affidavit of probable cause was filed last week alleging that Rudy Daniel Rodriguez of Nine Mile Falls was arrested and charged with several felony and gross misdemeanor charges as a result of a recent investigation related to child abuse allegations and the events that transpired in that investigation.

On November 1, after gathering information from the victim, Deputy Wakeman contacted the suspect at his home. As he was being placed under arrest, Mr. Rodriguez began to struggle with the deputy. He was tazed but managed to escape. He went into another room in the house and armed himself with a shotgun. Deputy Wakeman retreated outside and called for assistance when he heard the suspect rack shells into the weapon. Deputy Wakeman heard him go into the attached garage and prevented him from closing the garage door. Mr. Rodriguez eventually got outside the residence into his truck (an AT&T service truck) and then led the officers and WSP on a chase. The chase eventually ended on highway 395 after the WSP put stop strips on the road and disabled the vehicle. Inside the vehicle the officers found the loaded shot gun with the safety in the “fire position”. Other items of potential evidence were seized from the truck.

A subsequent search of the residence revealed that a computer had been taken into the basement, shot open, and the hard drive shot with the shotgun. The computer will be examined at the crime lab to see if useable evidence remains in the memory drives. Other evidence including drugs and pornographic materials were found in the home.

Mr. Rodriguez will be in court this week for preliminary matters in this case.

This incident points out the potential danger that our Law Enforcement officers face as they go about the business of keeping us safe and investigating the crimes that occur.

- The Outpost Newspaper

My Little Helper

Nathan is just too funny! The other day, my parents were over visiting. My Dad and Nathan were in the living room. I told my Dad I was running downstairs to throw a load of laundry in the dryer. Usually, Nathan throws a fit if I leave a room and he can't see me. However, he didn't cry and I wondered why. I'm coming back up the stairs when I burst out laughing!

Here comes my little man trying to drag his laundry basket down the hallway! He's huffing and puffing because it's almost as big as he is!! He heard the word "laundry" and knew what he had to do! It was SO cute..boy I wish I could have got that on video!

Nathan's Self Portraits

Nathan is obsessed with anything that has to do with cameras, camcorders, telephones, remotes, etc. He always wants to grab the camera when I'm trying to take pictures of him. We think he's going to be a technology geek. However, I'm guessing this love of shiny electronics is not too uncommon in kids! So I decided to let him take a few pictures! He loved it! He pushed down the button (with a little help from Mom of course). Here are his self portraits!

Oh, and apparently I did not do a great job wiping his face off after dinner. Well, it was almost bath time anyway.






Also, we had two Halloween costumes for Nathan. We had a bee and a chick. We thought the chick one was cuter, but he absolutely HATED IT!!!! He would not keep on that head part, but it was absolutely hilarious, so I thought I'd post a picture of my very unhappy baby chick. So we went with the bee. He still disliked it, but tolerated it.

Happy Birthday Jeremy-A Scorpio You Are!

Today was Jeremy's 29th birthday! We didn't do any celebrating today as Jeremy had to work tonight but will have some time this weekend. Jeremy has had a difficult week! He had a call a few nights ago that was quite scary. He went to make an arrest and things did not go as they should have. It turned into a pursuit, but luckily ended up ok. However, Jeremy now has TONS of paperwork to do with the case. He's hoping that the person will be going to jail for a long time.

I was looking at the MSN page the other day and noticed an link to find out more about the "Scorpio" astrology sign. Jeremy is a Scorpio, so that is likely why they are featuring an article on that sign. I was amazed at how much Jeremy really does fit this sign! I'd never paid much attention to those kinds of things before. It made me wonder if I went and looked at the "traits" of the other signs, if he would match all of them to an extent. So I went and looked at many signs and it does seem he fits Scorpio best! It was really interesting. Of course, some things don't fit him, but alot do! I thought I'd list some of the highlights since it is his birthday.

-Controlled cool exterior
-Doesn't show emotions readily but there is alot going on inside
-Excellent leader and resourceful
-strong commitment to family
-doesn't worry about making friends on the job, but gets job done well (perfect for a police officer)
-a career Scorpio does well in is police officer or detective
-good money managers
-most compatible with Cancers and Pisces (I'm a Cancer!! It is meant to be....)
-has an intense look in the eye

Haha! That was fun! I checked out mine too, and I'm a really good fit with Cancer, so who knows, maybe these things are more accurate than I would have thought.

Here's the link to the page (making sure I list my sources)

http://astrocenter.astrology.msn.com/msn/ArticleAstrologyHomeV2.aspx?sd=20051018>1=21001

Halloween

Nathan managed to survive another Halloween! Last year, he absolutely HATED his Halloween costume. We had high hopes that this year would be different. NOPE! He hated his costume this year too. Last year, we had a screaming teddy bear, and this year we had a fussy bumblebee. He especially doesn't appreciate the hood over his head. We have high hopes for next year.

This year, we actually took him out to trick r treat. Some of the people that knew us were prepared with fruity candy. Thanks Lindsay and Amy. In the future, I'm not sure exactly what we'll do since Nathan can't have any chocolate or nuts. It seems most Halloween candy has one of these things, so I'll have to figure out some system of taking the candy away when he gets home and substituting it with candy I've bought or something.





So I was looking at last year's Halloween pictures and could not believe how tiny he was back then! He was about 8 weeks old last Halloween. I had to post a picture just to show the difference. See the cord in plugged into the wall? That is the vacuum. We had the vacuum on for the pictures. He used to stop screaming when the vacuum was on. Otherwise that would have been one unhappy bear.



My big 14 month old bumblee...still not happy



He didn't smile once while the costume was on




The highlight of Nathan's Halloween was the pumpkin Daddy carved him. He LOVED it! When he sees it lit up, he claps and smiles and runs to it. Very cute.

Bad Service at Home Depot?

Apparently, Home Depot hires anybody these days!







Today at Home Depot, one of the workers gave Nathan this little apron. He toddled around the store in it getting loads of attention and lots of admirers. A lot of people smiled upon seeing this little worker! It was hilarious.

Nathan's First Phone Call

Nathan made his first phone call tonight. He called 911 and then hung up.

My little man likes to play with the phone. He was playing with it tonight. I took it from him and hung it up. About 5 seconds later, the phone rings! It's 911 dispatch which isn't too uncommon because they do call here alot...but always when Jeremy is home. They're calling to send him to a call or something.

Anyway, it scared me that they were calling me because I thought something had happened to Jeremy!! Nope, they tell me that they had a 911 hang up from our number. So they had dispatched all deputies to run code to our house to figure out why someone had hung up.

Well, guess which deputy that included? Yes, Jeremy. So here he is driving as fast as he can to our house not knowing why I called 911 and hung up. We've had to call 911 before because of a severe allergic reaction so he likely thought something bad had happened to Nathan. Luckily, he didn't have to drive far before dispatch told him it was an accidental call. But still, I made him drive 100 mph to our house and scared him half to death because I let Nathan play with the phone. Nathan is not getting the phone again. I feel terrible.

Birthday Parties and Football Games

Today, Nathan and I went to a birthday party! It was for Arya Syrie who was turning 2 years old. Her parents were my old cross country coaches back in Royal City. They live in Cheney now. There were 4 little kids there and Nathan seemed to enjoy playing with them! He also liked all the new toys to look at and play with.

Tonight was also the big football game here at home. Lakeside vs. Chewelah. Jeremy was the deputy on duty for the night. On our way back from Cheney, we stopped at the game to see Daddy! Everyone of course thought Nathan was just adorable. It was Nathan's first football game. I met a few new people. Nathan enjoyed rocking with the pep band. He was smiling and clapping while they played. Alot of the girls in the band found him quite charming. It was fun! Lakeside ended up winning so that was great too.

It's eerily warm here today. It's 10:00 at night and still 55 degrees which is very strange for the middle of October!

Future Cougar Day

We took a road trip to Pullman today! We had a great time! The weather was just perfect. Laura was able to come with us. She sometimes has Wednesdays off. Our first stop was the new Cub which has the Bookie inside it now. We were quite impressed with the new Cub updates. One of the first things Jeremy noticed was the flat screens in the Cub hooked up to video games you can play. I liked that there was now a tunnel connecting the library to the Cub! That was cool!

The new Bookie was really big, but it seemed almost just like a regular Barnes and Noble now that they've taken over. So sad! Nathan loved playing with all of the stuffed animals of course.

Nathan really enjoyed playing on the top of the library but wasn't too impressed with the view.





We were suprised at the amount of construction going on! There were detours everywhere on the hill. We also discovered that things have certainly changed on deciding how to get places! Now we had to find routes without stairs because of the stroller. Who would have thought?

When we were walking by the stadium, the football team was starting practice. Nathan was mesmorized! He walked right up to the fence, and stood there. And stood there. We could not pull him away!!! I guess there was alot of action going on and he loved it.





Of course we headed to Ferdinands! We were nervous about taking Nathan in with all the milk and cheese floating around in the air. Laura had her first ever Ferdinand's ice cream and agreed it was the best ice cream she'd ever tasted! Jeremy and I both spent a summer in the creamery making cheese (not the same summer) so we had some flashbacks. I remember I really hated working there! Long, hot, humid and always wearing gloves, boots and having cheese down your boots. We bought a can of Cougar Gold cheese. They're $18 a can now! They were only $13 when we were there.








Oh yes, Nathan did change outfits on our trip. We won't discuss what happened, but of course it had to happen when not at home! See why I bring extra clothes Jeremy?












We stopped for dinner at Cougar Country Drive In! We had burgers. Nathan ate some canned chicken and applesauce. You never know what's in the burgers! Some use whey as a filler.

We stopped to visit Nathan's little friend Ava. She lives near Laura! They played together. She is 12 months old and Nathan is 14 months. It amazes me how different boys and girls are! Nathan is just moving constantly, grunting, making noises, throwing things, and nearly biting your hand off when you put food in his mouth. Ava just sat there angelically! She smiled and did a little bit of reaching for toys. She was so delicate. She'd opened her mouth to accept food and then smile. So far, this is the second little girl friend Nathan has and they are both so different from him. I'm not sure if this is typical, or if the only little girls we know are super delicate and sweet!

Both babies had some super cute hats, so we had to get a picture!

My nemesis

The old yucky blue color



the new and improved house




Nathan helping out




My big piles of pine needles




We have a HUGE pine tree in our front yard that is half over the driveway. Before I moved to Northeast Washington, I had no real knowledge of pine trees or the big mess they make! Ever day, it drops more and more pine needles all over. It's the kind of tree you have to clean up after constantly.

Growing up at my house in Central Washington, there were no trees. Well, we had a few deciduous trees that were kind of stunted because they weren't meant to grow in arid conditions. It would take about 10 minutes to rake those leaves-once a year.

Now, I rake every month. I have to! This tree is a pain in my side. The driveway is always covered in needles, nothing will grow under it. We would like to have it gone, but that would be a HUGE project for poor Jeremy who has no time as it is.

Today I raked all the needles up again. I'll have to do it again before the snow falls.

I'm also posting a picture of our newly painted house with all brand new windows that Jeremy put in! It looks so much better than before! YEA!!!

Green Day Fan?

So the other day in the car, a Green Day song came on. Nathan started SINGING! It was SO cute-he's never sung before. It was the only song he sang to the whole trip. Then, today, a different Green Day song came on, and he started singing again while clapping!! Why does he only sing to Green Day? Is he a big fan? And how did he know it's the same band but a different song? Weird!!

He did another new cute thing today too. I randomly just started reciting from a book of his. I've pretty much got them all memorized at this point. Anyway, all of a sudden, he gets up and disappears down the hall into his room. He then comes out WITH that book! I couldn't believe it! So I started reciting lines out of different books, and would you believe that he kept trooping down to his room to retrieve the book I was quoting? We got up to 5 books before he got bored with the game. I didn't realize he was actually listening when I read books!

Jeans shopping...uggghhh!!!!

Well, I needed some new jeans today. I've never particularly enjoyed shopping for clothes, but since having Nathan I've liked it even less! He's always fussing and wants out of the stroller to run around. Plus, maybe it's the 80's styles I'm not liking this year.

Anyway, I last bought a pair of jeans in August and they are too loose now. August is when I stopped nursing Nathan and when I did that my appetite just disappeared. It seems like I'm never hungry anymore. So therefore, 2 months later I needed new jeans.

Jeans are just the worst to buy! I can NEVER find the right size and fit! Today, I found two pairs that fit pretty well. Do you want to know what sizes they were? The first pair was a size 1, and the second pair was a size 11!! What the heck?? Seriously, I've never fit into a size 1 in my life and I've never worn 11's either. I used to fit between these sizes and never had to try on six sizes to figure out which I wear.

I think there are two conspiracy theories going on here. The first are the companies that want to make you "feel good" so they purposely let people fit into 1's knowing that you will buy the pants just so you can tell people you wear a 1. The other theory is the companies that make the sizes bigger so you feel you're "fat." Then you try to lose weight and when you do so, you have to buy another pair of their jeans.

Seriously, who has time or patience to try on every size from 1 to 11? Especially women toting along fussing kids? I was about to rip my hair out! Why can't they size women's pants like mens? Using inches? It would be so easy to just go in and find a 32 waist or whatever. So frustrating!!!

On a lighter note, out house is almost painted! All they have left is the shutters which they are going to do tomorrow.

Also we had our first freeze last night so my tomato plants were all black and shriveled this morning. So sad! Poor Nathan will have no more tomatoes to smash up.

Jeremy normally has Thursdays off, but tonight is off on a prisoner transport all the way to Richland. I'm taping The Office for him!

Tomato Picking

We're had a TON of tomatoes in the garden this year. I never thought I'd say it but I'm sick of tomatoes. We have both big tomatoes and cherry tomatoes. Nathan LOVES picking the cherry tomatoes. At first, I wouldn't let him do it because I was afraid of him choking on them. It turns out, he just wants to put them in his mouth to squish them as fast as he can. Then, he squishes it in his hand and throws it away. After a few minutes, there are squished tomatoes everywhere. It is cute, but super messy! Every time we head outside, he makes a beeline for the garden.