Nathan's Blessing Day

Nathan had is baby blessing on September 27th.

The outfit he wore was my brother, Steven's and I just loved it. I am a dummy and didn't take many pictures that day of all the family and friends that came to see the blessing and celebrate with us afterwards. I just got this one of the men who were in the blessing circle, minus Josh Fisher. From left to right: Ben Fisher, Russell with Nathan, Aaron Kinser, Dad Hatch, Dad Kinser, Steven Hatch, and Justin Alfrey with Tessa.

At least I got his pictures taken the day before in the outfit! p.s. Olan Mills let's you post your photos, but they have that ugly "print me" button on them . . . sorry

He was soooo tired when we got there, so every time I put him down he would cry. The photographer was laughing though because he would stop crying the second I picked him up. That's my Nathan- just wants to be held close all the time and he's happy.

After a while, we got a couple of him sleeping before he woke up crying

We finally laid him down, and after a few snapshots of him sleeping, he started to wake up with all the flashing lights

Love the yawns!

All in all- I'm very happy with them

My sis-in-law Lisa did one of these and I had to copy because it was

just hilarious!

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One Last Summer Adventure

I'm trying to catch up on all that's happened in the last month and it's tough. I think this is the last of the summer activities and then I can post about Nathan's baby blessing.

We went to the L.A. County Fair with Russell's cousin Ben and his wife Lisa and their baby, Luke, as well as Lisa's parents.

The girls loved looking at the animals. This goat got a little too close though.

This made me a bit nervous (some of you know how I feel about birds)

Ever seen a 2-headed mermaid? Now you have!

I don't know why, but I just love this picture of them talking to each other.

The girls had a ball playing with these big styrofoam blocks. Ben and Russell kept building them up, and then they would knock them down before the boys were finished.

Meanwhile, Luke and Nathan kept warm in the stroller

The acrobat show was pretty dang impressive.

And Madylin was captivated by the dog show where they jumped into a pool

Running through the maze of hay

So hard to bother with a family photo when there is so much to do and see.

Here's our little group, minus the Thompsons. A very fun trip and one we'll have to make every summer.

A Friend in Need

An old roommate/teammate and good friend of mine is going through a really tough trial right now. Jessica had twin girls in May and Kaitlyn passed away a couple of days later. Samantha seemed to be very healthy and happy, but unexpectedly passed away of uncertain causes last thursday at 4 and a half months old. This family is also dealing with Child Protection Services at the moment because of the unknown nature of her death, and had to hire a lawyer to keep custody of their 2 year old, Haley. The Williams family now must pay for legal expenses on top of all the medical expenses (including an emergency life flight), as well as funeral arrangements for another sweet baby. This is a very special and loving family and what they are going through is enough to test anyone's faith. Please checkout supportthewilliamsfamily.blogspot.com and support in anyway you can. Please spread the word

Fun with Dry Ice!

One last thing from our trip to San Diego. My dad made homemade root beer and the girls thought that the dry ice was the greatest thing ever

Where did your hand go, Madylin?

They liked to blow on it and make all the steam(?) go in their faces.

It was good root beer, too!

Beach Trip '09

Sadly, beach trips have become a once-a-year thing since having children. It's hard for me to get used to the fact that I don't live 20 minutes from the beach anymore- it's more like an hour and a half. We did manage to go to the beach while we were in San Diego for Kevin's wedding a couple of weeks ago and here is the proof . . .

The girls were more interested in the sand than the water, but I think that's normal at their age.

When they did venture into the water- it was COLD!

(Madylin with Uncle Matt)

And when Daddy went in the water without the daddy's girl (a.k.a. Morgan), the world was over!

Ahhhh that's better

and I hung out with my little man.

Nathan's Smiles

Nathan started smiling a couple of weeks ago and I've since been working on capturing a good smile.

It's so cute when babies start smiling. Usually the face gets all twisted up in the process.

And as they are learning to smile you usually see a lot of this

and this.

Sometimes you aren't sure if they are trying to smile or not.

Sometimes the smile starts our timid and unsure

And sometimes the smile just explodes onto their face

And once they learn to control that smile, it's a really BEAUTIFUL thing.

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