Happy Birthday, Nathan!

It's official. Our baby is one-whole-year old. I feel like Nathan's first year went by so much faster than Tyler's, and I'm sure that has something to do with having two boys to chase all day.

We celebrated Nathan's big day with a trip to the zoo! Tyler was so excited about seeing all the animals and getting to ride the tram. Nathan enjoyed the opportunity to practice walking outside. Even though he's been taking a few steps at a time for the past few weeks, yesterday afternoon he decided that walking is his preferred method of movement. He didn't even want to hold my hand at the zoo today. Such a big boy.

Our first stop -- giraffes and zebras

That's an elephant in the background

Checking out a chimpanzee

Playing at the KidZone -- The boys LOVED this place!My boys...after they FINALLY found their way through the bamboo maze

When we got home from the zoo, Nathan opened his birthday presents from us. Well, actually there was nothing to open. Everything was just sitting inside the back of his new Haul & Ride dump truck.

Nathan and his new googly ball

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I think it was a pretty great birthday for Nathan, if I say so myself. We all had fun celebrating our littlest guy's first year.

First Birthday Party

Even though Nathan's birthday isn't until later this week, we had his birthday party this past Saturday. It was a fairly small gathering of family and friends, and of course there was cake and too many presents. We were (and still are) having unseasonably warm weather. The high that day was over 90 degrees, which is just plain crazy for April.

Thanks to my friend Lindsay and her awesome camera, we have some great photos from the party. (The not-so-awesome photos were taken with my camera).

We tried to disguise our unfinished walls with streamers and a banner. I'm not sure that we were successful, but at least the house looked festive.

Tyler and Kaitlyn checking out the cake Smash cake and big cake The birthday boy

Little Olivia

The big kids table

Opening presents was kind of funny because Nathan really didn't understand what he was supposed to be doing, and Tyler and Cooper were very eager to demonstrate. It was neat to see how excited they'd get about the toys, even though they knew everything was for Nate.

Time for cake

Nathan wasn't quite sure what to do with his smash cake, at first. He kept trying to pick off the little icing dots. I ended up cutting up a few pieces for him, which he devoured pretty quickly. Yum!

Thanks to everyone who came! It was a lot of fun, and even though Nathan won't remember a thing, at least we have lots of photos to help remind Tim and I of this very special occasion in our little guy's life.

Rough Week

Our house was not a fun place to be for the past week or so. It started last Monday...

Monday: I took Tyler to the pediatrician about some mysterious red bumps on him. The doctor diagnosed him with folliculitis, which is not a big deal, but he warned that it could develop into a staph infection. He took a skin culture from one of the "postules" (or "spots", Tyler calls them), prescribed some antibiotic ointment and told me to call back in 48 hours.

Wednesday: We found out that his skin culture was indeed growing staph, but we wouldn't know for a couple more days if it was MRSA (the really bad kind of staph infection). At that point, the existing spots seemed to be responding to the ointment. The nurse on the phone told me to call if any new spots appeared, or if they seemed to hault in their response to the medicine. Also on Wednesday, Tyler seemed to have a bit of a black eye. After some questioning, he told us that a little boy ran into him at MOPS the day before. He said it was an accident, that it hurt really bad, but that he didn't cry. The other boy cried.

Thursday: Nathan woke up from his afternoon and threw up all over himself while still in his crib. He had diarrhea that night. Nice.

Saturday: Tyler developed new spots--not good. He also had swollen, itchy eyes due to something that was blooming outside. Poor guy was pretty miserable. He just couldn't stop rubbing his eyes. Oh yeah, and then I caught the stomach bug from Nathan.

Sunday: I still felt sick, Tyler still looked like he'd been punched with his red, puffy eyes, and Tim caught the stomach bug. Nathan started coughing and had congestion. Did I mention that PJ threw up first thing that morning? Seriously, even the dog was sick.

Monday: We went back to the pediatrician about the new spots (not MRSA, praise the Lord!), got an oral antibiotic, and found out we could give Tyler Zyrtec for his allergies. Tim was still sick, but I felt fine.

Tuesday: I felt sick again, probably because I barely slept the night before. I could hear Nathan coughing through the monitor all night long. Poor little guy.

Wednesday/Today: Tim and I are better. The boys are doing well, relatively speaking. They both have runny noses and are coughing, and Tyler's eyes are still bothering him a little, but I'll take that over everything else we've had in the past week! I'm so grateful we're finally on this end of that crazy week.

More Baby Steps

Nathan is doing more and more walking lately. It's still not his preferred mode of movement, but he's been practicing. This video is from last Thursday and as it shows, he's also been pretending to talk on the phone. Such a big boy!

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Baby Steps

Nathan took his first step last week, and ever since he's been taking a couple every day. The most he's done at once is about 6, which he did on Monday and again today, but it's usually just a couple at a time. Despite my earnest attempts to capture some of these first wobbles, I haven't been very successful. I'll keep trying, though. He will be probably be doing it more and more in the coming weeks. For now, a couple photos of our big stander and a video of random cuteness will have to do.

This video has clips of Nathan doing various things. I wanted to capture Nathan crawling because he's so fast and I don't know how much longer he'll be doing it. Everywhere we go, people comment on how quick he is at crawling. There's also a clip of him clapping with some crazy hair. Finally, I managed to get a video of some little wobbles.

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Easter Day

Easter fun started early on Sunday for our boys. We kind of had to rush them through opening their Easter baskets so we could get to church, but they didn't seem to mind. As expected, Tyler was excited to discover what was in his basket and the goodies that he received from his grandparents and cousins in Missouri. Of course Nathan didn't really understand what was going on, but he did seem to enjoy his new toys.

Ready to dig in Checking out the goodsNathan wasn't so sure about the grass in his basket
After church we headed to my parents' house for the rest of the day. Nathan fell asleep on the way, so we took a few photos of Tyler in his stylin' new Easter outfit before changing him into more comfy clothes. Poor guy actually wasn't feeling very well, but he managed to squeeze out a few smiles.

When Nathan woke up from his nap, it was his turn in front of the camera.

Jonathan, Becki and the boys, as well as Grandma and Grandpa Pittman, came over for dinner later in the afternoon. Of course we had to have an Easter egg hunt for the four cousins. Cooper and Tyler scored big time since their little brothers just weren't quite as fast or interested.

The hunt begins... Gabe just wanted to eat the candy!Nathan and his one egg Focused on the task at hand
Cooper the Superstar
Our handsome foursome A pair of goofballs
I told Tyler to hold on tight to Nathan since they were sitting on the steps...
...so he proceeded to open his eggs one-handed, never letting go of his little bro.
The Cardenas crew

Our little family

After all the hunting and posing, we ate a scrumptious meal prepared by my mom. We're still enjoying leftovers of the three different desserts she prepared. All in all, it was a beautiful day to celebrate Jesus's resurrection--but really, every day is a good day to celebrate the fact that our Savior lives.