Soft and Fuzzy

Nathaniel loves anything soft and fuzzy lately. Here he is drooling, eh, lovin' on one of his brother's fuzzy bears.

Conehead

This weekend Andrew and the boys made one of their trips to Lowe's and this is the souvenir from the trip, thanks to Benjamin's obsession with roadwork and the "cones!" that he always points out. Yes, now we have one in our family room...

Making a Mess!!

Today I did something very brave...I broke out the finger paints for the first time and allowed Benjamin to create to his heart's content. Thanks to Crayola Washables, the mess wasn't too painful to clean up afterwards. Man, what a hit this activity was!

Testing the waters with this new form of art, at first Ben explored the colors individually and neatly.

All warmed up and ready to get more daring. Here's Ben with his "potato stamps" that I made him. Ah, memories of elementary school art class...

I love being messy...and this mess is actually okay with Mom!

Here's some serious creating from our two-year-old, now working with not only his potato stamps but also a piece of a pine tree, a lollipop stick and a lasagna noodle for extra fun!

Now wait a minute, Mom, I didn't say you could take that many photos of me looking such a wreck!

Presenting our piece de resistance!

Here's one cute photo of Ben after getting sort of cleaned up, well, clean enough to not get paint on everything but there are still many remnants in his hair. Luckily it is bath night. Look how big his eyes are!

Play Station Fun

We put Nathaniel in our Baby Einstein play station this weekend for the first time and snapped a few photos of him checking it out. Of course he is still a little short for it but we used a throw blanket as a bolster so that his feet could touch the "ground."

Not too sure yet about all of these toys surrounding him...a bit of a sensory overload at first but he seemed curious nonetheless. We were laughing because he naturally gravitated toward the toy that Ben always preferred as well.

Finally smiling and having a good time!

Nathaniel's Baby Dedication

"Behold, children are a gift from the Lord." (Psalm 127:3)

This morning we publically dedicated our newest little "gift," Nathaniel Joseph, to God and vowed before our church body, family and friends that we would raise Nathaniel in a Christian home. We were fortunate enough to have both sets of grandparents as well as several of our closest friends join us for the ceremony. What a blessing to have the support of our family and friends and to have everyone there to celebrate with us! Little Nate is such a sweet baby and has already brought us so much joy. We look forward to seeing how God will bless our little one as he begins his Christian walk in life.

Several of these photographs I am posting are ones that either my mother-in-law Cheri or good friend Julia took. Thanks SO much to both of you for your pictures...and since I didn't take all of the photos today, it actually means that I am IN a few of them :).

Our family of four up front during the dedication service. What a group of handsome boys I live with! :)

God Bless Nathaniel Joseph Martin...

Poor little Nate did wonderfully during the service but crashed and burned when we got home so he had to go for a nap the minute his party started...and slept through the entire thing!! So, we have limited photos of Nate on his big day (although he was with us in spirit through the entire party!). Grandpa G and CC were the only ones left at the house when Nate woke up so here are the few photos we got of Nathaniel today.

Ben and Pop in the midst of an apparently very serious discussion...

Mom, me and good friend Heather relaxing.

Dad and his specialty...carving the meat!

Andrew and his dad.

A candid photo of Andrew.

Yum! Ben loves when it's dessert time...

...and I mean really loves it!

Grandpa G reading Ben some of his favorite truck books.

Some various candid shots that I couldn't resist posting.

Father's Day 2008

For Andrew's third Father's Day we decided to take a trip to the New Jersey State Aquarium in Camden. We had been there by ourselves a few years ago and really enjoyed it so we thought it would be a fun family activity for us to do again with the boys.

Here's Andrew with his two boys as we arrived:

Andrew and Ben had a great time getting close-ups of all the exhibits. Ben loved that he could get right up to the glass windows and see the sealife as if we were underwater. I don't think showing him our 10-gallon aquarium at home prior to coming, to try to explain to him what we would see, did these exhibits justice!

Oops, went a little flash-crazy in this photo. Andrew looks like he's about to blast off!

This was probably one of Ben's favorite exhibits the entire day - the deep sea area with sharks! WHOA!

Below are the three boys checking things out. Ben really loves birds whenever we see them outside so he was fascinated by the birds that were flying around above many of the larger water exhibits. Here are some photos from the hippopotamus exhibit - the above-water part of the exhibit had many birds as well.

We were leisurely enjoying the hippo/bird exhibit when we saw this sign - oops, better get going!

Another bird exhibit that Ben enjoyed. He got a kick out of the Macaw.

Nate was also seriously checking everything out as well and seemed content staring at the large fish in many of the tanks. Of course being the "mama's boy" he is, everything is better when you're being carried around in a Bjorn by your mom!

Another exciting exhibit today was the penguin feeding show. Ben had a great time seeing the many penguins eat their lunch.

After lunch, Nate spent some time relaxing in his stroller and wiled away the afternoon chewing on his hands, a new favorite pastime!

Starting to get a little tired mid-afternoon. Daddy had to carry Ben around on his shoulders for the last few exhibits.

Cheese! Too bad Ben wouldn't look at the camera for this one!

On our way back to the car, we walked the waterfront to see the boats and seagulls, but mainly to get a glimpse of the Battleship New Jersey that is docked right in front of the aquarium. Ben toured a battleship with Andrew and the other men when we were in Virginia last month and has not stopped talking about it! I think we may have to take him to this one as well.