Happy Thanksgiving!

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity...It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing...Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."
--Melodie Beatty

This Thanksgiving, I am feeling grateful to God for having a perfect plan for my life and for executing it, even when my own actions sometimes interfered. "Problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing..." I couldn't have said it better myself! Wishing all of our friends and family gratitude this holiday season and every day of the new year!

Nicholas's First Professional Portraits

.



And finally...
Nick found his thumb this morning!
Keeping it out of his mouth during his portrait session was quite the task!

Nicholas is 3 Months Old!

We are having a blast with a new baby in the house! Now that we have left the newborn phase behind, we are all enjoying playing with Nick. He is laughing a lot now, though I still can't capture it on video, darn it!
Here he is in his Bumbo, where he entertains himself with his favorite toys: still "Leo the Lion" from the Dickens and "George the Giggling Monkey" from Daddy's trip to Minneapolis.

And here he is playing peek-a-boo. The cute tactile, taggie blanket was made for Nick as a shower gift by a coworker. He loves it--it is shiny satin on one side with Curious George flannel on the other, and the ribbon taggies are a mix of smooth satin and grosgrain. It's a sensory extravaganza!
Every time I turn around, these two are sneaking off to dreamland! This time I was cooking dinner when they conked out.

Gabe's Epic Tale: "The Stinky Pumpkin"

This will definitely lose some of the "cute factor" by removing his scrawling second grade print, but here is the story Gabe and his teacher are so proud of! (I'll leave the spelling and grammatical errors!)

One day I heard a swish swash sound in my backyard. What is it? It is a jack-o-lantern. It had a bad stinky smell! It looked like it was getting moldy. The pumpkin looked all gooey inside. It smelled like a dirty, old, dead skunk! When I first saw it I was very surprised. The pumpkin was sooo disgusting! I even saw a spider web on the stem it was so old. As I left there was a cracking sound comig from the pumpkin...sudenly the pumpkin started to burst out with pumpkin inards. I wanted to leave it was so groce! After that I went to my backyard and saw another pumpkin. It was as mushed up and stinky. It was so old alot of bugs were all over it! The next night it rained and got the pumpkin even more groce! My brother ran over the pumpkin with his bike and got it smashed. It was nasty! The next day I saw a bird picking at the pumpkin seeds on the ground. The pumpkin was definitely moldy! The stem was so woren out when the wind blew the stem fell off! I heard another cracking noise. It was the pumpkin again! That pumpkin bursted out with goop too! That was my last pumpkin. Wait a minute no it was'nt! I saw a butiful jack-o-lantern in the back of my yard! Sure enough that was the last pumpkin...and it did not smell! But it did look like it was rotten! As days went by I didn't hear a single cracking noise out of the pumpkin. When it was dark it lit up and when it was sunny the sun shined on it. Every day I woke up to see the pumpkin sitting in the back of my yard. Every time I went outside in the evening I saw it start to lit up. One day the pumpkin got smashed. But it was good while it lasted.

12 Weeks Old and No More Cold!

Yesterday was a big day for our littlest man. He turned 12 weeks old, was declared cold-free by Mommy, and (drumroll, please...) slept through the night in his own room for the very first time! 9:00-7:30!

Winter's Coming, Boys! (Fall Clean-Up)

So far, Nick is not a huge fan of the great outdoors!
I still have faith that the leaves will eventually make their way into the bags!
Gabriel: Our leaf angel!

That's my boy! SOMEONE is working!

NICHOLAS LAUGHED!

This picture really isn't related to the laughter, but it does show the roll involved. While tickling Nick's second chin, he giggled like crazy! TWICE! This picture shows him in his Bumbo seat, which he loves, because he can have "big kid" perspective. So, since I have last had a baby in the house, manufacturers have found a way for an infant as young as 6 weeks old to sit up...genius!

2 1/2 Months Old

At 2 and a half months old, we have boxed up our first outgrown clothes. (Sigh.) Nicholas is growing so fast! He is alert for more of the day and is even "playing" with his toys, brothers, and parents. We are still waiting for that elusive first laugh, but we have found the inevitable first cold--ick! Today is day three of nasal aspiration and labored napping and eating. Nick is tolerating tummy time more, and we have built up his stamina to half of the 15 minute AAP recommendation by adding a mirror to the mix. Nick's favorite playmate: himself!
Gabe and Nicholas bonding.
Even sadder than the box of clothes Nicholas has outgrown, is how quickly he is outgrowing his first tub! Our knees aren't as young as they were the last time we knelt beside a bath tub!
Tolerating tummy time.
Nicholas playing with his new favorite toy: a stuffed lion from the Dickens. He will usually talk and talk to it...of course with the camera on, less so. But he LOVES it! Thanks Uncle Steve, Aunt Chris, Wes, Caylie, Aaron, and Luke! Your package was a big hit with all the Hartle boys!