The Wagstaff Family

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Thanksgiving in Afton

We spent Thanksgiving in Afton with my family this year. We missed the Wagstaff side of our family but had a great time with the Scherbels. One of Nathan and Natalie's favorite activities at Grandma's is taking a bath. Here Natalie is enjoying her first.

Natalie traveling as usual on her rear end between the new addition and the rest of the house.

On Thanksgiving Eve we went to the 'Fun House' for a yummy dinner with extended family. Then we watched football and played wally ball. So fun. The kids had a ball with all their cousins. Nathan doesn't get much happier than when he is surrounded with other kids. Natalie enjoyed playing with a wally ball too. Forget dolls. This girl is more interested in trucks and balls.

We played a fun 'tournament' of wally ball. No one was very prepared to play but we all had fun.

Christy's birthday is Nov 30th. Since we were all together on Thanksgiving we started off the morning throwing Christy a surprise breakfast. Who doesn't want to start the day with a little icing? Happy Birthday Christy!! 21 Wow.

Nathan and Charlotte helping Christy blow out her candles.

My brother Dan and his new baby Brooklyn. So sweet. We all stayed at my parents. Boy our family is growing. And it is so fun.

One of our favorite traditions is cutting down our tree in Grover canyon. My mom gets us permits every year and we venture out to find a tree. We always go with my brother Roland and his wife Lizzy. We took my grandma with us this year to watch from the safety of the truck. We had a ball this year. Here you can see Ryan and Roland bundled up ready to face the cold.

Nathan helping Ryan cut down our tree.

Ryan taking it to the truck. I don't see how it gets any better than this.

Nathan working on a snow angel.

And Nathan with his cousins Charlotte and Isabel. We left Natalie with Grandma.

On the way home Nathan yells out "Look a moose!" We couldn't see what he was talking about until we got closer but sure enough well, not a moose but a big deer. It was amazing.

Since Nathan and Ryan were already bundled Nathan talked Ryan into pulling him and his cousins around behind the four wheeler. There wasn't really that much snow at my parents but enough for sledding behind the four wheeler.

Meanwhile many hands were at work preparing dinner. This is one of the three turkeys pre fry. My dad did some research and decided to try a mustard rub before frying. We were a little skeptical. Why ruin a good thing right?

Turkey post fry. Isn't it pretty? I don't know if you remember a few years ago the charred look. But this one was much prettier. I don't know that it was any better. I mean really it's always good. My dad does an amazing job with the turkey every year.

My brother roland decided to take advantage of all the people waiting for dinner and had everyone filling out surveys for one of his classes at the U.

Christy thinking about those tough questions.

The sides were all ready.

The tables were set.

The turkeys were being carved.

And then we got to eat.

And oh it was good. I only wish there was more room to put it all. I didn't get any pictures of all the fun board games we played. Thanks for letting me win Grandpa. My family isn't competitive. Not at all. We had such a fun/memorable Thanksgiving. I feel so very blessed this year. We missed Paul and his family but are glad we will get to see them for Christmas. We weren't there nearly long enough but we tried hard to get a lot in. I love my family. I am grateful for them. Grateful for an amazing husband and wonderful children. Thank you mom for hosting all of us and while it looked effortless I know you put in a lot of work and I thank you for that.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Halloween

We grew several pumpkins this year in our garden. Nathan had been watching them grow and deciding who's would be who's for months. After putting him off for weeks we finally carved five of them for FHE on night. I wish I'd gotten a clearer picture. They turned out pretty well. Nathan even carved one himself.

I had been planning to go to the Utah football game on Halloween, but when it came right down to it I couldn't do it, and leave my kids. So Ryan went and cheered for both of us. Before the game though we got the kids dressed and took them to Wheeler farm for Lucus' birthday. Nathan and Natalie both had a great time. It was actually quite a nice afternoon, not too cold. We even got to go on the wagon ride. Thanks Laura. Nathan took a shot at the maze on our way out. I don't think he quite understood what he was supposed to do but after awhile he came back out the way he had gone in and was quite excited that he had done it. Nathan was invited over to a friends house to roast hot dogs and have fun in general. We took the stroller and I was glad we did. Natalie was a trooper and kept her ears on all day but didn't want anything to do with them once in her stroller. She had her coat on and a blanket and still looked cold. We didn't make it very far. Before I was ready to put Natalie down for bed. Thankfully we ran into Justin who asked if Nathan wanted to trick or treat with them. Of course that was much more appealing to Nathan as well. So I took Natalie home and put her to bed and got to hand out candy, Ryan got to go to the football game, Natalie got to go to bed on time, and Nathan got to stay out as late as he wanted trick or treating. (Again thank you Justin!) Halloween turned out to be so great.

I'm not sure why Nathan wanted to be Spiderman. But I think he was a super cute one. Natalie was originally going to be a poodle but when I was in Las Vegas shopping I found this mini mouse outfit I couldn't pass it up. She wouldn't wear the ears that I bought on a headband. So I made these ears in the pictures and she was fine with them.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Birthdays

Natalie is ONE! I can't believe it. Where does the time go? She is so cute. She loves peek-a-boo, we taught her to put up one finger when we ask how old she is, she waves hello and goodbye so cute, she loves table food (no more baby food for her), switching to whole milk took a little coaxing but she is doing great with it, she still doesn't like to stand and scoots on her bum no crawling, she is almost always happy, she is too light (18 lbs) to turn around in the car so she still rides backwards, she hates socks and shoes, she blows kisses, and gives kisses (more like licks), she sleeps so well, she takes nice long naps, her hair has stopped sticking up so much, she puts her hands up when I am changing her, she pulls herself up to her knees but doesn't like to stand, she likes football at least seems to, she claps and cheers with the rest of us, she loves music, she bounces to the music and pays attention when music comes on, she loves her brother, she likes to roll the ball back and forth and pushes cars and trucks around, she is such a joy and we are so glad she is part of our family.

My one year old and I.

Nathan is FIVE! That is crazy too. Sharing a birthday wasn't too bad this year. Nathan enjoyed opening presents. He is the most enthusiastic gift opener I have ever seen. Let's see he is going to preschool, playing soccer, loves to play with friends, ride his bike and scooter, dribble (he really dribbles well), shoot baskets, swim, and entertain us all, he is a great big brother and loves his little sister so much we feel blessed to have him in our family.

Natalie enjoyed the commotion and playing with the paper and boxes.

Nathan blowing out his candles. He got lots of practice this year.

I made Natalie a pink cake. I thought it would be fun for her to have her own cake.

Here she is just before getting her cake.

Starting to enjoy it...

Really focusing and getting into it...

Eating way too much cake but loving it.

All bathed and coaxed into a picture with her tiara.

Nathan on his new bike. He is getting to be really good on it.

Shooting hoops out front.

Riding his new scooter. He's been ready for this for awhile he is a pro.

Here are the kids picking up candy from the pinata. We had a secret agent/spy party. The pinata was a black bomb. We did an obstacle course, finger printing, defuse the other teams bombs (balloons), find the bomb (kitchen timer), we had a secret mission using our cipher cards to decipher the codes and locate the key to defuse the bomb. We took pictures of the kids in disguise and made id badges for them. A fun party but I can't imagine having to do two so close together. Oh what we have the look forward to.

Here is Nathan with some of his friends getting ready to blow out the candles.

I think he likes it. It was my first try with fondant. It turned out pretty well.

I love this picture of Nathan and Natalie, just before church last week.

Funny Things Nathan Says

As we were checking out at Costco one of our items was missing a product code. A worker went to find out the item number. After a minute or two Nathan pipes up with, "This is taking longer than I expected." The cashier was so funny and after finishing our transaction looked at Nathan and said "I'm sorry to have kept you waiting." Too funny. November 2009

We were in the kitchen when something shifted in the sink. Nathan says "Well, that was unexpected." September 2009

Ryan's mom was watching Nathan and he was telling her about going to a Bee's game. He says "They have nachos and hot dogs ... with buns!" July 2009

While waiting for the tow truck on the side of the road a motorcycle past us going pretty fast and Nathan yells "Maniac!" June 2009

I took Nathan to the dentist and found he had 3 cavities. At the end of our visit the dentist gave Nathan his little bag of goodies. Nathan was going through it and found some flossers. He looks at the dentist and says "we have these at home, we never use them." The dentist and I had a good laugh. April 2009

I found the ottoman pushed over to the fireplace and the clock at the wrong time and knew Nathan was behind it. I asked him about it and he confessed he was trying to play a joke on me. Well the clock stopped working so I told Nathan. A few hours later he came to me and said mom We can just live like they did in the olden days. We can go outside and if our shadow is on our right side then it is morning and if it's straight ahead it's lunch time. If it's on the left then it's dinner time. A few hours later he asked me what time it was so I told him to go outside and tell me! --April 2009

There was a guy at our pool in a speedo. So Nathan says to Alli "Should I tell that guy he's wearing a girl's swimming suit?" Alli of course tells him not to. But wouldn't you guess a couple hours later he goes over and whispers something to the guy. He laughed and asked Alli if she wanted to know what he asked. I'm just glad I wasn't around. March 2009

Christmas morning we were at the Wagstaff's having breakfast and Nathan says "This is the best day of my life!" December 2008

We had tithing settlement the other day and I realized I hadn't taught Nathan about tithing. So determined to teach him I prepared a FHE for Monday night. Well, Nathan was into a show and did not want anything to do with FHE so suffice it to say he went to bed early and we tried again the next night. It went much better. I used ten dimes as an object lesson telling Nathan we give the bishop ten percent of everything we earn. (Up until now Nathan has only collected money as he put it to the bishop.) We counted the dimes and I told him what the money is used for. I also gave him ten swedish fish and then asked for one back and explained how that is like what Heavenly Fathers does. He gives us everything we have and then only asks for one back. Anyway then next day his friend and older brother came over and saw the dimes on the table. Ben started counting ten, twenty, thirty, fourty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety, one hundred you have a dollar here he says. Nathan replys "Yeah but one of those goes to Heaven." November 2008

Nathan says on the way home from the Wagstaff's "I want to visit another state like BYU or the Cowboys" I tried to explain that Utah is both a state and a football but that is not always the case. So then he says "Well, I want to live in Chinese so I can use chop sticks" Oct 2008

On the night of a full moon Nathan says "Mom did you see the moon? It's so far away and circley." Sep. 2008

I asked Nathan Saturday morning if he wanted to come to the store with me or stay home. He says "By myself?" No dad's home. "Where is he?" He downstairs sleeping in the guestroom. Nathan says "I can't hear him snoring." August 2008

Nathan and Ryan were watching TV and Nathan asks "Are you cold?" Ryan says no. Nathan's reply "That's because you've got all that fur!" I laughed so hard. August 2008

Nathan was eating Reese's Piece today and told Alli he was eating Em's favorite candy. So Alli asks if he knows what her favorite is and he says "Me!" 5-27-08

I had spent quite a bit of time showing Nathan the calendar and how long it was until his birthday. I showed him all the things we were planning to do in the mean time. One of them being Dan and Kyli's wedding in August. Well on the way to WY I was telling him about my mom's knee surgery and how gentle and careful he would have to be and that she wasn't going to be able to get out of bed too much while we were there. He asked how long she would be like that and I said a few weeks. He asked very conserned if she was going to be able to go to Dan and Kyli's wedding. I said yes she'd be better by then. Then out of the blue he goes "I don't have a tie! I don't have a suit!" I told him we ought to wait and see what uncle Dan wants him to wear before we worry too much. 5-22-08

May 2008
"Oh that's the bigger school, that's where I'm going to get growned up."

Nathan says right after Roland and Lizzy leave Monday night. "I was just thinking about Charlotte, I think she's going to miss me."

Talking about the hospital where the baby will be born. Nathan says "That place is humungous. It's huge!

Nathan asked when the baby is coming out and I say October 24th. He says very excited "That's before Valentine's Day!"

After waking up in the morning he has said several times "I'm still kinda tired. I didn't get enough sleep last night. Daddy kept waking me up with his snoring." And a couple times he continues "I need blue ear plugs but I don't want dirty ones."

Nathan's favorite conjunction doesn't actually exist, am'nt. He says all the time "I amn't." (Meaning I am not.)
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After church on Sunday we were relaxing when the phone rang. I asked Nathan if he'd get it, it's nice that he knows how. Well, like many times at our house he couldn't find a phone before the answering machine picked up. Nathan says "That's okay mom it was just a message." 4-13-08

"Dad would you like to join us" 3-2-08

On the way home from the gym Nathan is singing a song from a cartoon and I'm trying to figure out which one. I figure out it's Word World and Nathan says "Word World up next on KUED" 2-18-08

We were driving home from the Wagstaff's Sunday night and Nathan says "look there's the temple! That's where I'm going some day." 2-17-08

Nathan was looking for his green measruing cup (that's another story) and I was trying to help him think where the last time he saw it. After looking in the room he had seen it last he says "Well, it didn't just get up and walk away." 2-13-08

We were eating at Chili's and Ryan was putting his sandwich and fries in a to-go container and Nathan asked if he could put his fries in there as well. Ryan said yes but only the ones without ketchup. So Nathan is carefully putting in one french fry at a time when he comes to one with ketchup on it. He looks at it and buts off the part with the ketchup and then puts it in the to-go box. We were laughing so hard. But it did keep him occupied for quite awhile. 2-12-08

We recently got new carpet and Nathan now asks "How do we get our old carpet back so I can eat down here?" 1/16/08

"Josh and Cameron their my boyz." 1/08

On the way to the Wagstaff's for dinner Nathan says to Christy "You can meet Alli, she's really cool." 1/06/08

We were waiting to go through the car wash and Ryan asked if there was a car in there (the doors were closed) and Nathan says " No, that's a lawn mower." 12/07

We were out to eat for Ryan's birthday and Terri mentioned that Allison's major had changed and she wasn't going to get credit for some of the classes she took. I said that stinks. A bit later Nathan says "Why does it smell in here?" I could not figure out what he was talking about. 1/8/08

On the way to dinner that night Steve got after Nathan for doing something I think he told him to sit down. Nathan's reply "Eye eye captain." 1/8/08

Nathan was talking with my dad on the phone from Hawaii. I heard Nathan ask if there was any snow where he was and then I heard "oh you have the ocean to swim in, surf's up!" 1/8/08

Nathan picked up the phone to order at the Training Table and when the guys answers he says "I'll have spaghetti and nachos." 1/8/08

We were leaving the Homers and I turned to Nathan and siad thanks for being such a good boy today. He replies "Anytime mom." 12/07

For Ryan's and my anniversary we left Nathan with the Wagstaffs for the night. I guess he was getting ready to go to sleep and was missing us but instead of saying I miss my mom and dad he said "My mom and dad are going to miss me." 12-30-07

We read books each night and one of the books he chooses quite frequently is the I Spy book. I let him choose two pages and we take turns asking each other to find various objects in the picture. I say something like "I spy an airplane" he finds it like he has hundreds of times and then says "My little eye is a pig." He usually points to it before I get the chance. But it is quite fun. 12-18-07

Funny things he started saying that I say are: "I could have sworn..." and "What in the world?" and "Oh my word." 12/07

Grandma Wagstaff was opening birthday presents and she receved some sented oils and everyone was smelling them telling what they thought they smelled like and when it was Nathan's turn he said "It kind of smells like alligator" 10-14-07

"Mom, let's make some cookies. We need some more sugar" 10-18-07

Nathan woke up in the middle of the night awhile ago and when asked why the next morning he said "I wanted to get some exercise" 10-11-07

"I've got the bless yous mommy." He also says bless you after he sneezes. It is really quite cute. 11-19-07

We went to the aquarium yesterday and when Ryan asked Nathan what he saw Nathan said Seahorses! Ryan ask Nathan to tell him how big they were but Nathan said no. Ryan siad show me how big they were with your fingers like this. Where they this big? No! So I should him, they were about this big. No! And then I realized our mistake, were they this small? Yes!
11-15-07

Nathan was telling his grandma that we went to look at new couches and she must have asked why because Nathan told her we were getting rid of the couches because they make us nervous. Later I figured out he was refering to Monday night when we were in RC Willey and I told him he was making me nervous running in his cowboy boots.

"I know what we should do!" pause "I should go potty!" 11-13-07

Dad will you get the spice out? (Talking about cinnamon gum)

He has grandma Wagstaff drive past the temple on the way to her house. The first time she drove up around the temple and told him about the angle Moroni and she asked him if he was going to go to the temple someday and he said "I need a girl for that Grandma."

Grandma Wagstaff was asking him about my new car and he kept telling her he didn't like it he liked my old car. She asked him again "Don't you like your mom's new car?" and he said "I guess it's better than nothing."

After driving past the temple several times Grandma Wagstaff was about to drive up through the gates and he Nathan said "I'm kind of tired of that."

Last Sunday we had a meeting to tell us the new boundries for our ward so we left Nathan at the Wagstaffs. He didn't know he was spending the night. Grandma and Emily kept asking him if he wanted to have a sleep over. Finally Nathan said "Are you listening to me Grandma?"

Some of his favorite sayings right now:
"Are you kidding me?"
"Oh my gosh"
"I made a mistake"
"I don't want to go down that hill"
"I want to go backwards"
"Dad asked me" (he means I asked dad and he said I could)