the beginning of a new chapter...

i realized last week that i've been majorly slacking off with updating the blog. it's been a month! i guess we've had a lot going on in the last month. definitely a time for changes as i am now officially a stay-at-home mommy. i had my last day of work this past thursday and it was definitely weird leaving the office for the last time, but i'm excited about this new chapter. it doesn't come without sacrifice, but i feel good about the decision and realize that these early years with nathan are priceless. we have been blessed with ken having a job with good pay so that i can stay at home with naters without having to worry about our finances. we'll definitely have to buckle down and really watch our budget, but that is something we're willing to do in order to have me be at home. i'm also working on a couple of projects that will hopefully bring in some extra income, one of which is an online boutique. definitely still in the work-in-progress stage, but i'm excited about it! more to come on that once it's officially launched.

here's what we've been up to in the last little while:
ken's parents were in town for a couple of weeks in september, so nathan got to spend lots of time with his yeh-yeh and mah-mah. 

naters fascinated with yeh-yeh's iphone

mommy and nathan @ great-grandma mo's birthday banquet

another round of swimming lessons for naters

family DQ night

last friday, nathan and i had a play date with kian, tirza, menyelek, and heather. we went to a mcdonald's playplace for lunch and some indoor playground fun. and boy did the boys ever have some playground fun. they ran around the place for about 90 minutes! it was waaaaay past nathan's nap time when we left. i thought for sure he'd fall asleep in the car, but he stayed awake until we got home. i think the mcd's playplace will be a great place to take the kiddies once winter hits.

so while we were at the playplace, i looked away for about 20 seconds while i went to put something in my bag. i turned around and had a panicked moment when i couldn't see nathan anywhere. of course, i tried to contain my freak out and merely called his name a couple of times to see if he'd pop his head up from somewhere. i must've said his name a dozen times, but nothing. the kid was nowhere in sight! finally after what seemed like forever (in reality, probably 30 seconds had elapsed), another parent called out, "there he is!" and out come his little feet onto a platform from this tunnel/tube a couple feet off the ground. how the heck did he get in there?! he had hoisted himself up a slanted tube (where you're supposed to slide out, i think) and then crawled his way across the length of the tube and down onto a platform at the other end. i didn't even think he knew to do that. oh, our adventurous boy! he then proceeded to go back and forth about a million times after that.

making his way out of the tunnel

hanging out with menyelek

nathan, menyelek and kian at mcdonald's (thanks to photoshop, we have
a photo of the three of them looking at the camera!)