Christmas 2008

Our 2008 Christmas tree. Funny when we went to buy it Jim asked Nate if he liked that tree. He started freaking out screaming NO! We figured that he was upset to get a tree because I kept telling him Santa was going to leave presents under the tree for him. I guess in his world he figured if we got a tree, Santa might actually come to our house!!! :)

Christmas Eve...Nate was hamming it up with his cousins and aunt. He was giving kisses to all the ladies and was happy with himself after each kiss!!
Posing with the ladies!
Johnny got a nasty look for teasing him. Apparently he was calling him daddy. But I think he was calling him Danny. He calls Brian Danny and John and Brian do look a bit alike.
Then Santa came! Oh boy - he was not happy!

The presents are cool but seriously...get me off this guys lap!!!
We left Christmas eve dinner pretty fast that I forgot to double check that I had everything. Of course I left my camera so we don't have any pictures opening gifts Christmas morning. I did run over to pick it up on our way to my parents house. Nate though was really feeling crummy that he was not into opening his gifts nor take pictures. I was able to get this one with grandpa! They were checking out his new car!

Santa Claus

So today we see Santa at Church. He was very upset. He kept telling us he "no see santa claus" We decided to torture him just at the mall so off we went. He was so good waiting in line. He loves the idea of Santa Claus from a distance. He wasn't listening to me as we got closer. I said to him, Nate, Santa is watching you. I mean he's really watching you! He turned around and got his first glimpse of Santa and it was all over! He kept telling me "I go upstairs" Anywhere but near Santa. When it came up on our turn, he noticed the boys before him got a new coloring book from Santa. I told him I'm sure Santa would give him one too! So he sat there. He was not pleased but he sat. They had a nice conversation about his broken "Tow Mater" from the Cars movie!!

Later that night we went down to mom and dad's house for dinner. Here is Nate with his cousins.

Thanksgiving weekend

Our 2008 Christmas card picture. We could not get him to smile. But he does love Fire trucks!


This was a pre-cursor to what we could expect at seeing Santa at Church and the mall this year. He clearly was not having it!!
Looking for seals and bird watching with daddy at Bodega Bay.
I think this is my new favorite picture!!! We took this outside the house at the River. Couldn't get Nate to smile but I think the picture turned out good!

Grocery Shopping

From time to time I take Nate shopping at Piazza's. He loves it because they have mini shopping carts for shoppers in training. We ran into Ann Torres who works there and as I was chatting with her Nate takes off. So I rush over to see where he's at because now I cannot see him. As I get to the fruit and vegetable section (where he rushed off to) I see him near the apples and oranges. Inside his little cart is 1 apple and 1 orange!! Then we move along and he sees "grapes". He tells me I get grapes mommy. But they are tomato grapes so we agree we won't get them. I picked up some lettuce which he gently laid in his cart. We got to the dairy section and I ask him if he needs Lemonade. He goes through a whole process of picking out just the right lemonade. And he puts that into his cart. As we come up to the yogurt section, he tells me I get yogurt. He needed the "orange" yogurt and the "purple" yogurt! Then we pick out the milk. He sees a gallon of milk with a pink lid and proceeds to tell me "that's Ona's milk"!! Pink=girls!! LOL Then I tell him we need to pay. So he heads towards the meat section. He notices the soda section and pushes his cart over and says "I get mommy drink"! What a thoughtful little man! The whole time I am cracking up because he is so serious! He loves putting everything into his cart. He often asks as we drive by to go shopping and "get cart in corner"!

Arrrg! Me, Matey!!

We've got a pirate in the house!!

Pinata

Aidan's birthday and party was on Saturday. Nate had his first opportunity to swing at a pinata. Heck it was his first opportunity to swing at anything. Clearly we need to get a ball and bat for some serious practice outside!!! :)

Grandpa and his boys

We had the opportunity to get some great shot of grandpa with his two little boys!

Halloween

Nate was Thomas the Train for Halloween. Much to my surprise he would not wear his costume. I thought for sure he would love to be a train. I tried to show him the other kids in their costume and showed him how they got candy so he took his Elmo bucket and started helping himself to the candy we were giving out!!

Finally we decided we were going to put him in the costume. Jim held him and I stuffed him in!!! He wasn't too happy at first. And we took him to our neighbor Bruno's house. He wasn't too sure but Bruno sat down on his steps and told him he could pick out some candy. Then we went to Ellen's house. Again, wasn't too sure but here again she put candy in his basket!!! He quickly realized how cool this gig was!! So Ellen and I were chatting a bit and Nate kept asking me to go! He was all over trick or treating!

I suspect next year he'll be all over Halloween. He was however, a little afraid of a couple of people in their costumes as we were walking around. There was one guy dressed as a marshmallow from the pacman game. Nate shrieked when he saw him. Other than that, he really loved it in the end!

Trip down memory lane

I decided I wanted to go check out the house in Kenwood my parents used to own. Boy the area sure has changed. There weren't near the wineries there back then as there are now. It was nice to see the neighborhood. Definitely different to what I remember. After we stopped over at the Blackstone winery to sample some wines. Just a very nice day!

The park we played in! It looked nothing like this!!
The house. Looks like they added a floor since we were there!
After driving around the neighborhood, we stopped at one of my favorite wineries. It's literally a stones throw from the old house!
Nate playing in the garden of the winery.
And well, this was just too cute not to share!

Jumpee House

The beginning of October was the St. Cecilia's festival. Of course the main draw for Nate was the jumpee house. He still wants to to play in the big jumpee houses but he's just way too small. We did have a hard time getting him out of it again this year. Now every Sunday he asks me for the jumpee house after we leave church. That and donuts of course!

Our little contractor!!!

So today we had to finish prepping the deck for painting. We picked up some sand paper at the hardware store. Jim gave a piece to Papa and Natey wanted a piece too. So he gave him one and he proceeded to get to work...
And why not sand the cement too!!!!
All three Porter men finishing up the deck...
All done and inspecting his work. It was a very messy job indeed. It might be hard to see but he was covered in dust!!! He does need to earn his keep though!!!! :)

Park Fun...

Why climb up the steps to the slide when it's just as easy to climb up the slide itself!!! :)
He found ants. At least he isn't screaming anymore when he sees them...

He LOVED running around the tennis courts. Daddy soon joined us after his chores at the house and surprised him...They were running around and Nate was trying so hard to get away from him. :)


But daddy quickly caught up with him!!!

Pumpkin time again!!!

So we're up at the River this weekend for a 4 day weekend. This week in the mail we received our reminder card from our favorite pumpkin patch in Santa Rosa http://www.muelrathspumpkins.com/index.html. We were actually able to do the Hay ride this year. Nate wasn't too sure about the Hay but I think he finally got used to it!

Picking out his pumpkin...

Sitting on the Hay. He is certainly not his mother's son when it comes to hay. It wasn't uncommon to find me climbing the hay barrels back at my grandparents in Ireland!!

Sitting with mommy near the scarecrows...

Playing peek-a-boo in the corn stalks...

We were going into Santa Rosa for errands so we brought Grandma and Papa along for the ride. We got a nice picture of the them in front of our pumpkins we picked out!

This is the owner of Meulrath Ranches. They sell their pumpkins to retailers as well as the pumpkin patch. He gives hayrides every year. It was so much fun!

The ride took 15 minutes. He took us through the actual pumpkin patch. They still had quite a few to pick of all varieties and sizes! It was neat to see!

Mommy and Natey checking out everything on the ride...

Our little Picasso

I decided to get some washable paints for Nate. We finally got a moment to "create". He LOVES to paint!!!

Helpful Cousin

This was just the sweetest thing. One day on my lunch hour up at Nana and Pa's house Nate pointed out to me Ona's (Fiona) blanket. Shewas sitting happily in the pram. The next thing we know, he's gently put the blanket on Fiona, given her a teething toy, and put her binkie in her mouth. He is so enamoured with her. Sweet!!!