Santa!

So Nate has this Santa thing figured out!!! So much so that he went on a hunt for his Thomas Catalog so that he could show Santa precisely which trains he wanted. You know, there cannot be any "confusion or chaos" :) He went through the catalog with Santa and said "I want this one and this one and this one. It did involve turning many pages!!! :) I CANNOT wait to see his face Christmas morning!

Bodega Bay Art & Wine Festival

I am missing some good pictures in between all this but I had to get this up...this may take a couple of posts as I have some priceless video!! Lets's start with the video. Here is Nate getting his groove on to Pride & Joy - Superfreak! This is where his dance classes at his daycare came into play. I don't think he would have expressed himself in this fashion without his music and dance!!! He was like his dad in school as a young child in the respect that he wasn't going to have it with this dancing business!!! Nate was certainly not his mothers' child in this respect (all others maybe:) ). Even though he's starting to pick up on the whole dancing thing, I still don't see Irish dance classes in the near future!! :)

Nate's Teacher

So a couple of weeks before my dad died, I enrolled Nate in this daycare/preschool right behind my office. It gave me great comfort knowing that if he couldn't be with my mom and dad, he was extremely close to me all day! But Nate was a trooper. He went with no problem. And while it wasn't the same as having my parents watching him, it truly was a good experience for him. He learned a lot about music and dance and seemed to come out of his shell a bit. The teachers told me that at first he wouldn't participate in the dance classes but by the end he was completely into it. We recently took Nate out and he's back with Nana and waiting to go to Happy Times in the city, but if you need a preschool or know someone who does, Building Kidz is truly a fantastic place!!!

Here is Nate on his last day with one of his favorite teachers. The other teacher was out with a pulled back!

Out of order!

Hi All!

Well we finally replaced our very slow computer. Prior to this I was working on a netbook and it was hard to post and edit pictures on a very small screen! I am working on bringing pictures over from the netbook but since they do not have CD drives...it's taking some time. :) Here are the latest and greatest from our man Nate!

This past July, we took Nate to see his hero (well other than Grandpa Guiney) Thomas the tank engine! He was so beside himself. It was like seeing his idol. He did not speak for hours!!! But he was soooo good. He knew he would get 1 special treat at the end of the day. When I asked him if he wanted a t-shirt he said NO! He went straight for a train. He had set in his mind he was getting his friend Gordon but in the end he decided to take another train but didn't fight me for both. When we got back to the hotel he was so excited to find out we treated him to a t-shirt as well!!! He felt like the luckiest kid on earth and is asking us to go see Thomas again!

The next day we headed over to Santa Cruz to the boardwalk. Nate was so not having all the rides. Some did look rather scary. But once we put him on these cars - he was hooked! It was a lot to do in one weekend but he had the time of his life!!!

Children's Fairyland

We were invited to a friends birthday party at the Children's Fairyland in Oakland. I have never been but it was really cute. We watched a puppet show when we first got there and then we went to the little party. We played on the slide, ate lunch and then had cake. After we got to go around the park.



The first thing Nate noticed was the train. So we got in line. I was surprised how good he was at getting off. I did promise him he could go on the Merry Go Round which he saw from the train ride.

You have to be at least 38" tall. Nate just made it! He had a blast!

We may need to take another family trip over there!!!

Nate's first recital

My camera wasn't working too well and Nate really wasn't having being on stage. But I made him get back up there. His class only had a couple of numbers though. It was cute and very well done!!

Pancreatic Cancer Walk

At the last minute we decided to do the Pancreatic Cancer walk at the St. Suprey Vineyards in Napa Valley. It really was a great experience. We are going to do this again next year, but we learned what we need to do. We're going to have "Team Denis" shirts made up. There was a family there that went all out and raised the most money. Very cool! Again, the forecast wasn't looking that hot but it was just perfect. As was the walk and the wine after!! :)

The people who raised the most money!

The entertainment

Nate and Jim hanging out...

This was a really cute picture of Nate and Nana.

3rd Birthday Party!!

We had such a beautiful day for an outdoor party. The weatherman was forecasting rain for that Saturday. But there was no rain and it was so warm!!

Here's Nate hitting his pinata. We still need to work on his swing.

His cake has quite the story. I called for a cake the prior Saturday and asked if they had train decorations. He said no, so I said I would bring in decorations for the gal to use in the decorating. I dropped them off on Friday. Jim picked up the cake and came home with the cake that said Happy Birthday Nate - no decorations. I was so upset because every other year she has incorporated the decorations and done a fantastic job. So I called the bakery to tell them Jim was on his way back to get our decorations. We were running out of time. As Jim gets back, Nate notices his cake sitting on the table in the kitchen. He runs over to it and says my cake. I tell him, do not touch your cake please. What does he do??? Slams his hand on the top of the cake box and this is the end result....I could have cried, but I laughed!!

Eating a lollypop. What a mess.

Opening his presents....

Playing trains with Aidan...

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a late start to the River this year since Jack graduated from High school on Saturday. We left right after the party to get a head start on the weekend. Here's Nate on the deck playing in his kiddie pool.

Sunday night, we all went to Buck's to celebrate Jeff's birthday.

After dinner we came back to the house to have homemade peach pie, compliments of Sharon and sang Happy Birthday to jeff!

Monday, we headed out to the beach. Here's Nate sitting on his Mickey chair with all his beach toys.

This year Nate was a bit more daring in the River. He kept wandering out. Made me nervous but fortunately the river is very low this year.

Nate loves the ducks. Hates dogs and everything else...but loves ducks?!?! Go figure.

It was a short weekend for us, but we plan on spending 10 days this summer over the 4th of July.

O'Reilly's Guinness and Oyster festival

So if one concert wasn't enough in one day, we decided to go out to the O'Reilly's festival. The housekeepers were coming that Saturday so we wanted to be out of their way. It was such a gorgeous day in the city and the Marina. We didn't go near the big stage because it was simply too warm!

So we planted ourselves underneath this huge tree! Much better and cooler!! You could still slightly hear the music!


Nate was worn out from the Sippy Cups concert though. He fell asleep in the car and stayed that way for another hour and a half!!! Nothing could wake him up!! Which was nice :)

I was able to get this shot of the bridge as we were walking back down to our car.

And the boats in the Marina. Just a gorgeous day!

Once we got home, we rested a bit and then Jim and I headed to a Cocktail party. Too much in one day but it was fun!

Life Is Good Festival

On May 16th we went to the Life is Good Festival in Golden Gate park. Nate had so much fun. He participatedin a mini obstacle course. It was hard for a guy his size but he made it to the end!! There was lots of great activities for kids including BUBBLES!!!

But the main attraction for us was the SIPPY CUPS! Our favorite kid band. Well maybe Jim and mine. They don't play itsy bitsy spider or wheels on the bus, but they sure do entertain the kids.

Here is Nate playing on the bounce balls. He had his eye set on the Cars one and waited until it became available.

Here he was trying to catch the bubbles at the concert.

The Sippy Cups on stage. The bubble machine was going almost through the whole concert!

Sitting on daddy's shoulders enjoying the concert. He loved this!

We are looking forward to the next festival!

Mother's Day

We went to Park Challet for Mother's day dinner the night before Mother's day. We took some pictures waiting for our table.

I loved this picture...giving kisses


Our little monkey!


CHOCOLATE!!!!

Big Boy Bike

Well, more like a balance bike. Jim had this made for Nate awhile ago but he's just now fitting it. No pedals or training wheels. Hopefully he'll go straight into a big boy bike as this should train him to balance. He loves it!!!

My little contractor

Nate's favorite thing to do now is measure the walls. His tape measure is just like grandpa's. He's very serious when taking his measurements. :)